Chapter 59 - Strange Plants

Osric was staring at the paper.

"This journal says that there is some gathering gemstone? Where would this gemstone be?"

My finger scratched the side of my head.

"Well, it said it came out of the pedestals, so probably underneath?"

The four of us walked towards the pedestals.

Both of my hands wrapped around an arbitrary pedestal and pulled.

The pedestal was affixed to the ground, but it was still not too difficult to lift it up.

Cracks appeared on the pedestal as it was lifted up. After throwing it to the side, my eyes inspected what was underneath the pedestal.

There was a translucent stone. It appeared similar to a pipe, probably carrying mana.

My finger poked at the translucent stone, which felt glossy. As for any mana currents, there were none that my mind caught onto.

Was it not active?

My hand scratched the back of my hand.

"I don't feel any mana coming from this tube thing."

Leon reached out his hand to touch another pedestal and used his other hand to rub against his chin.

"There appears to be mana circulating inside of this pedestal, but as for how to draw it out, is a mystery."

Mark walked over to Leon and put his hand on the pedestal as well.

"We appear to be missing something."

My finger scratched the side of my head as my eyes followed the general path of the translucent rock.

"The gemstone appears to be in the middle of the pedestals, maybe we should just retrieve it."

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"If this gemstone is only usable with extra baggage it is not worth my time."

My steps took me to where the gemstone seemed to be. My hands clenched together and were raised above my head.

"Wait."

Osric's face twitched as he stopped me.

"What if the gemstone is fragile? You may break it."

Mark chuckled.

"If that is the case it may as well be broken."

The corner of Osric's lip twitched but he did not say anything.

Taking the silence as agreement, my hands slammed down into the floor. Cracks rippled across the floor and shattered tiles flew in the air.

A small hole was made, but there was nothing but grey stone underneath me. My hands raised again and with a grunt, they were swung down.

A slam echoed in the room and the cracks spread further.

Underneath me was the top of a buried gemstone. The size of the gemstone was hard to tell from just the peak, but it was not small.

My hand touched it, noticing currents of mana flowing inside of it. The mana just outside was very thin, I guess this thing draws in mana. My mind attempted to draw out mana, but it remained locked inside.

"I found the gemstone, but I can't draw any mana from it."

Mark shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I suppose we can get it out for now."

Mark flicked his wrist, making the gemstone burst out of the ground. My hands blocked the stone fragments from hitting my face.

The gemstone laid on the ground. Its diameter was about one meter and had a dark blue tint.

Osric cleared his throat.

"How do we determine who acquires the gemstone?"

Leon shrugged.

"We can see what else we get from this place then divide it."

Osric walked over to the gemstone.

"Alright, I will carry it for now."

Osric picked up the gemstone, put it on his shoulder, and balanced it with one hand.

Mark rolled his eyes and walked back down the pathway, as we couldn't travel any deeper than this.

The rest of us followed behind and slowly made our way back to where the four paths split apart.

Mark looked down the path to the right of the one we just went down.

"Let's continue, shall we?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, why not?"

My mind casted the fire spell and followed behind Mark.

The path stretched on for quite a while, which made thoughts of just turning back appear.

Yet, before my thoughts could be voiced, there was a faint light in the distance. We got closer and heard the sound of rain.

My mind canceled the fire spell as the light from it was basically redundant.

A grassland appeared before us, which was mostly sparse except for a few large plants here and there.

There was both rain and light coming from above, but no clouds or apparent sun. The only thing above was a stone ceiling, yet the rain and light poured down, unconcerned about how little it made sense.

The grass reached our knees and filled the entire plain. There were three plants living in this strange terrain, aimlessly wandering around.

One of them was nearly our height and appeared similar to a tree. The only difference was that it walked with its roots and had a large eye in the middle of its trunk that blinked now and then.

This plant was nearest to us. While the rest of us stopped, Leon leisurely walked forward. After the three of us looked at each other, we followed Leon and got drenched in the rain with him.

Leon approached the tree and simply looked at it when he was half a meter away. The tree stopped when Leon got close to him, its eye looked curiously at Leon, blinking a couple of times.

The tree tilted to the side and slowly approached Leon. Every few steps... well, root movements, the tree would stop and tilt the other way.

Leon's expression did not change, he had a hand on his chin and was examining the plant.

Once the plant was right next to Leon, one of its roots slowly raised and lightly poked Leon's leg. The tree tilted to the side again, seemingly looking for a reaction.

This tree... seems kinda innocent, but also sends shivers down my spine whenever I focus on its eye.

Osric's eyelid twitched.

"...Is this the result of the work of that Noah character?"

Mark hummed lightly.

"The chances are high. This is quite the wonder, seeing a tree walking around and exploring the world like a newborn child."

Leon turned to face us while the tree was poking at his legs.

"There is a strong lifeforce coming from within the tree. I believe there is something similar to a phylactery that resides within them that contains this tremendous amount of lifeforce."

My eyebrow raised.

"What is lifeforce?"

Leon pushed aside a root that was reaching to touch his belly.

"Lifeforce is in essence, vitality. For the most part, objects dense in lifeforce will heal the body. Another common, but rarer version is one that also increases one's physique. From there, many special modifications can be made, such as stronger tendons, or tougher bones. For example, the fruits you have with you do all that while improving the mind with the added effect of spatial awareness."

Osric was blinking rapidly and intermittently. My hand scratched the back of my head.

"So the way this guy made the plants walk around was still quite similar to the way he used the uh... bean sized ball."

Leon nodded and turned back towards the plant.

The plant seemed to have satisfied its curiosity and was beginning to turn back. However, before it fully turned Leon grabbed it and turned it back to face him.

The plant did not resist and simply stared at Leon curiously.

Leon lifted his other hand casually.

Then he plunged it into the plant's eye.

The plant was mostly silent but was desperately trying to pull itself out of Leon's grasp. The roots were all pushing backward in an attempt to distance themselves from Leon, but its struggle hardly mattered.

Leon soon pulled out a small blue bean, and the plant's movements gradually stopped, falling over in the ground.

Leon's expression was still neutral as if what he did was perfectly normal.

Mark kept his traditional smile and did not say anything.

As for Osric, his eyelid twitched, but he remained silent.

My breathing was a little unsteady.

"Why... did you just kill it?"

Leon raised an eyebrow and raised the small blue bean for me to see.

"Did you not hear my explanation of lifeforce? This right here has various beneficial effects on the body, why wouldn't I take it?"

My mouth slowly forced out the words.

"But... it was a living thing that was just... minding its own business."

Leon looked me dead in the eye.

"So where does the food you eat come from? Are they not living things simply trying to live their lives? You can so easily eat those, no?"

My hand was on my forehead.

"But... that could've been a person. The guy mentioned that he would try to put a human soul in a plant, remember?"

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"So what?"

The corner of my lip twitched.

"You... killed an innocent person."

Leon shook his head.

"And what makes you sure that person is innocent? Perhaps innocent in your eyes and evil in another's. The idea of good and evil has always been ambiguous."

....My head hurt.