After a brief greeting and helping Little Blue stand up again, Violet didn’t rush into the main topic. Instead, she curiously glanced at the pink-haired girl standing behind Little Blue, Leila, and Rene, showing an intrigued expression.
“I remember... your name is Lulu, right? After finally escaping, why didn’t you return to your clan’s territory? Why did you come here with Little Blue instead?”
Indeed, the unexpected appearance of the cute girl with butterfly-like translucent wings and two soft antennae on her head was Lulu from the Spirit Butterfly Tribe. She was initially captured by the Ghost Thief Group along with Little Blue.
Unlike Little Blue, who is resistant to the cold, Lulu was wrapped up tightly, still shivering uncontrollably in the snow.
The funniest part was that even her butterfly wings and the two antennae on her head were partially covered with special velvet blankets, making her look like a big fluffy ball. If it weren’t for Violet’ sharp eyesight and good memory, she might not have recognized her immediately.
“L-L-L-Lady Violet, it’s surprising that you still remember me. I’m really sorry for coming uninvited, but I-I-I-I had no choice. Please forgive me!”
“Uh, is it really that cold...?”
Although Violet’s body is highly resistant to both heat and cold, it doesn’t mean she can’t sense temperature changes. While it was snowing in Moon Shadow Valley, the temperature was only around minus five or six degrees Celsius. None of them were ordinary people without magic or training, so there was no need to wear so much and still shiver endlessly.
Even Theresa was only wearing three or four layers with a coat on top. Her physical endurance wasn’t much stronger than an ordinary person’s.
While thinking this, the priestess casually cast a low-level Warm Light spell on Lulu. The flickering white light, like a flame, instantly dispelled the surrounding cold, even melting the snowflakes in the air a few meters away. The butterfly girl, who had been shivering from the cold, finally began to recover.
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“Wow, you are simply an angel sent to save the world! Thank you so much, Lady Violet!”
Seeing her good friend finally regain her energy, Little Blue couldn’t help but show a grateful expression as well.
“Thank you, Lady Violet. The Spirit Butterfly Tribe is very sensitive to temperature and energy changes. The climate has been changing too drastically recently, and Lulu is still just a juvenile and can’t adapt well. To be honest, I’ve been troubled about how to help.”
“Well, well... anyway, let’s find a place to shelter from the snow first. Standing outside talking isn’t really a good idea.”
Violet pointed to the tall, sturdy walls of the temple. Although they couldn’t go inside freely, standing by the wall to avoid the snow should be fine without the Moon Shadow Demon Wolves coming out to cause trouble.
“Alright.”
As everyone moved closer to the wall, Violet took the opportunity to continue the topic that the Slime girl had mentioned earlier.
“Little Blue, as a Holy Light Slime, you should be able to control some of the light elements in the environment now, right? Small spells like the one I just used shouldn’t be difficult for you. Is there a problem somewhere?”
“Uh, well...”
For some reason, the Slime girl seemed a bit hesitant about this question. However, facing Violet’ inquisitive gaze, she didn’t dare to hide anything and had to speak honestly.
“It’s strange. According to some instincts from my race, after obtaining a powerful race’s bodily fluids and completing the evolution, I should naturally learn a degraded version of their innate abilities. But even though I successfully transformed with your help, I didn’t gain any new abilities. It seems... it seems that only my physical attributes have become extraordinarily strong...”
Little Blue cautiously looked up at the priestess, seemingly afraid that her explanation might anger her. In fact, this was probably why the Slime girl had hesitated to tell Violet the truth earlier. After all, for a Slime, if there’s a problem, it must be with the mimicked target from which they obtained the bodily fluids.
“Hmm...”
Violet naturally wouldn’t get angry over something like this. In fact, she quickly thought of a possible reason for Little Blue’s situation.
Magical creatures and beasts, unlike humans, usually have various innate abilities granted by demonic blessings. For example, the Spirit Butterfly Tribe’s ability called “Spirit Detection” is something they naturally master at birth, and the stronger their bloodline, the more powerful and numerous their abilities become.
The most typical example would be dragons. Most of Xiao Guang’s abilities were actually naturally acquired as she leveled up, with Violet only providing some guidance and training.
Although Xiao Guang is a dragon from a game, since the two worlds are so similar in many aspects, the differences should be minimal.
If the “Adaptive Mimicry Slime” copies these abilities from the bloodline, it makes sense that Little Blue didn’t acquire any innate abilities from Violet.
First, Little Blue absorbed the crystallized light elements condensed by the priestess, which, although mixed with a bit of SP, was not conventional bodily fluid. Moreover, Violet herself didn’t have any innate abilities. When players create a new character, they start with a blank slate, and all skills are acquired later through skill trees or various quests.
Perhaps that’s why Little Blue only changed her race and improved her attributes without gaining any new abilities. This wasn’t Violet’s oversight, after all, it was her first encounter with such a peculiar creature, so how could she know so much?
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this issue. Besides, I had planned to ask for your help with some experiments... later on.”
“Yes, I’m sorry to trouble you, Lady Violet.”
“It’s nothing, don’t be so formal~”
Without immediately continuing the topic, Violet smiled and turned to look at the Spirit Butterfly girl, who had stopped shivering excessively thanks to the warm light and the wall shielding her from the snow and wind.
“Miss Lulu, I remember you mentioned before that you came to the Moon Shadow Clan with Little Blue out of necessity. What happened? Did something happen in the Spirit Butterfly Tribe’s territory?”
Violet hadn’t forgotten who the so-called Holy Ancestor of the Spirit Butterfly Tribe was. They had been in Moon Shadow Valley for a week already, but after meeting briefly with the priestess and exchanging some necessary information, Gatekeeper Minchen had returned to the heart of the Ten Thousand Demons Mountains with Berta to continue guarding the “Gate” the next day.
The actual manager of the 【Sanctuary】, Tiyelu, had not appeared at all, nor had she come out to check on Novia’s situation, which seemed very unreasonable.
Recalling how Tiyelu had hurriedly withdrawn her incarnation and what Sethlin had specially reminded her of, even though Minchen had clearly stated that the “Gate of Illusions” was still stable, Violet could tell from his words that Minchen wasn’t entirely sure about the situation inside the Gate.
The Gatekeeper’s existence seemed more like an insurance policy, the last line of defense preventing entities from both sides from crossing over.
Yes, the last line of defense.
So, who would be the first line of defense inside the Gate?