In an instant, the room's temperature dropped several degrees. Even the fire in the nearby fireplace flickered weakly, as if cold wind had flooded the house with snow. The water in the containers quickly frosted over, with ice forming in places.
It felt like falling into an ice cellar. Fei'er had clearly prepared for this and wrapped herself in thick clothes beforehand, but even so she shivered from the cold. The basin that had been spat into was now frozen solid, forming a strange ice-blue block the same color as Icelis's hair.
Fei'er used a hammer to break the ice into chunks, polished off the rounded edges, and packed them into small bags. According to her setup, these were extremely high-purity Ice Element crystals that would not melt easily. "Alright, Icelis, I'm going out to trade these for money. Be good and stay home."
Fei'er slung the pack over her back, pulled on a thick dark robe, and stomped twice in her height-altering shoes. She pinched her throat and recalled the voice disguise tricks she had learned out of boredom before. After making all preparations, she nodded and set off to sell the ice chunks that contained a girl's saliva.
Now and then, she muttered complaints in her old language, feeling that things were drifting further from the plot she remembered. "Do great spirits naturally regenerate over time or something? Why did that even come back to mind..."
Muttering to herself, Fei'er broke into a run and disappeared into the crowd.
Elemental Crystal usually exists only in places where a single element is packed so densely that it settles over long years, which makes it very valuable. To obtain it, people often have to go to remote areas with extreme elemental concentration that remain stable for ages, places that are rare and take a very long time to form. It can be used to make weapons, assist casting, or serve as ritual material, so its price stays high for a long time.
In essence, though, it is not that special, just a massive aggregation of the same element, not much different from stones forming inside a body. When explained this way, it sounds simple, like any mage could just make a pile of it by hand, and that is technically true since all mages can gather elements. The problem is like knowing that carbon and diamonds are almost the same, and that making a diamond is easy if you can apply extreme pressure and heat at the same time.
Why not do it, then, is it because people do not want to. "If someone really had that kind of monster-level Magic reserves, then this sort of thing would not mean much to them anyway." That was what Feltz said when Fei'er Li went to ask about it.
In the real world, if someone could create diamond-level pressure with just their grip, then diamonds would be no more than shiny bits of wood to them. Thinking about what Icelis truly was, the cash-strapped Fei'er Li immediately thought of a way to earn her first pot of money. "I added more water than last time, and mixed in other impurities too, so it should not stand out as much…" she muttered while holding dozens of uneven crystals wrapped in cloth against her chest, the cold seeping through even thick clothes.
As a great spirit of Ice Element, even in a half-ruined state, Icelis could easily produce piles of crystals just by spitting. There was no point hiding it anymore, she herself admitted it. Fei'er Li Li was a proper transmigrator from the Otherworld.
In her previous life she was an office worker, drinking herself half senseless at night events, and while staggering across the street she was sent off by a Rite of Aramisaiah. Then she saw a goddess wrapped in light, her face unclear, and was kicked straight off the clouds. When she opened her eyes again, she had shrunk into a girl of at most fifteen or sixteen, empty-headed, now the daughter of a merchant.
From some simple reading and earlier conversations, she suspected she had transmigrated into a Otherworld light novel about Demon Lord and the Hero that she once skimmed out of boredom. She then picked up Icelis, who had been lying naked in the snow, and also met Feltz, both of them side characters from that novel whose abilities more or less matched their settings. Icelis was a girl rescued by the hero from monsters in the ruined city of the Northlands in one volume, quiet and usually unable to speak.
Her true identity, however, was the strongest ice spirit corresponding to Ice Element, a life form made of special elements and Magic that normally appears where that element is extremely dense. Icelis was the strongest among ice spirits, tied to the snowfield environment of the Northlands. Long ago, for reasons unknown, her core was split apart, with different parts sealed away while still active.
According to the original text, a great spirit of that level would revive even if killed, but since she was sealed rather than destroyed, she ended up stuck in a half-dead state. At some point the seal loosened slightly, letting a tiny fragment of her intellect escape, which became Icelis. Fei'er Li confirmed that the current year was 3467 in the common Holy Calendar.
Something felt wrong, though, since the main plot was not supposed to start until at least the year 3500. That was when the true hero would transmigrate and later find Icelis shortly after her seal broke. But now the timeline had already gone off track, since Icelis had escaped decades early and even retained some memories.
Even the insignificant side character Feltz had already been to the Northlands decades ago, while the original story said she never left her city and had no powerful teacher. From her talks with Feltz, Fei'er Li also sensed signs of earlier transmigrators, making her think that someone else's butterfly effect had already shaken the plot. The novel was unfinished, time had passed, and she had only skimmed parts she liked, so she had no confidence at all in controlling the plot.
Because of that, she decided to cling to Icelis and develop safely for a few decades. With her own small cheat, she figured survival should not be a problem. "As for the monsters the hero will face in a few decades, I had better stay far away," she muttered.
She had not forgotten that the original story was rather grim, with huge power gaps and important-looking side characters dying for unclear reasons. Fei'er Li went to a modest trading house that cooperated with the adventurers' guild of the Northlands and directly bought materials. Last time she had used a high-purity ice Elemental Crystal to open the door, so this visit earned her a warm welcome.
Crystals made by a great spirit were guaranteed to be extremely pure, and purity was the most important factor in judging the value of Elemental Crystal. Even though she deliberately mixed in other elements and impurities, the level was enough that the owner could not take his eyes off them at first glance. After Fei'er Li hinted that there might be future deals, she easily received VIP treatment.
"Welcome, Miss Mage. We have been waiting for your surprises since last time," said a short, thin old man with a monocle, smiling as he rubbed his hands together. He looked exactly like a stereotypical shrewd merchant. "Did you find what I asked for?"
"Yes, yes, and I still have some stock. I picked out a few decent pieces for you," he replied. He laid out stacks of sorted papers covered in complex diagrams and dense notes, along with several old books marked by many bookmarks but kept in fair condition.
"These are the spell materials we can find for now, including a few more advanced spells. Will you be paying in full this time, or…" "May I look through them first?" Fei'er Li asked, and the old man readily agreed.
She truly examined them, flipping through pages and manuscripts, skipping some outright. Under the old man's slightly surprised gaze, she pulled out a few sheets and said, "These are incomplete and useless." She then had him total the rest, offering full payment or barter, with any extra converted into silver coins and notes.
"This is my goods for this time. The purity is a bit lower, this is all I could find," she said. The old man's eyes shone as he solemnly took the small cloth bag, and when he felt the chill within, a grin spread across his face that he could not hide.
He opened it and glanced inside, his breathing growing heavy. In his judgment, the purity was lower than the gemlike crystal from last time, but it was still very valuable. That was normal, since only the core of a deposit reached the highest purity, with the outer parts gradually decreasing.
He had prepared himself for that, yet the purity was still higher than expected, filling him with joy. Treasure of this level could be exchanged for far more than just gold coins. "Deal!"