I watched the traitor as he slowly drained the Divine Spark from the forest, trying to process the implications of the betrayal.
Not the betrayal itself, of course. I had long learned people were willing to sell others for their benefit, and concepts like honor and loyalty were mostly transitional.
I was more interested in the possession of the acorn, and the crystal buried inside to steal the Divine Spark, the exact copy of the one that Undead possessed, but with some organic layer to cover up the similarity.
I didn’t react, because I wanted to check something first. While the traitor was busy stealing my Divine Spark, I started to examine the remains of the elves that had been betrayed. Particularly, their bags.
I wanted to see if that crystal acorn was something unique. A tendril of mana that sneaked into their bags soon discovered eight more, confirming that, no they were not unique. Moreover, five of them were filled with Necrotic Sparks, gathered from the undead.RêAd lateSt chapters at novelhall.com Only
I drained them.
{+145 Purified Spark}
{-5 Nature Spark, God Forest}
Not exactly a treasure, but nothing to be scoffed at either. Far more than I was losing.
Once I finished purifying those, I turned my attention to the real issue. Why they were working hard to gather Divine Spark. I had initially assumed that the undead was stealing the Nature Sparks to protect their dominion, but what the elf had mentioned while bragging to his dying friend suggested another option.
They were selling them to others. For a good price as well, considering the timing of the traitor. The existence of a buyer was troubling, adding another layer to the ongoing battle, not just in the current plane, but also in other planes.
It explained why I was seeing many planes being invaded by the undead. Some mysterious group was supporting them — of which I had some suspicions, but I didn’t want to overreach and miss something important.
Worse, that mysterious group was probably playing both sides, providing them with identical containers, and absorbing the Divine Spark from both sides as payment for their services. I needed to target those buyers.
I just needed to ascertain the identity of the buyer and make sure they were who I was suspecting. Luckily, I had the target to question, a target that probably have the buyer prepared if the intensity of his betrayal was any indicator.
The perfect target to tail. The only problem, I didn’t want him to drain all of the divine sparks I had on the forest. Easy to solve, I thought as I flooded the crystal with my mana, and triggered its limiter, giving the signal it was full.
At the same time, I ordered the forest to stop radiating nature mana, and instead channeled their production to the underground storage wards. Together, it gave the sign that all divine spark was stolen successfully.
“Huh, I expected the forest to have even more,” he said, then shrugged. “Maybe it drained faster than I expected.”
I said nothing, and waited to see if he would try to create some kind of fake battle. He did not, confirming his intention not to return. Instead, he climbed to the roc, and took flight.
And, if there was one thing I wasn’t lacking, it was mana.
Once inside the second ward, I found myself in the bowels of their fortress. Bowels that were protected by layers and layers of wards from the inside. Too bad that my access had ruined most of their access. For a moment, I wondered about the benefits of using copious amounts of explosive wards to ruin their life. Though it was more of a fantasy than an actual objective.
It didn’t take long for that desire to lose its allure, because soon, I felt a unique pull, one from the System, trying to steal my Divine Spark. However, it was much weaker than the usual pull, a shadow of its endless devouring. Ignoring that had been trivial. Yet, that barely took my attention....
I had a much more important issue. I felt a stirring in my soul space, the connection once again alive. And, just like that, I had access to the System once again.
What a surprise.
{Strength: 16 Charisma: 16
Precision: 16 Perception: 16
Agility: 16 Manipulation: 16
Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16
Endurance: 16 Wisdom: 16}
{Purified Divine Spark: 2537}
{Pseudo-HP: 2869 Mana: 4140}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
Guardian God Forest - 1794}
Elven Priestess - 70}
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]