Lotus Year 65
Something bad is happening in the forest, I can no longer hear the birds rustling, or the forest noises. It all silent and still, like a cemetery.
The animals left, the fish had hid in the bottom of the lake, and the birds flew away from here. I don't know why, but I'am feeling a deep sense of imminent danger that just won't go away, and i can't shake this out of me.
Soon some figures emerge from the forest and begin to walk in several different directions, all heading to the north. As they get closer I can see that these figures are a bunch of forest creatures, humans or at least something that looks like humans, and some strange monsters. But besides the fact that this group was made up of various types of creatures that i had never seen togheter, the most frightening thing about that was its cadaverous appearance.
Rotten, gray skin, with bulging, pronounced black veins, empty eyes with a small green flame, and bizarre protuberances growing in random places on their bodies.
The creatures heads towards the north at a slow pace, and soon reach the coners of the lake, but instead of avoiding it, they begin to fall into the lake as if they hadn't noticed it here. Soon as the creatures fell into the water, a brave elemental advanced towards them and began cutting them with a bunch of small water blades.
The zombies didn't look brothered with deep cuts or the black goo that keeps coming out of their bodies, but as soon the black, viscous liquid reached my roots, I began to feel a type of pain I had never felt before.
Warning
You have suffered damage
'Aaaarghhhhhhhhhh!?!?! I-IT B-BURNS!'
The black fluid was some kind of poison, and the roots that were touched by the poison slowly withered until they died permanently in a grotestic way. Looking up I could see a few more zombies falling into the water, but most of them started to turn away and head towards the north.
In this emergency I already knew what to do, and without delay I cut all the roots that were coming into contact with the black goo, then I used my water manipulation to create a large bubble of pure water around my main body, preventing the black substance from entering and contaminating my main body.
To my complete astonishment, I looked down just to see that even after cutting my roots, the tips of them continued to wither and die, which was bad news.
Warning
You were poisoned
I was poisoned.
There was no time to think about that now, the first thing I did was make my elementals stop damaging the zombies, and focus on removing them from the water.
Soon my elementals began to make large quantities of black water emerge from the lake, and created a small wave that swept the rotting corpses that were inside the lake to the shore, this ended up using a lot of MP, but it temporarily solved the black water problem.
Looking at the horizon, I could see that the problems were just beginning, a large horde of zombies was on the way, and I needed to do something.
'Damn it!'
Looking at my options, I realized that there wasn't much I could do, my roots continued to succumb to the mysterious poison, and I was confined to the lake, unable to leave here, perhaps if I used water manipulation to move my body out of the lake I could "Run away", but soon I would run out of MP and end up dying from the black poison.
As my brain worked, I could see more and more zombies starting to arrive, they started to push themselves and more zombies started to fall into the waters of the lake, so I need to do something, now!
With all I had left of my MP and Sp I started creating large sheets of shield lilies, then I erected them vertically around the pond creating a great wall made of lilies shilds, and started filling the holes with more and more small lily pads.
The entire task was very exhausting, decreasing my resistance and taking away my concentration, which made the black poison to spread to even more roots, and even reach my leaves and core.
I am dying.
The wall rose quickly, but it still hadn't stopped several zombies from falling into the lake, now I was spending a lot of energy to maintain a clean stream of water around my body, and I had just spent huge amounts of SP and MP on shields. Not to mention the energy I had to spend to combat the poison in my body, my reserves began to dry up like a cup of water in the hot desert.
'I-I need more energy!'
By forcing my roots into the ground, I begin to pull various nutrients and some energy from the ground, but it's just a drop in the bucket, and it won't be enough. When I realized that I would soon run out of energy, I felt scared, for the first time I really felt terrified.
If I were to faint from exhaustion and poisoning, there is no guarantee that the lily pad walls will be able to hold, and if I lose consciousness the water current protecting my main body will collapse, giving direct access to the black poison in my main body.
Looking at my elementals that were moving zombies out of the lake, I have an idea, unlike Earthward's, water elementals are very autonomous, so they shouldn't need me to be conscious to supply them with energy, just me alive to give them energy.
'YOU! Keep my main body safe! Create a sphere of water around me and protect all members of the lake until I wake up!'
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Without taking long, my elementals stop messing with the zombies and run to fulfill my wish. Soon all the elementals meet, and form a large elemental that sinks into the water, and takes on the task of keeping the water current clean around my body.
As soon as they take on the task, I feel my consciousness wavering, but I see that there are still a lot of zombies in the water, and I need someone to remove them from there.
My options were limited, so I could only send a command to the nearby Earthwards.
'Clean the lake! It doesn't matter how long they take! Remove the corpses!'
As soon as I gave the last command, I could feel my body hurting, looking at my body I could see small black cracks appearing on my body, and my conscience leaving me.
Warning
Your HP dropped below 10%, the [Blossom Rest] skill was activated automatically.
----------------------------------------
Lotus Year 67
When I woke up again I felt funny, like waking up from a very refreshing and long sleep. And the first thing I saw was a large dome of water in the middle of a sea of black ink.
Looking to the side, I could see Uchiki who was peacefully eating some algae at the bottom of the dome along with some other fishs.At the bottom of the lake I can see what appear to be a bunch of black stones, and a bunch of lime growing everywhere
Analyzing the situation, I soon remembered what was happening, and began to analyze myself.
Information Name: ----- Level: 24 Gender: ---- Age: 67 Years Hp: 263.2 Sp: 153.7 Mp: 35.1/110.2 Race: Lunar Nymphaea
Attributes Str: 1.6 Vit: 65.6 Def: 24 Dex: 3 Spe: 0.2 Magic: 1.3 Hp Regen: 2.6 + 1.3 MpRegen: 1 Luck: 1.2
'67 years?! I was in hibernation for 2 years?! What happened in the meantime?'
Using the little bit of mana that I had left, I start to lift the water bubble we were in up to the surface, and soon I emerge on the surface of the lake to see a completely different world.
The trees were dry and devoid of life, walking corpses walked around scatteredly, the lake was full of pieces of rotting corpses, but I could see dozens and dozens of them piled up in a wall of dry and almost completely destroyed lily pads.
The surface of the lake was completely black, and the only source of normal water was the bubble im in now.
'Shit, what happened to the world?' I slept for 2 years and the world ended?
Looking up I could see black clouds and sounds of storms, but my intuition told me that I wouldn't like that kind of rain, the earth was red with blood, and various piles of rotting flesh and maggots could be found all over the place, there's some strage creatures standing in place as they stare into the empty space in front of them, and I can hear what sounds like murmurs, screams, and bites in the distance.
'What do I do now?'
The lake was destroyed, I couldn't leave, and I couldn't stay in these waters, so what choice do I have here?
'Am I going to have to purify this whole thing? How am I going to be able to resist-'
Looking at my skill list for something that could help me in this situation, I come across something that wasn't there before.
Skill
[Purifying Tuber] - Lv 3
Use Sp to create tubercles that can safely store poisons and harmful substances.
Skill
[Poison Resistance] - Lv 7
Gain resistance against poisons.
Apparently, can I gain skill's if I go through near-death situations? I think I at least gained something from all of this.
I extend a vine to the bottom of the lake, I pierce my bubble of pure water and touch the black water of the lake, to my displeasure, the black water still burns, but after rescuing my root, I could see that the damage soon began to heal and it didn't spread like last time.
'Fortunately.'
Extending another vine to the bottom of the lake, I then fish out a black stone and pull it to the safety of my bubble. Upon examining the tubercle, I can see that the thing looks like a potato, but it is black and hard like coal.
'Poisonous potatoes... I think they have no usefulness in themselves, their usefulness is the fact that I can divert toxic substances into them, and leave my body intact and free of anything harmful to me'.
Setting the potato aside, I watch it slowly fall back to the bottom of the lake, and I begin to work, as my water elementals were working on my water bubble, which currently looked more like a fishbowl. I had to do the work of dealing with all this poisonous water myself.
Dragging my roots towards the black lake, I begin to try to purify the rotten substance, but to my dismay, the water cannot be purified, as if the poisoned water was no longer water, but something entirely different.
'Damn it...'
Soon I stop trying to purify the water and go for another approach, I start to suck the poison from the water into my body, and I feel my roots burning again, but this time I direct everything to a single root that soon begins to expand and take over. the shape of a potato.
As the potato grows, it goes from a wooden brown, to a dark brown, until it reaches a charcoal black hue, then the potato separates itself from the root and falls to the bottom of the lake.
'Is this what I've been doing unconsciously for the last 2 years? Maybe less, I may have gained this skill 2 years or 2 weeks ago...'
This wouldn't be a quick process, so I started to create a few leaves in the small space I had to generate some energy, but soon I was faced with the sky covered by threatening black clouds.
'Damn! Me and my luck, what do I do?! If it's going to rain, it rains soon! But I need access to heaven!'
The black clouds only thundered dry lightning, and made thundering sounds, but what was raining their job? No, the clouds just stood there making fun of me.
'Bastards! I don't even have enough MP to call down a decent rain!'
Annoyedly I look at my skills, until I come across [Purified Wellspring] and have a slightly crazy idea. Activating the skill, I could see it drawing large amounts of MP and SP, but soon some of the black water around my roots began to be purified and transformed into magic water.
'Excellent!! At least one skill works to purify this lake, so my options for purifying the lake are, create potatoes, and spend an absurd amount of MP and SP to generate a little water?'
This will take years, decades!