Chapter 355 - 314: Gestation
Mulling this over, Zelir checked the panel for his Great Creation Skill again.
Sure enough...
It was still at 5%.
The progress bar hadn’t budged since he’d witnessed the scene created by the incomplete Great Creation Skill back in Kenta Village.
After all, the Great Creation Skill required hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years to fully analyze.
Even with the accelerated flow of time inside the ruins these past few days, the effect was just a drop in the bucket.
It had barely made a difference.
"So much Spirit, and you just woke up?"
Valles handed Zelir a steaming bowl of thick soup and a piece of black bread. "Your eyes are as wide as saucers."
"Just starting off a brand new day," Zelir said. He took a sip of the thick soup, then started to chow down on the black bread.
The party’s objective for the day remained the same: press onward.
If they still couldn’t find the entrance to the second floor’s light curtain, they would head back to Sengu Town to rest and sell off their loot.
After stowing away a large Magic Crystal, fifteen cuts of Minotaur Leg Meat, and a host of rare Magic Plants,
Zelir’s Storage Pouch was starting to run out of space.
After stamping out the campfire, the party set off.
About an hour later, the suffocating scenery around them finally began to change.
The fog shrouding the forest began to gradually dissipate.
The giant ferns and strange, massive trees that blotted out the sun and threatened to swallow them whole also began to thin out.
They no longer had to hack a path through the undergrowth.
As a result, the party’s pace quickened considerably.
"Whew... My arm feels like it’s about to fall off."
Marcus stretched his right arm.
He had been responsible for clearing the path ever since they left the Central Courtyard Garden, and the non-stop swinging of his Battle Saber was exhausting.
The thick carpets of moss and lichen gave way to large patches of exposed, dark soil.
"Ah... this is a good sign."
Gray squatted, scooping up a handful of earth and rubbing it between his fingers. "I think we’re almost through."
"I used to think a place with a lot of trees had a nice, natural vibe... but after the last few days, I’m so sick of trees I could puke."
"This doesn’t seem like a good sign, does it?"
Hill kicked at a sparse patch of grass with her tall leather boots, pinning a fern frond underfoot.
"Come over here and look at this."
The others gathered around.
There, beneath the trampled patch of grass, grayish-white lines bulged faintly from the surface of the dark soil.
They stood out starkly against the black soil, like veins bulging on the skin of the earth.
"Are these tree roots?" Valles frowned.
"Tree roots don’t grow like this." Marcus shook his head.
He drew his Battle Saber, cut down the entire patch of grass, and then carefully used the tip of his blade to scrape away the loose soil next to the gray marks.
When the thing was fully exposed, a wave of revulsion washed over the party members.
It was a... root? As thick as a person’s arm.
No, it was difficult to even classify it as something botanical.
In any case, it resembled a root, but its surface was grayish-white, smooth, and damp. And it was pulsating faintly.
A gurgling sound, like a viscous fluid flowing, emanated from inside the tube-like thing.
It seemed to be steadily flowing toward a single direction.
"Is it an offshoot from some plant...?" Valles murmured.
They followed the direction of the tendril with their eyes, but it seemed to emerge from deep underground.
They couldn’t find a source, nor could they tell if it belonged to the root system of any of the nearby trees.
An idea suddenly popped into Zelir’s head.
"I don’t think it’s any kind of root... It’s more like a blood vessel."
"A blood vessel?"
The word made Valles even more uneasy.
"Root, blood vessel, who cares? Let’s cut it open and see what it is."
Gray drew his Longsword and carefully sliced open the surface of the gray vein.
SQUELCH! SQUELCH...!
The liquid inside immediately gushed out.
It was a grayish-white slurry that smelled awful, with a foul, fishy stench.
They all leaped back.
SIZZLE... SIZZLE...
When the slurry hit the ground, it didn’t soak into the dirt. Instead, it began to boil violently, like a strong acid.
The surrounding weeds withered and blackened on contact, and the liquid even ate small, smoking pits into the soil.
GURGLE... GURGLE...
The grayish-white fluid continued to pour out. As the pressure dropped, the vessel quickly went limp and deflated.
"That’s disgusting..."
Hill waved a hand in front of her face, trying to dispel the foul odor.
"Isn’t this the sap from the Corpse Flowers?"
The sight of the grayish-white fluid jogged Zelir’s memory.
"Back in the Central Courtyard Garden, when I blew up those Corpse Flowers, the liquid that splattered out was exactly like this."
"Those flowers eat creatures, digesting their flesh and blood into this kind of high-energy slurry."
"And then... these blood vessels collect the nutrients and transport them here."
Gray’s gaze followed the path of the veins. "It feels... like they’re feeding something."
To test this theory, the party searched the nearby area.
And just as they’d suspected, buried beneath the seemingly normal topsoil was an intricate, web-like network of the same gray veins.
Some were as thick as an arm, others as thin as a finger. Though they twisted and wound, their final destination was surprisingly uniform—all of them led straight ahead.
"Get ready for a fight..."
Marcus pulled his Shield from his back. "I have a feeling things won’t be quiet up ahead."
"Understood."
The party advanced cautiously.
The vegetation grew increasingly sparse.
Soon, the grayish-white veins covered the ground so densely that there was no need to search for them at all.