Rebirth Of The Noble Mage Behind The Scenes
Chapter 97: The Gift

Chapter 97: Chapter 97: The Gift

"Ancient... Dark... Terrifying... When... the stars... awaken..."

In the slightly dim room, Claire sat at her desk, intently studying the object in front of her.

It was an ancient stone slab fragment engraved with bizarre relief characters, made of a greyish-black rock with a slightly greasy metallic luster, quite peculiar.

By the dim, white magic light, the young girl’s azure eyes, filled with seriousness, scrutinized every tiny detail of the engravings on the slab.

She would occasionally flip through several thick, large tomes by her side, comparing with the badly yellowed pages, trying bit by bit to decipher the strange text on the slab.

In the candlelight, the girl’s golden hair sparkled, and her milky, adorable pointed ears unconsciously twitched slightly, reflecting a tempting crystalline luster.

After parting with Anvis, the girl did not attend courses at other schools nor did she, like some noble children, go to entertainment and social venues to try to make more friends and develop her own connections.

Instead, she devoted all her time to the study of various mysterious knowledge.

In the entrance examination, her Professional Talent was only slightly above average. However, strangely, she possessed an inexplicable talent for Mysticism.

From her childhood, the old Mage who took care of her had noticed her talent.

With the intent of research, the old Mage opened all kinds of books from his private book collection to her, wanting to see how much she could eventually learn.

With the support of the Mage, the girl mastered a wealth of knowledge about ancient history, Magic Language, and ancient creatures over the years.

All the relevant books in the Book Collection Room had been read by her multiple times.

During that time, she even tried to independently crack an ancient small magic inscribed on a clay tablet.

Although the effect was just summoning a weak magic tentacle creature, it still shocked the Mage with the girl’s talent.

"Meow—"

As Claire was engrossed in studying the text on the stone slab, suddenly a white shadow flashed past the window.

Hearing the noise, the girl looked up somewhat puzzled.

What appeared outside the rising wooden blinds was a cat with snow-white fur and strangely blue eyes.

On its back, it had a bulging small bundle tied up.

Seeing the girl’s gem-like azure eyes looking over, the cat raised its fluffy white front paw and gently tapped the window glass with its pink paw pad.

"Magic Messenger?"

Looking puzzled at it, Claire waved her hand, and an invisible magic power transformed into a palm, opening the inner crystal lattice window, letting the cat that was circling outside in.

"Mew—"

Seeing the window open, the cat gently leaped from the window onto the desk in front of Claire.

A pair of round blue eyes looked at the girl, shaking the bundle on its back earnestly and meowing sweetly, signaling the girl to open it.

The girl extended her soft fingertips, gently tapping on the surface of the bundle, on a silver-white emblem emitting a faint magic fluctuation.

In the next instant, the bundle opened on its own, revealing a small black exquisite box.

After delivering the item to Claire’s hands, the white cat meowed again, turned its head to lick its fur, then ran out through the window.

"Who sent this to me?"

She did not feel any malice from the box; the girl extended her finger and gently pressed a mechanism at the center of the box.

Click——

The lid of the box slowly opened under the influence of the spring, revealing a slender pale silver ring set with a blue gemstone, clearly designed for women.

Feeling the box lid open, a pre-recorded Magic Image was projected into the mid-air.

It was a mini projection of Anvis, only as big as the girl’s palm, wearing a white top hat and monocular, clad in a pure white magic gown, elegantly bowing to the girl.

"I am sorry to meet again in this way."

"The ring is enchanted with the same Detection Secret Technique as before; inject spiritual power into the ring to activate it, and it can be used three times a day."

"As a companion who once explored together, I hope you will accept this small gift."

After all, this is a secret technique of your family, is it really okay to give it to me like this?

Claire looked at the tiny Anvis somewhat strangely, but did not ask any questions. After all, this was just a pre-recorded image.

However, it seemed to sense the girl’s confusion.

Hovering above the box lid, the image of Anvis smiled gently. Slightly turning his head, looking at the girl’s beautiful face marked with bewilderment, his deep blue eyes blinked at her suddenly.

"Although the secret technique must not be divulged lightly, I believe you will not betray me to my family, right?"

Having said that, the projection flickered and gradually transformed into spots of light from the bottom up, scattering into the air.

Watching the spots of light scatter like fireflies, Claire was momentarily frozen by the beautiful and pale young man’s smiling and winking expression.

After a moment, the room returned to its previous silence, and the golden-haired beautiful Half-Elf girl smiled knowingly.

"Is this what companionship feels like?"

......

Three days later, Anvis was looking over the documents handed to him by Pekara, toying with a twelve-faceted crystal emitting a green radiance, quietly contemplating the follow-up plans.

Eighty-four Cursed Lands, that was the final number of mining areas Anvis obtained.

Among them, there were seven that produced High Rank Curse Ore, twenty-two sites yielded Mid Rank Curse Ore, and the rest included Low Rank mining areas, totaling thirty-seven types of ore samples.

This number was even less than Anvis had anticipated; after all, he had prepared himself for obtaining samples from at least a hundred Cursed Lands.

But upon reflection, Anvis came to terms with it.

Although humans on the Yar Continent claim to have unified the entire continent, the actual range of human activities is, in fact, only about thirty-five percent of the continent’s area.

The remaining sixty-five percent is covered by perils like primitive forests, ancient rugged mountains, and swamps pervaded with toxic miasmas among other extreme environments.

This is why, despite the area of the Yar Continent being nearly twice that of Anvis’s previous world, the number of Cursed Land sites that the White Rose Commerce Alliance really managed to secure isn’t too many.

Of course, Anvis was certain that in those rarely visited undeveloped areas, there definitely exist many secret mining areas controlled by various powers.

After his preliminary tests, including Blood Curse Ore and seven other types of ore, the origin of their curses was not radioactive but caused by certain other negative Magic Effects.

After excluding these Cursed Lands that produced the ores, the remaining sites confirmed to produce radioactive Curse Ore amounted to sixty-seven.