Selene wasn't in a hurry to meet up with Louise and Richter. She was currently traveling slowly within the merchant caravan, occasionally exchanging pleasantries with passing merchants, doing what was "fitting for her role"—her father was the caravan leader, so it was perfectly reasonable for her to inquire about their situations.

During these friendly exchanges, she also experimented with spending the vague currency she'd obtained from her "father." It turned out that even though the coins were almost warped into iron lumps, they could still be used as currency within this strange caravan. At least, the merchants didn't refuse Selene's offers of trade.

"Hmm... strange. How can a caravan like this, traveling north and south, waiting in the wilderness for a month or two at a time, have fresh pastries?"

Munching on a delicious, fresh pastry, a decent short sword in hand, a satchel slung over her shoulder containing several second-grade magic crystals, Selene contentedly disembarked from a wagon. The few silver coins she'd... borrowed from her cheapskate father were not only still intact, but had even multiplied.

Behind her, the merchant she’d traded with—and subsequently pummeled—watched her impassively before returning to his busy state, continuing to transport the seemingly endless stream of goods.

After swallowing the last bite of her pastry, Selene, now clearly well-equipped, moved to the edge of the caravan, maintaining a moderate distance as she began to experiment with her newly acquired items.

First, she drew the short sword, carefully examining its design.

The blade was square, the edge sharp, the guard and hilt wrapped in some unknown leather, providing just the right amount of grip—overall, it was a good, common weapon.

Selene gripped the short sword and tentatively tested it against her own skin.

Of course, she didn't directly cut herself. Instead, she used one of her newly sprouted tentacles to test it.

The result was the discovery that her tentacles were incredibly sensitive. A light scratch created a tiny hole that nearly brought tears to her eyes. Furthermore, she found that each time she retracted and then re-extended a tentacle, any wounds on it would heal… The principle seemed to be that she didn't actually have a tentacle-shaped organ hidden within her body, but rather the ability to mold tentacles from biological matter and connect them to her body. Retracting and extending them was essentially a process of reabsorbing the biological matter and reshaping it. Therefore, unless she lost a limb and a significant amount of blood, the tentacles wouldn't be permanently destroyed.

Theoretically, as long as the tentacles weren't severed, she could use them as expendable tools without restraint, retracting them to avoid any lasting damage... provided she could bear the pain.

Having tested the short sword and her tentacles, gaining a basic understanding of them, Selene retrieved a magic crystal, about the size of an eyeball, from her satchel and held it in her palm.

This dark purple, irregularly shaped gemstone was known as a "magic crystal." They existed in abundance in mines and mana-rich natural environments and were widely used in the creation and operation of magical equipment. The one in Selene's hand was a second-grade magic crystal, meaning its quality was limited, unsuitable for intricate processing or powering machinery.

This didn't mean it was useless. The primary factors determining a magic crystal's grade were its maximum mana capacity and its rate of mana absorption and release. The difference between second-grade and higher-grade crystals lay mainly in these two aspects. Theoretically, in other respects, the difference wasn't significant.

And what Selene was interested in wasn't its mana capacity or its absorption/release rate… She tightened her grip on the magic crystal and began to pour her own mana into it.

Mana flowed from a vaguely defined location within her, converging along her right arm into the magic crystal. Enduring a faint tingling sensation, Selene intently observed the changes in the crystal.

The dark purple within the magic crystal began to shift towards a light blue hue as the mana flowed in. When the color transformation was about halfway complete, Selene stopped, drew her short sword, and swiftly shaved off a layer of the crystal's outer shell.

This action naturally caused a shock to the mana within the crystal. The blue mana visibly fluctuated violently for a few seconds before turning into a cloudy white.

"Seems my skills haven't atrophied," Selene murmured, glancing back at the caravan's movements. Confirming they wouldn't be too close anytime soon, she continued her work with focused attention.

Pour mana in, stop, shave off part of the crystal structure. After repeating this several times, Selene obtained a dark grey magic crystal, the mana within fluctuating erratically. Suspended within, the colliding mana sparks flashed crimson.

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The mana inside had been completely destabilized, turning into uncontrolled waste.

Feeling a sharp ache in her fingers and arm, Selene instinctively reached for a red potion at her hip, only to realize halfway through the motion that she wasn't wearing her usual clothes. Instead, she raised the now-dangerous looking magic crystal and etched a miniature Preservation spell onto its surface.

Thus, the magic crystal was fixed in a state of "waste eruption," poised to release its energy upon external impact.

It was a magical grenade.

Selene had learned this technique from Louise. According to her, in the period between the discovery of magic crystals three hundred years ago and their incorporation into magical equipment fifty years ago, magic crystals were considered a cheap and useless magical material. Their mana capacity was inferior to various gemstones and they lacked the ability to imbue mana with specific attributes like monster bones. They couldn't be used for spellcasting or the construction of magic circles, and so were largely ignored by mages.

Then, a certain adventurer stumbled upon its true potential. They discovered that its structural stability and mana capacity occupied a unique niche. By manipulating its internal mana state and external structure using a specific method, one could fill the magic crystal with a large amount of destabilized waste, putting it into a volatile, hair-trigger state. At a critical moment, it could be thrown to cause significant damage, equivalent to a second-tier Fireball spell.

This method quickly spread among adventurers across the continent, but its popularity was short-lived, lasting only seventy or eighty years before falling out of favor.

—Because most people simply couldn't properly manage the magic crystal's stability. The waste-filled magic crystals they created were either too stable, failing to detonate upon impact, or too volatile, exploding at the slightest touch, unable to withstand any jostling. They’d even detonate from bumping against other items in a backpack.

So, after countless lives were lost proving its unreliability, this method of using waste-filled magic crystals was quickly abandoned.

But Louise, who was traveling in the Northern Continent at the time, meticulously documented it, fascinated by the concept. The then two-to-three-hundred-year-old Louise was in a lively, rebellious, thrill-seeking phase of her life, and she found the idea incredibly cool, perfectly aligning with her vision of "adventure." She continued to use it for the next several hundred years, constantly refining and modifying its creation process. With the modern invention of the Preservation spell, she incorporated it into the process, improving both safety and reliability.

Selene imitated the process with the remaining magic crystals, draining her mana three times over and nearly collapsing from exhaustion before finally completing the task. The thought of having six second-tier Fireballs tucked away in her satchel immediately revitalized her.

Mutually beneficial, as it were.

Standing up and stretching her stiff limbs, Selene intended to return to the caravan to continue her exploration, but as she walked, she suddenly heard voices.

Unfamiliar voices, approaching from a distance.

Selene's mind raced. She immediately rolled behind a tree, concealing herself within the undergrowth, and peered towards the source of the sound.

Two figures emerged from the caravan and stopped within the trees. On the left was a monster whose head shimmered with a multitude of flowing lights. On the right was another, similar creature. Their featureless heads bobbed erratically, producing sounds in a bizarre manner.

【 Hey, you also had that dream?】

【 ...What?】

【 Don't pretend, I heard your voice and the ■■'s voice just now. You said you had a strange dream.】

【 That, uh, a little girl invited me to... a Tatra village dream?】

【 That's it! —I had it too!】

【 Why are you so excited...?】

【 Don't you think it's a good omen? Haven't you heard the legend? The Tatra hero who slew the dragon. Isn't the place we're going to also called Tatra? Could it be the hero's homeland?】

【 There are hero legends all over The Divine Construct. We've heard a thousand or more on our way from Arine, do you really believe this?】

【 Oh, come on, this is different from those clearly fabricated stories! When we passed by Nymph, didn't you hear that scholar say that the Tatra hero's tale can be traced back to the fourth-to-last era—that’s hundreds of years older than other hero legends!】

【 So what if it's older?】

【 Dragon's blood! In the legend, after the hero slays the dragon, its body falls into the abyss, its blood spills, shattering mountains and forming a lake of blood. The hero bathes in the dragon's blood and gains immortality. I heard there's a lake on top of Tatra Village's mountain—do you think we have a chance to soak in it?】

【 ...Go ahead yourself. You're a grown person, and still so naive. If there was such a thing, would it even be available to you? Noble families have long since sealed off the place and heavily fortified it.】

【 Looking for a good omen, eh? Since we're passing by anyway, let's do it. Tomorrow after we arrive, we'll find some villagers to take us up there. I'll ask around to see if anyone else wants to go…】

Great, seeking death and dragging others down with them, huh.

Overhearing this, Selene felt goosebumps on her arms and a tremor in her heart.

There truly was a lake atop Tatra Village, at the end of Loop 1. The three had reached it; at the end of Loop 2, Selene’s father's monster had even summoned that very lake right next to the cathedral.

Regardless of the lake’s original form, the two times Selene saw it, it was only a putrid, foul-smelling pool of blood and severed limbs… It didn't look like a tourist attraction.

So, in real history, a group from this caravan would go to the mountain lake tomorrow? Dragon's blood… The liquid she saw in that blood pool was undoubtedly human blood.

But would there be a connection? As a ritual mage, Selene immediately thought of rituals—was someone imitating "dragon's blood," planning to recreate the legend of immortality through bathing in dragon's blood, using human blood as a substitute in a ritual?

After a moment's thought, Selene dismissed this idea—it didn't explain the anomalies in Tatra Village.

She'd never heard of mimicking a legend producing a bunch of monsters that had nothing to do with the legend. Even incompetent ritualists with a ritual-obsessed mage running around wouldn't do that…

Though she didn't reach a conclusion, Selene's line of thought had been broadened considerably by the “dragon’s blood” idea. She stood up and confidently followed the two merchants back, who seemed spooked by her sudden appearance.