Chapter 152: Do you see the dog food in my hands? Now it belongs to you!

For adventurers, the outer perimeter of the Magical Beast Forest was a prime location for earning coin and refining their skills. While no excessively terrifying magical beasts roamed the outskirts, a wide variety of useful materials could be gathered there, and hunting lesser beasts yielded mildly valuable magic crystals.

Today, however, the fringe of the Magical Beast Forest felt somewhat different. The colossal continent of ice suspended in the sky above had yet to dissipate. Sunlight managed to pierce through that frozen mass with great difficulty, casting countless iridescent glimmers across the ground. The entire periphery of the Magical Beast Forest seemed draped in a rainbow-colored cloak, providing a certain degree of convenience for the mages who had come to hunt in the sweltering heat—at least shielding them from heatstroke.

When Luby arrived, he discovered that the forest’s edge was not as barren as he had imagined. Instead, it resembled a bustling marketplace. Mages displayed the materials they had traded for with blood and sweat at their respective stalls, buyers and sellers argued fiercely over the prices of various goods, and numerous parties were actively recruiting new members.

Though Luby himself cut a rather inconspicuous figure, Moyona, walking right behind him, was an entirely different story. Because she was in a foul mood, the Mage God maiden couldn't even be bothered to cast a dispelling spell to keep onlookers away. Many adventurers, captivated by her stunning looks and ethereal temperament, approached to invite her to join their parties, but she didn't even deign to glance at them. Her gaze remained locked onto Luby’s back, as if she intended to devour him alive.

"Don't look so fierce."

Luby turned back, reaching out to take Moyona’s hand to calm her down. Earlier, the Mage God maiden had forcefully shoved a self-proclaimed elite Archmage squad leader into the dirt and ground him into it for a solid while; ever since that incident, not a single soul dared to issue a party invitation.

"Don't talk to me, you jerk."

Moyona distanced herself slightly from Luby, her face broadcasting a clear message of *I refuse to deal with you*.

"Speaking of which, that giant block of ice was your doing, right? Can you get rid of it? Blocking out the sunlight like that is terrible for vegetation growth."

"Hmph."

At these words, Moyona snapped her fingers. The continent of ice in the sky instantly began to shudder, and tiny shards of ice started to plummet. This terrified the mages on the periphery, who hurriedly packed up their stalls and fled. Yet, Moyona had no desire to crush her fellow humans to death first thing in the morning, so she brutally channeled her magic to pulverize the ice into a massive wall of glacial fog, which cascaded like a waterfall down into the forest below.

"Full marks."

The mist billowed for a full ten minutes. Only after it finally subsided did Luby put away the umbrella Dragon had transformed into and offer a word of praise to the Mage God maiden. The fact that she hadn't directly hurled giant blocks of ice down proved that she still cared about him deep down.

"I told you not to come here, but you refused to listen and sneaked off all on your own. You've really grown some nerve, haven't she—I mean, have you?"

"I've always been quite bold. That's why I'm here now. To untie a knot, one must go to the person who tied it; I came here to find medicinal herbs to help Tynasha."

"I know! But that doesn't mean it's your turn to play the hero. Is everyone in the royal family dead? They could easily issue a bounty or something! Do you have any idea how dangerous this place is? Even I can't guarantee your safety every single second."

"It's fine, I have Dragon."

"You really are something else..."

"Is it really that dramatic? Putting yourself in such grave danger for that idiot Tynasha... Could it be that you've fallen for her? True, she is a fool; she looks like the kind of woman who's easily tricked into bed, plus she's a princess so you get the prestige, and her chest is quite large—"

"Come here."

Luby sighed helplessly and beckoned to the overthinking Moyona. As she stepped in front of him, he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her firmly into his embrace, lowered his head, and pressed his lips against her rosy ones.

Moyona’s eyes widened in shock. She simply could not comprehend why Luby was kissing her again. She ought to resist right now and not let him have his way, but her body betrayed her mind just as it had that time before. Forget casting magic; even the simple command to lift her arms had to be repeated by her brain over and over until her two arms grudgingly rose, pressed against Luby's chest, and pushed him away.

"Why?"

Moyona gasped for breath. She had actually forgotten how to breathe while Luby was kissing her! If she had become the world's very first Mage God to suffocate to death, it would have been utterly humiliating! Whether due to oxygen deprivation or sheer embarrassment, her face was now flushed as brilliantly as if it had been painted with rouge.

"That's your punishment for groundlessly suspecting that I fancy someone else."

"Ha? That's your excuse for kissing me?! That is completely unreasonable!"

Hearing such a non-reason, Moyona instantly bristled, grabbing her sleeve and rubbing her lips fiercely to show her dissatisfaction.

"Do you really not know who I like?"

Luby raised a finger and gently tapped Moyona on the forehead. Expressions like this were rare to see on the Mage God maiden; if only Dragon could take a picture right now.

"H-How am I supposed to know? Go get kicked to death by a unicorn!"

With just a single sentence from Luby, Moyona's heart began to race wildly. Sporting a fiercely aggressive expression, she spun around so he wouldn't see her wavering demeanor.

"Red Bean wouldn't kick me."

"Since you've come all this way, you must have a plan. What on earth are you looking for?"

Moyona’s tone softened into a compromise. She was merely accommodating Luby’s painstaking efforts, definitely not because she was afraid he might suddenly kiss her again.

"I'm looking for a magical beast called the Emerald Spirit Ape."

"Eh? Never heard of it. Is this another thing you fished out from under a library table?"

"Well, this time it was wedged between the cracks of two bookshelves. Leaving that aside for a moment, this magical beast possesses a unique trait: resurrection."

"Really now? I read a lot of books, you can't fool me!"

Moyona remained skeptical of Luby's words. Yula often crammed all sorts of weird knowledge into her head, yet she had never once heard of such a magical beast existing in the world.

"To be precise, it's probably the only creature in this world other than gods that approaches eternal life. No, I'm not even sure if it qualifies as an ordinary animal. The book states that their combat strength is pitifully weak—so weak they're on par with ordinary humans devoid of magic. However, the moment they die, they revert to the primordial form of life: an Emerald Spirit Ape egg."

"So? You're going to catch one for Tynasha to eat? For the rest of her life?"

"Put away your terrifying thoughts. I merely want to find them. According to the descriptions in the text, their vitality must be exceptionally potent, and in terms of physiological structure, apes are close relatives to humans. I need their eyes."

Luby's idea was nothing if not audacious, but it was precisely such a mad notion that conformed to the laws of this otherworldly realm. In truth, examples of magical beasts merging with humans already existed; Lane was one such case.

"No, no, no. Tynasha is already violent enough. If you give her a pair of ape eyes, aren't you afraid she'll turn into a female gorilla?"

Moyona visualized Tynasha with replaced eyes, beating her own chest with both hands while tearing a giant dragon in half, and shuddered involuntarily. She had a persistent feeling that Luby was dabbling in something extremely hazardous.

"No, no, no, that won't happen. At worst, she'll just end up like Lane."

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*Author's note: Frankly, you might not believe this, but I just got choked by dog food generated by my own writing _(:3 」∠)_*