Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 012
Chapter Title: Between Romance and Performance
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A suffocating silence stretched on.
Regen was facing a scene straight out of the game.
Manannan was stunned by a flower of a scale he'd never seen before in his life.
"...What kind of flower grows this huge? Is that thing connected to the entire forest?"
Up, down, left, right.
The roots from everywhere in this place were linked to the Rafflesia.
Even the roots from where Regen and Manannan had walked from.
"I read in a book that after the Rafflesia first appeared, it shot roots all over the place. Enough to cover the entire underground of the forest."
"So it's connected to everything that makes up the forest?"
"Yeah. Honestly, it's more like a parasite than the heart of the forest."
It was a vicious bastard.
The Rafflesia was set up to suck up all the energy in the forest to maintain that massive flower shape.
"The plants on the surface we saw? It drains their energy and transfers it here so it can feed itself."
"No wonder the upper levels felt so barren. All the nutrients were coming here."
"Right. And through those roots, it sends out mandragoras to the surface. To keep things from coming down here."
"That makes sense. That world tree the elves tend to so carefully... or whatever."
"There are some similarities."
Manannan tilted his head and asked.
"But doesn't this thing have any consciousness? The mandragoras had some."
"I've heard it doesn't. The mandragoras aren't fully conscious either... more like a primary defense mechanism."
"So this guy doesn't attack?"
"Nope. It's just a giant plant. Well, it does have a secondary defense."
Regen smiled and strode toward the Rafflesia.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"If you've found treasure, you gotta grab it. I'm off to fetch that flower."
"You can take something that huge?"
"You'll see."
Whoosh.
Regen arrived in front of the Rafflesia and cautiously placed his hand on it.
'I do need to claim the reward.'
This thing had thorough defenses.
"Urk...!"
It was instantaneous.
The moment he touched the flower, intense pain shot through his entire body.
It felt like every cell in his body was screaming.
Regen knew right away what this was.
'...Poisoned!'
Pssshhhh!
The moment Regen touched it, green smoke began spewing from the hole in the center of the Rafflesia's petals.
Manannan, who inhaled the green smoke that instantly filled the surroundings, clutched his head and collapsed.
If this were a game, messages like these would pop up, no doubt.
【Exposed to poison! Poisoned status inflicted!】
【HP continuously decreases!】
He could recite them word for word.
...Not like he'd only been hit by the Rafflesia once or twice.
The Rafflesia's second defense mechanism: spewing deadly poison.
"...Urgh!"
He turned around immediately, and there was Manannan writhing in pain on the ground.
Regen struggled to keep his wits and rubbed his bracelet.
It was time to pull out the one nicely stored in his Infinite Inventory.
The golden pulp they'd luckily found together with Manannan: Dawn's Apple.
'No antidote this good below the 10th floor.'
That's why it's called a floor-limited Tier 1 antidote.
Crunch!
Regen didn't hesitate to bite into it.
* * *
Crunch!!
The texture was no different from a regular apple.
The taste wasn't much different either.
Hummm—!
At the same time, a golden aura began swirling around his body.
The unique ability of the golden apple was kicking in properly.
And with it, Regen's pain slowly faded.
'As expected of a Tier 1 antidote.'
In DAT, buffs and debuffs were divided into stages.
Actually, all skills were tiered by stages.
It was convenient to think of it as effective up to certain floors based on the tower's levels.
Floors 1 to 4: Stage 1.
Floors 4 to 9: Stage 2.
And so on, depending on up to which floor the magic or skill worked.
'This apple... can reliably neutralize up to Stage 3.'
The poison from the Rafflesia was a Stage 2 debuff.
A bit high for something you'd take on Floor 1, but.
Luckily, it was detoxifiable with their golden apple.
'Normally, you'd have to wander the entire first floor all day to find one.'
They'd gotten lucky.
Thanks to Manannan spotting it quickly, no time wasted.
And they'd grabbed plenty too.
'To be cold about it, even without Dawn's Apple, I wouldn't have died. It's not that lethal.'
If he hadn't found the apple?
He'd have just tanked it with his body.
...It would hurt like hell, though.
A Stage 2 poisoning wasn't instant death, even at its worst.
Though Stage 4 or 5 would be life-or-death, Stage 2 seemed survivable.
Of course, this was judged from watching characters' HP bars, not personal experience.
'...Never touch Stage 3 or higher poison. It's nothing like watching in a game. Felt like my body was ripping apart.'
"Manannan, take this and stay back for a bit."
"Cough! Urk...."
"It's not lethal. Eat the apple and stay out of the poison range; it'll get better slowly."
"Ugh... Th-thanks."
Regen handed Manannan a Dawn's Apple, supported him, and moved him to a spot as far from the poison as possible.
Manannan, out of it, lay down without even realizing what he'd received.
"Alright, now then...."
Time to farm the Rafflesia.
Honestly, unlike his initial worries, his mind was clear.
Even in the game, characters' farming efficiency dropped under poison.
'Used to complain about pointless realism in weird places, but now that I've felt it, I get it.'
Trying to farm while enduring the pain Regen had just felt? No wonder they'd drop stuff or grab the wrong things.
Thanks to Dawn's Apple, his mind was sharp. Regen raised his hand to farm properly.
Swish.
Regen's hand reached toward the bud.
The spot where the Rafflesia's roots held the subtly absorbed energy.
What he was after was the concave bud containing both pistil and stamen.
'Normally, you'd blow the core and wait for the Rafflesia to shut down, then farm the leaves.'
Regen recalled the sequence he'd repeated countless times in the game.
He paused.
His hand stopped for a moment.
'But... doing that withers them.'
It wouldn't be in perfect condition.
It was always a dilemma in DAT.
To get the leaves, you had to remove the core, but that made them wilt and lose potency.
Sure, even wilted, the leaves could be used for high-grade potion materials, and their rarity made them valuable.
But that was at reduced effectiveness, not 100%.
When you actually farmed the item, the name would be like this.
【Wilted Leaves of the Rafflesia.】
Disappointing.
No, extremely disappointing.
'It's a key material for top-tier scrolls... wasting it on a one-use thing is too much.'
You couldn't swing by here every time materials ran out.
In the game, he'd farm with time to spare. But what if he could save that time?
'Couldn't figure it out in the game.'
How to farm these leaves in top condition.
He'd solved everything else somehow, but the Rafflesia stumped him even after clearing the game.
It always nagged at him. A section he'd compromised on.
...But he'd never given up.
"Wait."
Regen's mind heated up. Countless possibilities and thoughts flashed through, one by one, until the end.
"Infinite... Inventory."
His heart started pounding.
This wasn't game play anymore...!?
'What if I put the whole thing in my inventory?'
Taking it without leaving anything behind was obvious.
"If I could store it in this state...?"
He might even need to revise scroll crafting recipes.
He could make scrolls beyond top-tier...!
In simple terms, it meant rewriting the rules he'd established as a spellcrafter.
'Ketchup Thief, open wide.'
Not sure if something this huge would fit.
But it was still one item, right? Consumable.
...Worth a shot.
The Rafflesia.
The Rafflesia, core intact.
"...Let's try putting the whole damn thing in."
Regen opened his inventory, manipulated the rift, and pressed it against the Rafflesia.
Crack!!
A black rift truly opened like a gaping mouth in front of Regen.
* * *
"Urk."
Meanwhile, Manannan had retreated to a poison-free spot.
From there, unable to see Regen, he collapsed and chewed on the apple.
Crunch! Crunch!
The taste wasn't much different from last time, but poisoned as he was, it brought some indescribable freshness.
The moment the apple went down his throat, golden light seeped into Manannan's body.
"...Whew! Thought I was a goner."
Manannan, revived.
He replayed the recent events in his mind, and a hollow smile escaped him at the brush with death.
His foggy mind was clearing.
He finally got why Regen had called this golden apple a great find, pure luck.
"Ah!"
Snapping to, Manannan shot up.
Remembering Regen near the Rafflesia, he rushed over.
"What the hell is that Regen guy doing...."
Flash!
That was when it happened.
A brilliant white light poured from where Regen stood.
"Hey, Regen!"
"......"
"Hey, you okay? Say something!"
The light slowly faded.
Manannan saw Regen staring blankly at where the Rafflesia had been.
"Hey!"
"...Haha."
"W-what? Did the poison mess up your head or something...."
Manannan was worried.
Had the poison caused issues?
As Manannan fumbled to hand over the remaining apple to Regen in a panic.
Drip.
A tear flowed from one of Regen's eyes.
Seeing it, Manannan panicked.
"Hey, why are you suddenly crying...? More importantly, where'd the Rafflesia go?!"
Manannan alternated between the vanished Rafflesia and Regen, his jaw dropping.
"No way... Did you burn the whole Rafflesia too?! What the hell did you do to make it like this?"
"...Huh?"
"You said everything's connected by roots? So it all burned up? What happened? You didn't start a fire, did you?"
"......"
Only then did Regen realize Manannan had badly misunderstood.
Sorry, but.
'No way it'd actually fit whole...!'
It wasn't tears of sorrow, but of emotion.
* * *
Regen had successfully stored the entire Rafflesia in his inventory.
No more wasting time visiting here whenever materials ran low.
No more suffering poison every time.
Above all, he could use the Rafflesia whenever he wanted!
All the pain from waiting days to enter, enduring eardrum assaults and poison terror—it was all rewarded in this moment.
...Though he couldn't tell Manannan the full truth.
"...Yeah. It vanished because of my mistake."
"...Your mistake burned it all away?"
"The poison seemed endless, so I got rid of it. The whole thing's gone."
"Damn. Well, yeah. We nearly died. But now what? We came all this way for the Rafflesia."
Manannan eyed the empty space regretfully.
Honestly, he felt a bit cheated. All that effort for nothing!
Before that small grievance could grow.
"It's fine. We didn't leave empty-handed."
"Huh?"
Regen gazed at the spot where the Rafflesia had cleanly vanished and continued.
"We gained the experience of failure."
"...!!"
The famous quote from genius inventor Thomas Edison.
I have not failed.
I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Same here.
Even if it was a lie now, in the game, Regen had gone through countless trials and errors.
Burned the petals, died to poison, even failed to reach the Rafflesia spot.
But all those failures piled up into one success.
"We've finally walked one of the many paths Master tread... properly."
"...!!"
"Master said it too, right? Don't fear failure. The path of the mage we're on is built on the failures of our predecessors."
Manannan hadn't even voiced his discontent yet.
"...You're right."
A genius at persuasion.
Post a comment, and he'd make you concede—Edison of the forums.
Regen's words nipped Manannan's budding complaint in the bud.
'...Did Manannan actually buy it?'
Regen glanced just in case, and the guy nodded like he fully got it.
"...Yeah. Even just grabbing more mana stones and corpses on the way out covers lodging for months. Mandragoras are a shame, but we know the spawn conditions now. We can come back."
As if he'd come back.
Graduated from this place now.
Regen secretly rubbed the Ketchup Thief.
"And the stories from here... people will love them."
"What?"
"They'll help with that fame you want."
Regen shrugged.
Manannan was someone who'd started conquering toward the title of Grand Mage.
He had that much thirst for honor.
'Conquering the red portal is plenty for reputation points.'
He couldn't see the system window, but Regen could hear it.
"Can't you hear your reputation points going up?"
Next conquest, he'd gather materials easily. Regen's lips curved up slightly.