Little Gardeners

"Little elves, do you still have anything you want to bring along? We will head home soon!" Xia Chengfeng asked.

"We want to bring back many seeds.

"Seeds? Send me a unit…" Xia Chengfeng said out of instinct, but immediately changed his sentence, "That's right, you can bring the plant buds here back to the territory to nurture."

"Alright, big brother!" Without further ado, the three elves got busy.

After a while, they had accumulated an enormous pile of botanical seeds and a few valuable herbs. They picked and collected all of them.

Xia Chengfeng kept himself busy as the elves were foraging. He decomposed everything that he could not bring away from the cave. He obtained many [Plant Essences] and resources such as [Plant Sap] and [Plant Seed] this way.

"Father, mother, uncle, aunt, brothers, and sisters, we pray you will return to the embrace of Mother Nature." The three little elves left a prayer for their deceased relatives before they left.

Xia Chengfeng was silent. The field of flowers was now utterly ravaged after all the useful resources were taken away.

"Let's go," Xia Chengfeng hollered to the elves.

"Qiu mi!" Mi'er flew to Xia Chengfeng's left shoulder. She weighed practically nothing. She called for her sisters, "Sisters, let's go!"

"Let's go!" Die'er and Qing'er also flew up and perched on Xia Chengfeng's shoulder.

"Roar!" Xiaozi was a little displeased and staked her claim over Xia Chengfeng. She thought only she could ride on Xa Chengfeng. His shoulder was her seat.

"It's so fierce!" Qing'er said in fright.

"Then let's go to the other side!" Mi'er, the eldest sister, said.

They had just moved from the shoulder when Xiaozi immediately landed.

Xia Chengfeng smiled as he brought them into the tunnel and returned to his space bubble.

"Is this your territory, big brother?" Die'er flew into the territory and curiously looked around, "There are so few trees and flowers here!"

"Then let us build this place up!" Qing'er hugged a can of seeds and said excitedly, "I'll make this place full of beautiful fresh flowers!"

"Big Brother, we'll listen to whatever you say!" Mi'er looked toward Xia Chengfeng.

Xia Chengfeng stroked his chin and pointed toward the area where the farm and medicinal field was, then said, "Alright, you guys can live in that area for now. I'll leave all the plant-related tasks to you."

"As long as you nurture my crops and medicinal herbs well, you can do anything you please with that plot of land!"

"As long as you do your job well, I'll continuously expand the area of your living space in the future!"

Xia Chengfeng had just said that when the three little elves flew around Xia Chengfeng excitedly.

"That's great! We can build our home!"

"Leave those things to us!"

"Thank you, big brother!"

They flew over impatiently and planned out their new home.

Xia Chengfeng saw that the plants in the area seemed to become more active after the three [Flower Elves] flew over.

The elves could use magic to accomplish tasks like watering, fertilizing, pollinating, killing pests, and clearing weeds. They did the job even better than Xia Chengfeng could have ever done.

"We'll set up a nursery here to grow my favorite flowers!"

"There are too little berries here. I still have the seeds of many crops!"

"Let me be responsible for the medicinal herbs and the feed for the animals!" Mi'er, Die'er, and Qing'er split the tasks between themselves and immediately got busy.

Xia Chengfeng also saw his prosperity score rise by 30 on the prosperity scoreboard because he recruited inhabitants into his territory. His score was now 96, while the other players in the top ten hovered around 60 or 70.

"Great, with these three elves, I no longer have to worry about growing crops or medicinal herbs in the future," Xia Chengfeng muttered, feeling very satisfied.

Now that the area of his space bubble was getting larger and larger, Xia Chengfeng began constructing more buildings. It would have been too taxing on him if he had to deal with everything himself.

He intended to recruit even more inhabitants into his territory. It was best if they had special abilities like the [Flower Elves] did.

Xia Chengfeng grew three stalks of flowers with [Plant Essence] to act as a temporary home for the three elves.

He rested for a night before continuing on his exploration the next day.

Xia Chengfeng had just woken up and gotten out of his hut the second day when the three elves appeared before him.

Mi'er was carrying a fruit basket made of vines, and it contained a few washed berries. She handed it over to Xia Chengfeng and said, "Big brother, these are the berries that I picked for you."

"There's also a roasted sweet potato!" Die'er was also carrying a basket.

"And a cup of honey. There's only a small cup as there is not much honey at the moment." Qing'er was carrying a cup, "We'll brew more in the future!"

When had Xia Chengfeng ever enjoyed such treatment ever since he came to the Crypt World? He hadn't even experienced this back on Earth!

"Mi'er, Die'er, Qing'er, it must have been hard on you!" Xia Chengfeng accepted the breakfast.

"Roar!" Xiaozi also flew over and roared at the little elves.

The little elves seemed to understand her words as Mi'er said, "Xiaozi, we also prepared a roasted sweet potato for you!"

She took out another basket. However, Xiaozi only gave it a whiff and was not interested. She preferred meat.

"Alright, it looks like you don't like it." Die'er waved her hands, "Then it is out of our hands."

"Xiaozi, eat this." Xia Chengfeng took out a strip of meat and roasted it with a Fire Stone.

"Roar, roar!" Xiaozi cried in satisfaction. She waited for the meat to be cooked with her mouth wide open.

"Big brother, we are going to go build a nursery!" The little elves bade their goodbyes and continued with their work.

Xia Chengfeng consulted the divination crystal ball to investigate the surroundings.

"What will I discover if I dig to the back?"

The divination crystal ball turned deep red, then prophesied: Boiling magma is churning. Do you fancy a hot bath?

"Forget it."

Xia Chengfeng did another divination, "What will I discover if I dig downward?"

Up and down were the directions that offered the highest difficulty level. Xia Chengfeng was already Lv9. He wanted to challenge a higher difficulty.

The divination crystal ball alternated between red and black. Two human figures appeared on the crystal ball.

They are human figures and not the figure of monsters!

The hint read: Encountering a member of the same species here. Are you going to have a drink with each other, or will it be a battle?

"Humans! I'll meet other people if I dig downward!" Xia Chengfeng suddenly felt elated. He had not encountered another human ever since he came to the Crypt World. He realized that his personality was changing and swore he was becoming a little eccentric.

However, his joy quickly vanished when he considered that the divination crystal ball's prophecy may mean that he might not encounter a friendly human. He may not turn out to be one who would reminisce about the old times with Xia Chengfeng as he imagined, but might be an evil, scheming man.

"My abilities are among the best in the area. An evil person might not be a match for me, even if I were to encounter one. I might get some important information if I communicate with other humans." Xia Chengfeng thought for a moment and decided to dig downward, anyway.

As a precaution, he disguised himself before he started digging.

He kept his [Iron Arm] and replaced it with the [Tauren Elder's Battle-Ax]. He then modified his other gear and put on a disguise.

Otherwise, another player would immediately recognize him as "Breeze".

A person should not go into an encounter wanting to harm another party, but it was wise to be wary of other people. Xia Chengfeng chose to hide his trump card in the event he came across another player.

He dug and quickly completed the tunnel.

The cave was gigantic and filled with a deathly aura. There were ruins and dilapidated human-style buildings in the cave. It looked like an abandoned village and Xia Chengfeng could see no one so far.