Starting with the sentries on the frontier

Chapter 23 A Decent Way

"You want to play the good guy again?"

After Zag was far from the sentry post, Snowball finally spoke up with a mocking tone, sounding very impatient. But it didn't struggle; it obediently flew beside Zag and accompanied him as he left the town.

"I didn't pay the bounty upfront. I was just wondering if your tree spirit friends could help search. In return, I can help you get some magical materials. If it's just ordinary magical materials, the association has a quota. I can buy those investigators a drink and get some. That's much more cost-effective than paying 200 shillings to issue a commission, isn't it?"

Snowball was still dissatisfied: "Why should I help you?"

"I bought silver salmon and cod for the great Snowball," Zag coaxed, "along with three pints of shrimp and eight oysters, enough for several delicious meals with some left over!"

"Of course, this is just what I should do for the great Snowball. If you are satisfied, please help this poor girl, Norther. It's just a small favor..."

"As long as you, the great Snowball, move your mouth—no, you don't even need to move your mouth—since you communicate using magic, not your mouths, it's not troublesome at all, right?"

Clearly, Zag has mastered the essence of communicating with snowballs.

Snowball was so flattered and praising that it almost lost its bearings. It held its fluffy tail high, curving it into a big question mark, and said with its head held high, "Alright, since you're so devout in your worship of the great Snowball, then the great Snowball will help you out!"

So Snowball took the initiative and flew ahead, carrying Zag through the entire Cabbage Town, then weaving through the redcurrant forest outside the town, and finally into a fog.

The tree spirits that came to greet Zag stopped seven or eight meters away from him. If the tree spirits hadn't dispersed the surrounding mist, Zag wouldn't have been able to see them at all.

It's unclear how Snowball communicated with the tree spirits, but these magical creatures readily agreed to the request, in exchange for Zag helping them purchase two bottles of [Meretra's Mercy].

This is a relatively inexpensive alchemical potion used to treat withered crops and trees. Generally, it only needs to be mixed with water at a ratio of 1:20 and then applied to the plants that need treatment. Within three days at most, these plants will recover.

Normally, Meredra's Mercy costs 3 shillings per bottle, but each bottle lasts a long time and has no "expiration date." Therefore, some farmers with limited funds will buy one bottle, mix it into a dozen or so bottles, and then sell them to their neighbors in the countryside. In this way, the cost shared among them is only a few pence, making it one of the most affordable and useful alchemical potions for ordinary people.

Zag was puzzled by the tree spirits' request: "Do tree spirits need treatment too? Don't they secrete that... that healing mucus?"

Snowball replied, "The healing slime only works on other creatures; it has no effect on treants or magical creatures like tree people."

"Alright, anyway, this request is no problem at all. As long as you can help find Rosa's father, 6 shillings is a bargain."

After reaching a verbal agreement with the tree spirits, a bored Zag squatted in the tree spirits' hiding place and continued to discuss spirituality and magic with Snowball.

"I don't recommend you use 'Dragon Shout' anymore. Your body simply can't withstand the magical fluctuations it generates, unless you can increase the resilience of your physical body—you know, I'm not talking about muscles!"

Snowball refuted Zag's eagerness to unleash a dragon roar.

Zag wasn't truly courting death. He thought about it seriously for a moment, agreed with Snowball, and then asked, "Then how can I increase the strength of my physical body?"

"Perform a ritual to pray for the blessings of the Nine Holy Spirits, sign an agreement with other demons, or take a 'magic potion' that can steal the power of the Nine Holy Spirits..."

"You know what 'potions' are, right? They're 'plundering potions,' special alchemical potions that grant you power from beyond the world that doesn't belong to you. The price is an incurable pollution and the hostility of the Holy Spirit from whom you plundered power. If you actually take this approach, my advice is not to appear before any idol of the Holy Spirit from whom you plundered power and recite His true name—you don't want to know the consequences."

The familiar sarcastic remark made Zhage frown.

"Isn't there a more respectable way? What you're saying all sounds very dangerous, whether it's dealing with the Nine Holy Spirits or dealing with the demons... Are you sure I won't be discovered by them as some kind of monster from another world and then killed?"

Snowball first glanced at Zag with disdain, then its little mouth started to speak incoherently: "Respectable? Yes, you spend 500 gold pounds to become a mage apprentice at the Golden Palace, and then gradually improve your body's resistance to magic and your perception of magic power in an academic way. This process takes at least 20 years."

"To be honest, with your aptitude—I mean the terrible aptitude of the body you're using now, even if it were doubled, maybe when you're so old that you've lost all your teeth, you'd be able to truly withstand the side effects of using 'Dragon Roar'."

"Besides, wake up, will you? In your state, weaker than a hen, do you think the Nine Holy Spirits need to waste their energy on you? For the Nine Holy Spirits to even glance at you, you'd need at least a veiled creature incarnate. You? A strange 'dragon descendant' from another world? Hmph!"

Zag had no interest in knowing what the unfinished business following Snowball's "humph" meant.

"actually……"

Perhaps realizing she'd gone a bit too far, Snowball, taking advantage of Zag's silence, hesitantly tiptoed to his side, nuzzled his thigh where he sat cross-legged, and suggested, "Actually, you could pray to the Mother Goddess and ask her to grant you a fairy's body, turning you into a fairy. Then you'd have a body like the great Snowball! Hmm, very strong, you could use 'Dragon Roar' as many times as you want!"

Zag looked down at the "very strong" Snowball with a complicated expression. He opened his mouth, hesitated, and finally managed to reply, "Thank you for your kindness, Lord Snowball, but it's not necessary."

"I'm telling the truth!"

Snowball nimbly leaped onto Zag's body, its two front paws bracing against the leather armor on Zag's chest, and earnestly explained, "Although we have some difficulty learning magic and don't have much talent in combat, the Mother Goddess has bestowed upon us the strongest magical resistance and magic power resistance. No other race can compare to us. Even if we are engulfed by magical flames, we will not die easily..."

"So if you have the body of a fairy but the soul of a 'Dragonborn,' you can definitely use 'Dragon Shout' or various kinds of magic without any problem!"

"It's much stronger than the weak Motorola!"

It sounds like there are many benefits.

But Zag really wasn't interested in becoming a flying Hakimi, especially since the condition for this transformation was making a deal with the demons known as the "Holy Spirits".

Ever since hearing some history and gossip from Xueqiu, he has held a skeptical and distant attitude towards the demon race, or rather, towards all races and holy spirits in this world.

But he still comforted the kitten in his arms, saying, "I'll consider it."

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【Plunder Potion】: Also known as "Magic Potion", it means a potion that plunders power from demons.

This potion has an extremely high probability of causing death after ingestion, and only a very few lucky individuals can successfully plunder the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a special alchemical potion that allows the user to obtain power from outside the world that does not belong to them.

Because the magical materials required for the potion and the "plundering ritual" it requires are both contaminated, even if the potion is successfully taken, the person taking it will be infected with an incurable contamination and suffer the corresponding pain.

It is worth mentioning that this potion is explicitly prohibited in both the Eternal High Kingdom and the Kingdom of Lunaran. It is only not prohibited in some places further south where the Nine Holy Spirits are not worshipped. It is said that there is a country that promotes the use of this potion and honors those who have successfully plundered the powerful energy of the Holy Spirits as "Witchcraft Masters".