Chapter 15

▪️STARTING WITH A TREE

Li Mu had a deeper understanding of the realness of Elven Kingdom as he entered this ancient forest.

The trees around him stood tall, with interlocking grayish branches with its bark covered with dark emerald moss. Thick vines wrapped around the trees, akin to layers of overlapping nets, as lush grasses spread widely and grows tall up to a person’s height.

The air within the vicinity was filled with the unique fragrance of vegetation and soil which smells incredibly fresh and pure.

Occasionally, flying birds passed by, chittering crisply and clearly as distant unknown animals roared with all their mysteries and immemorial bluster.

This place was really akin to a quintessential primeval forest.

With the soothing, elven-style background music which echoes from within every players’ consciousness, a dreamy feeling of being spirited away from the hustle and bustle of the real world arose within Li Mu’s heart.

And as he plucked a branch and tore off a leaf, Li Mu couldn’t help but marvel at the exquisite production value of the game. He gazed at the clear contours of the leaf’s veins and watched as pale green sap slowly oozed out of the broken stem.

He couldn’t help but exclaim in wonderment, “Holy sh*t, I would’ve really thought that I transmigrated into a fantasy world if I hadn’t experienced logging in at the start, and if this amazing bgm wasn’t playing as well.”

His live streaming function has long been turned off by him and now switched into video recording mode instead.

In fact, he couldn’t interact with his live audience very well due to the stream being heavily affected by the “mind acceleration” thus making the comment’s latency so bad that it’s nigh almost impossible to have any sort of coherent discussion between his watchers.

After pondering for a moment on what to do next, Li Mu then opened the game’s system and accessed the beginner’s section as he read out loud the introductory notes.

“The safe zone for beginners is within the ten kilometers radius zone around the World Tree. Anyone can freely explore and collect items needed for various tasks within this area.”

“Stronger monsters may spawn beyond the ten kilometers safe zone, and it’s best not to risk one’s life by going there before reaching level 11 under the Low-Iron rank.”

“The fastest way of earning EXP at the beginning is through performing various daily tasks and when one’s level finally reaches 10 within the Iron-Rank category, players can then go to the Temple of Nature to change their Job Classification…”

Li Mu then checked the floating mini-map widget in the upper right corner of his field of vision after closing the beginner’s guide.

The map widget was circularly designed, which centered around the World Tree. Currently the mini-map only shows a radius of ten kilometers, which was the maximum range that Evé could effectively control.

Beyond that point was a blank void, as if waiting for players to explore the unknown.

Trees were abundant in this forest.

However, Li Mu was still having trouble finding suitable target needed for his task.

Looking at the ancient trees which surrounds him, Li Mu felt his scalp tingling in exasperation as he gazed upon the tree’s trunk of at least one meter in diameter with its treetops not even entirely visible.

“These trees are just too massive, aren’t they? If I had known beforehand, I would have instead organized a group of people right from the start.”

He muttered ruefully.

Each tree towered high into the clouds, way beyond what his eyesight could ever see and it took him a long time to find a tree that’s suitable for the task and also easy to handle.

It was a tree over ten meters high, with rare golden-like bark.

“This looks close to a…cedar tree?” Li Mu raised an eyebrow as he throughly inspect the surface of the trunk.

As a university graduate who had taken some dendrology courses, Li Mu had some rudimentary knowledge about forestry.

Although the tree in front of him were slightly different due to its outermost layer having some strange colorings, this particular tree were still very similar to the cedar trees in his memory with only few minor differences.

“Cedar is a top-quality building material if my memory serves me right.” Li Mu felt delighted and started to prepare the tools he needed for the task.

Growing up in a rural area with parents who worked in the forest industry, Li Mu had followed his elders to do the same job and was quite familiar with activities such as tree cutting.

Holding the wooden axe given by Alice when he received the task, Li Mu finally began to chop down the tree.

Chop! Chop!

Even the impact in his hand felt so real.

With each swing, Li Mu felt like he had returned to his youth. Although the only difference was that his body was now lighter and more flexible.

He enjoyed this nostalgic feeling very much.

Finally, with a loud “crack,” the cedar tree swayed a few times before finally crashing down, setting off a cloud of dust for which also dissipated after a few seconds.

At the moment when the tree fell, Li Mu felt as if some kind of power had flowed into himself, making him feel warmth all over his entire body.

Unbeknownst to him, this was actually the vitality of the cedar tree.

When he felled the tree, the ‘war sacrifice’ that had been modified and hidden by Evé as a passive skill in every avatar she created was automatically activated, and the skill absorbed some of the vitality of the cedar tree without Li Mu becoming even aware of it.

The absorption rate of this vitality can be controlled within the game system, and can be raised up to a full hundred percent.

Although it should be noted that one also needs to have administrative rights in order to access this hidden settings.

Without tinkering with the settings, the default is that loot drops cannot be destroyed, and only about 20% of the target’s vitality will be absorbed, such as what happened to Li Mu this time.

Half of the absorbed energy was retained to himself, while the other half was siphoned back to Evé.

Of course, Evé at the moment had no interest in this miniscule amount of vitality but nevertheless, she implemented this function as a part of her long-term plans.

The feeling of this energy surging into his body felt very extrinsic to him, and Li Mu couldn’t particularly describe it in mere words alone, but if he had to, then he would say it was simply—

“—Refreshing!”

At the same time, he noticed that his EXP points had increased slightly up by ten points.

“Oh so I can level up by cutting trees!” Li Mu felt delighted at this discovery.

At this moment, he surmised that his half hour of labor was entirely worth it.

Li Mu shook his head after wiping off the sweat dripping down from his forehead.

“Whew…It’s really inefficient to do this task with just one person alone. It would be more optimal to have several people cooperate instead in doing this kind of task.”

Li Mu then used the skill “Binding Vines” to tie up his harvest together before dragging it back towards the starting site.

The place to report his task completion was in an open field just below the World Tree, which was originally covered with meadows and low grasses.

This is where Evé planned to have the players establish their basecamp which would also be the foundation for the new elven civilization.

As Li Mu entered the site, the usual mystical BGM then changed into a lively tavern-like music, which made him feel attuned with the cheerful tune.

He also noticed that there were many players scurrying around the vicinity, who from the looks of it, seemed to have received some cleaning task and were clearing the area of weeds and shrubs.

There were even some players who seemed to have already started their second round of tasks and are trying to form parties of their own.

“Is there anyone doing the task of collecting wood? Our party have four members and we only just need one more person! Preferably a spell caster who have magical skills that can aid us in cutting big trees.”

“Is there anyone here whose knowledgeable in architecture? Our team received a construction task but we lack a supervisor!”

“Is there any logging party here that’s looking for members with high STR-stats? I got skills like rage and whirlwind cut as well! I can definitely chop trees in one hit!”

After looking around for a while, Li Mu eventually spotted the one he’s searching for which is the holy maiden NPC, whom was currently surrounded by a group of players.

Alice looks to be preoccupied at this moment, but she now seemed to be in a rather good mood unlike her initial despondent appearance as her emerald eyes were now shining brightly, as a pure and lovely aura emanates from her.

Looking at how she animatedly moves around, Li Mu internally swore that this was definitely the most vivid, lifelike, and intellectual NPC character he had ever seen!

However, Alice’s face would turn slightly colder once whenever she saw some players acting cheeky with her.

Anyone can see the NPC’s Favorability value by using Appraisal Skill upon them. However, for the vast majority of players, the girl’s favorability was all in the negatives.

This was especially true for male players and some even stated that the current reigning lowest impression have reached a staggering value beyond minus -100.

Their barbarian-like behavior had blindsided Alice but the biggest shock she had ever experienced was from a group of shameless individuals who started flirting with her and indulging in their every whims as soon as they’d met her.

The impression this group left upon her was the worst of it all.

In contrast, Alice’s reacted much better towards the female players whom were much more decent and gentle in their interactions with her.

Despite this, Li Mu could still sense a faint awkward estrangement between her and the rest of the players.

Watching the ever-changing expressions on the holy maiden’s face and paying closer attention to the players’ expressions and movements as well when interacting with Alice, Li Mu pondered for a moment, before suddenly coming up with an idea.

Taking a deep breath, Li Mu dragged the chopped cedar woods he collected and strode over towards their location.

After dealing with a female player’s task, Alice saw the figure of Li Mu returning. Seeing that it was just another male Chosen One, her expression then once again hardened just a little bit.

“Have you completed your task?”

Her sweet voice carried a hint of detachment to it but Li Mu ignored it and simply nodded in response.

He was neither humble nor pushy, just looking at the girl sincerely with voice full of respect, as if he was communicating with a senior at his university back in real life.

“Lady Alice, these are the materials I have gathered, please check them properly.”

Looking at this male elf in front of her sporting a proper attitude, Alice couldn’t help but take a second look at him.

He was the first male chosen one who could normally talk to her in this manner. Completely in contrast with the others who were either flirtatious or shameless, with their gazes full of lasciviousness whenever they communicated with her.

Although she did not verbally say it, Alice could clearly discern that these guys always seemed to have an inexplicable sense of superiority when interacting with her. Their gaze did not seem to be looking at a fellow clansmen, but rather a tool or an inanimate object instead.

This feeling made her very uncomfortable and reminded her of those greedy humans whom hunted elves for their own pleasures.

However, this particular male elf in front of her had a sincere look in his eyes.

For a moment, the discomfort within the girl’s heart lessened significantly, and her impression of Li Mu also improved a lot. Her complexion slightly eased as she nodded towards Li Mu.

“Okay, let me see your harvest.”

“Please,” Li Mu said as he dragged out the wooden logs.

“Cedar logs!”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Alice’s eyes lit up.

“This is a good wood! It has a strong affinity for light, and it’s not only a building material for the temple, but can also be used to make magic wands too! Oh my, I didn’t expect you to be able to find this wood.”

The girl looked at Li Mu in pleasant surprise.

Personally, she did not think there was anything wrong with cutting down trees.

In fact, unlike the depiction of elves in many literary works and games back on earth, most elves within Saigües rather accepted moderate logging as life’s basic necessities.

For them, the only thing that mattered and needs to be maintained was the ecological balance.

Her reaction slightly stunned him, but Li Mu then smiled in relief.

What he harvested seemed to be a valuable item… it looked like his luck were still just as good.

“Your task is completed! Here’s your reward!”

Alice waved her hand and announced the result as a notification sound softly echoed afterwards.

Li Mu was pleasantly surprised to find that he had received a grand total of 300 experience points just from this task alone!

“This task is very profitable and I’ve leveled up as well!”

Li Mu was overjoyed.

He then impatiently clicked on the ‘level up’ button right away.

Dazzling divine light enveloped Li Mu and a mysterious energy converged into his body, surprising Alice and everyone around him.

Li Mu felt a warm sensation all throughout his body, akin to basking under the sun’s heat, while his strength rapidly increased incrementally.

In an instant, he felt all his senses have been enhanced.

There was nothing more satisfying than this genuine sense of accomplishment.

One hundred experience points were automatically deducted as his level increased to level two.

Looking at his character status screen, Li Mu was slightly pleased.

“All my attributes have increased by one point! specifically INT has increased by two points!”

He then tried to use “Binding Vines” and found that his casting speed had increased by nearly a quarter, and the skill was also stronger. He could only summon one vine before, but he could now summon two instead!

If Li Mu was going to assess his current combat abilities, he felt that now he could defeat his former self with relative ease.

Just a single increase in level had such a drastic significant effects…

He then briefly wondered how powerful he would’ve felt like when he finally reach level 11.

At this moment, Li Mu had gotten higher expectations for the future.

“Congratulations on your promotion,” Alice’s congratulatory words had abruptly awoken him from his reverie.

Li Mu then looked over and realized that her favorability towards him had already returned to a neutral value.

He felt a little bit touched as a speculation in regards to the NPC favorability system formed within his mind.

Thanking the girl in a polite manner, Li Mu decided to took on another task.

He planned to quickened his pace of leveling up.

However, to complete the task more efficiently, he was ready to team up with other players time time around.