Afternoon, inside the library of King’s Campus.
Dorothy sat in a secluded corner, her expression serious. She had been subjected to a divination attempt for the first time.
“They failed the first divination, so they’re pouring more spirituality into it to continue? Hmph... as expected of a somewhat established secret society. They’ve got some resources.”
Dorothy thought to herself. It had been clear that the Eight-Spired Nest had likely figured out that it hadn’t been the Serenity Bureau that caused Claudius’s death, but some other force.
“Are they assuming I’m not part of a major faction... and trying to overwhelm my anti-divination defenses with their stored spirituality? Or is this just a probe? Either way... I’ll block this wave first.”
With this thought, Dorothy activated the system again, spending 1 Shadow and 1 Revelation to block the divination attempt once more.
After that, Dorothy sat silently, waiting. Three or four minutes later, the system’s warning chimed in her mind again.
“Warning: Detected information retrieval targeting the host…”
“They’re at it again... Are they determined to keep going? Do they think I’ve run out of spirituality?”
It has been over two days since the battle with Claudius. Dorothy has been at the Black Earth rank, recovering 4 points of spirituality per day. Her Revelation pool has been fully replenished. As for Shadow, after looting Claudius, she has 9 points, which should have been enough to handle this.
Dorothy steadied herself and waited for the opponent’s next move. This time, the response came after five or six minutes.
Dorothy’s expression darkened as she blocked the new divination attempt. After another six or seven minutes, the warning sounded again.
Thus, Dorothy and the diviner entered a battle of spiritual attrition. The opponent cast divination, and Dorothy blocked it. As her spirituality dwindled, Dorothy began to feel uneasy.
Although she had known her anti-divination resources far exceeded those of most in the mysticism world, she wasn’t sure by how much. This time, she faced a secret society of considerable size alone. Whether she could hold out was entirely uncertain. If she failed, she would have to flee, and she wasn’t even sure if she could escape.
Despite her uncertainty, Dorothy suspected the opponent also been unsure. Her reasoning was that the intervals between their divination attempts had grown longer—from two or three minutes initially to five or six minutes. This suggested they were taking more time to think, indicating growing hesitation.
Clearly, the diviner wasn’t able to ignore the continuous drain on their resources. After repeated failed attempts, they were likely to debate whether to invest more resources. Dorothy wasn’t able to gauge their reserves, and neither were they able to gauge hers.
To the diviner, this situation had been akin to gambling. The next attempt might have depleted Dorothy’s defenses, allowing them to divine her information. Or it might have failed again. They had already invested significant resources; abandoning now would have wasted what they had spent. But if they persisted and succeeded, the investment would have been justified.
This stalemate continued for some time. Finally, after Dorothy spent 6 points of Revelation and Shadow, the opponent fell silent. Dorothy waited for over half an hour, but no further attempts came.
“Is it over? So they spent a total of 6 points of Lantern and 6 points of Revelation? If they’ve stopped, does that mean they’ve exhausted their resources?”
“No, probably not. If they’d used up all their Revelation resources, their anti-divination defenses would be zero. It’s more likely they couldn’t gauge my depth and decided to cut their losses…”
Facing this situation, Dorothy pondered, then considered another idea.
“Should I... switch from defense to offense and try to break through their anti-divination defenses while they’re low on Revelation? There’s a penalty for divining across ranks. The diviner is likely at the White rank or higher. With the rank penalty, I might not win in a direct confrontation.”
“For me, at the Black Earth rank, defensive divination battles are more favorable. Offensive ones are not. So I shouldn’t attack recklessly.”
Dorothy thought this over. With her remaining spirituality limited, launching an offensive under the rank penalty wasn’t a good idea. But she wasn’t content to let this end there.
“The opponent just lost 6 points of Revelation, which is probably a significant amount. This might be an opportunity. Even if I don’t counter-divine, maybe I can exploit this situation in some other way.”
Dorothy pondered for a while, then an idea formed.
“Perhaps I should first properly understand the value of Revelation…”
With this thought, Dorothy gathered her things from the table, stood up, and quickly left the library.