Chapter 4: Learning a New Spell

The next morning, Rod stood before a massive boulder.

He was drenched in sweat, his well-proportioned, explosive muscles on full display.

"Hoo~"

"My strength and speed have at least more than doubled."

Rod planted the steel sword in his hand into the ground and ran his fingers over the fresh sword marks on the rock's surface.

On the continent, adventurers' strength was divided into ranks one through nine.

After the modification by the Second Heart, Rod had now steadily risen from rank two to the peak of rank three.

"Add the Spirit Seed's boost on top of that."

Rod raised his left hand, aiming it at the boulder.

A white glow lit up in his palm.

"Repel."

A surge of powerful magic blasted out from his palm like a bomb.

Boom!

The boulder shuddered violently.

Gravel shot out past both sides of Rod.

Looking again, a shallow crater the size of a washbasin had already been blasted into the boulder.

Rod was very satisfied.

He'd picked up this Repel spell surprisingly fast — only about an hour.

Eee-yaa—

The door of the ranger's cabin was pushed open.

Tally came over, bleary-eyed, and threw herself into Rod's arms in one go.

"Where's your clothes? And no real body."

"I just woke up, gimme a minute~"

Rod unceremoniously pushed her away.

Tally clung to him again.

"Oh right, where are the Tree Spirits and the Half-Deer folk?"

"They left at dawn — they weren't comfortable staying."

"That's great! Let's hurry up and continue from last night—"

Tally was overjoyed and went to strip Rod's clothes off.

Rod held her down.

"Cut it out, today we're heading into town."

Perhaps it was because Windwall Forest simply had too little of society's atmosphere to it.

The sight before him — pedestrians coming and going, vendors hawking along the street — truly gave Rod a sense of waking from a dream across ages.

Tally had transformed into a woman in her thirties, wearing an ordinary loose skirt, curious about everything before her.

The two walked on and off, eventually arriving at the town hall.

Rod presented his ranger credentials and smoothly collected 200 copper Jin Along from the finance window.

This was his weekly salary.

Add to that the monthly expenses he padded the books with — horse feed, health fees, tree-care medicinal solutions, and so on — and Rod's monthly salary could reach two silver Jin Along.

That was a pretty decent salary.

For comparison, a dockworker's weekly wage was 80 copper Jin Along.

"Hey, Rod."

A big-bearded man in light armor walked over.

This was the captain of the constabulary, David.

He grinned and nudged Rod's stomach with his elbow.

"Where's your succubus bride? Don't see her around."

Looks like the rumors really had spread all over town.

Rod openly pointed at Tally, too lazy to explain.

David took a look.

Saw an ordinary young farm wife.

"Pretty average."

He didn't really believe Rod actually kept a succubus.

Succubi were creatures that noble lords needed three men a day just to keep fed.

Rod? If he really kept one, he'd be dead long ago.

He was more inclined to believe Rod had just taken a wife.

Rod paid no mind to the man's wild guesses and immediately told him the news about the uninvited guests in the forest.

David grew serious.

After carefully examining the sketches in Rod's notebook.

"Looks like the Yige Sect's emblem."

"Yige Sect? The Yige people's cult?"

That big bug?

"Not the Yige race, but a cult that worships the Yige race."

"Isn't that just a pure evil cult?"

Rod frowned.

"The strange part is right here." David said helplessly.

He went on: "Parliament passed the review for this Yige Sect, personally endorsed it, calling it freedom of belief or something."

Rod's reaction: subway elder looking at phone. jpg

The Yige race ran rampant in the Aethelon Kingdom three hundred years ago, and three hundred years later the kingdom just builds them a church?

What the hell is this?

"Anyway, keep an eye out. Missionaries of the Yige Sect have been entering town for several days now. Don't fall into their tricks."

The two didn't talk further.

Each left with their own matters.

Rod deeply felt something was off about this Yige Sect.

His sense of security was severely lacking.

So without a moment's delay, he hurried to the nearest Spiritual Arts Guild and spent a fortune buying suitable Spiritual Arts.

【"Chang En Fa Yin, Tier-3 spell."

"It can coat the body with a layer of spiritual membrane for defense."

"Lei Guang Blade, Tier-4 sword art."

"Enchants the sword body with spiritual lightning."

"Minor Body Enhancement, Tier-3 spell."

"Temporarily boosts physical attributes."

"Flash of Aethelon, Tier-5 sword art."

"The kingdom's signature sword art, unleashes sword strikes at extreme speed."】

These few Spiritual Arts drained Rod of all his savings.

He had originally wanted to find race-specific Spiritual Arts from other races to learn, but the guild was built by humans in the first place, so naturally it only had Spiritual Arts usable by humans.

For other people, cultivating these few Spiritual Arts might take a very long time.

Rod had already undergone spiritual reinforcement from the Spirit Seed and stamina reinforcement from the Second Heart.

As long as he didn't sleep or rest, he believed he could finish learning them all very quickly.

After returning to the ranger's cabin.

Rod commissioned the tree spirit Vivian to help observe the tree problems, while he immediately entered closed-door cultivation mode.

Only Tally had it rough.

After entering closed-door cultivation mode, Rod strictly controlled himself to one meal a day.

Tally didn't care what he needed to learn, and every day she found new ways to seduce Rod.

Sometimes he couldn't hold back and could only consummate on the spot.

Interestingly, every time Rod failed to resist, Tally's obedience would always rise by a point or two.

Half a month later.

"Daphne is missing?"

Rod said in surprise.

David nodded, his face full of anxiety.

"It was yesterday evening. The lord suspects someone deliberately kidnapped Young Lady Daphne, but no bandits have come forward with a ransom demand. We've already been gathering people to search."

"I know there's a tree spirit in the forest. I wonder if you, Rod, could contact her. We want to try whether the trees' perception can find Young Lady Daphne, at least narrow down the area."

Rod nodded.

He had Tally go contact Vivian.

After the matter of saving the half-deer person, they had built a friendship, and thus had a means of contact.

A moment later.

The tree spirit Vivian arrived at the ranger's cabin. After a brief sensing, she did not find any trace of Daphne.

David was slightly disappointed, but immediately pulled himself together.

"Rod, it's not safe lately. I feel stranger things are going to happen next. Be as careful as you can."

With that, he left in a hurry.

Rod frowned.

Since that time, he hadn't seen Daphne at all.

But his impression of this young lady wasn't bad, and he couldn't help feeling deeply uneasy for her.

"To dare kidnap the lord's daughter, that's quite the guts."

Unfortunately, Vivian couldn't find her.

He himself had no means to find her either.

Tally hugged him.

"Do you like that type of young lady?"

She shapeshifted into Daphne's appearance, her face flushed with peach-blossom color, her eyes seductive.

"Cut it out, Vivian's right here."

"What's there to fear? Their tree spirits are all emotionless blocks of wood, they won't care."

True enough.

Vivian's eyes, glowing with pure white light, were wide open, and she didn't seem the least bit flustered.

But honestly, Vivian's eyes really did have a pure, clean beauty to them.

Unlike other races whose eyes had layered colors, her entire eye sockets were filled with a single pure light.

Her figure was good too, well-proportioned and natural.

Tally was truly sharp at reading people's expressions.

She noticed Rod's gaze wandering.

The corner of her mouth curved up, and she changed back into Vivian's appearance.

Her lips pressed against Rod's chin, her pure-white eyes slightly narrowed, staring fixedly at Rod.

Oh—

This actually feels pretty nice.

Vivian raised her hand.

Rod hurriedly pushed Tally away, a sense of guilt rising in his heart.

Even if the other party lacked desire, he couldn't fool around right in front of her face.

"Sorry."

"Humans."

"What?"

"Four, humans, one, halfling, entering, forest, fire!"

By the time she said the last word, Vivian had become very anxious.

Rod's expression faded.

Slowly turning cold.

(End of chapter)