[Vol. 8] Chapter 180: Loli Rich Girl, Carry Me!
Even so, as a divine weapon built on the power of the [Radiance] divinity combined with the power of [Reincarnation], the [Staff of Eternal Radiance] is one of the strongest when it comes to direct power among all divine weapons.
It not only helps the blind Heaven Hero use light as her eyes to see the world, but it also has powerful offensive and defensive capabilities. In a way, it makes up for Elunie’s weaknesses.
Like what she’s doing right now—
By using the [Radiance] power inside the staff, Elunie is converting all energy within the area into pure light elements for her own use.
This ability is just a basic domain-type skill, but it’s perfect for dealing with rigid magic formations or barriers that follow fixed rules.
Even though her current “domain” is only about ten meters wide, and can’t break the massive sword formation covering the entire valley, it’s still enough to open a safe path through the deadly sword energy. A passage just wide enough for everyone to walk through unharmed.
Because this ability comes from divine law and carries absolute authority, even if the sword formation is much stronger than Elunie herself, it still can’t harm her at all as long as she’s inside the glowing domain of light.
After setting up the domain and creating a safe path into the Chaos Magic Valley, the blind girl holding her shining staff turned her head and looked toward the priestess. As if waiting for her teacher’s thoughts or evaluation.
Violet nodded approvingly.
“Not bad. You didn’t waste your energy trying to force your way through, but used the features of your divine weapon wisely, focused on your goal, and finished the job with minimal effort. You really are a quick learner~”
“Hehe… That’s all thanks to you, Sister Violet. I’ve always remembered everything you’ve taught me.”
Hearing such rare praise, the Hero girl turned her head shyly, and after a moment, added seriously.
“My Domain can last about ten minutes right now. That’s more than enough time for us to get into the valley. But there’s still one problem, if the rumors about the Chaos Magic Valley are true, and you really can’t use any magic at all inside… then we might not be able to use this method again when we want to leave.”
“Even though the goddess’s divine weapons don’t necessarily need magic power to activate. Or rather, the true power of the [Staff of Eternal Radiance] doesn’t rely on magic at all, I still haven’t been able to gather enough of that special energy yet, so…”
“...This girl,” Violet thought to herself, “she might seem ordinary on the outside, but when it really counts, she’s very careful and thinks things through. She really has what it takes to be a great leader.”
The priestess nodded slightly in her heart.
“It’s okay. I’ll handle things when we leave. Besides, I’m sure you’ve noticed, this sword formation, made of pure sword energy, doesn’t regenerate itself. Once it’s used up, it’s gone. It won’t last forever.”
She continued, “In other words, this is a temporary formation. And the person who left behind this sword energy is very likely still inside the valley. I think that person might be directly tied to both the legends of this place and the strange activity from the Austre Empire nearby. If we can figure out what’s really going on, I think getting out of here will happen naturally, too~”
As she spoke, Violet exchanged a glance with the dragon girl beside her, then looked at everyone in the party, including Eudora, Mia, and Selna.
“Alright then, just like we agreed earlier, everyone hand over your magic-powered equipment to me for safekeeping. That includes any storage tools. Once we’re sure it’s safe or we’ve left the valley, I’ll return them to you.”
According to the reports about the Chaos Magic Valley, the environment here can make magic inside living beings go out of control.
Even equipment with magic can get damaged just by being exposed to the air for too long.
While items like [Feather Robe Graria], which are divine artifacts, might not be affected, anything that’s just a spirit-grade or lower… is at serious risk.
But as the saying goes, ‘You have your clever plans, and I have my way around them.’
Violet didn’t know exactly how strong the chaos effect in the valley was, but no matter how bad it got, she was pretty sure it wouldn’t affect her system storage bag, which was formed using the rules of space and came from the Illusory World.
The “inventory bag” doesn’t really exist in the real world. Normally, when Violet takes something out, she just opens a small connection to it temporarily. So as long as she doesn’t open the bag inside the valley, there’s absolutely no risk.
Magic power and divine laws are completely different kinds of energy, kind of like the difference between MP and SP in a game. Violet no longer relies so much on the built-in skills from the Illusory World. Even if magic really gets blocked, the priestess still has plenty of ways to protect herself and the people around her.
Not to mention, there’s also a Dragon God right next to her, who can literally tear through space with her body alone and doesn't care about rules at all.
After hearing what Violet said, the others couldn’t help but look at each other.
Magic equipment is usually worth at least tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of gold coins. For most powerful people in the world, these are their most valuable possessions. If someone else had asked them to hand everything over, they would definitely be suspicious.
But Violet is the Hero Party’s instructor, and her position is personally certified by the goddess and the church. Even though she’s only been with the team for about two weeks, her abilities and character are already fully trusted.
They had even discussed this plan ahead of time, so after a little hesitation, everyone still handed over their gear to her.
That’s when the wealth gap really became obvious.
By the way, the poorest people in the group were clearly Kunnir and Mevis. Even if they searched themselves head to toe, they barely had one or two pieces of magic gear. After all, beastmen are far behind in civilization, more like primitive tribes, and most of their gear was collected during their travels. Nothing fancy.
But as for who was the richest, even Violet herself was surprised. It wasn’t the noble mage Chloe, who came from the Human United Kingdom. It wasn’t the usually-broke Hero girl, or even Zachary, the Flamefeather tribe man. Mia and Selna, the two maids, did have a few high-end items given by their vampire clan, but they were on par with Chloe at best. Only one person stood out…
“Uh, you’re not done yet? Eudora, just how many high-level items do you have?”
“Wait, what? The little rich girl was right here this whole time?!”
“Did she… rob a royal treasury or something?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Does Eudora look like someone who’d rob a treasury? Besides, you think robbing a palace is like going on a field trip? She’s just a kid!”
As the pink-haired loli kept pulling out more and more strange-looking objects from all over her body, each one clearly filled with powerful magical energy, not only did the priestess holding them look increasingly puzzled, the others around her were staring in shock, eyes wide and mouths open.
Who brings 10 to 20 pieces of high-end gear just walking around?!
And it wasn’t just quantity. Even the “worst” item she took out was already a high-grade magic item, and most were already top-tier. There were even three actual spirit-tier artifacts, and the most terrifying part? She still wasn’t done pulling them out!
Sensing the strange looks from everyone, the rich little girl blinked and tilted her head, confused.
“Um… are these things actually valuable? When the others gave them to me before, they all just said they were little toys or gifts, so I just took them… Should I return them one by one later?”
Violet twitched slightly at the corners of her eyes. Sure, these might seem like little trinkets to her, but that’s not a normal standard. Even Minchen, that scumbag harem guy who prints gear like it’s nothing, still uses Sacred-tier artifacts as his main weapons. Most of the time, even he is just using spirit-tier tools.
And equipment below the sacred level isn’t bound or locked. So as long as you’re strong enough, you can wear ten rings on ten fingers, and they’ll all work. Just based on what Eudora pulled out, even a show-off like Minchen would be stunned. Forget about regular people.
“I mean… no need to return them or anything… But seriously, who’s giving you so many high-end items like they’re candy?!”
“Umm…”
The little girl tapped her pale lips with a finger, thinking for a moment, then pointed at the small golden toy sword she had just taken out.
“Lots of big brothers and sisters! Like this one, it was a welcome gift from Sister Edwina when she visited my home.”
As she spoke, little Eudora took off a greenish-blue jade bracelet from her arm, it was clearly a top-level magical item, and explained honestly.
“And this one was given to me by Sister Sethlin through Sister Theresa. She’s given me things like this several times, bracelets, necklaces, hair clips, stuff like that. Sisters Leila and Rene also often bring me small gifts when they come home, and there’s also Sister Frederica, Sister Yuna, and others who visit sometimes… Oh, and there was also an uncle named Minchen who used to come by…”
“Stop, stop, stop!”
The moment the little girl started listing even more familiar names like a grocery list, and showed no signs of stopping, the priestess quickly interrupted her, clearly overwhelmed.
Violet was beginning to understand why Eudora had so many strange and valuable items.
She might not have much power herself, but she knew way too many people. If she kept talking, the whole world would probably find out that this girl had close ties with some really important people…
Wait a second, why were all those people constantly visiting her house in the Holy Capital?
Didn’t they know the priestess was away in the Ancient Spirit Realm at that time!?
Ahem. In any case, after some chaos and running around, the group finally finished getting ready.
Once everyone had packed up and prepared, the ten of them, each with their own thoughts and feelings, followed the safe path opened by the Hero girl and formally stepped into the legendary Chaos Magic Valley.
………………………………………
At the same time, while Violet and her group were busy preparing outside the valley, deep inside the Chaos Magic Valley, another small team was conducting a serious search.
Rowan Nillin was a graduate student at the Frederick Royal Academy of the Austre Empire.
Now 20 years old and about to graduate, he, like many of his classmates, was stressed about finding a good research topic.
That’s why he had traveled a long way to this mysterious place known as the Chaos Magic Valley, to take part in a special investigation.
Even though the valley is located inside the Holy Empire, it's close enough to the eastern border that the Austre Empire isn’t too far away.
The Frederick Academy had already gathered a lot of information about the valley, and several scientific theories had been proposed to explain the strange, chaotic magic inside.
One of the most accepted theories among scholars was the “Leyline Theory.”
Leylines are like the blood vessels of the world. They carry powerful magic of all types across the planet in a massive, ever-moving network. This flow of magic helps create the changes of seasons, weather, and temperature across different regions.
Even though most leylines run very deep underground and can’t be reached by living creatures, there are rare places where the leylines come close enough to the surface to cause noticeable effects on the land above.
The strange conditions inside the Chaos Magic Valley were likely caused by active leylines running beneath it.
This idea also connects to another theory, called the “World Center Theory.”
This theory says that even though the world is vast, it still has outer limits. If there are boundaries in every direction, then there must also be a central point somewhere.
The Holy Empire happens to sit near the center of all known civilizations. And after many calculations involving the western Beast Kingdom's wildlands, the eastern Austre coastline, the frozen lands in the north, and the sky islands in the far south, scholars found something surprising.
If you connect the farthest edges of known civilization, the lines all intersect in one small region on the eastern side of the Holy Empire.
And the Chaos Magic Valley happens to be right in that special area, what they now call the World's Center Point.
Over the years, massive streams of magic with all different elements have passed through this location. Because it’s too chaotic and disorganized, the magic here has blended together unnaturally, creating strange, unstable conditions.
The result?
The magic in the air here is completely different from normal magic found elsewhere. So, if someone tries to absorb or use magic in the valley, these mutated magic particles flood into their body like a virus, disrupting their normal flow of magic and eventually causing a violent magical reaction.