North Tivian, Cathedral District.
In the quiet of the night, the hymns of the choir echo through the Cathedral District. The towering church buildings are brightly lit, and priests and nuns move about under the lights.
Deep within the district, in a dimly lit chapel, stands a small statue of the Holy Mother. In front of the statue, a large magical circle is drawn, with a sun-like emblem at its center. Inside the sun emblem is an inverted triangle.
At the center of the room is a long dining table, where only one person sits—Vania, dressed in her nun’s habit.
Vania sits alone at the large dining table. In front of her, a candle burns on a candlestick, illuminating a lavish meal. A glass of wine sits beside several exquisite plates filled with fruits, bread, and other delicacies. The centerpiece of the meal is a perfectly seared, aromatic steak.
Using silver utensils, Vania enjoys the delicious meal before her. She cuts the steak into small pieces, spears them with her fork, and savors each bite, nodding in satisfaction.
“So delicious~ This flavor is truly amazing. Every time I receive a blessed meal, it’s such a treat… I never expected choosing the path of the Holy Mother to come with such perks~”
As she enjoys the meal, Vania feels a sense of happiness. The steak and its accompanying dishes are known as Blessed Meals, part of the reward she received after successfully reporting Cork.
Vania quickly finishes the meal in front of her. Just as she wipes her mouth with a napkin, the door to the room opens, and an elderly nun in a black habit enters. She walks over to Vania, who immediately stands up and bows.
"Sister Anlei...""Haha, no need to be so formal every time, Sister Vania. We who follow the Holy Mother should be more gentle and easygoing. When it comes to etiquette, just relax."
The elderly nun, Anlei, smiles as she speaks. Hearing her words, Vania straightens up. Anlei glances at the empty plates on the table and smiles.
"It seems you’ve finished your Blessed Meal. By my calculations, you’ve accumulated enough Chalice spirituality. Combined with your already sufficient Lantern, you now meet all the spiritual requirements for advancement. You can begin the advancement ritual."
"Really…? Thank you so much!"
Hearing Sister Anlei’s words, Vania responds excitedly, and Anlei smiles in return.
"Haha, no need to thank me. This is an opportunity you earned yourself."
The Blessed Meals on Vania’s table were prepared by Chalice-path Beyonders within the church. These Beyonders are skilled in Spiritual Cooking, a method that uses special techniques to process animal flesh, concentrating and refining the Chalice spirituality within, making it easier to absorb.
Spiritual Cooking is similar in principle to Spiritual Sculpting in the Stone path. Spiritual Sculpting involves carving stone, allowing the carver’s mind to resonate with the spirituality within the stone, guiding it to gather and refine. This process transforms the hard-to-absorb spirituality within natural stone into a more accessible form. Spiritual Cooking follows the same logic, but instead of carving, it uses cooking. The cook essentially expends effort to resonate with the spirituality within the meat, using the cooking process to transform it into an easily absorbable form.
Of course, due to the nature of Chalice, some spirituality is inevitably lost during cooking. The process is more about transformation, and it requires significant effort and skill. As a result, using Spiritual Cooking to accumulate Chalice is far less efficient than Blood Feast. In the mysticism world today, societies that rely on Spiritual Cooking have nearly vanished, and the church is now the largest sanctuary for Chalice-path Beyonders who use this method.
The Holy Mother’s Path of the church is primarily Lantern with Chalice as an auxiliary, so there is a significant demand for Chalice spirituality. It’s only natural that the church has recruited a group of Chalice-path Beyonders skilled in Spiritual Cooking.
After receiving permission to advance, Vania has been preparing for her advancement under the church’s guidance. One of the preparations was accumulating Chalice spirituality. From the church’s perspective, Vania had no extra Chalice spirituality, so they prepared a sufficient amount of spiritually cooked meals for her to consume over several days. During this time, Vania consumed meals equivalent to about 10 points of Chalice, meeting the minimum requirement for advancement to the Black Earth rank in the eyes of the church.
In reality, Vania had already accumulated 10 points of Chalice from reading the mystical texts Dorothy gave her. After fighting the Eight-Spired Nest twice, she still had 4 points of Chalice left. She only needed about 6 more points to advance, so this time, she essentially gained 4 points for free.
"Now that you’ve finally accumulated enough Chalice, I’m surprised that your Lantern has also met the requirements so quickly. Sister Vania, your level of piety is truly commendable…"
With a kind smile, Sister Anlei continues to speak, and Vania responds with a smile of her own.
"I’ve been blessed by the Holy Mother since I was a child. Such piety is only natural."
In the Radiance Church, most Beyonders follow the Lantern path. For clergy like priests and nuns, the primary method of accumulating Lantern spirituality is through religious rituals and prayers.
Sincere and focused prayers, offered in a specific manner to the Three Saints, will result in the saints bestowing spirituality upon the faithful, which accumulates within their bodies. During large collective religious ceremonies, offering sacrifices and praying together with the group can move the saints even more, resulting in greater spiritual rewards.
Daily prayers and participation in religious ceremonies are the main methods for clergy to accumulate spirituality. Unlike other methods of accumulating spirituality, their spirituality comes directly from divine blessings. The faithful offer their devotion to the saints, and the saints, in turn, bestow spirituality upon them.
Thus, the fact that Vania’s Lantern spirituality is now fully accumulated brings Sister Anlei great satisfaction, as it proves that Vania is a devout believer.
In reality, while Vania had been accumulating Lantern spirituality for over a year, she was still slightly short. The gap was filled by the Lantern mystical texts Dorothy had sent her.
"Alright, now that everything is ready, it’s time to get to work. Come here, Sister Vania. I’ll perform the advancement ritual for you."
As she speaks, Sister Anlei walks over to the Holy Mother statue in the room, and Vania quickly follows.
"Now, kneel before the merciful Holy Mother…"
Sister Anlei continues, and Vania obediently kneels on the magical circle in front of the statue, positioning herself on the sun emblem containing the inverted triangle. She assumes a prayer posture.
Once everything is ready, Vania begins to chant the incantation she was required to memorize earlier. As the chant echoes through the room, the magical circle beneath her glows with a faint orange-yellow light.
…
North Tivian, outside the eastern gate of Royal Crown University, Green Shade Town.
In the dead of night, inside Green Shade Town No. 17, Dorothy sits in her study. On the desk in front of her are a gas lamp and the Literary Sea Logbook.
Dorothy flips through the logbook to the page where she communicates with Vania. Just moments ago, Vania sent her an important message—she has finally successfully advanced to the Black Earth rank.
After the Deacon Cork incident, Dorothy learned that Vania had been granted the opportunity to advance as a reward for reporting Cork. Dorothy has been keeping an eye on Vania’s progress, and after some time, Vania has finally succeeded.
“Phew… The church works fast. This is the benefit of having a large organization as a backer. As long as you have enough merit, they’ll take care of everything on your path to advancement. Unlike me, who has to worry about everything myself.”
Reading Vania’s detailed account of her advancement process in the logbook, Dorothy can’t help but feel a sense of envy. After receiving permission to advance, Vania had everything she needed provided by the church—spirituality, rituals, guidance… In short, the organization took care of everything, unlike Dorothy, who has to handle everything herself.
Dorothy thinks this to herself, then shifts her attention to the rank Vania has advanced to. According to Vania’s description, she is now a Black Earth-rank Healing Prayer Priestess on the Lantern path, with Chalice as a secondary path.
According to Vania, the Healing Prayer Priestess has the primary ability to heal and restore injuries. The priestess can consume spirituality to quickly heal herself or others, and she can even heal others remotely over a considerable distance.
In addition, the Healing Prayer Priestess can consume spirituality to remotely enhance others’ physical strength and overall physical condition.
The priestess can also suppress many toxins and illnesses, delaying their effects. Through physical contact, she can discern a person’s physical condition, identifying any ailments or injuries. When touching a Beyonder, she can even assess their spiritual accumulation.
Beyond these active abilities, the Healing Prayer Priestess also has corresponding passive abilities. She possesses stronger long-range vision and insight than a Guider. In addition to the Lantern passives, the priestess also gains Chalice passives, giving her physical strength and endurance equivalent to that of a Craver. This means Vania now has a permanent Devouring Sigil effect, but with added endurance.
Finally, Vania’s spiritual capacity has increased. In addition to her 10 points of Lantern, she now has 5 points of Chalice, giving her a stable supply of Chalice spirituality.
“Remote healing, remote enhancement, body insight, toxin suppression… This skill set feels like a classic healer class in games… No wonder it’s called the Healing Prayer Priestess.”
After carefully reading Vania’s description, Dorothy thinks to herself. The rank feels like a traditional healer class in games, with abilities like remote healing and buffing. The only difference is that this healer has a thick health bar and considerable strength.
“I didn’t expect Vania to become a healer. She was originally my main fighter. Thankfully, this healer class not only heals but also boosts strength and health, so her combat ability has improved.”
Dorothy continues to think, feeling a bit envious of other hybrid classes. Not only do they have additional spiritual capacities, but they also gain passives from other spiritualities.
Dorothy’s Scholar path simulation doesn’t replicate the spiritual passives of other classes. For example, a true Marionettist should also have the physical strength and endurance of a Craver.
Like Vania, who has both Lantern passives—mental focus and long-range vision—and Chalice passives—physical strength and endurance. In contrast, Dorothy’s Scholar path, being a pure Revelation path, only has the Revelation passives—enhanced memory and information processing.
"Regardless, Vania has taken another step forward. If needed in the future… our available firepower has increased.”
"Sister Vania has successfully advanced, and after a few days of hard work, Senior Nephthys is also making good progress. She’s almost ready for her advancement ritual…"
As Dorothy speaks, she flips through the logbook to the pages where she communicates with others. When she reaches Nephthys’s page, she notices a new line of text.
“A message from Nephthys? What’s going on at this hour?”
Seeing this, Dorothy thinks to herself and begins to carefully read Nephthys’s message. The handwriting is messy, as if written in a hurry, and according to the timestamp, it was sent earlier. Dorothy hadn’t noticed it because she hadn’t put the logbook in her magic box, so the spiritual alert wasn’t triggered.
"Miss Dorothy, please allow me to take a few days off. There’s an urgent matter at home that I need to attend to!"
Reading the words on the page, Dorothy frowns and writes back.
"What’s the specific matter? Can you explain in more detail?"
After her written words disappear into the page, Dorothy uses her marionette mark to alert Nephthys to check her message. After waiting for a while, Nephthys’s reply appears before Dorothy’s eyes, still written in a hurried and messy script.
Seeing Nephthys’s reply, Dorothy’s frown deepens.
"It’s an illness! Miss Dorothy, my father has suddenly fallen seriously ill! I’m currently on my way home with the butler. According to him, my father has been cursed! A curse from the Pharaoh!"