Royal Saint Crown University, King's Campus.
Outside the Secret Knowledge Society's gathering point, external members bustled to and fro, while mentally unstable members were scattered throughout the large room, muttering to themselves. In one corner, Naifnis sat upright, seriously reading a book laid open on the table before her.
The book was titled "the queen insect's queue," a novel that anthropomorphized the story of several insects surviving in the jungle. The insects in the story had a vast and complex family system, where offspring had to obey their parents absolutely, and parents had to obey their own parents. This hierarchical structure extended layer by layer, ultimately leading to the entire insect swarm needing the greatest Queen Bee Queue.
The novel described the operational system of the vast insect swarm family from the perspective of a few insects, detailing how they hunted, waged war, and dealt with disasters. It constantly depicted the worship of elder insects and even the great Queen Bee Queue.
This was the secret transmission book that Ci Rong gave to the Secret Knowledge Society students, split from one secret transmission into a series of eight books, with the content of one book padded out to eight books.
Because the word count was padded, the Spirit Sight was also diluted. The Spirit Sight content in each book was very low, making it difficult to detect while reading. This ultimately allowed the Spirit Sight to infect everyone in the society without anyone realizing it. If Naifnis hadn't had an Extraordinary item left behind by her tomb-robbing Grandpa, the entire society would have already been completely controlled by Ci Rong by now.
The book before Naifnis was the third volume of "the queen insect's queue," which she had asked her highly contaminated friend to find. Once she finished reading the fourth volume, she would be eligible to enter the inner area.
Naifnis carefully flipped through the pages before her. After reading forty or fifty pages, Naifnis rubbed her eyes. While reading and carefully examining her own state, she did feel a slight abnormality. So, she pretended to close her eyes to rest, but in reality, she began to pray inwardly.
'Above this endless world, the ultimate destination of infinite destinies, the gate and key to boundless truth, the great Aka who records all things... I pray to Captain again, protect my spirit, purify the pollution of knowledge...'
Immediately after finishing the prayer, Naifnis felt her mind clear. The slight abnormality that had been lingering in her mind suddenly vanished, and Naifnis even felt refreshed for a moment.
'Again, it really is effective...'
After finishing the prayer, Naifnis thought with some emotion in her heart. Although very slight, she could still feel the change in her mental state. She knew that her prayer had taken effect.
Currently, Naifnis, without the protection of the necklace, had almost finished reading the third volume, but she didn't feel any desire to worship Ci Rong. This proved a crucial point: the mysterious deity named Aka truly exists! He responded to her prayer and protected her spirit.
That mysterious organization called Rose Cross worships a true deity!
'Thank you, Aka, thank you for the divine protection...'
After finishing the prayer, Naifnis immediately thanked him silently in her heart. Although she still knew little about this deity, since he was divine, she must be respectful.
'Rose Cross... a mysterious organization that worships a hidden deity. Its members include not only many adults but also girls who seem to be only in middle school. I really don't know what their truth is, what their principles are, what their purpose is, and what they and Eight Point Nest are secretly observing in the school?'
After giving thanks, Naifnis also felt a trace of doubt in her heart. However, having only just begun to dabble in the mysterious, she was completely unable to answer these questions. But this also aroused her deep curiosity as a mysterious enthusiast, and even some other emotions.
'A mysterious organization protected by a hidden deity... it's truly somewhat desirable...'
While thinking, Naifnis looked back at the book before her and continued to read the secret transmission.
...
In the library of the King's Campus, Dorothy sat in a corner, reading a mundane book on "Structural Mechanics" while responding to Naifnis's prayer, helping her convert the Spirit Sight. Several thick books were piled on the table in front of Dorothy, many of which were engineering books related to mechanical structures.
She had once had the idea of inventing things like airplanes in this world, but she lacked basic knowledge. Now that she was in the Crown University library, she could use her free time to catch up on the relevant basic knowledge. Perhaps one day, when she had time and could get some support from Beverly, she could achieve something remarkable.
'Hmm, Neff's speed is quite fast. This is already the second prayer. There shouldn't be much left of this book. At this rate, she can finish reading it in less than six days.'
After clearing the Spirit Sight for Naifnis, Dorothy thought. In addition to being satisfied with Naifnis's reading speed, she also noticed the Spirituality attributes extracted from the secret transmission Naifnis was reading.
'It's'Shadow' and 'Cup'... This is the same configuration as the beast transformation path, except this time the number of'Shadow' is a bit more, holding the dominant position.
'Does this phenomenon indicate that this Eight Point Nest is an organization that primarily focuses on'Shadow' with 'Cup' as secondary? It's possible, but not entirely certain. Based on the previous'Shadow' Apprentice and this secret transmission, the probability of them prioritizing'Shadow' is very high, but whether they prioritize 'Cup' is uncertain. A truly organized society doesn't just have one path; this Eight Point Nest is stronger than the Holy Communion Society, so it's possible they have multiple paths.'
Through the secret transmission read by Naifnis, Dorothy speculated about the possible Extraordinary inheritances of the Eight Point Nest. Afterward, she turned her thoughts back to Naifnis herself.
The last conversation with Naifnis gave Dorothy another unexpected gain.
'I didn't expect that Neff's Grandpa was probably an Extraordinary. He likely excavated many ancient artifacts with extraordinary properties in North Africa. Neff probably fainted when she was a child because she saw the Spirit Sight on those ancient artifacts. Afterward, her Grandpa gave her that necklace to protect her from the erosion of Spirit Sight when she looked at those ancient artifacts.
'That's why the Spirituality of that necklace was so little and why it broke after only seeing two diluted secret transmissions. Most of the Spirituality was probably consumed when Neff was a child by looking at those ancient artifacts.'
After listening to Naifnis's account, Dorothy had already confirmed that there must be ancient secret transmissions from North Africa in Neff's Grandpa's collection room. She immediately asked Neff where those Hidden Objects were now.
And the answer Dorothy received was that most of Neff's Grandpa's Hidden Objects were donated to the museum before his death, and a very small portion was taken back to his childhood home, where he built a manor and hid the items there. Neff hadn't been back there since she started middle school.
'Those things are probably dangerous Extraordinary items and secret transmissions, which is why they couldn't be donated to the museum. Neff's old home manor is in the adjacent county to Tivian, quite a distance away. If I can build a good relationship with Neff later, maybe when the holiday comes, Neff can take me to her old home to look at her Grandpa's Relics.'
Dorothy thought this. She was quite interested in the ancient secret transmissions of North Africa. Maybe she could find a few useful Extraordinary items then.
'This time I helped Neff deal with Eight Point Nest. It would be reasonable to ask her for one or two antique pieces then, right?'
Thinking this, a slight smile of joy appeared on Dorothy's lips.
'But for now, I still need to focus on Eight Point Nest. At this point, I just need to wait a few more days until Neff finishes the book, and then I can start the next step of action, right...'
Looking out the window, Dorothy pondered. Just as she was about to turn back to read, she suddenly felt an abnormality.
Feeling the abnormality, Dorothy immediately got up and walked all the way to the washroom. There, she took out her magic box. On the magic box, a gem was faintly flashing.
Aldrich had explained this phenomenon to Dorothy: if something stored in the magic box underwent Extraordinary activity, this phenomenon would occur, and the owner carrying it would be able to sense it.
The current phenomenon of the magic box indicated that something Dorothy had stored in the magic box had just undergone some kind of Extraordinary activity.
Without hesitation, Dorothy opened the magic box and took out an item. It was a thick book, "book-sea navigation record."
That's right, among the Extraordinary items Dorothy currently possessed, only this one could generate Extraordinary activity on its own without being actively activated. That situation occurred when it received information transmitted from other connected texts.
In other words, at this moment, another text had sent textual information to the book-sea navigation record. After the magic box detected the Extraordinary activity of the book-sea navigation record, it sent Dorothy a brief alert.
'Putting this thing in the magic box can give real-time alerts. In a way, it's more convenient. But speaking of which, who is sending me information at this time? An old acquaintance? Or a new friend?'
While thinking, Dorothy opened the pages of the book-sea navigation record. After flipping through the chat history of old acquaintances and not finding any new content, she flipped a few more pages. Finally, on a completely new page, she saw entirely new characters.
They were strange characters that she didn't recognize at all, upright and powerful, in lumps, like seals.