Starting from Zero

Chapter 36

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Book 3, Chapter 36
The Garden of Life

The forest is not as thick as I expected. Andthe trees are mostly fruit trees, instead of those lush vegetations in theLost Woods.

They got taller as I walked deeper inside.

Ah, bingo. That should be the maze. I saw the mazementioned in the post. It"s completely constructed out of plants. This is thefirst time I see such walls completely made of plants and thick vines.

The wall in frontof me got no entrance to it, so I picked a direction and walked along it. Thereshould be a single entrance somewhere.

There it is. An opening in the vines.When I entered the maze I noticed it even got a roof over it. Looks like flyingis not an option.

I walked in the maze for a while without running intoanything. Not a single monster. After about another 100 meters, I saw a forkahead.

Yup, a minotaur, carrying a magic wand, is standing in front of it. Itwalked towards me when I got near.

"Young pursuer of knowledge. Tell me, whatis the meaning to live?"

Pfff. Is that supposed to be a question? The meaning tolive? Those philosophers have been working on it for centuries!

    "You have 30seconds left." It urged me.

    "There is no meaning to live. I live because I am,no reason in it. Being alive is the meaning itself."

    "Good. Goahead." It moved out of the way.

    I actually pa.s.sed? I made that one up you know.

After some moreexploring, I found that the maze is bigger than I expected. There are so manydead ends! I finally reached another "minotaur fork" after going backand forth for G.o.d knows how long. Yeah I just need to look out for these guysfor the correct paths.

The question is more absurd this time. He wants to knowwhat"s the nature of magic. How should I know?? There"s no fcking magic in myworld.

    "I don"t know!"

    The minotaur moved aside. "I was testing yourhonesty. You pa.s.sed."

    "...Thanks?"

I continued to scout for the signs ofthese ox-head creatures. If I didn"t find one after pa.s.sing two turns, I just go backand choose another path.

It"s almost high noon when I finally got out the maze. Ianswered about fifty questions of all sorts. Ugh, my head hurts.

But the scenery infront of me instantly lifted my mood. I must be dreaming! I never witnessedsuch a place in any tourism advertis.e.m.e.nts. The river is almost transparent, theleaves are shining green, the flowers and the b.u.t.terflies among them look likerainbows!

Wait. This is when that player said he got killed. It"s not time for sightseeing.

I cast a magic barrier. I don"t think anything"s going to kill me inone shot with my full protection on.

I stepped ahead for a bit. Nothing"s coming up.

I beganto wonder if the author was just bluffing, because he doesn"t want other peopleto come here and share whatever treasure he found. Then I dropped the idea. Hewouldn"t post the thread in the first place if that"s the case.

When I"mconsidering my options, the ground below began to shift. Bong! I was knockedflying like a baseball!

I spread my blade wings and looked around. Who did that?!

"Arrrgh!"

A falling rock landed right on myback and smashed me to the ground. That must look really embarra.s.sing.

When I"m trying to get up, the dirt cracked open, and agreen snake rushed out and wrapped itself around one of my legs. I quickly cutthe snake with my claw blades, then took off the remaining corpse tangling onmy leg.

Wait, it"s not a snake, just a tree vine.

"Ahhhh---"

Another vine came from my backand sent me flying. Then four more of them completely locked up my limbs. Oh come on,how do I fight something like this?

Before I can struggle, some more vineswrapped up my body like a mummy!

"Help me out!!"

I summoned my entire team. ThePhantom Knights skillfully cut down all the vines, freeing me. While Luckygrabbed one of the vines in his maw and pulled on it. His strength is no joke, thevine was pulled out of the ground. Loong"er breathed something at the vine andshouted: "Petrify!"

We completely dragged the entire thing away from theground, only to find it"s just a piece of broken root or something. Whatever it"sconnected to must have abandoned it.

Can"t be careless anymore. I asked theknights to stay in a circle around me and watch out for any more ambushes.

    Phiona and Loong"er scouted the area in the air. Wenoticed that there is an arc shaped barrier above the place, completelyisolating it from the outside. So even if I managed to bypa.s.s the maze by air, Iwouldn"t get in.

     "Lucky, watchour six."

   We carefully marched for some distance. I thought it"s over when avine broke the ground open right beneath me. We"re prepared this time. NightShade dodged the attack with a swift hop-away. None of the other a.s.saults succeeded. ThePhantom Knights are too strong to get caught by some petty vegetables, while Lucky would usually just drag the vines out instead of getting trapped.

    I was hoping that Phiona and Loong"er can provide someair support, but it appears our enemy would just hide underground so they won"thelp much.

A vine managed to catch one of Phiona"s claws. She only had time tolet out a short cry before she was dragged into the ground! I jumped down fromNight Shade and searched for her. That shouldn"t be enough to kill her.

The vine soon came up again, with some blue flamesburning on it. Then more of them showed up. Every hole they opened on thesurface is now giving out fire beams like a flamethrower. Wow. Phiona reallydid it. She set fires under our feet and forced these things out.

The ground is shaking more and more violently. A giantbulge appeared not far from us, and a green round bud-like object emerged from it, withPhiona standing on its head. The thing got no legs but it somehow rushed into anearby pool with extreme speed.

Fzzzzt!

That"s a lot of steam. Looks like it really got "heatedup".

Phiona seems still angry at getting dragged down. Shethrew a fire wave and burned the pool empty to the bottom.

The green bud isstill running around trying to find water!

    "Phantom, can you talk to it?"

    "Sure!" Phantom is able to communicate withanything with a mind.

    "What is this thing?"

Phantom pausedfor a bit. "He says he is a monster, level 600, the Flower Creeper."

    I took out the "almond" I obtained from thetrading center. "Ask if he knows this thing."

"It"s acreeper seed."

    "What is it used for?"

"FlowerCreepers are a special species. They turn into seeds instead of eggs whencaptured. You can plant the seed near the Fountain of Life and water it usingthe water there, it will grow into a Creeper like him. But it will need toabsorb fresh blood for it to become something that can move around freely. Howstrong it becomes depends on the amount and quality of blood."

    "That"s it? Then why is this one...so weak?"

    "He says he"s just a wild monster who happened toabsorb some random pa.s.sing-by monsters. That"s all he can get."

"Where isthe Fountain of Life?"

    "He doesn"t know how to direct us but he can leadus there."

"Let"s do it then. Tellhim to lead the way."

    We followed the bud for quite a long way before wereached a vacant area among the woods. This time all my team was attracted bythe view. A tall rock sits in the middle of a small pond, with a tiny spring stream flowing out of it. A miniature rainbow is giving out a bright color above the pond, catchingeveryone"s eyes. There mere sight of this is worth the whole effort!

    Phantom dragged me back into reality. "The creeperasks if he can leave now."

"Let him go."

    The "bud" quickly dug a hole and vanished. Itmust be really terrified of Phiona.

I took out the rotten heart of that old man.So I just need to wash it clean here right? Seems easy enough. I crouched beside the pond and prepared to wash.

"Don"t--"

That"s a woman"s voice. Gentle, but obviously scared for some reason. It didn"tstop me in time though, I already put my hands and the heart into the water!

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