North Shore of Conquest Sea, Varna.
On the outer suburban tidal flat of Varna, a battle with little suspense had just concluded. Dorothy, the victor, was currently controlling a group of Corpse Puppets to quickly clean up the battlefield.
Dorothy didn't rush to immediately loot Massimo's body. Instead, after putting it into the magic box, she had the Corpse Puppets handle the traces at the scene, especially the bullet casings and bloodstains. After a rough cleanup, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppets quickly return with the magic box.
Although this was an outer suburb of the City, it didn't mean there was absolutely no one around. The gunshots and suppressed explosions during the previous battle had alerted some ordinary people in the distance. Some of them were approaching the tidal flat where the incident occurred. However, fortunately, Dorothy had deployed many bird corpse puppets in the air beforehand. Relying on several bird's-eye views, Dorothy successfully monitored large areas around the tidal flat. She knew which directions the attracted people were coming from, thus allowing her to control the Corpse Puppets to retreat from the correct direction to bypass them.
Dorothy's Corpse Puppets had mostly finished cleaning up the battlefield; it would be difficult for ordinary people to spot anything amiss. While the short-term cleanup couldn't make it completely spotless, because this was a tidal flat, the incoming tide would mostly erase the remaining unclean areas, so Dorothy wasn't worried about anything being detected.
Utilizing the vision provided by the bird corpse puppets, Dorothy's Corpse Puppets successfully retreated without being seen by anyone. They rode Corpse Puppet horses, taking a detour and galloping towards the City of Varna. After successfully having all the Corpse Puppets leave, Dorothy's main body, resting in a seaside pavilion in the distance, also began to immediately prepare for withdrawal.
Dorothy, with her hair neatly tied up and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, controlled a Corpse Puppet parent by her side and walked towards the City of Navaja as if taking a stroll.
Dorothy walked along a coastal road with only a few scattered pedestrians. One side of the road was lush green bushes, the other side was the sea from which the sound of rhythmic waves came. Accompanied by the sea breeze, the bushes and the ocean simultaneously produced rustling sounds of different rhythms. This soothing and tranquil feeling made Dorothy, walking in the middle, quite enjoy it for a while.
'Navaja... seems like a leisurely seaside town, quite suitable for living.'
Walking on the seaside road, Dorothy felt the surrounding environment and thought with emotion. After walking for a distance, she noticed that on the land side, by the edge of the path, there was a row of courtyard walls built with gray bricks. This row of walls was unusually tall, much higher than ordinary courtyard walls. Dorothy became curious upon seeing it.
'Such a high wall, ordinary courtyard walls wouldn't be built this high, right... This courtyard doesn't feel like a residence. Is this some special place?'
With curiosity, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet parent beside her turn its head to look at the courtyard wall. It saw the tall iron gate installed on the wall, the dim five-story building with closed doors and windows behind the iron gate, and the sign in Castilian hanging above the locked iron gate. Dorothy, using her self-taught Castilian, read the meaning of the words spelled out on the sign.
"Ancica Mental Hospital."
'Mental hospital? No wonder the walls are built so high. So it's for housing mental patients. Building a mental hospital in such a scenic place, perhaps the patients inside can recover better.'
Looking at the mental hospital she was passing by, Dorothy thought to herself. Then, without thinking much further, she withdrew her gaze from the mental hospital and continued walking straight along the road without stopping, no longer paying attention to the building beside her.
Soon, Dorothy completely walked past the entrance of the mental hospital. At this moment, behind the iron gate, in a certain room of the slightly gloomy five-story building, a figure was pulling back the curtain slightly, revealing their eyes to look outside. And the place they were looking at was the direction of the tidal flat where the battle had previously taken place.
...
After dealing with Massimo, Dorothy quickly returned to the City of Navaja. Due to this encounter with the Sea Abyss Church, Dorothy's plan to go to Iweig was interrupted. She hadn't yet decided what to do next, so she decided to stay and rest for a while before making any further moves.
Navaja is a small coastal town, a very ordinary and inconspicuous one among the many cities in Castile. Although it's by the sea, there aren't many ships coming and going normally, so there are few outsiders in the City. This time, the Church's fleet suddenly brought over 2,700 unexpected travelers who urgently needed accommodation to the port, causing the rooms in all the hotels and guesthouses in Navaja to become scarce.
Fortunately, Dorothy had foreseen this phenomenon early on. The first thing she did after disembarking with the earliest group was to book a room, and then she would slowly deal with Costa and Massimo. Anyway, since the other party was going to foolishly wait at the dock for a long time to smell all the passengers, Dorothy was in no hurry at all and could even use this time to pick a good hotel.
After returning from the suburbs, Dorothy first found a place to retrieve all the Corpse Puppets and the magic box, and then leisurely went to the hotel she had booked earlier. After going up to her room and closing the door, Dorothy began the task of inventorying her spoils.
Upon entering the room, Dorothy locked the door. Then, instead of taking Massimo out of the magic box, she directly controlled the Corpse Puppet inside the magic box to search Massimo there. After a while, the items found were passed out of the magic box. Dorothy took them and placed them on the table in the room, then immediately began to carefully examine her gains.
Since Massimo had already fought with the Church people before coming to Dorothy, under the powerful force gathered by the Church, Massimo was forced to use quite a few things to escape. Therefore, the spoils Dorothy obtained were not very many. After a careful search, Dorothy obtained some symbols, two gold coin-shaped 'Light' storage items, four small test tube-sized bottles containing dark blue liquid, a small mechanical device that could fix this type of bottle to the wrist, and finally, some cash.
'No'Shadow' storage items, ah. Maybe he used them all up when countering the Church's detection before. That's a bit of a pity... But thankfully, this guy actually has two 'Light' items. This saves me the cost of appraisal.'
Looking at the two 'Light' storage items on the table, Dorothy thought to herself. Then, she took out a piece of paper with a magic circle drawn on it from the magic box and spread it on the table. After placing a gold coin-shaped storage item on it, she began the ritual. As the luster on the gold coin storage item dimmed, Dorothy gained the ability of appraisal in the following short period. Next, Dorothy needed to use this ability to appraise the spoils.
One by one, Dorothy first turned her attention to the symbols. These symbols included not only those found on Massimo but also some found on Bins earlier.
Among these symbols, besides a few regular Raw Consumption Symbols, there were two Finding Breath Seals found on Massimo. He relied on these symbols to enhance his sense of smell in an attempt to find Thief K. Dorothy knew he possessed Finding Breath Seals, which was why she devised the button plan.
'Finding Breath Seals, ah... These are good things. The last time I got some from Adele, they were all used up shortly after, and I haven't replenished them until now. It's good that I got two more now.'
Looking at the Finding Breath Seal in her hand, Dorothy thought this. The Finding Breath Seal Adele gave her before had been of great use. After using it up, Dorothy had always wanted to replenish it, but this item was somewhat rare. Even Beverley didn't always have stock, so Dorothy couldn't buy it even if she wanted to. Now was a good opportunity.
Next, Dorothy looked at another type of seal she had never seen before. Based on the pattern on it, Dorothy could confirm that it was also a "Cup" seal. After appraisal, Dorothy confirmed its name and general function.
"Water Breath Seal: By consuming the Spirituality of the "Cup", it can grant a person the ability to breathe underwater like a fish."
'Water Breath Seal? Underwater breathing? This thing is useful. No wonder Massimo said if this seal was used well, his subordinates who secretly jumped into the sea could return to shore. On this vast sea, this thing is indeed very useful.'
Looking at the new seals in front of her, Dorothy thought to herself. She now had a total of three of these seals, which was quite a few.
After appraising the seals, Dorothy picked up a small bottle on the table. The bottle contained a dark blue liquid. This item was found in Massimo's sleeve, attached to a strange device. This device was worn on Massimo's hand.
"Water Sealing Bottle: A bottle that can hold a volume of water much larger than its own surface volume. One bottle can store about 30 liters of water. The water inside is in a special compressed state and appears dark blue from the outside."
'Water Sealing Bottle? Such a small bottle can hold so much water? That means these four bottles currently hold at least 120 liters of water? The water in one of these bottles is more than in a bottle of mineral water.'
Looking at the water in her hand, Dorothy sighed and thought. Then she turned her gaze to the strange device originally attached to Massimo's hand. After appraisal, Dorothy found that it was a device used in conjunction with the Water Sealing Bottle. By attaching the Water Sealing Bottle to that thing, it could quickly release the water inside the bottle. That night, when Naifnis and Massimo confronted each other on the ship, the water jets that suddenly shot out from Massimo's sleeve came from these bottles. These Water Manipulators probably relied on these things to create favorable environments for themselves.
'These things are for Water Manipulators to quickly get water in places without water. Although Water Manipulators seem to have the ability to create water, that also requires Spirituality and time. It's better to just carry a bunch of water. The Wave Path is indeed an Extraordinary branch path that is greatly affected by the environment, just like how I have high requirements for the weather.'
Looking at the small bottle she held, Dorothy thought to herself. Ever since she witnessed Massimo's ability as a Wave Path Extraordinary, she was very glad she didn't conflict with him and Costa at sea. A half-crippled Chalk Water Manipulator could manipulate water like that on the mudflats. It was unimaginable what two full-strength ones could do to an opponent on a ship; the home-field advantage was too great.
'These things are very useful for Water Manipulation, but not very useful for me temporarily. In any case, I'll put them away for now. Maybe they can be of some use in the future.'
Thinking this, Dorothy put down the small bottle and began to count the money found on Massimo. Since Massimo was on an international trip, the banknotes were from various countries. After converting all of them to pound according to the exchange rate, Dorothy confirmed that there was at least three hundred pound in cash.
'Three hundred pound... It's barely acceptable. I originally thought this guy was a jewelry collector and would carry some valuable jewelry or something, but he only had some money.'
With some disappointment, Dorothy put the money back into the magic box, along with the other items on the table that had just been appraised.
However, Dorothy did not put away the ritual array paper on the table at this time, because the appraisal was not yet finished. At this time, Dorothy still had the most important item in her hand that had not been appraised.
Dorothy reached into the magic box and took out a large, dull blue gem. This was the Sea Abyss Church treasure, the deep blue heart, which Neff had stolen a few days ago. Costa and Massimo had risked their lives to get it back. Now Dorothy wanted to see what this thing was actually used for.
Maintaining the suppression of the deep blue heart's Spiritual radiance, Dorothy placed it on the ritual array and performed a simple appraisal, and the result was immediately available.
"deep blue heart: A treasure blessed by the divine nature of the "Cup", it can serve as an important item for many rituals. If used alone and placed on the water surface, it can attract fish from a wide surrounding area to gather towards it."
'deep blue heart... A blessed item of the divine nature of the "Cup"? That is to say... this thing has been blessed by some "Cup" god or divine existence? No wonder it's so important...'
Looking at the gem in front of her, Dorothy couldn't help but sigh in her heart. A blessed item of divine nature, this must be valued by any society or religious group, no matter where.
'A key item for holding important rituals... carrying the blessing of divine nature... No wonder it's so important. It's just a pity that this thing isn't of much use after leaving the ritual. At most, it can only catch fish. With this thing, buying a fishing boat and fishing at sea would surely lead to a great harvest every day. It's just a pity I don't plan to be a fisherman.'
Dorothy thought this, then she put the deep blue heart back into the magic box. Although it was something stolen to prevent a sacrifice, at this moment Dorothy already considered it her own property.
"Although it's not very useful, it's quite important and good-looking. If there's a chance in the future, maybe I can sell it for a good price."
While calculating, Dorothy tidied up her setup. After everything was put away, Dorothy began to calculate the losses from her operation this time.
Due to the advancement, controlling various Corpse Puppets did not consume much of Dorothy's Spirituality. Conducting small currents on the flying insects also didn't consume much. This time, eliminating Massimo, Dorothy's main Spirituality consumption came from cooperating with Neff to give Massimo that electric therapy, which cost Dorothy 2 "Stone" and 2 "enlightenment". Combined with the consumption from dealing with Bins and the others on the ship before, Dorothy's current Spirituality is as follows.
5 Cups, 5 Stones, 5 Shadows, 2 Lights, 14 Silences, 7 enlightenments.
Fortunately, when going to the Church ship, Vanya covered for both Dorothy and Neff, otherwise the "Shadow" Spirituality here would be even less.
'Hiss... Spirituality is starting to get tight. It seems I need to find a way to replenish more, especially the commonly used ones, "Cup" and "Stone". Sure enough, after becoming commonly used Spirituality, no matter how much "Stone" there was originally, it can't withstand the consumption.
'Let's wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll wander around the City and see if there is a branch of the Treacherous Merchant Guild. If there is, I'll see if I can buy some secret transmissions.'
Looking at the sky gradually darkening outside the window, Dorothy thought to herself. While preparing for a good rest, she also set her goal for tomorrow.
...
Meanwhile, on top of a tall building in Varna, a figure was standing by the window, gazing towards the distant port, gazing at the mighty warship, and then spoke in confusion.
"The Church's fleet... What are they doing here? Could it be..."