CHAPTER 399: A CODE TO ENTER?

"I gotta go buy some seeds, Lil’! Now that I got a spatial ring, I can finally store some more of my stuff!" Millis ran off and waved back, "I’ll meet you by the port!"

Lillian smiled a bit and nodded. She then froze. Was Millis joining her and Viesta on their journey to the Eastern nation?

’That... Might give me some trouble...’ She thought wryly before sighing. She shrugged and began to walk through the market.

She entertained herself by looking over the several statues spread throughout the market that spoke about the war. But that was where it ended, for she had somewhere to go before...

[12:39]

... Needing to head to the port.

Checking the time, Lillian nodded in satisfaction. She still had enough time. ’I still have an hour and a half.’

Lillian then turned towards a direction and went on to find her bank, which wasn’t far away, and checked her balance at one of its ATMs.

[736,969 Semis]

A humongous grin spread across Lillian’s face as she stared down at her balance. And due to her necklace, she didn’t feel a hint of embarrassment as she began to giggle like a mad woman under the gazes of countless passersby.

After asking one of the bank staff to help her withdraw 301,000 Semis, she got a frightened expression. But as quickly as she came, Lillian left swiftly after once she received her money in cash.

Once she had stored away her money, she walked around a bit before stopping midstep and turning her body to the side.

Looking past a couple of stalls, there was a dimly lit alleyway. It was her entrance into the place she needed to be in.

Once she made her way into the alleyway and walked past a couple of metal doors, drawing a few unwanted gazes from the local thugs, she reached the door she needed.

However, right as she was about to knock, an arm wrapped around her neck.

She raised an eyebrow and looked to the side, finding a thug standing right next to her. He was giving her quite a lecherous look.

"Well, hello there, little lady~... What’s a beautiful girl like you doing in some alleyway like this—?"

"I’m 18." Lillian stated, hoping it would deter him from whatever he was hoping to do, but instead, that seemed to only motivate him more.

"Oh?! Even better!"

Lillian felt the man clutched her shoulder, and frankly, she felt a mix of disgust and uncomfort. She knew she was good-looking, but in situations like these...

She sighed and snapped her finger.

The thug saw this and raised an eyebrow, but then noticed in the corners of his eyes something sprouting out from Lillian’s side.

He widened his eyes as what he saw was a humanoid face made entirely out of water, barring its teeth at him without any lips. It also gave him a fierce glare with eyes that were without eyebrows.

Using her water magic, Lillian had created the Beetle’s face.

The water Beetle then chattered its teeth against each other in a frightening manner, which caused the thug to step back and run away. The surrounding people had also scurried off, as though fearing Lillian would do something psychotic.

Lillian flashed the water Beetle with a thumbs up and got it to respond back with a silent cackle before absorbing it back into her body.

Lillian knocked on the metal door and waited for someone to open the slit in the door. As she waited, she couldn’t help but think for a moment.

She was capable of creating constructs made of water ranging from weapons to dull copies of herself. And yet, she hadn’t ever made something as monstrous as the Beetle before.

And with her abilities of imbuing things with her Parasitic Element and making them target entities that radiated mana, why didn’t she create monsters instead of just plain copies of herself?

’Eh... I’ll need to figure out the Spell for that...’

Spells in the ’World of Millis’, the game, when learnt or created, would be saved in the spell list. But in real life, it acted differently.

The Mana Core in the human body acted like another organ or a second brain purely for supernatural-related things. And the manipulation of mana was obviously one of those things.

Whenever a person were to perform a spell they had never done before or create one, the Mana Core would automatically remember the steps to perform it again, almost like you were carrying around an entire library inside you that was waiting to be filled with books.

The most basic explanation one could give would be that the Mana Core was performing a higher level of muscle memory.

Skr...

Lillian woke up from her thoughts and watched as the covered slit in the door was pulled aside to reveal a pair of eyes.

"What do you want? If you’re looking for sandwiches, then you’re at the wrong back door." A voice asked, clearly bothered.

Lillian smiled a bit and muttered, "A fish in the south travelled through the night in search of treasures in the dark."

The place she wanted to enter needed a code.

The eyes behind the door seemingly softened, but also became even more serious, "I see... And how long did the fish travel in the night for?"

Lillian thought for a moment, "One hour."

This was how long she needed.

"... Then, I suppose the treasure the fish found along the way must’ve been worth around 1,000 Semis."

Hearing the price, Lillian pulled out exactly 1,000 Semis and dropped them through the slit. Then, just a moment later, the door unlocked and opened for her to enter.

The man, who had retrieved the payment, let her down a flight of stairs and towards a dark purple swirling that hung in the air. It was a portal.

He then turned to Lillian and asked, "Will you be needing a mask?" She shook her head in response. She could use the Mask of Deceit.

The man nodded and gestured towards the portal after a bow. He then said, "I hope you enjoy your visit to the Underworld’s Black Market for the next hour."