Terrarium Adventure - Chapter 27

There are times when my consciousness suddenly awakens as though I was half asleep.

Normally I am a deep sleeper and wouldn’t even know if there was a fire, but today I had the sudden creeps and woke up.

I didn’t wake up completely. I just opened my ears as I lay in bed, and breathed in the cold night air. Mesquite’s thick cloak was covered up to my head. After my ears awoke, my sense of smell awoke followed by my sense of touch.

I was contemplating whether to open my eyes when Mesquite who had noticed patted my shoulder. Maybe she was trying to put me back to sleep.

“My barrier seems to have woken you. It’s nothing. You need not worry.”

Mesquite had a low toned voice and it was comforting. The rhythmic patting was putting me back to sleep, but a part of my consciousness was curious about what a barrier was and wouldn’t let me submit to my sleep.

“What is it…?”

Mesquite who had thought I’d fallen back asleep was staring into the darkness.

“I felt a presence. It seems like they found us first. I thought they wanted to engage in battle so I put up a barrier.”

“…It’s not dangerous is it?”

“Their hostility wasn’t directed at us so I let my guard down. They seemed to be targeting fires further ahead. Funnily they are being considerate for us. They seem to be circling the parameter. They engaged and ended their battles quickly. Most fires within our radius should have been wiped out.”

So there were other druids. I did want to see other druids in battle…

My persistent consciousness gave way as Mesquite’s calming voice put me to sleep.

My hunting ground was being stolen…I fell asleep in a bad mood.

***

I had a dream which was quite uncommon.

I had heard so much about the world tree once I came here that the world tree showed up in my dream.

Actually I wasn’t even sure if that had been the world tree. The only time I had seen it was on the seal of the wax stamp, and a portion of its branch in the orchard.

But somehow I just knew that it was.

A grand tree stood tall and large. It was so large that I who had been looking at it from afar, was still not able to capture it in its entirety.

The body of the tree was white as marble. But as it spread out towards its branches it turned the shade of brown.

I had heard somewhere that once could go blind from looking at the reflected sun in a snowfield, I somewhat knew what that meant now. My eyes couldn’t open as it was too white. My eyes teared a little too.

Even then I continued looking at the tree. Although I couldn’t’ understand why.

There was no wind but leaves glistening like gold flew past me like flower petals. My heart swelled at such a beautiful sight. The branches swayed as well.

Then all of a sudden the thinnest branches amongst them started to slowly come towards me. The thought of a branch moving on its own was quite grotesque but oddly it didn’t feel that way.

The thin branch was closer to black than brown, and unlike the other branches that were sparkling this one had a weak light and no growing leaves.

Only one small transparent fruit grew from it.

The branch stopped at a distance just close enough for me to stretch out and touch it. The fruit beared on the thin branch was tempting and made me want to pick it.

So I picked it. The moment I grabbed it with one had it turned like a ripe persimmon in autumn.

Unlike other fruits, I had picked at the orchard this one was ice cold. I tried to warm the fruit with my hands and stared at it endlessly. What was this fruit?

Then all of a sudden the branch started to slap my face continuously. Hey, what was this sudden attack? Weren’t we just having a moment here! Why are you doing this all of a sudden?

Then the branch started to speak.

“Wake up you sleepy head.”

Wow, it gave me the creeps that the world tree was aware of my sleeping habits.

“You really can’t seem to wakeup. The sun is already high up in the sky.”

“Master druid! Please wake up!”

Why was the branch trying to imitate Elder and Daisy’s voice? What was up with this world tree?

“Master druid! We must continue our journey! What if we never reach the 28th terrarium?”

My eyes opened immediately.

***

The sun was already shining brightly. The driards that had come out of the artifact were watching me closely.

Wow…I must have overslept. There was nothing more awkward than being the last to wake up on an outing.

“Who slapped me? Elder, was it you?”

“I didn’t slap you, I tapped you.”

“With you strength that’s the same as slapping!”

Even though it didn’t hurt I was embarrassed at myself for oversleeping so I tried to change the subject. I rubbed my cheeks to avoid the awkwardness.

I was still half-awake, so I drank some water to freshen up.

It had been out at room temperature like me yet it was cool. It was the same temperature as when I had just bought it at the store.

I tried to drink without touching the bottle and offered it to my driards.

Do you want some water? Aren’t you thirsty? But curiously all of them said their thirst was quenched the moment I was refreshed. Because I wasn’t thirsty anymore….so I guess this was what it meant to be one together…

“What about Daisy? Daisy likes eating right.”

She was the kid who had finished eating large portions so I offered her the bottle.

“The me then was like a human so I ate to live! The food from that inn was so yummy I still remember it. But now I don’t have cravings anymore. And I don’t feel hungry.”

She smiled innocently and spoke of such a sad thing. No wonder she had eaten so much for her small size….

At that time I thought that she was eating to her heart’s content to fill full, but it had actually been a matter of survival.

Ha, I empathize with her feelings of desperation which made my heartache.

I…I will have it all. From now on I promise will do better. Now that you mention it I will fill myself up with our emergency food.

Including the prizes we’d won and the emergency food, we bought to the max at the store. Made up for my breakfast.

The emergency food looked like an energy bar.

I peeled the wrapper and changed my mind. It didn’t have a chocolate topping! I broke it off with my hand and it broke into crispy halves. Darn, it doesn’t even have any side ingredients. Like nuts or dried fruits! I could imagine how that would taste.

I looked unamused as I put a piece in my mouth, the dry and rough food reminded me I was eating for survival.

It wasn’t like a tasteless diet food. It didn’t have any flavor at all, absolutely no taste.

In my pocket, I had the maximum number of these I could buy. The owner of the shop advertised it to me with reassuring words that I would never feel hungry on my journey, but had he been just trying to clear out his stock? Who would even buy these things? Oh me with the handful of diamonds. Darn it….

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing….I was just deep in thought.”

My disgusted look had worried Daisy. It was a waste to throw away something I’d already opened and I was pretty hungry so I’ll eat it…but I was miserable. I had so many diamonds and yet I was eating this crap.

It was fascinating that the more I ate I felt full. It was a very small bar so I ate it in 4 mouthfuls and yet I was full by the time I was done.

Did it give me a sense of false fullness? Or was its purpose to make me lose my appetite?

“Huhu, it must not be tasty.”

“Even though you haven’t had it I can tell you it tastes like molded sawdust. I just felt like I was a hamster.”

Mesquite smiled at me while handing me my water bottle I had placed down. I continuously rinsed my mouth with water.

I forgot my promise I had made seconds ago, and even considered if I should just starve than to eat that when I was hungry. For Korean, it was all about rice power….

Before we embarked on our journey we went through the routes one more time.

Elder pointed to our current location, it was still relatively close to the 26th terrarium but was a long distance away from the 28th. Ha, I was already tired.

We were officially going beyond the world tree’s protected area so we decided to change the main to Mesquite.

There was a higher chance that we would come across stronger monsters and everyone’s safety was the main priority.

I transferred the deeply connected soul from Daisy to Mesquite.

Immediately a translucent shield covered the driards. Mesquite who was the shield had been appointed as the leader so the buffer barrier coverage had extended to the full party.

The road that we embarked on once more was smooth sailing. Having changed the leader to Mesquite had fully prepared us to travel for a long period without facing any conflict.

From a certain point, Daisy who had continuously chirped on to bring up the spirit mellowed down.

Having walked a long distance the automatic humming I had started off it went on mute automatically.

Had there been some encounters with fires in between it would have been a change of setting, but we had no such encounters until we reached an unpathed road that proved that it was a road less traveled.

Who had wiped out my hunting ground? Was it those who had circled our parameter in the night? What an ill-mannered druid.

Mesquite had said they were being considerate of us but I thought otherwise.

We weren’t getting any experience points. We needed to level up but if they stole my potential opportunities to level up what was I supposed to do? They should have left us with one or two. Even at a tasting booth, it’s basic manners to leave a few for the next person. This guy knew nothing about manners.

My breakfast was bad, my hunting was bad, and the whole day had been full of walking continuously making my legs hurt, which made me be in low spirits.

Yesterday was a rather dynamic day so perhaps it was my bad to have held expectations that every day would be the same. I guess not every movie or novel had the same kind of events. Maybe tomorrow would be similar to today.

I looked to the floor and continued walking when I realized we had entered a field of grass as soft as a rug decorated with faces of yellow flowers.