[0794] The Origins of the Vastaya

Nasus believed he had found the key to the problem.

However, when he began tracking the abnormal grains of sand, he quickly realized that this lead seemed to have run dry as well.

The drops of blood on the ground could serve as markers, and the merfolk scales left among the sand were proof of a battle.

But the sand tainted by magic quickly lost any traceable elemental residue, and a single gust of wind could scatter it completely. Trying to follow it to find traces of the Vastaya was out of the question.

As a result, although he had already noticed a few clues and had some idea where to look, Nasus had been pacing around the edge of the beach for a long time without taking even the first step.

This sort of situation, where there seemed to be a chance but there was actually nothing he could do, was undoubtedly the most tormenting. An indescribable restlessness began to spread through Nasus. He paced along the beach, occasionally finding a merfolk scale, then crushing it in his fingers without even realizing it.

As he kept crushing them, he suddenly noticed that the scales seemed to vary quite a bit in texture.

As a renowned Shuriman scholar and the administrator of the Great Library, Nasus had always been called a "living encyclopedia." Even something as rare as a merfolk scale was at least familiar to him.

That was why he had recognized the scales scattered across the beach at once.

But on closer consideration, more than half the scales he had unconsciously crushed seemed entirely at odds with what he knew.

At first, he had thought they had dried out and become rough because the scales had fallen off during the battle, been struck by magic, and then spent