Chapter 220: Why Does This Whale Eat Everything Fun?

Lolth pulled the grayish-white whale statue from her pocket and discovered that it was this small statue that had absorbed the power of the ancient runes.

Just as it had done before, when it consumed the Power of the Evil God and the “forbidden spell magic” unleashed by Patricia, it seemed to deliberately draw the runes toward itself.

After Lolth placed the whale statue in her palm, it moved even closer to the runes, pulling them all toward itself.

Soon, it transformed those runes into pure magic and absorbed them completely.

It appeared that, to the statue, the power of the runes, the Power of the Evil God, and the magic of the forbidden spell were all equivalent.

However, Lolth noticed something new and intriguing.

Previously, she had speculated that the little whale statue’s condition for absorbing magic might depend on the concentration of that magic.

But the absorption of these stable, ancient runes led Lolth to a fresh hypothesis.

Although an individual rune possessed a high magical concentration, it was far less intense than that special “ray forbidden spell” or the core of a legendary evil god’s servant.

Yet these three shared an entirely new common characteristic.

They were all “very old.”

Patricia’s forbidden magic of rays, though Lolth didn’t fully understand it, still felt familiar to her from her time in the Mercury Ruins; it didn’t seem like a spell crafted by modern or recent mages.

Whether it was the Power of the Evil God from the creations of dark gods, ancient runes, or spells imbued with peculiar thoughts, they all exhibited significant differences from modern magical structures.

Moreover, having originated in an era rich with magic, they shared certain common traits.

“Is it the concentration at work, or some kind of common trait in the ‘ancient extraordinary power structure’ that’s taking effect?”

However, when confronted with problems, Lolth wasn’t one to speculate blindly without reason.

Though she often preferred not to overthink, she possessed a genuinely sharp “logical mind.”

To test this and satisfy her curiosity—while also seeking to understand what this little whale truly was—Lolth devised a simple comparison experiment.

First, she conjured a large ball of pure, formless magic and, using her precise control, compressed it into a highly concentrated mass of chaotic energy, directing it toward the whale statue.

The whale statue absorbed this magic as usual, even slightly faster than it had with the runes or the Power of the Evil God.

Next, she infused the magic with mixed elemental properties, blending them together while forcibly suppressing their conflicting reactions, though the overall structure remained chaotic.

This time, the whale statue absorbed it more slowly, but it began actively drawing in the magic when it drew nearer.

Then came chaotic magic with a lower concentration—no active absorption occurred, though it took in a small amount when pressed against it.

She then compressed the continent’s current mainstream rune structure into a high concentration—after remaining still for a moment, the whale statue absorbed it, but with low efficiency.

After that, she tested the low-concentration mainstream rune structure and modern magical framework, neither of which were absorbed at all.

Finally, she tried low-concentration, nearly stagnant Power of the Evil God or rune power—this, too, was absorbed very slowly when it was almost touching the surface.

Through this simple comparison experiment, Lolth arrived at a conclusion.

The whale statue’s absorption of magical energy was influenced by both concentration and structure.

The closer the magic resembled ancient or purer structures, the more familiar it seemed to the statue, and the more efficiently it absorbed it.

When the magic’s concentration surpassed a certain threshold, the whale would actively begin to absorb, with the radius of absorption expanding as the source’s concentration increased.

The higher the concentration, the greater the distance from which it could absorb.

For ancient runes like these, the absorption range was only about ten centimeters, but for the Power of the Evil God and the forces within forbidden spells, it was much closer.

Through this, Lolth gained a basic understanding of the object.

“Are you some kind of ancient great monster?”

This creature must have lived in ancient times; otherwise, it wouldn’t absorb pure magical environments and somewhat aged magical structures more quickly—clearly, it was more adept at handling those long-established frameworks.

Furthermore, this entity, in its adult form and fully awake, must have been an utterly terrifying presence in ancient times.

Absorbing high concentrations of magic indiscriminately… This ability felt daunting to contemplate.

And this was merely an “instinct” displayed while it slept.

“I hope you’re a friendly creature,” Lolth said, poking the whale’s tail and noticing it felt slightly softer than the stone texture she’d sensed before. “Otherwise, I might have to consider you a special ingredient…”

She spoke with a trace of humor.

Lolth couldn’t identify what this thing was—after all, records of ancient civilizations and creatures were scarce.

It seemed that the “End of Days” had truly existed and occurred.

And it had swept across the entire main plane.

Otherwise, nothing would remain but ruins.

Though she suspected a certain Demon King and her ancestors in the Abyss might hold clues about this whale’s origins, she wasn’t eager to consult them.

Although the turtle had emerged from the water around the same time as the box, it likely knew nothing of the whale’s origins, given its limited understanding of the “Versatile Kitchenware” on Kanor.

It probably didn’t even realize a magical beast resided within the Versatile Kitchenware—if the turtle knew anything, its sharp tongue and chatty nature would have betrayed it long ago.

Everything seemed to hinge on waiting for the whale to fully awaken before forming a judgment.

Lolth considered this and fed it a few more runes.

“However, the main plane is vast; perhaps that hidden master could identify this thing’s origin…”

With that thought, an image of someone flashed in Lolth’s mind.

The guardian of her eldest disciple, Kanor, who ran a small tavern in Hillenbrand Town—always enigmatic, with a name that remained unclear.

If anyone she knew on the main plane might recognize this magical creature, it would be that landlady.

Moreover, she seemed to harbor a rather amicable attitude toward her…

“Let’s take a chance. If she doesn’t know, we can call it a visit to Kanor and sample her cooking—it’d also be a good opportunity to ask her thoughts on moving the tavern.”

With that, Lolth made her decision and set off for Hillenbrand Town.