What's wrong with me, a mage, loving to farm?

Chapter 316. World Tree Coal, Solar Furnace

"You're very curious."

"You want to see me too."

"You also want to know... why I chose you."

— Emerging from the light, Kroya looked at the boy who had eaten the memory bread with an encouraging smile: "Ask your questions, anything is fine."

William looked at Chloe, actually wanting to ask many questions, just as Chloe had said, he had many, many doubts.

But as he gazed at the warm light emanating from Chloe, which was like the sunlight that brought warmth to his humble home in winter, he opened his mouth but said nothing.

Perhaps this blessing... is truly like a fairy tale or an epic legend?

Finally, he simply asked, "Dora... will it stay with me?"

Even Kroa hadn't expected him to ask that. The powerful mage was silent for a moment, then replied, "Yes, it will be your best friend, like the leaves of ivy, forever green."

"Then there's no problem." William picked up the kitten that ran towards him and gently stroked it a few times.

He held the little blue cat in his arms. It looked directly at Chloe and meowed twice.

"Oh~"

As if she had heard something interesting, Kroya's face first showed surprise, then a slightly helpless and doting smile appeared on her face.

At this moment, inside the little blue cat's body, on the heart made of precious metal with blood vessels and shimmering with iridescent light, patterns like ivy are slowly forming.

They... are not metal, not magic, but flesh and blood.

【Doraemon (The Flesh and Blood of Friendship)】

Being loved unabashedly and surrounded by friendship will give you flesh and blood.

It's a very simple explanation, but the soul shining within that flesh and blood and Doraemon's body shines even brighter.

Well, it has already tried so hard to prove itself...

Kroya looked solemnly at its soul and promised, "Yes, everything I promise will come true."

No one present knew what the little blue cat had said to him, not even the bishop of the goddess of wisdom who was fluent in animal language and William, who had long been in sync with the little blue cat Doraemon.

Of course, no one dared to ask any questions.

And so it ended. William, blessed by the three gods and brimming with knowledge, donned the stone hat and departed, embarking on his destiny and the epic saga he had been ordained to live.

Kroya looked at the three bishops of the gods: "The grain I promised you will arrive within three days. I will give you double the amount. Please give my regards to your gods."

The three bishops quickly expressed their gratitude and offered double the food!

With that food, they would be much more at ease, and as the people who communicated and liaised with Chloe, they would also receive more of God's favor and their status in the church would be improved.

Perhaps they didn't care about the lives of those believers—Kroya knew this very well, but none of that mattered; it was already good enough that her food could save some people.

……

Time slips away quietly amidst the turmoil of humankind.

The power of the Light and Earth Mother Goddesses grew increasingly frenzied, striving to create a vision of the end times.

Unfortunately, with the high priests Mephisto and Demos gone, two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are now missing.

Death and war are crucial elements of the apocalypse; without them, the plans for light and earth would be far from successful, even teetering on the brink of collapse.

Because... those who oppose the light and the earth, led by William and guided by Kroya, are spreading like wildfire throughout the human realm.

There are far too many people who dislike these two churches, and the turmoil will bring about changes in the world. Even the rivers of the underworld have transported many powerful souls to be reincarnated.

This is what they mean by "heroes emerge in troubled times." All of these heroes, through inside information, have essentially gathered under William's command, which is quite a terrifying story.

—A terrifying story about the Church of Light and the Church of Mother Earth.

With the almost miraculous magical items provided by Kroya, their power expanded wildly like a snowball, and they even declared that they had occupied more than a dozen cities, had their own army, and had begun to confront the Church of Light and the Church of the Earth Mother Goddess head-on.

Although those armies were almost entirely composed of members of the Startown Mage Guild, followers of the other five gods, Kroya's apprentices, and adventurers from other races, they were by no means pure.

However, William was very clear about his mission. He had no ambition to dominate and knew that this army could only last until the Church of Light and the Church of the Earth Mother surrendered or were defeated.

With the help of Doraemon, the little blue cat, he strives to balance the complex relationships between his factions, allowing this massive coalition to remain intact.

Strangely enough, William wasn't particularly shrewd; sometimes he was even a bit foolish. Yet, no matter how troublesome the person was, they would obediently follow his orders and even actively uphold his authority.

Kroa knew everything he had done and had been watching his actions for the past three years, and was quite satisfied with him.

Now, he even boasted with a touch of pride, "See? The people I chose are pretty good, aren't they? Even members of your elven race are willing to submit to you."

Ms. Daphne gave a wry smile: "So this is what you came to me about?"

When Kroya arrived, she thought something big had happened, but it turns out you just came to show off your subordinates?

"Yes and no." Kroya's expression turned serious as he took out the ore that the fallen angels had sent over the past few years.

It was a very ordinary ore, almost identical in appearance to coal, black and inconspicuous, making it impossible to tell that it was actually a product of the "Infinite" Void Pearl.

"It's 'coal,' and I found... particles of the World Tree inside," Kroya said, pointing to the dark ore. "Your sacred tree, the offspring of the World Tree, once thrived in the abyss of demons, even more so than the prime material plane."

Daphne knew all too well what this meant.

The Elven race has four offspring of the World Tree, which are the most prized treasures of the entire Elven race and the best proof that they have received the favor of the World Tree.

In order for the offspring of the World Tree to thrive, the Elven race even destroyed the divine kingdom of a god and used the special space formed by the ruins of the divine kingdom to nourish the sacred tree.

In countless legends, they are the embodiment of purity, the beginning and end of all that is beautiful—yet now, it is said that a fifth World Tree's offspring is growing in the abyss...

This is a horrifying history, and it continues to influence us today.

Daphne held the black coal in her hands and, sure enough, found some pale green particles that were not completely carbonized, filled with the breath of nature and life.

She thought for a moment and then asked, "Can it be burned?"

Kroya casually tossed out a ball of flame, and the coal immediately burst into flames, just like ordinary coal, with flames swirling around the surface, not very strong, but extremely hot.

The temperature was so high that even the surrounding space became unstable from the heat.

"That's amazing!" Daphne exclaimed in surprise. "Coal is formed from trees buried underground, but I never imagined that the World Tree could also form coal."

"It not only formed coal." Kroa reached out and gently brushed his hand towards the ball of flame, where a faint life force seemed to emanate, and at the same time, demonic power was rising.

"This coal...will breed demons."

"..."

Daphne fell silent again, then rubbed her forehead with her slender fingers and sighed, "Why did you tell me this unbearable truth?"

"Because these demons are my servants."

"Are you relieved now?"

Kroya was in a great mood after playing a prank, with a happy smile on her face.

"???"

Even the ancestor of the Orpheus family was shocked, but the next second she reacted, exclaiming with a mixture of surprise and joy, "The chapter of the sun! You, like Him, and the sun god, are all chapters of the sun!"

Although she had suspected it for a long time, this was the first time Chloe had admitted it like this, so much so that Daphne felt a sense of unreality and even wondered why Chloe had suddenly brought it up.

Kroya, however, didn't care. In the past two years, he had leveled up again with the help of Eden and the ever-expanding Symphony, becoming a powerful eighth-level mage.

As his strength grew, he could now speak frankly about things that were previously inconvenient to talk about and required concealment. With power, one could do whatever one wanted.

What he's concerned about now are these special demons that have emerged from his flames and World Tree coals.

He had never seen such demons before, but after experimenting, he was unable to make them exist for long, and for a time he was at a stalemate.

He originally wanted to ask, but even Miya didn't know. Moreover, the ivy had been running around outside spreading its leaves every day recently, so he had no choice but to ask Daphne.

Of course, he also prepared a price for this knowledge—a laurel wreath.

That was the laurel branch that Ellie brought back from another world, which had been imbued with divine power by a powerful being called "Apollo".

Previously, Cupid's arrow had suppressed the fluctuations of magic within, and the more ardent Daphne's love was, the easier it was for that power to completely suppress it.

Analyzing it according to the level of divine power, Cupid's lead arrow was probably at the level between powerful and great, but strangely enough, it was able to suppress Apollo's power.

Apollo's divine power was absolutely at the level of a great god.

He speculated that perhaps it was the power of rules that suppressed greatness.

After studying it, he felt that if he could fully understand these powers, he could at least completely suppress the power of the goddess of love.

Holding the laurel wreath, Daphne could clearly hear the echoing sound of a seven-stringed lyre within it—a memory from an extremely distant past, so distant that…

"I had completely forgotten."

She slowly placed the laurel wreath on her head and began to describe: "The sun god of the past created demons, so the sun's flames can create demons. The only problem is that there isn't enough fuel to give birth to demons."

"I never expected you could find coal that the World Tree had transformed into."

Even Daphne felt this was a sign from fate; perhaps some people are just meant to have a smooth life.

So she began to teach Kroa a furnace called "Phaethon," which the sun god had once created. It was said to be the super magic circle that the sun god used when he first created demons.

"Legend has it that Helios' son was named Phaethon, but he died unexpectedly in a disaster, and it was also related to the god-king Zeus."

He was in so much pain that he wanted to use a special furnace to fuse his eternal sun fire and fragments of his soul to resurrect his son.

Unfortunately, He ultimately failed; what emerged from the Solar Furnace was a demon, not His son.

As Chloe listened to her description and compared it with what Ivy had said—Ivy said that Helios created the demons to stabilize his own destruction, while Daphne said that He did so to resurrect his son.

Is there any connection between these two things, or did Helios actually want his son to become an immortal demon?

He didn't raise any questions on this matter, but simply listened attentively, occasionally asking questions and, incidentally, constructing a model of the so-called "solar furnace."

He had thought it would be a very complex model, and that it would take a lot of time to study it thoroughly, but it turned out to be surprisingly simple.

It could even be described as rudimentary—all that was needed was to make a mold out of a special metal in the shape of a furnace, use World Tree coal as fuel, and mix it with his flames, and that was it.

But Kroya keenly noticed something amiss: "The furnace is supposed to fuse something, right? We have the furnace, fuel, and ignition source, but what are the materials?"

"Materials are the demons that are born from them."

"World Tree Coal is truly extraordinary. The vitality within it can even give rise to life. After being tempered in the flames of the sun, it can become a completely new existence."

Uh... he was so confused that he really didn't expect it.

"I see." Chloe nodded, then asked definitively, "Are you sure you haven't missed anything?"

"No, it's just a metal, specifically midday sun iron." Daphne's expression was serious. "That's a special metal found only in temples in my world. This world..."

Before she could finish speaking, she saw Chloe casually take out a round magical artifact with radiating stripes, radiating pure sunlight like a small sun.

Daphne was shocked: "How do you have midday sun iron?"

"I won this in a lottery from the Holy Spring Merchant Guild." Kroya stroked the small sun sphere. "After I got it, I made it into a decoration and put it on my desk."

In fact, this thing is not just an ornament, but also the central hub of the entire magic array on the entire Hanjiao Island. Only the sunlight formed by its magic can control the entire magic array.

Now, if it were necessary to melt it down and rebuild a furnace, Kroya would really be reluctant, as it would cause a lot of trouble later.

"Too little." After her initial surprise, Daphne examined the "sun" closely and said with some regret, "This little bit can only create a tiny furnace at most, and I wonder how many demons it can give birth to."

"Let's give it a try." Kroya didn't seem to care. "Since the Holy Spring Merchant Guild has this kind of thing, I can just go and buy some more. I have tens of millions of magic crystals now."

He said he had never been poor since he arrived, and he spoke very casually, saying that if money was lost, he could earn it back, so why bother being troubled by money?

Daphne, however, felt it wasn't that simple. This midday sun iron required Apollo's priests to perform complex rituals and use special materials to create it.

Ok?

She suddenly realized something: since the nature of Kroa's and Apollo's powers are very similar, could Kroa create the midday sun iron himself?

When it comes to creating new demons, it would definitely be easier to create them using pure, one-of-a-kind power, right?

So she told Chloe her idea, and then she had to rummage through her memories to find the craft for making solar iron.

Kroya listened patiently, but the more he listened, the more his head ached. Compared to making a solar furnace, making solar iron was really quite troublesome.

The so-called "midday sun iron" is made when the sun's power is strongest and most vibrant at noon, and it also requires a lot of rituals to bless it.

The long list of rituals made Kroya's head spin, but he managed to summarize the most important things: impure yet pure iron, essential oils from sacred magical plants, servants of the sun, and pure solar magic.

This is essentially a ritual performed by the gods, but unfortunately, there is no "Poem of the Rainbow" that doesn't follow the path of the gods. Daphne has no choice but to tell everything she knows and wait for Kroya to make a decision.

Fortunately, Kroya's understanding of rituals involving deities was no less than that of any scholar or mage, and since he had not deliberately rejected the conveniences that faith brought him, the analysis was not too difficult.

After about half a day, he finally came up with a method that he could use, and it just so happened to be related to the magical plants he had imprinted—their bodies contained their own magic power, so weren't they the best sun servants?

Who says the servants of the sun have to be human?

With that in mind, he bid farewell to Daphne and first went to the place where the Ring of Radiance and the Anchor Mushroom of Reality were planted.

After several years of development, this place has long since become the home of the Kabamon.

The entire lakebed is like a meadow forever bathed in sunlight, tranquil and warm, where small creatures from the plane of light swim freely.

Over the past few years, Kroya has found many magical beasts and magical plants from those bright planes, and planted them all at the bottom of this huge lake.

The sacred magical field formed by these magical plants and beasts alone is close to the legendary level, not to mention there's a mushroom sitting there.

This place is now estimated to be even more sacred and pure than the Holy Land of the Holy See.

Meanwhile, the Kaba Beasts, the masters of this place, quietly nestled in the grass, their mouths moving slightly as if they were bored.

But around them, piles of metal had accumulated, shining like small mountains, their complex magical radiance simply exaggerated.

For so long, they had been continuously forging and refining these metals in a cycle, and even Kroa had to admit it:

No one could be more devoted than them. Although I provided them with a safe and comfortable habitat, they also gave me a generous reward.

Legendary iron ingots.

Thank you all for your support!

(End of this chapter)