Chapter 325: Do You Often Do This Sort of Thing?

Chapter 325: Do You Often Do This Sort of Thing?

Karin was lying in wait, following the group of Demon Sword Cultists. Some among them were extremely familiar with the environment here. Lily’s position was at the very center, but that didn’t mean nothing would happen. Being alone itself was a big problem. As long as these people acted quickly enough, there was a full opportunity to capture her before she could make any commotion. If there were soundproofing or similar sealing Barriers to assist during this, the effect would be even better.

There were also insiders among the leading teachers. Even if discovered after succeeding, these people could leave this place with the secret help of the insiders. However, the most troublesome thing right now wasn’t these two groups, but the unknown existence hidden within the Forest. This forced her to maintain a state of high alert at all times. This state demanded a lot of mental energy. Once her resistance to the influence of the environmental factors decreased, she would be affected by the environment.

She also judged that the effect of the environment’s influence was stronger on those with weaker bodies, but it was the opposite for the mind and even the Soul. This put her in a passive position.

Lily, acting alone, didn’t feel that being alone in such a Forest would scare her. She had faced even more terrifying existences before. The result back then might have ended with her nearly wetting herself from fright, but she ultimately endured it. After that, she had become somewhat desensitized to minor scary things. Ordinary people feared ghosts… Well, whether on Earth or among ordinary people in the Otherworld, none could escape this commonality.

The difference was that such occurrences on Earth were more often people frightening people, while in the Otherworld, it was genuine ghosts frightening people. But ordinary ghosts or Wraiths that came before her were truly the kind that could be slapped to death with one hand. Unless it was those Ghost Maids from Longlong’s household… They were the ones who could dangle her and beat her with one hand. Although she was very reluctant to admit it, among those Ghost Maids, even facing a few Ghostly Little Maids was very difficult for her.

Some Ghostly Little Maids were weak, but some were very strong! Their appearance was only fixed at the age of their death; it didn’t mean that a youthful appearance implied a short lifespan!

The powerful ones could surpass most Ghost Maids in terms of strength!

She gently touched the Ring on her finger and stuffed the Magic Weapon Summoning Book into a specially made bag. In an emergency, summoning a Magic Arms didn’t require taking out the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. As long as her proficiency with a particular Magic Arms was sufficient, she could summon it quickly, just like drawing a sword. Nowadays, many Magic Weapon Summoners carried the Magic Weapon Summoning Book not for the convenience of viewing the Magic Arms, but similarly to… Earthlings using their Mobile Phones.

Mana consumption? Don’t joke. Just maintaining the existence of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book could be easily sustained for a long time even by those who hadn’t reached the stage of Reaching the Tier. Although its size wasn’t small, being a Projection, its weight could be adjusted. When light, it was even lighter than a Mobile Phone.

As for a personal weapon, she only symbolically carried a short sword on her. It wasn’t bought; it was crafted for her by Zheng Yichen. This weapon didn’t have many effects, but no one wanted to be stabbed or slashed by it. The short sword had many hidden air holes. These holes were arranged reasonably so as not to affect the weapon’s strength. The holes had unique seals that would only be pushed open when the holes touched a solid entity.

As for its lethality, Zheng Yichen referenced a cruel dagger design from Earth. Inside the dagger was an airbag storing high-pressure gas. Once opened, the gas inside would instantly burst out. This gas wasn’t just plain gas; it contained the Elemental Power of wind!

The lethality of Elemental Power had been explained before. Elemental Power was very damaging to non-users. Even Water Element, when used offensively, could easily tear the skin of whatever it touched. As for the icicles produced by Ice Element, sometimes used in wide-area attacks, even if the icicles didn’t fall very fast and one could even reach out to catch them, that type of attack wasn’t primarily meant to kill by piercing.

The main killing method was the super-strong Ice Element contained within the icicles. Not to mention lightly touching an icicle; even if an icicle merely grazed past at a distance, someone with low resistance could get ‘frostbitten’ by the extremely high-strength Ice Element.

Therefore, those who knew the structure of this short sword didn’t want to be slashed or stabbed by it… Even if only the tip penetrated slightly, the released high-pressure airflow impact could cost the target its life. This thing was mainly for Lily’s ordinary use. Considering its structure, the maximum charge state could only release three high-pressure airflow impacts. It could also release them all at once, but there was actually no need for that.

As long as it could break through defense, and the enemy wasn’t a giant, one conventional attack was enough to take the target’s life. A full release was purely wasteful. This thing took a while to recharge. After the Wind Element gas was completely consumed, reaching the maximum charge state required six minutes. Of course, if a Spellcaster actively consumed Mana to gather Elemental Power and channel it in, the recharge could be completed faster.

It wasn’t that Zheng Yichen didn’t want to increase the recharge speed, but this was already the optimal result he calculated. The recharge principle was based on the Magic called ‘Mana Gathering’. The detailed effect of Mana Gathering was to gather Mana… Of course, the free-floating forces weren’t considered Mana; they were Elemental Power. The reason this Magic mentioned Mana was due to its transformative nature. The transformed power was Mana, but this Mana wasn’t produced by an individual. Strictly speaking, it was a semi-finished Mana.

It could be utilized to release Magic more efficiently, but it was difficult to undergo secondary transformation… In other words, this semi-finished Mana could only be used as a kind of MP potion and couldn’t be absorbed by Spellcasters to enhance their own Mana. Of course, one could use certain methods to stuff this massive Mana into one’s own body.

As long as one wasn’t afraid of being burst open. Since it was semi-finished Mana, it still differed from true Mana. For example, its efficiency in calling upon power was inferior to true Mana. Moreover, a Spellcaster’s Mana strength wasn’t just about quality but also quantity. This quantity wasn’t just a numerical value; it also represented the possibility of self-producing Mana.

However, self-producing Mana was very slow and consumed both the body and mind. Even producing too much self-produced Mana could cause Soul fatigue. Therefore, the normal way to recover Mana still had to follow the normal process, utilizing the free-floating forces from the environment. Semi-Mana was water without a source. Even if one ignored the body’s capacity and stuffed a large amount of Mana into the body all at once, once used up, it was gone. This method of obtaining Mana also easily ‘leaked’…

Mana Gathering produced Magic fluctuations, so Zheng Yichen could only try his best to reduce the generation of these fluctuations. By adding some materials to conceal the fluctuations, he successfully weakened the short sword’s Magic fluctuations to a very low level. Even if others noticed, they would only think it was a weapon mixed with some Enchanted Materials.

Lily now held this short sword in her hand. She avoided using Magic Arms unless absolutely necessary. What if others observed too much and realized she could casually use any Magic Arms from the summoning book, and all could reach the level of Ultimate Summoning? A little girl with such ability? This could no longer be explained by mere Talent. The most likely possibility was her connection to the Creator!

To the outside world, the Magic Arms she summoned were just a pair of fingerless gauntlets from the Basic Magic Weapon category. This type of Magic Arms hadn’t yet appeared in the high-level and Intermediate Magic Weapon categories; it only existed in Basic Magic Weapon and Low-level Magic Weapon categories. It was a very niche Magic Arms. Back when her teacher learned she chose this type, he advised her to choose something else, but Lily persisted.

What’s wrong with gauntlets? Gauntlets could still be used to wield weapons! The gauntlets Zheng Yichen made weren’t the kind for boxing rings; they were more like gloves, not affecting the use of blade-type weapons. This was also a little scheme of hers. If she encountered troublesome enemies in the future, found it hard to deal with, or was locked in a bitter fight, she could suddenly whip out a sinister-looking Magic Sword and slash.

Nowadays, some not-so-serious Spellcasters had done similar unscrupulous things. During a fight, pretending to cast Magic, they performed an enhanced casting that even displayed the Magic Rune Array. When this Magic Rune Array attracted the enemy’s attention, if the distance between them was sufficient, they would directly take advantage of the enemy’s distraction and swing a surprise fire blade.

Swish—

Walking in the Forest, Lily lightly swung the short sword in her hand. A poisonous snake falling from a tree had its head sliced off. Lily caught the still-twitching snake body in mid-air. She treated the severed end where the snake’s head was cut off like the mouth of a drink bottle.

“…?” Huh? What’s up with this little sister? Carlin, who shared his vision with Karin, saw Lily’s action and couldn’t help but open his mouth. What a strange quirk. No wonder he felt a bit of an eerie aura about this little girl when she first left the Academy. Having such a quirk of drinking fresh blood, it would be strange for a child not to have an eerie aura.

After Lily left the area, Karin passed through where Lily had walked, quickly cleaned up the snake head and somewhat dried-out snake body, leaving no traces. Afterwards, she lingered briefly on a tree, observing the snake body in her hand. The degree of drying of the snake body was higher than expected. It wasn’t like being drained of blood; it was more like drying caused by some kind of Dark Magic influence. Yet, she had only sucked the blood, with no Magic fluctuations whatsoever.

Some kind of Esoteric Art? Or a special Talent?

“This messy work… Should I have her teach Lily some experience in the future?” Zheng Yichen muttered, resting his chin on his hand. An onlooker sees clearly. He hadn’t paid such close attention to Lily before, but now he could observe like this. From a god’s-eye view, discovering problems was too easy. “Suddenly, I thought of a question. Dan Marina, you’ve often used this method to spy on me in the past, haven’t you?”

“Ah? Watching together with Loris, can that be called spying?”

“…Are you distracted? Is something wrong?” Zheng Yichen asked strangely, noticing a brief pause in Dan Marina’s reply. “Or did you encounter something on your mind?”

“Hmm… It’s just that some things are unclear. It’s not a big deal~”