Essence

Emery stood in front of the massive mythical tree he came to know as 'Gaia'.

The high priestess was busy tending the tree, as she touched a few parts of its massive trunk with glowing hands, letting the green light heal the peeling bark and slight imperfections. Emery could feel the strange shifts of energy in the air, it was as if the priestess was giving something, yet also taking something else at the same time.

"I see that you had quite the adventure, Emery."

The choice to use the word 'adventure' for his near death experience made Emery almost roll his eyes, but he resisted the urge, as whatever she did, the fact remained, the Lady of The Lake had saved him. In the end, he chose to nod as a sign of respect before saying.

"Yes, High Priestess. I extend my gratitude to you for saving my life."

With a slight movement of her hand, a root appeared from the base of the tree, before the root twisted and formed into some sort of small, standing bowl in front of her. Her hand started to glow and something started to fill up the small bowl.

"Ah, before that, I would like to apologize for what my sister did to you, Emery. After all, she is supposed to be my responsibility."

Emery told the High Priestess everything that occurred, from his meeting with Morgana, the spells Maeve had used and the chilling words she said during their meeting. She listened intently while staring at the shimmering liquid that had started filling the bowl.

"Ah, I see… She definitely is much stronger now and, from what you told me, she's definitely planning something. I am afraid this might be related to the upcoming disaster warned by Gaia."

Emery told her about what he saw within the Knight Order and about the sword in the stone.

"Please tell me, Priestess… Why do so many people hate us? What started everything here?"

Instead of answering, the High Priestess stood up. She appeared to have finished whatever she was doing with the bowl. The roots with the bowl followed the priestess and crawled towards Emery.

"Take this. You will need it to reach your answer."

Emery looked down at the bowl and saw a shimmering gold liquid swirling within.

"Do you recognize this, Emery? This is the answer you are looking for. This is what we call the 'Gaia's Essence'."

The familiar golden liquid made Emery realize what truly happened. He remembered the ceremony and the mysterious gold-colored liquid they gave to each knight before they could receive the blessing from the sword. He started to pull the puzzle together.

To be sure, Emery used his skills to examine what the liquid actually was.

[Analyze]

[Unidentified sap, tier 4]

"Tier 4!?" Emery muttered under his breath.

The thick, golden liquid was actually a sap and it was a tier 4 ingredient! Even back in the technologically advanced Magus Academy, tier 4 ingredients were very expensive and its availability was very limited.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Emery quickly cast his special plant spell.

[Fragmentation]

[One essence found]

[Gaia essence]

[Unidentified rank 4 liquid received. You are awarded 10.000 contribution points!]

Emery was speechless when he saw the notification.

He merely identified one ingredient, but he received a massive amount of points in exchange. He decided to focus on the faded mark marring the palm of his hand and summon the contribution points information

[Contribution Points: 98.650]

What surprised him wasn't just the contribution he obtained, but also the detailed information of the ingredient he had received in his mind.

After taking the test and advancing in rank and becoming a second rank apprentice, Emery was not only rewarded with better access to ingredients, but also the second level of the [Analyze] skill along with a more completed version of the [Universal Database]. Thanks to those, he was able to receive more extensive information about the ingredients he scanned.

He skimmed the long information and saw the gold liquid was basically a powerful reagent that was very similar to the spirit serum. It could be mixed with other potions to enhance its potency, or even be used to make two normally incompatible ingredients react against each other. However, the reaction could be unstable unless the potion master knew what they were doing.

In terms of similarity, it shared 90% of its components with a spirit serum. It meant, Emery could use this liquid as a substitute ingredient when he needed to create high rank recipes.

He scrolled through more information and saw one familiar recipe among the list of potions which could be brewed with the golden liquid. One of them was the spirit foundation pill.

"Dang, this is a very precious material indeed…" Emery muttered to himself.

Drowned in his contemplation, Emery kept on scrolling and looking at the information provided by the system, until he realized the High Priestess was still waiting for him.

He looked at the priestess, scratched the back of his head and said.

"I apologize, High Priestess, I was lost in thought, but this liquid is truly extraordinary."

The Lady of the Lake smiled and replied.

"No need to apologize. You are also extraordinary to know its true nature right away."

Now that he had seen how the golden liquid was made, it didn't take a genius to figure out that the sap came from the mythical tree, Gaia. This was most likely the root of why the Divine Order had its secrets, why the seven kingdoms possessed such enmity against Chrutins and why the Divine Water could only be accessed by those who had proven themselves to be loyal.

This must be one of the most closely guarded secrets of the order. The origin of the 'Divine Water' and the secret behind a Golden Knight's power.

As if she could hear what Emery was thinking, the Lady of the Lake nodded solemnly.

"Yes, Emery. Thirty years ago, the order waged war on us and it was this Gaia's Essence that stopped the fight."