15
“Spirit Tree Seed?”
Ki Ja-hyeon was dumbfounded.
A legendary spirit tree that even druids of his previous life might or might not get to handle once in their entire lives.
And now, its seed was shining brilliantly inside his inventory window?!
“No, why did this pop out here?”
The Spirit Tree was an intensely sacred tree.
It was something that absorbed the surrounding energy all at once, then grew rapidly!
A tree that took root across land as wide as the druid’s skill allowed, absorbed all the nutrients in the surrounding ground, and grew in an instant!
Ki Ja-hyeon had a deep connection with this thing in his previous life.
He had found many and planted many.
In his later years, he had even created a Spirit Tree that covered an entire city, gifted it to the elves, and became the first half-elf acknowledged as one of their family.
The seed of that deeply connected thing was now before his eyes after a single achievement.
“I-I was just planning to plant Krushvalbi...!”
That was right.
In the first place, what he had planned to plant in this land was Krushvalbi.
Just the right amount of sunlight. Moist humidity. All of it had been optimal conditions for Krushvalbi to grow wild.
But not anymore.
Now that he had obtained a Spirit Tree Seed, he had to plant it first.
“Because the efficiency is different...!”
Land with a Spirit Tree and land without one were on completely different levels.
No matter what was planted, it grew faster, its effects improved, and most of all....
“The taste of the harvest becomes a world apart!”
This was like digging for copper and discovering a vein of gold.
So it was only natural to change the end of his pickaxe and aim for the gold vein!
Coming back to his senses, Ki Ja-hyeon sprang to his feet.
“Tonight, I’ll plant it!”
Even if he wanted to plant it now, he could not.
There were a few things to prepare,
and most of all, his body was on the verge of exhaustion.
.
.
.
Like that, a crescent moon rose bright and clear.
The light of that crescent moon entered softly through the warehouse ceiling.
The light struck the ground and scattered.
The crumbly soil had already undergone territory declaration and become the domain of Ki Ja-hyeon, the druid.
The first condition for sprouting a Spirit Tree,
a druid’s territory, had been fulfilled!
Then what was the second condition?
It was the seeds of crops that would serve as offerings.
Inside the Shelter, where cultivated plants themselves were precious, obtaining viable seeds was like plucking stars from the sky.
But Ki Ja-hyeon could obtain seeds all too easily.
He could harvest as many as he wished from the lemons and cherry tomatoes he had carefully grown!
“I’m feeling the reward for raising them diligently at a time like this!”
Now he had to design a spirit-affinity array around the land where the Spirit Tree would be planted.
Of course, he did not know whether spirits existed in this world, but since a Spirit Tree Seed had appeared, he intended to do it the same way.
He dug into the designated ground and planted the seeds in perfect rows and columns.
Ki Ja-hyeon marked the places where they would be planted.
Thunder and Cloud took care of the rest on their own.
Woof, woof, woof! (Dig up!)
Mya, mya, myang! (Hide!)
When Thunder scratched up the ground, Cloud placed seeds there and covered them.
Sometimes in straight lines, sometimes in ovals, and sometimes in perfect circles, the seeds were planted.
If seen from the ceiling, a geometric magic circle would probably be drawn there.
Ki Ja-hyeon stood in the center of that magic circle, opened his inventory, and took out the Spirit Tree Seed.
Name: Spirit Tree Seed
Grade: S
Type: Plant
Description: In an ancient universe, there once existed a gigantic tree formed by compressing the spirits and spirit affinity of all kinds of worlds. The tree that seemed as though it would grow forever sent tens of thousands of seeds flying one day, then withered away.
This is one of those seeds.
Effect: Can sprout a Spirit Tree.
“It’s been a while.”
The Spirit Tree Seed was round and smooth, really resembling an avocado seed.
He planted it in the middle of the warehouse, which was also the center of the magic circle, then covered it.
He placed his palm on the ground and once again infused natural power.
At maximum output!
Fwoooooosh!
Soon, the entire vegetable garden of around 330 square meters glowed faintly, and that light began compressing toward the center of the field.
When the light compressed to the size of a fist, it burrowed into the ground, and from within, a crack! rang out.
The seed had broken open.
And soon,
Rumble, rumble...!
Something like a pillar peeked its head out.
A tree that only a few talented druids could summon.
It was the moment a Spirit Tree rose between the concrete building forests.
And on top of that,
“...Hmm?”
it was something completely different from what Ki Ja-hyeon had expected.
“What is this?”
A 330-square-meter plot was large only in this world.
Compared to his previous life, a 330-square-meter plot was as tiny as a chick’s tear.
Was that why?
“It’s small...?”
The sapling was only about the height of a three-year-old child.
“And it’s black...!”
The tree should have been a crystal of great nature, with green leaves that filled the heart just by being seen, but its leaves were pitch-black.
Far from the energy of great nature, it even looked bleak enough to be eerie if seen at night.
Should he say it was almost openly demonstrating, “I am a dangerous one~”?
On top of that,
“It’s a conjoined tree?”
A conjoined tree. In other words, two trees intertwined with each other and looked like a single tree.
This tree right now was a conjoined tree.
Even for Ki Ja-hyeon, who had planted more than a thousand Spirit Trees in his previous life, this was the first time he had experienced such a thing.
“Is it the Spirit Tree’s localization...or something like that?”
If that was the case, he could fully understand.
The color of the tree and leaves changing was nothing much....
But the unusual points were only beginning.
Sure enough, befitting a conjoined tree, the Spirit Tree had leaves of different shapes.
They should have been those of lemons and tomatoes.
Because those had been the offerings.
But they were not.
They were not shaped like those things.
One side had broad, bizarre cotyledons, while the other had leaves made of five parts like maple leaves, and they were even curled up like ferns.
Just as he was questioning that,
[The Spirit Tree is absorbing the surrounding power.]
Tssssss.
The Spirit Tree began to grow larger.
As if it were saying it was still in the middle of growing....
The thing that had been about the size of a child barely surpassed Ki Ja-hyeon’s height, then stopped growing.
The leaves were still not fully unfurled, and naturally, it had not borne fruit either, so it was difficult to guess what leaves they were.
“Will I know when it grows more?”
If so, this was something time would solve.
As long as it drank water well and basked in sunlight, the Spirit Tree would grow.
If he fed it natural power from time to time like fertilizer, that would be the icing on the cake.
Because of that, Ki Ja-hyeon resolved to leisurely wait for the result.
He did so until he heard the next message.
[Magic stones required for Spirit Tree full growth. (0/1,000)]
“...It localized a bit too much, didn’t it?”
It was asking not for natural power, but for magic stones?
It was asking him to feed it money instead of fertilizer and water!
[Insert magic stone? (0/1,000)]
“...Well, what can I do?”
Ki Ja-hyeon immediately closed his eyes and connected to the System shop.
He quickly bought one F Grade magic stone and placed it against the Spirit Tree.
Like a single drop of water being absorbed into a great lake, the magic stone naturally seeped in.
[Insert magic stone? (1/1,000)]
“...You’re telling me to put in a thousand?”
Then what about E Grade?
[Insert magic stone? (11/1,000)]
“...This time it’s a hundred, huh.”
E Grade magic stones were 30 coins each. If he bought 100, that was 3,000 coins.
That was also almost all the wealth Ki Ja-hyeon currently possessed.
“It fits exactly by coincidence....”
Ja-hyeon’s eyelids trembled faintly.
To think he was about to sink all the assets he had worked so hard to earn into a single seed!
But his instincts were already pressing the purchase button(?).
After all, he could just multiply coins again!
The moment he burned through 3,000 coins like that,
Rumble, rumble, rumble...!
The Spirit Tree that had only been as tall as Ki Ja-hyeon began growing again.
It grew past twice his height, then three times his height...and then it shot up as if it would pierce through the four-story ceiling, before covering the entire ceiling surface to the starting point of the walls like ivy. Even if a bomb flew in and destroyed the building, the square Spirit Tree would be enough to serve as the building itself.
Woof, woof. Woof! (Shock. Master scary!)
Mya, myang. Myaaang! (Enemy. Comrade, fight!)
Thunder, who had been with him, buried its head between Ki Ja-hyeon’s legs, while Cloud pressed its rear against Ki Ja-hyeon’s back. As if saying that enemy on that side was his to handle.
Normally, Ki Ja-hyeon would have stroked their heads and said they were cute, but he could not do that now.
Because Ki Ja-hyeon was just as shocked as the creatures, if not more.
Only now were the shapes of the two conjoined leaves properly revealed.
The leaves shaped like completely spread hands, and the leaves shaped like exact droplets, like round shields, were clearly...!
“Ha......”
A deep sigh leaked from Ki Ja-hyeon’s mouth.
The plants someone had tried to raise here and failed with....
“were cannabis...and coca?”
Just what kind of lunatic was the previous owner of this place...?
But regardless of whether he was shocked or not, the System began showing the details of the completed Spirit Tree.
Name: Ki Ja-hyeon’s Spirit Tree
Grade: F (Growth-Type)
Type: Tree
Description: The first Spirit Tree sprouted by the druid “Ki Ja-hyeon.” It used cannabis and cocaine as offerings. As a conjoined tree where two are one, it breathes in the barren surrounding air and exhales air full of abundant mana.
Effects:
– Growth speed of crops within the declared territory doubled.
– Purifies a 500-meter radius. (3/100)
– Spirit fruit generated. (100/100)
“Fascinating.”
Ki Ja-hyeon of his previous life had been the number one druid.
He had made Spirit Trees as routinely as eating meals.
But all of that had happened after he became a legendary druid.
He had never planted a Spirit Tree when he was a novice druid.
“It isn’t easy either...and in the first place, there’s no way they would give something that precious to a rookie druid. Even if I received it, well, it wouldn’t be as if I could sprout it.”
In other words, this was almost like a middle schooler reading through specialized books(?) meant for hackers, then hacking Joseong Daily and robbing it blind.
Because of that, ironically, to Ki Ja-hyeon, this baby(?) Spirit Tree was a fascinating creature he was seeing for the first time, whether in this life or the previous one.
“It really, really only has the most basic functions.”
Even those were truly only at F Grade level!
Compared to this, the Spirit Trees Ki Ja-hyeon had sprouted in his previous life could be called S. No, S+.
But even this level of Spirit Tree would be tremendously helpful.
Four times the cultivation speed!
In the first place, when he declared the territory, the cultivation speed of crops had doubled, so since this multiplied that by two, he could expect four times the harvest.
On top of that, the surroundings were purified.
The area purified by a Spirit Tree held tremendous value.
Even in the past, the mana concentration had been different, so how much more would that be true here, in this concrete building forest?
Already, even now, the air he felt around him was beginning to change.
“Inhaaaale~ exhaaaale. Nice! It already feels like it’s getting better, doesn’t it?”
In this place where the surrounding mana concentration was weak, this amount of mana must be tremendous.
Although right now, as the System displayed, it was only (3/100), if it became 100/100 over time, would the air within a 500-meter radius not become super air that could not be breathed even with money?
“In that sense, when spirit fruit also reaches 100/100, one should open, right?”
Of course, it would probably be nerfed so much that it could not even compare to the S Grade spirit fruit of his previous life.
Even so, a spirit fruit was still a spirit fruit.
“I’m looking forward to it. Heh heh!”
As he said that and sank into thought, one part of his brain began to itch.
It felt like,
he had seen and judged something wrong just now...?
When he checked the System again, he realized it.
[Spirit fruit generated. (100/100)]
The spirit fruit had already been generated...!
“What? They’re already open? Where?”
Finding them was not difficult.
When he looked around, two objects were emitting light from the tip of the tree.
Sparkle, sparkle.
Befitting a conjoined tree, there were two fruits.
A fist-sized silver tomato and a silver lemon.
“No....”
The leaves were cannabis leaves and coca leaves, so why were the fruits tomatoes and lemons?
While he was dumbfounded like that, one cat was already climbing up there.
“Hey, you! Hey!”
Myaaang! (Laser point discovered!)
Cloud, who had quickly climbed up the conjoined tree, knocked down the still-glowing tomato and lemon one by one with cat punches.
“Uh!”
Woof! (Eat.)
After Cloud’s cat punches, Thunder, with its hearty appetite, stepped in.
“Do you just eat anything that falls?”
Woof, woof, woof! (Before it gets stolen!)
The large mouth of the big-headed Welsh corgi swallowed the cherry tomato in one bite.
Cloud, which always competed over food, refused to lose and bit into the lemon, chewing it noisily.
Myaaak! (Sour!)
The silver tomato was one bite for Thunder, and although the silver lemon was large for Cloud’s mouth, it melted away the moment it touched and disappeared into its mouth.
And the result was,
Fwoooooosh!
Thunder and Cloud’s bodies were wrapped in silver light, and their sizes grew a little larger.
In addition, Thunder’s nose turned silver, and Cloud’s eyes also turned silver.
Then, unable to contain the boiling power, they howled.
Awooooooo! (Power! More power!)
Hissssss! (Rebellion. Rule the territory!)
“Oh dear....”