[Vol. 8] Chapter 187: The Omen
When Violet asked her question, the little girl answered honestly without hiding anything.
“Eudora found it while digging nearby. Sister Theresa is really good at finding these kinds of things. She always says the forest is full of treasure, with lots of tasty food, useful herbs, and other valuable stuff. She often takes me digging in the wild. These earth yams are one of the things we find the most. They're not worth much, but Sister Theresa really likes them too.”
“I was planning to peel this one and cut it up to make soup, but when I cut into it just a little bit, it started to… I’m sorry, Sister Violet. Did I do something wrong again?”
Seeing the little girl lower her head in guilt, afraid to look at the adults, the others exchanged confused glances. In the end, it was Violet who gently answered her worried question.
She softly patted the pink-haired girl’s head, smiled, and shook her head.
“No need to apologize. Being careful not to waste things is a good habit. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that this place is… a bit strange. For safety, let’s not dig up any more wild plants or food around here, alright?”
“…Okay.”
“Miss Violet,” said Kunnir, the tigerfolk scholar, “this whole thing is kind of odd. I’ve also seen some edible plants in the valley before, but they were totally normal. Why is it only Eudora’s yam that turned out like this?”
Violet glanced at him but didn’t answer right away. Instead, she turned to the Heaven Hero, standing next to him.
“Elunie, what do you think? Why do you think this earth yam turned out this way? And what are those black liquids coming out from inside it?”
“…?”
It was clear this was a question from an instructor to her student, a live challenge. Realizing that, everyone else stopped themselves from speaking, turning to watch the blind girl holding her short staff.
Just then, Mevis reappeared with a quiet “Ah” in front of the group. She withdrew her sharp fox claws and flicked her big fluffy tail behind her. Calmly, she shook her head.
“There are no signs of other creatures approaching the camp. It’s just us.”
With that confirmed, only one possibility remained.
Elunie thought for a moment, then stepped forward without hesitation. Using the tip of her [Staff of Eternal Radiance], she carefully nudged the black-oozing yam and calmly analyzed.
“Just like Brother Kunnir said, there are lots of plants and animals in Chaos Magic Valley. If this was caused by the environment, then everything growing here should be affected. But that’s not what’s happening. So the mutation must have occurred after Eudora dug it up, and before she peeled it and saw the strange liquid.”
“As for what exactly caused the mutation, I’m not sure yet. But—”
Hearing that her thoughts matched perfectly with the girl’s reasoning, Violet gave a small, approving nod and said calmly:
“That’s alright. Just say what you think.”
“…Okay.”
After hesitating a bit more and “looking” at the eerie yam on the ground again, Elunie spoke slowly, carefully choosing her words, as if still unsure of her own theory.
"I still don’t know why the earth yam turned out like this. But the black sticky liquid coming out of it is most likely magic power... a kind of dirty and chaotic magical liquid mixed with filth. It’s very unclean and unstable, similar to the magic in the air of this valley. If someone were to take even a tiny bit of it into their body, it would probably make their magic go wild and out of control.”
"In simpler terms, this is a physical form of the mutated magic power that fills the valley."
Interesting power...
That black liquid really is magic power.
Violet was able to figure this out by using her SP-based spiritual perception. But Elunie, who wasn’t even level 30 yet, could make an analysis almost as accurate as Violet’s. This wasn’t something that could be explained by just a blessing or the [Staff of Eternal Radiance].
She truly was a “special case,” similar to Carinvega Frederick. However, unlike Carinvega who dealt with fate and the future, Elunie’s power seemed to be something more grounded. Something like seeing through illusions and understanding the true nature of all things.
But what her power really was would probably only become clear once she discovered more of her abilities.
Magic power, at its core, is actually a type of matter. It belongs to the “lower dimensions” in terms of classification. Normally, magic power is hard to touch or even see with the eyes, but under certain conditions, it can take on forms like gas, liquid, or solid.
For example, magic crystals are formed when magic power is highly condensed into solid form. Violet used to make a bunch of them for Xiao Guang to chew like candy. The method was simple, just keep compressing light-element magic with MP over and over again. After gathering it a million times, a crystal-like item would naturally appear.
It’s a basic process. The more MP you use, the higher quality the magic crystal. But Violet wasn’t a crafting-type character, so even the best she could make was around 8th tier quality, good enough to play with, but not very useful in serious situations.
Even if she used this method to save up magic power for emergencies, a single 8th-tier crystal was just a drop in the ocean compared to her over 5 million MP. And as a level 110 top-tier priestess, Violet hadn’t run out of magic in battle for a very long time.
As for liquid magic, it’s a state between normal magic power and solid crystal. It’s not as dense as a crystal but is still extremely concentrated, often used in potion-making.
The black liquid that came out of the earth yam was basically the polluted magic from the air, for some unknown reason gathering into the yam and forming a thick fluid. It’s similar to how a cold bottle of water sweats in the summer, moisture gathers naturally on the surface.
In a place with such strange conditions, it’s not surprising that something is off. Still, nothing strange had happened to the others who had picked wild fruit or dug up plants before. Only Eudora had a problem this time.
In fact, Violet had a strange feeling.
The magic in the air… it didn’t seem to be targeting the yam. It was likely targeting Eudora herself. But something, some unknown force, was protecting the little girl, blocking the magic from getting into her. So the chaotic energy gathered around her, and eventually poured into the closest thing it could enter: the yam she was holding.
But the real question is, why Eudora?
What is it about this little girl that attracted something so strange?
And what was the force that protected her from it?