NOVEL NEXT Chapter 700
<700 – Shocking Confession (18)>
“Well then, I’ll take it back.”
As Avalon, with a slightly sulky face, tried to swallow the soul, a blunt voice from behind stopped her.
“Assertion. Cruel demands that if not needed, you transfer the soul to herself.”
“What do you want that for?”
“Growth. Jonna cannot be easily taken by Darknodi. Cruel will gain even more powerful strength to defeat the wicked Oknodie, Darknodi, and Doublenodi.”
“How can I give it away when you say you’ll defeat yourself right in front of me!”
“Exchange. Cruel can also make deals. She can pass on the invasion plan for the core facilities of the academy’s facilities planned for the escape with Jonna, including the locations and strategies to breach them.”
Cruel’s statement, always quietly following me, contained information that even I was startled by.
“How did you know that?”
“Bragging. The Gift Academy has veteran scholarship students. By dominating their minds to extract information and tracing back related individuals, we can characterize each scholarship student’s administrator and director, and branch locations.”
“So you were this serious about dating Jonna!”
I must have underestimated the third lady, Third Cruel. The skills of the brainwasher, who once turned the academy upside down, were deeply woven into the foundation beyond my imagination.
If it hadn’t been for the top student of Class 980, Marchioness Mandela Castera, the future I knew might have changed completely!
“Wait? So, in this generation of peace, why is there sporadically a massive upheaval among members like in a generation of war, and why was there a particular cycle where Senior Mandela was missing? Is that the cycle where Cruel defeated Mandela and succeeded in conquering the class?”
Suddenly, rather than feeling annoyed with Cruel, I had a growing desire to know more about her.
“I think you’re forgetting an important issue. Can you afford to be so distracted?”
“What do you mean?”
“Professor Weird. Wasn’t the opponent showing unprecedented fear?”
The haunting sensation of an eek! nightmare, previously forgotten, crawled up my body, causing every hair to stand on end.
“Hieek! I completely forgot!”
“With the last deal, I might erase your worries.”
Golden Merchant Avalon seized the opportunity to make a final deal.
“I’ll do anything! Just tell me!”
“If you cooperate in my world conquest, I shall allow you to permanently evade Professor Weird.”
“Oh, that’s a bit… I’ll have to take the lecture again later anyway if I want to see the ending!”
Avalon’s expression remained unfazed despite his indirect suggestion to enter his soul collection, effortlessly brushing it off.
“Then regard this as consideration for not damaging the Golden City, where my subordinate Riske and the pending body are stored.”
Upon hearing Avalon’s plan, I was incredibly impressed. No matter how weird the professor was, it was a brilliant plan that he had no choice but to leave behind the goo Oknodie in front of him.
*
It was a monumental duel between Don Nemuoja and the Golden Colossus, both striving to expend the inflated powers to the point of bursting.
The seemingly endless consumption war was instantly resolved at the moment when the mana density of the city surged.
[The Descend of Nature]
The excellent treant Dryad can revitalize the forces of nature, sprouting green shoots from grey soil, breathing life into the old and withered Death Forest.
As the top-tier Dryad professor Weird set foot in the Golden City, the plants that had been stagnated under the pressure of golden mana began to sprout vigorously, greedily absorbing the golden mana.
From the hole-riddled building producing Golden Guards.
From the Golden Bridge, which marked travelers with golden symbols and collected tolls.
Plants sprouted from all around, each imbibing the characteristics of their originating buildings.
[Storage Plants]
[Effet: Safely and quickly transport a large number of plants, simultaneously ejecting them in unison.]
[Forcible Tax-collection Plants]
[Effet: Converts properties of targets hit by the seeds to golden mana, plundering while forcibly draining mana if there are no properties to convert. Living mana is no exception.]
[Golden Plants]
[Effet: Consumes properties to recover and grow, and also participates in the recovery and growth of other plants.]
As long as there were properties, they could autonomously recover and grow. When properties were depleted, they could track where properties existed. When encountering living beings, they could convert them into properties.
The lethal plants that absorbed all the attributes of Avalon, the Golden City, were born into existence as the so-called Golden Plant Colony the moment professor Weird reached that spot.
When seen by people, they would be so enchanted by the mysteries and beauty of gold that they might approach, only to be reduced to nutrients for the plants, creating a moving Magical Territory!
If Adventurer’s Guild were to bear witness, they would unhesitatingly declare an evacuation order for a silver rank region. If initial suppression failed and it spread, they would proclaim a golden-ranked national disaster and would have to receive support from various nations across the world, giving birth to a new breed of plant monster with extreme danger levels.
Seeing the monstrous danger at a glance, Don Nemuoja emitted overwhelming mana to tear the plant colony apart in an instant.
“Dryads are friends of plants. I cannot bear to watch the ones born to be loved attacked.”
What professor Weird initiated was incredibly simple.
He used a leaf enclosing his naked body, consuming it to invoke the enhanced [Vine Grasping] and [Rapid Growth] spells.
During the battle, the vines clinging to the ankles were merely slight retargeting techniques.
However, as the scale of its growth was realized, those techniques exhibited effects from another dimension.
[Golden Mana Vines]
Covering the sky with shadows towering above even the Golden Colossus that had to look up at the sky, the golden vines surged to monstrous heights.
“My goodness.”
Even Don Nemuoja, with his [Armor of Devouring], that craved anything, trembled in fear.
Had it not been for the many artifacts embedded in the armor functioning, he would have been crushed by the vine crashing down from the heavens and died on the spot.
“It’s about the level of practice materials from the upper class of the fourth year. I’ve obtained good materials.”
Beyond the shattered pieces of the Golden Colossus like cube steak, Don Nemuoja was dragged like a mere sack, choked by the vine reaching out from professor Weird’s body.
As professor Weird headed towards the heart of the city, he suddenly sensed an overwhelming concentration of mana at a single point, warping space itself.
Moments later, the source of the phenomenon walked on her own to professor Weird and said.
“I’ve come by the introduction of Oknodie. Might I ask you to grant me the chance to listen to your lecture?”
The Golden Plant Colony that professor Weird had transformed, upon meeting the gaze of a girl draped in extravagant, flowing golden robes with shocking exposure, bowed its head.
It was as if all the golden mana in this world obeyed her, expressing the desires it held.
The Golden Plant Colony must have conveyed the message to her.
Even professors Weird’s desires.
*
A secret organization of druids shrouded in the world, a plan that seeks to outgrow the World Tree.
The dream of achieving this ambitious plan by planting seeds in the foundation and academy, with Avalon, the golden merchant, at the pinnacle of nature magic, was a far different form of world conquest.
This fact was immediately recognized by professor Weird, who ruled the Golden Plant Colony.
That the student seeking her teachings was an ambitious powerhouse that truly yearned for world conquest.
That all the gold in the world whispered the desires embedded within it to her.
That beings with desires could not keep secrets in front of her, and that he was no exception to this intriguing phenomenon.
“Well done,” he said.
She was an interesting child.
She made him want to spare Oknodie.
“No matter how long the time of wandering may be, all things naturally return to the homeland of nature. I shall allow Oknodie to have a short wander, and to you, I will grant the position of top apprentice. Now, let’s go take the transfer exam.”
Golden Merchant Avalon shocked the world by choosing to enter the academy as professor Weird’s student to achieve both the goal of infiltration and the freedom of Oknodie.
Whether it was a wise deal, or a foolish act of critical misjudgment that gambled life would only be known when Oknodie returned to the academy later.
*
Riske’s life was empty and gloomy.
Her master had left.
The gallant figure of a man, along with the peaceful days of world conquest shared with her subordinates, all abandoned.
What meaning did thousands of years of devotion hold if she could not even be with a soul that was said to be the same as hers?
With an endlessly melancholic face, she looked up at the half-destroyed Golden City, as the source of this disaster, the Dark Princess, quietly approached with a watchful eye, tiptoeing.
“Are you angry?”
“I’m just sad. Regardless of its form, I thought it would be enough if my feelings toward my master could continue. Yet ultimately being seen merely as a tool by my master and left behind, that’s the dogmatic view. The foolishness of believing that thousands of years of devotion could change what I knew would come.”
“It’s not over yet. Riske still has an opportunity!”
The Dark Princess, fidgeting like someone trying to pass off her overdue homework, rushed to comfort her.
“If Avalon dies or gets seriously hurt at the academy, the revival device activates, and Avalon #2 comes out!”
“…Even so, if you’re going to leave me again, what meaning would remain in my faded loyalty and unreturned devotion?”
“Meaning won’t just be there. You create it yourself!”
“…Create it myself?”
“Be the new master of the Golden City! Inherit the vacant position of the magical territory boss and become the new Great Evil Candidate, and manage your own city this time!”
“What meaning would lie in that?”
“If the properties and knowledge offered to Avalon transform her strength, knowledge, and heart, then the strength and knowledge poured in solely for Riske’s feelings and domination could significantly change Avalon #2, right?”
“…!”
“This is definitely a beneficial deal for Riske. It’s not just about hastily finding someone to fill the role of the Great Evil Candidate that Darknodi accidentally released and consumed the properties, you know!”
“…….I find myself feeling ashamed for briefly feeling gratitude. But it was meaningful advice. I’m beginning to have a bit of motivation in life.”
In the half-destroyed Golden City, upon the departure of her master.
Only the glorious past remained as ruins, and once again, the golden mana began to surge.
Not from Avalon, who had waited for resurrection for thousands of years, but from another master who had managed the city while wishing for his resurrection, the Golden Dancer Riske.
“I’m not like my master, but I too am well-versed in deals. Let’s make a deal, Dark Princess.”
“What kind of deal?”
“You were safety-netting the Demon King’s Four Kings who birthed the city of pleasure, and I’ve read that desire, faintly, I believe.”
“!”
“I’ll help. The Golden City can provide a hideout where the Demon King’s Four Kings will not be captured by anyone. In return, please make him obey me.”
“What do you want with the Four Kings?”
In Riske’s eyes, a huge desire was blazing.
“Avalon #2, who will emerge at the moment he obeys my words and submits to me, will be a master who is fulfilled with ultimate desires, solely looking at me. For that, I will create the knowledge and treasures using the Demon King’s Four Kings.”
The collaboration event proposal between the Golden City and the City of Pleasure was born.
“That’s totally doable!”
Who could resist a collaboration event?