Chapter 85: Star Garden and Devil Fruit
Since the master-servant contract had been signed, Dodo confessed everything.
As shown in <Analytical Eyes>, Dodo was a slime.
Chen Rui heard that Demon Realm had powerful races like the fallen dragon, evil eye tyrant, and elemental lords. He also heard of famous demonic beasts such as wyvern and nightmare. However, no one ever mentioned the word “slime” in front of him. The reason was simple. They were too weak; they were weak enough to be ignored.
The slime was the lowest level of the low-level creatures in the demonic beasts food chain. Its only ability was transforming into various intimidating shapes to scare away powerful enemies. The slime had no attacking power. It usually survived by swallowing the plant’s nutrients. However, as everything has its weakness, even those strong carnivorous plants were afraid of its <Swallow> ability.
Dodo was originally an ordinary slime with a simple mind. Many years ago (Dodo couldn’t remember specifically), it swallowed a few devil fruits by chance and its intelligence was greatly improved. At that moment then, a powerful dragon came to the black rainforest. The dragon was seriously injured. It seemed to be escaping from enemies. He desperately set a series of Dragon Inscription to hide. Finally, when he came to the stone pile that Dodo hid, he was already unable to move. Facing the top-level demonic beast at the peak of the pyramid, Dodo was scared the shit out of him. He had been cowering between rocks and dared not move recklessly. He had to rely on the dragon’s blood that flowed into the cracks to barely survive.
Unsure how many days had passed, the dragon finally died due to its heavy injury. Dodo finally dared to get out. Dodo wasn’t sure if it was the devil fruit or the dragon’s blood, he actually had an extra interest on meat other than plants. After he bravely ate a piece of dragon meat, he couldn’t stop himself anymore. Under Dodo’s delicate work, only the skeleton was left from the whole dragon. As he consuming the dragon, he almost exploded by the power. It was just like the first time he swallowed the dragon’s blood. In the end, the slime still survived with its strong will to live.
No one would ever think that the most insignificant slime actually swallowed the flesh of an entire dragon!
After eating the dragon’s blood and flesh, Dodo’s strength increased tremendously and further mutated, greatly improving its transformation ability. After a series of killings and adventures, the slime, which possessed considerable intelligence and strength, finally chose to fake as a dragon. It stretched its body to engulf the entire dragon bones and controlled the bones to move. It looked like the dragon was resurrected, thus he had the title of “ghost dragon”. However, in order to prevent being exposed, the “ghost dragon” never left this perfect place that grew the devil fruit.
In such a way, Dodo relied on the identity of the ghost dragon to scare off those opponents who came to snatch the fruit and enjoyed a lot of devil fruits alone. Its body further mutated and it became the first slime that reached the level of Higher Demon in history, and he also became the “overlord” of the black rainforest.
When Dodo swallowed the devil fruits, he needed to leave the dragon’s body. Also, it needed to digest for a long time and it was impossible to maintain the appearance of the ghost dragon. Therefore, it emitted the Dragon’s Demeanor to create the beast swarm to avoid being exposed.
Chen Rui finally understood about the “ghost dragon” and Dragon Inscription. The reason that Dodo could use Dragon’s Demeanor was probably related to the swallowing of dragon’s blood and flesh, and the mutation after consuming the devil fruit. However, according to Dodo, Dragon’s Demeanor could only be used after accumulated for a long time. It was best to work with the skeleton of this dragon to exert greater power. The beast swarm this time used up its accumulated Dragon’s Demeanor. It needed at least 3 days to barely use it for around 10 minutes.
In order to please its new master, Dodo pleasingly offered three things that were left by the dragon which were a doll, a bead and a magic map. The doll was made of an unknown metal which was about the size of the palm, and it was very delicate; the bead was slightly smaller than the fist, emitting a faint blue glow. It was obviously not a common thing at a glance; as for the map, it had a broken corner, so the hint it provided was quite limited. He wasn’t sure what was the mystery behind it. Chen Rui didn’t study them carefully and simply put the three items into the storage.
He walked to the dragon bones and felt that the bones seemed to contain a strange energy. He tried using <Aura Conversion>, but no notification appeared. The skeleton was very huge. Unless it was cut into strips, otherwise the space bracelet wouldn’t be able to contain it. However, it was nothing for the storage warehouse, so the skeleton was kept easily.
As for the devil fruits, Chen Rui started calculating. There are 6 fruits in total. They are about the size of lychee with a hard shell, and its texture is delicate yet complicated. Although the fruit is precious, the most precious thing should be the fruit tree. If Dodo left, it might be destroyed by demonic beasts – Oh right! Galaxy garden! I don’t know if the plants outside the Super System can be planted?
Considering the time, the pivotal seed should be matured now. When he thought of that, Chen Rui immediately entered the galaxy garden in the Super System.
The galaxy garden had changed a lot compared to before. The entire galaxy garden was covered with a layer of faint haze. From a distance, it faintly shone in colorful brilliance. The tender seedling at the central circular soil had grown into a one-meter-high tree. It looked like it was made of gold rather than wood, and it was decorated with emerald green leaves. It was a natural beauty without a hint of artificial.
The source of the haze in the galaxy garden was the small tree. Strangely, there seemed to be a beautiful lady within the haze on top of the small tree. He could faintly see her beautiful facial features. Her ethereale figure was like a fairy from heaven. No wonder it was called the pivotal seed. The lady actually turned out to be a living thing that bowed slightly to Chen Rui when she saw him.
Chen Rui knew that it was the design of the Super System, but he was still amazed. Now that the pivotal seed is mature, how do I plant other things? Till the soil? Irrigate? Fertilize?
He moved his mind and the light screen at the entrance of the garden had appeared. An icon of female-bodied plant had appeared at the center of the garden’s plan: Pivotal Fairy (Level 1; Upgrading Condition 1: Evolution Level 3 Stars; Condition 2: 1000 units of Grade 2 refined magic dust.)
Refined magic dust? Is there some way to further refine the magic dust? However, I need to at least reach the next state to upgrade, so it’s pointless to think about it now.
Chen Rui moved his mind onto an empty space on the plan. Sure enough, the available plant list that appeared was only aura fruit tree.
“Aura fruit tree; 500 auras each; Do you want to exchange and plant?” There were also numbers notification at the side.
When Chen Rui chose up to 5, it prompted that it had reached the purchase limit of the current Evolution Level. After confirming the purchase, the 5 seeds automatically displayed on the plan.
A notification appeared again, “Activate Pivotal Fairy Caring Mode? Units of magic dust must be provided. Once the magic dust is exhausted, the caring mode will automatically stop. The plant will stop growing.”
It seems that the caring mode is a really good thing as only magic dusts are needed, and I don’t have to bother about anything else. Chen Rui recently converted the best vine stones and magic material that equaled to 50,000 magic dust, so he immediately confirmed. The magic dust automatically disappeared from the storage warehouse and the corresponding data appeared on the galaxy garden’s light screen.
Strangely, once he activated the caring mode, the pivotal fairy immediately flew to the corresponding position in the galaxy garden and began to dance in circles. The seeds that couldn’t be seen in the ground began to sprout at the speed visible by naked eyes. The pivotal fairy only stopped after young shoots grew, and it flew back to the center.
The seedling prompt was: Level 1 Aura Fruit Tree; Maturity: 7 days; Tree will automatically wither after fruits are picked; Need to buy additional seeds to continue planting; Consume 2 units of magic dust per day; Current Status: Immature.
I’m not sure how much aura can the fruit provide, but it consumes very little magic dust. I’ll just come back and take a look after 7 days. Now, I should think about how to move the devil fruit tree in.
Chen Rui thought of something. He squatted down and touched the fruit tree with his mind thinking about galaxy garden. Surely, a prompt appeared, “Unknown Plant; Transplant requires 10,000 auras; Do you want to transplant?
10,000 auras weren’t cheap, but the great value of the devil fruit could trigger wars between lords, so even 100,000 auras were worthy. Clouds of strange haze appeared on Chen Rui’s hands, like the ones from the galaxy garden, and shrouded the fruit trees. After a while, the fruit tree disappeared. Dodo who had been eyeing on the fruit tree saw that, and its eyes on the onion-head suddenly protruded.
In the galaxy garden, the devil fruit tree indeed appeared. Prompt: Unknown Plant; Maturity: 60 days; can be matured repeatedly; consumes 10 magic dust per day; current status: Mature.
60 days? Not 600 years? Chen Rui’s heart was filled with ecstasy. That’s so worthy!
Somewhere within the inscriptions array, Athena struggled to sit up on the blanket. Fortunately, the Healing Potion from the exchange center was very effective. Her Great Demon’s physique was also unusual, so her serious injuries had recovered a lot. However, she still had no combat power.
The roars and noises from a distance made Athena wanted to look for Chen Rui to face the danger together with him. She thought of his words before he went and knew that there were traps everywhere. She couldn’t find the correct path. She was extremely anxious.
“I’ll definitely get the fruits for you!” The human’s firm words still resounded in her ears.
He was willing to face a dragon just for her.
There seemed to be a similar scene when they first met. She didn’t know if he did that for her at that time too. It wasn’t important at the moment now. She just wished that he could be safe like that time at the blue lake. As for the stupid devil fruit, she didn’t want it anymore!
Athena clenched her fist with her remaining strength. She never felt so concerned for a man before – if he had any accidents, even if she died, she would perish together with the ghost dragon.
The sound in front was getting louder, and it seemed someone was talking, but she couldn’t hear clearly. Then, it went silent. There was no sound for a long time. Athena’s heart was suddenly scared. She couldn’t bother about the pain of her entire body. She clenched her teeth to support herself to stand up. As she was about to take a step, a voice sounded in front, “Athena, you didn’t keep your promise again. We promised to wait for me to come back!”
“Chen Rui!” Athena was shocked. Her worried heart was instantly filled with surprise. She staggered a few steps, then she lost the strength to support herself. Seeing that she almost fell to the ground, Chen Rui happened to walk out from a hidden tree. He quickly rushed forward and supported her when he saw that.
Without considering the previous heavy injuries, it was Athena’s first time to be so intimate with Chen Ru since the Sky Battle special training. She felt that there was a man’s warmth in the human body. His arms were warm and powerful. Her entire body went a little soft at once, and her heart was beating really fast. Chen Rui also felt this heartbeat from a close contact at a certain part. Seeing Athena’s weak appearance, he despised himself again for a while, then he carefully supported her to sit on the ground.
Athena carefully examined Chen Rui for a while. He was indeed safe and sound, so she finally relieved.
Chen Rui intended to surprised her, “Athena, extend your hand and close your eyes.”
Athena closed her eyes accordingly and felt like a pile of things were added on her palms. When she opened her eyes, she was stunned abruptly.