Chapter 258: Pond's Will, Aria (1)
As the vice-head maid of the palace, Jenina had maids under her, and she had put one of them on the lookout for that pool.
Why?
Because Aria would usually hide there and converse with the pool\'s will.
She got peace there, so whenever people hurt her, she would go there and meditate before returning to the training classes that her father had set for her to get strong.
The bloodline resonance also wouldn\'t be able to find her if she was there because of that ancient Spiritual Nature pond\'s influence.
\'I have to get her out of there. Those people are going to die anyway,\' Jenina thought as she quickly descended from the 100th floor of the palace.
The pool was five hundred meters deep under the palace\'s ground floor, so it took a bit of time before she arrived there.
The doors leading into the pond\'s chamber were locked with formations, and a middle-aged elf man of Empyrean-order was locking the formations as Erix and others had just entered inside.
Aria could bypass these formations with the help of the pond\'s will and exit anytime, but nobody knew that aside from Jenina and Aria.
Seeing Jenina arriving, the middle-aged elf man was surprised, "What are you doing here?"
\'I was late…\'
"Young lady Aria was missing again, so I thought I was searching the underground chambers."
"She is not here," the middle-aged elf man grunted and waved his hand, "Find her somewhere else."
"Understood," Jenina nodded and left without arguments because she knew that this middle-aged man was also in the Queen\'s faction.
Almost all of the palace, aside from servants, was in the Elf Queen\'s faction because the current king was not from this royal lineage.
He was an outsider elf but had passed the pool\'s test as being the only one to pass in the past one hundred years and married into this royal family.
However, he had a daughter with an outsider elf woman, and that was Aria. The Queen didn\'t like her, and as a rightful heir of this royal family, she had more sway in the royal palace.
The king somehow kept Aria here because she had nowhere else to go as her mother had passed away, and Aria had also received injuries that affected her mind.
On top of that, Aria was born with low talent and a weak bloodline.
The king wanted her to get stronger and become Empyrean-order here, but he ignored the harassment she was facing in the process and was focused on his ascension to leave the Abyss and enter a powerful world where elves were dominant.
The Queen\'s pressure was also high, and he could only leave Aria on her own.
Now twenty years old, Aria was in the peak Noble order rank and was focusing on reaching the Royal order rank.
However, no one knew that Aria had been receiving boons from the ancient spiritual nature pond, not even Aria.
The ancient spiritual nature pond was fond of her because Aria\'s spirituality was the purest it had ever seen, and it liked her nature.
…
"So this is that magical pond that can kill us?"
"It seems deep."
The underground cavern was exquisite and ambient.
There were strange yet aesthetic assortments of glowing crystals at various places, along with small plants and flowers that illuminated the huge cavern.
In the center was a pond sized two hundred square meters. It\'s mystical water that shone a light green and light blue hue with glowing spiritual fish inside.
Those fish were colorful but didn\'t have flesh as they were purely spiritual, yet oozing out a strange sort of vitality.
No one was allowed to change anything in this cavern, not even the royal-order. It was fully under the control of the ancient spiritual nature pond\'s will.
"This is…a kind of domain?" Lilith muttered as her eyes flickered with surprise after she had scanned the whole place.
"Domain?"
Rin, Erix, Lily, and Maleina were surprised.
"This pond\'s will is a real deal," Lilith grinned and took out the small wooden case sealed inside her dark red, faintly glowing threads.
"What are you planning?" Erix asked upon seeing Lilith taking out the wooden case containing that strange and powerful eyeball.
"This pond\'s will is far more powerful than I initially thought. I could-" Lilith abruptly paused.
She suddenly felt something before everyone saw the pond faintly glowing.
It oozed out faint golden motes before turning into slime with a pair of big spiritual eyes and a cartoony mouth.
"If you are here for the test and reap my benefits, then get inside. Know that you will die upon failing."
Everyone was surprised to see the pond\'s will taking a form and even speaking.
"I am not entering. I will just sit somewhere and meditate," Melaina said with a nervous smile, "is that okay?"
"Yes, but when these people die, I\'ll kick you out."
"Oi," Erix snorted, "Everyone sure is assuming that we\'ll die. Bring up your toughest test, I want to see how you best my will."
The slime suddenly appeared before Erix, its spiritual golden eyes glowing.
Erix raised his eyebrows but didn\'t move and kept his eyes looking into the slime\'s eyes.
The slime also looked at others afterward before returning to the center of the pool and nodded, "You all seem promising. Let\'s see how you fare."
"Just enter the pond and start meditating. You\'ll easily float even without doing anything, so don\'t worry about that."
After saying that, the slime dispersed into motes and vanished.
Lilith put away the wooden case containing the eyeball for now as she confirmed what she wanted to confirm. \'Let\'s pass the test first.\'