Chapter 2758 Elemental Seed <TOC> Chapter 2760 Eye of Arcana
Translator: SumTLMan
「Interesting.」After pondering for a moment, the Black Count seemed to think of something and let out a low chuckle.
「Previously, I speculated that those four sheep might be special creatures summoned by a special summoning spell, possessing special abilities, only thus did they manage to pin down Speedling.」
The word「special」originally refers to things that deviate from the norm. To deviate from the norm is to be rare.
The Black Count said「special」three times in a row; these three「specials」are not equal in meaning but progressive. It can be understood as: in the ocean, first lock onto all shellfish; among all shellfish, lock onto those that can produce pearls; among those that can produce pearls, further lock onto the single shell that can produce the most perfect pearl.
It can be called rarity among rarities, selection among selections.
Such a probability is extremely low, infinitely close to zero.
Therefore, after saying this, the Black Count could not help but mock himself:「Thinking back now, that’s rather laughable.」
「Then, my lord, what is your view now……?」Angel asked.
The Black Count:「It should have nothing to do with summoning spells, but rather with this Shepherd’s ability.」
「What I can be certain of is that this Shepherd is definitely a rhythm apprentice of the wind school on the elemental branch, but he is not merely a rhythm apprentice.」
Daus furrowed his brow:「A dual school talent?」
The Black Count:「No, he’s of the elemental branch, wind school; only his wind is a little bit special.」
At this point the Black Count looked to Kael:「You faced his wind directly. What characteristics do you think his wind had?」
Kael froze for a moment and began recalling Shepherd’s wind sensed upon the arena platform. That wind was gentle yet heavy, violent yet tranquil. His wind was exceedingly variable, and moreover, his wind gave Kael a special feeling……
Kael searched for words, hesitated for a long while, and then said:「It always felt as if his wind was alive.」
The Black Count:「Your perception is keen.」
「Truly living wind?!」Kael exclaimed in surprise:「I mean, can wind be living too?」
The Black Count:「Why couldn’t it be living? Speedling is precisely living wind.」
The Black Count then looked at Angel and Daus. Daus and Kael wore much the same expression, looking as if they hadn’t understood; whereas Angel narrowed his eyes, as though he had thought of something.
The Black Count fixed his gaze on Angel:「What is it, have you got an answer?」
Angel shook his head:「No, I merely thought of a person all of a sudden.」
Seeing the Black Count still watching him, Angel said softly:「It’s unrelated to this matter.」
The Black Count:「You should know that inspiration doesn’t arise for no reason, yes?」
Angel:「I know; however, the person I thought of truly has nothing to do with this.」
The Black Count gave Angel a long look and did not pursue that topic further; instead, he returned to the main point:「Regarding Shepherd’s ability, I could not previously be certain; but what Speedling described has reminded me of something.」
「There is a wizard in the Frostmoon Alliance with a rather interesting ability who once published a paper in《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》. The paper is quite interesting and is titled《Flame’s Will》.」
「The paper《Flame’s Will》discusses how to proactively endow flame with will, and, once flame possesses will, how it advances into a flame creature.」
At this, Daus suddenly said:「I think I’ve seen that issue of《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》.」
Daus:「That paper was even the featured article of that issue of《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》, taking up nearly half the pages. But what it mentioned were all sorts of conjectures, utterly impossible to realize; even the author of the paper said it was his reasonable conjecture.」
「Reasonable? Heh, it shouldn’t be a reasonable conjecture, but an idealized conjecture.」
「Precisely because of that paper, that issue of《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》was criticized by many wizards. Even in my tavern, people cursed about it, saying the paper got into《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》through the back door.」
「After that, for the next several issues, the Frostmoon Alliance’s《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》never again carried any papers; only then did they salvage the fermenting public opinion.」Daus paused, recalling:「If I remember right, that issue seemed to be the Repose Supplement of Issue 245.」
While Daus was speaking, Angel was also recalling. Before he went to the Abyss, he had crammed a large number of《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》; Witch Madeline had even drawn up a series of issue lists for him, stating which issues were worth reading and which were not.
Among them, Issue 245 had both a Spring Festival Supplement and a Repose Supplement. Madeline recommended only the Spring Festival Supplement; the Repose Supplement was not listed among the issues worth reading.
Hearing the issue number Daus gave, Angel then realized: he had previously wondered why, after reading so many issues of《The Plane Expedition Chronicles》, he remembered nothing of such a paper, turns out he happened to skip that one.
Still, after hearing what the Black Count and Daus said, Angel also understood why Witch Madeline had not recommended that issue.
Endowing flame with will and making flame become an elemental creature, this already sounds unreliable; and according to Daus, even the author himself called it a「reasonable conjecture」, to put it plainly,「head-canon」, which makes it all the more impractical. Madeline’s not recommending it is normal.
Angel figured that even had he read that issue, he would probably have scoffed. But now that the Black Count suddenly mentioned this paper, could it be that the argument in it truly had some possibility of being realized?
The Black Count:「You’re right: that paper did meet with heavy censure; but to my knowledge, it did not get in through the back door. Rather, there were indeed some results; it’s just that the author did not write them in.」
「My lord means that by the method of that paper, one can truly endow flame with will?」Daus asked in surprise.
The Black Count:「I don’t know whether that paper can endow flame with will. But that author, after conducting some control-group experiments, did indeed find flames with abnormally high activity, appearing as though a will had been endowed. However, due to the author’s physical condition, he could not continue attempting it; therefore the experiment went no further.」
At this point the Black Count added a remark:「This information should be accurate, because it was mentioned to me personally by Wizard Mengke when we exchanged ideas.」
Exchanging with Lord Mengke?! The supreme leader of the Frostmoon Alliance?
Daus looked at the Black Count in astonishment, but soon relaxed. It made sense: the Black Count is a being of the same tier as Lord Mengke. Lord Mengke’s desire to advance into the Legendary Realm is known to all; exchanging with peers to make progress is normal.
Angel looked toward the Black Count:「Since you cannot be certain of that paper’s effectiveness, why bring it up? And what does that paper have to do with Shepherd?」
The Black Count:「I truly cannot be sure whether《Flame’s Will》is effective; I never took that paper to heart. It’s just that when I saw Shepherd, I discovered he shares a commonality with that paper’s author.」
「Shepherd appears to be an ordinary wind school apprentice, whereas that author appears to be an ordinary fire school wizard.」The Black Count especially stressed the word 『ordinary』:「But are they truly ordinary? How could an ordinary fire school wizard endow flame with will?」
Here, the Black Count finally spoke the name of the author of that paper.
「This not-ordinary fire school wizard, who is also the author of that paper, is named…… Winchester.」
Winchester?! When Angel heard this name, he was stunned.
Not only because he had met Winchester, but also because…… with the mention of this name, he now understood why the Black Count had suddenly brought up a paper that looked completely unrelated to Shepherd.
The reason is clear now: because this fire school wizard, nicknamed「Burning Blood Flame」, is an extremely special fire school wizard.
He is a fire element transmuter!
As luck would have it, earlier when the Black Count said Shepherd might not merely be an ordinary wind school apprentice, Angel had also thought of someone.
Of course, not Winchester, but Nausica’s friend, the water school apprentice who had once nearly cut off Angel on the third floor of Sky Tower:「Sleepy Trickle to Flowing Stream」Hilary!
Hilary, like Winchester, is an elemental transmuter, Hilary is a water element transmuter!
When these clues connected, Angel understood what the Black Count meant.
「A wind element transmuter? My lord means Shepherd is a wind element transmuter?」
The Black Count looked at Angel with some surprise. He had not yet revealed the final answer, and hadn’t expected Angel to already have guessed it.
One must know that the fact of Winchester being a fire element transmuter is little known.
「That’s right. I suspect Shepherd may well be a wind element transmuter.」The Black Count:「Winchester is a fire element transmuter and also Wizard Mengke’s student. I’ve heard Mengke say that Winchester’s paper might be realizable only by elemental transmuters.」
「Winchester can be said to have taken half a step forward. Unfortunately, Winchester’s constitution is weak; after using his ability he vomits great quantities of blood, so he could only write the latter half of that paper through conjecture.」
「If the core argument of that paper is not wrong, and if Wizard Mengke’s conjecture is also correct, then the only ones who could artificially endow elements with will, indeed even give elemental will the embryonic form of advancing into an elemental creature, would be elemental transmuters.」
「The answer is self-evident: Shepherd is not merely a rhythm apprentice; he is in fact a wind element transmuter.」
Hearing this, everyone saw the light.
Reverse-deducing from these clues, there are still some flaws, but the logic can at least be made to work. Indeed, only if Shepherd is a wind element transmuter would he be able to endow wind elements with will.
This is far more reliable than the prior conjecture the Black Count offered:「A special summoning spell summons a special summoned creature that also has special gifts.」
The Black Count said:「However, can a wind element transmuter truly endow elements with will so easily? Why do those strange sheep, and that shepherd dog, have corporeal bodies? I think Shepherd may have read that paper and been inspired to some extent, but he should also be hiding other secrets.」
At this, the Black Count stopped.
As for what secrets Shepherd is still hiding, mere analysis makes it hard to discover.
Nevertheless, that the Black Count could infer, from a few clues provided by Speedling, that Shepherd is a wind element transmuter, that truly earned Angel’s admiration.
Differences in breadth of experience and depth of judgment often show precisely in such details.
「If Speedling’s assessment is not wrong, and those black-faced sheep can truly advance into wind elemental creatures before long……」Angel mused:「Then I, for one, look forward to their future.」
Not only Angel showed a look of expectation; Daus and Kael could not help but nod as well.
Even though none of them walk the elemental branch, elemental abilities are almost a required course for every wizard; and after becoming formal wizards, elemental companions are what every wizard goes in search of.
Under such circumstances, nearly all wizards are intensely concerned with papers related to the elemental branch and with information about elemental creatures.
Even someone like Daus, who is not of the academic faction, very much wants to know this kind of research: in the end, what differences exist between wind element creatures cultivated artificially and elemental creatures born of nature?
Those four black-faced sheep that know how to cooperate and possess intelligence, in their eyes, truly have a promising future.
The only pity is that they likely won’t see answers to these questions. After all, the future is full of variables: whether Shepherd can cultivate wind elemental creatures is still an unknown. Even if he does, they cannot watch him day in and day out; they can only hope that, in the future, should Shepherd truly succeed, he will be willing, like Winchester, to share his results.
However, that is probably unlikely. Shepherd has no background, and the Wizarding World of the Southern Region is sorely lacking in elemental creatures. After Shepherd sticks his head up, unlike Winchester he will not have Lord Mengke as a towering mountain to rely on; he may very well vanish without a trace.
Thinking of this, the crowd could not help but shake their heads and sigh.
While everyone’s attention was on Shepherd, the duel in the arena had also reached a white heat.
Vai versus Mammoth: under normal circumstances, Vai had almost no room to win. Yet in this battle, Mammoth, as a bloodline branch apprentice, was somewhat underperforming.
It was apparent that Mammoth was absent-minded all along, and in fighting he seemed to be binding his own hands and feet.
If it were out of worry about injuring Vai and thus landing himself on the Noah family’s blacklist, that did not quite fit either. Previously Ghost Shadow had the same concern, yet Ghost Shadow bore not the slightest burden.
This left the crowd puzzled.
However, Mammoth’s self-restraint also gave Vai an opening.
Vai was already in a resentful state. He activated the Noah bloodline and, in concert with earth energy, his defense became extremely strong; trading blows head-on with Mammoth, he was not much inferior.
Now that the fight had reached a fever pitch, Vai even gained a slight advantage, to the amazement of the onlookers.
Especially Daus, who clicked his tongue in wonder. He had thought that after so many years cooped up in Mesomiya, Vai’s sense for battle had atrophied almost completely; he did not expect that Vai still had hot blood in him.
Battle in anger often turns reckless under the rush of hot blood; but Vai was different, you could plainly see that although Vai’s attacks were aggressive, when Mammoth counterattacked he advanced and retreated with measured control.
To increase courage and strength by going berserk yet still find reason within the frenzy, this is something even Daus finds hard to achieve.
In such a situation, Vai gradually expanded his advantage.
Mammoth, on the other hand, grew more and more passive. Who knows what psychological burden he bore. From his frequent glances toward the Gray Merchant and Shrew, one could guess that Mammoth’s current predicament might be related to the Gray Merchant and Shrew.
Several more minutes passed.
In a rhythm of tension and release, Vai actually brought out a Noah secret spell. Caught unawares, Mammoth was nearly completely encircled by earth spikes.
If his range of movement continued to be constricted by the earth spikes, in at most two minutes Mammoth would surely be defeated.
At this moment, Mammoth finally made up his mind.
He slowly removed the brown mammoth mask, revealing a face that looked exceedingly honest and guileless.
Then, before all eyes, Mammoth took out a blood-red object and pressed it to his own forehead.
That blood-red object looked like a translucent glass sphere, but when it touched Mammoth’s forehead, blood-colored bud-tendrils began to spread incessantly from the「sphere’s」surface. These fleshy tendrils lengthened continuously and sank deeply into Mammoth’s skull.
The whole scene induced a visceral discomfort.
A few seconds later, there appeared upon Mammoth’s forehead a blood-red organ akin to an eye.
Seeing this, Angel was still wondering what that blood-red eye on the forehead was. But Daus’ face changed; in a deep voice he said:「This is…… a masterless organ!」
Chapter 2758 Elemental Seed <TOC> Chapter 2760 Eye of Arcana