"Are you sure you didn't catch the wrong creature?" Horn stood in front of the iron cage embedded with glass, pointing at the creature the size of a house cat in front of him, and asked René, "Is this a Sli?"
René nodded confidently.
It wasn't that Horn was randomly suspicious, but rather that the creature in the iron cage was too peculiar.
Outside the Ethereal Tower of the chanical Palace, stood a half-human tall glass iron cage.
Inside the iron cage lay a semi-transparent creature, its body constantly undulating, with occasional sprays of faint blue sparkling smoke from its ears.
This little thing had been shot several tis by the factory guards with a Holy Gun, now severely injured, lying lifelessly on the ground.
Earlier, Horn suspected it might be the wrong catch because it didn't look like a Sli at all; it rather resembled a semi-transparent glowing hairless rabbit.
A rabbit's head, a mouse's body, a lizard's claws, and an elephant's "nose."
Its most noticeable feature was the elongated mouth, as long as its head. Horn squatted down to observe carefully, and could see the circular oral cavity and two rows of fine teeth.
Interestingly, its skin was still composed of semi-transparent Sli Cocoon, clearly allowing the sight of internally glowing faint blue fluid and crystallized Sli Core.
According to Horn's rough estimation, if this small creature had an elongated tail, it would be about 40 centiters long, but its actual torso was only about 20 centiters, just slightly smaller than his boot.
"We've never seen a Sli like this before." Schreiman from the Bald Head Society tapped the glass cover, speaking with desire in his eyes, "Generally, Slis don't have the ability to develop teeth, but it actually does... If you don't want it, could you give it to ?"
"No." Horn rejected flatly and asked Robert from the White Mountain Hermitage beside him, "Have you done any divination on it?"
"We did a divination on its origin." Robert shook his head, "But apparently its origin is quite complex, couldn't provide an accurate result even after trying hard, only drawing out one Tarot card—Upright Tower."
Horn instinctively turned to look at the Ethereal Tower beside him: "...Is it referring to this tower?"
"Not necessarily, it's not based on stellar divination positioning but rather complex divination with no clear boundary. The tower may refer to the Ethereal Tower or indicate a drastic change or upheaval."
"Can it be divined further?"
"It's difficult, continuing might drive us crazy or turn us into vegetables before finishing the divination." Robert shook his head, "Our White Mountain Hermitage is not like the Scales Hermitage, we don't use astrology unrestrainedly."
In the astrological spells, the clearer and more minute the condition is, the clearer and more accurate the results are; however, the more complex, higher energy level, and further ti lead to greater costs and more blurred results.
Sotis not only draining Mana but even life.
Therefore, most of the ti, Astrologers would adopt relatively low Mana-cost, low-risk vague divinations, then decide whether to further proceed with clearer divination based on the results.
From a theoretical standpoint, continuous vague divinations through astrology could be used to approach clear results.
Based on Hilov's mother's notes, they found this tower through continuous vague divination aided by astrology equipnt calculations.
As Horn thought of Hilov, the door of the Ethereal Tower opened slowly as Jeanne pushed Hilov out of the tower.
"Hiss——"
Seemingly sensing Jeanne's arrival, the peculiar creature suddenly stood wobbly, with its black pupils fixed on Jeanne, emitting a threatening low growling sound.
Horn nodded his chin at Jeanne: "Walk around, see how it reacts."
Jeanne rolled her eyes but obliged.
As she walked around the glass cover, the peculiar creature rotated following Jeanne, even bumping its head against the glass cover.
Jeanne made a face of disgust: "I don't know why, but I feel this thing is so gross."
Hilov reached Horn's side with the wheelchair: "I've tested its body fluids, they contain electrically charged Demon-Loving Fungus, it might be one of Jeanne's first-generation kin like Lana."
"But Lana gives a sense of closeness, like a little sister." Jeanne glared at the little thing inside the glass cover, "I disliked this thing the mont I saw it."
Schreiman, the Bald Head Society master specializing in magical creatures, comprehended magical creatures better than magical creatures themselves: "That's strange, usually magical creature kin tend to have submissiveness towards a Witch, rarely appearing to actively attack a Witch or other first-generation kin.
In that case, why don't you give it to ? I have alchemical potion, heartwarming bread, and red dragon fruit, to eat and train, ensuring it'll be well-trained."
"Can't give it to you." Among many Secret Factions in the chanical Palace, Hilov hated Bald Head Society mbers the most, "Its research value is quite high."
Saying this, Hilov looked towards Horn: "It has thin ether within its body, besides star cast gears, it's the first ti I've seen a creature with ether."
As if thinking of sothing, Horn reminded Hilov: "We found it hiding in the Rotating Sacred Machine, seemingly dependent on the ether from star cast gears?"
"Uncertain." Hilov shook her head, "But according to my keen observation and speculation, ether is not necessary for its survival but is the power for it to use spells, so it's not strictly defined as a magical creature, perhaps it's a new biological species?"
"Oh?" Schreiman took a step forward.
Hilov suddenly turned her head, ears and tail on end, her previously calm face forming an aggressive expression, with rare "Woo-woo" growling sounds from her throat.
Schreiman had no choice but to retreat within five steps from Hilov.
Looking at the "Lightning Sli" trapped in the iron cage and glass cover, Horn fell into deep thought. Such a special Sli couldn't randomly fall out of a coconut tree; its appearance must have origins and reasons.
Especially its ability to absorb and store ether, it's really hard to separate it from the Ethereal Tower.
Thinking carefully, this so-called "Lightning Mage" made three moves altogether; the first was against a disguised Demon Hunter, Horn suspected that Demon Hunter discovered it when cleaning the sewer.
The second was against Lana, and this was the only proactive attack; the target was its "kind."
The third was the textile factory lightning explosion event two days later. It was passively triggered, seemingly replenishing ether from the situation then.
Although uncertain whether there were similar attacks in the wild, judging from these three occurrences, its behavioral mode was passive towards ordinary people and proactive towards "kind."
It likely appeared after Horn and others landed on the island; otherwise, with Hilov's mother's and Demon Hunter's skills, it couldn't have remained undiscovered.
It first erged in sumr 1445, aning it appeared between winter 1444 and sumr 1445, half a year period...
Could it have drunk from the springwater containing lightning from the Lightning Moon Spring and turned into a Lightning Sli? It doesn't explain where the lightning spell Demon-Loving Fungus within it ca from, a Sli drank from a Lightning Moon Spring ca into contact with Jeanne's foot skin?
"Keep its life stable, give it food, but don't let it contact ether, first study it, find out what exactly it is." Unable to fathom it montarily, Horn decided to shelve it, "First study it, see what it really is."
Several Holy Gunn jointly lifted the heavy glass-covered iron cage and headed to an independent laboratory.
Originally Hilov turned her wheelchair to follow, but was stopped by Horn: "Hilov, hold on, I have sothing to ask you."
Hilov paused, then nodded: "Just right, I also have a thought to discuss with you."
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