Chapter 51: The Moonshadow Fruit
“What’s going on?”
Feeling something was off, Qin Yuan recited the incantation twice more, but still no response.
“What are you doing...?”
The noise stirred the Whispering Grimoire.
“Why is there no reaction even though I clearly chanted the spell...?”
“I see... You must recite it with rhythm and cadence. Let me demonstrate it for you,” it said, drifting out. After an expressive, melodious chant, the magical glow around the storage pouch rippled faintly before quickly fading away.
“See that?” The Whispering Grimoire snorted proudly. “Open it up and see what’s inside.”
“...” There was this kind of nuance, too...
Qin Yuan twitched the corner of his mouth and dumped everything from the pouch out.
The first thing that caught his eye was a single shining coin.
There was only one gold coin, but dozens of silver ones.
He turned to examine the other items.
There was a staff and a bundle of magical materials.
...
[Blackblood Staff★ (Common): A magical item crafted by arcane artisans.]
[①: When wielding this staff, the power of your blood magic spells is slightly increased (white rarity).]
...
[Moonshade Fruit★★ (Magical Material): A magical material born in the Moonlight Realm. When consumed, choose one two-star common spell and upgrade it to rare rarity.]
[Note: An imperfect fruit...]
...
“He actually has this,” the Whispering Grimoire said in surprise. “I once saw records about the Moonshade Fruit in a magic book and learned some secret information about this material.”
“What kind of information?” Qin Yuan asked immediately.
“Hehe, if you can find another magical material called the Sunfruit★★ and combine the two, you can concoct a special ‘Transcendence Elixir.’ Using it will directly upgrade a two-star epic spell to legendary.”
The Whispering Grimoire smiled faintly. “You’re quite lucky. I didn’t expect to find a two-star magical material on a black wizard’s apprentice. Could it be that he was keeping it as an offering for some evil god? Well, that’s to your advantage.”
“So that’s what’s going on...” Qin Yuan showed some interest.
---
This was somewhat troubling.
After all, each tier of spell quality represented a qualitative leap, and legendary was much stronger than epic.
It was worth investing effort to try to find this so-called Sunfruit.
If he succeeded, it would be a tremendous boost to his power.
Keeping it to pursue dreams wasn’t a bad idea either.
...
Because the Soul Realm lasted continuously for four days—that is, until the morning of the eleventh—during which he had to pass through a twisted dreamscape.
So in the following days, Qin Yuan used the feather for aerial scouting and began hunting monsters deep in the forest.
Before setting out, he signed a contract with a yellow slime named Dongdong on the sky island, paying the price of unlimited fruit every day.
Having a mount made traveling much easier.
Occasionally, he visited Dagang’s cave to chat.
But one thing had to be said: although there were some level seven and eight monsters deep in the forest, they were few and scattered.
Often, he could only find one or two after searching for half a day.
Moreover, these monsters were quite smart. At the slightest hint of danger, they would run away immediately.
Sometimes, he encountered the frustrating situation of finding prey after great effort, only to have it flee just as he was about to strike or in the middle of battle.
Some of the faster ones were even too quick for the slime to catch despite its desperate pursuit.
Adding to this, the experience needed to level up kept increasing.
The result was a very low efficiency.
To reach level seven before entering the twisted dreamscape, Qin Yuan didn’t return to the village on the penultimate night.
Instead, he teleported to the sky island and found a grassy spot to sleep, saving time on traveling back and forth.
However, he soon discovered another problem.
The island was indeed sunny and the climate pleasant, making it perfect for a nap during the day.
But at night, the glaring sunlight actually made it hard to sleep...
In the end, he chose to rest in the underground slime village.
Much of the relocation had already been completed, so there were few residents left below.
Occasionally doing this was fine, but it couldn’t be a permanent habit, especially since he still had to feed the nightmare slime.
He had gathered over a dozen shadow flowers—the slime’s favorite snack—but he couldn’t feed it snacks alone without main meals.
After some effort, combined with the blessing of the Holy Fruit, he finally reached level seven on the last day, as expected.
---
[Return in 12:21:55.]
Since the return was scheduled for 8 a.m. the next day, this was the night before the last.
Sitting in the tavern, Qin Yuan briefly reviewed his preparations.
He had commissioned the Whispering Grimoire to brew four vials of holy water potion last time.
There were three bait potions that could increase efficiency.
He was curious to see how effective they would be.
If they worked well, he planned to prepare more next time.
After all, with his ability to brew them himself, the actual cost wasn’t high.
With a few hours left, Qin Yuan activated the teleportation crystal and went to the sky island.
After several days of rebuilding, the entire slime village reconstruction was taking shape.
Many tasks were entering their final stages.
Qin Yuan went straight to the village chief and expressed his wish to visit the magical crystal mine.
Since it had been a while, the elder didn’t remember the exact location, but he called over a pale green slime who was the original discoverer.
Happy to help, the slime bounced ahead, leading the way.
Qin Yuan followed behind.
“This is it!”
Soon, they arrived at a cave entrance.
Peering inside, just standing outside, he could see a faint glow emanating from deep within.
“Let’s go in and have a look.”
The cave was narrow; after a short walk, they entered a spacious mining chamber.
The walls in all directions were studded with transparent crystals, among which were scattered pale purple crystals.
Looking at the purple crystals, the Eye of Insight had already provided a hint.
...
[Magical Crystal Mine (Unrefined): A versatile rare material, far more valuable than gold coins as hard currency. However, the current ore contains too many impurities and must be purified before use.]
...
Qin Yuan casually picked up a piece and held it, vaguely feeling a pure magical power surging within.
However, looking through the raw stone, he could see many black impurities inside.