Reinhard did ended up staying awake for a long time, reviewing the skills and planning how he’s going to approach it.

He automatically removed [Weaving] and [Metallurgy] from the choices since he could just learn them by engaging on activities that involves those skills. [MP Regeneration] was also out of the question as he’s really not using his mana when fighting, only when crafting and he thought that a larger mana pool would be more beneficial. It turns out that it’s exactly what [Clarity] does, increase his mana pool by 50. [Fortify] increases his HP by 50 while [Enduring] increases his stamina also by 50.

He’s not too excited about acquiring [Enchant] as upon reading on it, it turns out that only non-magical items can be enchanted. Since he uses a staff, which is a magical item, it’s going to be useless. He’d have to wait to get armor before using the enchantment system. Besides, he can get the skill once he reaches level 10 in Arcane Artifice. At first he thought that he’d ignore [Dual Wield Staff] for now since he can also get it later on when he levels up his [Staff Proficiency] but upon closer consideration, he remembered that earlier, he just got another monster core and can create yet another staff.

After thinking for a while, which is not actually a while, it took him about three minutes, not counting the reading, and careful consideration if he really wants to take the [Dual Wield Staff] skill, he ended up taking it anyway. Before going to sleep though, he remembered that he hasn’t really checked what the [Subject] skill does, so he looked at it last before sleeping.

[Subject], it turns out, is an active skill which lets you take any creature as a follower upon defeating it in combat. However, the skill must be cast before the combat with the given creature starts, whereupon, the creature is notified of the challenge. If the caster wins the battle without any outside help, the creature willingly accepts the caster as its liege. The skill [Subject] can only be cast on creatures that are lower in level than the caster by five or more though, that means to even start using it on level 1 creatures, Reinhard would need to be level 6. Furthermore, when a creature is under the [Subject] skill, its HP can never fall below 1, even if it receives a fatal blow from the caster.

The next morning, after eating breakfast with the elder and Fraenis, he immediately went to Lem to ask about other types of wood. Since the orb that he got yesterday was of an earth element, he thought it would be a waste to pair it up with a handle that’s also of earth element, so he inquired Lem if there are other trees here that yields woods of different elements.

Lem said that there are, and in fact, Reinhard had already seen one of those. They’re called Sylpheim Trees and they’re the bigger ones with white bark. They’re of the wind element.

He would’ve gone out by himself and looked for these Sylpheim Trees but Lem stopped him. He said that he’d come with Reinhard because he can’t just chop trees as he wants in this part of the forest.

So, the two of them went out of the village, Reinhard acting as Lem’s guard against any monsters that might attack.

♦ ♦ ♦

“Your Grace, the two scouts we sent out has returned. It appears that there’s a basilisk nest straight on our path. If we keep advancing in this direction, we’re bound to encounter it sooner or later.”

The kneeling knight said to a middle aged nobleman.

“Then get rid of them! His Majesty has gracefully given us one week to correct our failures! If we walked around this nest, who knows how long it will take us to get there?”

The nobleman complained while being carried in a litter so he would not be dirtied by the mud and muck.

“B-but, your Grace, the environment and terrain are not ideal for our knights. Fighting would only lead us to unfavorable circumstances.”

“Then what’s the point of bringing you lot here if you’re not here to fight?”

“…”

“If we fight, more than half of our forces will suffer. This is a basilisk we’re talking about, your Grace. I’m sure even his Majesty under—“

“HIS MAJESTY WOULD BURN US IF WE DON’T COMPLETE THIS MISSION. Do you want to burn at the stake, Sir. Velram?”

“N-no, your Grace.”

“Then do your duty, unless you want me to report to his Majesty of your insubordination…”

“Y-yes…”

♦ ♦ ♦

“Wow, it’s even bigger than last I remembered.”

Reinhard awed at the size of the Sylpheim Tree that he and Lem found.

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“Of course they are! Sylphs reside on them after all, hence the name.”

“Sylphs?”

“After the dryads were… ‘punished’ by nature, it was the sylphs that took our place as the custodians of the forests. They live in these trees, forever guarding nature… isn’t that right?”

Lem touched the Sylpheim Tree. All of a sudden, white lights could be seen floating down from its leaves.

“That’s right, Reinhard!”

An unnatural, high-tune voice suddenly spoke. It was coming from the lights.

All of a sudden, the lights began to get dimmer and the form of what appears to be humanoid creatures floating in the air emerged within the lights.

“Your encounter with the basilisk a day ago was scary, wasn’t it?”

The sylph said as it flies towards Reinhard’s nose, poking it lightly.

“Basilisk?”

Reinhard asked, unsure of what the sprite was talking about.

“You know, that giant snake that ate the goblin? You were reaaaaaally lucky back then. If it was you that it saw first instead of the goblin, you’d be a dead man!”

-“Dead man!”

-“Yeah! Ha ha ha ha!”

The two other sylph joyfully spoke as they play around in the air.

“So, here for the wood again?”

The sylph asked Lem.

“Yeah, if it’s alright with you.”

“Oh, it’s fine. Consider this a ‘thank you’ for what your ancestors did to us.”

“His ancestors?”

Reinhard suddenly asks out of curiosity.

“Yup!”

The sylph proceeded to sit on Reinhard’s right shoulder.

“You see, a long time ago, before there were elves, there was an ancient darkness that almost consumed all of the forest. Many animals were killed, monsters too. Even sprites such as us weren’t spared. And it was the dryads that helped us all survive. They housed us inside Garden until the darkness was fully expelled. That’s why we owe to them our existence. I know that they’re just doing their job back then as custodians, but still, if it were not for them, there would be no sylphs right now…”

The sylph narrated while Lem was chopping of a part of the tree’s trunk.

-“They saved us!”

-“Yeah!”

“What was that ancient darkness?”

“In the end, we never found out. All the races that had already existed at that time set aside their differences and banded together to push away that darkness. People just called it The Smoke though, since it was literally a gigantic smoke that kills anything in its path.”

Lem said all of a sudden.

“Correct!”

The sylph replied.

“This should about do it, what do you say?”

Lem asked Reinhard while carrying a bundle of chopped wood. It was not much, and he didn’t chopped the entire tree, only parts of it, but it was enough to craft a staff.

“That should be enough but, is it really alright for us to take pieces of your home?”

Reinhard replied then asked the sylphs.

“Oh, its fine. As long as it’s not fully chopped down, this tree will regenerate at an unprecedented speed! But only when no one is watching… It’s really shy!”

-“Really shy!”

-“Embarrassed!”

“A tree that’s shy? That’s… something, I guess.”

“Well, we better get going now. Thanks again!”

Lem said while the two of them were walking away.

As they walked away, the sylph shouted one last thing to the two of them.

“Oh, and by the way, be careful of the metal guys!”

Although their distance was too far away so the two of them may have not heard the sylph’s shout.

After returning to Garden, Reinhard just took five of the Sylpheim Wood and went to his tree house. The last time’s commotion has made him realize that he probably shouldn’t make those things in public.

He placed the Sylpheim Wood and the Earth Core on a mini-table next to his grass-bed and immediately began crafting.

[SYSTEM]

[Common Wooden Staff]

-[Sylpheim Wood – Common x5]

-[Earth Orb – Common x1]

-[100 MP]

[CRAFT]

“Aaaaaand craft!”

Just like last time, the materials on the table began glowing tremendously for a short time, and as the light fades, the created staff is only what remains.

As usual, he examined the staff that he had just crafted.

Unlike the strong, "blocky" feel of his first staff's handle, this one looks more serene, smooth and harmonious. The white handle is carved with multiple fine lines that circle and whip around it in a graceful manner. It stands in contrast with its orb that sits at the end, looking like a sphere of rock pierced by the handle, or a ball of magma that's in the process of flowing down the handle but then cooled off.

[SYSTEM]

[Common Sylpheim Staff of Earth]

Binds the target in a mound of rocks that rises up beneath the earth. Alternatively, the caster can instead produce a shield of rocks in front of him that blocks attacks. Both continously uses the staff’s mana to maintain.

Unique Effects:

[Sylpheim]: Deals additional damage to creatures of fire element.

“So it’s a CC (crowd control) and a shield staff at the same time, huh, neat.”

“Well, now that I have another staff, time to use my skill point on the [Dual Wield Staff] skill.

[SYSTEM]

You have acquired: [Dual Wield Staff 1] Passive Skill.

“Awwww yeaaaah. This is gonna be great!”

Reinhard is unable to contain his excitement.

He hastily went out of the village to test his new battle-style. He equipped the venom staff on his right and used his left for the earth staff.

“God, I feel like a total badass commando who’s using two machine guns on both hands!”

He was totally unable to control his excitement.

He found a protruding rock not too far away and decided to use it as a target practice.

However, while he was playing around with his two staves, he was suddenly able to hear voices coming from across the creek, as well as the growing noise of something hitting the leaves and branches.

He immediately hid behind the rock that he was practicing on as it was big enough to hide his frame. There, he saw what looked to be men wearing armor, swinging their sword to clear away the path. They all looked gloomy and sad though, and some of them are even heavily wounded and had to be carried by the others.

“What happened to them? Why are they here?”

Not too far behind the knights was a blue litter with ornate silver designs on it being carried by four knights on all four sides. Reinhard saw that there’s a slightly-fat adult man inside it. He looks to be on edge and impatient.

Upon exiting the trees and into the clearing where the hut was, the first knight that emerged suddenly shouted.

“We’re here! We’re here! There’s the hut! That’s it, right?”

Then, the four knights carrying the blue litter hurriedly went. They gently placed it on the ground and the man inside it arduously climbs out.

“I-it’s so hot in here!”

The man says after exiting his litter.

“That’s the home of the gods? It looks… underwhelming.”

He added after wiping of his sweaty forehead.

“Fine then. Go ahead, knights. Search the whole area. If you see movement among the bushes, look into it immediately. It might be the possessor.”

“What? They’re… looking for me?”