Royal Crown University, King’s Campus.
In the dead of night, within the underground ruins, the walls of the corridor are scorched black by intense flames. On the floor lies a charred corpse, still smoking faintly.
This is the White-rank Beyonder of the Eight-Spired Nest, the Vampire Claudius. After losing too many of his bats, he was unable to sustain his life. The damage inflicted on his remaining bats backfired, causing flames to erupt from within his body, burning him into a smoking pile of charcoal.
"Is this the true leader of the Eight-Spired Nest, the one above Thorn Velvet?"
Standing beside the charred corpse, Nephthys murmurs, covering her nose and mouth as she looks at the horrifying scene.
"Whether he’s the leader of the Eight-Spired Nest or not is still unclear. Based on the current information, it’s more likely that he was just a high-ranking member. After all, he was only a White-rank," Dorothy responds from the side.
Beside her, Vania sighs in amazement.
"White-rank... So this is what a White-rank Beyonder looks like? Lord... I actually fought a White-rank Beyonder..."
Vania murmurs in disbelief. Not long ago, she had never received any combat training. As a clerical nun in the Historical Scripture Department, she had no connection to Beyonder battles. Becoming a Beyonder was only to better perform her duties.
Now, Vania has gained a wealth of combat experience, having faced everyone from ordinary people to Apprentices, Black Earth rank, and even White Ash rank Beyonders. And she wasn’t just on the sidelines—she was a main combatant, capable of both tanking and dealing damage. Yet, she is still only an Apprentice-rank and remains a clerical worker in the church.A White-rank Beyonder in the church system could hold the position of a senior deacon or even a bishop. Vania’s position in the church is only equivalent to a junior deacon, and since she works in research, she holds no real authority.
Normally, Vania would show great respect even to a mid-level deacon, let alone a senior deacon or bishop. Such figures are difficult for her to meet in her position.
“Senior deacons and bishops, whom I could barely meet before... I actually fought and defeated a White-rank Beyonder on par with them? This is truly…”
Looking at the charred corpse, Vania’s heart is filled with complex emotions. She feels that ever since she received Aka’s revelation, she has been walking down a path she never imagined.
"Miss Dorothy, now that he’s dead, what about my classmates?" Nephthys asks with concern, and Dorothy quickly responds.
"Don’t worry, they’re all asleep downstairs. Sister Vania, could you take Nephthys down to check on them and make sure they’re okay? I’ll handle the scene here."
Dorothy instructs Vania, who nods in agreement.
"Alright, but please hurry, Miss Dorothy. We shouldn’t stay here too long."
With that, Vania leads Nephthys down to the ritual chamber below. Dorothy, after glancing at the charred corpse, immediately begins her looting plan.
"Burned to a crisp... I hope nothing valuable was destroyed..."
Looking at Claudius’ charred remains, Dorothy mutters with slight urgency. She quickly controls two corpse marionettes to search the body.
Fortunately, after a thorough examination, Dorothy finds that the burning started mainly from within Claudius’ body. His clothes and outer skin weren’t directly set ablaze, though the charred skin is cracked, with embers and smoke rising from within. If left unchecked, the clothes would eventually catch fire.
Thanks to the timely "rescue" by Dorothy’s marionettes, most of the loot on Claudius is salvaged. This includes four sigils—three of Shadow and one of Chalice and Shadow—all of which Dorothy doesn’t recognize.
“All unfamiliar... Looks like I’ll have to spend some money on appraisals.”
Aside from the sigils, there’s also a pendant that seems to be a mystical artifact. Claudius had used it to hypnotize Vania earlier. There are also two test tubes filled with a dark red liquid, likely the same ones Claudius smashed to create smoke and cover his escape.
In addition, Dorothy finds some spiritual storage items for Chalice and Shadow. The Shadow storage item is a silver coin, while the Chalice storage item is the syringe Claudius often used to heal himself. Dorothy finds one syringe, and based on her spiritual vision, the blood inside contains a high concentration of Chalice spirituality—about 3 points. This high-concentration Chalice blood, combined with Claudius’ blood-sucking ability, allowed him to quickly recover from injuries with a single injection.
“It seemed very effective when he used it, but that’s because of his vampire-signature ability to heal by absorbing blood. Without a similar ability, I can’t use this syringe to heal myself. So, for me, it’s probably only useful as a regular Chalice storage item.”
Looking at the syringe in her hand, Dorothy thinks this to herself. She continues looting and eventually finds a mystical text and 200 pounds in cash on Claudius.
"Only this much money? Are White-rank Beyonders this poor?"
Seeing the cash on Claudius, Dorothy can’t help but complain. However, upon further thought, it’s reasonable that most people wouldn’t carry large amounts of cash on them. Claudius’ main assets are likely stored elsewhere.
“Come to think of it, I remember this guy had an office on campus, the one he used when impersonating someone. Maybe I can find something useful there.”
With this thought, Dorothy decides to visit the administrative building later to search Claudius’ office for anything valuable.
After finishing looting Claudius, Dorothy lets out a sigh of relief and takes out her magic box. She enlarges the entrance and begins collecting the relatively intact corpses from the scene. Once she’s gathered most of the bodies, she looks around and notices a few Illuminating Beacons hanging on the webbed corridor, as well as some small items glowing faintly under her spiritual vision at the end of the corridor.
“It seems they really beefed up the defensive measures to ensure the ritual went smoothly. Looting these should yield some good stuff. No harm in taking them~”
Looking at the now-useless reinforced webbed corridor, Dorothy thinks to herself. With the spirit of a thorough scavenger, she controls her marionettes to dismantle the Illuminating Beacons, collecting three in total, one of which is particularly large. She also finds an anti-divination array, which includes a Shadow spiritual storage item shaped like a silver coin and a Revelation spiritual storage item resembling a fragment of a stone tablet.
“Heh, the loot is piling up. Looks like this operation won’t be a loss.”
After looting Claudius’ carefully set up anti-detection network, Dorothy feels a sense of satisfaction.
Next, she heads to the second level of the ruins, where she finds Nephthys carefully checking on the sleeping students and Vania examining the desecrated Mirror Moon statue.
"How are they? Are they okay?"
Dorothy asks Nephthys as she approaches, and Nephthys responds gratefully.
"They’re all still breathing, just deeply asleep. Thank you both for saving them."
"Well, you should thank yourself too. Without your persistence, we wouldn’t have known about this situation."
Dorothy says with a light laugh, then walks over to Vania, who is intently studying the desecrated altar, her brows furrowed.
"Sister Vania, have you ever seen a statue like this before?"
Dorothy asks as she approaches Vania, who is frowning while examining the altar.