Chapter 498: Flowers
The moment they saw the strange city, Sallia checked her System messages. She hoped that they might feed her some new information about what to expect.
| Analyzing this world… Analysis complete!
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| Essences Present in this dimension: All four essences present. Manifestation and Binding essence are intertwined, and seem to form the basic structure of this world’s primary spellcasting system. Special notes: The local System of this world seems to run on a mixture of alteration and binding essence. It ‘binds’ certain actions or achievements to the user, then alters the body to fit those achievements. It is recommended that the transmigrator make good use of this local System to amplify their accomplishments and earnings in this world. Estimated tier: 9 (according to the Market’s standardized power evaluation scale) Special Notes: This world is not a single dimension - it is part of a large dimensional cluster, estimated to be linked to at least one thousand other dimensions. Dimensional Cluster appears to be at war with a major multiversal faction that the Market is on (Error) terms with. Please proceed with caution.
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On the other hand, it also meant that wandering around hoping monsters wouldn’t eat them was also a poor choice. In a Tier 9 world, the average monster would be much stronger than what their clan was used to. Their group was already mostly reduced to children, with a few adults sprinkled into keep everyone alive. Their combat power was nearly gone. They needed shelter now.
She gritted her teeth, and then turned towards Anise and Felix. “I’m going down. We need shelter, and this is the only place we can get it. Are you coming?”
“Of course. There’s no way I’d let you find all of the interesting stuff on your own,” said Felix.
Anise nodded as well.
“Let’s get going then,” said Sallia. She looked around, and it only took her a few seconds to find an unusually large vine. She spent a few more seconds cutting at it, before she fashioned a reasonably sturdy rope, and the tossed it into the giant hole in the ground. Sure enough, the invisible shield didn’t deflect Sallia’s vine-rope since it was still ‘alive.’ Then, Sallia grabbed hold of her makeshift rope and dropped into the cave.
After all, she had no idea what would happen below them. There was no reason to spend essence if she could avoid it.
She felt the rope shift as her friends followed her. As she moved closer to the city, Sallia’s heart started to pound in her chest. She wasn’t sure whether she felt excited or nervous.
Even if it had involved an awful lot of other people’s help, this was the first time their group had moved from one dimension to another with their own power, rather than relying on the Market’s reincarnation mechanics to traverse worlds. That meant that Sallia was interacting with a new world as an adult rather than an infant. She didn’t need to spend years rebuilding her strength again. On the other hand, it also meant that they might run into strange compatibility issues in this dimension - such as their biology not fitting the laws of physics here. They hadn’t run into any issues yet, but there was always a chance something could go wrong later…
She shook off her nervousness when her feet hit the ground. She looked around, and prayed that she wasn’t about to get flayed alive by the inhabitants of this city. A moment later, she froze.
There was nobody nearby. No obvious signs of sapient life. Just flowers and plants.
<Where is everyone?> asked Felix. <Is this city deserted?>
<Maybe this dimension is also about to get wiped out by the tree, and the people here had more warning than we did, so they fled already?> said Anise. <If so, that might be really bad news for us. I don’t think we have the essence to escape the tree a second time, at least not without a good amount of rest.>
Sallia shuddered at the thought. If the Universal Tree came for them again, all they could really do was accept their deaths. Still, that wasn’t the only reason the city might be abandoned - even if it was the most terrifying possibility.
She looked more closely at the flowers, and realized that there was a lot more order to the whole city than she had first thought. The houses in the city were all organized into perfect squares. While the walls of each house were made of different plants, they all had an unnerving uniformity to them when it came to building dimensions and sizes. This was incredibly strange when a house made entirely of thin, leafy flower vines and bright pink flowers sat right next to a house made of willowy trees, since the materials had so many different properties and yet looked so similar from outside.
In between the houses were ‘streets’ made of soft, colorful flowers. Bright red flowers seemed to line the flatter parts of the city, while blue and orange flowers were layered over rockier and hillier regions. Sallia had no idea what those colors meant, but she suspected that bright red, at least, meant that it was a public walking space.
Sallia hesitated, then realized they didn’t have time to waste. They had already spent a minute or so getting down here and looking around - they only had a few minutes before the lava started cooking all the refugees they were trying to save. That would be a real disaster. They had to move now. Sallia strode towards the house, and then rapped loudly on the door with her fist. She knocked loudly several times, and then stepped backwards. Nobody reacted. The door remained silent. She waited a few more seconds, before she gritted her teeth, and started rushing towards another of the houses. They didn’t have time to waste. She just hoped that knocking on someone’s door wasn’t some kind of grave offense that would get them killed.
However, as Sallia was rushing towards the second house, she nearly tripped over something. She heard angry chittering sounds from just beneath her feet. Even though she had never heard the chittering sounds before, they somehow imprinted themselves into her mind in the form of coherent, lengthy words - almost as if she was trying to process information that her brain was unused to dealing with.
“Clumsy/oafish/foolish tall one! Watch thine/your stride/step/movements or I shall flay/remove/tear your skin/outer layers from your warm flesh/muscles!”
Sallia froze, and then looked down. She had nearly stepped on a one-meter high walking plant monster. It looked like a small mound of flowers had grown into a single creature. It didn’t have a shape that was even remotely humanoid - it was more like a many-tendriled blob of limbs, leaves, stems, and plants. It smelled of freshly pressed flowers and herbs.
“Are you a fool? Or have you been struck silent with awe/admiration upon seeing my form/body?”
Sallia finally had at least a rough idea what was happening. The creature that was chittering at her was somehow lacing concepts into every single word it spoke - much like Miria’s eldritch magic. Sallia had no idea how that was possible, but at the very least, it made communication possible.
“Why are there no other… people?” asked Anise, as Sallia tried to process what she was looking at. “And where are we? You’re the first… plant? Person? that we’ve met.”
<Anise, how is the plant person supposed to understand your words? It’s somehow communicating in conceptual speech, but we can’t do the same!> Hissed Sallia over the mental bracelet.
<Ah - crap! I didn’t think of -> Before Anise could finish her words, to Sallia’s surprise, the other creature responded.
“Naturally, you are in the Court of Flowers. Everyone is at the council meeting, to discuss/brainstorm/ponder our actions. Apart from a few guards/warriors/mages there are no other people in their houses right now. Why aren’t you at the meeting, fleshling?”
Sallia frowned. Something about the way the plant person had called her a fleshling sounded as if it were laced with a little bit of disdain. It wasn’t quite outright contempt - but Sallia had a feeling that in this city, ‘fleshlings’ might not have quite the same status that plant people did.
“We’re outsiders, so we weren’t aware of any council meeting. We need help!” Said Anise.
<Is telling the plant about the fact that we’re outsiders a good idea? What if it takes offense at us intruding in the city and kills us?> said Sallia.
<Since it understood me earlier, I think these creatures must have some kind of link with conceptual communication. I don’t know if it has any kind of special way to detect lies, so I think being truthful is important until we know more,> said Anise.
The creature considered them for a few moments, while Sallia and Anise shot messages back and forth over the communication bracelets.
“Very well. I will take you to see the council, and we shall decide whether to offer you assistance/help/aid. It is not my place to determine/decide whether you deserve help, so I shall send you to those who can decide your fate/future.”
Then, the plant seemed to recede back into the flowers on the street, and start to zip forward. It wasn’t quite as fast as Sallia’s unenhanced sprinting speed - but it was certainly faster than Anise and Felix could easily keep up with. There weren’t any other moving plant people in the area - doubtless, they had all gone to the council meeting already. After nearly half a minute of all-out sprinting for Anise and Felix (along with a few fortuitous gusts of wind that Anise summoned to literally blow them forward and help them keep pace), the group arrived in the center of the city. Sallia swallowed softly. She had no idea what they were getting into, but time was running out fast. She sent the images of how the three of them had reached this area to Miria via communication bracelet, so that refugees could evacuate to a place away from the lava flow, and hoped that she hadn’t just led Miria and the other refugees to their deaths.