Chapter 459

Chapter 82 Roasted Whole Fox

The previous practice sessions in the royal city had only given me a preliminary understanding of the “Illusionary Destruction” ability. I stopped before I could delve deeper and clarify things, leaving many concepts half-understood. I had never dared to use it on anyone for fear of causing trouble.

So I tested it on the heretic just now.

The results were not satisfactory.

I had tried with the hope that I might be able to mislead him by implanting information, such as making him recognize me as a clown. In that way, perhaps I could get some information out of the heretic. However, after trying, I found it didn’t work.

No matter how I imagined myself as a clown in my mind or told the heretic like in hypnosis that “you see a clown now,” it didn’t work because I didn’t know what a clown looked like and couldn’t materialize him. The “Illusionary Destruction” ability wasn’t hypnosis; I couldn’t directly change someone’s thoughts and perceptions.

Realizing this, I immediately changed my approach. Initially, I wanted to have Dr. Romanie appear in front of the heretic, but after thinking it through, I realized that creating a person in a dream was far beyond imagination. Not only were the body proportions difficult to match, but the face couldn’t take shape at all. The features were twisted and grotesque, resembling an ugly monster, even startling the heretic—who opened his mouth wide in shock—I remembered Elyusha saying she couldn’t imagine a person, and now I understood why.

It’s hard to fully and clearly reproduce a person’s appearance in our minds.

Even the closest people we meet every day, those we’ve just seen moments ago, when we close our eyes to recall them, we can’t remember exactly what they look like.

How curved her eyebrows are, how big her eyes are, how high her nose bridge is, whether her lips are thin or thick… the complexity of human features and the clarity of our recognition of each other are too great. I can enter a dream with Illusionary Destruction and imagine a terrifying monster with sharp teeth and claws, but I can’t imagine a familiar person, or even another version of myself—if there were a mirror in front of me, I might be able to imagine a reversed one.

But I still remember that after Elyusha turned into a monster, in her dream, I saw Edward and Mother.

I don’t know how she did it…

In any case, after realizing I couldn’t imagine a living person, I started to build the memory of the cave experiment site with determination.

I wanted the heretic to see those things and then observe his reaction… but I didn’t have time. The heretic was already dead.

After he died, the dream shattered instantly.

Then I jumped down. I remember Isaac said to me: You stayed up there for so long…

So while I was in the dream, time was also passing in reality…

…………

Heavy rain poured down.

The wind brought cold currents from the icy peak of the mountain dozens of meters away, gradually freezing the puddles underfoot into ice. Most of the village seemed to be in the weather of a frosty winter month.

The knights’ search gradually expanded outside the village. The calls echoed far away, but no one seemed to have found anything.

Feeling the ice on my skirt slightly melting, and the clothes and cloak softening, I patted my buttocks to stand up, shook my hands and stomped my feet, rubbed my slightly deflated belly, and walked quickly toward the giant beast eating grass, riding it towards the quiet hills behind the village.

“Miss Silvija, what have you found?”

Outside the hills, I encountered two knights who seemed to have circled the outer part of the forest and happened to run into me. One of them asked respectfully, and I gently shook my head. Another said, “We’ve already checked the west side of the forest, there’s no path! If we go further west, we’ll be blocked by the mountains! We can only try looking east!”

I nodded upon hearing this and shouted, “Any discoveries? Survivors?”

“Not yet!”

“Keep searching, pay attention to footprints.”

“Yes!”

“Miss! This slope is steep and slippery, please be careful!”

“Mm-hm.”

The two knights rode off, and I watched them disappear into the rain. I pressed my legs against the beast’s back and held the reins tightly, entering the hills.

My stomach is so hungry…

The terrain of the hills rose and fell, with muddy ground and fallen leaves everywhere, making it much harder to walk than the outside roads. Moreover, the trees around were three to four meters tall, making it easy to get lost… although I wasn’t worried about this.

I rode the giant beast slowly into the depths of the forest, where the air was filled with the smell of rotting wood.

It stinks…

I couldn’t help but raise my hand to cover my nose and frowned. Fortunately, the dense canopy of leaves above provided some protection from the rain, making the raindrops hitting my body less dense. This improved my mood somewhat. As I walked deeper into the hills, I kept my eyes bright and looked around, ears perked up to listen carefully to the surroundings.

rustle rustle…

There’s something on the left!

I immediately turned my head toward the sound and saw a fox with horns dart out of the bushes, looking up at this place.

Blood-red light flashed in my eyes.

Illusionary Destruction!

I immediately dismounted, and the fox froze for a moment, then turned and ran away with a rustling sound. In the next moment, a wall of earth suddenly appeared in front of it, and the fox collided with it, dazedly staggering two steps before falling into a mud pit.

Good, already in the illusion…

But apart from the nearby earthen wall, nothing else had changed.

These trees, grass, and soil—all were seen in their entirety before entering the illusion. Therefore, imagining them required only an instant.

About “imagination”

, as long as there were reference points in front of me, it was only a matter of a moment…

I quickly approached the fallen fox, watching as it staggered to its feet, shook off the mud, and tried to circle around the earthen wall to escape. But then, the mud beneath its feet suddenly turned into a blue lake.

The fox fell into the water, swimming with splashes and glanced back at me before swimming even faster.

Earthen wall, water…

These simple elements, I could imagine them instantly…

I walked on the water’s surface, continuing to approach the fox.

Cage…

“Click,” the fox was locked inside a square iron cage.

“Chirp, chirp!”

The iron cage floated half-submerged in the water as the fox urgently whined.

I squatted in front of the cage, watching the fox struggle. Imagining another identical fox… “Splash,” sure enough, another fox emerged from the water.

The fox inside the cage seemed stunned, no longer struggling, staring blankly at the identical fox outside the cage.

Hmm…

As long as there were reference points in front of me, whether objects or animals, I could instantly imagine them…

Humans should be able to do that too…

I stared at the fox outside the cage, imagining it approaching the cage… The fox indeed came closer, the two little creatures sniffing each other cautiously.

Next, let’s try something we haven’t done before…

Hmm…

What if I turned it into a lion?

But there was no reference for the lion… Let me think… Golden fur, sharp claws… and its face…

“Roar—”

The fox outside the cage suddenly let out a roar, its body rapidly swelling, golden fur growing, and its snout starting to deform, revealing fangs…

I stood up and took a step back, trying to imagine the lion’s every detail… The fox in the cage was extremely terrified, desperately biting at the iron bars to escape, while the fox outside continued to transform, growing a mane and tail… It gradually began to resemble a lion.

“Oh oh! Impressive…”

Just then, my stomach growled.

…So hungry.

All the rations I had were given to the children, and I hadn’t eaten anything since last night.

This fox, I’ll slaughter it later and eat it… I wonder if it’s actually a fox, but I’ve never tasted its meat before. Would it be delicious when roasted?

Juicy…

As I thought about it, I suddenly noticed the lion that hadn’t yet taken shape starting to shrink rapidly, the golden fur receding, the large head retracting into its body, and the outer skin disappearing. A smell of roasted meat filled my nose, and by the time I blinked twice, the lion had transformed into the juicy roasted fox meat I imagined.

Roasted whole fox…

“…”

I froze.

Watching the juicy roasted meat fall “splash” into the water, I suddenly realized what had happened.

“Ahh, meat!”

The lake was very deep, and the roasted meat quickly disappeared after falling in. Instinctively, I reached forward, but just as regret and sorrow began to well up, the roasted whole fox reappeared, grabbed by its leg, steaming hot in my hand.

!!!

It smelled so good!

I hurriedly opened my mouth wide, eyes bulging, and took a big bite.

The fox’s meat was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, rich but not greasy, somewhat like Peking duck, oozing oil when bitten into, so delicious that my tongue almost tied in knots… This wasn’t the taste this world’s spices could produce!

Really! It was so good!

No longer caring about the illusion, I sat cross-legged on the water’s surface, holding the roasted whole fox and started devouring it, even the bones, crunching away, cheeks puffed up, hands and face covered in oil. After wiping my mouth, feeling a bit unsatisfied, I tilted my head in thought for a moment, and a large platter of Captain Gray appeared in my arms.

!

I stared at Captain Gray, both eyes glowing.

Discovery of a new land!

I love this ability!

“Crunch, crunch, crunch…”

After finishing Captain Gray, I ate Osumi Ru cake, then pies, followed by crayfish, eating everything I could think of, finally drinking a warm bowl of noodles…

Patting my belly and licking my lips, I then stood up, satisfied, closing my eyes in contentment.

That was amazing!

I actually felt a bit stuffed…

I was so nostalgic for this feeling!

“Chirp!”

The fox was still struggling in the cage.

…How long has it been?

Probably no one has come looking…

Forget it, let’s exit the illusion first.

With a thought, I slowly closed my eyes and then opened them again.

Everything in front of me returned to normal.

I was still riding the enormous beast, looking towards the fox’s head near the grassy edge, and the fox was also looking at me. The pose of man and beast was almost unchanged from before the “Illusion Collapse.”

But the beast beneath me had moved…

It nearly finished eating all the grass…

“Mmm…”

A sudden headache made me involuntarily cover my forehead, waves of dizziness making me feel nauseous.

Gurgle—

Hunger struck again, my small belly crying out.

Roasted whole fox…

I glared fiercely at the fox.

It was turning its head around, looking a bit dazed, seemingly puzzled why the cage was gone, and then noticing my gaze, it darted back into the grass with a “sizzle.”

“Don’t run!”

I dismounted the beast again, using Moon Step to chase after it hastily.