Darr's body quickly shifted. After consuming a certain number of Gluttonous Demon Ghosts, his form also shifted to become closer to that of a Gluttonous Demon Ghost, but that didn't mean that his mutation was becoming more stable. Rather, it was the exact opposite. His body was growing increasingly more deformed, the chaotic thoughts were now constantly attacking his mind, influencing him.
His ashen grey body appeared as if it was made from piled-up bits and pieces of innards and flesh; a series of spiky bones that were akin to ribs could poke through the surface of his skin at any moment; under some locations with wrinkled muscles, several emerald eyes were opened wide.
A large amount of mana was circulating within his body of flesh, but since Darr didn't have the corresponding knowledge, all he could do was store them at various points in his body like the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts, unable to utilize them.
Oh no, if this is left to continue, I'll be fully assimilated and turn into one of these mutated monsters.
Darr desperately tried to retain the final bits of his rationality. A large number of grey patterns had manifested on top of Darr's head, but quite surprisingly, some of the patterns were also tinted with a bit of bright green.
The bloodline of elves that had been discarded by the will of the Moon Tree was essentially unusable, the only thing that remained of them was a lust for mana. But under the unstable mutations, combined with the guidance of Chromie's corrosive blood, Darr had also managed to awaken a portion of the consumed elven bloodline.
If his current unstable state could be ignored, Darr could be considered to be the same as Chromie, a half-elf.
I need to quickly find the linking substance of life and soul, to stabilize the Gear.
Darr was currently suffering unspeakable pain, the Gear was still constantly turning, disturbing the balance within his body to stimulate the next round of mutations.
His body was now such a mess that if he couldn't put the Gear under control, it would shatter his body and turn it into a pile of goo; at that time, it would be his linking substance of life and soul that would be taken by the Gear to complete it.
For the past while, Darr had tried to use the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts he killed to obtain the linking substance from them, but all of his efforts amounted to failure.
The linking substance would always dissipate very quickly. While it had properties close to that of the soul, it wasn't the same as a soul; after the death of a lifeform, it would either decompose by itself or fuse with the remnant vitality to form Life Essence.
Darr had a certain amount of understanding towards this linking substance, as it was Negary's current main point of research. His psychokinesis was the final product of the soul equilibrium research, while the research results concerning the linking substance fell into the hands of another, the Overlord that Darr previously pledged his allegiance to.
As Negary's experimental subject, she obtained an ability related to the human soul. Because she was able to extract the linking substance between life and soul, she gained an ability to make the soul separate from the body.
During the competition for the Gear earlier, the animals that continuously attacked everyone on the scene were actually the doings of Fye and Luo, as they were able to extract the souls of those animals, then control their bodies through their souls. At necessary moments, they could stimulate the souls to force those animals into a berserk state while also releasing their biological limits.
It had been said that the Overlord had means to add more linking substance of life and soul into an individual, eventually using that to move one's soul into another body. Furthermore, it was because of this ability that she became one of the Overlords of the Hermit Order from Negary's experimental subject after a measly three years.
After all, certain magic required a unique constitution in order to practice, and there were many who grew old but didn't want to turn into a monster to prolong their lives, so the next best thing was to choose a young, suitable body and take it for themselves.
Due to Darr's own means, he appeared like he was dependent on that Overlord to others, but they were actually collaborators. For this reason, Darr didn't have access to any of her abilities, if he knew that the Gear was related to this beforehand, he would have paid any price to obtain the linking substance from her.
Now that he was in this predicament, not only was it difficult to leave the underground ruins, but his current appearance meant that it was near impossible for him to return to the surface and obtain what he wanted in time.
I can only find a solution from the elven race.
Although the elves of this city had been turned into Gluttonous Demon Ghosts, and the great elven civilization had already collapsed, the knowledge they accumulated were still mostly retained.
After discovering these ruins in the past, Darr had tried to collect as much information on the elves as possible. Although most of what he obtained was incomplete, they were still enough to provide Darr some basic knowledge.
The elven civilization was based around the Moon Tree – Mother Tree – Moon Well magic system, utilizing their great source of mana for everything. The central system of worship was the Moon Tree, followed by the three great Lord Gods below the Moon Tree, and then their respective pantheons.
When the elves were still around, after death, they would be buried underneath the roots of the Moon Tree. In that place, even though their True Spirits had already gone to where it should be, their souls would still remain, continuing to reside within their bodies while falling into slumber.
Because of this, at the time, the underground of the Moon Tree was called the Burial Ground of Heroic Spirits. They could awaken from their slumber at any moment, ready to fight for the Moon Tree once again. Of course, that Burial Ground of Heroic Spirits had now become the Unrepenting Abyss, while the heroic spirits became ghostly soldiers who could only fight an unending battle.
From this, one conclusion could be drawn: the elven race had conducted studies on the soul, and the results they obtained weren't too menial either. Perhaps among those researches, there would be something related to the linking substance.
At the center of the Mother Tree…
Darr's efforts in plundering the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts of their linking substance wasn't completely wasted either, as he still managed to obtain a bit of information from a relatively old Gluttonous Demon Ghost.
At the center of the withered Mother Tree, there was a unique compatriot who had moved a lot of things back to the Mother Tree. Furthermore, he had set up many trap arrays around that area that made sure none of the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts could approach the Mother Tree.
…
During his thousand years of isolation, Pernod had done a lot of things due to boredom, one of which was to collect everything useful within the city.
For example, books.
"This is the place" Pernod walked ahead, standing on a dried branch of the Mother Tree as he pushed a wooden door open. The inside of this area had been completely dug out, the natural wood ring patterns of the entire ring as well as the built-in bookshelves that lined the walls caused this tree cove to appear extremely unique.
Using a wooden cane, Chromie slowly entered this space. From his estimation of the echo, this room wasn't small, but he was already blind, unable to see the surroundings.
Pernod walked through the numerous shelves, then stopped in front of a certain one, he took out a small silver box and opened it to reveal a piece of leaf that looked as if it was made of pure emerald.
"This is it, the method of using the Mana Eye, as well as the only magic of the Anti-mages" Pernod casually tossed the piece of leaf to Chromie and explained: "Use your mind to sense the content inside that. If you succeed, you'll instantly learn all the knowledge regarding the Mana Eye"
"I can only give you the crucial item for cultivating the Mana Eye after you finish learning the corresponding knowledge. After that, I'll tell you where the teleportation gate out of this place is, you can leave as you please at that point" Pernod told him with an exhausted old voice.
Chromie stroked the piece of leaf that gave off a cool sensation in his hand, unsure of what to think.
