Chapter 323 – 98. Slime Race
“What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?”
“No, no, no, no, no.”
Seeing Valentina’s face turn crimson as she covered her mouth and breathed in small gasps, Fisher thought she was unwell, so he spoke up.
Unexpectedly, as she looked up, she saw Fisher right in front of her, which frightened her so much that she curled up into the corner of her wheelchair, as if facing some terrifying beast.
Her pale silver eyes seemed a bit dazed, and Fisher, dressed in a white shirt, felt like a hot iron to her, making her eyes touch and then pull away. Just looking at his robust body made Valentina recall the muscular lines she had seen through the mist and the warmth radiating from his body.
Valentina covered her flushed face with her icy hands and lowered her head, deep in thought. Fisher furrowed his brow, unsure if her genetic condition had acted up, so he thoughtfully squatted down to prepare to move a little closer. However, Valentina stretched out her hand weakly and said:
“Don’t, don’t come closer.”
“Okay, I’ll stay here.”
Fisher looked at Valentina, who was nearly burrowing into the edge of her wheelchair. She not only had a rosy complexion but also spoke in a surprisingly soft voice. To avoid further alarming her, he could only raise both hands to show he harbored no ill intentions.
Valentina gasped for a few moments, and after waiting for her overloaded brain to regain oxygen, she peeked through her fingers at Fisher. His expression was calm, devoid of the ambiguous atmosphere from earlier, which gave Valentina great comfort. She finally cautiously straightened up a little from her limp state, yet her face remained flushed, and her gaze was still evasive.
“Can you tell me what you saw in the ice just now?”
“A hallucination.”
After several seconds, Valentina spoke softly.
“A hallucination? Can you describe what you saw?”
“I can’t describe it! Absolutely cannot!”
Upon hearing Fisher ask her to describe it, her face turned even redder, and while frantically rubbing the ring on her finger, she decisively refused. This only made Fisher more curious about what prophecy she had witnessed in the ice. However, since she wouldn’t say anything, he could only share what information he had with Valentina.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to say. The key is not this, but the fact that you can see visions in the ice. As a Northern dweller, you should know about the various legends surrounding the Phoenix race, which often include the ability to see into the future. I want to say that this ability is real. Although it’s not as omnipotent as in myths, they can indeed see vague glimpses of the future.”
Fisher looked at Valentina and raised a finger.
“Phoenixes have watched over the ice since childhood. Their ability to predict the future comes from that. According to legend, they led the North in repelling formidable enemies from other places, and their victory was closely tied to this ability.”
“Prophecy? Wait, are you saying…”
Valentina suddenly captured a very critical piece of information from Fisher’s words: what she saw in the ice was not a hallucination but was likely a prophecy only the Phoenix race could see!
This meant that what she saw… was something that would happen in the future, and she likely had the bloodline of the Phoenix race within her, which allowed her to sense the Frost Parasol Tree and use the Moon Princess’s powers? What about the hereditary illness in her family? Was it also related to the bloodline within her?
She looked at Fisher with a flushed face, massaging her temples in a bit of headache, temporarily pushing aside the embarrassing matters that might happen in the future and asked:
“Do you mean I might have the bloodline of the Phoenix race within me?”
“Just a guess, but many of your traits align, including those situations I mentioned before. I just haven’t figured out the onset mechanism of your hereditary illness. Logically speaking, even if your body contains the bloodline of the Phoenix race, it shouldn’t manifest in such a burdensome manner.”
Valentina not only had disabilities in her legs, but it also seemed like there were traces left by the so-called hereditary illness. The offspring born from the Phoenix race shouldn’t be so unstable. Moreover, this had been the case in her family for generations. Her condition seemed more like she had suffered some kind of curse, a curse named “bloodline.”
“Miss Valentina, can you confirm your possession of the Phoenix bloodline? I could explore your hereditary illness. May I study the deformities you mentioned earlier? There might be something to find.”
“Pervert!”
Fisher’s words were abruptly cut off. Looking at Valentina, who seemed taken aback by having heard something impolite, she pressed her lips together and covered herself with her hands, glancing at herself with slightly red eyes as if she felt he was bullying her, causing Fisher’s expression to change to a blank stare.
No, what did she think of him? It seemed something was off with her since she looked at the ice. Not only was she wary of him, but her face had also been red the whole time.
Could it be that she saw him in the prophecy, especially something… not so good?
Pretending to calm down, Fisher nodded and stood up, turning to walk towards the door.
“Well, I initially intended to fulfill your request, but since you resist so much, I’ll leave to avoid misunderstandings. I’m sorry for being meddlesome.”
“Fisher…”
He pretended to be hurt by her words and was about to turn and leave, but Valentina behind him was slightly taken aback and gently reached out her hand towards Fisher, yet in the end, couldn’t speak a word and just watched him walk toward the door.
Though Fisher had intentionally slowed his walking pace, he still didn’t hear her call him back. It seemed this young lady was even more difficult than he had imagined.
Just as he sighed and planned to leave and speak again tomorrow, a cheerful song suddenly echoed in the silent room, as if coming from a great distance, growing louder and louder.
“Kexiening, Kexiening, Kexiening, Kexiening, Kexiening, Kexiening!”
Fisher paused his steps, suddenly feeling a sense of familiarity with this song, recognizing it from somewhere. His excellent memory reminded him that it was from the deep wilderness of the Southern Continent, at the place where he had bought Raphael. There had once been a traveling circus, and the leader seemed to be called Colin.
On the surface, Colin was a circus ringmaster providing quality performances to guests from different places. In reality, however, he was a smuggler providing illegal luxury goods to clients from various countries.
And that circus was called…
Kexiening Circus!
“Fisher!”
In an instant, as this thought crossed Fisher’s mind, he quickly turned to look behind him, only to see the walls of the room beginning to contract like soft balloons, and as the walls rapidly closed in, the direction of gravity in the room tilted, startling Valentina, who was sitting in her wheelchair in the center of the room.
She tightly grasped the armrests of her wheelchair, trying to keep it from toppling backward, but with her frail strength, she was unable to do so. Thus, she could only watch helplessly as she uncontrollably fell toward the back of the room, and in her panic, she looked up at Fisher, who was moving farther away from her, and for the first time, called out loudly.
What kind of trick is this?
Fisher’s magical circuit lit up, and with his enhanced perception from the Soul Supplement Handbook, he sensed no magical energy moving around them, which meant that the person acting had not used magic.
The surrounding room continued to tighten, and prior to this, Fisher had already dashed towards Valentina like lightning, grabbing her delicate hand in his. Her backward motion suddenly paused, but the room had shrunk to the point of no return, quickly wrapping them both within it.
“Hey, we were just stealing the ice. How come we’re taking two people with us?”
As the surrounding space continued to constrict, it did not inflict any actual harm on Fisher and Valentina. Fisher held Valentina tightly under him, and before long, he keenly sensed something above them was seemingly speaking.
He opened his eyes and found that he and Valentina were in an extremely strange and spacious area, all around them seemingly bound by a jelly-like green material. In that peculiar substance, small flickers of golden light danced, allowing Valentina and Fisher to see without everything being completely obscured.
Fisher looked up and saw that the space connected top and bottom, extending several hundred meters high and tens of meters wide. There were also various worthless items scattered around, with only he, Valentina, and the piece of ice huddled together, resembling newly arrived guests.
Taking a breath, Valentina looked up at Fisher, who was still tightly holding her hand. This accelerated her heart rate, especially connecting it to the prophecy she had just seen. However, as she saw him focus entirely on assessing their surroundings while protecting her, that sense of discomfort cleverly faded away. Curious, she didn’t mention how he was holding her hand and simply looked around and asked:
“Where is this? Why is it so strange? There’s also a weird scent of grass and wood. Was someone just talking?”
“Yeah, but no matter what, it seems like they came for this piece of ice. We just happened to be unfortunate extras. But I can’t tell what method was just used, could it be some kind of relic?”
He glanced at the jelly-like walls beside him, worried that the substance might be corrosive, and prodded it with the Fluid Sword he held, only to find that though it was very soft, it wouldn’t tear. Even with the sharpness of the Fluid Sword, any cutting attempts just got repelled by that green material.
As Fisher and Valentina surveyed their surroundings, at that moment, a partially awake Emhart suddenly poked his head out from Fisher’s arms. After scanning the area with one sleepy eye, he appeared quite surprised and floated up, glancing at Fisher and then at the Valentina whose hand he was holding. He was momentarily speechless, struggling to find the right words.
“What are you two doing here? This isn’t an ordinary place; it’s a Slime’s [Slime Space]. Getting locked in here won’t be pleasant for you… But why is it so empty here? I heard that every Slime’s space is filled with treasures, but this place seems to have a lot of [value] traces. This Slime must have once been quite wealthy; I wonder how they fell from grace.”
Just as Fisher was about to speak, Valentina behind him could no longer resist and gently patted the hand Fisher was holding. This finally reminded Fisher to let go. He softly apologized and released her, then looked back at Emhart.
“Slime race? Are you saying it was the Slime race that attacked us?”
Emhart nodded, the golden glow in his belly swirling continuously.
“Yes, it’s definitely the work of the Slime race. Didn’t I tell you before? The Slime race is a race born to do business. It’s not just because they have a knack for commerce; it’s also due to their unique racial traits. You know, the six races loyal to the Phoenix each have their own little traits. The Cangniao Tribe is particularly good at fighting, the Moon Rabbit Tribe can discover hidden things at night, and the Snow Fox Tribe can smell visualized scents.”
“The Slime race can convert the money and treasures they possess into [value], and use that value to create spaces for storing items and for space transport. That’s why back in the inconvenient ancient times, you could see Slime merchants selling goods everywhere. Items exchanged for value quickly dissipate in all sorts of strange ways, even locking them up doesn’t help. Moreover, ephemeral things can also be converted to value, such as fame, etc.”
“Some Slimes that love money and treasures are reluctant to exchange those things for intangible value, so they engage in charity, art, and performances to earn reputation, which can also be exchanged for value for storage and transportation.”
Upon hearing this, Fisher suddenly thought of the exceedingly strange Colin he met in the Southern Continent. That guy not only traveled with a circus to various countries but also stuffed the bag of gold coins he accepted into his body, causing him to gain quite a bit of weight.
So that guy was actually a Slime race from the North?
“This bunch of races that love to run around in fake skins, I had my family and Balzak search the North for them and found no trace, yet they came knocking on our door. The process, however, is a bit impolite.”
Valentina tapped her chin and said, while Fisher had been looking up at the upper part of the space. A second later, he suddenly took Emhart, who was floating in mid-air, in his hand and handed him to Valentina, who was sitting in the wheelchair behind him.
“What do you want me to do with this? A talking book relic?”
“I hear some sort of voice coming from above; I’m going to check it out. You can’t move freely, so I’ll give Emhart to you. If anything happens, he can give you advice to keep you from panicking too much.”
Valentina stared blankly as she accepted the peculiar-eyed book handed to her by Fisher, then looked up at him and said silently,
“Do you think I’m someone who loses their composure and is not responsible?”
“If you hadn’t called my name just now, I would’ve thought so.”
Fisher turned back and smiled at Valentina, afterward pushing off the ground powerfully like a cannonball, soaring upward, leaving Valentina somewhat dumbfounded.
Is this guy… still human?
For some reason, looking at Fisher’s remarkably strong back, Valentina suddenly recalled the scene she saw in the prophecy. Her face turned slightly red, and she lightly coughed, raising the Emhart in her hand and examining it before she greeted him.
“Hello there, Mr. Book.”
Emhart squinted at Valentina and rolled his eyes, sarcastically replying, “Hello there, wheelchair lady.”
“…”
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(End of this chapter)
