After the burial was finished, the Grand Master said with certainty, "The feedback increased, didn't it?"
This was a statement, not a question.
Allen felt a warm current surge toward the mutated organ beside his heart and glanced at the Monster Hunt journal that popped up in his field of vision.
[Name: Allen]
...
[Attributes: Strength 99, Agility 99, Constitution 99, Perception 99, Mystery 158 (+1)]
"It did increase," the witcher nodded.
The old druid with the grizzled beard immediately burst into a smug laugh, proudly explaining every detail of the "two-finger burial depth," and when he finished, he stared straight into the witcher's eyes with that gaze that seemed to see through people's hearts.
This time, however, the witcher did not instinctively avert his eyes as he had when they first met. He froze for a moment, let out a couple of dry laughs, and awkwardly praised him:
"Grand Master, you… you're truly amazing. I've benefited greatly."
The Grand Master didn't mind the awkwardness in the witcher's words at all. He immediately curled his lips in satisfaction, like a child whose vanity had been fulfilled.
This was completely at odds with the witcher's initial impression of him—dignified, learned, and stern.
Well…
Aside from being learned…
"Let me teach you another little trick…"
The old druid furtively raised a hand to cover his mouth, as if he didn't want others to hear, though in truth there were only the two of them in this woodland. Simmons and Olga had accepted a task arranged by the Mayena Druid Circle two days ago and had already left.
Naturally, Simmons and Olga were reluctant to part, but they were different from Allen.
Allen was merely a guest and could leave at any time, whereas Simmons and Olga were druids of the Mayena Druid Circle.
That was their duty.
In the Mayena Druid Circle, aside from guests and great druids in seclusion, all druids had to work—either maintaining order in the woodland or traveling to nearby villages and towns to resolve commissions from local humans and lords.
Most of the time, more than half of the great druids of the Mayena Druid Circle also had to work; otherwise, how could they sustain such massive expenses?
And in truth, it wasn't that they had only recently received tasks. Previously, the reason they had stayed with Allen all along was because of Mentor Zebi Ortega's arrangement.
He had postponed Simmons's and Olga's original duties so that after his departure, Allen would still have someone to guide him.
Now that the Grand Master himself was here, there was naturally no reason for them to stay.
Even though they wanted to—and left with great reluctance.
"For druids, shrubs like bilberry that can bear edible fruit, once transplanted to the correct location, yield the most feedback. That is… in your words, the plant with the highest cost-performance for druids."
When it came to serious knowledge, the Grand Master also became serious:
"Because shrubs like bilberry are lower than apple trees, yet more 'popular' than grass. Besides rabbits, deer, and mice—herbivores or omnivores—they're also on the menu of fierce beasts like wolves and tigers, and can be consumed by more creatures in the woodland…"
"So cultivating a bilberry bush naturally grants more blessings than a fruitless shrub like red dogwood; more than fruit trees which, though edible, are tall and can only be eaten by some animals; and even more than planting an oak sapling…"
Learned something new… Allen nodded thoughtfully.
At the same time, however, the Grand Master's phrasing—"highest cost-performance" and "most feedback"—made Allen feel a little strange, much like the first time he heard High Priestess Ianna at the Temple of Melitele say that Melitele needed no one's faith, and that divine arts were inferior to medicine.
Druids devoutly serve the Mother of Nature.
That was what Simmons, Olga, and Zebi Ortega said—and what they demonstrated through their actions.
But the Grand Master's words hardly sounded devout. Instead, they felt like he was being sly, teaching people "a hundred little ways to fleece the Mother of Nature."
And yet, these words came from the Grand Master himself.
Extremely odd.
After seven days together, Allen was no longer unfamiliar with the Grand Master, so he spoke his mind and directly voiced his doubts.
Hearing such a question that could be called an "accusation," the Grand Master didn't get angry. He smiled kindly and said:
"Druids are also human. And humans have desires; they grow slack."
"But desire is not a bad thing. It is what all living beings rely on to survive."
"Beasts want to find food, want to live, want to reproduce—so they hone their hunting skills, learn to run and escape, and cooperate with their own kind…"
"The Mother of Nature respects the desires of beasts. She will not make wolves eat plants—that would unbalance nature; nor will she make deer, rabbits, or mice meekly await slaughter—that too would unbalance nature…"
"Likewise, since the Mother of Nature respects instinct, she naturally allows her servants to have desires as well."
"Most druids may not care about worldly wealth or power, but honor and progress on the druidic path are also desires. In the eyes of the Mother of Nature, they are no different from the desires of mortals or of beasts."
"Rather than calling the little tricks I mentioned 'being sly,' why not change your perspective?"
"What perspective?" Allen asked curiously.
The Grand Master pointed to the bilberry Allen had planted: "Since the Mother of Nature grants extra blessings because of these various 'little tricks,' why can't these blessings be her deliberate guidance?"
"This is not 'being sly.' This is following the will of the Mother of Nature."
It could be understood like that… Allen was stunned, his horizons broadened.
"Of course," the old druid's grizzled beard trembled as he gave the witcher a crafty wink, "if you were a druid of the Mayena Druid Circle, I wouldn't say this either. I'd only teach you to devoutly revere the Mother of Nature, just like Zebi Ortega does."
"But…"
The Grand Master paused, his tone meaningful. "Allen, you are different."
Before Allen could react, the Grand Master continued, "You are not a druid of the Mayena Druid Circle. You're not even an orthodox druid."
"Ortega told me that when it comes to choosing your identity, you lean more toward being a witcher."
Allen fell silent for a few seconds and could only say, "I'm sorry."
"I'm not blaming you," the Grand Master shook his head, a trace of pity flickering in his eyes. "On the contrary, I respect you, Allen. Compared to the druidic path, being a witcher is a rougher, harder, more dangerous road—one far less understood by the world."
"Most witchers are forced onto this road. But you had other choices—many choices—and yet you still chose it."
"But this is not a decision one can make lightly, especially when it comes from reason rather than fear."
"So I truly respect you, just as I respect all warriors who dare to sacrifice."
"And compared to stopping humans from indiscriminate logging, who can say that hunting monsters that disrupt the balance of nature isn't also protecting nature?"
"But you have talent on the druidic path. Still, hunting monsters is ultimately killing, and it's difficult to gain the Mother of Nature's recognition and feedback."
"If we don't want to waste your talent, we can only find another way, can't we?"
Allen was silent again for a few seconds. Looking into the Grand Master's eyes, he sincerely said, "Thank you."
The Grand Master gently patted Allen on the shoulder and said no more, returning to the topic at hand and continuing to explain the characteristics of bilberry.
Time rapidly slipped away in this immersive lesson.
The sun rose in the east and set in the west, and golden-red clouds gradually dyed half the sky.
Normally, at this time the Grand Master would have ended the lesson, but for some reason, today it went on without stopping, his interest seeming only to grow as he spoke.
Naturally, Allen wouldn't interrupt, absorbing all the knowledge the Grand Master imparted like a dry sponge.
Until—
The sun had almost completely sunk below the horizon, the woodland growing dim. As the Grand Master was explaining the properties of another common northern berry, he suddenly stopped and turned to look toward the northwest of the forest.
Allen followed his gaze but saw nothing.
Just as he was puzzled, the Grand Master suddenly sighed. "It seems our lessons will have to pause for now."
Allen was taken aback. A feeling of reluctance rose in his heart, and he instinctively said, "Alright… if you have matters to attend to, please go ahead…"
"No," the Grand Master shook his head and said something that left the witcher baffled. "It's not that I have business. It's that you're about to leave."
As he spoke, he pulled out a thick stack of parchment from behind his back and handed it over.
I'm leaving? Why don't I know about this… Allen accepted it in a daze. The parchment and ink were both very fresh, carrying the damp, acrid smell of ink that hadn't fully dried.
By the last light of the setting sun, he saw that the parchment contained both text and illustrations.
Bilberry, heather, honeysuckle…
On closer inspection, the drawings depicted exactly the plants the Grand Master had just discussed—common plants of the Northern Continent—as well as many others he hadn't mentioned.
Beside each illustration were notes describing the plant's characteristics: cold resistance, preference for shade or sunlight…
"Grand Master, this is…?" Allen looked up at the old druid blankly.
The old druid shrugged. "A gift for you."
A gift… Allen immediately came back to his senses, realizing the weight of what he held.
On this continent, knowledge was more precious than gold or jewels—let alone extraordinary knowledge.
Zebi Ortega had once said that aside from the prayer arts gifted for free when breaking through a druidic realm, all other druid prayer arts had to be exchanged by completing commissions for the Druid Circle.
And according to Simmons and Olga, exchanging even a single Novice Druid Prayer Art often took a normal druid several years.
Yet the parchment in Allen's hands described, from a druid's perspective, the characteristics of nearly all common plants across the continent—concise yet meticulous—and even seemed to be sorted by degree of feedback.
This was far more precious than a mere few druid prayer arts—even more precious than Veteran Druid Divine Art.
"This… this… this is far too valuable!"
Allen felt as though he wasn't holding parchment, but a blazing furnace—burning hot to the touch.
"Take it!"
The Grand Master's face suddenly hardened as he barked the command. Allen's outstretched hand reflexively withdrew.
"They're just bits of common knowledge useless to ordinary druids," the Grand Master motioned for him not to dither, then waved his hand. "That's all for today. Go back. Don't return to Lydia's former residence—someone is waiting for you at your original lodging."
"And remember…"
"Don't waste your talent on the druidic path."
With that, without waiting for the witcher's reply, the Grand Master transformed into a pure-white reindeer and walked toward the inner ring of the Mayena Druid Circle.
Under the oak tree, Allen stood gripping the thick stack of parchment in silence for a long time. When the reindeer was about to vanish from sight, he took a deep breath and bowed deeply to its retreating figure.
Then he turned and walked toward the small wooden cabin where he had originally lived.
As for who the person waiting there was, as the Grand Master had mentioned—
Allen thought about it.
The Sorcerers' Brotherhood assembly should have ended around this time. Most likely, it was Vera.
After several days apart, when he returned to the residential area where the wooden cabins were built beneath the oak trees, Vera was indeed standing at the door of the cabin, waiting for him.
However, looking at the hazy silhouette of the sorceress in the dim firelight, the witcher suddenly thought of a question.
From such a great distance, the Grand Master had been able to sense Vera's arrival—and had even been certain that the person coming was someone closely connected to Allen…
Was that because of prophecy and divination, or because of the natural "demigod's" extraordinary control over the Mayena Druid Circle?
If it were the former, that would be fine. But if it were the latter…
Then why, on the day Zebi Ortega took him to Lydia's former residence, did the Grand Master need to ask Simmons and Olga before learning where Zebi Ortega had gone?
—
Elsewhere, the majestic, sacred-white reindeer paced back to Holy Mayena. Beneath the towering canopy that reached into the clouds and glimmered with a faint, hazy light, a figure stood there, seemingly having waited for a long time at the spot where the reindeer often lay.
"Visenna, you've come…"
As the reindeer approached, its glossy eyes shifted downward and paused on Visenna's lower abdomen for an imperceptible instant, before it slowly moved beneath Holy Mayena and bent its legs to lie down.
At that moment, the tall reindeer's eyes met Visenna's gaze directly.
"Grand Master…" Visenna slightly bowed in salute, then, as she always had in the past, reported, "Everything in the Mayena Druid Circle is normal. The patrols have not encountered any abnormalities…"
"Aedus, who led the team to the Kaestro Mountains, and Ezekiel, who went to the Wyvern Mountains… have both returned. But there is still no trace of Master Kanu or that golden-haired beast."
"I've already told them about the possibility of the golden-haired beast mutating. Tomorrow they will—"
"Only look for that nature spirit. There's no need to search for Master Kanu anymore," the reindeer suddenly interrupted. "And the letters to be sent to the kings and great nobles of the various countries—those that haven't been sent yet don't need to be sent either."
"Why?" Visenna was startled and couldn't help but ask, "If humans encounter Master Kanu, it's very likely that conflict will break out."
"There's no need." The reindeer sighed softly. "You can never find a druid master who truly wishes to hide. And even if you did, it would have no meaning. Why force it? All the goodwill that needed to be conveyed has already been conveyed. As for the rest… let nature take its course."
How could it have no meaning? Visenna didn't understand. But seeing that the Grand Master had no intention of explaining, she didn't press the matter.
"Then the nature spirit…"
"As usual."
"Yes, Grand Master." Visenna inclined her head. After finishing the rest of her report, she prepared to leave as she normally would.
At that moment, the reindeer suddenly spoke a single sentence that shook her to her core.
"Visenna, do you know that you're… pregnant?"
.......
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