Slime Evolution

Chapter 429 - More Rewards II

”Considering all this,” the archmage remarked, in an almost playful tone. ”I wonder if you still need that Mana Stone I promised, Halon. With so much gold and prestige, maybe a simple stone wouldn’t make that much of a difference anymore.”

Lohan felt his membrane vibrate with a jolt of surprise, almost choking on his own magical processing for a split second.

He knew it was a joke, Yrneha’s tone made that obvious enough, but even so, part of him, that greedy part starving for evolution that lived latent in his core, screamed internally in panic at the mere possibility of losing that reward.

”Ahh... well...” Lohan tried to formulate a polite answer, but couldn’t fully hide his hesitation. ”I wouldn’t say a mana stone makes no difference, Lady Ylasys. In fact, considering the evolutions I’ve recently gone through, a stone like that would be extremely...”

Before he could finish his awkward sentence, Lisa had already positioned herself, her posture growing subtly stiffer, ready to argue.

”The original agreement specifically included the Advanced Mana Stone, Lady Ylasys,” Lisa declared, in a respectful but firm tone, the white fox clearly unwilling to let that part of the contract slip away over a misinterpreted joke. ”We fulfilled our part of the mission flawlessly, and we expect the original terms to be honored.”

Yrneha let out a genuine laugh, a crystalline sound that echoed through the mana filled room. ”Relax, you two. I just wanted to see how you two would react to that... you know? When each individual’s interest is finally put to the test is when people can show their true colors, and the loyalty you two showed toward each other, the way you handled what I said, satisfied me.”

She shook her head, still laughing softly as she stood up from her chair. ”As Archmage of Thalendor, I would never break my own word over something as insignificant as a mana stone. That would be an insult to my own title.”

Lohan felt immediate relief wash through his biomass, but at the same time, he processed something Yrneha had just said.

’Insignificant?’ He thought, intrigued. Considering the level of that stone, around level twenty, it definitely wasn’t something insignificant to him or to any ordinary Elysium adventurer.

A stone of that caliber would cost hundreds of gold coins on the market, and even then it would be extremely hard to find available for sale.

But then he remembered the scale of power separating an ordinary mage from an Archmage like Yrneha.

To her, getting a level twenty mana stone was probably as trivial as it currently was for Lohan to get a level ten stone, with Yrneha’s ease probably being even greater than Lohan’s. The gap in perspective between them was massive.

Yrneha walked over to a small dark carved wooden chest positioned discreetly in a corner of her office, near a shelf packed with ancient tomes.

The chest looked simple at first glance, but Lohan could feel a magical density radiating from it that suggested far more than it appeared to hold.

’This looks incredibly similar to our Astral Chest,’ Lohan thought, watching closely as the archmage crouched in front of the object. ’Does she have a spatial artifact similar to ours? Or could it be something even more advanced?’

He briefly wondered how many incalculable treasures must be stored inside that seemingly modest chest. An Archmage with centuries of life had probably accumulated riches and artifacts that would make any Great Guild drool with envy.

But Lohan felt no trace of greed grow within him at that possibility.

He knew perfectly well that chest was none of his business, and even trying to imagine its contents with covetous eyes would be not only rude, but also extremely stupid considering the power of the woman in front of him.

Yrneha reached her entire arm into the chest, which was physically impossible for an object of that size, confirming Lohan’s suspicions about its spatial nature.

She rummaged through the contents delicately, her eyes closed as she seemed to sense through magical touch which specific item she was looking for.

”Ah, here it is,” she murmured, satisfied.

When she finally pulled her arm back out of the chest, holding something between her delicate fingers, Lohan felt an intense, sudden vibration in the air of the room.

The ambient energy, already dense and pleasant, shifted abruptly, as if the entire atmosphere of the office had subtly bowed to acknowledge the presence of that new object.

Lohan’s magical perception channels fired off silent alerts across the full extent of his biomass.

’Wait... that’s not...’ Lohan thought, his parallel processing suddenly speeding up as he tried to calculate the true energy density of what Yrneha was holding.

The mana stone resting in the palm of her hand glowed with a deep blue tone crisscrossed by golden veins pulsing almost as if alive, very different from the simplicity he’d imagined.

Lohan felt his core freeze for a second, realizing with a mix of shock and growing excitement that the level of that stone was probably far beyond what he’d initially imagined.

He couldn’t precisely sense where the Mana Stone had come from, whether it held affinity with some element, or even any trait of the original monster that had produced it, but just from the ambient air he could tell it was definitely above Level 20.

The possibility of digesting a Mana Stone like that, one that had already gone through two evolutions and that could bring infinite possibilities of new powers and evolutions for him, made the little Slime practically drool at this point.

If it weren’t for Lisa putting her head in front of his small body, Lohan might have even lunged at that stone to digest it right then and there, but then he remembered her concern, and the reason behind her concern, and finally calmed down.

If digesting the Mana Stone of a monster that had gone through one evolution had already been dangerous for him, imagine how intense the reaction would be digesting a stone like the one Yrneha was holding... Lohan feared he might genuinely never wake up from that monster’s memories, even with every evolution he’d bought to keep that from happening again.