Chapter 54: A caterpillar reached the amethyst tree to collect the Star Spirit Herb.

It was a caterpillar.

Its entire body was emerald green and covered in hair, with numerous legs along its underside. Four compound eyes grew on its head, and its orchid-shaped mouth contracted and expanded as though it were chewing something delicious.

Shu Li’s skin crawled. His eyes widened and his entire body went rigid as he stared into the caterpillar’s four compound eyes, not daring to move. He absolutely did not dare move.

As a Little Fairy, he had naturally encountered all kinds of insects.

Adorable beetles, beautiful butterflies, industrious bees, lovely dragonflies, silk-spinning spiders—the list went on and on.

However, these insects generally did not appear in areas inhabited by Fairies. Even if they did, the adult Fairies would drive them away to prevent them from frightening the children.

Whenever the Little Fairies went to the orchard to pick fruit, they paid special attention to places frequented by insects and avoided them whenever possible.

If they encountered beautiful butterflies, they would happily play with them.

But caterpillars, the juvenile form of butterflies? No, thank you.

And now, he was face-to-face with a brightly colored caterpillar.

It was horrifying.

The caterpillar seemed curious about him. It tilted its head and opened its orchid-shaped mouth, revealing a vivid red interior densely packed with tiny teeth.

Shu Li’s face changed in terror. Seeing that the caterpillar was about to attack him, he had a sudden flash of inspiration. He pulled his magic staff from his storage ring faster than he had ever moved in his life and thrust it forcefully at the caterpillar, shoving it more than four inches away.

“...Wind... wind... wind... blow, blow, blow, blow... fly away!”

His mind had gone completely blank. Every magical incantation he had ever learned vanished without a trace. Even the Wind God’s true name had been flung clear out of his memory.

Perhaps his shouting actually had some effect, because the caterpillar retreated another inch.

At the same time, a cool voice rang out.

“Elements of wind, bring me a swift gale and drive away this unwelcome guest—”

As the incantation ended, a small tornado appeared from thin air. It swept up the green caterpillar, carried it away from the rock, and dropped it into a nearby thicket, where it vanished from sight.

Shu Li collapsed onto his bottom, his entire body trembling with lingering fear.

Waaaaah—

The wilderness was so dangerous!!

Even a caterpillar could bully a Little Fairy.

Five years ago, when that stupid bird had carried him into the forest, his luck had truly been incredible. He had flown all that way without encountering a single terrifying insect.

In the Faerie Forest, insects might actually be more dangerous than magical beasts.

Magical beasts were intelligent. They knew how to judge their opponents and could tell who was easy prey and who was not. When they encountered Fairies, they sensibly kept their distance.

Insects were different. They were not very intelligent, and when they encountered a creature smaller than themselves, their instinct was to devour it.

That hairy caterpillar just now had definitely mistaken him for a meal.

Kumandi put away his magic staff and crouched beside Shu Li. Reaching out, he patted his back reassuringly. “Don’t be afraid. It was only a Bigang butterfly larva.”

Shu Li swallowed and said in a trembling voice, “Its... its mouth opened so... so wide!”

Wide enough to swallow him in a single bite!

“Oh, it was actually greeting you.” Seeing the child trembling in fear, Anna affectionately swept him into her arms and gave him a vigorous cuddle.

Shu Li gradually recovered his composure. Feeling the softness of her feminine embrace, he abruptly flushed scarlet, struggled free in a fluster, and turned to hide behind Kumandi. He peeked at Anna with half his face exposed.

Although her embrace was very warm, he... he was too embarrassed to take advantage of her like that!

Seeing the child’s flushed cheeks, Anna giggled.

Oh my, the little fellow was actually shy. How adorable!

Her laughter made Shu Li’s face burn even hotter, and he hid his entire body behind Kumandi.

Knowing Anna’s temperament all too well, Sill and Ivy exchanged glances and shook their heads helplessly.

Disio and the other two children had been lying drowsily on the blanket inside the tent. Hearing Anna’s laughter, they woke in a daze. Three little heads appeared one atop another at the tent entrance as they peered outside in confusion.

“Wh... what happened?” Angel asked.

Anna’s laughter sounded so strange that it made his skin crawl.

Shu Li poked his head out from behind Kumandi and gestured as he explained, “A caterpillar this big suddenly appeared right in front of me! It nearly scared me to death!”

How infuriating. He had been so frightened that his mind had turned to mush, leaving him unable even to recite a magical incantation.

And he still wanted to become a mage!

His ability to react under pressure was terrible!

He tugged at his hair in frustration.

“A caterpillar?”

His three companions looked around eagerly.

“Where is it? Where is it? What did it look like? Was it scary?”

Shu Li was speechless.

If they had come face-to-face with that caterpillar’s terrifying orchid-shaped mouth at such close range, they would not be nearly so curious now.

“Kumandi blew it away with wind magic.” Recalling the quiet top student’s incantation, Shu Li asked in confusion, “Kumandi, you didn’t say the god’s true name when you cast that spell!”

He remembered Aisha saying that magical incantations had to begin with words praising a god.

“It was Intermediate magic.” Kumandi turned his head and patiently explained, “Once our affinity with the elements becomes high enough, we no longer need to pray to a god.”

As one’s magical rank increased, more incantation formats became available. As long as they remained within the established framework, they could be used flexibly.

Under ordinary circumstances, an incantation had to begin with praise for a god. However, if a mage was confident enough and possessed a high affinity with the elements, the opening could be omitted.

Doing so, however, would either greatly reduce the spell’s effectiveness or cause it to fail.

Since the situation had been urgent, Kumandi had chosen a shortened incantation. It was only a small tornado meant to drive something away, so it did not require much power.

“I see!” Shu Li’s eyes sparkled.

When casting elementary magic, a mage prayed to a god. In essence, they invoked the god’s true name to pressure the natural elements into obeying the mage’s commands.

With Intermediate magic, a mage possessed sufficient affinity with the natural elements to summon them directly without invoking a god’s authority, though the spell’s effectiveness would be halved.

“The higher your magical rank, the shorter your incantations become?” He looked expectantly at Kumandi. “Once someone becomes a Mage God, do they no longer need to recite incantations at all?”

Even if the magic was weaker, striking quickly enough would allow them to seize the initiative.

Kumandi stared silently at the cub’s innocent little face.

“No!” Anna gently wagged a finger, educating the little fellow. “All magic relies on incantations. To ensure that a spell is cast successfully, even a Mage God cannot omit the incantation entirely.”

Of course, the format could be altered slightly for trivial spells.

Kumandi’s little tornado for driving away the caterpillar was one example.

Even then, he had used Intermediate magic to ensure its success. If he had cast elementary magic just now, the spell would probably have failed.

Shu Li immediately deflated upon hearing that.

He had thought reaching the rank of Mage God would mean never having to recite an incantation again.

Come to think of it, even someone as powerful as the Elven King praised the gods before casting magic!

He truly had been indulging in wishful thinking.

“Hiss, hiss, hiss—”

This time, it really was the sound of boiling water.

“Oh!” Shu Li hurriedly extinguished the fire magic stone inside the stove.

After that little incident, Shu Li entered the tent and took an afternoon nap with his three companions. Ordinarily, they did not take naps during the day.

But since four Little Fairies had accompanied them today, the adult Fairies granted them as much consideration as possible to preserve their strength.

Looking at the four little fellows sleeping soundly while pressed together, Ivy asked Kumandi, “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Kumandi shook his head. “No need.”

He was not a child. Meditation was enough to restore his strength.

Ivy studied the black-haired adolescent Fairy and asked with interest, “Were you afraid the first time you went on a mission and saw a magical beast hunting?”

Kumandi looked directly at Ivy with his dark purple eyes and replied calmly, “I was twelve at the time.”

At twelve, he had been proficient in five languages, visited the library every day, and read extensively. He had been a mentally mature, quick-witted Intermediate Mage.

Ivy rubbed his nose with an awkward laugh.

He had asked the wrong person.

Kumandi was exceptionally gifted and learned everything incredibly quickly. He could not be judged by the standards of an ordinary adolescent Fairy.

An hour later, the adult Fairies woke the four Little Fairies, who were sleeping sprawled on their backs with their bellies exposed.

They hated to do it, but they had to wake the children if they wanted to continue their journey.

“Mmm~~~~”

The four drowsy children yawned incessantly. None of them tried to remain in bed. They obediently gathered their belongings and followed the adult Fairies onward.

By the time the setting sun shone into the forest, they finally reached the place where the amethyst tree grew.

“Wow—”

The exhausted Little Fairies immediately perked up when they saw it. They tilted their heads far back, mouths hanging open as they stared in astonishment at the enormous purple tree before them.

Calling it a tree was not quite accurate.

At least, Shu Li did not think it looked like one. To him, it resembled a vast and spectacular mass of coral.

Yes, coral!

It grew upon the hillside, occupying an enormous expanse of land and rising nearly a thousand feet into the air. Its roots and branches intertwined like those of a banyan tree. Its crystalline limbs were completely bare, without a single leaf, and under the setting sun, they glittered with dazzling brilliance.

Shu Li stared, dumbfounded.

No wonder it was called the amethyst tree. The name fit it perfectly!

The Faerie Forest was filled with treasures. How could an enormous tree whose branches could be made into high-ranking magic staffs have no protection whatsoever? Weren’t they afraid someone would steal it?

“Steal it? Who would steal it?” Ivy asked.

Only after hearing Ivy’s question did Shu Li realize that he had voiced his thoughts aloud.

He blinked and looked at the adult Fairy with feigned innocence. “Magical beasts?”

Ivy laughed. “Magical beasts don’t use magic staffs. They have no reason to steal it.”

Ever since the Elven King sealed off the Faerie Forest, no outsider could possibly reach this place. Only Fairies and Elves came here to make requests of the tree.

“Don’t worry. The amethyst tree can protect itself.”

A tree that had gained sentience would never allow anyone with malicious intentions to approach it.

“Sill, Sill, can we make our requests to the amethyst tree now?” Angel flew up to Sill and asked eagerly.

Sill replied, “If you make your request now, you won’t receive a high-ranking branch.”

Angel did not understand. “Then... when do we have to ask to receive a high-ranking branch?”

Sill pointed toward the sun sinking in the west. “When the first ray of morning light falls upon the amethyst tree, anyone who makes a request has a chance of receiving a high-ranking branch.”

“Huh?”

The four Little Fairies were bitterly disappointed.

“We have to wait until tomorrow morning~”

Anna pinched chubby Budeno’s cheek and said with a smile, “You’ve already made it all the way here. There’s no need to be impatient now.”

Clutching his pinched cheek, Budeno hid behind Disio.

He had noticed that Anna had spent the entire journey trying to pinch and cuddle him.

Boohoo~~ He was not a lump of dough.

Anna was deeply disappointed to see that the chubby cub had become wary of her. She raised her eyebrows, changed targets, and turned an amiable smile on Angel.

Angel flashed her a toothy grin, flapped his wings, and moved closer to Sill.

What a clever little fellow.

Anna grumbled inwardly.

He knew she did not dare provoke Sill, so he stayed close to Sill to escape her “clutches.”

Sill glanced at the silver-haired cub circling around him and frowned slightly before saying, “We’ll eat dinner first. Once it gets dark, we’ll gather star spirit grass.”

As its name suggested, star spirit grass appeared only at night.

Once their captain had spoken, Anna and Ivy immediately sprang into action.

The amethyst tree did not permit any living creature to remain upon it, so they could only clear a patch of ground beneath the tree, pitch their tents, and scatter insect repellent around the area.

Once everything was ready, the Fairies settled comfortably inside the tents and ate their dinner with relish.

The children had been starving for quite some time, and every one of them wolfed down their food.

At last, by the time everyone finished dinner in complete satisfaction, darkness had fallen.

A full moon quietly climbed into the night sky, pouring down silvery radiance like water. Specks of starlight emerged across the grass, spreading into a vast expanse that echoed the stars in the heavens.

This was star spirit grass.

A high-ranking medicinal herb that grew only near the amethyst tree.

The Little Fairies were captivated by the “starlight” covering the ground and repeatedly exclaimed in wonder.

Holding a small shovel, Kumandi was the first to fly toward the meadow. “Let’s complete our mission!”

Shu Li came back to his senses and hurried after him.

Since they [N O V E L I G H T] had accepted the mission, they had to complete it properly.

Soon, the Fairies were hard at work beneath the bright moonlight.

“Don’t wander too far,” Sill reminded the frolicking Little Fairies.

“We know!”

The four children obediently stayed beside Kumandi. Armed with their small shovels, they dug and dug, laboriously uprooting stalks of star spirit grass taller than they were and stuffing them into their storage rings.

Gathering herbs was certainly strenuous work.

After digging up five stalks in a row, Shu Li was panting from exhaustion. He plopped down on the leaf of another plant to rest.

A night breeze swept past, carrying the scent of the sea.

If he remembered correctly, the amethyst tree grew near the coast.

He wondered whether there was a beach nearby. He really wanted to go and play there!

While the Fairies busily gathered medicinal herbs, a gigantic wooden ship was pitching up and down amid the raging wind and waves of the Saint Bash Sea.

A dense fog blanketed the area, leaving the enormous ship lost and disoriented. At the helm, the captain loudly shouted commands in an unfamiliar language.

On the deck, a grayish-blue-skinned “person” raised his right hand, pointed ahead, and shouted with absolute certainty, “Forward! Keep moving forward! Once we break through the mist, we’ll reach the mysterious Faerie Forest—”