Chapter 215: Spoils and Worldviews

Rod found the spike pin on Princess Mei Mei's remains and flicked it away with a sword strike.

The meatball composed of various animal legs immediately began to contract and rot, finally revealing the sword wound that had nearly split the cat spirit's torso in half.

Blood bubbles rose from her mouth.

Her eyes, looking at Rod, were filled with confusion: "Wh-why... are you so powerful?"

"I told you, Naulin serves me, not I serve Naulin."

"Hehe... no wonder you are the Dragon God, truly... truly impossible to deceive the Dragon God." Clearly, she still had not heard Rod's words.

Pudding ran over, looking at her beloved with complex eyes.

"It's not worth it, Princess Mei Mei."

"It is worth it, Pudding."

Speaking thus, she trembled as she picked up that fairy wand and handed it to Rod.

"Dragon God, to express apology, please let Princess Mei Mei present treasures to you."

As her words fell, a spiritual light flashed on the fairy wand in her hand, followed immediately by several items dropping down.

A half-severed, bloody cat tail, a square gemstone bearing sword marks, a bracelet woven from dried grass, a small mirror, and so on.

Rod held the 【Soul-Trembling Blade】 and cast 【Appraisal】 on them a few times.

【????: An item made by unknown craftsmanship; from appearance, it is a cat spirit's tail, containing extremely deep resentment, perhaps born from a cat spirit who most did not wish to die after suffering evil and cruel treatment.】

【Memory Wish Stone: Can limitlessly modify memories regardless of rank; difficult to interfere with memories that are deeply impressed or emotionally profound. It is said that Bahadur Magic Academy is researching wish stones of various effects; this is the only successful one. (Note: This item was struck by powerful spirituality, temporarily losing the above functions; please use after repair.)】

【Love-Grass Bracelet: A bracelet deeply imbued with love, capable of amplifying the power and effect of spiritual arts and spells by 3-5 times.】

【Divine Shield Mirror: Reflects one directional spell; cooldown is 24 hours after use.】

【Tree Sea Dew: Dew from the World Tree, containing spirituality that nourishes all things.】

【Spellbook (Burst Emerald): A green emerald formed of mana; causes damage while stunning the enemy; the green light produced after explosion can affect undead creatures.】

"Ho ho, the items are not bad."

Rod's eyes brightened slightly.

He originally thought that in a low-to-mid tier place like 【Cat Spirit Paradise】, finding a 【Memory Wish Stone】 was already an unexpected joy; he didn't expect there to be quite a few.

Especially the 【Love-Grass Bracelet】; amplifying spiritual art power by 1.5 times is no joke.

Pudding covered her head and let out a muffled groan, then said:

"I remember now; we came for dragon body materials."

Oh? It seems the 【Memory Wish Stone】 was destroyed, and the influence previously applied was also cleared.

Just at this moment, a black figure flew rapidly from the distance.

It was Tally, who had been exiled and displaced; the moment she saw Rod, she flew over and hugged him tightly.

"Long time no see, Master~"

"It's only been ten-odd minutes."

"To Tally, these ten-odd minutes feel as long as ten-odd centuries."

"Smooth-tongued."

"What's wrong? Doesn't Master taste it every day? How would Tally not know if her mouth and tongue are smooth or not~"

Having said that, she extended her long tongue and carefully licked her Master's neck.

Rod pushed away her mischief.

He stored all the spoils, then went to the Witch Cat's side.

At this moment, the Witch Cat covered her head, her expression filled with regret.

"Princess Mei Mei tricked me into taking the 【Memory Wish Stone】, making me view her as my best sister, but she was actually always exploiting me and using me."

She tried to stand up, but the movement pulled at her wound, causing her to grimace in pain.

She laboriously cast 【Cleanse】 on herself, removing the white dye from her body.

She was a calico cat.

Rod displayed the square 【Memory Wish Stone】; the sword mark he had carved on it was very obvious.

"Unfortunately, it is damaged and ineffective," he said.

The Witch Cat's face turned bitter: "As I just told you, this is something I stole from Bahadur. To deceive a professor, I used the wish stone on her; now that the effect has failed, I fear she already knows."

Rod rubbed his chin.

'It is said that Bahadur Magic Academy is researching wish stones of various effects; this is the only successful one.'

That sentence on the item details also foreshadowed that this was a quite important thing.

"Academy professor, what rank?"

"Rank Eight. What does it matter to you? You are just a small servant of the Dungeon Consciousness, only Rank Six initial stage."

"I reiterate once more, Naulin serves... never mind."

The Witch Cat rolled her eyes; she struggled to stand and reached out to take the wish stone.

Rod naturally refused.

"What are you doing?"

"Of course to repair it. Perhaps you don't know, there is a manifestation technique among cat spirits; this is also the reason this wish stone could be developed within my research group."

Rod truly did not know this.

Even that 【Survey of Native Spiritual Arts of Alien Races】 had never mentioned it.

"Then telling me this, isn't it..."

"You are a lackey of the 【Cat Spirit Paradise】 Dungeon Consciousness; even if I don't tell you, you will find out sooner or later. Besides, to protect this place well, building a good relationship with you is already indispensable."

She was very frank.

Rod said, "The Headless Knight Mimi once said you have opinions about the Dragon God."

"Having doubts is true—I am Bahadur's student, so naturally I know the dangers of labyrinths, let alone a labyrinth consciousness."

Bahadur is the place on the continent that understands labyrinths the best.

Yet this top magic academy on the continent did not contribute even half a bit of combat power in the battles between Etheron and the Celestial Flower Kingdom, and even outright refused the kingdom's request for aid, claiming that the academy was only engaged in daily spell research and could not offer any help.

The Witch Cat continued, "But after I finished investigating, I discovered that although this current labyrinth consciousness is far more powerful and has even stronger control over the labyrinth itself, in fact it has not done anything harmful to the cat fairies."

That's a fine thing to say.

Your kin have all been mutating one after another under Naulin's influence—and you call that no effect?

Rod and Naulin were on the same side, so naturally he couldn't say much more.

But the Witch Cat had after all lived in human society, so she could guess what Rod meant.

"Mm, I guess you're talking about Pudding and the others and Princess Mei Mei's condition. Actually, the labyrinth consciousness really hasn't affected our minds—cat fairies are naturally averse to cute and petite things, but in our eyes, ugliness represents valor, and bigness represents heroism."

"Uh, so those cone-shaped badges are…?"

"They claim it was bestowed by the Dragon God, but in reality the Dragon God issued only one task from start to finish—to produce materials for a dragon body—and after that there was no communication whatsoever. Those badges are pure fabrication. The reason they work is that the Royal Knights knelt and begged for a whole month to beg a wisp of aura from the Dragon God, and then added in the power of materialization."

Alright then.

Rod pressed a hand to his forehead.

It was my own preconceptions.

(End of chapter)