As an NPC, having a lot of skills is quite reasonable, right?

"Thank you, thank you so much." Green wanted to kowtow to Moen, but Moen forcibly stopped him.

Moen firmly supported Green's elbow with one hand, preventing him from kneeling down.

He patted Green on the shoulder, straightened his worn collar, and said softly, "Stand up straight. Don't let Lily see that her hero can't stand up straight."

Green was sobbing uncontrollably for a moment, and it took him several minutes to compose himself before going back inside. At that time, Moen was playing some games with Lily.

"Is there anything you need to pack?" Moen asked as Green walked back.

Green shook his head: "No, I can leave right away with Lily."

Although Green repeatedly asked him to carry Lily, Moen took the initiative to carry the little girl on the bed, arguing that he was too small and might drop the child.

Lily was very light; long-term malnutrition and illness had made her so thin that she was almost unrecognizable.

Lying on Moen's broad, warm back, Lily felt a little shy, but mostly a sense of security she had never felt before.

She pressed her pale little face against Moen's leather armor, her voice barely a whisper: "Thank you, brother, for giving Dad this opportunity."

"My mother left because she thought I was a burden. I would be very sad if my father also had nowhere to go because of me."

Moen paused slightly, a pang of sadness rising in his heart.

"Don't worry," Moen said gently, turning his head to the side.

"Your father is a genius. I begged him to come. From now on, you will have a good life."

It was afternoon when we returned to the manor.

When Lily opened her eyes wide and saw the continuous snow-capped mountains and sea of ​​clouds on the mountainside, and breathed in the crisp air that was no longer mixed with the stench of decay, light appeared in her previously dim eyes for the first time.

"Wow! Daddy, look! The clouds are right below us!"

Green's eyes reddened as he looked at his daughter's long-lost smile.

He immediately turned to Moen and said, "Sir, I'll make preparations now. I still have some connections, so I can get the equipment needed for alchemy at a lower price than the market price."

Just then, the basement door opened.

Alvin, who had taken off his robes and changed into a set of casual clothes, came out, holding a newly calibrated magic core in his hand.

"Mr. Moen, you're back... Huh?"

Alvin's gaze fell on Lily.

"Such amazing ice magic."

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, Lily suddenly let out a painful groan, and her body began to tremble violently.

A layer of visible white frost instantly covered her eyebrows and hair, and the surrounding temperature plummeted.

"Lily! Medicine! Drink your medicine quickly!" Green exclaimed in alarm, frantically pulling out the bottle of [Neutralizing Potion] he had previously concocted from his pocket and pouring it into his daughter's mouth.

After drinking some, Lily's symptoms gradually subsided, and Green breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his daughter's brows relax.

At that moment, Elwin stepped forward, a beam of analytical light emanating from his fingertips, and was about to press it onto Lily's forehead.

Green reached out to stop Elwin's hand from pressing down, but suddenly heard Moen say, "Let her take a look. She's a lecturer at the Starweave Institute; she definitely knows more than the doctors who treated your daughter before."

Ge Lin was surprised to find that the seemingly ordinary girl in front of him was actually a lecturer at the Star Pattern Academy, and quickly apologized.

Alvin waved his hand, indicating that he didn't care, and pressed his fingertips on Lily's forehead to feel the analysis feedback.

"She has the rare [Frost Embrace] constitution. Lily's current symptoms are because her soul has too high an affinity for ice elements, so high that her body's container cannot contain it, causing the ice elements to run rampant within her."

"Then, what should we do?" Green originally thought that as long as he gave his daughter medicine a few more times, his daughter would recover completely.

The news about Erwin came like a bolt from the blue, leaving him momentarily at a loss.

"We need to channel this magic."

After a moment's thought, Elwin said, "To completely resolve this, we must help her reshape her magic circuits and guide her to transform this cold energy into her own power. In other words, she is a natural ice mage."

"But now her meridians are too fragile, so we must first use an herb called 'Molten Lotus' to nourish them and strengthen their resilience."

"Molten Lotus?" Moen frowned.

This herb grows in extremely hot places, while Nohanville is an extremely cold region, and it is not available on the market at all.

"I understand." Moen patted Green on the shoulder.

"Take good care of Lily; leave the herbs to me."

into the night.

Moen changed into an inconspicuous gray cloak and went to a dark alley in the south of the city.

There's a run-down tavern here that doesn't even have a sign; a dried-up dead rat hangs at the entrance as a marker.

This is the Black Rat Tavern that Moen mentioned before, and it is also the underground intelligence base of the Deep Shadow Ancestor in Nohanville.

Upon entering, the air inside was filled with a mixture of sweat and tobacco odors.

Most of the patrons had their heads down and no one spoke. The entire pub was unusually quiet, except for the sound of the bartender wiping glasses.

Moen walked straight to the bar and knocked on the old wooden planks.

The bartender, a one-eyed orc, stared coldly at him: "What would you like to drink?"

"A glass of rye beer, no foam, and don't make a sound while stirring," Moen said in a low voice, uttering the code word that only insiders understood.

The bartender paused for a moment while wiping the glasses, his one eye scanning Moen up and down before pointing to a hidden door behind him: "Go in, there's no one here yet, you don't need to wait in line."

After passing through a narrow, damp passageway, Moen arrived at a lavishly decorated secret room.

A man wearing a gold-threaded mask was sitting on a velvet sofa, toying with a gold coin in his hand. He was the person in charge here, codenamed Night Owl.

【Name:??】

【grade:??】

When Moen entered, he cast a detection spell, and as expected, he couldn't detect anything. This is a typical characteristic of high-ranking members of the Deep Shadow Secret Society.

"A rare guest." Night Owl did not get up; his voice was somewhat distorted by the mask.

"What kind of information do you want to buy?"

"I want to know the exact location of the Molten Lotus," Moen said bluntly.

Night Owl chuckled: "That's a rare find. It's not expensive, but it's hard to come by. According to the rules, it's 10 gold coins."

Moen only has one gold coin, which is obviously not enough.

"I have no money." Moen pulled out a chair and sat down, his expression indifferent.

"But I have intelligence."

"Oh?" Night Owl became interested.

He pulled a piece of parchment from the drawer and pushed it in front of Moen: "This contains the unsolved mysteries for which the Nohanville branch currently has bounties."

"If you can answer any one of these questions, not only will the herbal information be free, but I can also give you an extra piece of information."

"But," Night Owl changed the subject, "if you're just here to amuse me, I guarantee you'll have a hard time leaving this room."

Moen glanced at the list.

Most of the above information concerns the private activities of certain important figures or the opening dates of certain historical sites.

His gaze swept across the list, finally settling on the third item: [Bounty: Who stole the Star Map Key lost by the Star Pattern Scripture Institute?]

I don't understand the Anmi Society's aesthetic sense. Does hanging a rat make them seem powerful? —Moen