Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3292 -3293: Nya

When Luigi mentioned “powdered scent,” Angel also recalled some information about the Fragrance Seeking Tribe.

Not long ago, they had just talked about the Fragrance Seeking Tribe.

At that time, the Heart Space had received a batch of items salvaged from the Sea of Void Mirror.

Among them was a piece of carbonized wood.

In The World of Wizards, this kind of ancient sunken timber, forced down into low riverbeds by natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and landslides, is called carbonized wood; but in the Daylight Mirror Domain, this carbonized wood is called “Fragrant Wood.”

The ones who popularized the term “Fragrant Wood” were precisely the Fragrance Seeking Tribe.

The Fragrance Seeking Tribe aren’t considered a particularly powerful race in the Daylight Mirror Domain, but by relying on their unique technique of “making powdered scent,” they’ve firmly entered the mid?upper tier of races in the Daylight Mirror Domain.

And the raw material for powdered scent is exactly “Fragrant Wood.”

Recalling what he knew about the Fragrance Seeking Tribe, Angel became even more curious and attentive toward that “alien” beauty on the display stage.

Because in his view, the two techniques in the Daylight Mirror Domain that brush closest against Alchemy are: one, the many inventions of Pirush; and two, the custom scent made by the Fragrance Seeking Tribe.

Pirush’s inventions can barely be mapped onto Mechanical Alchemy in alchemical studies.

The Fragrance Seeking Tribe’s powdered scent, without a doubt, corresponds to the scent branch of Potionology.

Although Angel has never refined scent himself, he’s very familiar with scent?related knowledge; precisely because of this, he’s very curious whether the powdered scent made by the Fragrance Seeking Tribe is actually different from scent as he knows it.

Is it a straight extension of the same line, branching into two flowers? Or did they carve out a new path and open up an entirely different Battlefield?

…

The “alien” beauty of the Fragrance Seeking Tribe was named “Kuyena.”

The reason Angel knew her name was because, after she stepped onto the stage, she first gave a self?introduction in an extremely coy, sugary tone.

However, no matter how graceful the movements or how delicate the voice, paired with that head split into four or five sections by alien mouthparts, and the densely packed sharp teeth inside, like the radula of a snail, it’s impossible to feel any pity.

At least, Angel didn’t find it graceful—only hair?raising horror.

“Don’t be fooled by how terrifying she looks now; in fact, she already counts as one of the few presentable members of the Fragrance Seeking Tribe.” The one speaking was Luigi, who had probably noticed the subtle look in Angel’s eyes and chimed in from the side.

“Then… now I’m kind of curious what the other members of the Fragrance Seeking Tribe look like.” Angel was quite certain that his tastes were aligned with Luigi’s—they both had humans’ sense of aesthetics. If Kuyena already counts as one of the few presentable ones in the Fragrance Seeking Tribe, then just how ugly are the rest?

Angel was already starting to imagine: could it be that the mouths of the other Fragrance Seekers can tear open their entire bodies?

If that’s really the case, then there’s basically no difference from a xenomorph.

However, the answer was completely different from Angel’s imagination. Luigi leaned close to him and said in a low voice, “The other Fragrance Seekers don’t have anything close to a human form. They’re either tree?shaped or flower?and?grass?shaped.”

As he spoke, Luigi even used his hands to gesture.

From his gestures, Angel could roughly picture a group of “plant?like beings.”

He had originally thought the other Fragrance Seekers would be even more horrifying; now it seemed he had gone down the wrong track. Luigi said Kuyena is the only one in the Fragrance Seeking Tribe who can be shown off because she looks the most human; the rest lean toward plant forms, not even qualifying as “Plant Men.”

But then again, if they really do have plant?type exteriors, Angel might actually find them easier to accept.

This is probably the uncanny valley effect.

The more humanoid, the more terrifying.

Luigi had no idea what Angel was thinking, and continued, “Actually, it’s not just the Fragrance Seeking Tribe. Most races aboard the Wanyou Forest Ship are plant? or fungus?like races. But they aren’t truly plants, and they don’t even have any plant?related organs inside them. They’re completely different from Alien Clans like Yusen…”

“Their plant?like exterior is just a form, meaningless in itself. Their core is still the Aggregation Energy configuration unique to Mirror Domain life.”

When Luigi said this, Dog Deacon chimed in from the side: “Actually, I’ve heard a legend about the Wanyou Forest Ship. It says that the races aboard the Wanyou Forest Ship were born because the projection of a Mysterious Forest Spirit in reality fell onto the Mirror Domain, which led to the emergence of the thousands of clans aboard the Wanyou Forest Ship. The reason they have plant?like exteriors is also due to the influence of that Mysterious Forest Spirit.”

Angel had heard of “Forest Spirits”—similar to Tree Spirits and Wood Spirits—an aggregation of Spiritual Bodies born from an entire Forest, akin to a collective consciousness.

But as for the mysterious?level Forest Spirit Dog Deacon mentioned, Angel simply couldn’t picture it. Perhaps it’s a conglomerate of a vast number of mysterious phenomena?

Regarding the legend Dog Deacon recounted, Luigi just curled his lip and said disdainfully, “Rumors like that are all over the place, but there’s absolutely no evidence. Or are you saying your Everything House found proof?”

Dog Deacon wagged his tail: “No proof, but…”

Luigi: “But what?”

Dog Deacon didn’t answer. His dark eyes fixed on the space beside Luigi.

Luigi turned around and saw Laplace calmly sipping the hot tea on the table.

When Laplace set the teacup back down, she finally spoke slowly: “I was the one who told Meatball that legend.”

Luigi: “…”

Luigi turned his head and glared viciously at Dog Deacon, silently saying: Since it was Laplace who said it, you should’ve pointed that out from the start!

Dog Deacon tilted his head lazily, leaning on his paw?shaped pillow, face full of innocence: Does it matter who said it?

Of course it matters! Luigi pursed his lips, but in the end he didn’t keep picking on Dog Deacon. Instead, he said to Angel, “Anyway, the other Fragrance Seekers are all misshapen oddities. Kuyena already counts as a standout among them.”

After he finished, Luigi muttered under his breath, “Still, she really is different from the other Fragrance Seekers. It’s so rare to see one grow into a human form, it’s honestly a bit strange…”

As Luigi’s words fell, Sipolov, who had been sitting quietly in the corner without a word, suddenly raised his hand slowly: “Actually, I know about Kuyena.”

Everyone’s gaze immediately turned to Sipolov.

Facing all those curious, questioning looks, Sipolov was a little nervous. It took him quite a while before he said, “Although I’ve never had direct contact with Kuyena, I once saw her in Peslav, the capital of Ice Country.”

“She was dining together with several Senior Generals. My grandfather was there too.”

“I later asked my grandfather about her. According to him, Kuyena had gone back to Ice Country to visit her family…”

At that point, Sipolov stopped, saying no more, but the others already understood what he meant.

Ice Country is the nation of the Yingji Clan.

If Nya goes back to Ice Country to “visit her family,” that means at least half of the blood in Nya’s body comes from the Yingji Clan.

With this piece of information as corroboration, the reason why Nya looks like humans becomes very clear.

The people of the Yingji Clan, apart from lacking the organ called eyes, look almost exactly the same as humans in every other way. You could even say, if a Yingji puts on an eye-cover and goes straight to the Wizards’ Realm, probably no one would notice anything strange.

If Nya carries the bloodline of the Yingji Clan, then it’s perfectly normal that she looks like a human.

Only, what Angel couldn’t quite wrap his head around was… when the Fragrance Seeking Tribe and Yingji Clan look so different, which senior from the Yingji side was it that managed to fall in love with a plant from the Fragrance Seeking Tribe, and even had a child?

What kind of fetish is that?

And another thing: why is there no reproductive isolation between the Fragrance Seeking Tribe and the Yingji Clan?

The first question might involve private proclivities, and Angel didn’t feel comfortable asking; but the second question, he really did voice out.

Facing Angel’s question, Laplace and Luigi both fell silent; they had no research whatsoever on reproductive isolation.

Dog Deacon kept its mouth shut as well; as a little dog, it knew nothing.

Only Sipolov, after hesitating for a few seconds, took the initiative to say: “I asked Grandpa this question back then too. Grandpa’s answer was: there is reproductive isolation between the Yingji Clan and Fragrance Seeking Tribe; Nya’s birth was an accident.”

“But what exactly that ‘accident’ was, Grandpa didn’t go into much detail. My guess is, it might be related to biological experiments…” Sipolov said, “Ice Country has lots of institutes for bio-modification experiments, and some of them run joint research with alien clans. As far as I know, even on the Wanyou Forest Ship there’s a biological experiment institute.”

In other words, Sipolov suspects Nya might have been born from cooperative biological experiments between the Yingji Clan and the Fragrance Seeking Tribe.

If that’s really the case, then the ‘fetish’ issue Angel just conjectured is purely his own imagination.

However…

“Can you really talk openly about things like biological experiment institutes?” Angel asked curiously.

Sipolov looked puzzled: “Why wouldn’t we talk about it? Senior General Oleg will even take the stage later to present a new achievement from our biological experiments.”

“…Nothing, I was just asking casually.” Angel felt he was simply overthinking it, still dragging the rule-set of the Southern Domain into the Mirror Domain.

In the Southern Domain, bio-modification experiments, even if not a taboo, are rarely discussed in public. Especially not in front of relatively unfamiliar people.

But in the Mirror Domain, bio-modification experiments might be just like any other research project, simply a very ordinary line of study.

“So she’s tied to Ice Country as well, no wonder her name sounds almost the same as those of the Yingji Clan.” After learning this, Luigi suddenly saw the light.

Angel, meanwhile, was digesting this piece of intel while listening to Nya’s presentation on stage.

Just like other medium-to-large clans, the moment Nya went on stage she took out the specialty powders of the Fragrance Seeking Tribe.

The first type of scent powder she introduced was called Dark Phantom Powder.

Angel initially thought it was some powder related to the “dark element,” but as her explanation went on, he realized this thing was actually a more advanced version of “Nether Path Powder.”

Angel had once seen Nether Path Powder listed in the merchandise catalog of the ruins branch in the City of Hot Gold.

It was a special kind of scent powder that could stabilize energy states.

So-called energy state is just the form of energy; the energy state Angel most often dealt with was Soul.

If you use Nether Path Powder on a Soul that has left the body, it can make the Soul more solid, almost like a physical entity.

Don’t be fooled by how mild that effect sounds; its practicality is extremely high. For example, some Souls after death fall into a muddled stupor and can be carried away at any time by the Soul Tide of the Quest World. But if Nether Path Powder is used, it can make the muddled Soul become clear, step into the boundaries of the Material Realm, and possess a certain amount of “physicality.” In that case, even the Soul Tide can’t take you away.

Of course, this is Angel’s explanation of Nether Path Powder from a human perspective and according to his own understanding.

From the viewpoint of the Mirror Domain, the biggest buyer of Nether Path Powder is Resentful Women Town.

It can keep the Mirror Ghosts of Resentful Women Town in stable form, and extend their lucid periods.

You could say that the Fragrance Seeking Tribe invented Nether Path Powder precisely targeting Resentful Women Town.

Now, the Fragrance Seeking Tribe has upgraded Nether Path Powder into Dark Phantom Powder. The general use remains unchanged, but the efficacy has been enhanced: it can let Mirror Ghosts maintain clarity for twice as long.

The Mirror Ghosts of Resentful Women Town rarely purchase alien goods. Precisely because of this, each of them is actually a plump fat sheep; many clans, though afraid of Resentful Women Town, all want to fleece a bit of wool off its Mirror Ghosts. The Fragrance Seeking Tribe has spent such great Heart Power upgrading Nether Path Powder; without a doubt, they’re aiming to earn Resentful Women Town’s Crystalline.

The effect is surely there—you can tell from Nya’s increasingly hair-raising smile.

However, Angel had no real interest in Dark Phantom Powder; plus he already knew about the existence of Nether Path Powder. So while Nya was loudly advertising Dark Phantom Powder, he completely tuned her out and instead chatted about other topics with Laplace via the Mind Ribbon.

“That legend Dog Deacon mentioned just now, is it true?”

Angel was still quite curious about the Mysterious Level Forest Spirit.

Laplace: “I don’t know either.”

Angel: “…”

Laplace: “Though I don’t know whether the legend is true or false, I did find it in the Origin Ground of the Wanyou Forest Ship, carved on an ancient stone slab.”

Ten thousand years ago, around the time Laplace had just been born, she also let her Avatars travel through the Mirror Domain.

It was then that Laplace went to the Wanyou Forest Ship.

The Origin Ground is a hidden ruin on the Wanyou Forest Ship that seems to be related to the ship’s origin. At the time, Laplace had to expend considerable effort to get inside.

Inside the Origin Ground, she found the stone slab that recorded this legend.

Even with the ruin’s stone slab as evidence, Laplace still couldn’t determine whether this legend was true or false. After all, the slab might have been forged by predecessors.

It’s also possible the ancients were ignorant and deliberately mystified things.

This kind of situation is hardly limited to the Mirror Domain; there are plenty of examples in reality as well. Because their store of knowledge was insufficient, they would give unknown phenomena some lofty background they could never truly reach.

Take “fire,” for example. Primitive humans didn’t understand fire, so they worshipped it.

But now, “fire” has become just an ordinary elemental symbol. Even common folk won’t have extra associations with the character “fire”—because they understand it, they do not fear it.

Similarly, content recorded in ruins is not necessarily real; it could also be a fabrication born of ignorance.