Chapter 56: A Shift in Mindset
"Stay close."
Lance pushed his thoughts aside and led Cecilia off the wide main road, plunging into the dense woods on the forest’s eastern side.
The trees here were noticeably taller than those on the outskirts. A dense canopy of Ancient Oak Trees, layered one over another, completely blocked out the sun.
The light dimmed abruptly.
Cecilia tensed up, gripping the straps of her backpack tightly. Her wary eyes scanned the dark shadows among the trees.
Lance kept a constant watch on the [Environmental Stability] reading in the corner of his vision.
The value remained high and stable, above 90%.
Still, he deliberately headed in a direction where the stability was dropping, planning to use it as a teaching moment.
"In the forest, your eyes can sometimes deceive you, but your ears won’t."
Lance said, stopping beside an old, moss-covered tree.
"Learning to listen is the key to survival."
"What can you hear right now?"
At his words, Cecilia immediately closed her eyes, her pointed ears twitching slightly.
Although she had never undergone systematic auditory training, her Half-Elf blood granted her hearing far sharper than any human’s.
The rustle of wind through the leaves, the babble of a distant stream, and the sound of her own, slightly frantic heartbeat.
Other than that...
"It’s quiet."
Cecilia opened her eyes and said, a little uncertain.
"There’s nothing but the wind."
"Exactly."
Lance nodded in approval.
"But that’s not a good thing."
"A normal forest area should be filled with the calls of birds and the chirping of insects. That’s a safe kind of noisy."
"If it’s too quiet, like it is now, it means a predator more powerful than us has passed through, or we’re near the territory of some large Demon."
"The small animals are better at avoiding danger than we are."
Lance pointed to a small path on their right.
"So we can’t go straight. We have to circle around from that small slope to the south."
Understanding dawned on Cecilia, and a new layer of admiration appeared in her eyes as she looked at Lance.
’This is the difference experience makes.’
The two of them took the new route, winding their way through the woods for a full hour and a half.
The surrounding scenery gradually began to change.
The once-firm ground became soft and muddy, and a thick, rotten smell filled the air.
This was a huge mudflat.
Massive old trees grew crookedly from the black sludge, their thick aerial roots coiling across the ground like great serpents.
The entire area felt exceptionally gloomy and damp.
But in the crevices between the trees’ bulging roots, faint points of fluorescent light flickered like shattered stars scattered in the mud.
"That’s the Moonlight Moss."
Lance stopped at the edge of the mire, gesturing ahead with his chin.
"We need to cross this mire to gather it."
"C-Cross it?"
Cecilia looked down at the expanse of black mire before her.
The surface of the sludge was even bubbling with swamp gas, and she could occasionally see a few unidentifiable, soft-bodied worms squirming in the muck.
The viscous, filthy, and putrid scene made her skin crawl instinctively.
For a young lady who had spent her entire life in a pristine castle, it was like a nightmare.
Her fingers picked relentlessly at the strap of her gathering bag as she hesitated at the edge, her face pale.
The visceral revulsion made it impossible for her to take that first step.
Besides, her upbringing had taught her that a noble must maintain their dignity at all times.
"I..."
She wanted to ask if she could avoid going in, but then she remembered she was here for an internship. If she didn’t get an excellent evaluation, she wouldn’t receive the information needed for that Rare Profession.
If she couldn’t change to her family’s Heroic Profession, her father would be disappointed, and so would her aunt.
The thought of disappointing the people she cared about was the hardest thing for her to bear.
Looking at Cecilia’s hand, which was gripping the backpack strap for dear life,
The impatient words Lance was about to say caught in his throat.
He stared blankly at her trembling figure, and for a moment, it was as if he were looking through a crack in time and seeing his younger self.
’Have I been too hard on her?’
Ever since accepting this task, it seemed he had been unfairly critical of this sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl, holding a preconceived bias against her.
Lance asked himself what he had been like at her age.
’Back then, I was probably just a freshman or sophomore in high school, my head filled with wild and fantastical ideas.
I would have held unrealistic dreams for the future, had naive fantasies about life, and even agonized for days over some trivial romantic affair.
That’s what a normal sixteen or seventeen-year-old is supposed to be like.
And yet here I am, demanding that this girl, who has lived her whole life in an Ivory Tower, instantly transform into a seasoned Adventurer without any mental transition.
How is that any different from my own father, who only knew how to educate through constant criticism?’
’The Dragon Slayer becomes the Evil Dragon?’
Lance’s heart skipped a beat. He realized there was a huge problem with his mindset.
Since he had signed the commission and decided to mentor her, he shouldn’t be treating her as just a tool or some kind of burden.
It was his responsibility.
Lance let out a long, slow breath, releasing the tension in his chest.
Now that he had recognized his mistake, he had to correct it.
He looked at the girl before him, who, despite being scared to death, stood stubbornly at the edge of the mire without retreating a single step. His gaze gradually softened.
Lance understood this kind of visceral mysophobia and revulsion all too well.
In his last life, he had also been a city kid.
He remembered one summer vacation during elementary school when his parents’ business ran into some trouble. Unable to look after him, they sent him to his ancestral home in the countryside to live with his maternal grandparents for two months.
He was on the verge of a breakdown for the first few days.
The ancestral home, built entirely of wood, was nestled against a mountain. While it was cool, that also meant there were countless little bugs.
In the kitchen, on the dining table, even in his bed.
Back then, he would scream and shout at the mere sight of a cockroach.
But after two months, during that summer with no internet and only the chirping of cicadas, he could face the occasional small cockroach boiled in his soup bowl without batting an eye, calmly pick it out, and continue drinking.
It just went to show how adaptable people could be.
If his grandfather could help him adapt to that environment back then, there was no reason he couldn’t do the same for Cecilia now.
With that thought, Lance stopped pressuring her.
He turned and was the first to step into the black sludge.
SQUELCH.
The thick black mud instantly submerged his ankles, and the sour, rotten stench grew even stronger.
He deliberately tested the depth, choosing a relatively solid patch.
Once he was sure it was safe, Lance turned and extended his right hand toward the hesitating girl on the bank.
He tilted his head up slightly, revealing most of his face from under his Wind Hat, and gave her a big smile.
"If you’re scared, I can hold your hand and walk you across."
Lance’s tone was no longer cold and hard as before, but carried a trace of gentle, guiding patience.
"The real life of an Adventurer isn’t as thrilling, fun, or exciting as the stories told by Minstrels."
"There aren’t always glamorous Heroes rescuing damsels in distress."
"There are only endless thickets to push through, endless mud pits to trudge through, and the lingering stench of sweat you can never wash off."
"This dirty, tiring work we’re doing now—this is the daily life of an Adventurer."
Lance’s hand remained in the air, waiting for her response.
"If you’re truly ready to become an Adventurer, this is the real first step you have to take."
"Don’t be afraid. I’ll guide you, one step at a time."
He had experienced that kind of suffocating, suppressive education and knew it was just a shortcut taken by lazy educators. The trauma it inflicted on students often took a long time to heal on its own.
He didn’t want this girl to go through the same pain.
Cecilia stared at the encouraging smile on her senior’s face, completely stunned.