904 Eden Apple Tree
We moved to the backyard while we saw my daughter and her friends laughing and eating ice cream after an intense session of sparring and magic practice. I had left with them a box full of mana potions for them to practice to their heart's content, so they were having fun using their newfound magic.
"So I didn't tell you before, but I got this, look." I showed Mark, taking the seed from my inventory.
"A golden seed?" He analyzed it. "W-Wait a second… This seed, it is so golden though! And is that aura… divinity? And holy light and celestial element? What is this? It's amazing."
"It's an Eden Apple Tree Seed! Apparently…" I said with a face filled with disbelief.
"What?!" He surprisingly reacted just as I imagined. "How did you…?"
"So because I got this Halo, I get messages from Heaven itself whenever I do something… Err "good"? And because we defeated those two demons, I got this seed as a reward. I don't even know what it will truly become though." I said.
"The Apple of Eden was the Fruit of Knowledge, right?" Mark quickly analyzed it. "But wasn't Adam and Eve punished for eating it?"
"Yeah, they were given the gift of knowledge though, they learned about embarrassment, but also became less aloof of everything. In a way, it had awakened us to become ourselves, to develop thoughts of our own and to feel more things. Some could say it was both a curse and a blessing." I wondered. "But well! Let's just see what comes out of it later. Erm, Katherine, are you there?"
POOF!
"Yes, Lady Elayne?" She asked, appearing right in front of us in an explosion of green smoke.
"Can you find the best spot to plant this tree within my house's perimeter?" I asked her, giving her the seed.
"Of course, wait a bit…" She nodded, analyzing our surroundings. "Found it. Follow me." Just four seconds later, she guided us to the left corner of the backyard, it was a rather open field with only a few plants. "This place should do! And this seed… It is really amazing. A gift of Heaven I assume. Impressive."
"Hahaha… Well, I have no idea how I even got this myself to be honest. They just gifted it to me after slaying the demons." I explained in between giggles.
"You don't have to act so modest, Lady Elayne. Your feat is incredible, you deserved this gift. Well then!" She quickly planted the seed in the ground and bathed it with her magic. "Now, can you touch the dirt above the seed? Imbue it with as much spirit energy and mana as you can."
"Eh? Sure." I nodded, doing as she said. She knew more than I did regarding these things, she was a fairy of over a thousand years old after all.
FLAAASH!
I imbued as much as I could, until I felt exhausted. She nodded, the seed slowly sprouted a bit, revealing a healthy green sapling with only two little green leaves.
"It has sprouted already! Impressive. With this, it should grow over time. As long as you imbue it with energies daily, its growth speed could increase even further if we sum my own blessings." Katherine said.
"I-I see…! Phew, thank you Katherine." I said.
"No problem! At your service, Lady Elayne." She smiled. "Now… Erm, could I have some of that ice cream your daughter is enjoying?"
"Hahaha, sure. You can ask them and just tell them I sent you, and they will share." I said.
"Alright! Thank you very much!" She flew off into the direction where the girls were, spooking out Elisa and Anna who had never seen her before.
"Now, I think that's it for today IRL activities…" I sighed in relief, as I noticed Mark gently massaging my shoulders.
"Let's go back to bed to log-in then, dear." He gave me a kiss in my neck. "I'll help you complete the trial in a flash."
"Aww, will you?" I said, as I gave him little kisses.
"Of course." He nodded. "Anything for my queen."
"Your queen?" I couldn't help but laugh a bit as we made our way back to bed.
"What else could you be but my queen? Give me an order and I'll be there to do it!" He said half-jokingly.
"Hahaha, dummy."
Once we stopped playing around, we logged-in, being greeted by the interior of Ambil's workshop. Not much has happened since yesterday, and the place seemed lively. It was around 3 PM by now, and we found all our friends finishing their lunch with Ambil.
"Well, would you look who's finally back." Ambil said. "Did you have troubles in paradise again?"
"More than you imagine… Troubles involving demons, even." I sighed, quite tiredly.
"Demons?!" Acorn jumped off his seat. "They invaded the world where Players come from too?"
"Something like that…" Mark nodded. "Come on, we can talk about that once we get down there. Is everyone ready for some more smithing? Today we're finally finishing the trial guys."
"Oooh, alright!" Brisingra seemed pumped up. "I've been refining my blacksmith skills all this time. Please let me be of as much help as possible, after all, part of what we're trying to accomplish is to discover more about my mother…"
"Sure Brisingra, but don't overwork yourself!" I giggled.
"My lady, I assume you defeated the demons seamlessly, right?" Nieve asked with eyes full of admiration.
"W-Well, I wouldn't say… seamlessly. We struggled a lot." I laughed nervously below Nieve's icy eyes. I really didn't want to disappoint her by saying I wasn't as strong back on Earth than in Arcadia.
"It must have been a foe at the level of a world boss then!" Nieve nodded.
"Not THAT much." Mark crossed his arms. "But yeah, it was world threatening to us…"
"Tell us more of that down there then!" Acorn said.
"Yeah! I will-"
Knock, knock!
However, in that moment, someone knocked at the door.
"Hello? Planta? Are you there? It's me, Johanna… Granny sent me here to help you out in… anything you want." The young Beast Druid was here.
"Oh, you come in the perfect timing, my dear!" I greeted her with a hug as I opened the door. "We do happen to need as many hands as possible! Let's go down, time to do some smithing."
"Smithing?!" She already looked like she was regretting coming here, but I dragged her with me.
