Beneath the dark sky, waves surged across the sea. A small cruise boat rocked and swayed along the surface. On its deck, dotted with lights, several corpse marionette crew members busied themselves operating the vessel. Their controller, Dorothy, was currently seated in a cozy cabin, summarizing the operation she had just carried out in Moncarlo. Sitting on her bed, Dorothy stared out the porthole at the pitch-black sea beyond, mentally reviewing the spirituality she had spent during her time in Moncarlo, as was her routine. First of all, the expenditure of Shadow spirituality was negligible—no matter how much she used, she had replenished it all in one go by devouring the moth. As for Lantern, the main consumption came from firing a low-powered round of Ignis Converta, which cost 2 Lantern, plus 1 more for tagging it with a directional sigil for later retrieval, totaling 3 Lantern points. Dorothy had originally possessed 14 points of Lantern, and now had 11 left. Next was Stone. This time, Dorothy had used Stone mainly to operate her magnetic flying carpet during a short flight. The distance was far less than the twenty-plus kilometers she’d flown back in Addus, so the cost was small—only 1 point. However, due to the heavy expenditure from the previous Addus mission, she only had 11 points of Stone to begin with, leaving 10 now. The biggest drain this time was clearly on her Chalice spirituality. She used 2 points aboard the cruise ship to cast Scent-Tracking for locating someone; 2 more when she jumped into the sea, casting Water-Breathing and Devouring for buffs; 3 points for long-term control over multiple auction staff-turned corpse marionettes; and finally, a whopping 5 points to exceed her limit and command a massive group of corpse marionettes to operate nearly the entire island’s coastal artillery for a bombardment, providing cover for Withered Wing’s retreat. In total, 12 points were spent. Dorothy started with 17 Chalice points, and now only 5 remained. In summary, Dorothy’s current spirituality reserves were 5 points of Chalice, 10 points of Stone, 50 points of Shadow, 11 points of Lantern, 26 points of Silence, and 50 points of Revelation. “Hsss… This spirituality state is honestly pretty bad… My main Chalice is down to single digits. That’s nowhere near enough for another operation. I really do need to head to a big city and restock with some mystical texts.” Staring at her current situation, Dorothy grew slightly anxious. Her spirituality wasn’t just meant to support operations—it was also part of her accumulation for an upcoming advancement. Of the six divine artifacts required for her promotion to Crimson, five had already been accounted for—she only needed to wait a while longer to collect them all. The only one still unresolved was the Revelation divine artifact, which Dorothy was still working on acquiring. Apart from that, she had to make sure her six types of spirituality met the required thresholds—currently, only three did. The rest were still quite lacking. “Still… spirituality can be steadily obtained by buying mystical texts. As long as I’ve got the money, it’s not a big problem. And I happened to run into a fortunate group on my way to Moncarlo—helped them with a few tasks and earned a small fee. Not much, but enough to buy a few books.” Dorothy thought further. On the way to Moncarlo, after detecting an unusual fishy smell, she had uncovered a smuggling deal between the Gut-Eaters Society and the Hookshark Gang. After getting involved, she walked away with 47,000 lir in transaction funds, which she promptly exchanged at the bank for 2,200 pounds. Adding the 500+ pounds she already had, she now held about 2,700 pounds in cash—enough to buy three or four mystical texts. In fact, Dorothy had even considered a bolder plan: once Edward and Withered Wing began fighting, and Withered Wing summoned the moth to hypnotize the entire city, she could’ve dispatched corpse marionettes to loot the auction house. Any item from the second half of that auction went for over 100,000 Lir—just grabbing a few would’ve been a massive gain. But that auction house was located in the heart of Moncarlo. After securing her main target, she had to evacuate immediately. Even if she managed to snag something, she wouldn’t have time to retrieve it. Moreover, with Edward scouring the island in rage, keeping corpse marionettes stationed there would’ve been foolish. Those that operated the artillery were positioned out at sea during his search. Only after Edward gave up and the pseudo-moth was released did Dorothy allow her marionettes to land and seize a coastal fortress. “Whew… For now, best to hurry and keep sailing. Find the nearest city to recover, then take a ship to a larger city and buy mystical texts from the White Craftsmen’s Guild to replenish my spirituality.” “Speaking of mystical texts, that moth dropped two memory orbs upon death. I don’t know what’s in them, but maybe they’ll yield some spirituality and help patch the deficit.” With that thought, Dorothy focused her mind and began analyzing the two memory orbs she had extracted from Withered Wing. The contents seemed to be two mystical knowledges. The first was titled “Wistful Gaze Afar”, a compilation and analysis of folk tales from coastal regions bordering the Wistful Sea. From it, Dorothy acquired some foundational knowledge about that sea. The Wistful Sea was a vast ocean to the east of the main continent, connected to the Conquest Sea. Unlike the bustling trade routes of the Conquest Sea and the Western Ocean, the Wistful Sea was practically devoid of ships. Only sparse routes crossed its outer fringes—its depths were strictly forbidden for all vessels. The Wistful Sea was among the most dangerous maritime zones in the world. Legends claimed that all navigational instruments would fail there—even mystical navigation using Lantern. In its depths, the sun, moon, and stars above would fade into darkness. With no point of reference, ships would be lost forever, drifting endlessly until supplies were exhausted and crews perished, their wrecks doomed to eternally float the sea. Hence its name—Wistful Sea. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the NoveIꜰire.net Various legends surrounded the coastal towns near this sea. Some claimed giant sea monsters dwelled within. Others spoke of ghost ships laden with treasure, formed from vessels swallowed by the sea. One tale described a fisherman who accidentally entered the Wistful Sea, drifted for days, and upon returning found that decades had passed in his hometown. Some rumors spoke of phantom cities seen in the sea’s depths. Still others said that seaside villages practiced ritual human sacrifice to the sea at regular intervals… This mystical text collected many such stories and analyzed which might hold truth. In the final section, the author’s words caught Dorothy’s attention. “In the Wistful Sea’s depths… lies the Nation of Night… The sea is riddled with illusions—no course or coordinate has meaning. Only divine lanternlight or the Wistful Mirage’s own mercy can traverse it. Therefore… the Fragmented Black Moon is paramount. It is a shard of the Moon Crown. If I can fully restore it, I may yet receive the Moon’s guidance and reach the end of the Wistfulness…” —Bartholomeo Varena. Still seated on her bed, Dorothy silently flipped through the memory orbs in her mind. When she finally saw the author’s signature, a faint frown formed between her brows. “Bartholomeo... that great explorer who managed to return from the Wistful Sea multiple times? He’s the author of this mystical text? Damn, his exploration of the Wistful Sea went deep—deep enough to write something like this.” Flipping through the contents of the mystical knowledge in her mind, Dorothy thought to herself. She found Bartholomeo’s writing particularly interesting—especially the part about the so-called “Nation of Night.” “The depths of the Wistful Sea contain the Nation of Night? What does that mean? Is there an actual country inside the Wistful Sea? And since it’s called the Nation of Night, could it be related to Shadow? The Mirror Moon Goddess Church in Pritt claims they will migrate eastward, and the Wistful Sea is also to the east. The Savior’s Advent Sect preserved a Third Epoch mural that shows another landmass to the east of the continent—could all of this be connected? “Also, this ‘fragmented black moon’ Bartholomeo mentions—could it be that Black Moon Talisman he consigned to the Moncarlo auction? According to his own words, it’s a fragment of a mystical item called the Moon Crown. Once reassembled, it’s supposed to be key to crossing the Wistful Sea. If it’s that important, why would he put it up for sale? Wasn’t his goal to reach the end of the Wistful Sea?” Leaning against the bed’s headboard, Dorothy pondered in confusion. If the mystical text was telling the truth, then the complete Moon Crown was indeed a crucial item for traversing the Wistful Sea. She couldn’t figure out why Bartholomeo would sell it—he didn’t strike her as someone desperate for money. After thinking for a while and getting nowhere with Bartholomeo’s motives, Dorothy decided to move on. She shifted her attention to the second memory orb left behind by Withered Wing and began reading it. This orb contained a log of exploratory records and scattered notes. The records were a list of special Dreamscape coordinates, likely compiled by Withered Wing after surveying each coordinate’s environment. At each difficult-to-decipher coordinate, Withered Wing had assigned a general “confusion level.” The deeper the Dreamscape coordinates went, the higher the assigned confusion level became. It was clear he had been advancing toward a particular goal along multiple paths. But the deeper he went, the higher the confusion became, until he eventually encountered what he marked as “extremely dangerous” and halted the exploration. Among the records, there was also a note from Withered Wing. “As the ‘Holy Chrysalis’ grows, its divine radiation is steadily intensifying. The no-entry zone continues to expand. We can no longer approach the chrysalis as we did in the past—otherwise, we will become irretrievably lost… “However… we cannot cease the caretaking of the Holy Chrysalis. To ensure that what emerges from the chrysalis is the prophesied moth, our caretaking must not stop. We must find a way—besides Divine Lantern—to traverse the lost zone and draw near the chrysalis once again…” Rubbing her chin, Dorothy read the newly retrieved contents of the memory orb, then dove into another round of thoughtful speculation. “The Holy Chrysalis… could that be referring to Panmoth’s cocoon? So the god of the Blackdream Hunting Pack—Panmoth—is currently inside, undergoing metamorphosis? And as it grows, the divine radiation it releases is creating a massive disorientation zone, preventing Blackdream’s people from approaching. They’re trying to find a way to get close again. “According to Withered Wing, they need a Divine Lantern to guide them through the zone. But if they don’t have one, they’ll have to find another method. Following that line of thinking… could they have set their sights on the Moon Crown? “Bartholomeo said that aside from Divine Lantern, the Moon Crown is another way to cross the Wistful Sea. And that sea’s conditions seem similar to the chrysalis’s disorientation zone—both are influenced by extremely high-level, possibly divine-rank Shadow powers. So maybe after reading Bartholomeo’s mystical text, Blackdream figured they could piece together the Moon Crown to bypass the lost zone? Is that why Withered Wing came to Moncarlo to buy the Black Moon Talisman? Not for the Talisman’s power, but to complete the Moon Crown and reach the chrysalis again?’ Analyzing Withered Wing’s memory orb, Dorothy came to what seemed the most reasonable conclusion given both orbs. Suddenly, she felt she might now have a fairly accurate guess at the Blackdream Hunting Pack’s intentions. “Interesting… Looks like I’ll have something worthwhile to offer the little fox next time I see her. Just as well—I’m a bit low on funds lately… Hopefully those Butterfly faction folks aren’t too broke…” With that thought, Dorothy shifted her attention again. “Speaking of which, Withered Wing’s memory mentions they need to ‘ensure the moth that emerges from the chrysalis is the prophesied one.’ If that moth refers to Panmoth, then why phrase it like that? Could the chrysalis hatch something else? “Hmm… Well, I don’t know enough about the dream realm to make a solid judgment. I’ll just hand this info over to the little fox’s team. They’ll be able to analyze it better.” That concluded her train of thought, and she began considering how to deal with the mystical knowledge contained in the two memory orbs. Since both were clearly Shadow attributes and she had already maxed out her Shadow reserves by eating the moth, she didn’t plan to convert them into spirituality. Instead, she opted to redeem them for knowledge from other worlds—but the result was rather underwhelming. As for the knowledge related to the Wistful Sea, what she retrieved was lore and sailing experience about the Abyssal Sea—Irithyll, a treacherous ocean located within the Abyss, a chaotic and ever-shifting conglomeration of planes. This sea was mysterious and perilous to the extreme, its landscape shaped by the countless corpses of fallen Demon Lords, whose remains formed floating isles. On one such isle stood a city established by the Succubus Queen Nocticula. Successfully navigating its waters required deep expertise and familiarity with the Abyss—but for Dorothy’s current needs, none of this knowledge was particularly useful. Given the difference in worlds, only a few things might prove practical: emergency response tactics in dangerous situations, some basic seamanship skills… and beyond that, just a smattering of Abyssal combat techniques and fragments of the demonic language. As for the dream realm survey, she received a Pollution Management Record for the Emerald Dream. The author appeared to be a druid. Compared to the abyssal ocean, Dorothy was more familiar with the Emerald Dream—it belonged to the world of “World of Warcraft”, the dream-like realm of Azeroth, a wild, natural plane inhabited by green dragons. But even this pollution-handling expertise didn’t have much practical value for her either. “Hmm… All just knowledge with little immediate use. I guess not every exchange yields combat skills. Knowledge spans a vast spectrum, after all, and battle-relevant information is only a tiny portion…” Looking at the newly acquired knowledge, Dorothy sighed. Then she rubbed her temples and steeled herself to continue steering the ship through the night, hoping to reach the nearest island town by tomorrow and finally get a good night’s sleep.