NOVEL NEXT Chapter 58 - Time Remaining
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[The Root and Seeds of the Problem (Legendary)
Time Remaining: 4 days, 23 hours, 15 minutes]
[Demonic Seed from Hell, a daughter of the goddess of Leith (count 1). Time Remaining: 6 days, 10 hours, 23 minutes]
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"We won't finish in time." Naiad compared the timers faster than I could.
I pointed to the watering can and asked Triangle, "Can I use the watering can?"
He shrugged yes and handed it to me. I took it down to the little stream nearby and filled it up. With a full watering can, I took it back to the demonic seed and poured.
"What are you doing?" Triangle's voice went up an octave as he ran in front of me.
The little half-gnome's hands waved up at me and even got rained on trying to block the seed from getting more water. "It doesn't like getting wet. Only water the dirt."
I stopped pouring to talk to him. "Just give me a chance to see something, please."
Triangle shook his head no. I explained my thought processes to him. "Let's see if this one watering can assist the timer."
Naiad came over and gently nudged her brother. "Please, we need to reduce the time to finish the quest."
Triangle bit his lip and followed his sister to the side, letting me finish pouring water around the seed, making sure I soaked the soil. The water pooled around the seed, and streamed down the demonic dirt. The last drops came out of the watering can, and I gave it a gentle shake, praying it was enough.
The timer finally lowered.
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[Demonic Seed from Hell, a daughter of the goddess of Leith (count 1). Time Remaining: 6 days, 10 hours, 18 minutes]
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One watering can shaved off a few minutes.
"What if I keep pouring water? Will it lose more time?" I asked in desperation.
Before I could turn back to the watering stream, Naiad yanked the watering can from my hand and gave it to Triangle. "No, Dad. It will drown the seed."
"How do you know? Maybe if Goldy sprays the area constantly, we can finish this quest up in time."
"No," Triangle said. "It will be too much water."
The kid was stubborn, but I wanted us to work as a team. My finger twitched, wanting to grab something and get moving. I made it grab my shirt to stop. The game was getting to me again. If we wanted to move forward with my suggestion, I had to have actual proof, not gut feeling.
I put a finger up, remembering the plant I had in the living room. "My plant at home is finally blooming a flower! I cared for that plant for the last six months, the one hanging in the living room."
Naiad smiled and put her hands on her hip, "It died five months ago and mom replaced it with a silk plant. She put the fake blossom in it last week to give you hope."
Triangle nodded in agreement, admitting he was in on the lie, too. Looks like both parents were being role models about lying.
"She could've told me. I've gone through a bunch of dead plants."
"Yeah, that's why mom bought a fake one, to stop spending money on ones you would only kill." Naiad explained, then reached out, as if trying to figure out how to comfort me, but then went to fiddling with her braid.
Triangle knelt down and looked at the demonic seed. His fingers danced across the bit of prickles that stuck out of the dirt.
"Well… when we log off, I'm going to dust that poor plant." I wanted to brush off the fact everyone was lying to me. "And buy it some fake silky friends to green up the place."
"If we are trying to hurry the growth timer, it needs to be cozy and fed," Triangle explained like he was ten.
"Are we trying to put it down for a nap?" I half joked back.
"Do we need to burp it first?" Naiad joined in.
Triangle pointed at both of us, annoyed at the disrespect. "No, it needs to be warm, at the right season for it. Not cold like winter. It needs the right food."
This focus and information coming from him was odd, but Naiad also did it as she got older, and I had to learn how to get used to a child growing up. They were having their own lives outside of me. A mix of pride and hurt stung. I wanted to be there for everything, but I also couldn't and shouldn't. We could still have the video game for fun and I be at the front line for them. Which meant respecting Triangle's requests.
"By food, do you mean nutrients and fertilizer?" I imagined real-world possibilities and their in-game translations.
Triangled bobbed his head, "Yup. Ma'am Q said always match where a seed came from."
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Triangle nodded, "Yup. Make it match where you found the seed."
"We found it in hell. Should I ask Kerry to grab some stuff from my growing forest, then?" Naiad asked.
Triangle shrugged. "I don't know."
"It's not a bad idea. While we wait, let's go back the way we came." I pointed back to the cliffs. "We need to follow the ozo tracks. While at it, look for any dung to use as fertilizer."
"Ew." Naiad replied. "I've got a great idea," she stressed the word great, "and I will have the Kerry grab some soil to bring here."
"That's a grand idea." I put a hand out to high-five her. She rolled her eyes and turned away. Triangle smacked my hand instead.
"Bear hunt time!" Triangle sung the tune again.
"How do we follow your stink and gooey trap?" I asked, excited to know what trick he had.
"You follow the green path." Triangle put away his equipment, and stabbed a stick near the seed, with a little yellow flag near it. "I have planted the mighty seed of demons! The Shrimp Guild will rule the world!" He let out a monstrous laugh.
Naiad let out her own cackle, and I joined back and laugh with them. It's only a game, and why not have fun with the demons? It was a whale of a time.
The lizard-folk waved goodbye as we marched past them back to where we had originally met. All three of us were singing the childhood song. We coughed a bit as we got closer to the pungent, gooey smell. Naiad pulled out a cloth to wrap around her mouth. I braced it like a manly man and coughed and cried as we got closer, praying my sense of smell would just get used to it as we got closer to the stenchiest goop in the woods.
Triangle could weaponise smells.
This area of the woods was still void of other animals. Not even birds or the smaller lizards had made their way over here, avoiding the dangerous smell left behind and afraid of our bomb explosion. I didn't want to be here either, but it was a good starting point. With the fog gone, it was easy to see where the jingle bell bombs bounced off thanks to the missing tree and the damage done to the ground. Broken tree roots were mixed in with orange clay and black dirt to form a crater. The blast only felled one tree, while the rest of the evergreens and deciduous trees only sustained blast damage.
We stood around looking at it, trying to remember which way the ozo went, when Triangle pulled out Goldy from his inventory. I kept my mouth shut and wanted to see what he had planned or how impulsive his plan was.
Water blasted out of the fish.
I held back any reaction I had. Of course, he would use the fish to spray water everywhere. He said that without the soap, the goo wouldn't vanish. I had to trust him.
The stinky stuff held like rock crystal candy, but shimmered in its form like a Newtonian liquid. Water droplets sprayed on it and slowly dripped off with the smallest tint of green.
"Huh," I turned to compliment Triangle for making the stickiest substance, but he was doing something unexpected. "What are you doing?"
The small child stood waist deep in the mud and clay at the bottom of the crater. He scooped up the mixture, patted, and squashed it together a few times, continuing to ignore my question and remain focus on his task.
"Triangle, what are you doing?" I repeated in a calm voice. We weren't rushing, but I would like to find some fertilizer to speed up the seed quest.
The muddy half-gnome pushed the mud ball around and formed an oval shape the size of him. He started a second ball and kept playing with the mud. I stood over the crater, defending him and giving him time. This switch of behavior was him dodging my question, and he needed time. While I waited, I watched him.
With the second mud ball he carved out, he made a bill of some sort, but then added multiple points along it. When he added two new holes above it, I realized he was making a face of a creature. His tongue stuck out from his deep focus on carving out the face.
When he placed the odd-looking head on the body, I repeated my question again, with my voice louder. "Tristan, what are you doing in the mud?"
He looked up at me, mud growing across his lips like a mustache. "I'm making a bear friend."
"What?" Naiad beat me to the same question I had.
"The quest was befriend the bear. If I create the bear, it is my friend."
Triangle's complete calmness with the quest made sense now. He only planned on making an ozo, not going after the vicious one that tried to climb the tree and eat us. Before opening my mouth, I read over the quest's information to confirm what it said. It specifically called out the ozo.
"We have to friend that specific ozo we saw earlier. We can't make one and call the quest done," I said looking down at him. "But your idea was creative. You can finish making the bear before we friend the other one."
Triangle paused, squeezing the mud in between his hands tighter as he looked on in the direction the ozo and green slime went. "I bet the ozo would still like a friend."
With that, he was back to patting the mud together and focusing on it.
Naiad put her bow away and walked into the mud with her brother. Her face squirmed initially, but with a deep breath, she was in the pool with her little brother. "I think you're right. Fighting it won't make it our friend. Besides berries, what else do you think we should give it?"
A smile stretched across his face as he looked at his sister. "I bet it would like snacks. What do bears eat?"
"Fish. Maybe we can offer Goldy." Naiad teased.
I rolled my eyes and braced for the scream and sibling fight that was about to start.
"No! You can't take him. He's my pet."
"Naiad," I said sternly, and she giggled in response. "We can look for nearby berries and acorns to see if it will help. We'll need to travel a bit to find food not covered with slime. But after you finish making the bear. I'll stand on guard."
The two of them worked on rolling the oval body more and added feet on the side so the mud bear was lying down on the ground. Creatures cawed off in the distance, motivating me to keep my weapons and shield ready and honor my promise to be the tank. Especially with other players around doing the same quest for the Lizard-folk.
As a bonus, I got to avoid getting in the mud.
"Dad's being a stick in the mud," Naiad said loudly like she could read my thoughts.
"He's not in the mud," Triangle plopped a round ear on the bear's head.
"It means he's a party pooper," she explained.
I laughed, "I am not. Just being prepared. Want me to get a leaf for the tail?"
Triangle looked at the big muddy bear. Its head was sliding off. "I need a stick."
I raised my hand enthusiastically to partake in this. "Look, I can get it. I'm not in the mud."
"Thanks!" Triangle said as he worked on carving the face more.
I ran over, trying to find a good stick on the ground. Thanks to the jingle bell explosion earlier, there were quite a few branches and sticks. One with the goop on it would be strong enough to hold the giant bear's head.
A stick hung down from a low evergreen branch, swinging because of the slimy gunk. Leaves stuck out of the slime, but I could tear them off carefully if they were a problem. I wrapped my hand around the stick, surprised it was warm, and yanked it.
It hissed back in protest.
The sound terrified me, and I backed up, pulling out my axe. The stick wasn't a stick, but as a snake was a deep green, darker than Triangle's slime. It flopped on the ground before it reared up to look at me, jerking a part of the way as the slime at the middle of his body threatened to hold it down. Already it stood as tall as me and threatened to grow larger.
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[Level 14, Boitatá level 14, (uncommon, bonded)
Description: A snake that prays on the unexpecting, those who don't watch where they step or where they grab. Normally this snake is peaceful and sleeping, sunbathing in the little of warmth that reaches the mountains, but when it's hungry and active, it will hunt its prey down for over a mile. Careful of its bite, it could be your last one.]
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With another jerking motion, its body was free of the ground. It charged at me, its fangs wide open.