Mu En looked calm on the surface, but he had been on edge all along.
He had used not only the Law of Regression but also the power of Erdtree's Favor, a healing incantation, to give the forest a transfusion.
For trees hollowed out by fungal threads, simply purging the contamination wouldn't do. Without treatment, those trees would die the moment they were purified.
Moreover, the wider the incantation's range, the more Rune energy it consumed, and he currently had no source of energy to replenish what he used.
That wide-area double incantation had directly shortened his remaining lifespan by more than ten hours.
If no one recognized its value, he would have taken a huge loss.
Fortunately, his worries proved unnecessary.
Mu En sensed an invisible bond reaching him from the crowd through some unseen means.
Though faint, that invisible, intangible substance was indeed being refined and transformed into Golden Runes within him, steadily replenishing his depleted tree body.
He knew this had to be the legendary "power of faith."
But that wasn't enough. If he wanted to establish a foothold, he had to keep investing.
"Very well. You will become the first of the Golden People in this world."
As his words fell, a drop of shimmering golden light quietly gathered at the tip of one of the Erdtree's leaves. The appearance of the droplet caused the entire little tree to dim sharply once more.
It was a substance made of pure energy, called a Blessed Dew.
The droplet fell gently onto Nausicaä's forehead, then turned into an amber-like substance that rapidly spread to envelop her entire body.
Through Mu En's senses, Nausicaä shed her heavy clothing and revealed her true appearance.
She had short, reddish-brown hair and delicate features, with a playfulness that had yet to shed its childishness and a determination that shouldn't have belonged to someone her age.
Set against her fair skin, untouched by wind and sand, her body, still youthful but already showing the slender contours it would one day have, was displayed before Mu En in every detail.
He noticed that Nausicaä seemed somewhat younger than the image he remembered.
Was it because this world's timeline was earlier? Or was his memory at fault?
She's a girl built for childbearing... no, wait, I've turned into a tree. Why am I still letting my thoughts wander like that?
He dispelled those ill-timed thoughts and focused on the blessing itself.
As he bestowed the blessing's power upon Nausicaä, Mu En saw a "character panel" displaying her various stats.
"Gasp! As expected of the future Chosen One, her potential is limitless!"
Although Mu En had no lungs, he still sucked in a breath.
After all, Nausicaä had only just received the blessing and had yet to undergo any training or growth.
Yet her current physique was already on par with some of the Roundtable Hold knights he remembered.
As expected of the naturally gifted battle maiden who had instantly killed six Tolmekian soldiers in close combat on her own.
More importantly, the stronger the Golden Folk became, the more Runes they returned.
Unlike the elusive power of faith, the return from those who had received his blessing was more tangible and substantial.
Nausicaä's return alone amounted to a third of the energy he needed to combat the toxins!
That was no small amount. If he didn't need it to purify the toxins, the Runes returned each day would be enough for him to cast another wide-area incantation like the one before.
Unfortunately, apart from SSRs like Nausicaä, it was hard to recoup the cost of blessing ordinary people in a short time.
And cultivating faith had to be done slowly, one step at a time...
Yet time was precisely what he lacked most.
"Ah, if only I had a little more 'starting capital.'"
If it were the Erdtree from the Elden Ring, the Runes it consumed simply by providing light in place of the sun would be enough to turn everyone in the Valley of the Wind into a blessed person in an instant.
If he had hundreds or thousands of blessed people, toxic air and poisonous soil would be nothing to worry about.
Just then, murmurs of astonishment rose from the surrounding crowd.
The golden amber enveloping Nausicaä began to melt, revealing her figure.
Finally, the entire mass of amber went pop, like a pricked bubble, and dissolved into a gentle breeze.
The blessing was complete.
The girl slowly opened her eyes. Her once-brown irises had become golden eyes flowing with the radiance of molten gold, the most distinctive mark of the Golden Folk.
Her body also radiated the same pale golden light as the Erdtree.
"What a wondrous feeling... my body is full of strength," she murmured softly.
Her body brimmed with unprecedented vitality, and her senses had become sharper than ever. She could clearly perceive even the slightest movements of air.
"From this day forward, your body will no longer be that of a mortal," Mu En's satisfied voice rang out at just the right moment. "Neither the spores of the Sea of Corruption nor the toxins in the air will ever threaten you again."
To protect this all-important "missionary," Mu En had gritted his teeth and spent three times the usual amount.
Besides enhancing her physique, he had raised Nausicaä's bodily resistances to the limit she could reach.
As long as she had plenty of stamina, ordinary poison, fire, lightning, and other forms of elemental damage would have almost no effect on her.
Even the goddess Marika herself had probably possessed less potential before ascending to godhood than the blue-clad girl before him.
Nausicaä also sensed the changes in her body.
The choking toxic fumes that even her mask couldn't completely keep out seemed to have vanished without a trace.
She tried removing the mask that obstructed her view and found that the miasma hadn't disappeared. It simply couldn't harm her anymore.
"Your Highness, your mask..."
Mito rushed forward in concern, intending to put Nausicaä's protective mask back on her, but she raised a hand to stop him.
"It's all right, Grandpa Mito. Under the Erdtree's protection, the Sea of Corruption's corruption no longer affects me."
At her words, everyone nearly forgot how to breathe.
Immunity to the Sea of Corruption's toxins!
Another miracle!
The concentration of faith rose once more. Mu En knew his investment was paying off.
"Princess, what exactly is this blessing you spoke of?"
"Yes, and what exactly is this tree..."
"Your Highness, does this mean our forest can be saved?"
Nausicaä smiled as she explained, calming the excited valley dwellers.
While everyone else was busy asking questions, no one noticed the lingering effects of the blessing that had turned into a breeze.
The breeze swept through the surrounding woodland, gently stirring the fallen leaves and grass on the ground.
Then a tiny vine, indistinguishable from real gold, broke through the soil.
The low-growing vine rapidly grew, flowered, and bore fruit, finally producing a golden apple that looked as though it had been cast from pure gold in a myth or legend.
The next second, the vine crumbled to dust, leaving only the fruit to fall to the ground.
"A strange fruit? And a golden one at that?"
A short, sturdy old man with gray-white eyebrows noticed the golden fruit.
Strange fruits were wild fruits that grew in forests. When ripe, their skins were purplish-red and their flesh sweet and juicy. Their kernels had a distinctive, pungent aroma when roasted.
But this fruit was clearly no ordinary specimen.
As though drawn by an invisible force, he instinctively picked up the fruit, wiped it on the hem of his clothes, and took a bite.
Though it looked like polished pure gold, it was still crisp and sweet in his mouth.
"Old Gol, don't just eat things you find!" Someone beside him saw what he was doing and tried anxiously to stop him.
In this land, the vast majority of unnamed plants were inedible, and some were even deadly poisonous.
"Oh, go on. What are you getting worked up for? This has to be another one of those 'gifts' the princess mentioned!"
Gol smacked his lips. The flesh turned into a warm current in his mouth and quickly spread throughout his body, bringing back the comforting sensation he had felt when the golden light purified him.
"What a miraculous fruit!" Gol's eyes lit up. Ignoring the attempt to stop him, he hurriedly stuffed the remaining half into his mouth.
Once he had eaten the whole fruit, leaving only a black seed the size of a peanut, a golden light too faint to be seen with the naked eye radiated from his body.
Mu En had noticed the commotion as soon as the people began arguing.
When he saw the golden light suddenly radiating from Gol, he was practically wood-struck.
A second blessed person had actually appeared just like that?!