Chapter 554: Memories and Tally's Night Raid

Rod raised an eyebrow.

He quickly skimmed through the memories fed back by the little black slime.

He had assumed Bishop Arturo's rank wasn't high, so 【Memory Devour】 would work better.

Little Black could devour as many memories as possible no matter what.

But he hadn't expected the mental construct thing to get in the way.

The memories he got were still incomplete.

He could only say it was fate.

"Mm, as expected, it's Yige Sect's mental construct technique."

In the memories.

Bishop Arturo didn't know much about mental constructs either; he didn't even think it was a spell construct, but rather a blessing from the union of Holy Fire and Yige.

There were no memories of the implanting procedure either.

From the memory fragments, it was like being knocked out with anesthesia and wheeled into an operating room.

One blink and it was done—the Yige Sect personnel, his entire face hidden in shadow, told him the blessing was complete.

It wasn't just him.

Everyone in the Holy Fire Sect had undergone this blessing surgery.

"Creak creak—"

Tally came over after hearing the news.

She simply sat down on the carpet in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

The succubus said, puffing her cheeks.

"Suit yourself."

He couldn't be bothered to mind her.

He continued reviewing Bishop Arturo's memories.

Soon.

He figured out what the mental construct did.

Namely, "through the resonance of many people's prayers and faith within the skull, the blessing requests 【Holy Fire】 to grant power."

Those were the exact words of the Yige Sect personnel who performed the blessing surgery on Bishop Arturo.

It also confirmed what Lady Kali had said.

—The more people who use it, the stronger the effect.

Bishop Arturo himself wasn't a particularly knowledgeable man.

He hadn't thought much about it, nor had he dug deeper into it.

His head was full of excitement at being able to cast healing power without incantation or cost.

At the same time, his faith in Holy Fire became all the more firm.

Although there was little about mental constructs in the memories.

Rod still had some guesses.

Especially regarding the ability to use spells.

It was also very simple.

Since there were things like magic rings and spell inscriptions, the obvious guess was that the Yige Sect people had inscribed spells into the mental construct.

Not exactly mysterious.

When all was said and done.

The most confusing point was actually the deconstruction of this new type of energy and the mental construct.

That would require Lady Kali and Sharon's assistance later on.

After quite a while.

Rod lay back.

"Other than that, it's the reason why 【Ke Yin】 is recognized and hated."

The otherworld and Yige.

The relationship between the two wasn't clear.

It was also a great pity.

The memories on this aspect were incomplete.

He only knew that the Holy Fire Sect and other corpse burners truly only intervened to prevent plagues, and that they operated with the ultimate goal of eradicating plagues.

Had he misunderstood them?

Had they turned over a new leaf?

Rod shook his head—man, that's the old Ke Ban Yin talking; he firmly believed Yige Sect had ill intentions.

If he really had misunderstood them,

He'd deal with it later.

Rod fished out the groggy little black slime.

He looked at Tally: "It's dark, you should go."

"No, Master~~"

Tally froze for a moment.

She pouted, dissatisfied.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, she threw her hand up sharply, her twin peaks trembling violently.

"Th-then Tally still has an intelligence report!"

"Go ahead."

"When I came over, I caught this one sneaking around—please, Master, come discipline her with me!"

Saying so—

Tally cast a shadow spell.

The magic darkness on the ground writhed, growing thick and heavy like ink.

Then a ribbon of shadow rose upward, bringing along with it a person bound hand and foot.

Spores drifted through the air.

An umbrella-shaped sweep of silver hair swept back, falling to a slender waist.

The skirt-like gills became a short little skirt, beneath which were long, slender legs covered in translucent mycelium.

The mushroom-person, Scarlett.

She glared at Tally with a thoroughly unconvinced expression.

"Stinky succubus! You ambushed me! That one doesn't count—let's go again!"

Rod laughed.

This one was Fourth-Tier, a pure, utter noob.

Not only did she dare challenge the female beastman Amy, she wouldn't even let Tally off the hook.

The little one let out an "ow-wow" of pain and glared at him viciously.

"What! You wanna fight?! Others are scared of you, but I'm not!"

"What are you out so late for? Hurry back and rest."

Rod said in a lecturing elder's tone.

Scarlett's guardian, the rabbit-person Ona, had run into some trouble with the Demon Control Alliance and left the forest two days ago; before departing, she had even asked Rod to keep an eye on this one.

"I won't!"

Perhaps because the mushroom-girl had never inhaled any hallucinogenic spores—

She seemed far more energetic and emotionally vibrant than the average mushroom-person.

She stuck out her neck, glaring at Rod with the sulky, stubborn look of a teenage girl.

Rod sighed.

Circe was also a teenage girl—albeit a tiefling with demon blood.

Yet she was obedient, cute, and utterly pitiable.

But this one—

Clearly a mushroom-person, yet she acted like a rebellious, dyed-hair teenage girl.

Completely different.

"Ona's not here, so I came specially to find you to play that thing!"

"..."

However—

What they had in common was a heart set on pushing Rod around.

Tally froze. "That thing? What 'that thing'?"

She looked at Rod in disbelief, as if to say, 'You went out to fool around with a woman and didn't invite me?'

Rod had no intention of continuing the two girls' topic.

Play that thing?

Ona just asked me to look after Scarlett, and now I'm supposed to take her to bed?

Will I ever have any face left after this?

No way. Absolutely not!

At the very least, I can't give in on the first try.

At the very least, she has to keep asking, I have to keep refusing, and after three back-and-forths, we'll talk.

"Take her back to the burrow, and you sleep at her place tonight too—save her from coming over to bother me again."

Rod waved Tally off.

Tally said mournfully, "Huh?"

Scarlett said angrily, "I'm not going back!"

"..."

Rod felt nothing but a pounding headache.

He had no desire to deal with two noisy girls.

Just then—

The 【Far Voice Chain】 on the panel trembled.

Rod waved the two girls out of the ranger cabin while tapping it open.

It was a message from the elf Lady Kali.

Very simple.

Only five words.

【Lady Kali: Come catch frogs.】

(End of this chapter)