The Traveler: Martial Druid

Chapter 15

When Katsuo came to himself he found that it was already the next day.

Honestly, it was quite jarring. For the last couple of days, he was basically either sleeping due to exhaustion or in a trance.

Now that he was finally alone he decided to check his stats before Aranel Sensei came to check up on him.

"Status Window"

It had been a couple of weeks since he last checked his stats so he was excited to see how much they changed.

---

[Name]: Katsuo Um’rael

[Age]: 19

[Job]: Druid

[Rank]: 1

[Title]: The Traveler, Druid

[Background]: Adopted son of Aranel Um’rael

[Strength]: 98

[Agility]: 96

[Willpower]: 32

[Vitality]: 99

[Charisma]: 13

[Mana]: 65

[Active Skills]: Appraisal (Max)

[Passive Skills]: Heavenly Body (Max), Polyglot (Max), Martial Arts: Seiryuu Style Karate (Elementary lv.9), Source of Mana (lv.1), Vow of Riv’shae (Max)

---

65!?

He suddenly had 65 mana!

He felt like he could suddenly die from happiness.

Katsuo didn't say anything to Aranel Sensei but he was actually quite bothered by his mana stat. Most of his stats were pushing to almost a hundred but his mana stat kept remaining a flat 0.

He didn't have a way to raise his willpower and charisma so he didn't bother with them but mana was different. He knew that he could raise it as long as he could become a druid but Aranel Sensei kept pushing it off.

But now he could finally train it to his heart's content!

His goal was to raise it till it reached the 90s just like his other stats. 

Then his only problem would be what to do with charisma and willpower. 

Charisma probably had something to do with his appearance so he didn't know how to raise it. Maybe becoming more fit would help? Though he was already pretty fit as is so it was a problem.

As for willpower, it was the stat that was most mysterious to Katsuo. Unlike charisma, he had no idea how to raise. While he was training, it would randomly raise by itself.

Also in the status window, his job was finally druid instead of civilian. His rank also had been raised to 1 from the previous 0. 

According to the job system of this world maximum rank was 9, and he was still rank 1.

That meant that he shouldn't get arrogant and think he was some kind of big shot. He was still weak, very weak. He needed to learn whatever Aranel Sensei taught to him and reach rank 9 as soon as possible.

Then Katsuo switched his gaze towards the skills section.

His passive skills were in abundance while his active skills were merely a single [Appraisal].

He clicked on [Source of Mana] to see what it was about. This was the skill he had gotten when he had become a druid so it should be important.

 ---

[Source of Mana (lv.1)]: Mana of nature resonates with your heart. Your mana in its most natural form carries the wood attribute. The strength of your druidcraft depends on your environment. You gain +10 to your mana stat.

---

When he was done reading Katsuo couldn't help but frown.

This... looked weak.

Compared to his other passive skill  [Martial Arts: Seiryuu Style Karate] which gave +10 to three other stats with each level, this looked incredibly weak. 

Even his [Apprasial] skill needed 10 mana to use. So how could a measly +10 mana bonus be anything good? He needed to level up this skill as soon as possible.

Katsuo collapsed the skill description and clicked on the second one. Hopefully, this wouldn't be a disappointment like the other one.

 ---

[Vow of Riv'shae (Max)]: You have taken the oath of the ancient druids. From this moment forward you are a servant of nature and cannot break the terms of your vow. You gain +20 to your mana stat. Your mana also contains a slight healing effect.

---

How!?

How could it be this weak?

Another +20? Just that?

There was also the part with a slight healing effect but he didn't think it would be anything significant.

He was truly disappointed with these newly gained skills.

Wait, at least after taking the oath he had suddenly gained mana. So where did that 35 mana come from? How? He thought he should ask Aranel Sensei to explain what happened.

Actually, if any other person knew of Katsuo's troubles they would have tried to kill him out of frustration.

In this world, you could only create up to nine circles. This meant that a normal druid would only have 90 mana at most without any supplements or consuming an herb that raised mana. And just by taking a vow, Katsuo had suddenly gained two circles worth of mana.

This whole situation was created because of Aranel's weird teaching method. If she had explained to Katsuo properly about his strength he would have never had these misgivings.

As Katsuo was about to get up he finally noticed Aria who was sleeping next to him. She was curled up into a ball of fur. He also noticed that she had an additional tail now. 

He didn't know what kind of an animal Aria was, maybe he could find her species with appraisal? This way after he left the forest he could find where they lived and take Aria there so that she could join her brethren. 

Yes, this didn't sound like a bad idea.

This was definitely not because he wanted to test the effectiveness of the notorious [Appraisal] skill which almost all isekai protagonists seemed to possess.

[Apprasial]

[Scanning the target!]

[Appraisal complete!]

As Katsuo felt mana drain from him... wait! Why couldn't he feel any mana usage? He felt like his mana was the same as before. Did something go wrong?

Katsuo checked the appraisal results and almost wanted to curse Aeternitas.

---

[Name]: Aria

Appraisal failed. The target doesn't exist in the database. Can not appraise

---

What kind of a janky skill was this!?

Wait Katsuo, let's calm down. Aeternitas wouldn't scam him. She was a Goddess so how could she do something as uncouth as deceiving a mortal?

Actually, even Katsuo's master, Aranel Sensei, didn't know her species as well. Maybe she was a unique animal?

Just like Sun Wukong who was born from a piece of stone, Aria might have also been born from nature itself. 

"...hmmm"

After using [Appraisal] on her, Aria woke up. She was rubbing her eyes with her tiny little paws. Katsuo couldn't help but want to gobble her up. Just where did this puppy pop out from?

Seeing her now three tails, Katsuo thought she might be a kitsune but she didn't look like a fox. She looked more like a wolf cub. 

"Morning Aria"

Katsuo petted her head and Aria started to rub her head on it by herself.

"...Mowning"

"So, Aria, I have a question"

"Yesh?"

Aria excitedly jumped up on Katsuo's lap and put her tiny paws on his chest. This was exciting. This was the first time her playmate asked her something other than her name. At first, she had thought her playmate lost interest in her but that wasn't the case. He wanted to know more about her!

Seeing Aria's wagging tails Katsuo was more and more sure that she was some sort of wolf cub. She was acting too much like a canine to not be one.

"Aria, what are you?"

"Pfft, silly playmate. Awia is Awia!"

Aria looked proud of her answer. She wanted to be praised for how well she answered the question. Seeing those expectant azure blue eyes Katsuo gave in and grabbed her then kissed her forehead.

"Yes, Aria is Aria but what about your species? I am a human right? So what are you?"

"Easy! Awia is a woxen!"

Aria puffed up her chest. She was proud of her bloodline and wanted to tell her playmate how noble she was.

"Woxen? What's that?"

This was the first time Katsuo had heard of such a creature. It didn't sound like one of the creatures he had seen in any media or legend. Maybe it was something unique to this world?

"Wut? Playmate doesn't know what a woxen is? Is playmate dumb?"

Aria looked puzzled. How could someone not know of Woxen?

"No, I am not dumb. But I have never heard of woxen. Can Aria tell me what they are?"

"Yesh! Woxen awe the childwen of divine fathew!"

Katsuo had trouble understanding what exactly Aria meant as she still couldn't roll her 'r's but he thought it was something about a divine father.

"Wait? You have a father?"

"Yesh! Awia's fathew is awesome. He has nine tails. And he is big. And he is stwong. And he is handsome. And-and-"

"Slowdown Aria. I can't catch everything. But your father sounds awesome. Where is he?"

When he asked like that Aria's tails suddenly drooped down.

"Don't know. He fed Awia something stwange and thwew me hewe. When Awia woke she was hewe and Awia had a second tail."

So Aria wasn't from this forest.

Wait!?

What if she wasn't from this world at all?

What if, her father had thrown her into this world?

What if, she was stuck here just like him?

He remembered the results of the appraisal skill which said Aria wasn't in the database but how was that possible? Gods were omniscient and this skill was granted by Aeternitas herself. So logically appraisal itself should have been successful. It should have either said everything about the target or said failed. It shouldn't have given a response like 'not found in database'.

The only scenario where this would apply was when it concerned a being from another world.

So Aria had to be an otherworlder like him!