"Let's try it again to be sure," Leyvi said.
He poured more Qi into his Volcanic Armor, molten veins flaring to life across its surface as the cracks sealed and the armor reformed in a blaze of red and black light. Once the reconstruction was complete, he cautiously approached the hulking man again.
Just as before, the moment he stepped within three meters, the sleeping brute's body twitched—and then erupted into a storm of punches.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each strike split the ground, shockwaves rippling outward. The barrage grew faster, more violent, until one heavy blow slammed into Leyvi's side, launching him like a rag doll through boulders and trees. He crashed into another hill with an echoing CRASH!
A few seconds later, the ground stirred. Leyvi emerged from the dust, half of his Volcanic Armor shattered, but his body untouched. He brushed off debris with a sigh and reignited his Qi, repairing the armor once more.
He approached again—this time stopping at four meters. His gaze lifted, meeting the mountain of muscle that towered over him, still snoring like thunder.
"I wonder how strong he really is if he's already this powerful in his sleep," Leyvi muttered. "That punch could match a Commander-level Demonic Beast... Is he a Royal Guard?"
After confirming the strange three-meter trigger distance, Leyvi finally raised his voice.
"Anda, you can come down now. Stay behind me."
A few moments later, Anda landed gracefully behind Leyvi, her eyes tracing over the rugged glow of his Volcanic Armor.
"So this is the Three-Element Martial Skill that Big Sister Bulan gave you, huh? Looks kind of hard to move around with," she said, running her fingers along the armor's heated surface.
"Hahaha! Not really," Leyvi replied. "It doesn't hinder my movement at all. I can adjust it however I want."
Anda tilted her head, unimpressed. "Hmm... it's a good defense, but I still prefer when you train your body directly. That's better for defense in the long run."
"Eh? Is that so?" Leyvi blinked, a little surprised, but beneath the armor, he showed an understanding expression.
He had always thought the full-body combat armor looked cool, something he used to dream about back when his Coral Bloodline Gem couldn't form anything like this. Seeing it now felt like one of his childish wishes had finally come true.
But he knew what Anda meant. With the way he fought, relying on powerful close-range impact, a stronger body was indeed more reliable than external armor. No matter how durable the armor, it was still an outside factor that could fail him.
Anda nodded as if confirming his thoughts. "Yes. Because when you wear this armor, I can't see your face and manly body. Can you make it transparent or invisible instead? That way I can still see you."
Leyvi almost stumbled, caught completely off guard. That's your reason? he thought, speechless. Nothing to do with practicality at all, just pure Anda logic.
This horny panda... he really should've expected that answer from her.
"Sure, sure. I'll train my body more when I have the chance. Let's get information from the big guy first." Leyvi said.
"Hehe. I already started sending my illusion scent, but this is going to take some time. I never knew that body cultivator would be this troublesome to handle." She replied, from giggling to a bit troubled.
"Huh? What's the problem?" Leyvi asked. He did not take his eyes off the big man before him, who stood snoring loudly.
"It seemed that his body automatically produced antibodies to combat the effect of my scent. Well... they all usually do, but his is abnormally strong. The advantage of being a body cultivator I guess, transforming their body at the cellular level. Looks like I need to do some experiments with Ava later. It doesn't feel good when people resist my scent." Anda replied calmly.
Good luck, Ava. I hope you survive, Leyvi thought.
"Oh well...Couldn't be helped then, I have to go all out with my ability. But this dose will most likely damage his brain after this."
"Are you saying he might become an idiot?"
"Well, it doesn't matter. We will kill him anyway. Leyvi, you need to distance yourself from him and me." Anda said, taking multiple steps back.
Leyvi retreated as well, putting distance between himself and the big man while keeping close to Anda to protect her.
The next moment, the air around Anda began swirling, slowly forming a small, calm whirlwind around her. Her dress and long, smooth hair danced with the wind, giving her the appearance of a Fairy Maiden. She raised her right palm, facing upward, brought it close to her lips, and gently blew out a pink-colored mist.
The whirlwind absorbed the mist, turning a soft pink. Anda then sent the pink whirlwind toward her sleeping target.
A few seconds later, the calm pink whirlwind engulfed the big man, forcing him to inhale the same illusion scent, now a hundred times more concentrated.
Unlike before, his snoring stopped. Signs of struggle appeared across his features. His body fought to counter the scent, but in the end, it was futile.
A few minutes passed. The man fell entirely under Anda's spell. He would answer her questions truthfully.
Stepping a few paces closer, Anda asked, "What's your name?"
"Bodo."
"Bodo, are you from the Protogaea Continent?"
"Yes."
"Which kingdom?"
"Snoring Kingdom."
Leyvi was speechless. Was this guy trolling even under Anda's illusion? Or was he just making up his kingdom's name because he snored so loudly?
Wait, wait. If I remembered correctly, Dastan came from the Howling Kingdom, Cempaka from the Humming Kingdom, and that Seraphina girl was from the Roaring Kingdom.
They all had sound-themed names for their kingdoms. Could all twelve of them really follow this pattern? But Snoring Kingdom… the king at the time probably loved to snore, huh. Was there any worse kingdom name than this? Yelling Kingdom? Barking Kingdom?
As for Anda, she already knew all the kingdom names from Tamina, so it didn't feel strange anymore.
"What are you doing here?" Anda continued.
"Looking for the best treasure under the rocks around here."
Leyvi and Anda were dumbfounded. What kind of motive was that? What best treasure? Is that why he had been flipping rocks?
Leyvi scanned all the rocks around the area, including the hills. There was nothing beneath them that could be considered treasure.
"What kind of treasure?" Anda asked.
"I don't know."
Anda frowned. Had her concentrated scent damaged his brain and turned him into an idiot already? This wasn't good.
"How did you come to this island?"
"By riding an airship."
"What? Your airship can fly here? How?" Anda was surprised, her calm composure faltering. If other people could fly, it would be dangerous for them. Their advantage would disappear.
"The airship can't fly here at all, but it can swim through the water now. Cid modified it."
Anda let out a relieved sigh and continued questioning. As long as it didn't grant them flight, that was fine.
After that, the information-gathering session continued. Anda learned about their leader, whom they called the Master, and that their group totaled seven people.
The Master was an alchemist who fed them pills so they could not disobey him. Once the Master ran out of pills, they would kill anyone they encountered.
Later, they found a woman riding a cloud and followed her, but they couldn't cross the vast lake. From there, they made deductions about the island and planned to come here.
After the guy named Cid finally modified the airship, they came to kill and steal all the treasures.
When the session ended, Anda felt weak, but Leyvi immediately supported her.
Producing and maintaining a highly concentrated illusion scent was far more exhausting than she had imagined. Not to mention, Bodo might have had his brain damaged in the process, so many of his replies were somewhat foolish. This made the session far longer and gave her a splitting headache.
"Leyvi, this person was most likely fed with a Slavemaker Pill, a Tier-5 forbidden pill. It can enslave someone for a certain period, obeying the person who provided their spiritual imprint as the special alchemy ingredient. The Alchemy Association had banned this alchemy product after the war a thousand years ago. But I'm not sure if this Master is from our continent or from Protogaea."
Anda's expression hardened. "Hmph, if it's someone from our continent, we must report this to the Protectors and purge these evildoers. This pill requires a lot of human essence to make. Despicable!"
Leyvi frowned. "Human essence? Is this related to the people who attacked the Holy Cat City back then?"
He still remembered the terrifying sight of the mortal town they had passed on the way to the Holy Cat City for the Alchemy Competition. The rotten corpses and the awful stench stayed with him. Later, he learned those people had been used for sacrifices to mount the attack. Now, Leyvi wondered if there was a connection.
"Hmph! I'm not sure, but we must capture this Master guy and let Ava torture him for an answer!" Anda replied, her tone pissed.