Chapter Ninety-Two: Verification and Investigation

Lando was tidying up the tools of his trade when he suddenly noticed Leia staring at him with a strange look. He cast a discreet glance over himself and, finding nothing amiss, turned to her and asked, “What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Leia furrowed her brow for quite some time before enlightenment dawned on her. “Oh! So that’s what felt off. Junior, you’re only at fourth tier? How odd.”

“What? What’s odd about that?” Lando was a little baffled by her words.

“I thought your bonded crystal was at least sixth tier by now!”

Lando froze for a moment, then smiled faintly. He was just about to explain that he had been taking the infernal route, not some easy mode like theirs, when Leia continued.

“I heard from Grandpa Simon that your hidden talent should be the really formidable kind. He even said you’d surely come out on top this time and bring honor to the Silver Tower. So why are you only at fourth tier? How strange.”

Who was Grandpa Simon? No—wait. Lando jolted. Hidden talent?

“Leia, what did you mean just now... that my hidden talent is formidable?”

A question mark seemed to slowly rise above Leia’s head. She looked at Lando with an innocent blankness, as though she had not understood a word of his question.

Lando’s face darkened. He pressed on, “You... how did you all know about my hidden talent? And who is Grandpa Simon?”

“Grandpa Simon is Grandpa Simon, of course. Your talent was inferred by Grandpa Simon and Mister Otto from the ‘Sentinel’ golem you submitted.”

“...”

At Lando’s prompting, Leia then explained the conversation that had taken place between Otto and Simon that day, as well as the Empire’s policy of privacy protection regarding the talents of arcanists.

The explanation left Lando feeling instantly deflated. So all this time he had been wrestling with thin air, and who knew how much his mentor Otto had been laughing at him behind his back. Otto: Ah...choo... I wonder how my lovely students are doing!

At that moment, he was so mortified he wanted nothing more than to dig out an entire apartment with his toes.

Leia looked on in confusion as Lando crouched in a corner drawing circles on the ground, unable to understand what had gotten into her junior.

“All right, let the past stay in the past. Leia, do you have any goals in this world?”

“Goals? Didn’t they say that once the bonded crystal reaches ninth tier and we leave, the Empire will give rewards? If I had to name one, I suppose that would be it.”

“Mm, that’s fairly simple. Tomorrow I’ll go visit the native inhabitants of this world and gather some information. After that, let’s travel while searching for Alice.”

“Okay, okay!”

The next morning, at the cave entrance:

“Junior Lando, are you sure you really don’t want me to go with you?” Leia asked, her face full of eager anticipation.

“...” Lando instinctively patted her head and said, “Stay here and don’t wander off. I’m going to buy... ahem.”

“Hm?”

“Wait for me here. I’ll be back very soon. It’s inconvenient to take you along, and if you run into danger, just run. I’ll be able to find you.” With that, before Leia could reply, he vanished in a flash.

Leia:?!

After parting from Leia, Lando unfolded his mindspace and his perception of this world changed at once.

Mountain and stone, grass and trees, flowers and birds, insects and beasts, even the void itself contained crystal energy. Intertwined with the endless elements, this energy gave birth to this wondrous world.

Suddenly, Lando stopped. A thought occurred to him. He raised a hand and pointed at a crystal tree before him. At once, his mindspace shattered and disassembled the entire tree, then separated the elements from within it, leaving behind only a wisp of pure crystal energy.

After absorbing that thread of energy, his bonded crystal did indeed grow by a nearly imperceptible fraction.

“The world’s composition... So this is what the mentor meant, that the entire world was derived from that crystal life-form? Pity, though. This method is far too inefficient.”

After some thought, Lando found a few third-tier crystal deer. Under the pitiful, trembling gazes of the deer, he casually took one down. His mindspace continued to operate, yet made no further moves. The third-tier crystal energy drifted toward Lando’s fourth-tier bonded crystal, but because it was not concentrated enough, it could not be absorbed and simply dissipated. If this had been before, he would never have observed it so minutely, but from within the perspective of mindspace, everything was crystal clear.

Lando took down another one. This time, he directly used the power of mindspace to purify and condense the dispersed crystal energy. As expected, it was successfully absorbed by the bonded crystal.

Having reached the conclusion he wanted, Lando nodded in satisfaction, growing more and more pleased with the all-purpose nature of his mindspace talent.

He did not spare the remaining crystal deer either. After storing their carcasses, he went on his way. A few days ago he had roasted this kind of deer once, and it had been delicious.

Along the way, he no longer bothered to personally deal with the lower-tier crystal creatures; only those above fifth tier were casually eliminated by him.

When he once more saw that enormous multicolored crystal from afar, his gaze burned with heat. He wondered how many tiers his bonded crystal could rise by if he absorbed the energy within it—seventh? Eighth? Or would it leap straight to ninth tier?

After a flash, the space around him warped slightly and his figure vanished.

His target was not that great tribe, but the Skybird tribe with whom he had already dealt. He was still deeply interested in the bonded crystal pet of the girl he had met before, and before investigating the great tribe, he decided to clear up this matter first.

Arriving at the Skybird tribe’s new settlement, he found it far cruder than their former village. Around the outskirts stood only a ring of rather useless fencing. Most of the tribespeople lived in tents; only in the center were a few small wooden houses, while farther out there were some timber huts still under construction.

Wisps of mist drifted through the air as Lando strode in openly. There were not many adult men in the tribe at the moment, so they had likely gone out hunting. The children were running about at play, while the slightly older ones were either training their bodies or helping the elders and women build the wooden houses.

The whole Skybird tribe looked prosperous and full of life.

As Lando was walking toward the center, he suddenly heard some movement coming from a不起眼 small tent. Curious, he leaned over to take a look. Well, it was on the way, after all.

“The Fire Leopard tribe has gone too far! They clearly promised us, and now they’re making demands again!”

“At this point, what can we do? The Fire Leopard tribe’s strength is plain for all to see. Sacrificing one person to preserve the whole tribe is all we can do.”

“Are we really just going to hand over Shamira like that? She is the hope of our Skybird tribe. We should never have been greedy for the benefits they promised us back then!”

“There’s no point saying that now. We should be thinking about what comes next. Besides, the Fire Leopard tribe agreed to take Shamira as a proper bride. Perhaps that will be good for her, too. Sigh...”