Chapter 2153: Water Lily
The big lily turned out to be a monster plant, and it was a beautiful one, at that.
Unlike others, Althea could easily differentiate between wild roots and monster roots because she could see how energy moved in their bodies. None of the other lilies were monster plants, nor were they wild roots.
In fact, there were no wild roots in the vicinity of the area.
It was one of the things she observed. If there was a monster plant that had taken root in one place, the chances of seeing wild roots in that area diminished sharply. However, the normal plants around it were quite lush.
Althea walked over to the water, surrounding herself with a mix of wood and water energy. This created a familiar mix of aura for the lily, so it didn’t show any guardedness at all.
There were many lilies and their leaves on that pond, covering a good portion of it. The monster plant lay right in the middle.
𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Althea thought for a moment before jumping over the leaves. She was lightweight and the average leaf was rather large, so it was no problem for her to step on them.
She stopped at the floating leaf several meters away from the monster lily. For a while, she just stood there, as if she were a lily herself.
"Hello there," she said after a while, smiling as she extended her hand.
The lily’s flower petals swayed above its leaves, and she could see its stigma twitching. She wondered how deep the water was. Although water lilies looked like they were floating on water, the actual flower was rooted down. As for how this world’s water lilies worked, she didn’t know yet.
She extended the wood element around her, slowly wrapping around its exteriors, creating a mind’s image of its overall form.
She found out that the lily wasn’t like the Terran lily that was rooted in the soil bed. This monster lily was really floating. She curiously checked at the other, smaller water lilies and saw that they were rooted down, meaning this feature was exclusive to the monster plant.
Its roots were not as long initially and seemed to float underneath the leaves. She reckoned they’d move like legs whenever the lily wanted to ’swim’. However, she had witnessed it grab a monster to eat with its stalk, so those floating roots were likely expandable. Perhaps it also had the option of rooting on the ground; it just didn’t do so at this time.
Soon, one of its floating roots emerged from the water. It appeared next to the leaf she was standing on, and Althea felt a little nervous for a while, unsure what it would do.
Since this whole monster root thing was new to her, there must still be a lot of variables that she did not know. She would never dare say she was an expert in monster plants, so she was truly nervous about what would happen next.
Fortunately, nothing violent happened. Instead, part of the stem climbed over the leaf she was standing on, gently poking her leg.
Her lips twitched in amusement, and she gently touched it.
To be honest, she didn’t absolutely have to get this one. She already had two on hand, after all. If this one didn’t work out, she’d just leave. Fortunately, there seemed to be hope.
She was also getting attached.
She controlled her aura to enter the stem, and it followed the pathway of wood energy to its center, which was the base of the flower.
Her energy touched the plant’s core, seeming to integrate with it. If she were to describe the sensation, it was much like poking a take-out drink and poking it with a straw.
Seeing as she was not rejected, she gradually added a bit more.
Now, to the plant, she would become an ally, a family.
How awesome; all her elements had partner plants now. She now had plenty of backup to protect her and her loved ones.
Althea felt friendly camaraderie with it, similar to how it was with Fufi.
The water lily was a beautiful plant, and as a monster plant with sentience and dense wood energy, this giant pink water lily was naturally much more vibrant.
"Let’s go back," she said, jumping over to the leaf of her water lily. When they approached the shore, Garan was there, watching the whole thing with fondness in his heart.
The sunflower and the mushroom looked envious at the side. They naturally didn’t have facial expressions, but the way they faced Althea while sitting/standing still made them look rather silly.
Garan met her eyes, and he knew what she wanted to do, so he jumped over to the other side of the leaf.
It was still stably afloat. "Stability check, passed," Althea said with a smile.
"Comfort check, passed."
"Movement flexibility, passed."
"Isn’t this fun?" she asked. "It’s like we have a small boat." How lovely would it be if they could just lie there in the water and stare at the sky?
Of course, it would only be used in ponds and lakes. As for the performance on running water...they would try to test later.
She tiptoed and lifted her arm to pat the flower. It was very soft to touch, like touching velvet.
"Can you survive outside of water?" she asked, and then it emerged from the sea as if it were walking on land.
It was quite an interesting sight. More importantly, she was amazed at its comprehension.
That said, they had no time for any more dillydallying. As much as she wanted to explore this more, they had a mission.
She was a bit wistful though. The kids would love to ride this. They would also love Sol, and they would also love Truffles.
Speaking of the kids, they were trapped here for nearly a month, and they naturally had no news of them. Hopefully, their condition was stable. The elysian stone should be able to do this, but as parents, they would always worry.
"Someday, when they grow up, we can take them here," Garan said, knowing what she was thinking about.
Those kids had already awakened early on, and their leveling up would not be slow. The time they could take them here might not even be a decade from now.
Althea nodded, absentmindedly touching the plant’s petals. Seemingly jealous, Sol and Truffles also bumped into her as if making their presence known.
Althea laughed, thinking it felt like they had three more kinds.
And now that she might have to say goodbye to them, she was feeling reluctant.
She had considered just taking them with her on the other side, but they were really big, not to mention she wasn’t sure if they would be willing. The Hollow Forest was such a nice place for plants. For them, this place was like a spa.
And since they hadn’t gone beyond the Hollow Forest before, who’s to say they would want to go with her outside of it?
"We will meet again eventually..." she said, and the three flowers flinched. The sunflower—which had been leisurely swinging—suddenly froze, and its head faced hers.
The truffle rolled around underground, creating an underground circle around her, while the water lily’s leaves and petals shivered a bit.
She wondered how much they understood.
Then the Lily’s size suddenly shrank down right in front of their eyes.
!!!!
For a moment, they wondered if they were seeing things. They had seen plenty of unbelievable things in this world, but this one easily entered the top 3.
Garan looked at the flower in shock, though on the surface, he was just emotionless and calm.
"Oh my..." Althea uttered, startled.
She didn’t think it could shrink, so she stared at it in shock for a while. How was that possible? She immediately went to check it. Did she accidentally destroy it or something?
She used the [Eye] to realize that the energy was the same, just a bit more concentrated. This was until she studied it further and realized it was just compressed.
"Lily is so amazing~" she said, immediately naming it.
The flower then happily climbed up her hair, and its stalk and rhizome acted like the tie, so the flower itself looked like an ornament. When it didn’t move around, it looked like a real, normal lily that had been taken out of its stem and turned into a girl’s accessory.
It was a water plant, though, so while it would be alright for several hours on her hair, it would still need to get hydrated for prolonged use.
But who was Althea? A water elementalist. While it served as a hair ornament, she could feed it some water. Of course, she still needed it hydrated, whether or not it was indeed up on her head.
The other two jumped over as if to complain, with Sol wriggling about and Truffles looking like he was having epilepsy.
Althea didn’t know what they were on about until she saw the changes in their bodies.
The sunflower shrank to a little thing, jumped over and wrapped around her arms like a bracelet.
!!!!
And then it was Truffles...who shrank and looked like poop.
"..."