Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3005: Chapter 3006: The Flesh Mountain in the Earth Cavern

Through God’s View, Angel caught Greya’s coordinates immediately.

What surprised Angel a little was that where Greya was, actually wasn’t far from the New City at all, only about a hundred miles or so.

The reason it was surprising was because Greya had said before that she would head toward the Mother Tree; she wanted to go see the territory of the Dream Plant Fairies and see whether this fairy civilization nurtured by the Mother Tree had any mysteries.

Of course, for Greya, the so‑called ”mysteries” purely referred to food culture.

Every time Angel had swept past Greya before, she had indeed been walking in the direction of the Mother Tree. But why this time had she not only stopped heading toward the Mother Tree, but instead come back to the New City?

Angel was a bit puzzled, but where one goes is a matter of a single thought of the heart and can change at any time, so he didn’t dig into it and instead observed the place where Greya was.

Greya’s current location was a bit special; she wasn’t on the surface, but in an Earth Cavern.

The Earth Cavern clearly bore traces of artificial excavation, and it had obviously been dug very recently; Angel guessed it was a cavern Greya had prepared herself.

The environment in the Earth Cavern had a bit of a fairy‑tale flavor.

Glow moss hung from the ceiling, and the walls were covered with fungi of all colors and shapes. Under the light of the glow moss, the entire cavern shimmered with colorful phantom light.

As for the ground, aside from carpet fungi, there were several huge Mushroom Houses formed by fused fungi.

Greya was currently inside the largest Mushroom House, sitting on a mushroom sofa that looked fluffy and soft, swaying her head as she enjoyed the ”delicacies” at hand.

Angel had no idea what exactly she was eating; that food looked a bit bizarre in shape, but judging from Greya’s expression, it probably wasn’t bad.

Angel took one look at Greya’s situation, then withdrew his gaze.

He was using God’s View mainly to confirm whether Greya was free at the moment. If Greya was busy, Angel wouldn’t bother her.

But now it seemed Greya should be idle.

So Angel planned to go and meet Greya in person.

Even though he knew Greya was not busy now, for the sake of courtesy Angel still sent her a meeting invitation via the Mother Tree Interlinker.

However, a minute passed, then two... and even after five minutes, Greya still hadn’t replied.

With some doubt, Angel once again used God’s View to look toward Greya.

He wondered if Greya had simply been too absorbed in her food to notice his invitation. But once he looked, he discovered that within several dozen meters around Greya, with her as the center, there was no Mother Tree signal feedback at all.

There were only two possibilities in such a situation: either Greya wasn’t carrying a Mother Tree Interlinker, or Greya had already left the area covered by the Mother Tree network.

Which of the two was it? Angel didn’t know, but it didn’t really matter.

Because whichever it was, one thing could basically be confirmed: Greya was deliberately avoiding the Mother Tree network.

Angel couldn’t help but think of the doubt he’d previously tossed to the back of his mind: why hadn’t Greya continued toward the Mother Tree and instead come back?

Could there be some unspeakable secret hidden in all this? Did something happen while he was exploring the ruins?

Angel used God’s View to glance at the Mother Tree’s location; the Dream Plant Fairies nearby had developed quite prosperously, and on the surface everything looked calm, not like anything big had happened.

Angel thought for a moment, then sank his mind into the Tree Civilization Authority and carefully reviewed the recent Authority logs, but he still found nothing wrong.

After doing a round of fruitless work, Angel simply gave up.

Greya’s situation clearly had some abnormality; since he couldn’t find anything out, he might as well just ask Greya directly.

Thinking this, Angel directly logged off.

When he entered the Wilderness of Dreams again, his location was already near the cavern where Greya was.

Angel had barely manifested when he noticed a hidden fungal conglomerate nearby stir, as if it had sensed an external intruder. This fungal conglomerate cautiously sprayed out a portion of dim, mist‑like particles; these particles drifted toward the Mushroom House, seemingly transmitting information to Greya.

Angel had originally planned to head straight to the Mushroom House, but when he saw these drifting particles, he stopped in his tracks.

Barring accidents, Greya should already have discovered him through these particles.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, Angel heard footsteps coming from inside the Mushroom House.

”I was just thinking how that Fairy Guard Squad actually dared to barge into human territory, and it turns out the one who came is you.” Greya walked out of the Mushroom House; her massive bulk and the enormous Mushroom House behind her set each other off perfectly.

Angel even felt that Greya’s physical body was more imposing than when she’d first come in.

”Staring at a lady all the time is not the behavior of a gentleman~” Greya threw Angel a flirtatious wink. ”Of course, I don’t mind. The less gentlemanly you are, the more I’ll like it.”

Angel directly ignored the wolfish words coming from Greya’s flame‑red lips and said expressionlessly, ”I didn’t come looking for you to joke around.”

Greya lifted a hand to brush back her reddened bangs. ”Don’t you go learning that set of stuff from your Mentor; that way you’ll never win a lady’s heart~”

Angel: ...Which lady would actively want to turn herself into a meat‑mountain Great Demon King?

Angel silently complained in his heart, but on the surface remained calm: ”That Fairy Guard Squad you mentioned just now—what is it?”

Greya gave Angel a deep look, then flicked her sleeve and turned away, swaying her hips as she sauntered back into the Mushroom House. As she walked, she said, ”I don’t want to stand while talking. Come on, we’ll talk inside.”

...

Two minutes later, inside the Mushroom House.

Angel and Greya sat facing each other.

”Want something to drink?” Greya said in a suggestive tone. ”I’ve got the freshest mushroom milk here, just squeezed. Want a taste?”

Mushroom milk? What the hell kind of freaky stuff is that?!

I don’t like just any kind of milk, okay!

Angel let out a long breath. ”Rather than this so‑called mushroom milk, I’d much rather know what that Fairy Guard Squad you mentioned earlier is. Is it because you’re afraid they’ll find you that you’re hiding here?”

Greya raised a hand to half cover her lips and nose and let out a strange three‑part laugh. ”Aiya, aiya, so you came all this way to find me just to worry about me. You being this tender and caring might just move me to tears~”

Angel: ”...”

Angel rubbed his temples, a bit of a headache coming on. ”I was just casually following up on what you said earlier. If you mind it and don’t want to talk, then I’ll move on to my business.”

Greya naturally knew that Angel had come to see her on purpose and definitely had other business, but since Angel didn’t speak up right away, it meant the matter wasn’t that urgent. So Greya chose to ”tease” Angel first.

Her ”teasing” had some effect at the start, but when Angel’s eyes went dead-fish blank, Greya also knew that pushing it further would only backfire.

Greya looked at Angel’s expressionless face and chuckled softly: ”Do I mind? Of course not. But, well, questions have to be answered one at a time. Right now I don’t even know what you want to ask. Are you asking why I’m hiding here, or about the Fairy Guard Squad?”

Angel frowned. ”These two things aren’t related?”

Greya shrugged. ”They’re related, but not much to me.”

Angel: ”What do you mean?”

Greya: ”Exactly what it sounds like. I’m not hiding here, I’m just taking a breather. As for the Fairy Guard Squad, they’re not here for me. After all, Frode warned me in advance that Dream Plant Fairies have very subtle feelings about humans. I never planned on sabotaging the relationship between Dream Plant Fairies and humans.”

Angel: ”If they’re not looking for you, then who?”

”Oh? You really don’t know?” Greya went on in that White Bird Reiko–like laugh: ”I thought when you locked onto my position, you’d already seen him. So you didn’t, huh?”

Angel: ”Him?” Who was ”him”?

Greya stood up. ”Just describing him won’t do him justice. How about you come see for yourself?”

Angel had subconsciously been about to use God’s View to scan the surroundings, but when he heard Greya’s words, he temporarily suppressed the impulse to use God’s View and nodded. ”Alright.”

Greya didn’t say more. She twisted her waist, sashaying with a sultry stride toward one side of the Mushroom House.

The furnishings inside the Mushroom House were very ”human”: there was a bed, a table, a cabinet, and a sofa, and all of them were extra-large models tailored to Greya’s size.

Right now, Greya was heading toward the cabinet.

Greya opened the mushroom-shaped cabinet and felt around inside. A moment later, a pitch-black passage appeared behind the cabinet’s back panel.

The passage sloped downward, with obvious steps carved into it—clearly man-made.

”He’s down below.” Greya stepped into the passage first.

Angel followed after her.

This was already an Earth Cavern to begin with, and going further down should by all rights have meant it got even dimmer, but reality didn’t match that expectation.

On both sides of the stone stairs grew clumps of Mushrooms in various bright, vivid colors. Every time Angel and Greya took a step down, the speckles on the Mushrooms would glow in matching rainbow hues.

Like a kind of sound-activated lighting, they guided the two of them all the way into the depths of the passage.

”Rainbow-glow Mushrooms lighting the way to welcome us—looks like he really likes you,” Greya said with a light laugh.

Angel didn’t respond, but inwardly he grew even more curious about ”his” identity.

Before long, they reached the very bottom of the staircase. The moment they arrived, Angel’s eyes fell on a chubby baby, all over soft, squishy flesh.

Though he looked like a ”little” baby, his body was anything but small.

Staring at that mountain-of-meat-like frame, Angel vaguely understood why Greya treated him with such special regard—this was basically a gender-flipped, youth-version Greya!

Just in terms of appearance, Angel recalled an animated film he’d seen on the Holographic Tablet, ”The Little White Dragon’s Quest for a Name.” The only son of Granny Tang in that movie looked very similar to this meat-mountain baby: huge in size, yet still a glossy, plump infant.

However, compared to the one in the animation, this baby was a little different. He wasn’t wearing a red bellyband, but a single green leaf.

And on this meat-mountain baby’s body, a lot of brightly colored Mushrooms were growing.

Right now, he was plucking Mushrooms off himself.

He struggled for quite a while before finally twisting off a pink Mushroom, then toddled excitedly over to Greya and handed the Mushroom to her, sneaking a shy glance at Angel.

”I thought you’d picked it for me, but turns out it’s for him... tsk, tsk, tsk. I heard Dream Plant Fairies are born disliking outsiders, so how come you’re so attentive to him? You’re better to him than you were to me back then,” Greya said, squinting her eyes with a smile as she took the Mushroom. ”I’ll get jealous, you know.”

The meat-mountain baby clearly had no intention of answering this question. He babbled ”yaa-yaa” for ages and still didn’t manage to string together a complete sentence.

On the other side, Angel murmured under his breath, ”So it really is a Dream Plant Fairy.”

In fact, the moment he saw the leaf the meat-mountain baby was wearing, Angel had already guessed his identity.

With a body that large, yet a single leaf could still cover most of him... that could only be a leaf from the Mother Tree.

Add to that the obvious Fairy aura rolling off him, and guessing his identity wasn’t difficult at all.

However, after confirming who he was, Angel became even more puzzled.

Since this was a Dream Plant Fairy, why was there no Mother Tree network here? All plants could serve as nodes for the Mother Tree network.

And a Dream Plant Fairy’s basic ability was to scatter the Mother Tree’s seeds, planting vegetation all over the world.

In other words, as long as a Dream Plant Fairy created a plant, it could serve as a signal carrier for the Mother Tree network.

This Dream Plant Fairy was here, yet there was no Mother Tree network around him. Clearly, he himself was unwilling to create such plants... but why?

While Angel was puzzling over this, Greya held the Mushroom out to him. ”This is Mushroom flesh he picked for you. It’s a new strain I helped him cultivate. The flavor’s quite good—want to try?”

Angel hadn’t intended to take the Mushroom, but when he showed signs of refusing, the meat-mountain baby’s expression instantly turned wounded and pitiful.

Angel sighed, took the Mushroom, but didn’t taste it... After all, this had just been plucked off the other party’s body. Mushroom flesh still counted as ”flesh,” didn’t it?

Seeing Angel accept the Mushroom flesh, Greya smiled with narrowed eyes. ”Since he doesn’t want to talk, why don’t you help clear up my confusion? He seems to treat you very differently.”

Angel thought to himself: How could he not? In a sense, Angel himself was the incarnation of the Mother Tree’s will. This Dream Plant Fairy even wore a leaf from the Mother Tree on him—of course he’d feel close to me.

Still, Angel couldn’t be bothered to explain. He just shrugged. ”That’s not an important question. Besides, I don’t know. Compared to these little things, I’m more curious how he, as a first-generation Dream Plant Fairy, ended up hanging around with you. And why is the Fairy Guard Squad looking for him? Don’t tell me you abducted him?”

Since the Fairy Guard Squad wasn’t here for Greya, they were obviously here for this meat-mountain baby.

As for how Angel could tell he was a first-generation Dream Plant Fairy, that was simple... First-generation Dream Plant Fairies had the largest bodies. They were born from cocoons hanging on the Mother Tree and inherited part of the Mother Tree’s remnants. Without a doubt, that leaf was his companion object.

Dream Plant Fairies born later on were forbidden from taking anything from the Mother Tree, not even a fallen leaf.

There weren’t many first-generation Dream Plant Fairies, and all of them lived next to the Mother Tree. They strictly followed the ”Mother Tree’s” orders and never set foot on human territory. Even if humans needed greening work done, only later-born Dream Plant Fairies would be sent; not a single one of the first generation would come.

So this meat-mountain baby showing up here was a very strange thing.