Chapter 56: Carnivorous Flowers

"I need you to catch ten Yellow Devil Flowers and the same Crimson Devil Flowers," Styx stated to Aura while explaining their appearance to her.

Styx waited at the defensive forts in the dungeon while Aura simply vanished from his sights and senses.

The information that was sent to him via their bond was chaotic at best, and he could barely make heads or tails of it. The world twisted and turned in her eyes in ways which were simply impossible. Scenes replaced others with no transition between them.

Styx had also recently come to the conclusion that he needed to be levelling faster than he currently was too. Even though he would miss out on some potential, increasing his level also increased his processing ability, enabling him to complete more tasks at a faster rate.

This was demonstrated by his inability to fully share Aura's eyes and ears. If he levelled up enough, this would no longer be an issue.

Styx immediately opened up his status panel and pressed the level up button.

⠀

[

3,648 exp used to level up.

Lv. 10 -> Lv. 11

Accumulated skill experience bonus:

Mana Control <Lv. 14> -> <Lv. 15>

Basic Dungeon Construction <Lv. 7> -> <Lv. 8>

Mining <Lv. 16> -> <Lv. 17>

]

⠀

'Hmm, if I can level up once a week to once a month, that should be a good pace. At least, until the experience required is so high that is no longer a possibility.'

It was only a small improvement, but he could feel all his capabilities improving from the level up.

In the brief amount of time he took to level up, Aura had already collected the devil flowers and returned to the dungeon.

"Careful!" Styx called out in shock at her neglect as she brought the small flailing monsters within range to attack him.

Styx controlled his monsters to block their vine arms from whipping him, a single on of which could cause fatal damage if it landed on his head or neck.

"Restrain them from attacking."

Styx had Aura hold them better to prevent them from attacking him and brought her to a secluded area that was brightly lit and full of already tilled soil.

Styx had assumed the wolfgirl knew what to do next, but she ended up looking at him with a puzzled expression.

"What now?"

"…I can't get close to them without them attacking me. I need you to plant them in the ground."

"How?"

"…"

Styx gave a demonstration with a stick at which Aura nodded and proceeded to plant them but shoving the base of them into the soft dirt.

It wasn't an ideal nor graceful work according to Styx, especially because they weren't lined up or organized in any proper way, but it got the job done.

The devil flowers appears to stop briefly, but they then started digging their 'feet' out of the ground and wanted to attack both Aura and Styx.

"Damn it, if you won't stay still, I will make you!"

Styx made Aura capture them all again, but this time, he installed stakes into the ground and had Aura tightly tie the devil flowers to the stakes.

Their vine-arms were still free to flail around and attack anyone that go close to them, but they could no longer free themselves from the ground.

"Why are you doing this?" Aura asked while looking at the tied down devil flowers.

"It's simple. I can't summon monsters, but I can breed them. These devil flowers are for all intents and purposes, plants. Therefore, I should be able to plant and breed them relatively easily."

"Will that work?"

"…I don't see why it won't work."

Styx controlled the water in his storage to safely water the devil flowers, and even used some old fruits, plant matter and faeces to produce a fertilizer, but the devil flowers didn't seem to be absorbing anything.

He also had the blood crystal bees enter the room in an attempt to gather pollen, but the devil flowers refused to cooperate and fought back against the bees. For the bees that managed to make it through the barrage of whipping vines and crimson rash inducing powder, there was simply no pollen to be found on the flowers.

They were plants, yet at the same time, they weren't.

~~~~~

⠀

Several days had passed by and Styx stood in front of the festival stele in the heart of his dungeon. He had been attacked by a wave of monsters worth nearly 22,000 points every 6 hours on average.

They didn't care whether the defenders were tired, sleeping, or prepared, and would attack at any hour of the day or night.

There had even been a total of four Tortured Soul Devil Flowers that appeared during the raids, which created a very dangerous situation as monsters had souls too, and the resentful souls would tear their souls out and feast on them with little effort.

Styx had been forced to have his entire force retreat whenever one showed up and have Aura take care of it. The wolf-eared woman had eyes eyes glows violet and claw like nails leave behind trails of broken space in the air as she tore apart resentful souls and devil flowers alike with her bare hands in the blink of an eye.

Styx had now earned a total of 426,570 points, which he was saving until the final day to purchase the best items possible. He still spent a small number of points on some books of various topics.

These included mathematics, science, magic theory, magicraft, languages, and most recently, botany.

He had spent about 5,000 points in total for nearly 100 books. These would help him in creating school courses for Piri, the slaves, and any other children that followed. He already had course outlines, which they would start learning from as soon as the festival ended.

"What do you need?" Beatrice asked as she and Therina entered his study in the break between devil flower waves.

Styx shut the thick leather bound book in his hands.

"Did you know that the field of botany is incredibly large?"

Therina tilted her head, not understanding the point he was making.

"Yes?"

"Not just large, but impossibly large. I had restricted my knowledge to plants science could explain, but when magical phenomena is at play, the things plants can do, and how they survive, increase almost infinitely!"

Styx looked at the elf and dark elf who were still confused, so he cleared his throat and got to the point.

"I have been trying to raise these flowers under the assumption that they are normal plants. Water, soil nutrients, and mana to replace sunlight as an energy source. Without knowing what they eat, how do I know I am giving them the right food."

"What do they eat, then?"

"If I'm not mistaken, humans. Well, this technically extends to other exotic species such as elves and dwarves, even animals as well. It should be like this and they are carnivorous, but don't forget that the rules of magic are a factor in their existence."

"Should we feed them some of the humans, then?"

"Yes, as well as some animals. Aura is currently in the bed and ignoring me because I've told her that she can't eat any more of the humans for a while, lest she becomes addicted. I still can't understand why monsters prefer eating humans over any other meat in particular, but I suspect these plants are the same…"

The elves trailed behind Styx down to the prison, where all the prisoners were being well behaved. One of the better looking males was currently fawning over Vivy, who had promised to look after him while running her hands over his still growing beard.

"Is it time for some more prisoners to turn into experience points?" Vivy asked energetically as soon as Styx, Beatrice and Therina entered the prison.

All the prisoners quickly recoiled away from the group, cautiously looking around for the wolf-eared girl whom had become a source of nightmares for them.

"Not quite, but close. I need some food for the new plants, and I suspect their particular preference is human."

Beatrice held a ledger she had created, recording all the information on these adventurers, mercenaries, and several civilians whom had entered the Abyssal Forest seeking fortune. After Aura had subsequently instilled herself as their deepest nightmare, they had quickly become cooperative under Styx's promise of safety.

Safety in not being eaten alive, at least.

It was also the reason why Styx had refused her in eating more of them. He had plans for these humans, who would currently do anything to live.

"One of you is to come with us," Beatrice looked over the prisoners with a gaze void of sympathy. "Who will it be."

Naturally, nobody was willing to volunteer to die, but in the hope that it wouldn't be them, they quickly dragged the least popular prisoner forward and offered him to Styx. Even the women accused him of being a rapist in why he was the one to be sacrificed.

"Salvator," Beatrice noted as she cross referenced the prisoner with her list. "Do you have any final wishes?"

"I… I don't want to die…"

"Nobody does, but you will," Styx emotionlessly stated.

"I… I have a family… If I was gone, then they would…"

"Death will relieve you of that burden."

"They're not a… burden."

"Of course not, I am talking about the burden of the responsibility you have placed upon yourself."

"…Just… make it quick… please…"

Styx nodded his head, happy when others were cooperative. He didn't care how corrupt these humans were in their hearts, desperate to live even if it meant others would die.

Therina stepped forth and with a single, sharp thrust of manasteel, pierced his heart with a dagger. Death followed relatively quickly as life left his body.

On the way to where the devil flowers were forcefully planted, Beatrice glanced at the body being transported by gnomes and stated, "Styx, I have a question."

"Then ask it, why hesitate or make pointless statements."

Beatrice curtly nodded while blushing slightly.

"Were humans like this in your past life?"

"In what way?"

"Accepting of death in the final moments. I had expected them to fight with everything they could to live."

"Oh, that. Well, some do, but throughout human history, acceptance of death was almost a final rite. It was more common in the past during civilization's development phases. It was in fact common for a prisoner to give their executioner a gold coin to ensure a quick, painless death. Even in the modern day, once they have been trapped on the road to death and come to acceptance, it can be relatively the same."

"I see… They are utterly confusing sometimes, humans."

"All roads come to an end eventually, Beatrice. Including your own and mine."

"Does that frighten you?"

"I have already experienced death once, it is no longer frightening."

"…"

"Do not be so sombre, Beatrice, it is unlike you."

"Of course."

Therina snorted under her breath as she watched as Beatrice moved closer to Styx and silently grasped onto his hand.

'It is just a dead human,' She scornfully thought as she glanced at the corpse.

~~~~~

⠀

Styx had several gnomes cut the corpse into pieces and had Therina and Beatrice throw it into the devil flowers, which immediately became active.

Several other elves brought in corpses of various monsters and threw them into different spots.

Styx's hypothesis was correct, in which these plants were carnivorous. The attacked briefly, then dragged the meat back to them and consumed it.

Satiated and not currently under the influence of any aggression from the events, the plants became very quiet and stopped attacking anyone who went near them.

They also ate the monsters, but they ate far more before the quietened down.

"There is a qualitive difference, but thankfully they can eat monsters or animals too," Styx commented in relief. "I don't think I could sustain feeding them multiple humans every day."

The blood crystal bees then returned to the room and searched for pollen. Much to Styx's surprise, the devil flowers were now producing it, nor did they retaliate as the bees did their work.

"It looks like this counts as a success," Styx proudly stated while smiling at the elves.