It felt so good to be close to the witch!

A gentle lake breeze, carrying a faint dampness, blew the hair behind her ears and made it flutter backward. Lilia sat on the raft, hugging her knees.

She tilted her head slightly, her gaze involuntarily falling on the back of the young man rowing the boat in front of her.

The midday sun shone on the young man, giving his body a soft golden glow. The azure lake and the green trees along its banks created a picturesque scene.

As she watched, Lilia's eyes gradually became somewhat vacant.

How long has it been since someone last rowed a boat for her? She can't remember anymore, only that it was when she was very, very young, before she became a witch.

In the blink of an eye, so much time has passed...

She sighed softly to herself.

Over the years, she had endured countless hardships to escape the temple's pursuit. She thought she would spend her life in darkness, but unexpectedly, she was about to see a ray of light...

Now, much of the pollution on her sister has been removed and there is no longer a risk of it getting out of control. The pollution on her own body is also expected to be completely removed. With the protection of the lord of the territory, she and her sister will no longer have to live the kind of life of displacement they used to have.

And all of this is because of the man in front of me.

"Lord Roy..."

Lilia silently recited the words in her heart, her eyes growing ever more determined.

As long as she is alive, no one will be allowed to harm Lord Roy in the future.

……

"Lilia, Lilia..."

A soft call woke Lilia up instantly.

Her slightly unfocused pupils suddenly focused, meeting Roy's concerned gaze: "Lilia, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing!" Lilia replied somewhat flusteredly, while inwardly scolding herself for being absent-minded as a guard—what an incompetent act!

"Oh, that's good. We've reached the middle of the lake." Hearing this, Roy nodded, not paying much attention, and instead turned his gaze to the lake water beside the raft at his feet.

Upon closer observation, he quickly noticed the difference.

Compared to the lake water near the shore, the water in the center of the lake is bluer, with a hint of deep blue.

This color is not something that normal lake water could have.

With the naked eye, Roy could see that the concentration of magic in the lake water at the center of the lake far exceeded that at the lakeside.

Even he wouldn't dare drink from such a lake without sufficient capacity. Ordinary small animals would probably be torn apart and die instantly by the magic contained in the lake water if they drank it.

"Such concentrated magic..." Lilia exclaimed in surprise as she came to her senses. Earlier by the lake, she could only vaguely sense that the concentration of magic was highest here, but she never expected it to be this high.

Roy didn't speak; he reached out his hand, as if to gently scoop up a handful of lake water.

But just as his hand touched the surface of the lake, something shocking happened.

A gray text panel popped up in front of him with a notification.

The gray character panel is a derivative of the [Original Sin Cube]. Since his transmigration, this panel has only been displayed when he touches a "magical item" or when his energy reserve reaches 100% and he gains a talent.

Now, there's a reaction just from touching the water in the center of Xinghu Lake?

With curiosity, Roy carefully examined the character panel display in front of him.

-

[Detected a trace of "[Arrogance Source] - Mixed Branch Magic Power"...]

-

The gray text panel displays very little content.

But Roy's heart was in turmoil.

Magical items!

Beneath the Star Lake lies a magical item!

"The Source of Pride..."

Silently repeating the word in his mind, Roy recalled the prompt when the [Original Sin Cube] absorbed the magical item "Cursed Doll" at the beginning of his transmigration—it was being eroded by an item containing "[Lustful Magic Source] - Mixed Branch Magic" (curse, manipulation)...

One is the source of lust, and the other is the source of pride.

What exactly is this so-called "source of evil"?

Suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed in Roy's mind.

The "Cursed Doll" is a magical item that the Ice Witch Ais and the Fox-Eared Witch Elena "accidentally" obtained during one of their outings.

While it was described as an "accident," Roy believed it was more like a "man-made" event.

Lord Denham seemed unlikely to have this ability; only the powerful second prince of the empire could have done it.

In other words, if the second prince can produce a magical item, he likely has many more and better magical items in his possession.

The rarity of magical items is beyond doubt. Looking back now, the Second Prince not only sacrificed two treasures, the magical item "Cursed Doll" and a high-purity magic crystal, to take over Blackrock Territory, but also offended the Border Duke. After paying such a huge price, would he give up Blackrock Territory just because of Lord Denham's defeat?

The answer, of course, is no.

But if what's buried deep in Star Lake is just a magical item, is it worth the Second Prince paying such a high price?

Or perhaps the magical items related to [Arrogance Source] deep within Star Lake have more unique effects and are essential for the Second Prince?

Chapter 54 Choice

The magical items related to the [Source of Arrogance] sealed at the bottom of Star Lake stirred up Roy's thoughts.

He didn't have a strong sense of whether magical items were powerful or not.

Roy has only ever come into contact with one magical item, the "Cursed Doll," which implants a mark into the heart of a target, allowing him to control them.

However, before the "Cursed Doll" could take effect, it was devoured and absorbed by the [Original Sin Cube] and converted into energy reserve progress. Therefore, Roy had no basis for judging the strength of magical items.

The only basis he could use was the amount of energy the magical item absorbed and transformed.

The energy reserve of the "Cursed Doll" is 97%, while the energy reserve of the "Original Sin Pollution Branch Aggregate" absorbed after removing the pollution from the Healing Witch Shanika is 40%. From this, we can roughly deduce that the total amount of magic contained in the magical item "Cursed Doll" is about 97.

The amount of battle aura within a Bronze Knight ranges from 1 to 9.9.

The amount of battle aura within a Silver Knight ranges from 10 to 99.9.

97 units of magic power is an extremely terrifying number, roughly equivalent to the energy possessed by a peak Silver Knight.

In fact, magic power is far more powerful than battle aura of the same size. Therefore, the effects produced by the "cursed doll" are far beyond what a Silver Peak Knight can resist.

According to the Border Duke, there is a crisis beneath the Star Lake that could even kill a Golden Knight. So, can we infer that the energy contained in the [Arrogant Magic Source] magical item sealed beneath the Star Lake is far more than 100?

"...Let's go back first."

Suppressing the turmoil in his mind, Roy stood up and said in a deep voice to the Shadow Witch Lilia beside him.

Knowing the secret beneath Star Lake, there's no point in staying here any longer.

With Roy's current strength, even with the help of the Shadow Witch Lilia, recklessly diving into the bottom of the lake would be suicidal.

The Shadow Witch Lilia's strength is comparable to that of a Silver Three-Star Knight, but she is still some distance from the peak of Silver, let alone facing the [Arrogant Magic Source] magical item that can pose a fatal threat to a Gold Knight.

Even the strongest witch Roy knew, the Ice Witch Ais, was questionable in terms of whether she could defeat the Golden Knight.

Therefore, more thorough preparations are needed to deal with, and even acquire, the magical items from the [Arrogant Magic Source] beneath Star Lake.

Hearing Roy's words, the Shadow Witch Lilia nodded. Although she didn't know why Roy's expression had become so serious after just slightly touching the lake, as a "guardian," all she had to do was protect Lord Roy's safety; the rest was not her concern.

Lilia knew that she was not a smart person.

With the oars propelling it forward, the raft sped towards the lakeshore.

……

It was half an hour later when Roy and Lilia returned to the Blackrock Lord's mansion.

In the corner of the courtyard, shadows cast the silhouettes of two people.

Compared to riding a horse, Lilia's "Shadow Walk" experience is better, but the downside is that you can't see the outside environment.

After letting Lilia rest, Roy went into the room, sat down at his desk, took out a crystal box containing high-purity magic crystals from his storage space, tapped his fingers lightly on the table, and pondered silently.

This high-purity magic crystal still contains about 80% of its natural magic power, roughly 80 strands.

Natural magic is different from the magic within a witch's body; it is attribute-less and can be absorbed by any witch, thereby quickly increasing her own magic power limit.

If that were all, low-purity magic crystals could also achieve the same result. The reason why high-purity magic crystals are called "treasures" is because the natural magic power inside high-purity magic crystals is incredibly pure. Absorbing them will not lead to an increase in pollution within the witch's body. In fact, to some extent, it can even dilute the pollution within the witch's body—if the quality of the pollution remains unchanged and the total amount of magic power increases, wouldn't the degree of pollution decrease?

Therefore, for wandering witches who yearn to increase their strength, high-purity magic crystals are coveted treasures. It is precisely for this reason that the former Shadow Witch Lilia chose to risk attacking the temple's prison cart because of the rumor that high-purity magic crystals were on Roy.

Roy is now considering whether to give the natural magic power within this high-purity magic crystal to the Ice Witch Ais.

With the Harvest Festival approaching, although there has been no movement from the Second Prince's side for the time being, Roy knows that the calmer things are now, the more earth-shattering the moment the other side makes its move will be.

Passive waiting is the worst possible strategy.

The best way is to take away the [Arrogance Source] magical item under Star Lake before the Second Prince takes action.

In this way, no matter what the Second Prince's purpose was in scheming for this [Arrogance Source] magical item, the initiative was in his hands.

However, one problem stands in Roy's way—to take the [Source of Pride] magical item, at the very least, his side needs a Gold Knight-level combatant; otherwise, there is no chance of success.

Of all the witches he knew, only the Ice Witch Ais was suitable for using high-purity magic crystals.

The total magical power of the healing witch Shanika is 40, which is far from the witch's limit.

The Shadow Witch Lilia's total magic power is much stronger than Shanika's, around 60.

Vivian, the Witch of Light, is around 40, similar to Shanika. However, she has only just recovered from a semi-out-of-control state and is extremely weak, making her the least suitable candidate to use high-purity magic crystals.

The fox-eared witch Elena has the least amount of magic power, only 30 strands.

Roy estimated that the Ice Witch Ais's total magic power was at least 90, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to kill the heavily injured captain of the Divine Punishment Knights.

With the strength of the Ice Witch Ais, the help of high-purity magic crystals, and Roy's assistance, the possibility of her breaking through to the "Grand Witch" level is the highest.

It is said that even several Gold Knights would find it difficult to defeat a Grand Witch. If the Ice Witch Ais successfully breaks through, the chance of obtaining the [Pride Source] magic item will be greatly increased.

Roy hesitated because the Shadow Witch Lilia could also make a breakthrough if she used a high-purity magic crystal.

Perhaps because of the initial "gap" between them, Roy was not very close to the Ice Witch Ais.

After much deliberation, Roy finally decided to give the high-purity magic crystal to the Ice Witch Ais.