9 The Eye of the Jungle and the Wind of the Oak Tree

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" Wilderness Transformation: You have mastered the basic skills of Shapeshifters. You can transform into an animal blessed by the wilderness without casting a spell or chanting.

"You can choose one of the following animals as your wilderness form--

"Skunk;

"Raven;

"Douglon."

..

Wasn't shapeshifting the unique skill of Druids?

Matthew was pleasantly surprised.

This was most likely caused by the two gaming systems that were fighting against each other.

In the end.

Matthew chose the " Raven " as his wilderness form.

This was to make up for his shortcomings.

All three animals were small beasts and did not occupy a high ecological position in the food chain, so their combat ability was very average.

..

Skunks were more agile.

In some more complicated mountains or forests, skunk transformation might help escape, but other than that, it had no other advantages.

Matthew wouldn't go so far as to turn into a skunk and squeeze some musk for himself to sell.

..

The Douglon was a small dragon that looked like a hound.

However, the dragon bloodline in these small animals was even thinner than that of the kobolds.

Dragon's Might and spells were naturally out of the question.

Douglon had a certain storage ability, and there was a natural dimensional space in its abdomen.

The size of the space was linked to Douglon's level.

Newborn Douglon Dragon cubs had one-dimensional space, and each subsequent level would add one more dimensional space.

Each dimensional space was about the size of a medium-sized pumpkin and could store many things.

If he had to choose an animal companion, Matthew would choose the Douglon without hesitation.

But this was his own transformation.

Turning himself into a mobile storage space would instead make Matthew lose his sense of security.

..

Compared to the two animals.

Raven's advantages were self-evident.

It could fly!

And it was very fast!

It was worth it just to travel or escape, not to mention that the raven also had excellent reconnaissance abilities.

The only weakness of this animal was its low HP.

Raven only had one HP.

If you were discovered by an enemy who had the ability to deal with the air, you would easily be knocked out.

"How can this be so perfect?"

Matthew was quite satisfied with his new ability.

In his impression, many powerful mages would turn into ravens.

This was a good sign.

He looked at the mission pane.

The reward for [Wilderness Transformation] came from [Follow-up Mission 2: Maintaining it is also very important!]

Other than the new ability, he also received 200 XP.

The mission itself had not changed.

This meant that this was a long-term and repetitive task, just like planting trees.

"As long as a threat appears and the defense succeeds, I can obtain a reward?! Then, could I attract a threat myself? To farm the rewards?!"

Matthew was just thinking about it.

After all, he had no way of determining the system's judgment criteria.

If he messed up, it would be a huge loss.

In terms of personality, Matthew actually didn't like to fight and kill.

He preferred to plant trees slowly and defend passively.

It was enough to obtain stable happiness.

..

"Chirp, chirp!"

The Oak Tree Fairies appeared.

They surrounded Matthew and sang praises in a high-profile manner, praising his heroic feat of expelling the arsonists.

Fairies hated skeleton soldiers.

But they liked Matthew very much.

This might be the effect of Matthew's extremely high affinity with nature.

..

[You have received the blessing of Fairy Princess Lulu!]

You have obtained a semi-permanent status: Eye of the Forest!

You have obtained a semi-permanent status: Wind of the Oak Tree!

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[Eye of the Jungle: When you are in the jungle, your vision will be greatly improved, and you will be able to see what is behind you.]

[Wind of the Oak Tree: When you approach an oak tree, it will release the power of nature to heal your wounds and soothe your soul. Your mana recovery speed will also be greatly increased.]

[When an Oak Tree Fairy lives on the Oak Tree, the effect of the Wind of the Oak Tree will be doubled.]

..

Fairy Princess?

Matthew looked curiously into the fairies.

In the end, he only saw a flickering shadow.

Lulu was very shy.

Matthew had only heard of her name from other fairies, but he had never seen her face.

However, that night, Lulu took the initiative to show up and give Matthew a blessing.

But Matthew still couldn't see her face clearly.

"Thank you."

Matthew expressed his gratitude to the place where the white light disappeared.

[Eye of the Jungle] and [Wind of the Oak Tree] were both very practical.

The 'semi-permanent' meant that as long as Fairy Princess Lulu was still alive, they would take effect.

According to Matthew's deduction, Lulu should have just become a fairy princess.

She was still very young.

There was also a chance for her to become a more powerful and long-lived Fairy Queen as long as nothing happened to the oak forest.

In a way, these two semi-permanent statuses were no different from permanent statuses.

..

Matthew comforted the frightened fairies.

Then, he walked down the hill.

At the edge of the farm.

The flames gradually died down.

The skeleton soldiers dragged the bodies of the arsonist and his followers together.

Peggy was wiping her bone blade.

Not far away.

A blue halo was floating in a daze.

It was a ghost with a blank expression.

Until Matthew walked over.

Only then did the ghost's eyes gradually regain their luster.

"Matthew…You helped me."

The Spectral Soul realized what had happened.

Matthew raised his withered wooden staff, and a stream of negative energy surged into the ghost's body. The ghost's originally almost intangible spirit body regained a little luster.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Farmar, I couldn't come earlier."

Matthew sighed softly.

Farmar was the owner of this farm.

He and his family should have died at the hands of those villains.

Previously, Matthew had planned to chase after the arsonist.

He felt an extremely powerful resentment in the direction of the farm.

This resentment was actually growing stronger against the raging fire.

It sensed Matthew's presence.

So it begged him for a chance to take revenge.

Matthew naturally wouldn't refuse.

If such a powerful resentment were ignored, it would definitely give birth to a malicious ghost that would kill without blinking.

He used the Dead Summoning to respond to the other party's plea.

In the end, Farmar's spirit body was transformed into a powerful specter.

Spectral Soul's strength depended on his resentment.

After his revenge was successful, Farmar's spirit body was greatly weakened.

If there was no external interference, He was going to disappear soon.

..

".. Yesterday was Anthony or Farmar's son's birthday. Our family went to town for half a day and bought a lot of things that children liked: Desserts, candies, butter bread, and strawberries with frost sugar…

" When I went out this morning, I felt that the omen was bad. My old dog, Hunter, kept barking, but I found him noisy, so I locked him in the warehouse…I should have known that Hunter wouldn't bark for no reason. He's very intelligent…

".. The group of people rushed in. They kidnapped Lina and Anthony and killed the others. I only had a pitchfork in my hand, and the other men were defenseless. We relied on the warehouse to resist for a while... I couldn't even buy them enough time to escape into the cellar. Damn it!"

..

Farmar rambled on.

Matthew listened in silence.

This was a very responsible middle-aged man.

Almost all he talked about were his family, his brothers, and the farm laborers.

His face was full of longing for life.

However, even with Matthew injecting negative energy into him, his life as a ghost was about to come to an end.

Unless…

"Do you want to continue existing in this form? I can help you."

Farmar's condition was getting worse and worse.

Matthew couldn't help but mention it.

Farmar was stunned.

He shook his head.

"No, thank you, Matthew. Thank you for your kindness, but I don't need it.

"Lina and the children are waiting for me. I should go with them."

As he spoke, he looked towards the east.

Matthew looked over thoughtfully.

His vision suddenly turned gray.

Outside the charred stone house.

Six or seven souls were clustered together.

They gazed lovingly at the Farmar.

That was his family.

Matthew also saw that cute little girl.

She looked dazed.

It was as if she did not know what had happened.

"I'm leaving, Matthew... There are some of my savings in the cellar behind the mill. Please take them."

Farmar's figure gradually disappeared.

"I only have one wish. Don't let us die without a proper burial, okay?"

The gray field of vision suddenly disappeared.

Farmar and the other souls instantly disappeared.

Matthew's temples were pounding violently.

..

[You have mastered a new ability, Elementary Spirit Vision, during your encounter and conversation with a ghost.]

[Elementary Spirit Vision: You can see a corner of the ghost world.]

[Remark: Using this ability will consume a lot of mental energy.]

..

"Phew ~"

Matthew heaved a sigh of relief.

Under normal circumstances, ghosts could only be seen by people when they turned into strong corporeal forms, such as malicious ghosts.

Ordinary ghosts couldn't be seen normally.

Necromancers could use the spell 'Spirit Body Perception' to capture the traces of souls.

However, Spirit Body Perception was a Tier 3 spell.

Therefore, necromancers below Level-8 rarely had ghosts as their summons.

Farmar actually had the chance to become a powerful specter.

It was just that his resentment dissipated too quickly.

If Matthew was an evil necromancer, he could have forced him to sign a contract with him and not kill Heiss or continue to lie to Farmar that Heiss was not dead.

This way, he would be able to obtain a spirit with astonishing combat strength.

But Matthew wouldn't do something like that.

..

Next was to clean up the battlefield and check the spoils of war.

Matthew first cast his gaze at the body of the arsonist, Heiss.

He walked over.

He touched it without any courtesy or dignity!

..

[You have obtained the spoils of war]

400GP&80SC;

Blazing Glue x3 (set);

Fiery Dragon Oil x2 (bottle);

Molotov Cocktail x1 (bottle);

Ring of Invisibility (Unidentified);

Silver Frost Brotherhood's token x1;

Secret letter x1;

Muscles Scroll x6, Heightening Scroll x10.

..