I woke up because I felt poking from the side. “Is this because I leveled the magic perception skill?” I asked myself in confusion as I activated my *Magic Perception* skill and there I saw him poking me with a stick. “Eh!?”

”Hmm are they sure this is the friendly monster bush that Uncle was talking about?” Said Ray, the bastard that robbed me in the past.

I still was sleepy and confused so when I saw the annoying mug of Ray poking me with a stick I snapped and jumped at Ray's leg while screaming in my mind. “Revenge!”

”Ah! What?” He looked at his leg and saw me there hugging it.

”Oh it woke u…” He didn't have enough time to finish his sentence as I used the *Thorns* skill on his leg.

Thorns grew on my body and started to pierce through his pants and scratch his leg. Of course, I controlled my power so it wouldn’t be dangerous to him. Ray screamed in pain as he struggled to release me from his leg, but it wouldn't be so easy to break out of my spiky grip.

“You little shit!” He shouted and kicked with full force, the kick sent me flying in the direction of the tree, and because of that the thorns pierced deeper into his leg and even shredded his pants.

”What the hell is wrong with this thing!?” Ray shouted with anger.

Fortis, Glad and Scarlett heard the screams coming from the garden so they came to check what was up. They looked at Ray's right pants leg that looked like a rag and some bleeding red scratches could be seen through those rags on his leg.

Ray pulled out a sword from his belt and pointed it at me.

”Wow slow down there Ray what happened?” Glad tried to calm him down and prevent his hassle movements.

”I don't know this little shit just attacked me for no reason!” Ray was so furious that a vein could be seen on his head.

”This is strange…” He came closer to me and picked me up from the ground, I immediately retracted my thrones, but as he brought me closer to Ray I released them again.

”Ah! This little bastard!” He tried to cut me with a sword but Glad blocked it with his wrist guard and hit me with his fist on the head.

“Geh!” I shouted in my mind from pain as I fell to the floor.

”Enough!” He looked at me and said with a serious tone, I didn't want to try my luck with this monster so I complied and dissolved the thrones on my body.

”What did you do to it?” The young elf Fortis looked at Ray with the same serious look as Glad.

”I didn't do anything, he just woke up and attacked me.” Ray defended himself.

”It attacked you without a reason?” He asked doubtfully.

”It's a monster you can't know what's on its mind! And why are you trusting this thing more than me?” Ray's face was red as a tomato. I knew that I could get in trouble for hurting him, but after seeing him like this I knew that it was worth it.

”Ray, what's going on?” A sweet gentle voice could be heard in the air, it was the beautiful goddess that I saw in the forest with Ray.

I was mesmerized exactly as last time I saw her, she had an innocent expression as last time and even the white beautiful flower was still in her hair. “Did she pick a new one or does it never wither in her divine presence.” I said to myself as my imaginary eyes became round and shiny as if I became her devoted believer.

”This “friendly” monster just attacked me…” Ray said as he pointed at me.

”Eh? Isn't this the Visavil bush we saw before?” She asked with surprise.

Ray's eyes opened up into two full moons, as he examined my body.

”No way…” He murmured.

”You know this creature?” Asked the young elf.

”No, but we did find a Visavil bush in the wild not so long ago but… It was just a bush, not a monster.” Ray tried to defend himself.

”We cut a few branches from it last time and even took its crystal away, for the staff…” Said Luna with a tinge of sadness in her voice.

”You did what?” The young elf barked.

”It was just a normal bush, we just took a little from it as our tradition says, we didn't harm it or anything.” Ray said with a surprised voice.

”I see… You said it had a crystal, where is it?” Felix got the gist of what happened.

”We used it for staff, that's why we asked to go to the Rinco village to create a staff for me with the branches and the crystal.” Luna raised a short staff from her belt that had a bluish color to its base and gave it to Ray.

“My crystal!” I saw a familiar crystal on the edge of the wand, it looked different and more refined but I still could recognize the weak blue glow it released.

”Give it back to him, surely he will forgive us.” She said gently.

Ray looked at Luna with a shocked expression.

”You talking nonsense it's just a stupid monster most likely it's not even the same bush and this is the first staff that freely accepts your mana and it even has a rare unknown skill to it, it is your first step to becoming a grand mage as you always wanted.” You could see the sadness on Ray's face as he was speaking.

I still couldn't understand them fully so I was trying my best to understand what was happening.

”I am sure it's the same bush, and it doesn't matter, I will just find another staff.” Luna gave off a sad smile.

Ray hesitated a little before sighing and saying. ”Fine but I won't let you give up on your dream so easily.”

He came to me and handed me the short staff. He was ready for me to attack him any second, but of course, I didn't. From the third level of language skill, I could understand the gist of the conversation and was even touched by Luna's kindness.

As I grabbed the staff Ray jumped back a meter away from me ready for me to attack him but I didn't even move an inch.

As everyone looked awkwardly at Ray, I backed off to the side and started to look at the staff, it looked really simple but beautiful. Three blueish branches were twisted around each other and a blue shiny crystal was at its end twisted by the branches as well.

The branches were polished and surely were slick to the touch, while the crystal was refined and his glow was mesmerizing even more than before.

“It's made from my body… *Inspect*...”

***

*Evergrew*

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Type: Staff

Rank: E

-Durability:26/26

-Mana:40/40

-Defense:4

+12 Intelligence

+10 Magic Resist

+25 Magic Control

-Wood Control Circle Lv3

-Counterpart Living Equipment

***

*Counterpart Living Equipment*- Equipment that was created from a living creature because of that it's bound to its living counterpart, the stronger the living counterpart is getting the stronger the equipment shall get, if the counterpart dies the equipment will lose this effect.

***

“What a good effect and It's bound to me…”

I looked at the goddess that still had a sad smile on her face.

“Not sure why but this staff is a lot more important to her than to me...”

I came closer to the goddess, gave her a small bow like she did the first time we met, and returned her the short staff. All of those that were here were shocked, none of them expected me to return the short staff, or they expected me to throw it away or even not acknowledge it but to give it back, they haven’t even dreamt that.

Ray most likely thought that I don't even have enough brain to pick it up. The eyes of the goddess became teary as she fell to her knees and hugged me while sobbing.

”Thank you, thank you…” To tell the truth, I was a little bit confused, I wasn't sure why but I knew that there was a reason why the staff was so important to her. Surely one day I would know this reason.

After a while, the sobbing stopped and Luna calmed down.

“What an innocent heart.” I was looking at Luna that was holding the staff with both of her small hands while healing Ray's wounds. I could see how Ray's scratches were closing one after another.

“I must learn magic as well, but where is the magical circle? Why can't I see it?” I looked at Luna while engaging every small detail about her face into my mind. She had a small cute nose, slim and delicate eyebrows, and silver beautiful eyes full of innocence. I didn't know how someone could be so innocent at this age but I was happy that I could meet someone like her.

A few minutes passed and the wounds of that bastard healed but of course, I still didn't forgive him and he didn't forgive me either, he continued to glare at me all this time.

”Father, can you release him? I want to show him around the village.” Luna said as she looked at me.

“Father, what father?” I understood a few words and from it, I understood the word father. I looked around looking for this father figure, I looked at the youngster elf and shook my imaginary head then looked at Glad and back at Luna.

“No way! They look nothing alike and Luna is an elf, did Glad nail a beautiful elf?” I asked myself while shaking my head, “Nope he is too young too.”

I looked back at Felix. “No, he is even younger, he can be her younger brother, not the father for sure.” But then I saw him frown and nod his head, if I had eyes they would have fallen from their sockets and if I really had a head it would have exploded.

“No no no he is too young he looks barely thirteen years old...”

”Release him…” He said to Glad, at the same time he moved his finger and the air around the garden solidified for a second and then something disappeared.

“What was that?” I asked in confusion.

Glad placed his hand on the rope and as if it was alive it has completely released its grip from me and the tree, all that Glad had to do is pull it back into his hands.

“I never really inspected the rope… *inspect*”

***

*Dragon Bidding Rope* - An adventure rope that can easily bind monsters, the rope is so sturdy that some say that even a dragon will struggle to get released from it. The rope has a bidding array in it that lets it bind anything with just a little bit of mana.

Durability:129/135

Rank: B

-Bidding array(Lv5)

-Durability(LV7)

-Element Resistance(Lv4)

***

“Dragon binding rope… Not a surprise I couldn't cut it, it was an artifact…” Looking at the long rope disappearing into Glad’s small pouch I thought that the pouch was most likely an artifact as well.

“But what is an artifact?” I asked myself confused as that word popped into my head from nowhere.

”Luna, be careful with this thing, it's still a monster.” The youngster said, with a cold tone.

”Don't worry Father, he has a clear soul he wouldn't hurt anyone.” She said with a beautiful smile.

Felix sighed and nodded his head. He entered the house with Glad and Scarlett while Luna took my hand and took me for a walk in the village, while the bastard followed us along.

We walked through the fields of grains, fields of small fruit trees, and fields of vegetables. We went through the market area while Luna was showing me different kinds of shops. It was really weird because she showed me the village as if I was just a normal person.

“She is really weird… I like it!” I followed her around trying to listen to every word she said even though I barely could understand any of them.

The day passed so fast that I didn't even notice how the sun started to disappear behind the horizon, all the trees started to glow and so did I.

Luna laughed as she saw it while Ray was grumpy as always. We returned to the garden and I went back to sleep there. That's how that day ended, it was the most peaceful and memorable day in the elf's village for me.

A few more days have passed since that day, I barely leveled up any of my skills except my language skill.

*”Lingua Language” leveled up to Lv4*

Who would think that living in a peaceful environment would slow down my growth, but in the end, I didn't really care. I am not really an aggressive person in nature, the most important part for me was that I was safe and sound inside the village.

Most of my time I was following Luna around, seeing her study magic but I still couldn't learn any of it. For some reason, Luna was the only one that didn’t need to draw magical circles to use magic, while everyone else did, so learning magic from her was impossible so I looked for other activities.

While Luna was practicing her magic the bastard Ray was practicing swordplay. I picked up a branch and started to mirror his movements. Luna found it funny but Ray didn't, he thought I was mocking him or something, but I didn't care what he thought. In the end, I got a lesser sword mastery skill from him.

*Skill learned “Lesser Sword Mastery”*

In those days sometimes I was unlucky and while walking around the village with Luna I encountered my biggest enemies... The children. Damn those little monsters, Elliot and his gang told every child in the village about my existence.

Every time I met them I was dragged to play with them and had to hand down all of my berries until I was completely naked from them. As the soil here is rich with nutrients they would grow up after a night of sleep but I felt that I was taken advantage of every day.

Every night before I was going to sleep I followed Luna to the huge red tree, even though I wasn't allowed to get close to it I was still waiting in the area with Ray. Not even he followed her to the tree, in front of the tree was a small building made from red oak.

I guessed that an altar was located inside it and as a shrine priestess Luna had to clean it every day and pray for the village's safety. I tried to inspect the tree but something surprising happened as a new message popped up.

*Inspect Failed*

I was confused and tried again and again but the result was the same.

*Inspect Failed* *Inspect Failed* *Inspect Failed*...

“Looks like something was protecting the tree and the small shrine and was blocking my skill.” I said to myself with confusion as it was the first time something like that happened.

In the end, I just waited for Luna to come out from the shrine and that was how another peaceful day ended in the village. Five days have passed since the accident with Ray, I still regret not piercing my thorns deeper into his leg. Glad and Scarlett went away and haven’t returned since that day.

Another day passed and I was running after Luna and Ray in the village as usual. It was already nighttime and my leaves were shining. We followed Luna to the red huge tree and waited for her to come out.

Ray sneered at me with his annoying face as I accidentally fell as I was running around with the stick while trying to copy his sword training. To tell the truth, there was always tension between us when we were alone, but we never showed it to others.

“This bastard, I still haven't forgotten what you did to my beautiful branches!” I came closer to him and we glared at each other for a while but then a bell started to ring across the village, an urgent strong ringing to be precise.

Ray was surprised for a moment and even his face paled a little as he looked in the direction of the main gate, not waiting even a second he ran straight there at high speed.

A few moments passed as I stood there not knowing what to do, Luna still was in the small shrine in front of the tree. She always went into it for half an hour or so and never left it sooner, after a few moments of hesitation I chased after Ray.

“What is this alarm for? I have a bad feeling about it.” Just as I said that to myself a powerful explosion sound came from the main gate.

*Boom!!!*