The Greatest Sinner

Chapter 96 - Fruit

<Hmm, the "Valley of Azure Dandelions," what an interesting name, but why don't I see any dandelions here?>

Evan thought to himself looking at the blue fields. The place was beautiful and unusual, but there was nothing for Evan to do here. He headed onward until something caught his attention.

In the distance, an unusual squirrel-like beast, only with two long, fluffy tails, ran up to one of the purple trees. It quickly climbed the tree and plucked a yellow and blue fruit from it, then ran off.

<The beast... it would be nice to wander around for a few hours.> Evan thought to himself and headed toward the same tree.

He was curious to see what kind of beast it was, and what kind of fruit it`d picked. One monster he had already met, but not the beasts yet.

Evan walked slowly through the blue grass and wondered: <By the way, how can I tell the difference between beasts and monsters? Unlike the one-eyed raven, this squirrel didn't look dangerous, but maybe it`s a monster, too?>

When Evan had seen the purple raven, he`d mistaken it for a monster because of its frightening appearance. Now when he saw a squirrel with two tails he thought he might have been wrong then.

<Either way, even beasts can be helped a little by magician's blood, so even if I was wrong it's not that big of a deal. When I get into the "Last Moon", I'll have to learn how to tell who's a beast and who's a monster."

Evan thought and picked a yellow and blue fruit from the tree. Evan didn't know what kind of fruit it was or what it was called, but that didn't stop him from tasting it.

Crunch.

Evan took a small bite and immediately grimaced. He quickly spit out the fruit: "That's disgusting, it's so bitter, how can it be even eaten?"

He`d hoped that he would feel a pleasant taste and a slight sweetness, but instead he felt an awful bitterness.

Evan didn't hesitate to throw the fruit away. It fell with a splash into the stream behind the tree. Evan had already decided that he had come here for nothing and should go back, but suddenly he felt something.

<Mana?> Evan clearly felt an increased concentration of mana in the area, but he couldn't figure out what its source was.

Evan picked another fruit and examined it, but he felt nothing from it. Then he turned his attention to the stream.

He walked closer to the water and thought to himself, "There is mana in this water, but not much. Maybe, there is a mana`s mine here? I need to see where this stream leads".

Evan couldn't "Create" anymore, or rather it didn't make sense until he broke at least one more "Barrier". Still, he could use the mana to open the chains on the First Pillar.

The most dangerous area, the Half-Dead Forest, he had already traversed, so he could take his time and do the "Creation" if he found the right place for it.

Evan walked slowly along the stream through the blue clearing, occasionally encountering purple trees with blue crowns. He hadn't noticed a single dandelion in all that time.

<Maybe, they called this place that for some other reason.>

He didn't understand why he couldn't see anywhere the plant after which the place was named.

As time passed, the surroundings around Evan began to change slightly, there were more and more trees everywhere and it looked no longer like a clearing, but like a dense forest.

Evan smiled, he knew that if the trees were growing so densely here, there was a reason for it.

Whoosh.

Evan stepped out of the dense forest grove, at that moment he finally saw what was lurking behind those trees.

"Here are the dandelions..." muttered Evan to himself looking at the thousands of beautiful Azure Dandelions.

An "Azure Dandelion" looked almost exactly like an ordinary dandelion, except that its stem was not green, but blue.

In the center of the dandelion glade, there was a small lake. Evan immediately realized that it was because of this glade, the "Valley of Azure Dandelions" got its name.

The trees densely surrounded the place and it looked as if they were trying to protect something very valuable this way.

<Hmm, the concentration of mana here is slightly higher than in other places, but it hardly reaches the level of the crystal room in the Zak`s mansion.>

It should be noted that if a place had a higher mana concentration than a normal area, it didn't necessarily mean that there was an incredible amount of mana in that place.

The fourth section in the "Pond of Mountain Crystals" was a special place. It's very rare to find a place with a similar mana concentration.

Evan wasn't impressed with the mana concentration in the clearing with the Azure Dandelions, but he wasn't upset. Evan believed that it was in the lake where all the mana was concentrated.

Step. Step. Step.

Evan walked leisurely toward the lake, but there was no joy on his face. He frowned and said grudgingly: "There's no mana here at all?!"

It was a shock to Evan. Even at the city streets of Mossy Vulture there were some amount of mana, but there was none of it in this lake at all. Not to mention the fact that Evan had originally intended to "Create" here using mana from the lake.

"This place is beautiful, but it looks like I`ve wasted my time." Evan said with frustration in his voice and was about to leave when suddenly he heard the rustling of leaves.

Evan turned around in the direction of the sound and to his surprise saw a wolf with thick red hair slowly walking toward the lake. The young man did not react in any way to its appearance, he felt no danger from the wolf.

If he prepared for a fight or acted aggressively, he might provoke the wolf into retaliatory aggression. Intuitively Evan knew that it was not a monster in front of him now, but a beast.

<This wolf is wounded.>

Evan thought to himself as he looked at the animal's right front paw, which seemed to be broken.

The wolf looked at Evan and then calmly continued walking toward the lake. As Demien had said, the beasts, unlike monsters, were not interested in feuding with humans. Naturally, Evan had no intention of attacking the wolf, either.

The wolf came to the lake and began to drink the water. After a few sips, the beast turned around and walked back into the woods.

There didn't seem to be anything unusual about its actions, but Evan didn't think so.

<Hmm, it's wounded, it needs to rest and regain his strength, but it decided to come here and drink water? I doubt there weren't any places closer where it could get drunk. Looks like this lake isn't as simple as I first thought. We'll have to check it out.>