Following the instructions on the stone tablet, Dorothy began her advancement ritual. Fortunately, this chamber was specifically designed by the Star Numerology Scriptorium for advancement rituals. The formation in the chamber was specially crafted to support rituals for all Revelation-path Beyonders, from Apprentice to Black Earth rank.
After lying dormant for thousands of years, the array in the chamber finally activated once more. As Dorothy chanted, the spiritual symbols on the array began to glow one by one. First, the largest symbol at the center, representing Revelation, lit up, followed by the five smaller symbols surrounding it.
As the chanting concluded, Dorothy’s system prompted her to request guidance. Just like several months ago, Dorothy agreed to let the system guide her.
Then, the spiritual symbols in the array suddenly shone brightly. Dorothy felt as if an invisible wind swept through her consciousness, causing a momentary chaos. Her thoughts seemed to expand endlessly, making it difficult for her to anchor her sense of self. After a while, her expanding thoughts began to contract, and her sense of self slowly returned.
When Dorothy’s consciousness regained clarity, she assumed her advancement ritual was complete and prepared to stand up. However, she noticed that the array around her was still glowing. Clearly, the ritual wasn’t over, and she hadn’t felt any increase in her abilities.
“What’s going on? I followed the instructions on the stone tablet exactly. The conditions for advancement were met, so why is the ritual stuck here? Did something go wrong? Or is there an error in the tablet’s instructions?”
Dorothy thought to herself, feeling puzzled. Just as she was about to voice her confusion, a message appeared in her mind.
"Choose the branch to simulate."
It turned out that for other branchs, the advancement would have ended by now. But the Scholar was different. At this stage, the Scholar advancement had one more step: choosing a simulation.
During advancement, a Scholar could choose to simulate one of the other branches of the Revelation path, gaining some of its primary abilities.
In other words, Dorothy could now choose one of the four branches—Marionettist, Brontomancer, Diviner, or Dream Interpreter—and gain some of their abilities. Then, during her next advancement, she could choose another branch. Each time a Scholar advanced, they could simulate a new branch of the Revelation path. The simulated abilities would be weaker than the original and might be incomplete. Not all abilities could be simulated, and preparation was required beforehand.
“Well, well... This means I get to choose my branch all over again. And every time I advance, I can pick a new set of branch skills. By the end, I’ll have mastered most of the abilities on the Revelation path. No wonder it’s called the Scholar—it’s so versatile and knowledgeable.”
After reading the description of the Scholar abilities, Dorothy thought to herself. She then began to carefully consider which branch she should choose for her first simulation.
“There are so many options. The Marionettist would enhance my current combat style, the Brontomancer would boost my direct combat abilities, the Diviner would further strengthen my intelligence-gathering capabilities, and the Dream Interpreter... I’m not entirely sure what it does yet…”
Dorothy pondered over the branches. She had to make her choice carefully, as once she selected a branch, she would be stuck with its abilities until she reached the White Ash rank.
Finally, after some deliberation, Dorothy made her decision. She chose to simulate the Marionettist branch, which was closer to the Chalice path.
The reason was that Dorothy had already grown very accustomed to using corpse marionettes in combat. She believed she could handle the Marionettist abilities with ease. Additionally, after the advancement ritual, each of her spiritualities would be reduced by 5 points. Her Chalice and Stone reserves were still relatively high, so even after the deduction, she would have enough left. Moreover, she already had a stockpile of corpse marionettes and had developed tactics centered around them, giving her a solid foundation for the Marionettist path.
“Well, let’s take a few more steps down the Marionettist path...”
Murmuring to herself, Dorothy continued the ritual. After selecting the Marionettist as her first simulated branch, the five smaller spiritual symbols on the array dimmed, leaving only the largest Revelation symbol and the slightly smaller Chalice symbol glowing.
Once the ritual was complete, all the spiritual symbols dimmed. Dorothy slowly stood up, feeling her consciousness expand like never before. Her thoughts raced, and a faint sense of uncontrollable restlessness stirred in her mind.
After standing still for a while, Dorothy managed to calm her mind and return to a normal state. She then looked at her hands and murmured.
“So... I’m a Scholar now? A Scholar who has studied Chalice, a Black Earth-rank Beyonder...”
Dorothy murmured to herself. She then removed the Corpse Marionette Ring from her finger and looked at the pile of corpses on the ground—the “contestants” from the “First Dorothy Chess Tournament.”
Looking at the “contestants,” Dorothy waved her hand and, without wearing the Corpse Marionette Ring, raised all four corpses at once. She made them laugh and congratulate each other, celebrating Edrick’s victory.
Now, Corpse Marionette Manipulation was one of Dorothy’s innate abilities. She no longer needed the Corpse Marionette Ring to control them, and her control limit had increased to four marionettes. Unlike the ring, which only allowed her to control two marionettes and required additional spirituality to exceed that limit, Dorothy could now control up to four marionettes without extra spirituality cost.
Additionally, Dorothy’s control range had significantly improved. Within a radius of 5 kilometers, she could freely control four marionettes. Beyond 5 kilometers, she could reduce the number of marionettes to extend the control range. The fewer marionettes she controlled, the farther the range. When controlling a single marionette, she could extend the range to 10 kilometers.
While maintaining the limit of four marionettes and a 5-kilometer radius, Dorothy’s spirituality consumption would remain relatively low.
Of course, aside from the increase in control limit and range, the Marionettist branch had other abilities as well. These were just the basic improvements, but there was no opportunity to test them now.
After examining the Marionettist abilities, Dorothy also noticed a significant issue with the Scholar path: spirituality.
After advancing to Scholar, Dorothy now had 10 innate points of Revelation spirituality—a 10-point Revelation MP-bar. Her spirituality recovery rate had also increased to 4 points per day.
However, the problem was that Dorothy had no auxiliary spirituality. Although she had simulated the Marionettist abilities, she wasn’t a true Marionettist.
Generally, Black Earth-rank Beyonders had both a primary spirituality pool and an auxiliary one. In other words, a true Marionettist would have an additional Chalice MP-bar alongside their Revelation MP-bar, allowing Chalice spirituality to regenerate automatically.
Although the auxiliary spirituality pool wouldn’t be as large as the primary one, it would greatly alleviate the spirituality demands of a Black Earth-rank Beyonder. With both primary and auxiliary spirituality pools regenerating automatically, their combat capabilities would remain stable.
But Dorothy was different. As a pure Revelation-path Scholar, even at the Black Earth rank, she only had the Revelation spirituality pool.
“Damn, so I’ve simulated the Marionettist abilities but don’t have the Chalice spirituality pool that a true Marionettist would have? Will I have enough spirituality?”