Chapter 2673: Mayfly World (38)

It was not until he sat down at the dinner table that Shiller learned the news Matt wanted to tell him was related to Sandman.

They had suspected Sandman had been kidnapped and even tracked down a strange invisible person, tentatively suspecting Sandman might be collaborating with this kidnapper. Therefore, Shiller had designed a plan to lure the snake out of its hole.

The execution was quite simple, already knowing that the one who obtained the mysterious Invisibility Cloak was a naive teenager. Going from rags to riches overnight and suddenly obtaining such powerful strength, what he desired most, besides satisfying his vanity, was even more formidable power.

Or perhaps these two were one and the same thing, for only by gaining greater power could one satisfy an endlessly expanding vanity.

Though the Invisibility Cloak allowed him to commit minor thefts, having only the power of invisibility was definitely not enough to achieve anything major. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been merely sneaking peeks in women's baths or stealing things. If he could, who wouldn't want the seat right under Kingpin's buttocks?

Exploiting his greed for power, Shiller concocted a series of stories and laid out many baits, all to reel him to a specific location and figure out what was going on.

Shiller did not know where the Invisibility Cloak had come from because this character was too marginal — a minor figure that could not be any more insignificant — it wasn't necessary to remember his origins with such clarity.

But this did not prevent Shiller from fabricating a plausible origin story for the Cloak. After all, the Supreme Magician also had a Cloak. If you said the two were brothers, no one could refute it, except for the Cloaks themselves.

Luckily, the Supreme Magician's Cloak couldn't speak and had no idea of the outrageous origin story that Shiller had crafted for it. After all, many years ago, on a certain day, a God had bestowed two Cloaks, one remained within the mysterious Magical Sanctuary Kamar-Taj, and the other fell into the world, lost and untraceable.

Both Cloaks possessed tremendously powerful abilities, and if one could combine the two, they would possess power like that of a God.

In any case, it was still the same old spiel about being invincible under the heavens. The story was a bit old, but the teenagers really believed it.

According to Matt's investigation, at least for the past half a month, there had been no traces of the mysterious invisible person's activities in the Manhattan Area, but the New York Temple had experienced some anomalies.

About a week prior, the Mages of the New York Temple detected some unusual energy fluctuations, familiar yet so trivial that they were dismissed as remnants of the Mages' experiments, attracting no attention.

However, it was the day after the energy was detected that the New York Temple suffered a theft. Though important magical items were not lost, the library was ransacked, and several atlases were taken.

The stolen books were mainly about Kamar-Taj, some of which contained rather secret tales. The Grand Mages felt a sense of crisis immediately, suspecting someone might be targeting Kamar-Taj, and thus they reported to Kamar-Taj without delay.

The report was received by the Head Steward Wong, but such reports were so common, occuring about a dozen times a year, as practically every demon and ghost around the world had Kamar-Taj in their sights. Yet so far, none had been able to breach the headquarters.

With Strange recently busy with the village poverty alleviation work, Wong did not want to disturb him with such matters, so he simply stepped up the patrols around Kamar-Taj and otherwise left it be.

Calculating the time, Shiller guessed that the kid had taken the bait and believed it wouldn't be long before there would be good news from Kamar-Taj's side.

Unexpectedly, Shiller hadn't even finished his meal when he was summoned back by a phone call from Strange. Upon returning, he found not only Strange, but also the village head from the village below and the county head he had met a couple of times before were present.

After speaking for a bit, Shiller learned that Brooklyn Area no longer had mysterious cases, having been replaced by a sudden emergence of an invisible perpetrator in the Sherpa Town at the foot of the mountains, which had already led to over a dozen theft cases.

At first, Shiller didn't understand. Wasn't the invisible man targeting Kamar-Taj? After stealing so many atlases, surely he couldn't have failed to find the road, could he?

Then, suddenly, Shiller remembered something that most people often overlooked and that he himself had once disregarded—altitude sickness.

All who lived in the Himalayan Mountains behaved as if nothing was wrong, which made it all too easy to overlook this issue. The kid likely didn't fail to find the road; rather, he simply couldn't climb up.

The Sherpa Town at the foot of the mountains was located at about four thousand meters above sea level, which sounded high but was merely the starting point of the highlands. Generally, if one didn't fly directly into Tibet but instead went by train and acclimated gradually, it wouldn't be too severe.

But considering the typical American teenager's lack of common sense, Shiller thought it very possible that the kid had flown there, probably collapsing upon arrival.

And above four thousand meters, every 500-meter increment is a threshold; even more so after five thousand meters, where every 200-meter step becomes a chasm. As for climbing even higher, it's not just a matter of physical fitness— some innate ability is required.

The villagers living at altitudes of six to seven thousand meters are born and raised there, rarely leaving in their lifetimes, and thus are naturally acclimated. Not to mention the Mages, who need not be mentioned at all; without such willpower, they could never become Mages in the first place.

But to expect an ordinary person with only the power of invisibility to somehow climb to such heights while adapting to the intense altitude sickness...that is somewhat beyond what might reasonably be expected.

Shiller's identified target, Parker Robbins, had no experience in high-altitude work, nor had he undergone military training—he was nothing more than a common Brooklyn street thug. Likely, even if he had the maps to Kamar-Taj, he simply couldn't make the climb.

Where else could he go if he couldn't climb up? Of course, he could return the way he came, but an altitude around four thousand meters was also hard to bear. If he took a plane and was lying down upon landing, he would need at least about a week's rest; during this time, he probably couldn't go anywhere.

Shiller thought it was very likely that Robbins, not giving up, felt that after taking a breather, he could climb to higher places, and maybe just by lying there, he could end up at Kamar-Taj. Therefore, he just stayed in the town below and didn't leave, taking advantage of his invisibility to commit all sorts of crimes.

Because this small town was close to Kamar-Taj, most of the mysterious incidents were mistaken for being related to Kamar-Taj, so the village head and the county chief came over to ask if anything had slipped out recently.

Strange sternly assured them that it definitely couldn't be the students' doing; the students of Kamar-Taj couldn't possibly steal things.

The village head and the county chief didn't suspect the students of stealing, either. They just wanted to ask if it was possible that some Spiritual Beasts had escaped and whether it would affect anything if they hired someone to capture them.

Now, it wasn't just them who wanted to go capture; Strange wanted to go as well. He wanted to see who dared to make their move under his nose.

Shiller remained silent and feigned ignorance, after all, he truly hadn't considered Robbins to be so incompetent that he couldn't even withstand the common altitude sickness. It was like fishing; he had hooked one, but the fish drowned itself.

Originally, Shiller wanted to go and see the situation for himself, but Pamela called out to him. She wanted to discuss the progress of the experiment, so Shiller went with her instead, disregarding the matter of capturing the culprit.

What Pamela wanted to discuss was still about cultivating Magical Herbs. Holding a stack of data, she said to Shiller, "Now it's basically confirmed that the principle is correct. It's indeed possible to alter the characteristics of plant cells by infusing them with a faint Magic Energy, which extends their lifespan and enhances magical affinity."

"The main issues are twofold right now. First, we cannot use manual infusion of Energy, as we've discussed before, because the yield is too low. We are currently exploring the radiation machine that Stark created."

"Second, which is a newly discovered problem, is the soil. It's not good enough," said Pamela as she snapped her fingers. "We have to infuse the plants with Energy during their growth, but if they're still planted in common soil, the Energy dissipates very quickly."

"Didn't you mention using continuous radiation for infusion? Can't that be maintained just fine?" Shiller asked.

"That would be too wasteful," Pamela replied with some resignation. "Even though the cosmos's Magic Energy is relatively abundant, it can't be wasted like this. Wouldn't that be like throwing money into the water?"

"Can't it be recycled?"

"That's a research direction, but so far there's been no breakthrough. It's troublesome to recycle in natural soil. We're looking into allowing the soil to retain Energy through radiation and then providing it for plant absorption," she explained.

"That's not bad," Shiller responded. "Plant growth always requires soil, water, and sunlight. It's much better to tinker with these three elements than to forcefully infuse Energy into the plants."

"That's the problem we're facing. We've tried it; water doesn't work. Although it can carry Energy into the plant, the conversion efficiency is too low and uncontrollable. Sunlight doesn't work either. Magic Light exposure causes the plants to mutate, which is beneficial to my research on Attacking Cabbage 5.0."

Pamela stroked her chin as she thought aloud, "We are currently conducting different soil analyses to see which type has stronger Earth Magic affinity. I believe that soil which is normally good for cultivation should also perform well in this respect..."

"Do they have to be planted in soil?" asked Shiller. "If there are other substances with strong magical affinity, can't plants be grown on them?"

"Theoretically, that's not feasible. You can't just take a piece of Magical Metal and expect a plant to grow out of it. That's unscientific, uh, I mean unmagical," she said.

Pamela, a bit impatiently, waved her hand and continued, "It's because of the plants' stability that they can serve as a magic carrier for humans to consume and absorb without causing poisoning or cell infection."

"If you want to engineer a plant capable of growing on metal, you'd be compromising its stability. What grows may not necessarily be a plant, and it's difficult to say what the consequences might be after being consumed by someone."

"Metal may be a bit extreme," Shiller remarked. "Can't there be a compromise? For example, using certain materials that could potentially grow plants, which aren't typically used for plant cultivation..."

Pamela looked at Shiller and asked tentatively, "Do you have an idea?"

"I do, but it must not be known to others. You have to keep this a secret for me," Shiller said mysteriously.

Pamela pursed her lips and replied, "Have I not kept enough secrets for you already?"

Shiller looked at her, then said, "Are those fertilizers any good?"

Pamela suddenly realized what he was referring to; she drew in a breath of cold air and said, "You're not planning to grow plants in human bodies, are you???"