Prit East Coast, Tivian.
Inside Green Shade Town No. 17, Tivian North Suburb, Dorothy, dressed in casual home clothes, sat calmly on the sofa, drinking tea while analyzing the information she had just received from Vanya, who was far away on Holy Mountain. An expression of interest appeared on her face at this moment.
'Relief for 100,000 people... Is this the final ritual of the Scarlet Tier of the Path of Redemption? It's quite difficult. In a sense, it's somewhat similar to Adele's promotion ritual's Dance of Giving, both requiring one to influence many people. It's just that one is dancing, and the other is relief...'
After taking another sip of tea, Dorothy thought to herself. She had been waiting for Vanya's promotion ritual to be completed for a long time, and now only the last part of this ritual remained. Vanya only needed to provide relief to 100,000 people to officially become a true Scarlet.
'Although the number of 100,000 people seems large, if there is sufficient support behind it, it is not a difficult matter to resolve. One only needs to personally go to various places with major disasters and widely provide relief. Then the ritual should be completed soon, and there are many disaster-stricken places in this world. It is not difficult for Vanya to complete the ritual in these places with the support of the Church.
'There are many disaster-stricken places in this world, but the place Saint Amanda specifically chose for Vanya is thought-provoking. She actually specifically had Vanya go to North Wu to complete the ritual. This is quite interesting...'
Touching her chin, Dorothy thought like this. From the arrangements made by that Saint of the Redemption Faction for Vanya, she sensed something.
'There are many places where Vanya could complete the ritual, including places where the Shining Light Church has a more profound influence and where the Redemption Faction's actions are more convenient. However, this Amanda still chose to have Vanya go to North Wu to perform the ritual. This is a bit intriguing... Although the reason she gave, that Vanya has good influence in Adus, is plausible, it clearly feels like they have better options than North Wu. Did that Amanda sense something special about Vanya?
''Light' possesses powerful detection methods, and a Golden Tier 'Light' is even more so. Although I made sufficient preparations before having Vanya go to Holy Mountain, not only did I leave the Holy Book as the 'book-sea navigation record' communication volume, remove the puppet mark from her body, and clear all other Spirituality from her body, communicating only through information channels and low-frequency communication with the other party, but I also did not link with her when Vanya entered or exited important places or came into contact with important personnel...
'Although the concealment measures were taken to this extent... when facing a Golden Tier 'Light' at close range, it is still impossible to guarantee that all secrets are hidden. It seems now... that Amanda should have discovered something.'
With slightly furrowed brows, Dorothy thought to herself. At present, she was interpreting the intentions of that living Saint of the Church.
'Amanda might have detected some traces of my power remaining on Vanya, thereby inferring that Vanya might be related to a mysterious extra-Church organization. She might have seen that my traces are related to 'enlightenment', and the organization currently outwardly connected to 'enlightenment' in this world is the Judge of Heaven. Therefore, combining the events of the Thunder Judgment in Adis and the Kankdar incident, she concluded that there is a secret connection between Vanya and the Judge of Heaven. This is also the reason she chose to send Vanya to North Wu...
'Since Amanda has seen through Vanya's secret to a certain extent but not only hasn't directly exposed it but continues to support her promotion, one reason is that Vanya is of great political significance to the current Amanda, and another reason is probably that Amanda wants to contact the Judge of Heaven through Vanya. So she simply went with the flow and had Vanya come to North Wu for promotion, likely wanting to create an opportunity for contact...
'According to the information previously obtained from Sansone, the political struggle among the high-level members of the Church has intensified due to the Pope's ascension and failure to return, even developing to the extent of contacting and cooperating with extra-Church organizations. Perhaps the current Amanda also has similar ideas in this regard...'
While calculating in her mind, Dorothy's originally furrowed brows couldn't help but relax. If her calculations were correct, although Vanya's secret has been revealed to a certain extent, judging from Amanda's current attitude, Vanya's current situation is still safe. As long as her direct superior in the Redemption Faction is willing to continue protecting Vanya, the possibility of Vanya having trouble within the Church is small.
"It seems I also need to prepare to directly contact the Redemption Faction after going to North Wu..." Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy murmured softly. Then she had another thought: she was going to North Wu to look for clues anyway. If her relationship with them could be handled well, perhaps she could borrow their strength to help herself.
'Vanya's ritual requires providing relief to 100,000 people in disaster-stricken areas. Doesn't Buserite just fit the requirements perfectly? Vanya will definitely be equipped with sufficient armed forces by the Redemption Faction this time. If used properly, perhaps she can even get a free wave of extra combat power to use.'
Dorothy calculated like this in her mind. Not long after, she temporarily ended the analysis of the information Vanya had sent back recently and began to deal with the current issues.
Dorothy turned her gaze to the coffee table in front of her. On it, several books and texts with different covers, varying in age, and thickness were placed.
These were the secret transmissions Dorothy had ordered from Beverly not long ago. After these secret transmissions arrived, she bought them directly with money. Dorothy planned to use these secret transmissions to replenish her Spirituality to cope with the subsequent trip to North Wu. Based on the previous lack of Spirituality, the secret transmissions Dorothy bought mainly focused on the aspects lacking in practical application.
After scanning the surface of the coffee table, Dorothy first picked up a secret transmission that looked relatively old, then flipped through it and read it carefully.
The name of this secret transmission is "City of Mountain Furnaces. Part 1". It records the history and culture of the dwarf race before this era. According to the account of the unknown author, this secret transmission is translated from archaeological documents of the Third Dynasty Empire period, meaning it is a work by people of the Fourth Era who studied the archaeological findings of people of the Third Era. It is a work of archaeological archaeology.
This secret transmission mainly records a dwarf city named "Gukho Debukho". It was excavated by a group of archaeologists from the Empire in the Third Era, located in the northern part of the current Main Continent. It is a magnificent underground city carved out within a large snow mountain. The original author of this document in the Third Era provided a relatively detailed introduction to the archaeological process of this city, from how it was discovered, to the initial exploration, to the process of in-depth exploration and the difficulties encountered.
The first batch of archaeologists from the Third Era discovered the name of this ancient dwarf city to be "Gukho Debukho" during their exploration. It was one of the important cities of the Dwarf Kingdom during the Second Era, primarily used for continuously mining the rich mineral resources contained underground. The mountain body part contained the dwarf palaces, temples, and residential areas, while the underground part beneath the mountain body was the mining area that continuously extended underground. This secret transmission mainly records the details of the exploration inside the mountain body.
'Archaeological records about a Second Era dwarf city? Interesting... According to previous information, the Second Era was an era where multiple intelligent races coexisted. The dwarves should have been a relatively prosperous branch. In that case, the dwarves in the Second Era should have mainly been active in the northern part of the Main Continent. According to the author's description in this book, the Main Continent also has ruins of other intelligent civilizations. Besides the dwarf civilization, there should have been other non-human intelligent civilizations on the Main Continent in the Second Era.
"In comparison, the main sphere of influence for humans in the Second Era seems to have been the First Dynasty in North Wu. The name First Dynasty also originated from the naming by archaeologists during the Third Dynasty Empire period, seemingly because it was the first dynasty, the first powerful regime established by the human race. The First Dynasty rose in North Wu and stood alongside other intelligent civilizations in the Second Era world.'
Looking at this archaeological document in her hand, Dorothy couldn't help but think to herself. After finishing reading almost all of it, she began to extract the Spirituality from it, ultimately obtaining 5 "Stone" and 2 "enlightenment".
Afterward, Dorothy put down the secret transmission in her hand and picked up a second old book. The binding of this secret transmission was very similar to the previous one, but it was much thinner. After Dorothy opened it and looked carefully, she found that this secret transmission was a continuation of the previous one, named "City of Mountain Furnaces. Part 2".
"City of Mountain Furnaces. Part 2" continues the narrative from the previous part, mainly recounting the exploration of that Third Era archaeological expedition team after they had almost finished exploring the inner mountain part of this ancient dwarf city and began to continue exploring the dwarf mining area in the lower mountain part. In the records of this book, they found the way to enter the mining area through continuous exploration. After a long period of preparation, they continued to delve deeper into the ancient city's exploration, heading downwards throughout the mining area.
In the archaeological documents, the dwarf mining area underground in this ancient city is extremely complex, with various mine roads crisscrossing and interconnected. One can easily get lost if not careful, and small-scale collapses can be triggered if not careful.
In the documents, this expedition team went downwards all the way. What they encountered most were traces of dwarf mining. Besides the mining traces, many scattered weapons and armor also appeared, things used for war and conflict. Moreover, the deeper they went, the higher the proportion of weapons they found. In some large caves, tens of thousands of scattered weapons and armor even appeared. On the walls of these caves, there were countless marks of being struck by sharp blades, blunt objects, and even bombarded by explosions. It can be seen that these large caves were once fierce battlefields one after another!
The Empire's archaeological team conducted thorough research and analysis of these ancient battlefields located in the underground mine tunnels. They found that the size of these weapons and armor was smaller than that of ordinary humans. It was obvious that these were equipment made by the dwarves for themselves. They had engaged in one brutal battle after another with unknown enemies in the underground mine tunnels they had excavated, leaving behind these traces.
The Empire's archaeological team confirmed that this ancient battlefield was left by the dwarves, but what was strange was that they did not find any dwarf skeletons on this battlefield. Not only were the dwarf skeletons missing, but the skeletons of the mysterious opponents they fought against were also completely gone. Besides the dwarf equipment and fierce battle traces, everything else remaining in these underground ancient battlefields had disappeared, leaving deep doubts for these Empire archaeological teams of the Third Era. And this secret transmission abruptly ended amidst these doubts.
'How could there be so many fierce battle traces in the dwarf race's underground mining area? Who exactly were they fighting? Why were the battle sites concentrated in the underground mining area? Could their enemies have come from here?
'The questions brought by this middle volume... are far more numerous than those from the upper volume. Looking at the title on the cover, this secret transmission should have a lower volume. At the end of the middle volume, this archaeological team seems to say that they will explore the underground mining area further. Could the lower volume record the corresponding content?'
Dorothy thought like this. Afterward, she began to search through the other secret transmissions on the desktop, trying to directly find the lower volume of "City of Mountain Furnaces" to read. However, unfortunately, she searched around for a while but couldn't find it. The batch of secret transmissions Beverly sold her did not include the lower volume. Helplessly, after extracting the Spirituality from the middle volume, Dorothy could only start reading other secret transmissions.
Since the content of this middle volume was relatively small, it provided Dorothy with 3 points of "Stone" and 1 point of "enlightenment" as accumulation.
After putting down the middle volume of "City of Mountain Furnaces", Dorothy picked up a thin secret transmission with a dark green cover and loose binding and began to read it. The name of this secret transmission is "Investigation Record of Voodoo Forest Civilization", which is also a result of re-archaeological translation of Third Era archaeological findings in the Fourth Era. The original author was also an archaeologist from the Third Era Empire period.
The area this archaeologist led the team to investigate is located in the vast rainforest region of present-day South Wu, a large area of dense rainforest filled with miasma. This area is currently where the Order of Rot operates. Dorothy had previously seen a similar place in the secret transmission "given" by Luer, the leader of the Holy Communion Society in Igwinte.
According to the Third Era original author of this secret transmission, in this dense rainforest of South Wu, there also exists an ancient non-human intelligent race civilization from the Second Era. This civilization worships nature and life, taking a deity named "Mother of the Earth" as their object of worship. Legend has it that the incarnation of this deity is the towering World Tree, and this civilized race is also called "Elves".