In the afternoon, inside the library at King's Campus, Dorothy sat in a secluded corner, her expression full of seriousness; at this moment, she was being subjected to follow-up divination for the first time.
'One divination wasn't successful, so they added more Spirituality to continue divining? Heh... worthy of a society with some scale, they have some reserves.'
Dorothy thought this way; it was obvious that the Eight Point Nest likely now knew that it wasn't the An Yin Bureau that caused Claudius's death, but some other force.
'Did they judge that I'm not a major force... and want to use their reserved Spirituality to break through my anti-divination defense? Or is it just a test? No matter what... I'll block this wave first.'
Thinking this way, Dorothy activated the system again, consuming 1 """Shadow""" and 1 """enlightenment""", and blocked this divination targeting her.
Afterward, Dorothy sat silently in place, waiting quietly. After three or four minutes, the system's prompt sounded in her mind again.
'Warning, information retrieval targeting yourself detected...'
'Again... Are these guys determined to see this through? Do they think my Spirituality is depleted?'
Dorothy thought with a frown. She immediately activated the system again, and after consuming Spirituality, she blocked this third round of divination, then began calculating her remaining Spirituality.
More than two days had passed since the battle with Claudius. Dorothy was now Black Rank, with a Spirituality recovery rate of 4 points per day. Her blue bar """enlightenment""" was fully restored. As for the """Shadow""" Spirituality, she had quite a bit after robbing Claudius, a total of 9 points, which should be enough to cope.
Next, Dorothy held her breath and quietly waited for the other party's response. This time, the other party's response came after five or six minutes.
'Warning...'
Dorothy continued to block the new divination with a serious face, and after another six or seven minutes, the new prompt sounded again.
'Warning...'
Next, Dorothy and the divining party began a Spirituality confrontation. The other side performed divination, Dorothy blocked it. As Spirituality was continuously consumed, Dorothy also felt a slight unease in her heart.
Although she knew her anti-divination Spirituality was much greater than others in the hidden world, Dorothy didn't really know the exact extent. This time, after all, she was facing a society of considerable size with her own anti-divination resources. Whether she could hold out was completely unknown. If she couldn't, she would have to pack up and run, and she didn't even know if she could escape.
Although Dorothy felt uncertain at this moment, she thought the other side might also be uncertain. Her judgment was based on the fact that the time interval between the other party's divinations was getting longer each time, from two or three minutes initially to five or six minutes later. This proved that the other party was taking more and more time to think, and to some extent, it also confirmed that their state of mind was becoming increasingly hesitant.
It was clear that the divining party could not ignore the continuous consumption of divination resources. After seeing the divinations fail repeatedly, they were also hesitating whether to invest more resources to continue. Dorothy couldn't confirm how many divination resources the other party had, and the other party likewise couldn't confirm how many anti-divination resources Dorothy had.
From the perspective of the divining party, the situation they faced was like gambling. It was possible that Dorothy's divination resources would be exhausted in the next divination, and they would be able to divine Dorothy's information. It was also possible that they would continue to gain nothing. They had already invested enough resources; if they gave up, the resources invested beforehand would be wasted. If they persisted and continued to invest, as long as they succeeded, the previous investment would be meaningful.
This situation continued for quite some time. Finally, after Dorothy consumed 6 points of """enlightenment""" and """Shadow""", the other party fell silent. Dorothy waited for more than half an hour but did not receive a new round of action from the other party.
'It's over? Does that mean the other party spent a total of 6 points of Light and 6 points of enlightenment in extraordinary resources? Now that the other party has stopped, does it mean their resources are now empty?'
'No, likely not yet. If they used up all their enlightenment resources in one go, their anti-divination ability would be directly zero. The current situation is more like the other party couldn't see my depth and stopped in time...'
Facing the current situation, Dorothy thought, and then a hint of another idea surfaced in her mind.
'Should I... now turn defense into offense, and while the other party has consumed a large amount of enlightenment, break through their anti-divination defense in one go? Divination across ranks has penalties. The person performing the divination on the other side is likely White Rank or even higher. Under the rank-crossing penalty, I might not be able to compete with them.'
'For me, who is only Black Rank, this kind of divination confrontation where I defend is advantageous, while attacking is a disadvantageous situation, so I cannot attack rashly.'
Dorothy thought this way; she didn't have much Spirituality left, and attacking rashly while enduring the rank-crossing penalty wasn't a good choice. However, she was also unwilling to let this wave just end like this.
'The other party lost 6 points of enlightenment in one go this wave. This should be a considerable amount. This might be an opportunity. Even if I don't launch a divination counterattack, shouldn't I take the opportunity to do something else?'
Dorothy pondered this way. After a while, a hint of an idea formed in her mind.
'Perhaps, I can first officially understand the value of enlightenment...'
Thinking this way, Dorothy put away the things on the table, then stood up and quickly left the library.
Dorothy left the library, then walked all the way out of the campus. After exiting through the east gate, she arrived at Green Shade Town and went straight to Number 37, Beverly's house.
Standing at the door of the old-style Western house, Dorothy knocked as usual. Not long after, the door opened, and Beverly, dressed in an exquisite Western dress, missing her right eyeball, with a dark hollow in her eye socket, appeared before Dorothy.
"Yo, you've finally arrived," Beverly said, greeting Dorothy, while Dorothy tilted her head slightly and spoke.
"You knew I would come?"
"Of course, the matter at the school caused such a big stir, it would be hard for me not to know. Come in, don't stand at the door." Waving her hand, Beverly turned and walked into the room, and Dorothy quickly followed.
Entering the familiar living room, Beverly sat on the sofa and began fiddling with a pile of small objects on the table. Looking closely, they were metallic eyeballs. Beverly was holding a partially disassembled eyeball and wiping the layers of glass lenses on it with a handkerchief.
"Alright, then Miss Meisihuos, what business do you have coming back to me this time?"
Wiping her eyeball, Beverly said, while Dorothy spoke directly.
"I wanted to ask, if I wanted to buy an 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) Spirituality storage item from you, how much would it cost?" Dorothy asked Beverly. She needed to understand the value of an """enlightenment""" storage item.
"Ah, enlightenment storage items... these are rare goods. Not to mention here, even the entire White Stone Craftsmen's Guild in Tivian doesn't have much stock.
"Due to supply and demand issues, the price fluctuations of all storage items are very large, and the price fluctuations of enlightenment storage items can be described as exaggerated. However, currently, the demand for enlightenment from various forces in Tivian is not very high, so the market price is still acceptable. If you want one, I can sell you the first one for 1400 pound. If you need a large quantity, the price will also change."
Beverly finished speaking calmly. Listening to Beverly's words, Dorothy stood stunned in place.
'1400 pound... Holy crap, enlightenment storage items are this expensive? 1400 pound for one... Does that mean those guys just now spent nearly ten thousand pound in one go just to compete with me?'
Although Dorothy had somewhat anticipated that the price of an enlightenment Spirituality storage item might be a bit unusual, she didn't expect it to be unusual to this extent. A Spirituality storage item could sell for so much money; this was truly exaggerated.
'This... if I could make enlightenment storage items, wouldn't I be completely rich?'
Dorothy thought this way. If this method could truly be realized, then the issue of money would no longer be a problem for her.
...