Prit, Tivian North Suburb, Green Shade Town.
At night in Green Shade Town, a light rain was falling from the sky. A cold dampness permeated the small streets. There were no pedestrians under the dim streetlights, but the windows of number seventeen on the roadside were brightly lit.
In the living room, the fire burning in the fireplace brought warmth to the entire room, driving away the cold from outside. By the fireplace, Dorothy, dressed in comfortable home clothes, put down the newspaper in her hand and cast her gaze upon the world map hanging on the wall. Looking at the location of the New World, she recalled the prayer she had just heard.
"That Kapak kid, he was actually captured? What's going on? Could it be that his reputation from healing and saving people in the tribe has risen to a point where some others can't stand it anymore?"
Dorothy murmured, saying that in Kapak's recent prayer, he claimed to be in danger, currently restrained by ropes and in a very perilous situation. Previously, in his written communication with Dorothy, Kapak had expressed his concerns about Sado and others in the tribe. So, as soon as this happened, Dorothy's first reaction was whether Sado had finally made a move.
'Anyway... it's best to contact Kapak directly using the information channel now. Since it's another remote rescue... I'll use this identity then.'
Then, Dorothy used the information channel, silently formulating a passage in her mind and transmitting it to Kapak.
"O great Aka, keeper of all things, I have received enlightenment regarding an innocent person facing a crisis. Please build a link to connect our consciousness. I am willing to resolve his predicament."
...
In a dark space somewhere in the New World, Kapak, whose hands and feet were bound and mouth and eyes sealed, had temporarily given up struggling in the darkness after his attempts to break free were unsuccessful. To avoid wasting excessive physical strength, he was currently leaning against a wall he couldn't see, breathing heavily.
Although he had just prayed to Aka and even the great soul, Kapak didn't expect the divine beings to truly pay attention to the fate of someone as insignificant as himself. At this moment, he was still thinking about how to save himself, but after failing to break free from the ropes restraining him, Kapak's mind momentarily felt a sense of despair. It was at this moment that an unexpected, unfamiliar voice sounded in his mind.
'Aka... is this... the prayer of another follower of Aka? My prayer to Aka just now... was heard by another follower of Aka? No... Aka revealed my crisis to his other followers!'
Hearing the voice in his mind, Kapak judged with inner astonishment. He hadn't actually expected to receive any help from Aka at first. In his eyes, Aka was a spirit as powerful as a god, capable of exchanging knowledge. Other than knowledge, Kapak hadn't really expected any help from Aka, but he hadn't anticipated that Aka would reveal his situation to His other followers, asking them to help him!
At this moment, Kapak's heart was filled with astonishment, and just then, the unfamiliar voice he had heard before sounded in his mind once again.
"Hello, Mr. native of the New World. I am a loyal follower of Aka, entrusted by the Scholar to help you. You can call me... Detective... We are currently in a state of consciousness linking through Aka. You can communicate with me by silently thinking in your mind."
The unfamiliar words echoed in Kapak's mind. After hearing these words, Kapak was stunned for a moment before finally reacting.
Detective? A follower of Aka? Entrusted by the Scholar? The owner of this voice is here to save me! He's linking with my consciousness through Aka to communicate. Does Aka actually have this function?
Kapak thought in astonishment. After a while, having finally cleared his thoughts, he silently spoke to the Detective in his mind.
"Detective... You are also a follower of Aka? You said the reason you came to help me... is because you were entrusted by the Scholar?"
"Yes, the Scholar said that you two got along well in conversation, and he gained a lot of knowledge about the Shamans of the New World from you. So, after hearing Aka's enlightenment, he entrusted me to help you. Within the Rose Cross, my abilities are quite suitable for this kind of work."
In Kapak's mind, the Detective's voice sounded again. After hearing this voice, he was stunned, and then many thoughts couldn't help but surface in his mind.
'Rose Cross? Is this the organization the Scholar belongs to? Looking at this, it seems to be an organization specifically worshipping Aka, somewhat similar to the invaders' Church.'
Suddenly, Kapak gained a new understanding of the Aka faith on the Main Continent. The Scholar and the Detective are members of the mysterious organization Rose Cross, which believes in Aka. They seem to address each other within the organization using some kind of code name. Previously, the one who communicated with him in writing was the Scholar; now, the one speaking in his mind is the Detective. Their common point is worshipping Aka; they are colleagues within the Rose Cross.
'To save me, the Scholar entrusted his colleague, the Detective, to contact me through Aka. I am truly ashamed... The favor the Scholar did me by exchanging medical knowledge hasn't been repaid yet, and now I owe a new one...'
Kapak thought this in his mind, and at this moment, the Detective's voice sounded in his mind once again.
"Kapak, now explain your situation to me in detail, including why you were captured and your current predicament. I need to gain a comprehensive understanding before considering how to help you."
"Yes, yes, Detective..."
Next, Kapak, through the information channel, recounted everything that had happened to him today to Dorothy. Inside number seventeen in Green Shade Town, Dorothy, sitting by the fireplace, couldn't help but stroke her chin after listening.
'Colonists attacked the Wilderness Spirits of the New World? These guys can control Ghosts and manipulate skeleton soldiers using firearms and explosives? And they also allegedly bribed and turned a Shaman Apprentice named Banu? Interesting...'
'Manipulating a large number of Ghosts and skeleton soldiers... this clearly points to the'Silence' society. The skeleton soldiers can use firearms and explosives, which is clearly the'Silence' society from the Main Continent. What do this group want to do by attacking the Wilderness Spirits of the New World natives? Listening to Kapak's earlier words, those Wilderness Spirits and essences in the New World are products of'Silence' Spirituality. These societies going there might be trying to accumulate Spirituality in some way using the Wilderness Spirits and these essences.'
Sitting by the fireplace, Dorothy quickly figured out Kapak's current situation. Then, she continued to speak to Kapak through the information channel.
"Hands and feet bound, eyes and mouth sealed? A rather tricky situation... Kapak, I asked the Scholar, and he said that before, he instructed you to draw a mark on yourself. Is that mark still on you?"
"The mark? The one the Scholar used to remind me to check the picture book information? Yes! That mark is still on me! It's drawn on my calf!"
Kapak immediately responded to Dorothy. After hearing Kapak's response, Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief. The Living Puppet mark was what Dorothy used to send reminders to her contacts, so each of her contacts had this mark imprinted on them long-term.
"Alright, since you can't see it now, just keep thinking about and feeling the location of that mark in your mind. Next, if you feel anything unusual, do not resist."
Dorothy continued speaking to Kapak. Although Kapak immediately did as he was told after hearing Dorothy's words, he didn't know what Dorothy was going to do, but currently, the other party was the only one who could save him, so he could only do whatever the other party said.
By the fireplace, Dorothy used the perception sharing provided by the information channel to feel the Living Puppet mark on Kapak's body. Then, extending spiritual threads to link, she took out a Raw Consumption Symbol from her portable magic box. After consuming the Spirituality of the Cup, she applied it to herself, then used the spiritual threads to transmit the effect of the symbol to Kapak far away.
Suddenly, Kapak, who was tightly restrained in the enclosed space, suddenly felt a surge of heat within his body. His entire body became comfortable and strong, and even the wound on his head stopped hurting for a moment.
Then, before Kapak could feel surprised, he felt an unusual sensation emerge within his body. Following the Detective's earlier instructions, he did not resist this strangeness. As a result, he felt his body being pulled by something, and he involuntarily began to move and exert force.
"This is..."
Kapak's surprise had not yet ended. At this moment, he found his body suddenly exerting force. A powerful strength he had never possessed before erupted in his arms. Kapak felt a sharp pain in his wrists, and he realized his body was actually attempting to break free from the ropes on its own.
Crack.
With a sharp snap, the ropes binding Kapak's wrists were directly broken under the immense force. Kapak was surprised to find his hands regaining freedom with a strength that wasn't his own, and without his control. But that wasn't all; immediately after, Dorothy manipulated Kapak to directly break the ropes on his feet as well.
'What, what's going on with this power? Is this the Detective's ability? To suddenly grant me such immense strength and even control my body, is this the ability of an Extraordinary in the Rose Cross? It's completely different from a Shaman's ability…'
Feeling his body break free from its restraints under someone else's manipulation and with a strength that wasn't his own, Kapak thought in amazement. At this moment, Dorothy also manipulated him, now free of restraints on his hands and feet, to tear off the cloth strips wrapped around his eyes and mouth. Now, Kapak could finally see again.
What appeared before Kapak was a small, dark space. He seemed to be confined within a one-meter-square iron cage. Outside the iron cage, a layer of wooden planks was nailed, forming a wooden box covering the cage. Kapak couldn't see the scene outside the planks; only faint light shone in through the gaps in the wood, bringing a trace of brightness to this small, enclosed space.
'An iron cage? This makes things a bit difficult…'
Using Kapak's vision to examine the surrounding space, Dorothy thought to herself. The physical enhancement effect brought by the Raw Consumption Symbol was only equivalent to an Apprentice's Thirster. With a Thirster's strength, breaking ropes that weren't too thick was no problem, but bending the bars of an iron cage was completely impossible.
Currently, Kapak was confined within a small iron cage, with a wooden box covering the outside of the cage. Dorothy's attempt to have Kapak bend the iron bars with strength was impossible.
"Huff… huff… Thank you, Detective, for freeing my hands and feet again, but it seems besides the ropes, this cage also restrains me… Detective, what should we do now?"
At this moment, Kapak silently communicated with Dorothy in his mind, and Dorothy responded calmly.
"Don't worry, this iron cage is a bit troublesome, but it's not without a solution. Since those guys captured you and didn't kill you immediately, there must be a reason they can't let you die. If they leave you in a place like this without attending to you, you won't survive. So, someone will definitely come into contact with you later, either to check on you or bring food. Our chance will be at that time. For now, we just need to wait."
Dorothy analyzed and said to Kapak. Listening to Dorothy's words, Kapak also felt that what she said made a lot of sense, so he didn't say anything more.
Afterwards, Dorothy began controlling Kapak's body to carefully observe the surrounding environment. She brought Kapak's eyes close to the gaps between the wooden planks of the box to look outwards and observe the environment outside.
From the limited view, Dorothy observed a silent, empty scene. In Kapak's line of sight, Dorothy saw many wooden boxes arranged in rows in the distance. Some boxes were labeled with Prit language words like Fur… Cloth… Fruit… She didn't see a single person in her view, nor did she hear any human voices. Only by listening carefully could she hear the faint sound of distant waves.
'This is… a warehouse? A coastal warehouse with a lot of goods piled up? Did those organizations throw Kapak into a box, lock it, and then put the box in a coastal warehouse? What are they trying to do?'
Dorothy thought in confusion, and some ideas also emerged in her mind. After observing the surroundings, she temporarily stopped controlling Kapak as a Living Puppet to conserve Spirituality, only keeping the sensory sharing of the communication channel. She instructed the newly freed Kapak to remain quiet and wait silently inside the box, during which she quietly gave Kapak some instructions.
Finally, after more than half an hour, Dorothy finally heard movement from outside. It was a set of footsteps, coming from far to near, the footsteps of a single person. Upon hearing this sound, Dorothy immediately had Kapak get up to observe, telling him to look outside through the gaps in the box. As expected, Dorothy, using Kapak's perspective, saw a man carrying a gas lamp and wearing some kind of uniform slowly walking from the distance, heading towards their location.
"Someone's coming. Get ready as I just told you."
"Okay, Detective!"
Following Dorothy's instructions, Kapak re-tied the cloth strips over his mouth and eyes, but tied them very loosely, so they could be shaken off with a slight movement. Then Kapak put his hands behind his back and lay down in a posture that could hide his hands, waiting quietly. Since the effect of the previous Life Devour had worn off, Dorothy transmitted another Raw Consumption Symbol to him during this time.
Thus, Dorothy had Kapak pretend to still be unconscious and wait quietly. Shortly after, she heard the movement outside grow louder, and a crisp sound came, as if someone was using a key to unlock something outside.
A moment later, one side of the wooden box enclosing the iron cage was opened, and light shone in from outside. A man wearing a uniform of unknown type was squatting on the ground, placing the gas lamp he held aside, and observing Kapak's condition inside through the iron bars.
"Heh… looks like he's not awake yet."
Observing the situation inside the box, the man muttered. And just at this moment, Dorothy controlled Kapak to suddenly erupt from the box.
Opening his eyes and instantly shaking off the cloth strips over them, Kapak reached out his hands towards the outside of the bars with extreme speed. His hands passed through the iron bars and instantly covered the man's mouth and nose, and choked his neck, then pressed him tightly against the iron bars with his back. The man had completely failed to anticipate that Kapak was not only awake but had also freed himself from the ropes.
"Mph… Mph mph! Mph!"
Under Kapak's extreme speed, the man, who had no time to react, struggled desperately in fright, but this was no match for Kapak, who had used Life Devour. He couldn't call out either. Finally, shortly after, the man fainted due to asphyxiation, his body went limp, and he collapsed in front of the iron bars.
Kapak was also a warrior in his tribe, and now he possessed a lot of medical knowledge. He knew how to quickly knock out an enemy.
"Alright, Detective, as you requested, this guy has fainted."
"Very good, kid. Do you have anything on you that can be used as ink to draw something?"
After seeing the man faint, Dorothy asked Kapak. Kapak, who was staring in astonishment at the scene before him, responded after a moment of stunned.
"No, Detective, those guys basically searched everything off me… If you want to draw something, you can use my blood."
"Alright then, use your blood to draw the mark the Scholar gave you on this guy, the one that's on you. Remember to draw it on the skin."
Dorothy said to Kapak. After hearing her, Kapak didn't hesitate at all. He directly bit his thumb open with his mouth, then rolled up the sleeve of the unconscious man's arm before the cage bars, and began drawing the puppet mark on his arm with blood.
After the puppet mark was drawn, Dorothy immediately extended new spiritual threads, connecting them to the unconscious man's body, and manipulated him to stand up under Kapak's astonished gaze.
Using the spiritual threads, Dorothy linked her senses. The man who had originally come to check on Kapak's condition reopened his eyes. Following his gaze, Dorothy finally saw the surrounding scene clearly.
This was indeed a warehouse, a large warehouse filled with piles of wooden boxes and stacks of various goods. The warehouse was very dim, with only a few hanging gas lamps providing light. Outside the warehouse windows, Dorothy could vaguely hear the sound of waves more clearly.
Looking around, Dorothy found that Kapak was located in a corner of the warehouse, where the wooden boxes were. The box confining him was placed next to a pile of sorted wooden boxes. Besides the box confining him, this pile of goods also included dozens of large wooden boxes stacked together. These were covered with a large black cloth, and a label strip was attached, written in Prit language as follows.
"Consignment—42 boxes of animal specimens (with live specimens), Origin—New Jacques Port, Destination—Dankoto, Loading Time—6:00 AM on December 5th, Loading Ship—Princess Jenna, Serial Number…"
Using the man's vision to look at the label, such information was presented before Dorothy. Then she carefully examined the pile of goods in front of her. Under Spirituality vision, she could see faint halos of Spirituality overflowing from these boxes, the Spirituality of """Silent""".