Chapter 20: Garden of the Earth Mother God (2)
The Beholder, as widely known, is a monster with a horrifying appearance.
First, its size itself is nearly 2 meters.
Furthermore, in the center of its pufferfish-like body is a single eye, and countless other eyeballs extend outward like tentacles.
And it shoots beams from those eyes to petrify its opponents.
Due to the danger of that petrification magic, it’s classified as an A-rank monster.
But…
[Type: Named Monster]
[Rank: 5-star by MonMonMak standards]
[Unable to analyze stats.]
[Possessed Skills: Baby Petrification Lv.1, Espionage Lv.1]
[It is the last remaining Beholder Sage. Having realized all truths of the world, the Beholder Sage has been reborn in its current form. Isn’t it just adorable? Please treat it with care!]
This slime-like thing before my eyes is supposedly that Beholder.
No matter how I look at it, it’s not the 2-meter-tall, pufferfish-shaped Beholder.
“And what kind of skill is Baby Petrification?”
Petrification should be petrification—what’s Baby Petrification?
Is that like the mild version?
And Espionage.
It seems it was using this skill to spy on me while invisible.
Wriggle!
The baby Beholder—no, the Beholder Sage—in my hand squirmed violently.
“I’m disappointed.”
Ever since I indirectly obtained information through the Beholder’s Glasses, I had been somewhat expectant.
But to think the true form of the Sage was this thing resembling a Monster Ball.
“Well, it’s 5-star, so it’ll probably be helpful.”
As I stared down at the Beholder with cold eyes, it flinched and widened its eyes.
But ignoring that, I held it out to Gono.
“Let’s hit a home run, Gono.”
It was definitely spying on me while invisible.
This thing is on the side trying to invade the Garden.
With that conclusion, I could deal with this eyeball monster without a shred of guilt.
“Kiirook.”
Gono nodded in an instant and took a batting stance.
“—!”
The Beholder squirmed, but it was useless.
The moment I let go, Gono’s club would smash into its body.
“Become a slave of the Castle!”
Just as I was about to release the Beholder with those words—
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God urges the Beholder Sage’s freedom!]
“?”
A voice echoed loudly in my head.
It was a voice I was hearing for the first time.
A gender-neutral feeling, neither male nor female, ringing deep in my mind.
Someone delivering their opinion through a third party.
I’d heard of this phenomenon.
“The Divine Throne……?”
This was definitely the method of communication used by the transcendent beings called the ‘Divine Throne’ with Awakened individuals.
It’s commonly referred to as ‘hearing the voice of the Divine Throne.’
‘Come to think of it, there are cases where Hunters who weren’t chosen by the Divine Throne get selected after clearing certain dungeons.’
It seemed this was one of those cases.
Still, it was fascinating.
Of course, I had never once heard the voice of the Divine Throne.
The reality is that 60% of active Hunters have never even heard the voice of a specter, let alone the Divine Throne.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God roars once more.]
The voice rang out again.
First, it was clear that the Gardener of the Earth Mother God was a Divine Throne.
Furthermore, it was highly likely they were the owner of this ‘Garden.’
Such a being was asking me to release the Beholder in my grasp.
That meant—
“……Did you send it to spy on me?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God wipes sweat and whistles.]
For a Divine Throne, not only did they try to spy on a mortal, but now they’re trying to play dumb?
How disappointing.
Enough to make me feel pathetic for having held any illusions about a transcendent being.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God urges mission completion.]
“I’m not the kind of person who’d just let this slide.”
Now that it’s come to this, I didn’t want to let this wriggling Beholder Sage go.
Clearly, moments ago, it was just an extra monster sneaking a peek at me.
‘So this guy is a monster favored by a Divine Throne?’
Moreover, the Divine Throne relied on this thing to observe me up close.
And even right before Gono hit the Beholder out of the park, they only barely revealed their presence.
That means—
“So, no matter what I do, you can’t directly intervene, huh?”
My eyes gleamed sharply.
The Beholder, meeting my gaze, trembled uneasily.
It seemed the Divine Throne had also read my thoughts.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God shakes its head frantically.]
“I’m protecting your precious Garden, aren’t I? Let’s have a little advance payment.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God laments that this mortal has gone mad!]
Anyone watching might think I’ve lost my mind.
Holding a subordinate cherished by a Divine Throne and doing this.
But the truth was, I coveted the Beholder before my eyes.
It was a monster favored by a transcendent being, after all.
The collector’s urge that started with MonMonMak had overwhelmed my reason.
“It’s not like I’m killing it. I’ll just summon it right back after it dies. Gono.”
I was spouting contradictory words without feeling any sense of wrongness.
“Kiirook!”
Naturally, Gono couldn’t hear the Divine Throne’s desperate outcry.
He took his major-league batting stance again.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God draws an X with their hands!]
“Ah, why?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God waves their hands dismissively.]
“It’s fine. It’ll be over in the blink of an eye. Gono, take it out!”
Just then, a new status window appeared before my eyes.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God proposes a special mission!]
[Ensure the Beholder Sage survives until the end of the Wave.]
[Reward – Ownership of the Beholder Sage]
“Hmm.”
Oh? To the point of even setting up a new mission?
At this rate, it seems this Beholder really is important to the Divine Throne.
Is it because it’s the last remaining Beholder Sage?
“If it’s so precious, why did you send it?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God hangs their head sullenly.]
I see.
It seems this Beholder acts as the Divine Throne’s hands and feet within the Garden.
Without this thing, they’d have no way to intervene in the current situation.
Anyway, the fervor of my collector’s urge cooled slightly at the Divine Throne’s earnest plea.
“Alright.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God sighs in relief.]
As I opened my hand, the Beholder immediately flew up into the air and squirmed before my eyes.
It seemed quite angry.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God gives you a thumbs up.]
“I’ll trust you on that. Ah, and also.”
I paused for a moment before continuing.
“I’ll show you the entire process of preparing the Garden’s defense. I’ll even explain the know-how in detail, like what kind of plants are best in these situations.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God seems puzzled.]
As if wondering why they’d need to hear know-how since I’d be the one doing the defending anyway.
“Aren’t you observing me as a form of entertainment?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God nods.]
“You see, any form of entertainment is only truly enjoyable after you understand the rules of how it works. If I impart my know-how, the fun you get from watching me will double, right?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God strokes their chin.]
“In exchange, you’ll have to compensate me more. Since I’ll be spending time on something completely unrelated to the mission, after all.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God gets angry.]
As if to say, how dare a mere mortal propose a deal?
I smiled and said,
“If you don’t like it, just bury the Beholder in the ground and wait.”
Now that I knew of the Beholder’s existence, there was no way for the Divine Throne to observe without my permission.
Ultimately, I held all the cards.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God laments.]
You can tell just by the Beholder squirming before my eyes right now.
Its movements oozing regret.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God nods with a sigh.]
In the end, the Divine Throne surrendered.
The missions in the ‘Garden’ were much more manageable than the previous missions or trials.
Of course, that’s from the perspective of a veteran defense game player.
[The last monster of the 9th Wave has been eliminated within the Garden.]
At first, I was intimidated seeing A-rank and above monsters pouring in one after another.
But the plants placed in the right spots at the right times mowed them down regardless of rank.
All I had to do after each Wave was place plants according to the next Wave’s information.
Then just watch the situation unfold from the highest point in the Garden, where I had a full view.
[The 10th Monster Wave is approaching the Garden of Mind. Prepare yourselves!]
“Wave information.”
Responding to my voice, a new information window appeared.
[10th Monster Wave – Cerberus × 3, Golden Bee × 10, Golden Bee Queen × 1, Iron Golem × 5]
“What would you do, Divine Throne?”
I asked the Beholder floating beside me, as I had been doing.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God yawns.]
Simultaneously, the Beholder’s eyes flashed, and an aerial view of the Garden spread out like a hologram.
The Gardener of the Earth Mother God was writing their opinions on this aerial view.
“……Just cramming 20 Zairas at the entrance? No way, absolutely not.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God scratches their belly.]
And through these previous Q&A sessions,
I could confirm the reason a being like a Divine Throne had entrusted me with the Garden.
It wasn’t because they lacked the strength to protect it.
They just found it bothersome.
They simply had no interest in the act of ‘protecting the Garden’ itself.
So they sought a proxy.
“Now, let’s think about this, Divine Throne.”
After realizing that, my goal changed slightly.
Not just ending as a proxy carrying out the Divine Throne’s orders.
I looked beyond that.
“Zaira is too slow. So it absolutely must be paired with the Enchanting Arin Tree. You lure them in with the Enchantment effect, then buy time for the Plant Monster to devour them entirely.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God scratches their head.]
“But look. As far as I know, even putting Cerberus aside, magic doesn’t work on Iron Golems at all. Plus, the Golden Bee Queen is resistant to Enchantment.”
In the end, since Enchantment doesn’t work, the sluggish Plant Monster can’t strike the monsters either.
The combination that had been so useful until now becomes ineffective.
“So here, I won’t use the Zaira and Arin combo. Instead, I’ll line the pathways with Beadweed.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God snorts.]
Beadweed wasn’t one of the plants managed by the Gardener.
To be precise, it’s a weed that parasitizes those plants.
It’s a clover-like grass that, as its name suggests, shoots bead-like projectiles when monsters approach.
“I checked earlier; the projectiles Beadweed shoots have a sticky adhesive property. That’s what we’ll use.”
Since each projectile is about the size of a bead, the adhesion of a single one is negligible.
But what if you plant hundreds, thousands of Beadweeds?
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God shows an expression of shock!]
The reason for the Divine Throne’s shock was obvious.
Beadweed is a plant that parasitizes the Garden.
Strictly speaking, it’s a ‘neutral’ unit, an object outside the system.
So, unlike when placing plants before, I couldn’t just say a word to lift and move them.
To move these,
“Divine Throne, could you make me two shovels?”
I grinned as I stared at the Beholder.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God shakes their head.]
The Beholder shot a beam at the ground I was standing on.
A shovel, as if carved from tree roots, burst through the soil.
“Gono.”
“Kiirook?”
I handed one of the two shovels to Gono beside me.
Gono’s eyes wavered uneasily as he took the shovel.
I smiled and said,
“Let’s do some digging.”
“Ke, keruk.”
It’s fine.
At worst, we’ll just have to repeat the digging about 1000 times.
Gono and I started digging up the Beadweeds in front of us.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God watches, lost for words.]
“No need to be lost for words. Defense is always about the grind.”
The Divine Throne still had much to learn.
The Waves continued throughout the day.
It was a battle of mind and time.
The fighting didn’t end even after the vibrant sky was draped in a red sunset, and a cool night fell.
And during that time, I continued not only defending against the Waves but also the Divine Throne’s ‘tutoring.’
“Now, look. It’s a Leviathan. As far as I know, it’s a mid-level calamity. Blocking it from the entrance is impossible. Here, we use the World Tree Trace Vine to……”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God indolently strokes their chin.]
Until the 20th Wave, the Divine Throne even found listening to my explanations bothersome.
They seemed content just watching me struggle with interest.
After all, that was their original intention.
But I didn’t give up.
I coaxed and cajoled them as if handling a child, mixing in explanations.
“This time, monsters with high magic resistance and monsters with high physical resistance are mixed in. Their attack power is mediocre. We’ll overwhelm them with attrition.”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God watches with interest.]
Eventually, the Divine Throne began to take an interest in the defense of the Garden itself.
“It’s the 30th Wave. This time, there’s one large-scale calamity, and the rest are a swarm of medium to small monsters. What would you do, Divine Throne?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God ponders.]
Around the 30th Wave, the Divine Throne pondered and offered an opinion.
“You divided the Garden into sections and placed different types of plants. You judged it would be better to defeat them separately, right?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God nods.]
“Exactly. That’s it. In defense, excessive greed is poison. You need to defeat them one by one, steadily and surely. You catch on fast.”
Whenever the Divine Throne offered an opinion, I chimed in and gave a thumbs up.
And then, the 35th Wave.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God sends a placement chart they’ve drawn up.]
“Good. This time, let’s try placing one side of the passage according to your opinion, Divine Throne.”
The Divine Throne had realized how ‘defense’ works.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God passionately sends their placement chart!]
“You’ve considered the placement for both passages. I think this will be enough to block the Wave. Shall we proceed like this?”
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God gives a thumbs up.]
From the 40th Wave onward, the Divine Throne was captivated by the ‘appeal’ of defense.
And then, the momentous 45th Wave.
[The Gardener of the Earth Mother God re-adjusts the mission!]
The Divine Throne had re-adjusted the original mission.
[A great change has come over the Gardener’s mindset. Now, they willingly declare themselves your guardian! All you have to do is sip World Tree sap and review if there are any issues with the placement.]
[The existing defense mission has been changed to the Hidden Mission ‘Backseating.’]
I bowed my head towards the Beholder scurrying around.
“Truly, a sense of responsibility befitting a Divine Throne.”
“Ki, kiirook.”
Only Gono, who had been digging, saw the smile at the corner of my mouth and faltered.