359 Phoenix Blood (2/2)
Even though the spells of elves weren't designed for human beings, Roland had parsed and optimized them for a whole night. Also, he had classified the magic nodes with Spiritual Endowment, which he recently learned.
After a night of hard work, he had successfully reduced the magic cost of Plant Enlivening by five percent.
It did not seem significant, but there was nothing more he could do.
This spell was for elves and not human beings. It was already impressive enough that Roland improved it so much after a single night.
The next morning, Cage knocked on the door.
He was quite shocked when the door opened, as it was a half-meter-tall treant that opened the door for him!
What exactly happened?
He was about to kick the treant away, but sensing no maliciousness from it, he managed to hold himself back.
Roland and Andonara were standing behind the treant.
”What's this?” Cage looked at them weirdly. ”Have you made a baby already?”
As a married woman, Andonara did not feel shy about the subject at all. Instead, she said naturally, ”I wish this was our child.”
Roland rolled his eyes at her and explained, ”This is a magic experiment I did last night. Your potted plant in this room is gone.”
Cage looked to the right of the dresser, only to see nothing but a pot of mud.
He squatted and observed the treant.
It was very thin, with a girth of the width of two fingers. Two narrow, long vines stretched out from its head, each with a green eye on it.
Then, there was an organ that looked like a mouth at the center of the trunk.
”This looks rather disgusting,” Cage couldn't help but remark.
But this treant appeared to understand what he said. After a brief shock, it rushed to a corner and retreated its eyes into its leaves, as if it was very sad.
Cage looked at Roland in confusion.
Roland chuckled and explained, ”This plant has been living here and looked after by you. So, it might consider you a father, or a master.”
”Really?” Cage was slightly confused. ”But normally speaking, don't summoned creatures always follow who summons them?”
Roland said helplessly, ”This is the second time that I've used this elven spell, so I may have made a mistake. It doesn't consider me its master.”
”It's better than the first time, when the treant Roland summoned attacked him as an enemy,” said Andonara with a smile.
An elven spell? Cage's eyes were fixated on Roland. There was no telling what was on his mind.
After a while, he moved his eyes back to the sad treant in the corner and said, ”If you regard me as a master, you can stay in this house. But you must be responsible for cleaning. Also, after you grow up a little bit, you need to help me protect this home. How does that sound?”
The treant suddenly stood up, its eyes moving up and down as if it were nodding. Then, it hopped in excitement.
Seeing that Cage was willing to take the treant in, Roland was relieved and asked, ”Mr. Cage, why did you come to wake us up in person?”
Cage closed the door and said in a low voice, ”I read the manuscript last night. There are certain things that I can't tell you, but I can tell you something.”
”Such as?” asked Roland.
”My ancestor mentioned in the manuscript that if his descendants are under enormous pressure or threat, or if this world is scourged by evil and we don't have enough fighters in the family, we can go to a special space to obtain three bottles of Phoenix Blood. They can trigger a bloodline power after they're taken.” Cage looked at Andonara and at Roland, before he said, ”This is not exactly a dangerous moment, but Andonara is part of the family, and I wouldn't know any of this at all if you weren't here. So… as chief of the family, I should give you one bottle. You're here in order to make Andonara stronger anyway, aren't you?”
Roland nodded. It was exactly why he was here.
Andonara thought for a moment and asked, ”Uncle, the three bottles of blood must be very precious, no? Didn't our ancestor say that we should not use them until our family or the world is in danger?”
Cage smiled and said, ”You are the queen, but you're with him. Although the royal family keeps a distance from you now, as soon as you show the slightest weakness, those wolves will lunge at you. The stronger you are, the safer you will be. If you use this when you're in real danger, there may be no chance for you at all… Besides, even if you use one bottle, we will have two more bottles, right?”
Andonara was rather moved. ”Thank you, Uncle.”
”There's no need to be courteous with me.” Cage gently patted Andonara's head and said, ”We're family. Let's grab some breakfast first and set off for the three bottles of Phoenix Blood. I'm getting excited. It's been a long time since I had an adventure.”