=+=
"This is bad…" I looked at my injured arm as I spoke.
"How was it?" Jin emerged from the distant trees suddenly, his cold gaze unchanged as he looked at me.
"Has the interrogation already ended?" I asked calmly after catching my breath, trying to hide my injury.
"Yeah, it has!" Jin sat down, making noises as if he were an old man. He was clearly very tired.
He had exhausted his mind for half a day driving the carriage and then had to fight a squad of war machines alone. Adding the responsibility of protecting everyone for several weeks, it was certain he would be extremely fatigued.
"Just routine questions. I only told them partially about the puppet society, avoiding the important parts…" Jin replied, then started searching his coat pocket for some reason.
"I hope Killian avoided telling them too much as well." I leaned my head back, relaxing my neck, and began to think about finding more clothes.
My stock of clothes had run out, Eldrick had blown up my last shirt, and the pants were in a state I could barely tolerate wearing.
"Look what I found in that dwarf's ring." Jin held a small glass cylinder in his hand, the size of a small finger.
It was transparent, with an unknown red liquid inside. 'Is this… am I finally lucky?!' I jumped towards Jin and grabbed the cylinder.
"Is this really distilled ambrosia?!" I couldn't believe it. This was the drug I needed to resume the treatment of my body!
I couldn't help but hug the cylinder to my chest, releasing a lot of my worries through my breath.
"Although it's not enough to completely block the pain, it's still better than nothing…" I said to Jin before storing it in my inventory.
"Once you recover some mana, I want you to use your skill, please." I lowered my head a bit as I looked at him.
As I said before, I won't make him my slave even if I could, so I'm giving him the choice to refuse now. Although preventing my treatment would affect him negatively as well, he still has the option to refuse, which makes him free.
"Okay, but you should know something about my skills… what you know about them is just a brief summary." Jin took a deep breath and then began to explain.
—-
First, although you can transfer your thoughts and some of your memories to me using
The primary use of this skill is for me to understand situations quickly when you use
So, the memories I get from this skill don't stay in my mind for long. I've already forgotten most things about the element of destruction that I understood just a few days ago.
Also, using
The second thing is that I won't be able to use the {Crafting} skill to get the formula you want.
—--
I interrupted Jin immediately, unable to believe the last sentence he said to me.
"What? But doesn't the skill work that way?" I felt great confusion, and my heart began to sink. Is my hope going to be shattered after spending so many long weeks searching continuously?
"Don't interrupt me!" Jin spoke in annoyance, then continued.
—-
The {Crafting} skill requires me to have theoretical understanding of the material to produce it.
So, creating what you want needs me to understand not only the destructive and healing parts of the formula but also the way the sacred fruit is cultivated, how it is grown, and its primary source.
However! There is another way.
Since we already have a large stock of sacred fruits, we can avoid the part I mentioned earlier.
By using the {Transformation} skill instead of {Crafting}, I can directly transform the sacred fruits into what you want. This means you can carry out your plan normally, but if your stock of sacred fruits runs out or turns out to be insufficient, we have no other way to produce more.
That's what I wanted to convey to you…
—--
Jin finally finished explaining, and I felt relieved when I heard the end.
"It's fine… I already calculated the amount I need. I have more than enough stock.." I sighed in relief, then looked at a distant place. The western mountains looked exceptionally beautiful now.
The problem with my body will soon be resolved, and all that's left is to win over Darian in the inheritance trial, and half of my plan will be complete…
"That's good." Jin spoke, then continued, "For now, wear this." He took out clothes that looked exactly like his from his storage ring and handed them to me.
"This…" I smiled a little upon seeing the all-white clothes, then stood up. I'll go change inside the destroyed carriage.
"Stop!" A loud voice came from afar, and Lucas appeared among the trees. He seemed somewhat annoyed, as if someone had just insulted him. Maybe Daristan did something to him, which wouldn't be surprising given his personality.
"I'll make sure you reach the city by tonight." Lucas spoke as he approached me a bit.
"That's very reassuring." I smiled and tilted my head a little, still not understanding why he stopped me.
"We'll provide you and your party with a new vehicle." He extended his hand to the right casually, and a huge vehicle appeared out of nowhere.
"Did you have something like this with you all along…" I was slightly surprised as I looked at the vehicle.
It was enormous, the size of a bus. It was covered with solid metal plates from almost all angles.
A sharp, massive spike protruded from the back of the carriage, and an even larger horn was at the front.
The carriage looked like a living creature, with the wheels replaced by things resembling the feet of a rhinoceros. Lucas then pulled out a tablet from his inventory and tapped on some buttons on it.
"You can control the vehicle using this." he tapped a button on the tablet, causing the side door to open, then handed the tablet to me.
"There's a bathroom inside. Take a shower and wear these clothes. You should appear in the palace looking good today." He handed me black clothes, then led me into the carriage.
*
"...." In the background, Jin looked at the two of us, unable to express himself.
'I'll learn the layout of this vehicle..' he thought for a moment.
Jin heard footsteps approaching at that moment and quickly understood why. Killian came looking in good, assisted by some soldiers as he was injured, but nothing serious.
However, the next person to appear made Jin's eyebrows twitch slightly.
'This…' He barely managed to stifle his laughter when he saw Daristan. He was placed on a hospital bed carried by two soldiers, and they had chained him with metal to prevent his movement.
He was completely out of mana, but his anger was enough fuel to try and bite those around him. For some reason, this person was extremely angry.
Seeing his eyes, which had turned red with rage, Jin gave in and laughed a little.
On the other hand, Killian was utterly shocked. He couldn't help but open his mouth as he looked at Daristan.
Jin's laughter continued as he saw Killian's expression, but he suddenly stopped.
On another hospital bed, Elara appeared…