North Tivian, Church District.
At night, the choir's singing in the Church District was deep and lingering. The tall Church buildings were brightly lit, and priests and Sisters moved back and forth through the Church District under the lights.
But at this time, somewhere in the depths of the Church District, inside a dim chapel, a not-so-large Holy Mother statue stood here. In front of the Holy Mother statue, a large magic circle was drawn. The core of the magic circle depicted a mark resembling a sun, and inside the sun mark was an inverted triangle mark.
In the center of the room, a long dining table was placed. Only one diner sat at this long table, and that was Vanya, dressed in a Sister's habit.
Vanya sat alone at the large long dining table. Lit candles were placed on the candlestick in front of her eyes. Before the candlestick, a rich feast was now laid out. Wine was poured into the goblet, and in several exquisite plates, things like fruit and bread were served. The most crucial main course was a pan-fried steak, fragrant with pepper and delicious.
Holding silver cutlery, Vanya enjoyed the delicious food in front of her. She cut the steak into small pieces and put them into her mouth with a fork. After chewing and tasting carefully, she nodded with satisfaction.
'So delicious~ This taste is really great. Every time the blessed meal makes me feast my eyes... I didn't expect there would be such a benefit from choosing the Holy Mother's Path~'
While enjoying the delicious meal in front of her, Vanya thought happily in her heart. The steak and accompanying food in front of her were called 'blessed meals', which were part of the rewards she received after successfully reporting Kirk last time.
Vanya enjoyed the feast in front of her and quickly finished all the food. Just as she was wiping her mouth with a napkin in satisfaction, the door of the room opened, and an old Sister in a black Sister's habit walked in. She walked to Vanya's side. Seeing this, Vanya immediately stood up and bowed.
"Sister An Lei..."
"Hehe, there's no need to be so reserved and bow every time, Sister Vanya. Those of us who believe in the Holy Mother should be more generous and easygoing. As for etiquette, just be casual."
The old Sister named An Lei said to Vanya with a smile. After hearing Sister An Lei's words, Vanya also straightened up. Sister An Lei glanced at the empty cutlery on the table next to her and also said with a smile.
"It seems you've finished this blessed meal. If my calculations are correct, you've accumulated enough 'cup', plus your already qualified 'Light', all the Spirituality standards for promotion are now met, and the promotion ceremony can begin."
"Is that so... Thank you so much!" Hearing Sister An Lei's words, Vanya also replied excitedly, and Sister An Lei also responded with a smile.
"Hehe, no need to thank me. After all, this is an opportunity you earned yourself."
These blessed meals on the table beside Vanya were made by some "cup" Extraordinary individuals recruited by the Church. These "cup" Extraordinary individuals are skilled in Spiritual Cooking. They can process animal flesh and blood using special methods, allowing the "cup" Spirituality contained within to gather and refine, making it easy to absorb.
Spiritual Cooking is actually similar in principle to Spiritual Carving in the "Stone" path. Spiritual Carving, through the process of carving stone, allows one's temperament to resonate with the Spirituality within the stone, guiding its accumulation and refinement, consuming a lot of effort to convert the difficult-to-absorb Spirituality in natural stone into something easy to absorb. Spiritual Cooking follows the same idea, but the process changes from carving to cooking. The cook is essentially also expending energy to resonate with the Spirituality in animal meat, using the cooking process to convert it into an easily absorbable form.
Of course, due to the characteristics of the "cup", the loss of "cup" Spirituality is unavoidable during the cooking process. Cooking itself is more about conversion. In addition, the cooking process requires a lot of energy and considerable skill, so the efficiency of accumulating "cup" using Spiritual Cooking is much lower than the Blood Consumption method. Societies that rely on Spiritual Cooking for their existence in the secret world are almost extinct now. The Church is the largest safe haven for "cup" Extraordinary individuals who use Spiritual Cooking.
The Holy Mother's Path of the Shining Light Church is primarily "Light" with auxiliary "cup", so there is a considerable demand for "cup" Spirituality. It is normal to recruit a group of "cup" Extraordinary individuals who are skilled in Spiritual Cooking.
After receiving permission for promotion, Vanya had been preparing for the promotion under the Church's arrangement. One of the preparations was accumulating "cup" Spirituality. In the Church's view, Vanya did not have any extra "cup" Spirituality, so they prepared a sufficient amount of Spiritual Cooking dishes for Vanya to eat in portions. In the past few days, Vanya had eaten Spiritual Cooking dishes equivalent to about 10 points of "cup", which, in the eyes of the Church people, met the minimum requirement for promotion to Black Rank.
In fact, Vanya had already accumulated 10 points of "cup" in her body by reading the secret transmission Dorothy gave her last time. After two fights in the Eight Point Nest, Vanya still had 4 points of "cup" left. She actually only needed about 6 points of "cup" to be promoted. This time, she essentially got 4 points for free.
"Now you finally have enough 'cup'. But what surprised me is that your 'Light' also met the requirements so quickly. Sister Vanya, your piety is also very comforting..."
With a benevolent smile, Sister An Lei continued to speak to Vanya, and Vanya also replied with a smile.
"I have been blessed by the Holy Mother since childhood, so this level of piety is only right."
Vanya said this. In the Shining Light Church, most are "Light" Extraordinary individuals. The method for these religious personnel, such as priests and Sisters, to accumulate "Light" is actually very simple: various religious ceremonies and prayers.
Praying sincerely and without distractions, in a specific way, to the Three Saints. As long as one is truly sincere and pious, the Three Saints will bestow Spirituality after listening to the prayers, accumulating it within the believers' bodies. In various large collective religious ceremonies, offering sacrifices and praying together with the collective, such voices are more likely to move the Three Saints, thereby obtaining more Spirituality.
Daily prayers and participation in various religious ceremonies are the mainstream methods for Shining Light Church clergy to accumulate Spirituality. Unlike other methods of Spirituality accumulation, their Spirituality comes directly from divine bestowal. Believers offer sincere faith to the deities, and the deities bestow Spirituality upon the believers.
Therefore, Vanya's current "Light" Spirituality is full, which made An Lei feel very comforted, because it at least proved that Vanya is a qualified devout believer.
In fact, although Vanya had accumulated "Light" Spirituality for more than a year, she was still a little short. The little bit she lacked was supplemented by the "Light" secret transmission that Dorothy sent her.
"Alright, now that everything is ready, it's time to get down to business. Come here, Sister Vanya, I will perform the promotion ceremony for you."
While saying this, Sister An Lei walked to the Holy Mother statue in the room, and Vanya also immediately walked over.
"Now, kneel before the benevolent Holy Mother..."
Sister An Lei continued to speak, and Vanya also followed Sister An Lei's words, kneeling on the magic circle in front of the Holy Mother statue, kneeling on the mark of the sun containing the inverted triangle, and then assumed a praying posture.
After everything was ready, Vanya chanted the incantation that she had been asked to memorize, as if praying. As the incantation echoed in the space, the magic circle beneath Vanya emitted a faint orange-yellow light.
...
Tivian North Suburb, outside the East Gate of Royal Saint Crown University, Green Shade Town.
At night, in House No. 17 in Green Shade Town, Dorothy sat in her study. On the desk in front of her were a gas lamp and "wen hai hang zhi".
At this time, Dorothy had opened the "wen hai hang zhi" in front of her, turning to the contact page for Vanya. Just now, Vanya had sent her important news: she had finally successfully advanced to Black Rank.
After the last Kirk incident, Dorothy already knew that Vanya had obtained the opportunity to advance as a reward for reporting Kirk. Dorothy had also been paying attention to Vanya's advancement progress. After being busy for a while, she had finally successfully advanced.
'Whew... The Church's speed is quite fast. This is the advantage of having a large organization as a backer. As long as you have enough merit, they will arrange everything for your advancement path, unlike me, who has to worry about everything myself.'
Reading Vanya's specific description of her advancement process on the Navigation Record, Dorothy thought with emotion in her heart. After obtaining permission to advance, everything Vanya lacked for advancement was prepared by the Church. If she lacked Spirituality, there was Spirituality; if she lacked a ceremony, there was a ceremony; if she lacked guidance, there was guidance... In short, the organization prepared everything, unlike Dorothy, who had to do everything herself.
Dorothy thought this, and then she shifted her attention to the rank Vanya had advanced to. According to Vanya's description, she was now a Black Earth Stage on the "Light" path, primarily "Light" with auxiliary "cup", named Healing Priest.
According to Vanya's description, the main abilities of a Healing Priest are the ability to restore and heal injuries. A Healing Priest can consume Spirituality to quickly heal themselves or others. Healing others can even be done remotely, and the distance is not short.
In addition to this, a Healing Priest can also consume Spirituality to remotely strengthen others' bodies, enhance their strength, and improve their physical fitness.
Healing Priests can also suppress many toxins and illnesses, delaying their onset, and can gain insight into a person's physical condition through physical contact, clearly knowing what illnesses and injuries they have. When touching an Extraordinary, they can even view the state of the other party's Spirituality accumulation.
In addition to active abilities, Healing Priests also have corresponding passive abilities. Healing Priests possess stronger foresight and insight than Illuminators. In addition to the "Light" passive, Healing Priests also add the "cup" passive. Healing Priests have physical fitness equivalent to that of Thirsters, which means Vanya will essentially have a permanent Raw Consumption Symbol effect, and this effect, in addition to increased strength, also adds considerable endurance.
Finally, Vanya's Spirituality blue bar, in addition to ten points of "Light", also has five extra points of "cup". From now on, she will also have stable "cup" Spirituality to use.
'Remote healing, remote enhancement, body insight, toxin delay... This skill configuration feels like a classic game's healer character... As expected, is it called Healing Priest?'
After carefully reading Vanya's description, Dorothy thought this in her heart. This rank felt like the Priest/Healer class in traditional online games, with remote healing and remote buffs, etc. The difference is that this healer has a somewhat thick health bar and is quite strong.
'I didn't expect Vanya to become a healing-type profession. She was originally my main force for fighting. Fortunately, this healer profession, in addition to being able to heal people, also has strength and health increases, so her combat power has also improved.'
Dorothy continued to think. At this moment, she was truly a little envious of some other mixed professions. Not only do they have blue bars for other Spirituality types, but they even have passive abilities from other Spirituality types.
Dorothy's Scholar profession simulation does not simulate the passive Spirituality abilities of that profession. For example, a genuine Puppeteer should also have the physique and strength enhancement of a Thirster.
Just like Vanya, she has both the "Light" Spirituality passive, mental concentration and foresight and insight, and the "cup" physique and strength. While a pure profession like Dorothy's "Scholar" only has the "enlightenment" Spirituality passive, which is efficient memory and information processing ability.
"Anyway, Vanya has finally taken another step forward. If needed in the future... the available combat power has increased by another point.
"Sister Miss has successfully advanced, and Senior Nefelnis has also made good progress through diligent study these past few days and will soon be able to perform the advancement ceremony..."
While saying this, Dorothy flipped the Navigation Record page to look at other people's communication pages. When she turned to Naifnis's communication page, she suddenly found that a new line of text seemed to have been added.
'Sent by Nefelnis? Is there something going on late at night?'
Looking at this scene in front of her, Dorothy thought this, and then began to carefully examine the content Naifnis sent. Her handwriting was a bit messy, as if she wrote it in a hurry, and according to the time, it seemed to have been transmitted earlier, but at that time, Dorothy hadn't put the Navigation Record in the magic box, and there was no Spirituality notification when the message came, so she didn't notice.
"Miss Dorothea, please allow me to take a few days off. I have an urgent family matter I need to return home for!"
Looking at the words on the page, Dorothy frowned slightly, and then picked up her pen to write.
"What exactly is the matter? Can you explain it more clearly?"
Watching the characters she wrote merge into the page, Dorothy used the Puppeteer's mark to remind Nefelnis in the distance to check for the message. After waiting for a while, the other party's reply appeared before Dorothy's eyes. The handwriting was still hurried and messy.
After seeing Naifnis's reply, Dorothy's frown deepened.
"It's an illness! Miss Dorothea, my father suddenly became seriously ill! I'm currently on my way home with Grandpa the butler. According to him, my father was cursed! The Pharaoh's Curse!"