Chapter 362 – Water Elemental Essence

Chapter 362 – Water Elemental Essence

Cloud Beasts had no physical form—they were purely energy-based elemental creatures.

They possessed neither the awareness nor the ability to fight back.

Killing one wasn’t difficult, but if you wanted to extract the Water Elemental Essence from its core while killing it, ordinary hunting methods wouldn’t do.

The reason Cloud Beasts on the Continent of Valen had been driven to near-extinction was precisely because Water Elemental Essence was far too useful.

Profit was the greatest motivator. The effective Cloud Beast hunting methods circulated throughout Valen could fill an entire book.

The most common approach was to use ice magic to freeze the Cloud Beast either right after it finished raining—when its body contained no water vapor—or just before it was about to rain—when its body was saturated with water vapor.

These two moments were when the Cloud Beast was at its weakest.

Freeze it with ice magic, keep it locked in that weakened state for a period of time, and it would collapse on its own.

But this Cloud Beast was far too large. Mo Lan didn’t have a single spell capable of covering one this size.

Besides, she couldn’t bring herself to use that method.

Unlike other magical beasts, Cloud Beasts were already on the brink of extinction.

A Cloud Beast this massive would be nearly impossible to find again once killed.

A living Cloud Beast was far more valuable than a dead one.

Mo Lan needed to figure out a way to obtain some Water Elemental Essence without killing the Cloud Beast.

There was no precedent for this.

She mounted her broom and flew into the sky, using Heart Speech to call out: “Cloud Beast! Can I trade you for a bit of Water Elemental Essence?”

The Cloud Beast: “…”

No matter how Mo Lan asked, the Cloud Beast gave no response whatsoever. She couldn’t tell whether its intelligence was truly so low that it couldn’t convey even the simplest meaning, or whether it simply refused to answer.

Mo Lan thought for a moment, then switched to mind-reading magic, trying to read the Cloud Beast’s inner thoughts.

The Cloud Beast: “…”

Its mind was filled with nothing but silence. Not a single response.

Mystery solved—the Cloud Beast’s intelligence was simply too low for communication.

Otherwise, mind-reading magic wouldn’t have come up completely empty.

But it wasn’t entirely without consciousness either, or it wouldn’t be classified as an elemental creature.

No intelligence meant relatively low psychic power, yet it possessed a certain instinctive awareness—so wouldn’t a confusion spell or hypnosis work well on it?

Mo Lan gave it a try. Still failed.

The Cloud Beast’s consciousness was so sluggish that it couldn’t even respond to requests from friendly and allied units.

Mo Lan tried many different types of magic, all without success.

Finally, she remembered the water-condensing process from her Magic Waterbed training—the technique for condensing water droplets. With a nothing-to-lose attitude, she directed the condensing technique at the Cloud Beast.

Watching a single drop of Water Elemental Essence drift out from the Cloud Beast’s body, Mo Lan could hardly believe it.

That actually worked?

“Headmistress! Did you know your Magic Waterbed could do this?”

If people could harvest Water Elemental Essence from living Cloud Beasts, how would they have ever been driven to near-extinction!

“I knew. I’m the one who caught this Cloud Beast and brought it here.”

“…”

She actually knew. Mo Lan said indignantly, “Headmistress, your after-sales service for this magic is terrible! You didn’t even explain the full range of applications for the Magic Waterbed. How could you not mention such an important use at all?”

“That costs extra.”

Mo Lan: “…”

The Headmistress had really taken 《Earth’s Business Bible》 to heart.

Wait—when she’d compiled 《Earth’s Business Bible》, had Madam Amisha already sold her the Magic Waterbed?

The real swindler was herself all along!

After a moment, an identical voice broke the silence: “That was my main body just now!”

So that explained it. No wonder today’s Madam Amisha was being extra difficult—it was the main body, with the most complete abilities and memories!

Mo Lan summoned the Book of Cards and floated the essence drop over, placing it inside as card-crafting material.

Soon the Book of Cards would be able to produce {Water Elemental Essence Cards}.

This would surely drive alchemists of every race mad with desire.

Come to think of it, since Water Elemental Essence could enhance potion effects, would it also work on the Magic Waterbed?

She could already use the Magic Waterbed’s water-condensing technique to extract Water Elemental Essence, so maybe it really could.

It wouldn’t hurt to try. If it failed, she could just remove the Water Elemental Essence from the Magic Waterbed afterward.

With that thought, Mo Lan used the Magic Waterbed’s water-condensing technique on the Cloud Beast once more.

When the previous drop of Water Elemental Essence had been extracted, the change hadn’t been very noticeable.

But when Mo Lan collected the second drop, she clearly noticed the Cloud Beast had shrunk considerably.

Where before the pale white cloud color had stretched to the edges of the sky as far as the eye could see, she could now spot the differently colored sky in the distance.

It seemed that even a Cloud Beast this massive couldn’t yield more than a few drops of Water Elemental Essence.

Fortunately, her Book of Cards had already mastered the method for crafting {Water Elemental Essence Cards}.

Mo Lan infused this drop of Water Elemental Essence into the waterbed, just as she had with every drop of water she’d condensed before.

It was only a single drop, yet it made the waterbed grow significantly larger.

It was worth hundreds upon hundreds of previously condensed water droplets!

She couldn’t help protesting again: “Something this good, and you didn’t tell me, Headmistress!”

Thank goodness she’d discovered it on her own. Otherwise, who knew how many detours she’d have taken in her Magic Waterbed training.

“…”

“Only you could be extravagant enough to use Water Elemental Essence just to speed up Magic Waterbed training.”

Madam Amisha swore she’d never even realized the Magic Waterbed could be trained this way.

Even if she had discovered it, she wouldn’t have been willing to do it.

Time was something she had plenty of, but Water Elemental Essence was not.

Thinking about the two drops of Water Elemental Essence Mo Lan had plucked away, Amisha couldn’t help but wince:

“Stop fleecing my Cloud Beast already—go torment some other magical beast!”

Who would have thought that she’d even know about such an obscure, endangered magical beast?

It belatedly dawned on Mo Lan—since Madam Amisha had caught this Cloud Beast and brought it to the Academy, didn’t that make it hers?

No, wait. Cloud Beasts didn’t need to be fed. Give one a stretch of sky and it could survive on its own.

“Headmistress, do you want a {Water Elemental Essence} card?” Mo Lan asked.

“Shoo, shoo, shoo—who needs your measly two drops of Water Elemental Essence?”

Amisha might have winced at the loss, but having placed the Cloud Beast here, it already belonged to the Academy.

The rules of the Academy’s outer region survival trial—she wasn’t about to break them over two drops of Water Elemental Essence.

“Just don’t kill the Cloud Beast. This might be the last Cloud Beast in all of Valen.”

Mo Lan only needed a small amount of Water Elemental Essence, so she left the Cloud Beast alone after that.

“Zhizhi! Pack up, we’re heading out!”

Mo Lan descended back to the area near the tent and packed away the Spatial Tent and magic circles.

The Cloud Beast would take a long time to absorb enough water vapor again. During this period, the area under the Cloud Beast’s canopy would enjoy clear weather—perfect conditions for traveling.

“The divination results are about the same in every direction. Zhizhi, you pick which way we go!”

“Zhi!” This way!

“You got it!”