Chapter 61 - Lamppost

My head shook.

"I don't understand what you mean, but I will think about it."

Leon stood up.

"As you should."

Mark chuckled.

"Nothing he said is in essence wrong."

My legs stumbled up. Leon began walking towards another moving plant. The three of us followed behind him.

The ground beneath us was not excessively wet despite the rain. The ground did not give much, nor did water seep into my shoe after stepping on it.

How long ago was this place created? Years? Decades?

Does it always rain like this?

What type of magic could have possibly made a place rain for so long?

While my mind was distracting itself, we had already approached the moving plant.

This one was a little over a meter tall with many small red flowers around its stalk. It used two long thick roots to walk around and at the top was a large flower with a small eye in the middle.

Once Leon approached it, the plant's eye looked over, but turned back and continued hobbling around.

After a few moments, Leon stopped observing the plant. When Leon got close to the plant, it stopped moving and looked at Leon.

The petals of the flowers retracted slightly, then released.

Leon grasped the middle of the plant's stalk, causing it to twitch.

The plant struggled against Leon's grasp, desperately trying to get away. The petals were all trembling as its stalk was slowly being torn through.

Leon extracted another small blue bean and tossed it to me.

My hand hastily caught it.

The petals of the plant all retracted and it laid on the ground, still.

Leon turned to face Osric.

"Since you are carrying the gemstone, the rest of us will carry a plant's phylactery."

Osric paused, then nodded.

"Alright."

Mark's smile remained on his face.

"Haha, guess the next one is for me."

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"To hold."

Mark nodded.

As the rest of them continued, my eyes lingered on the dead plant.

It could not even recognize the danger it was in. It was simply wandering around, without realizing it was going to die in a few moments. It did not even fight back.

My eyes turned to the small blue bean in my hand. I tucked it away.

After blinking a few times, my steps caught up with the rest of the group.

They were approaching a plant that was three meters high. The plant had three leaves underneath it that retracted and extended as the plant moved around.

The stalk did not have any leaves but was wide. The top of the plant was a large green mouth. The head of the plant was similar to the traps of a venus flytrap, but there were rows of sharp teeth inside its mouth.

As it walked around, its mouth would hang open while oscillating up and down, as if it was chewing on something.

Once Leon approached the plant, its head turned over, teeth facing Leon. Leon simply stood there observing it for a few moments. The plant slowly approached Leon, and twisted its head around a few times as though it had eyes.

Once next to Leon, it closed its mouth and rubbed its head against Leon's arm. Every few moments it would look back up at Leon and tilt its head.

The design of this plant made me wonder.

Would it fight back?

It was understandable that the other plants could only try and run, as futile as it was. My only question is if this plant would use its teeth to try and attack Leon, even if it is hopeless.

Leon's hand abruptly plunged into the top of the plant's head. The plant pulled back, trying to get away. The three leaves under it were desperately pushing against the ground while its head attempted to retract itself from Leon's grasp.

However, Leon's grip was too strong for it, locking it in place.

The entire time the plant's mouth was closed. All it was trying to do was distance itself from Leon, not even opening its mouth to snap.

After a few more moments of struggle, the plant fell backward and Leon held another small blue bean in his hand.

Leon tossed it to Mark, which he caught.

Leon scanned the plain we were in one more time.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything more left for us here. We should go back."

Mark turned over the small blue bean in his hand a few times.

"Sure."

My eyes lingered on the plant's open jaw for a few moments then, the four of us made our way back to the start again.

Once we stepped into the hallway, the rainwater stopped pouring down on us.

The water that was on Leon somehow just fell off him, leaving him as dry as he was before.

As for Mark, after his hair and clothes whipped around for a few seconds, it was also dry.

Osric vibrated his body, and a mist of water surrounded his otherwise dry body.

The corner of my lip twitched.

...How do these guys have such cool ways of getting dry?

My mind cast a fire spell and my hand kept the fire near.

By the time we reached the place where the four paths branched off, my body was more or less dry.

Osric looked down the one path we hadn't explored.

"I suppose all that is left is this one."

The four of us walked down the only path we hadn't been on yet. The path seemed pretty normal at first, but the further we walked, the more cracks appeared on the stone below us, above us, and on the walls.

The cracks were small, like needles, making erratic black lines across the stone.

Were these cracks anything to be concerned about?

My eyes examined the other three. It seemed like they couldn't care less, so my mind dismissed the few worries in me.

There was a faint light ahead of us and my ears could barely make out the sound of the wind.

Soon, a wide expanse spread out in front of us. This room was as large as the plain, but also very bare. The walls were stone and lined with countless hair-thin cracks.

In the middle of the room was a tall black bar, standing tall. The base was thicker and seemed to have a minimal amount of decoration on it. At the top was a box of glass that looked like it had a black hat.

Within the box of glass was a pale blue light.

The room was lit up by the light, but it was very gentle and did not hurt the eye when directly looked at.

Within the room, there was a gale of wind circulating around the object in the middle. The sound of the wind vaguely resembled a wail. It was like someone was in pain but the sound was fleeting and blended in with the whistles of wind.

Mark was first to step in the room and reached his hand out, letting the wind blow by it.

"...This is quite fascinating."

Osric raised an eyebrow.

"How so?"

Mark's hand lightly rubbed against his chin.

"I can feel the cries of the wind..."

Mark froze in place.

"It's like a kid... crying because that's the only thing the kid can do."

Leon also stuck out his hand and felt the wind.

"Hmm... interesting."

Osric stepped into the room and simply closed his eyes.

Was it really possible to 'feel' something from the wind?

My foot stepped into the room and my hand reached out to the wind.

The wind would sometimes press into me and sometimes blow by wistfully. There wasn't any particular pattern and other than the sound of the wind, it didn't feel like 'crying'.

Leon began approaching the object in the middle. The three of us followed behind.

The wind got stronger but was still weak.

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Say, does the wind tell you anything else? Like, don't get closer to that thing in the middle?"

Mark shook his head.

"Not in particular, no."

Osric turned to look at Mark.

"What are you able to hear?"

Mark shrugged his shoulders.

"A kid throwing a temper tantrum."

Osric nodded.

My eyes looked towards the walls.

"Say, what do you think created all these cracks?"

Mark waved his hand dismissively.

"Chances are, it's from this kid throwing a temper tantrum."

Once we were halfway to the object in the room, the pale blue light began to flicker. Sometimes it would shine brightly and sometimes it would disappear altogether.

The winds were noticeably stronger and louder. At its worst, my clothes would be uncomfortably pressed against my skin.

The corner of my lip twitched.

"Uh, does the flashing mean anything?."

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"There does not seem to be any significant threat."

We got even closer. The wind no longer sounded like whistles, but the crying of a baby.

Right when we were right next to the object, the blue light brightened.

The light was blinding and filled the whole room.