Chapter 228 (1): Young Man, Do You Want to Become the Nature Knight?

Hotel suite, January twenty-ninth.

The sun rising in the east shone through the window, casting a hazy glow on the black-haired elf sitting cross-legged on the floor. His grace was a radiant sight to behold, and the picture he painted was beautiful in a mysterious way.

Wayne was working toward his minor goal to communicate with nature. His repeated failures had not doused his enthusiasm, but instead pushed him to try harder.

Oh, I’m not gonna believe that it won’t work!

When one had failed too many times, perseverance to achieve success became more of an obsession. Since last year, he had been attempting the same thing in different ways, coming up with new hypotheses and disproving them to eliminate the wrong answers, learning from his failures.

Over the past two days, he had been training with a serene state of mind and accidentally discovered that the elf state was unusually in tune with nature. With renewed enthusiasm, he spent all his time cultivating, resting only three hours per day.

His effort bore fruit, but not as much as he had expected.

Wayne was certain that elves were connected to nature. He only failed because his elf state wasn’t perfect. It was lacking something.

He had collected all three faiths of the Life Alliance: Nature, Sun, and Moonlight. He had also struck a perfect balance between the three and applied the formula without any mistake. His transformation shouldn’t have been flawed.

But it was.

Wayne attributed that to his low rank. Perhaps it was too early for a Silver-ranked mage to communicate with Nature. He should be able to do it once he reached Gold or Legendary.

It was only an unproven hypothesis, though. Take Filomina as an example. She was a Gold-ranked mage one step away from reaching Legendary rank, but when she transformed into an elf, she showed no sign of having communicated with Nature.

Wayne knew Filomina’s body and thoughts inside out after all the exploration he had done on both. He could proudly declare himself a Filomina expert, having touched every part of her existence. When he said that there was no sign of such communication, there really wasn’t.

Filomina’s case disproved Wayne’s hypothesis, but he still held onto hope. Everyone’s constitution was different. The fact that she couldn’t do it didn’t mean that he couldn’t.

Once he was a Gold-ranked mage, he would surely be able to communicate with nature freely. Now, he would settle for getting more used to the process.

Knock, knock.

Wayne opened his eyes and exited his elf state, rising and crossing the living room to open the door.

“Why aren’t you wearing clothes?”

Veronica frowned at him, naked save for his underwear. His build was quite good.

She took another look.

Wayne was two meters tall in his elf state, so he had undressed before transforming. Instead of explaining the real reason, he winked at Veronica and said, “We can’t get too intimate while we’re being watched, so I can only give you benefits in this way.”

Ha, who’s asking for that?!

Veronica huffed. “Put some clothes on. It’s been three days. It’s time to look for the last Philosopher’s Stone.”

Three days ago, when they arrived at Winster, Wayne had ignored the existing script and acquired two Philosopher’s Stones by speedrunning. The auditing team had its hands full. The actors had exited stage left prematurely, and the editor and director met up to rewrite the script.

To show their goodwill and secure a decent score, Wayne had been leading Veronica around the past three days, pretending to fall for the false clues.

The auditing team sighed in relief. The kid might be reckless, but he did know when to play along. Receiving his goodwill, they rearranged everything for their new script. The set was still the same abandoned church, and the NPCs had not been replaced, but the difficulty level had increased.

Charlotte, the leader of the auditing team, had taken on the mission personally with four Silver-ranked members. They put on skin masks and set up an ambush in the church as NPCs.

They didn’t want to take a beating without the ability to even resist. That was their bottom line!

Although the mission wasn’t completed yet, the team had already decided on the scores. The highest and lowest scores were taken out before the average was calculated. Wayne, who was reckless but understanding, got eighty, while Veronica, who wanted to follow the rules but was steered astray by him, got ninety-five. Put in a few problems that weren’t actually problems at all, and they had their report.

As long as the two secret auditors found no issue, the two candidates of the Windsor district would be finalized.

“It’s a little early, but alright. I’ll put on clothes. We’ll head out after having breakfast downstairs.”

Wayne glanced at the clock on the wall, speaking while dressing himself, “If we’re lucky, we’ll be back in Londan this afternoon. Since it’s rare for us to travel this far on our own without Vera following us, why don’t we go on a date on our way back?”

“Mother warned us before leaving that we’re being watched by many eyes as candidates. I suggest you keep yourself under control.” Veronica cocked her head and handed him his shirt. When Wayne raised his arms, suggesting she put it on for him, she pretended not to see anything.

“What’s wrong? We’re siblings. It’s normal for siblings to shop and go to a movie.”

“It’s wrong. There are no siblings like us.”

“There are. You just haven’t seen them...” Wayne mumbled, looking disappointed by the rejection.

Veronica felt a little regretful, too. Over the past two days, they had been together day and night, but keeping their distance. It made her feel insecure and wonder if Wayne had lost his feelings for her.

Damn you, Vera!

It was unreasonable, but Veronica blamed Vera. She would teach her a lesson once she returned.

***

Abandoned church, eight o’clock in the morning.

The church was located in a suburban area. There had once been a village, but as cities became industrialized, and the rural population flooded into the cities, the church and the village at large were both abandoned.

Eight hundred meters from the church was a newly built public cemetery, and a little farther away was the old royal cemetery of Windsor. Professionals were hired to maintain it well.

Wayne drove to the abandoned church and headed in with Veronica by his side. In a corner, a few NPCs appearing as homeless people were cooking potatoes in an iron pot.

“Dark Mage Andrew, you’re wanted by the church for your repeated offenses of stealing and leaking faith magic. Some time ago, you even stole the Philosopher’s Stone in the cemetery...” Wayne declared like he was dispensing justice, enunciating every word. “Do you have anything to say for yourself and your many sins?”

Andrew had nothing to say. In the original script, the NPCs should’ve bolted, and after a series of battles of wits and power and some intense fighting, he would leave the clues about the Philosopher’s Stone. That wouldn’t be necessary now, though. The two candidates had already proven their prowess.

Under Veronica’s exasperated gaze, Andrew, the dark mage, took a stamped ID and the brochure for the Church of Nature out. “You’re too late. I’m now a disciple of the goddess, and I’ve returned the Philosopher’s Stone. I’ll never steal again.”

“So you’re one of ours. Greetings, Mr. Andrew. I’m Wayne, and this is my companion, Veronica.” Wayne immediately changed his tune as if he didn’t care if Andrew was telling the truth, playing a faithful man whom religion had made into a fool perfectly.

He sat down and had a chat with Andrew, who pointed him in the right direction and told him the legend of the Philosopher’s Stone.

The overly long nonsense was all made up by the sleep-deprived scriptwriter. To cut the extraneous parts and summarize, Andrew was a tomb raider and had put in a lot of effort to acquire the stone.

The Philosopher’s Stone had belonged to the Windsor royal family, capable of bringing the dead back to life. Its previous owner was a royal, and the stone was buried in the royal cemetery nearby as part of the burial goods.

According to Andrew’s investigation, though, things weren’t as simple as that. The royal who possessed the stone had designed seventy-two empty graves, and the real Philosopher Stone wasn’t in the royal cemetery, but under this abandoned church.

(一`´一;)

What, is the new script portraying the Windsor royal family as the Cao family

?[1]

He swallowed his comment. He should thank the auditing team for cutting the action scenes and saving him the effort. Of course, there was also the possibility that they simply wanted to avoid a beating.

“As a fellow disciple of the Goddess of Nature, of course I’ll help you.” Andrew went up to the dry well in the back of the abandoned church, reading the lines from the script. “Go through the tunnel, and you’ll find the Philosopher’s Stone at the end. But beware of the traps and the dangers hidden in the dark.”

You’ve been down there and know all the hidden mechanisms. You should come with us!

Veronica thought, tilting her head to look at Wayne. When they were away from home, she trusted her external brain more.

“Andrew, thank you for your effort in guarding the Philosopher’s Stone,” Wayne said, sounding as righteous as ever. “You’re a devoted follower who has turned to the good side thanks to the goddess’s grace. I believe that She will forgive you for the sins you’ve committed.”

Fair, just, righteous, and logical. Veronica could always trust Wayne to speak sensible nonsense.

1. A reference to Cao Cao from the Three Kingdoms period. It’s believed that he created seventy-two burial sites to prevent his real grave from being raided. ☜