Chapter 823: Chapter 660: Contacting Nan
Michael really couldn’t spare the attention with the final battle looming: "There shouldn’t be anyone in the Empire who can tame Void Creatures. I’ll ask some Void biologists after I get back to the city."
Sela laughed and said, "Could it possibly be that guild leader Uriel?"
Uriel said irritably, "You think that’s possible?"
Sela laughed and said, "What if it is? After all, it was that female Mercenary shouting on the trade channel; it might have heard her."
Uriel said in a deep voice, "If it’s really that strong, we can only blast it to pieces."
Sela burst out laughing: "But that’s your handiwork!"
Uriel snapped, "Quit messing around, don’t affect the boss’s performance..."
...
Chun was using Hua’s perspective to look for Nan.
Given Nan’s Profession traits, if she had free time she was unlikely to go shopping; she’d probably head to the Alchemy Guild or something. And the Alchemy Guild was very easy to find, usually on the edge of the city, where the chimneys were smoking.
So Hua drifted toward the smoke and found the guild.
Wait at the front door? Or drift inside to look?
Drifting in was too risky; if there were masters all over the place, something would go wrong, and he didn’t even know which lab she was in.
Then again, that wasn’t right either. To use the labs you had to be a veteran member who’d done tons of guild quests. Nan had probably just arrived in this city; how would she qualify to squat in a lab?
Chun spotted a market behind the guild.
Generally speaking, there were always lots of small vendors around the big guilds in major cities, selling cheap or special materials related to the guild. Kind of like how there are always pharmacies near big hospitals, selling meds the hospital can’t swipe your card for.
Drift over to the market and look around.
It might be a market, but both the vendors and the pedestrians were still lined up in relatively neat rows.
So this is Black Dragon City? The orderliness is downright terrifying!
All of a sudden, Chun noticed a short figure in a black cloak: "Is that her?"
Earth Lotus had already confirmed it: "It’s her! Hua can feel a disharmonious miasma of disease around her."
Wow, even you are playing "harmonious" now?
Hua lowered altitude, and Chun confirmed it was her—the bit of long, jet-black, oily hair peeking out from under the hood of the cloak.
It was lucky this was Black Dragon City, where the streets were full of people either transformed from Dragons into human form or other extraordinary races like Dark Elves. Otherwise, walking into a human city like this, who knew how big a mess she’d cause.
Once he’d found her, everything else was easy. There were too many people around to land Hua on her right now. He’d wait until she was done and found a quieter spot...
Before long, Chun saw her buy a basket of some kind of plant-based medicine, hoist it on her back, and leave.
Ha, a whole bunch of plants—perfect cover for Hua to land.
After Hua landed, Nan left the market, winding and circling her way to a very old house on the very edge of the city. Was this her rental?
Well, yeah. Someone who might have to brew potions at any time wasn’t likely to rent in the city center.
Nan went inside, shut the door, put down the basket of herbs, and opened the window.
Chun figured it was time to say hi and typed directly: "Nan, it’s me, the guild leader. Is this place secure?"
Nan froze for a moment, then turned back with a face full of disbelief, closed the window again, and with a wave of her hand, a Barrier filled the room.
Chun was excited: "Nan!"
Nan cupped the flower in her hands and praised it: "Amazing!"
Chun wrote: "From now on, just keep this flower by your side and we’ll maintain private contact."
Nan nodded. "Alright. Since your strength still can’t activate my Divine Format, and the Guardian God’s seal means we can’t communicate, we really do need a new way to stay in touch."
Right, she was basically talking both sides here.
Chun first asked about this side: "What’s your plan over there?"
Nan said in a low voice, "Honestly, it’s hard to make sense of. When we went out to battle at noon we took some losses, but all in all it was a big victory. But the vice guild leader said there might be something wrong with the engine room and went to check. Then the engine room exploded. I suspect the vice guild leader did it."
Holy Shit!? Chun was stunned: "Why would he do that?"
Nan sighed. "That’s why it’s so hard to understand. Our hard-earned credit just vanished like that. Also, our next mission is to head into the Void and gather Dragon Souls left in the Void from the last war, but we were supposed to keep an eye on the Empire’s movements first. Looking at the current situation, it’s clearly too early. The vice guild leader went to the Military Department’s command center—he’s obviously more interested in the battle at the front line."
Huh? He wasn’t even going to the front, and he still went to the command center?
Chun suddenly thought of a possibility: Michael was on the Golden Divine Throne, he was in Black Dragon City, and the two of them were on the same team—how were they supposed to wage war like that? Unless they were leaking intel to each other, colluding with the enemy, and using public resources for private gain!
Holy Shit!
If that was the case, Uriel blowing up the Warship made sense. The two sides must have coordinated! In that case, there was really no need for him to fret about the war over here and watch their little staged performance.
Chun thought of the horn of the Cold Ice Dragon King that had already been unsealed. That thing was obviously for collecting Dragon Souls.
Chun asked, "What if I head out first and go into the Void to collect Dragon Souls?"
Nan smiled. "That’d be even better. I don’t need military merit anyway."
Right, all Nan needed was for her Clone Nancy to be doing great on the surface. So he’d just ask about the surface.
"Has the Crow Master arrived yet?"
Nan smiled. "He has, but as for Aziza, we have to wait until night."
Chun said in surprise, "Then what’s he doing now?"
Nan laughed. "I’m teaching him how to plant pumpkins. He escaped in such a hurry he didn’t bring any food, and he still has to eat. Right now, he’s making a fishing rod and I’m helping him forge the fishhooks."
Uh... suddenly, Chun was kind of jealous of his retirement life.
"Help me ask him why his Druid teaching materials have no healing or plant stuff in them."
"Alright, hang on."
Then Nan asked, "What about you, guild leader—when are you planning to come back?"
Chun was actually stumped. "I don’t know. I’m still in the middle of a trial, and I don’t even know what the completion criteria are."
Nan said, "Then try to collect as many Dragon Souls as possible. They’ll definitely be an important power to help you complete the trial—"
At that point, Nan started relaying: "The Crow Master is amazed Nancy could even ask that question. The answer is, he cut out everything in the curriculum that wasn’t related to becoming a Crow. That made him super specialized and let him learn really fast. But he’s not sure if that’s actually right, or if it’s the reason he doesn’t have a deep grasp of the Druid Profession and has hit a bottleneck. So all he can do is go all in on specialization and keep searching for the Hundred-Year Crow. Also, the removed content on plant healing is still on the bookshelf."
So he’d guessed right!
Chun said in surprise, "When he hit a bottleneck, couldn’t he go back and make up the plant-healing part?"
Nan laughed. "He says it’s very hard now. Maybe he’s old and his learning ability is shot, or maybe he’s too focused on the Way of the Crow and it doesn’t integrate well anymore. But he encourages you to give it a try."
Holy Shit, me try? You think I’ve got decades to waste?
Chun thought of an idea: "Ask him this: if I finish reading all his books, can other Warriors read them too?"
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