Watching Demon Vine

"Just how many undiscovered treasures are there in this sea?"

Holding the Waning Moon Fruit, he finally suppressed the urge stirring within him. Draining his mental energy dry and then restoring it might be a way to advance quickly.

But mental energy was difficult to understand in the first place. If anything went wrong, he would be in very, very bad shape.

He already had a smooth enough path to advancement. With thirsty sea glow algae and the "Poem of Rainbow Light," he had no need to strengthen himself through something so close to self-abuse.

Still, the astral spirit body environment inside this thing was certainly unusual. With a sensible schedule, he could use it to exercise his mental energy.

Then I'd better head back for now.

With that thought, he bent down and patted the two dolphins circling him. "Stay here in the sea and help me collect more Sea Spirit Pearls.

"I'll come see you again in a couple of days."

The dolphins responded by gently bumping him with their heads. They chirped several times, their eyes clearly showing their reluctance to part. Only after watching Kroya disappear from sight did they slowly dive beneath the surface and vanish.

After Kroya's scolding, they certainly would not casually seek out treasures far from the shoreline again.

But they could still stockpile more seafood.

Their master seemed to enjoy eating seafood very much.

As second-tier marine magical beasts, they naturally held sway over lower-ranking magical beasts. They could easily find more and herd them over, ready for Kroya to enjoy when he returned.

The dolphins eagerly dove underwater. Carrying a trace of merfolk magic, they were nothing short of overlords here.

The poor sea fish were in for some terrible luck.

Meanwhile, as Kroya returned to the castle and the dolphins enthusiastically tended their fish, far, far away from Reef Island, deep beneath the sea, lay a trench.

It should have been a stretch of deep sea that not even light could reach.

Yet beyond a veil of pale silver mist...

There stood a city built entirely from the sea's bounty: coral, shells, crystals, pearls, and more.

Countless strange, pale silver trees grew here, their branches thick with foliage and hung with little fruits of various shapes, some crescent moons and others full moons.

Merfolk swam around the pale silver trees, enjoying rare moments of leisure and the joy of singing at the tops of their voices.

Songs of a beauty humans could scarcely imagine echoed through the trench, and the moon-shaped fruits seemed to resonate with the merfolk's voices.

A pale silver curtain of light enveloped the entire trench. Anyone looking from outside would never discover that a merfolk kingdom lay within.

At the very center of the city stood a sacred statue. Beneath it was a burly, bare-chested man, his long golden hair flowing loose like seaweed.

The sea seemed to move around him. Gentle currents spread from him throughout the merfolk city, carrying the magic he supplied.

He alone could sustain the magic consumption of the entire merfolk city.

"King Mihail, I've brought the waterlight essence." Alia, a mermaid, swam slowly toward him.

"Thank you for your efforts."

He accepted the shell Alia respectfully offered him.

Inside was the waterlight essence obtained from Kroya: forty-six drops, not one more or less.

"The Mage Association has finally sent someone suitable. Though I hear this child was apparently driven out?"

The merman looked at the waterlight essence in the shell, but his voice held keen interest. "Would you call that a coincidence, or... did they arrange it deliberately?"

"I think you're overthinking it." Alia pursed her lips. "We've always held the original contract. Ever since Lady Ilyst left, the Mage Association has never recovered.

"I don't think they're that clever.

"Besides, if they were clever, would they drive such an intelligent young mage out of the Royal Capital? They're simply shortsighted and foolish."

At this point, she gave a sly smile. "There may be something wrong with that contract, but compared with being able to increase our numbers, giving him a few benefits hardly matters.

"Don't humans put profit above all else?"

"You did the right thing. As long as we can obtain waterlight essence, nothing else matters.

"The Mage Association, hah.

"How can something stolen count as their own? I imagine they still can't activate the Astral Council's teleportation array."

After saying this, Mihail set aside his disdainful expression. His platinum-colored tail transformed into long, straight legs, and he knelt on one knee before the statue.

Drop by drop, the waterlight essence flew into a crystal sculpture shaped like a great tree, held in the statue's hands.

Then a strand of the same azure radiance flickered across the tree. Under the two merfolk's eager gazes, it slowly became forty-six full strands.

"Not a single flawed drop?"

"Goddess above, I've finally found a suitable mage!"

The two merfolk cried out in excitement.

The azure radiance within the great tree shot out and entered the bodies of the mermaids preparing to conceive.

"Good!" Mihail nodded delightedly. "If the little merfolk can be born safely, keep asking that young mage to help refine it.

"Whatever he wants, you may agree, as long as it isn't too unreasonable."

"As you wish."

"Oh, my lord, his little pets picked a Phantom Moon Fruit."

Alia suddenly remembered this.

Yet the merfolk king, who normally valued the Phantom Moon Fruits so highly, merely nodded casually.

"Let them have it. It was from that tree outside, wasn't it...? It does have some benefits for mages.

"Helping him advance faster will benefit us too. There's no need to worry about it."

Alia nodded. "Understood."

These merfolk, who guarded the oceans for the goddess, needed extremely pure waterlight essence to reproduce. Yet according to the ancient contract, only essence refined through human magic would do.

When the Legendary Mage Ilyst had still been in charge of the Mage Association, things had been manageable. But after she left, there were no suitable mages left.

To obtain waterlight essence, they had captured plenty of unaffiliated mages, but the essence each one refined had been utterly appalling.

They did not know whether something was wrong with the magic array.

They had waited three hundred bitter years before Kroya finally arrived.

Honestly, in a certain sense, they truly did regard him as a treasure.

Meanwhile, inside the castle.

Kroya was stroking the Woodstar Curving Vine King with one hand, holding eyeball-shaped crystals between his fingers.

In his other hand, he held a magic pen, using it to draw tiny runes on them.

Once he finished, he placed them against the Woodstar Curving Vine King.

By all rights, those crystals should have been unable to enter a magical beast's body.

Yet miraculously, the moment they touched the Woodstar Curving Vine King, they melted into it.

Like water seeping into the earth.

They left tiny, eyeball-shaped marks on the Woodstar Curving Vine King's vines, which even seemed to shift with the changes in its magic.

On closer inspection, they really were a little sanity-eroding.

This Astral Body Inscription Technique... can even turn physical objects incorporeal. Tsk, that's pretty impressive.

As he embedded them, Kroya marveled inwardly.

He had never imagined that after he inscribed the spell "Watching Demon Eye" onto the Woodstar Curving Vine King, eye crystals would actually be able to merge into its body.

The notifications that appeared also pleased Kroya somewhat-

[Inscription successful: Woodstar Curving Vine King (Watching Demon Eye)]

[This magical beast can integrate the eye crystals required for Watching Demon Eye into its body without any rejection response.]

[As it extends and contracts, the eye crystals can appear anywhere on its body. Its mental energy can retain images captured by the eye crystals and reproduce them within a magic array.]

[Further modifications to Watching Demon Eye may be carried out.]