The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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Although she already had a guess in her heart, Evelyn didn't mention it anymore as she just nodded. If her teacher didn't like it, then it was fine for her to keep it a secret. "Teacher said that the 'Great Mother' is the source of most of the academy's artifacts, but I don't really understand?"

Aurora breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Evelyn didn't intend to probe her further on the topic of her similarity to the 'Great Mother'. As for the other things, she was more than happy to explain them.

Evelyn had always found it a little strong how the academy was able to give out such bountiful rewards while expecting little in return. Even if she wasn't an expert economist, she still understood that if the losses each year exceeded the gains, it would only be a matter of time for that system to fail.

Although it was possible for certain people to be able to gain far more than they contributed from certain organizations, Evelyn knew that it would always come at the cost of someone else.

For example, if the academy was giving out ten times what it earned from the junior professors, it would have to make up for that loss from either the students, the senior professors, or the pillars. Of course, every organization had to struggle with maintaining a balance between such things, and Evelyn hadn't been too concerned about it, as she was more focused on her growth.

After hearing Aurora's explanation of the abilities of the 'Great Mother', however, Evelyn finally realized how the academy was able to maintain itself while rewarding everyone with far more than they contributed.

With an infinite source of wealth at hand, was there any need to worry about running out of money?

Just like some governments were able to pay public servants in specific positions far more than they would realistically be able to generate, as they could always make more money from taxing the citizens, the relationship between the 'Great Mother' and the academy was about the same.

As a natural artifact, it didn't have an owner of its own, and didn't allow anyone to mark it either. Even today, after having served the academy for so long, the 'Great Mother' remained an 'ownerless' artifact.

To the academy, however, that wasn't a major concern.

After all, the 'Great Mother' already brought them all the advantages that they hoped for, and not to mention Aurora, her ancestors didn't wish to kill the goose that lay the golden egg out of greed either.

Apparently, the 'Great Mother' had the ability to create little avatars that could travel around the world in search of 'treasures', and whenever they found something of interest, they would merge with it, and the 'treasure' would be sent back here.

Evelyn found it a little amusing that Aurora called these avatars 'little mothers'.

When these little mothers were looking for treasures, not only were they invisible to the naked eye, they couldn't be detected through any spirit power based detection technique either.

The only way to vaguely sense them would be through the use of soul energy, but that in itself was of little use.

After all, whether or not one knew it was there would be of little concern if there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Listening to how the thing worked, Evelyn couldn't help but blink in surprise. "So it just takes whatever it can find? So… in a way, all of these artifacts here could be considered 'stolen'?"

Aurora shook her head in denial. "Although we have determined that the 'Great Mother' can indeed do that, she is usually benevolent, and only takes the ownerless artifacts that she finds abandoned. Even those that are kept in old vaults for thousands of years are usually left alone."

"But… are there really so many abandoned artifacts in this world?"

As far as Evelyn was concerned, even if someone lost their life, the artifacts in their possession wouldn't necessarily turn 'ownerless'.

After all, the person who killed them would surely not let go of the fruits of their labor, or in case of a benign death, unless they were completely alone, wouldn't their possessions be taken over by their closest companion?

Aurora shook her head with a smile when she saw her student's confusion. "The world is big, and it has many places where people can lose their life. Moreover, when someone perishes in a way that their spatial artifact is destroyed, the contents are generally warped through space all over the world."

Evelyn thought about it for a while, and she realized that her teacher's words made sense. Just like there was endless treasure at the bottom of the ocean, there was actually no lack of ownerless artifacts in this world.

The only problem was that finding them would actually take far more effort than it would take to acquire them through other means. Unless it was some priceless, irreplaceable, and extremely enticing treasure, no one would be willing to squander their whole life in such a futile search without assurances.

In a way, what the 'Great Mother' did was equivalent to continuously pouring the treasures beneath the ocean into a single vault.

However, as Aurora went on with her explanation, Evelyn soon discovered why this place was so extravagantly full of artifacts.

It wasn't that the academy couldn't think of any use of so many artifacts, but that it simply couldn't take out too many at once.

Just like her little avatars, the 'Great Mother' was also able to leave as it pleased, and no one in the academy would be able to stop it if that is what it wished.

However, the spirituality that it had wasn't very advanced, and as long as its basic needs were satisfied, there was no reason for it to leave.

What the 'Great Mother' wanted was nothing more than a great big space where it could keep storing its 'treasures' without any disturbance.

Without the academy's protection, it was likely that the 'Great Mother' would have to escape every time it was discovered, and it would lose most of its treasures as well.

Although it could all be snatched back, how could losing thousands of years of accumulation be something that can be made up for in an instant? There was a limit to how many avatars the Great Mother could make at once, after all.

In exchange for the academy's hospitality, the Great Mother allowed them to set up formations that would take away a certain number of artifacts every month.

Of course, since the process of entering the grand vault was so troublesome, it was impossible to assess which artifacts would be taken away. These formations were all triggered autonomously, and each month, what was taken from the grand vault was completely random.

Evelyn couldn't help but sigh in her heart. 'I guess even if my inventory was big enough, I wouldn't be able to take the whole vault with me.'

Aurora mentioned that this month's share had already been taken away, and while the Great Mother was unlikely to get angry at a minor transgression, Evelyn mustn't be too greedy today, and make do with only one artifact of her choice.

Although she found it a bit regretful, Evelyn understood there was nothing they could do about it. Anyway, what she needed from here wasn't an arsenal of great artifacts, but something that would allow her to further mend a fractured soul.

Whether it was a specialized artifact, or something that contained chaos energy, Evelyn wouldn't complain. As long as Bree could recover fully, any price was worth it.

This wasn't just because she cared for her little aunt, although that was true, but also because Evelyn believed that Bree's recovery would help increase the survivability of both herself and her friends.

Opportunity and danger went hand in hand, and Evelyn knew that if there was something that could greatly boost her growth where she was going, it might also have an equivalent level of danger.

The smallest of differences in strength could sometimes change one's fate from living to dead, and Evelyn was determined to minimize the danger that she and her friends would be facing in the future.

And Evelyn knew better than anyone that the difference between Bree's strength with and without her memories would be like heaven and earth.

No matter what, if there was something here that could help her recover, Evelyn had to find it!

Aurora had already told her everything she needed to keep in mind, and Evelyn set her mind to using her probe skill in the central area around the 'Great Mother', where the most valuable artifacts generally were.

One after another, dazzling descriptions that stirred her greed kept popping out on her panel, and each time Evelyn found it harder and harder to turn her head away and look for something else.

She could only take one thing, and unless it was something that could shoot the Lord of Bones to death in one hit, Evelyn only had one goal in mind.

Unfortunately, although Aurora's statement of the artifacts in this region being the most precious seemed to be true, there was no hint of any special soul mending capability or chaos energy in any of their descriptions.

As she was looking for the next target to probe, inadvertently, Evelyn's sight once again fell on the 'Great Mother'. Suddenly, the pink-haired girl couldn't help have some doubts. The little cavity in the otherwise flawless crystalline statue looked particularly dazzling.

Since it was so independent, how could it have let someone dig out a part of it just like that?

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