Forty-Nine

"Are you sure about this?" Diur asked as they stared together at the small flower across the glenn. It hadn't taken Diur long to find the natural treasure, the area was rife with them. Rifts had been depositing energy through the entire planet for who know how long, the treasures were fairly common if one knew what to look for.

Diur had explained that it was finding the right type of treasure that was the hard part. One that wasn't going to splatter Kon around the forest side when he tried to consume it. One that was weak enough that he could consume it, hadn't aspected to anything, and could actually be eaten. Not having the supplies to create an appropriate bath or way to cultivate a resource really did limit their choices.

"I'm tired of being weak. Of others needing to protect me. I'm going to go and get that flower and I'm going to finish my body cultivation," Kon said. It had been sitting on him ever since Alice had first strode in front of him to fight the Lupine on the Dragon's Maw and it had crystallized when she had stepped in front of him for the final time. Watching Alice and Diur protect him time after time as he failed to be strong enough to defend himself.

That feeling was too much for him, he was done with it. Whatever it took, whatever risk was needed, he'd never feel that way again.

"There will always be someone stronger than you," Diur cautioned, she looked at him with a hint of concern in her eyes.

"I know that. But I won't be helpless anymore. So, I'm going to go and get that flower," Kon said, pointing over at the rose-gold flower that grew by itself.

"Alright, there's a guardian over there. I can feel it under the earth." Diur pointed a finger at the clear, thick, grass that surrounded the tall plant. Kon nodded as he started formulating his plan.

Their flight from the plateau had led to them losing nearly everything they'd acquired or built over their time stranded. They had been left with only Diur's sword as the only weapon of note. They had found a sizeable tree branch that she had shaved down to a respectable club. It felt pathetic in his hand after using the laser rifle or even the spear that Alice had made for him.

"Only F-Grade, right?" Kon asked to confirm before he walked out into the clearing.

"Mid F-Grade if my senses are right. You've killed things like this before with a rock. You should be fine with a stick," Diur said. She jumped into a tree branch, a startled sound coming from her as it bent down under her weight. The metallic trees in the plateau were much sturdier than the ones down here.

Kon took a wary step into the field, the ground soft beneath his feet, and walked cautiously toward the sole flower. He made it three steps before he saw the ground shift, grass breaking apart as a chitinous black arm breached in an eruption of soil. A second, third, and fourth arm followed in quick succession as the creature came free of the ground.

It stared at him with wide red eyes that blinked rapidly as sunlight blinded it for a moment. Kon didn't give it a chance to adjust, he crossed the space in three lunging steps and hit it across its bulbous head as hard as he could. Chitin cracked and the thing screeched as it fell backward, claws lashing at the air in front of it.

Kon danced back, light as a feather, as the claws missed him by scant inches. The wide, slashing movements were easy to predict, Kon moved between the blows and landed another powerful blow. Green blood squirted free of its bashed head, blending amongst the vegetation as it staggered about, screeching.

"It's slow." The thought was an easy one, the creature was slow, weak, and seemed to be helpless as Kon proceeded to batter it about without concern or haste. It wasn't a real fight, just a beat down. The guardian died with a mewling cry as it flopped to the ground and went still, its head nothing more than a misshapen mess.

"Told you," Diur said as she landed next to him silently. She looked down at the oozing mess of bug and wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"I'm not eating that. We'll find something else soon enough," Diur said. She wedged her foot under its body and rolled it away as she walked up to the plant. Closer to it Kon could feel the energy that had saturated the plant. It wasn't the strongest he'd ever felt but it felt similar to the first F-Grade rift treasure he'd found, the burning orb.

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"This should be enough. You're close to finished and only need a bit more to finish the first stage of purification and enhancement." Diur leaned closer to the plant and sniffed it.

"Close enough to being neutral," she declared. She stepped back and waved her hand at the plant.

"What do I do? Just pull it up?" Kon asked as he leaned over the plant, reaching out to grasp it by the roots.

"NO!" Diur shouted, her hand shooting out to grab his wrist. She shook her head and looked around the forest, as if her shout and not the recent fight would have been enough to stir the denizens of the forest. So far, this lower level seemed much more sparsely populated than the plateau had.

"Why not?"

"Natural treasures aren't like the treasures inside of the rift. They're natural, not false."

"Alright. I don't think you understand how little that helps," Kon said. He pulled his wrist free and looked over at the plant. It was a single flower atop of a bush that reached his mid chest. The bush was filled with prickly looking black thorns while the sole flower nearly glowed with power. Resin dripped off the leaves of the bush and Kon had no desire to risk touching them.

"It means that energy saturated a natural formation or plant or anything really. But, it was in relationship to its surroundings. If you just rip it out of the ground like some primitive ape, you risk destroying some of the potency of the treasure."

"How do I remove it then?"

"Only the flower itself is a treasure. Nip the bud off, right there," Diur pointed on the stem to right below where the bud of the flower grew.

"That's it?"

"Kon, it's an F-Grade treasure. It's hardly more than a medicinal herb."

"Then why were you freaking out?"

"Habits are hard to break. Better to instill them here and now with something that's common than when you go further in your studies and start destroying rare or unique natural treasures."

Diur beamed at him as he reached over with his thumb and forefinger and nipped the flower right where she had indicated. A bit of the tacky looking resin coated his nail, but there didn't seem to be any adverse effects to it. The entire plant wilted, leaves drooping and shrinking, the healthy aura around dissolving instantly. In his palme, the velvet soft petals radiated power against his palm, like an electric current.

"Just eat it? Whole thing?"

"Be better if we could brew it into a tea." Diur pouted for a second, lips pursed as she looked at it.

"Let me just go get the teapot. Maybe break out the fine china?"

"I'm glad your spirits are returning. Just eat it." Diur snorted and walked a few steps away. Kon smiled at her and then bunched up the flower and shoved it into his mouth, chewing quickly.

Liquid filled his mouth, like that of fresh cut grass and honey. It was sticky and cloying, Kon wanted to spit it out instantly. He swallowed it down as he sat down on the ground in a cross legged pose, his newfound club across his knees as he focused on his breathing.

It was slower than the last time. A slowly growing warmth in his stomach as his nodes flared to life, the world sharpening into great detail. All the small hurts and pains of the last few days began to fall away under the healing aura of his secondary node. Then energy began to spill out of the nodes, overwhelming them as they sloshed into his body.

Compared to his first time or even second, it was a gentle experience as he finished his first stage of body cultivation. Energy filled his cells, refilling the lost power he had burned away when he manifested a fragment for the first time.

"That's it!" Diur asked, outrage in her voice as he opened his eyes and got up and stretched.

"What do you mean?" Kon asked. He reveled in how his body felt, how clean and easy he moved.

"You are a real monster," Diur whispered, eyes wide as Kon stretched out in front of her. He really did feel better now, the natural treasure's left over energy having refueled his tank. It was like a week of sleep, a great massage, and then a clean hearty meal, all rolled into one.

"What you mean?"

"People don't absorb energy like that. It's not natural. That should have been the work of hours, you did it in a few minutes," Diur said as she shook her head.

"I don't feel like a monster. Get my ass kicked all the time," Kon said. Their last sparring had not gone well for him.

"I've been training my entire life. Alice had a decade of combat experience. You're comparing yourself to your seniors and not your peers. Wait till you are reunited with your peers. You will see then," Diur promised.

"We need to find them first," Kon said. He bent down and touched the ground with his palms, knees straight. He hardly felt the strain.

"Alice said Evelyn would find us. We just have to trust in that," Diur said.

"Well, we need to hunt first. That flower wasn't very filling," Kon said. He finished stretching and twisting, grabbing his club and putting it over his shoulder.

"You have another rune to build?" Diur asked.

"Yeah. But I'm going to need a bunch of stones. Have you found any F-Grade monsters that'd be easy to eat?"

"Oh…I think I have just the thing you want," Diur said with a sickly smile that made Kon question what it was they were going to hunt. It was good to see her smile and joking. The last few days hadn't gone well, the giant hole in their party was a gaping spot that still sucked at both of them, fear, despair, sadness, anger, all of it rising if they thought about it for more than a moment.

"This will not be our end. I won't let Alice's sacrifice be for nothing."

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