Chapter 338: 113. Snow Fox Tribe
The next day, Fisher woke up early. He quickly tidied up the stubble that had grown over the past few days and used the Fluid Sword to trim his hair. This wasn’t Saint Nali, and there weren’t any professional barbers to cater to him, so he had to keep it simple.
Fortunately for him, Fisher had a decent foundation. Even with his awkward technique, he could still bring out his handsome appearance. After cleaning up his stubble and hair, he splashed some cold water on his face, washing away the fatigue from five days of inscribing magic, and transformed back into the determined gentleman of Nali.
He grabbed a towel to wipe his face, and when he looked up at the mirror, he saw a peculiar middle-aged man with sparse hair staring back at him, arms crossed and expressionless. The man wore a strange long robe that Fisher had never seen before, somewhat similar to the funeral robes he had seen among the Dragon Race. It seemed to be a tradition passed down from the distant times of the Dragon Court.
For some reason, the moment he saw the peculiar middle-aged man, he recognized his identity—the Trans from another world, the author of the Soul Supplement Handbook, Jahl Uzz.
Fisher faced this bizarre hallucination without panic. He merely glanced at the man’s receding hairline and realized for the first time that this guy was actually bald.
“.”
The Jahl Uzz in the mirror remained silent, and Fisher continued to wipe his face. As the towel repeatedly brushed against his cheeks, he noticed that the mirror had only reflected the Nali gentleman holding the towel.
Indeed, since yesterday, when he bled in front of Heidi Lin, he had increasingly felt that his body was undergoing drastic changes—not weaker, but rather stranger.
Yesterday, he had managed to deceive the magic-ignorant Heidi Lin and Emhart with the side effects of inscribing magic, yet he could not deceive himself; the distorted soul and the increasingly severe hallucinations sometimes made him consider using his soul as a weapon against Erwind, but only after much prolonged thought did cold sweat break out.
With this in mind, Fisher sighed. After rinsing and wringing out the towel, he took out the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans. The book felt slightly warm in his hands, and shimmering golden letters appeared before his eyes.
[Slime Species Biological Research Progress: 50%]
[Slime Society Research Progress: 37%]
[Congratulations, you have unlocked the first and second stage rewards for biological research and the first stage reward for social research.]
[Constitution +5, Reproductive Ability +8, Personal Status Checker x2, True Sight Ring]
[Personal Status Checker: You will gain a deep understanding of various data regarding your body, but sometimes knowing too much is not a good thing. You understand.]
[True Sight Ring: Legend has it to be the masterpiece of the northern legendary craftsman Cedus. A far-sighted merchant from the North was deceived by the despicable Slime Species to the point of bankruptcy. When he managed to rejuvenate his fortunes, he took this magical pseudo-relic from Cedus, which helps the wearer see through the Slime’s disguise and identify their true forms, hoping to unveil their schemes. Unfortunately, during his second bankruptcy shortly thereafter, the ring was sold, and its whereabouts became unknown.]
Not again?
More reproductive ability? If this continues, either the Soul Supplement Handbook will drive me mad, or I’ll be driven mad myself. Is this the method by which your Handbook for Sub-Humans leads one to corruption?
Fisher, with a face full of black lines, felt his body suddenly becoming extremely light and strong. He felt like he could tear down an entire building with his bare hands. That powerful feeling of strength made him breathe a sigh of relief; he seemed to have advanced significantly in rank, nearly approaching the eleventh rank.
As for the remaining rewards…
He put on the True Sight Ring, which seemed useless at the moment. The Personal Status Checker wasn’t a real item; it simply provided annotations on a virtual interface.
Regarding the so-called status checker, Fisher hesitated. At that moment, he felt like a terminally ill patient hesitating at a hospital entrance. He had a rough idea of whether he had a serious illness, but without confirmation, he could still escape the questioning of his heart, right?
In the end, Fisher decided to face it. He gently touched the word “use” with his consciousness, and the next moment, the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans burst forth with a golden light that quickly swept over his entire body, and then lines of virtual text began to appear.
[Consume Personal Status Checker x1]
[Reader data obtained, your life data is as follows:]
[Life Rank: 10, Reproductive Rank: 17, Soul Strength: 13]
As Fisher perplexedly shifted his gaze away from the strange reproductive rank, he was unexpectedly struck by the additional soul strength. If the ranks corresponded one to one, didn’t this suggest that his soul strength was significantly higher than his current life rank? And it seemed that while he had a bit of a problem reading the Soul Supplement Handbook, it wasn’t as severe as others like Feilon. Why was this?
[Your current status is as follows:]
[Reproductive Hunger: 87%. This is surprising; your rationality has allowed you to endure this much—impressive. But clearly, your body has reached its limit of endurance; what will happen next? It’s quite exciting~]
[Chaos Knowledge (Soul): 66%. The soul is the essence of the self; a soul guided towards truth by knowledge can greatly enhance your abilities in a very short time but also brings about side effects that cannot be adapted to by the self.]
[Chaos Knowledge (Creation): 3%. Mechanisms and other magical creations are part of creation, and creation represents the self’s exploration outward. Is it a blessing or a regret? You still can’t be said to understand this.]
[Madness Accumulation: 37%. You have reached the brink of madness and continue to deteriorate; your abilities will significantly enhance, but your thoughts will silently change, and the world will present itself to you in a new terrifying form. It’s hard to say if this is worth it, but it’s clear that you do not regret it, and your humanity is still relatively clear (laughs)~]
In the past few days, Fisher had not forgotten to read the mechanism chip left to him by the Mechanism. To his great disappointment, it only recorded dozens of production methods for mechanisms, and the complex blueprints and theories left Fisher, who was not well-versed in mechanics, very troubled.
There weren’t any discussions of complex theories within, and the dating methods for creating those mechanisms were provided without any heads or tails. After reading through, you would have no idea of the principles behind the mechanisms; you just needed to follow the steps provided. No wonder he didn’t know anything when he asked the Mechanism; he just needed to copy what he saw, but unfortunately, the conditions for making a mechanism were too harsh, requiring complex apparatuses and prepared materials beforehand. After reading it, Fisher felt it was of no help to him at all.
The only thing that could potentially help was a string of handwritten symbols or characters left on the chip’s blueprints, but neither he nor Fate Lord seemed to understand their meaning. Fisher mostly couldn’t recognize them either but thought that the symbols resembled Jahl Uzz’s writing. What it said was:
[Mikhail]
Fisher thought that word felt like a noun, either a translation of the “Mechanism” using the true writing of the Mechanism or the actual name of the true Mechanism.
“What have you been doing in the washroom for so long? Ugh, even shaving and cutting your hair and all that, you’re not trying to hit on Snow Fox girls again, are you? I’ll remind you in advance, morally I’ve already been quite forgiving to you—the Snow Foxes can sense your true thoughts! If you expose your eager thoughts and spoil the negotiations, that would be bad!”
Emhart stood by the window, squinting as he looked up and down at the freshly groomed and handsome Fisher. He suspiciously said that.
Fisher shook his head while wiping his hands. He didn’t answer Emhart’s question but instead asked, “Did Heidi Lin come to notify us to go down?”
“Of course. A few minutes ago, I heard that the one named Balzak from Schivali has already gone down. That Lion Race fellow might be up by now, so you’d better hurry. Heidi Lin said the Snow Fox Tribe will arrive soon.”
Fisher nodded, put on his suit jacket, and similarly donned his previously inscribed magic rings and accessories one by one. If a sensitive mage like Fisher were present, one would notice that he wore a layer of high-tier magic shimmering with strange fluctuations like armor.
Emhart’s words did make some sense; this level of magic was clearly meant for battle, easily recalling the terrifying scene of Schivali and Nali using magic to bombard each other from afar. However, dealing with Erwind felt even more challenging than winning a war between nations.
Emhart looked at the magic Fisher was wearing, unable to fit it all, and used a bag to store other lower-tier magic to distribute to the others. He shrugged in response to Fisher’s unusual caution but suddenly seemed to sense something and turned to look outside the window.
Down below on the snow-covered road, several carriages drawn by strange creatures resembling both deer and horses were gradually making their way to the hotel. The tracks stopped in front of the hotel, and several short subhuman figures dressed in thick clothing stepped down from the carriages, welcomed by maids of the Turan Family.
Those subhumans had triangular short ears on their heads and long, fluffy white tails that hung straight down to the snow below. Their heights ranged from 1.4 to 1.6 meters, with the one leading a bit over 1.5 meters tall, giving off a somewhat miniature appearance.
The leading subhuman prepared to head into the hotel, welcomed by the maid of the Turan Family. Just as he was about to move his feet, his nose quivered, and he suddenly looked up toward the upstairs, seemingly catching sight of someone studying them through the window. Surprisingly, he only saw a square book above.
“Did I see that wrong?”
The leading subhuman removed his hat and mask, revealing a fluffy head resembling a fox. However, the fur did not appear smooth; it seemed somewhat coarse, with a few snowy white spots like fallen snow on his forehead and around the ears, giving his fox-like face a slightly bewitching appearance.
“Father, what’s wrong?”
Behind him, a shorter female subhuman also took off her mask and hat, revealing a snow-white fox-like face. Her big teal eyes had their originally snow-like white fur turn pink, making her appear quite cute.
However, the slightly older-looking Snow Fox only shot a glance at the female Snow Fox behind him, then sternly admonished her, “Zuna, outside, you must call me clan leader.”
The white Snow Fox, called “Zuna,” stuck out her tongue and switched her little bamboo basket to the other hand. The basket was covered with a piece of fabric, but upon closer inspection, several curious pairs of eyes were peeking out, watching the girl in a wheelchair that appeared at the hotel entrance.
“Miss Valentina Turan, please allow me to convey the most sincere respect of the Turan Family to you.”
Valentina rubbed her ring and smiled as she spoke, “Allow me to express, on behalf of my family, the warmest welcome to you. Due to special circumstances, members of the Turan Family are unable to leave Snowflake Castle; I hope Clan Leader Dar understands.”
The Snow Fox Clan leader, Dar, nodded, about to step forward with Valentina into the hotel when he suddenly seemed to sense something, turning to look at Heidi Lin, who was smiling behind Valentina. In Dar’s eyes, a faint deep purple aura surrounded Heidi Lin, which he caught.
Though faint, Dar still discerned that it represented a “non-welcoming” vibe.
However, the moment Heidi Lin noticed that someone was staring at her, her smile instantly brightened, and that faint non-welcoming aura disappeared.
Seeing this, Valentina curiously asked Dar, “Is there a problem, Clan Leader Dar?”
Dar turned his head, observing the deep green aura emanating from Valentina, which represented “friendliness, sincerity, and welcome.” He shook his head and said, “It’s nothing. Let’s go in and have a good talk about the mark.”
Happy New Year, everyone!
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(End of chapter)
