Chapter 144: Terror at the Spring's Edge

It took Joan a full two hours to finally push his way through the dense thicket. Covered in sweat and thoroughly exhausted, his mood grew somewhat heavy. From this stretch onward, the vegetation along the riverbank became exceptionally thick, which indirectly indicated a lack of large, gregarious herbivores in the nearby woods. This, in turn, strongly implied that fierce beasts or even magical monsters haunted the forest, forcing the local herbivores to flee in search of safer pastures. For a lone traveler like Joan, this was far from a good omen.

Obscured by the dense canopy, Joan had drifted away from the riverbank, and through the thick branches, he could only faintly hear the roar of the current. Forcing down his growing anxiety, he led his horse toward the sound of the water, pushing laboriously through another thicket. Ahead of him, a ridge rose up, and a crystal-clear stream wound its way around the mountain fold.

Joan guessed this stream must be a tributary of the Yifen River. By following it upstream, it should not be difficult to find the main course and return to the correct path. Leading his horse by the reins into the mountain recess, however, what greeted his eyes was not the Yifen River, but a spring gushing forth endless ripples.

Joan felt a pang of disappointment at his miscalculation, but the black foal beside him gave a happy snort, trotting over to the grass beside the spring to graze on the tender, fragrant wild fennel. With a helpless shake of his head, Joan sat down on a boulder by the spring to catch his breath.

Wild fennel possessed a strong, pungent aroma. Having eaten too much of the flavorful herb, the black foal seemed thirsty and lowered its head to drink from the spring. Yet the very instant its head dipped, the bubbling springwater suddenly surged three feet into the air. Following this, a pair of slender, transparent arms reached out from the bottom of the pool, swiftly wrapping around the horse's neck and dragging it forcibly toward the water.

Caught entirely off guard by the translucent, water-formed arms gripping its throat, the black foal let out a shrill whinny, tossing its head and struggling frantically. Yet the bizarre arms possessed terrifying strength, and within the blink of an eye, the foal's forequarters were dragged into the water.

The incident happened with sudden violence. Recovering from his brief shock, Joan rushed forward, grabbed the reins, and pulled backward with all his might, hoping to rescue the black foal from the monster lurking within the spring. Yet his utmost effort failed to alter the foal's doom of sliding into the pool, and he himself was nearly dragged into the water.

Joan had no choice but to let go of the reins for his own safety. Watching the black foal sink deeper into the water with piercing, sorrowful cries, he was overwhelmed with anxiety. His own meager strength was clearly insufficient to rescue the horse, and a quick mental review of the spells he had prepared today yielded no suitable magic to save the beast. A sudden thought gave him an idea. He hurriedly unlatched his storage pouch, intending to take out the "Twig of Yggdrasil." Once transformed into a treant, his Strength attribute would skyrocket to 29—far surpassing even Gray the cinrid—more than enough to rescue the black foal!

As he was rummaging for the "Twig of Yggdrasil," a small gray cloth pouch caught his eye, prompting him to change his mind on the spot. He immediately picked up the gray sack, untied the drawstring, and scattered the brown powder inside toward the pool.

The gray cloth pouch was loot he had obtained two months ago in the great marsh after teaming up with Gray to slay the lizardman shaman Chud. Later appraisal revealed that the pouch contained an alchemical preparation called "Desiccant Powder," capable of absorbing massive amounts of moisture and inflicting severe damage on aquatic creatures.

Joan had never tested the specific efficacy of the "Desiccant Powder" before, nor did he know how effective it would be. In his desperation, however, he cast the entire bag of powder into the water, and what happened next left him utterly astounded.

Upon touching the water surface, the Desiccant Powder immediately hissed. The endlessly churning springwater seemed to freeze instantly, halting its flow and congealing into a gelatinous mass. Its volume expanded significantly, bulging up from the pool like a massive, trembling transparent jelly. The black foal was sealed within the jelly, with only its head poking out of the colloid, whimpering and gasping laboriously as white foam spilled from its lips.

Joan stared blankly at the miraculous sight before him, momentarily at a loss. At that moment, a rustling sound came from the base of the "jelly." A transparent, serpent-like creature crawled out from within. Formed entirely of spring water, its lizard-like head bore faintly discernible facial features, and deep within its eye sockets flickered the faint blue radiance of condensed water elemental magic. From both sides of its slender, rounded neck extended a pair of transparent long arms. Its hands clawed at the bank, climbing upward with great effort as if eager to escape the gelatinous restraint caused by the "Desiccant Powder."

Without hesitation, Joan summoned "Greater Mage Hand," tightly gripping the blade of electrical light as he closed in on the nameless water elemental monster, swinging fiercely to cleave downward at its head!

*Thwack!* The blade pierced the monster's forehead like puncturing a piece of rubber, and a large volume of liquid gushed out. At the same time, the creature's slender body twisted violently, emitting a piercing shriek. Unmoved, Joan remotely controlled the magical hand to repeatedly jab at it, poking numerous holes in the monster's body and causing its internal moisture to drain rapidly.

The monster let out a resentful roar, struggling desperately to lunge at the young wizard opposite it. Alas, its tail remained trapped within the "jelly," and the cunning youth across from it deliberately kept his distance, remotely controlling a dagger crackling with electricity to stab at it. No matter how far it extended its arms to their limit, it could not reach him. The monster was forced to abandon its direct attack on Joan, turning instead to lunge at the dagger suspended in midair.

"Tinwe!"

At the appropriate moment, Joan chanted the activation incantation, and the electrical blade spat out an electric arc that struck the monster's head. The current conducted rapidly through the springwater forming the monster's body, instantly coursing through its entire creature and bursting into countless tiny blue-white electric sparks. Accompanied by a series of crackling sounds, the monster convulsed and collapsed to the ground. The transparent, film-like skin on its surface—which had contained its internal moisture—was ruined by the current, and all the water inside poured out. In the blink of an eye, nothing of its skeleton or flesh remained, leaving only a puddle of water that slowly seeped into the soil.

Not until the monster before him completely dissolved did the heart in Joan's throat finally settle back down. He bypassed the puddle left by the monster and walked over to the giant "jelly" formed by the "Desiccant Powder" absorbing the vast amount of moisture. Slashing the elastic surface of the jelly with his blade, the springwater inside immediately surged out, washing the black foal out along with it.

The poor horse finally regained its freedom, lying on the grass and coughing up water continuously with a listless demeanor. Just as Joan intended to summon the "Tears of the God" to brew a potion to heal the horse, a violent magical fluctuation suddenly erupted on the grass ahead, manifesting a distorted portal of light out of thin air. Under Joan's watchful and tense gaze, a witch clad in a tawny long dress stepped leisurely out of the portal, a dagger sheathed at each of her slender hips, and her left hand clutching a parchment scroll emitting a golden halo.