Chapter 38 – Elemental Spirit

Lin Wei spoke in a low voice, “We can’t go any further.”

The unicorn’s pace gradually slowed and finally came to a halt, its broad hooves sinking into the damp ground. It anxiously lifted one of its front hooves, bringing up sticky black soil.

Lin Wei used their contract to soothe the snow-white magical beast: “The ground is softening. It seems like they’re trying to drive us into the swamp.”

“That shouldn’t be,” Duan Yu said. “We haven’t changed direction.”

Lin Wei thought back to the path they had taken. They hadn’t changed direction… that was true.

If the swamp lay ahead, they would have eventually reached it even without these withered trees.

Could it be that they were being lured to speed up and rush into the swamp unprepared?

But as they had come this far, the ground had noticeably softened. Even if the unicorn had been galloping, it wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. And the most crucial question was: what was controlling these lifeless dead trees, and why had there been no further movement after that brief surge of magical energy?

The withered trees continued to move across the ground without hindrance, slowly closing in on the two of them. They remained still for now—these dead trees couldn’t be completely destroyed, but since they weren’t magical plants, they didn’t seem to pose any real threat to the two.

Lin Wei briefly described the current situation to Duan Yu and shared his speculations and doubts.

“They don’t have magic… they shouldn’t be able to move on the ground,” Duan Yu said. “Has the ground changed?”

Lin Wei stared intently at the roots where they connected to the ground. Unfortunately, the pitch-black tree trunks blended almost seamlessly with the soil, making it hard to discern anything.

That’s right, autonomous movement—this was something only magical plants with magical abilities and consciousness could do, and such movement would also create a significant disturbance, not like the current silent and seamless motion.

Under the dim sky, the black trees that had been dead for who knows how many years resembled grotesque, monstrous hands, slithering across the ground, silently and slowly closing in, becoming denser and denser—the scene was truly horrifying.

Lin Wei released his soul power, sweeping it across the cluster of withered trees: “Still no souls—who are they listening to?”

The unicorn suddenly let out a long whinny, and through the soul contract, Lin Wei felt a surge of anxiety even stronger than before.

Lin Wei gently stroked the unicorn’s glowing horn, but it didn’t seem to help.

“Strange…” Lin Wei murmured. “Could it have sensed something?”

He glanced around the unicorn’s body and noticed—its hooves, which had only been slightly sinking into the ground earlier, were now halfway submerged!

It seemed that although this place wasn’t yet a swamp, it was still unsafe—they needed to retreat.

A cold light once again gleamed from Gungnir, and a large swath of withered trees toppled over. The unicorn turned around and began to move in the direction they had come from.

“Wait…” Lin Wei carefully observed the unicorn’s front hooves as they stepped into the ground. With each step, the depth of the sinking didn’t lessen and even seemed to deepen slightly. He recalled Duan Yu’s earlier question, “Has the ground changed?” and suddenly felt a chill—this guy’s intuition was truly astonishing.

“You guessed right,” Lin Wei took a deep breath. “It’s not that we’re walking into the swamp—it’s that the ground itself is changing.”

Although the speed was slow, it was now clear that the unicorn’s hooves were sinking deeper and deeper.

Lin Wei began chanting a spell. He needed to summon earth-element magical beasts, as they had the ability to control soil—earth-element magic was also known as rock magic or simply earth magic. Practitioners of this element, whether attacking or defending, typically used solidified rock when manifesting elements, which was why people sometimes referred to it as rock-element magic—just as water-element and ice-element magic were often used interchangeably.

Two earth-element magical beasts emerged from the Gate of Contracts, spitting out magical orbs that temporarily stabilized the ground beneath the unicorn’s hooves. However, the forest was simply too vast. If it were to completely turn into a swamp, two mid-tier earth-element magical beasts wouldn’t be enough to hold it.

Speaking of earth-element magic that could control soil, could the gradually softening ground also be driven by earth-element magic?

—But if that were the case, how much magical power would that require? Moreover, aside from the solidifying magic of the two beasts, there was no significant magical fluctuation here.

“Damn it,” Lin Wei leaned back in frustration, resting against Duan Yu. “Can a swamp even be alive… I’ve never heard of such a magical beast.”

He had thoroughly memorized an entire, incredibly thick Bestiary of Magical Beasts from cover to cover, and there wasn’t a single entry for something called a “swamp beast”!

“Perhaps you shouldn’t be thinking about the Bestiary of Magical Beasts,” Duan Yu said to him. “After all, it was written after the Death Swamp was sealed.”

That’s right, the Death Swamp… It was sealed off from the rest of the continent at the end of the Dark Age, and the Bestiary of Magical Beasts was compiled by the Astrology Tower after magic had begun to recover somewhat, with later generations continuously adding and revising it.

And the first volume of the Chronicles of Time, the only record of the state of magic and history before the Dark Age, didn’t go into much detail about magical beasts either.

Floating logs, a flowing swamp, earth-element-like magic—an ordinary swamp obviously couldn’t do this. There must be a magical creature with autonomous consciousness controlling it, and this creature must have an extremely powerful ability to manipulate the movement of the withered trees over such a large area while remaining concealed.

Among the recorded magical creatures, aside from various magical beasts and intelligent races with magical talent, there was also…

“I think we might have stumbled upon something good,” Lin Wei examined the approaching withered trees and the increasingly soft ground, cracking a smile as his slightly furrowed brows relaxed. “To control an entire swamp without you noticing—could it be an elemental spirit?”

Elemental spirits—these were rare and extraordinary creatures even in the entire magic world. Their bodies were entirely composed of pure elements, with no bloodline inheritance, so they couldn’t be considered a race. Elemental spirits were often born in places where the elements of their type were highly concentrated, and during their growth, they would greedily absorb all the magical elements in the area!

These creatures possessed extremely powerful magical abilities. If an elemental spirit were to oppose a mage, that mage would be in serious danger.

However, Lin Wei was a summoner—and what could make a summoner happier than a powerful magical creature?

Thus, even though the current situation was quite dire, Lin Wei’s tone still carried excitement, and Duan Yu clearly noticed it: “You want to form a contract with it?”

“Exactly,” Lin Wei said. “This is a rare find—even Teacher Adele doesn’t have an elemental spirit as her summon. If I can form a master-servant contract with it, not only will I have a powerful summon at my disposal, but I can also use soul communication to find out what’s really going on in the Death Swamp!”

—If this truly was an elemental spirit, it must have lived here for a long time. If they could establish soul communication, their journey ahead wouldn’t be as aimless as before. In this place where no one had set foot for so long, the more they knew, the better.

Although, having lived for a long time also meant its strength would be formidable, but it was still worth a try. After all, its current actions were anything but friendly, and they would have to fight it one way or another. If they won, it would be easy to gain its obedience, and even if they couldn’t win, forming a contract wasn’t out of the question.

In the magic world and across the entire continent, all living beings possessed a unique soul, and the strength of the soul was often constant. Summoners, however, were an exception—they had a special talent, and their soul power would gradually increase with practice. The benefit of having strong soul power was: forced contracts!

In other words, even if their current strength wasn’t enough to defeat it, they could still attempt to form a contract. The less the elemental spirit resisted, the more likely the contract would succeed—what they needed to do was gain the upper hand in the battle.

“Whatever it is, we need to lure it out first,” Lin Wei summoned more earth-element magical beasts, solidifying a patch of rocky ground around them to resist the swamp’s encroachment. “First, we need to make it think that its current approach isn’t working. Then, this magical creature will either increase its magical output or come closer, and then…”

“And then I’ll be able to detect its location,” Duan Yu finished Lin Wei’s sentence.

“Right, that’s it… Once we find it, the attack will probably be up to you,” Lin Wei said. “It’s likely hiding deep beneath the swamp, so it’ll be hard for my summoned beasts to reach it.”

The pale golden spiritual energy expanded once more, deeply penetrating the black swamp. Duan Yu’s voice, calm and steady, sounded close to Lin Wei’s ear due to their current position: “Alright.”