Chapter 616: A Peaceful Break

Lian looked at her for a few seconds, at first glance, her suggestion seemed to come more from kindness toward the plants.

But when he examined the connected roots again, he realized that it wasn’t only about protecting the environment, if the root network remained intact, the plants could be harvested again.

"Okay."

Lian carefully cut off the upper part of the plant, then looked at the roots to make sure they hadn’t been damaged.

"Thank you very much." Amélie said with a smile.

Lian placed the harvested plant in his storage space.

"Of course, if I come back a few weeks later and find that someone has harvested all of them, it’ll be your fault."

The girl remained silent for a moment, then understood his tone and gave a short laugh.

"In that case, I hope they at least use them properly."

Rindo, who was a few steps ahead and checking the path, glanced at the two of them.

"If you’re done, we should keep moving."

Lian stood up.

"I’m done."

Amélie gathered her belongings and continued walking with them, farther along the path, the river split into two branches.

One branch continued along the forest, while the other passed through a group of white rocks.

Rindo stopped at the crossing for a moment, opened the map of the area, and checked the available routes.

"We can reach the spring about fifteen minutes earlier if we take the right path."

The young Vorhelm looked at the indicated route, the path on the right passed through rocky ground, but the slope wasn’t very steep.

In comparison, the path on the left continued along the river and seemed easier to walk on.

Amélie also examined the map before speaking.

"If we only want to reach the spring, the right path is shorter, but I think the left path would be better for examining plants."

Rindo looked at her.

"Do you have a reason for that?"

The girl pointed toward the river for a moment.

"Most of the medicinal plants we’ve seen so far were growing near water, if this branch has similar conditions, we’ll probably find more specimens."

Lian looked toward the left path, several faint markers from the book were also in that direction, so he agreed without any objections.

"I prefer the left path."

Rindo looked at both of them for a moment before closing the map.

"Then we’ll follow the river, but if the path takes too long, we’ll turn back."

Amélie smiled. 𝚏𝗋ℯⅇ

"Okay."

The decision was made.

And contrary to what they might have expected from the girl’s calm appearance, her suggestion not only didn’t waste their time, but also helped them find several interesting resources along the way.

One of these resources was a cluster of white flowers growing between the wet stones.

After examining them, Amélie realized that the plant’s leaves could be used to make a type of healing ointment.

But what caught Lian’s attention was the energy level of one of the clusters.

That specimen contained more mana than the others, and its leaves were also thicker compared to the other specimens.

He carefully harvested the mature cluster and, after examining it, discovered that it was an A-rank plant whose consumption could increase a person’s mana by 30% for five minutes.

Amélie also collected a few leaves from the other specimens.

In the next section of the path, Rindo noticed that the mana flow around the river increased sharply at a certain point.

So all three of them changed their route for a few minutes, and as a result, they found a small crack in one of the rocks, where purer water was flowing out.

Amélie collected a small amount of the water.

Rindo also collected a sample to check its quality.

Seeing this, Lian gave a faint smile.

Not bad.

All three of them had different goals.

But it seemed that these differences helped them notice things they might have overlooked if they had been alone.

In any case, he also collected some of the water, and in the end, he realized that it wasn’t ordinary water, it was mixed with a large amount of mana.

This water could be considered a treasure with a rank of around B, and drinking one bottle could restore about 5% of a person’s mana.

Amélie took only one bottle and refused to take any more, apologizing for stopping them from harvesting some of the plants along the way, she said she didn’t want anything in return.

Lian and Rindo divided the remaining water between themselves, and each of them ended up with around ten bottles.

Each of these bottles could be sold for at least around 500,000 dollars.

In the end, when the sun was getting close to the middle of the sky, they reached a section of the river where the current was calmer.

The golden trees cast soft shadows over the riverbank, and the flat stones beside the water seemed suitable for resting.

After checking the time, Rindo suggested taking a short break.

Amélie also agreed happily.

Lian sat down on one of the stones beside the river, the sound of the water could be heard nearby, and a gentle breeze moved through the golden leaves.

He closed his eyes for a moment.

Over the past few months, he had spent many days fighting, training, or dealing with unknown dangers.

Even the month he had spent in the Dragon Blood River had felt more like torture for his body and mind than rest.

But here? At least for now, there were no enemies.

No monsters, no disasters, and not even a mission that forced him to risk his life every few minutes.

He slowly breathed out, just an ordinary day, without any worries.

At the same time, Amélie took several packages of food out of her storage space and placed them on a clean piece of cloth.

Then she looked between Lian and Rindo.

"If you’d like, you can have some of these, I prepared them before we left."

"Did you make them yourself?" Lian looked at the food, Awakened at their level could go without eating for even a year without having any problems.

She nodded.

"Yes, though they’re very simple."

"They look good."

The girl smiled.

"Thank you."

"Thank you." Rindo thought for a moment, then took one and thanked her.

Amélie nodded with satisfaction, and then all three of them ate in silence for a while.

The silence wasn’t uncomfortable.

On the contrary, after several hours of walking through the forest and examining different resources, taking a short break beside the river felt pleasant.

But after a while, Lian looked at the plant samples beside Amélie, the girl was still examining them from time to time, even while resting, and he finally asked.

"Why are you so interested in medicinal plants?"

She raised her head.

"Me?"

"Yeah. Since I met you, you’ve spent more time looking for things that can be used to make medicine than looking for expensive treasures."

The girl thought for a moment, then carefully placed one of the small specimens inside her bag.

"I think it’s because I’ve always wanted to be able to do something after a battle too."

"After a battle?" Lian looked at her.

Amélie nodded.

"Many Awakened spend all their time trying to become stronger, better skills, more powerful weapons, higher levels... all of these things are important."

She looked toward the river for a moment.

"But when someone gets injured, it doesn’t matter how strong they were before, they might not even be able to move their own body."

Lian said nothing, and she continued.

"I’ve seen several times during training missions that some wounds can heal very quickly with simple treatment, but if no one notices them in time, they can become dangerous."

The girl paused briefly.

"That’s why I thought it might be better to learn things that could be useful in those moments."

He looked at her for a moment, her answer was simple.

But unlike the many idealistic statements he had heard from young people, she didn’t seem to be saying this just to make herself look good.

She was genuinely interested in this.

"And what if you can’t save everyone?"

Amélie remained silent for a few seconds, and her smile faded slightly, she seemed to take the question seriously before answering softly.

"Then I’ll start with someone I can help."

Lian tilted his head slightly.

She continued.

"I know it’s not always possible to save everyone, even the best healers have their limits, sometimes there isn’t enough mana, sometimes the injuries are too severe, and sometimes... we arrive too late."

She curled her fingers against her knee for a moment, but when she raised her head again, her expression was calm and steady.

"But just because I can’t save everyone doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to help anyone."

For a few moments, the only sound was the flowing water.

Lian kept his gaze on the girl, then gave a faint smile.

"That’s not a bad way of thinking."

Amélie became a little embarrassed.

"Thank you."

But Rindo, who had mostly been listening until then, finally joined the conversation.

"Just don’t forget one thing."

Amélie looked at him.

"What?"

"If you put yourself in a situation where both of you could die just to save one person, without checking the situation first, then you haven’t really saved anyone."

She remained silent for a moment before slowly nodding.

"That’s true."

Rindo continued.

"Sometimes, retreating is also part of saving others, especially when you’re responsible for other people too."

The girl thought about his words for a few seconds before smiling.

"Yes, I still have a lot to learn."

Lian gave Rindo a brief glance, his friend still had the same serious tone, but what he had said wasn’t without reason.

He was the kind of person who took responsibility seriously, even in small situations.

Amélie also seemed to understand this, instead of being upset by Rindo’s warning, she accepted it carefully.

The young Vorhelm looked at both of them for a moment.

An interesting combination.

One was too responsible, while the other was too eager to help others.

And himself? He preferred to know what the result would be before making any decision.

After they finished eating, Amélie began gathering her belongings.

Rindo also stood up and checked the route on the map, it was time to move, they shouldn’t waste even a moment here.