Chapter 204: Hospitality of the Sixth Tier Mage

Maybe it was because of the mission, the three knights and the Sleazy Officer all refused to leave and decided to stay to meet the Sixth Tier Mage. Faced with these guests, the warrior captain had no choice but to have chairs brought out and placed outside the sixth-tier mage's laboratory, so they could spot the host as soon as he showed up.

During the wait, Shaoke kept watching the servants bustling around, observing how they tended to the plants. He noticed that many trees or vines laden with fruit were all watered with some magical potion, and he also noticed piles of gem powder carefully placed by the servants at the roots of the trees, seemingly for the trees to absorb. More uniquely, there was a low tree about as thick as a person, its trunk completely covered in carved arrays and magic script, with numerous crystals embedded in it to power the arrays. Fist-sized fruits hung from it, looking pretty tempting. Of course, the Sleazy Officer also thought about picking some to eat, but got a flat-out no.

Shaoke found that he didn't recognize most of the plants here, which made him determined to ask the sixth-tier mage about them when he met her.

"You're only here now?" A sharp voice came from the lab, followed by a faint magical probe that swept over the mage and the officers. The Sleazy Officer looked thrilled, but the knights and the mage gathered their own power to protect themselves from prolonged probing.

Soon, the lab's stone door, carved with dozens of arrays, swung open, and a Female Mage in a light blue robe, holding a tiny staff, stepped out. Unlike other mages, her robe was embroidered with flowers, grass, and beautiful birds, making the robe look pretty fancy.

"Mage Tina." The three knights stood and saluted her, and Shaoke did the same, even though he hadn't seen her in their group, so he wasn't familiar with her. The Sleazy Officer, ignoring all manners, rushed forward and spread his arms to hug the sixth-tier female mage. But he failed—a faint white Defensive Spell instantly wrapped around her.

After nodding at the guests, Mage Tina led them to the living room and had large amounts of fruit and other unique local foods brought for them to eat. When he saw the fruit, the Sleazy Officer grabbed and wolfed them down without any manners, while the three knights hesitated briefly before also taking some.

"Mage Xueye?" Mage Tina slowly peeled a fruit and popped it into her small mouth, then gestured for Shaoke to try some as well. This time, Shaoke didn't refuse her kindness and took a fruit from the tree carved with arrays.

A faint coolness spread as he ate the fruit. This coolness made Shaoke uncomfortable, like ants were crawling all over him, and a slight itch spread across his body. His confused look was soon explained. Mage Tina also took a similar fruit and ate it.

"This fruit still doesn't have a name," the female mage explained, frowning slightly as she resisted the unpleasant sensation. "But those who take it regularly won't have their physique decline with the growth of their mental power or magic; instead, it can improve their physique to some extent, though the effect isn't great." She then gestured for Shaoke to try other fruits. "Eat some quickly! This awful feeling will get stronger soon, but there's a way to deal with it." With that, she again indicated for him to sample other fruits.

Each fruit had a different taste, and each was beneficial to physique, spirit, or magic. It seemed these cultivated fruits were intended for High-rank Mages. Shaoke estimated the effect of one fruit: a fruit that purified mental power completely purified the mental power in his mental space within ten breaths of consumption, and it continued to purify, though the effect diminished.

After the Sleazy Officer and the three knights also tasted the fruit that caused such an unpleasant bodily sensation, Mage Tina announced that the gathering would pause for now, to resume tomorrow. For now, she would lead them to eliminate that unpleasant condition.

Although the Sleazy Officer repeatedly shouted that he enjoyed the feeling and didn't want the gathering to end, seeing the three knights follow the female mage away, he grabbed some more fruits, stuffed them into his robe, and hurried after them. Fortunately, he didn't order the towering Blizzard Warriors to take all the precious fruits.

Each guest was assigned a small room, and by then, Shaoke could barely endure the itching. He noticed that the sixth-tier female mage beside him was also frowning slightly, seemingly resisting the awful sensation with a mage's pride. Then, Mage Tina gave the guests some instructions and first led a maid to her own room to have her give a massage.

Similarly, the maid followed Shaoke into the room, shyly removed the mage's and her own clothes, added wood to the fireplace to warm the room, and began her work.

Shaoke then lay down on the bed and began to Meditate, as Mage Tina had instructed. Only then would the medicinal power of those precious fruits be fully absorbed; otherwise, only a small portion would be taken in by the body. The maid took some transparent ointment, carefully applied it to his body, and began to massage him attentively.

Shaoke paid no attention to the maid's actions, focusing instead on the changes in his meditation space. A large number of unknown light points merged into his meditation space, some forming vortices, others merging into the floating rhomboid planar arrays. All this worried the mage, as he didn't know if the effects of these fruits would interfere with the medicinal effects of the drugs he had taken earlier.

Fortunately, his worries were unfounded. As time passed, the vortices formed by different light points gradually merged with those from the drugs, expanding dozens of times in size. Large amounts of loose light bands of mental power and magic were quickly absorbed by these vortices, refined or decomposed, and then expelled, repeating the process. The silver light shattered in large quantities, falling into the vortices and further enhancing their effects.

Although he didn't feel a significant drain on his energy or turbulence in his meditation space, Shaoke wasn't concerned; he felt that among the fruits he had taken, there must be some that could quickly replenish energy.

As time went on, the special light points in the meditation space disappeared, and Shaoke withdrew from meditation as instructed by Mage Tina, quietly enjoying the maid's massage. A mix of comfort and pain surged into his mind, and the ant-crawling sensation on his body still hadn't vanished, making him somewhat worried.

"Does Mage Tina often take those fruits?" To distract himself, the mage used conversation to shift his focus from the unpleasant sensation. Of course, he also hoped to get the answers he wanted from the maid.

The maid, her face slightly flushed, nodded and breathlessly answered Shaoke's question, and her response satisfied him greatly. It turned out that Mage Tina took these fruits almost daily. After answering, the maid continued to massage the mage diligently, knowing that this was the reason the host had brought them here.

With the maid's movements, Shaoke felt the comfort gaining the upper hand, and his body seemed lighter. But this lightness wasn't the kind from ordinary massage; it felt like a relief acting on his spirit. Though puzzled, he didn't sense any other discomfort in his body, so he set the question aside, planning to ask Mage Tina about it later and hope for a proper explanation.

The maid's work was essentially done, as Shaoke could barely feel the unpleasant effects of the fruit anymore. This discovery secretly relieved him, as that sensation had been terrible; he feared that if it lasted any longer, he wouldn't have been able to endure the mix of sourness, pain, itch, and numbness in front of others.

At this point, the mage realized that his body had reacted without his awareness, and the maid, based on her experience, understood Shaoke's condition. She applied more ointment to his body, pressed herself against him, and began to move slowly. Whether due to the drug or the maid's actions, Shaoke felt particularly aroused, and after holding out for a long time, he finally succumbed. The maid then lowered her head and waited quietly for the mage to release.

"A terrible drug," was Shaoke's first thought after pushing the maid away. But then, through his strong mental power, he quickly noticed that his body had improved somewhat, and his irritability had lessened, which made him admire the person who had originally developed this plant. Finally, the maid cleaned the mage's body, waited for the ointment to fully absorb into his skin, and then allowed Shaoke to leave. For now, her work was temporarily over; the rest would come later.