"Wait, you said... totems?"
"Yeah, the totems those guys use." As he spoke, the boy drove his knife into the giant tree and answered Mo Ling.
Hearing the boy's words, Mo Ling became even more confused.
"How do you know how to draw those totems?" he asked, puzzled.
"When I destroyed those totems before, I memorized them all. Weren't they pretty simple? There weren't many strokes. When I copied drawings as a kid, the teacher taught us not to keep looking up at the picture, but to remember the details..."
The boy spoke casually as he carved the outer outline of a totem into the giant tree with his knife.
Mo Ling could tell that the boy was still extremely nervous. He kept talking only to ease the panic in his heart and keep the hand holding the knife from trembling.
The boy continued rambling...
"Those goblins and the totems are independent of each other. The goblins are only borrowing the totems' power. If totems are a type of Relic, then they're making use of that Relic..."
"Anyone can use a Relic. If they can use it, then so can we. As long as we come into contact with the Relic in the right way and pay the price correctly, we can bring out its effects."
"If I'm not mistaken, that 'totem Relic' has the ability of 'transformation.' It can turn scenery or objects within a certain range into corresponding forms. Turning the wilderness into a jungle and goblins into Wild Boars was all the work of this Relic."
"Those goblins drew the totems on their bodies, then used a 'ritual'—or maybe it wasn't a ritual. They simply understood the act of paying the price as a ritual... These totems need life to activate them. That wild boar that just