Chapter 3: Tree Spirit

Rod rode his horse to that area.

He soon discovered the stumps of two trees, with only the wooden bases remaining.

Beside them were an extinguished campfire and some food scraps.

It wasn't hard to tell that someone had stayed here overnight.

Rod was no skilled hunter; he could only judge from the amount of food that there were at least three criminals.

"Five, all male—one halfling, four humans."

Tally didn't dismount, her short little legs dangling unsteadily in the air.

Seeing Rod's puzzled look, she smugly pointed at her own nose.

"Don't forget who I am—I can sniff out male essence in an instant."

Rod gave her a thumbs-up.

"Can you tell where they went?"

Tally shook her head.

"They stayed here one night, which is why there's essence residue. Once they're moving, the scent is too faint."

Rod didn't dwell on it.

Pursuing lawbreakers wasn't part of a forest ranger's duties. Coincidentally, tomorrow was the day to collect his salary at Shi Ying town, so he could just inform the town constable on the way.

Besides, judging from their composition, this group looked more like poachers.

As everyone knew.

Humans and halflings on the continent loved poaching the most.

"But where did the wood go?"

Two dawn redwoods, each with twenty growth rings, every one of them a good thirty or forty meters tall.

The little ash in the campfire was nowhere near enough.

Soon.

He found out.

Under the noon sunlight, Rod spotted a strange shadow on the ground.

He looked up.

Between the towering dawn redwoods, trunks of varying lengths were lashed and joined together, forming a strange pattern in midair.

"What is this?"

Tally looked over, her face also showing confusion.

"Is this some kind of spell?" Rod asked.

"No, there's no flow of magical power—it's purely made by hand."

Rod pressed a hand to his forehead.

Good news: not poachers.

No poacher would bother with this idle nonsense.

Bad news: anyone with the time for this bizarre idle nonsense is either a cultist or has some strange race's peculiar hobby.

Rod noted down the location and sketched the pattern in his notebook.

"Go on, fetch the wood down."

He ordered Tally.

Tally froze for a moment.

Then she pouted, swinging her shoulders back and forth.

"The trees are sooo big, I'm sooo small, I can't carry them~"

"Not going? Two days of abstinence."

Tally immediately jumped off the horse, reverting to her voluptuous true form, with black bat wings sprouting from her lower back.

Very strategically, she only covered the three vital points with scaled armor.

After casting him a mournful glance, she flapped her wings and flew up.

【Tally's obedience to you +1, currently 52】

Oh?

That counts too?

Rod had initially assumed this was something like affection.

Now it seemed that was still open to debate.

Today's patrol had no other abnormalities.

Rod arrived at the Number One ranger cabin, the closest to town.

Tally, who had spent the whole day digesting, finally had her appetite return.

She transformed into a young girl, yet with a bosom that didn't match her frame.

On the way back, she clung to Rod's neck, sniffing him nonstop.

"You said no eating outside—can't I at least have a sniff?"

Those were her exact words.

Rod was also worked up by her antics.

Combined with the 【Second Heart】 skill's continuous effect, strengthening his body every moment.

It really got his blood pumping.

And so, the moment he stepped through the door, Rod pounced.

Tally, surprised, opened her arms wide to welcome.

Halfway through.

Tally could barely maintain the transformation spell; her eyes reverted to the crimson pupils of her true form, glowing red.

The breath she exhaled turned a pale pink, visible to the naked eye.

Sweat on her body reflected a Bai Guang.

Giggles—

Someone knocked on the door.

Rod stopped.

"Who?"

He couldn't pretend to be absent; Tally's voice was too loud.

No response came from outside the door.

"Ignore it~"

Rod went to open the door.

Tally, annoyed, rushed up and hugged him from behind.

And outside the door.

stood a visitor she had not expected.

A head of slightly curled teal hair and long, elf-like ears.

Her body grew leaves interwoven in teal and brown, while glowing vines, like ivy, coiled around her hands and feet.

Most striking of all, on the other's delicate face were a pair of eyes that constantly shimmered with Bai Guang.

"Tree Spirit?"

Tally was very surprised.

Tree Spirits were not a race fond of conversing with humans.

Rod ignored the squashed, distorted sensation against his back.

"Miss Vivian?"

The Wind Wall Forest was a primitive ecosystem, home to various creatures.

Some races that loved nature had even relocated here.

As far as Rod knew, there were the half-werewolves in the Oak District, the scorpion-women in the Eucalyptus District, and here in the Dawn Redwood District, the Tree Spirits and half-deer people.

As a forest ranger protecting the woods, he had naturally crossed paths with this Tree Spirit Young Lady a few times.

"Injured."

Vivian uttered a single word, her face bearing timidity and worry.

Then she pointed backward toward a spot not far away.

Rod looked.

A dainty young girl, human from the waist up and a sika deer from the waist down, lay curled on the ground, her face deathly pale, her eyes tightly shut.

Stuck in her deer body was an arrow; beside it lay a bloodied hole, with blood staining nearly half of her deer torso.

"Arrow, I, pulled one out."

The Tree Spirit said, filled with guilt.

It seemed she had been struck by two arrows and forcibly pulled one out, causing massive bleeding.

Rod knew there was no time to lose and hurriedly carried the unconscious half-deer person into the wooden cabin.

He knew simple medical treatment and even kept some magical potions on hand.

Two hours later.

After consuming one magical potion, the young half-deer person's condition finally stabilized.

Tally transformed into a cute nurse, wiping the bloodstains from the girl's body.

Vivian breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet she still stayed by the side of the half-deer girl, unwilling to leave.

"What happened?"

"Four, humans, one, halfling, attacked."

The same gang that was cutting down trees?

Rod's brows furrowed.

Cutting down trees was one thing, but hurting people?

The irritation in his heart gradually rose.

Rod glanced at the steel sword hanging on the wall.

"Can you sense their direction?"

Tree Spirits could naturally establish a connection with trees; perhaps they could learn some information.

Vivian shook her head.

"They, left, the forest."

"Then forget it."

Vivian slumped entirely.

"Sorry."

"It's fine."

Rod waved his hand, not minding it at all.

But Vivian kept it in her heart.

The simple Tree Spirit felt her own incompetence very strongly.

After a moment, she made up her mind.

A seed the size of a finger grew from the vine threads in her palm.

A thick aura of spiritual energy spread through the wooden cabin.

"For you."

"Spirit Seed?!"

Tally walked over with wide eyes.

Vivian was startled and quickly clutched the seed to her chest.

"What is this?"

Rod was curious.

He rarely saw Tally so excited.

"This is a treasure that can transform the flesh! It breaks racial limits and allows one to learn more spiritual arts!"

Rod immediately understood.

Take spells, for example.

Spells are a type of spiritual art.

The various spells on this continent cannot be learned by all races.

Succubi's charm fluids and Tree Spirits' tree sensing; other races cannot learn them.

But with this Spirit Seed, it is different.

It exists independently within the human body; spell formulas can be freely constructed, unconstrained by racial limits.

Rod's talent is average.

This seed can raise his upper limit even higher.

(End of this chapter)