Chapter 460 - 458: Going Home
"Among the 300 materials, some can be substituted by lower-ranked rare materials, such as the Star of Ice, which is blended with Ice Element Crystal Core powder, moon nectar, and frost tree leaves... These materials can mimic some properties of the Star of Ice when mixed in certain proportions."
"Most of the materials are like that. Considering your budget in gold coins, not only you might not have enough, even if you do, you may still not be able to find them."
Hilia sighed deeply as she looked at the long list of materials, finally choosing to resign herself to fate.
"So if I find those higher-ranked materials, I wouldn’t need to waste money on buying these secondary materials, right?" she asked.
Rose nodded, and helpfully marked the secondary materials that could be replaced with higher-grade ones for her. "You can take the opportunity during break to search for them, or try buying them and see if the price is high or low."
After the affair at Golden Apple Stone Forest concluded, Hilia bid farewell to Melina and the others and returned to Letes City.
Hilia stayed here for two days, visiting Phil while also collecting 300 kinds of materials.
As for the Space Ring, she found out from Melina and the others during the Golden Apple Stone Forest incident that they don’t make them, so she chose to ask Mr. Pharos in Letes City where to purchase one and spent 1200 gold coins to get it.
She also incidentally found out the prices of some high-grade materials.
"Ah, the Star of Ice is hard to find; it is usually sold through auctions. We can keep an eye out for you."
"How many gold coins do I generally need to secure it?"
"It’s hard to say, the starting price is 1000 gold coins. If there’s no competition, maybe 1500 gold coins will do; if there is competition, even 3000 gold coins could be risky."
"Farewell, no need to ask around, thank you."
The total cost for the secondary substitute materials for the Star of Ice was only a couple of hundred gold coins. Although their effect was only a part of the Star of Ice’s effect, Hilia only needed that part anyway, so it wasn’t worth the money.
If she wanted all high-grade materials...
Hilia counted and found there were 12 kinds!
It’s a price painful even for a Tier Five Mage; perhaps only a Tier Six Mage with the ability to create high-grade magical items like a Space Ring could bear it.
Someone like Mr. Blake, who knows nothing but fighting, Hilia felt might not be able to afford that much money.
Probably.
She also didn’t know how much gold coins Blake earned as the headmaster in a year.
"Take it slow! No hurry, the golden apple won’t spoil."
Hilia touched the ring on her index finger, feeling the strange sensation it emitted.
The ring had already been imprinted with her mark, much like a Magic Puppet’s mark, allowing her to sense it even from afar.
As for any techniques to remove the mark, Hilia didn’t know.
Generally, no one would steal a Space Ring because it was too expensive; those who could afford it were not weak, above Tier Four wouldn’t bother, and below Tier Four wouldn’t dare steal.
Moreover, the style of the ring could be customized, making it hard for common mages to distinguish between an ordinary ring and a Space Ring.
"Speaking of which, why make it look like a ring? Wouldn’t a necklace or bracelet be better?"
Rose replied blandly, "A ring is more convenient to carry."
"Alright then."
Hilia tossed all the materials purchased from the Mage Guild into the ring, ready to return.
"Letes City only has over a hundred materials; the remaining ones need to be found in other cities. Before that, let’s go home first and see what Vanessa’s Mother is doing."
Finally, she went to the City Lord’s Castle to bid farewell to Phil, after which Hilia used the directional teleporter in Letes City to teleport back to Southern Border City.
When she appeared in Southern Border City, she was ready to return but was caught by the City Lord Puniel, who insisted that she attend a banquet at the newly rebuilt castle.
Puniel even wanted to invite Vanessa over; no matter how much she declined, there was no avoiding it. Ultimately, Hilia had no choice but to ask him not to invite Vanessa and agreed to attend.
She wanted to surprise Vanessa, which would be difficult at someone else’s castle, and Vanessa didn’t like attending banquets either.
After spending a day in Southern Border City, besides attending the banquet, she also asked Puniel about various materials, ultimately gathering dozens of kinds, not too bad.
The next morning, without waiting for Puniel to invite her again, she quickly left and smoothly arrived at Star Ash Town. Nothing happened, letting her breathe a sigh of relief.
Looking at the reconstructed town temple, magnificent like a city’s divine hall, Hilia smiled.
"Finally back, the temple has changed a lot."
Though the temple had become magnificent, it was still quite empty inside. Hilia knew this was because Vanessa didn’t like crowded environments, and there was no need to hire many Assistant Priests since Star Ash Town had few people, hiring them would be wasteful.
Hilia walked into the temple, and Mili, who was sweeping the floor, sensed someone entering, looked up, and said, "Hello, do you need any... Hilia?!"
Halfway through her words, Mili joyfully dropped the broom and quickly ran over to give Hilia a hug.
Hilia assessed the Assistant Priest, who was seven or eight years older than herself, "Sister Mili is still as beautiful as last year."
Mili said, "Hilia is the prettiest; a year of absence made you more mature than last year. I’ll go call Vanessa the High Priest over."
Without waiting for Hilia to say anything, she quickly ran into the temple.
Hilia happily followed her, slowly walking into the temple’s interior.
Vanessa hurriedly came over, followed by Mili and Piggs. Seeing Hilia, Vanessa looked delighted and came over, giving Hilia a big hug.
Hilia rubbed her face against Vanessa’s chest, "Vanessa’s Mother, I missed you so much~"
"Vanessa’s Mother missed you too."
Next came a time for reminiscing, as Rose’s phantom appeared, thoughtfully glancing at Vanessa before leaving the temple and headed to the backyard.
There, he saw last year’s Star Spirit Tree flower, still in its original place.
This flower was beautiful, exuding a fragrance that calmed the spirit.
Even when the temple was destroyed last year, it didn’t change its disposition.
Rose could see that the surrounding pots, trees, and even the floor tiles had a peculiar attraction around this flower.
It wasn’t an array; it just met the Star Spirit Tree flower’s unique preservation requirements, serving the function of an array.
After pondering for a moment, Rose sent a message to reminiscing Hilia.
Hilia paused, asking, "Vanessa’s Mother, is the flower in the backyard still there?"
"It’s still there, why?"
"How did that flower come about?"
Vanessa paused and smiled, "It came with you when you were found. That flower was on your chest, protecting you."