Chapter 346 – A Terrible Waste

Chapter 346 – A Terrible Waste

The white-furred giant ape seemed to know the contract had already been established, so it stopped hiding the truth:

“You can conjure lots of wine — only you can provide for Zhizhi.”

“She’s different from the other little monkeys. She needs to drink wine to survive.”

“If you don’t take her, she’ll never grow up.”

“Besides, I know that you witches treat your magical pets very well! Back in the day, several little monkeys from our tribe signed contracts with witches. Golden little birds would often deliver small paintings with monkey fur tucked inside! They were all living very happily.”

“The chief’s older sister left with a witch, and she still comes back to visit the tribe sometimes, telling the old chief about things in the outside world!”

“In short, I’m the one who told Zhizhi to do all of this. If you want to blame someone, blame me!”

Mo Lan: “…”

No wonder! She’d been thinking it was strange how easily she’d acquired this magical pet!

So she’d been outmaneuvered by this white-furred giant ape all along!

She really had underestimated it. Its cunning was probably a notch above even the old monkey king’s.

Looking down at the white-furred little monkey curled up in her arms, sound asleep as it digested the power of contract, Mo Lan’s heart softened again.

Oh well. She had more than enough wine. Raising one little wine-loving monkey was no big deal.

But which Sorceress or headmistress had contracted a golden-armed ape and could still return to the Academy?

No wonder the old monkey king could speak the common tongue!

Wait — the old monkey king? Why had it suddenly gone quiet?

Mo Lan looked over. The old monkey king, who had just been mobbed by the little monkeys, was now sneaking furtive glances in their direction.

The little monkeys had completely lost their earlier chattering, mischievous demeanor. They were all watching Zhizhi in Mo Lan’s arms with a mixture of curiosity and worry!

Mo Lan couldn’t help but glare at the white-furred giant ape again: “Zhizhi’s white fur? Being different from the other little monkeys?”

The white-furred giant ape scratched the back of its head with a sheepish grin: “Ahem, well, Zhizhi does look different!”

Mo Lan: “…”

So all that stuff about Zhizhi being ostracized in the tribe because of her appearance — she’d been overthinking it the whole time?

Hmph! The white-furred giant ape had clearly colluded with the old monkey king and the little monkeys to put on a whole theatrical performance for her.

It was absolutely outrageous!

Looking at the monkeys playing dumb, she felt indignant and decided to give them a taste of their own medicine:

“I see you’re all remarkably clever. How about signing an ally contract with me? Otherwise…”

The golden-furred little monkeys looked bewildered, but the white-furred giant ape and the golden-armed ape were dumbstruck.

They knew about witch magical pets, so naturally they also knew about witch allies.

A magical pet was one of your own monkeys — but an ally was someone else’s monkey, a deal where you had to fight for your life just to gain a bit more strength.

Seeing that Mo Lan didn’t look like she was joking, the white-furred giant ape pleaded: “Let me do it! I’m the smartest one. The chief still needs to protect the little monkeys!”

“Deal!” Mo Lan used Ally Summoning Magic: “Sign it! When I’m in danger and summon you, you’d better not refuse!”

The white-furred giant ape wore an expression of heroic martyrdom, closing its eyes as it let the power of contract enter its body.

When it sensed the compulsory nature of the summoning clause, it grew even more despairing.

Mo Lan savored its stricken expression for a while before saying unhurriedly:

“With your level of strength, do you really think it’d be worth me spending Mana to summon you to fight? Wouldn’t casting a single spell be more effective?”

The white-furred giant ape might be a local tyrant in the Inner Region, but on the whole continent of Valen, it was nothing special.

The white-furred giant ape froze, staring at her in confusion.

Seeing that look on its face, Mo Lan finally felt her frustration fully vented:

“If we didn’t sign an ally contract, how would I summon you to Zhizhi’s side when she misses you later? Once I leave this place, it’ll be very hard to come back!”

The pleasant surprise came so fast that the white-furred giant ape hadn’t quite processed it yet.

Mo Lan felt satisfied and didn’t bother with it anymore, going to hurry the old monkey king along: “Are we still trading for wine or not? Don’t tell me that was a lie too?”

If even magical beasts could be this devious, once she left the Wilds, wouldn’t she need to keep her mind-reading magic running nonstop?

“Trading! We’re trading!” The old monkey king hastily plucked the little monkeys off its body one by one and stuffed them into a hole beneath a tree stump: “Hurry! Bring everything out from down there!”

All those little monkeys scrambled into the hole beneath the stump and vanished from sight.

It seemed there was quite a sizeable treasure trove down there!

Mo Lan felt a surge of anticipation.

After a while, the little monkeys emerged carrying things, piling up a huge mound on the ground.

“How about it? See anything you like? Just pick whatever you want!” the old monkey king said generously. “As for wine — just give whatever you think is fair! I know witches never shortchange their friends!”

Mo Lan looked at the old monkey king, then at the pile of things: “You’re planning to trade these for wine?”

Just look at what was on the ground.

Wilted tiger-stripe grass, borage dried to a crisp, gold-broom amber stones covered in cracks, severed legs of a savage spider, leaping-hare pelts caked with dried blood…

There was quite a variety of magical materials, but not a single one had been properly processed and preserved. Most of the materials had lost their magical energy and were completely unusable.

Even if she fed them to her Book of Cards as crafting materials, they’d only produce inferior-quality cards.

At the moment, their only practical use was probably the garbage bin.

What a terrible waste!

It was at this moment that Mo Lan truly understood — the golden-armed ape tribe was clever, sure, but only clever relative to other magical beasts. There was a reason they weren’t classified among the intelligent races.

They had a real knack for brewing fruit wine, but when it came to processing other materials, they were hopeless.

“If you had fresh materials like these, I could trade at least one crate of Cat Carry Wine per piece!”

Mo Lan said: “But the ones here have all gone bad and can’t be used anymore.”

The old monkey king was shocked: “They can’t be used?”

Looking more carefully, things did seem different from when they’d first been tossed in there.

Unable to bear the thought of giving up that clear white wine’s taste, it said: “Could you stay in the tribe for a few more days? I’ll send the monkeys out right away to collect new things, and then we can trade!”

“Sure!” Mo Lan agreed.

Zhizhi was still digesting the power of contract with no sign of waking up. If Mo Lan carried her out of the golden-armed apes’ territory now and ran into some formidable opponent, it would be quite troublesome.

Besides, her Mana level had already reached Peak level, and she had several gold-element offensive spells at Advanced level too. Combined with her cards, the survival trial posed no real survival challenge for her.

Collecting different magical materials for card-crafting was the most important objective of this trip.

Now she only needed to spend a little wine to have the golden-armed apes do the work for her. It couldn’t be more perfect.

She’d even have some time to read.

The Grimoire contained transcriptions of nearly a million volumes, and there were still quite a few she hadn’t gotten around to reading!

Mo Lan took out the Spatial Tent Card directly and set up the tent right in the golden-armed apes’ territory:

“I’ll be staying here for now. Bring me any fresh materials you find!”

The golden-armed ape was relieved. It called out to the white-furred giant ape with a couple of hoots, telling it to stay here as Mo Lan’s guide, then went off to rally the tribe’s monkeys to collect materials.