"Helen, I'd like to discuss something with you; I'm not sure if it's possible." Liu Zhenhan, who had silently devoured three tortoise eggs, wiped his mouth and turned to Helen with a serious expression.
"Hmm?" Helen raised her head.
"It's like this." Liu Zhenhan carefully articulated his thoughts: "I want to take the shell of this model with me. I feel it's my first magical beast and somehow, I must keep something in its memorial."
"Oh, I see…" Helen pondered and said: "That can be done. In human history, there have been distinguished dragon knights who used the skull of their fallen Frost Giant Dragon steed as a shield. It's another way of commemorating their companion. However, this model tortoise is too big, its shell..."
"We can get someone to trim it later." Liu Zhenhan quickly interjected.
Actually, he coveted the shell for its quality, strong enough to withstand a magic wolf's wind blade. They were about to sail, and this shell could serve as a natural tent. Moreover, it was so small inside that two people could only sleep side by side…
"In that case, you can give it a try. We'll then bury our companion's remains." Helen nodded.
Liu Zhenhan had been waiting for those words. With the curved knife in his hand, he thoroughly hollowed out the tortoise's body, which was as robust as a gate. This knife was obviously sharper than the wolf's tooth, but Liu Zhenhan was still drenched in sweat.
After all, the skin of this tortoise was extremely tough. If it hadn't been for the roasting which charred some of its skin, Liu Zhenhan wouldn't have finished the job so smoothly.
Liu Zhenhan also extracted a pearl the size of a goose egg from the tortoise's lower jaw. This discovery excited him greatly. The pearl was lustrous and colourful, with fog-like airflow swirling inside its semi-transparent body.
"Pearls can be found in old shells, snakes, turtles, dragons alike. It seems this model is a senior as well," said Helen, smiling, "This is a gift from your companion. Keep it safe. Its head should also contain a magical beast crystal nucleus. Do you wish to extract it as well?"
"What is a crystal nucleus?" Liu Zhenhan asked.
"It's the thing Guoguo carries around her neck," Helen pointed to the hexagonal crystal tied to Guoguo's neck with a vine. Liu Zhenhan recalled that they had found it after cremating the body of the magic wolf.
"Of course I want it." Liu Zhenhan took up his knife immediately upon hearing this and began hacking at the tortoise's head. The hard tortoise cranium caused sparks to fly upon impact, and with a crisp "ding", a notch the size of a rice grain was chipped away from the blade.
"Just leave it be!" Helen advised.
"No!" Liu Zhenhan hacked a few more notches into his curved knife, finally dissecting the tortoise's head. He searched inside for a while, but found almost nothing.
"Nothing?" Helen was surprised.
"Nothing." Liu Zhenhan shook his sticky hand, "I didn't ask you, what are crystal nuclei used for?"
"A crystal nucleus is incredibly useful. Firstly, it's an exquisite gem that can be used for decoration. Additionally, a crystal nucleus can also absorb elemental power, serving as a magic amplifier to store magic power for human mages. They are quite expensive. Of course, only high-rank magical beasts can produce crystal nuclei. Your Guoguo and my osprey won't have any. The stronger the magical beast, the more precious their crystal nucleus often is," Helen chuckled, "Each year, our Bimon Kingdom sells some magical beast crystal nuclei to humans. It's a significant source of income for our kingdom."
"Selling crystal nuclei to humans?" Liu Zhenhan cursed the Bimon king as stupid in his heart, "Since you and the humans are mortal enemies, and humans are hostile towards you, isn't selling them crystal nuclei asking for trouble?"
"It's not that simple." Helen apparently perceived Liu Zhenhan's sarcasm and explained further, "Firstly, magical beast crystal nuclei are not exclusive to the Donau continent, even if we don't sell it to human countries, they could obtain them from somewhere else or hunt for it themselves. Even if the magic wolf crystal nucleus hanging around Guoguo's neck was given to a human mage, only a wind magic tutor could use it. Also, among all the magical beasts, wind system magic wolves are only slightly better than regular ones. The magic power their nuclei can store is probably only sufficient for a wind magic tutor to launch a few dozen wind blades."
"That's still quite impressive!" Liu Zhenhan still had lingering fears about the magic wolf's wind blades, "If I were a human mage and carried hundreds of crystal nuclei, who would I need to fear?"
"Richard!" Helen laughed, "The strength of human mages is far greater than that of ordinary magical beasts. Although they need to chant for a long time, use spices and scrolls to summon magic, their magic is always stronger than that of magical beasts that can direct summon magic elements. Take this magic wolf, for example. It can only use one offensive spell, the wind blade - monotonous and unchanging. However, mages are different. Through chanting and scrolls, they create a 'wind blade dance' consisting of dozens of wind blades all at once, or summon a small 'tornado', which can lift a 500-pound stone tens of meters into air and then drop it. They can also use a 'wind wall' to block attacks. You can't predict what kind of magic they might use, so you can't consider dodging at your leisure, like when facing a magic wolf. Don't you think they're very powerful?"