Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Hill might have a face that looks very smart, but in reality, he... the fact that he identifies so strongly with the Earth Bear bloodline already proves a lot.

Bears actually aren’t stupid, they just don’t want to use their brains.

When waving a paw is so easy, why bother using your head?

So tiring!

Hill is indeed the one most favored by nature, the one who gets warned of danger at any time... sometimes, the feedback nature gives him is already overflowing... but the other Earth Bears only get a bit less than him, not none at all.

So from top to bottom, old to young, they’re all filled with this relaxed vibe of never taking anything to heart.

Put nicely, they’re heartless and carefree, not easy to get hurt... anyone who can’t pass Natural Will’s judgment will naturally not be remembered by them.

Put less nicely, it’s like their brains grew for nothing and only their claws developed.

As a Magical System creature, Hill of course looks a bit better than that, but it depends who you’re comparing him to.

If he didn’t already know that the Multiverse is full of danger everywhere so you have to be cautious every step, Hill—honestly—would be no different from Haiweirsen, who clearly has a pretty smart head but always runs into baffling problems.

Within the Earth Bears, Haiweirsen actually counts as someone who likes to think and pays decent attention... but he’s taken plenty of spills on small matters too.

It’s just that for someone who’s used to solving things with a paw swipe, those little tumbles don’t amount to much.

Hill certainly knows his own flaws; he just doesn’t want to spend that much effort... even though he keeps saying he should fix that rotten habit of not wanting to use his brain, he’s never actually done anything about it.

When something really happens, his first reaction is to let it be; the truth will slowly emerge as time passes, and all he has to do is wait.

If he’s forced onto Liangshan, then he’ll deal with it then.

And then, relying on the favor of Natural Will, he dodged all beings hostile to him, and even those who spoke lies.

Someone like that, how could he possibly run into trouble he truly can’t avoid?

Of course, he still has to act all coy after taking advantage and say ”next time” with a straight face...

So fate tossed him into a world that could help him fix this rotten habit.

The schemes in this world are different from all the ones he used to encounter.

People who fall into conflict over power and profit know whether what they’re doing is evil or not.

Even if they believe it’s perfectly justified to fight for their own rights, they still know that harming the innocent for personal gain is a sin... things that must not be known by others, deals that can only exist in the shadows, no matter how prettily they’re described, are still wrong.

When that kind of person appears around Hill, he will inevitably sense Natural Will’s disgust towards them and keep a respectful distance.

But this world is different... some people have indeed harmed others’ lives, but their only goal is to survive.

People like that are no different from carnivores hunting to stay alive.

They may have hurt their own kind, but... they were fighting over the last bite of food, like lions tearing each other apart over their hunting grounds.

Natural Will cannot classify that kind of behavior as sin.

These Humans are no different from beasts, but Natural Will never intended to distinguish Humans from beasts in the first place.

The sense of dissonance Hill had been feeling for a long while, from the Natural Will surrounding him, came exactly from this.

He is incapable of treating Humans and animals as equals.

So he has to separate himself from Natural Will’s judgment and use his own heart and eyes to observe everything around him.

Some Mages that Natural Will dislikes actually don’t have any real problem... they’re disliked because they used materials given by Devils.

But there are Mages that Natural Will has no issue with who did, in fact, send their companions to Hell so they themselves could live.

In order to escape, they shut the door behind them before their own kind had passed through... it’s immoral, but in a beast’s worldview, it’s normal.

Leaving the old, weak, sick and disabled at the end of the line has always been standard practice in beast packs.

However, Hill can’t possibly approve of this kind of classification.

It’s just that in his previous world, his evaluation of the various creatures’ Factions almost never differed from Natural Will’s, so he’d ignored this point.

Moreover, because he truly is Neutral, even if there were some subtle differences, they didn’t stand out that much relative to the stance he held to.

Only after working this out did Hill truly understand what this world really means to him.

He has always persisted in walking the path of the Mage, but he’s constantly troubled by the fact that he really cannot firmly choose to abandon all the advantages brought by his Innate bloodline.

Hill has always known why his path as a Mage has fallen into stagnation... in this, he’s actually no different from those Divine Children: giving up the power brought by one’s bloodline and starting to experience life from a mortal perspective is indeed the simplest method.

But it’s also the most dangerous method.

Most Divine Children, when they play at this ”going among the people in disguise” routine, end up heading straight back to their mom and dad’s Divine Kingdom.

It looks like nothing’s changed from before and they’re still eternally Undead... but if you can only live by clinging to your parents, isn’t that much more tragic than their previous Demigod days?

Back then at least they could still choose whether they wanted to eat ice cream or drink cola, but after that, all they can choose is whether to drink warm water or lemon tea.

Parents indeed won’t put too much pressure on their children, but the freedom to choose... that’s for all eternity!

Even Hill, who loves his parents very, very much, trembles all over when he imagines that future: in his tiny thirty-something years of life, he already feels that the best way to be with his mom is in short, staggered phases; just one year of close contact is enough to make him resolutely accept the next assignment of going to the wilderness to build bridges.

No matter how much he misses the past, he would never wish to stay with his parents forever, never parted, for his entire life.

Love is absolutely not something that should be expressed in such a terrifying way.

Of course, if one day he becomes like his parents, then it can be reconsidered... but while he’s still a bouncy Little Bear cub, Hill absolutely refuses.

So when faced with this kind of gamble where one misstep means losing everything, Hill politely declines.

He can live a very long time anyway... time will eventually grow him into a big bear.

He doesn’t know if it’s because he keeps obsessing over this stupid matter that fate gave him an opportunity where he has to actually use his brain.

Indeed, even if he judges wrong, it won’t affect his future... but with Draculus squatting beside him, Hill will absolutely put in the effort to think.

Every bad decision he makes here, every stupid mistake, will turn into endless mockery... which will travel straight to Fran’s ears.

Hill just doesn’t want to live every single day under his elders’ watchful eyes; it’s not that he doesn’t want to see them.

Besides, the mere existence of someone like Draculus is enough to stir up in him a firm resolve to absolutely not let that guy have a laugh at his expense.

-----------------

Ruth glanced at Gilbert, who looked lost in thought, and shook his head.

This kid at least still has some priorities; he hasn’t actually planned to drive Aislin to a mental breakdown... taking a few barbed comments now and then is something Aislin deserves.

He just said softly, ”Oliva, during this period, our Tower of Dark Enigma can’t have any contact with the outside world.

The three of us Tower Masters don’t have the mind to deal with what’s going on outside either, so let them find their own paths.

Even if there are people willing to trust us and follow us, right now... when we can’t determine who bought that Soul Elixir, we can only temporarily accept no one.

When the time comes, it’ll naturally become clear.

Sigh~

Although Nicholson, Kamente Tower and I each have our own agendas, we’ve at least reached an agreement: we will not recruit people at this time, but we also won’t allow any disturbances.

Oliva, you have only one task: anyone who causes trouble, especially those who dare make a move inside the Magic Tower, don’t let a single one off.”

”Does that include those who are attacked?” Oliva asked sharply.

”We’ll issue a notice: once someone comes looking for trouble, just launch the warning missiles directly.” Ruth’s tone was gentle. ”We’ll be issuing them to everyone, including apprentices.

If they really run into danger, we’ll supply them with another one.

The upper limit for apprentices is three.

Mages get five.”

Ruth smiled slightly and looked at the somewhat flustered group of students below. ”I think you all understand the real reason we’re doing this.

No matter what you’ve done before, from this moment on, you’ll sit your asses honestly in your own places, understood?”

Hilbert blinked: with students from Nicholson’s and Kamente Tower’s lines, is this little bit of fireworks really enough?

To say that Archmage Ruth’s students have never bullied anyone would be a joke.

But the ones who really play dirty are still those two... ah, and the one who causes the most trouble is Nicholson’s side.

After all, Kamente Tower doesn’t really like his students making trouble then coming back to cry for help, so sometimes he simply doesn’t intervene at all.

The ones who can’t figure out under what circumstances their own teacher will give them a hand tend to act more cautiously.

Otherwise, Prutt wouldn’t have made such a big splash... everyone just assumed they didn’t have the guts.

In that kind of family-faction like Nicholson’s, when they do black work, they hit incredibly hard.

If outskirts mages who took the Soul Elixir want to make trouble, a good sixty percent of them will probably go after those guys.