Terrarium Adventure

I entered the swamp with extreme protection from my dryads.

The dark and dry trees emitted a terrible smell. A rotten smell came from the water that was presumed to have stuck to the ground for a long time.

This place had the scent of death soaked in moisture, unlike the scent of burnt things which had been irritating my eyes, nose, and skin by drying them out.

“If you think about how long the 28th branch of the World Tree had lost its strength, it’s strange that there are wetlands left here. It should have dried up from the fire already. Even the 26th terrarium was affected by drought after the balance was broken.”

“Jay, were there springs left in the dandelion colony? Since the king protected that area.”

“Yup. There was a spring deep enough to keep that large colony from going dry.”

“It’s certainly strange that traces of water remain here like Little Elder said. Maybe there is something here that blocked off the fire… However, even if that something and we have a common enemy of fire, we cannot jump to a conclusion that we will be allies.”

Somehow, it felt a little cold here. It was my first time experiencing such feelings since we were always in the midst of terrible heat, being grilled like a piece of meat on fire. It was different from getting goosebumps.

At that moment, Elder suddenly raised his hand in front of me and waved it. I turned my head to where his hand moved to and saw him crumpling his pretty face.

“Don’t turn around.”

“Why?”

“It’s something you probably don’t want to see.”

“What is it? You’re making me curious.”

“I’m pretty sure you don’t want to see a dark, rotten body.”

No, I don’t. As I listened to Elder and looked at his face as if admiring a masterpiece, I could hear Mesquite and Daisy walking away from me. I could also hear the sound of rummaging things around.

“This time… it’s the 16th terrarium pattern. There is a leather pocket here, Jay. It doesn’t appear to belong to the dead person. It seems like the pockets were ripped off by force. There is some moist soil inside… it’s the same kind of dirt we found in the box of the overturned wagon.”

At her words, I clung onto Elder. Why is something like that popping up again all of a sudden? That number 16. I was so bad at mystery games, I didn’t even play the game called <Black Room>, which was very popular when I was in high school. All I wanted to do was get spoilers about it from other people and see the ending.

I decided that it wouldn’t be good for us to stay here for a long time, so I quickly moved forward. Okay, let’s check this out quickly and get out of here. I missed the 28th terrarium already.

Mesquite, who eagerly followed me, suddenly stopped. In front of her, there was a swamp filled with oil-like black liquid.

“… I don’t think Little Elder will be able to solve this.”

Elder went into a fit of rage at her words, but that was all.

The two had known each other longer than anyone else. If Elder had limitations, Mesquite knew it best.

Mesquite raised her shield and slowly stepped away from the black swamp with her gaze fixed to the front. We stepped back little by little under her protection.

“My master, Jay. Elder has excellent recovery power but does not have skills for detoxification. It is a difficult skill to confront the power of poison, which constantly cuts down on one’s vitality. The thing I’m most worried about… is that we may encounter poison that exceeds the recovery ability of Little Elder.”

She added to her explanation, saying that if poison was left unattended, the strength of it will double overtime.

In other words, if vitality was steadily reduced by 100, Elder could simply cast a sustained wide-area heal, but over time, the poison will reduce vitality by 200, then 300, until one eventually reaches death.

I think we met our arch-enemy as a party without the ability to cancel debuffs.

Ugh, what kind of dryad will I need for poison? Land? Can Mesquite do anything about it since she is from the desert…? I looked up at Mesquite with these thoughts, but she looked back with a serious expression. Welp, it looks like we can’t do this. We will come back next time and try again. It seems like we are too weak for this kind of challenge. I will make sure to come back after I draw some more cards.

“Okay! Let’s go back quickly. If Elder can’t do it, it means this is some serious stuff.”

We promise we will come back next time. Anyway, what kind of dryad will I need to pick out for detoxification skills? Even if the fruit blooms, will the desired dryad come out?

I will need to go back to the 26th terrarium if I want to draw more cards… and I don’t know when I will go back there again…

We went back by the path we traveled by, closely watching our surroundings. We were soon able to see the entrance, where small fires were swaying around and wandering aimlessly.

When we got close to the entrance, we were immediately recognized by the small fires. The fires shook their little bodies as if waiting to swallow their gleaming prey.

The wind didn’t blow, but the vines scattered throughout the ground trembled accordingly.

A fire approached us, burning the dead trees and vines soaked in moisture. It then gradually got smaller as they crossed the swamp. When they reached a certain point, it was completely extinguished.

Fire cannot be put out with ordinary water… why did it suddenly get put out? Isn’t the water I’m standing in normal? I know it’s rotten water, but…

I was in deep thought at the strange sight I had just seen.

“This…”

Suddenly, there was a change in Mesquite’s stance. Gold sand burst from her shield and was absorbed by her feet. After that, they bounced up from her feet like a wave.

It was her support skill that she had previously used on Daisy. A skill that blocks up to three effective hits with a wall of sand. It bounced more massively than I had ever seen before, blocking the black liquid in front of her.

Elder immediately entered into a link with Mesquite. With his red, hemispherical shield, he made time for Mesquite to use her skill her again. Daisy, too, pulled her dagger out but stepped back after Mesquite stopped her.

They were being more cautious and careful than ever. Even if Daisy had become stronger, it was a situation where she should stay back.

“It has found us. It’s dangerous for us to stay here now. The poison is melting into the air.”

At Mesquite’s words, I looked at the ground. A smoldering, gloomy haze was rising from the dark liquid.

The liquid’s height was so low that it didn’t even touch my knees, but if this was spreading by air, every step would be like walking on a minefield.

“It’s trying to take over this place. It’s a weak attack since it doesn’t hit Mesquite’s sand walls, but it will cut down our lives little by little.”

That means it has the same effect as Belladonna since that dryad can harm the surroundings simply by being in the field.

“You should be the most careful.”

At Elder’s words, Daisy stuck close to me. It was a movement to show that she would protect me even if she had to block an attack with her body.

He’s right. If I get poisoned, we will all be annihilated, since dryads are connected to my soul and share everything with me.

The soul connection was so precise, that even dryads who didn’t have to sleep felt tired when I was tired. No matter how hard my dryads tried to avoid poison, if I got caught, it would be like being in checkmate. It would be game over.

Alright! I will be the most careful! We’re not too far to the exit anyway, so I will just hurry up and run out of this place while Mesquite blocks the poison! Dryads are faster than me, so it would be better for me to escape first! 

I was about to run when the vines began to tremble again like when the fire entered this place. It was more intense than before. The sight of it was so disgusting that I almost screamed.

I thought they were already dead, like the trees around here. It’s cold here, but there is no wind blowing. How are they shaking?

Blue-purple petals suddenly fluttered out from the vines that were shaking. Two petals were attached to each other, making it look like it was raining flowers. I looked closely at them and realized that they were not petals.

Are those… butterflies? No… seeding the wings are facing down… they’re moths! Dozens of moths flew out of the vines and moved towards us.

“Don’t let it touch you!”

“Ah! Why are there moths here? Why is there life in this cursed forest of death-like place anyway?!”

Even if a butterfly and a moth are not that different, butterflies are okay, and moths are not! Especially when they’re flying in a group like that! Moths just have the wrong name to start with!

“Master druid! They’re not moths! They just look like them!”

Daisy shouted while hugging me with her small body. I pushed my head into her little arm and slightly raised my head.

When I looked closely at Elder’s shield, I realized that they looked a little strange to be moths. They were just a bunch of blue-purple lights that moved together. In other words, it was just a hallucination.

I thought of the entrance with the drooping vines that looked like scattered hair. The force of these lights became stronger as I moved toward the entrance, and the way out was completely occupied by these lights.

We were trapped.

“It was wrong to speculate that it was trying to take over this place. This place is already its realm. Over the years, it has buried its strength all around. Everywhere is a trap!”

The vines shook constantly, and the lights continued to flutter out of them. They flew into Elder’s shield, like moth jumping into fire.

Although they were weak attacks unlike fire which would tremble Elder’s shield, the number of them overwhelmed us.

Mesquite sharpened her teeth and swung her lance. Golden sand walls bounced everywhere.

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The group of lights were buried in Mesquite’s sand walls before reaching Elder’s shield, but unlike previous battles, gold sand and blue-purple powder scattered together as if tear gas exploded around us. Things were moving in the wrong direction.

Strange smoke rose from the black liquid below, and blue-purple powder came from above us with the lights we crushed. This guy has two debuffs on us!

“Little Daisy has strong vitality and I have high resistance, but Elder is in danger!”

At Mesquite’s cry, I looked at Elder and saw that the undersides of his eyes were colored purple. He was clenching his teeth and holding his chest with one hand that had red light bursting out of it. He was focusing his shield on me and was holding on by healing himself.

Elder, who had the weakest resistance, had been struck by the poison debuff around us. The healer healing himself was the first step to the annihilation of our party.