At this time, the people standing around to watch the excitement had all left.
Ivita hesitated for a moment, "So, what treasure will you give me?"
He stepped down from the carriage, cast a glance at the old woman's stall, and found that the wares on it were merely some inexpensive clay pots.
"Child, are you belittling these pots? You can't judge everything by its appearance." The old woman coughed. Without even looking, she casually picked up a brown pot. "This is a pot from an ancient civilization. It is said that the tyrant Shaw, hated by the Church, once used it to drink water, and it disappeared after surviving ten consecutive days and nights of a terrible city fire."
"Later, tyrant Shaw accused the Church of arson at the time and killed many people indeed."
The old woman picked up another small pot. The pot's surface was adorned with human figures painted with black pigment. "It was the first Great Emperor's mouth rinse pot."
"That Great Emperor marched across the Empress of Ten Thousand Cities, advancing towards a massive Empire, and lost it along the way."
"These goods at the stalls are priceless antiques, devoid of any mana, but indeed priceless."
"A mere three pennies and two shillings cannot possibly compensate for these."
Ivita silently gazed at the so-called antiques, which looked like junk, casually piled up on the ground.
He turned to look at the old witch who shook her head.
He looked at Rayli and Black Wolf. This was a lost cause. Rayli and Black Wolf were merely warriors and didn't know many words, so they naturally shook their heads too.
Black Wolf softly uttered, "Your Highness, I believe we might have encountered a fraud."
"If these were truly antiques, then they wouldn't just be tossed on the ground like this. These are all clearly just some broken pots."
"I think her head isn't quite right."
Maintaining his forced politeness, Ivita awkwardly inquired, "So you are planning to give me these items?"
A thought occurred to Ivita: Why not try to sell these things?
What if they could actually be sold?
Wouldn't that be funding for his restoration?
The old woman firmly refused. "I refuse, these items are part of my collection."
"I won't give them to you. What I am giving you is this ring."
A ring was tossed over by her. Ivita caught it in his hand and found it to be an ancient-looking obsidian ring (a type of volcanic rock).
The old woman said to a stupefied Ivita, "You must keep this ring safe. It's very useful."
"Remember, it can only be worn on the thumb of your left hand, nowhere else."
All Ivita could reply was, "Thank you, then."
The old woman continued, "As a gift, I can give you a free divination as well, and ask about your fortune, the auspicious and inauspicious, and the temperament of the seasons."
"What do you want to divine?"
Ivita's heart stirred. He had just heard about divination practices and wanted to learn about Spirit Mirror Divination.
Even though he didn't know who this old woman was, he was genuinely interested in watching someone perform divination, whether it was magic or not.
Even ordinary divination seemed rather interesting to him.
Ivita thought for a moment. "Hmm...I want to know how I should take on a task from the Adventure Guild in Kari Town that can get me a territory or loyalty from powerful individuals."
The old woman seemed not to find this request strange. Without even lifting her head, she picked up the six sheep knuckle bones inscribed with symbols that were lying at her feet.
She grabbed the six sheep knuckles and tossed them into the air, caught them and then threw them again, and then caught them once more.
The old witch suddenly sneered, her gaze filled with malice as if she was foreseeing that she was about to be embarrassed.
The old woman threw them three times in total, catching them each time before finally scattering the six sheep knuckles on the ground. She bent down and looked at the distribution of the sheep bones on the ground. "It seems like this, yes, it tells me...it wants me to tell you..."
"Hmm?"
She suddenly raised her head, looking incredulously at Ivita. "It actually shows two contrary outcomes."
One urges her to stay away from Ivita quickly because an unfathomable malice surrounds Ivita, making it impossible for anyone to see his true identity.
The other one indicates that she can trust Ivita, but still, his identity remains unclear.
So, who on earth is he?
She originally thought he was just a young man worth investing in.
But now it seems that things aren't that simple.
Moreover, what's terrifying is that this divination result was actually made for her.
Typically, only the presence of an incredibly powerful spiritual source could disturb a divination to such an extent that it turns the focus of the divination upside down.
However, this kid in front of her should just be an ordinary boy, a wizard apprentice.
Whilst an apprentice of his age indeed has great potential, it baffles her as to why his existence would cause such interference in the divination results.
The old woman casually picked up six sheep bones, pretending like nothing had just happened, "I want to divinate once more."
"This way, it will be more precise."
Black Wolf frowned. "Your Highness, are we not just wasting time here?"
Ivita said: "Give the old lady some time."
The old witch seemed to have expected this result, divining for the Demon God?
Ignorance.
Suicide.
Such a powerful being disrupts the course of events, much like how a stream of fate changes its course when flowing around a mountain.
Avoiding beings with powerful spirituality and immortality during divination should be common knowledge.
If one of her apprentices dared to make such a mistake, she would turn him into a toad.
Embarrassed, the old woman could no longer maintain her mysterious facade. She became serious, and her gaze grew focused.
She took out a small, thumb-sized white flower from her pocket and adorned it on her coat pocket.
The old witch glanced at it. "Julius Caesar's summer flower! It can shield spells from disruption. But didn't it become extinct?"
"Hmph, in witches' eyes, nothing is ever extinct." The old woman shot back at the old witch, even though the two had never met, they seemed to share a deep-rooted grudge against each other.
"Tsk." The old witch didn't want to argue with her. "It's nothing but a relic from the past. This era is no longer yours. In mainstream civilization, there is no space for your kind. Even though we witches, too, are targets of the Church, we still hold absolute dominance in the Magic Black Forest."
The old woman repeated the act of throwing sheep knuckle bones.
This time, after viewing the pattern of the scattered bones on the ground, she breathed a sigh of relief. The divination was back to normal.
"It tells me that you should take the last task pinned on the adventurers' last signboard."
"Well, I'm off now. I need to figure out some things."
The old woman hurriedly departed, picking up her belongings from the ground.
Seeing how she roughly handled the supposed antiques, Ivita found it hard to believe that the pots were indeed rare treasures.
Was it because she herself was too poor?
After the woman left, Black Wolf said to Ivita: "Your Highness, you don't actually believe her, do you?"
The old witch said: "You can trust her. Her divinations are more accurate than those of witches, because the spirits of all things will tell them the result."
"Unfortunately, they are on the verge of extinction, with only a few left."
"Most of them lead miserable lives."
"I didn't expect to encounter one of the last remainders here."
Curious, Ivita asked, "Who exactly is she?"
The old witch glanced at Ivita. "Your Highness, it appears your fever has subsided. Ah, this is where we wizards are superior to them."
"Magic gives us supernatural powers, enabling us to heal quickly."
"Common diseases will heal over time on their own."
So, I recovered before I could see a doctor...
Ivita thought in silence. However, the question remains, who exactly was that woman we just saw?