"Thank you for the reward, Lord."
Nini spoke and was about to kneel again.
Ethan used his foot to stop her knee and said, "You don't need to kneel all the time from now on. We don't do that here. And I'm not giving you this equipment because I really want to reward you. It's because the stronger you become, the better you can work for me."
"Nini understands."
Only then did Ethan nod in satisfaction and say, "Talking to smart people is easy. Alright, stay here. If you're tired, go find the attendants. They'll arrange a place for you to stay."
"Yes, Lord."
"..."
After leaving the graveyard, Ethan walked over to the broken statue in the garden.
This statue, still missing a small section, looked like it only needed a base to become complete.
But Ethan had no idea where to find the remaining piece.
So for now, he could only leave it in the garden.
After all, this thing was too strange. If he kept it in his room, who knew what might happen in the middle of the night.
Leaving it in the garden was the best option.
[Prophetic Statue (Fragment): Requires a portion of energy to activate its ability to foresee certain secrets.]
[PS: If you can completely reassemble the Prophetic Statue, you will learn even more secrets.]
"It changed?"
The moment Ethan picked up the Prophetic Statue, he realized the information it displayed was different from before.
Because he remembered that previously, the description of the Prophetic Statue was...
[Lost Prophetic Statue Fragment: If you can gather the complete Prophetic Statue, you will obtain some shocking secrets from it.]
[PS: Under the nourishment of the statue, the sapling grew wildly and eventually wrapped itself around the statue, gaining the statue's mysterious power. Anyone who enters within ten meters of the tree will be sliced into pieces by the statue's spatial ability and become nutrients for the tree.]
"So now it's become... as long as I provide energy, it can reveal part of the secrets?"
Ethan was somewhat surprised.
He rubbed his chin and wondered what exactly the energy mentioned in the description referred to.
The Lost Statues were objects from beyond the world. Back then, they fell together with a large number of spirit stones. They were special items that later got dismantled and used by the people of this world.
The spirit stones became the power source for countless magic items.
The Lost Statues became a path to joining the upper class.
'Then is it possible, that spirit stones are actually the power source of the Lost Statues?'
'Or perhaps they are what protected them during their fall to Earth and kept them from being damaged?'
The moment this thought appeared, Ethan immediately thought of aliens. In old sci-fi movies, aliens often arrived on Earth in strange-looking spacecraft through freefall landings.
Because of the technological gap, most of the time Earthlings couldn't tell they were spacecraft.
Only after those aliens started causing trouble on Earth did humanity finally realize it.
Those weird-looking things were actually spaceships.
'What if these Lost Statues are some kind of special alien lifeform?'
'For example, people from a stone planet?'
'Or creatures from some other bizarre world.'
And these energy stones were actually the spaceships of those stone-planet creatures.
For some reason, they landed in this world, but the environment here didn't suit them.
So they used some special ability, such as granting certain people cheat-like powers, and parasitized the native inhabitants of the planet.
Then they used those natives to transform the world's environment.
Gradually turning the world into one that resembled their own.
And then one day, these Lost Statues suddenly awakened, and everyone finally realized that the so-called Lost Statues were nothing more than aliens.
"Forget it! There's no point guessing right now anyway."
Ethan took out a spirit stone from his tail ring and placed it on the Prophetic Statue Fragment.
While muttering to himself, he said, "Let's see what happens first. Even if they're aliens, they can still be used by me."
"Besides, if these aliens were really that powerful, there probably wouldn't be any humans left in the Mist World by now."
Buzz~
The Prophetic Statue Fragment suddenly flashed several times.
Then a stiff and icy voice sounded in Ethan's mind. It sounded as cold and emotionless as a reading machine.
[Prophetic Statue: "What would you like to predict?"]
Ethan: "I want to predict what kind of difficulties we'll encounter after this polar night ends."
Prophetic Statue: ["Sorry. Since the Prophetic Statue has not been completely repaired, it is temporarily unable to make that prophecy. Please return after it has been fully restored."]
Ethan: "..."
Prophetic Statue: ["What would you like to predict? Remaining prediction time: 4 minutes 25 seconds."]
The moment Ethan saw the remaining prediction time, he was speechless.
'Is this Prophetic Statue some kind of energy-hungry monster?'
'One spirit stone can only keep it running for five minutes?'
'As expected, fortune tellers are all money-grabbing crooks.'
You should know, the water heater in Ethan's manor could run for three days on a single spirit stone.
The toilet could run continuously for seven days with one spirit stone. And the toilet not only stored water but also produced fertilizer, and it still only needed one spirit stone.
But this thing, it had only spoken one sentence, yet it needed a spirit stone every five minutes?
Ethan: "Why are you so expensive?"
Prophetic Statue: ["Prediction requires a large amount of computation and consumes significant energy. So what would you like to predict? Remaining prediction time: 3 minutes 55 seconds."]
Ethan: "Then help me predict which three zones will remain at the end of the District A Lord War."
Prophetic Statue: ["Sorry. Since the Prophetic Statue has not been fully repaired, it is temporarily unable to make that prediction. Please return after it has been completely restored."]
Ethan: "Heh! You're just trying to get me to predict where the remaining statue fragment is, aren't you?"
Prophetic Statue: ["Prediction successful! Directions have been provided."]
Ethan: "Damn it! When did I say I wanted to predict that?"
Prophetic Statue: ["Prediction complete. Please add another spirit stone."]
Ethan: "Add your ass, you scammer!"
Ethan kicked the so-called Prophetic Statue over.
This thing was a complete scam.
From the very beginning, the Prophetic Statue's predictions had been guiding Ethan toward asking about the location of the final fragment.
Most people would probably do exactly that. After all, it had already stated that once the Prophetic Statue was completely restored, it would be able to predict even more things.
But Ethan deliberately didn't want to ask about that.
His goal was to test whether the Prophetic Statue had any other abilities.
And in the end, he still got tricked by this scammy statue.
Now, Ethan strongly suspected that the Prophetic Statue had its own independent intelligence.
In an instant, he raised its danger level by another rank.