85: black stone

Through the rugged mountain path, the cold wind howled as Lister Howard and Spartacus Bulk rode their horses at full gallop.

Despite Viscount Connor and Mystia's strong efforts to make them stay, Lister Howard and his group still left.

Because if he didn't leave soon, he might miss the chance to meet Liberi McBain, the 'flower of freedom'.

Although Liberi McBain might not necessarily instruct him in swordsmanship, he didn't want to miss even the slightest possibility.

Of course, before leaving, he didn't forget to take the 50 gold coins that Viscount Connor had promised as remuneration.

As for the beast horde's carcasses, he only took the Silver Wolf King and some high-priced, well-preserved magical beasts. The ordinary beasts were of little value to him.

However, due to the insufficient space in his storage ring, the bodies of the Silver Wolf King and other magical beasts... [I hope readers remember our domain, Taiwan Novel Network, for a better and easier reading experience.]

He had Red lead everyone else, except Spartacus Bulk, to load them onto the large cart Viscount Connor had given them and slowly transport them back to Ironthorn Territory.

On horseback, Lister Howard simultaneously controlled the horse's direction and immersed his consciousness in the divination information before him.

He didn't know if this marvelous ability to do two things at once was due to his Spiritual Power becoming stronger, but it was surprisingly useful.

His gaze swept over the first piece of divination information.

[Divination 1: Late tonight, in a cave on the western edge of Blackstone Territory, the core black stone, which has absorbed the black stone energy of the entire cave, has transformed into a black refined stone.]

black refined stone?

Lister Howard on horseback looked puzzled, then quickly flipped through the book-like memories in his mind.

After a while, he finally found brief information about the black refined stone deep within his book memories.

Although the information was scarce, it made his eyes light up.

black refined stone, as the name suggests, is the purest part refined from black stone. Not to mention one cave's worth of black stone, it would be difficult for even ten caves to produce a single piece.

Therefore, its rarity goes without saying, and rare things often come with extremely extraordinary uses.

The black refined stone is clearly no exception; it has the ability to absorb magic power. That's right, absorb, not counteract.

This is very different from the Black Scale Snake skin Kelvin Kunte gave him before. Compared to the magic resistance of the Black Scale Snake skin, its magic absorption ability is much more powerful. The more refined and pure the black refined stone, the more magic power it can absorb.

However, mere magic absorption is not enough to demonstrate its powerful effect.

Its more powerful characteristic lies in the fact that after absorbing incoming magic power into the core of the refined stone, it will fuse with the special energy within the refined stone.

Then it generates even stronger magic power, which is then bounced back along the trajectory of the incoming magic attack.

One could say it's the 'Thornmail' of another world, except it can't reflect 100% of the damage back to the attacker.

However, the enhancement of reflected magic power makes up for this deficiency, so the effect is powerful enough.

Its most common use is to be inlaid into a knight's armor, providing the knight with significant magic defense.

In other words, with it, a knight gains the ability of passive magic attack.

Therefore, among Transcendent resource items, it can be considered a small bane for Transcendent beings like mages.

Of course, it also has limits to the amount and purity of magic power it can withstand. If exceeded or if it cannot resist, it will shatter directly.

However, for good things obtained for free, Lister Howard never devalues them because of their shortcomings; that would be too shameless.

In a good mood, he continued to look at the second piece of divination information.

[Divination 2: After receiving and reading Viscount Humphrey's letter, Viscount Connor immediately tore it up and mercilessly ridiculed Viscount Humphrey's greed in front of the messenger Soldier. Viscount Humphrey, upon learning of this news later, was furious, and the conflict between the two sides deepened once again.]

Lister Howard was slightly surprised after reading it. This old fox has such a tough side?

Given the situation in Viscount Connor's Territory after the beast tide invasion, it was actually the least opportune time to deepen the conflict with Viscount Humphrey.

But even old men are still men. If someone rides roughshod over you, who could tolerate it?

At least Lister Howard felt that Viscount Connor's actions were very much to his liking.

The old fox still has some redeeming qualities!

After a bit of internal teasing, he continued to look at the third piece of divination information.

[Divination 3: Tomorrow noon, your messenger Soldier, Pollett Adonis, safely arrives in Aetheria. Regarding your letter requesting help for Kelvin Kunte, Aisle did not make the decision himself but handed it over to Earl Elsid de Frander. Earl Elsid de Frander greatly appreciates your loyalty and so personally wrote a letter to the Western Border Earl, Theodore Ferdinand. Kelvin Kunte thus obtained a very good Pioneer Territory.]

This was another piece of news that surprised Lister Howard. He hadn't expected Earl Elsid de Frander to personally write a letter on his behalf to plead for Kelvin Kunte.

This was completely beyond his expectations. However, from the content of the divination, he not only successfully secured a good Pioneer Territory for Kelvin Kunte but also gained the favor of the Earl, whom he had never met.

What was originally just a 'let's try it' approach unexpectedly achieved two goals by chance, which was a pleasant surprise.

'Kelvin Kunte, you owe me a big favor.'

...The next day at noon, the great sun hung high in the center of the sky.

Although the light was dazzling, compared to the biting cold wind, that little bit of warmth seemed insignificant.

Because they hadn't rested midway and had been rushing at full speed, Lister Howard and Spartacus Bulk ultimately returned to Ironthorn Territory half a day early, covered in dust from their journey.

However, he did not return to the castle immediately. Instead, he took Spartacus Bulk to wander around Ironthorn Town.

Although Spartacus Bulk didn't understand Lister Howard's actions, he had no complaints, even though he was somewhat fatigued from the battle with the beast tide and the relentless journey.

Even after only two days away, Ironthorn Town still showed some obvious changes.

Compared to usual, there were many more people on the streets. This was because the Winter Wheat sowing had concluded the day before yesterday.

After a day of rest, a large number of liege subjects, under Brutus Donald's arrangements, began the reconstruction and building efforts for Ironthorn Town.

The horses slowly moved along the street, and the enthusiastic shouts of the liege subjects, along with their heartfelt respectful greetings, continuously echoed in Lister Howard's ears.

The warmth emanating from the people directly overshadowed the chill in the air of Ironthorn Town.

Moreover, after Lister Howard's careful observation, he found that although the streets were slightly crowded due to the increased number of people, the liege subjects' movements were orderly, causing no blockages.

To achieve such a degree, besides Brutus Donald, Lister Howard couldn't think of a second person.

While admiring Brutus Donald's excellent capabilities, the broad back of a man carrying a long sword appeared in his line of sight.