Returning with a Full Load

In front of the dark cyan cliff, everyone sat in silence. Based on their degrees of closeness, the remaining six individuals had naturally formed subtle circles of intimacy...

Kina and Rebecca were of course in one camp. The former leaned against the cliff face, resting with her eyes closed. Rebecca, seemingly aware that she was unwelcome among Theresa’s group of four, experienced a brief moment of hesitation before unusually refraining from continuing to pester Lambert. Instead, she obediently stood beside Kina, boredly toying with her whip. To be fair, if Rebecca remained quiet and stopped looking for trouble, she was actually a rather pleasing and pretty girl.

Theresa withdrew her subconscious gaze from Rebecca, let it glide lightly over Kina, and then sweep across to Green-Mer, who was also resting with his eyes closed. She could not help but inwardly complain: Do "elderly folks" all share the same hobbies?

Seeming to sense Theresa’s slightly teasing gaze, Green-Mer suddenly opened his eyes, meeting Theresa's inspecting look head-on. Although Theresa was startled, she maintained her composure and flashed a sweet, charming smile.

Seeing this, Green-Mer returned the smile and stood up, walking toward her. Amidst her sideways, evaluating gaze, he asked, "Do you currently have the ability to summon your grimoire independently?"

Theresa was stunned in confusion for two seconds before replying, "A bit forced—the book spirit said my mental power is currently breaking through its threshold and is overly sensitive. If I summon it now, it might trigger fluctuations across my entire sea of consciousness."

Hearing this, Green-Mer's expression remained unchanged, clearly not finding the answer surprising at all. He simply continued, "Lambert previously transferred the 'spirit skin' to you. I suppose you already understand its functions. The book spirit shares some origins with my clan. If possible, I hope its next transformation can be completed at the very place of its birth."

"I'll do my best." Although Green-Mer's invitation was tempting, Theresa did not dare to make any promises.

Yet, such an honest response was paradoxically more satisfying. Green-Mer nodded and did not press the matter further.

After this brief conversation, silence fell over the area once more. Feeling bored, Theresa widened her eyes and stared blankly at the small holes carved into the cliff face by everyone earlier for the marten to go in and out, her mind filled with a chaotic tangle of stray thoughts. There was no clear direction to her thinking—it could purely be classified as letting her imagination run wild...

Who knows how much time passed before some movement suddenly seemed to occur within the dark little hole. Theresa snapped to her senses and instinctively edged closer to the opening—

"What's wrong, Theresa? Has the marten come out?" Flora, startled by her sudden movement, also jerked alert and leaned over.

Standing before the small hole, Theresa frowned and stared into the pitch-black opening, saying nothing. Meanwhile, Rebecca, who had also been startled into a sudden, defensive posture by Theresa's action, muttered discontentedly, "Putting on an act, trying to look impressive? Don't think you're so great just because you're an alchemist. It's just blind luck."

However, none of the people present paid any attention to her sour remarks. Pouting, Rebecca muttered something unintelligible under her breath and ultimately had to shut her mouth quietly, not daring to say another word.

After roughly another two minutes of silence, Theresa finally relaxed her brow and smiled slightly, "It's coming out."

Naturally, the ones who reacted even faster than her were Kina and Green-Mer. However, the two of them merely opened their eyes without making any overly obvious movements. Since Theresa had her back to them, she naturally could not see their changes; hence, her judgment was entirely the result of her own keen perception. This outcome couldn't help but slightly surprise the others present—impressed by her sharpness.

Yet, oblivious to the others' astonishment, Theresa kept her full attention fixed on the dark little hole, her hands swiftly pulling out a pre-prepared net and securing it over the opening, leaving only a tiny gap—

About a minute later, a fiery red figure bolted out from the small hole, crashing solidly into Theresa's transparent net. Before it could attack, Theresa flicked and twisted her hands, allowing the fiery red figure to slip out through the small opening she had deliberately left, while simultaneously sealing the gap so that the net completely blocked the cave entrance!

The fiery red figure landed on the ground, revealing itself to be a large red fox about twice the size of a normal one. The red fox rolled on the ground, then flattened its belly against the earth. Its entire body shone with a red glow as its form slowly began to elongate, gradually transforming into a humanoid figure!

Although she had witnessed a similar scene not long ago, Theresa still couldn't help marveling at the mutual transformation between beast and human forms—marveling both at the ability itself and at the sacrifice the marten had made for it...

Normally, for a beastman to freely convert between beast and human forms, they had to have already broken through the ninth rank and thoroughly understood their own potential. The marten clearly had not broken through the ninth rank; his bodily transformation was achieved entirely through self-inflicted wounds... According to Theresa's preliminary estimation, because of this transformation, the marten's combat prowess had regressed by at least two tiers, and for the rest of his life, he would remain stagnant at the sixth rank, unable to break past the second tier to re-enter the third... For a powerful beastman who originally possessed third-tier standards, this was probably a price far more cruel than death...

Of course, this was the marten's own choice, so Theresa, who had made the proposal, felt not a shred of guilt over the outcome. Having finished marveling, she focused her entire attention back onto the net at the cave entrance—

That was where treasures that set her heart wildly aflutter were located!

While the Source of Vitality was undoubtedly the most important treasure of this trip, it was far too rare, and for Theresa at her current stage, of little practical use. Therefore, covetousness aside, after drooling over it mentally, she had set her sights on the byproducts accompanying the Source of Vitality—those various magically pure crystals and the magical beasts born alongside them were truly her treasures!

Less than a second after the red fox landed, a large black mass swiftly rushed out right behind "him," colliding straight into the transparent net. In an instant, the net burst with multicolored brilliance, with yellow, green, blue, red, and black lights alternately flickering to weave a sturdy, heavy-duty web that securely sealed off the cave opening, trapping those relentlessly charging little creatures tightly inside and denying them any chance of escape!

At the same time, Theresa pulled out several pairs of gloves and handed them to Flora, Lambert, and the others—even Kina and Rebecca, who were usually at odds with her, were each handed a pair... Naturally, she also slipped on a pair of these specially crafted gloves, stretched out her hands, and plunged them into the net, digging and scooping wantonly...

Almost every time she reached in, her hands would scoop up a large handful of purely colored gemstones, the large ones about the size of an infant's head, the small ones no bigger than a knuckle. These were rocks nourished over a long period by the Source of Vitality; their internal structures had completely transformed, forming genuine magical gemstones that still stored precious vital energy!

Although vital energy could not directly elevate a person's magical power like other magical energies, it was the finest tonic for nourishing the body—theoretically speaking, as long as one paired it with these magical gemstones containing vital energy, there was no need to fear magical backlash or battle-qi backlash!

Such a remarkably useful item was an absolute must-have treasure for both mages and warriors, whether at home, traveling, cultivating, or fighting. Therefore, no matter how much Rebecca and Theresa disliked each other, she would never foolishly waste such benefits for the sake of empty pride at a time like this.

Kina and Green-Mer, however, did not compete with the younger generation for the magical gemstones. Their targets were the magical beasts that had been tightly protected in the center of the magical gemstones and had previously used the gemstones to shield themselves in an attack against the marten—

Kina struck like lightning; both her reach and retraction were too fast for the naked eye to catch. In the blink of an eye, everyone saw that Kina's hand now held a squeaking, hamster-like little creature. Its entire body was a glowing, translucent pink, and its pair of little eyes were a beautiful, sparkling crimson, radiating an innocent and pitiful charm. Its chubby little body vividly demonstrated the definitions of chibi and cuteness—this was a little creature cute enough to melt the heart of any girl who laid eyes on it.

This was a Spirit-Eating Rat, which survived exclusively by gnawing on various magical gemstones and was also an exceptional magic pet for locating magical gemstones. However, these little creatures were extremely rare and exceedingly precious—hard to catch and even harder to raise, as they refused to eat anything less than purely refined magical gemstones. Who ordinary person could possibly afford to keep one?

Theresa blinked enviously, clicked her tongue, and turned back to "work." Right as she turned away, Green-Mer also caught a Spirit-Eating Rat. Following that, Kina and Green-Mer engaged in a somewhat competitive game of "you catch one, I catch one," quickly scooping up all six Spirit-Eating Rats left in the net, leaving only a net full of magical gemstones for the juniors to divide amongst themselves.

***

Returning to the temporary camp in the snow mountain fissure, it was precisely a brilliant, sunny midday. Theresa looked up at the dazzling blue sky revealed through the fissure, let out a long breath, and felt a sudden sense of being reborn—though only a few days had passed, she felt as though she had lived through several long years. This sense of protracted time stemmed not only from the numerous events of these past few days, but more importantly, from the vast changes within herself.

Just as she was marveling, Flora walked over, draped an arm over her shoulder, and said, "What are you daydreaming about? Let's go, it's time for us to head down the mountain."

Hearing this, Theresa snapped back to reality and looked around. The others had already finished packing and were gearing up to descend the mountain. As for Theresa, all her belongings were tucked away in her spatial ring, so she required no special packing.

However, the mention of descending the mountain brought up a question in Theresa's mind—

"Where are we heading?"

This question made Flora pause slightly in mild surprise, after which she countered with her own question, "Do you want to return directly to Valienda via the Northern Foothills?"

"Mm, the weather has cleared up, and traveling via the Northern Foothills will be faster."

Hearing this, Flora twirled a lock of her hair around her finger while looking somewhat hesitant as she said, "But don't you have an agreement with Lambert?"

"That agreement isn't urgent—at least not until I cultivate the Nightmare Flower."

Just as the two of them were chatting idly, they saw the very person they were discussing, Lambert, striding toward them—

"Are you all ready? It's time to move out," Lambert called out loudly.

Before Theresa could speak, Flora immediately piped up, "Theresa wants to return directly to Valienda from the Northern Foothills."

"Is that so?" Hearing this, Lambert didn't look surprised at all as he replied, "However, I'm afraid the two of you can't leave on your own right now."

"Why?" Flora and Theresa asked in unison.

"The beastman race places too much importance on this achievement. Therefore, it was just decided during discussions that until the Source of Vitality is delivered to the Beastman Royal Court, no one is permitted to act without authorization, lest the news leak out."

Listening to this news while looking at that sunny, smiling face, Theresa felt a wave of incomparable depression wash over her... (To be continued)