Pritt Kingdom, Tivian North Suburbs, Green Shade Town.
On the balcony of Green Shade Town No. 17, Dorothy sat sipping coffee while admiring the sunset to the west. Her mind was filled with the sights and sounds she had witnessed from the distant continent.
“Well, I never expected that just as I was worrying about lacking spirituality, a mystical text would fall right into my lap.”
Dorothy thought with delight. Her main focus now was accumulating spirituality for her advancement, and she had been concerned about the slow progress. Now, she had unexpectedly gained some spirituality for free, and the feeling of getting something for nothing was always satisfying.
“I never thought that the method of exorcism in the new continent relied on cognitive poison. Since cognitive poison affects spirits far more than it does humans, it can be used to expel spirits. I’ve learned something new today. I never knew cognitive poison could be used this way.”
Dorothy nodded and continued to ponder. She had not only linked to Kapak’s visual information but also his auditory information, so she had heard the conversation between Kapak and the old shaman. She knew exactly what had happened.
“And Kapak was taken as a disciple by his tribe’s shaman? What started as an exorcism ritual turned into a disciple-taking ceremony. How dramatic... That old shaman is quite thoughtful.”
Dorothy thought further. She could guess the old shaman’s intentions. By taking Kapak as his disciple, the shaman aimed to keep a close watch on Kapak and the so-called "spirit" inside him. Clearly, the shaman believed that Akasha was a powerful, unknown spirit residing within Kapak.
“That old shaman is quite sensible. Unknown powers need to be monitored closely. It seems he hopes to guide the unknown power within Kapak to benefit the tribe... But this works out perfectly for me. If Kapak becomes a shaman’s apprentice, he’ll have more opportunities to access other shamanic knowledge. This aligns with my goals.”
Dorothy continued to think, then shifted her attention to the mystical text she had memorized through Kapak’s eyes—the text carved into the withered tree.This mystical text had no title or author. It contained the practices of the shamans from the indigenous tribes of the new continent. The portion Dorothy had seen seemed to be an introductory chapter for shamans.
The text on the withered tree recorded a series of spirit communication techniques, including how ordinary people could use objects and small rituals to find spirits, see spirits, communicate with them, judge their nature, and the precautions to take when interacting with spirits.
Mastering these skills would make one an excellent medium. The text also explained that the shaman’s role was to serve as a bridge between spirits and humans.
However, the text didn’t include methods for accumulating spirituality, meaning that even with these skills, one couldn’t become a Beyonder. Dorothy guessed that the methods for accumulating spirituality were likely part of more advanced chapters, possibly found in other training grounds.
After organizing the newly acquired mystical text, Dorothy immediately extracted its spirituality. This time, she gained 3 points of Silence and 2 points of Revelation, slightly increasing her stock of Silence spirituality. Her current spirituality reserves were as follows:
6 Chalice, 7 Stone, 6 Shadow, 1 Lantern, 7 Silence, 9 Revelation.
"Hmm~ Not bad. My Revelation is almost a third full. If I keep collecting at this rate, I’ll have enough soon."
Dorothy murmured with satisfaction as she looked at her 9 points of Revelation. The rate at which she was accumulating spirituality was faster than she had expected.
“But... my Lantern is a bit lacking. Even though I have plenty of divination tools, I’ll need at least 10 points of Lantern for my advancement. I’ll have to find a way to collect more. The problem is, the last time I went to Beverly’s place to buy books, they were out of Lantern mystical texts. This is a bit awkward…”
Dorothy pondered. Most Lantern mystical texts were related to the Radiance Church, which had a habit of collecting various scriptures. As a result, Lantern texts were scarce on the market.
In fact, mystical texts were far rarer than spiritual storage items. The reason they weren’t astronomically expensive was that others couldn’t extract spirituality from them like Dorothy could. If others could do what Dorothy did, the price of mystical texts would skyrocket to match that of Revelation tools.
"I guess I’ll have to ask Vania if she can get some mystical texts from the church the next time we talk."
Dorothy murmured to herself. Then, she turned her attention to the pile of medical books on her table, which she had borrowed from the library. Over the past few days, Dorothy had used these books to turn Kapak into a doctor.
"Although it took some effort, it paid off in the end... But speaking of which, after reading so many medical books, I gained less than 1 point of Chalice spirituality. The difference between mundane knowledge and mystical knowledge is really huge..."
Dorothy looked at the medical books and sighed. While she believed that much of mundane knowledge was just as valuable, if not more so, than mystical knowledge, the gap in spirituality between the two was staggering. Dorothy had hoped that reading so many medical books would give her at least 1 point of Chalice, but she got nothing.
So much profound, meticulously crafted knowledge that could save lives wasn’t worth even 1 Chalice, while a few cannibalistic rituals from the Afterbirth Cult were worth 3 or 4 points. Wasn’t something wrong here? Why was the gap between mystical and mundane knowledge so vast? Dorothy couldn’t help but wonder.
“From another perspective, secret or mystical knowledge contains a lot of cognitive poison. Because of this poison, mystical knowledge cannot be widely disseminated or directly applied to social activities and production. That’s why it’s a ‘secret.’ On the other hand, knowledge without much cognitive poison can be widely spread, driving societal development and civilizational progress. That’s why it’s ‘mundane.’”
“Take these medical books, for example. They contain little cognitive poison, allowing them to be widely disseminated and benefit the public. If they were filled with cognitive poison and considered mystical knowledge, they would only exist as secret texts within hidden societies, known and used by a select few.”
“In this way, the key distinction between the mundane and the mystical is cognitive poison. Knowledge laden with cognitive poison is mystical, forming the mysticism world, while knowledge without it creates and sustains the surface, mundane society.”
“So the question is... what exactly is the nature of cognitive poison?”