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“It’s called the Seed of the World Tree. I want you to help me grow it. I gave you the Sun Stones, remember?”

 

The Sun Stones helped plants grow.

Of course, there weren’t too many of them. So I intended on only using one.

 

…Huh?

 

It seemed like Rienna had frozen for a second.

However, she slapped her cheeks and returned to her usual self.

 

“The World Tree… I see. I have never heard of it.”

“According to Baris, it’s a very large tree. And it blesses living creatures or something like that… I don’t really understand it all.”

“Indeed. In other words, it will do no harm? In that case, I suppose we might as well plant it and see what happens. However, the fields are currently full…”

 

Rienna looked around the reclaimed ground.

 

“There is soil. Maybe we should choose a spot that will enhance the scenery?”

“I see…”

 

Where was that?

A town built around a tree…

That would look nice.

 

“Alright, how about in the center of the reclaimed ground…no, wait…”

 

He said that it was a very big tree. But how big were we talking about…

If it was too big, it would block the view of the sea from the cave.

Not that it wouldn’t be a nice view of itself, but I preferred to be able to see the sea, in case we had visitors.

 

“…I think I’ll make some more land on the other side of the island. Then we’ll see what happens.”

“Understood!”

 

And so I entered the cave and made a path to the other side of the island.

And then just like before, I used Stone Blocks from my Inventory in order to reclaim the land.

 

Since there were kobolds here now, I made it just as big as the last one.

 

However, this time I made it 10 meters above sea level, so it would be able to withstand the huge waves.

Of course, this meant that it took twice as long, and I didn’t finish my work until sundown.

But unlike mining, this didn’t use much energy, and so I wasn’t too tired.

 

Though, I did use up a lot of rock materials.

And since they were very useful, I would have to replenish my supply soon.

Which meant I would have to focus on mining for a while.

 

“Alright, time to plant it. The center should be fine.”

“Yes! Let’s go.”

 

We walked to the center of the newly reclaimed ground.

And here, we filled it up with the dirt…the Cave Spider material.

 

“Now I can plant…huh?”

 

I sensed that someone was behind me.

 

When I turned around, I saw a half-naked…Mappa.

He was innocently staring at the spot where I was going to plant the seed.

 

He always seemed to appear out of nowhere when I was about to do something new.

Well, I didn’t mind… But I wish he would say something instead of being so quiet.

 

“Okay, let’s plant it…”

 

And so I buried the Seed of the World Tree into the ground.

 

Now, I just needed to put in a single Sun Stone.

 

But…

 

“Huh? It’s sprouting already. Did you use a Sun Stone?”

“No… I didn’t use one. I gave them all to you. Did you use one?”

“No, I didn’t… I only brought this one stone out of storage.”

 

Rienna said as she showed me the stone.

It was still shining, which meant that it hadn’t been used.

 

In that case…

 

I turned around to look at Mappa.

However, he shrugged innocently and shook his hands.

 

“…Really? You seem to always take stones without saying anything…”

 

Well, Mappa was probably telling the truth.

He wasn’t carrying anything in his hands, and I doubted he could hide anything in that small waistcloth.

 

“Nevermind… Rienna, could you try using the Sun Stone?”

“Yes! Alright then…”

 

Rienna raised it high into the air and then used it.

 

And then, the World Tree started to grow. As I watched, it grew taller than Mappa, and then me…

 

…Huh? What was happening?

 

It wouldn’t stop growing.

It was already several times taller than me.

The trunk was growing thicker and thicker so that we had to move back.

 

“He-hey, Rienna. You really just used one, right?”

“Ye-yes… I only had the one.”

 

As our voices trembled, the tree kept on growing.

 

“This is bad!! Run back to the cave!!”

 

I grabbed Rienna’s hand and looked over my shoulder.

Mappa was already running, and so we ran as well.

But whenever I looked back, I saw that the tree was growing as if it meant to catch up with us…

 

As we ran desperately, Mappa slipped and fell.

Before I could react, the expanding trunk of the tree absorbed Mappa’s body.

 

Mapps stretched his hand out towards us, but I couldn’t do anything but run.

 

“MAAAPPPPPPPPAAAA!!!”

 

I shouted. Only Mappa’s head was sticking out of the tree as he was lifted high into the air. But for some reason, his face was filled with ecstasy.

Next Chapter

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Translator-san: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Unfortunately, the chapters can get pretty long, this and the next chapter being good examples, so I will have to start spacing them out more. In the meantime, please consider reviewing/rating if you can, to help support it. Thanks.

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