Chapter 73: Chapter 73

Completely out of ideas, Muying decided to just let it be. Let people guess all they want—she wasn’t going to explain. If anyone asked, she’d just say she didn’t know, didn’t want to say, or couldn’t say. Better to just get some sleep!

……

The next morning, Muying walked tall into the eatery with Yuan-Gungun to buy breakfast—

“An elf! No wonder…” Mrs. Sera was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered and enthusiastically recommended the new fruit salad on the menu.

Muying, who’d come for meat buns, cursed inwardly. “Can’t elves eat meat?”

“They can, they can. But it’s said elves don’t like the taste of meat—they prefer fruit.” Mrs. Sera was an expert on elves, after all, who hadn’t dreamed of a romantic encounter with a beautiful elf in their youth? That’s how all the adventure novels went.

Besides, now that the lord had become an elf, talking about these things wasn’t against the rules. The shop was still quiet, and she was in a chatty mood. Even if the elf before her wasn’t the handsome elf man she’d once fancied, a cute elf girl was nice too.

“Ahem!” From the kitchen, burly Mr. Sera coughed loudly, making his presence known.

“Mama, mama, is Papa’s cough acting up again?” little Tom asked anxiously.

“No, I think he’s just itching for trouble again!”

While Mrs. Sera went inside to scold her husband, Muying quickly grabbed her buns and Yuan-Gungun and slipped away, teleporting straight to the plantation.

Everyone she met that morning was surprised by her transformation, but no one came up to ask questions, which was a huge relief.

Of course, she didn’t know about all the nicknames circulating in the territory: “Head-Cracking Maniac,” “The One Who Woke Up the Deadbeats,” “Skewer Master,” “Garden Grandmaster”…

In short, she was known as someone who seemed gentle on the surface, but was not to be messed with.

Sitting side by side with Yuan-Gungun on the field ridge, Muying thought: Meat buns are delicious, salad’s not bad either. Thank goodness for the Green Witch bloodline saving her taste buds—she hadn’t been forced into a vegetarian elf diet.

After breakfast, Grandpa Shaum arrived.

“Bloodline purified, eh? Now you’re a real little girl,” Shaum said, stroking his beard with a smile.

“…I’ve heard elves don’t come of age until they’re 100,” Muying replied with difficulty.

She’d become a cub, just like Yuan-Gungun!

Unbelievable.

But she decided, privately, to go by the Green Witch standard—adulthood at 18.

“Haha!” Shaum found her expression hilarious and couldn’t help but laugh.

Muying pulled a seed from her storage pouch. “This is what I transformed last night. I’ve already told you its properties. Here’s one for you to study; I’ll start infusing the other one now!”

Shaum nodded.

The old man and the young girl squatted together by the freshly dug field ridge.

Magic slowly enveloped the seed in her palm, and soon, the broomgrass seed sprouted.

Muying handed the sprouted seed to Grandpa Shaum.

The other seed in his hand sprouted as well.

“It’s definitely different from the seeds accelerated by Druid spells. Mine hasn’t changed in essence, just grown faster. Yours seems to be adapting to your particular kind of power,” Shaum observed carefully.

“Plants adapting to people? How interesting! But only special people can make this kind of change happen. Truly eye-opening. Hmm, I’ve got a new idea—let me go back and study it. Here, take this spell and have some fun…”"

"Mu Ying caught the book Grandpa Shaum tossed her way with a sigh. “Ugh, what a research fanatic!”

She flipped it open. An upgraded version of Plant Identification—now it’s Creature Identification?

“!”

Grandpa Shaum definitely knew about the stuff she and Wu Yaya had been up to, which was why he gave her this.

Mu Ying felt her face flush with embarrassment. How mortifying!

But this spell was seriously impressive.

Grandpa Shaum had developed this spell after researching Plant Detection and Plant Identification, then combined it with inspiration from Animal Detection, fusing his own biological knowledge with a bit of divination magic.

Although it was still a 1st-level spell, it was much harder to learn. You had to master Plant Identification first.

It could identify the type and characteristics of living creatures—not just plants and animals, but also monsters from bestiaries and even creatures from other worlds that Grandpa Shaum knew about. Even for entirely new species, it could reveal some information.

For example, the will-o’-wisp they’d encountered earlier was an evil undead creature, immune to physical and fire attacks, able to turn invisible and change color. It liked to lure living beings into danger at night and feed on the pain of their final moments.

So their earlier worries were justified—that will-o’-wisp really was up to no good.

“What a super practical spell!”

Mu Ying decided to prioritize learning it.

She got up and began tending to the natural energies of the plants in her garden.

After a busy morning, she returned to camp at noon and went to the weapons shop, buying a short sword and a longsword. She planned to practice close combat to make up for her lack of melee skills.

[Fine Iron Short Sword]

[Quality: White/Common]

[Effect: Sharpness +15]

[Fine Iron Long Sword]

[Quality: White/Common]

[Effect: Sharpness +10]

The moment she held the swords, she could tell it was a completely different experience from wielding a spear. She casually spun the sword in her hand—it felt incredibly natural.

Unfortunately, the sword techniques she knew emphasized speed and agility, not suited for heavy swords. Otherwise, she could have used a big wooden sword and combined it with her club techniques.

With her current sword skills, sacrificing a metal sword’s sharpness for a wooden sword’s brute force just wasn’t worth it.

So she couldn’t give up on the piercing spear.

The spear had a longer attack range.

From now on, she’d use archery and spells for long-range, the spear for mid-range, and swordsmanship for close combat.

Her specialization in archery had also given her a huge boost. She tested a shot—the aiming speed, the way she drew the bow, her shooting posture—all had been subtly corrected by her new skill knowledge.

The result was improved range and damage. With more practice and full absorption of the skill, she’d make even greater progress.