Chapter 352 - 299: New Rune Speech (Part 2)

"'The Stone of Despair?'" Agatha repeated the name, emphasizing the word "despair." "Isn't this a sacred object? That's what Mr. Elton and everyone said."

Shire didn't refute his old classmate. Instead, he asked a seemingly unrelated question: "Have you heard of the Eternal Bright Plane?"

"Of course. Every Mage has heard of it," Agatha said with a smile. "There are three planes of existence. We live on the main Material Plane, the one blessed by the Gods. Then there are the other two: the Eternal Bright Plane and the Eternal Darkness Plane. I only know that Demons live in the Eternal Darkness Plane, though. I'm not too familiar with the Eternal Bright one."

"You know about this?" Shire raised an eyebrow. He was a little surprised that Agatha knew all this.

"Of course. Most Mages know a little about it," Agatha said, walking over to a bookshelf by her workbench. She pulled out a book and placed it in front of Shire. "I haven't read many of these, but this one is an introduction to the planes. Some High Tier Mages have mastered methods of piercing the Boundary Wall, allowing them to travel between the planes."

"Oh, is that right? Sorry, I had no idea." Shire scratched his temple.

"It's nothing. You're not a Mage, after all," Agatha said with a wave of her hand. "Besides, those Mages only travel between planes to collect High Level materials for crafting Magic Items."

"So..." Shire hesitated. "Could those Mages..."

Agatha looked at Shire and immediately understood what he was getting at. "Sorry, but they can't cross into the Star Realm."

She gestured as she explained to Shire, "The Star Realm is like a wall that holds the three planes together. Mages can only travel between the planes; they have absolutely no way of entering the Star Realm."

"But your ancestors managed it. The Twelve Bloodlines, the Fat Lady."

"It's the *Flying Fat Lady*," she corrected. "And that was a thousand years ago. In all of history, that's the only time it's ever been done successfully. The problem is, our ancestors would never reveal the method they used." Agatha shrugged helplessly.

"Never mind. Let's get back to the Eternal Bright Plane." Shire pushed the book aside. He wasn't very interested in the travelogues of Mages—or rather, he simply didn't have time to read them right now. "I just learned that the Beastmen live on the Eternal Bright Plane, and that over there, the White Holy Stone is called the Stone of Despair."

"Beastmen? The ones who disappeared thousands of years ago?" Agatha froze, then immediately snatched the book from the table. She quickly used the table of contents to flip to the section on the Eternal Bright Plane and soon found what she was looking for. "It's true. The book records that the Beastmen do indeed live there."

"By the way, the Eternal Bright Plane... does the name mean..."

"Yes," Agatha nodded. "It's exactly what you're thinking—it's literal. Sunlight is constant; there is no night. As soon as the sun sets in the west, it immediately rises again in the east."

"So the Eternal Darkness Plane means there's no sun at all?" Shire asked, rubbing his chin in surprise.

"Literally speaking, that's correct."

"Without a day-night cycle, how do the Beastmen there manage? How do the plants and animals survive?" Shire asked with a frown.

"Sorry, but I'd probably have to finish this book to answer that," Agatha said, closing the book on her workbench. "Honestly, and I haven't even finished the second volume of *Nobles behind the Bed Curtain of Plantagenet City* yet."

"Never mind, I'm not in a rush. Anyway, back to the White Holy Stone," Shire said, pointing to the white stones on the table. "The Beastmen call it the Stone of Despair, and I've heard they have a lot of it over there."

"A lot?" Agatha's eyes lit up. "How much is a lot?"

"An entire mountain made of White Holy Stone." Shire paused for a moment before adding, "The Beastmen call that white peak the Peak of Despair."

"That name..." Agatha frowned, instinctively disliking it. "But Mr. Elton..." she hurried over to her desk and flipped through her notes, "...he said before that the White Holy Stone is mined from the Golden Peak. So what's the deal with this Peak of Despair?"

"That, I don't know." Shire held up his hands. "Maybe there used to be many mountains of White Holy Stone in ancient times. Besides, if there weren't many, a mountain would surely disappear after being mined for so long."

"You have a point. Oh, right," Agatha realized, turning to size up the goblin before her. "How do you know about the Beastmen?"

"It was Little John. He met a Beastman." Shire smiled. According to Little John, the Beastman was pretty interesting.

"A Mage brought a Beastman to the Material Plane? That must be the work of a High Tier Great Mage." Agatha understood the implications immediately. "Those Great Mages are incredibly powerful, and some of them are pretty twisted."

"Twisted?"

"I wouldn't go that far. But you know how many Mages come to Nightmare Forest and use Arrays to transform animals into Magical Beasts," Agatha sighed. "Like that Fearsome Claw Bear from before. It's mainly because they need materials from Magical Beasts to craft Demon Artifacts."

"Beast Cores?"

"No, not just Beast Cores. After the animals are infected and mutate, their bodies go through all sorts of changes. Mages can then make use of certain parts of their bodies."

"To make Magic Items, I assume," Shire chimed in. "I actually acquired two items myself and was hoping to have them crafted into things with some magical properties. I'm waiting to hear back from Uncle Musa and Little John now."

"That sort of thing isn't easy to make. And it's even harder to craft them in a way that ordinary people can use." Agatha rummaged around on her desk, then took out a golden bracelet and placed it in front of Shire.

"This looks familiar. I think you were wearing it during the Storm Brotherhood's attack." Shire examined the bracelet. It was gold-colored but didn't seem to be made of metal, and it was engraved with many decorative patterns.

"It's made from the bone of a Magical Beast. It's just a very simple Magic Item that creates a defensive barrier for me, strong enough to block Low Level Magic and regular arrows."

"So, let me see if I have this right," Shire said, rubbing his chin as he asked tentatively. "If I find a craftsman who can make Magic Items, give them the carcass of a Magical Beast, and pay them a fee, I can get a finished Magic Item in return?"

"More or less, but that's not the whole story. To make Magic Items, you need more than just tough materials. You also need Magic Crystal Stones, and those are even more important."

"From the Crystal Ore Mines, right? I know about those. I've seen them for sale back in Torch City. The price was outrageous." Shire had, in fact, heard of Magic Crystal Stones before. The red Gemstone necklace Uncle Musa used to wear was actually just a common, unremarkable Magic Crystal Stone.

"I know what you're thinking," Agatha said with a smile. "Hunting Magical Beasts in the forest, then finding someone to turn them into Magic Items... it's a good plan, whether for arming yourselves or selling. But we still lack Magic Crystal Stones."

"Yeah, right, right," Shire nodded, though his response was a bit distracted. He had already turned away and called up his Domain map. There, just northeast of the Frogman Cave, he saw a strange icon.

'This icon... it looks just like the entrance to a mine.'