After separating from the group, Mo Shao flew on her own for a while. Only after confirming that no one was watching did she activate her invisibility.
It wasn't that anyone was following her, but since she was quite famous within the team and was currently flying, people tended to glance her way subconsciously.
Now that she had finally shaken them off, it was time to find the Dead-binding item she desired—the Jewel of Life!
A single Jewel of Life was equivalent to the five Plates—Water, Grass, Earth, Thunder, and Dragon—of the creator god Arceus from Pokémon!
Once obtained, not only would she be immune to attacks of those corresponding elements, but she would also gain their elemental abilities!
It was a truly top-tier Dead-binding item.
Moreover, as soon as she got her hands on it, she could tuck her Soul Gem inside her body, making her even safer!
Filled with hope for the future, Mo Shao slowly descended. She couldn't fly for too long at this stage; she had to save her energy for critical moments.
Under normal circumstances, her invisibility was enough to handle any monsters she encountered.
It wasn't that she couldn't fight them... but why wouldn't she go get the Jewel of Life first and then come back to crush them?
...
As for her earlier display of acting as if she could fly indefinitely, it was merely a way to add a bit more weight to the perception of her strength.
The more powerful she appeared, the more obedient the crowd would be, preventing them from entertaining any devious, hidden agendas on the surface.
In common terms, it was a move intended to intimidate people.
She had no choice. Although she appeared very strong to outsiders, her immediate combat power wasn't actually that formidable.
Thinking back to her move that killed the Golem, the bulk of that damage had actually come from the high-speed thrusting force of the iron spear.
Her own abilities had only provided the flight, the acceleration as the motorcycle plummeted, and a small amount of mana enchantment.
The Identification ability from her Witch component and the Pathfinding ability from her Magical Girl component were both auxiliary; not one of them increased her raw damage output.
Without the iron spear, the damage she could cause... would at most consist of dropping a mana-enchanted motorcycle from the sky.
And if the motorcycle broke, repairing it would be a major pain.
What truly made her superior to others was her energy control, her mental strength, and her soul power.
These were the foundations she had built in her past life. As for her current makeup as a Witch and a Magical Girl... she had been a motorcycle in her past life.
Therefore, she had never actually learned magic!
She had used Pathfinding to search for such a thing, and the nearest place to learn magic was... the Roco Kingdom Magic Academy.
A childhood memory, that place. One could learn all sorts of combat and support spells there; it was a decent learning establishment.
Unfortunately, even though it was the closest place she could find to learn magic, it was still extremely far away.
She was currently in Guangdong Province, while the Roco Kingdom Magic Academy was in Hunan Province—the neighboring province to the north.
Before the apocalypse, she could have reached it easily by train, but after the apocalypse... she could only rely on herself to get there slowly.
...
However, that was a matter for later consideration. For now, she needed to get the Jewel of Life.
Keeping Pathfinding active, Mo Shao finally reached the ruins she was looking for after some effort.
Hm... it was a bit different from how she remembered it.
In her memories, this place had mostly collapsed, but the current ruins still maintained a certain architectural structure.
This was a good thing; it meant she wouldn't have to slowly dig it out with a pickaxe and shovel, saving her a lot of effort and time.
Mo Shao entered the ruins holding a torch. Her goal was very clear: a scepter.
Its appearance was somewhat similar to a spear, but with a rounded top. The Jewel of Life was hidden within that rounded head.
Mo Shao began her search. The slight trouble was the presence of quite a few Hilichurls here.
Though that was normal; Hilichurls had some biological instincts, and they would naturally use a ready-made shelter like this.
Fortunately, her invisibility could solve many problems. These Hilichurls didn't yet have the intelligence required to detect her.
But that would only work in the early stages. Once their strength increased a few more times, tracking by sound would become a basic skill for them.
She really had to hurry and develop her strength during this early period...
...
Mo Shao explored the ruins for nearly an hour. During that time, she inevitably had to fight three small groups of monsters.
Again, it was the same problem: her energy was limited, so she had to use it sparingly.
She only went invisible when she encountered monsters in the ruins, but unfortunately, visual blind spots would still occur sometimes.
Luckily, the most troublesome monster she encountered was just a Mitachurl—it was difficult for a Lawachurl to fit inside here, after all.
Finally, just as Mo Shao was starting to feel a bit dazed from wandering through the ruins, she found her target.
“Finally...” Mo Shao let out a long sigh of relief.
She had discovered another drawback of the Pathfinding ability—if she didn't know the exact appearance of the item’s location, she still had to find it herself!
In such a massive ruin, being able to find the target in about an hour was actually quite impressive.
Perhaps the Feedback from [Order] was doing its work?
...
Regardless, the item was in her hands now; her efforts hadn't been in vain. Next, she had to begin the Dead-binding.
“Hmm...” After pondering for a moment, Mo Shao took out a pickaxe and dug downward for a while, performing a 'dig-three-fill-one' maneuver.
Then she dug more to the bottom and sides before filling the top with the dropped blocks to ensure her safety.
This was to prevent any monsters from suddenly interrupting her.
Once she was in a secure environment, Mo Shao struck the scepter onto the ground. Its head opened up like a lotus flower.
A beautiful glow instantly illuminated the darkness!
The Jewel of Life appeared before her!
It was spherical, with a vivid fluorescent green as its primary color, displaying gradient textures like a nebula.
At the center of the bead was a brilliant white-to-golden core of light, with tiny flecks of red, blue, and purple light interweaving around it.
It looked exceptionally mysterious and powerful.
Without a moment's hesitation, Mo Shao began the Dead-binding process.
Due to the high quality of the Jewel of Life, Mo Shao couldn't complete the binding instantly. It took about several minutes to finish.
For Dead-binding, this was actually quite a long time.
After all, this was being performed by an expert like Mo Shao. If anyone else were to try it now, it would likely take them over an hour.
Furthermore, because Dead-binding was an operation on the [Order] side—such an action would attract monsters!
Rate on N.U.
