Chapter 39
Ugh... I'm tired.
I'd spent all day watching the gallery and enjoying Ladder's reaction, so I was exhausted.
Maybe it was the aftereffects of squeezing every last drop of dopamine out of my body, but a wave of lethargy was washing over me.
Today, I wanted to sleep in.
I looked down at Chohogi, wriggling at my feet.
"It'd be a problem if this guy woke me up again...".
If it woke me again with a toothpick, I might turn it to sand in a fit of rage.
No matter how inhuman I was, that was something that shouldn't happen.
"How can I keep it quiet and tied down...?".
After thinking for a moment, I walked over to the small flowerpot in the corner.
"Dust to dust, dirt to dirt.".
The flowerpot was coated in a thick layer of dust.
Inside, only the remains of a plant long dead and dried out were left.
"Good. This should work for this guy too.".
I carefully picked it up and stuck it halfway into the soil in the pot.
Chohogi thrashed for a moment, but soon seemed surprisingly pleased.
Maybe it was because we were both earth-aspected.
Maybe it would like a sand bed next time.
For some reason, it felt like it was becoming a pet.
I stopped thinking useless thoughts there and lay down in bed for a good sleep.
How long had I slept?
I slowly opened my eyes to a soft sensation tickling my cheek.
Chohogi, had it escaped? Persistent thing...
No.
I had a feeling something was off.
The air was fresher and damper than usual.
So much so that it felt like I had wandered deep into a forest.
"Mm...".
I slowly opened my eyes.
And I was shocked by the scene before me.
"...Did I fall asleep inside the tower?".
The room was like the middle of the Amazon jungle.
A dead ornamental plant had grown so huge it seemed ready to pierce the ceiling.
Vines sprouting from the grape stems I had left over from yesterday.
The walls and ceiling were completely covered in lush vines and moss.
That wasn't all.
The sand clone Chohogi I had calmly tucked into the flowerpot, and even I myself, felt more full of energy than usual.
Chohogi was writhing in the pot, puffing itself up as if stretching.
"What the hell is going on?".
I tried to find the cause with my muddled head.
And soon, I found the center of all this chaos.
The World Tree seed I had tossed into the corner.
The seed was now pulsing faintly like a living heart, breathing life into every plant around it.
The faint blue light pouring from the seed filled the room with mystery.
It was a truly maddening situation.
I calmly took out my phone.
"First, a proof shot...".
No matter what kind of accident happened, a proof shot always came first.
Because once a moment passes, it never comes back.
But the vines filling the room meant I couldn't even use my computer to browse the gallery.
I decided to clear out the plants.
"I can just turn them into sand.".
Plants were living things too. Using Weathering did cost a lot of mana.
But they didn't resist as violently as monsters, so it wasn't impossible to do.
I reached out toward the vines.
It was just as I was about to use Weathering to turn them back into sand.
Smack-!
"Ow!".
Suddenly, the vines whipped around like lashes and smacked my cheek.
I collapsed right onto the floor.
"W-what...".
I clutched my stinging cheek and looked at the vines.
Living vines?
Looking more closely with Insight Eye, I saw that the vines' power came from the seed.
The World Tree seed throbbed fiercely, as if trying to protect the little life it had created.
All the plants in the room twitched toward me at once.
"What the hell kind of crazy...".
I decided to stop everything and head up the tower immediately.
My tiny, precious room was about to explode.
I had to hurry and throw this unknown thing onto the 20th floor as soon as possible.
***
I entered the 18th floor.
I checked the weight of the bag slung over my shoulder once more.
Today's objective was the World Tree seed.
I set my goal as figuring out what it really was.
I looked around and murmured quietly.
"Desertification.".
This time, I controlled my power.
I reduced the skill's range to the bare minimum.
Only the ground within roughly a one-meter radius around me turned into a dry patch of sand.
Just enough sand to make sand clones and maintain the sand barrier that protected my body.
That was all I needed.
I sent Chohogi and one clone to escort it forward, then took a seat.
I took the World Tree seed out of my bag.
The seed had grown so large it was now hard to carry.
Using sand, I lifted the seed into the air.
The seed still pulsed faintly like a heart, drawing in the air around it.
Blue light softly spread out, purifying the miasma.
I used Insight Eye to examine the process in detail.
Then, a new sight I hadn't seen before came into view.
What the seed was purifying wasn't just the air.
"Even the miasma in the plants...".
The blue threads of mana stretching from the seed were reaching all the way to the roots of the surrounding plants.
Only then did I realize.
That this entire swamp and jungle had been swallowed by miasma.
It wasn't just that poison was spreading through the air.
The ground, the plants, everything that made up this space was sick.
"I'd been roughly bulldozing my way through it with Desertification this whole time, so I didn't notice...".
The world as seen through Insight Eye was horrifying.
The plants that should have been overflowing with life were tainted by miasma.
Swamps and thickets exuding death.
But where the seed's purification reached was different.
I could see the black energy thinning.
Withered leaves regained their vitality, and drooping stems stood straight again.
I stared blankly at the wondrous sight for a moment.
Just then.
Chohogi, which I had sent out to scout ahead, and the sand clone I had assigned as escort, returned to me.
They tossed a Lizardman corpse down in front of me, then stood there blankly like puppies.
As if they were hoping for praise.
"What, you want me to praise you or something?".
Chohogi nodded.
Seriously, it was absurd.
I lightly patted Chohogi's head.
"Good job, good job.".
But something was off.
The Lizardman's corpse.
A thin arrow was buried deep in the center of the back of its head.
This wasn't something my clone had shot.
My clones used crude spears made of sand.
"...Hey, you didn't catch this one.".
Chohogi averted its eyes under my questioning.
Right, let's think of this positively.
If it was lying, that meant its intelligence had gone up.
I looked back at the Lizardman's corpse.
"This is a Dark Elf's arrow, isn't it?".
The very same arrow that had ambushed me on the floor below.
There was no way I could forget it.
I frowned.
Friendly fire?
No, that couldn't be it.
The arrow was lodged precisely where it would pierce the dead center of the back of its head.
Too clean a finish to call it a mistake.
This was clearly the mark of a hunt.
"Monsters are fighting each other?".
Could something like this happen?
I inspected the corpse with suspicious eyes.
A situation I had never once encountered while climbing the tower.
All monsters had always rushed at me, their common enemy.
I had never even considered that there could be conflicts or alliances between them.
Suddenly, I felt a chill run down my spine.
What if I had simply blasted this whole area away with Desertification like usual?
This unusual Lizardman corpse would have turned to sand and vanished without a trace.
Then I would have passed by this bizarre phenomenon without ever knowing about it.
"This... yeah, I can't just bulldoze my way through it.".
I stood up.
I had to clear this floor in a different way than usual.
I turned Chohogi back into its small form, put it on top of my head, and slowly moved forward.
I kept Desertification at a minimum.
To avoid missing any other possible clues.
Before long, my hunch turned into certainty.
Similar corpses were strewn everywhere through the brush.
Lizardmen killed by Dark Elf arrows.
Conversely, Dark Elves with their chests pierced by Lizardman spears.
They were killing each other.
This jungle was a battlefield between two races.
"Why in the world...".
I couldn't figure out the reason.
Then I sensed a chilling presence behind me.
I didn't turn around.
There was no need to.
Clang!
With a dull thud, the dagger flying for my back struck the invisible sand barrier and bounced off.
The sand barrier had done its job perfectly.
"Not a chance.".
I turned around.
The Dark Elf, realizing its stealth had been broken, was hurriedly pulling back.
I casually fired a few sand bullets at it.
The Dark Elf toppled over.
"Looks like just because they're fighting among themselves doesn't mean they'll side with me.".
Apparently, I was the public enemy.
I turned my gaze to the fallen Dark Elf.
"Hm?".
Unlike the other Dark Elves, this one had an out-of-place feel to it.
A flashy set of armor and a dagger, obvious at a glance.
What stood out most was the small pouch hanging around its neck.
A pouch embroidered with silver thread I had never seen before.
You never know.
There might be something that could serve as a clue.
I searched the body.
"Oh?".
A pouch worn around the neck that was practically screaming that it held something.
I reached for the pouch.
What my hand grasped was something cold and soft to the touch.
When I took it out, it was a small pendant.
It was a dried leaf sealed inside a glass vial.
It looked crude on the outside.
But the item info window said otherwise.
[World Tree's Withered Leaf]
[Grade: Rare]
[Growth Item]
[Slight increase to HP and mana recovery.]
[Magic Stat +1]
[Guide: Resonates with the traces of its forgotten kin.]
"A growth item?".
It was an item type I was seeing for the first time.
I stroked my chin.
"Hm... the stats are kind of mediocre right now.".
Still, it was better than nothing.
If I keep using it, a day will come when it gets better.
Besides, the only item I had was a robe that didn't even fit me.
Without hesitation, I put the pendant around my neck.
Along with the cold touch, I felt a faint magical power spreading through my body.
How much stronger could this item become in the future?
I fiddled with the pendant for a while as I moved forward.
Just then, a Lizardman sprang out in front of me.
A sand bullet shot out without hesitation.
Pew-!
The moment the Lizardman crumpled to the ground, I felt a tiny vibration from the pendant in my hand.
[World Tree's Withered Leaf: Magic Stat +1]
"Oh?".
I immediately checked the item info window again.
[World Tree's Withered Leaf]
[Grade: Rare]
[Growth Item]
[Slight increase to HP and mana recovery.]
[Magic Stat +2]
[Guide: Resonates with the traces of its forgotten kin.]
An item that really did raise my magic stat by 1.
If it goes up by 1 per kill, that's not bad.
"Maybe it'll reach Legendary someday...".
I smiled in satisfaction.
while treating the final option, Guide, as nothing more than a meaningless line of text.