Terrarium Adventure - Chapter 53

Mesquite’s lance shot out like a rocket as if she had no intention of showing mercy towards the seedling who attacked me. At that moment, the dryad burst into tears.

A group of moth lights incomparable to before jumped out from all sides, obstructing Mesquite’s view. Because of that, her attack stopped for a while.

Through the crack created amid the moth lights with Mesquite’s attack, I could see the small dryad rolling backward to avoid the end of her lance.

The noisier the dryad cried, the stronger the attack of the moth lights became. Eventually, the swamp where the black liquid had accumulated began to spring up like hot spring water. Even if we had succeeded in dragging the dryad in front of us, the penalty on our side was too great since this area was his territory.

It would be nice if I could call out the native place of my dryads from my artifacts like Seedling did! Why can’t I figure out how to do that as I did with the graft? Is this also because of my level?

Mesquite, who tried to move forward relying on the panacea, clicked her tongue at the attacks that obstructed her view and movement.

“He’s frightened.”

Daisy said while covering Mesquite with her boomerang.

“Little Daisy is right. He is terrified and attacking with no sense of direction. They are so sporadic that I can’t even bring his attention to me.”

Mesquite once tried to send Daisy, who could move more sharply than her, but frowned at the number of dandelion petals dwindling, and stopped her. I tried to look for a chance to attack within the duration of the panacea, but it was difficult to do so.

Anyway, what’s happening is that brat does not even know who he is attacking but is simply raving because he is terrified.

Is there any way to bring his attention to us? Even if we’re running out of time for the effects of the panacea, I still have half of the bottle left. Let’s not rush and think about what we can do.

There is a limit to entrusting this whole situation to my dryads. I must think of an idea and do something.

Since that thing is a dryad, he must have a mother flower, right? Thinking back to his poison and debuff skills… maybe he came from the poisonous herb sent from the Alchemy Tower in the 16th terrarium? 

That is a real heinous probability for it to become a dryad… but it did, by receiving pollen from the World Tree.

Ugh, now that I think about it, wasn’t Scarecrow trying to use that poisonous plant to fight off the worms that were eating the branches of the World Tree? There was a reason that this seedling was so strong. I mean, he has to be strong, right? This whole situation is so annoying!

Okay, calm down. Thinking like this will only make this situation worse.

So… what type of plant is this poisonous herb? It would have been nice if Kalmia at least gave me the name of it!

Let’s see… dryads follow the characteristics of their mother flower. Not only their appearance but their characteristics as well.

Daisy has strong vitality, like the characteristics of the improved breed of daisy that was written on her slate, but she was too weak to withstand Mesquite’s earthquakes due to her flower having weak roots.

Mesquite has a strong attack power like her mother flower but cannot move as fast as Daisy due to the nature of her flower having deep roots.

Elder is… pretty like his mother flower… hmm…

Appearance? That’s it! I may be able to find out about that dryad’s mother flower by looking at his appearance or what he is wearing.

I eagerly moved around to capture the image of the dryad crying into my eyes. Maybe the flower is characterized by that funny-looking hood, like flowers that are nestled in Elder’s hood. The blue-purple hair and eye color could also be a hint.

Would his big glasses be a hint? Unfortunately, he did not have any flowers at an obvious place like Daisy did.

A poisonous plant with blue-purple color and an elongated hood… I don’t even know any poisonous plants other than helmet flowers shown in movies or cartoons to start with… Wait a minute. A helmet flower? Monkshood? I remember it now… it was very memorable when I first learned about it because the English name was monkshood. 

Oh my god, maybe it’s right! I mean, I just roughly guessed, but the color of the flower is the same, and everything else seems to be right as far as I know! What are the weaknesses of a monkshood flower? Ugh, what am I going to do even if I know?

At that moment, the piece of Dandelion’s staff that came out with the panacea started to tremble.

The article containing the power of Dandelion’s flower language. The object containing the power of divine revelation. She told me that I could awaken another power with the special power inside this.

… But even Dandelion did not seem to know exactly what this was used for. Well, the white fur on this is trembling like I have to use it now.

What’s the point of awakening another power here? Two powers. Two-sided?

This item didn’t respond to Daisy, Mesquite, nor Elder. Then… is it responding to that thing? I looked at the monkshood dryad from a distance, then back at the staff fragment.

Although monkshood is a poisonous herb, it seems to have been used as a famous herbal medicine as well… Could it be?

The dandelion petals were gone, and we had to start worrying about becoming poisoned again. I had to bet everything on the half bottle of panacea we had left. Elder was not poisoned yet, so I turned my main dryad to Mesquite to solidify the defense. Let’s hold on for a little longer!

When I looked at the entrance, I could see the fires again. When they entered the territory of the monkshood dryad, they became smaller and eventually went out before reaching him. Wait a minute… I can use the fire to distract him! 

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Elder hugged me with one arm and stopped me as if he noticed that I was about to do something strange.

Let me go. I have an idea. I’m not going anywhere, it’s just that your tall height is getting in the way.

Growing fire was my specialty. I had used it in the past as a substitute for an experience buff. Although the purpose was different now, I did not know back then there would be a day where I would come to support fire.

I took a diamond out of my pocket and threw it at the fires, swinging my arm wide. The fires quickly moved towards it and ravenously ate the fallen diamond. They were like pigeons gathered in front of food.

Here birdy birdy, this way.

It seemed difficult to prevent them from being put out with a single diamond, so I threw five or six of them. Elder asked me what I was doing throwing away precious diamonds, but the nagging didn’t last long because he was busy supporting the team.

The fires showed no interest in us as they followed the diamonds. I ardently threw the diamonds, leading them to where the monkshood dryad was.

Like the white pebble stones in Hansel and Gretel, the fires eagerly picked up the diamonds and moved forward. Even though they had entered quite deep into the swamp, they continued to grow due to the support from the diamonds.

When the fires reached close enough, I hid behind Mesquite’s shield and sprinkled diamonds all over the place where the monkshood dryad was. The fires quickly ate it up and turned their attention to the nearest thing, the monkshood dryad.

We sent that there, wink wink. 

Suddenly facing a huge group of fires, the monkshood dryad began to scream. His attacks were directed elsewhere for a moment. There was finally a gap.

That dryad is only a seedling and has weak attacks other than his poison debuff, so he probably won’t last long against the fires. The fires are also likely to have terrible power after eating up the dryad.

I turned my main soul connection to Daisy, then gave the piece of Dandelion’s staff to her. She’s the slickest and fastest on our team. She will know what I’m thinking. 

Daisy grabbed the piece of Dandelion’s staff and stared at me. Then she closed her mouth in determination and nodded. Everything I was thinking could immediately be communicated to Daisy, thanks to the soul connection.

“Mesquite! Use the earthquake!”

I clung on to Elder and yelled. Mesquite reflexively looked at Daisy at my request, but Daisy spewed stem towards the branches in the ceiling and jumped from the ground. As she did so, Mesquite pierced her lance to the ground.

A huge earthquake overturned the ground and reached the monkshood dryad in no time.

Both the monkshood dryad, who was crouching in fear, and the fires that were about to attack him, were all swept away by the earthquake. The moment the protruding ground broke the gap between the monkshood dryad and the fire, Daisy stuck the piece of staff to the monkshood dryad.

Uh… I just said make the staff touch him… not stab him like that. Daisy, I see that you were very angry.

The monkshood dryad with the staff piece now in his hood glowed and became wrapped in white dandelion flower seeds. At the same time, the group of moth lights that were flying in the air shattered and disappeared. The splashing swamp water also became calm.

I don’t know how, but the item worked!

Mesquite stopped the earthquake just in time for Daisy to land on the ground. Daisy quickly swung her dagger to extinguish all four fires near her. She then pointed to the monkshood dryad with the dagger.

Wait a minute! Daisy stopped her dagger dramatically.

Dandelion flower seeds disappeared like melting snow, and the monkshood dryad sitting in the place stared with a blank face. He had red eyes from crying and was biting his lower lip.

“We’re not killing him?”

Elder carefully put me down and asked bluntly.

“I am offended, but he is only a seedling of Daisy’s age, and I also need to check something.”

It seemed almost certain, but I was curious if it was really the poisonous herb from the Alchemy Tower in the 16th terrarium.

The swamp water was all over the place after Mesquite had made an earthquake. I was hesitating if I could step on it, but Mesquite stepped forward first.

“All of the poison has been released. The forces flying in the air are gone as well. They both must have something to do with that dryad, right?”

She said looking back. She seemed to say that it was okay to step on them, so I followed her.

“I think so. I used the staff piece that Dandelion gave me. It must have awakened another power in that dryad.”

Mesquite made a strange look at my answer.

“Based on how he attacked my master, I want to slice his throat with my lance right now. But you don’t want to, right? What are you thinking, Jay?”

“Hey, you!”

Let’s find out that reason right now.

At my shout, the monkshood dryad shuddered. He didn’t cry anymore but was still in a state of fear and shock. Daisy still had her dagger out and looked as if she was about to stick it into him as soon as he did something strange.

The monkshood dryad sniffled as he looked at me, Daisy, then Mesquite.

“Is your mother flower monkshood, the helmet flower?”

I’ve been calling you a monkshood dryad for a while, so if you say no, I’ll be a little embarrassed. However, the dryad didn’t answer my question. Perhaps it was because Daisy’s dagger was right in front of his nose, and he was scared to death.

Daisy glared at him and slowly lowered her dagger. Only then, his mouth opened.

“Yes, I am… To be precise, I was enhanced from the helmet flower… My mother flower was artificially made from humans…”