178 The spirit’s circumstances! - Chapter 178
Everyone's eyes widened in shock at Aurora's declaration of wanting to give birth to my children.
Even I was a little confused about such words since not only was she from a different race but also, there was a significant difference in size.
"Eeeehh!!?? N-not a chance!!" Ichika moved between us as she hugged my arm between her chest.
"That's right, you can't simply use him just to mate." Akemi also added in slight anger.
"Since there are no males in this world, I simply used the energy within the tree to give birth to new spirits. But now that there is no energy, I thought that using a male would be a better way to give happiness to our homes."
"A-anyway, using Hatsuko for that kind of reason is a no!" Ichika shut her eyes in slight anger as she told this to Aurora.
"We're going to conquer the dungeon so there is no reason for you to do such things." There was a stiff atmosphere of pity and slight anger as Chloe said that.
"I gladly appreciate that, but if it doesn't offend your tastes, then I'm not against bearing his children." Aurora tried clearing the misunderstanding of using herself as a thing to bring joy to these people. "After all, I've taken a liking to this boy." A soft smile appeared on her face as her eyes gazed at me with thirst and a little excitement.
This time all of the girls glared at me in anger after hearing such words come out of the queen's mouth.
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It was becoming darker, and the queen offered us to stay the night somewhere near the spirit's houses.
And as the last sun's rays slowly faded away, the sky was brightened up by flying spirits that seemed restless as they were watching us from above.
The food in that realm was incredibly small and we couldn't manage to eat it properly. That's why Chloe and Shiro decided to head out of the realm, together with a spirit in order to gather some proper food for us.
Spirits can only eat fruits and vegetables, not because it's in their nature but because they do not have the right strength to fight monsters outside of their realm. That's another reason why they never left this place with the exception of some curious spirits.
From what I can see, this place was slowly becoming a more open place for monsters to attack.
I traveled far enough in this realm, and I could actually sense a few monsters wandering around in confusion and incredible hunger.
They must have gotten lost after entering this realm. Was my sole thought as I was looking around.
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The next day we were led to the so-called tree of life where we would figure out a way to turn it back to its top shape. While we think that conquering and defeating the dungeon's monsters will help the tree, we weren't sure if that was going to work.
"This is where we used to receive pure energy." The one to explain this was another spirit that led us the way here.
"This certainty is interesting."
"It's so massive"
Akemi and Chloe were impressed by the unbelievable size of the tree that was in front of us. Even the other girls were left speechless as they were looking at this abnormal thing.
If I had to say, this was the biggest tree I have ever seen. The tree itself was more than one kilometers tall and hundreds of meters thick in diameter.
And even though this tree has leaves and looks healthy~ "I can't feel anything from that tree…" It was almost as if the tree itself was already dead.
"...our tree has grown weaker and weaker from this kind of state… if this is going to continue, not only us spirits will die but also the land will collapse…" Even though that spirit was trying to kill her emotions and guide us, I could see pure sadness in her eyes, and her hand would sometimes twitch.
"By the way. Are you going to be okay coming with us?" Hina worriedly asked the spirit as we were getting closer to the tree.
"There is no problem. Even though I look like this, I'm actually the strongest spirit in here." She proudly said to us as she rested her hand over her chest.
"What about you? Based on your confidence, means that you tried conquering the dungeon?" Her eyes narrowed a little when I asked that question.
"Yeah, I did but I couldn't manage to kill my own sisters…" She clenched her own sword in anger after remembering what she went through.
"We're sorry to hear that…" Chloe apologized after seeing how that spirit was acting.
"No, there's no need for you to apologize. I blame my own weakness for not being strong enough…"
Things got quiet once again until we finally arrived at the roots of the tree. I already knew that the tree was massive but the roots sticking out of the ground were almost as big as two or more trucks over each other.
"This place is a bit creepy…" Ichika reacted as she got closer to me and held my arm for comfort.
But I couldn't say the same about the other girls since they were feeling jealous about Ichika suddenly getting close to me.
After a few more minutes we arrived at a dead end where more roots, dirt and mold were everywhere we laid our eyes.
"What's going on? The entrance of the dungeon was supposed to be here!" The spirit looked confused and a little scared by the fact there wasn't an entrance to the dungeon.
"Maybe we went the wrong way?" Chloe thought out loud as the spirit was flying all over the pace to find the entrance.
"N-No! I'm certain that it was here! This path was the only one that led near the tree!" The spirit explained in a hurry.
This is a different realm and physics might be different from our own, so maybe the dungen simply closed by itself or simply disappeared after absorbing all of the tree's energy. There's another possibility where the roots began growing insanely fast and hid the entrance of the dungeon.
"Maybe the roots grew to the point of covering the entrance?" Hina also wondered about one of the possibilities that I came up with.
"That makes sense. If a spirit tree noticed its energy being drained, then it's only a given that it would try to block any intruders from getting any closer. But since the problem lies inside the tree, blocking the path only made things much worse for us."
The spirit was left speechless for a few seconds from Akemi's explanation about the condition of this tree. She almost felt like everything was pointless and there wasn't anything that we could do. "W-what do we do? It's all over!"
Even the proud look she was trying to keep also disappeared from that spirit.
"What do you mean it's all over? If our path is blocked, then it's not surprising if we forced our way in with some fire."
I created some fireballs in order to burn down the roots blocking our way, but before I could even use my skill,-
""""NOOOO!!!!""""
-all of the girls freaked out and tried stopping me from doing anything rash.
"Don't destroy the roots of the tree!" The spirit freaked out and tried explaining her reason.
"Why?"
"Our tree provides life and food for us spirit, and in exchange we take care of it everyday. If we harm it in any way possible, its energy will probably be reduced. Besides, if you light the roots in flames, the tree will definitely burn up!" She told me her reason.
"I understand why she freaked out but.. Why did everyone else try to stop me?" I asked them since I was wondering about their sudden reaction.
"Your body is already rejecting your energy! So you shouldn't be using any of your powers!" Ichika told me.
But anyway…
There were a few problems with that spirit's explanation. Starting from the fact that this tree already doesn't produce any energy anymore and there's a literal dungeon in it. But based on her explanation, doesn't that mean that the tree wont make any pure energy anymore even after we conquer the dungeon?
"How are we supposed to complete the dungeon if we can't even enter it?" Chloe asked everyone as we were trying to think of another way to enter the dungeon,
And as everyone was trying to figure out a way to enter a dungeon, the twin sisters got closer and clung into my body.
"Is something wrong?" I asked them since they looked like they were eager to tell me something.
Then they tried pulling me somewhere as they were trying to show me something.
Somewhere not far from the rest of our group were many other roots that were blocking our way, but as they were pulling me from my clothes, I noticed a dark hole hidden by bushes and mold.
"Did you find something?" Chloe asked as everyone was curious to see what the sisters had found.
"Yeah, I think we found a way inside the dungeon." I couldn't help but smirk after seeing the entrance of the dungeon.
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