Chapter 714 – Dreamweaver World 52

Chapter 714 – Dreamweaver World 52

Upon hearing this, the wrinkles on Matina’s face immediately smoothed out, and her shadow struck a pose of uproarious laughter.

She deliberately sidled up to Leona and said in an exaggerated stage whisper, “My, my~ I seem to recall a certain someone who was just swearing up and down that adventurers couldn’t possibly learn anything from us?”

It was the first time Mo Lan had ever seen Matina speak this way. She sneaked a glance at the general store owner—Leona, who according to Dream Forum rumors always greeted people with a smile and even had lace trimming on her eyepatch, now wore a face as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot.

She slammed her palm down hard on the counter, making the Crystal bottles on its surface clink and rattle. “Are you going to buy something or not? If not, I’m closing up and going to bed!”

She would have been asleep by now if it weren’t for the rare spectacle of a certain someone actually leaving her house—otherwise she never would have opened the door!

“Buying! Of course I’m buying!” Matina said with perfect composure as she settled back into a seat behind her.

Her shadow had, at some point, dragged over a high-backed barstool, its backrest perfectly contoured for an elderly person’s lumbar support.

Mo Lan was likewise pressed into a stool by another mass of shadow. The poor stool-shadow trembled with fright—if it could have made a sound, it probably would have screamed loud enough to blow the roof off.

Leona ground her teeth and shouted toward the side, “Leah! Bring down all the bug cases!”

At this moment, all she wanted was to hurry up and get rid of this old rival who had brought her adventurer apprentice here to show off.

A clattering commotion of rummaging came from upstairs, and before long, Leah came running down with four flat sandalwood cases in her arms.

She lined the cases up on the counter, and the moment the lids were lifted, a scent mingling herbal fragrance with earthy undertones wafted through the air.

Inside the cases, dozens of transparent glass bottles were arranged in neat rows, each one tightly sealed with a specially made wooden stopper.

The two cases on the left contained live insects, while the cases on the right displayed desiccated insect specimens.

“Start by choosing one live insect and one dead one to feel the difference between their shadows!” Matina tapped her stone cane.

Mo Lan nodded and leaned in curiously to observe, mentally cross-referencing what she saw with the information on the Dream Forum and the contents of the 《Shadow Rearing Handbook》 she had read.

In the first case on the left, the largest bottle contained several small insects whose abdomens flickered with a faint blue glow. Each beat of their wings traced a meteor-like trail through the bottle.

“These should be moonlight fireflies. If made into shadow pets, they’d retain the original creature’s affinity for darkness, able to restore their strength in shadows—but they wouldn’t be suited for prolonged work under strong light.”

Mo Lan then turned her gaze to the next bottle of live insects.

Inside were several ironclad crickets rubbing their elytra against each other, periodically producing crisp sounds resembling metal striking metal. The fine barbs on their legs scraped tiny sparks against the bottle walls.

“Ironclad crickets have jumping power and destructive capability that rank quite well among insect-type shadow pets.”

In the neighboring bottle, a shadow spider was busy spinning a web in the corner of its container, the silk it produced carrying a faint trace of the Power of Shadow.

“This one’s quite good too. A shadow pet made from a shadow spider can be cultivated into a medical-type shadow pet, specializing in mending shadows.”

Finally, her gaze fell on a bottle of subterranean worms tangled together in a mass. These grayish-white creatures had surfaces covered in tiny pores that absorbed light, and they squirmed slowly.

“Matina!” Mo Lan suddenly looked up. “The shadow bugs at your house—most of them were tamed from the shadows of subterranean worms, weren’t they? Is it because shadow pets tamed from subterranean worms possess regenerative abilities and are the only shadow pets capable of reproducing on their own, and that’s why you chose them?”

Matina nodded. She maintained an air of casual indifference, but inwardly, she was quite surprised that Mo Lan knew so much about insect-type shadow pets.

After examining the live insects, Mo Lan moved on to the desiccated specimens. Besides the dead versions of the live insects, there were also some rare varieties not found in the left cases.

The most eye-catching was a crystal dragonfly. Its wings were thin as cicada wings, refracting a dreamlike rainbow halo under the lamplight. If not for its complete stillness, one truly couldn’t tell it was already dead.

“Ms. Leona, did this crystal dragonfly die of natural causes?” Mo Lan asked curiously.

This question made the old woman behind the counter’s single eye light up.

Crystal dragonflies were among the few intelligent insects in the dream realm, possessing intelligence roughly equivalent to a three-year-old child.

If one separated and tamed its shadow while it was still alive, the resulting shadow pet would be exceptionally agile and spirited.

However, this required the crystal dragonfly to still be alive. If it was dead, only shadow pets tamed from the shadows of naturally deceased crystal dragonflies would retain that effect.

So whether it had died of natural causes was indeed quite important.

“You certainly know your stuff,” Leona said, sizing up Mo Lan with a meaningful look. “You really only changed races this morning?”

Mo Lan nodded frankly. “Absolutely genuine. But I did study up on the relevant knowledge beforehand, and I also spent several hours reading books at Matina’s place just now. It was very rewarding.”

Leona breathed a sigh of relief at this. Good—she had studied in advance. Her single eye glanced toward her own daughter. Leah had studied in advance too, so they certainly hadn’t fallen behind in that regard.

“Rest assured, it died of natural old age. I, Leona, never tarnish my own reputation.”

Mo Lan gave the crystal dragonfly a few more satisfied looks, then went to examine the quality of a ghost-face longhorn beetle. The naturally formed ghost-face pattern on its dorsal shell was very well-preserved—it should have been a longhorn beetle in its prime. Unfortunately, its single horn was slightly damaged, which meant its shadow would also be missing a piece.

In the farthest corner, a fist-sized nightmare moth emanated an eerie aura. Though long dead, the eye-shaped patterns on its wings remained remarkably lifelike—staring at them for too long produced the unsettling illusion of being watched.

This was also a solid choice. The nightmare moth’s shadow inherited this ability, capable of bewildering other shadow pets and inflicting a degree of psychic shock upon them.

“Have you decided yet?” Leona pressed. “Since you’re just starting to learn biological shadow taming, just go with a white-spotted earthworm! The white-spotted earthworm’s shadow is practically the easiest to separate among all insects.”

Matina didn’t contradict Leona this time—she shared the same thought.

In fact, she had originally planned to introduce Mo Lan to the shadow properties of the various insects before recommending the white-spotted earthworm.

Mo Lan nodded, then shook her head. “I want them all!”

Having learned that her psychic power could play a major role in the battle of wills for shadow dominance, she wasn’t worried about any shadow she couldn’t wrest control of.

Never mind the shadows of a few insects—even a human’s shadow probably wouldn’t be a problem.

This was only the Beginner Zone. Nobody here could possibly have Power of Shadow as abundant as her Mana, and nobody could withstand her psychic power.

That being the case, why not try them all?

The extras could serve as materials for the Book of Cards—many of these insects counted as Magic materials, after all!