Green Shade Town, outside the eastern gate of King’s Campus, Royal Crown University.
In the afternoon, inside Green Shade Town No. 37, Beverly, an automaton girl with short gray hair and dressed in pajamas, sits on the sofa with her legs crossed. One of her hands is held up in front of her, the synthetic skin removed to reveal intricate mechanical structures.
In her other hand, she holds a file, meticulously polishing the exposed mechanical parts of her hand, trying to smooth out any rough areas. Occasionally, sparks fly as she applies pressure with the file.
Not far from Beverly, Dorothy, dressed in a brown dress, sits on a chair behind a coffee table. She yawns while sipping a cup of coffee to stay awake. After spending the night in the underground chamber, she barely got any sleep. This morning, she finally emerged but only managed to catch a few hours of rest before rushing over to Beverly’s place. Now, she’s extremely drowsy.
"If you’re so tired, you should have stayed home and slept properly before coming to see me. Look at you, dragging me out of bed when you haven’t even slept well yourself."
Seeing Dorothy’s state, Beverly, who is busy polishing her mechanical hand, bluntly remarks. Dorothy, after taking a sip of coffee, shoots Beverly a sideways glance and retorts.
"Do you, an automaton, even need sleep?"
"Hey, why wouldn’t I need rest? Even if my body doesn’t get tired, my mind does after focusing for too long. Besides, metal fatigue is a thing, you know?"
Beverly, who is polishing her hand like someone would their nails, responds with a hint of annoyance. Dorothy, however, doesn’t continue the conversation and instead gets straight to the point.
"First, I need you to help me identify these two sigils."As she speaks, Dorothy hands Beverly two sigils—one related to Chalice and the other to Shadow, along with a 40-pound fee for the appraisal. These were obtained by Nephthys from Mossance. After waking up, Dorothy specifically went to the Cathedral District to meet Nephthys and retrieve the items she had acquired earlier that morning in East Tivian, including these two unidentified sigils and a Chalice mystical text.
Dorothy has already read the Chalice mystical text. It’s titled ’The Pulse of the Heart’ and contains various mystical exercise techniques, including rituals centered around running, doing push-ups while chanting specific incantations, and meditating to control one’s heart rate. Ultimately, the text teaches how to sense the innate Chalice within the body through exercise, preparing one for the formal study of body-forging techniques.
If the Crimson Eucharist’s Art of Sacred Anatomy is the introductory text for the Blood Devourer Method, then The Pulse of the Heart can be considered the introductory text for the Body Forging Method. After reading it, Dorothy extracted 3 points of Chalice and 1 point of Revelation.
Back to the scene, after receiving the sigils from Dorothy, Beverly first pockets the money, then carefully examines the sigils. After a thorough inspection, she flips through a book she pulls out from under the coffee table and finally speaks.
"These two sigils... The Shadow one is a Lightness Sigil. It uses Shadow spirituality to make the body lighter and more agile. The Chalice one is a Disease Warding Sigil, which uses Chalice to resist certain diseases to some extent."
After finishing her appraisal, Beverly returns the sigils to Dorothy, who nods and thinks to herself.
“One can use Shadow to become faster... and the other can use Chalice to cure diseases to some extent. Both seem quite useful. I wonder if these were Mossance own possessions or if he stole them from someone else?”
With that thought, Dorothy puts the sigils away and continues speaking to Beverly.
"I also came to you this time to gather some intelligence. Of course, it’s not targeting any specific organization."
Dorothy says, knowing the rules of the White Craftsmen’s Guild.
"Intelligence not targeting any specific organization? Interesting... Go on, what do you want to know?"
Beverly asks with a smile, and Dorothy gets straight to the point.
"I want to know which rank or path has the ability to transform into a bat and move quickly."
"Transform into a bat and move quickly? Huh... I remember the old man mentioned you’re just an Apprentice. You actually survived after provoking something like that?"
Hearing Dorothy’s description, Beverly looks surprised. Dorothy, however, steers the conversation back on track.
"Just tell me what it is. I’ll pay whatever intelligence fee you require."
"Straight to money? It seems you’ve grasped the essence of dealing with us. Alright, the information you’re asking for isn’t targeting anyone specific, so I can sell it to you. How about a friendly price of 350 pounds?"
Hearing Beverly’s words, Dorothy’s mouth twitches slightly. After buying the Illuminating Beacon last time, she only has about 600 pounds left in cash.
Since Dorothy had Vania and Nephthys cover about 150 pounds when buying the Silence mystical text, the 50 pounds Dorothy scavenged from Mossance in the city were directly given to Nephthys to repay the debt. She then repaid Vania 100 pounds and just spent 40 pounds on the appraisal fee. Now, Dorothy only has 460 pounds left.
Now, Beverly is asking for 350 pounds for a piece of intelligence, which makes Dorothy’s heart ache.
"350 pounds for a piece of intelligence? That’s almost the price of a mystical text... Is it really that expensive?"
Dorothy says directly, and Beverly shrugs in response.
"How do you know this isn’t a mystical text? I can tell you, this is information about a White Ash Rank Beyonder. This information is enough to form cognitive poison. You can treat it as a mystical text."
Beverly states plainly, and Dorothy’s eyes light up at the mention of "cognitive poison." She immediately agrees.
"Alright, deal."
"..."
Seeing Dorothy’s sudden change in attitude, Beverly is momentarily stunned. As a merchant, her instincts make her suspicious when a buyer changes their mind so quickly.
“Why did her attitude change so fast? Did I make a mistake somewhere?”
After thinking for a while, Beverly can’t find any issues with her pricing. Finally, with some unease, they complete the transaction.
…
Dusk, Green Shade Town No. 17.
Dorothy, who has just returned from Beverly’s place, sits on her sofa and takes out the biggest gain from her trip—a 350-pound envelope.
“Ugh... Even though I know I can gain some spiritual benefits from this, spending so much money still hurts. I only have 110 pounds left now!”
Dorothy laments internally. After a long time, she once again feels the crisis of poverty.
"Phew... No matter what, that bald bat is the strongest enemy I’ve encountered so far. I must know the enemy’s intelligence beforehand, no matter how much it costs."
Taking a deep breath, Dorothy mutters to herself. She then opens the envelope and pulls out two yellowed pages torn from some book, reading them carefully.
"Vampire... Primary Shadow, auxiliary Chalice, White Ash Rank of the Crimson Pathway..." Dorothy reads the information about vampires while taking notes, mainly summarizing the abilities of vampires from the material.
After finishing the material, Dorothy completes her summary notes and reviews them carefully.
"Main abilities of a vampire…”
"High-speed movement (Third Rank Shadow), robust physique (Second Rank Chalice), bat transformation, corrosive claws (Shadow Enchantment), blood-sucking recovery, shape-shifting, spiritual perception (Shadow & Chalice), toxin resistance, dark concealment, dark vision, human hypnosis, sunlight weakness, weak Lantern resistance..."