Magic Farm 106

Chapter 106: The War Ancient Trees, A Commission from the Winter Icefield

Several friends on Qi Yu’s contact list had all received a gift.

[God Is Formless: What’s this?]

The others were discussing it directly in the group chat:

[Need a Bit of Money to Save the World: Wow, that’s a huge bouquet! Is this the game master’s gift for today?]

[I Love Survival Games: Mm, my territory has turned into a giant flower garden. It’s beautiful. I picked some to give to you all.]

[Tranquility Brings Distance: Flowers blooming in this weather—so this is the power of a true farmer?]

[I Love Survival Games: No.]

Only then did Qi Yu remember that, aside from God Is Formless, the others still didn’t know he had a dual class.

He hesitated a little.

It hadn’t mattered before, but now the temperature in District 01 was dropping lower and lower. If it got any colder, even with enhanced physical attributes, it would start to feel uncomfortable.

What’s more, among his friends, there was a seventy-year-old elder.

Qi Yu hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he decided to tell the truth:

[I Love Survival Games: I have another class—“Mage.” I recently learned a temperature-regulating magic array. If you need it, I can draw one for you.]

[Need a Bit of Money to Save the World: Holy crap! Dual class? That’s straight out of a novel!]

[Don’t Dare to Open My Eyes: Like those badass mages in Western fantasy novels?]

[Civil Engineering Bro: No wonder—when we first met, you asked to buy my notes on making magic scrolls.]

[Tranquility Brings Distance: That’s amazing.]

He left the group chat and replied to God Is Formless.

[I Love Survival Games: My territory has turned into a giant flower garden. Sending you some flowers.]

[God Is Formless: Is it just for me, or did the others get some too?]

Qi Yu: ?

[I Love Survival Games: Everyone got some.]

[God Is Formless: Hmph, I knew it. If it wasn’t leftovers from others, you wouldn’t have given me any.]

Qi Yu was baffled and answered honestly:

[I Love Survival Games: I didn’t pick and choose for anyone. I just sent them directly.]

Shan Xingyu was laughing so hard, hugging the flowers, that she nearly doubled over.

[God Is Formless: Sorry, I was just joking.]

[God Is Formless: Let me show you my shelter. (Picture) (Picture)]

A grand and magnificent palace stood in the golden desert, with a dazzling golden sun as the backdrop.

[God Is Formless: I’m dumbfounded. A level-three shelter, and my stone shanty has turned into a protected monument.]

[I Love Survival Games: Your shelter is so cool. I love it.]

So splendid and golden.

[God Is Formless: Personally, I prefer something darker. Ideally, it would have tall steps, torches burning on both sides, and a throne carved with thorny patterns or maybe a rose crest.]

Qi Yu pictured it in his mind, but still preferred the golden splendor.

[I Love Survival Games: Then keep it up. Maybe next time you upgrade your shelter, your wish will come true.]

After delivering the gifts, Qi Yu walked to the edge of the black ancient forest.

The spring breeze brought by the maturing golden apple sapling had not only turned the entire territory into a vibrant, flourishing garden, but the most significant change was in these ancient trees.

The black ancient trees, originally pitch-black from root to crown, now had trunks that had turned the color of normal trees starting from the ground up.

Their weathered, rough bark spoke of countless years they had endured.

Qi Yu probed them with magic and found that not only the trunks, but in fact, from the roots underground, these ancient trees had shifted from pitch-black to the color of ordinary trees.

The information on his survival panel had finally updated.

[War Ancient Tree: Status, Reviving.]

Qi Yu: Huh?

He had spent a long time flipping through the magical plant compendium trying to figure out what these black trees were, but had never found a matching species.

But War Ancient Tree—he did know a little about that. When he was researching information on Black Vein Moss, he had come across something related.

[Black Vein Moss: A magical plant that grows symbiotically with the Treant race.]

War Ancient Trees were a type of Treant.

Treants had both a tree form and a living form.

In tree form, they were indistinguishable from ordinary plants.

In living form, their trunks grew facial features, their roots became legs, and their branches and leaves served as arms.

Treants were a life race, not magical plants, so the magical plant compendium didn’t have complete information on them.

Qi Yu only knew in general that Treants had once been companions of the elves, but as the elves retreated from the world, this race had become rarely seen.

Realizing that these black ancient trees were actually Treants, Qi Yu felt a new warmth toward them.

His Heart of the Greatwood staff had been crafted by Treants.

He cast a blessing spell on them, and then added another for good measure:

“May you awaken soon.”

With that done, Qi Yu hurried toward the shelter.

Ever since he’d realized the entire great tree was a complete magic array, Qi Yu had left a thread of his spiritual power on it.

This way, if anything happened in the magic array or the treehouse encircled by it, he would sense it immediately.

Just now, he had detected an unusual magical fluctuation.

The location… came from the bedroom in his treehouse.

A suspicion surfaced in Qi Yu’s mind: there weren’t many things in his bedroom that could trigger a magical fluctuation.

The most likely culprit was the mysterious drifting bottle, always appearing and disappearing without warning.

Come to think of it, this time, the bottle had been gone even longer than before.

He walked to the stained glass window, and sure enough, in the chest filled with clear water, a glass bottle lay quietly.

A hint of anticipation rose in Qi Yu’s heart: What would the drifting bottle bring him this time? A new friend? A new map? Or some other unknown surprise?

He fished out the bottle and retrieved the tiny rolled-up note inside.

[You have received a commission, from a desperate grandmother in the Winter Icefield. She hopes a powerful hero can drive away the evil beast for her.]

[Additional task: Help the lonely grandmother and her grandchild repair their dilapidated house.]

Winter Icefield?

Another place he’d never heard of.

Qi Yu looked out the window.

The only downside was that this commission conflicted with his Swiftsure schedule.

But he already had the most valuable level-three shelter blueprint from the points shop, and now that the Swiftsure didn’t dare come to his territory, his daily hunts only earned a little over ten thousand points.

It wasn’t a huge loss.

Besides, driving away a beast and repairing a house didn’t sound too difficult.

Maybe he could finish quickly.

[Do you accept the commission?]

Ten-minute countdown.

Qi Yu didn’t accept right away.

Winter Icefield—it sounded like an extremely cold place.

He stuffed all the wood from his warehouse into his spatial ring, just in case he ran into a merchant guild president like President Sean.

He packed five hundred sets of Fire Drake thermal suits.

He checked his backpack—plenty of food.

Finally, he changed into thermal underwear. He was about to put on his leather jacket, but hesitated and switched to a down coat made from Swiftsure feathers.

Swiftsure feathers were pure white, so the clothes made from them were white as well.

Qi Yu looked at himself: white down coat on top, black tactical pants below.

It did look a bit more pleasing to the eye than the dark red leather jacket.

But once he put on the Guardian Mage Robe over everything, it didn’t really matter what he wore underneath.

Before setting out, he double-checked that the territory was in order and that the energy tower was still well supplied.

Qi Yu chose “Accept Commission.”

Soon, the familiar wilderness carriage came clip-clopping along.

Qi Yu climbed aboard, feeling the familiar gentle swaying.

This time, he paid special attention to the carriage’s movement, noticing that the clip-clopping of hooves was especially rhythmic—from start to finish, every step seemed to fall at the exact same interval.

When he got off, he had a thought and took out an energy orb, a level-one magic crystal, and a beast crystal from his backpack.

He held them out in his palm: “Do you eat these?”

The three horse heads leaned over, each taking one.

The last one was a step too slow, looking left and right in confusion.

Qi Yu was charmed by its cuteness and handed it another beast crystal: “Here you go, eat up.”

As he thought, these four “beasts” weren’t flesh-and-blood creatures either, but alchemical beings.

Alchemy really was fascinating.

Bidding farewell to the carriage, Qi Yu finally looked at the new map.

[Current location: Winter Icefield.]

[Weather: Blizzard, -76°C to -63°C, wind force 6.]

Qi Yu felt the icy chill in the air.

The Fire Drake thermal underwear radiated constant warmth, while the Guardian Mage Robe kept out all wind and snow.

The blizzard reduced his vision to a field of white, but fortunately, his spiritual sense was unaffected.

With high agility and the properties of the Emerald Boots, he could tread lightly on the snow without worrying about sinking into the deep drifts.

His spiritual sense detected a house more than eight hundred meters ahead.

Qi Yu made his way in that direction.

As he drew near, he heard sobbing from inside.

“Who’s there?” an old, wary voice called out, and the crying stopped abruptly.

Qi Yu halted, standing where he was. “I accepted a commission to help a grandmother drive away an evil beast and repair a house.”

There was a moment of silence inside, then the sound of movement.

The door creaked open from within.

Qi Yu lowered his head and saw a frightened little face. Under a mess of brown curls, a pair of huge gray eyes took up nearly half the child’s face at first glance.

A small, disheveled child wrapped in a heavy blanket.

Qi Yu bent down to enter.

The house wasn’t large—half above ground, half below.

The furnishings inside were clearly old, every corner tidied but a bit cluttered.

As if it had recently lost the person who kept it in order.

An elderly woman with white hair was half-reclined on the sofa. The air carried a mixture of blood and medicinal herbs.

When she saw Qi Yu’s attire and the magic staff in his hand, the wariness on her face eased, as if she’d finally relaxed.

But a moment later, she tensed again.

“Are you a mage, sir?” she asked, a little uneasy. “I can’t afford to pay a mage’s fee.”

Qi Yu told her, “No need to worry. I came here because I accepted a commission—the fee has already been paid.”

Unlocking a new map and exploring another facet of this world was reward enough for him.

The child dragged over a chair for him to sit.

Then ran to a tall, old wooden cabinet to fetch a bowl. Not far away, a fireplace was burning, and beside it was a small stove with a pot hanging over the fire, white steam bubbling out.

Soon, the child brought over a bowl of tea.

“Please have some hot water,” he said softly.

Qi Yu accepted it and looked at the silent old woman watching all this. “Could you tell me more about the commission?”