[Ascension]

In that night, Ruri logged in to the game as Hecate and appeared in the vicinity of the Academy.

She was about to head to the Auction Hall, but given the distance, it was closer to the City Square than the Academy and would be too far to walk from here. So to save time, she immediately tore up a Town Scroll and teleported to the City Square.

As a result, she was greeted by the tragic scene in front of her.

The surrounding area near the Solstreus City Teleportation Gate had been turned into a refugee camp and there were many injured Natives being treated in several tents, as well as the busy people who transporting stuff.

• • ♂ Native (≈20), who lost his left arm : "It hurts... Ouch! My left arm... can it really grow again?"
    • "Please don't worry, it will grow after you drink a bottle of Limb Growing Potion.
      But, you'll have to endure excruciating pain during the process. So prepare yourself."
  • ♀ Native (≈10), a child who lost her parents : "Mother... Father... Where are you?"
  • ♂ Native (≈30), who lost his wife : "My wife... My wife...!! Anyone, have you seen my wife!?"
    • "Uncle, please calm down and be patient. The identification survey has not yet been completed."
         

The atmosphere they gave off were depressing and sorrowful.

There was even a child crying and screaming, searching for her parents in the crowd. But perhaps because everyone was busy with something, no one spoke to the child.

"Is this a quest event?"

As Hecate walked, her ears gathered information from the surrounding talk about what had happened. It seems that this group of refugees was rescued from Drusel Fort where the Orc Stampede occurred.

In the end, the Fort was not saved and the people there decided to raise funds to activate the Teleportation Gate several times to evacuate the residents to this city. Of course the process was not smooth and by the time of the seventh activation, the barrier broke.

As for what happened after, it goes without saying.

• • ♂ Lord Knight (Human) : "Damn it, <**beep**> you Gaia! How could they do this..."
    • ♂ Sage (Human) : "It's okay if they want to create a stampede event. But..."
    • ♂ Sage (Human) : "But at least, they should let us fight back!"
    • ♂ Trickster (Human) :"I agree, what they did is just too <**beep**> to accept."
         
  • ♀ Archwitch (Human) : "Where is our leader anyway?"
    • ♀ Shadow Assassin (Human) : "Still fighting the Orcs apparently."
    • ♀ Archwitch (Human) : "Ah... He still hasn't given up? That's a World BOSS, you know?"

Nebula Guild Players were cursing Gaia Corporation about what happened in this event.

How could the GMs summon a new World BOSS so suddenly and make him attack Drusel Fort?

Summoning the BOSS itself was still fine as they still believe they could manage it somehow with the strength of their guild. But, to completely prevent them from online with a forced update, that's definitely not fair.

Why are they holding events but preventing people from participating?

• • ♀ Ranger (Human) : "I say, there is a conspiracy in this event. The GM is targeting our Nebula Guild!"
    • ♂ Archwizard (Human) : "I know, I know... You already said that more than 10 times already."
    • ♀ Lord Knight (Human) : "Maybe... they are just misplanned?

The GM misplanned? A hidden conspiracy?

If not because of that forced update, things might end differently.

Whatever the truth, every Player involved with Drusel Fort at the time, especially the members of the Nebula Guild simultaneously had the same thought.

There is something wrong with this game!

But of course, while some wept, some also rejoiced.

This was especially true for players with the Priest and Priestess jobclasses. Not only them, but even several other jobclasses also followed in caring for the injured. Rescue events are naturally the perfect time for them to earn faith and karma.

Hecate disinterestedly left the place.

"Well, it's nothing to do with me(?) anyway."

She didn't lack karma at the moment and the Natives weren't important enough for her to earn favorability points. She might as well rush to the Auction Hall to buy seeds for her Aura breathing experiments.

But before that, she visited Adventurer's Guild first to withdraw 20m Gold coins.

And when she arrived at the Auction Hall, she looked through the list of items to consider what to buy, spent about 4m, and then returned to the real world.

♠♠♠

 

[Ruri's Residence]

After logging out of the game, Ruri returned to the living room.

The background of the room was still set in the "Brazilian Forest 1990" and has not been turned off.

She took out 4 Plant Pots from the inventory and placed them outside of the carpet in 4 different direction. Those pots were one of the items Hecate had purchased from the Auction Hall earlier for 500,000 each.

Of course, with Hecate's Blacksmith skills, she could make something as easy as a Plant Pot and it didn't take much time.

However, making an ordinary pot is a simple thing, but making a masterpiece pot is another matter. If the pot was only made of chunk iron, it would have no special effect. It would be no different than a cheap pot printed from a 3D printer.

This pot was made from a rare material that was too far away for Hecate to access at the moment.

"Making a pot using Feyrun Jewel Stone... This guy is quite clever."

From her knowledge, Feyrun Jewel Stone was a crafting material that could only be found in the Elven Kingdom. It was a stone that can slightly improve the quality of the surrounding soil just by being there. Truly a natural passive fertilizer. And there was also this automatic moisture absorption function, which can save Ruri's energy to water the pot.

Next, she took out a few bags of Enriched Soil, which also bought from the Auction Hall, and poured them to each pot.

This is a soil that has been cultivated by Players with the Farmer or Gardener Subclass. By using this soil, plant growth and quality can be raised one or two grades. Combined with the pot effect, the increase in growth should reach a qualitative leap.

In truth, ordinary soil would suffice, but naturally no Player would sell ordinary items in the Auction Hall.

"Okay, now let's start planting the seeds."

Next, Ruri took out 4 Seed Bags of different plants, took out one seed from each bag, and planted them into each pot. Three of the seeds are as follows:

• • Moonlight Flower Seed (★★★)
  • Deliras Flower Seed (★★★)
  • Ardur Flower Seed (★★★)

Those flower seeds certainly weren't the flower species that grew on Earth. They were chosen by her because the flowers were usually used to brew various types of Potions and were rich in mana. In her mind, perhaps such flowers could better aid her Aura Breathing method than ordinary plants.

However, the last seed wasn't chosen for that consideration.

Ever since she saw this seed on the Auction Hall's item list, she couldn't help but be interested.

Little Chomper is a plant that looks like a Venus flytrap and is able to eat food and digest it as nutrients. There are many videos on the internet about Players keeping one or more Little Chompers as pets. They look so adorable and docile, plus it doesn't take much effort to raise them. And so, she decided might as well raise one.

After placing the seeds on each pot, she took the last item, a bottle of Super Fertilizer X.

This bottle was the fertilizer that has been re-included in the cash shop this season, and can be purchased by those with Premium-type Pods or higher. It also includes a dropper pipette, integrated with the bottle cap.

It was purchased by Hecate from the Save-Crystal in the Auction Hall.

Regarding this item, there were a lot of references in the Genesis Guild during its past appearance. Basically, only one drop of the fertilizer can be used every 24 hours, or the plant will overgrowth and mostly die soon after.

Ruri opened the bottle and prepared to drop one drop for each seed.

But before she started, she suddenly had the urge to record the process. She used her T-Bracelet to call several cleaning robots and used their camera to record the seed growing process. Naturally, she had to control the angle so that her naked body would not be seen in the cameras. 

"Well, this is just one chance of a lifetime. Of course I have to record it."

With the cameras recording the process, Ruri immediately started.

She carefully drops one drop of fertilizer onto each seed, one by one with Little Chomper being the last. Once the drops of liquid fertilizer were distributed, the seeds germinated and grew at a speed visible to the eye. Soon after, there were three species of flowers and one unknown plant species that had never existed on Earth, blooming in the room.

Each of them could shake up the field of botanical studies, and perhaps even create an international sensation!

Looking at the result, Ruri let out a satisfied smile. She herself observed the growth process of those seeds until they bloomed. And then, her gaze fell on Little Chomper in the last pot.

"Kwiieeeeee~k..."

Like a chick breaking its egg shell, the flower that resembled a Pitaya fruit suddenly all of its petals fell off. And from inside the flower, a small bud with an open mouth was seen.

The bud let out a little cry as if looking for its mother. And then, perhaps after feeling the presence of the naked loli, the bud slowly turned towards Ruri's direction. It had no eyes, but seemed to have some sort of other sensory senses.

Ruri stroked the bud slowly with her finger.

"From now on, your name is Kuu!"

"Kwiiee~k..."

The bud, or more precisely Kuu, wriggled from her stroke as if it was a kitten.

Seeing Kuu's response, Ruri couldn't help but smile. She then took out a Milk Candy from the inventory and feed it to Kuu. The bud happily ate the candy and started learning how to chew.

"Now lets see how far I can go."

Ruri immediately performed the Aura Breathing method once again.

Meanwhile in the side, Kuu who was still busy munching the candy just silently observing the naked loli doing some series of movements. There was a desire to imitate what she does, but unfortunately it has no limbs that can be moved.

About an hour passed, and she finished the practice.

This time, although the environment was still far from the real forest, there was progress. Even if it was just a little bit, she could feel four warm temperatures from Kuu and the flowers, and distinguished it from the cool air of the air conditioner.

"Okay, I seems to get the hang of it now. Still... it's just too faint."

The sensation she had previously felt was so slight that Ruri still doubted whether it was just her imagination. She couldn't help but think, perhaps this method of Aura Breathing was just fiction made for the game and there was no way it was real.

She thought about stopping it there, but after looking at Kuu, she thought it was still to early to give up.

"Kwiee...?"

'Even Kuu can be turned into reality. Why not Aura?'

To make a noticeable progress, perhaps four plants weren't enough. Looks like she still needs to buy a place and turn it into a greening facility. This is a huge project and cannot be realized in a short time.

"It might be easier to purchase a bankrupt facility and remake it myself... But the money..."

Of course, it was always money that spins the world.

Buying an existing facility, even a bankrupt one, would cost tens or maybe hundreds of millions of yen. As for how Ruri could earn that much money, she naturally has many option to chose. But, to do so would mean she had to reveal some of her cards.

"It can't be helped... I guess it's the time."

While she was preoccupied with her thoughts, her T-Bracelet let out a notification sound.

It was a message from the Beastkin siblings.