Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 585 - 575: Testing by the Relic Association

Vera, Fei Ling, and Fei Yin are currently in Oath City.

The reason for being here is simple: this place gathers the Kingdom’s top alchemists, magic scholars, and divine hall priests.

As for Vera, she is a patient who suffered severe head trauma after a fierce battle.

Since that encounter, all memories of "Sirean" in Vera’s mind have vanished as if erased without a trace.

This amnesia worries the twin sisters Fei Ling and Fei Yin, fearing that one day Vera might wake up and her condition might worsen, forgetting even about them entirely.

After a discussion, the sisters decided to bring all their savings to the capital for treatment.

As adventurers for many years, the three do have some savings.

After a careful examination, the alchemist said: "This isn’t caused by an external skull injury or toxin residue, my potion is powerless."

The high tier priest shook his head: "I don’t sense any curse’s aura."

Finally, under others’ guidance, they found the Relic Association.

This organization, established by mages and historians, though lacking a clinic, often provides unexpected solutions for difficult problems unsolvable by conventional means, due to their long-term research of various ancient relics, strange phenomena, and extraordinary incidents.

They were greeted by a middle-aged man in a deep blue scholar’s robe with a calm demeanor.

"Only memories related to a specific person have completely disappeared, yet other memories, awareness, and personality remain intact?"

Upon receiving a confirming answer from Fei Ling, he tapped on the table with his fingertip, showing confusion: "This is indeed odd. Whether it’s physical brain damage or common spiritual interference magic, it’s impossible to achieve such precise ’erasure’. It usually comes with large-scale memory disorder or loss."

The middle-aged scholar had no clues either, but since a deposit was paid, he had to give it his best shot.

"In any case, let’s first use the association’s information authentication device for a check. We might discover some clues."

Upon hearing this, Fei Ling showed a look of disappointment: "We did a check at the local Adventurer’s Guild right after he lost his memory... couldn’t find anything."

Fei Yin also sighed, it seemed this trip would be fruitless as well.

In contrast, Vera herself comforted the two sisters: "Alright, alright, there’s been no worsening for so long, maybe it’s not a serious problem, let’s leave it at that. Although I do want to recover my memory, we can’t spend all our savings on this, can we?"

However, the scholar insisted: "Let’s still test it, the association’s headquarters’ authentication device is much more advanced than those at the adventurer branches, perhaps it can really find some overlooked traces."

Even knowing the scholar was likely comforting them, they had already paid, so they might as well try!

Guided by the scholar, they walked through a maze-like corridor and finally reached a room containing a giant magic instrument.

The scholar was clearly not exaggerating, the relic association’s authentication device was far more advanced than those in the Adventurer’s Guild!

The massive metal base was engraved with layers of glowing runes, complex copper tubes and crystal lenses formed a sophisticated circuit, just by size it was three times larger than the ones at the adventurer branches.

This reignited a glimmer of hope in Fei Ling and Fei Yin’s hearts.

However, when they arrived, a scholar was already operating the device inside the room.

Upon hearing, the person turned around and glanced: "Redgrave, want to use the instrument? Wait a moment, almost done."

Soon after he spoke, the runes on the giant authentication instrument gradually dimmed, and with a crisp "click", the hemispherical hatch in the center of the instrument opened.

The person retrieved a hard card with recorded data from the side slot, then bent down, surprisingly cradling a round Puki from the chamber, and left the room, leaving the instrument for use.

Vera and the others exchanged glances, initially thinking another person was inside, only to find it was a Puki!

Seeing their curiosity, the middle-aged scholar adjusting the instrument casually explained: "Hang around the association for a few days and you’ll find this scene quite common. Nowadays, many scholars treat Puki as an important research subject."

Working the knobs, he suddenly looked up at Fei Yin: "By the way, judging by your attire, you’re also a mage... is your specialization in the spiritual series?"

Fei Yin shook her head.

"That’s fortunate." The scholar glanced at No. 5 Puki, who was curiously poking the instrument’s shell with its tentacles, then his tone turned serious, offering a kind warning, "If you have friends studying spiritual series magic, be sure to warn them, never to cast any interactive-type spiritual magic on Puki."

"Interactive-type?"

"Like Charm, Mental Suggestion, Forced Domination, Dream Construction, that sort of thing." The scholar’s voice lowered, "These Puki have an almost absolute countering ability against such spells. Several serious incidents have already occurred because of this, and the association is preparing to issue related warnings soon."

"Why is that?" Fei Yin lifted No. 5 who was clinging to her, scrutinizing it, incredulous.

"The reason isn’t clear yet, perhaps those who knew... are now fools, there are too many mysteries about Puki, this is just one of them."

He turned to Vera, patting the ready instrument chamber: "Alright, Mr. Vera, please step inside."

Ten minutes later, the instrument emitted a low hum, the rune array dimmed in sequence. The side slot ejected a hard card edged with a faint glow.

Middle-aged scholar Redgrave stepped forward, took the card, and inserted it into an auxiliary crystal board for reading.

At first, he casually scanned the flowing runes and data on it, but soon his gaze froze. His body stiffened abruptly, and his fingers trembled involuntarily, almost dropping the slender card.

Fei Ling and Fei Yin, who had been watching him intently, felt their hearts leap to their throats.

"What is it?" Fei Ling’s voice was slightly tense, "Is it... something very serious?"

The scholar abruptly raised his head, a mix of disbelief and confusion in his eyes, gesturing rapidly with his hand.

"No, no, it’s not the kind of seriousness you’re thinking of, but..." he looked down at the crystal board again, as if to confirm he hadn’t misread, "This result... I’m not sure if the instrument malfunctioned, or... please wait here, don’t leave! I’ll immediately fetch my teacher to take a look!"

He didn’t even wait for a response from the three of them, clutching the card, almost stumbling as he rushed out of the room, his footsteps echoed urgently down the corridor.

The door slammed shut with a "bang," leaving the room in a tense silence, the instrument’s remaining faint hum now distinctively audible.

"He... just now..." Fei Yin’s voice broke into a sob, gripping her sister’s arm tightly, "Could Vera really be..."

"Stop overthinking!" Fei Ling scolded, though her own face was equally pale, "Let’s wait until that scholar’s teacher arrives!"

"But... what if Vera really turns into a fool in the future..." The more Fei Yin thought about it, the more afraid she became, tears rolling uncontrollably down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey, isn’t that an exaggeration?" Oddly enough, the person involved, Vera, seemed the calmest.

He walked to Fei Yin, patted her shoulder, making an effort to appear relaxed, "Look at me, aren’t I perfectly fine now? Can eat, sleep, and fight, just forgot one person."

No. 5 Puki, clinging to Fei Yin, extended a few soft tentacles, gently touching her tear-streaked cheeks, trying to wipe away her tears.

But in doing so, the tears smeared all over, making Fei Yin look even more pitiful and bedraggled.

It was right then that the door was flung open!

The middle-aged scholar Redgrave returned, stepping aside to respectfully lead in an elderly man in a simple gray robe, all hair and beard white, but with eyes remarkably sharp.

The gray-robed elder’s gaze immediately fell on Vera in the center of the room.

Recognizing the elder’s face, Vera and Fei Ling almost simultaneously widened their eyes and blurted out:

"It’s you?!"

"Aren’t you... the one who saved us outside the Underground City back then?!"

This teacher that Redgrave urgently fetched turned out to be the vice president of the Relic Association!

With a face full of puzzlement, the vice president stared at the trio for a while before finally recalling the event.

Feeling a bit incredible for a moment: "I actually carelessly saved a Virtue Holder back then? Fate is truly wondrous!"

The middle-aged scholar whispered behind the vice president: "Teacher, haven’t done the re-examination yet!"

"Right, right, let’s confirm it first, young man, please get inside once more."

As Vera was once again squeezed into that towering authentication device, Fei Ling and Fei Yin exchanged a look filled with bewilderment.

"Virtue?"