Chapter 41: The Guide

Chapter 41: The Guide

Late at night in Igwynt, inside the apartment building near Sunflower Street, Dorothy carefully opened the envelope she had bought for a full one hundred pounds. She took out more than ten sheets of paper from inside and discovered that they appeared to have been torn directly from a book.

‘He literally tore pages out of a book and sold them to me…’

Staring at the pages in front of her, Dorothy thought to herself, then began reading them carefully, word by word and line by line. As Aldrich had warned her earlier, the contents indeed carried a slight amount of toxic corruption, so she had to be cautious as she read.

After a brief glance, Dorothy realized that these pages originally belonged to a book titled “General Knowledge of Ascending the Pathways.” The paper was new, the text printed rather than handwritten—clearly not an ancient tome. It was comfortable to read, and soon Dorothy reached the key sections.

…

After gaining a preliminary understanding of spirituality and the methods of accumulating it, the path of the Beyonder opens before us. What follows is an introduction to the basic hierarchy of Beyonders.

In the hidden world, the higher a Beyonder’s rank, the greater their power, the longer their lifespan, the deeper their knowledge, and the more capable they are of comprehending the essence of the world—transcending the mundane and elevating life itself. Beyonders are clearly divided into ranks from high to low.

Within the scope of the mortal world, Beyonder stages are divided into five levels. Various secret societies assign different names to each stage, and there has never been a universally fixed terminology. However, due to the widespread presence of the White Stone Craftsmen’s Guild across the continent—and its extensive dealings with major secret organizations—the naming system used internally by the Guild has gradually gained acceptance and has become the mainstream standard of today’s occult world.

In the White Stone Craftsmen’s Guild classification system, the initial stage of the Beyonder path is called “Apprentice,” also known as “Raw Stone.” The four stages that follow are named after the four major steps of alchemy:

Nigredo (Black Earth), Albedo (White Chalk), Rubedo (Red Completion), and Aurum (Gold).

…

Reading this, Dorothy couldn’t help but nod slightly. The influence of this craftsman–merchant alliance was truly impressive—they had even managed to standardize the terminology for Beyonder ranks in the occult world.

From these fragmented pages, Dorothy gained a rough understanding of the hierarchy of the hidden world. By that logic, the Apprentice stage of the Chalice path would be the “Thirster.” Albert—the man who had met with Edrick in Vulcan that day—was likely at this level. As for Gregor being able to deal with him, he was probably an Apprentice as well, though it was unclear which spiritual path he followed.

Dorothy continued reading. The next section was the most important—it detailed the ascension rituals for the initial stage of every spirituality.

What followed was a dense mixture of text and intricate diagrams. Some of the terminology was obscure and difficult to grasp, but after putting in the effort, she managed to read through it all.

Letting out a long breath, Dorothy leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples.

At that moment, her system notified her that she had finished studying a new secret transmission. Without thinking too much, she immediately extracted the spirituality. Since this secret text did not favor any single spirituality and was instead a comprehensive mysticism book—containing a little of each—Dorothy accumulated 1 point in every type of spirituality. Additionally, due to the nature of knowledge itself, she gained 1 extra point of “Revelation.”

Now, Dorothy had accumulated 10 points of “Revelation”, 6 points of “Chalice”, 5 points of “Shadow”, 1 point of “Lantern”, 1 point of “Stone”, and 1 point of “Silence”

At this moment, Dorothy’s “Revelation” spirituality was already full, enough to meet the requirements for advancement. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to feel happy at all—and the reason lay with the advancement ritual itself.

Just as Aldrich had said, the initial advancement of all spiritual paths was very simple, and largely the same across the board—different in details, but identical in essence.

All spiritual advancement rituals only required drawing a simple ritual array bearing the symbol of the corresponding spirituality, supplemented by some commonly used incense materials. However, the most crucial element was that a “Guide” was required for initial-stage advancement.

Yes, a guide. Every initial advancement ritual for any spiritual path had to be presided over by a guide of at least the Apprentice level whose spirituality matched the path in question. The guide would help lead and stabilize the spirituality of the person advancing; only then could the ritual succeed.

For Dorothy, the required spirituality was already satisfied. The auxiliary materials were all common items—nothing mystical at all—she could just buy them on the street. And if the street didn’t have them, Aldrich certainly would. As for the symbols of the various spiritual paths, the book had them all drawn out; she could simply copy them.

The real problem was this guide.

If Dorothy wanted to advance as an “Revelation” Beyonder, then she would need a senior “Revelation” Beyonder of at least the Apprentice rank to preside over the ritual. Yet she currently had absolutely no way to find a Revelation Beyonder.

She was in Igwynt, and the Crimson Eucharist was a society of the “Chalice” path. Aldrich was a “Stone” Beyonder. None of them had anything to do with Revelation. She couldn’t very well go to the Serenity Bureau and ask, “Do you happen to have any Revelation Beyonders over there?” The so-called guide—she had no idea where to even begin looking for one!

Thinking of this, Dorothy couldn’t help but feel a wave of frustration. She had no clues whatsoever about how to find a Revelation Beyonder, and even if she somehow did—so what? They weren’t relatives or close friends. Why would the other party help her?

‘Could it be that the Revelation path just won’t work?’

‘Should I instead go and become Aldrich’s apprentice, carve stone for a few years to accumulate “Stone” spirituality, and then have him act as my guide once it’s full?’

She thought this through, then shook her head and rejected the idea.

Leaving aside the fact that she currently only had 1 point of Stone spirituality—and who knew how many years it would take to fill it—even if she did manage to fill it and asked Aldrich to be her guide, who knew what kind of outrageous price that guy would demand?

‘Advancement fee… 1,000 pounds…’

In her mind, Dorothy pictured Aldrich wearing a benevolent smile while holding out his hand expectantly. She immediately dismissed the idea of switching to the Stone path altogether.

With a hint of dejection, Dorothy picked up the book again and continued reading, hoping there might be some other solution. After carefully flipping through the pages, she soon discovered that there were indeed methods to substitute for a guide.

In the final few sections of the book, alternative options were clearly laid out for cases where a guide could not be found.

The first option was to find an item rich in matching spirituality to replace the guide’s spiritual guidance. However, such rituals were far less stable than those conducted with a guide, and failures were more likely. They also placed much higher demands on the personal qualities of the person advancing.

The second option was to pray to high-ranked divine entities hidden on the other side of the world. If the prayer happened to attract the attention of one such being, and if that entity was in a good mood, it could also take on the role of a guide and help complete the advancement ritual.

Of course, for an unknown nobody to draw the attention of a divine being was extremely unlikely. And even if it did happen, the outcome would, more often than not, be far from positive.

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