Terrarium Adventure - Chapter 30

The thought of being compensated was tempting but I was already satisfied with the whereabouts of the monster’s location. I was confident that the compensation from the king of the dandelion forest would be grand. Inside games, the prizes from king’s were often the best kind. I’m sure she would see to it.

Mesquite calmed me down as I excitedly pestered to go. Then she warned me to limit my use of diamonds to grow the fires to a bigger size…

The dandelion colony was directly impacted by the fires. I agreed to Mesquite as I was concerned I may do more harm than good to the colony.

Their way of informing us of the whereabouts of the fires was fascinating. It wasn’t like how in a game there is a mini-map with pins or bright lights highlighting the whereabouts of the fires.

All we had to do was follow the white seeds Dandelion sent forth. The number of seeds Dandelion sent forth was plentiful so it seemed I wouldn’t need to use my diamond to grow them out further.

“Druid, if it is alright with you I would like to speak with the child from the daisy seedling.”

“Huh? With Daisy? Why?”

Everyone looked puzzled as Dandelion pin pointed out Daisy with her stick.

Perhaps she had felt a sense of kinship as she was petite like the rest of them….She appeared small now but she was larger in the past. Daisy also seemed taken aback at Dandelion’s request to speak with her specifically.

“Shall we wait outside?”

Mesquite grouped herself and Elder together and asked. Dandelion answered gratefully, that she would appreciate it if they did. Elder appeared unsatisfied but at Mesquite’s glance left without much complaint. Should I leave as well?

“You can stay with us. In fact, that might be better.”

I was sure nothing would happen but I was worried for Daisy so I displayed subtle reluctance to leave. Thankfully I was told I could stay.

Daisy was popular amongst the dandelion children. To the extent that those that had been entranced by Mesquite came back to find her. Hearing the conversation between them like “You are small just like me but so strong,” I could understand their interest in her.

“Is there something you wish to ask in private?”

“Not necessarily. I really just wanted to have a conversation with her.”

Daisy approached Dandelion while I sat myself down on a rock nearby. Why had she pinpointed out Daisy? What was this?

“I understand that most start out on an adventure with a druid after reaching a certain stage of growth…So were you initially a wild natured driard like us?”

Oh, wait! That was probing into Daisy’s hurtful past! To mention this without any disclaimer. Should I stop her? I hurriedly looked at Daisy and studied her reaction. But unlike what I had anticipated, she seemed unaffected.

“No! I am a driard born from a fruit. After I bloomed I was separated from the world tree for a long period of time. That’s how I lost my power and shrank in size!”

The child answered brightly. I somehow felt puzzled.

I had always worried about factors that might trigger Daisy to recall her past memories. I had worried that she would recall hurtful memories and be depressed.

But Daisy had never displayed such behavior. She seemed unaffected and normal as though she had no memory of her past.

Perhaps I was overthinking when Daisy had already overcome her pain.

“Were you harassed?”

Dandelion was about to glance my way when Daisy hurriedly shouted and stepped in front of me blocking me from view.

“Master druid is not like that! Master is my savior!”

My heart wrenched as the small child moved hurriedly in a desperate attempt to protect me.

“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. You and your druid obviously share good feelings for each other. But the relationship between a druid and a driard is very intimate. So I assumed that the reason and cause would be somehow present in your relationship.

“It was another druid that cut ties with me. Jay was the one who saved me from the pain.”

“I see. So your ties were cut off badly. And that’s how you became a seedling…”

“But I will grow!”

Daisy firmly expressed her intentions. Of course, of course. All that was left for Daisy was to grow.

“Then…do you feel any form of inferiority towards the other two driards. They are both very accomplished.”

I hadn’t expected Dandelion to be such a direct person. If she was to be so direct continuously even if Daisy was okay, it was hard for me to bear.

I was slightly curious about Daisy’s true feelings as well. She was dealing with Elder who was the supreme one even though they were the same ranking as her.

As for Mesquite, she was a special rarity from the 26th terrarium orchard that was conceived once every 10 years, Elder was a unique rank that made everyone cheer once she appeared in the game.

As for Daisy, she was a normal rank with no special treatment.

Of course, it was preferable to have a good rank but if that was not attainable then I was determined to use my diamond to nurture myself, but I had never considered how Daisy might have felt between the two high ranking driards.

“I don’t feel that way. Rather I am glad that there are two strong driards by my druid’s side. I just want to become stronger as fast as I can. I still have so much to learn from the two of them! I may be weak as compared to other driards for now. But I am just not fully grown.”

“That’s right Daisy! You will grow!”

If I had a light I wanted to swing it in encouragement. If possible in red. I am your number one fan! I was so proud of her fully grown heart.

Dandelion smiled widely at Daisy’s answer. Did flowers bloom when flowers smiled? Was this an illusion? Dandelion’s smile was so beautiful it made my heart pound.

“I am sure one day, you will become a king. A king of a forest. With your good-natured heart, you will be the dominant kind amongst your own kin. Your strong-willed heart will make that possible.”

Mesquite had mentioned that as long as you obtained a butterfly, driards were able to find their kin and reign over them in their own forest.

Of course, I would prioritize giving the butterfly to Daisy. She had the highest chance of natural occurrence but I was also eager to raise her into a strong independent driard.

Daisy seemed surprised by what Dandelion had said.

“Can I become a king like you?”

I imagined a Daisy who was a King like Dandelion and in a forest of her own. To envision Daisy as a graceful and strong King…I suppose then, she would have lost the small and adorable side to her.

I felt sad to think about her fully grown but proud at the same time…perhaps this was how it felt to be a parent. I suddenly felt my eyes moisten.

“When I was born I was no different from the Dandelion seedlings. I was small and weak. The only difference was that I had a bigger plate. I had a plate big enough to accommodate the soul of other driards.”

“You were small too? Like these other driards?”

Just like Daisy, I found it difficult to imagine Dandelion as a small seedling. It felt like Dandelion was born to be king. Born bigger and stronger from the start.

“Yes, that is right. I was small like the children here. I had no power of my own. I stayed safely in the comfort of the colony. Drank water when I needed and played in the sunlight. I chatted away with my fellow seedlings and became adventurous and explored beyond the colony and came back shivering from the rain…I was not much different from the other driards.”

Dandelion spoke while stroking the heads of the children driards lovingly

“But with the increase in the number of driards being born and the dangers the colony faced as the days went on. There was a need for a head of the clan. It had become impossible to live peacefully as we used to. Amongst all of us small driards, I was elected to be the head. As I was slowly entrusted with more souls, my power started to grow. And my power grew even bigger when I used it to protect our colony.”

Dandelion pointed out her stick, wings on her back, and the flower crown on her head for us to see.

“As my plate of entrusted souls grew, my body had grown as well. As my power grew my weapons grew to become stronger and more elaborate to accommodate my power. A crown to represent my reign and wings that don’t hold as much meaning. I am sure you will go through the same thing one day.”

Daisy seemed to have found her dream. As she looked at Dandelion with a dreamy expression.

“To become a king means to be entrusted with many souls and along with it comes great responsibility. To be entrusted with a soul means to pass that power entirely to a driard. One dandelion driard may be feeble and weak but collectively they are powerful. So you must use that stronger body for the needs of other driards.”

“Just listening to it sounds amazing..!”

“From what I know Daisy’s kin is not much different from us. I am sure there are many blessed by the world tree living in various places dispersed from one another. You will be able to create a forest in no time. All you have to do is strengthen yourself to prove your dominance. For me here I was chosen due to my bigger plate to be entrusted with souls. For daily driards, it may be different.”

It was a great piece of advice. I had known that you could become stronger by becoming a king of a forest but I hadn’t known that they became stronger by absorbing the strength of other driards. Evidently two driards were stronger than one.

It wasn’t just Daisy who needed to grow. I needed to grow as well. For the dandelions, they had to develop a wild forest but for Daisy, she would have to grow her forest in my artifact.

For me to connect to the soul of more driards it meant that I also had to expand my soul. Meaning, I had to reach a higher level. I had to level up!

“I suppose the next time we meet after you depart, you might be in the form of a king.”

Dandelion brought the conversation to an end and Daisy nodded diligently.

“Alright! Daisy let’s go! Let’s go wipe out those fires and gather our experience points.”

I took a hold of Daisy’s hand and led her to the outer edge of the colony.

Just as I had been careful when I entered the colony, I was careful not to step on the flowers as I exited it. The seeds danced in front of my eyes beckoning me to follow them.

Mesquite who had gone ahead greeted us with a smile.

“Did you enjoy your conversation?”

“Yes! It helped me a lot!”

I did not change my decision and left Mesquite to be the main. As we didn’t have much information on the fires further away from the village.

Among the many dispersing seeds we followed the one nearest to us. The lightly swaying seed suddenly dropped to the ground.

The seeds started to drop to the ground collectively. And I saw beyond the fallen seeds a fire in a form I had never seen before.

It was lumpy like a slime and crawling in an appealing way, actually…that looked more like a form of a human?