Northern Shore of the Conquest Sea, Telva.
Late at night, inside a suite at a luxury hotel, Dorothy was sitting on the sofa, eyes closed in repose. Through Vania in the distant Sumr Tree, she was ravenously absorbing knowledge—bathing her mind in the countless sacred texts preserved by the Sumr Tree people.
After learning about the Tide Imrsion thod, Sumr Tree’s way of accumulating Chalice spirituality, Dorothy continued reading docunts related to their mystical abilities. Knowing that the Tide Path was a branch path of Chalice with Lantern as its auxiliary, she quickly discovered another thod of spiritual accumulation called the Faith Gathering thod.
As the na suggests, the Faith Gathering thod involves accumulating spirituality by amassing reverence. Sumr Tree society, known for its bold and combative customs, holds great respect for warriors. Each year, they hosted nurous public competitions that attracted large crowds—barehanded combat, swimming races, weightlifting challenges...
Warriors showcased their strength before the people in these contests, winning applause with spectacular displays. Those who placed highly were given divine titles like Chosen of the Sea God, Warrior of the Ocean, or even Incarnation of the Wave Strider. With glory, titles, and recognition from the priests, those warriors earned elevated status and were worshipped by the populace. It was within this collective reverence that Lantern spirituality was born.
…
“Faith Gathering thod—so that’s how Sumr Tree accumulates Lantern. It’s similar to Adele’s Desire Dance and the Eight-Spired Nest’s Terror Discipline. All three derive spirituality from emotional projection: desire, fear, reverence. These match the spiritual expressions of Chalice, Shadow, and Lantern—fleshly desire, fear, and reverence, respectively.”
“If I recall correctly, in the New Continent, Uta required Kapak to maintain an air of divine authority within his tribe—to be unquestionable, like a divine. That too is a variant of the Faith Gathering thod. So far, it seems Lantern lacks any physical-type accumulation thods. Usually, to acquire its spirituality, you need so kind of public foundation… of course, my Reading thod is an exception.”
Relaxing into the sofa, Dorothy evaluated Sumr Tree’s spiritual systems. In her view, the Faith Gathering thod was ntal and symbolic, whereas the Tide Imrsion thod was material.
“Tide Imrsion is basically diving into ‘spiritual hotspots’ in the sea to absorb the ocean’s innate power. That’s quite physical—akin to the Spirit Sculpting thod or the Blood Feast thod. Of course, due to the perils of deep-sea diving, Tide Imrsion is far more dangerous than most accumulation techniques.”
Dorothy shifted her focus to other fascinating parts of the docunts.
According to Sumr Tree mythology, they referred to themselves as the “Broken People” or “Flawed People.” Legend said that long ago, their race was afflicted by a mysterious “Flaw” during a natural disaster—an affliction passed to all their kin. It was only the blessing of the Goddess of Abundance that suppressed this curse. Should her favor be lost, the curse would return, and their people would face catastrophe.
The island’s towering central tree was considered the material embodint of the goddess’s blessing—a spiritual anchor that ensured the tribe’s stability and health.
Of course, this belief lacked hard evidence and existed more as an orally transmitted myth. Still, nearly every Sumr Tree islander held it as sacred truth, a pillar of why their faith in the goddess could never be abandoned.
Among everything she had read, Dorothy found the most valuable insights—aside from the two spiritual thods and the Tide Path details—to be new information on the Goddess of Abundance herself.
Until now, of the three goddess archetypes tied to “motherhood,” Abundance had remained the most elusive. This ti, she finally filled in the gap.
“The Mother of Chalice, the Holy Mother, the Goddess of Abundance... That makes three maternal goddesses connected to Chalice. Isn’t that a bit much? But if I think about it carefully, each of them, despite overlap, plays a different role.”
“The Goddess of Abundance is the traditional fertility and nurture goddess—linked to nature and forests. Her maternal traits are normal: people revere her for harvests and fertility.”
“The Mother of Chalice’s worship is... twisted. She embodies blood, flesh, and sacrifice—mother to n, gods, even monsters. Her followers see her as their literal birth-mother.”
“The Holy Mother has maternal traits but barely emphasizes them. She’s more of a savior deity. Among the three, her motherhood is the least prominent.”
Reflecting on these distinctions, Dorothy noted a simple ranking: Mother of Chalice > Goddess of Abundance > Holy Mother in terms of maternal identity—a curious but significant pattern.
With Vania tirelessly flipping through scrolls and books, Dorothy finally finished reading all the materials that Priest Anman had offered. Now it was ti to harvest.
The rituals of the Goddess of Abundance and the Wave Strider, the full details on the Tide Path’s Black Earth and White Ash-rank stages, the Tide Imrsion thod and Faith Gathering thod—all these cognitive poison-rich texts yielded a spiritual bounty of 30 Chalice, 2 Lantern, 1 Stone, and 20 Revelation.
After deducting the 3 Chalice she had spent controlling Vania and the three living marionettes, her current spirituality tally was at 32 Chalice, 5 Stone, 20 Shadow, 4 Lantern, 14 Silence and 34 Revelation.
This was a trendous windfall in the realm of Chalice spirituality.
“Thirty-plus points of Chalice... damn. I’ve never had such a surplus. As expected of priestly archives—just by reading through them, I raked in a whole treasure trove.”
Gazing at her rich Chalice stats, Dorothy couldn’t help but grin with satisfaction. Helping Sumr Tree had certainly paid off—she’d gone from spiritual poverty to abundance in one stroke.
Previously, she’d spent 3 out of her last 5 Chalice points controlling the three warriors and making Vania dance. She was running on fus… until the literature ca in and gave her a full recharge—now sitting comfortably at 30 points.
Beaming at her spiritual wealth, Dorothy’s smile lingered… until sothing curious caught her eye.
She had gained one point of “Stone.”
Dorothy’s Reading thod involved accumulating spirituality related to the content of mystical texts. From the Sumr Tree docunts, she had gained four types of spirituality: Chalice, Lantern, Revelation, and Stone.
Chalice was obvious—the Goddess of Abundance was a Chalice-aligned deity, and all knowledge pertaining to her, the Wave Strider, and the Tide Imrsion thod was imbued with Chalice. Lantern ca from the Faith Gathering thod. Revelation was inherent in the acquisition of knowledge.
But… where did this Stone co from?
Dorothy was certain that none of the texts she had read contained content directly related to the Stone domain. So how had she acquired one point of Stone spirituality?
Faced with this anomaly, she carefully pondered the issue, then recalled sothing peculiar she had co across—a possible source of that single point of “Stone.” It was buried in a particularly ancient hide-scroll in which the Sumr Tree people recorded various titles for the Goddess of Abundance. Among the expected epithets—Goddess of Abundance, Goddess of the Forest, Mother of All, Goddess of the Fields—there was one more: Earth Mother.
That title seed to carry implications tied to earth itself.
“How odd… The title ‘Earth Mother’ shows up among the goddess’s nas, but doesn’t the earth fall under the domain of ‘Stone’? Strictly speaking, the Earth Deity should be the Stone Prince, which makes this a domain that stands in opposition to Chalice.”
“Feels like the Sumr Tree folk, lacking mystical common sense, just added that na out of religious intuition. But even so… would that alone produce a cognitive poison reaction? What exactly is the chanism behind poison generation in mystical knowledge? Hah… it’s all so baffling.”
Clutching her hair, Dorothy frowned in silent frustration. Unable to draw a solid conclusion, she decided to shelve the question for now and focus back on the task at hand.
“Alright~ The Sumr Tree texts have all been read, the spirituality extracted—now that I’ve been paid in advance, it’s ti to actually do the work~”
Stretching lazily, Dorothy mumbled aloud. She had received access to the docunts by promising to help Sumr Tree craft a faith-disguise plan, and now that she’d finished reading and gotten her spiritual “fee,” it was only fair to deliver. The Sumr Tree folks were waiting.
This kind of masquerade-faith plan touched on countless areas. For a normal person, not sothing you could whip up in one night—even with reference material. But Dorothy was no ordinary person: she was a White Ash–rank Revelation-path Beyonder, an Arcane Professor. With full focus, her information processing ability far exceeded normal humans.
“Still… before drafting their plan, there’s one more thing I need to sort out first.”
With that thought, Dorothy closed her eyes again and reached out to contact Vania.
…
Sumr Tree Main Island, Nightfall.
Inside the longhouse of the Bountiful Tree Priest, Vania was sitting cross-legged on the floor, solemnly flipping through the less aningful Sumr Tree texts atop a ritual circle. The valuable ones had already been read; now she was thumbing through farming and fishing manuals that held little value for Dorothy.
Just then, Vania received a new ssage from Dorothy. She paused, stopped her page-flipping, and rose to her feet. Seeing this, Anman—the Bountiful Tree Priest—spoke up.
“Miss Vania, have you finished transmitting everything?”
“Just about,” Vania replied calmly.
“Our priest has received the docunts and is working overnight on so preliminary proposals. I’ll let you know once she’s done.”
Anman let out a long sigh of relief.
“That’s good to hear... Please extend my thanks to your priest. If Sumr Tree truly survives this crisis, your people will have done us an imasurable kindness. We will repay it, to the best of our ability, should you ever need.”
Hearing this, Vania couldn’t help but mutter internally.
“You guys don’t even realize it, but all that spirituality from those docunts is already an enormous reward for Miss Dorothea… not to ntion the favor debt. You’re kind of getting scamd.”
“Still… Miss Dorothea really did score big this ti. With all that spiritual gain and a tribe that now owes her one… Honestly, I kinda feel bad for the Sumr Tree folks…”
Shaking the thought off, she turned serious once more and spoke.
“Right… There’s one more thing I’d like to ask, Priest Anman. How exactly did you learn about the route and itinerary of the pilgrimage fleet I was on? Did you know in advance that our ship had little protection?”
At her question, Anman hesitated for a mont, fell silent in thought, then finally opened his mouth to speak.
“We indeed knew that a lightly guarded pilgrimage fleet from the Church would be passing through that route, which is why we decided to carry out the ambush—hoping to capture Radiance’s pilgrims and use them as leverage to prevent Radiance from acting rashly against us. This crucial information was provided by one of our rchants who frequently trades abroad.”
“His na is Obiye, the captain of a large rchant vessel from Sumr Tree. Because of his trading routes, we often gather all kinds of news from him. He will also be attending tomorrow’s council…”
Anman explained to Vania. Upon hearing this, Vania softly murmured.
“Obiye, huh…”
…
Soon after, the moon set and the sun rose—a new day dawned upon the Sumr Tree Archipelago.
As the first rays of morning sunlight spilled over the eastern sea, Anman, using his authority as the Sumr Tree’s chief priest, urgently summoned the island’s key elders and figures for a council eting. As the elders arrived, puzzled by the sudden call, Anman announced a shocking plan.
Anman proclaid that he had received a revelation from the ancestors the previous night. In this revelation, the ancestors conveyed the goddess’s will: the Goddess of Abundance, compassionate and life-giving, could not bear to see Sumr Tree slaughtered for the sake of loyalty to her faith. She did not wish to see such a tragic loss of life on this land. Thus, the ancestors urged Sumr Tree to release the hostages and convert to Radiance, in order to avert catastrophe.
As soon as Anman’s words were spoken, a wave of shock rippled through the gathered elders. So, already fearing Radiance’s military might and the looming threat of annihilation, imdiately welcod the divine wisdom of the ancestors and expressed their support. But a larger group rose in vocal opposition—these hardliners and devout believers outright rejected Anman’s vision. They declared that the ancestors would never ask them to abandon the faith that had endured for a thousand years. They vowed to stand by the goddess, even unto death.
After briefly calming the room and restoring order, Anman dropped yet another bombshell: the ancestors did not an for them to truly forsake the goddess, but rather to hide their faith—to worship the Goddess of Abundance in secret, while outwardly venerating Radiance’s Holy Mother.
He explained that in the face of Radiance’s overwhelming strength, they needed to preserve the fire of faith until the ti was right. Faith survives through its people. As long as Sumr Tree’s people remain, the faith can endure. But if Sumr Tree were to be destroyed, so too would their goddess’s legacy vanish.
This concept stunned the elders. Never before had they heard of such a thod: to turn faith from open to hidden, to worship a foreign goddess while secretly directing that reverence to their own. A flood of doubts and protests followed—was such a plan even feasible?
But Anman was fully prepared.
He claid the ancestors had already revealed concrete thods for implenting this disguised conversion. He then proceeded to outline several detailed sches right there in the eting.
These plans left the elders speechless.
Each one was ticulously crafted, transforming every aspect of Sumr Tree’s religious practice—from daily prayers to communal festivals, from ritual offerings to symbolic crafts. The thods made these practices appear aligned with Radiance’s teachings on the surface, while still retaining the core of their goddess’s faith, subtly embedded and well-hidden.
For example, the phrases invoking the goddess were woven into common greetings through coded language, the prayers to the Holy Mother were designed with ambiguous phonetics that could just as easily apply to the Goddess of Abundance, and Radiance’s baptism ritual was cleverly masked as a version of their traditional Water Offering to the Tide Strider.
Anman’s plans were not only detailed and systematic, they were steeped in theory—this was a full-fledged doctrine of religious disguise. The elders couldn’t help but marvel at it, declaring it could well be an academic discipline: “The Study of Faith Concealnt.”
Faced with such a complete system, the argunts ceased. No one could believe Anman had co up with this all in one night—unless it was, indeed, divine revelation.
Anman’s credibility soared.
And so, the once-fractious elder council slowly reached consensus. The eting cald. Agreent began to form. Faith concealnt was to be implented across Sumr Tree.
But amid this unified front, one man wore a dark and brooding expression—the rchant Obiye.
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