[Vol. 8] Chapter 174: Serpent Blood
There was no doubt, what Eudora said was very brave, even a little bold and overconfident from someone clearly influenced by a certain someone. But when those words came from such a soft and cute little girl who looked completely harmless, they carried a strange kind of power that made people want to agree with her.
“Haha...”
Sure enough, hearing the little one speak like that, the last member of the five-person Hero Team, Zachary Flamefeather, a young battle mage from the Flamefeather Tribe of the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains, chuckled and ran his hand through his short, bright red hair. Then he spoke up.
“Little Eudora has a point. Chaos Magic Valley is dangerous, sure. But we’re not just normal people. If we’re too scared to even face small challenges like this, how are we supposed to stand against the world-ending disaster from the Goddess’s prophecy in the future? I say we go for it. What do you think, Lady Elunie?”
As everyone turned their eyes to her, Elunie, the blind Lightborn girl and one of the team’s core members, gently nodded and gave a soft smile.
“Two votes for, two votes against… If we don’t count Sister Violet’s opinion, then I guess this becomes the deciding vote.”
“Honestly, I know I’m still an inexperienced hero. But since I’ve already been given this title and the [Staff of Eternal Radiance], I need to start making changes, to do what a hero is meant to do.”
“The Goddess has told me more than once that the path of a Chosen Hero is full of hardships and obstacles. Going to that ruin is part of our divine mission, meant to challenge and train us. If we only focus on choosing the safest path, then we’ve already forgotten what this journey is all about.”
“So… I vote that we go through Chaos Magic Valley.”
“Sigh...”
Kunnir the tiger sage gave a helpless smile and shook his head. Mevis, the fox assassin, quietly lowered her head and continued trimming her nails. Chloe, the human mage, held her staff tighter, looking a little nervous but also excited. Zachary still wore a smile.
At this moment, the answer was already clear.
They all understood why Violet, as their Hero Instructor, had brought this topic up tonight. It wasn’t because she couldn’t decide what to do. But because she wanted to use this discussion to help the newly-formed Hero Team get to know each other better.
Sure enough, as she felt the shift in atmosphere, Violet gave a small, knowing smile and nodded slightly.
“Since that’s the case, we’ll go with your decision. You’ve all seen what the road’s been like so far, and now the time—”
“Violet! Violet! Something’s wrong!”
A sudden shout came from the distance, cutting her off. Violet turned her head to see Sasha, the leader of the merchant caravan, running quickly toward them with a longbow on her back.
Violet rolled up her map and stood up, seeing the worried look on Sasha’s face. She didn’t even need her to explain, she already had a guess.
“It happened again?”
Sasha quickly nodded her head like a pecking bird.
“Yes! And it’s even worse than before! You have to come see it!”
“Don’t worry so much… Didn’t I say already? It looks scary, but it won’t kill them right away.”
Violet seemed to think of something, and didn’t waste any more words. She dusted off her robes and stood up.
“You all stay here. I’ll go check it out myself.”
Even though Violet said this to reassure them, the way Sasha led the way quickly showed just how urgent the situation was. Violet followed behind, while the others looked at each other. None of them dared to follow, since she had clearly told them to stay.
In truth, they could all guess what was happening.
The Xavier Caravan’s camp wasn’t very big. Because of the sudden incident, many people had already stopped eating and were rushing around nervously. Violet followed the noise and soon entered a large tent lit by magical lights, with Sasha guiding her.
The gentle white glow lit up the tent completely. Inside, four or five young people were lying on beds, side by side. Their veins were bulging, and blood was oozing out from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. It looked like some kind of mysterious force was rampaging through their bodies. Their skin was marked with strange blood-colored lines, as if it was about to split open, extremely painful and terrifying to look at.
At that moment, the caravan’s only doctor was sweating heavily as he tried to give them medicine, hoping to slow down the worsening symptoms. But clearly, it wasn’t working very well.
That was pretty normal. After all, treatment only works when it's aimed at the right cause. But if the problem isn’t an illness, or if they misunderstood the root cause, then medicine won’t really help. Violet had already explained this during the first time something like this happened.
However… maybe people who study medicine are naturally a bit stubborn, or maybe they just want to prove that traditional medicine is more useful than holy magic for healing. In any case, it wasn’t the first time they wasted their efforts.
“Alright, alright, stop running around. Let me take care of it~”
“Ugh... seriously...”
Seeing Violet calmly walk over, the young doctor looked a bit unwilling, but in the end, he could only step aside with a bitter expression. Violet leaned in to take a look at the patients but didn’t treat them right away. Instead, she turned to Sasha and asked.
“So, what exactly happened this time? Tell me.”
This kind of thing had already happened more than once over the past two weeks. Or to be more precise, ever since that mysterious eclipse-like event began and they got closer to the Theo Province, these strange incidents started happening more and more frequently.
Whether it was within the caravan, with people they met on the road, or in nearby towns and villages, Violet had already seen this kind of situation at least ten times. So by now, she wasn’t surprised anymore.
Sasha, who clearly already knew what had happened, nodded helplessly and explained:
“Same as always, those idiots got greedy. From what I can tell, they must’ve picked some common wild mushrooms and berries while we were traveling. This kind of thing is totally normal for merchants like us. We all know which wild plants are safe to eat. It helps improve the meals and saves food.”
“But the problem is, one of the mushrooms had changed slightly compared to how it normally looks. They didn’t notice the difference and still threw it into the soup. As a result… all five of them went down.”
“Even mushrooms are a problem now, huh…”
Violet nodded thoughtfully. With a casual wave of her hand, five golden lights, like tiny stars, gently entered the bodies of each patient.
Just like pouring rain over fire, the strange “energy” that was raging inside their bodies was calmed and neutralized. It quickly weakened and began to fade. Blood stopped flowing from their eyes, nose, and mouth, and their swollen, reddish skin slowly returned to normal. Violet then used her divine sense to check them one more time, and once she confirmed they were fine, she turned to the now-relieved Sasha, as if this had been a small, easy task.
“Same as before. They should be fine after a good night’s rest. By the way, do you still have any of the mushrooms they picked?”
“Your healing magic is really something else. Honestly, every time I see you use it, it completely blows my mind… Are all high-ranking priests this amazing? You just wave your hand and save people from the brink of death?”
“Haha, maybe it’s just because I’m a little higher level~”
Violet smiled and shrugged. Sasha, still amazed, nodded and pulled out two uncooked mushrooms from her storage pouch and handed them over.
“These are the only ones left. Most of the stuff they picked had already been eaten by the time things went wrong. I found these near the campfire before they could be added to the pot.”
“Mm… Looks like your guess was right. This really is the cause.”
Violet gave the two mushrooms a quick look. They were a very common edible type found in the Holy Empire, usually growing in the forest after heavy rain. Because their caps looked like little hats, they were called “Hat Mushrooms” or “Umbrella Mushrooms.” They tasted great and were quite nutritious. However...
She flipped them over and looked under the caps. Just as she expected, there were some very faint dark spots hidden in the fine fuzz, something not normally seen on this kind of mushroom.
Thinking for a moment, Violet used her [Information Detection] skill on them.
A short line of text appeared.
[Mushrooms slightly tainted by the blood of the “World-Eater Serpent”. Taste becomes even more delicious than normal, but they contain a small amount of ??????. Eating them may cause the body to undergo snake-like mutations.]
Of course... it’s this again.
Although [Information Detection] was just a basic general skill she had, and couldn’t reveal very deep or secret information. It often gave very short results, or had key parts hidden by unknown forces, it was still useful in its own way and gave important hints. Even if it wasn’t the strongest tool, it could still point her in the right direction.
So far, there had already been many cases where members of the caravan or travelers they met on the road were suddenly affected by some strange force and fell into a critical condition. But the reasons behind each case were different and often quite random.
Some were scratched by strange beasts they didn’t recognize. Others accidentally stepped on unknown plants while traveling, cutting their skin. And some, like the group from earlier, simply ate what seemed like normal food.
Violet had seen all these situations along the way. Each time she healed someone, besides checking their physical condition, she also tried to investigate the root cause of their symptoms. This was all because of the results shown by her skill [Information Detection].
[Blood of the World-Devouring Serpent.]
That was the true source of all these strange events so far. Whether it was a beast, a plant, or even something as ordinary-looking as a mushroom. When something unusual happened and she used [Information Detection], the result always pointed back to the same thing.
Violet didn’t know why these creatures or plants were getting contaminated by the Serpent’s blood, but one thing was clear. The ancient ruin in the Theo Province was already starting to affect the surrounding environment. These changes weren’t really meant to kill people. Instead, they gave living things powerful new strength and more aggressive instincts. But that came with a catch. Only those who could withstand the “gift” of the Serpent would survive.
“Alright, that’s it for now. I’ll keep these mushrooms. If something like this happens again when I’m not around, Sasha, you can take them to the nearest temple and ask a priest for help. They may not be able to fix it right away, but with holy magic, they should be able to clear out that strange force given enough time.”
“Oh, okay! Got it!”
“Grrr…”
Violet couldn’t help but smile as she glanced at the young doctor who had watched the whole thing and made a strange sound. Shaking her head, she said,
“Different fields require different expertise. Of course normal medicine can’t treat supernatural conditions. If you really want to prove yourself, go study magic potion-making sometime. That way, no one will steal your job in the future~”
“Anyway, I’m heading back.”
……………………………………….
The little nighttime incident didn’t affect their main plans. The next day, just as scheduled, Violet and her team said goodbye to Sasha and the Xavier Caravan and each group set off in different directions.
The Theo Province was known across the Holy Empire as an area with poor public safety and weak economic development. Located near the eastern border and full of winding, mountainous terrain, it was hard to travel through, especially for large groups or heavy vehicles, so people often called it the “Mountain Province.”
Throughout history, many people fleeing war or disaster from the buffer zone or the Austre Empire would hide in these mountains, not daring to go deeper into the Holy Empire. To survive, they often turned to petty theft or robbery, sometimes forming bandit gangs.
Even though the Goddess Church had been working hard to get rid of these illegal groups, they could never fully eliminate the problem. Like weeds, bandits kept springing back up. Because of the difficult terrain and constant danger, many merchant caravans chose to go around the province entirely, which only made the local economy worse.
That’s why the Cecilia family hired powerful merchant organizations like the Xavier Caravan to help transport military supplies through the area. With rough roads and dangerous bandits, only a caravan with strong armed protection could get through safely.
That said, as long as travelers stuck to the official roads, the Holy Knights often patrolled them, so it was rare for bandits to attack in broad daylight. That’s why Violet wasn’t too worried about Sasha and her group getting into trouble.
But… the same couldn’t be said for the route she chose.
BANG!!
The tiger-man scholar, Kunnir, slammed the last bandit leader to the ground with a heavy, powerful strike, totally not something a “scholar” would usually do. Meanwhile, the talented mage Chloe had already put the rest of the bandits into a sweet magical sleep. The little fox Mevis calmly retracted her claws, which had just struck without even drawing blood. All that was left for Zachary, the magic warrior, was to tie up the dazed, defeated bandits with rope.
As for the great “Hero Instructor” Violet, she did nothing at all. She simply leaned lazily to the side, relaxing with two maids, a little girl, and her dragon, watching the show. Once the battle, which had no real suspense, was over and the hero team returned to her, she smiled and nodded happily.
“Nice job. You’re getting better and better~”