Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1400: Special Preparations

Hearing Luviya’s joke, Shard also laughed and asked:

"Am I not a man? You know best, don’t you? I mean, I’ve already promised to help her, so I must help her. Besides, compared to turning pumpkins into carriages, mice into horses, and shabby clothes into ball gowns and crystal shoes, gathering information is much easier, I just need to walk a few steps."

Then he added:

"I can’t even turn little Mia into a horse to ride, let alone mice."

Luviya was amused by him:

"Haven’t you forgotten your dream of riding a cat to fly to the sun?"

Shard blinked without saying a word.

Unlike the last time they went to Eldron Lake to face the big event Stone Osenfort mentioned, this time it was clear that the matter could only be handled by Shard and the Guardians. Therefore, even though Miss Benanis accompanied them, she explicitly stated that the other members of the Golden Dawn, including Miss Lathis, did not need to follow.

For Shard, the only preparation needed was a way to restore his Spirit. Although his Power of the Earth had been strengthened several times, and he had the help of that rune stone, it was still far from the strength of the soul guarding the Randall Valley.

The most important and effective way to restore Spirit, of course, was the pink perfume vial in Shard’s hand. Interestingly enough, ever since this bottle transferred from "Desire" to Shard, it rarely showed any dissatisfaction.

Even when Shard consumed large amounts of it for various reasons, the bottle always managed to refill itself when Shard wasn’t looking. The full state of the perfume vial, depending on the concentration of the "Essential Oil of Desire," would yield different recovery effects and side effects.

The most concentrated the essence had ever been was on Angelina’s birthday night. Even though Shard made a trip to the City of Eternal Night in between, when he came back, he took a big gulp. But the next morning, he found that the perfume bottle on his bedside table was emitting a faint pink glow.

Lecia, Dorothy, and Luviya all knew about this, the latter heard it from Shard.

For Circle Sorcerers, since the essence of Spirit isn’t just energy, spirit-restoring magic potions are extremely rare. Something like the "Silent Moonlight" that Shard had transferred to Miss Orland, which can restore supernatural abilities, is almost nonexistent. Thus, Luviya thought they should prepare before setting off on Tuesday, making sure the perfume vial maintained its most concentrated state.

"Even if the side effects are strong, I’ll just help Shard alleviate them when we get back."

Luviya bravely said this in front of Miss Lathis and Miss Benanis, and Miss Lathis immediately understood, while the Blonde Witch took a moment to catch on.

"We’ll set off at 3:30 in the afternoon, so there’s still some time."

With that, the purple-eyed girl held Shard’s hand and said to the two leaders of the Golden Dawn:

"Are there any soundproof rooms in the Opera House? Shard and I... need to make some preparations."

Even the witch immediately understood this time, blushing as she looked at Miss Lathis, who then led Shard and Luviya to the adjacent room, the Witch’s private lounge. When feeling tired, Miss Benanis would often take a nap there, as it was quiet and undisturbed.

The Blonde Witch stood in place without following them, but as their footsteps faded, she suddenly ran after them. Since the lounge was right next door, when she caught up, she saw Miss Lathis standing outside the door, and Luviya inside pulling the door handle to close it:

"Wait a minute!"

Miss Benanis said, and Luviya curiously looked at her from inside the door:

"Is something wrong? Oh, you don’t have to worry about us missing the departure time, I’ll keep track of it."

"No, I mean..."

Her face turned bright red, but she still said:

"Let me help as well. Although I can’t... with Shard, but..."

Miss Lathis was so shocked she couldn’t speak, while Luviya frowned slightly:

"That’s not a good idea, you don’t know anything and might just cause trouble."

"Wait, is that the point?"

Miss Lathis blurted out, and after thinking it over, Luviya changed her mind:

"But it’s okay, it’s almost two o’clock now, and there’s not much Shard and I can do, just play with some other tricks, I can’t do much alone. You can come in, but you’ll have to listen to me."

The witch nodded with her head down, and when Luviya made way at the door, she walked in from the slightly open door.

The two of them walked further into the room, and the door was closed behind them. Only Miss Lathis was left standing alone in the hallway. She opened her mouth, looking at the door handle, and after a moment, lightly sighed.

At 3:30, Miss Lathis reappeared in the hallway and entered the room. Inside, everything appeared normal. The three of them were sitting on the couch, Shard and Luviya sitting opposite each other, with the purple-eyed girl peeling an orange while looking at a map on the coffee table.

Shard and Miss Benanis sat on the same side, the beautiful Blonde Witch tilted her head resting on Shard’s shoulder, her golden hair cascading down to cover her face.

Besides that, Miss Lathis also noticed that her clothes were no longer the same as before, and on her folded legs she wore something, seen only once before, clinging tightly to the skin, making the leg shape remarkably distinct, even hinting at a flesh tone through the black fabric.

And at the southeast corner of the coffee table, a full pink vial was placed there. The young woman could not judge the concentration by color, but she imagined it had changed quite a bit from an hour ago.

She instinctively sniffed the air, but there was no odd scent. If not for seeing the famous Old Continent female opera star and Shard in an intimate pose, Miss Lathis might even think they had just been singing and dancing indoors.

"It’s time."

The young woman blushed slightly and reminded, then sat somewhat timidly next to Luviya. The purple-eyed girl put an orange segment in her mouth, the rest of the mostly unpeeled orange placed casually beside the map:

"We are almost ready too, I must admit, Miss Sylvia’s invention is quite interesting... but enough about that, let’s prepare to depart. I did a divination for myself this morning, tonight’s actions may not be smooth, but at least we can achieve the results we want."

Miss Lathis admired her for being able to speak so seriously after doing such unserious things.

"Then let’s depart. Although these might still not be enough, holding on until the Guardians take action should be sufficient."

Shard said as he put away the pink perfume bottle. The witch, who was originally leaning on his shoulder, adjusted her long hair, avoiding eye contact with Miss Lathis:

"Then let’s set off, arriving a bit early allows better preparation."

"Hope the church already has emergency measures ready, tonight’s main characters are the Guardians, but while the Guardians and Shard deal with the Crazy Earth, I imagine it won’t be peaceful around."

Luviya stood up:

"May everything be safe."

Since Luviya had issues with horsemanship, the group of three still rode on two horses.

The address left by the Guardian for Shard was located northeast of the city, quite near the Granger Family’s old cemetery. They set off at 3:40 PM, and by the time they reached the area near their destination, seeing footprints in the melting snow of the woodland, it was already close to 5:00 PM.

"It’s church people, look at this, clearly the footprints of the church’s standard boots."

After dismounting, Luviya observed the ground and spoke. The witch floated slightly above, observing the surroundings from a higher vantage point:

"No signs of smoke or birds startled and flying away nearby, they passed through at least half an hour ago."

"Arrived faster than us."

Luviya said, asking Shard, who had the Earth Rune Stone tied to his wrist:

"Can you sense the Crazy Earth now?"

"No. We are still some distance from the destination, of course, it’s also possible that nothing’s wrong yet."

"We can’t keep riding ahead, let’s lead the horses and walk."

Miss Benanis suggested.

As they continued walking forward, besides the footprints, some strange black fragments appeared on the snow surface. And around the black fragments, there were clear traces of battle. But it seemed less intense, probably because many church people had come, and it ended quickly.

Shard felt a strong curiosity about those black fragments. Because when he picked up the fragments to examine, he astonishingly found these stones were very similar to the black stones produced by his "Goldstone" Holy Grail.

But evidently, the stones here were sturdier and carried elements. Through Miss Benanis’s identification, these were special stones called "Fundamental Rock": 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Such stones can only be found in Randall Valley and a few surrounding areas. Ordinary researchers believe this to be the prototype of all stones, the first type of stone created by the gods during the Primal Era when they created the world. However, these stones aren’t very useful, apart from being extremely sturdy, there’s not much else noteworthy. Thus, although rare, people don’t pay them much attention."

"So, the stones transformed by my Holy Grail are a degraded version of ’Fundamental Rock’?"

Shard asked a question and then wondered where these stones came from.

They quickly got the answer to this question, walking less than twenty paces ahead, all three heard heavy footsteps approaching from afar.

Looking ahead into the woodland, a blurry figure was swaying slowly toward them. Humanoid, but it wasn’t human, it was a strange creature entirely wrapped in black rock.

Among the cultists who worshiped the [Stone Heart Demon], there was once a Circle Sorcerer who mastered the "Power of the Earth" and could transform into a stone humanoid form, but he had been killed by the church more than half a month ago. The monster now walking toward the trio was definitely not a human-turned stone man, but an enemy naturally formed.