Never Die Extra (Edited)

Great Ancient Mage, Acknowledged (3)

Evan became the king of the Forest without him knowing it, either.

“King…”

“A human…became the king of the Forest…”

“The Princess finally fulfilled her desire.”

“No, she claimed herself to be a queen. She has grown.”

“The Mother Tree…is having her hand at us.”

The Forest elves gathered around the World Tree through Mirole’s call were whispering from place to place. They suspiciously stared at the Mother Tree, but she just waved her branches. And meanwhile, the leaves fell onto Evan’s head. The Forest fairies shouted with surprise after seeing what was happening.

“The Mother is blessing the human!”

“A new king has truly risen, after all…!”

“I was surprised by Her intention to harmonize with the other races, but if She acknowledged him…”

“And he is handsome, too…”

Wait a minute; such an event didn’t exist in Yo-Ma Great War Zero no matter how hard Evan recalled the scene wherein the World Tree actively showed Her intentions! The World Tree was an existence that cared for all living beings. She treated everyone equally, except her daughter Mirole, whom She had given birth to. The World Tree was appreciated by all just by Her existence. The elves took after the personality of the Mother Tree, so they had been living a peaceful life, or in other words, a dull life.

‘If so, did Mirole lie?’

No, it was impossible. The elves naturally hated lying. There couldn’t be a possibility of Mirole, the daughter of the World Tree, twisting the words of the World Tree. So this time, the World Tree gave the order to harmonize with the other races and overcome the crisis that came upon this world with Evan and Mirole as the center… to the extent that She had appointed him a king who had the right to give elves orders.

“King…Zero, this is great. The Mother acknowledged you as a king. Huhu. Hehehehe.”

Mirole smiled joyfully and walked to Evan after she finished relaying the words of the Mother Tree to the elves. Based on her blunt happiness, she didn’t seem to be a liar.

“I am the queen, and you are a king. Ah, this just feels like we’ve become a husband and a wife. Kiiiiya.”

“…”

She definitely had this kind of intention when she called him a king from the start. Evan thought of the charming Mirole as a cute girl, but he couldn’t help thinking that she also looked foolish.

‘Is this why people say that the problem child looks more attractive…? Yup, probably not.’

Evan shoved off the leaves on the top of his head. The leaves from the World Tree contained part of the tremendous holy power from the main body, so it was considered a treasure since it can be used as a consumable artifact. So, the effect of the Elven Tea didn’t need further explanation. Even Evan had experience creating potions from the leaves of the World Tree, which he acquired from Illoin, a friend and the wife of his teacher in Sherden, and some of those potions were in his inventory pocket.

“The Mother only gives out her leaves to those she has acknowledged as part of her family. Zero, you’ve become our family.”

“So, this truly is what the World Tree wants…”

“Of course.”

Something unimaginable happened. Originally, the World Tree shouldn’t select and empower an individual, but she just appointed Evan to be the representative of the Forest. A while ago, Evan thought that the World Tree was overwhelming him with her charm…but perhaps, he thought that even the World Tree was being affected by Evan’s charm.

“A weak human became our king.”

“Mother’s choice isn’t wrong, is it?”

“Those who doubt Mother, go ahead and take a look at his face. All your worries will vanish.”

“I already believe in him! If possible, I want to serve him from a place that’s closest to him!”

“I can’t see his face since it’s too bright; so, can I go closer?”

It wasn’t just the World Tree. The Forest fairies, who considered humans to be weak beings and disliked treating them as the same intellectual beings as them, surely expressed positive feedback towards Evan. In the cold light of reason, the event that occurred in the forest wasn’t a petty thing to be ignored. It was evident that a lot of elves liked Evan, although their emotions were rather vulgar. Although Evan didn’t do anything to make himself look good or any sort of that!

‘In the final stage of the game, not all elves favored him, although the Great Ancient Mage sacrificed everything for the sake of humanity, including the forest fairies.’

The power of charm was amazing. Although it was a status that couldn’t be seen externally, its effect produced results that overcame other statuses. Evan thought that he understood its power more than anyone else. He repetitively puts himself on the brink of death because of his natural charm. But it wasn’t like that. Even he didn’t understand the true strength of the charm despite all kinds of situations he had been through.

How he became the big shot of Sherden. How he was able to create the Astray Dungeon Knighthood by recruiting those whose individual power could overthrow the continent. How his trivial actions gained the trust of others and led them to his way. It was all because his charm was superb. His charm didn’t seduce women. Changing others through his words and actions: that was the power of the charm. Hyperbolically speaking, it was the power to change the world.

At least for this moment, he did change the world. He changed history.

‘I’ve received the support from the Mother Tree. Now I’m able to command the elves at my will from the start. For sure…this is the moment where the scenario changed the most when compared to the game. No, there’s nothing left to compare this phenomenon with.’

There had been some differences in the content or the order of the journey in God’s Era, so Evan thought the story wouldn’t deviate much from the original flow of Yo-Ma Great War Zero. Now he had to completely stop thinking about it. He now had to write down his own scenario from scratch.

‘I just hope that my efforts won’t negatively affect the world and the people I love.’

He couldn’t believe in his actions anymore in the future, so he decided to trust Mirole.

“Do you really have the courage to follow me and overcome the crisis upon the Forest? To you all.”

“The king started making his speech!”

“Shush, be quiet and listen!”

The influence of the World Tree was truly splendid. She acknowledged a male human who approached Her one day as a king and made everyone listen to him.

“If so, I’ll provide you with enough power. The strength to protect the Mother, yourselves, and the world.”

Elves were strong. Although they are weak compared to the overall strength of other races, including Demons, angels, and other Otherworldly races, their individual potentials couldn’t be ignored. Stones will shine when polished. Their basic abilities surpass humans, and sometimes they went beyond the limits of humanity. And Evan received the opportunity to train such elves as early as now. He couldn’t be happier.

“You may not be able to live in peace like before, but you won’t have to live in fear of the enemies from outside.”

“Ooh…each word from the king seems to be shining.”

“It’s like I’m looking at the queen…the Princess who conveys Mother’s words.”

That might be because of Evan’s charm, which was equivalent to the World Tree. Yet Evan ignored the murmurs from the elves and continued.

“Therefore, we will take action from now. Everyone, gather around with your bows.”

At that moment, all elves started to murmur.

“Huh?”

“From now?”

“Bow?”

“We want to celebrate his acknowledgment as a king!”

Evan’s eyes fixed on Mirole. She looked like she was at a loss, but she nodded. Such reactions were part of their personalities, and they didn’t intend to bully Evan. As expected, there was a reason for these damn elves having a hard time surviving in this Forest despite their excellent status.

“If you consider me your king, I command you in the name of the king! Everyone! Bring your bows! Gather!”

“Kiiiiiya!”

“The humans do change once they grasp onto power!”

“Move, move!”

Some seemed to grumble, but nobody disobeyed his command. Mirole knew what Evan planned to do, so she stood by his side and looked at the situation with narrowed eyes.

“They didn’t actively move like this when I gave them a command…”

“It’s because you lack in your charm, Mirole.”

“Hmph, I was being conscious about it, anyways.”

“It’s all right. You can work on it from now, and it will do the job.”

Evan smiled lightly and asked Mirole a favor after seeing the elves gathering around with their bows.

“Mirole, teach them the Tiger Hunt.”

“Well, well.”

“I’ll take care of the rations, so make them spend all of their time training aside from their sleeping and mealtime. Can you do that?”

“Can they work it out!?”

It had to work. He had to make it possible. Of course, it would be hard for elves who didn’t have the concept of moving hastily. Still, the time for the scenario of Yo-Ma Great War Zero to progress was merely a short moment for the elves that live a long time. For the elves that have a long time left before them, sacrificing this short moment was worth the effort.

“Huh? What will you do if I take charge in teaching them?”

Mirole was too shocked by Evan’s statement that it was too late by the time she understood what he meant. He smiled and asked her a question as if he was waiting for her to say those words.

“I heard that there is a hot spring in Elven village where everyone can enter, is there?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Ah, but no mixed bath! However, if Zero wants, you can go in with me alone…”

Mirole murmured foolish words, encouraged by the encounter with the World Tree. Evan shook his head and replied to her.

“As far as I know, the effect of the hot spring is very good.”

“You knew? You’re right; it was the first place I wanted to take you once we arrived here.”

There was a hot spring that was constantly introduced in the Yo-Ma Great War series. The Steama Hot Spring of the Hot Spring village. The Steama Hot Spring, which was famous since the Yo-Ma Great War 1, relieved players’ stress, heals wounds, and even amplified skill training. But Yo-Ma Great War Zero didn’t have the Stream hot spring. It was because its timeline was before the creation of the village.

However, the developers of the Yo-Ma Great War series wouldn’t overlook this as they were fanatics of the hot spring, would they? Absolutely not! They wanted to add a hot spring to Yo-Ma Great War Zero at all costs. And adding the hot spring in a location where everyone can freely enter would harm the balance of the game. Then, in which discreet location could they make the hot spring that satisfied themselves and the players at the same time!?

The result of such agony was the ancient Elven hot spring in the middle of the Forest. It really sounded absurd, but Evan, who recently started to doubt the identity of the developers of the Yo-Ma Great War series, started to think about thanking them for placing the hot spring in this Forest.

“But it only relieves body stress and hastens the recovery of wounds.”

“Well, that’s because the forest fairies have been living a relaxed life, and that makes their knowledge on it limited.”

A question had arisen that whether the elves even knew about the concept of skill training.

“Is there a problem with that hot spring?”

“No problem at all. Just good things.”

And things would get better from now on. Evan opened his inventory pocket and giggled as he took out his alchemy tools.

The Ancient Forest Modification Project was about to begin by the hand of the King of the Forest.