Terrarium Adventure - Chapter 37

“Ah, this is dangerous….”

Rosewood hurriedly placed the violin underneath his chin.

As he used his bow and played the strings a strong rose scent filled the air. It felt like the formless scent seemed to stick onto Seedling’s driards like a spider web.

The air no longer gave me a burning sensation as Elder enhanced his shield around me.

What about the other driards? I’m sure everyone else finds it hard!

I looked around and saw that I was the only one who was benefitting from the shield. Even Elder the creator of the shield was bearing the heat with only a thin layer of shield around him.

“It’s not too late to run. I’ll attract it’s attention so that you can save your life.”

Who did he think he was, telling me to run. I never asked you for help, ok?

I was annoyed at Seedling who was acting like a guardian.

Just because he was a level or a few levels higher, he must be looking down on me! But it’s not like I asked him ‘is my level too low to hang around in this hunting ground?’ So what was his problem!

If I was going to be stopped by other people’s warnings, I wouldn’t have left the terrarium when Mesquite warned me at the start.

It felt like I would be admitting that my driards were not skilled enough if I listened to Seedling and left. The one who’s not skillful is me, not my driards.

The ground suddenly started to shake as if there was an earthquake. It felt a little different to be considered a natural disaster. It feels like a train is passing nearby.

The intensity of the shaking increased and you could sense something heavy and big coming quickly this way.

At that moment, along with the sound of fire crackling, our surroundings lit up in flames and we were circled in a wall of flames.

It felt like a barrier blocking us from communicating beyond it. No, to be exact it must be stopping us from going outside. Like it was trapping its prey in the center.

We were like rats in a trap.

Damn it…this feels different from our usual battles…?

Well….even if I changed my mind it was too late to run.

“Use Mesquite. If it’s her she will have higher resistance against fire and be able to get you past the firewall.”

“Who do you think you are telling me what to do?”

“It’s already too late! Seedling, stop wasting your energy by fighting with the druid. Right now we need to strategize together.”

“Yes, it will be better to protect them nearby.”

Belladonna and Kalmia spoke. Who says I will just stand there and let you protect me? My driards are so accomplished. Just listening to them is making me….! Omg! What is that?

Mesquite pushed me, Elder, and Daisy, behind and stood tall. A sand-colored light flashed out of the shield in her hands and she grew it in size.

The large shield covered in light blocked the thing that finally showed its appearance.

It was a carriage. A burning carriage. Carriage of hell, it must be a carriage that just came from hell. It was much bigger than the turned over carriage we saw before. It was as big as a house and burning everything and leaving a trail of lava wherever it went.

They said the fire adopted the appearance of the strongest living form they see, since when were objects a living thing? Was the fire that wiped out the driards in the overturned carriage this one?

Damn it, this feels like the game’s level of boss battle…raid…?

In the game, when you play against the boss alone you need to be super experienced.

You had to have a collection of experience to be able to wipe out the boss. But I was just a beginner with a tiny bit of experience.

I looked at Seedling. I think we need to form a party?

No, maybe he was able to wipe that thing out on his own since his level was higher? What if he ignores me when I reach out for help?

Seedling seemed far off from the collaborative type and more of the individualistic type.

They were driards who had easily wiped out the fire we had struggled with, and yet their expressions darkened upon seeing the huge fire carriage.

Aha, so even they find the carriage boss a challenge? To call this kinship, my anxiety was disproportionately bigger than theirs.

Damn it, it really must not have been a beginner’s quest. That is definitely a high-level hell mode killer! It’s definitely the boss monster. And it’s an ambush with no patterns we could strategize on.

“Seedling, the situation doesn’t seem good. Ask the druid for cooperation. We won’t be able to win this battle alone without causality. They have the recovery driard combination, and unless we have them on our side I have limited capability.”

After contemplating, the other team approached me first. But this was the driard’s suggestion, the druid who was the owner didn’t seem to like the idea very much.

“But it’s small.”

“Get a grip! She’s a druid! Not a driard! I know your principle is to protect smaller species because of what you learned from the driard who raised you, but this is different!”

“But they really do have a small species.”

“Don’t look down on Daisy!”

I was about to tell them off that our kid is not a small species she just looks like one right now when the carriage made the first attack.

The carriage spurted out a river of lava in a straight line, that looked like a red carpet. Mesquite pulled us to the side instead of trying to fight it.

The attacks had no breaks. It spurted out continuously in various directions, scattering the driards.

Thanks to Daisy’s quick reflex, I was tied to her branch and consistently next to Mesquite.

Seedling couldn’t ponder for long. Because Belladonna, who was avoiding another attack and coming over to our side, stopped and took the attack full on. Why?

After finally hitting a target the carriage increased its flame intensity.

“My owner, Jay. She seems to have the ability to make her environment dangerous just by her presence in the field. I am aware of similar skilled species. Like she said if we act differently it will limit her ability.”

“Hey! Did you hear that? Stop being stubborn and request for a party! Your driard is hurt!”

The truth is, I don’t know how to request it.

Out of nowhere, my artifact vibrated and my phone made a loud alarm noise.

At this timing? It couldn’t be the dwarves calling me. I didn’t care that Elder was lifting me over his shoulder and avoiding an attack and opened up my phone.

Red fonts were blinking brightly against the black screen.

| Wallet mode change. Stonehenge mode ON |

“What is this?”

| Artefact network connection |

The blinking words disappeared and another appeared. This time the circular loading icon appeared as well. The same one you see when you try to connect to a wifi.

| Adjacent Terrarium Artefact: Seedling |

| Do you wish to connect?|

| [YES] [NO] |

Oh, so this was what the party system was? It was like connecting to someone else’s hotspot. I couldn’t help but laugh. I pressed the ‘YES’ button then the screen changed.

| ARTEFACT NETWORK CONNECTION COMPLETE |

| The fence between the Terrarium Artefacts will be temporarily disabled and Stonehenge will be applied.|

|Stonehenge ownership: Seedling 90%, Jay 10%”

My body suddenly vibrated as though I was electrocuted.

A vision of roots appeared in front of my eyes. From the end, there was a white light flowing from it moving to somewhere else.

I followed the direction of the light and my gaze met Seedling.

So a party wasn’t just signing up and creating one. You physically feel different. Even though our actual distance was far away, strangely it felt like we were near.

“I don’t like this.”

Elder muttered as he placed me down in a safe spot that was facing the back of the carriage.

I agree with you but it’s not time for us to be picky don’t you think?

Mesquite had moved a distance away from us and standing by in case the attacks came our way. Daisy seemed busy reflecting the fire stones being thrown out from the carriage.

As we found a safe footing, Elder rooted his stick to the ground. The white light spread out all over the area entrapped by the firewall. Elder’s flower petals floated even beneath Seedling’s driards.

Excluding her burnt robe, Belladonna quickly recovered from her injury

“Wow, that’s amazing. That druid’s soul must be bigger than we thought. The Elder Flower’s main skill has evolved?”

Rosewood played his violin again and this time the thick rose sent stuck to me as well.

A minnesinger driard, with the unique ability to use an instrument as a buffer. After receiving Rosewood’s buffer, Elder’s glow and the number of petals in his healing area increased.

“Wow, I’m so envious of the recovery driard. I wish Seedling would plant one in our bouquet.”

Kalmia became relentless with her attacks and started throwing light pink beans that were like grenades. The cute beans were nothing like their cute appearance and its effects were great enough to stop the carriage momentarily whenever it changed its direction.

Periwinkle who was standing on the opposite side was continuously whipping. With the combined attacks of these two, they were directing the carriage’s attack in one direction. The carriage continued to release its lava in the direction where there was nobody.

It would have been great if it continued to act dumbly, but maybe because it was a boss monster, it changed its pattern. The carriage shuddered and the doors of the tightly closed carriage opened widely. It released immense heat just like when you open a pot on top of the fire.

Someone shouted and said scatter. As I instinctively ducked, Daisy stood in front of me.

Flowers exploded continuously from all directions. From the carriage, a human-shaped fire alighted simultaneously. At the same time, a large fire sprouted from beneath the carriage and flamed up as high as the sky, hiding the carriage from view.

Mesquite, using her prior experience of fighting fires, came to join and line up next to us. There were many fires that alighted from the carriage.

“This is crazy…what kind of fire hell is this?”

It must have consumed a lot of driards! How many did it consume to have zombie fires rushing out in bundles?

Meanwhile, Seedling had joined the battlefield and was swinging his words. I could immediately tell who the fire from the Dandelion colony had learned its moves from.

Even though we were working as a team, the fires were too many and too strong so we were falling behind.

“Thinking about what happened at the Dandelion colony we can’t split up! But it’s also not a good idea to give up shielding and focus on attacking!”

Mesquite shouted as she shielded the fire that was trying to get close. Daisy was doing well and reflecting the attacks but was far from accomplishing a one kill.

And Elder was preoccupied healing numerous driards and lending them his healing power to lend his buffer.

“Bella!”

Seedling shouted for Belladonna as he pushed away a fire with his large sword. She was attacking a fire with her long spear and shield.

Her weapon pierced the fire and a dark purple mellow light exploded out along with an undistinguishable scent. The fire that had been pierced stopped moving as if it was paralyzed and froze in the same spot.

Upon Seedling’s request, she took her weapon and planted it to the ground. She then used the long spear as a support to jump like a pole vault and instantly flew over to Seedling. As her outspread hands touched Seedling, something surprising happened.

The terrarium artifact that he had on his wrist like me started to spread out light. A globe-like light started to grow from the wrist to the size of a deflector shield.

Then all of a sudden the ground started to shake. This time it wasn’t due to the carriage. Large rocks started to sprout from the ground and the black burnt ground started to dye a light grey shade.