Ruger blinked. He did remember Kurt talking about the path of the Natural Faith-Stealer. Faith Wizards did not have to limit themselves to methodically cultivating believers. That approach was simply the most widely applicable, and it could also be adapted in many ways, giving rise to many different paths. The Natural Faith-Stealer, however, required a special talent. Not everyone could try it easily; some people were not even qualified to try.
He remembered Kurt saying that Shopkeeper Tali happened to have a talent for it, and quite a good one at that. He had even chosen to become a Druid for that reason. In the blink of an eye, a young man once brimming with ambition had become an old Wizard Apprentice who had slumped to the floor and died silently in a cramped shop down a little alley.
As Kurt had described it, supposedly all one needed to do was sail the seas or stroll through the forests, without deliberately doing anything, and the flowers, grasses, and trees-even the visible and invisible things of nature across far broader realms-would each offer a share of faith power. It would pour in endlessly in vast quantities. The Wizard could even leave the Endless Sea, unburdened by a territory, and travel throughout the Cavern World, surrounded by the beautiful sight of faith power wherever he went. That had forever become a fantasy, or perhaps it had already come to an abrupt end when the young man had been inexplicably injured.
A dream that could never be fulfilled.
"As though Shopkeeper Tali were still here? Like this stone, or this mushroom?" Ruger tilted his head, following Kurt's line of thought.
"Hahaha, nothing quite that dramatic." Kurt laughed. "To me, it's like Lord Mahama's departure-a return to the embrace of the Cavern World. Hmm,