Tivian North Suburb, Green Shade Town, outside the East Gate of the King's Campus.
In Green Shade Town at night, a fine drizzle drifted in the sky, the weak glow of streetlights illuminated the night on the streetside, and there were no figures on the chilly streets. The lights in the houses on both sides of the road had been extinguished, but light still shone from the window of Number Seventeen.
In the living room of Number Seventeen, Green Shade Town, Miss Dorothy sat on the sofa in her pajamas. Not far away, the fireplace crackled with constantly burning firewood, the blazing fire dispelling the surrounding chill and keeping the entire room at a comfortable temperature.
In front of Miss Dorothy was a wooden tea table, on which lay scattered many slips of paper. These slips of paper were all printed with neat machine-typed characters, and Miss Dorothy, sitting by the tea table, was examining these slips one by one by the firelight.
These slips of paper were all the telegrams Miss Dorothy had exchanged with the Netherworld Coffin Society recently. Regarding the Wooden Hoof and a batch of Wilderness Spirit, Miss Dorothy had been bargaining with the Netherworld Coffin Society for the past few days, finally reaching a transaction condition acceptable to both sides. These numerous telegrams were the result of frequent telegraphic communication during this period.
Although she had reached the transaction conditions with the other party, Miss Dorothy did not immediately destroy these telegrams at this time. Instead, she was carefully analyzing and examining the text content on them, attempting to analyze more information about the Netherworld Coffin Society from them and trying to understand their intentions more clearly.
'The guy who sent this telegram seems a bit angry about my substitution. He repeatedly scolded me as a thief. These people from the Netherworld Coffin Society who are dealing with me... maybe they are the ones who went to hunt the Wooden Hoof. I don't know if my actions made it impossible for them to complete their mission.'
Miss Dorothy thought this. Hunting the Wilderness Spirit in the New World, according to Kapak's description of the Wilderness Spirit's strength and status... executing such a mission might be the work of Extraordinary of the Black Earth Stage or Chalk, which is the level of small to medium leaders within large organizations. The Scarlet, who are high-level leaders, are only likely to be dispatched when executing major missions.
'If the other party is only Chalk at most... then I can still barely handle it...'
Miss Dorothy thought this, then she began to shift her attention to the transaction conditions proposed by the other party.
'These guys specifically requested a face-to-face transaction with a real person and do not accept any mailing. Although they said it was for on-site inspection of the goods, I'm afraid there are some other intentions involved... Anyway, meeting the other party directly is indeed giving them an opportunity to probe me up close, which is very risky. It's possible they want to pull a double-cross...'
Miss Dorothy thought this. Regarding how to conduct the transaction, she had a relatively intense debate with the Netherworld side before. Miss Dorothy wanted to mail it, while the other side insisted on a face-to-face transaction in Dankoto. The final result of the debate was that Miss Dorothy accepted a face-to-face transaction, and the transaction location was designated by Miss Dorothy to be Tivian.
It was obvious that Dankoto was an important stronghold for the Netherworld Coffin Society, and their power there was definitely immense. Miss Dorothy could not possibly go there under any circumstances, while on the other hand, Miss Dorothy was very familiar with Tivian.
'Although I successfully set the transaction location in Tivian... this kind of face-to-face transaction is still somewhat unfavorable to me. After all, I can't compete with their hard strength head-on. Without being able to use puppets, this kind of contact is still very risky.
'What a pity... facing these guys, it's too difficult to make a puppet impersonate a person...'
Miss Dorothy continued to think. The other party required that only a real person come for the transaction, without using any form of puppet, and without using'Shadow' Extraordinary items to avoid detection. This was a rather tricky requirement for Miss Dorothy, who was accustomed to having puppets handle everything.
Facing'Silence' Extraordinary, Miss Dorothy's puppets were difficult to conceal. There was no other reason; it was because'Silence' Extraordinary could sense human souls, something Miss Dorothy learned when communicating with Kapak and Naifnis.
In the eyes of'Silence' Extraordinary, even if Miss Dorothy's Corpse Puppet acted as much like a real person as possible, it could not deceive the other party, because the Corpse Puppet was already dead, a Living Corpse without a soul. On a Living Corpse,'Silence' Extraordinary could not sense a soul.
Of course, Miss Dorothy also had the method of Living Puppet. She could control a few Living Puppet to conduct the transaction. But the problem was that the other party would definitely bring detection tools like the Hui Jian Lamp during the transaction. If covered by the Hui Jian Lamp, the Extraordinary traces operating on the Living Puppet would be exposed, and the other party would immediately know it was a puppet.
Of course, Miss Dorothy could also use the ring of concealment to remotely apply a concealment effect against Extraordinary detection to the Living Puppet, allowing the Living Puppet to resist the detection of the Hui Jian Lamp.
But this would lead to another problem.'Silence' Extraordinary have soul sensing. If Miss Dorothy applied the effect of the ring of concealment to the Living Puppet, then any Extraordinary detection and Extraordinary perception targeting the Living Puppet would fail, and this included the soul sensing of'Silence' Extraordinary.
If soul perception was blocked by'Shadow', it meant that'Silence' Extraordinary could not sense the soul of this person, but people all have souls, and not having a soul is what is strange.
This means that if Miss Dorothy wants to conduct a face-to-face transaction with the Netherworld Coffin Society, she must have a living person on her side appear.
"Phew... this is a bit difficult to handle..."
Miss Dorothy sighed and murmured as she leaned back on the sofa. Then she picked up a slip from the tea table and looked at it.
This was a certificate issued by the port. Besides the certificate, there was also the contract signed with Marco Xi. This morning, Miss Dorothy used a Corpse Puppet to take this contract to Tivian Port and took over the "tobacco" cargo that had just arrived at the port. After paying enough "hard work fees" to the customs, Miss Dorothy's Corpse Puppet finally transported this batch of "tobacco" out of the port.
Now, the Wilderness Spirit Wooden Hoof and its affiliated essences are in Miss Dorothy's hands, stored in a warehouse in the suburbs of Tivian. For Miss Dorothy now, the goods have been obtained, and now she is just waiting for the time of the transaction.
The time she agreed upon with the Netherworld Coffin Society is three days later. For Miss Dorothy, her primary task now is to find a suitable candidate to appear on her behalf, after all, with Miss Dorothy's current ability structure, it is definitely more suitable for her to stay behind the scenes. Without being behind the scenes, her overall strength would be cut in half.
"So... who would be better to ask?"
Lying back on the sofa, Miss Dorothy began to ponder the candidates.
'Among the people I have close relationships with right now, Adele of the Chalk is undoubtedly the strongest, but her status as a big star is too eye-catching, and there's a risk of being recognized even with disguise. Moreover, she represents the Scarlet Heart and is primarily hostile to the Wolf Blood Society. Bringing her in would mean she would have to oppose the Netherworld Coffin Society, and based on this alone, she might not agree to my request. Asking her to fight the Wolf Blood Society is fine, but asking her to make other enemies, she might not agree. After all, she and I are only in a cooperative relationship.'
'As for Vanya... for me, she is the most trustworthy person now. If I ask her to appear, she will definitely agree, but the question is, is Vanya really suitable to face the Netherworld Coffin Society? These guys who use spirits have quite bizarre methods. If there is a trick and something happens, can Vanya's abilities, which are more focused on healing and biological destruction, handle it?'
'As for my brother... let's forget about him... He has just finished accumulating his auxiliary Spirituality and is busy with his final promotion. Before he completes his promotion and officially takes up his position, his free movement is restricted, so he definitely can't come...'
And so, Miss Dorothy, leaning back on the sofa, was seriously pondering who she should invite. In Miss Dorothy's opinion, the abilities of the Netherworld Coffin Society were very strange, and even with a well-thought-out plan to avoid direct conflict, contacting them could still lead to trouble. Therefore, the choice of person needed to be made carefully.
Staring at the flickering flames in the fireplace, Miss Dorothy's thoughts spun rapidly, and after a moment, she had an answer in her heart.
"Right... perhaps she is a good choice..."
With a light tap of her fist on her palm, Miss Dorothy said this, then she took the magic box that had been placed on the coffee table, opened it, and took out her "book-sea navigation record" from within.
...
Also in Tivian North Suburb, at King's College, Royal Saint Crown University.
The campus was now in the silence of deep night, a scene of darkness everywhere, with only scattered lights visible in the dormitory windows.
Inside a certain room in the girls' dormitory, Naifnis, dressed in pajamas, was sitting at her desk, seriously looking at the books on the desk before her, while her roommate was sleeping soundly on her bed nearby, covered by a quilt.
At this moment, Naifnis was intently looking at the book before her. This book was relatively thin; it was more like a booklet than a book. The pages of the booklet were yellowed, with many damaged areas around the edges. It was covered in densely packed Prit text, and in some places, there were sketch-like drawings of strange-looking items. Both the text and the drawings were handwritten. Looking at the handwriting before her, a nostalgic expression appeared in Naifnis's heart.
"Is this... Grandpa's notes from when he was young?"
Looking at the familiar handwriting before her, Naifnis sighed and softly murmured. The booklet before her was actually a notebook, and the author of this notebook was none other than Naifnis's Grandpa, Davis Boyle.
After the incident that occurred at the Boyle residence in East Tivian that day, with Miss Dorothy's help, Naifnis successfully became an Extraordinary, an Apprentice of "Silent".
Naifnis's Boyle family made their fortune through her Grandpa, Davis Boyle's tomb raiding in his early years. Davis was an Extraordinary, but after retiring, he deliberately did not pass down his Extraordinary heritage. After Naifnis stepped into the Extraordinary path that day, Davis's former servant, who was also the current old butler of the Boyle family, decided to give Naifnis the notes on the Extraordinary path that Davis had written in his early years, and personally returned to the old family estate to retrieve them.
And now, this notebook was finally delivered into Naifnis's hands. The one she was currently flipping through was it. Naifnis only received this notebook today, and after reading the first few pages, Naifnis began to understand her Grandpa's unknown past.
Strictly speaking, what was recorded in this notebook was not a compilation of Extraordinary knowledge as Nu Nuo Te had said, but rather Davis's adventure experiences in North Africa in his early years. However, it did contain the process of his exploration of the Extraordinary. Naifnis, reading this notebook, was essentially reading about her Grandpa's early experiences.
In the notebook, Naifnis learned that her Grandpa did not voluntarily come to North Africa. He had committed a crime in Prit, offended a noble, and fled to North Africa for refuge. When he first arrived, he was still an ordinary mortal and did many things to make a living. Finally, he was attracted by the most prosperous special industry in North Wu, which was tomb raiding. He eventually joined a local treasure hunting society, and it was here that he came into contact with the Extraordinary.
In Davis's description in the notebook, among the treasure hunting societies in North Africa, there was a group of legendary treasure hunters who were like ghosts yet human. It was said that they could see and communicate with ghosts, possessed powerful strength and abundant physical energy, and could explore in various dangerous environments within tombs. They were multi-talented, knew various languages, weapons, and skills, and seemed to be omnipotent.
Davis, who was new to the treasure hunting business, was quickly attracted by these strange rumors. After several adventures, he finally witnessed why those legendary treasure hunters were so magical.
Because they could not only communicate with ghosts but also control ghosts with their own bodies. They could allow ghosts to attach themselves to their bodies and then master the skills the ghosts had learned during their lives.
These treasure hunters were not afraid of being possessed by the undead; instead, they relied on being possessed to control the ghosts in turn, making them work for them, accepting the dead undead into their own bodies, giving them fresh flesh, and recreating the skills they had mastered in their lives. In his notebook, Davis referred to these legendary treasure hunters as "Soul Appenders", and the ability to control spirits with one's body that they cultivated was called the "Path of Body Possession".
In these early notes of Davis, Naifnis could see that her Grandpa greatly yearned for this extraordinary ability, so after becoming a treasure hunter, he was determined to become a legendary treasure hunter with such extraordinary power.
Before the desk, Naifnis carefully and attentively read the notebook, reading her Grandpa's story. After reading each part, she would close her eyes and silently pray to Aka, asking the other party to help her eliminate her Spirit Sight. Finally, after finishing a prayer, Naifnis, feeling tired, let out a sigh of relief.
'I didn't expect Grandpa to have such experiences before... The Path of Body Possession, Soul Appender... Was this the Extraordinary path Grandpa took back then?'
Naifnis thought this in her heart. After a recent period of diligent study, she now had a general understanding of the hidden world and the occult, knowing that the so-called Extraordinary path was a series of branched paths paved by the combination of Spirituality.
'Is it an Extraordinary branch path that uses the body as a vessel to accommodate wandering spirits? According to what Miss Dorothy said before, Spirituality related to the physical body is basically 'Cup', which means the Path of Body Possession that Grandpa took back then was a branch path primarily of'Silence' and secondarily of 'Cup'? If I want to follow this branch path with Grandpa, then I still need to accumulate 'Cup' Spirituality as my auxiliary Spirituality.'
'We, the Rose Cross, can obtain Spirituality from the corresponding secret transmission simply by praying to Aka. I wonder if Miss Dorothy has any secret transmissions related to 'Cup'?'
Naifnis thought this in her heart. It was clear that continuing to read this notebook would reveal the promotion method of the'Soul Appender'. As long as she had enough Spirituality, she would be able to advance to the second stage of the Extraordinary path, the Black Earth Stage.
Naifnis sat in her seat and pondered. At this moment, she wanted to ask Miss Dorothy about the secret transmission, but considering that it was already late at night and the other party might be asleep, she decided to ask tomorrow.
"Forget it, I won't disturb Miss Dorothy at this time. I'll go to sleep first."
Naifnis closed the notebook and prepared to get up and go to bed. Just then, a strange sensation suddenly came from a certain mark on her body.
"This is..."
Touching her left side waist, Naifnis's eyes widened slightly, and then she immediately sat up straight in her seat, opened a drawer, and took out a book. After flipping through it for a while, on a blank page of a certain chapter she found, a familiar handwriting was slowly appearing out of thin air.
"Hey, Senior Nefelnis, do you have time the afternoon after tomorrow?"