Chapter 309: Vacation and a Permanent Cure

Actually, this kind of work would be more suitable for the elf Kalieste to handle.

After all, elves are naturally attuned to nature, and many spells were born from that.

A method of cutting that doesn't damage the overall spirituality would surely be easy for her.

It's just that this one has been overworked lately — not only busy with the water-route defenses, but also having to deal with the forest and her own advancement ritual.

All three of these are large-scale rituals; the preparation time and the mental energy required are both enormous.

To prevent her from suffering magical exhaustion again, Rod only asked for the relevant materials and ritual, and left the rest of the process entirely to Selina.

Kalieste really does love worrying — she even said this morning that she'd come to oversee it personally.

But Rod talked her out of it again.

"As you command, my master."

Selina took the hand-drawn, hand-written materials with a blank expression and began examining them carefully.

Rod was bored.

So he chatted idly with the little fairy Tammy.

It was a way of getting to know the background and personality of this new resident of the forest.

Besides, he wanted to learn about local changes through what she'd seen and heard in those forests.

Very unfortunately.

Tammy, who had been in the Light Spirit state at the time, wouldn't have paid attention to such things — what she talked about most was which tree had the most spirituality, and which tree's nature spirit was the most irritable.

"Rod!"

The little horse-girl Little Little Bangde responded to the summons of the 【Far Speech Chain】, galloping over.

Behind her was the ever-fatter great squirrel Cui Qian, scrambling along on all fours with great effort.

That shouldn't be the case.

Running around and playing wildly with Little Little Bangde every day — how could she be even fatter than before?

He also saw the little fairy Tammy shrinking back nervously behind his head.

Little fairies are generally rather afraid of strangers, which has to do with their own low combat ability.

"Rod! What are we doing? Where are we going to play?"

The little horse-girl's face was full of excitement.

Sending you to Claw Valley Mountain to stand watch.

When Rod had just given her the 【Far Speech Chain】, he'd sent the words "come play."

"You just wait."

"I'm going too!"

The great squirrel Cui Qian ran to the side, panting heavily as she announced.

"Fine, you can both go, but you have to stay properly by Little Little Bangde's side."

"Of course!"

Little Little Bangde is an ultra-long-range shooter anyway, and with Pan Ni and the Wendigo holding the front line, they probably won't be a threat to them.

Cui Qian bounced about excitedly.

Then, as if remembering something, she said:

"Oh, Mr. Rod, recently the negative energy of winter has risen, the vitality of the World Tree has dropped, so the workload has decreased a lot. Some companions from the Tree Realm want to come to the material plane for a vacation — I wonder if that's okay."

"Come on, by all means — there's plenty of room in the forest."

Rod didn't really mind.

Recently, Miss Xiao Ke visiting her friend Amy's guard, and Pan Ni Chris stationed at Claw Valley Mountain, had left the forest much quieter — having some cute great squirrels around would be nice too.

Rod didn't go deep into the Korchi Plains today.

After dropping the two little ones off at Claw Valley Mountain, he went to 31 New Lank Street South, Market Town.

That was the witch Witch Di Mi Ya's residence.

Today was the day he'd arranged with the dog-girl Sharon to cure Witch Di Mi Ya's magical rampage once and for all.

He entered the familiar detached little villa.

At a glance he saw the hall's furniture and carpet had all been cleared out, and Sharon, wearing pure white shorts and a tank top, was half-kneeling in the middle.

Her rolled-up midriff had not a trace of flab — neat and smooth.

Her golden-furred dog tail was held high to avoid touching the Di Mian De Fa array.

She glanced at Rod lightly, expressionless.

But her dog tail couldn't help swaying left and right.

"Sit for a while first, almost ready."

"I'm going to go check on Witch Di Mi Ya."

"Suit yourself. Remember to knock — if there's no answer, get lost, don't disturb her rest."

"Forget it, I won't go after all. She's always sleeping anyway — might as well just look at you to rest my eyes."

A witch in magical rampage is extremely drowsy, and this time it's even worse — the condition is far more severe than before.

He didn't know the reason.

Hearing that.

The dog-girl's tail wagged even faster, and a smile appeared on her otherwise plain face.

"Just kidding — I'll go take a look after all."

The smile froze.

"Get lost!"

Rod walked up to the second floor of the villa, smiling.

And knocked on Dimia's door.

The moment he reached this spot, he was immediately reminded of the scene of him and Sharon fooling around here last time.

His heart felt a little itchy.

"Come in."

Dimia's voice came from inside the room.

Her voice was lazy, a little drowsy even — she had probably just woken up not long ago.

Rod pushed open the door.

He saw the witch sitting beside a small tea table, wearing a pale cyan dress with only two ribbon-thin straps on her shoulders.

Compared with her usual attire, this was a slightly more conservative style.

She had brewed a cup of tea and set it on the other side of the tea table.

"Are you feeling better?"

Rod sat down and drank the jasmine-scented floral tea in one gulp.

At the same time, he noticed that Dimia's baby-plump face still bore the imprint of a pillow pressed into it.

Compared with her current dignified and elegant air, it made for quite a contrast.

"These past few days, having Sharon with me has helped a lot — kept my mood cheerful, not thinking about work, not thinking about the novel either."

"So where's the problem this time? Still the novel?"

"Mm, no."

Dimia's face flushed a little.

Clearly, during her last outburst she had sworn with great conviction that the novel would never be a problem again, yet in less than a few months it had flared up once more.

"Last night we were chatting on 【Far Whisper Chain】, and you explained to me the gender issue of flower demons, right? So I revised the setting and changed the hero Ophiel into a male. But the readers wouldn't buy it — they wrote letters to the paper cursing me out."

Ever since the witch had connected to 【Far Whisper Chain】, she had fallen in love with this way of chatting.

She always liked to discuss racial quirks with Rod late at night — after all, it was their shared secret, and the two of them had grown considerably closer because of it.

"Is it really just because of this?"

She nodded with difficulty.

"I-I… I read every single one of them and got so angry, and then the next day I just—"

Rod couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

"Oh, you…"

The more he laughed, the louder it got, which only made Dimia all the more embarrassed.

Her witch constitution made her skin very thin to begin with — the moment she felt ashamed, she turned white shot through with red, her whole face flushing a pale pink, looking all the more delicate.

"Speaking of which, this whole thing is Mr. Rod's fault!"

She pouted coquettishly.

"My fault, my fault — that's why I came to cure you, didn't I?"

"…I heard from Sharon that you found a spirit seed for this."

"More or less, but the key was Dread. It's nothing."

Sharon had mentioned it before.

She had concealed from Dimia the details of their trip to the Dread Realm, only saying she had found a coping strategy in some ancient book.

"We're all friends here, no need to talk about that. By the way — don't you think Sharon's temperament has changed a great deal lately?"

He had no idea how Sharon had explained it, but Dimia felt no particular surprise at the change in her best friend.

"Has she?"

The witch tilted her head.

She hadn't even noticed that?

It was practically the difference between a house-kept pet dog and a stray, for heaven's sake.

Could Dimia be the type who was a little airheaded by nature?

"Mr. Rod may not know this, but from the moment I met Sharon, she's always been this sort of person. If anything, she's changed a lot since dropping out of Bahadur."

(End of chapter)