Chapter 104: Heading Out for Materials

As for the orichalcum ore, it was 'readjusted' from within Tarot Manor.

Don't doubt it, it was just readjustment.

After prior negotiations with Chu Yuan, representing the Supreme Council, Shang Chuan had consolidated the resources of the entire manor.

He recorded the outputs of everyone's respective regions—whether it was ores, medicinal herbs, or even monsters—down to the last detail.

In Shang Chuan's words, whenever anyone needed anything in the future, they could speak straight to him.

He would then coordinate the circulation of materials across each region.

This way, everyone merely needed to say the word; they could leave the rest entirely up to him to handle.

To this, everyone raised both hands in approval.

After all, everyone's time was quite precious.

And this exemplified Shang Chuan's value within the manor.

Although it wasn't as if Chu Yuan lacked merchants, nor was there no one else capable of reaching Shang Chuan's level of proficiency...

But truthfully speaking, Chu Yuan personally had no desire to drag those merchants from the Council into this.

Or rather, he didn't want Tarot Manor exposed to the Council prematurely.

He had his own plans.

Whether the members within the manor knew of his identity, had guessed it, or were completely oblivious, practically everyone maintained an attitude of indifference.

They went about their own business exactly like Lan Qingyou.

To them, their primary objective was to rapidly absorb the magical knowledge of this other world and survive.

Although they had survived two mana turbulences and one mana tide completely intact up to now, and even lived far more comfortably than the vast majority of people...

It was precisely because they knew more than others that they were all the more certain that the Kalim Continent was absolutely no place to enjoy life.

It could even be said that beneath the surface, they were far more 'anxious' than the vast majority of people.

Mana turbulence? Mana tide?

In their eyes, these were merely appetizers. By Wheel of Fortune's phrasing, these were nothing more than the most common 'natural phenomena' of this world.

It was exactly like how Blue Star occasionally experienced tremendously destructive typhoons, rainstorms, and tsunamis.

As long as the proper methods were employed, one could evade them without harm.

These wouldn't even count as 'crises'.

Just like now.

A certain someone could hardly wait to throw her materials into the upgrade column after having obtained enough of them.

[Do you wish to upgrade to a Level Five Shelter?]

When all the materials were gathered, this dialogue box that Lan Qingyou was incredibly familiar with popped up on the magic desk.

[Yes] [No]

Of course she had to select 'Yes'!

With a bit of excitement, Lan Qingyou reached her hand out, preparing to press down.

But when her finger was 0.1 centimeters away from the screen, she caught a glimpse of the herb field beside her from the corner of her eye.

"Eyyy~~~~!!"

Lan Qingyou immediately jerked her hand away, the speed of her movement nearly dislocating her arm!

"That was close! That was close!"

Lan Qingyou felt a bout of lingering fear; a faint layer of cold sweat had even materialized on her back.

For no other reason than the fact that seeing the herb field made her recall a certain matter.

She had plenty of everything else on hand, but she hardly had any sludge left.

When she upgraded later, wouldn't the herb field also require expansion?

Or rather, following previous trends, expansion was a certainty.

Under circumstances where she lacked sludge, she definitely wouldn't be able to select the expansion option. Seeking to purchase it from others would also probably prove fairly arduous.

After all, despite the abundance of Slimes, she hadn't seen anyone else besides herself beating them up.

Taking a step back, even if someone did fight them, the most they would do was pick up the crystal cores. It was fundamentally impossible for them to dig up sludge just to add to their own troubles, right?

Welp!

Ultimately, she had to go out herself.

Thus, she grabbed her dagger, slung on her herb pouch, and flew out.

In the end, when she flew over to the swamp, she discovered that none of the Slimes that usually wriggled and crawled about were present?

"That shouldn't be the case! Could this mutation have caused these Slimes to mutate into something of an even higher tier and run away?"

After flying two circles around the swamp, Lan Qingyou felt a little gloomy, her face stiff from the freezing cold.

She scratched her head and picked at her face.

Only then did Lan Qingyou pull her Tarot Card from her herb pouch.

In the past, encountering this sort of thing might have left her at a loss, but now she wasn't afraid of these things with her Tarot Card.

With a single scan, everything could be seen with utter clarity.

Lan Qingyou had previously asked in the group about it; the Tarot Cards had been jointly developed by The Magician, The High Priestess, and Wheel of Fortune.

While this scanning function utilized the card as the origin point, coordinating with the 'Mana Perception' magic, before coupling it with 'Mana Theory' to form a perception sphere with a radius of five hundred meters.

Any entity within possessing mana could be perceived.

Whether it was a human, monster, plant, or anything else.

However, because every single thing in this world was brimming with mana, Wheel of Fortune added a 'threshold' atop this foundation.

It would only display entities whose inherent mana exceeded Level 1.

This so-called Level 1 wasn't a judgment made by the world's will, but rather a theory put forth by the people of the manor.

That is, the aforementioned 'Mana Theory'.

To speak in more layman terms, it's a set of standards that the residents of the manor cobbled together themselves.

After all, no one could make sense of what the standards of the world's will were, which made a theory like this necessary to fill in the blanks in this field.

Those less than one were 'harmless' objects like trees, weeds, rocks, and streams.

And those greater than one were entities that could potentially pose a hazard to oneself.

In other words, the green dot Lan Qingyou had seen that day didn't actually indicate the card; rather, it indicated the existence of a person.

It was merely because The Fool was holding the card representing the color blue that the yellow dot meant to represent a human was overridden, presenting itself as a green origin dot.

It was a theory that wasn't exceptionally complicated but wasn't simple either.

There were papers regarding this theory on the forum, but Lan Qingyou hadn't read up to that point yet.

And this was also the reason why the [Monster Encyclopedia] and [Plant Encyclopedia] existed.

It was for the sake of differentiating monsters and dying the dots representing them red.

Anyhow, in Lan Qingyou's eyes, this single scanning function alone proved that this bunch of fellows in the manor truly possessed some remarkable skills.

"I can take this opportunity to test the card's scanning function too. I should see if I can scan out any shelters in the vicinity, lest I get spotted by others in the future."

Flying in the midair, Lan Qingyou fixed her gaze onto the interface of the Tarot Card in her hands.

In the end, she discovered countless red dots existing beneath the swamp that had been frozen stiff and blanketed under a thick layer of accumulated snow.

Moreover, right at the limits of the scanning range laid a grey dot.

She didn't know what it was, but her utmost priority right now was to gather some sludge to bring back.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

This was exactly why having a mobile terminal was great; casually tossing out explosion potions one after another was so much more convenient.

This was something only the spatial grid compartments of a card could accomplish.

If she were using her own herb pouch, any movements meant dumping out everything inside entirely. That was exactly why Lan Qingyou hadn't dared to do this in the past.