21 City of Ravens 7 (2/2)

On my way back, I kept watching for any fruit trees, instead what I noticed was a snake. Slithering on the ground, with grey scales and a pattern that looked like eyed along it.

It was a rare species called a nine-eyed snake, derived from the pattern on it that looks like nine eyes. There is nothing too special about it, and even though it had elemental essence, it didn't have any special abilities.

What is interesting about it, is where it lives. It digs a small nest in the roots of spiritual plants! Realizing what a stroke of good luck I had, in joy I started to follow it.

Animals, monsters, insects, all living beings have souls. For a long time, it was believed that plants don't have a soul because they have no intelligence or consciousness. In the old days, they believed that spiritual plants are intelligent, magical or possessed by spirits of the dead.

Later that they have unique chemical compounds, but they didn't explain all the effects they had.

Only in recent years, when elemental essence detectors were built did they confirm that they have elemental essence in them. It Is now believed that all live beings all the way from bacteria have souls.

In the case of bacteria, for now, the only one that is considered to have any elemental essence is the black death. For now, scientists think that the chance for such a small organism to be born with elemental essence is so slim that it is close to impossible.

But plants on the other hand, even though it is not often, they can possess elemental essence. The plants with elemental essence are divided into two groups, innate and erratic.

Innate are the most common ones, some are worthless and can be found at the side of the road, while some are being widely farmed for their beneficial effects. Only that their effects are minuscule.

Erratic are the rare ones, only found in the wild, those are plants that randomly awakened their elemental essence! Unlike the Innate plants they cannot be farmed, they are all one of a kind!

Their prices can go sky high depending on what effects does it have. The highest price ever of 56 million is the current record, and it was for a single bud!

But it all depends on luck! If the nine-eyed snake made a nest under a common innate plant, then this will be a waste of time. But if it is under an Erratic plant… I could get a minimum of tens of thousands!

I wanted to kill one more Orthrus before the end of the day, but life is a gamble! I would pay a few thousand for a chance to gain millions.

I followed it for hours, watching it kill a few small rodents, and laze around in wait. But I was nowhere near giving up.

It was evening when the snake finally decided to go back to its lair. On a small mound, at the very top of it there it was. A little flower was silently growing while basking in the fading rays of sunshine.

There were three flowers on top of it, with petals that were shaped like arrowheads and colored red and silver.

The nine-eyed snake was not a threat to me, so I made my way up the mud to collect it.

'Shickkk-Click'