Chapter 373 — Return to Cecil

Once he reacted, Cohen immediately put down what he was holding and went around behind his experiment table. Behind his table, a six-sided metal post as thick as an arm extended up from beneath the floor. That was the so-called 'inspection bolt.'

Among the six silver-white faces of the inspection bolt, one had clearly turned black. Cohen carefully put his hand near it and immediately felt a wave of heat.

He glanced at the node position represented by the blackened face and waved his hand, calling out: 'The node on the third or fourth ring of District 6 has burned out. The other nodes look fine.'

'Shield that node first and repair it after work,' Rebecca ordered from the center of the laboratory. 'Also, who was it I heard saying someone was cooking noodles in the laboratory with a heating pad? Has someone really done that?'

The laboratory immediately fell silent...

Cohen also instinctively shrank his neck. He had never used the heating pad on the experiment table to cook anything, but he had toasted bread...

But just then, out of the corner of his eye, his gaze swept once more over the inspection bolt that had blackened and heated up due to the surge of arcane energy.

After the surging arcane energy receded, the mithril coating on the inspection bolt that had changed was gradually returning to its original state...

One of mithril's properties: in the process of absorbing arcane energy, it accumulates mana, and no outward change occurs during this process; after the external arcane energy disappears, it rapidly releases mana, and during this process mithril heats up and changes color...

The young mage from the royal capital fell into deep thought...

In the northern part of Cecil's main city, at the Whitewater River dock, a cargo ship flying the flag of the Cecil Chamber of Commerce slowly came alongside the dock under the direction of the dock workers.

The gangplank was laid onto the pier. The captain came down and began handing over matters with the dock staff. Following the captain off the ship were also a powerfully built figure and more than a dozen shabbily dressed commoners from out of town.

'Got yourself a group of immigrants?' The dock manager saw the people coming down the gangplank and turned to the captain. 'Don't forget to register them, or these immigrants can't leave the pier area.'

'These immigrants aren't my responsibility,' the captain said, waving his hand and pointing at the especially sturdy figure. 'They were brought here by Mr. Light.'

'Mr. Light?' Only then did the dock manager realize that the person coming down the gangplank was actually the territory's priest. But the priest was not wearing his signature old priest's robe at the moment; instead, he had on a coarse hemp sackcloth garment almost like a pauper's, so much so that the manager had not recognized him at first. Now that he did, he immediately ran forward. 'Mr. Light! Didn't you return to the Holy Spirit Plains? How did you come back so soon?'

'I have already seen what I wanted to see, so naturally I must return to where I belong,' Light Aiviken said with a gentle smile, pointing to the immigrants he had brought behind him. 'These people are sufferers I helped on the road, all persecuted by the Daystar Church. The lord said they would be accepted.'

'Persecuted by the church... Oh, oh, all right, I'll arrange registration right away,' the dock manager said. He had not expected the territory's only priest to return so soon, still less that this priest of holy light would actually lead back more than a dozen people persecuted by the Daystar Church. The information-heavy fact left him stuck for a moment before he reacted. And immediately after, he noticed that there seemed to be faint traces of blood on Light's clothes. 'Mr. Light, what is that on you...'

Light looked down at the traces on his clothes that had not been washed clean and shook his head helplessly. 'It got on me while I was reasoning with someone.'

The dock manager breathed a sigh of relief. 'Oh, that's good then. I thought you had gone to reason with a bear again. Everyone has really eaten enough bear meat.'

(Book recommendation time, book recommendation time. The title is A Bite of Hogwarts. Just from the name you can tell how wildly imaginative this book is... In one sentence: as long as your heart is big enough, ingredients are everywhere. It looks like a light, pleasant, wildly imaginative book. This one is also friendly forces, and probably won't be jinxed to death.)