Investigation at the Spring of Origins

Hades was amicable with answering each question that Ryuji raised. It was a simple exchange of information. The would-be assassin is an elf named Galvalen Fleurwood, a prominent elven warrior within the party. He along with Alistair Fleurwood, an elven commander and Elan de Lunaris which is the prince of the elves in the valley. He noted that the assassin and the commander had the same last name, so it would be better to assume that they are connected somehow. They are accompanied by two elven mages and four eleven warriors. The mastermind of the whole debacle is the current de facto queen who is a human called Eliseyah. She wants to kill Takehiko and the prince for their blood as to fuel an artifact.

Hades also explained briefly why the elves are needed to be saved. This is rooted as the elves have ahigh amount of devotion to the Tartarus affiliated gods. Ryuji did not probe further on a subject because he understands the basics of human resource. The elves and other living beings in this world seemed to provide an amount to the god's power. From this point, he does understand why the assassin would need to be spared and be saved from the artifact controlling him.

'Whatever that artifact is, it is simply something evil.' Ryuji thought. Having collated all the information that Hades provided, that artifact must be contained or destroyed. After all, it is the artifact that demands his brother's blood or any blood perhaps considering that the prince's blood is also asked.

Since Hades spilled the beans, Yubis explained that there is a rule system that is in place that's the reason why they can't provide the information. If that happens, he might as well deal with the aftermath. Every project has some sort of after sales support either as part of its transition or as soon as the project ends.

Ryuji was thankful for a moment that Hades did provide most of the information he needed. Despite that he could not promise if he could save the assassin. The guy might be controlled but he knows himself since he has powers in this lifetime, he is not sure himself if he can control his fury to someone who wanted to kill his brother. Moreover, he has no attachments to the assassin.

"Pack up and let's move to the springs tonight." Ryuji commanded.

"Yes master!" The wolf brothers responded.

***

Takehiko and Elan and their party quickly got up. So far, no one got attacked during the night. They were greeted by a hazy light that surrounded the area. They can see the surrounding was bright, but the area is filled with white fog that prevents anyone seeing a far distance, even the sky above them. The mist surrounding the springs are quite dangerous. No creatures nearby except for the sprite that they encountered yesterday. Everyone avoids the spring for two reasons: The mist which is infused with mana that can distort anyone's perception of the surroundings. Then there are the slimes. These scavenger monsters are like goblins, they tend to eat anything that they come across with. Fortunately, they somehow knew the importance of the forest as they hadn't eaten the trees surrounding the area. The combination of the mist and the slimes made the Spring of Origin a paradise for these creatures and a death trap for everyone else.

"We will be arriving in the Spring of Origin shortly." Alistair announced to his party. "If anyone sees a slime, kill it immediately."

Slimes are the weakest creatures however in the Spring of Origin, they are the only creatures in the area. While a single slime may not be perceived as a threat, there are recorded cases that they act as a group combining to form a bigger slime which can be a problem. Killing a single slime might reduce the numbers into forming a one big blob.

It was rather a short walk when they reached into a clearing, though the mist still lingers but it's a bit clearer to see the surroundings. No one knew what the springs looked like, but they did not expect a mound of earth formed beside the spring. The mound was as tall as the trees surrounding it but there was no grass on the mound itself.

"Who could have done this?" Takehiko was astounded.

"That's why we are here to investigate." Elan replied.

"We shall split up from here." Alistair formed two parties. He, the prince, and the black saint will be together to see mana along with the mages while the warriors including Galvalen will scout the area.

Unbeknownst to the other elves, Galvalen's neck started to give a faint glow of golden light. It was not noticeable to anyone.

They parties proceeded to scale the mound for its diameter, they started away from the water to avoid anything as the water can be dangerous since this is the area of the slimes. However, they quickly see some sort of figure up ahead.

"Halt! Identify yourself!" One of the elven warriors shouted.

Alistair quickly looked at the direction of the voice. One of the mages sent a gust of wind to the direction to reveal the figure from the fog. It looked like a slab of rocks with holes on it.

"Pfft. It's just a rock." Another warrior chuckled at the person. Everyone looked at the slab of earth. It is unusually tall.

The first warrior got embarrassed. He thought it was something else.

Elan and Takehiko looked closely at the unusual rock form with three holes on it. As soon as they approached it a crackling noise resounded. Elan looked down and saw some white things lying on the ground. He soon realized something wrong. The white things resembled bones.

"These are…" Takehiko calmly stated as he looked at the scattered debris of white materials around the rock formation.

"What is it?" Alistair asked. The light that they saw a few days ago, now these unusual materials on the ground. Is this a monster that they are facing? Is this done by the slimes? If so, they need to know what kind of monster that can do this to protect Valereth.

"It looked like the remains of something." One of the elven mages said he picked up a bigger solid piece of the white material.

"Hold still." Takehiko said and he casted <Identify> on the white material.

<Bones of a malformed viper (female) – these bones belong to a viper who failed to evolve into a Lamia. There are no uses for this part as it is unrecognized due to some parts have been corroded by acid slimes.>

"What is it, Takei?" Alistair looked at the black-haired child.

"It is a bone of a creature who failed at evolving. It says specifically that it was a viper." Takehiko answered as the elven mage dropped the white material back to the ground. He felt uncomfortable that it was a bone of some creature, but he was more disturbed by the prospect of acid. He was hesitant but this is probably a new kind of slime. "It says it was corroded by acid slimes."

"An acid slime?" Elan was shocked. He was trying to piece together things but an acid slime on the loose is quite problematic. They are rare kinds of slimes and sightings can only be counted by fingers throughout the elf history. But the problem stems with the corrosive nature of the slime since it can literally corrode anything, even metals which would be bad for any equipment.

Takehiko looked at the rock slab with three holes. The middle hole is larger. The two holes beside it looked a lot smaller. It resembled something ancient.

"This looks like a pillory of somesort…" Alistair said who was following the gaze of Takehiko as the black-haired elf child looked at the holes on the slab. This reminded him of criminals from human kingdoms. He tried putting his hand to one of the smaller holes. His hand would not fit through the hole.

"It does look like one." Elan commented.

"What kind of magic can do this?" One of the elven mages asked. He knocked at the slab of earth that produced a dull noise. This can be comparable to a boulder, but precise control of earth magic was used to create the holes. The mage looked back and noticed that there was an opening for the mound. They did not notice it earlier because of the mist and they were all concentrating on the unusual rock formation. The elven mage cried, "Sir Takei, look!"

Takehiko was drawing his speculation when one of the elven mages noticed the opening to the mound. Everyone in the area looked and then he casted light inside it and revealed huge pillars of earth messily inside the mound. He casted <Mana Trace> and he felt that the mana of varying frequencies. Though it is slowly dissipating due to the fog around the area. He did not move further inside the mound and turned around to the rest of the elves.

"What was inside?" Elan asked.

"Pillars of earth of the same material, your majesty." Takehiko answered. "It seems whoever casted the rock, also casted this." He pointed at the rock pillory formation.

"Is it the acid slimes?" Alistair asked.