[DCI] Chapter 40 - Blood-Stained Treasure

After walking back into the kitchen complex, I found Aisha already seated in front of the PC with Levia by her side. My drakan mate had kindly lent our new friend her chair while she’d gotten comfy in mine. They clearly were browsing food, though I could already tell what they would end up with after Aisha gave Levia a brief introduction to the available options.

Closing the door to the newly constructed workshop, I patted Rose a few times and let her join the two women while I headed to the apartment’s entrance. It didn’t take long before the doorbell rang and I picked up the order. Aware of my actions, Aisha led Levia back to the kitchen and sat the elf lady down, grabbing some cutlery from the cupboards. I laid the aromatic boxes on the table and joined them.

As expected, everything was just various types and kinds of sushi. At least she'd added a portion or two for me too and not just for them. The only issue was that I had to eat fast if I truly wanted to fill my belly. After Aisha devoured her part, she would shamelessly go for mine. There was no love or respect in this relationship when the last piece of sushi was on the plate.

Levia took off her wide, witchy hat and rested it on the nearby, free chair. She looked so mysterious with it on but I couldn’t decide if it was more worth it to see her with her pretty white hair covered or not. Additionally, she removed the armored coat and hung it on the backrest. That left her only in the smooth, long, light gray sundress. Suddenly, Levia seemed more like a beautiful, petite, noble lady rather than some mystic and enigmatic Witch. Both images fit her well, to be perfectly honest, and she emanated an aura of knowledge and wisdom with either.

We dug in together after Aisha instructed our new companion on how to use chopsticks. She’d grown very fond of them after I’d shown her how people ate such delicacies in the country of their origin. She was consuming not just the food but also the culture now. As she'd said once, a country capable of doing something so incredible with their fish couldn’t be more interesting. She clearly was deep in it.

A little wary about a dish she hadn’t tried ever before, Levia was soon happily eating on par with us. Well, I said happily, but it wasn’t like her expression changed or anything. Even though she remained as calm and distant as usual, I could tell that she was enjoying the food from the little movements she made. She gently picked a piece up and took tiny bites with her pouty lips, unhurriedly savoring the fresh taste. And, of course, I had to halve my portion to donate it to the starving drakan population. Aisha had enough tact not to go after Levia’s share but I was sure that it wouldn’t take long before that became the norm.

With our brief snack break over, the two of us tidied things up while our new roommate watched us operate the kitchen appliances with visible interest. It wasn’t hard to notice Levia’s droopy eyes following mine or Aisha’s fingers.

“If you have any questions regarding anything, feel free to ask anytime,” I said to her while drying my hands with a towel. “And if you are wondering, the taps aren’t running on magic or anything. The water systems are pretty decent in this realm.”

She gave me a curt nod and I was sure that I had just answered one of her unspoken questions. But, after that, I didn’t receive any requests to elaborate further, nor any inquiries about anything else. It didn’t seem like the Witch would open up to us this soon.

“Let’s get a move on it, then,” Aisha chimed in, throwing her own towel over her shoulder. “It will start getting late soon.”

“Alright. Before we go out, we should show Levia our storage. She might find something useful there,” I suggested.

“Yeah, sure. Follow me.” My drakan mate tossed her towel to me and guided Levia away while I hung hers and mine in their proper places.

A minute later, I arrived in the storage room with Rose by my side. The silent elf lady was in the process of picking a thing or two and examining it while Aisha mentioned what it was and where it had come from. That continued for a while, at least until they ran into a weird shape wrapped with white sheets. The two of us immediately recalled what it was and Aisha stopped Levia from approaching the mystery carelessly.

“You better be careful with that. It’s crystalized mana we stole from the boss of our latest Dungeon. I bet you are aware of how dangerous those can be,” she explained as the shorter girl looked up at her curiously.

“I appreciate your warning and concern.” Levia made a light nod. “May I still see it with your assistance?”

“Of course.” I smiled softly as she turned her face to me for her question. “Your input will surely be valuable so it’s not like we are planning on limiting your access to anything we own. Also, if anything here catches your eye, you can freely take it to your workshop. Just let us know if you do so that we can keep things up to date.”

“What about those?” She pointed at one of the shelves with glass vials while Aisha gradually uncovered the bundle on the floor. “Woodmen’s Bane. I have not heard of anything like that either in my pre-Defender life and during and both were filled with Woodmen to the extent that I began considering myself cursed.”

“That’s because this guy made it like two weeks ago.” Aisha gestured at me with her head. “Our last run was full of them while both of us were almost purely physical fighters so he used a strategy from his… uhhhhh… let’s say past.”

I nodded after our eyes met. It might be a bit too troublesome to explain everything about games and such yet so that was a good half-truth.

“And did it work?” Levia picked one flask up and uncorked it, very carefully wafting some fumes towards her face, which scrunched delicately in a gentle frown soon after. “I can sense salt in the mixture but… there is nothing else.”

“Damn. You can deduce this much from just a sniff?” Aisha raised a brow at the slightly confused elf.

“I am a Witch. It is my specialty to mix and brew various concoctions. After years of practice, I have become sensitive to most substances that I am aware of,” Levia explained. “And, with ingredients as simple as such, there is no possibility that I am mistaken. I am confident in stating that even if you used an odorless substance, I would have noticed the difference.”

“Aisha is right. Damn.” I looked at her with awe. “You are one hundred percent correct. As for its effectiveness…”

“It hurts so much that those stick bastards choose suicide over any other options in less than ten seconds,” Aisha continued after me.

“Is that not just salt?” Our local Witch seemed even more confused.

“We are all allergic to something.” My playful companion shrugged, making me snicker. “If we ever find another, I’ll show you. Until then, you need to believe me. We were able to more or less breeze through Woodmen, Woodknigths, and Woodscythers with Lucas’ concoction. One tiny cut and the grunts were out for good.”

Levia seemed to look at me curiously and I just smiled back at her. “I only followed a rumor I’ve heard in the past. I had no idea if it would work.”

“I see.” She nodded, more to herself than to me. “You made quite a lot of this Woodman’s Bane.”

“That’s because we decided to sell it while clearing the Dungeon. I think you can imagine how cheap and easy mixing salt and water is. At least for Defenders. People living in poor realms where salt is a rare commodity might disagree,” I added.

If Levia wanted to continue the conversation on our saline solution gig, she unfortunately didn’t get to do that as her face showed a great deal of shock for the very first time. This much emotion felt a little out of place even, but I guessed that her reaction was justified. Her eyes opened wide at the sight of the uncovered, dark emerald orb when Aisha finished unwrapping it.

“This is…” she muttered quietly, slowly reaching toward the ominous sphere.

I quickly placed a hand on her shoulder and she paused at once, turning her attention back to me.

“I meant what I said earlier about anything in here but are you sure it’s safe to just touch it like that? My friend here made it sound quite dangerous.”

We stared at each other for a few seconds before she withdrew her arm a little.

“It should be for me. I was only going to confirm if it is not a fake. That is if it is what I think it is. Thank you for stopping me. I should have inquired more before taking action,” Levia replied calmly.

“No worries. I was just being cautious. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt on your first day.” I smiled warmly. “We found this in a hidden chamber that belonged to the boss monster in the Woodman Dungeon. The monster was seeping energy from the entire Dungeon and its inhabitants and we think that’s where all of it went. What do you think it is?”

“Spirit’s Heart. And it does check out with your assumption,” she said, moving her gaze back to the crystal ball. “It is an extremely valuable item amongst magic users but not only. You should be able to sell it for a very high price. Or…”

“Or…?” I raised a curious brow at her.

“Or I could utilize the highly condensed mana making it up to greatly enhance any of my future alchemical creations. There are ways to liquefy the stored energy. If I had your permission to process it, I might be able to strengthen many things in the future.”

“That sounds great. We should do that, right?” Aisha grinned joyfully.

“Yes it does, but…” Levia continued.

Aisha sighed while rolling her eyes. “Here it comes. There’s always a but.”

Her comment made Levia a tad uneasy so I nodded at the charming elf lady to go on.

“Both during the operation of extraction and processing, and applying the liquefied essence, the chance of failure is quite high. It depends a lot on the skill of the person working on either but that is not enough to fully eliminate the undesirable outcome,” she explained slowly. “In the first case, it only affects the extracted substance, but in the other one, it may ruin the target of the enhancement. That is why only people with commendable wealth gamble with it, or those with a connection to a good processor.”

“And how good of a processor are you?” I stroked my chin while pondering over the new information.

“I estimate my failure rate at about twenty-five percent at the current moment. It will drop lower after I acquire some experience with the Spirit’s Heart. I have to honestly admit that working with one was nothing more than a dream for me so I am in possession of the necessary knowledge but can not back it up with practice,” Levia answered.

“What about the chances of others?” Aisha asked.

“Forty to fifty percent, I would say. For the majority of them, of course. There certainly are individuals matching my prowess and even surpassing it. But, such an opportunity to work on a Spirit’s Heart is very uncommon. People often do not want to leave it in the hands of less experienced processors due to the risk of a huge loss and they choose the services of the few who are well-known and established.”

“You seem to know a lot about it, then,” I said.

“Liquefied Spirit Heart’s Essence, or Purified Liquefied Spirit Heart’s Essence, are ingredients that can have an immense influence on Ritual Magic. Many Witches are aware of it but they do not expect to ever get their hands on it. Such endeavor is often extremely dangerous and risky, or unnecessarily expensive,” she explained.

“So, in simple words, the choice is to either get rid of it for a good sum of money as a short-term solution without any stress, or to hold onto it and let you process it while aware that a decent part of it might get lost during the operation but the rest ends up as a possible long-term investment since it can make plenty of other stuff better. Am I right?” Aisha summed everything up.

“That would be it, yes.” Levia nodded gently, looking between us.

“Hmmmm… What would you prefer to do?” I asked her after a moment.

“I am just a subordinate and I will follow your lead. Since I can not promise not to make mistakes and disappoint my master, I would advise putting it up for an auction after researching the current prices of Spirit Hearts. I should be able to identify a good moment to sell it.”

“But, you would definitely like to work on it, right?” I could feel a faint smirk curling my lips.

Giving Aisha one more glance, Levia made a tiny nod.

“How much?” I pointed at the orb with my thumb.

She quickly caught up on my intention. “It depends on many factors. A few thousand Dungeon Dollars at least. The prices might reach tens of thousands.”

“Granted it’s real,” I mused. “You said that you can verify it?”

“Yes. I may do so at any moment.”

We exchanged glances with Aisha and nodded at our elf friend. Levia got to work immediately, kneeling in front of the emerald globe. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. We could hear some quite eerie whispers leave her lips as she inched closer and closer to the orb’s surface with her slender palm.

Shortly before she made contact with it, five points started faintly brightening up, just under the tips of her fingers. Her fingers were pulled into the tough crystal in a snap and the contents of the sphere began to swirl like a trapped galaxy, twinkling mesmerizingly in the same, dark green color.

After a few seconds, we noticed Levia’s breathing getting faster and a little hitched. When she began listing forward and jerking back like someone trying to fight off the drowsiness after not sleeping for longer than they could handle, I hastily crouched next to her.

I had no idea if touching her skin counted as me touching the orb too but we couldn’t really leave her in this state, which was clearly worsening with each second. Aisha entered my line of sight and nodded, taking a deep breath. I knew exactly what she was planning without having to exchange a single word. Reassured a little, I nodded back at her and grabbed Levia’s wrist.

Thankfully, my soul wasn’t suddenly sucked away, nor had my body imploded from the intake of an unbearable amount of spiritual energy. Aisha's prepared tackle wasn't necessary. I was able to peel Levia’s hand off the orb with just a little bit of resistance and her eyes immediately snapped open; her breathing still quick and somewhat shallow.

“Are you alright?” I asked with great concern; I could feel her heart thumping in her chest hard.

“Yes…” she whispered, slowly calming herself down. “I apologize. I did not expect this much… pain and sorrow. It seems that this Spirit’s Heart wasn’t formed naturally, or even artificially by condensing multiple clusters of spiritual energy. This thing is a fruit of pure evil. For many long years, hundreds if not thousands of Pixies had their life force completely emptied out to condense this Spirit’s Heart. Countless lives have been lost forever. The mana stored inside is soaked with their grief and misery. It is something unthinkable. It is even more lamentable when you realize that there is no trace of resentment in all of it, just pure sadness.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think about warning you about that. It’s my fault,” I apologized honestly while tenderly holding her palm. “I guess you would find it hard to work on something so distressing so we don’t really have any other choice than to sell it.”

“I am afraid that it might not fetch a hefty price.” Levia softly shook her head. “It might be considered impure. Not mentioning the method of creation in the auction might feel dishonest, and doing so will certainly cause most people to turn away too. It is an incredibly old and dense Spirit’s Heart but not many will be willing to work with it, for obvious reasons.”

“Fuck.” Aisha clicked her tongue in annoyance. “So it turned out to be a piece of junk. Fucking Seed.”

I watched with Levia how my lovely drakan huffed and cursed both the item and its creator. It was unfortunate but it wasn’t like we could do anything about that. We had picked it up for free so we hadn’t technically lost on it.

“Would destroying it do anything for the fallen Pixies?” I turned back to look at Levia and asked.

“No. They are already gone, their existence erased,” she replied and I sighed heavily. “But, while this kind of Spirit’s Heart has been created maliciously, it still is an impressive Spirit’s Heart and it would be a great waste to destroy it. If you wish for it, it should be in my capability to work on it properly after accustoming myself to its peculiarities.”

“I appreciate this, really, but I don’t want to force you to interact or even be around something that causes you so much distress. It clearly was tough to bear earlier. I don’t mean to say that you are weak mentally or anything like that, of course. It’s just not my style. That’s all.”

“And I can confirm that,” Aisha chimed in from above; her arms crossed under her chest. “He really cares about the well-being of his Subordinates. Or rather, his companions. Instead of getting ordered around like the slave that I am, I’ve been treated like a roommate since the very first moment I came here. He means good.”

After listening to her words, Levia looked at me.

“The Pixies can not be brought back. Their energy is in this crystal. I think they would be happier knowing that their stolen lives are going to serve for something meaningful rather than simply dissipating after suffering so much. Is that not right?”

She glanced past me at the sole Pixie present in the room. We all turned to Rose and watched her float calmly in one place for a moment. Then, she slowly hovered toward the emerald orb and stopped right above it. She buzzed faintly but it was enough for all of us to understand that she agreed. A note of sadness could be felt in her intentions coming through our connection, but tinged with appreciation, most likely for saving the rest of her friends.

I reached out to pat the adorable entity with a warm smile. “Alright. We’ll keep it and see what we're gonna do next in the near future. As I said, I don’t want you to force yourself into doing something painful, Levia. We can approach it slowly.”

“That is alright. Thank you.” She gave us a bit more apparent nod.

“Shit! Now I feel like smashing something because of all this!” Aisha stomped her feet on the ground; her tail swaying in clear agitation. “Dungeon. Now. I’m in need of some walking stress relief puppets.”

I chuckled lightly. “If Levia doesn’t have anything against it, we can gear up and go.”

“I am eager to release some of the accumulated negative energy too. The suggested course of action would be more than welcome,” the calm-again elf lady replied while standing up with my help.

“Great. Let’s give the Dungeon some calcium deficit. Let’s go.”

We exchanged nods and I lead us out of the storage chamber after messily covering the evil creation.