Norwood City, a residence near the edge of the city wall.
The house wasn't considered new, but its advantage was being quiet and spacious. There was even a patch of slate paving in the courtyard warmed by the sun.
For the semi-retired Silverthorn Squad, this was already more like a home than any inn they had stayed in over the past few decades.
On the slate paving, Gal was currently carrying two bundles of cast-iron weights and doing squats.
Sweat slid down the scales on his neck. The Half-dragon's thick tail dragged behind him, knocking against the ground with every movement, emitting dull thump thump sounds.
In the corner, a patch of shadow squirmed silently.
In the next second, Night Owl stepped out from that shadow, the Elf carrying several portions of breakfast wrapped in oiled paper in her hand.
With a casual flick, one portion flew towards Gal.
Gal set down the weights and reached out to catch it. The juice of the mushroom filling instantly spread in his mouth. The rich umami flavor made him involuntarily narrow his eyes.
Chewing the bun, his gaze fell on Night Owl. The latter was leaning against a colonnade, burying her head in a cup of steaming mushroom beverage. The slurping sounds were exceptionally clear in the quiet courtyard.
Gal swallowed the food in his mouth and suddenly spoke: "Night Owl, did you... gain weight?"
Night Owl's pointed ears twitched, and her entire person's movements stagnated for an instant.
Then, she took a fierce, large gulp of mushroom juice. Her throat rolled, and she swallowed it with a gulp: "Wh... where..."
Footsteps came from inside the house. Nova walked out wearing an outer robe, reaching out to pull two portions of breakfast from Night Owl's arms.
"You've been eating more than Gal lately. Pay a little attention; the war hasn't completely ended yet."
After saying that, he turned and walked back into the house, leaving Night Owl standing alone in place, holding the remaining breakfast, her expression frozen.
Nova walked to a door at the end of the corridor and knocked lightly twice.
From inside came the sticky sound of shoes stepping on mycelium. After Orcas pushed the door open, he handed the breakfast over.
Orcas took it, nodded slightly, and then the door slowly closed.
From beginning to end, not a single sentence of dialogue was exchanged.
Nova was already accustomed to this.
Although Orcas disliked talking and his method of wrapping Ivan in mycelium for treatment was extremely bizarre, his skills were real.
Ivan, who had been given a death sentence by other doctors with only his last two months remaining, had forcefully held on for more than half a year with the help of Orcas and that mysterious Mushroom Tribe member.
Nova didn't know when Ivan would wake up, or even if he could wake up, but as long as he was still alive, as long as the old mage was still breathing, Nova could only trust Orcas.
What he didn't know was that the Orcas in the room, whom he viewed as silent and reliable, was even more unsure than he was right now.
Orcas placed the breakfast on the table without even glancing at it.
Leaning his back against the door, his gaze fell on the human figure wrapped in mycelium on the bed. His lips moved slightly, silently muttering something.
"God of Light above... God of Death above... Boss above..."
Whichever worked, he prayed to that one.
His little life depended entirely on a miracle happening to Ivan.
Suddenly, a mushroom cap bulged up on the fungal mat.
Orcas knew what this was and immediately knelt on the ground, remaining perfectly still to welcome the Boss's descent.
Pop—
A brand-new Puchi bounced out from the fungal mat, its round mushroom cap emitting a faint fluorescence in the dim room.
Lin Jun ignored the trembling D-class personnel and went straight to Ivan inside the mycelial sack.
[Mental Guidance]
Lin Jun's consciousness followed that invisible link and drilled into Ivan's mental space.
The space was still that massive library spiraling upward. Bookshelves were like pillars reaching the sky, and densely packed ancient tomes spiraled upward; every single book exuded a mysterious aura.
As soon as he entered, Lin Jun saw Ivan, the owner of this mental space.
Looking even more miserable than in reality, the old mage's body was tightly bound by countless tentacles. That was the restraint formed by No. 10's spiritual power.
Those tentacles wrapped around his limbs, torso, neck, and even covered his mouth and nose, obscuring his five senses.
He just hung there in midair, unable to move, unable to see, unable to hear, unable to perceive anything.
This was necessary in order to prevent him from continuing to absorb the knowledge of this Super Magic Library.
After all, if he wasn't restricted, his weak soul simply couldn't contain so much knowledge and would have burst from overfilling long ago.
Lin Jun extended his perception upwards to where No. 10 was, but failed to reach No. 10's current location. It had already climbed too high. The spiritual power Lin Jun brought in this time wasn't even enough to explore up to there.
In order to let No. 10 absorb faster, Lin Jun had adjusted close to one-tenth of his soul power through the Sunstone to assist No. 10 in learning.
Whenever he thought of No. 10 being so diligent and studious, Lin Jun would also puff up his mushroom cap, feeling proud of himself.
After all, it was a part of his own soul, indicating that this kind of excellent self-discipline was hidden deep within him.
As for those rather embarrassing mushrooms...
They all turned bad after breaking away from his great self and being polluted by the secular world.
Thinking this way, Lin Jun continued extending his spiritual power upwards. More, and a little bit more.
Finally, a tentacle touched No. 10.
"Mushroom... Lord?" No. 10's telepathy carried a daze, like a student whose spirit was distracted after pulling an all-nighter studying finally hearing someone call their name.
"How is it?" Lin Jun asked.
"I... I finished reading." No. 10's telepathy was intermittent. "But for some reason, I feel like I'm still missing a little bit... just a little bit... and I can understand everything!"
"Magic... the essence of mana... just a little bit more!"
It muttered repeatedly, seemingly stuck in some kind of dead end. Its telepathy grew increasingly irritable, appearing to have a tendency to go on a rampage.
Slap—
With one tentacle, Lin Jun slapped No. 10, making it bounce back and forth between the bookshelves seven or eight times, before rolling it up again.
"Better?"
No. 10 nodded its mushroom cap.
Lin Jun knew it. He felt that the spiritual power on No. 10's side had stopped being used for a long time, stuck there doing who-knows-what. Turns out it was splitting hairs over an insoluble problem.
Lin Jun didn't know what No. 10 was still missing, but since it finished reading, there was naturally no need to stay here all the time.
Just as he was preparing to bring No. 10 back, Lin Jun suddenly remembered something.
Pointing to Ivan below who was playing bondage: "Can this guy still be saved?"
Lin Jun just asked casually. It didn't matter if he couldn't be saved; at worst, Orcas was just out of luck.
But the current No. 10 seemed to actually have a way: "I can try."
In the Super Magic Library, No. 10 gathered its soul power that was scattered everywhere, becoming incomparably massive.
Subsequently, countless tentacles reached out, climbing onto bookshelf after bookshelf.
Those books containing magical mysteries shattered and dissipated under the touch of the tentacles. The entire library was dismantled little by little.
The spiral library was collapsing.
Little by little, from the top down. Ivan's spiritual body seemed to perceive something. He trembled violently within the bindings of that mass of tentacles, crying "wu wu" as two streams of tears flowed down.
It was unknown whether it was for the impending awakening, or for these disappearing true essences of magic.
The collapse of the library was like the reflection of starlight blurring in water, beautiful and quiet.
But outside, it was a completely different scene.
The mana near the residence suddenly became exceptionally active, instantly triggering various spellcasting phenomena.
Hard rocks bulged up in the courtyard, the wooden residence suddenly ignited with a raging fire. Even the originally clear sky rolled up dark clouds, and after lightning and thunder came a torrential downpour.
The defensive magic arrays within Norwood City flashed frantically, but there was never enough mana to activate them.
All the mana was currently being drawn away by some irresistible force, converging toward that inconspicuous residence in the northwest corner of the city.
Every mage in the city perceived that terrifying gathering of mana.
An immeasurably massive amount of mana spiraled and compressed at that point, ready to break free from its restraints at any moment.
Some turned and fled, some knelt and prayed, while even more just stared blankly in that direction, only one thought in their minds: If that thing exploded, a small half of Norwood City would suffer.
Even the Lord of the city, who was originally about to spend a wonderful day with his mistress, was so frightened he thought it was a surprise attack by demons, hurriedly running towards his safe house.
And the most afraid ones were, of course, the few people right in the center of the mana storm.
Night Owl clung tightly to a colonnade, the Elf's figure appearing exceptionally fragile in the gale.
She stared wide-eyed at Ivan floating in midair.
"What's going on, what's going on?" Night Owl's voice went out of tune in the wind and rain. "He's not going on a rampage again, is he? I... I..."
She whipped her head around, her gaze darting back and forth between Gal and Nova.
"Do you two want to... play rock-paper-scissors? To see who I take into the shadows to hide for a bit?"
(End of Chapter)
Comments