Chapter 196 - Talking about some ribbons
Lena spotted a rack of robes and rushed over. She quickly scanned them all. Most were garbage. "What the heck."
She finally rest her eyes upon the most ornate one and grabbed it. It was deep purple, with various silver details running through it.
[Robe of the Pixie]
She immediately stopped at the name to stare at it.
"...that’s a stupid name." There was no reason to act so exaggeratedly over a mere name, but it made her twitch and want to tear it. She didn’t, but she wanted to. She continued reading.
[Required Level: 35]
[Defense: +67]
[Int: +28]
[Magic Attack: +42]
[Max MP: +800]
[Special Effect: Reduces all spell costs by 15%]
[Remaining upgrade slots: 2/7]
"Why..." She stared at the two remaining upgrade slots. Why? Why was an item worthy enough of being put in the vault not fully upgraded? It wasn’t the first time she saw an item like that.
If it was just a fodder item, then sure. But the issue in her eyes was that this was clearly meant to be one of the more impressive items, yet it wasn’t even fully upgraded. "Why can this still be upgraded?"
"Brilliant!" One of the spirits couldn’t help themselves but exclaim. "She could tell from a single glance!?"
"Indeed." Another spirit replied, pretending to be wise. "It’s in her blood, after all."
"I can see that now." Another spoke. "Truly, superior evolution."
"Tch." Lena shifted her gaze to the stats. It was a truly impressive upgrade, but she still felt uncomfortable by the upgrade slots. She did recognize that it was an objectively good thing that she could still upgrade the robe, but she didn’t like it.
She turned her head to the spirits, and gave them the middle finger. "Turn around! I’m changing!" She didn’t expect a single one to avert their eyes, but she still had to give them attitude.
She immediately equipped it, her current robe being replaced by the far superior version. The fabric was tight, stretching to make room for her body. "Hatred." She groaned, and then shouted. "HATRED!"
It was uncomfortable. But... stats.
She moved on. As she searched, in the back corner, she found something that made her pause.
A jar.
Now, a jar meant nothing by itself. Who cared about a jar? But it was a large glass jar filled with preserved... something.
She picked it up and examined it closely. The contents were organic, definitely. Organs, maybe? They floated in some kind of alchemical solution.
She kept staring at the contents. It was all shrivelled up despite staying in liquid. "How?" She didn’t particularly understand. If something was kept in liquid, how could it be so dehydrated? "Are these pixie hearts?" Lena tilted the jar, watching the contents shift. She could barely make it out. She saw the various anatomical features of a heart, but she wasn’t entirely sure what species it belonged to. She could only guess due to the size.
She scanned it with the system.
[Preserved Pixie Hearts - Alchemical Ingredient]
[Quantity: 7]
Lena grinned. "Well, I did say hearts were my favorite food!"
She was joking. Probably. The ancestral spirits watching her weren’t entirely sure.
Into the inventory it went.
Near the jar was a small box. She opened it to find a collection of crystallized mana stones, each one pulsing with concentrated magical energy.
[High-Grade Mana Crystal]
[Quantity: 23]
"Jackpot!" Lena grabbed the entire box. "Emergency mana! Or I can sell these! Or both somehow!"
She was running out of obvious treasures to grab. Most of the shelves had been cleared. But then she noticed something strange.
A single pixie wing, preserved and mounted in a display case.
It was massive, far larger than any normal pixie wing should be. The membrane was a deep crimson color, and even preserved it radiated power.
She opened the case and touched it.
[Wing of the Old One]
[Required Level: None]
[Legendary Artifact - Cannot be equipped]
[This wing once belonged to an extremely powerful pixie]
Lena stared at it for a long moment.
"I have no idea what this does," she admitted. "But it’s legendary so I’m taking it!"
The wing went into her inventory, preserved case and all. She looked around the vault one more time. Had she gotten everything? She made the rounds again. There were a few things that weren’t worth thinking about. But it was there, so she tool it! Like this vial of... something. She had no idea what was in it.
Wait.
She realized she could just scan it.
[Suspicious Vial]
[Contains a suspicious liquid.]
"Yo." Though the system couldn’t hear, she still spoke out loud. "You’re so interesting, yo."
Given that she had received an entirely useless answer, she moved on.
"Okay ancestors!" Lena called out. "I think I’m good! This is amazing! Thank you so much!"
She flew back toward the exit, her inventory absolutely stuffed with pixie treasures. The ancestral spirits watched her leave with satisfaction.
"She really is the future."
Lena emerged from the vault grinning like a maniac. She threw her arms up in the air. She felt a strong need to celebrate. "Loot!"
Time to find Lumi and show off her goods.
...
While Lena had been in the vault enthusiastically looting ancient pixie treasures, Lumi was at the farm dealing with an entirely different matter.
He stood in front of a modest wooden farmhouse, taking in the details of the property. The place was well-maintained, though it was rather small. There were fields for livestock, and a red barn to accompany the home.
He didn’t understand all the specifics of this location’s history, but this farm was tied to a hero from the past.
Phoenix Master Henry.
The name alone carried weight. Henry had been a legendary magician who’d bonded with a phoenix. Not just any phoenix, but a bloodline so regal and powerful that together with Henry, the two had fought a god.
That was right. Phoenix Master Henry was one of the six heroes of old. And this was his farm. Or rather, his descendant’s farm now.
As for why Lumi hadn’t come here earlier if the location was so important, the answer was simple.
He knew literally nothing about the specific situation here.
In his past life, he’d only heard about this place in passing. Someone had mentioned that Phoenix Master Henry’s bloodline still maintained a farm near the Elenora-Macres border. Someone else had mentioned that the family raised fancy pigs as livestock.
That was it. That was the extent of his knowledge.
He hadn’t known about the ribbon until much later, and by then the farm had been destroyed in the chaos of the invasion. Whatever treasures it might have held were lost forever.
But this time, he was here early. Before everything went wrong.
What he was after was an old ribbon.
Fancy pigs, as ridiculous as the species was, had something resembling generational inheritance of items. When one pig died, another would claim its belongings. The items would be passed down, worn and used and imbued with magical energy over time.
With enough years and enough magical saturation, a simple ribbon could transform into something extraordinary.
An artifact.
One with the power to alter reality itself in small, specific ways.
The ribbon he was searching for had a unique property. It could demand the attention of reality so intensely, so completely, that reality itself would be forced to acknowledge its existence above all else.
For a single second, the user wearing the ribbon would effectively cease to exist.
It sounded impossible. It sounded like the kind of thing that shouldn’t work according to any reasonable magical principles. However, such a thought was underestimating magic.
Lumi was likely to find the ribbon here, on this farm where fancy pigs had been raised for decades.
But first, he had to ask permission. No matter how important his use of it, he couldn’t just walk in and steal things.
He approached the boy who had already seen him. He gave a friendly wave, and he received one back. When they came face to face, Lumi could see more clearly. It was a young boy, maybe fourteen years old at most.
The kid looked tired. Dark circles under his eyes suggested he hadn’t been sleeping well. Still, the boy forced a while, though he was noticeably wary, as any one should be of a stranger.
"Yeah?" the boy spoke, carefully. "Can I help you?"
Lumi put on his most friendly expression. "Hello. My name is Lumi. I’m a traveling magician, and I was hoping to speak with the owner of this farm about purchasing something."
The boy’s expression shifted slightly. "I’m the owner. Name’s Eden."
Lumi blinked. "You’re the owner?"
"What? I’m young? I know." Eden’s voice carried a bitter edge. "My parents recently passed. Farm’s mine now."
Oh.
That explained a lot.
Lumi felt a pang of sympathy. "I’m sorry for your loss."
Eden shrugged. "It happens. Now, moving on, what did you want to buy?"