Chapter 994 – How Many Children?

Nature Elves were far fewer in number than other Elf branches, and the Emerald Green Tribe was already considered a relatively large nature Elf settlement.

Though other forests still held scattered, smaller nature Elf communities, they had little contact with the Emerald Green Tribe and rarely exchanged news.

Mo Lan was just pondering whether she should visit other nature Elf tribes when Celine’s bright, surprised voice rang out from below the tree:

“Dominic? You’ve finally decided to bring out that barrel of precious honey brew?”

She leaned over to look and saw that both Dominic and Celine had already arrived at the base of the tree.

Dominic had a wooden barrel wrapped in fresh vines hoisted steadily on his shoulder, while Polly was spreading a soft woven grass blanket on the ground and setting out an elegantly patterned drinking set.

Celine looked up and spotted her, immediately waving: “Moira! Come down!”

“Coming.”

Mo Lan leaped lightly down from the platform, landing beside Celine.

Dominic carefully set the barrel down and pried open a corner of the lid with a dagger. A rich, mellow honey fragrance instantly wafted through the air.

He took the slender-necked flask that Polly handed him, cautiously poured it half full, and quickly stoppered it tight: “That’s enough, that’s enough — one cup each! The rest… we’ll unseal it to celebrate when the children are born.”

“Wait,” Mo Lan keenly caught his choice of words. “‘Children’? How many children have you two conceived exactly?”

“What are you thinking!” Dominic laughed despite himself, though the tips of his ears flushed slightly red. “You know perfectly well how much time and magical energy it takes to condense a life cocoon. If the two of us dared to conceive several at once, we’d probably still be stuck at a low rank right now — how would I even qualify for the patrol team?”

He paused, his gaze drifting toward the canopy of the Tree of Life. “The reason I said ‘children’ is because Celine has a child too — it’s hanging on a branch right next to our little one!”

Mo Lan turned to Celine in astonishment: “You have a partner too? And you’ve conceived offspring?”

Celine shook her head, then nodded:

“I haven’t found a partner. But while studying under Lady Lila, I discovered that she and I are alike — neither of us intends to find a partner, yet we both long for the continuation of our bloodline.

So… we performed the Life Bonding Ceremony together and jointly condensed a life cocoon.

The timing is about the same as Polly and Dominic’s.

Lady Lila is very powerful, and she took on the greater burden during the condensation of the life cocoon. Her professional rank dropped several levels, and even now her strength still hasn’t returned to its Peak…”

Celine’s voice grew subdued.

Polly took her hand and gave it a gentle, comforting squeeze: “Dropping in rank when nurturing a little Elf is perfectly normal! Give it a few more years and she’ll recover!”

Celine still felt guilty. Lady Lila had looked after her and voluntarily shouldered more of the burden during the life cocoon’s formation. Celine’s own professional rank had only dropped by one level — she had essentially contributed just a small amount of soul energy. But she had already made up her mind:

“…Once the life cocoon matures, I’ll take on more of the hatching and child-rearing responsibilities!”

Mo Lan was stunned for a moment, then raised the cup Polly had filled to the brim. The clear honey brew swirled with an amber luster:

“Congratulations to all of you! You each have your own continuation of life now. By the way, when are your life cocoons expected to mature?”

Polly and Dominic exchanged a glance, their eyes brimming with anticipation: “We asked Chieftain Matil to inquire with the Tree Spirit for us. It should be within the next three months.”

Celine sat nearby hugging her knees, her voice soft and unhurried: “The one Lady Lila and I share is around the same time.”

“That’s very soon!” Mo Lan’s heart stirred. What a coincidence — Polly’s and Celine’s life cocoons were maturing at roughly the same time, and Traci and Vasida had arrived in the Seran world at roughly the same time too. Could it be that these cocoons were actually them?

The honey brew was drained and night deepened.

Polly was urged by Dominic to go back to the treehouse to rest, and Celine also said her goodbyes, mentioning she needed to harvest newly ripened plants early the next morning.

Mo Lan watched their figures disappear, then turned, lightly tapped her toes, and leaped silently onto the main trunk of the Tree of Life.

She moved nimbly through the crisscrossing branches. Deep within the canopy, five softly glowing life cocoons pulsed with a gentle radiance.

Mo Lan’s gaze first fell on the third branch on the eastern side.

Polly and Dominic’s life cocoon hung there.

Nearby was another life cocoon — that had to be Celine and Lila’s.

She approached slowly, her fingertip hovering an inch above the cocoon’s shell, and closed her eyes to carefully sense it.

After a moment, Mo Lan opened her eyes and looked at the two life cocoons with a knowing smile.

No wonder the timing was so coincidental. She had sensed familiar psychic power fluctuations within both cocoons.

Inside Polly and Dominic’s cocoon were Traci’s psychic waves.

Inside Celine and Lila’s cocoon were Vasida’s psychic waves.

Both of them had been born into the Emerald Green Tribe — only they weren’t children of the Tree of Life. They each had their own Elf parents.

It was then that Mo Lan realized: not every otherworld Explorer who used a Realm-friend invitation to descend into the Seran world was born as a child of the Tree of Life.

“This is actually better!”

Vasida was fine — she was a Witch’s child who had naturally awakened as a Sorceress. But Traci had been born in an era when Witches suffered all manner of persecution. She had awakened as a Sorceress from a human background, and her childhood had been far from happy. Experiencing childhood anew, with the love of parents — that couldn’t be a bad thing.

Mo Lan decided she wouldn’t leave the Seran world just yet. She absolutely had to see Traci and Vasida born with her own eyes and hold her two Sorceress friends who would be reborn as little Elves!

Once that thought took root, it became impossible to shake.

She even began scheming about how to openly capture images of them as infants.

It wasn’t that the Seran world lacked magical items capable of recording images. Memory Crystals could store moving footage, and light-shadow runes could project scenes — but over time, the images would always degrade.

Compared to the “magical camera” she had developed by combining Earth’s scientific technology with Valen Magic, they still fell a bit short.

However, the materials needed to build a magical camera couldn’t all be found in the Seran world, so she couldn’t simply pull one out and use it.

“Maybe I can find substitute materials and make a Seran world version of the magical camera!”

Mo Lan nestled in the suspended hammock on the treehouse platform, directing a quill pen to list usable materials on paper.

“I should also prepare a backup plan,” she muttered, starting a new column at the bottom of the page. “In case the substitute materials for the camera aren’t ideal, the Seran world’s magical paintings would be a decent alternative!”

Magical paintings created with specially formulated magical pigments could, once completed and activated with magical energy, make the scenes within them shift subtly — they could even record the faint sounds and emotional atmosphere present at the time of painting.

The professional heritage of bards included methods for creating magical paintings, and Mo Lan had studied them.