Terrarium Adventure - Chapter 46

All I could do now was to hold my cell phone connected to the stem-like an IV drip. Everything was left to the dwarves who were constantly supplying diamonds to the branches. I heard that even if you take medicine that is good for your body if you do not control the rate at which the medicine is depleted from the body, it could become poison.

Isn’t that the situation right now? The number of diamonds I have… quickly broke through the hundred thousand…

“Hey! Do it in moderation!”

But the dwarves didn’t seem to hear my voice. They looked so happy pouring the diamonds into the funnel and laughing giddily.

The funnel did not have a limit, unlike when I was using diamonds. Since there was no limit, the dwarves moved the diamonds with all the manpower they had as if they had been eager to get rid of them for a long time.

Should I unplug the USB? But what if that leads to a bigger problem? I wondered while grabbing onto the stem when the festering branches began to show different patterns.

A new, golden twig popped out of a festered place. Little by little, gold crust began to fill up even in deep places with tender flesh of wood. My nausea also became better with time.

The water droplets that fell started to flow along the grooves on the floor. It was a sight I had seen in the 26th terrarium’s greenhouse. Water droplets gathered in a pattern like that of a magic circle and washed away the ash on the floor.

The blue water that was swaying inside the room flowed into rooms connected to the branch room.

As I began to feel better, strength suddenly sprang up in my body. Vigor rose from very deep in my heart, and the heat that was encroached in me began to radiate out. The room was filled with surprisingly refreshing energy, and the artifacts on my wrists emitted a dazzling light, matching the energy of the room.

The branches of the World Tree were suddenly recovering to their sacred appearance. It looked like the 26th terrarium’s orchard I had seen in my dream.

“Thank you.”

Finally, the branch of the World Tree spoke again. At that moment, I felt a thump inside me.

The artifacts began to vibrate so loudly to the point of making my arm numb. Like I saw earlier during the fight with the wagon boss battle with Seedling, the light emanating from the artifacts grew in size, quickly filled the room, and eventually covered the whole orchard.

The stem that had been plugged into the phone was pulled out by itself. A tree bonsai boasting abundant leaves had replaced the funnel on the screen.

The number on the pot was 28. When the dwarves urgently turned off the faucet, the millionth place of the number of diamonds I had, had been changed.

Now I understood. The branches of the World Tree had sucked up my diamonds… and finally recovered completely.

***

I was proud of my restoration of the branches of the World Tree, but there was something more urgent for me. I ran out of the orchard and looked for my dryads.

It was a series of amazing things that had happened. The threatening curtain of fire was gone. In addition, there was a thin, round membrane in the terrarium that was difficult to see unless I looked closely at the sky. It was just like looking inside my terrarium artifacts.

The surroundings were ruined enough to be able to recognize at a glance that there had been a great battle. All the buildings were collapsed, and the ground was boiling. Additionally, a huge golden spear that had risen from the ground was piercing the worm-shaped fire joint by joint.

The fire was caught properly, and it was struggling to set itself free. In reaction to this, the ground shook constantly. Mesquite grabbed me since I continuously staggered while running.

The fire was gradually shrinking in size, emanating enormous vapor from the area where the spear was inserted. The spear continued to rise from the floor while I was running there. When I looked closely, it didn’t look like a spear… but rather branches.

I had seen an attack similar to it before. It looked like a technique Elder used to summon a flower branch. Does that mean those are branches of the World Tree?

The dwarves were still noisy long after finishing their job. The sound of their laughter and the sound of diamonds moving. Normally, they would say something if the diamonds I took were not enough and soon grow quiet.

I looked at my phone with a strange feeling. To my surprise, one side of the screen was nicely decorated with branches protruding from somewhere.

It’s not the screen that I’m used to seeing. When I slid the screen to the side, there was a bonsai with the number 28 written on it.

The size of the bonsai pot was very wide and had a sprinkler-like fountain unlike that from the 26th terrarium. The dwarves were throwing diamonds into it as if they were playing games.

When a diamond was thrown into the fountain, blue water spewed out and wet the tree. There was no change in the number of diamonds for a while, but it started to decrease again very quickly.

Some diamonds bounced out of the fountain. When a new golden spear popped up to pierce the worm-shaped fire, it sucked in diamonds like a black hole.

So… the source of that tremendous power of the World Tree… was this. It was using my diamonds all this time and I wasn’t even aware.

Of course, the spear also burned with fire. However, the speed of recovery was faster than the destruction.

The dwarves had an intense discussion with each other, they began to scoop diamonds into the fountain earnestly. It was like pouring water into a bottomless pit, but it didn’t matter to me.

Alright, I have a lot of diamonds anyway. The branches of the World Tree are welcome to take them to stop the fire.

Desperately hanging on to Mesquite, I barely entered the battlefield where the fire curtain had disappeared. I saw my dryads on the opposite side of Seedling and Belladonna.

During the short time I was reviving the branches of the World Tree, everyone had become miserable. Above all else, Elder, who was always standing upright, was on the ground. My heart sank at such a sight.

Daisy also looked exhausted, but fortunately, I couldn’t see any injuries. It’s probably because Elder supported her. Seedling and Belladonna couldn’t even receive support from Elder because we were not in a party…

I slid the screen of to the side and tried to connect with Seedling’s artifact network. Then I ran straight to my dryads.

As Mesquite and I got closer, the sand shield effect surrounded Daisy and Elder, then disappeared. It meant that our connection had finally been restored.

I gave potions to Daisy and Elder and carefully checked their condition. They have a lot of injuries… I was about to burst into tears, seeing my dryads who had suffered without their owner.

Their expressions looked much more comfortable than before. Elder, who was kneeling on one knee, swept his knee and got up.

“I can finally catch my breath now.”

Elder said, opening the potion lid. Daisy wiped her forehead covered with ash and barely showed a smile. At my tearful expression, she said, “I’m fine. I’m just a little tired! I didn’t get hurt at all!”

Mesquite blocked the sparks coming from the worm with her shield while my dryads recovered from the battle. I felt that their energy was stronger and more vivid than before.

That’s weird. They had to endure a tough battle without me.

Elder took a deep breath and struck his staff on the ground. It looked like he was planning to take care of Seedling and his dryad as well. A mass heal was cast, and a new effect that I had not seen spread from his staff.

Usually, when Elder used his power, a dazzling white light that resembled the color of Elder’s petals emanated. This time, however, a clear gold color took its place.

It looked like the gold color from the spears piercing the worm-shaped fire had melted into the usual white light. It was as if the spears and Elder’s power were in sync.

The nature of Elder’s power is also explosive, so it felt like huge waves were coming from Elder.

“Wow… Elder, that’s amazing.”

“What did you do there? This feels like when I used my power inside the World Tree.”

“It’s because we have the same environment as inside the World Tree now. This whole place is like that; as if we are inside Jay’s soul. To be concise, it feels as cozy as when we were inside Jay’s terrarium artifact.”

Mesquite explained and looked at me with a slightly different expression from normal. Her eyes looked as if she felt a sense of awe from me. The unfamiliar glance gave me so much embarrassment that I felt my face was going to burst.

“My master, Jay. I think we can hand over the team’s main attack to Little Daisy. That fire is no longer a threat to us. Let’s focus our strength to bring victory in this battle.”

Mesquite’s evaluation had finally turned positive. I followed her words and transferred the soul connection to Daisy.

Daisy, who had received my permission to run wild with all her strength, connected the two daggers. She then ran forward and threw the boomerang. The boomerang flew away with a threatening sound.

Daisy’s attack was also different from the usual. Rather than the red petals representing daisies, golden petals followed the boomerang’s trajectory like the Milky Way that sparkled in the night sky. The boomerang thrown by Daisy completely cut off the two joints of the worm fire and returned.

Thud!

The fire that fell with a loud sound became another entity and wriggled. When Elder’s golden shield encircled me, Mesquite abandoned her defense and bounced toward the fire with Daisy.

As the size of the worm became smaller and smaller, it struggled less. Seedling also recovered and started to attack as well.

When the presumed head was cut off, the remaining joint became a new head. We steadily reduced the size of the fire by cutting the front and back simultaneously.

Seedling used his graft and finished it off by firing his revolver. That’s unfair that he had the last shot.

I once again realized the dignity of the World Tree after seeing this huge fire lose its power due to the blessings of the World Tree. The town wasn’t a safe zone for nothing.

When the fire disappeared, the golden spears shattered and turned into fine particles of powder. The powder formed a round sphere, whirled with air inside it for a while, and eventually spread out in all directions. I felt that my body was going to be pushed out by the wind, so I eagerly held onto Elder.

The power that shimmered like star powder spread throughout the terrarium. The ashes were washed away as the powder flowed through the broken buildings, and the remaining fires were extinguished or pushed out of the terrarium.

While being pushed out of the terrarium, the size of the fire gradually became smaller and eventually became completely extinguished. I was mesmerized by such a wonderful sight.

It was a golden feast that dazzled my eyes. The terrarium that had been stained black quickly turned to gold as if it was healed from a terrible disease.