Noble Emblem

By the time the duo and bird are back to the village, the sun has already set. The remnant glow of twilight paints the whole village in amber color. The thatch house outside the village is completed already. The children are all gone but this is nothing strange, after all, the things the children of farmers need to be is plenty. They have to help with household ch.o.r.es and farm work. Taking time out to help Liang Li Dong build the thatch house means they respect this teacher very much already.

Old village head stands on the small dune in front of the village. Seeing that Kyle has returned from the mountains, he is relieved, he turns around and slowly returns home.

Kyle and Liang Li Dong go their separate ways at the village entrance. Before leaving, he looks at the ‘bald chicken’ standing on the latter’s shoulder enviously and says: “Teacher, are you really not going to stay in my house anymore? Grandfather is only a little muddleheaded, he does not intend to offend you.”

“You probably don’t even understand why we had a conflict.” Liang Li Dong pats on the young man’s head and smiles gently: “Relax, it is just purely a difference in some ideals. At most, it is just Old Village Head feels that I’m too stingy only. It’s no big deal. Furthermore, we cannot keep staying in your house, could it be you wanted me to be your family’s chef?”

Kyle slightly blushes. He is really a bit worried that after Teacher left, he would not be able to eat such delicious food anymore. Being seen through, the young man turns and runs: “Teacher, see you tomorrow.”

Liang Li Dong shrugs his shoulders, enters the thatch house not far away because it was built in a hurry, the thatch house is not installed with a wooden door. The house is filled with the scent of straw and twigs, not pungent, to those that like to stay close to nature, this is a fragrant and comfortable smell.

A simple table and chair is placed in the house. There is also a wooden bed at the corner of the house, on it is a blanket. This blanket is the one Liang Li Dong had been using these 2 evenings, it must have been sent here by the old village head.

The ‘bald chicken’ on Liang Li Dong’s shoulder looks left and right and then says in surprise: “Wa, as a spellcaster, you actually lived in such a simple and crude place?”

After having the owner’s knowledge, the magical pet’s views are changed too. They understood many humans’ knowledge and also understood how to see problems from a human’s viewpoint. If it was still the semi-magical beast-ized 3 Feather Crown Falcon, it will definitely not feel anything wrong with this thatch house now. In their simple views, they will even feel that this nest is very big and very good but after becoming a magical pet, they will know what kind of status the owner of this house has in the human society.

“Make do with it for now.” Liang Li Dong sits on the bed and smiles: “In another 6 months, there will be a big stone house to live in.”

“What about food, I’m hungry already.” Bald chicken’s young girl voice is pretty nice: “If I still had feathers, I can solve my own food problems but now, you will have to feed me for a month first. If I cannot fly, I cannot do anything.”

“The sky is dark now already, starve for a night first.” Liang Li Dong laughs: “With our physique, starving for 3 or 4 days is no big deal. A meal less is nothing. When tomorrow comes, I’ll find a way to make something nice for you, please trust my skills.”

“That I do not doubt……” Bald chicken does a swallowing saliva action: “In the knowledge you transferred to me, there is many content about delicious food. Like braised pork b.a.l.l.s, Kung Pao chicken, Sichuan Boiled Fish……I suddenly feel that becoming your magical pet is not so bad.”

Liang Li Dong smiles, this magical pet’s personality seems not bad. Typically, because magical pets have their own personalities so after mage contracted a magical pet, they normally need to go through a period of phasing in before they can connect mentally and according to both sides’ patience and personalities, this time can be long or short. He asks: “By convention, every magical pet has their own names, what should I call you?”

“According to the knowledge you transferred to me, I feel one female name suits me very well.”

“Oh, let me hear it!”

“Joan of Arc!” Bald chicken raises it head, looking like it is really amazing: “Only such a holy and pure name has the right to match my ident.i.ty.”

“Oh……As long as you like it.”

Bald chicken……It is called Joan now, it jumps from Liang Li Dong’s shoulders onto the bed, uses it mouth to pick up a corner of the blanket, cover itself up and yawns very humanly-like……And then, very quickly it falls asleep. After all, evolving from semi-magical beast-ized creature to magical pet directly, its brain was also stuffed with a bunch of knowledge, useful or not, be it mentally or physically, it is already very tired.

Liang Li Dong is also slightly tired. Tearing off 2 pieces of soul fragments is not as simple as having headaches, it has certain impact on his mind and it takes around half a month to recover. Judging from the hint given by the System, in the next 360 hours, all his magic skill effects will decrease by around 10%.

The negative effect is within acceptable range, and it is not lost forever, not a big problem. Thinking back now, Liang Li Dong feels that he was a bit hasty then. Soul is always something mysterious and unpredictable. In the game, the officials have reminded players many times that with quests involving soul or skills must be cautious. Separating a soul fragment out in a month is already the limit. In the afternoon, he separated 2 fragments in a row. If it was in the game, the contract progress will definitely be interrupted by the system forcefully. However it is good thing that it succeeded and it did not really caused any irreversible losses.

Cannot do such rash things again, Liang Li Dong secretly cautions himself in his mind. To be able to meet Persian Cat and Xiao Bai in the future, he must do things cautiously and even more cautiously.

Absentmindedly, he lies on the bed and fallen asleep too. By the time he awakens, he discovers the sun is already up and shining. He opens the system log first and discovers the system notification at 0 hour last night:

After a day of hard work, you obtained 6 character EXP.

A day’s EXP not exceeding a single digit, this is already within Liang Li Dong’s expectations. He yawns and then grabs the still sleeping Joan, shakes it vigorously to wake it up and then places it on his shoulders.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, how can you do this to a sleeping young girl?” The Joan who gets angry when waking up pecks twice on Liang Li Dong’s face, but it has control on its peck, it can make Liang Li Dong feel pain and yet not cause him real damage.

When Liang Li Dong gets to the riverside, a bunch of students are already waiting there long ago. They look worried in their eyes, seeing that Liang Li Dong reached, they are finally relieved……In these times, having a teacher willing to teach them words and how to be a person is harder than reaching the skies.

“Sorry, I’m late. This is my magical pet……Joan, say h.e.l.lo to the kids.”

“A bunch of kids, there’s no need to be so courteous to them!” Joan raises it head really high.

“Featherless chicken talked……”

“Ah! It talked!”

This bunch of kids instantly erupts into a bustle. Most of them are very nervous. After all, they have heard of rumors that those creatures that can talk are high rank magic beasts that eat humans whole and only eats small children.

Liang Li Dong spends some effort before finally calming these little fellows down and make them believe that this bald chicken that can talk does not eat people. And then, he clears his throat and says: “Same as yesterday, before teaching you all words, let’s talk about some small knowledge first. This world has 4 major primordial G.o.ds and around 20+ secondary G.o.ds, I’m sure everyone is clear about this. Many people have G.o.ds they believed in but does not know what benefits believing in G.o.ds has and also not know how to get benefits from G.o.ds. Many people feel that believing people should be devoting their all, this concept is wrong. We believe in G.o.ds, G.o.ds give us protection, this is a win-win transaction, may be you all feel that I’m disrespectful to G.o.ds by saying it like this but in actual fact, the more powerful the G.o.d is, the more they like to trade with intellectual creatures but the transaction content is not gold but faith Source……”

After the routine teaching in the morning, Liang Li Dong returns to in front of the thatch house and just when he is preparing to go up the mountains and get some game and wild vegetables to eat, he discovers there is a few baskets placed in front of his house’s door instead. The baskets are filled with different things, matsutake, breads, wild vegetables and a grey sparrow.

These things……Liang Li Dong is a bit confused. Seeing that Behring is squatting at the village entrance, he beckons her to come over and asks what is going on.

Behring is slightly uneasy and says: “Everyone already knew that Teacher moved out of Village Head’s house. All the uncles felt sorry for just helping you build a thatch house and you taught us words and also taught us other knowledge. All the uncles and gramps said that if it was changed into education fees, all the people in our village will not be able to pay so they can only think of some way to get you some stuff from the mountains. They also said that these things are not valuable, it is not even a 10-thousandth of the education fees but if teacher teaching us things and still have to find ways to find food yourself, all the people in our village are all idiots who do not know any better and definitely cannot let this kind of things happen or else our whole village will not have the face to see any outsiders.”

So it is like this! Liang Li Dong is a bit moved in his heart, he touches Behring’s small head: “I got it, then help me thank everyone in the villager, okay?”

“Okay!”

Behring nods forcefully, seeing that Teacher has agreed, she is really happy. When Teacher moved out of Village Head’s house yesterday, people from the 2 villages are scared that Teacher is enraged and is unwilling to teach their children anymore and going to leave the village. The saddest thing in this world is not that there is no chance given but the only chance has come and one can look at it slip away.

Liang Li Dong uses the mountain goods to make a meal of delicacy with a value as high as 9 and Joan ate until its stomach is stuffed. It lies on the bed like a dead chicken and while remembering the delicacy’s taste, it says: “Let me rest for a while, I can still eat another plate of fried matsutake……This is the first time I know that vegetarian food can be this delicious.”

Liang Li Dong feels hilarious from hearing it, falconidae creatures are normally carnivorous, but after Joan evolved into magical pet, it is an omnivorous creature already, it can digest well even if it eats vegetables.

Because there is nothing in the afternoon, Liang Li Dong begins to craft the Level 1 magic scroll. He succeeded for all the 6 times, this feat ‘Scroll Crafting’ is more useful than expected. Crafting scrolls can increase character EXP, Liang Li Dong estimates by 0 hour in the night, the obtained EXP should break through single digit. Although crafting scrolls requires a lot of alchemy items, magic scrolls is even more expensive. Liang Li Dong intends to sell the scrolls when going the city a few days later in exchange for more alchemy items and continues crafting scrolls. Firstly, it can ‘grind’ character EXP, secondly, it can farm gold.

It can be considered as a very positive cycle.

However before entering the city, he have to craft the ‘Dimensional Anchor’ that Carl needs first. When he takes out that black box from the dimensional backpack and prepares to start work, Kyle runs over and shouts out: “Teacher, Teacher, the mayor’s daughter came to our house and she wants to meet you!”

City mayor’s daughter? Liang Li Dong remembers Kyle mentioning about this person, seems to be a young female Mage.

He places Joan on his shoulders once again, follows Kyle to the Village Head’s house and then saw this rumored female spellcaster. Judging by age, it is a young girl around 17 years old. The shapely figure below the magic robe is faintly visible, it can be seen that her figure is really good but the face is not pretty, very ordinary but because she is a spellcaster, she looks like there is a special charm to her.

“h.e.l.lo, ascetic believer from afar!” Seeing that the main target is here, the young girl spellcaster stands up and pulls at the corner of her skirt like a lady, lightly curtsy: “I’m a member of Red Magic Tower, Barbara, it’s a pleasant to be able to meet with you in this beautiful village surrounded by mountains.”

“Beta, G.o.ddess Waukeen’s believer. This is my partner, Joan”

“h.e.l.lo!” Joan greets weakly.

“Magical pet?” Barbara looks at Joan in surprise, her face is filled with a kind of unbelievable surprise: “You actually can contract magical pet? How many ring spellcaster are you? I feel that although your mind power is stable, it is not especially strong, how did you separate your soul fragment? How did you do it?”

Feel free to point out typos and mistakes.