CHAPTER 170: ALL THE ELEMENTS LIKE ME

In the past, when he was just a lowly office worker, Eric would be woken by the slightest sound at night.

Now, it was a different story. There could be more than a dozen cubs sleeping on his earthen bed, yet he wasn’t awakened by the noise at all.

"Eric, are you all going to bed?"

Bruno’s voice came in from the courtyard through the window.

Eric sat up and answered him: "Why are you only coming over now? We’ve already finished eating."

Bruno walked in from the door, his face flushed with excitement:

"It’s fine, it’s fine! I didn’t come for food! Eric, the gunpowder you mentioned... is it real?"

With every step he took, Leo, who was rolling on the bed, as well as Max, Michael, and Eric, all wrinkled their noses in unison, their gazes on him becoming critical.

Bruno stopped awkwardly. He raised his hand to sniff his clothes, then shyly scratched his red beard:

"Sigh, I know you Snow Wolves have sensitive noses. I was planning to change my clothes before coming over, but I was too excited and completely forgot."

"Joseph already told you about the gunpowder? If we find the right ratio, it really can be made, but the process will definitely be very troublesome. Have you also been working with the niter soil?" Eric asked while quietly covering his nose, shuffling deeper into the earthen bed.

Although making gunpowder was a good thing, this smell was really nothing to compliment. Eric was even afraid that in the future, the soil around the latrine area would become a hot commodity everyone sought.

"So it’s true! Oh my goodness!" Bruno was so excited he jumped on the spot: "Isn’t this just like a high-level item from fire magic! No, no, no, this gunpowder doesn’t even need magical power!"

"I thought that bastard Joseph was lying to me, I didn’t expect it to be real! If gunpowder is really made, Eric, you are definitely the divine messenger of the Blacksmith God sent to earth!"

After speaking, he hastily turned and ran out the door. It seemed he just wanted to come over and confirm it with Eric to be sure.

Eric slapped his forehead in misery. Why did he have to be turned into some divine messenger? What a pain.

"Is this guy crazy, muttering to himself and stinking to high heaven," Michael frowned, rushing to open the window for ventilation.

Max immediately wrapped Eric and Leo tightly in their blankets. As soon as the window opened, the warmth in the house was blown away by the cold wind from outside. After airing the room for a moment, Michael quickly closed the window again, otherwise, the little heat accumulated in the house would all escape.

Eric was wrapped in a blanket so he didn’t feel cold, but he was worried about Evan, who was sitting in the corner of the room. He still had his eyes closed, his hands placed in front of his chest. Afraid this frail human would catch another cold, he casually draped a down comforter over him.

"Oh right, this comforter is made from the down of the Jin bird and the Winged Tiger. It’s very soft and warm. Iris and Jessica helped make them. I prepared one for everyone."

He hugged two comforters and handed them to Max and Michael in turn. They had collected a lot of down this time, so he had stuffed the comforters thickly, enough to be used even in the harsh winter here.

Michael happily hugged the comforter: "There’s one for me too? This is great!"

He quickly shook out the comforter, wrapped it around himself, and let out a happy sigh, rolling once on the earthen bed: "This is so much lighter than animal hide, I can feel the warmth just from smelling it, and there’s no strange smell at all."

Seeing his reaction, Eric’s lips quietly curved up.

Max hugged the comforter, a clear look of joy in his eyes: "This is just as comfortable as the one we made together last time."

"The stitches on that comforter we sewed were too ugly, especially my half, it was all crooked." Eric covered his face in embarrassment.

Michael curiously pulled back the comforter on Leo to look, and sure enough, the stitches were really crooked. He couldn’t help but laugh mockingly: "How could you two sew so badly?"

Max glanced at him sideways, his expression unchanging: "I recall the cloth bag you sewed is the ugliest thing in the tribe."

Michael immediately shut up, looking up at the sky and the ground, pretending nothing had happened.

Leo very thoughtfully comforted his brother: "I like this comforter the most!"

After comforting Leo with a pat on the head, Eric didn’t want to sleep just yet. He sat cross-legged on the earthen bed and began to enter a meditative state again.

It was much smoother this time. Eric quickly sank into a state of selflessness, the sounds in his ears gradually drifting away.

In the darkness, the mischievous green motes of light jumped out first. They played on his fingertips, occasionally hiding inside his body, then cheekily running out again.

Immediately after, other motes of light appeared one after another. The blue motes intimately twined around the green ones, playing together on Eric’s body.

These were the magical elements. Eric remembered Evan’s words: magical talent was about seeing which elemental system the mage had a high affinity with, in order to use and command them.

He was about to open his mouth to ask which of these elements would let him use them, but luckily, he remembered in time that last time he was disconnected precisely because he couldn’t resist opening his mouth to speak.

He quickly suppressed that intention, trying to use his mind to convey his thoughts:

[Whoever can lend a hand, please lend a hand...]

Eric chanted silently in his heart. He only saw the colorful motes of light dancing joyfully around him, occasionally going in and out of his body.

Eric was so confused he wanted to scratch his head. What did this mean? Could it be... all of them liked him?

Did this mean his talent wasn’t pure? From what Evan said, it was probably similar to the spiritual roots in the cultivation novels he used to read; the purer, the more powerful.

He was a little distressed, but then he comforted himself: at least it was better than having no affinity at all. This way, he could at least use a little of everything. On normal days, he could use the Fire element to start a fire, the Water element to wash some fruits...

After comforting himself, Eric was afraid he would accidentally meditate for too long, so he tried to wake up from this state. He was about to open his mouth, but the elements lingered around his fingertips, as if saying goodbye.

Immediately after, the darkness and the elements before his eyes began to dissipate. Before he could open his mouth, Eric had exited the meditative state.

[You don’t need to speak, you can exit just by thinking it?] Eric had an epiphany and his eyes snapped open.

When he started meditating, it wasn’t completely dark. But now, it was already dim daylight outside. It turned out a whole day had passed.

Only Leo was left on the earthen bed, sleeping soundly. Max and Michael must have gone out with everyone else to start a new day of patrolling. Strangely, Evan was also nowhere to be seen.

He’s probably wandering around somewhere again. I don’t understand what’s so interesting about our tiny tribe.

Eric was still in a cross-legged position. This time, he carefully relaxed his legs before trying to stretch them, to avoid falling flat like last time. He slowly pulled back the blanket, then slowly stretched his two legs straight.

Unexpectedly, it was extremely smooth this time. His legs had no sensation of numbness like last time, and his whole body even felt unusually refreshed, as if he had just had a very deep sleep.

[Maybe it’s because the elements were going in and out of my body last night?]

Eric thought, uncertain.

In the end, he still couldn’t figure out which elemental system he was more compatible with, and he couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated.

A great man once said, to know something, you must try it. It seemed his path as a mage could only rely on practice to find the truth.

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