"By the way," Liam, holding Celia, had already reached the doorway when he seemed to remember something. He turned back and asked, "Do you have any money? Human currency?"
"No..."
"Alright."
After that, Celia followed Liam back home.
In the incubation room.
Celia lay prone on the bed, her small hands gently stroking the two eggs, murmuring:
"Babies, Mommy will only be gone for a day. Be good, I'll be back tomorrow to feed you."
After being affectionate with the eggs for a while, she carefully placed them back in the center of the nest and reluctantly closed the door.
Apart from the two babies, there wasn't much to pack.
After all, this wasn't Earth; important things were mostly stored in Liam's spatial ring.
When they left in the afternoon, nearly half the elves in the clan came to see her off—her mother, father, brother, and friends were all there.
Everyone said so many warm words.
The whole scene made it seem like she would never return, as if Liam was abducting her.
They set off on their journey.
They walked through a long, deep, and dark forest where the trees grew in a tangled, chaotic mess.
Towering trees, millennia-old, reached for the sky, their dense leaves blocking almost all sunlight, leaving the entire forest as dim as dusk.
No proper paths were built here, making the trek quite difficult.
Celia nervously crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes darting left and right, afraid of encountering something strange.
She vaguely remembered that in her childhood, curious about this different world and eager to explore new things, she often wandered here alone.
Back then, she had already mastered some basic magic and was considered a once-in-a-century genius in the clan, reaching the half-tier by age ten.
To demonstrate the strength expected of her level, she quite enjoyed picking fights with jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards.
Each time, the battles would be intense and evenly matched.
In those youthful, ambitious days.
He felt just like a protagonist, believing he would awaken some system and rise to the pinnacle of the world from the Elf tribe.
As a reincarnator, he firmly believed that in this world, as long as he worked hard and embodied the passionate, persistent spirit of a main character, nothing could stand in his way.
But a sudden, deep-night earthquake shattered all his illusions.
The alarm raised in the tribe pierced the night sky, reaching his ears.
Before he was even fully conscious, his brother scooped him up, and along with their parents, they sprinted towards the village center, finally hiding him in a cabinet near the Chief's house.
Cabinets, cellars, water vats, ceilings—all were potential hiding spots.
Simply because this area was relatively close to the Eternal Tree and could effectively interfere with detection magic.
Celia felt a hidden thrill.
As the protagonist, perhaps this was the beginning of her cheat abilities.
She held her breath, hiding in the cabinet, waiting silently...
Accompanied by the heavy sound of leather boots stepping closer.
The human mage-hunters soon found this place.
The wooden door was violently kicked open, and three or four people rushed in swiftly.
The first victim was a young elf maiden, one who often practiced magic with him, though she never won.
She was like a powerful older sister to him.
Yet now, she was dragged out from under a table by her hair without any mercy, her cries and wails echoing through the room.
Before she could even muster resistance, a collar, symbolizing livestock, was clamped around her neck.
She was defeated instantly...
Witnessing this, the young Kyle grew frantic with anxiety, but the system he hoped for never awakened.
Gradually, his courage was drowned by the blood seeping from the struggling girl.
He could only watch the tragic scene helplessly, powerless.
Perhaps it was then he truly understood—
Why everyone was desperately fleeing.
He only hated that they hadn't detected the enemy earlier.
If they had, perhaps hiding in the forest behind the Eternal Tree would have been the better choice.
These elves, who should have been second-tier powerhouses among the clan's upper echelons, were reduced to prey, toyed with by the enemy, without any ability to resist.
Meanwhile, even a naive child who had casually come along with the humans for the spectacle was a second-tier.
The child frowned, pointing at the elf girl and said:
"Dad, this elf looks so pitiful. Can we take her home and keep her?"
"Haha, you like her?"
A burly man with a fierce scar on his face grinned, holding the trembling young elf girl with one hand, deliberately lifting her before the child's eyes.
"Take a good look. Honestly, her quality isn't great. She might barely pass as a pet. Think carefully. Do you want to choose her?"
"A single elf can sell for millions. I can't afford to get you a second one."
Kyle watched as his clansmember was dangled around like an object, stripped of all dignity.
In the eyes of these humans, elves weren't people at all, merely items to be bought, sold, and bullied at will.
Humans were short-lived, but their strength improved by leaps and bounds.
This was a level most elves found extremely difficult to reach even after centuries.
Elven power required long accumulation over time, but humans simply wouldn't give them the chance to grow.
Moreover, the human forces present were almost all second-tier or above, some even third-tier, even fourth-tier.
The Elf tribe was never adept at offense.
Many of their spells were either difficult to use flexibly or had limited effect when directly applied to humans.
Their combat power paled in comparison to that of humans.
And he, Kyle (Celia).
A genius elf who had barely reached half-tier in ten years—what could he possibly do?
Where was the system?
Where was the golden finger?
Where was the master in the ring?
In the end, he was discovered.
A hand grabbed him by the hair and dragged him out of the cabinet.
The intense pain from his scalp made her panic throughout her body.
His chin was roughly gripped, and the disgusting laughter and curses of the humans came from above his head.
They looked him over like appraising a piece of goods.
"Hey, hey!"
"Look at this! It's a young female elf! A young one!"
"Haven't seen one with such good quality in a long time. Hand it over to the bosses later, we'll definitely get a heavy reward!"
"No, this one's male, right?"
"Hahaha, who cares if it's male or female? Take it back first!"
"As long as the quality is good, someone will buy it. I remember Duke Soane has that particular taste, doesn't he?"
Before the terrifying humans, she was scared witless, her legs turning to jelly.
She couldn't even stand steadily, let alone resist.
Just like that, he fell into despair.
Just when he thought his elf life was over, destined to spend the rest of his days as a human pet...
Fortunately, the barrier finally activated.
The rampaging hunters, along with their carriages, were all teleported away.
The losses were merely a few dozen elves.
Three or four of them were killed because they resisted fiercely and the humans couldn't control their strength properly.
After that fright, Celia grew increasingly fearful of this forest.
Through reasoning, Celia deduced her cultivation limit.
Would be, at most, tier 3 or 4, and would require at least a millennium to achieve.
No system, no golden finger.
Gradually accepting reality, Celia.
Eventually chose to... lie flat.