NOVEL WEB Chapter 24: New Mission
“About that, I want to test something,” Jonn said quietly, contemplating his plan for the next hour, when he should have recovered from his exhaustion. “I won’t go into details, Alise. But it’s something that could help the village, I suppose. It may come to nothing, so keep it to yourself for now. If it works, we can improve our situation a little and I’ll tell it to our people.”
“All right, I won’t tell anyone. Good luck with whatever it is. I’m counting on your success.”
Alise left a torch with Jonn as she headed back to the walled area of the village, with a single torch lighting her way in the early evening.
She wasn’t afraid of the region’s almost absolute darkness. Born and raised in the Eternal Village, the darkness of night, concealing much of the area’s territory with ease, didn’t frighten her.
But after the construction of the village walls, walking around the outskirts of the village at night became easier. With the torches every 10 meters along the wall, especially the torches on the two watchtowers, the outskirts were never as illuminated as they were now.
Alise arrived in front of the village’s only entrance, now closed, following the guard’s night security protocol. After a minute’s wait, a small section of the bamboo gate opened, making room for her.
After Alise’s departure, Jonn was left alone in his greenhouse to water the land where he had finished the new plantings.
After a moment’s rest, reflecting on the day’s tasks and what he needed to do tomorrow, Jonn felt his mana reach 80% of his capacity—enough, in his opinion, to proceed to the chicken coop.
He placed the two concentrated mana crystals in a cloth bag and was soon joined by Ice, who was waiting for him outside the greenhouse.
Ice and Phantom had been alternating shifts on nights to keep watch over the animals and the village’s surroundings. Tonight, it was Ice’s turn to stand guard outside the village.
As soon as he saw his master, the white wolf followed Jonn, as he always did when he had the chance. But today, he looked at his master differently.
Trying to get Jonn’s attention, the wolf ran ahead and stopped in front of him, giving the human a peculiar look.
His big eyes shone as he indicated the bag with the mana crystals. Unlike the other animals, such as the cows and Roulf, already following Jonn along the side of the fence, Ice was connected to his master and knew better than to overstep by asking for the Aether Tears.
Jonn laughed at the behavior of the smartest wolf he’d ever dealt with, watching the creature slowly show its skinny belly as if it were a puppy asking for affection.
“No, that’s not for you, boy,” he said, shaking his head. “I know you want those crystals, but no. The slightest sudden movement and they’ll explode. What am I going to do if they explode inside you?” Jonn gestured to his wolf.
Ice seemed to disagree with his master and looked at Jonn with his two paws close to his face, creating a sight that would make anyone lose their sense of fear of him.
“There’s no point in insisting. No!” Jonn said, dodging his animal and moving on to the animal area, where even the two horses there today approached him, trying to reach the bag with the mana crystals.
But Jonn only needed to circulate a little of his mana through his muscles to ward off the creatures that were boldly approaching him.
As he entered the chicken coop, he saw that most of the 24 creatures inhabiting the small wooden building already had their eyes closed, sleeping in different corners of their space.
But each of them—the 21 hens and 3 roosters—looked in the direction of the bag with the mana crystals when Jonn entered it.
These were smaller and more timid animals than the cows and horses. When Jonn reached out to grab one of them, the others didn’t move towards him, but tried to get out of his hands.
Jonn had grown up used to dealing with the animals in the village. Everyone there had, at some point in their life, looked after the animals for at least a few months, so he knew the basics of how to manage the creatures.
In less than a minute, Jonn had his chosen one in his hands, a chicken with yellowish feathers and a frightened look in her eyes.
Jonn didn’t blame the creature. The last time a member of the village had caught a chicken like this, the creature hadn’t returned to the henhouse…
“I hope it doesn’t hurt you, little one. But I’m afraid you have no choice.”
He took the creature with him, leaving the henhouse and the animals behind. The chicken seemed to sense Jonn’s intentions, which only frightened it more.
Jonn walked back to his house, with Ice following him, while the larger animals watched from afar. His bracelet helped the surrounding creatures understand him better than other humans, although only Ice understood him perfectly.
Jonn left the wolf outside his house and, when he was alone with the hen, he let her go. He took the two small mana crystals from his cloth bag, as well as the Celestial Magnifying Glass.
As the chicken moved to one corner of the house, he placed the Aether Tear on the ground halfway to the creature, keeping the other at his side for later testing.
“Come, small one. You can do as you wish. I won’t hurt you,” he said, waving the fingers of one hand to beckon the little creature.
The hen didn’t move immediately. She paused and looked closely at the mana crystal, feeling her feathers bristle. Desire almost got the better of her, but she hesitated to move.
“Go on. It’s yours,” Jonn encouraged when he saw the creature’s gaze on him.
Although she wasn’t intelligent, the hen understood Jonn could easily end her life. It was in her instinct to respect the great being that looked after her kind, deciding on their future and taking the eggs that she and her sisters worked so hard to put.
But this human differed from the others. He seemed easier to get along with, and his feelings were calm, at least in her perception.
She approached slowly the crystal until she was within reach of her beak.
Once again, she paused and turned her head toward Jonn, looking at him from a strange angle. When she saw his nod of approval, she could no longer contain her instincts. She opened her mouth as Jonn curiously looked through the lens of the magnifying glass.
To Jonn’s surprise, the creature, just over 30 centimeters tall, opened her mouth and made a pincer movement, using her beak to lift the small mana crystal the size of her head. Then, opening her beak, she tilted her head upwards, drawing expression lines on Jonn’s forehead.
Jonn watched as the small creature let the mana crystal enter her throat, sliding as it progressively entered the animal’s body.
Is this how you intend to use the mana crystals without hurting yourselves?
Jonn couldn’t help but be fascinated by the experiment he was witnessing.
You know that mana crystals can explode and hurt you? Interesting. But what happens when the mana crystal is inside your body?
[Analysis] showed every important piece of information about what he was observing, while [Essence of Life] worked to form new information about chickens and their relationship with Aether Tears.
Jonn would need to observe other types of animals performing this experiment to draw more general conclusions. But he could already imagine similar phenomena occurring with wolves, cows, and horses if he were to repeat the experiment.
It took almost 15 minutes for the hen to swallow the entire mana crystal. Eventually, she closed her beak, let out a burp, and sat down. She did a little more before closing her eyes and sleeping right in front of Jonn.
Jonn continued to watch the creature, sensing the mana crystal settle in the chicken’s crop, where it began to dissolve. But the mana from the Aether Tear didn’t escape from the chicken’s body as it normally would with a non-magical being. It permeated every fiber of the animal, causing Jonn to lose track of time and soon reach exhaustion.
Eventually, he had to stop observing the creature for about an hour, during which he was unable to think about anything other than the experiment in progress. But as soon as he was able, he returned to observing the chicken, gaining a better understanding of what was happening inside the creature’s body.
At dawn, Jonn still hadn’t closed his eyes.
He had alternated between moments of rest and moments of analysis the night before. When the new day arrived, he was still monitoring the yellow-feathered creature, which now appeared visually different.
There were now some white feathers among the yellow ones, and the chicken seemed to have gained about 2 kilos of muscle, visibly bigger as she sat in the same position she had when she closed her eyes hours ago. The claws on her feet were larger and thicker.
Jonn now knew that a blow from the chicken could significantly hurt a careless person.
But what interested him most were the internal changes in the animal’s body.
The mana crystal had shrunk by over 80% in size. But since it became this light green sphere, it had stopped shrinking. Not only that, it ceased supplying mana to the chicken’s body and began absorbing the surrounding mana, converting atmospheric mana into her own mana.
He observed the animal’s development and the current processes occurring within her small frame.
The chicken’s mana was weak, however. If his own mana was close to 200, thanks to the bracelet on his wrist, the chicken’s mana was only 25 at the moment.
She couldn’t even be considered a level 1 magical creature.
While watching the creature sleep or meditate, Jonn suddenly saw through the lens of the magnifying glass something sticking out of the creature’s rear orifice.
But this egg was not normal. With a green stripe in its center, the dirty egg had a chunk of mana that Jonn couldn’t ignore.
“That...”
Then, the system showed a sign of life!
{Ding!}
{New quest: [Magic Farm].}
[Magic Farm]
[Description: You’ve discovered how Aether Tears can affect animals and generate superb results. Explore the possibilities and take the Eternal Village to the next level!]
[Objective: Turn all the animals in the village into magical beasts.]
[Progress: 0/32]
[Rewards: 32 attribute points (redeemable each time you progress); 1 {Skills} (redeemable on completion of the quest); 1 Immortal Fragment (redeemable on completion of the quest).]
But those weren’t the only messages from the system tonight!
{Ding!}
{+1 progress point on the mission [Save the Eternal Village].}
...
[Save the Eternal Village]
[Progress: 4/20]
Jonn’s eyes lit up even more as the second round of message boxes came into view.
That’s it! I’ll finally get a new {Skill}!
He celebrated as he gave the orders to the system to redeem the {Skill} he may now receive.
////Novaro////
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