"Adin, do you know about Kith?"
The voice that suddenly appeared in his mind caused Adin, who was sitting at his desk, to involuntarily freeze. After a full two seconds, his taut nerves finally relaxed.
"Kith?" Adin worked to keep his thoughts steady, rapidly searching through his memories for this abrupt term, but ultimately shook his head slowly. "Sorry, boss. I've never heard of this word. It sounds like... the name of something? Or perhaps a place name?"
"A general term for a type of magical creature." Lin Jun's voice once again resonated in the depths of his consciousness, concise and definitive.
"If it's a magical creature..." Adin's mind immediately became active. "The guild should have corresponding information. I can go collect some."
After thinking for a while, Lin Jun declined Adin's proposal to gather information.
Kith... this thing was ninety-nine percent certain not to be a magical creature native to the Purple Crystal Underground City.
If Adin rashly went to investigate now, it would inevitably raise suspicions.
Humans would later have some "expert group" entering the deep layers. If they encountered these Kith down there and happened to discover that Adin had inexplicably inquired about them before the "expert group" went down...
How would Adin explain that?
By what means could he prophetically know about anomalies in the deep layers?
If he couldn't explain it properly, problems would arise.
As Lin Jun's important informant planted within the guild, Adin couldn't be exposed over such a trivial matter.
Ultimately, Kith weren't important enough to warrant that level of risk.
The consciousness-level conversation ended, and that lingering "voice" completely disappeared. However, Adin didn't immediately move.
He maintained his original posture, staring at the tweezers in his hand as if studying their shape.
The room was left with only the occasional soft crackling of firewood in the fireplace and the distant, muffled hubbub of the marketplace outside the window.
Time flowed in silence. After a full five minutes, he finally seemed to break free from some kind of deep contemplation, his shoulders dropping almost imperceptibly.
Although they had communicated many times before, he clearly still couldn't adapt to this method of communication with the "Lord of Puffshrooms."
Adin picked up the tweezers beside him, crafted from stellar heartwood.
This material naturally possessed an almost seamless affinity with magical power, making it an excellent choice for creating precision magical tools or engraving miniature magic arrays.
However, Adin had a different use for it now.
He spread his left palm upward, revealing some intertwined mycelial patterns.
Two translucent, crystalline mycelia were tightly twisted together, forming a tiny hard knot.
Adin held his breath and concentrated, aiming the cool, smooth tip of the stellar wood tweezers at the target. With a gentle squeeze, the intersection point snapped apart.
He carefully swapped the head and tail positions of the separated mycelia, letting them lie parallel and smooth.
Then, the tweezer tip precisely touched the break point, and a trace of weak magical power flowed smoothly through the stellar wood.
Nourished by the magical power, the mycelia reconnected seamlessly, as if they had never been severed.
The originally tangled hard knot disappeared, and that area of mycelia became docile and smooth.
These mycelia that had fused with his flesh and blood grew without any pattern when left alone, and if not carefully maintained, would form these irregular protrusions on his skin surface.
These raised points were normally harmless, but if accidentally touched by others, their unusual texture would be immediately exposed.
His illusion magic could perfectly deceive vision, making his skin appear smooth and normal, but it couldn't eliminate this real tactile sensation.
Therefore, Adin could only act like a meticulous gardener, repeatedly using this method to "prune" and "reconnect," striving to smooth and flatten every single mycelium.
This ensured that even if accidentally touched, people would only think it was skin texture or some insignificant undulation, rather than becoming suspicious.
*Knock knock—*
The sound of knocking came from the door.
"Who is it?"
"Mr. Adin, the materials you applied for are all ready and can be collected from the warehouse at any time." A voice came from outside the door—a young girl, her tone light and cheerful.
"Understood, I'll go get them right away."
The moment his response fell, Adin raised his right hand. His palm silently lit up with a gentle, restrained magical glow that wasn't glaring, like flowing moonlight.
Gently stroking his left palm, the traces of mycelia instantly vanished without a trace.
In the blink of an eye, what appeared before him were once again a pair of perfect, flawless hands that would make any artist exclaim in admiration.
Adin opened the door to find a young female staff member holding a registry outside.
She looked somewhat nervous, her cheeks slightly flushed. When her gaze met Adin's face, it quickly dodged away, but she couldn't help secretly lifting her eyelashes to steal another glance, like a curious little deer.
Adin maintained a gentle, shallow smile on his face, but inwardly sighed silently.
If it were before, he wouldn't mind spending some time with this girl to savor the taste of "romance."
Now?
Hah, actively touching others would be no different from courting death.
This ascetic lifestyle had accumulated considerable pressure in his heart. Only after obtaining that batch of materials did he feel genuinely pleased.
Guild Master Fal, as an important catalyst who had led to his current predicament, would be lying if Adin claimed he harbored no resentment.
But he had to admit that this young master was truly generous to those who worked for him, never stingy when it came to spending money.
Adin had applied for a batch of materials under the pretext of crafting tools needed for the next operation.
Looking at what he received now, not only had the quantity of materials not been reduced, but it was actually about twenty percent more than what he had requested.
Regarding this, Adin could only sigh: "It's really good to be rich!"
Given Adin's current situation, he naturally couldn't really focus his mind on dealing with the boss, so these materials actually had other purposes.
Apart from some materials used to create confusion, the main portion was for crafting a type of anti-reconnaissance tool.
He definitely didn't want to someday run into someone with detection techniques who would casually scan out his deadly secret...
He had just carried the pile of materials into his room when he was called out again.
This time it was Fifteen who called him.
"You're saying the reply has arrived?" Adin asked.
Fifteen nodded: "Waiting for you to read the letter."
The reply was naturally Inanna's response. After writing that "plea for aid" letter according to the boss's requirements last time, there had been no follow-up, leaving him anxious for a long time.
Unexpectedly, after nearly ten days, the reply had finally arrived late.
Arriving at the conference hall, he found Soralin wasn't there, and the letter was placed on the table. The addressee was himself, and the guild master and others obviously hadn't opened it yet.
Adin wasn't clear what kind of person Inanna was, but that letter had been sent in the joint name of himself and the guild. The boss's existence was only hinted at in some implications—surely the reply wouldn't be completely without disguise?
Opening it to look, half of his suspended heart settled. The letter contained no words directly pointing to "the boss," and the entire content revolved around "support."
However, as his gaze swept line by line across the paper, Adin's brow furrowed tighter and tighter, almost forming a knot.
"What does the letter say?" Fal asked.
"It says they'll send people to provide aid, but..."
"But what?"
"With the Duke's approval, she will personally bring support and accompany the 'expert group.' The letter also specifically mentions that the leader of this 'expert group' is... Lord Elvaine Slaine..."
"The Sword Saint!?"
"Master is coming!?"
Fal and Fifteen exclaimed simultaneously.
The difference was that Fal was pleasantly surprised, while Fifteen was terrified...
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