The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

"Was this your oversight? Besides, what's done is done. I can't possibly become a Gozalonian like you again tomorrow morning. That would be like admitting guilt."

“Pandora’s knowledge base naturally includes most of the information related to Rosetta culture. Coupled with her silicon-based biological behavior logic, it’s not difficult for her to imitate the native Rosetta people. So the problem still lies with you.”

"So how did you manage to play the role of a Gozalonian so naturally, Mr. Hern, the outsider?"

"I"

The believer's words were on the tip of her tongue, but after thinking about it, she swallowed them back down.

Earlier, when he was crossing the desert alone, he encountered a small slave trading caravan. When the slave trader chief saw Mr. Hearn, he thought he was really lucky today, having hostages delivered to his door so early in the morning. When Mr. Hearn saw the slave trading caravan, he also thought he was really lucky today, having pigs delivered to his door so early in the morning.

Thus, with the same pleasant mood, Mr. Hearn had a heart-to-heart encounter with the group of slave traders, resulting in a small sum of money in the Abyss. The dead men's experiences enriched Mr. Hearn's knowledge, and the supplies and unconscious slaves he left behind became the first stepping stone for him to seamlessly impersonate a native of Thranheim and infiltrate the Silver Harbor mercenary guild.

There were also several native Gozalong people in that group, so everything became natural.

The believer thought that Aoko vaguely knew about his ability to plunder, which originated from the denial of [ ], but there was always a distance between tacit understanding and collusion.

"Anyway, I'll think of a way and give you an answer tonight."

Recalling the fact that she was willing to risk having her business license revoked and give up 665 deals in order to eliminate bad or potentially bad customers, Xin Nu chose to put this episode aside and then brought up the issue of team building again.

"From the surface configuration, our conditions are limited, and the core deficiency of the team is very big. First of all, we lack a simple and straightforward direct healer."

He made a conclusion at the outset.

"Isn't there that druid? I saw that he was quite skilled when he 'healed' you before."

“Yonglin is a qualified team doctor and an excellent indirect healer. In addition, he can dispel some curse-like negative statuses. He is a popular all-rounder. But the fact is, he is still very young and far from reaching his peak. The lifespan of Rosetta people is often more than 1,500 years. He is only eighteen years old this year.”

The believer had barely finished speaking when she saw Aoko stumble again.

"Your steps seem a little unsteady today. Is it because you were jet-lagged last night?"

The believer extended a hand with humanitarian concern, only to have it slapped away rather roughly by the latter.

"No need, no, don't give me that, you're not kidding me, are you?" Qingzi casually slapped his paw away, then pointed at the back of the white fox in front of her and asked incredulously, "Him, Eighteen?"

“Yes, a genuine eighteen.” The believer understood and couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Didn’t I just say? At most, you can only be considered a peer. Don’t look at people with prejudice.”

"Okay, you continue."

"Ahem, continue. In short, what Eirin can do now is to provide high-quality, continuous treatment for the wounded after the war, but because he hasn't fully mastered it yet, he can't provide that kind of life-saving, high-quality, one-time treatment during the conflict."

"I understand what you mean, so this situation must be avoided. So what's next?"

"The next one is actually the least troublesome. Deedlit is a sword chanter, a secret lineage unique to elves. She is the panda among spellcasters, possessing extremely high mobility and immunity to magic while also having complete spellcasting abilities. Unlike those common mage-magic hybrids who can only reach the fifth level of spells a step behind, sword chanters, like traditional mages in gray robes and wielding staffs, have a complete nine-ring spell list. The last thing you want to encounter in a one-on-one fight is this kind of weirdo. And what's most terrifying is that she is also a forest elf. This kind of elf can obtain enough nutrition for daily activities through photosynthesis if she wants to."

"It's so convenient in every sense of the word, you fantasy creatures." Aoko grinned, her voice half sarcastic and half mocking, but without a trace of envy.

"What are you laughing at? You're a fantasy creature too, now." The believer smiled brightly at this familiar taunt and gave a thumbs up.

Qingzi smiled and grabbed his thumb, bending it in the opposite direction.

Click.

Pandora faintly heard the hallucination of joints separating. She turned around at the sound and saw the two people behind her with normal expressions, following her at a leisurely pace. Only then did she feel relieved and turn around again.

Click.

The believer, without changing her expression, bent her broken thumb back into place, flexed it to make sure it was okay, and then grimaced as she prepared to fire. Meanwhile, Aoko raised an eyebrow in a show of bravado.

Pandora turned around again due to auditory hallucinations and saw Mr. Hearn pulling up foxtail grass and Ms. Aozaki sticking the foxtail grass into Mr. Hearn's head. Only then did she feel relieved and turn back around.

"Tsk."

"Tsk."

Thanks to the young girl in front of them, after being interrupted twice, both of them wanted to call it quits, so they unanimously chose to gloss over the interlude and continue the conversation.

The believer removed the foxtail grass from her head and ate it casually, but her gaze remained fixed on Pandora's back.

"As for the young girl, her identity is very sensitive. I don't recommend letting her participate too much in activities in the open, to prevent unnecessary trouble. Besides, she has only just begun her cultivation. The fighting techniques she used before were fine against ordinary creatures, but against things with resistance, purely physical methods are not effective. There is still a long time to learn, so let her learn through practice."

"Nobunaga, seeing you like this makes me truly gratified. A sense of pride arises from knowing that someone has carried on the family tradition. I feel like I can finally retire and travel." Aoko patted Nobunaga's shoulder meaningfully while wiping away nonexistent tears from the corners of her eyes.

"We're on a trip right now, and what gives you the nerve to say something like that? Did calling you 'teacher' before make you feel superior or give you a romanticized memory? Now think about what kind of nonsense you taught us. Was it fun to chase an innocent little boy on a deserted beach and bombard him with magic bullets? Shouldn't a child's Christmas leave them with some precious memories?"

“A harmless little boy wouldn’t naturally possess the ability to shield himself from prying eyes. Also, to clarify, I was aiming at the alarm in your hand.”

"Your aim is really terrible. There were a few times when I felt like my skull was about to be shattered. Seriously, did you ever consider what would happen if you accidentally killed me?"

"Well," Aoko said, resting her chin on her thumb as if she had actually thought about it for a moment. Then she shrugged, a bright smile on her face, and decisively changed the subject in a lighthearted tone, "Where were we? Oh right, the omnipotent spellcaster, the indirect healer, and the apprentice of unknown purpose, who's next?"

""

For a fleeting moment, the believer wanted to smear the handy hardcover notebook in his hand onto the woman's bright smiling face, but after taking a deep breath, he banished this superficial emotion from his mind and instead put on an equally bright smile.

Then, he would open his notebook, face the other person, and show them his results.

Setting aside all theoretical overviews and getting straight to the final conclusion, on the lower half of that yellowed page, elegant handwriting reads from top to bottom—

A Guide to Role-Playing as a Tourist Adventurer Team

Omnipotent spellcaster/Perfectly present utility player

Sustainable medic/Just need to survive in battle

A newcomer whose purpose is unclear / In short, act as a radar for now

Magic-eating deer / A fool who only knows how to launch magic missiles?

Sandbag/Durable and resilient, no need to worry about damaging it?

"?"

While maintaining her smile, Aoko tilted her head in a very girlish way, as if she didn't understand at all, yet also seemed to understand completely but was unwilling to admit it.

While maintaining a smile, the believer gently tapped the last two lines of the paper with her index finger and explained in a patient and gentle tone.

"The three above are already assigned to us. We can both handle the last two. You can choose one."

"?"

Pandora vaguely felt that she was hallucinating behind her again, but everything was normal in the Prometheus particle monitoring network. With the mindset of not doing it more than three times, she did not turn around this time.

Chapter 111 A nap in a bottle

Yonglin selectively planted a batch of stubborn oak trees in the surrounding forest as the most basic medium for casting spells. After doing all this, he stood up, straightened his slightly wrinkled robe, and then returned to the camp.

As night falls, the already obscured forest becomes even more treacherous and desolate. On a fallen giant tree, about three meters above the ground, there is a makeshift hole in the tree, with a faint bluish-white light flickering inside.

Yonglin stood in front of the tree hole, threw out a vine, and the vine wrapped tightly around a tree burl like a live snake, allowing him to use it for leverage and easily climb up.

"Yo."

After entering the tree hole steadily, the first person to greet Eirin was Deedlit, an old neighbor of the Tree Sea. Of course, this does not mean that he and this forest spirit were actually neighbors; it was just the Rosetta people, who lived in the Tree Sea, commonly referred to the forest spirits who also lived there.

Despite some irreconcilable cultural differences, the relationship between the two races has generally been close. Whether in the revitalized Fourth Age or the Third Age when they were driven underground to eke out a living, the principle of mutual dependence maintained the bottom line of diplomatic relations between the two old neighbors. Moreover, in the later part of the Third Age, which is known as the Dark Age, the Rosetta people assisted the Elves in quelling the Gray Elves' rebellion, which further consolidated the friendship between the two races.

As a Rosetta person born in the Fourth Epoch, Eirin did not personally experience that dark history, but based on the few words he had read in the ancient books, the many crimes committed by those madmen who believed that blood sacrifice to false gods could bring about the dawn of the new era made him shudder.

With the Sons of Earth, created by the Lord of Light, at the head, there have only been fifteen divinely created species in Thranheim since the beginning of the First Age. The many subspecies are merely products of later reproduction. The names of the fifteen gods are still passed down in the religious systems of various races, just as Eirin prays to Lady Rosetta every night.

That goddess holds divine authority over nature, abundance, and life. As her people, the foxes of the Tree Sea, living in close proximity to the energy of the natural world, unsurprisingly gave birth to divine spellcasters, primarily druids. Their passion for procreation is also a prominent feature etched into their racial nature and doctrines.

Similar doctrines, aimed at the prosperity and flourishing of the race, exist in the religious creeds of the other fourteen divinely created species. God so loved mankind, and therefore instructed His people to multiply and flourish in the world of Thranheim.

"So how could there be a false god who requires believers to hold bloody human sacrifices to make them believe that the creatures created by God are born sinful and need to repay their debts with blood, so that they can awaken from their eternal slumber and end the rule of the Lord of Light and the Sons of Earth?"

After returning to the tree hollow, Eirin, with the intention of chatting with an old neighbor, talked to Deedlit, who was also a citizen of the Tree Sea, about the history of the Grey Elf rebellion. At the end of the conversation, she sighed from the bottom of her heart.

“I second that. We still don’t know what went wrong with those compatriots back then.” Sitting by the campfire, Deedlit shrugged helplessly. “Since the beginning of the Resurrection Era, we haven’t seen a single Grey Elf return to the surface. After the division, we drove them to the deeper underground. We don’t know if they are alive or dead now, so this question is destined to remain an unsolved mystery.”

"However, the rule of the Sons of Earth was ultimately ended in the Third Epoch." The winter night in the forest was filled with a chilling coldness. Eirin rubbed her hands together in front of the pale campfire, feeling its comforting warmth. "Although it's a bit unclear, it's still a cause for celebration for the remaining fourteen races. What do you think, Mr. Hern?"

"Ok?"

Mr. Hearn, a Gozan dragon, was looking at a pile of small objects with a headache when he was suddenly called out. He looked at the bean sprout and the fox who had started the conversation, pondered for a moment, as if recalling what the two had talked about earlier, and then said, "I'm not familiar with them, I don't know them, I've never heard of them, and besides, I'm an atheist."

"Mr. Hearn is an atheist?"

Such heretical remarks startled Yonglin slightly, but he quickly recovered. His religious beliefs were relatively mild and did not subject atheists to near-devastating persecution like those of monotheistic religions led by the Faith of the Radiant Lord.

“But Mr. Hern, I heard Mr. Joshua say that the Gozanlong people in the Far East worship a deity called Taiyi, and later scholars who went to the Far East tried to prove that Taiyi is actually the Lord of Glory.” Yonglin recalled the few words she had heard from that saint a while ago, trying to find a reason for Mr. Hern to become an atheist.

“There are quite a few atheists among the Gozan people born in the Southern Continent,” Deedlit said softly, revealing another fact, which also answered Eirin’s question.

"I see." Yonglin understood. Recalling Mr. Hearn's statement that he had never been to the Far East, everything made sense now.

Yonglin naturally wouldn't have the audacity to try and persuade Mr. Hearn to become a follower of Lady Rosetta. She simply made a mental note that she could act as an introducer should Mr. Hearn need her in the future.

Yonglin glanced at Mr. Hearn, who was still sitting cross-legged inside the tree hole, deep in thought. Her gaze then shifted to the small objects placed in front of him, and she thought to herself that Mr. Hearn was indeed a sorcerer.

Before Mr. Hearn lay a small, ornate lantern, a ring with a hidden compartment, a small bottle with a stopper, and a crystal-clear, colorless jewel. According to what Yonglin had learned before leaving, Mr. Hearn was remaking his magical artifact.

As for why we needed to make one, the answer is that the previous one was broken.

As early as back in Silver Harbor, Eirin had already made a guess about Mr. Hearn's profession—Mr. Hearn, whose abilities were extremely rare and unpredictable, and who seemed to know a little bit about everything, was very likely a sorcerer.

So-called sorcerers are generally a group of lucky yet unlucky individuals. They are both explorers and keepers of secrets. They expand the boundaries of mortals' understanding of the world, always seeking things beyond their comprehension. While sages and wizards discover clear signs of danger and thus halt their experiments, sorcerers forge ahead recklessly. Therefore, a sorcerer is always a unique being shaped by a mixture of talent, curiosity, and recklessness. Many ordinary people would regard these traits as typical evidence of madness, while sorcerers themselves see them as symbols of courage.

A sorcerer is typically composed of two fundamental elements that work together to shape their career. The first element is an unusual event that leads a sorcerer to form a pact with an entity from another dimension; the second element is the nature of the entity with which the sorcerer has formed a pact.

Unlike a priest who actively accepts deities and their ideas, a sorcerer is very likely to have extreme worship of his patriarch, but the exact opposite is also possible.

Therefore, it is understandable that Mr. Joshua, as a paladin, would occasionally clash with Mr. Hearn, as a sorcerer.

However, to be honest, when Eirin learned for certain that Mr. Hearn was a sorcerer, she couldn't help but feel a pang of pity. Deedlit and herself were on the two paths of arcane magic and the natural world, respectively, both protected by righteous gods. If they studied diligently, they could eventually achieve something. But Mr. Hearn's future, fate, and even his life depended on an unknown otherworldly lord. The only way to achieve anything was to directly or indirectly please the lord he had made a pact with. This precarious life made Eirin secretly wipe away a tear.

Mr. Hearn must have walked on thin ice and endured many hardships to get to where he is today.

Slightly regaining his senses, Yonglin realized that someone was staring at him, which made him feel a little embarrassed. He quickly put away the faint sadness on his face and the gaze that had been fixed on Mr. Hearn, and turned to look for the owner of that gaze. Just as he did so, the other person also timely withdrew that ambiguous gaze.

The person whose gaze was being directed was Miss Tian Lanlan, who was sitting next to Mr. Hearn.

Rosetta culture is rich in surnames derived from simple natural images such as "morning breeze," "new moon," and "morning dew," and even from simple colors, since everything in nature is a gift from Rosetta.

Even so, Miss Tian Lanlan's name is far too casual—no, it's far too close to nature.

Who would use the same color in both their surname and given name and just mention it? Or is it because they were born in a remote village far from the prosperous central area of ​​the forest, so they were so casual about choosing a name that they could distinguish between them?

As Yonglin warmed herself by the fire, hugging her knees, she secretly glanced at the large red wolf companion beside Mr. Hearn. Her gaze lingered for a moment on the wolf's azure eyes, and she felt she had found the answer.

Was it because of those eyes? The naming standards of that village were indeed very arbitrary.

After two days of working together as a team, Yonglin learned about the identity of this Miss Tianlanlan. She was a warlock who also walked in the arcane realm, but she was very different from Deedlit, who was a swordsman mage.

If Deedlit is a versatile mage who diligently studies and constantly copies spell scrolls to enrich her spellbook and thus gain arcane mastery, then Miss Sky Blue is a bloodline sorceress who, from the very beginning, can only tap into the power of a legacy from an extraordinary ancestor buried within her own bloodline. She doesn't need to copy spell scrolls, doesn't need to carry spellbooks with her, and doesn't need to memorize and prepare a list of spells to use the next day every night. In fact, she possesses a special skill called supermagic, which allows her to extend the effects of a single spell to a level that no mage can achieve.

The price of all this is that, as a sorceress, Miss Tian Lanlan has no ability to hone her skills through later study. The spells she can possess were predetermined by her bloodline ancestors from the very beginning. For example, at present, Miss Deedlit and Miss Tian Lanlan only master 20 spells each. By this time next year, Miss Deedlit will have 40 spells and Miss Tian Lanlan will have 50. The year after that, Miss Deedlit will have 60 spells, while Miss Tian Lanlan will still have 50.

The reason is simple: there are only 50 spells left in the bloodline by the ancestors, and Miss Tian Lanlan has already dug them all out.

Moreover, reality is far more brutal than ideals, so brutal that it can lead to despair.

Based on Mr. Hearn's special explanation and the personal demonstration of the person involved, everyone learned that this Rosetta Red Wolf, also known as Miss Sky Blue, as a sorcerer, had such a thin legacy from her ancestral bloodline that, apart from a few tricks that even an apprentice could cast, she only had one first-level spell left: [Magic Missile].

[Magic Missiles]: A Level 1 Evocation spell with a range of 120 feet. Its effect is to create three shimmering darts formed from magical fields, each dart striking a designated creature within the caster's range that is visible to them. Each dart inflicts a certain amount of force field damage on the target.

The advantages are that it always hits and has low energy consumption; the disadvantage is that it takes about two shots to take down a strong, ordinary person.

Upon learning this sad truth, Eirin immediately suspected that Mr. Hearn might have a grudge against Miss Tian Lanlan and that he was deliberately luring her out to sell her off. Deedlit, however, pulled Mr. Hearn aside and subtly suggested that it was still not too late to send the unfortunate sorceress, Miss Tian Lanlan, back to Silver Harbor.

Mr. Hearn ignored this, even saying it didn't matter at all, the team didn't need to turn back, and could just keep heading north.

This reinforced Eirin's belief that Mr. Hern intended to sell Miss Sky Blue, a novice sorceress who only knew how to use magic missiles, in the Sea of ​​Trees.

During the journey that followed, the atmosphere among the team gradually became delicate. Eirin was considering whether to secretly rescue him when Mr. Hearn sold him out, while Deedlit was angry because Mr. Hearn had brought a rookie into the team without everyone's knowledge—a move that put everyone's lives at risk.

This subtle atmosphere persisted until nightfall.

The group searched for a long time but couldn't find a suitable place to stay. As darkness fell, after a day of trekking through mountains and rivers, everyone looked exhausted and urgently needed to set up camp and rest. Unlike the well-prepared night before, continuing to travel through the forest at night in such a tired state was very dangerous. Moreover, this was no longer the relatively safe edge of the forest, and the dangerous creatures lurking deep within the forest were beginning to show themselves.

"Believer, if you keep dawdling, I'll take action!"

At that moment, Yonglin heard a sentence that was not clear in meaning. He subconsciously turned his head and saw the big red wolf raise its right hand towards a towering tree not far to the right of the group.

The tree wasn't very large; its trunk had a radius of about seven meters and a height of about a hundred meters. It certainly wasn't considered a big tree in the forest.

Then he saw Mr. Hearn turn around and make a gesture of "whatever you wish."

The next moment, a pale blue glow briefly dispelled the darkness in the forest, and three [magic missiles] shot out from Miss Sky Blue's right hand—well, how should I put it, they looked about the size of the three-person bathtub in the Cloud Inn suite.

Immediately following was a deafening explosion and a shockwave, which sent birds and beasts scattering through the forest.

By the time Yonglin came to her senses, the still-young giant tree had already died young, snapped in half, and lay straight down in front of everyone.

"Out with the old, in with the new; what a sin!"