Chapter 494: Amber Encapsulating the Era

The amber imbued with magic was soon delivered to Liszt without any effort on his part.

"Sir, this is a unique stone dug out from the sand and gravel by the serfs responsible for expanding the Flower Harbor dock square while flattening the rocky shore," Isaiah personally delivered a transparent yellow stone to the castle. "It is crystal clear like a gemstone, and there is actually a spirit bug inside!"

A spirit bug?

Liszt quickly took the flat stone the size of his palm, which was of a clear yellow color and very translucent.

The most amazing thing was that it contained a plump spirit bug, coiled into a donut shape, looking lifelike. There were also leaf-like impurities around it, and the overall shape indicated that it was amber, the amber from the smoke task reward.

"Is this the amber imbued with magic?" Liszt quickly cast the Magic Eye to observe the amber.

Immediately, he discovered a faint magical glow, with a chaotic hue, and it was actually emanating from the spirit bug inside. The spirit bug trapped within the amber had yellow and black stripes on its body, and it was unclear if this was its natural form or if it had changed color within the amber.

This surprised him greatly: "Can a spirit bug preserved in amber still retain its magic?"

As far as he knew, amber is formed when pine resin drips, is buried underground for millions of years, and under pressure and heat, it solidifies into a gem-like stone. Many pine resins, when dripping, happen to encase small insects on the tree trunk, forming exquisite fossils.

However, amber on Earth is generally formed between 40 to 60 million years ago, as it takes a long time for pine resin to turn into a fossil.

Liszt had no idea how long it took for amber to form in this world.

But it definitely cannot be done in a short time, otherwise it would just be rosin, not amber.

Liszt played with the amber for a while and said to Isaiah, "Besides this stone, were any other stones found at the site?"

"Not at the moment."

"Continue searching, preferably sift through all the sand and gravel in that area to see if there are any other similar stones."

Isaiah asked, "Sir, what is this stone? I have never seen it before."

"Amber, it's rosin transformed over millions of years to form a stone. Do you see this spirit bug? I suspect it is a spirit bug from millions of years ago."

"Millions of years ago?" Isaiah exclaimed in astonishment.

The history of humans in this world is murky even for a few hundred years, and the only early records are all attributed to the Moon Empire, vague and ambiguous. Millions of years ago is simply unimaginable. Even Liszt is confused, did humans here evolve?

If they are evolved, then how did magical creatures like spirits and dragons evolve?

And the mermaids, according to Acheronides, she was born in a shell—the shell and the humanoid mermaids appear to have no evolutionary link at all.

So.

What this world was like millions of years ago, no one knows.

"Have the serfs look for more of this amber, perhaps they will find more things from millions of years ago encased in amber... Pine resin drips and encases things from that time, and then it can be preserved continuously, just like this spirit bug preserved in this amber."

Isaiah was also curious and replied loudly, "Yes, sir, I will personally supervise the serfs in searching for amber!"

After the Administrator left, Liszt was still playing with the amber.

And began to ponder.

He always believed that every reward from the smoke task was valuable—except for that damned bird, the wind falcon Quaffle, which never returned. He should have killed and eaten it back then.

"Since the smoke task delivered this amber, and specifically mentioned it contains magic power, what does it mean? Could it be a natural magic equipment, like a black pearl? But that doesn't seem right, the magic power is not from the amber, but from the spirit bug inside, although the spirit bug should have integrated with the amber, right?"

Millions of years of preservation.

The amber and its contents have long since become one, only keeping their original form.

"So, what’s the use of this piece of amber? As a decoration?" Liszt shook his head and made a decision, "Let Cris take a look and see if she can find anything useful... And it just so happens, she's about to become my second great magician!"

Cris hasn’t been promoted yet, but it’s coming soon.

The smoke mission has already set things in motion.

"Mission: Bavell, the chef at Flower Town Tavern, is really into the 'tofu' bounty the lord put out. He's tried all sorts of bean stuff and still can't figure out tofu. He's spent all his savings, but he's not giving up. Why not back him to keep working on tofu? Reward: a great magician."

Tofu is a big deal for Liszt.

He knows tofu comes from beans, but he's never figured out what brine is. He put out a bounty early, hoping someone could turn beans into a soft, jiggly food.

But after a year, no chef's cracked it. But it's led to some cool stuff like fermented black beans, soy milk, and bean sprouts.

Now.

It looks like tofu's time has come. Liszt didn’t think twice about giving Bavell ten gold coins to keep working on tofu. He also gave Bavell all his tofu know-how, hoping it'd speed things up.

And to get Cris Truth promoted faster.

In the territory, besides Cris, there's only Parris. Parris isn't ready yet, so it's gotta be Cris.

...

In the magic workshop.

With a shortage of ingredients, Cris only spends a week a month turning local potions into magic ones. The rest of her time goes to advanced magic and arrays—basically, advanced magic is just fancier arrays.

"Lord Viscount, what's up?" Cris was a bit surprised, as Liszt had just come to collect potions yesterday.

Liszt smiled, "Still working on advanced magic?"

"I’m studying black pearls and pink pearls. Both are natural magic arrays, and they’ve given me a lot of ideas. I’ve even started trying to turn them into magic equipment."

"Black pearls and pink pearls are great research materials. But I’ve brought you something else that might spark some new ideas."

As he spoke, Liszt took out a flat, round amber the size of his palm and handed it to Cris.

At just the first glance.

Cris exclaimed, "What is this? A gemstone? It’s stunning! I’ve never seen anything like it—it’s got a... spirit bug inside?"

"This is amber, a treasure formed millions of years ago from a beautiful misunderstanding," Liszt explained.

Calling amber a treasure is no stretch.

Because what it holds isn’t just a bug—it’s a snapshot of an era.