"You don't believe I'm an all-element mage?"
๑乛v乛๑
Ethan's eyes immediately lit up.
It felt like another chance to scam some money had arrived. After all, thirty-nine bone horses didn't really seem like enough. Who knew whether the number of villagers would increase again later.
He had to plan ahead!
"Uh…"
Mr. White looked at Ethan's smiling eyes and slightly upturned lips, and for some reason, he felt a very bad premonition.
But after thinking it over, he still felt that Ethan was just bluffing him.
If this world really had that many all-element mages, then how could humanity be suppressed by the mist monsters to this extent?
"I really don't believe it!"
"Then… how about we make a bet?", Ethan spoke calmly.
But when Mr. White heard the word "bet," he shook his head repeatedly and said, "Ah! I suddenly feel a bit sleepy. Well, Lord, you go ahead and keep busy. I'll go take another nap. We can talk about anything tomorrow."
"Tch! If you won't bet, forget it."
Ethan shrugged, then laughed and said, "I'm indeed not an all-element mage. I'm just a dual-element mage. You missed a chance to win back your bone horses, hehehe!"
Originally, Ethan only knew ice and fire magic.
He wasn't even sure how many elements he actually counted as, but he felt that with his talent, becoming all-element shouldn't be a problem.
'Wow, I'm way too awesome, let me put my hands on my waist for a second.'
<(▰˘◡˘▰)>
"What? You tricked me?"
Mr. White looked utterly regretful. If he'd known, he really shouldn't have hesitated.
He should have agreed to the bet right away.
"I knew it, I knew it. There can't be that many all-element mages," Mr. White sighed with deep regret, "The ancients once said, hesitation leads to defeat, decisiveness leads to free death! The ancients truly did not deceive me!"
"Enough nonsense. I'll remove the other curse first."
Seeing that he couldn't scam anything this time, Ethan couldn't be bothered to waste words anymore.
After all, there's no early rising without profit.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
He continued drawing the formation.
Very quickly, a new formation was completed. Then Ethan once again used the black dragonhide gloves to place the cursed tail ring into the formation.
A flash of golden light passed, and another demon seed appeared.
This time, Mr. White was completely stunned.
"Lord, you're basically alchemy's illegitimate child!"
"I've seen plenty of alchemists exchange curses for things, but at most they usually get spirit stones or some raw metal materials. Even plant-type items are rare."
"But you actually exchanged demon seeds twice in a row. Isn't that a bit too outrageous?"
"I'm blessed by RNG. Is that not allowed?" [T/N: Random number generator.]
Ethan reached into the formation and grabbed the demon seed.
[Demon Seed — Strangling Vine: Plant the seed near fences or city walls, and you will gain a batch of extremely powerful autonomous guards! (After planting, when the Strangling Vine blooms for the first time, all its flowers must be made into flower keys. Only those holding flower keys may enter. Otherwise, they will be strangled to death by the vine!) Its survival time is one month.]
[PS: Strangling Vine seeds appear at the junction of day and night on the seventh day. At that time, ten small black fruits will grow at the tips of the vines. They are not easy to find. If they are not found before sunrise, once the small fruits are exposed to sunlight, they will immediately wither and turn into nourishment for the Strangling Vine.]
'So that's how it is.'
This Strangling Vine could basically be called the password lock of the magic world. And if you entered the wrong password, the outcome was pretty miserable. You'd be strangled to death on the spot.
No wonder the city lord collected this thing. It really was a treasure for defending against enemy invasions.
If you didn't know where the Strangling Vine's seeds were, then this thing was indeed very precious. After all, its survival time was only one month. Once it expired, it withered away.
"Then Lord, can you determine what type of demon seed this one is?"
Mr. White rubbed his hands together with a smile.
After all, demon seeds were extremely valuable and had a sizable market.
If he could take two seeds back from Ethan and resell them, this trip wouldn't be in vain at all.
"Strangling Vine!"
Ethan said flatly.
However, Mr. White shook his head with absolute confidence and said, "Absolutely impossible!"
"For Lord to exchange demon seeds twice in a row is already a blessing from the Will of the Mist God. How could it possibly let you so easily obtain the top-tier demon seed… the Strangling Vine!"
"Anyway, this time, Lord, don't even think about tricking me again!"
"Even if Lord wants to bet with me for one hundred bone horses, I won't back down!"
"???"
ꉂꉂ◟(˃᷄ꇴ˂᷅)༡л̵ʱªʱª
'What is going on?'
Ethan hadn't even opened his mouth yet, and someone was already delivering themselves to be butchered?
"Alright then! I'll bet you under a Lord Contract that what I have here is a Strangling Vine. If it isn't, I'll give you this entire jar of listening bugs," Ethan said quickly, "If you lose, you give me one hundred bone horses."
"Really?"
Each listening bug was worth ten thousand.
There were at least twenty in this jar. That meant a minimum of two hundred thousand.
And one hundred bone horses were only worth a measly fifty thousand dragon coins. No matter how you calculated it, he was the one profiting.
"Of course it's real," Ethan laughed, "So, bet or not?"
"I…"
Mr. White had suffered losses at Ethan's hands several times already and immediately felt a bit cowardly again.
But Ethan shrugged and prepared to put the listening bugs away, looking reluctant as he said, "If you don't dare, forget it. If you really won, I'd suffer a huge loss."
"Bet!", Provoked by Ethan, and recalling the chance he'd missed to win back his bone horses earlier, Mr. White gritted his teeth and said, "I really don't believe it."
"In this world, aside from appraisers, there simply doesn't exist anyone who can determine the type of a demon seed."
"Even the strongest wood-element grand archmage only has a success rate of fifty percent."
"Besides, the chance of a demon seed producing a Strangling Vine is less than one percent."
"I don't believe I can still lose like this!"
"Hehehe!"
Ethan hooked little fingers with Mr. White. After the two signed the Lord Contract, he finally smiled and said, "Then Mr. White, get ready with the bone horses."
"What… what do you mean?"
Mr. White looked confused, "I haven't even taken the seed for appraisal yet. Besides, there's no appraiser here. For now, we can't say who wins or loses."
"You're telling me to prepare bone horses? I was just about to tell you to hand over the listening bugs first, so you don't end up raising them to death!"
Ethan smiled back and said, "Who said you can't determine it without an appraiser?"
"Then how?", Mr. White stroked his chin, "Lord, how do you plan to determine it?"
"Isn't that simple."
Ethan walked toward the villa gate. After being invaded in the middle of the night twice already, he'd long wanted to upgrade his fence.
Now that there was a perfect opportunity, why would he waste it.
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