Terrarium Adventure - Chapter 25

“My owner, Jay.  I guess I’ve not explained sufficiently. I’ve told you that the diamond is not a jewel but guess I haven’t explained the why. The diamond is a side product that the world tree releases during its transpiration process, it’s a particle that contains the vapors from the world tree. Once those vapors crystalize together with the soul of a driard it becomes a diamond. When the vapors are released it contains the energy from the world tree so the more it evaporates the worse it is for the world tree. When the fires increase the transpiration process speeds up disproportionately so the world tree is currently losing more power. To avoid this the orchard is trying to use the diamond and return strength to the world tree.”

Mesquite asked me to show him the wallet. Then he explained that the wallet was what they used to contain the diamond formed upon crystallizing with a driard’s soul.

Of course, this probably applied to the wallets of other driards. For me, I had a wallet that self-produced diamonds…

In the case of large driards, they were able to crystalize their souls comparatively fast but in most cases, they took up to a month or more to obtain one diamond.

Also, the transpiration process was most prominent at the branches furthest from the world tree, so it was harder to obtain if they were nearer to the world tree.

In other words, to obtain more diamonds you had to level up as much as possible and approach the front line terrariums. So you could guess why the diamond was valuable. Mesquite mentioned that there were other means to obtain a diamond, but even before he explained his face turned dark so I stopped him. Perhaps it wasn’t a good way?

“The diamond is an element that contains the direct energy of the world tree so it is a highly sought prey by fires.”

So it was an element equivalent to a fire starter. Will I see the fires of hell if I lose control over my handphone or inventory dairy during a battle…

The fire discovered us as it had come close in search of the diamond. So inevitably the battle of the driards began.

Daisy dealt with the small fire in one blow, but the diamond that had grown after eating the diamond had to be broken down.

Then I saw it. The minor difference between dealing with the fire before and after it had grown in size. It was only a feeling so I couldn’t be sure…experience points were rising!

No one was to see my ambitious look. There was no need to go further.

Instead of continuing to take the driards on the straight road ahead, I decided to change the path to a long and winding one that went around the village. As we moved past the area we had swept we started to see more fires. The moment we saw one I was about to throw a diamond when Elder stopped me.

“Let go, I have an idea.”

“If you’re going to use it like that give it to me instead!”

“I’ve been giving you plenty already! This is for everyone’s sake!”

It really did feel like the fires that grew after eating the diamond gave us more experience points. The plateauing speed of leveling up started to grow linearly again.

A thought that someone might swear that I am crazy crossed my mind, but this was something I could do as I had an exponential amount of diamonds.

If you don’t have the experience buffer all you need to do is create one. I slowly increased the diamonds I threw to meet the pace of Daisy’s attacking ability. Eventually, I grew tired of even moving, so when Daisy broke the fire up I threw diamond to each of the broken fires respectively to grow them.

Mesquite found this method absurd but I simply told him that all Korean users were like this.

Within the game, I was confident in my strategy skills.

***

I felt like I’d used diamonds like theory were fruits during a fruit picking. In the later stage, I threw almost 2~3 of them. It was a sight that would have made any passerby faint.

I wasn’t a fan of labor-intensive hunting and find it boring to death but once I catch the momentum I lose track of time and hunt.

You know how they have that phrase “runners high” for marathons? The sense of fatigue disappears and you suddenly get hyped…that was exactly how I felt now.

The sun was setting and the lower level hunting ground seemed wiped out, the speed of level up was reaching its peak.

Even as I tried to grow the size of the fires more once they reached a certain size they stopped growing as though they were being restrained by something.

This must be the world tree’s blessing in disguise to stop cash spending gamer’s solo run…Just when I was excited about growing a monster…

Once the level up speed slowed down the body felt like it was going limp and drooping, so I diligently made myself an energy drink to make up for my high level of activity. Once I did the body felt refreshed and I was able to throw the diamonds with energy.

Even the drinks had its limits as with the constant drinking it made me feel queasy and gave me a headache so I stopped. My body was signaling me with a red light and telling me to take it easy.

To feel fatigued in a game that was too much…

It reminded me of games where you needed energy to fight. Especially the type of games where you had to share heart energies or sharing of items between friends…

Mesquite caught me secretly drinking the energy drinks so the team came to a tentative stop.

Mesquite blamed himself and apologized saying he had not realized I was straining myself for this method and that he had felt weird but was too focused in battle to notice.

I felt like a sinner and pushed my energy relief supplement deep into my pocket. I’m sorry. Even in real life, I drank americanos like it was water…

He commented and was worried that I had dark eye bags which made me curious about my appearance so I checked my reflection on my phone and was surprised. I looked like I had gone without sleep for days. What was this change in appearance in such a short period of time…?

I’m sorry body for having such a bad owner. My stamina is very bad but I didn’t know it would affect me as a whole. It was time for me to fall back.

It seemed certain that there wasn’t anything I could gain from here. I patted my lips wishfully and sat down along the roadside. Mesquite put down his shield and lens and sat next to me.

She pulled my shoulder towards her so that I could lean against her. It felt like I was leaning against a large tree.

Daisy sat with her knees to the floor and massaged my legs while asking if I was okay and very tired worryingly. Even though I was unmarried, it felt like I was a grandma with a granddaughter…it was nice.

Elder who could no longer bear to see my poor state approached me with light covered hands and lay them on my eyes. I felt like I was getting better.

The team’s battle skills seemed to have grown enough to charge the next battleground thanks to my diamond strategy so what should I do? If we were tired we could avoid battles but continue walking right? I was contemplating on our schedule when

Ring.

There was a notification ring from my phone. I thought these dwarves were using their brains and intelligently gaining my attention.

I was afraid that there was an alarm for diamond usage and removed Elder’s hand to see the notification when I saw a white envelope with a green seal on my screen.

I’d thought the phone was hacked with a dwarf virus and only able to display <unlimited diamonds> on the screen, but a messaging ability all of a sudden? Was this a spam?

I had opened a suspicious mail before and was attacked by a malicious virus so I simply looked suspiciously at the phone.

But soon touched the mail and opened it. The emblem on the sealing wax appeared to be the world tree like the one at the bottom of my quest scroll.

——–

Dear 26th terrarium savior of the world tree.

Driard name: Jay

Thank you for dealing with a nuisance of ours.

The 26th terrarium no longer has to suffer from drought.

The citizens have become prosperous.

Mission Goal: Reduce the number of fires in the 26th Terrarium by 85%

★ Your name will be referred to ‘cordially’ in the village.

Title of the 26th terrarium savior of the world tree: Level 5 Gardener

(Only level 4 and above are able to possess shares of the respective terrarium.)

(You are no longer able to enter terrariums of level 9 and below)

To thank you for your effort we offer you the following benefits.

• World tree 26th terrarium vendor 10% discount
• World tree 26th terrarium located inn usage for free
• Prioritized in the distribution of yearly world tree fruit free of charge
• The 26th terrarium guarantees your identification should you visit the large 20th terrarium

The world tree’s 26th administration office cum orchard authorizes this certification.

——

The pop-up window from the envelope was a surprise.

Was I think surprised when I’d passed the pull-up certification test? Even though I had hunted thoughtlessly for fires that had come my way I was unaware of these small benefits.

Discounts and facilities that were free of charger were not much of interest. I scrolled down and read the titles that I found amusing.

What was this civil worker like ranking and what was this about guaranteeing identification? Was this a sort of rising in the hierarchy within the game?

The so-called certification folded and returned to the envelope once I retouched the pop-up window. It grew smaller and returned to the <unlimited diamonds> game page.

The only difference was that the envelope icon was found in the left corner of the screen. The dwarfs showed a sudden interest in the icon and pointed it with their shaft.

[Master! Something weird has appeared!]

[Master! That is not a diamond! It is useless]

[Master! Look at this! Something was delivered]

From the dwarves’ point of view, they were speaking a sentence but collectively it was too much. I put aside their chattering and was about to retap the icon to see the certification again when all together they came pushing something towards me.

What they had pushed was something like a potted plant. The number 26 was written on the pot and the branches of the tree were bare as the leaves were just beginning to grow.