Chapter 7: Chasing the Light
The nun dormitory only occupied a small building within the church, containing about four or five scattered rooms. Li Wen walked directly to the innermost room, as Priest Mog had already told her it was the only vacant one.
Li Wen pushed the door open. Though the space inside was small, it was relatively clean and tidy, suggesting it was regularly cleaned.
Li Wen didn’t think much of it, as she wasn’t planning to actually stay here.
“World Tree: Origin” had restrictions on logging out. Players had to be in a sufficiently safe place to log out; otherwise, they would face an offline penalty. Not only would experience gain be affected for a period of time, but a debuff called “Over-fatigue” would also be applied, lasting for an hour.
The judgment of these so-called “safe places” was always strict, but a secluded, private residence definitely qualified. Moreover, this was a church of the Holy Candle Mass Church. There was probably no safer place in the entire Ark Town.
Li Wen used the key in the room to lock the door, drew the curtains, and then looked at the item in her hand.
It was a candle as white as jade, about three fingers thick and an arm long. It had a very unique texture to the touch.
[Transmission Candle]
[Consumable – Knowledge Carrier – Magic (Blue)]
[The Saint received a divine revelation from the light, and thus light became a special carrier. The cult that worships Glor makes candles from the light-fat that seeps through rock crevices, using them to record knowledge that cannot be publicly disseminated.]
[Light the candle to obtain the content it carries.]
This candle was something Li Wen had “plucked” from Priest Mog. It should have recorded an unknown path from the Glorious Spectrum Series. According to him, he had taken it from another priest of the Candle Sun Church, and his current position as priest had replaced that person.
In the worldview of “World Tree: Origin,” there were twelve deities called pillars who created and supported the world. Each of them represented one of the elements that constitute the world, which are the so-called Twelve Spectrums.
Paths were extraordinary roads developed based on these spectrums.
The Holy Candle Mass Church, as a major sect serving Glor, controlled three of the paths within the Glorious Spectrum Series: Sacrifice, Judgment, and Protection.
The item was obtained from Priest Mog. According to him, it recorded neither the Sacrifice nor the Judgment paths. Thus, it must be the Protection path.
Li Wen wasn’t very familiar with the classes of the Protection path, but the strong ones were generally the same few. Of course, no matter what it was or its strength, it was irrelevant to Li Wen. She had asked Mog for a path only as a temporary measure; she would either replace it directly later or have it as a secondary class.
Li Wen found matches in the room and lit the candle. A bright yellow flame flickered, illuminating the somewhat dim room.
At the same time, Li Wen seemed to hear faint whispers, like murmurs after a long dream. The sound was so weak that Li Wen had to concentrate fully to catch anything.
The spellbook, which existed as a game panel, automatically popped out, and unintelligible text began to be written on it. The strange runes vanished into the pages as soon as they appeared, leaving only a faint glow shimmering.
[You are listening to the secret whispers]
[You have learned the secret of Glor:]
[He says: Moths shall bathe in the light!]
[You have mastered a path of Glor – “Chasing the Light”]
[You have mastered knowledge: Secret Whisper Interpretation Lv1, Fire Worship Ritual]
Li Wen opened her eyes, her expression filled with surprise.
This transmission candle, supposedly from a Candle Sun Church priest, didn’t record any of the three paths controlled by the Candle Sun Church, but an entirely unfamiliar path.
This was truly unexpected.
Moreover, Chasing the Light was a very complete path. Even if Li Wen followed it step-by-step, she could reach the seventh stage at best, which would translate to level sixty or above in terms of game levels.
It was worth noting that the greatest mage in the Kingdom of Arthur, the leader of Dark Dawn, Siswell, was only at that level.
This level of advancement was suitable even to be followed as a primary path.
The only regrettable point was that the Chasing the Light path Li Wen acquired only recorded one class, and it was a purely supportive one.
But this was not a problem for Li Wen at all; it could even be considered an advantage. What she needed precisely was a powerful support class as her second profession. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have chosen a path from the Glorious Spectrum Series as a transition.
And this class, called “Supplicant,” perfectly matched Li Wen’s idea of a powerful support.
Its job change conditions were also very simple. The knowledge-related content had been completely imprinted in Li Wen’s mind through the transmission candle; all she needed to do was digest this content slowly. The remaining part was a very simple baptismal ritual, which could be completed in any church that served Glor.
“Very well, then for now… log off!”
*
In the real world, Li Wen took off her VR headset.
He checked the time; it was just past midnight.
His phone was flashing incessantly, all with spam messages. The only exception was one from his homeroom teacher, asking why he hadn’t come to school, but there was no follow-up.
Li Wen calmly put his instant meal into the microwave, then recorded his in-game gains and his goals for the afternoon and the future in his notebook.
Once the meal was heated, Li Wen started eating while browsing the game forum.
As soon as he opened the homepage, he saw the post from that morning. The reply count had already exceeded ten thousand, and it had even made it onto the forum’s trending list. However, Li Wen clicked into it and looked around carefully, finding that most of the content was filled with meaningless posts and jokes.
In the thread, there were people pretending to be transmigrators, claiming to be WG Corporation internal staff, or calling themselves C language experts. They were all having fun with the topic of “transmigrating into the game world,” making everyone happy, except for Li Wen, who was very depressed.
But being depressed was useless. He had already realized this would be the outcome, so he decided ignorance was bliss and directly blocked the post.
Currently, the forum was mostly discussing the early game content. The most frequent posts were help requests and guides, as well as complaints about the game’s difficulty. They generally believed that the game development team might not have played the game at all, otherwise, they wouldn’t have created such an abstractly difficult game.
Whether the WG Corporation staff played the game or not, Li Wen didn’t know, but the game definitely wasn’t made by them; that was beyond doubt.
Li Wen flipped through the forum and found another player who was setting an example as a cautionary tale.
This player claimed in the post that he had accidentally wandered into someone’s house to steal something and was immediately caught by soldiers. Not only was he killed once while trying to escape, but he also ended up on that town’s wanted list, and now all the soldiers in the town were looking for him.
Many players in the thread expressed sympathy or mockery, while others shared similar experiences.
Li Wen thought for a moment and then reminded them: “Don’t commit crimes in countries with an order alignment. Being killed or wanted is a minor issue; if you get caught and imprisoned, it’s over. You can only delete your account and start over.”
