Comprehensive network wizard, magic emperor.

Chapter 96 Ocean Magic Source
The sea area outside the Dongya Grottoes is full of reefs. Even if a small boat wants to enter, it is difficult. If you are not careful, the bottom of the boat will be scratched by the reefs, or it will run aground on the rocks.

Lin Bo stood at the bow with his hands behind his back, looking around through the camera on his mask. He recited the real name of the waves, projected his magic power as much as possible to the sea surface around him, and ordered the waves to gather.

Circles of sea water gathered under the boat like a herd of horses, raising high waves and lifting the boat and the mage, slowly moving forward, crossing the jagged reef belt, and arriving at the entrance of the cave.

Lin Bo took off his wizard's face, took a whale oil potion, then transformed the iron ball into a flat plate, picked up a large box of whale scraps, and got off the boat with the cargo. He gently pushed the cargo box and came to the mushroom garden in the courtyard of the cave.

Ever since the Fungus-Talking Seagulls returned to their habitat, ushering in an era of bird dominance, the mushrooms have lost a group of diligent foraging friends, and the expansion of the fungal blanket has slowed down.

Lin Bo stepped into the cave, and the faint and familiar vibration made the mycelium on the ground active. The small whiskers that were originally lying lazily now suddenly stood up and swayed gently, like grass swaying in the wind, or a white dog stretching in the sun.

He unloaded the heavy wooden box and pulled off the tarpaulin. The unconcealable fishy smell seeped out from the cracks in the wooden box, and the broken meat and bones from the whale whispered in the wizard's ears.

Lin Bo could vaguely hear what they were saying in the animistic language, the roar of the motors spinning the sawteeth, the huge iron hooks and cranes that could catch giant whales, and the panting of workers wielding meat axes. These were about what happens after death.

There's also the story of a giant whale dying, as massive chain harpoons fired from the muzzles of whaleships pierce its skin and bones. The whale dives for its life, its flesh gouged by the barbs, and cries out in pain as the seawater pours into its wounds, spreading blood like a thick fog.

Harpooned and dragged through the ocean for hundreds of miles, the exhausted whale, still alive, would be tied with thick cables by sailors, hoisted up, and secured to the side of a large ship. Battered by the scorching sun, bleeding and thirsty, it would be brought to the dock, still breathing. Facing the cheering tiny creatures around it, it would emit a final low-pitched whale song, inaudible to the crowd.

As for the more distant memories, they are vague and have disappeared with the death of the whale.

Lin Bo is also very curious about the real names of magical creatures.

But for a creature as large as a whale, even if he knew its true name, the Level 1 Mantra Transfiguration could probably only transform it into a baby whale.

Lin Bo fumbled for the iron nails wedged into the wooden box, chanted the true name of steel, and pulled out the thick nails one by one. The wooden boards of the box fell apart, and the flesh and bones inside also poured out and dumped onto the fungal carpet of the mushroom garden.

The dark red, bleeding scraps were quickly covered by pure white mycelium, forming a pile of soft white bags. The mushrooms loved this food and swayed even more vigorously.

Lin Bo gently stroked the fungal blanket, and the soft mycelium rubbed against his palm.

"The feeder is here, missing you, requesting water. The food is delicious, more, more... mushrooms, please eat mushrooms!"

The genetic information in the whale's biological tissues is absorbed by the fungal mat and expressed in the form of mimic mushrooms. The magical energy contained in the whale meat is also transferred to the mimic mushrooms.

In a corner of the fungal blanket, a blue fish-shaped mushroom emerged, and then grew and expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The mushroom's appearance was that of a fat whale, inflated like the balloons sold to tourists and children on the beach, with black bean-like eyes embedded on both sides of its body, sparkling with an inexplicable wisdom.

Lin Bo picked the whale mushroom which was as big as a basketball, and told the Almighty Fungus the true name of the magical creature's flesh and blood, as well as the true name of whale oil.

Even though mushrooms can't speak the animistic language, they can still understand the meaning of their true names by listening to their pronunciation. Lin Bo uses true names to locate the genetic information library of the fungus species, allowing them to precisely select the genes they need rather than randomly stitching them together.

Holding the mimic whale mushroom in his hand, Lin Bo touched it gently and could hear its murmuring animistic language, which is the most obvious characteristic of magical matter.

The magical energy that the all-purpose strain recovers from the cheapest scraps is equivalent to a can of crude whale oil, and the selling prices of the two are very different.

With the whale mushroom, Limbaugh could try to improve the potion further.

At the same time, he also wanted to know how these whales obtained magical power.

If magic mushrooms can replace whale oil, then one day, the industrial production of the Knin Empire will not have to rely on the declining whaling industry, and the whale population will be saved from being hunted to extinction.

Lin Bo knew very little about magical biology, having only gleaned fragments from alchemy books, which described how to extract usable materials from magical creatures. So he logged into the online chat interface and contacted a trader at the Ochi Rose Garden to buy books, intending to cram at the last minute.

[Dosulus] usually sleeps soundly, and his subsidiary mind recommended the popular science book "Comprehensive Network Observation: Magical Life in the Multiverse" to Lin Bo.

This "Big Observation" series is a popular science book compiled and produced by a large number of players. Although the content is only at the dessert level and lacks academic professionalism, it is still a very good literacy guide.

Old players do this for love. The "Big Observation" series, like the guides in the chat channel, are public knowledge. The platform only charges the cost of translation and copying.

In the same series, there are also "The Strange Geography of the Multiverse", "The Great Powers of the Multiverse", etc. If you read them all, it can greatly broaden the players' horizons.

Lin Bo has never had much free time to read miscellaneous books, but he has kept this series of popular science books in mind and plans to squeeze out time to read them through as much as possible. Who knows, they might come in handy someday.

The ocean-blue trading channel is open.

A palm-thick, dictionary-like tome fell into Lin Bo's hands. He went straight to the table of contents, skipped the preface, and found the players' overview of magical creatures, which mentioned the source of the magical creatures' power.

A common example is creatures with extraordinary bloodlines in a magical worldview, where magic energy naturally flows in their bodies, such as dragons, goblins, beholders, ancient elven trees, etc.

Furthermore, non-natural magical creatures can also be elevated through long-term contact with magical sources, or through transformation, blessings, or curses from powerful beings, thereby gaining access to magical power.

Lin Bo wants to know whether the whales in this world are born magical creatures, or whether they have mutated due to exposure to magic.

If it is the former, then as long as the fungus replicates the whale bloodline, it can produce magic mushrooms continuously.

If it's the latter, it means there's a magical source in the sea that the whale has been exposed to for a long time.

As for distinguishing whether the power of a magical creature comes from its bloodline or the external environment, it is actually not simple.

Because if whales can be exposed to the magic source for a long time, then the fetus can be nourished by the magic energy from the mother's body, and then show innate extraordinary properties.

Unless Lin Bo can completely remove external factors and allow the whale to be born in a magic-free environment, it will be possible to determine whether its magic power comes from its bloodline.

It's not easy to find a wild whale that hasn't been infected by magic, let alone a calf.

Lin Bo thought about it for a moment.

Now the all-powerful fungus has extracted the genetic information of the whale. As long as he can make the fungus express these genes and does not provide exogenous magical substances, whether the mimicry mushrooms produced in this way contain magical energy will be enough to prove the truth of the whale's bloodline.

He pressed down on the fungal blanket and asked the mushrooms for another mushroom of the same kind.

"Same as before, mushrooms, mushrooms~"

The mycelium swayed and murmured. They were not very intelligent and many of their concepts were confused. They had multiple understandings of Lin Bo's request, so they produced many mimic mushrooms at once, which were dotted on the fungal carpet.

Lin Bo found a whale-shaped mushroom, picked it off, touched it, and heard the Gudorei language.

From this, it can be inferred that the whales in this world are most likely just ordinary beasts, and their magical energy comes from the sea. As for the true source of the magic in the sea, it is still unknown.

(End of this chapter)