Chapter 949 – Coming of Age at One Hundred

After the last question was answered, the tree spirit hurried to say, “Tonight’s dream lesson has gone on long enough. Your mind needs rest. Let me send you back first. Follow the inherited memories to conduct your professional training, and record all the zero-level spells you want to learn into the magic web one by one before coming back. When you do, I can practice magic with you in the dreamscape…”

With that, she swiftly released Mo Lan’s consciousness.

The dream faded, and Mo Lan awoke on the heartwood bed.

“Let me get all the spell models recorded first.”

Mo Lan murmured to herself, the corners of her lips curling slightly upward.

She had guessed that Tree Spirit Mother was probably using “practice partner” as bait to lure her back into a “normal” learning rhythm.

Well then, she wouldn’t hold back!

Recording spell models in the magic web was far easier than constructing spell structures in her mental sea—the latter hadn’t even been difficult for her, let alone the former.

The simplified magic web versions of the spell models only took Mo Lan a single glance to memorize. With her psychic power being more than sufficient, she breezed through all the general zero-level spells and the exclusive spells of all three professions in practically one sitting.

Before dawn had even broken, she had recorded every last one in her magic web.

Even though the number of spells one could record was tied to one’s total magical energy capacity, the tree spirit had long known about her formidable psychic power. Recording all the zero-level spells was well within her capabilities.

Her professional training didn’t fall behind either. While other Elves used natural perception to train their psychic power, absorb the forces of nature, and deepen their understanding of nature, Mo Lan was able to enter a state of natural resonance directly every single time. However, during the resonance process that followed, she always maintained conscious awareness and strictly controlled the duration of the resonance.

In her druid profession, her communication with nature deepened by the day. She gradually became able to sense the condition of plants and engage in simple exchanges with animal companions. In the course of maintaining the forest environment, the forest rewarded her with abundant forces of nature. She even mastered several wild transformation forms similar to animal transformation.

Her ranger skills also grew increasingly refined. She could leap swiftly between treetops, move through the forest without a sound, set traps with ingenious use of the terrain, and her archery had reached the level of the most outstanding Elves her age in the tribe. She also learned to enchant her arrows.

She didn’t neglect her bard artistic training either. Not only did she master the performance techniques of multiple instruments including the leaf flute and harp, she also tried her hand at composing her own music, creating poetry and stories. Whenever she performed at tribal celebrations, she invariably earned a chorus of cheers.

Each time she recorded spell models in the magic web and achieved a basic grasp of them, she would use slumber flower dew to seek out Tree Spirit Mother in the dreamscape.

The dream space became the perfect magic practice ground. There, she could practice magic without worrying about magical energy consumption, while the tree spirit guided her from the side, correcting issues in her spellcasting, answering various difficulties she encountered in practice, and occasionally helping her test certain “fine-tuning” attempts that went beyond the magic web’s standard spell models.

From making the light orbs of “Glimmer” dance and flicker like fireflies, to attempting to add mild numbing or slowing effects to the thorns of “Thorn Strike,” to using “Phantom Sound” to simulate the sounds of small animals fighting to confuse enemies… under the tree spirit’s watchful care, these experiments proceeded in perfect safety and greatly aided her private derivation of spell structures.

She grew like a true nature Elf.

She would regularly follow the Elf ranger patrols to survey the forest, clearing out dangerous magical beasts that appeared around the tribe’s perimeter and maintaining the tribe’s safety.

When Rhindor was unavailable, she would teach younger Elves vine script and flowing wind script on the grass, or join other Elves who had mastered leaf vein script to experiment with various enchantment combinations.

She also systematically studied herbal knowledge of the Seran world under the herbalist Lady Lila, learning to identify, gather, and process various medicinal plants. Beneath the Tree of Life, she cultivated a small, carefully tended flower bed and Herb Gardens, planting commonly used healing herbs and aromatic plants with calming and insect-repelling properties. Occasionally, she would even prepare efficacious herb pouches to give to Elves in the tribe.

Her friendship with Polly and Celine deepened with each passing day. The three of them often went together to care for injured young creatures in the forest, thin out overly dense vegetation, or simply frolic among the trees. After mastering the druid’s “wild transformation” ability, they could briefly transform into nimble little deer or agile squirrels, and the forest often echoed with the joyful clip-clop of their hooves as they chased one another in transformed form.

The little songs and stories she created—though they were either improvised on the spot or adapted from Earth’s artistic works—were unexpectedly popular among the Elves and widely enjoyed throughout the tribe. She even gained her own group of Elf admirers, who called Mo Lan the rising artistic star of the Emerald Forest.

A hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.

Mo Lan had grown from a little thing who had to crane her neck to see her companions’ knees into a tall and graceful Elf maiden.

From years of traversing the forest, her figure was even more slender than many Elves her age, and she radiated a natural aura completely at one with the forest.

According to Elf tradition, one hundred years marked the coming of age.

The tribe held a solemn coming-of-age ceremony for Mo Lan.

The venue was chosen at the center of the tribe, where the aerial roots of the Tree of Life formed a natural canopy, casting down a gentle halo of light. Mo Lan wore a ceremonial gown hand-sewn by Chieftain Matil herself, made from a blend of moonlight moth silk and starlight grass fiber—light as mist, flowing with a pearly shimmer that rippled with her every movement.

Her emerald-green hair was carefully braided and adorned with several newly bloomed luminescent orchids and tiny Crystal beads.

Under the blessing gazes of her clanspeople, she walked slowly along a path blanketed with soft moss and flower petals, arriving beneath the Tree of Life.

Chieftain Matil solemnly placed upon her head a crown woven from newly grown branches of the Tree of Life.

“In the name of the forest and the Tree of Life, blessings upon you, Moira. May the path ahead of you be as resilient as ancient roots, and as free as the wind through the trees.”

Matil’s voice was solemn yet warm.

Mo Lan bowed in respect, her heart preoccupied with Polly and Celine, who had still not appeared.

Yet even after the coming-of-age ceremony concluded and the small celebratory banquet that followed had begun, Mo Lan still saw no sign of Polly or Celine.

When she asked other Elves, the answer she received was: “Polly and Celine? They said several days ago that they were going to prepare a special coming-of-age gift for you together. Very secretive about it—wouldn’t let any of us follow. I think they went toward Stardrop Falls?”

Stardrop Falls was located deep in the eastern reaches of the Emerald Forest, an area of breathtaking scenery but rather rugged terrain, named for the way the waterfall’s spray scattered like falling stars when caught at certain angles.

Growing there was an exceedingly rare fantastical plant—the Dreamstar Epiphyllum.

Legend had it that a wreath woven from the petals of the Dreamstar Epiphyllum could bestow eternal blessings, making it one of the most precious gifts an Elf could give to a dear friend or beloved.

But the Dreamstar Epiphyllum was notoriously difficult to find, and it grew on the slippery rock faces beside the waterfall, making it extremely challenging to pick.