Chapter 458 – Transformation Potion

Chapter 458 – Transformation Potion

Having ventured into lush grasslands twice and encountered danger both times, Greta finally realized that fertile land with thriving vegetation was equally a paradise for magical beasts.

On the contrary, this barren stretch of land hugging the outer edge of the Black Forest looked desolate, but it was precisely the kind of place that neither undead creatures nor magical beasts cared to visit.

“It seems I can’t just head straight in the direction the pathfinding magic card points anymore,” Greta thought. “Fortunately, the direction the magic card indicated cuts diagonally into the lush areas. I’ll stick close to the Black Forest and head north first, and once I reach a populated area, I’ll turn toward that direction—was it east or west? Never mind, I’ll figure it out when I get there. I should still be able to reach my destination, right?”

After resting up, she set off once more.

This time she chose to walk directly along the edge of the Black Forest, and from then on she never encountered any ground-roaming wild beasts, let alone magical beasts.

Only occasionally during the daytime would a flying magical beast spot her from far away.

But the distance was always great, and thanks to her lucky intuition, she could sense danger early enough each time to have plenty of time to duck into the Black Forest.

She simply used the grey mist of Death Force inside the Black Forest as her protective umbrella.

And conveniently, during the daytime there were hardly any undead creatures in the outer reaches of the Black Forest, so she was safe there too.

The only caveat was that she couldn’t stay inside the Black Forest for too long each time, or it would adversely affect her body—and she no longer had a single spare {Magic Card – Purge Death Force} to cleanse the Death Force from her system.

Greta continued along the edge of the Black Forest until a great river blocking her path finally brought her to a halt.

The river flowed from the north, skimming along the edge of the Black Forest before pouring deep into the Emerald Creek Plains.

Looking at this river—wider than the largest lake in the Kingdom of Watson, so vast that without the rushing currents and the far shore barely visible on the horizon, one might almost mistake it for the legendary sea—Greta recalled a line from the magic notebook:

“If you see a river as vast as the sea, then you have surely found the River of Origin in Valen.”

“This is… the River of Origin?”

Greta’s mind raced: “If this is the River of Origin, then north of the Black Forest and west of the River of Origin is the territory of the Yala Empire, while the opposite bank is the Mage Empire.”

She gazed at the rooftops faintly visible on the far shore, her heart surging with excitement. “That over there is the Mage Empire?”

That was the free land of magic she had yearned for ever since discovering that the gods were a sham!

But… how was she supposed to get across?

With a river this wide and currents this fierce, how could she possibly cross it?

“Exactly! How is she supposed to get across!” Greta fretted, and the four Sorceresses on the flying carpet fretted even more.

“Ahem! It’s time for me to step in.” Mo Lan produced her broomstick, and in her other hand held up a bottle of potion.

It had been so long since anyone had seen Mo Lan’s broomstick—it had been in flying carpet form all this time—that Vasida didn’t quite grasp her intention at first. It wasn’t until she noticed the potion in Mo Lan’s other hand that it clicked:

“A transformation potion? You’re planning to change your appearance and fly her across on the broom?”

The transformation potion was an essential brew for witches disguising their identity when venturing into the territories of non-human races. All of them had studied it extensively and recognized it at a glance.

However, the transformation potion was already classified as an Advanced potion, requiring many rare magical plants to brew, so none of them had actually crafted or handled one before.

“That’s right! The witches have uploaded quite a few magical material samples, and all the ingredients needed for the transformation potion were available, so I gave brewing it a try,” Mo Lan said. “Now’s the perfect chance to test her attitude toward witches.”

If not for having the transformation potion, she would have added a boat or some other river-crossing tool to the trial shop earlier.

The River of Origin was truly not something one could swim across.

Conveniently, back when she had been considering carrying Vasida and Sylph, she had already inscribed rune combinations for passenger-carrying and load-bearing functions onto the broomstick.

While these would affect the acceleration function, it was fine as long as they weren’t used simultaneously with the Mana-powered acceleration function.

Mo Lan drank the transformation potion and, in a flash, transformed into the appearance of her previous life. She then changed into an unworn set of green witch robes, donned the iconic large pointed hat of a witch, swung onto her Wand, and waved goodbye to her companions. “I’m heading out first!”

With that, she activated the invisibility function and flew off toward the Wilds.

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph remained on the flying carpet, exchanging glances.

“My broom can carry passengers too! I want to go!” Lilith said longingly.

“We want to meet Greta too!” Vasida and Sylph chimed in.

Having followed Greta for so long, they had long since accepted her in their hearts.

Mo Lan had slipped away so quickly precisely because she didn’t want to hand this opportunity over to anyone else.

Witches mostly lived alone—a whole group of them flying over together would be far too strange.

Mo Lan flew until she was well beyond any position where Greta could possibly see her, then deactivated the invisibility shield. She first activated the broomstick’s passenger-carrying and load-bearing functions, then took out a large beast-hide sack—standard issue for any poor witch—and hung it on the broom handle, filling it with some low-grade healing potions, low-grade disease-curing potions, and low-grade antidote potions.

Her Wand also shifted from its ring form back to its original wand form, which she tucked at her waist.

With that, her image as a poor potion-brewing witch who had emerged from the Wilds to trade for supplies at the nearest human village was perfectly complete.

The village on the opposite bank—Mo Lan knew it was called Riverside Village.

Along the southern edge of the Duchy of Lance, from west to east, five villages together formed the duchy’s most critical line of defense against the magical beasts of the Emerald Creek Plains.

The westernmost of these was Riverside Village.

Each of these villages had a resident mage corps stationed there.

Typically, mages trained by the Duchy of Lance were required to serve as resident mages in one of these villages for several years before being enfeoffed and granted a title.

They were called villages, but their combat reserves were higher than some towns deep in the duchy’s heartland.

Every person in these villages was either a warrior or a warrior’s family member. When magical beasts attacked, they were soldiers; when the beasts receded, they were civilians.

The Duchy of Lance had a favorable attitude toward witches, so witches living in the Wilds would occasionally visit these villages to trade with merchant caravans for goods unique to human civilization.

Many witches had mentioned these villages in their Mainland travel journals, having stopped there during their journeys.

What Mo Lan intended to play was precisely this role: a witch emerging from the Wilds, heading to Riverside Village to trade potions for fresh goods from the human side.

She had even deliberately dressed in grass-green witch robes embroidered with floral patterns and wore an alchemy witch badge on her chest—looking perfectly natural, refreshing, warm, and approachable.

She rode her broom at a leisurely pace through the low sky, looking entirely unhurried.

After quite a while, she finally drifted back toward the vicinity of the River of Origin.