Hermione, standing beside Arthur, sensed the fluctuation in his spiritual power and immediately realized that he was communicating with the little Golden Crow.
However, after Arthur's consciousness connected with the Golden Crow's mind, his expression turned… strange.
The young witch asked curiously, "What's wrong? What did the little one say?"
Arthur replied with a complicated look, "It didn't really say anything… it just keeps calling me 'Mama.'"
The moment Hermione heard that, she burst out laughing—just like Huang Xi had earlier.
Even Ranni, standing nearby, couldn't help but smile.
In truth, this was completely normal. Many animals instinctively treat the first being they see after birth as their mother.
This was especially true for creatures born within the "Zen Garden," where everything subtly developed an innate fondness for Arthur.
Thus, this scene came to be.
Arthur couldn't be bothered to correct the little Golden Crow either.
Freshly born, it was still clueless—he doubted it would understand even if he tried to explain.
Rather than fixating on that, it made more sense to think about giving the little one a proper name.
Arthur turned toward Huang Xi, only to find her still rolling around on the ground, laughing uncontrollably.
If phoenix feathers weren't naturally immune to filth, she would probably look like a dirt-covered chicken by now.
With a helpless sigh, Arthur said, "Alright, that's enough laughing. Get up—I have something to ask you."
Huang Xi climbed to her feet and asked, "What is it?"
"I want to give this little one a name," Arthur said. "I need to know its gender first."
Arthur had no experience identifying the sex of birds, let alone a Golden Crow.
Unlike Evel—713—who could speak right after birth, this little Golden Crow was still unable to talk, so Arthur couldn't distinguish its gender by voice either.
That left him with only one option—asking Huang Xi.
"It's a girl," Huang Xi said.
She merely circled the Golden Crow once before giving her answer, though how she determined it was anyone's guess.
Arthur rubbed his chin and pondered the name.
He considered himself half-terrible at naming things and couldn't come up with anything particularly inspired.
Fortunately, he'd read plenty of novels in his previous life—borrowing a good name from one of them was always an option.
For example, the names of the two three-legged Golden Crows from ancient myths weren't bad at all.
Looking at the Golden Crow in his hands, Arthur said, "How about I call you Donghuang from now on?"
He chose this name because she was a divine bird from the East, and because she had been cared for—more or less—by the phoenix clan for many years.
Though that "care" hadn't really amounted to much. If not for Arthur, this little Golden Crow might never have been born at all.
There was also another reason.
Arthur hoped she could someday grow to the level of Donghuang Taiyi.
The odds were slim, but every bird deserved a dream.
The little Golden Crow seemed extremely pleased with the name. She chirped twice and snuggled up against Arthur's cheek.
In an instant, half of Arthur's face was scorched.
Brushing the flames off his shoulder, Arthur said helplessly to Hermione and the others, "You should all go rest. I'll stay and teach her how to control her own energy."
Hermione nodded. She did want to pet the little Golden Crow—but faced with a creature radiating intense heat, she had no idea where to even begin.
Hermione and Ranni each returned to their residences. Huang Xi, however, stayed behind.
She had only just woken up and had already enjoyed a hearty midnight meal. If she went back to sleep now, she might actually turn into a pig.
So Huang Xi decided to stay and help Arthur guide little Donghuang—treating it as post-meal entertainment.
...
That day, inside the "Zen Garden," Hermione and Ranni were accompanying Arthur while playing a game.
Or rather—it was more accurate to say the two of them had dragged Arthur into playing.
Not long ago, Ranni had asked about Forager.
In the past, not long after Arthur obtained a new game, he would usually extract related items from it.
But this time, more than half a year had passed since he acquired Forager, and there had been no movement at all.
So Ranni went to Arthur and asked him about it.
Arthur explained that to obtain items from Forager, all achievements in the game had to be completed.
As it happened, Hermione was present—and as it happened, the save file the three of them shared together was only missing a few achievements.
Thus, the two girls dragged Arthur along to finish them.
Arthur had already asked the system, and it confirmed that as long as this save file reached full completion, it still counted as clearing the game.
Since that was the case, Arthur was more than happy to go along with it.
"Yes! All done!"
Accompanied by Hermione's cheer, every achievement in Forager was finally completed by the trio.
Hermione immediately urged him, "Cousin, hurry up and see what you got this time!"
Ranni looked over as well, anticipation clear in her eyes.
Arthur had already told them that the rewards this time would be random.
Since he wasn't extracting items himself, even he had no idea what the system would give him.
That complete sense of randomness—and the surprise after the reward was revealed—was probably why they were so invested in this.
The system's voice rang out in Arthur's mind, and he closed his eyes to check the rewards.
[Congratulations to the host for clearing Forager. Clearance rewards are as follows:
Three selectable artifacts from Forager,
Staff Set,
Robot Blueprint]
All things considered, Arthur was extremely satisfied with the rewards.
The first reward allowed him to choose any three artifacts from the game's fifteen.
The second reward was a set of four powerful staves from the game, each carrying a potent built-in spell.
They were:
[Storm Staff: A golden, torch-shaped staff with a lightning-shaped head. Despite its name, its magic releases three blue lightning bolts straight ahead]
[Blizzard Staff: A staff with an ice-blue snowflake head. Its magic fires a fan-shaped barrage of ice crystals forward]
[Meteor Staff: A staff topped with a crimson meteor. Its magic launches countless meteor-like fireballs ahead]
[Staff of Death: A staff topped with the skull of an unknown creature. Its magic is necromancy, capable of summoning countless undead skeletons from nothing]
The power of each staff's magic depended entirely on how much magical energy the wielder poured into it.
The final reward was a multifunctional robot from the game—capable of gathering resources, protecting buildings, assisting production, and greatly improving efficiency.
Arthur first took out the four staves and the robot blueprint, so the two girls wouldn't have to wait.
Under Hermione and Ranni's gaze, four uniquely shaped staves and a book suddenly appeared in Arthur's hands.
Hermione exclaimed, "It's the four staves from the game!"
Of everything they'd experienced while playing, these four staves had left the deepest impression on her.
No incantations required—just continuous, powerful spellcasting straight from the staff itself.
Far more convenient than most offensive spells in the wizarding world.
Arthur corrected her, "Strictly speaking, they're staves, not wands."
Although both were casting tools for spellcasters, there was still a difference between wands and staves.
Wands were the slim, chopstick-sized tools most modern wizards carried.
Staves, on the other hand, were long poles—half a person's height or even taller.
They could be used for long-range casting, or swung as melee weapons.
A classic example was Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings—his close-combat skills were formidable, and he wielded his staff like a club.
The wizarding world had once used staves as well, but due to their inconvenience and most wizards' aversion to close combat, staves had faded from use centuries ago.
Hermione stuck out her tongue. "I know, I just got excited and said the wrong thing."
In the end, it was the wizarding world's fault for simplifying staves into wands for convenience.
That was why her impression of staves was so faint in the first place.
Changing the subject, Hermione said eagerly, "Enough of that—let me try them out!"
She extended her hand toward Arthur.
Arthur handed her three of the staves, deliberately keeping the Staff of Death.
Hermione didn't possess death-aligned power. Even if she summoned undead, they wouldn't obey her.
Seeing that Arthur hadn't given her the Staff of Death, Hermione didn't ask for it either.
Her cousin had told her before—treading into death was dangerous.
And with necromancy as its built-in magic, the Staff of Death was hardly reassuring.
The undead skeletons in the game might have looked cute, but that was purely because of the art style.
Hermione had no illusions that real-world undead would be anything close to adorable.
So she didn't insist.
Holding the three staves, the young witch was just about to test one—
When Arthur hurriedly stopped her. "If you're testing their power, go somewhere farther away. Don't blow up the house."
Only then did Hermione realize they were still in the residential area of the Zen Garden.
She stuck out her tongue awkwardly, summoned the Golden Order Greatsword, and flew toward the mountain forest region of the Zen Garden.
Arthur watched her leave, then weighed the Staff of Death in his hand.
Come to think of it…
The staff he was currently using was also called that.
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