Grace's concern was entirely valid.
A flower was walking around on two feet!
It was a massive flower with bright red petals and a vivid yellow pistil in the center. It swayed gently, looking like a callia that had been grown to the size of a human head.
Looking lower, I could clearly see a slender body ford from several intertwined vines, large leaves where hands should be, wooden vines extending downward like legs, and a bundle of roots supporting the body from below.
This wasn't a taphor—an actual human-sized flower was walking around, its roots split into two parts that stepped gently across the ground.
"Uh, well... I don't really sense anything magical from it, so I could probably hunt it with one arrow. But what if it's a friend of the forest fairies or so kind of spirit?"
"It certainly looks completely harmless from the outside."
The problem was that this deep forest layer contained forest fairy villages. The flower didn't have hideous fangs sprouting from it, nor did it look carnivorous enough to snatch and devour small animals, so it was hard to tell whether it was a monster or a fairy.
Honestly, judging by appearance alone, it just looked like a large, pretty flower. All it did was walk slowly through the forest, swaying gently as it followed the faint sunlight.
If it were a monster with perfect mimicry, befitting the 61st floor, it might have a hidden trick, so shooting it dead like an assassination would be the safest approach. But if we actually killed it with an arrow and it turned out to be a fairy, things would get properly tangled.
"If the fang tiger is hostile toward it, doesn't that an it's not a fairy?"
"Or it could be territory disputes between monsters."
"Ah, that's true too. Monsters don't automatically side with each other."
So once again, I'd have to put my body on the line.
Sohow my thinking seed to be getting increasingly simple and brutal, but that's just how warriors are in dieval fantasy worlds. In a world teeming with magic, divine power, sorcery, and mysteries, all a warrior can do is trust in their own body and move forward.
Still, I didn't plan to blindly rush in. Though I couldn't know if this walking flower would respond to conversation or attack... it could also flee imdiately like the shadow fang tiger.
I strongly suspected that in this deep forest with its obvious treasure-hunting gimmick, even flowers could run away. Besides, the quest log had ntioned "fragrance," and now there was a walking flower—couldn't this be the protagonist of that "fragrance"?
"It might just run away. Han Se-ah, prepare to block this side with a wall, and Irene, be ready with a sacred law of protection. I'll approach from the opposite side."
"Then Grace and I will watch the sides."
"Oh, Roland. Maybe it will recognize the forest fairy emblem?"
So, ruling out the option of shooting it dead imdiately, I carefully moved forward. Being large and heavily armored, I couldn't completely eliminate noise, but I'd taken a wide detour after peeking at Han Se-ah's minimap, so it seed I hadn't been detected.
The creature continued gently swaying its petals to catch more sunlight as we surrounded it from all directions.
If I rushed out from this side, it would flee toward Irene and Han Se-ah, and if it ran sideways instead of away from , Grace and Katie were waiting. Still, there might be room for dialogue, so I slowly walked forward with my warhamr and shield lowered.
Crackle, crunch—
The sound of fallen leaves and twigs being crushed under steel boots. As if sensing that any wild creature would notice at this distance, it swiftly turned its pistil toward .
'...As Irene suggested, can it understand?'
As it warily stared at like a deer or roe, I stopped approaching and pulled out Minthe's leaf and the pure natural energy from inside my garnt.
If it had been a monster, it would have attacked imdiately, so the hypothesis that it was related to forest fairies or a neutral event object gained strength. It might be prejudice, but a flower head that gently swayed toward the sunlight didn't seem particularly cunning or wise.
Recalling mories of offering treats to a mascot cat while drunkenly wandering through a university district, I placed the leaf and crystal on my palm and waved them gently.
"Huh, what's happening? It's not running or attacking—are we actually taming it? I joked about Pookiemon badges, but are we really collecting flowers equal to the number of emblems?"
-Is this collection elent added to stop you from cheating through everything? That'd be king-level galaxy brain for real LOL
-Since you keep skipping things, we'll co back after getting 100% collection rate LOLOLOLOL
-Honestly, other users are struggling just to reach the 50th floor, so it wouldn't be strange if the devs targeted you with a patch
-More importantly, the fang tiger is perceptive and obedient, so why not create a ow squad and switch to being a tar? LOLOLOL
-Are you going from ^ThatLongPorter^ to ^FangTigerJerkyShuttle^ now? LOLOLOLOLOL
In the atmosphere of rising tension despite no hostility, the creature moved.
"...Eh?"
It planted its roots into the ground.
※
If I stick my head in the ground, I can't see ahead, so enemies can't see either. Ostriches supposedly do this when encountering predators or hunters on the plains, trying to ignore danger—that's where the term "ostrich syndro" ca from.
"...Should we just pull it out?"
"It's frustrating not being able to have a conversation."
"I'd like to go back to the forest fairy village and ask them about it, but we can't just leave it here, can we?"
So this creature might be a plant-type ostrich.
We'd seen it walking around enjoying the sunlight, but the mont our eyes t, it pretended to be an ordinary flower, planting roots and avoiding eye contact. Like a sunflower following the sun, it slowly turned its flower part sideways to avoid eting my gaze.
Faced with this ridiculous behavior, my companions gathered around the flower, chatting in low voices. Where in the world would you find a flower that turns its head away because it doesn't want to make eye contact with humans?
Though it might be stupid, it showed no signs of threatening people, causing my companions' vigilance to drop significantly. Even the shadow fang tiger seed to read the mood, rely licking its lips at the large flower without pouncing, obediently sitting with its belly on the ground at Irene's feet.
"Hey, isn't the quest progress stalled? If the log at least updated, we could make so deductions, but nothing's appearing. Still, since it ntioned fragrance, this flower must be the source of it, right?"
-Seeing the quest log stalled, I'm getting worried we might be completely off track LOLOLOL
-Why did the quest log really stop? Did you choke while trying to cheese through and get stuck?
-If you were caught cheating, it wouldn't even start, right? This started but we're stuck at the first step
-By the way, what is that flower? Has nobody seen it outside the Tower? I'm curious
-They both seem obedient, so couldn't we just take the fang tiger and the flower to the next village?
The topic had shifted from "shoot or not?" to "pull or not?" With no clues to go on and unable to make a decisive statent, Han Se-ah expressed her frustration.
Among the countless online criticisms she'd received was the complaint that she kept trying to cheese through content, preventing normal progression—that seed to be bothering her. While her thick-skinned, brazen yet straightforward mindset allowed her to ignore all sorts of insults... cheese-related criticism seed different.
Rather than outright condemnation, it was more about being "Forbes' #1 Strear Unhelpful for Ga Guides" that bothered her. She could have ignored it completely if she wanted to... but it seed impossible to avoid scratching "Gar Han Se-ah" rather than "Strear Han Se-ah."
"You're just lucky at gas, aren't you?"
Is there any more cutting remark for a gar who takes pride in their skill? Han Se-ah, a genuine ga enthusiast and hobody, chose gaming as her main broadcast content instead of exercise or appearance because she took pride in her skills.
She frequently said things like "I might be unlucky, but am I lacking skill?" and despite being called a porter or faucet, she subtly displayed pride in her magical abilities. So while she could snort at various insults and move on, the accusation of being a luck-based, one-trick broadcast unhelpful for ga guides scratched at her rcilessly.
"Well, we can't just keep staring at it, so let's try gently pulling it out without damaging the roots."
"True, we won't figure anything out just by putting our heads together."
"Hmm, next ti we co, maybe we should commission the Magic Tower to create so kind of capture fra or flower pot?"
So as Han Se-ah reached a "scratched" state and maintained silence, seemingly whining to her viewers about the lack of clear answers, my companions started muttering amongst themselves.
It didn't seem poisonous or have terrifying teeth protruding like so hideous creature. The vines didn't look capable of entangling people, and it emitted no magical or dark magical response... it was literally just a walking flower.
That's why we began to gently dig up the soil with our bare hands, surrounding the now-trembling flower, careful not to damage its stem or roots.
"Umm... you shouldn't dig that up..."
"Huh?"
Until a forest fairy suddenly popped out of nowhere and spoke to us.
...Even for a treasure hunting-type gimmick, isn't there too much packed into one floor?
Enjoy the chappy!
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