Three days later, in the lounge of Hundred Birds Gallery, Roel was currently having afternoon tea with Charlotte. The rich fragrance rising from the teacups was relaxing, but the faces above the steam dissipating from the cups didn’t look too good.

  Roel took a small sip of tea as he recalled the events that had transpired over the past three days.

  On the day that he bought the Nine-headed Serpent Staff, Roel chatted for quite a while with Peytra. The latter asked Roel about his progress with Charlotte while kindly offering one of her blessings.

  While the Earth Goddess was most renowned in her role as the harvest goddess in the ancient era, but other than that, she also served as a symbol of fertility and reproduction. In her view, procreation was of great importance and ought to be promoted. This was especially relevant for Roel’s situation.

  What? You’re the only offspring in the current generation in the Ascart House? That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard!

  This won’t do. Procreate! You must procreate! Not only must you procreate, but you must seriously procreate!

  Peytra proceeded to explain how her blessing worked, and what Roel understood out of it, with his scientific mind, was that it enhanced the rate of ovulation and strengthened the sperm. With one ready to accept and the other at full aggression, it wouldn’t take long for a couple’s love to crystallize in a more tangible form…… or forms, to be more exact.

  Yes, those blessed by Peytra were almost guaranteed to bear more than one child.

  “The effects of my blessing differ based on the race, bloodline, talent, and strength of the blessed.”


  If Peytra’s blessing was granted on a sow, the sow could easily bear ten piglets in a single gestation cycle, allowing her to rear an army of offspring. But of course, that was clearly impossible for a human. The fundamental physical limits of humans made it impossible for them to bear that many children at once. Furthermore, the stronger a person’s bloodline and talent was, the blessing would be more concentrated.

  “Given yours and that young lady’s bloodlines, having twins should be the limit.”


  Fully immersed into her role as symbol of fertility, Peytra analyzed the matter with a serious expression, and she even began making postnatal plans for them too. Her words left Roel’s eyebrows twitching uncontrollably.

  Please, someone stop her!

  “Charlotte is still too young right now. How could she possibly bear my children?” retorted Roel with a reddened face.

  His remark left Peytra, who was just about to work her magic after her long rest, a little perplexed.

  Hm? Am I mistaken here? I could always smell a strong mating scent whenever the two of them were together. Isn’t it perfectly normal for them to copulate?

  Peytra coiled on the ground, confused by the illogical situation presented before her. However, she soon came to a realization, and she directed tender eyes toward Roel.

  “Child, you don’t have to worry. I have blessings specially for men too, so you need not feel too self-conscious about your deficiency. I’m certain that you’ll be able to do it too……”


  “Ah? Wait a moment, what are you driving at? Who says that I can’t do it? I can do it! I’m more than able to do it!”


  Roel caught Peytra’s drift right away, and he immediately denied her statements with a flushed face. Under her consoling gaze, he actually considered pulling his pants down to prove himself able-bodied for a moment there.

  Peytra also quickly realized that she had misunderstood, so she returned back to emphasizing the importance of procreation to Roel. It was almost as if she was a mother urging her son to hurry things up so that she could see her grandchildren soon. It was just that the suggestions she gave were way too forthright……

  “Aren’t the two of you sleeping together at night? You should just raise the matter. I don’t think she’ll reject you.”


  “We’re just alleviating the side effects of my condition!”


  “Trust me, it’s best to widen the area when you copulate. The deeper you go, the better the effects.”


  “.……”


  Wow, you’re making so much sense here that I’m actually at a loss for words.

  The perverted goddess imparted a set of fundamentally sound theories to Roel, leaving the boy feeling utterly embarrassed. Fortunately, Charlotte sent news over then, so Roel quickly ended his meeting with Peytra under the excuse that he had to return to the manor to prepare for his treatment.

  Unfortunately, the results of the treatment were less than satisfactory.

  For the next three days, Charlotte brought Roel to meet quite a few high-level transcendents, and there were quite a few renowned magicians amongst them. Of them, the one who boasted the greatest knowledge was Wandering Academic Andrew Mara.

  Andrew Mara was an Origin Level 2 transcendent of more than a hundred years of age. He was born in an ordinary household in the Country of Scholars, and he was ordinary in his younger years too. His academic results had been so-so, and those who knew him thought that he would become an average civil servant of Brolne and live his life out peacefully. However, Andrew had an interest that was different from his peers, and that was adventuring.

  After finishing his education, Andrew, unlike the other academics, didn’t hole himself up at home. Instead, he began to travel to different countries to expand his knowledge. From a hundred years ago, he began to explore ruins at the outer perimeter of humankind’s territories. He joined quite a few renowned adventurer parties and accrued significant knowledge and experience. Gradually, he began to make a name for himself.

  When he finally returned to Brolne, he received invitations from the mentors of many Scholar Guilds, but in the end, he chose to follow one of the leaders of the adventurer parties he had joined, Bruce Sorofya, over to Rosa.

  Andrew mainly came into prominence in the later part of his life. Toward that, Roel wasn’t too surprised. As the wise old sages of the past had once advised, ‘read a thousand books, walk a million steps; expand your horizons’. The academics who holed themselves in their rooms for research might have accomplished the former, but without putting their academic learnings into practice by getting out and applying it, learning from their experiences, most of their efforts would be for naught.

  As someone who needed to vie with fate to enhance his talent and awaken his bloodline, Roel could be said to be walking down the same road as Andrew, so he felt particularly close to this old man.

  On the other hand, Andrew, as a close aide to Bruce, had watched Charlotte grow up from a young age, so the two of them were close like a grandfather and his granddaughter. As Charlotte was fond of Roel, his impression toward him was fairly good too.

  It was definitely a good thing for the doctor and patient to have good relations with one another, but it was unfortunate that this little edge wasn’t enough to bring about Roel’s recovery……

  “Child, there’s something very wrong about your condition.”


  Andrew had spent three days examining Roel from head to toe, inside and out, only to give a verdict with the implied meaning of ‘There’s no hope for you’. Roel was left utterly dumbfounded, and Charlotte was no better. However, before either of them lost their patience, the old man had already continued his explanation.

  The summarized version of his lengthy explanation was that Roel’s ailing life force was the result of an ancient disease, and what he did back then, exchanging his life force for mana, was actually an ancient spell that had long since turned obsolete.

  Over time, most diseases that were considered untreatable in the past would be thoroughly researched and deciphered, allowing doctors to come up with new treatment methods and drugs to deal with them. Unfortunately, just because certain treatment methods worked in the past didn’t mean that it was possible to emulate them in the present day.

  There were actually plenty of ancient medical records detailing ways to treat ailing life force. One of the more effective methods was through consuming the dew of the Lifetree, but here came the problem……

  Where was the Lifetree now?

  As the environment changed, it was inevitable that most ancient medicine and treatment methods would be infeasible to emulate now. Unfortunately, the current available methods could alleviate Roel’s condition but not cure him.

  “The spell of exchanging one’s life force for mana originates from the gruesome ritual of tribute offering, where malevolent gods absorbed the life force of their sacrificial offerings in order to obtain greater power. Back in the era when the Lifetree was still existent, transcendents would still use this spell when they are thoroughly depleted of their mana as a final resort for survival. However, as the Lifetree disappeared in the Second Epoch, this spell gradually lost its popularity due to its outcome becoming almost a guaranteed death sentence, resulting in its obsoletion.”


  Andrew flipped through a thick historical record as he shared his analysis with Roel. Despite being the one explaining things here, his slightly murky eyes were filled with confusion and doubt. It was true that the Ascart House had a long history too, but its roots shouldn’t trace back to before the Second Epoch. How could Roel possibly know the spell to exchange one’s life force for mana?

  Meanwhile, Roel fell into deep thought.

  The Earth Goddess had vanished from the face of the world innumerable years back, such that she was dissociated from the current era. She probably thought that his ailing life force was a condition that could be easily treated, but who could have thought that it would be an untreatable disease in the current era?

  “Are there no feasible solutions? Didn’t you mention that there are other cures besides the sap of the Lifetree?”


  “I did, but they are even more unlikely to fulfill.”


  Faced with the unyielding Roel, Andrew sighed deeply before proceeding on.

  “It’s not only ancient mutated plants that possess a huge amount of life force in this world. Some humans possess a great deal of life force as well, perhaps even surpassing that of the Lifetree. There are extremely rare ancient bloodlines that can produce nearly unlimited life force under certain circumstances. If you could come by one of them and engage their help, your condition could be easily resolved. However, the chances of meeting a person like that is truly……”


  Andrew trailed off quietly speaking up to this point, not wanting to sink the boy deeper into despair. Roel, however, suddenly fell into a daze.

  Hm? Certain circumstances? Unlimited life force?

  Why does all of this sound so familiar to me?

  The image of a silver-haired woman standing beneath the moonlight suddenly surfaced in his mind.

  Unbeknownst to him, at this very moment, at the entrance of Rosa City, a carriage that was protected by two powerful armies of soldiers had also finally reached its destination.

  “Lord Brother, I’m here to fetch you.”


  Inside the carriage, Alicia Ascart looked at the towering city walls before her as she murmured a promise.