Chapter 323 - The Weeping Forest
"Leon, Leon, have a look! Is this useful?" Lumi handed over a piece of white bone that appeared to have been the tooth of an incredibly large beast.
The tooth was sharpened and enchanted with runic engravings.
After a careful inspection, Leon nodded, "A Tier 3 Bone Dagger, this is good stuff. Nice find, Lumi!"
"Hehe!" Lumi giggled and said excitedly, "I'll go look for more!"
With that, Lumi darted back into the pile of bones and rummaged for more treasures. All this while, Leon continued to split the swamp water ahead of them with Divine Will for easier findings.
He had been looting all the treasures he could find along the way, causing Lumi to become interested in joining him after her curiosity was piqued by his actions.
After three hours of travel, they had looted more than 500 items in total. As for the number of bones collected, it was an even more significant amount!
Some of these bones were incredibly ancient and sturdy, making them relatively good materials for crafting weapons. Since Leon had such large storage space, it was waste not to collect everything he deemed useful.
"We've seen at least millions of bones if not tens of millions since we got here. These bones even range between thousands of years old to as short as a few hundred. Do you have any idea what might have happened here, Lumi?" Leon casually asked.
"Um, um, maybe some sort of big battle?" Lumi answered unconfidently with her head tilted to the side while rubbing it with a long piece of white bone in her hand.
"Hahaha, right." Leon smiled wryly.
Lumi's was a bit simpleminded.
"But it's not just one big battle, but also many battles. Perhaps a great war had broken out long ago, but this Black Swamp isn't just a graveyard, it's still an active warzone."
"Despite that, we have yet to run into anyone or anything since we arrived. Why is that the case? What about you, Maya? What do you think?" Leon asked his artifact spirit instead.
Since the [Divine Book of Life] was bound to his soul core, it was not strange for him to have the ability to share his senses with Maya.
After continuous usage of [Spirit Eyes], his pupils' color has become noticeably more grey.
At this moment, the blackish-grey pupils lit up with a soft golden glow. Through his eyes, Maya was able to see the outside world.
"Maybe you are just lucky to have arrived after the last battle ended." After a quick glance, Maya answered lazily before asking, "Where are the books you promised me?"
"Ahem, soon… soon… You'll get them soon." Leon coughed with a slightly embarrassed expression. He had been so busy he had forgotten about Maya's one tiny request.
After that, he agreed with Maya's view.
"En, the last battle must have happened roughly a few days ago, according to some of these bones' freshness. If we don't want to get caught up in the next battle, we need to quickly leave this area."
"That's enough, Lumi. We are leaving now!" Leon hollered.
"E-Eh? How come? I think there's still a lot of useful stuff lying around." Lumi asked with a slight complaint while holding onto three items in her arms. She was just having fun treasure hunting.
"If we do not leave quickly, it might become troublesome later. Besides, there are so many bones of demons, beasts, and humans, but so little treasures lying about."
"Evidently, there are also people who come to reclaim these things. If we take them all, those people will realize something and come looking for us." Leon explained patiently.
He did not doubt that if they spent the time to scourge through the entire Black Swamp, the number of treasures would likely exceed ten thousand. However, the chances of landing themselves in an unfavorable situation were also highly probable.
It is fine to be greedy but being too greedy was a disaster.
"Hmm... fine."
Lumi reluctantly acquiesce.
After passing two items over for Leon to store away in his Worldspace, Lumi held onto the last artifact and refused to let go.
It was a bone whistle enchanted by Tier 3 runic engravings and appeared to be quite useful in amplifying sound attacks.
The way Leon saw it, the stronger Lumi was, the better off they were in this unknown land ruled by demons. There was already conclusive evidence that demons ran rampant in these lands.
As such, Leon did not quibble with Lumi over this small matter.
The bones of true demons were vastly different from the bones of other races. Anyone with a little bit of knowledge about demons would be able to recognize them easily.
This is because the bones of true demons are not white like other races, but rather jet black in color. Even demonic beasts do not possess black bones.
After spending another 2 hours traveling north, Leon and Lumi finally left the Black Swamp region full of miasma and arrived before a patch of dry land covered with towering trees.
"Wow, what kind of trees are these? I have never seen trees like these before! Look, Leon, look! It's so pretty!" Lumi exclaimed while pointing. Her wide eyes were practically glued on the forest ahead of them.
"I can see that."
Leon smiled lightly.
"Surprisingly, there are plants that could survive in an environment like this," Leon commented.
Shortly after, he softly murmured, "It seems the Divine Realm needs to re-evaluate the way we view darkness profound energy."
Many races in the Divine Realm, also referred to darkness profound energy as death energy. This is because darkness profound energy was found harmful to all life.
Other than demons, only a select few individuals with extraordinary physiques had been known to be able to wield darkness profound energy.
The trees were all roughly 500fts tall, not a very impressive height compared to the World Tree, but its height was never the focal point.
The trunk and branches were all white as pure snow while the leaves were of a floral violet color. The entire tree emitted a soft glow and gave off a devilish yet otherworldly vibe that could be mistaken for being holy.
Leon's eyes became unfocused, and a faint feeling of wanting to prostrate to worship the tree sprouted in Leon's heart. His knees started to bend slightly.
Lumi noticed Leon's strange action, and curiously asked, "What are you doing, Leon?"
As soon as she asked, Leon immediately snapped out of his daze, and cold sweats began breaking out all over his body like he had just be splashed with a bucket of cold water.
"What the hell was I planning to do just now?" Leon asked himself before looking at Lumi with a grateful look. "Thanks, Lumi. You saved me just now."
"Eh? When did I do that? You are talking funny, Leon." Lumi was confused, but she still accepted his gratitude with a bashful look.
Leon shook his head with a smile before glaring at the forest with a sharp look.
"This forest is dangerous! I was too careless and almost got myself ensnared by its illusions. As expected of the demon's territory. Danger lurks at every corner."
Leon began to frown.
Danger that can be sensed is no real danger as they can be avoided. On the other hand, danger that cannot be sensed is indeed perilous.
"I don't think this type of tree is recorded in the [Archive]. What do you think, Maya? Do you recognize what they are?"
He was not too sure if the [Archive] had records of it, but it was simpler to ask Maya since she was the artifact spirit. She had access to everything within the [Divine Book of Life].
Leon's eyes briefly glowed golden again as Maya glanced at the otherworldly trees through Leon's eyes.
Shortly after, she became speechless. What nonsense are you talking about? More like you are too lazy to check! The [Archive] obviously has records of this tree!
"I'm too lazy to explain. Have a look at the information yourself!"
A string of information was shortly transmitted to Leon's mind directly from the [Archive].
"Ahem, I'm just trying to create more chances for us to talk more. Look, we obviously need to rely on each other, so isn't it a good thing for us to learn more about each other to cooperate better?" Leon suggested after issuing a dry cough.
"What utter bullshit. You are just trying to learn more heavenly techniques from me."
"That's not true at all!" Leon tried to deny, but his face was flushed with embarrassment for being called out so quickly.
Maya rolled her eyes inside the Worldspace and asked, "Where are my promised books?"
Leon was immediately silenced.
"Where are my promised books?" Maya asked again.
"Why are you asking about that again?" Leon rubbed his temples. He felt an incoming
"Where are my promised books?"
"…"
In the end, muted the artifact spirit by cutting off her connection to his mind. As the master of the heavenly artifact and his own body, he at least had this power over the artifact spirit.
Inside the Worldspace, Maya realized her connection to the outside was cut off and became annoyed. Did that brat just mute me? Son of a…
…
…
Tranquility returned to Leon. He began to peruse the information with a piece of mind.
"I see, the trees before me are called Weeping Trees, a yin-type plant. They produce a type of traceless and odorless hallucinogen that draws their victims into an illusive sad dream. This is where the origin of its name comes from."
Understanding this much, Leon began to frown deeply.
There was a reason why he does not sleep.. Even if he were to sleep, it would not be alone.