A Warrior for Life

Bran's face remained sullen after a minute of silence.

"It's such a shame.... the tree loved you so. That meant you were destined to be incredibly intelligent which would mean incredibly talented in the arts of magic." Bran said in a defeated tone.

"But wouldn't it be possible to go down both paths?" Xavier asked trying his hardest to find a way out of his current predicament.

"It's possible.... But you would have to be of at least Warrior level 3 to even think about it. At least Level 5 to be certain." Bran said sadly.

"But... Why?!" Xavier asked in confusion.

"Hmm... I suppose since you have amnesia you wouldn't really remember much about the paths I suppose." Bran said after thinking for a moment

"Well you see... Warriors bodys at early stages make it impossible to harness mana in the way that Mages have need to. Mages need to hold there body within and that means that they can't strengthen there body to much or else there mana will be sucked dry by the body." He said.

"You probably haven't noticed this because you haven't tried to increase your mana by meditation. But it is true. The only way you could theoretically become a wizard is at the beginning and end of the third and fifth level of the path of the warrior."

"They are respectively known as 'Battle Will Emergence' and 'Battle Spirit Emergence'. In these stages you could theoretically combine a Battle Will and Mana / Battle Spirit and Mana. This would make the energy source much stronger and it wouldn't be limited by the body which would be much more efficient but the issue with this is that if you don't do it absolutely perfect then you could ruin your spirit and will." He said in a final tone.

"And the Battle spirit and will are what make a Warrior... a Warrior." He finished.

"So... it seems I'm a Warrior for good." Xavier said in resignation.

"Yep... I suppose I can still show you the art of Gardening but It will be much harder since you won't be able to sense mana. Or at least as easier as a those on the Mage Path." Bran said with a tinge of hope within his voice.

A smile slowly spread across his face as he started walking past Xavier and then said in an excited manner "Follow me. I'll show you something that might cheer you up."

Xavier nodded in silence as he followed Bran as he walked through the huge Garden. After around ten minutes they arrived once more at The Tree of Wisdom.

"You see. This tree could probably help you out if it truly believes in you. Every book on it's shelves is something that nature itself created. So if you studied hard enough you could probably become a gardener like me." Bran said with a smile on his face.

"But to even think about it you will have to go up there and read around thirty books. You won't have the innate skills required to become a full blooded gardener so... you have to make it up with pure brunt force intellect." Bran said as he motioned at the tree. "And this should help you."

"You will have to first read around 24 books to understand the fundamentals of being a Gardener... It's kind of hard to explain and it's only something that can be explained after you learn it. If your lucky you may learn it after the first book but I doubt that. It took me until around thirty books to understand but then again I was reading the wrong books." Bran said as he gently stepped on to a branch and motioned for Xavier to step on it too.

After it started to ascend with him and Bran on it he talked once more "The best explanation of what you need to learn is... the innate act of being a gardener. To put it into my understandings it's... the care one puts towards the plants though it is slightly different for every person."

Xavier felt as if he had heard it before. 'Care towards plants.... I've definitely heard of that before. Plants... Care.... Care is like... Love?'

"You mean A Gardener's Love?" Xavier asked in a quiet manner.

Bran stiffened as he began to think. "That's.... a very correct way to define it. It feels right... Wait does that mean... You already have learned it?" He said in an excited manner.

"Yeah... I learned it after the first book I read."

"So you can hear them?" Bran asked. Almost as if doubting Xavier.

Xavier became confused. 'Hear them? Hear who?' He wasn't even sure what the skill did to be honest. So how would he know what it did let alone know how to hear whatever he was talking about.

But then again the system seemed to always want to interrupt his train of thought.

---

<Gardner's Love: LV: 1 (0/100)>

This skill allows you to hear the forest. Each plant is special and you know that. They can feel your kindness and love for them and will give you there words as thanks. This skill spends 1 Mana per minute of use.

---

"I guess I can.... I didn't really know until now." Xavier said still confused on how one could 'Hear the forest'.

"Then talk to them." Bran said simply. A poker face appearing on his face.

'I guess System activate 'Gardner's Love'?' Xavier thought.

And he was greeted by silence. The system didn't reply. He asked again before he noticed something. It was loud. Very loud. After focusing on the sounds around him he realized there where thousands of words echoing through the garden around him. They all were unique but all of them had one thing in which they shared.

They all said "Thank you. For caring for us. For loving us."

It was a simple phrase but one they couldn't stop saying. It seemed almost as if they were so excited by the fact that someone showed compassion and understanding towards them that they had almost stopped functioning as they couldn't stop saying there thanks.

"S-Stop... Please... You don't need to say thank you." Xavier said, flustered.

"THANK YOU." Replied a symphony of voices that refused to stop.

Bran finally began to smile. It started as a smirk before slowly raising to a grin that could eat Sh*t. Then it devolved to a belly laugh that echoed even louder than the million voices around Xavier.

"HAHAHAHA-HAHAHA." He said before gulping for air and continuing once more "HAHAHA- YOU REALLY CAN TALK TO THEM. YOUR A FREAKING MONSTER HAHAHAHA"

'Is he broken?' Was the last thing Xavier thought before the branch stopped.