A Forest Spirit’s Advantage

Hana terminated her Soul-link from Q-chan's subordinates who were observing the events happening at the Gray Rock Mountain. She heaved a relieved sigh. Currently, she was squatting down beside the Crystal-veined stream where her precious herb garden was located just a few meters away.

"Now, the Gray Rock Mountain has been taken care of. This calamity is also a form of opportunity, though, a risky one."

[Aiyaaa, I hate thisssss! Especially when I have to become the villain!] Hana could only whine in her heart tragically. She hated being mean to others. Outwardly, the aunty still had to maintain her regal status in public to invoke reverence in her people. Shiro nagged at her so many times that she felt sorry for him. Seeing how badly he was hurt for her this time, Hana was determined to listen more to her pets' advice and suggestions to prevent such matter from happening again.

"Now, your turn." Hana turned to the fidgety Forest Spirit in front of her. She wanted to pat the creature's head. Nonetheless, seeing it winced visibly in fear, she paused and finally retracted her hand back after sighing lightly.

"Show me what you can do. I promise not to mistreat you, Ta-chan." Hana plastered her most sincere smile to placate the nervous spiritual beast. She decided not to touch it too much since it looked really stressed out. She was willing to wait until it calmed down somewhat. She knew it understood well, but it was just too cowardly.

Hana wouldn't have become so cautious towards this magical tapir-veggie combination if she hadn't seen what it could do to kill the dangerous Silver-banded Eagle Boss. Truthfully, Hana was worried that the creature might stab her accidentally from its extreme nervousness. She already heard the whole story from Kuro before. This fellow was the main culprit behind the wrath of the Silver-banded Eagle attacks; it was so clumsy during their chase and went to break someone else's precious egg. Who won't get mad?

However, she didn't blame the fellow at all since it reminded her of a particular sister of hers at home who was super clumsy! She had been breaking things unintentionally and faced many small accidents and misfortunes almost weekly since they were small. Yes, there were people such as this. In gaming terms, these kinds of people have very low luck attributes. They will always face unfounded misfortune along the way. Hana had already learned to accept her sister; thus, she could be quite easygoing with the Forest Spirit's mischievous deeds and didn't blame it. As always, just blame the sudden bad luck or the high heavens.

On the other side of the world, Hanis suddenly sneezed multiple times while she was hanging clothes on the porch. She unintentionally flung her arms and knocked down the clothes basket she had placed on the stool. The basket fell on her toes at an awkward angle and precisely hit the smallest' pinky'. It hurt so much until she yelped in pain and jumped. Unfortunately, this small action had made her foot unintentionally kick the basket away. The clothes within rolled out and fell into a dark puddle formed from last night's rain.

Hanis, TT_________TT. [Who talks behind my back again..]

She sighed deeply, took a few minutes to recollect herself, and filled up the now-dirty clothes into the basket again to rewash them. Facing such unlucky 'accidents' her whole life, she had become quite resilient to it and could cope well. She suddenly was reminded of her missing elder sister and sighed for the umpteenth time.

[Where are you, Sis? You must be having fun behind my back and even talk shiit about me to others. I thought you were crazy over your man so much..]

She missed Sis Hana quite a lot since, originally, they were pretty close. She was one of the family circle who did not believe Arash's explanation, but she kept her opinion to herself. After all, Sis Hana was her favorite sister, and it's up to her what she felt was right. Hanis will support whatever she wishes to do. She was confident that her big sis would return once she had enough fun. She might have an insane abrupt idea to be a zookeeper somewhere and indulge for a few months with animals to destress. Who knows?

...

Ta-chan nodded gently and immediately cast its most basic skill. Its hooves glowed with a pale light, and the vegetation around the place it stood started sprouting rapidly in front of Hana's eyes! It was like a fast-forward macro video featuring a plant life cycle. It started walking around Hana, and the nearly nonexistent weed grew into monstrous lush undergrowth in just a few short seconds!

Hana, "O____O"

This was the famed life-energy equipped to priest-like protagonist! Did it mean that it could heal and improve the life force?! Or was it only targetted at vegetation?

"Can you make the growth stop? Can you take away the life energy given? Can you absorb the life energy of the trees?" Hana rapidly asked while her eyes shone bright with eagerness and curiosity.

That was seriously quite intense! She had never seen weeds grow as large and as healthy as these! She could see a bright future ahead of her crops.

Ta-chan was somewhat shocked by how excited the Mistress was with her own random ideas. It pondered deeply and made an uncertain expression. It honestly never thought of depriving the life of trees since there was no need! Due to its attributes, it rarely faced mortal danger. The ability to produce life energy meant that it could heal rapidly and wasn't easily affected by physical attacks.

Additionally, Ta-chan took it as its responsibility to populate the forest with dense vegetation around it. It was almost like a deity-level being to the trees since it had a direct connection to them, especially to the ones it groomed. They would abide by its instructions like making some slight movements, flowering intentionally, or producing fruits for it to eat.

Hana nodded thoughtfully after listening to Ta-chan's explanation telepathically. This tapir was a treasure! What a rare find!

Hana pointed at a small weed a meter away from them. "Try. Suck its life energy. Just reverse whatever you did to the weed around you before. Mmm.. To be exact, reverse the path of energy following the route you expel them out when you bestow life energy. Do it with caution, just in case there's a backlash." Hana explained confidently like an Expert to the clueless Forest Spirit. Obviously, she copypasted these words from her favorite c-novels!

Ta-chan nodded while pondering on how to proceed. After a few tries, it surprisingly succeeded! The tiny weed shriveled upon itself rapidly. It turned brown and, after a moment, lost all of its life force. In exchange, the microscopic life force entered its body through its hoof and slightly nourished its being. Ta-chan couldn't believe that it could achieve such actions! Although the amount of life force was inconsequential, this showed that as long as it was within its home ground, it would never fall!

"Why don't we do a little experiment? Let's see if you can bestow the life energy to other creatures besides trees."

Ta-chan was slightly excited to be able to discover new ways to utilize its energy. Hence, it readily acquiesced.

Hana brought the Forest Spirit beside the stream. She waited patiently after asking Ara telepathically to help gather some volunteers for a little experiment. After a while, an eager crab crawled forward and showed its slightly broken pincer. A dying fish caught by another freshwater creature was presented at the same time. And finally, Hana nicked her own finger to test Ta-chan's limits. Unfortunately, after a series of tests, it turned out that Ta-chan's life energy only affected itself and trees.

"Aihhh.." Hana sighed disappointedly.

Hana wasn't satisfied with the result and planned to redo the test once her connection with Ta-chan improved. She had a haunch that the key to becoming successful at life energy absorption lay in achieving a high-leveled Soul Link with the nervous Forest Spirit.

Hana pushed all the negative emotions aside and took a moment to adjust herself. She then merrily dragged Ta-chan to her little herb garden to test its abilities comprehensively in tandem with the usage of the Spiritual Energy Gathering Formation.

Hana's spirit was high.

She knew her spirit-agriculture plan would definitely soar with the presence of Ta-chan. Kuro was right! A Forest Spirit had the most cheat-like advantage in becoming an efficient God-level farmer!

...

Upon the glowing floor of the Mistress' personal lair, Alpy was silently sitting in the middle of a small crowd, observing every single aspect of the luxurious abode and the creatures around him. Lord Brother Kuro had informed them to converge together and wait for the Mistress inside.

It was twenty-four hours after the battle.

During the operation, which took less than four hours, Alpy felt unsatisfied with his performance. Since he and his group weren't strong enough, none of them could directly contribute towards defending the land. Besides that, due to their large body size, not one of them was selected to help out with the Bubbleglue attack deployment.

It was Alpy's first time entering the Serpent's Lair headquarters...

...