Meanwhile, Abium returned to the two-storied manor, leaving other matters to Viper and Helena, and fell into deep thought.
First, he ordered Claude to select 100 youths from the slaves and train them with advanced techniques. As for the others, he told Claude to give them intermediate warrior techniques.
If his territory wants to survive the upcoming monster waves, he must prepare in advance.
'I don't have any work in the magic tower. So, I will stay here for now.' He muttered while entering the main hall and glanced around.
After a quick look, he took out the materials he stole from the demon and placed them on the nearby wooden table.
At that moment, Azolla spoke in his mind.
'Sell this Abyssal Locust tree root. It is useful for creating chaotic potions, and some second-tier mages will show some interest.'
'Second-tier mages will show interest? What type of chaotic potion can we concoct using this?' Abium couldn't help but ask.
'Spirit potions.'
Azolla's words made his eyes widen a little.
'Interesting. Can I raise my spirit power if I use this root to concoct a potion?' He asked curiously.
'Yes, kid. But potion brewing is not an easy task. Moreover, you have only one of the materials required for brewing the chaotic type spirit potion.' Azolla said with a chuckle.
'I thought so. I'll sell it to the auction house when I return to the capital.' Abium said with a sigh and finally took out a tiny white shard from his spatial ring.
He hadn't forgotten about this precious treasure at all.
'Are you going to use this Divine shard to increase your spirit, kid?' Azolla asked. But Abium didn't reply. Instead, He tightly shut his amber eyes and sent his spirit power into the shard.
Spark!
A second later, he sensed that some invisible power was blocking him from even scanning the shard. He soon opened his eyes inside the spirit realm and looked around. In front of him, the same crystal-like divine shard floated up in the air and gave off an eerie reddish aura. At the same time, he also saw many red clouds hovering all over the area in the empty void and frowned.
'I expected to appear in that mysterious fountain room, but I'm in the spirit realm, huh? And, this shard looks somewhat creepier.' He muttered under his breath and soon realized that the red cloud-like smoke was coming out of the divine shard.
It was the same corrupted red cloud he had seen a few weeks ago in the undead realm. Without hesitation, Abium moved his spiritual form away from the divine shard and woke up in the physical world.
"Azolla, why does the spirit energy from this divine shard looks so evil?" He asked in confusion.
'Haha, of course, it will be like that, lad. This divine shard is from the 'Madness' domain. It comes under chaotic affiliation.' Her words caused him to puzzle.
'Madness Domain? Chaotic Affiliation?'
He frowned and asked further about the divine shard.
Meanwhile, Azolla also asked a question instead of responding.
'Do you know why spirit power is stored in the divine shards and divinity?'
Azolla's question piqued his interest. But he shook his head.
'I also thought of asking that question long ago.' Abium said while rubbing his chin.
'Actually, the spirit power has different names. Mages call it spirit or soul power, while the gods call it divine power. The difference is that gods would gather divine power from the living beings in the name of faith and emotions and turn them into their own. In contrast, Mages would gather spirit power by entering the spirit realm and strengthening their soul. These spirit powers are scattered all over the places.' Azolla's explanation made Abium's eyes widen. He hadn't thought there was a link between god's divine power and spiritual power and was surprised. But still, he got confused by something and asked quickly.
'So, why would the spirit powers scatter in the surrounding environment? What's the origin of this spirit power?'
'The spirit power accumulated in the surrounding environment is from people who have no faith in the gods. Moreover, I heard from the elven research institute that even plants and normal animals have emotions. And that's why one could find many Spirit clouds in their Spirit Realm.' Abium nodded with a serious expression without disturbing her talk.
'Next is about the affiliations; this universe has two main affiliations. All living creatures are divided mostly based on these two affiliations. They are Lawful and Chaotic. The Lawful and Chaotic further divided again into Good, Neutral, and Evil.' Azolla said with a pause,
'Also, there is a special affiliation called Neutral affiliation, but they wouldn't interfere much with the mortals' business and only interfere if the balance of the universe is broken.'
As Abium listened to her explanation, he understood a little about these affiliations.
'Hmm, does that mean I will change into a chaotic affiliation if I absorb these red clouds?' Abium furrowed his brows and asked.
'No, kid. You already have a 'Time' divinity in your body, which is a lawful affiliation. So, there will be no problem.' Azolla stopped for a moment and continued with a sigh. 'But don't use this divine power. It will influence you to walk on the path of madness.' Her reply made him dejected a little, but soon he nodded in understanding.
"In the end, this divine shard is useless to me, huh?" He quickly shook his head and put the shard into his spatial ring again.
But suddenly, Azolla thought of something and said slowly.
'It's not completely useless, lad. You can sell it with any neutral god for divine energy and get the divine energy to increase your spirit faster.' Her reply made Abium almost fall.
"Azolla, do you think I'm that powerful enough to talk directly to a god?" Abium spoke out loud.
'I don't know much about other gods, but I think 'one goddess' might hear your request if you make a simple offering.' Her words caused Abium's body to stiffen up.
'Do you want me to trust that prankster goddess? Impossible.' He shook his head grimly. Although she was a good goddess, he didn't have much trust in her at all.
'You forgot Goddess Nyara is your elven race's guardian, lad. But now, I'm talking about a different entity. Her name is Rodia, the Goddess of Night and Day.' Azolla said in his mind.
'It is the first time I've heard this Goddess's name. Who is she?'
'She is a goddess from a completely different world, but I heard she has some connection with the Mother Goddess and the Elven Royal Family. There was even a temple built in the abandoned elven city to worship her.'
'A goddess from a completely different world?' Abium paused for a moment and thought about the current situation of the Easica World.
'Once the Chaos Era begins, I won't get an opportunity to hear a word from any god. It's better to use this opportunity.' Abium made up his mind.
'How should I contact her?' He asked with puzzlement. Among the millions of worshipers and firm believers, only a few firm believers had a chance to receive blessings from their gods. He even heard some believers had an opportunity to talk with their gods in the holy cathedrals and got more curious about Azolla's method.
'It's by doing a sacrificial ritual. You should create a small sculpture of Goddess Rodia first and put her favorite items in front of a small altar. Then, you must do the sacrificial ritual and summon her to the Easica world.' Azolla said calmly.
'Sacrifice? Human sacrifice?' He suddenly stiffened up.
'No. It's just a normal animal sacrifice.' Azolla's answer made him relax a bit.
'Good grief.' Abium breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded his head.
Knock! Knock!
Abium quietly turned around and saw Helena standing at the entrance.
"Come in."
Just as he spoke, she raised her hand, waved at him, and started walking toward him with a solemn look.
'Did something happen?'
"What happened?" Abium asked.
"The slave merchant sent a message through a puppet raven an hour ago. He mentioned in the letter that he would bring back 500 slaves in a few days. Oh, he also mentioned that he had already sent the letters to Adventurers guild and Merchants Guild." She answered.
'So soon? He must have sent the letters through the puppets or other methods.' Abium thought inwardly and nodded.
"That's a piece of good news. Can you take care of the other work? I have something important to do for the next few days." Abium said as he touched his spatial ring and gave Helena a bag of white gold coins.
"It contains a total of 1000 white gold coins. You can use these coins to pay the slave merchant when he arrives with the slaves."
"Okay." Helena nodded her head.
'Hmm, what are you going to do in the meantime?" She gave him a curious glance and asked.
"I'm going to perform a ritual." Abium paused for a moment and was about to explain, but Helena waved her head.
"If it is an important matter, I will take care of the rest of the work in the town." Saying so, she turned around and quickly walked out of the main hall.
Meanwhile, Abium shifted his attention toward the ritual creation method and asked for more details from Azolla.
After a few minutes, Abium walked out of the manor, asked Claude to bring him a few oak woods, and started preparing for the sacrificial ritual.
Then, he went to Alfred's room and sought his help to create a wooden sculpture of the Goddess. Although he hadn't seen her beforehand, Azolla knew how her statue looked and helped him to draw a rough image of her in an empty scroll.
'In truth, you can simply put a stone on the table and do the sacrificial ritual to any god or Goddess. That's how most of the sacrificial rituals are done. Alas, the chance of getting the god's attention will diminish.' Azolla paused for a moment and explained further.
'But when you put a sculpted statue of that particular god and pray for her with more sincerity, the chance of getting a blessing will increase.'