In contrast to her elegant voice, it sounded like a completely alien language.
Whether I was listening or not, she continued talking to herself.
“☐☐ ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐ Mikel ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐?”
“Huh! Mikel-sama!?”
It was a series of unintelligible sounds, but in the meantime, I could clearly hear the word Mikel.
‘Ah… Mikel-sama, is it you again…? I just worship you…’
Once again, it was a moment when I owed my life to Mikel-sama.
Was it okay to receive the love of a god like this?
Shouldn’t the name of the trait be changed from [Mikel’s Cheer] to [Mikel’s Favor]?
“☐☐ Prostia. Sia Kalt ☐☐☐☐☐.”
“Huh? Self-introduction…?”
I recognized Prostia, the name of the ice dragon I had seen in the status window, and the place name Sia Kalt.
The ice dragon Prostia, presumed to be the ruler of this Sia Kalt Great Labyrinth.
It seemed as if she had introduced herself.
Was she going to take me in?
‘As expected! You are my butler!’
Becoming the companion animal… no, companion plant of the ruler of the Great Labyrinth was probably a position that anyone in this world would aspire to.
Don’t we all want to be born as a rich cat in our next life?
“☐☐☐☐☐☐.”
She said with a look of determination in her eyes.
It was so obvious.
‘Yes! Butler! Please raise me well!’
That was when her white fingers wrapped around my stem.
Was she really going to pull me out like this?
‘Huh… Huh? Wait a minute!’
But of course, she didn’t hear me.
There was no way I, a flower, could speak.
“☐☐☐☐☐☐☐.”
Prostia said with a gentle smile.
It was a natural movement, like moving a plant in a pot.
‘Ouch! It hurts!’
The moment she gently pulled, a sharp pain shot through my entire body.
My roots, which had been buried deep in the ground, firmly gripped the earth as if resisting.
“…?”
Her expression became slightly puzzled.
I pulled with a little more force once more.
[Pain Resistance LV1] skill acquired.
“Eww! Butler! No! Master!!!”
What about the butler and the cat?
The future of the master and s*ave, which absolutely must not be messed with, flashed before my eyes.
The performance of the skill that suddenly appeared was terrible.
Her pure white eyes sparkled as if in surprise.
“0.000000”
This time, she muttered with a serious expression.
Then, when she reached out her hand, a blue light formed from her white fingertips.
“Master…? You are going to take me in, right…?”
A fierce haze overflowed from the blue light that seemed to contain a powerful energy.
“Huh!?”
In that moment, the ground around my roots froze and then shattered like glass.
[Pain Resistance LV3] skill level increased.
[Pain Resistance LV4] skill level increased.
“Kkiyaayaaaaaaaah! Unbearable pain covered my entire body.
You said you had pain tolerance! Aren’t you working?
The roots that had been deeply embedded lost their support in an instant and floated into the air.
“O!”
Prostia smiled with satisfaction and lifted me up with one hand.
It was an elegant movement, as if pulling a flower out of a vase, but to me, it was the worst pain in my life.
“Ha…….! I feel like I’m going to die…”
My consciousness was fading.
My stamina must have run out, even after using up the auxiliary battery.
HP: 27/514 + (0/400)
“You weren’t really trying to kill me, were you…?”
The last thing I saw was Prostia’s calm smile and her eyes shining like starlight.
And then my consciousness completely blacked out.
Prostia’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as she looked at the flower losing its vitality.
The red petals that had been shining brilliantly just a moment ago were now limp and drooping, and the purple stamens no longer moved as gracefully as a poisonous snake’s tongue.
“Did I pull it out too hard?”
She tilted her head slightly, lost in thought.
But soon she shrugged her shoulders as if it was nothing.
It wasn’t an ordinary plant; it was a powerful one that hunted mid-level monsters and wouldn’t wither and die just because its roots were damaged.
Returning to the deepest layer, Prostia planted the flower in a corner of her lair.
A pleased smile formed on her lips as she gently buried the black stem in the ice-crystal-covered cave floor.
She was delighted that such a beautiful decoration had been added to her territory.
She thought that she would have to live in human form for a while, in case someone stepped on the flower in their gigantic form.
“Um… Your name is…”
“Licoris. Okay, let’s call her Licoris.”
But that joy was short-lived.
‘…Huh?”
The flower petals began to tremble as if they were swaying in the wind.
The purple stamens were now completely drooping and sweeping the ice floor, and the red petals were becoming paler and paler.
“Why are you doing this?”
Prostia’s pure white eyes were filled with confusion.
The Ice Dragon, who never thought that the plants living in this ice cave in the Sia Calt Great Labyrinth would be sensitive to the cold.
Unlike the monsters here, who had strong cold resistance since birth, the extreme low temperatures of the deepest layer completely froze the flower’s lost consciousness, which had ‘freezing blocking’ that only blocked the cold air of the middle layer.
She stared at the flower for a while and then opened her eyes wide as if she remembered something.
‘Ah! That’s right, this child…’
The scene of the battlefield of death seen in the middle layer and the flower that was alone and fine in it flashed through her mind.
This flower, Licoris, must have grown by absorbing the blood of the monsters in the middle layer.
She quickly got up from her seat.
The hem of her silver dress fluttered through the cold air.
As she headed toward the depths, Prostia’s footsteps hurried, losing their usual elegance.
Frost flowers bloomed and disappeared wherever she passed.
Soon after, she returned to her lair holding an ice bowl filled with the blood of the monsters.
Each and every one of the blood’s owners belonged to powerful monsters that humans called S-class monsters.
The precious blood that an alchemist would want to have even if it meant sacrificing his soul.
It was carefully poured around the flowers.
As the flower absorbed blood through its roots, it gradually regained its vitality, but the splendid brilliance it had shown in the middle layer still did not return.
Prostia looked at the flower with a puzzled expression.
She could not understand why the flower was withering in such a perfect lair.
Every time it absorbed the blood of a monster, the flower regained just enough vitality to prevent it from withering.
Every day, Prostia hunted monsters in the depths and brought back blood, but the splendid brilliance of the petals did not return.
Three years had passed like that.
Already three years…
Prostia suddenly realized the passage of time.
For her, who had lived for thousands of years, three years seemed so short.
She was bewildered by the fact that three years had already passed since her encounter with the flower, which felt like yesterday.
“Riko, how do I become healthy again?”
“If it’s a plant…”
Only then did she realize.
Plants need light.
No matter how much they are nourished with the blood of a monster, they cannot live properly without light.
Prostia hurriedly lifted the flower.
This time, unlike the first time, she moved the flower gently, as if handling a glass craft.
The cold wind of the Sia Kalt Mountains blew through her silver hair.
She walked toward the high part of the mountain.
She headed toward the peak where tens of thousands of years of snow had accumulated and stopped at an appropriate height.
“If it’s here…”
She carefully planted the flower.
Since it was a flower that was strong enough to survive even in the cold ice, she thought it would be able to endure at this height.
As time passed, the flower gradually regained its vitality.
The purple stamens began to move like a snake’s tongue again, and the red petals gradually regained their luster.
However, a question remained in a corner of Prostia’s mind.
There must have been no sunlight even in the middle layer…!
She looked at the flower with cold eyes and thought.
“What on earth is this?”
Bingryong, who had never imagined that he had regained his vitality and consciousness after escaping the cold air of the deepest layer, had regained consciousness.
‘Here… A warm sensation that I felt for the first time caressed my petals.
Something shining golden, completely different from the blue I had only seen in ice caves, poured down from above me.
This is… sunlight.
It was such an unfamiliar sensation to me, who was born and raised in a cave.
Each petal was imbued with a warm energy, and my pitch-black stems took on a soft sheen.
The moment I tried to fully deploy my sensing powers, I felt a soft energy next to me.
It was Prostia.
She was standing next to me, watching all of this.
The hem of her silver dress fluttered elegantly in the mountain breeze, and her endless silver hair shone even more beautifully under the sunlight.
Her pure white eyes coldly watched me face this scenery.
‘Eek! My, my master…’
I recalled the memories from before I lost consciousness.
“No! You are trying to give me, a plant, sunlight! Don’t you dare doubt me!”
When I calmed down and regained my senses, a breathtaking sight unfolded before me.
An endless white mountain range.
The ridges of the snowy mountains sparkling under the sun rose toward the sky like the spine of a giant dragon.
Under the crystal-clear sky, dazzling snowfields filled every inch of my vision.
‘I can’t believe there was a world like this…’
A refreshing feeling, completely different from the cold of the ice caves I had seen in the labyrinth, enveloped my whole body.
The other peaks visible through the clouds in the distance shone as if they were carved from white jewels.
I was now rooted high up in the mountain range.
When I turned my gaze down, I felt a great depth.
The entrance to the labyrinth I had just been to was somewhere far below.
“Have I ever been this close to the sky…?”
My stamens trembled slightly at this overwhelming sight that I was encountering for the first time.
A vast world that I could not even imagine in the labyrinth.
Every time the cold snowy mountain wind blew, sparkling snowstorms bloomed elegantly.
A gentle smile appeared on Prostia’s lips.
It was an expression as if he had encountered a moment he had been waiting for for a long time.
“Thank you, Master.”
At that moment, the status window rang.
The level of the [Photosynthesis LV2] skill has increased.
“Oh! It’s increasing right away!”
Since the level of photosynthesis had increased, I examined myself to see if anything had changed, and felt a sense of discomfort.
“Huh? Is it me? Why do I feel so strong?”
What the heck?
I opened the status window in confusion.
At that moment, it felt as if time had stopped.
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