Lin Feng, who truly needed a safe place to rest, accepted Tighnari's offer.
After politely declining Falbert's invitation to eat more mushrooms with him, Lin Feng and Little White went to the nearby market and ordered a grilled meat roll and curry shrimp. A vendor handed them a complimentary green-juice crisp ball that gave off a weird aroma — Lin Feng hesitated, and in the end didn't dare try it.
Putting that little episode aside, both Lin Feng and Little White visibly brightened after eating something hot.
Worth noting: Lin Feng had looted a little over three thousand Mora from the three knocked-out mushrooms-eaters earlier. After checking prices, he realized Mora—being the "flesh and blood" of the Geo Archon—actually had very decent purchasing power here, roughly comparable to the yuan in his old world. Having previously mocked the three goons for carrying so little, Lin Feng silently apologized to them in his head.
He didn't touch the Mora and elemental fragments Little White had stolen from the Fatui. Besides worrying about potential tracking, he'd discovered those elemental shards were the weasel's real food: just a little filled it up, and as long as Little White didn't use its powers, it showed no signs of hunger. He'd even tried letting Little White taste Mora as a joke — the little thing said the Mora's purity was too low and it was basically like eating rock. Disappointed, they abandoned the idea.
After the meal, Lin Feng bought two sets of change clothes at a stall — the common light-gray robes folks around the Sumeru rainforest wore, separated top and bottom, a bit like the shirt-and-shorts style from his old life. The clothes and lunch cost around three hundred Mora total. With the three thousand he'd taken earlier, he had enough to live on for a while.
Clean and refreshed in new clothes, Lin Feng returned to the temporary lodging Tighnari had arranged. The little triangular wooden hut was simply built, its floor layered with treated straw and fresh leaves. Inside it was surprisingly comfortable: a bed, a desk, a specimen board, and a shelf — minimal furnishings and almost no personal effects.
—Could it be that Tighnari lent this place out often? In the game the Traveler also stayed here to recover — seeing the lack of personal items, Lin Feng guessed this was more of a ranger's spare room.
Exhausted, Lin Feng lay down on the bed with Little White, who smelled soft and clean after the wash. He opened Tighnari's personal panel:
[Individual Information: Human — Tighnari (Aptian) — Tighnari]
Level: 51 (Can skillfully manipulate Elemental power; possesses combat ability far beyond ordinary, able to match some boss-level monsters)
Element: Dendro
Traits: Herbalism 6, Auditory Enhancement 5, Dendro Vision·Elemental Affinity 5, Archery 5, Olfactory Enhancement 3, Cooking 3, Pathfinding 2
Emotion: Calm
Friendliness: 30 (He thanks you for helping Gandharva Ville's people, but remains somewhat suspicious about your identity)
Comparing panels, aside from the big level gap (he could probably beat ten of Lin Feng), the most obvious difference was his Elemental Affinity. Tighnari's had the Dendro Vision prefix and a high rank. Lin Feng's own Elemental Affinity—while ranked highly—had no such divine prefix and seemed unrestricted to a single element. He also noticed he had an Elemental Resistance of up to 7, a field he'd never seen on a random human panel before. The only similar oddity he'd seen so far was a Slime with Hydro Resistance 9 — rounding it out, Lin Feng felt like a youthful, all-element slime: not immune, but impressively resilient.
Despite being curious about the garbled race fields and Little White's bizarre data, Lin Feng was too tired from the overnight march to dwell on it. He closed his eyes and sleep washed over him like a tide.
—
In the afternoon, after a short nap, Lin Feng woke refreshed and peered out through the carved window.
To his surprise, although he'd slept a long time, the sun hadn't fully set. The reddening sunset bathed the merchants and the stalls closing for the day. Workers were returning home, and the air smelled of hearth smoke and spices.
Gandharva Ville in reality was much more bustling than the tiny, shabby outpost in the game. Traders came and went, lifetime forest-foragers, Akademiya scholars on ecological surveys, and mercenaries protecting caravans and students — all kinds of people breathed life into this rainforest edge town. And the rangers, quietly busy behind the scenes, kept it all running.
Seeing all that, Lin Feng realized the ranger role was more important than he'd assumed — part forest-protector, part order-keeper — exactly the sort of civil servant the game hinted at.
Feeling a little hungry again, he planned to grab another meal before the merchants closed.
At that moment, a familiar voice came from outside.
"You awake?"
Lin Feng looked toward the sound and saw two upright ears peeking through the doorway.
"I made some mushroom soup — want some?" Tighnari knocked and then stepped inside carrying a pot.
"Thanks — I'm starving, I was just about to go find something to eat," Lin Feng replied; he couldn't find a reason to refuse.
"I didn't expect the ranger to be this good at cooking," Lin Feng added as the aroma filled the hut, affirming Tighnari's Cooking 3 trait.
"You're worried those are mushrooms, huh?" Tighnari laughed, offering reassurance. "Don't worry. I picked these species myself; they should be safe. And just in case, I brought some special antidote."
He shook a glass vial in his hand.
"Most fungi are listed in the Rainforest Mushroom Guide. As long as you don't touch the ones you've never seen, you'll be fine," Tighnari explained kindly.
"Alright, then. I'll accept," Lin Feng said, already tempted.
Over the meal, Lin Feng made up a backstory: parents who'd secluded and died in a natural disaster, leaving him a young wanderer. Tighnari listened and nodded — Lin Feng guessed he was trying to sound sympathetic because the boy looked around thirteen to fifteen years old.
"Try this — it's a newly discovered mushroom. You might be the first to taste it," Tighnari said, scooping a few greenish mushrooms into Lin Feng's bowl.
"Thanks." Lin Feng hesitated, then ate.
"Mmm — delicious!" Any lingering caution vanished the moment the flavor hit.
Lin Feng could feel Tighnari's genuine goodwill. After all, Lin Feng had only dealt with three rank-and-file Treasure Hoarders; it wasn't necessary for the ranger to go that far. Yet Tighnari's kindness felt more than mere pity.
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