Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 312 - 24 Diviner_1

Chapter 312: Chapter 24 Diviner_1

"Feel free to browse." The elf mage lifted his hood, revealing a face that was nearing middle age. "For a Gold Rank Mage, the magical items here may not be very enticing. The items here are mainly for civilian use, mostly unrelated to combat. If you want to see the goods in detail, you can ask the apprentices to fetch them for you."

"Excuse me, can I have a moment of your time?" Vivian stopped the elf mage who was about to leave and asked, "Actually, I came here to find some alchemical materials. I wonder if I could take a look at your stock?"

"Alchemy materials?" The elf mage paused, gave a surprised look at the two maidservants standing beside Vivian, and laughed, "It’s the first time someone came here not to buy finished products, but to buy raw materials. Can’t you buy these materials anywhere?"

Vivian glanced at the two embarrassed maidservants and shook her head. "It’s my fault for not making it clear to them. If you don’t have it here, we can go to another store."

"I do have them, it’s just we usually don’t... Nevermind, follow me to the back. The materials are stored there." The elf mage hesitated before agreeing, beckoning everyone, "Follow me. I haven’t displayed the materials in the warehouse, so they would be hard to pick. Why not tell me directly what you need, and I’ll help you find it."

"Frostgrass root, mountain silkworm flower, purple iris, Mystery Drying Stone, fallen star." Vivian counted on her fingers: "Basically these, oh, and the most crucial one, Mermaid’s Tear."

"These things?" The elf mage exclaimed in surprise: "Are you trying to improve the mana potion? Nobody has successfully altered it in hundreds of years. Asking for specific materials... You already have an improved plan in mind?"

"Of course. I am Vivian, the once-in-a-millennium genius, after all." Vivian boasted without any modesty: "I already have a complete plan, only missing these few herbs."

"You’re the Vivian?" The elf mage looked Vivian up and down, then nodded, "Yes, a friend of mine mentioned you. You seem to have great potential indeed. Wait here. I’ll find the materials for you. However, I do not have the Mermaid’s Tear, and I have only ever seen three of them on land in the last few decades. If you want one, I think you may need to ask someone from the Sea Race."

"What is a Mermaid’s Tear?" After the elf mage went into the warehouse, Catherine nudged Vivian, whispering, "I’ve never heard of such a material."

"It’s a crystal formed from the tears of merfolk under special conditions. It doesn’t have any practical use. In the theoretical formula I designed, several herbs need to be mixed in pairs and stored in a dark environment for five months to be effective. The problem is I don’t have enough time to wait five months for each batch in my experiments. But with the Mermaid’s Tear, it’s different. It can catalyze this process. What takes five months can be completed in a day. Which would allow me to easily conduct experiments." Vivian excitedly explained, "Unfortunately, its shelf life is only ten years. After that, it will utterly lose its effectiveness. There’s no choice. It seems I’ll have to post a task at the Adventurer’s Guild to search for the Mermaid’s Tear worldwide."

"Is three hundred grams of each enough?" The elf mage came out of the warehouse with a pile of jars floating around him, "Given the items you were asking for, I suppose you need Sea Spirit Sand as well, so I’ve also filled thirty grams for you."

"That’s great. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough Sea Spirit Sand." Vivian was delighted, but she quickly grew disappointed, "But never mind. I can’t afford it. Merely thirty grams of Sea Spirit Sand costs at least a hundred thousand gold coins."

"No problem, consider it an investment. All these materials combined will cost you one hundred fifty thousand gold coins. If your research is successful, you just need to repay me double later." The elf mage seemed completely uninterested in the transaction of tens of thousands, rather being interested in Vivian’s research direction, "I am certainly going to read your published research results. Maybe it could inspire some solutions to problems that have been troubling me for a while. Keep going, girl. A few thousand-year-old people are very much looking forward to your developments in several fields of research."

"I see. You must be a friend of Chairman Antuin." Vivian said, coming to a realization.

"I’m no friend of that old fellow." Surprisingly, the elf mage was a bit angry, hitting the table so hard that it scared the apprentices outside, "Are those old guys really the style of the elves? Once they pass a thousand years old, their minds become as rigid as Magicsteel, completely incapable of finding new lines of thought. They should consider that if their ideas could really work, would they still be stuck on the same issues for decades? I truly regret wasting more than nine hundred years with a bunch of idiots."

Faced with the suddenly furious elf mage, Vivian and Catherine could only smile awkwardly. Vivian seemed to envision herself and Freya, equally aged after decades. Thinking about it that way, she understood the elf mage’s behavior, and her bitter smile soon turned into a knowing smirk.

"I apologize for the outburst." After venting his spleen, the elf mage managed to calm down, "Anything else you need?"

"No, not at the moment. Thank you for your investment." Vivian’s sweet smile endeared him. "Don’t worry, I will devote myself to my research. Once the results are released, I will send you the article right away."

"Wait a moment." The Elf Mage noticed Vivian and Catherine about to leave and suddenly halted them. "You’ve come to the City of Innocence for an investigation, right? I can vaguely see the words search, exploration, confusion, and crisis relating to you."

"Are you a Diviner?" Catherine asked in surprise.

"Yes, a Diviner." The Elf Mage nodded in reply. "Being a mage and a scholar is just parttime, my main profession is a diviner. Do you need me to do a prophecy for you?"

Diviners are a rare profession, existing only among certain Sea Race, Winged people, and Elves, races that live longer than a thousand years. They can often predict the future by paying a certain price. The accuracy depends on individual skills, so a highly capable diviner can greatly promote the development of their entire race.

Both Catherine and Vivian looked at each other, both showing immense interest and curiosity about this strange occupation they heard rumors about. Presented with this opportunity, they certainly wouldn’t pass it up. The two girls followed the Elf Mage to a secluded corner table. As he lifted the cloth covering the table, they saw a mirror polished from crystal that could clearly reflect images.

The Elf Mage gently rubbed the surface of the mirror, observing the two girls before speaking to them. "Making an accurate prediction will take some time. First, let me share what I’ve seen from you. Without using a Crystal as a medium, individual predictions made by us Diviners often manifest in the form of keywords, such as ’search’ and ’explore’, that I mentioned before. Those are keywords. I just made a prediction about you and found that the keywords for your current goal are quite strange."

"Please continue." Having a high respect for the profession of diviners, Catherine’s attitude became increasingly reverential. "Your help might prove to be of great assistance for our mission."

"Dark, vast, dry, damp, dirty, clean, dangerous." The Elf Mage said with some distress, "It’s very unusual, the keywords this time are contradictory. I have never encountered something as strange."

"What does this mean?" Catherine asked in bewilderment. "I just don’t understand."

"Apologies, theoretically, these keywords should describe your destination, but why such contradictions occurred, I do not know. It’s not a failure in the prophecy, as a failed prophecy doesn’t reveal any keywords." The Elf Mage shook his head, "But it doesn’t matter, the major outcome will be determined by the prophecy made through the medium. Come, it’s ready, place your hands on the mirror."

Both girls placed their hands on the mirror surface which quickly began to change. Waves radiated from the center of the mirror towards its edges, the reflected images slowly blurred and darkened, eventually turning completely black, not letting a single ray of light through and failing to reflect any image. Both girls maintained their positions for a good ten minutes, but the mirror revealed no change.

"Does this mean that I will die in this mission?" Vivian speculated uncertainly, "Does the darkness symbolize the world after death?"

"Perhaps it’s due to insufficient light. Didn’t the Elf Mage mention the keyword ’dark’ earlier?" Catherine rebutted, "Don’t worry, you won’t die so easily."

"No, this signifies that the prediction was disrupted." The Elf Mage looked at the girls with a strange expression, "To prevent disruptions, I specifically chose your near and distant futures as targets for the prophecy, but clearly, both were disrupted."

"Why was there a disruption?" Vivian inquired curiously, "Did someone do this on purpose?"

"No, such disruptions are passive. The stronger the subject, the bigger the interference when making a prophecy" The Elf Mage explained, "So every time such disruption occurs, it means that there’s a presence of a formidable entity behind it. What’s interesting is that whether the prophecy is near or distant, it gets disrupted, implying that your fate is closely linked to it. Predicting you is as good as predicting them, hence, the automatic disruptions."

"A formidable entity?" Catherine asked thoughtfully, "How strong should one be to be considered formidable?"

"Hehe, it’s getting late. As I age, my body isn’t as strong as it used to be, I’m going to rest now." The Elf Mage revealed an ambiguous smile, covering the table with the cloth again, "Remember those keywords, they may help you find your target. Children, I look forward to meeting you next time. I hope you’ll be able to bring the articles I wish to see then."

"This is very strange." The group was baffled as they were ushered out of the shop. Catherine frequently looked back, puzzled, "The mage gives me an odd feeling...just like when I see Guild Chairman Odin, I don’t understand why." (To be continued. If you like this story, please support and recommend it to others on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users can read on m.qidian.com.)