Chapter 677 – Dreamweaver World 15

Under normal circumstances, with the residency guarantee from Greenwood Village, one would be recognized by the village’s dream citizens and earn the right to seek the village chief for the race conversion ceremony, becoming a Dryad.

However, this race conversion ceremony required quite a few materials.

So the ceremony doubled as a quest—adventurers had to collect the materials themselves, and only at the very end could they bring the materials to the village chief for the racial transformation.

Mo Lan wanted to see if she could use the power of money to have Groot handle everything at once.

She refused to believe that with Groot’s greedy nature, he hadn’t secretly pocketed some materials whenever he’d issued race conversion quests in the past.

Groot immediately understood her meaning and continued operating on the quest panel.

【Do you accept the quests “Dryad Race Conversion Ceremony” and “Lost Gold Coins 2”?】

【Dryad Race Conversion Ceremony】

【Difficulty: Normal】

【Objective: Collect ceremony materials, find Groot to complete the ceremony, convert to Dryad】

【Rewards: Dryad Racial Template, Skill Point ×1, Experience ×100, Groot’s Old Pal】

【Lost Gold Coins 2】

【Difficulty: Easy】

【Objective: Help poor Groot recover his lost 100 dream gold coins】

【Rewards: One set of ceremony materials, Experience ×50, Groot’s Warmth】

The “Dryad Race Conversion Ceremony” quest was basically fine aside from “Groot’s Old Pal,” which was obviously a trap, so Mo Lan accepted it.

As for “Lost Gold Coins 2,” Mo Lan shook her head with a feigned look of distress. “Mr. Groot, a hundred dream gold coins is far too many. With my abilities, it would be very difficult to find them all!”

Though the ceremony materials list was long, the items were merely miscellaneous in variety—collecting them would take a fair amount of time, but the actual difficulty wasn’t high. Everything could be found near Greenwood Village.

Otherwise, adventurers who hadn’t converted races and had no class would never be able to complete the quest.

All those materials combined weren’t worth a hundred dream gold coins—they weren’t even worth a single one!

This fellow was clearly jacking up the price. If she paid a hundred dream gold coins now, she’d only get fleeced even harder when she tried to buy class invitation letters and Magic skill books from him later.

Old Groot’s whiskers drooped in disappointment, though his eyes were still darting about.

Seeing this, Mo Lan produced three dream gold coins and lined them up in her palm, forming a glittering golden row. “However… finding three dream gold coins shouldn’t be a problem. It just depends on whether you need them or not!”

The gap between a hundred dream gold coins and three was simply too vast, and Old Groot was reluctant to let go.

“It seems you’re not very satisfied with my abilities. In that case, I’ll just have to find someone else. I’m sure there are plenty of people in the village who’d be willing to sell me ceremony materials, class invitation letters, and Magic skill books!” Mo Lan let out a feigned sigh.

The moment Old Groot heard that she’d also need class invitation letters and Magic skill books down the line, he immediately thought of all those unsold goods gathering dust in his possession and panicked at once. “Satisfied! I’m satisfied!”

In the end, he crumbled under the monetary assault.

He even consoled himself—three dream gold coins was still a tidy profit. It was just that the gap compared to a hundred coins was a bit large, that’s all.

Without this fool, who else would spend three dream gold coins on that pile of junk!

The materials for the race conversion ceremony had been arbitrarily made up in the first place, existing only at the world consciousness’s request to give adventurers a bit of training. What actually enabled adventurers to convert races was the “Racial Template” rewarded by the world consciousness.

Thinking this over, Old Groot modified the quest content, adjusting the coin amount to three. His only remaining bit of displeasure was resolved after he also downgraded the reward from “Groot’s Warmth” to “Groot’s Gratitude.”

“Groot’s Warmth” was at least a pair of intact leather gloves—albeit only one of the pair remained. “Groot’s Gratitude,” on the other hand, was a ratty coin pouch with a hole in it.

This time, Mo Lan accepted the “Lost Gold Coins 2” quest, handed three dream gold coins to Groot, received the quest reward of ceremony materials, then handed that set of materials back to Groot, advancing the progress of the “Dryad Race Conversion Ceremony” quest.

Old Groot carefully polished the three dream gold coins clean, then gingerly stuffed them into the increasingly bulging coin pouch at his waist. Only then did he beckon leisurely, “Follow me!”

Hunched over and leaning on his gnarled, knotted wooden staff, he led Mo Lan toward the altar at the center of the village.

Greenwood Village’s altar was situated at the base of a towering ancient tree, formed naturally from intertwining tree roots, its surface carved with ancient runes.

Groot made a grand show of arranging the materials around the altar, his movements exaggeratedly theatrical as if performing some sacred ceremony, when in reality he was just tossing things down haphazardly.

Mo Lan was entirely unsurprised. The guides on the forums had long mentioned that while the race conversion ceremony appeared solemn, the actual process was quite casual.

She calmly stepped onto the center of the altar and watched as Groot put on airs, waving a stick he’d just picked up from the roadside, muttering incantations under his breath.

【Performing Dryad Race Conversion Ceremony…】

As the panel notification popped up, the runes on the altar lit up one by one with an emerald-green glow.

A warm energy rose from the soles of her feet, gentle as the softest spring sunlight, slowly seeping into every limb and bone in Mo Lan’s body.

She closed her eyes and turned her awareness inward to her mental sea, tracing this energy that was similar to yet distinct from the forces of nature, watching as it gathered in the depths of her mental sea and coalesced into a translucent, crystalline jade-green crystal.

Just then, the Gate of Dreams suddenly extended a wisp of pink energy that wrapped around the green crystal like a tentacle, gently drawing it close.

This crystal, just like the Dream Language skill book before it, established a connection with the Gate of Dreams.

An endless stream of green energy was guided by the pink energy, flowing throughout her entire body.

At the same time, Mo Lan’s appearance began to change.

Her skin gradually took on a pale green luster, leaf-shaped natural patterns emerging on its surface. Her original purple waves transformed into fluffy brown curls, and her deep purple irises contracted and reshaped into the amber vertical pupils unique to the Dryad.

【Race conversion successful. Dryad Racial Template acquired. Talent column unlocked.】

…

Even as the system notifications flickered, Mo Lan didn’t bother examining her new appearance. What concerned her more was the discovery she’d made during the transformation process.

This body of hers didn’t seem to entirely belong to her. It was so compatible with dream energy that it seemed to have been originally composed of dream energy itself.

This discovery left her briefly puzzled.

From the moment she’d entered the dream realm, neither the Book of Cards’ functions nor her abilities as a Sorceress had been subject to any restrictions.

She had originally assumed that the dream realm reshaped adventurers’ bodies based on their real physical forms.

Now it seemed that wasn’t entirely the case.