Marigold – A LitRPG

I had flown all the way back and was near the little hideout I had carried this ball of smelly food all the way back, and now I was so tired that i could pass out, my whole body ached and I felt totally drained of strength, so much that I even checked to see if I had anything in my stats.

 

""Shit... I wore myself out a lot, now even if I managed to feed Hans I wouldn't be able to get out of this damned forest."

When I got to my hiding place I had a lot of work until I could get in with my tangle of food as company, when I finally got into the hiding place I felt my legs give up, and my mind get clouded, I had never tried so hard for so long to get so few resources, but now I needed to believe that this [Corpse-eating Venus honey], could neutralize the effect of [Dying of Hunger] if didn't, or ended up leaving Hans with the effect [Addicted] I wouldn't know what to do, my only option would be to feed Hans with honey with non-lethal effects, like sleep, paralysis, itching and stuff like that.

When I took a look at My Little Giant I found that soon he would lose the effect of (Incapacitated)

 

 

I didn't have the strength to do anything else, nor to clean myself from this horrible smell, all I could do was settle in a corner and look directly at Hans while waiting for the effect to end at once.

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"Oof-- Ouch my head..."

"HANS!"

"Mother?... You fine? Where the enemy?"

While Hans spoke in a broken and raspy manner he tried to get up with difficulty as if he were very weak at the moment.

"Hans he is already dead! Don't try to move now you are very hurt!"

Hans suddenly stopped and returned to the previous position, he was breathing heavily and looked in pain.

"Why didn't you run away... I bought time just for you.. you run away but you didn't move..."

"Forgive me Hans! I'm an idiot I should have done what you told me! If i had hidden when you asked you could have run away too..."

"Ru-Run Away? I wouldn't run away Mom... Soldiers fight to the death..."

What? Hans had never planned for me to hide so he could hide too, he asked me to hide and run away while he would fight to the death against the termite...

"No!"

"Hans your life is very important to me, you are not a disposable member of this group, you are my adorable little hungry larva, you got it! Don't think that I will accept in open arms your suicidal attitude!"

"I-I'm sorry Mom, I just wanted to fulfill my pur-purpose..."

Purpose? That stupid thing I gave him when he was born? I haven't even thought a lot about that! And yet it seems that Hans took it very seriously, as if it were his only goal in life."

"Hans, your purpose is always to be with me by my side understood! No matter the situation or reason, you are not allowed to die just because you think you need to die for me! You should care about your own life before anything!"

"B-but me..."

"Nothing more! You are very important to me Hans understood? I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out."

"I understand... I really appreciate it mom, but I think I'll end up dying anyway..."

"Who do you think I am?! Someone who speaks some nice words to a man with his foot in the grave! Not really! I won't let you die so easily!"

After yelling at Hans a bit I draged the Food ball and [Honey of a saint's tears] little orb and put them in front of Hans with a little difficulty.

"Hans eat it, this will make you better to leave this place, try not to eat too much [Corpse-eating Venus crystalized honey] it can be very dangerous if consumed in large quantities."

"I... Thank you mom.. I really appreciate it"

I just watched as my soldier got up with some difficulty and sat down in front of the small pile of food in front of him, first he inspected it for a few seconds before starting to chew pieces of the ball of honey flakes and sticky wax and then shalow them with ease, he repeated the process for about 8 times and i was already getting afraid that the effect of (Addicted) would activate, or maybe it had already activated?! Maybe that's why Hans was eating so much!

 

 

Phew, nothing interesting here, and it seems that the reason Hans is moving so awkwardly is because of the effect of (Exhaustion) just like me, should this be a secondary effect of (Incapacitated)? As if the incapacitated effect itself wasn't already shit, he still has more consequences after leaving! I think the fact that it's only for 6 hours is a good thing at least.

I watched as Hans stopped at about half of the small crystal ball and then swallowed the small orb of [Honey of a saint's tears] without hesitation and then i looked at the (Recovery) efect.

 

 

"And now mom, what should I do?"

"Rest Hans, we Two must rest a little and then get out of this place as soon as possible, the whole forest is compromised, we cannot stay here."

After answering Hans I went to nestle in a corner so that I could get some sleep, I was so tired that the smell already seemed unimportant. As Hans imitated me and nestled in the other corner of the little hole he began to ask me some questions.

"Compromised? What do you mean, mom?"

UGh. This should be how parents tired from a long day at work feel as all they want is a little rest but still need to care for their children.

"The whole forest is contaminated with something that makes all the plants poisonous."

"This is strange, we didn't fly so far from our old house, but back there we haven't found poisonous plants everywhere..."

"It is... it seems to be something unique to this region, so why not try to get some sleep?"

"If this forest is really as dangerous as it looks, shouldn't we leave immediately? After all, there must be more creatures like the one that attacked me, and others even more dangerous!"

"Hans... I'm exhausted, and so are you, if we left now we wouldn't be able to keep up, and if another creature appeared in our path we wouldn't be able to do anything but stare while we were killed."

Well I couldn't do anything but stare while we were being killed in any situation, but Hans couldn't do much in that state either.

"I understand mom, I'm sorry for this stupid idea, I wasn't thinking about our current state clearly..."

"Hans, never apologize again for giving ideals understood! Your opinion is worth much as mine here! Even more since you are the one who keeps us alive, you mustn't give up to me every time, keep your place! This plan now was a bad idea, but I think that's was the first really bad idea I've ever seen you having in your life!

"...I.. I understand mom, I will try harder to meet your expectations"

This kid doesn't seem to had understand anything i just said.

"Now rest Hans, and don't eat any more of these pink crystals! They may be delicious and nutritious but they are just a beautiful cake full of worms!"

"All right"

---

 

When we woke up in the morning I still had a few hours with the effect (Exhausted) but Hans had already recovered, and he had regained all his life! The effect of (Recovery) was simply too powerful! Or most likely was that Hans had very little life, to the point that the effect of (Recovery) was a miraculous effect.

"Do you want me to carry you, mother? That would save us a lot of travel time."

"I don't know Hans, I don't feel comfortable being carried by you, and the effect will wear off soon, when he finishes I will be able to accompany you at the same rate."

"Mom, to be honest I always slow down to keep up with you because I felt like you didn't want to be carried, I would feel so much better if you let me carry you in my arms, you're not heavy enough to burden me and this way I could just focus on flying fast!"

"That's is... Really? You just didn't even mention the idea because you thought I was going to turn it down?"

"I didn't think Mother, I was sure you would deny this idea by our mental link, but since you tell me to speak my suggestions even if they seemed wrong, i though i needed to tell you now"

This guy, it seems that even though carrying me was a very good idea for him, when he thought about telling me and them felt that i would hate it, he immediately classified it as "Not worth saying", how many more of these ingenious ideas had Hans kept hidden just not wanting to annoy me?

"... All right, Hans, you can carry me... Let's continue towards the clearing to the North, and remember to stop if you spot a large group of flowers that look edible."

"Yes mother! Thanks for listening to me!"

After we left our makeshift hideout I thought of the image of being carried by an insect like a sack of potatoes and felt a little frustrated, I sure would have refused the idea if it had been a few days ago, but now Hans had a lot of credits in the bank and i couldn't refuse his requests without good reasons.

As I mentally prepared for what was to come Hans suddenly grabbed me gently and placed me in his arms, holding me tightly with his four limbs, when I stopped to analyze the situation it wasn't the image of an insect carrying a bag of potatoes, it was more like a knight in armor carrying a hopeless Princess...

"Hans..."

"Please don't move Mom! I'll Fly Now."

Before I could fully process the situation, Hans launched himself fast into the air, and soon we were flying at an incredible speed towards the north, to me it was so fast that it seemed that when i fly i just drag myself through the air.

"HANS, AREN'T WE GOING TOO FAST?"

But the giant kept flying while just looking intently ahead, he clearly wasn't listening to me, or maybe he pretended not to hear...

Gee! I didn't know Hans could fly so fast, it seems like I've really just been slowing him down all this time...

The world below us moved slowly as we passed through it, and when I finally had a closer look from above I could see that the whole forest had a palette of dark colors, with colorations that didn't seem to be common for an ordinary forest, while on the horizon there were forests of normal colorations, and much further ahead was the clearing, thatwas our ultimate goal.

After a while I got used to Hans speed and finally began to enjoy the view, I had begun to finally accept that this life wasn't t easy, and that if I made mistakes there would be consequences, I needed to create a colony as quickly as possible, I didn't think I could simply give birth to hundreds or thousands of members yet, but I had already decided that I would create at least 6 more soldiers to help Hans, and create a proportional number of workers to help me keep them.

 

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"Mom... Wake up... mom?"

"Hmm.. umm? What's the matter?"

"We are getting close to the clearing I spotted a field with hundreds of flowers and since you had asked to report in case I spotted a large group of flowers I decided to wake you up..."

"Wha-Where?!?"

I ignored the fact that I had fallen asleep indefinitely in Hans's arms and began to scour the region, the first thing I saw was that the once super distant clearing was now very close, and below us there was a large field with what looked like hundreds or even thousands of cyan blue flowers.

"How Long Have I been asleep Hans?"

"I can't tell you exactly mom... Would you say for 4 hours? But there may have been more, my sense of time is not exactly the best..."

4 hours?! Could Hans cover that huge distance while carrying me in just 4 hours?!?

"That-that's amazing Hans, I didn't know you were that fast..."

"I wouldn't say I'm very fast, but I kept the flight at a constant speed without stop all the way here."

"You are amazing Hans! Let me down, let's take a look at those flowers, and eat something, you must be hungry after so much effort!"

"Yes mother... I really feel hungry, a meal would be appreciated."

When Hans let go of me I soon started flying towards the pretty blue flowers but I smelled an unpleasant smell halfway through and noticed that it was still covered with the pollen of the man-eating flower...

"Hmm.. Hans... don't you find my smell unpleasant? You had to carry me here, it must have been uncomfortable to smell that unpleasant odor..."

"Yes mother, the smell you emit is very unpleasant, but it is a minor and meaningless trivial matter."

He just said "You stink" right in my face, without even shaking his face, Hans has always been very direct but being hit by him sure hurts.

"I understand Hans, I'm sorry about that, I was so tired yesterday that I didn't even remember to take a shower when we woke up, did you happen to see any water sources on the way?"

"Yes mother, I saw lakes and rivers along the way, but I didn't see any visible water sources that are close to here."

Me and my luck, I wasn't going to go back in Hans arms to the nearest lake, I had to find something around here, I shoud find something without problems near, there were a lot of flowers around here, trees and bushes there should be a source of water nearby somewhere.

"Hans help me find a source of water, it doesn't matter the size as long as it's clean."

"All right!"

Hans came out slowly as I looked around the area, he never left my field of vision and I think would be hard to get more than that from Hans, he was very overprotective and never got too far away.

When looking for a source of water I soon arrived at the blue flowers and was genuinely surprised by what it had on its roots, it was water! pure and crystalline water accumulated in small puddles all over the region where the flowers grew, I was genuinely grateful and cleaned myself in the small puddle of water, and when I finally felt clean I analyzed these blue flowers, to have so much water here they seemed to have properties to store water in the soil or something like that.

 

 

That's incredible! These flowers weren't storing water, they were producing water! When I inspect the flowers more closely, I see that they have the appearance of an upturned blue orchid, and inside each of these flowers there are small amounts of water! It seemed that they produced water inside these small containers and after they were full they fell with the weight of water spilling all the contents on the ground, them the flower returned to its original position and the cycle is repeated.

Wasn't that super broken? These flowers could basically grow in any region without water, since they could produce their own water! These plants could basically dominate regions with little competitiveness and turn deserts into forests! It didn't seem like they produced much water, but surely having the ability to produce such an essential resource as water was very valuable, or maybe it wasn't at all? If it was a world like anime, there could be people with the ability to produce water too! After all if a random flower in the forest could have that kind of power then anyone should get it over time, or maybe not? These flowers may have gone through hell to achieve this ability, if the creatures acquire abilities through difficulties and repetitive tasks, does that mean that these flowers may have gone through so much thirst in their lives that they began to create their own water, and the fact that the description says "miraculously convert energy into pure water" means that magic could not be easily converted into other things? Or was it simply difficult to convert magic into "pure water", could that be right? Even if people in this world could actually create water with magic, it doesn't mean that this water is proper for consumption, like sea water perhaps, the ability to create water should not be a big deal, but the ability to create pure water is something very amazing since that eliminates any impurities that magic mixes in the water...

This time I think I went too far... the [Concerned player] always makes me think of all the possibilities, but in the end I only end up with more questions than answers, I have no way to confirm the theories I think, and I have no way to be sure if any point of my theory is simply invalid... or even idiot!

"Mom, I'm hungry..."

"Hans?!? Since when have you been there?"

"For some time now mother, you have been standing with a strange look on your face and I thought it best not to disturb you."

Damn, I never realized it because I was always alone, but it seems that when I'm thinking about my crazy theories I end up spending a lot of time and losing track of the environment around me.

"All right Hans, sorry about that, I'll get you some food right away!"

with Hans looking I started to gather what I could of the nectar of these magical flowers and I was disappointed with the taste of his nectar, it looked like sparkling water that had lost all its gas with a slight sweet taste, it wasn't bad, but still disappointing compared to the nectar of the man-eating flower...

No! That for sure is dangerous, I didn't even have the effect (Addicted) and still missed the sweet nectar of the monster plant!

Don't think of the delicious nectar of that strange flower, if you stop to think, that flower eats corpses, the nectar you ate was made of rotten and disgusting corpses.