Chapter 157 - 113: Silent Forest 2
"Don’t! Don’t touch any of these pretty plants in the forest!" Lin Kong warned.
"Aburara, do you recognize these flowers?" he asked.
"I don’t recognize them. They might have mutated after we moved into the Underground City. But they’re so beautiful!" Aburara mentally sifted through her knowledge of mutated plants but couldn’t recall any this lovely.
Seeing that even Aburara didn’t recognize them, Mirus grew bolder. "If Aburara doesn’t know, maybe they’re just ordinary flowers. I can sense they’re sleeping right now. Watch me!"
Mirus quietly flew above one of the flowers, then transformed into a beam of light and slipped inside.
The flower swayed gently, startled from its slumber. Mirus immediately began to communicate with it...
A moment later, Mirus flew out of the flower.
"Hahaha, I know what they’re called and what they can do now!"
"Quick, tell us."
"These flowers are called ’Ghost Orchids.’ They can release a chilling wind to turn targets into crystal, and they can also summon blizzards..."
[Name]: Ghost Orchid
[Description]: Uses a chilling wind to damage enemies, with a chance to freeze them into a snowman for 5 seconds, during which they cannot move.
Has a chance to use the chilling wind to form a blizzard, turning all enemies it touches into snowmen.
Fire plants deal 2x damage to enemies that have been turned into snowmen.
[Attack Power]: 60 (Bonus in cold environments)
[Special Effect]: Cold
[Range]: 100-meter straight line
[Durability]: 800
The squad members’ eyes lit up when they heard this. Except for Aburara and Dong Lin, who hadn’t yet specialized as Druids, everyone else present was a Druid. Communicating with plants was a skill as natural as instinct for them.
The more powerful and intelligent these mutated plants were, the better it was for them, as it meant they could be communicated with.
They could bring the plants back to their territory, adding to its strength. Besides, if brought back, the plants would have a chance to become "plant people." An opportunity this good meant that with just a little persuasion, the plants would willingly agree to go with them.
"Turn into a snowman?"
"I’ll give it a try! Let’s see how it works." Relying on his high ice resistance, Dong Lin fearlessly walked into the patch of flowers.
This reckless act immediately displeased the Ghost Orchids, and they all began to attack Dong Lin.
The biting cold wind blew against Dong Lin, but it felt like nothing more than an ordinary breeze and had no effect.
Dong Lin nonchalantly touched his face and laughed. "This wind is actually quite comfortable. It reminds me of the first winter I experienced before the world changed. I didn’t have such long fur back then, and I’d just huddle in my mother’s arms. The wind that blew on my face through the cracks felt just like this."
He was even starting to reminisce about the distant past.
Just then, his body suddenly froze. A flurry of snow appeared out of nowhere at his feet, quickly multiplying and packing around him from the bottom up until he was a snowman, complete with two branch arms and a red nose.
"Hahahaha~"
"That’s hilarious~"
The sudden change stunned everyone for a moment, and then they all burst out laughing.
After five seconds, the snow covering Dong Lin vanished. Blushing, Dong Lin ran out of the patch of Ghost Orchids.
"Dong Lin, how did that feel?"
Dong Lin’s face turned even redder, but he still truthfully recounted his experience: "It’s strong. Really strong. It’s actually a hard CC. I didn’t even notice before I was completely unable to move."
"Strong is good. Come on, let’s go see which of the Ghost Orchids are willing to come back with us. We’ll take them back to the territory." After saying this, Yuan Xiaobo led everyone gently into the patch of Ghost Orchids.
After they explained the characteristics of their territory and the benefits of returning with them, most of the Ghost Orchids were willing to go. However, due to limited container space and the need to save room in case they found other valuable plants, Lin Kong and the others each took just a few flowers before leaving.
The squad walked through the forest for a long time before they discovered another new mutated plant. This time, it was Niu Armor who found it.
As Niu Armor was walking, he suddenly had to take a piss, so he ran off into the jungle on the other side of the path. There, he discovered a mushroom patch. It was filled with ice-blue mushrooms covered in ice crystals, as well as some ordinary-looking mushrooms with blue caps.
He hadn’t discovered this Mushroom Forest because of any keen perception, but rather because he was so careless he wasn’t watching where he was going.
Having walked in the forest for so long, the squad had killed numerous mutated creatures for various reasons, and their bodies were stained with the creatures’ blood. This was especially true for Niu Armor, that reckless brute. He always attacked with sheer brute force—he couldn’t help it, as all his skills were loud and flashy. As a result, he was covered in the most blood.
The result of this was that the squad slowly realized the mutated creatures weren’t attacking them anymore. No matter how much noise they made, no creatures appeared.
Thus, Niu Armor started to just crash through the woods. The stealthy approach they’d used at first had left him feeling quite stifled. Now that he didn’t have to worry about attracting attacks from mutated creatures, he was like a wild horse that had broken its reins.
Therefore, as he walked, he only paid attention to the large objects around him and didn’t look at his feet at all.
And so, he stepped right into the Mushroom Forest. Vast patches of mushrooms topped with ice-crystal or blue caps, at a glance, looked just like a normal icy surface.
By the time Niu Armor realized something was wrong, he had already walked quite deep into the Mushroom Forest and was stepping on a mushroom topped with ice crystals.