Chapter 261: Transaction

She stared fixedly at Rod.

"I can guess you're planning to collect girls of exotic races—there aren't any dog-girl girls in the forest yet. Don't you want to have a taste now? By the way, I'll let you in—I'm a virgin, no other man has ever touched me."

Having said that, Sharon traced her finger lightly across his chest.

"And there's the 【Plague Domain】—you should understand the corrosion and regeneration within it, right? If used in bed… don't you want to try it?"

Rod: "…"

Looks like Sharon actually understands him quite well.

From not far ahead and behind, fluctuations of spiritual energy and magical power came through.

In the direction of the forest and Henry's farm, the girls had already revealed their figures.

Rod raised his hand, signaling them not to approach for the moment.

"Just say it outright—why bother making a move on Lady Kali? That makes it very hard for me to trust you."

"Mr. Rod, you don't understand. In the history of exploring other dimensions, the elves once suffered a grievous blow, which led them to harbor fear and shrinking toward other dimensions—you get it, right? One of the drawbacks of long-lived species is that they retain fearful experiences for a very long time, never managing to break through. Lady Kali is a conservative, traditional, stereotypical elf—her feelings toward you, heh-heh, in any case, she'll do everything in her power to stop you from taking risks."

The dog-girl's fair little face pressed against his chest.

Like a little dog, she nuzzled him lightly with her ears.

"More importantly, I hate her—I did it on purpose to mess with her."

"Didn't you once collaborate with her on researching the spell ritual for the Cutting Maze? I remember you two got along fairly pleasantly."

"Precisely because of that, I hate her. Even for an elf, her knowledge is too vast—so vast it makes me sick."

【Jealousy +68】

Rod glanced at the prompt for 【Negative Emotion Absorption】.

"You seem to have changed a lot, Sharon."

"This is the real me, my lord Rod. Enough small talk—I won't hide it from you either. The Botanical Garden is an outsider to the Dreadscape; they drove out the Dread Beasts and absorb nutrients right in the creatures' old lair. The spiritual energy and ether accumulated inside are extremely vast, and what's more, they've been nurturing a treasure called 【Rot Moon Seed】. Afterward, we split it fifty-fifty—how about it?"

"Why come to me?"

"Your 【Plague Domain】, your absurdly high mental resistance—either one alone would be a great help. And besides… I recall that something inside the Botanical Garden seems to have mistaken you for some kind of being, right?"

Indeed.

Because of 【Tree's Blessing】, Rod had obtained a pass to the Botanical Garden.

That was clearly a rare oddity—it had directly caused the creatures inside to recognize him as the 'Grand Cultivator,' an administrator of the Botanical Garden.

Spiritual energy and ether, huh.

To be fair.

Rod's seventh-tier route was leaning toward the War Soul line.

Mainly because the prospects were good—as long as he constructed War Soul Solidification, he could obtain all sorts of buffs.

Given his current physical condition, he could still accommodate three to five War Souls.

Among them, according to the discussion in 【Discussion and Speculation on the Land Naga Spiritual Art 'War Soul'】, some War Souls capable of using anomalous abilities required spiritual energy.

Although this kind of energy body was everywhere in the universe, those that could possess a physical form and actually be used were exceedingly rare.

At this moment.

Zombie Selina sent word.

The town really hadn't set up a spell ritual for a Rot Sac eruption.

However, Witch Dimia had run into a bit of trouble—apparently she'd fallen ill last night for some unknown reason.

"What's the situation with Dimia?"

"An old witch's ailment—excessive emotional fluctuation causing magical imbalance. There's nothing I can do about it; I can only let her rest for a while."

Rod narrowed his eyes.

He pondered for a moment.

Before he could even speak.

Sharon: "Your 【Lie Detection】 hasn't stopped this whole time—what on earth are you so wary about?"

"It's not enough."

"What?"

"My payment isn't enough."

She rolled her eyes: "Please, I thought we were friends."

"Your behavior just now put a tiny crack in the relationship between us, so I need more payment."

"Mmph—don't tell me you're planning to use Nu Yi Zhou on me? Like the girls in the forest?"

Rod honestly nodded.

He had a constant feeling that Sharon was somewhat dangerous now—her personality had become outgoing and bold, and her behavior was a little unbridled.

"You're worried I'll wreak havoc on the town or the forest? You're overthinking it. Once this job is done, I'll leave Etheron and head east to Faye."

Faye.

That was the country, surrounded on three sides by the sea, that had once been attacked by a massive swarm of rats, thereby generating a vast Plague Domain.

This country was a pilgrimage site for plague mages.

Sharon tightened her thick coat around herself.

"How about this? Afterward I'll let you play with me for one whole night—one whole night, mind you. Honestly, I've always disliked contact with men, but if it's you, it's fine. I have quite a favorable impression of you, and I like your scent… you get it, right? We dog-people care a great deal about our partner's scent."

One whole night.

You, a mage, plan to take me on for a whole night?

Wouldn't that just be the same as being enslaved by me?

To be fair, Rod actually hadn't had many thoughts in that direction about Sharon before.

But as the saying goes, to have food and not eat it is a heinous crime.

"Deal."

Disdain immediately appeared on Sharon's face: "You really are a pervert. After you get my body, you're not allowed to make a move on Dimia, got it!"

Rod laughed: "When a man and a woman are together, these things are hard to avoid. Since you already have feelings for me, you should know what a perfect man I am, right? This 'Rot Moon Seed' you're holding — you wouldn't happen to be using it to treat Dimia's chronic illness, would you?"

"You guessed right! Dimia did me a great kindness, and I must repay it. Heh heh, no time to waste. The otherworld has been in chaos lately, and entrances don't appear often. We leave right now."

He didn't really care either way.

He was always ready at a moment's notice.

He also used the 【Far-Speech Chain】 to notify the girls that he had to go on a business trip.

The girls each had their own worries and concerns, but none of them went against his wishes.

Lady Kali was different.

She knew Rod was going to the Dread Realm again, and predictably objected outright.

She rattled off a stream of rebuttals and scoldings, clearly enraged by Sharon's sneak attack.

Rod comforted her helplessly with a few words.

The Dread Realm was an old haunt — he knew it like the back of his hand.

"Do you have a way prepared to leave the Dread Realm?"

Last time he had only managed to leave with the help of the bone dragon Megan — God knew whether she was still around this time.

But even if she wasn't, it didn't matter.

Recently he had gotten a small trinket from the Tree Realm from the great squirrel Cui Qian, which, combined with Vivian's vine leaves, was enough to let him contact the Tree Realm and leave.

Sharon pulled a human corpse out of her spell pouch; judging by its dress, it looked like the sort of rogue or wanderer.

The surface of the corpse was covered in runes.

"It's different from last time when we were dragged in against our will. Plague Mages have Plague Mages' methods — this time we're entering directly in the flesh. In this situation, the Dread Realm's rejection will be a bit stronger, but the advantage is that leaving is easy — almost the moment you want to leave, you can. Here we go."

Sharon triggered the runes on the corpse.

Rip—

A juvenile Dread Beast burst out from the corpse's belly, just about to let out a howl to the sky when it was immediately suppressed by the runes on the corpse, then sacrificed as a Sacrificial Offering.

Immediately after, an eerie green light flared, enveloping the two of them.

(End of Chapter)