After I Fully Prepared for the Apocalypse, the Ungrateful Cried with Regret-Chapter 155: Wishing Pool
"Run that way."
Nina Jacobs pointed in a certain direction.
But after running a short distance, the group realized something was wrong.
Nina Jacobs and Wayne Warner hadn’t followed them.
"You guys go on ahead,"
"we’ll meet you at the rendezvous point."
Nina Jacobs waved her hand, creating a curtain of fire at the intersection where the others had left.
The curtain of fire completely blocked the entrance to the road.
The mutated pheasants didn’t dare to advance.
"No, there are only two of you,"
Pascal Paige refused.
Although she had known Nina Jacobs for less than a day, Nina had already saved them twice.
How could she abandon them now?
There were at least thirty of those mutated pheasants.
"Yeah, we can help too."
"You go find the others first. We can handle things here."
Besides, Nina Jacobs was looking for an excuse to head toward Vespera Peak anyway.
Plus, Pascal Paige had already planned routes for various scenarios, so finding their way wouldn’t be difficult.
As they spoke, Wayne Warner had already grabbed a mutated pheasant by its beak with one hand and snapped its neck with the other.
"Then you have to be careful,"
"we’ll wait for you to come down the mountain together."
Pascal Paige shouted, her eyes red.
Nina Jacobs had no intention of removing the curtain of fire.
If they didn’t leave soon, they would just continue to drain her Superpower.
Once the others had left, Nina Jacobs finally unleashed her Wood Element Superpower.
Wood Element Vines, imbued with her Speed Element Superpower, rapidly entangled several mutated pheasants.
BOOM!
At the same time, rolling flames traveled along the Wood Element Vines and struck the pheasants directly!
Before they could even cry out, the mutated pheasants were instantly killed.
Wayne Warner guarded Nina Jacobs, ensuring no danger could get near her.
"This kind of chicken is usually best slow-cooked in a pressure cooker for a few hours,"
"but you have to use a lot of seasoning."
"Oh, right, it would also be good marinated and air-dried to make jerky."
Nina Jacobs was already thinking about how to prepare these mutated pheasants.
The meat of mutated animals was edible, but extremely tough.
However, this wasn’t a problem for the people of Drakonia.
As long as something was edible, they could always figure out a suitable way to cook it.
Nina Jacobs could clearly hear Wayne Warner gulping beside her.
Looking at the ground littered with the corpses of mutated pheasants, Nina Jacobs simply stored them all in her system’s inventory.
Nina Jacobs took out the map Pascal Paige had drawn.
To climb Vespera Peak, it seemed they had to pass through a temple.
The route was a bit winding, but that wasn’t a major challenge for the two of them.
In front of the temple on Rexton Mountain was a wide, flat area with a Wishing Pool.
As Nina Jacobs approached, she discovered a motionless giant tortoise lying in the center of the long-dry Wishing Pool.
The giant tortoise was lying on a high stone platform.
It lazily opened its eyes.
And around it were several other turtles of considerable size.
They were huddled together, nestled around the base of the stone platform.
Nina Jacobs could tell the giant tortoise must have mutated; otherwise, it wouldn’t have grown to be over two meters long.
"Let’s go."
Seeing that the turtles in the pool had no intention of attacking them, Nina Jacobs didn’t linger.
Continuing forward, a small brown rat appeared before them.
It was the mutated rat Nina Jacobs had released the previous night.
Nina Jacobs walked over to the Little Zombie Rat.
While scouting last night, she had clearly felt a strong energy fluctuation through the rat.
That was why she had left it here as a marker.
But now, that feeling was gone.
There was nothing around but rotten grass and withered trees.
’Was it just my imagination?’
The two arrived at the so-called Vespera Peak. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖
By now, the scorching sun was high in the sky, its blinding rays beating down on the wasteland.
As far as the eye could see, the surroundings were as silent as an empty valley.
There was no sign of any fallen Mystic Ice Cores.
She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
’Looks like this trip will be for nothing.’
Due to the high altitude, the ground temperature had risen significantly.
Even the green leaf on the Little Zombie Rat’s back had wilted.
Nina Jacobs bent down to pick up the Little Zombie Rat from the ground, preparing to put it back in her inventory.
But just then, she suddenly realized something.
She thought of the dry Wishing Pool and the giant tortoise.
’In such a dry place, how did those turtles survive?’
’Even if the giant tortoise was a mutated one with a special constitution,’
’the other turtles around it were just ordinary ones.’
’Could it be...?’
Nina Jacobs quickly led Wayne Warner back to the temple they had passed earlier.
She observed the giant tortoise in the pool.
Then, she began to activate her Earth Element Superpower.
Bits of earth and dust started to fall from the stone platform.
The giant tortoise finally moved. It opened its mouth toward Nina Jacobs and her companion, and a volley of ice shards instantly shot out.
It wasn’t unusual in her past life for mutated animals to have Superpowers.
But this giant tortoise was using an Ice Element Superpower.
’It must have absorbed a Mystic Ice Core!’
Turtles by nature prefer shady, cool places.
No wonder the other turtles were all gathered around it.
They had probably only survived this long thanks to the giant tortoise.
Finally having a clue, Nina Jacobs felt her spirits lift.
Wood Element Vines shot rapidly toward the giant tortoise, but just as they were about to touch its shell, sharp Ice Spikes suddenly shot out from it.
"It’s got some fight in it."
Nina Jacobs was forced to retract the vines.
’It seems the only thing that can counter the Ice Element is a Fire Element Superpower.’
Several Fireballs soared into the air, and the surrounding turtles instantly scattered in terror.
The Fireballs landed on the giant tortoise’s back, and it let out an enraged roar.
The sound shook the entire temple.
What Nina Jacobs was interested in was the stone platform.
There was a shaded area in the middle of the pool, yet the tortoise preferred to be scorched by the sun rather than move from that platform.
The same went for the ordinary turtles.
’Why were they all willing to be baked by the high heat?’
’What was so special about that stone platform?’
Perhaps finally unable to bear the high temperature of the flames, the giant tortoise pushed itself up onto its four legs.
At first, it tried to cover itself with a layer of ice to resist the flames.
But the temperature of the fire was too high.
Several Fireballs converged, and the entire giant tortoise was engulfed in fierce flames.
BOOM!
A moment later, its scorched shell was knocked off the stone platform.
Nina Jacobs stared in shock at the pile of things on the stone platform.
Mystic black was a color closest to true black.
The pile of objects was nearly black, yet under the sun, they reflected a resilient gleam like that of steel.
She leaped down into the Wishing Pool and climbed onto the stone platform.
Holding an Ice Core in her hand, she instantly felt a strange sensation.
It was as if she were holding a special form of energy, making her feel an uncontrollable urge to draw closer to it.
And what surprised Nina Jacobs the most was that there were over thirty Mystic Ice Cores here.
"It must have collected them."
’There’s no way all these Mystic Ice Cores just happened to fall on this one platform.’
’The only explanation is the giant tortoise.’
The giant tortoise had gathered all the Mystic Ice Cores that had fallen in the vicinity and placed them on the stone platform.
Behind the platform, Nina Jacobs also discovered a number of clean-picked white bones.
Some were animal bones, but there were also a few human skeletons.
She first stored all the Mystic Ice Cores from the platform into her inventory.
Nina Jacobs was now ready to take Wayne Warner and go find Pascal Paige and the others.
"System, can you analyze the things I just put in my inventory? And can I absorb it directly?"
On the way, Nina Jacobs called out to her system.
In her past life, she had only heard about the effects of these Ice Cores but didn’t know the details.
She was especially unsure if she, a Fire Element Superpower User, could absorb them directly.
A moment later, the system’s voice echoed in her mind:
[Analysis initiated for Host.]
[System analysis complete. The item the Host just acquired is a special type of energy material. It shares the same origin as Superpowers and can be absorbed by the Host.]
