Chapter 66: The Elders’ Thoughts 2

Not long afterward...

Darkya was called back into the room.

She entered with a suspicious expression.

The elders all looked at her.

For a moment, none of them spoke.

Finally, the Third Elder cleared his throat.

“Darkya.”

“We owe you an apology.”

His tone was unusually serious.

“But we cannot allow the honor of the dark elf race to be damaged.”

“More importantly...”

“That human has brought us the Bread Tree.”

“You understand better than most what the Bread Tree means to our people.”

Darkya remained silent.

The Third Elder continued.

“At the same time, we cannot simply stand by and watch you walk into danger.”

“Humans are hypocritical.”

“Greedy.”

“Cunning.”

“And lustful.”

“So before anything else happens...”

“We need to ask you one question.”

He looked directly at Darkya.

“Are you willing to honor the wager you made with that human?”

“Honorable Elders...”

Darkya lowered her head, her voice filled with embarrassment.

“I was simply too angry at the time.”

“How could I possibly have known things would turn out like this?”

“I truly do not want to face that treacherous, shameless bastard.”

She hesitated before continuing.

“Please... tell me what I should do.”

The moment she had heard the first half of the elders’ words, her body had trembled.

Her knees had nearly gone weak beneath her.

Darkya had read a great many historical records.

She knew very well what elves living on the surface had sometimes become in the eyes of humans.

Playthings.

Slaves.

Objects to be possessed.

That was one of the reasons she had disliked Kent from the very beginning.

And Kent had come from the surface.

So Darkya had deliberately tried to provoke him.

At the time, she had already imagined what would happen after Kent lost the wager.

She had pictured that hateful human groveling beneath her hands, crying out miserably while she tormented him.

Unfortunately...

What actually happened had exceeded everyone’s expectations.

“Before a member of another race can become an Honorary Elder, there is always an assessment.”

The Third Elder suddenly raised his voice.

“And the questions for that assessment must be personally decided by the First Elder.”

He looked directly at Darkya.

“Therefore, we are assigning you the task of informing him.”

Then his expression became solemn.

“Level-Eight Magic Archer Darkya!”

“Are you capable of completing this mission?”

Darkya’s eyes immediately lit up.

“Darkya accepts the order!”

She was so excited that she almost jumped on the spot.

Now...

The initiative would be in her hands.

She could even make another wager with Kent.

She would win back everything she had lost.

And once that happened...

She would deal with that damned Kent properly.

Whip him every day.

Pluck every last hair from his body.

Not leave a single strand behind!

The more Darkya thought about it, the happier she became.

She accepted the assignment and quickly left the City Lord’s residence.

Soon afterward, surrounded by a group of guards, she departed for the Elven capital.

And throughout the entire journey...

Darkya was already thinking about all the ways she could torment Kent once she finally turned the tables on him.

“Damn it.”

Kent rubbed his nose.

“Who the hell is thinking about me?”

“My nose won’t stop itching.”

Kent had only received a brief notice from City Lord Hel.

Apparently, becoming an Honorary Elder required some kind of formal ceremony.

Kent did not care much about it.

What he cared about was making money.

Then increasing his strength.

And finally...

Leaving this place as soon as possible.

Compared with the endless darkness of the Underdark, Kent still preferred the natural scenery of the surface.

Sunlight.

Open skies.

Forests.

Mountains.

That was the kind of world he wanted to return to.

So after hearing the news, Kent simply went back to his research.

His current obsession was the so-called “writing” of the kobolds.

At least...

That was what Kent had decided to call the strange tattoos carved across the bodies of kobold mages.

“Big One!”

Kent shouted angrily.

“Do you not want meat and wine anymore?”

“Look at what you’ve done!”

He pointed toward the magic furnace.

Inside it, a strange liquid was giving off wisps of greenish smoke.

A strong burnt smell filled the laboratory.

The entire solution had been ruined.

In truth, dealing with the kobold mages had turned out to be surprisingly easy.

Kent had originally believed they would be difficult prisoners.

Loyal.

Fearless.

Prepared to die rather than speak.

But after he gave them a bowl of strong liquor...

Everything changed.

With meat in front of them and wine in their stomachs, the kobold mages revealed almost everything they knew.

Kent soon discovered that the mysterious “writing” tattooed onto their bodies had a very unusual property.

It could slowly absorb various elemental energies from the surrounding air.

His preliminary experiments also suggested something even more interesting.

The placement of those tattoos seemed vaguely similar to the pathways of meridians.

At least...

That was what they reminded Kent of.

But he did not yet dare draw any conclusions.

There was still far too much he did not understand.

So Kent changed tactics.

Good wine.

Good meat.

As much as the kobold mages wanted.

And astonishingly...

These creatures became almost as obedient as domesticated dogs.

Kent was eager to find out whether the kobolds’ mysterious “writing” could be reproduced by his own hands.

So among the captured kobold mages, he selected the only Level-Two mage.

A dark-element mage.

Kent nicknamed him Big One.

His first task was to prepare the special tattooing solution.

Kent planned to test it first on an eight-clawed lizard, a common underground beast.

Everything had been prepared carefully.

Rare ingredients.

Mineral powders.

Beast blood.

Plants.

All materials Kent had painstakingly collected.

There was only one problem.

Big One had never seen anything even remotely resembling a magic furnace.

To the kobold mage, the sophisticated alchemical equipment might as well have been some incomprehensible divine artifact.

And as a result...

The entire batch of precious materials was ruined.

Kent stared at the smoking mess.

Then at Big One.

Then back at the furnace.

His forehead twitched.

How could he possibly not be furious?

After conducting a careful study of the unique “script” used by the kobolds, Kent gradually discovered that the markings possessed an extraordinarily strange system of connections.

Different solutions, combined with different arrangements of the symbols, could form patterns capable of absorbing different magical elements.

But the most astonishing part was that these patterns could do so automatically.

Once completed, they could continuously draw elemental energy from the surrounding air and replenish the user’s magical power.

According to Big One, the kobold mage, the arrangement of the symbols varied according to the mage’s level.

Mages of different elemental affinities also used different sequences and combinations.

As for how many symbols could be tattooed onto a mage’s body, that depended largely on how much pain the individual could endure.

The greater the tolerance for pain, the more markings could be inscribed.

And generally speaking, the more markings a kobold mage possessed, the higher his level could become.

Kent suspected that this was closely related to spiritual power.

To test his theory, Kent instructed Big One to prepare several different solutions using the blood of magical beasts from different elemental affinities.

He then had different tattoo patterns inscribed onto a number of eight-clawed lizards.

The creatures were kept separately so Kent could observe them over time and compare the results.

By now, Kent had already mastered the methods for drawing seven different elemental types of kobold script.

What he most urgently wanted to know, however, was whether there had ever been any record of this strange writing system—

A system capable of automatically absorbing magical elements from the surrounding air.

And so Kent threw himself completely into the search for answers.

His first step was to examine the collection of books left behind by the former owner of the alchemy laboratory.

Unfortunately, he soon discovered a problem.

He could not recognize the writing in many of the books at all.

The script was vastly different from the languages commonly used on the surface.

Left with no other choice, Kent began asking people he knew.

“I can’t read.”

Kobi answered without the slightest embarrassment.

“I hate those twisting, wriggling symbols more than anything.”

That was Kobi’s answer.

“Oh, gods!”

Hark stared at Kent in disbelief.

“You’re a mage, aren’t you?”

“If even a knowledgeable mage like you can’t recognize them, how would I possibly know?”

That was Hark’s answer.

“You want someone who can read those things?”

Harry scratched his beard.

“Go find that girl Daphne.”

“Those dark elves love playing around with books, writing, and all that sort of thing.”

“As for me, Harry...”

He patted the axe hanging at his side.

“As long as I can swing an axe, that’s good enough.”

At least Harry had finally pointed Kent in the right direction.

With no better option, Kent went to look for Daphne, the young girl who lived upon the Ancient Tree of War.

But before he could find her, Grandpa Keta—the Ancient Tree of War himself—stopped him.

“Little fellow.”

Keta’s deep voice echoed through the great tree.

“I must admit, what you have done recently has surprised me greatly.”

“I was wondering whether the two of us might sit down and have a proper conversation.”

“I believe we may have quite a few things in common.”

He paused for a moment.

“And I have a few small things I would like to give you as well.”

Kent agreed.

Soon afterward, he entered the interior of Keta’s enormous trunk.

The moment he stepped inside, however, he was astonished.

The space within the trunk was far larger than he had originally imagined.

More importantly, Kent could clearly sense faint fluctuations of spatial magic in the air.

That discovery surprised him greatly.

The chamber was circular, roughly five square meters in size.

The moment Kent entered, an extraordinarily dense aura of life surrounded him.

It was rich, pure, and almost tangible.

After glancing around, Kent finally asked,

“Grandpa Keta, what exactly did you want to talk to me about?”

“Now that I’m here, can you tell me?”

“You’re surprised, aren’t you?”

A powerful voice suddenly sounded above Kent.

“You are wondering how an Ancient Tree of War could possess spatial magic.”

As the words echoed through the chamber, the bark on the trunk opposite Kent slowly shifted.

Lines appeared across the wooden surface.

Then, little by little, they formed a human face.

“I am very curious.”

Kent answered honestly.

“There is actually no need to be so surprised.”

Keta’s voice carried a strange undertone.

“After awakening, most Ancient Trees of War do indeed possess only a single elemental affinity.”

“The wood element.”

“However...”

“There are also some among us who possess two affinities.”

He paused deliberately.

“For someone like you, that should not be particularly difficult to understand, should it?”

Kent immediately became alert.

He carefully searched through his memories.

Since arriving in Muan City, had he ever used two different types of magic in public?

No.

Had he ever openly revealed that he possessed more than one elemental affinity?

No.

He was certain he had never exposed it.

So why had Keta spoken to him like that?

Was the old tree merely probing him?

Or had he already noticed something?

Kent made his decision almost instantly.

Play dumb.

He widened his eyes and deliberately put on an expression of surprise.

“Grandpa Keta...”

“Don’t tell me you possess two elemental affinities?”

“That would be a miracle, wouldn’t it?”