Chapter 15: Divine Guidance Arts

Although it was clear that Li Rui was a newcomer, neither of them made a move. Paul was kind-hearted, while Kate cared about how Paul viewed her. A magical artifact of unknown use wasn’t enough to make Kate risk being expelled by the spellcaster to snatch it away… Of course, if Paul were to learn the artifact’s purpose and develop greed for it, that would be another matter entirely.

Paul was merely Kate’s teammate, not her caretaker; he couldn’t watch over her every moment, and whatever she did in secret was unknown to her companions.

That night, the night watch was assigned to the sword-and-shield wielder and the burly two-handed axe warrior. After finishing their meal, Paul and Kate laid mats by the campfire and slept back-to-back beside it.

But in the middle of the night, the spellcaster Paul suddenly awoke, clutching tightly to the long wooden staff he had held since before sleep. He thrust his foot against the ground and sprang up like a coiled spring.

Without making a sound, Kate, the archer by the fire, and the two-handed axe warrior, who was dozing lightly preparing for the second half of the watch, also sprang to their feet upon sensing the movement, seizing their weapons and scanning the surroundings.

Yet all was silent; they found nothing amiss and could only cast puzzled glances at Paul.

At that moment, Paul’s eyes widened in disbelief, staring fixedly in one direction.

The other three shifted their gaze accordingly and saw that it was Li Rui’s resting place.

Turning back, they looked at Paul with even greater confusion.

They were neither spellcasters nor druids, so they could not sense the natural magic converging from all around the forest.

The faint dots of natural magic gathered, swirling like a ribbon around Li Rui in constant motion.

They were blocked by the thin mist enveloping him, forcing the magic to accumulate and gradually compress the mist downward.

“Shh…” Paul gestured for his teammates to remain silent and tiptoed quietly toward Li Rui’s spot.

Reaching the branch where Li Rui lay, he raised his oak staff and murmured an incantation.

A subtle breeze, conjured by a transformation spell—“Dance of the Wind”—arose and gently blew toward the ribbon of magic surrounding Li Rui.

The invisible natural magic particles became more active upon contact with the breeze, swiftly pressing the mist around Li Rui back into the bundle he held in his arms.

Then, surges of natural magic flowed into Li Rui’s body through the wound on his right chest and the tips of his fingers and toes.

Yet after all the magic had entered, the phenomenon Paul hoped to see did not appear. Instead, the magic seemed to leak from Li Rui’s body like water dripping through a sieve.

Watching this, Paul recalled what was happening and quickly took action again.

A divination spell—“Divine Guidance”—he cast.

………………

Li Rui had a dream much like the one from the night before.

He transformed into the gentle wind, the rushing water, the solid earth, and the brilliant, fervent flame.

He felt an unparalleled freedom, the vast expanse of heaven and earth, the life force of nature’s creatures.

Awakening from the dream and returning from this embodiment of all things to the prison of flesh, he couldn’t help but shed tears of regret.

“Congratulations!”

A deep male voice spoke beneath him. Li Rui turned his head and saw it was Paul, the spellcaster he had met just yesterday. Paul clapped his hands as he spoke.

“Welcome to the druidic family, my brother.”

“Huh?”

Li Rui was utterly bewildered.

Druid? What druid? Me?

“Come down and join us for breakfast, brother,” Paul said, pointing to the fire. “We’ll talk while we eat. I promise you’ll learn everything you want to know.”

Still a little groggy from sleep, Li Rui followed Paul to the fire and sat down, only to find Paul’s three other teammates staring at him intently.

Their eyes were filled with raw envy and jealousy.

A spellcaster!

Just by sleeping, he had become a prospective druid, and Paul had even willingly cast two spells to help him…

This kind of fast-track treatment to becoming a spellcaster made these three melee fighters’ eyes burn with jealousy!

“Here, eat this.” Paul ignored his teammates’ sour expressions and handed Li Rui a roasted rabbit they had prepared. “I’ll explain first. Ask me if you don’t understand anything.”

Li Rui accepted the roasted rabbit, eating as he listened to Paul’s explanation, quickly grasping what was happening to him.

In this world, becoming a druid was actually quite simple.

There were two paths to becoming a druid: one was to request an existing druid to guide you onto the path; the other was to seek nature’s favor by immersing yourself in the wild.

As long as you do not reject nature and its magic deep within your heart, and your physical constitution is adequate—not congenitally disabled, nor utterly incapable of harboring natural magic—then all you need to do is abandon all gear and tools, enter a deserted wilderness with bare hands, and personally experience the vastness of heaven and earth and the raw survival of birds, beasts, insects, and fish.

In that case, you have a high chance of being favored by nature.

This method hinges on the idea that as long as you’re alive, you qualify to be a druid.

When nature’s favor descends and natural magic infuses the body of one close to nature, provided their perception attribute reaches 12 points (ordinary people have 10 to 11; 12 means slightly sharper senses though indistinguishable without deliberate display), their body can contain the natural magic, becoming a prospective druid.

Li Rui’s perception attribute was originally insufficient; even if nature favored him daily, the magic would eventually leak away.

But last night, Paul cast “Divine Guidance” on him—a spell that sharpens even the dullest senses in sudden moments, temporarily boosting Li Rui’s perception attribute to meet the minimum requirement to become a prospective druid.

Now that the spell’s effect has worn off, his perception has returned to normal, but the natural magic previously retained inside him no longer leaks out.

Natural magic is like a group of guests; as long as the favored one can perceive them, they are happy to stay.

However, if this favored individual never learns the first druid spell, these guests will gradually leave.

This is why Li Rui is currently only a prospective druid.

Paul said, “Next, if you’re willing, I’ll take you to the nearest druid camp where you can learn how to truly become a druid.”