Chapter 46: Mayor Harz (1)
Swooosh!
Carrying Henry on his back, Jade began to fall at a frightening speed as he surrendered to gravity. However, despite the tremendous speed, neither Henry nor Jade batted an eyelid as they maintained their composure.
Just before they hit the ground and died, Henry uttered a low-pitched incantation.
“Feather Fall.”
Jade’s body became as light as a feather, and he landed lightly on the floor in a graceful and elegant manner, almost like a Pegasus.
“Good work.”
Neeeigh.
Any ordinary horse would never have made that jump, due to fear. However, Jade had been treated with Henry’s Fine Horse Restructuring. If at the bottom of the cliff had been a massive feather pillow or the literal pits of Hell instead, Jade would have jumped in without hesitation.
Henry stroked Jade’s mane once before dismounting.
‘This place has become much more beautiful while I was away.’
Before Henry’s eyes was a dazzlingly beautiful emerald-colored lake. Above it, fireflies the color of water and unknown spirits sparkled like fairies.
“I’ll be back, so wait for me here.”
Neeeigh.
The place was full of magic. Before disrupting the peace of the lake, Henry decided to supplement extra mana from the reservoir of mana, now that he was finally revisiting it. Henry found a sunny spot and sat cross-legged.
Sssst.
His level of concentration quickly reached its peak through meditation. As expected of a place untouched by humans and dominated by nature, the density of mana was different from that of a city. Henry felt comfortable, as if he had returned home. He opened the mana passageways of his entire body and instantly became one with his surroundings. A long time passed.
It was only after the sun had set and darkness had fallen that Henry slowly opened his eyes.
‘It’s done.’
As expected of the Lake of Whispers. In less than half a day, Henry had been able to accumulate a much larger amount of mana in his body than he had anticipated. Now that he had finished his meditation, he stretched his hand out towards the lake. The calm water of the lake began to ripple.
“Reverse Gravity.”
Whoosh-whoosh!
The pulsating lake water floated up into the air due to Henry’s magic. It was a great spectacle. Eventually, not a single drop of water remained in the lake. Henry then walked into the empty basin.
Squish. Squish.
The wet soil clung to his shoes, but Henry did not care one single bit as he continued to move forward. When he finally reached deep enough inside the lake, he found a familiar-looking helmet on the floor.
‘Buried so deep.’
It was a Shielder’s helmet. The Shielder, who had been guarding Whispering in the lake, was buried deep in the ground, with only his head sticking out. He had probably sunk down because of how soft and muddy the bed of the lake was.
“...Llew enod evah uoy. (You have done well…)”
Crumble.
With the cast of a spell, Shielder’s corpse collapsed. Henry picked up a wooden box buried underneath it and slowly walked out of the lake.?When he reached the shore, he dispelled the Reverse Gravity spell with a flick of his fingers.
Splash!
Like a huge wave collapsing, a tremendous roar echoed throughout the otherwise quiet forest. Strangely enough, not a single drop of water splashed out of the lake. Henry had meticulously managed every single drop of water with his mana.
‘How refreshing.’
Henry had deliberately used an overwhelming amount of mana, as he wanted to loosen up and use his overflowing mana to his heart’s content. When the lake turned calm again, Henry finally opened the wooden box.
Click.
As expected, inside the wooden box was the Whispering, made with sky-blue jewels. After putting it on, Henry listened carefully to his surroundings.
- It’s a human! A human!
- Who is he, and why is he causing trouble in our dwelling?
- Quick, get rid of him!
- Don’t tell me he’s here for that thing?
As soon as he put on Whispering, Henry immediately heard the voices of the creatures living in the lake, thanks to the magic imbued into it.
- He must never know that Elyragon’s egg is here.
- Yes, yes, quickly, chase him away!
The creatures brushed past it quickly, but Henry was certain of what he had just heard.
‘Elyragon?’
An Elyragon was the highest being among the water spirits. With its dragon-like appearance, it was quite the rare being, even among the spirits. Perhaps because of this, quite a few people called the Elyragon a ‘water dragon.’
‘Hmm… I came to pick up a toy and ended up with an unexpected windfall.’
Spirits were usually born from nature itself. However, there were rare cases of them leaving behind an offspring, and this was one of those rare cases.
‘Are the parents not around this time as well?’
Henry looked around, but he couldn’t see any Elyragons. Spirits simply didn’t have the instincts to take care of their offspring, despite being responsible for their birth. Some scholars speculated that this was the higher spirits’ way of simply showing off their powers, or dispersing some of their own power when it grew too difficult to control.
‘Whatever the case may be, I’m taking that Elyragon’s egg.’
Having encountered an unexpected prize, Henry began to listen quietly to gather more information. Just because he had Whispering equipped didn’t mean that he could talk to the creatures.
- What do we do? What do we do? Are we really going to lose the egg like this?
- Of course not! It looked like that human was here for something else, something from the bottom of the lake?
- Then, he’s a grave robber?
- Perhaps. He looked nasty from the start.
All the noise from the chirping insects, leaves, and even stones rolling on the floor made Henry’s head pound. About eighty percent of what the creatures were saying was totally useless gibberish. Henry decided he needed to change his strategy. He figured it would be much more efficient to induce the creatures to disclose the necessary information than to passively wait for them to slip up and expose it to him.
“Klever.”
- Yes, Master.
Henry opened the Chest that was located in the palm of his left hand and drew his holy sword from the Chest.
“Fire.”
Sparks flew from the holy sword, creating a massive flame surrounding the blade. It was a spectacle. After all, even something like a firework was difficult to see in such a place unless there was some sort of spontaneous combustion of some kind.
- Kyaaaargh! Fire! Fire!
- Why did he suddenly do that!
- It’s because you said he looked nasty!
- Noooo! If this place turns into a sea of fire, we’ll all burn to death.
- Elyragon’s egg will also burn!
- What do we do? What do we do? Shouldn’t we relocate the ash tree? The egg is going to burn if the fire gets to the roots!
- And how do you suppose we do that?
The creatures’ fear and anxiety filled the air, but Henry had heard what he needed to hear.
‘The roots of an ash tree?’
Thanks to the words of a weed, Henry had obtained the information he needed, and immediately put the flame out.
‘I’ll just have to find that ash tree then.’
Henry had already memorized the entire botanical encyclopedia. Thus, to him, finding an ash tree wasn’t a difficult task.
“Light.”
Henry illuminated the dark lake. Ash trees were trees that lived by rooting themselves near bodies of water. The only body of water in the area was the Lake of Whispers itself, so it would be easy to find the ash tree if he circled around the lake.
‘There it is.’
Sure enough, there was a huge ash tree nearby. It had extended its huge roots into the lake like a ship’s anchor.
- No!
- Back off! Stupid human!
- Please pretend you don’t see it!
The closer he got to the ash tree, the louder the various fauna and flora screamed, and the louder their screams got, the more convinced Henry was that he was on the right track. When he finally reached the ash tree, Henry stretched out his hand toward its roots. The lake split in half, revealing the ash tree’s roots that had been submerged in the water.
‘Found it.’
Henry saw a clear blue jewel sandwiched between its thick roots; it was the Elyragon egg. He quickly snatched it before hurriedly removing Whispering to block out the anguished screams of the surrounding plants and animals.
‘Much better.’
With Whispering removed, the lake returned to its tranquil, peaceful state. Henry held the Elyragon egg up to the light.
‘As expected of a spirit’s egg. It’s beautiful.’
The egg resembled a shard of sky-blue glass, cut to the size of a thumbnail. Its surface texture was smooth, and it had such a beautiful appearance that it was difficult to think of it as something that was alive.
‘A second spirit egg…’
This wasn’t the first time Henry had encountered a spirit’s egg. However, it was something so rare that even someone like the Archmage had only found it once in all his years of life.
‘I should hatch this too as well, huh?’
If he put it up for sale in the market, with the right buyer, it would sell for an astronomical amount of money. However, Henry now had more than enough money, and he wasn’t the kind of person who would sell something so valuable for just money alone.
‘If this is indeed an Elyragon egg, then this guy’s future is limitless.’
Elyragons were beings that not even high-tier spirits could easily deal with. Since this egg was the descendent of an Elyragon, as long as it was nurtured well, it would surely become a powerful being that would be of great help in the future.
‘Since it’s a water spirit, I should continuously supply it with sufficient water and mana.’
Henry had hatched a spirit egg once before, thus he had some basic fundamental knowledge on how to do so. The problem was preparing the right environment for it. After thinking for a while, Henry lifted his right finger and said, “Sharp.”?
His right index finger thinned down into a razor-sharp point, and he proceeded to slit his left forearm with it.?His flesh split open and blood gushed out.
Henry inserted the Elyragon egg into the open wound. Then, he covered it with his hand and cast a healing spell.
“Heal.”
Only a few traces of blood remained on his left forearm.
‘This should be enough.’
Henry chose his own body as the hiding place, a place where both mana and hydration were plentiful, as his blood would provide the necessary water.
“Jade.”
Neeeigh.
With this new unexpected treasure in hand, Henry restored the parted lake to its original state.
“Fly.”
Jade and Henry flew back up to the top of the cliff. It was now time to head for Enkelmann.
* * *
Two days passed. Normally, it would have taken four more days, but after galloping non-stop, Henry was able to reach Enkelmann in only two.
“Sir! We welcome your presence!”
The soldiers at the entrance immediately saluted Henry after checking his identity tag. Thanks to this, he didn’t have to stand in line again.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve been in Enkelmann.’
The air that brushed against his nose was quite salty. It was only natural to smell such levels of salt so close to the sea. In his past life, Henry would occasionally head down to Enkelmann to catch a whiff of its salty air to clear his head. Interestingly enough, the sea air worked well to calm his mind.
- Master.
As Henry immersed himself in Enkelmann’s calming air, Klever, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke to Henry in a cautious tone.
“What is it?”
- I… I’ve never seen what you call the ‘sea’ before, could you please grant me permission to see it just once?
“What did you say?”
Henry could not help but burst out laughing.
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