Chapter 940 – Natural Perception

In any case, the Magic Web placed no restrictions on the number of professions one could hold. As long as one could meet the requirements for assuming a profession, as long as one’s psychic power could withstand it, and as long as one’s magical energy was sufficient to support studying multiple professions’ magic simultaneously, one could take on as many professions as one wished.

It was simply that most beings in the Seran world lacked the qualifications to do so. The requirements for assuming a profession alone were enough to stump many.

But her current identity was still that of a nature Elf born only a few days ago, living in a very isolated tribe. Apart from the nature Elves’ inherited memories, she temporarily had no other channels to acquire professional inheritance knowledge.

Moreover, her identity as a nature Elf would be of great help to her going forward and could not be easily discarded.

So for now, she could only use the nature Elves’ inherited memories as reference to choose her current extraordinary profession.

Within the nature Elves’ inherited memories, only the inheritances for druid, ranger, and bard were relatively complete.

Other professions were basically only mentioned in passing when introducing general knowledge about extraordinary professions.

It wasn’t that the nature Elves lacked depth of heritage—rather, each extraordinary profession had certain requirements for assumption.

For nature Elves, only these three professions could be freely chosen from the very beginning.

Even if one wanted to assume other professions, one would have to find ways to meet those professional requirements first.

Druids required the Advanced Natural Affinity talent to assume and were the profession most aligned with the way of nature.

They were both powerful users of nature magic and could obtain impressive close-combat capabilities through specific Transfiguration spells or natural enhancements. They were guardians of the forest and maintainers of natural balance.

Rangers required the Intermediate Natural Affinity talent, along with a certain degree of physical agility.

They focused on training survival, tracking, and combat skills in specific terrains—especially forests—developing the body’s potential in agility.

Rangers were excellent hunters and scouts, skilled with bows, weapons, and possessing some unique nature magic to strengthen themselves, confuse enemies, or coordinate with animal companions in battle.

Compared to druids, rangers commanded fewer spells in both number and variety, but were more focused on practical combat applications.

Finally, there were bards. They did not require the Natural Affinity talent, but needed to surpass ordinary people in appearance, voice, and temperament—possessing a certain charisma talent before they could assume the profession.

This profession focused on developing artistic talent, combining magic with art, channeling magical power through music, poetry, and performance. They possessed a blend of spellcasting, support abilities, and a degree of combat skill.

Bards were widely knowledgeable, skilled at inspiring allies and weakening enemies, and commanded some unique illusion and enchantment spells, though their combat prowess was not strong.

Natural Affinity was an innate talent all nature Elves were born with, so most nature Elves would choose either druid or ranger as their main profession.

Meanwhile, superior physical beauty, long lifespans, and the pursuit of art were universal traits shared by all Elves. Therefore, regardless of which branch of Elves they belonged to, nearly all would take up bard as a secondary profession to satisfy their artistic interests and hobbies—to find some enjoyment in their long lives.

Mo Lan intended to learn all three of these professions.

After all, most nature Elves with no physical deficiencies and a relatively excellent bloodline were qualified to assume all three.

Tree Spirit Mother had also mentioned that many young nature Elves, when not yet certain of their future professional path, would choose to try all three professions. Once they grew older, they would settle on a main profession and either keep the rest as secondary professions or abandon them.

After all, assuming each profession required expending psychic power to bind a personal space within the Magic Web. The more professions one assumed, the greater the strain on one’s psychic power. Her exceptional psychic power was already an open secret with Tree Spirit Mother, so not giving up any of them—or even making all three her main professions—would not be considered extraordinary.

Regardless of which profession one pursued, everything had to begin with natural perception.

Even though her psychic power was more than sufficient to establish a connection with the Magic Web and assume all three professions, whether or not she had undergone natural perception was clearly discernible to the Tree of Life, whose vast spiritual presence loomed right beside her.

No matter how powerful one’s psychic power was, natural perception accompanied every nature Elf throughout their entire life and could not be neglected.

Following the relevant content in the inherited memories and Tree Spirit Mother’s explanation from the previous night, Mo Lan chose the heartwood bed as the location for her first natural perception.

The denser the forces of nature in a place, the easier it was to enter the state of natural perception, and the better its effects.

Where could the forces of nature possibly be denser than on a bed extending from the heartwood of the Tree of Life itself?

She sat cross-legged on the bed, her small hands resting naturally on her knees, palms facing upward, as if preparing to receive something.

Closing her eyes, she silently recited the key points of natural perception in her mind: “Relax body and mind, open yourself…”

At first, there was only darkness all around, along with the sound of her own heartbeat, which seemed overly distinct.

The chirping of birds in the distance, the rustling of leaves… sounds from the outside world seemed amplified, disrupting her concentration.

She felt somewhat agitated, her delicate brows furrowing slightly.

The state of “breathing in sync with the forest” that Tree Spirit Mother had described seemed impossibly far away.

“Don’t rush,” Mo Lan reminded herself, recalling the warm and embracing aura of the tree spirit from her dream. “Like a tree, like a blade of grass, simply existing, simply breathing…”

She stopped trying to “force” perception, stopped resisting those natural sounds, and instead tried to regard them as part of the forest’s own breathing.

She withdrew her attention from the outside world, focusing on her own breathing, imagining that each inhalation drew in the freshness of the forest, and each exhalation melted back into the surrounding environment.

Gradually, a subtle change began to occur.

She “felt” that within the trunk of the Tree of Life beneath her, there seemed to be countless warm streams radiating a soft green glow, flowing slowly yet powerfully—that was wood elemental force and the power of life coursing through.

She “felt” that the sunlight streaming through the window onto her body was no longer mere light and heat, but countless dancing, vibrant golden motes—light elemental particles. They seeped into the leaves and also gently permeated her skin, bringing a subtle, pleasant warmth.

A breeze passed through the room, and she seemed to “smell” the information the wind carried from afar—the sweet fragrance of lily of the valley flowers just blooming, the damp earthen scent that moss had accumulated through the night, and even the faint, almost imperceptible crisp coolness of water vapor carried by a stream flowing over rocks.

All of these combined into the forces of nature—vivid as life itself, vigorous as wood elemental force, warm as light elemental force, gentle as flowing water, and free as Wind Elemental Magic. Through her skin, her breathing, even through her open pores, these forces flowed in wispy threads into her body, nourishing every inch of her meridians, nurturing every cell.

An indescribable sensation of comfort and fullness enveloped her, as if she had returned to the cocoon of life, surrounded by the warm waters of life.

At the same time, her spirit seemed to be cleansed by this gentle force of nature. The lingering agitation and stray thoughts were quietly soothed away, and her consciousness became like a sky washed clean by rain—crystalline, serene, and focused.

Without any need to deliberately “train” it, her psychic power, in this state of synchronization with nature, naturally became more refined and keen.