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"Woooow! What’s this?! It’s so yummyyyyyy! I love this!" Lisette exclaid, eating happily.
"Fufu, well, I’m glad you liked it," Elayne said. "Alright everyone, let’s eat. I believe that in a day or two we’ll finally reach our next destination."
Everyone enjoyed Elayne’s delicious food, including herself. They ate several dishes since she had cooked plenty. Not even Granny Yaga held back, asking for seconds, thirds, and even fourth servings.
"I just... I don’t get it! How can you turn these asly plants that grow as pests in this labyrinth into such delicacies?" she asked in disbelief.
"Haha, it’s nothing complicated, I just like cooking," Elayne smiled gently, noticing Lisette had already fallen asleep. "Alright, shall we bring you back ho, Lisette?"
She stepped out of her house with Mark and carried the boy to his small ho next to hers, placing him on his bed.
"Sleep well, little one," Elayne whispered, walking away after kissing his forehead.
"He reminds of Gabriel..." Mark sighed, walking beside her as they admired the cavernous Domain’s interior.
"Oh, you too?" Elayne said. "I guess he does look a lot like him, but he’s also different at the sa ti..."
"I wonder what happened to him," Mark murmured.
"His Angelic Spirit was still within when I died..." Elayne said softly. "But... his true body should have been in my Domain, so I believe he’s safe, wherever he is."
Elayne sighed, walking toward the farms to oversee them. She grabbed a farming tool and began working, planting new Netherworld Plants that would sprout along their journey or erge from the Domain itself.
So far, she had discovered over six new "plants" that she had begun cultivating and breeding to beco less harmful and more beneficial. They were the following:
Soul-Sapping Root: As its na implies, it saps the souls of those who consu or touch it. Elayne modified it so that instead it nourishes the soul upon consumption.
Abyssal Darkflower: A poisonous flower that causes hallucinations to those nearby. Elayne has been modifying it to be less harmful, while making its black seeds—similar to sunflower seeds—edible, and even usable for extracting vegetable oil.
Ghost-Catching Fruit Tree: A black tree that produces red fruits shaped like screaming faces, which attract and devour souls. Elayne has altered it so the tree no longer consus souls but instead absorbs ghostly energy from the air or from fertilizer she prepares using mushrooms and moss. Her next plan is to make the bitter, dry fruit more palatable by making it juicy and sweet, adding nutrients, sugars, and water into its fertilizer.
Corpse-Eating Grass: Dark green grass that Elayne uses for salad. It is crunchy, lightly sweet, and juicy if raised with abundant water produced through magic. Originally, these grasses ford giant colonies that trapped undead and absorbed their nutrients, but Elayne has dosticated them.
Nether River Algae: Algae that once trapped souls and anything near nether rivers. Like the grass, it has been modified to be edible and non-aggressive, now mostly dosticated.
"You’ve really done an amazing job with the plants," Mark remarked. "I never would’ve guessed these could be eaten at all. Most are harmful to people—they’re mostly carnivorous, unlike the Living World."
"Yeah, but with the Netherworld Farming Arts, it was possible to slowly modify them or even dosticate them if they were more like monsters," Elayne explained. "Alright, this soil is nice and ready. I’ve injected it with plenty of spirit energy of the nature elent, mixed equally with nether and ghostly energy, so they should grow big and strong. Let’s begin breeding the Ghost-Catching Fruit Tree so it becos sweeter."
"How exactly are we doing that though? Doesn’t modifying a plant to be edible... take a long ti?" Mark wondered.
"Hm, it cos with the Netherworld Farming Arts," Elayne explained. "Plus, I combine it with a Seed Synthesis Skill. By changing and reverse-engineering the skill into a spell, I can more or less do this."
"Huh, that’s a thing? So that’s how you’re able to use so of the skills even when we don’t have them... because technically these are our real bodies, not our avatars," Mark said.
"Yeah, our connection to our avatars is strangely blocked," Elayne explained. "Mostly because we are in the Netherworld, a completely parallel dinsion, I believe. But there must be sothing more to it. Our new Status is glitched and strange, which ans the System itself is struggling to assimilate us—perhaps because a status for us already exists..."
"You’re not wrong..." Mark nodded, crossing his arms. "We even lost access to the Soul-Bound Skills, but at the sa ti, it feels like fragnts of those powers remain. We’ve been weaving them back to full strength, maybe even evolving them into new forms..."
"Hm," Elayne nodded. "Although we died... I believe we could perhaps revive. Or not... it’s just a hypothesis. But if we can leave the Netherworld and reach Arcadia’s Living World, we might be able to... I don’t know, maybe recombine with our Avatars."
"Huh..." Mark rubbed his bony chin. "Could that really be possible?"
"I don’t know, but our Avatars are sowhere out there, waiting for our souls," Elayne said. "It might be our only hope to revive... or we’ll remain forever as undead creatures."
"Haaa... well, I hope not," Mark sighed. "But the way we learn our techniques or spells from previous skills, though different—what do you think that could an?"
"I can explain that," suddenly, Gardenia erged from Elayne’s body, appearing as a small fairy made of grass, moss, mushrooms, and black flowers. "Eugh, I hate this form. The ’plants’ of this world are disgusting, but it’ll do."
"Ah, Gardenia! Are you feeling better now?" Elayne asked.
"I’m alright now," Gardenia said. "I’ve slept for a while, and thanks to you, I’ve grown stronger. I’ve mostly adapted to the Netherworld now. With your Root Technique, I’m using this entire Domain Space as a way to adjust to this world more easily."
"Ah, that’s nice!" Elayne said.
"Yeah, that’s amazing," Mark nodded. "I wonder if Ignis could return like that."
"He’s within Elayne," Gardenia said. "Alongside the souls of Irene and the rest of her equipnt’s spirit essence."
"W-Wait, really?" Mark asked.
"Your soul should be the sa," Gardenia explained. "It harbors the spirit energy and souls of the equipnt you were wearing, or the spirits you’ve contracted. Right now, you’re slowly awakening the sharp flas of the soul of Ignias, your knife. Rember her?"
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