Chapter 104: Chapter 104:The Center [3]

-*- (Back to first person)

Standing still for a moment upon witnessing the trail of smoke suddenly disappear, Albert rubbed his eyes before heading back to the center.

"..I might have to switch shifts with them earlier than expected if I'm already sleepy enough to be hallucinating things..."

On the other side of the cave, the lid of my copied device was already slowly emitting smoke again, causing a small stream of smoke to spread throughout the room.

Positioning the top of the device so that the smoke was as far away from the center of the cave as possible, I glanced at Lily, who was simply drawing on the floor.

"...do I have to make it more obvious?"

Why was she sitting on the floor and scribbling on the ground like some toddler in the MIDDLE of A MAJOR INCIDENT?

The queen was out there still restlessly fighting against demons while her son, daughter, and friends were playing TIC-TAC-TOE!

Well, it wasn't like they could do much against the hordes of demons... but still, shouldn't they at least pay attention to the spirit of the World Tree right in front of them?

Seeing Albert return to his original position in front of the spirit, I slowly amped up the smoke output.

At the same time, I moved to the shadows right next to the cave exit, with a hand on my hood, which contained my cat.

If I were to be caught before the tree appeared corrupted enough, I would have to deal with the entire main cast, Ruby and Albert, attacking me thinking I was an intruder... which, to be fair, I was.

Dying or being heavily injured was not particularly on my schedule today...

Seeing Albert start to scan my section of the cave, I once again dispersed the device before dashing over to another portion of the cave and re-manifesting it.

At this point, the smoke was grouping together and growing in size, making it easily visible if you stared at the wall for more than a second—but, alas, no one did. Searᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

This was a good thing as I could release more corruption into the surroundings without being noticed, but at the same time, there was a limit I couldn't pass.

I purposely sent all the smoke in the same direction so it would group as if I had just sent it around randomly; the smoke would spread through the entire cave, eventually hitting the spirit of the World Tree.

The problem was that if the group of smoke I was producing actually hit the World Tree, it would be immediately fully corrupted and in danger of dying.

Also, was Albert even willing to sacrifice his life for the World Tree's survival..? Well, he had done it in the original story, but what about now?

He hadn't developed any character that I knew of, so I assumed it was highly likely that he would agree.

If not, there were always alternative ways.

Well, you can't get any rewards without taking some risks, right...?

Holding the device steady in my hands and watching the smoke flow out, I glanced around the cave and saw Liam alongside Kevin with their backs on the wall, both clearly in a foul mood.

Completely oblivious to their surroundings, the black smoke accumulated and accumulated until there was just a gigantic cloud of black smoke in the corner of the cave, wavering above the floor.

Now, I just had to make it noticeable...but wasn't it already way too recognizable?

To be fair, there would be no reason for them to just randomly stare at the corner of the room, but what was I supposed to do?

Moving that cloud of smoke would be impossible as it would simply disperse and hit the spirit of the World Tree in the white fog, and if I yelled out, "OVER HERE GUYS!" I would be more screwed than the spirit of the World Tree...

Looking at Lily, who was still drawing on the cave floor with the tip of the branch, I surmised a plan.

The branch tip would eventually become too dull to make marks on the cave floor, so Lily would be forced to look for other branches.

And where will all the branches in the cave be?

Coincidentally, under a gigantic, suspicious cloud of smoke!

Were there easier ways to make them notice the cloud? Yes, but all of them would require someone else besides Lily to find out about the smoke first.

Lily needed to find out about the smoke so she could immediately take command and give the group the solution mentioned in the story.

If someone besides Lily found it, they could devise a different and unsuccessful plan before Lily could even say something, and in a rush, everyone would follow that plan.

And then there was also the chance that Albert, who was essentially the leader of the group right now, would choose another plan over Lily's, as Lily's plan meant he would die.

Even if Albert wanted to save the World Tree and his fellow elves, it was a natural instinct for him to want to survive.

It was something that he couldn't change as this instinct was deeply rooted in every single living body.

Given the choice between a plan that involves his death and one that does not, all sense of reason will go out the window, and Albert will obviously choose the one without his death.

If Lily had discovered the smoke first and had the chance to completely explain her plan, no one would suggest any alternatives, so Albert wouldn't have had a chance to escape anymore.

*CRACK*

Tensing my entire body, I saw the tip of the branch break, causing Lily to look around for another one.

Finding the group of branches I assembled near the cloud of smoke, Lily dusted her hands before getting up and walking over there.

As Lily stopped a couple of feet before the pile of branches and noticed the floating cloud of smoke, I dispersed the device and moved toward the white fog in the middle of the room that contained the spirit.

Using the shadow of the spirit's fog to conceal myself, I waited as Lily's lips slowly parted and... a sudden voice came from the cave's entrance.

"Albert, the device is stashed away, what d-"

Watching Alya take another step, Lily sprinted towards her and screamed.

"STOP NOW, ALYA, DON'T MOVE."

But it was too late.

The cloud of smoke I accumulated with my device scattered into thousands of particles as Alya stepped through the entrance, where the smoke was located.

Using my eyes, I immediately calculated the trajectory of each of the thousands of smoke particles.

A hundred.

A hundred particles of smoke were heading right into the fog.