The Tumbled Cabbage Encounter

Leaning on the handrail, Ash panted heavily as she stared up at the "Stairway to Heaven," having barely climbed halfway.

"Why is it still so hot even though it's already October…"

She took a few deep breaths to steady herself and was just about to raise her right hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead when a sharp rip sound reached her ears.

At the same moment, Ash felt the bag in her right hand suddenly lighten, as though it had lost most of its contents.

She quickly turned around to see what had happened, only to discover that the bag had been caught on a branch sticking out from a roadside bush.

The upward tug had torn a large hole in the bag.

On the staircase lay the meat she had just bought, and further down, her cabbage was rolling away toward the bottom.

With a silent sigh, Ash resigned herself to her misfortune and trudged back down the steps she had worked so hard to climb halfway.

"Why does my luck have to be so bad…" she muttered under her breath while squatting down on the grass beside the road to retrieve the cabbage that had come to a stop near the edge of the bushes.

At that moment, the clouds that were drifted across the sky, casting a broad shadow over the ground.

Ash reached out and placed her hand on the cabbage's tender green surface.

However, she didn't immediately pick it up.

Instead, she froze in that position, holding still as though afraid to move a muscle.

It wasn't that Ash didn't want to pick up the cabbage—she desperately wanted to.

But just as she touched it, something on the other side of the bushes had also made contact with the cabbage at the exact same moment.

The clouds overhead blocked the sunlight, and Ash couldn't make out what was lurking on the other side of the bushes.

For her safety's sake, she remained completely still, waiting to see what the other party would do next.

One thing she was certain of: whatever was in the bushes, it had to be a Spirit Beast.

A snake-like Spirit Beast?

Or something else entirely?

Ash stared at the cabbage, her gaze fixed on the two green antennae poking out from its surface.

Sweat trickled down her forehead, stinging her eyes.

She wasn't sure if the sweat was from the heat or from the tension.

A minute passed.

Ash didn't move.

Two minutes passed.

The Spirit Beast on the other side of the bush didn't move either.

Three minutes passed.

The clouds parted, and bright yet gentle sunlight filtered through the layers of leaves, illuminating the grassy ground.

Finally, Ash could see clearly what had been hiding in the shadows of the bush and vying with her for ownership of the cabbage.

It was… a caterpillar?

No, to be precise, it was a Larvavine, a Green Caterpillar Spirit Beast that was curled up to about the size of a basketball.