Aside from the information she gave me about my weapon's way of collecting the Seven Deadly Sins weapons, Almira also relayed an important bit of information.
"Although I am not too sure about this bit of information, according to some people, someone from the Dark Elves tribe has the information regarding the location of the Tree of Life. Although the Dark Elves are much more elusive compared to the normal elves, having the elves with you will solve your problems as they are capable of knowing whether an area is tampered with by elven magic. Since Dark Elves still use normal Elf Magic, they are easily noticed and detected by normal elves."
"Is it that worse of a situation that the elves have to seek cooperation with the dark elves in a battle against the Lycanthrope tribe? The elf community is strong enough to not even ask for help from allies for a long time since I was with our community," Renatta asked.
"The answer is yes. If it is indeed easy, then the situation would've been solved by the elves themselves since like you just said, they are a strong race that is capable of doing extraordinary things normal humans are not that capable of doing. But due to the circumstances and some hidden factors, I don't know, there might be more reasons as to why the situation is happening," Almira shrugged, not knowing the rest of the answers.
"That's good info. I thought we wouldn't even get any kind of information for quite some time. It's a good start, to begin with."
"As I said before, take that information with a grain of salt. There's no guarantee the information is indeed a real deal. Just so you know, although the Tree of Life is known to exist in this world, its something that has been hidden and cannot be located that easily since according to those who have been able to visit the place in accident, it changes places and it never stays in one place, making the tree so hard to even find in the first place. Only lucky people or should I say, the chosen ones can even find it, so this is a close to impossible mission, Manato."
"Yes. I know that. However, we have to find it first and defend it to the one who plans to use it for his own good and harms the world in the process. Even if I don't know the main reason for his actions, he is clearly wanting of doing something to cause chaos in the first place."
"Indeed. Which is why, I will propose something."
"Huh?" I was surprised. Almira is very much a pessimistic person so seeing her suggest something that we didn't suggest quite a bit of a big surprise.
"This proposal is something I have thought of making but I don't have your permission, though I was going to ask you for permission to do it."
"What's this all about?"
"You see, after I saw your mansion, I got the urge to create it a walking mansion. The design of this place is perfect for that. It's like the same legend of the walking castle in one children's storybook but this time, I wanted to make it a reality. Seeing as you guys are always gonna be on the move always, how about we convert this place into a walking mansion?"
Hearing this idea, the one who likes crazy ideas, Riko seems to have already agreed to the plan as she immediately joined in the discussion.
"A walking mansion? Hey, I like that crazy idea! If it is you, Almira-chan, you can really do it if you want to!"
"Heh, thanks for agreeing with me. But stop adding chan to my name, I am older than you."
"Eh, don't be shy. Besides, our ages are not that far apart, and you are not that old yet, it's a big fine O-K!" Riko grinned with her hand gesturing to the Ok sign.
Almira can only shake her head and returned her attention to me once more.
"So, how about it? Of course, I won't force you but I want to at least hear your decision."
I laughed at the proposal, but it was not something funny in the slightest. In fact, it is an absurd but brilliant idea. After all, since Alternate World is a big place, we will have to jump from place to place just to find the traces of the tree which will naturally cause me to abandon this place in the process. With Almira's proposal, not only will it allow me to keep using the mansion in the process, but we also have a home to go back into once we are done with the search, and with it walking around, this will allow us to reach places we have not even visited before.
"It's an absurd idea, but I didn't dislike it. In fact, I like this idea a lot. But, there is one flaw."
"A flaw?" Almira frowned.
"If we plan to use this mansion as a walking mansion that can traverse into different areas, that must also mean it will garner attention to many people and that will also include the attention of the enemy that we are trying to hide from as well."
"Oh, you mean the visibility... Well, you have a point with that but it's not that big of a problem as that can be easily solved with some magic, right?" she then turned to look at the elves.
Alena nodded in response. "Yes. The elves are capable of making things disappear and make an illusion for those who cannot see them or even hear them. This is why it is hard to find the Elves unless they are invited or are accompanied by an elf. If what you needed is an illusion to hide it, consulting the elves in our former community is the best way to get a hold of it."
"There you go. So, how about it? Do you still feel it's not worth it?"
Hearing that explanation and solution, I am impressed as I didn't think Almira would immediately get a solution to a problem I pointed out. Not only that, but this will also make our purpose of looking for the elves more important as well aside from finding out whether there is indeed someone who knows the location of the tree or the traces of the weapons of the Seven Deadly Sins weapon series.
"Alright, it seems you convinced me well this time around. With that said, does that mean you will be getting a lot of materials to make the stuff?"
"Yes. But I have an idea already and I think it will be enough to cover all of the costs. It's not much but it will be good enough as well. But if you and the others are all willing to help out, I will not reject it. After all, materials are materials no matter where they came from and with you all who know how to hoard materials, I can see that you would just start mining here and there and gather up the materials before we know it."
I wasn't expecting this level of planning from Almira. I know she can do things beyond weapons and armor, but to this extent, I think she knows more than I just thought. As expected of my mentor, she is not someone to be trifled with.
"Anyways, you guys should have a good rest. You all went in some fights, right? Just call for Gobu's wife to do some of the tasks and she will be doing it. As for me, I will be starting the plan as soon as possible."
And with that, Almira left as she started to draw some plans for the mansion's upgrade. I also told everyone to relax now and also get some good rest. We have recovered most of the stuff we got and we are no longer broke. We might have started again and we are back to square one but we will continue to improve our chances to win.
Since the elves are in need of help, this will be a good chance to repay all of the things Renatta, Labo, and Alena have done for us. Without them, we will still be stuck in the plan of Nobuhiko and we will be constantly on the run form. I might not have expected much on this but I think I will have to ensure that the Nexus monitoring system will not be able to spot us.
I went back to my belongings and soon stumbled on the wolf mask. The first item that remained in my head after so long. And although I don't need to keep my face hidden anymore, I think this is something I also wanted as well. After all, this mask has been something of a signature to me. A mask I used to hide my face and what was hidden beneath.
But I think it is a pretty rad kind of a mask.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m