Chapter 88: Seeking Akarnis
After rolling around on over ten thousand gold coins, Jima finally stood up, feeling too cramped, and the coins clinked as they fell from her body.
Having obtained a huge sum of money, Jima tightly hugged the coins and walked to where she hid them. Under the big tree in front of the palace, she took careful steps forward, and behind her, the coins rolled along the ground as if they were alive, following her closely.
“One step, two steps, three steps… fifteen steps, right turn ten steps.”
Once she finished her count, Jima stopped and looked around to ensure no one was watching. She then lowered her head and focused on the grass beneath her feet.
The grass parted automatically, revealing a large hole. Sunlight poured down, glinting off the bottom of the pit. Jima poured all the coins down, and seeing her secret treasure increased, a “sincere” smile appeared on her face, much like a hardworking farmer who had just seen a good harvest.
With a thought, the hole in front of her closed on its own.
“Now it definitely can’t be stolen by that little brat George.”
After the grass sealed up, she bent down to pat the solid ground, appearing to have no flaws, and then left satisfied.
Next, she turned her attention to the two rusted metal cans that Xiya had brought.
She had no idea which church these things belonged to before, but who cared? As long as they weren’t recognized, it was fine.
There were too many items, so Jima conjured a cloud, placing a jumble of things on it, and then sat on another cloud, flying straight to the alchemy workshop located in the side hall.
She took out the enchanted candles, lit the incense, and soothed the magical properties of various alchemical materials. Finally, she hesitated as she focused on the rusted gray metal cans.
Potions made from this “shadow material” could definitely not contain the extraordinary powers of Jenna and George.
She needed to find an extraordinary person, someone who could pack extraordinary power into a potion and had a close relationship with her, willing to repeatedly expend magical energy to demonstrate their extraordinary abilities.
A name she did not wish to mention popped into her mind—Akarnis.
This troublemaker who relished chaos had disguised himself as a witch hunter in Marin City, causing havoc and even injuring himself. With the turmoil in Marin City, he could definitely be considered an accomplice.
And he did all that just to avoid being the mother of Young Master Isis.
“What a standard troublemaker.”
Although, in some sense, they shared a mutual appreciation for mischief, Jima really didn’t want to see him.
Perhaps upon meeting, he would recall that she had previously tricked him, and in a fit of rage, he might draw his sword without giving her a chance to explain.
“Is that how it ends?”
Jima reminisced about Akarnis’s abilities:
The moment he stepped into a shadow, he could appear from a distant shadow, undetected.
In the blink of an eye, he would vanish from sight, following the target, staying within half a meter of them, quietly observing while they drank tea, showered, or had dinner.
His invisibility was much more draining than her own.
Feeling restless, Jima thought, as the saying goes, being prepared increases the odds of success. She remembered being defeated by a powerful extraordinary person during a divination of “Demon King’s Extraordinary Material.”
This grudge must be avenged.
No longer hesitating, Jima began to create the “canned potion.” The first step was to draw blood. She pulled out a sharp knife and hesitated, making a few tentative passes across her palm but afraid to cut.
After a minute of hesitation, she turned her head and wiped her palm with force, a sting spreading through her hand.
“It hurts!”
Jima recalled the sensation of getting a shot as the dark red blood dripped into a transparent glass jar. Her blood seemed to have some vitality, splattering high when it hit the bottom of the jar, attempting to escape from the opening but only splattering against the walls of the jar.
She took a few breaths, drank the healing potion, and began to concoct the magical potion.
Making one bottle of the canned potion took her nearly four hours.
Yawning, she stood up, felt a bit faint, as if she had anemia, unsure if it was psychological or a side effect of the canned potion.
She had a light snack and then turned to go back to rest.
On the third day, in the evening.
Outside the city of Mut, on the main road leading to the Obsidian Pass.
A large coalition army of the Empire slowly came to a halt beside the road. The most abundant sight was flags—electoral, regimented, and knightly banners stretched all the way to the horizon.
After this cumbersome beast came to a stop, orders were given, and a group of scouts quickly departed from it, heading into the distance. A large number of soldiers surged toward the nearby woods to gather firewood to feed this cumbersome beast’s hunger.
Tents sprang up, and bonfires were lit one after another. As the sun set, a Milky Way appeared in the night sky, and a “star river” formed on the ground made of bonfire flames.
Inside a tent set up by infantry.
A new recruit named Henry from the small village of Skari near Marin City hugged a battered pot helmet that seemed older than he was. Its surface was pocked and dented, and several craftsmen were trying to hammer out the dents with heavy iron hammers.
Henry stared at the bonfire in front of him, having recently boiled his blistered feet by the fire, and he sat there in a daze.
Suddenly, a large hand slapped his shoulder.
“Is our Skari Sword Saint thinking of the girls back home?”
Henry turned around and saw the ten-man leader known as Crooked Mouth, his direct superior. Crooked Mouth’s mouth wasn’t originally crooked, but after a southern raider struck him with an axe, his mouth became twisted, an ugly scar contorting his lips into a crooked grin.
Henry shook his head at Crooked Mouth.
“Then what are you doing just sitting there?” Crooked Mouth said. “After two days of forced marches, you’re too tired to talk? If you ask me, you people from Marin City are really delicate.”
Henry felt a bit anxious: “No, no, it’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
Crooked Mouth sat down beside him, while his comrades chatted and laughed nearby. Shields and longswords leaned against each other, the blades reflecting the glow of the bonfire.
“Are we really going to fight the orcs?”
Crooked Mouth asked, “Are you scared?”
“I’m not scared, it’s just… just that I heard the cities blocking the southern kingdom on the way of the greenskins were all burned down. They say this is the biggest green tide ever,” Henry said. “I’ve heard there are a lot of big greenskins….”
Henry had a dream of becoming a Sword Saint, but he wasn’t ready. Having only enlisted for three or four months, he suddenly had to prepare for the battlefield against what was said to be an unprecedented green tide.
From time to time, he still dreamed about his first day of enlistment, poking a scarecrow with a big stick, and woke up realizing he was headed to the battlefield to battle the greenskins.
“I heard you killed a lot of rioters in Marin City; how can you be scared of blood?” Crooked Mouth smirked dismissively. “I’ve seen the greenskins; they’re just a bunch of big, muscular beasts that only charge forward and make noise. Just listen to your commanders, lay your spears flat, and they’ll charge right into the spearheads and die without you putting in any effort.”
Although Henry thought his commander was bragging, his dismissive smile somewhat reassured him.
He asked, “I also heard the greenskins charge riding wild boars.”
“What are you afraid of? Did you see those arrogant knights during the day? Though they have foul tempers and spend all day polishing their armor until it shines like a mirror, it’s easy to fight those greenskins riding boars because their lances are longer. The greenskins mounted on boars won’t even have time to swing their knives before being jabbed to death.”
“What about the trolls? They stink and love to eat people; I heard they’re two meters tall and heal quickly.”
“Just a bunch of cowards; you could scare them off with a torch.”
“And the big black-skinned orc?”
“There are giant swordsmen with big magic swords.”
“What about the giants? I heard they’re as tall as a house and swing great trees, turning people into paste with a single swipe.”
At that moment, a loud flapping sound echoed in the night sky as a massive black silhouette flew over the camp, the wind from its wings causing the bonfire to flicker wildly.
Many soldiers stood up, pointing at the sky. Henry also looked up at the gigantic shadow soaring above. It was a massive griffin, its wings spread wider than the road itself, its body about the same size as a water cart he had seen before, adorned in heavy armor with a faint black cross visible on its surface.
As it flew overhead, Henry felt both awed and terrified.
Someone shouted, “Look! It’s Deathclaw, the Emperor’s mount.”
Crooked Mouth slapped him on the shoulder and said, “What are you afraid of? If the sky falls, there’ll be a tall person to hold it up. You’re just a goblin at most; it won’t fall on your head. All those giant monsters, our Emperor will tear them into chunks of meat.”
With such a mighty steed, the Emperor himself must be a brave and skilled warrior. With him leading, how could they fear a defeat?
Henry felt reassured, while Crooked Mouth continued to ramble:
“… No one fears the greenskins anymore. The Holy Maiden has come. Everyone says she’s a greenskin killer. One time, she used a divine spell to burn thousands of orcs to a crisp.”
In Crooked Mouth’s words, there was a Holy Maiden with the courage to not be daunted by thousands of greenskins, while in her own bunk, the Holy Maiden Jenna was having an incredibly awkward dream.
She dreamt that during a family gathering, she publicly took off her white stockings in front of George, her parents, Jima, and all her relatives and friends, tossing the stockings, which had a smudge of black at the toe, into the bubbling hot pot, while everyone looked at her in shock and confusion.
The Holy Maiden Jenna’s face turned crimson as she tightly grasped the mattress beneath her.
“Jenna… Jenna…”
A hand slapped her chest, and after a long time, Jenna woke up with a start, screaming, “Ah!”
She sat up, her golden hair falling messily over her trembling chest.
The intruder was none other than Jima, who asked, “Jenna, did you have a nightmare?”
“No, nothing.” Jenna suddenly remembered something and asked, “Did you see it?”
“See what?”
“Nothing… nothing.” Seeing Jima’s face filled with strange familiarity again and recalling her earlier dream, Jenna couldn’t help but grab the blanket to cover her face and sob, “Wuwu, it’s so… so.”
Jima’s lips curled slightly, but she asked with concern, “So what?”
Taking a deep breath, Jenna lowered the blanket and said, “Nothing. By the way, Jima, did you need something from me?”
“Of course I do,” Jima replied. “Do you know where that guy Akarnis is? I heard he’s working for the Empire now.”
