บท 251: Life Aura

The rain eventually stopped, and the Giant was long gone while the Elf also left without even saying goodbye. Gerald was back on the road.

"What do I care where the Giant is going? At the speed it's walking, it's probably going to take a day or two until he reaches the capital at least… Should be long enough for me to get back!" Gerald murmured as he flew.

He wasn't exactly in a bad mood, but it was not good either. Gathering God's Blood was a pain in the ass! The herb was so similar to other common weeds that it was crazy! If not for the blood-red flower it had when in full bloom it would be nearly impossible to find.

And he was not looking forward to searching for it. It's probably going to take a full day just to find a dozen or so.

Stupid Giant, it just had to awaken now! I was hoping to get a week of free time at least, damn it!" Gerald complained to himself but then exhaled helplessly and gave into his fate.

"It is what it is…" No point in getting frustrated over something he couldn't control.

As such, he searched for a good place to land and eventually decided on a nice sunny meadow. The emerald grass was tall and soft, the flowers were blooming, and the insects were jumping all over the place. In short, it was terrible! So much grass and greenery everywhere that he didn't know where to start.

"… Fuck!"

The time for God's Blood blooming was over and it was now the seed-growing season. It was still useful for making potions, although a greater quantity of herbs was needed to achieve the same result.

Gerald bent down and moved patches of grass out of the way, searching for those tiny precious dark-emerald leaves amidst the sea of green.

It took him almost an hour to find his first desired plant, and even that happened by sheer luck, it was completely random! He thought that maybe the stars aligned in his favor, but nope. He continued searching for hours until the sun already started going down, and only had two herbs to show for it.

As he traveled a good distance already, he saw a village in the distance and decided to spend the night there. The only problem was that as he came closer, he realized that the village was abandoned. Walls were broken down, and houses were partially turned to charcoal by flames.

The ground remained damp from the storm, but he still managed to find some warm ash in dry places. Clearly, whatever happened here was a recent development. And as a righteous person of the modern age, he of course knew what had to be done, and so he quickly got to work. However, after half an hour of running around the village, he finally gave up and sat down beside a broken-down well.

"Well, crap. Not a single piece of loot is to be found anywhere! What the hell happened here, this place was picked clean!"

He opened his Magic Eyes and scanned the village a few times extra just to be sure. There were three things left in the village: Burnt wood, small pieces of scrap metal, and dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.

Gerald was poking around the ashes with his foot and picked up a mangled nail. "Man, I'm so unlucky today! Only this tiny piece of metal has any value here…"

He sighed, "It's not like I need money… But… Oh well, I guess it could come in handy later," he grumbled and tossed the nail into his Ring. He might as well pick up every little piece of metal and then grind the village into dust. At least then nature could take over and grow something useful on top. Maybe his good deeds would be rewarded... somehow.

It took him until night to gather all the scrap metal. It was low-grade iron, copper pots, and bronze tools, nothing special. However, the amount came to be surprisingly high, at least a few hundred kilograms of the stuff. He was honestly surprised.

With the help of Magic Eyes, he managed to find metals quickly among the rubble. And since it was already time for a bit of shut-eye, he circled the village to check for any enemies.

However, when he used his Magic Eyes on the plants all around, he shockingly discovered something new. Alongside Mana that was everywhere, it seemed that he could now see something else. Every bush and tree, every flower and strand of grass were surrounded by some sort of field.

He could describe it best by comparing it to the magnetic field lines, moving up from the object, going away, and then turning around in a tight loop and reentering from below.

"A field… I can see some sort of a field now? Damn, did my Magic Eyes get upgraded recently? Why didn't I notice it before?!" he exclaimed.

"Hold on…" He suddenly took God's Blood from the ring and looked at it. Just like every other plant, this one too had a mysterious field around it. Though the circulation was getting slower and weaker by the minute.

"Oh my god! I can see the Life Aura of living things! What! That's crazy!" That's what his first thought was at least. Each plant had a different Aura, though those of the same species had very little difference. Gerald's eyes enlarged, and his chest started producing worryingly fast heartbeats.

"I see it, I see it! Ahahaha!" he laughed, nearly losing his head in the process. He stared into the darkness where thousands of Auras clashed and his eyes fixed on a few particular spots.

"There is one! And another over here! And there! They are everywhere, woo-hoo!" He ran like mad into the night and patches of dirt flew up by themselves, revealing healthy and mature God's Blood plants!

"No sleep for me today, I guess! Haha, but who cares! This is amazing!"

***

After spending most of the night running around and collecting herbs, Gerald sat down below a lonely tree, satisfied. He gathered around one hundred God's Blood herbs as well as many dozens of other useful plants.

But he wasn't an ungrateful bastard simply plundering the land. He took half of the mature seeds and spread them across the meadow for future generations. Good things like these had to be preserved and not harvested to extinction!

As for the remaining seeds, he was planning to plant them in the back garden of the Mansion. Perhaps he could grow his own stock.

And as the sun started to rise and the warm rays tickled his skin, he began to yawn. He was quite tired, so taking a short nap was a must. Before doing that though, he created a small stone fortress around himself. It had stone walls and a roof and was surrounded by thousands of thorns created by his magic.

That way, at least he wouldn't be attacked in his sleep. Probably...