Chapter 90: Forbidden Nectar

  Obsidian and crystal merged in a strange fashion, intertwining at numerous points. The tree's branches shifted between stark white and deep black. Some leaves were a marbled blend of monochrome lines, while others consisted of polished, shimmering obsidian.

  Emilia reached out and touched the wood. Suddenly, triggered by the aura of her hand, the milky white section turned completely transparent. An incredible sight revealed itself to her—the interior of the tree was honeycombed with tiny tunnels, where ninety-nine translucent ants crawled within the labyrinth.

  Each ant was clear, yet the tree's nectar was visible inside them, flowing freely through their bodies. Emilia watched the strange spectacle for a long time until a sudden realization struck her. she pressed a hand to her chest.

  These are Nokeian ants, from the myths of King Nokei, she remembered.

  That mythical hero had lived at the dawn of humanity, crossing many lands and surviving countless adventures.

  His diary—or what remained of it—was a priceless volume with gilded edges and covers crafted from the hides of seven noble stags. It was kept in a place of honor within the library.

  As a child, Emilia had often been drawn to the strange little deer depicted on the cover. She would sometimes sneak in to transcribe the ancient texts into her small sand-box. When she was caught, she was frequently scolded and punished with washing dishes or tending the church garden. She had persisted, however, and had read through many of his journeys.

  In one tale, King Nokei stumbled into the legendary garden of the nymph Meliae. There, he managed to gather many treasures but also encountered a host of legendary beasts. Covered in wounds, he sat down to rest beneath a tree that appeared coated in soot. He eventually discovered strange, transparent ants living deep within the wood, harvesting its nectar. These ants were exceptionally valuable; the nectar they carried could be used for bone tempering.

  King Nokei had tried every trick imaginable, but these transparent ants had lived in the tree for centuries. Every day, they used their bites to infuse the wood with their magic, making the tree incredibly resilient.

  King Nokei was exceptionally powerful, yet even his strength could not overcome the durability of that wood. He struggled against the tree for a long time until, in his desperation, he devised a cunning plan. Instead of trying to break the wood, he laid out various lures from his treasures, hid in the nearby bushes, and waited for the ants to emerge.

  They were clever, however; only a single ant would leave the safety of the tree to feed on the bait. King Nokei sacrificed all sorts of riches, inventing various ruses to tempt them. In the end, he even sacrificed a portion of the legendary ambrosia of Olympus, which had been entrusted to him personally by Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods.

  Only then did he finally succeed in tempting the ants. He gathered them one by one using two sticks and used their nectar to refine his bones. Just like the tree he had fought, his bones became extraordinarily strong.

  But I don't have any legendary ambrosia, Emilia thought. She immediately began pulling various delicious treasures from her ring. She possessed a variety of mana-rich foods, valuable herbs, and liquids. She had mana crystals, monster cores, and even several items of unknown purpose she had hoarded over the years.

  The ants, however, seemed unimpressed. She watched them for a long time, concealed behind a fork in the branches, but nothing happened. Emilia grit her teeth and began pulling out her most elite treasures one by one. Still, nothing moved—until she pulled out one of the crystals she had gathered just moments before the chamber of Abyssal mushrooms collapsed back into the depths of the earth.

  Emilia saw the ants immediately begin to scuttle in a different pattern, and three of them started a slow descent toward the base. I hope I catch all three! she rejoiced.

  However, the ants were cunning. Not even the legendary King Nokei had been able to outsmart them easily. The three ants stopped at the base; two remained to guard the entrance while one poked its head out and began to twitch its antennae.

  After several minutes passed with no movement, the ant slowly approached and began to investigate the magic radiating from the crystal. This was exactly what Emilia had been waiting for. She had prepared two twigs of ironwood and, with lightning speed, she lunged and snatched the ant with the sticks.

  A strange clicking sound erupted—faint, but at an incredibly high frequency—and Emilia immediately recoiled in fear. What if the ants attacked her?

  Fortunately, or unfortunately, the ants did not dare leave their lair.

  Emilia stood for a long time, observing them while maintaining a firm grip on the captive ant. Finally, she drew a sturdy knife with an obsidian blade. Its edge was sharper than a scalpel, but dreadfully brittle. She had etched several small glyphs onto it to slightly improve its durability and sharpness. She carefully examined the ant with her senses, and once she located a few weak spots, she struck with the blade.

  Emilia did not enjoy violence and closed her eyes at the last moment, but her experienced hands continued the motion and pierced the captive ant. She worked with her hands every day, crafting talismans and formations, so she was well-accustomed to fine detail work.

  The ant was successfully dissected, and Emilia immediately began collecting its essence into a small porcelain bowl she pulled from her ring. She used her mana to guide every single micro-particle of the fluid, directing and pushing it toward the bowl so there would be no waste.

  Suddenly, something strange happened to Emilia's heart. An indescribable hunger seized her, and something began to pull her toward the ant’s body. Emilia had not felt such a powerful attraction once in either of her two lives. All her thoughts suddenly faded into the background, and the body of the ant drew her in irresistibly.

  Emilia approached with trembling hands and slowly noticed a small wisp of soul energy drifting over the ant's remains. This immediately snapped Emilia out of the strange trance she had fallen into. She hesitated and slowed her movements, yet her hands seemed to reach out of their own accord to touch the ant's soul energy.

  Emilia’s mind raced. If the temptation from the soul of even a common magical ant was this strong, would she ever be able to overcome the corruption that had ensnared so many ancient mages? Would she become another one of those wretched, mindless servants of the ancient gods and an enemy to humanity? Would her fate be that of the immortal liches imprisoned in Tartarus?

  Emilia slowed her hand a bit more. She wasn't giving up; she was thinking stubbornly.

  Maybe being an immortal lich in Tartarus isn't so bad, she thought to herself.

  In the end, however, she shook her head and made a decision.

  It’s too early. I can still resist!

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  She then lightning-fast constructed a wall of magic and spiritual energy around the soul fragment and frantically began to draw absorbing formations around the ant's body. These formations were not capable of absorbing souls on their own, but Emilia began to guide the soul fragment using her skills—something no formation master without spiritual abilities could ever achieve.

  Soon, several faint wisps of soul energy broke away from the fragment and slowly drifted toward the nearest formation. They approached and descended along the energy lines. But when they reached the glyph, something happened; the glyph instantly ignited, and the energy within it was released and transformed into light.

  Emilia frowned.

  Maybe if I change the mental component?

  She continued to experiment, sketching out various iterations of the absorbing glyph. She attempted to modify not only the mental component but also the individual lines of the glyph itself.

  This was exceptionally dangerous, and numerous sources warned against such tinkering. Ultimately, however, this was a zero-level glyph, and the mana within it was incredibly small. She hoped the risks would not be too great.

  Suddenly, she noticed how her skills—Formation Mastery, Soul Power, Soul Sense, Soul Absorption, Linguistics, Reading, Writing, and even Geometry—began to activate one by one. Gradually, a strange insight dawned on her. Could she actually alter the symbols by utilizing these skills? Emilia immediately began to experiment with increasing recklessness. Guided by the various intuitions accumulated within these skills, she drew feverishly around her, heedless of the cost of the expensive ink.

  One by one, the symbols began to fill the space around her. She moved to the walls and even pulled out sheets of costly talisman paper.

  The soul fragment, though trapped by two layers—one of mana and one of soul energy, both shrouded by Emilia’s aura—slowly began to fade and lose its potency. Emilia worked even more frantically, taking significant risks.

  Seconds bled into minutes, and minutes into hours. The fragment grew paler as Emilia pressed it against her form. It lost a full fifteen percent of its power before she finally managed to modify one of the absorbing glyphs.

  Outwardly, the glyph didn't look remarkably different, but a close observer would see a significant change in its three central rays. Furthermore, the outer wall was entirely distinct. The core, however, remained almost unchanged and its function stayed the same—it was simply expanded. It still served to collect and concentrate energy, but now it could sense a broader range of energies.

  Emilia immediately constructed a complex formation of seventy-two absorbing glyphs, distributed into nine rays, with each ray consisting of eight layers. This intricate formation would channel the energy through these nine rays, transferring it layer by layer. She hoped that each layer of glyphs would purify and neutralize the soul fragment, cleansing the influence of the necromantic energies.

  It’s just one ant. What’s the worst that could happen? Better to try this with an ant than with something larger.

  But Emilia was lying to herself. She had never felt such a powerful attraction, even when standing on battlefields or witnessing the direct slaughter of magical beasts in the dark forest. She had felt a pull before, certainly, but never of such incredible intensity. The only comparable sensation was when Chief Nikos had caught one of those demonic fish from the depths, but he usually cooked them far away in the house, and Emilia was always kept at a distance.

  Emilia pressed her lips together and slowly began to guide the soul energy along the rays of the formation, never tearing her hungry gaze away from them. Slowly, one by one, the rays began to absorb the energy. There was so little of it that the formation processed the entire fragment in just a few minutes.

  Then the energy began to pass through and filter across the eight layers. Gradually, after an agonizing fifteen minutes during which she nearly lost the strength to resist the temptation, the first purified threads of energy finally began to emerge from the formation.

  Emilia greedily began to absorb them and was immediately plunged into an incredible ecstasy. She felt as though she were drinking the legendary nectar straight from the eternal feasts of Mount Olympus, as if she could hear the chorus of ten thousand beauties singing at the mountain's base.

  Her soul, hailing from another world, slowly began to acquire greater density, and imperceptibly, something outside the Great System itself started to take shape.

  At that moment, an aspect of Hecate sensed something strange and began to slowly examine the thousands of seals of her followers. She quickly located her connection to Emilia and triggered the magic of Recall.

  Time suddenly flowed backward, replaying slowly before her gaze. She saw not only what was happening but felt the intentions of the small child who possessed such high potential.

  For a moment, the aspect prepared to step through the connection and stop Emilia, but it was then that she saw the functioning formation.

  How clever, the aspect exclaimed. Such formations are usually developed by masters with centuries of experience. But the aspect knew some of Emilia's secrets and decided to simply continue observing.

  She watched the ecstatic Emilia for a long time and decided to intervene.

  Emilia, the voice of the Great System echoed. You have been awarded 5 points to your Formation Mastery skill. Your patron, Hecate, was simultaneously impressed by your skills and concerned by the path you might take. She has left you one final message.

  Emilia, I know you are an ambitious child, but you must know that I will not tolerate a necromancer among my followers. If you begin to use this formation to absorb souls indiscriminately, I will send my followers to intervene.

  Emilia, who had already absorbed every particle of the entirely unique soul fragment, stopped immediately and reflected. She read the message carefully several times, trying to find some loophole in its meaning. After a while, she couldn't take it anymore and gave up. Who could guess the inscrutable ways of the gods? She was certain of one thing, however:

  So, it is not entirely forbidden to absorb fragments. I simply must do it with extreme caution, she concluded.

  Emilia did not want to think too much about politics. She was simply satisfied with the delicious ant.

  Afterward, she slowly sat cross-legged, relaxed, and began to meditate. She carefully turned her focus inward and examined her soul in detail.

  To her surprise, she had significantly increased all her spiritual statistics, but there was more. She spiraled her mana several times, examined her body closely, and suddenly discovered something strange. Her magic responded faster, the strength with which she could direct her mana and aura was greater, and her body had imperceptibly become about 10% stronger and faster!

  And this was only the beginning. She was still small and would continue to grow for a long time. The Great System had locked the physical skills of everyone under a certain age, but she hoped to reach that limit soon and surpass it. Therefore, that 10% might prove to be much more in the future. It represented a massive hidden potential. In this world, there were all sorts of legendary heroes with unique physiques.

  These ants come from the gardens of the Meliae—nymphs of the ash trees—and their souls must be touched by the energy of creation! It’s no wonder I felt such a strong attraction, she told herself, a wide smile lighting up her face. Then she recalled the history of the Meliae and frowned slightly. The sacred books sometimes contained quite strange descriptions.

  She carefully remembered reading from the dry textbooks on the history of the gods about how the god Uranus, who was married to Gaia, often killed or exiled his children.

  Gaia, unable to bear seeing her children suffer, pleaded with one of her sons—the Titan Kronos—for help and forged him a special weapon. It was created after centuries of labor and divine magic, and she had even secretly used the purest essence from the heart of the then-young planet itself.

  One day, when Uranus came to honor his wife Gaia, Kronos ambushed him at his weakest moment. With a powerful strike from the shadows, he castrated him with the mighty sacred weapon and cast his testicles into the sea!

  Emilia frowned for a moment and continued to recall the texts from the book:

  "...From the blood that spilled out from Uranus and fell upon the earth, the Gigantes, the Erinyes—goddesses of vengeance—and the Meliae—nymphs of the ash trees—were produced. The testicles produced a white foam from which the goddess Aphrodite emerged."

  Perhaps a tiny portion of those blood drops, having passed through the blood of Uranus and into the Meliae nymphs, carried a fragment of his aura into their gardens and into these ants. Perhaps a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of creation is still preserved there.

  She spent a long time thinking and examining her body before pulling out the porcelain bowl containing the ant's juice and carefully beginning to absorb it. The potent energy rushed into her form, and she immediately experienced an incredible pain piercing the depths of her being. Her bones began to soften slightly, shifting within her body.

  The process was agonizingly painful, but she had to remain conscious to direct her mana. This lasted for ten endless, excruciating minutes until, in a sudden instant, her bones snapped back into place and their foundations began to harden.

  The magic was absorbed deep within them, even merging with her bone marrow and altering its very structure. This would make her bones exceptionally resilient and grant them the ability to heal much faster if necessary.

  Afterward, she rested for several hours before starting up the stairs once more.

  "What kind of potential have I unlocked? How many more treasures like these exist in this world? How far can I go one day?" she wondered.