Chapter 8 - The Strange Flowerpot (8)
Elves, the World Tree, mana beasts, and more. I had no idea what was really going on inside that flowerpot, so as a mere bystander, I could only judge by what I saw on the surface.
That's why I'd tried my best to ignore it all up until now. Whatever backstory she had, why any of this was happening in my flowerpot—it didn't matter. There was nothing I could do about it anyway, so I'd shoved all those complications aside and just accepted the reality as it was.
She'd migrated here and was building a new home for herself, while I helped and watched over her. That was our relationship. It was a shame we couldn't communicate directly, but whenever she looked up at me—though I must have been invisible to her—and smiled, I figured that was enough.
After all, we were different beings. We lived in different worlds, different species. But the constantly changing environment around her kept shaking that fragile dynamic.
It brought her life-or-death trials and gifted me nothing but tedious, horrifying questions and mounting anxiety—a cruel reality. And it was the same now.
I could only watch helplessly as she gritted her teeth and bravely faced her enemies.
The one thing I could tell was that those monstrous ants were hostile to the bonsai pot—the World Tree—which held immense influence in this flowerpot.
That enmity wasn't some casual hunt for food. The reason they'd burst from their tunnel and attacked was tied to the World Tree's growth—there had to be a connection.
She cherished the World Tree deeply, so she and those ants could never coexist.
The regular ants seem fine, though.
She set down her compound bow and picked up her regular one, firing wooden arrows at the other ants near the mana beast ant, which boasted a massive bulk and grotesque form.
These weren't ordinary wooden arrows. They glowed with a deeper blue hue than before, piercing the ants' bodies in a single shot and killing them instantly.
But the mana beast ant—the one that had once terrified her into fleeing—was different. Its sturdy carapace easily deflected the wooden arrows.
As if she'd expected as much, she switched back to the compound bow. Now it was one-on-one.
Elf's Prayer - Prayer for Victory
Just before the real battle with the mana beast ant began, she offered a brief prayer to the World Tree—and that prayer reached me too.
The World Tree Hostiles the Mana Beast
As if responding to her prayer in kind, the World Tree began attempting something.
I could clearly see it with my own eyes. As the World Tree—now Lv 2—faintly lit the pattern engraved on its trunk with its will, something glowed on the back of her right hand, the one gripping the arrow.
"----!"
The arrow she loosed from the compound bow sliced through the air in an instant, slamming into the mana beast ant's impossibly hard head carapace with a thunk.
Cracks spiderwebbed across it, fluids oozing out, but the monster ant ignored the wound as if it were nothing and charged straight into the earthen rampart where she'd been standing.
My body flinched involuntarily. Despite its height matching her rampart, the ant shattered the wooden palisade and crumbled the piled-earth wall in one go. She leaped from the collapsing ground, flipping through the air and landing safely.
If she keeps shooting...
The ant still looked fine, but maybe she could win. If she kept evading like this and firing arrows.
"---."
As if reading my mind, she raised her bow again, frowning as she stood tall and taunted the ant directly.
The mana beast ant, with no reason to ignore the provocation, clacked its razor-sharp mandibles as if vowing to tear her apart in one bite, then charged ferociously once more.
Not again?
She embedded another arrow in the ant's head as it flailed its front legs to block, then dashed forward again. Aiming not for its armored head but its softer underbelly.
The ant's thick front leg swung to swat her as she passed, but she rolled across the ground, dodging cleanly. At the same time, she aimed her loaded arrow at its belly.
Its massive bulk made it sluggish; it couldn't turn properly in time. In the end, her arrow—trailing a faint beam of light—buried itself deep in the ant's abdomen.
"Got... got it?"
I watched wide-eyed as the arrow pierced its belly, spraying fluids from the wound. The mana beast ant convulsed wildly—clearly a fatal hit. After days of pressuring us, this colossal monster was finally falling to her hand.
"Uh."
"--?!"
But in that instant...
The ant, which should have staggered and collapsed, suddenly lurched its legs and charged blindly forward.
My mind blanked. Ignoring her entirely, it barreled toward the spot where the bonsai—the World Tree—stood.
"---!!!"
She chased after the stumbling mana beast ant in horror, firing arrows wildly. But even as arrows pierced its body and its guts spilled out, the mad monster ignored everything and raced toward the tree.
As if wounding that tree was its duty and mission, regardless of its own death.
"No."
I sighed blankly. Larger and faster than her, the mana beast ant had already reached the tree. It spread its sharp, sturdy mandibles wide and clamped them onto the trunk.
She had one shot left. If that fully drawn arrow didn't drop it now, the mana beast ant would achieve its goal.
The World Tree Has Been Corrupted by Demonic Energy
The moment her arrow crossed the air and struck the ant's rear skull, the mana beast ant succeeded in biting into the bark and inflicting a wound.
"Ah..."
In that split second, time seemed to slow just a bit. To my eyes, it was barely a scratch—not even visible. But to someone, it was a gut-wrenching fatal blow.
Her bow slipped from her grasp as she stood there, blood draining from her face, staring blankly at the ant slowly collapsing.
Its breath nearly gone, the ant merely twitched on the ground, devoid of any strength left to live.
Was the ant satisfied with this? Trading its life to attack the tree?
"...--"
In the end, she shed tears. Grinding her teeth through them, she drew a steel pipe and charged at the still-breathing ant, hacking at it furiously.
Her rage was plain to see. She tumbled across the dirt after hitting one of its flailing front legs, but she got back up and finally crushed the mana beast ant's windpipe with her bare hands.
Who the hell are you?
As she fell from the ant's leg strike, her torn clothes revealed her back—previously hidden—which was now fully exposed.
I hadn't meant to look, but once I saw it, I couldn't look away. Her pristine white back was covered in hideous scars, as if someone had carved them deliberately to erase some inscription.
No matter how hard I tried to ignore it or feign disinterest, she kept showing me things like this—it was impossible not to care.
The Still Young World Tree Needs Help to Suppress the Contamination
"What the hell do you want me to do about it?"
Pure Mana Can Suppress the Demonic Energy
In the midst of it all, the flowerpot was directly demanding something from me. It was phrased as an explanation, but it was a demand all the same.
Pure mana. I didn't even know what mana was. Mana power... maybe that rang a bell.
"..."
Leaving her collapsed and sobbing, I stood up. Then I grabbed my phone.
To get what I wanted, I had to contact someone I'd sworn never to call again.
"What's up? Thought you'd cut ties after quitting the game."
"Emergency. Need a vial of purified mana power."
"You nuts? You think I'm your warehouse?"
The guy on the other end was prickly as expected, but since I had something to gain now, I didn't hang up.
"No clue why you'd need it. You're out of the biz now."
"Just testing something out."
"I'll charge you full price."
He grumbled but ultimately approved my request. I'd figured as much. He might even be more sentimental than me.
"If it's urgent, come tonight."
"On my way now."
No reason to waste time. I grabbed my jacket and headed out.
"This was meant for my kids tomorrow anyway."
"You sure it's okay to give—or sell—this?"
"One vial won't even register. What're you gonna do with just that anyway? Nothing."
"Looks like it'll be enough for now."
A tiny vial the size of my fingers, pinched between thumb and index. It held a small amount of sloshing liquid—mana power extracted from mana stones and diluted into liquid form.
Inject it into your veins bit by bit, and it steadily boosted your mana capacity. Deadly side effects like addiction and backlash made it borderline illegal, but anyone desperate to grow stronger had no choice but to use it.
"Not coming back to the life?"
"Nah. Barely graduated college as it is."
The man selling me this hadn't stopped grumbling. A sturdy-built middle-aged guy named Kim Dong-chun. He'd been my colleague once, but that was years ago now.