Chapter 176: Demon Control Union Shopping Street

Eve finally let off one last blast just before the sun rose.

The buzzer-beater challenge succeeded.

But she was utterly exhausted; ignoring the marks all over her body, she collapsed directly onto the bed and fell asleep without even the strength to retrieve her spoils.

Rod cast a 【Cleanse Dust Spell】 on her and tucked her in.

He left the small hut in high spirits.

Welcoming the morning sunlight, he felt inexplicably refreshed.

The banshee Chris floated down from the roof.

Staring at him in shock: "Master, did you kill her? Oh my god, from sunset until now, a whole night."

Rod glanced at her coldly: "This was something you should have endured."

The banshee immediately stammered, lowering her head to admit her fault.

"I... I was doing it for the first time, so I was a bit scared... It's all because Master is too brutal in daily life, and Tally's screams were too exaggerated."

Rod naturally would not really hold it against her.

After all, his interest in banshees wasn't very great to begin with.

Rod and she picked some fresh wild fruits and delivered them to the temporary hospital.

Actually, modern healing spells are not very effective.

Of course, except for Native Spiritual Arts and the Plague Mage's plague therapy.

So the healing effect of the elf Karistis is actually not as good as that of the half-deer Miss Xiao Ke, unless she performs a complex healing ritual requiring Xu Yao Shi Fa materials.

After all, no gods descend upon this continent, so there is no profession of priest who specializes in healing.

Hearing that Rod was going to the market district of the Demon Control Union today, Karistis listed a set of materials for performing a healing ritual for him.

Demon Control Union.

On the streets of the market district.

Just like the last time he came, it was still desolate and quiet.

Rod leaned against a brown wooden counter on the side of the street.

While waiting for the staff to evaluate the spoils he had confiscated from the feathered person Caroline, he chatted intermittently with the cat-lady at the counter.

Sometimes he said her cat ears were cute, and sometimes he borrowed the topic of nail trends to touch her small hands.

The cat-lady receptionist looked at his handsome face, then at the huge pile of treasures waiting for evaluation, and decisively chose to take the bait.

First, she invited him to feel the texture of cat ears, then she showed the tiny barbs on her cute, pink tongue.

She just kept giggling.

The male inventory clerk working nearby listened with a cold face.

Finally, the spoils of the feathered person Caroline, together with the trading goods of the bone dragon Megan from this period, yielded a total of twenty-four thousand and thirty-two Jin Along.

This was the first time Rod had seen so much money.

His eyes lit up.

But the varieties here were ridiculously numerous; after buying the Xu Yao Shi Fa materials required by Karistis, he immediately fell into a state of being dazzled by the multitude.

Not long after moving forward.

Rod saw a familiar figure walking towards him ahead.

A white-robed mage.

The deputy director of the Containment Department, the Bao Mu Fa of Councilor Julia of the Demon Control Union, the rabbit-person Ouna (Rod did not know she was a rabbit-person).

"Forester Rod! Long time no see!"

Under the shadow of Ouna's hood, the half of her sweet face lit up with enthusiasm.

Behind her followed a row of rabbits, jointly carrying a large wooden box, which was fully packed with various Xu Yao Shi Fa materials.

Frog-man legs, fish-man gills, and so on, carrying a fishy stench.

"My lord Ouna."

Rod offered a greeting and was about to take his leave.

His impression of this high-level mage was rather average; he did not really want to get involved with her.

But the other party clearly did not think so.

Ouna approached enthusiastically.

"Is the situation of the 【Dark Vortex Rift Barrier】 still stable? Your cutting maze ritual has been listed by the Demon Control Union as a successful case; soon some rewards will be distributed to you."

Rod is a decent person.

So he said a few polite words, saying things like "It all depends on your care; without your supervision, it would definitely not work."

Ouna, clearly a high-ranking official, was actually quite pleased.

She was so happy she could not close her mouth.

Seeing that she seemed to have no bad intentions, Rod simply consulted her about training techniques, elemental resonance, and treasures that enhance the source.

Ouna was very happy about his consultation; after pondering for a moment, she personally led him to a stall.

【Cosmic Creature — Tongue of the Gravity Frog】.

Price: 13,000 Jin Along / 650 internal points.

This price shocked Rod.

When he first met Ouna, she had gifted him 2,000 internal points; converted, she had effectively given Rod nearly forty thousand Jin Along.

Rod's gaze towards her immediately became warm.

The slightly dissatisfied impression from before instantly dispersed; the petite white-robed mage before him, who reached only to his chest, was suddenly a generous archmage.

Seeing his gaze, Ouna thought he was too ignorant.

She explained: "Fortunately, there are still some left. This kind of tongue is extremely rare. It carries gravity and aether toxins. Some high-tier warriors with decent poison resistance will wrap it around their necks to train their bodies. I've heard the effects are quite good — it's just too expensive."

Rod naturally chose to trust her and immediately bought it with internal credits.

Ona: "Treasures that directly enhance physical constitution and strength are hard to come by. Organs of cosmic creatures might work, but they generally come with bodily mutation."

"Then forget that one."

"I figured as much. Humans are rarely willing to alter their limbs."

Rod asked curiously: "Sounds like there are races that actively want to modify their bodies?"

"Of course — Slimes, undead, mudfolk, and treants, among others. Especially races with no sense of pain; they don't reject bodily transformation."

Speaking of which.

The undead Selina had lost both her hands — perhaps a solution could be found here.

Rod consulted her directly.

Ona nodded and handed over a card.

"There's a dwarf artisan in the Mage Control Union with superb skill — he's an expert at crafting alchemical prosthetics. When you go to find him, give my name. Actually, forget it — absolutely do NOT give my name, or he'll charge you extra!"

"."

Catching Rod's strange look, she defended herself weakly: "It's not me, it's my lord Yulia... ah, forget it."

She went on: "As for elemental resonance, technically it can be done, but the minimum threshold is seventh-tier spirituality. It's generally the specialty of totem-school warriors. Mages are quite adept at wielding elements and shaping energy, but using the body to resonate with elements — that's a rare area of study."

Rod had already given up, but seeing her hesitate mid-sentence, it seemed there might still be room for a turnaround.

"What is it?"

Ona thought for a moment: "Elemental resonance entering the body — it actually might be achievable with the help of an external object. Still, it depends on whether you're willing to try."

"Go ahead and tell me."

The two walked and browsed as they went.

Rod would stop every now and then — whenever he spotted something the girls in the forest might like, he couldn't help but buy it.

Ona watched and couldn't help sighing inwardly at his broad affection.

She was a chaste-pact rabbitfolk; she didn't know much about love, but her spiritual sense could feel Rod's sincerity.

"In the Containment Division, there are many magically hazardous creatures or objects. Among them is a very special slime. A slime is a semi-liquid water-element creature — normally translucent and slimy — but this one is pure black, a special slime with a metallic sheen."

Rod joked: "A new species — metal slime?"

Ona laughed at his quip: "We thought so at first too, but this black slime retains the ordinary slime's abilities of shape-shifting and splitting, and its body is rich in water element and a kind of fluid metal."

(End of chapter)