Out of curiosity, he dove straight underwater.
He entered the water with a splash.
The two Burrowing Mice naturally jumped into the lake after him.
Their name alone made it clear they were earth-element magical beasts. They should have disliked water by nature, and perhaps their ancestors had never entered it either.
When they first entered the water, they were clearly unaccustomed to it, their limbs and tails tense and flustered. But thanks to the Underwater Breathing Technique, they soon adapted.
They even swam better than Kroya.
Their tails spun like propellers, their little limbs paddled merrily through the water, and their tiny, beady eyes brimmed with excitement.
Without even looking, Kroya knew their Astral Spirit Bodies had to be an excited red. He shook his head.
You're pretty good swimmers, but can you follow me inside?
He quietly observed them for about a minute, then continued swimming down, his body passing effortlessly through the bubble formed by the Air Coral.
The two Burrowing Mice still wanted to swim, but when they saw Kroya enter, they hurried after him. To his surprise, they also passed through the bubble with ease.
There was no resistance whatsoever. They slipped through smoothly.
The sight made Kroya, who had already landed, pause in surprise.
Huh? You really can get through too? Can the Kaba Beasts enter as well?
Could it be...
He looked up at the seemingly fragile bubble that nevertheless held back the immense pressure of the water. If they had anything in common, it was that he had inscribed magic on all of them.
Was that the reason?
The inscriptions carried my unique magical signature, so they could enter?
"Let's test it."
The test would be simple. Once he planted it on the seabed, he just needed to see whether the Sea Spirit Dolphins could enter.
He had not inscribed any magic on them.
Having worked that out, he put the matter aside and walked across the now-soft grass to the spot where tiny white lights twinkled on the ground.
He crouched and gently parted the grass to look.
An exceptionally strange little mushroom lay hidden within. From a distance, its color seemed white, but up close, it looked far more solemn and holy than ordinary white.
It was closer to what one might call platinum.
Some refined sacred white iron lay piled around it, brought there by the Kaba Beasts of their own accord.
As he parted the grass, the Kaba Beasts nudged him with their noses, seemingly urging him to be careful.
Kroya could only offer them a few reassuring words.
"I won't damage it!"
With that, he began examining it closely.
For some reason, Kroya kept feeling that this strange white mushroom was drawing light from the sacred white iron, only to return that light to it.
In fact, the sacred white iron was becoming increasingly pure and holy.
It was something like filtration, or... a blessing?
"What exactly is this thing... What an unusual magical fluctuation."
After carefully sensing it for a while, Kroya suddenly felt that its power seemed somewhat similar to divine power, as well as the subspace fortune iron he had used to form the Seven Luminaries Divine Law Array.
That was the crystal representing the void element among the Seven Luminary Crystals.
But this was clearly purer.
"I've only heard the Merfolk mention void-element crystals. I really don't know what they're used for."
"Could it filter power?" He tentatively released a wisp of his own magic toward the white mushroom.
But the white mushroom immediately rejected it.
His magic encountered unmistakable resistance and could not get anywhere near the white mushroom. He also sensed that if he forcibly poured magic into it, the mushroom might explode right in front of him.
Even when he tried to draw out a thread of its power with the Seven Luminaries Separation Technique, it did not budge.
Upon discovering this, he immediately stopped and murmured to himself, "That won't work? Does it only react to holy power?"
Since infusing it with magic did not work, he could only activate the Astral Body Inscription Technique to inspect its interior.
He knew mushrooms were fungi, but no matter how he looked at this thing, it seemed to possess only a mushroom's shape. It hardly resembled a proper mushroom at all.
As the Astral Body Inscription Technique activated, he saw... countless platinum threads entwined around a strange platinum ring at its very core. Though dimmed and damaged, it still emitted a halo, slowly drawing in the holy white radiance from outside before sending fresh light back out.
It seemed to be filtering the light, but in essence, it was absorbing something from the holy white radiance, then feeding entirely new light back out.
"What a strange Astral Spirit Body. A platinum ring? What rank of magic plant is this? Or could it be..."
Kroya stared at the ground beneath the white mushroom and slowly began digging with his hands, making sure not to damage it while checking whether something was buried underneath.
After digging a few times, he really did find a completely dimmed crystal in the thick mud. The last trace of light within it had already dissipated.
Almost as though his sixth sense were telling him, Kroya felt certain this was a Void Luminary Crystal, one of the higher-order Space-Time Illusion attributes.
But it had indeed lost all its power, with its remaining energy having turned into this little mushroom.
A mushroom formed from Void Luminary Power?
Kroya very much wanted to take this precious mushroom away and put it in his laboratory for careful observation and research.
But he had to consider whether it might wither or fail to adapt if moved-he still knew nothing about Void Luminary Power.
He could only give up and let it remain here.
"It only takes an interest in holy power... Divine power. Would the Earth Mother Goddess's divine power work?"
He seriously considered the possibility, but ultimately gave up. As with his earlier concerns, it was better to keep divine power at a distance.
Still, he could continue using it to refine sacred white iron, while nourishing it with the power within the metal.
Perhaps, with continued nourishment, its mysterious Astral Spirit Body would undergo some changes and no longer remain so lifeless.
"Then I'll leave you here for now. I'll set up another magic array to keep you from getting stepped on..." Kroya mused.
Besides,
He could continue his business with Baron Kermoyer. He had just examined the sacred white iron and found it even better than the initial refined batch.
The power within it was exceptionally pure.
It was also time to have Rob tell the other party to collect the goods. They had originally agreed on ten days, and only eight short days had passed.
The baron would surely be delighted.
Once he decided, he gathered all the sacred white iron scattered over the ground. After refinement, the original two hundred kilograms had lost a full fifteen or sixteen kilograms.
That was actually a remarkable figure, since the process compressed the power inside and discarded some useless scrap iron.
With refinement, the greater the reduction in weight, the higher the purity and the stronger the power. For weapon-making, increased purity was an outstanding benefit.
It could effectively increase their power.
"You really got a bargain this time. If I weren't against hiking the price on the spot, I'd fleece you good," Kroya muttered.
For the sake of a long-term business relationship, raising an agreed price on the spot would damage his reputation too much. It would not be appropriate.
But he could raise the price a little next time.
After putting all the sacred white iron into his shell storage artifact, he carefully inspected the surroundings again and checked on the Kaba Beasts.
The holy energy here clearly benefited them considerably, and their bodies had grown much stronger. However, the magic within them also seemed to be gradually assimilated by the holy power.
Honestly, that was not a good thing. If their magic really was assimilated by holy power, they would probably become Sacred Kaba Beasts, but refining ore of other attributes would likely become difficult.
Holy power had an exceptionally strong rejection response toward other elemental attributes.
"Looks like I'll have to divide them up. Six or seven can specialize in refining this holy stuff, while the rest refine other attributes.
"Or I could buy some more and let these Kaba Beasts teach them. Sooner or later, they'll learn to love eating ore too... right?"
He looked over the Kaba Beasts, then turned his gaze to the two Burrowing Mice, which were already getting familiar with their surroundings, and ordered them to demonstrate their water-control magic.
The results naturally pleased him greatly. Though they were still a little clumsy, they had no trouble controlling water spheres to water plants and such. With some practice, they should become proficient.
"Then stay here and behave yourselves. I'll send you to the seabed in a few days."
With that, Kroya turned and left.
He needed to tell Rob to summon the baron so they could discuss what came next.
The two Burrowing Mice bowed toward Kroya's retreating figure, their expressions filled with reverence and admiration. Then they turned toward the grassy expanse and squeaked excitedly.
This was the paradise they had always dreamed of!
Before you continue