Water Luminary Crystals

The moment he entered the water, Kroya intended to cast a secret underwater breathing spell on himself, but before he could do so-

The mermaid pulling him along spoke. "Don't worry. I've already cast our Merfolk's Breath of the Sea on you.

You can breathe and speak freely."

Kroya tried taking a breath and found that he could indeed breathe freely. There seemed to be subtle yet intricate shifts in mana around his nose and mouth.

Had there been a mirror before him, he would have seen that the mana formations resembled fish gills, helping him filter air from the seawater.

"Why did you bring me here?" Kroya asked in confusion. "The Mage Association never mentioned any contract or anything like that."

The mermaid did not answer. She simply held his hand and swam forward.

Seeing that he could get no answers, Kroya had no choice but to let it go.

He tried to make the best of his predicament by admiring the underwater scenery around him.

The oceans of this world were entirely unpolluted. Corals of every color covered the seabed, while fish of all shapes and sizes swam freely through water so clear it seemed almost nonexistent.

Sunlight spilled through the surface, refracting into halos of shimmering color.

Beautiful it certainly was, but it was also dangerous-some of those fish were magical beasts.

They were enormous, every one of them larger than a human, devouring smaller fish that failed to escape as casually as overlords ruling their domain.

The abundant food here was practically a buffet.

They could gorge themselves at will.

Had Kroya been here alone, they probably would have already lunged at him, tearing into him or attacking him. With a mermaid leading the way, however, even the dangerous seabed became an open road.

As the sunlight around them gradually faded,

they descended deeper.

Yet the beautiful surroundings remained unaffected-glowing corals and fish replaced the sunlight. Their light might not have been as bright,

but swaying with the currents in this underwater setting, it looked even more ethereal and dreamlike. Meanwhile, the surrounding water mana grew increasingly dense, seemingly mingled with a trace of some other strange energy.

It feels like water-element mana, but without its gentleness. Instead, it's rather volatile...

Kroya suspected this might be why she had brought him here.

Sure enough,

after another two minutes of swimming, the mermaid led Kroya into a cave formed from coral. The moment he entered, he sensed that a magic array had been set up inside.

There was also an extremely volatile surge of water-element mana.

He instinctively scanned his surroundings, and when his gaze fell on a wall a short distance ahead, his eyes widened-

The black undersea rock face was covered with rhombus-shaped crystals, embedded openly in its surface. Every one of them brimmed with abundant yet volatile water-element mana.

A water magic crystal deposit? No, magic crystals wouldn't be this unstable.

Then what is this?

The mermaid soon gave him the answer.

"These are Water Luminary Crystals, one of the Seven Luminary Crystals-the seven sacred crystals said to have been left behind by the Creation Consciousness."

She took out a somewhat worn sheet of parchment.

It was densely covered with inscriptions in magical script, with the Mage Association's floating-city seal at the bottom.

She handed the parchment to Kroya.

"Look. The last time the Mage Association sent someone to help us Merfolk deal with the Seven Luminary Crystals was three hundred years ago. Now you've finally come.

This entire vein is yours to deal with."

Even without her explanation, Kroya had already sensed the mana imprint unique to the Mage Association on the parchment. Whoever had signed this contract must have been at least a mage above level ten.

For mages who practiced the meditation method provided by the Mage Association, this strange mana imprint even had a binding effect.

It also ensured that only mages who had practiced that meditation method could see the specific instructions for constructing the array, along with certain encrypted passages.

Although he had already switched to the Poem of Rainbow Light and was no longer subject to this magical compulsion, he could still read it.

Besides... with an Archmage-level mermaid watching him like a hawk, refusing was clearly not an option.

He sighed helplessly and began reading through the contract.

To his surprise, its terms were remarkably lenient.

It merely required any mage lord dispatched afterward to use a special array called the Seven Luminaries Divine Law Array to help the Merfolk bring order to the chaotic power within the Water Luminary Crystals.

That was all.

Most of the densely packed writing described how to construct and use the Seven Luminaries Divine Law Array.

This seemed to be a simplified version of the array. The supplies and materials it required were inexpensive; level-one magic crystals should be enough to buy them.

This type of array apparently belonged exclusively to that Archmage. He alone possessed it.

That was why the Merfolk had been held back for so long.

Appended to the scroll were several spell models, gestures, and incantations for Water Luminary Magic powered by Waterlight Crystals. These spells required Waterlight Crystals as their medium and were immensely powerful.

At the end of the parchment was another note for whoever came after: the Merfolk were very wealthy, and the power of these Water Luminary Crystals was extremely important to them.

This line of small text had been written with special mana that mages outside the Mage Association could not decipher.

Its meaning was essentially... they were gullible and rich, so feel free to ask for more payment.

This was money!

Money was exactly what Kroya lacked right now.

He needed to purchase expensive magical equipment, help establish more magical farmland on the island, and gradually transform the entire island.

Every bit of that required magic crystals and gold coins.

This opportunity had arrived at precisely the right moment.

After a brief pause to consider, he gave a soft sigh and returned the parchment to the mermaid.

She looked puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"I don't have enough materials." Kroya gave a bitter smile. "As you probably know, I was actually exiled here. I barely brought anything with me.

With such a wealthy woman right here, failing to plead poverty would be letting down the senior mage who had left him that tip!

"Never mind anything else... I can't even build this array."

"That won't do!" The mermaid reacted even more strongly than he did, immediately asking anxiously, "Tell me roughly how many magic crystals you need. We Merfolk may not have much else, but we have plenty of magical materials-enough to trade for magic crystals."

Kroya's heart stirred at her words, only for him to hear an icy voice as a bone-chilling icicle pressed against his back.

"Little mage, remember this: don't ask for too much! If we find out you've asked for more than you need..."

Surging mana gathered behind him, ready to turn him into a heap of shredded flesh at any moment.

"..."

His expression did not change at all.

He merely said, "The contract is right here. Of course I wouldn't entertain any ulterior motives... As for the exact amount required, I'll need to calculate it."

He spread his hands as he finished speaking.

"Good." The mermaid withdrew the icicle, and her expression softened. "We have an ancient contract. If you fulfill it, your territory will not suffer any incursions from the Sea Folk during your tenure.

Your subjects will also be able to venture into deeper waters to catch and retrieve certain magical creatures and magic plants."

Kroya nodded.

Fortunately, this mermaid did not know the contract's exact contents, leaving him some room to maneuver. Besides, if he could draw on the Merfolk's influence, his territory would develop rapidly.

Overall, there were advantages and disadvantages.

It all depended on how he handled it.