Chapter 2310 Greenhold

--- Kat ---

The heat hit her first. Which was a massive clue that things weren’t going to be easy. The whole air here was muggy and almost sizzling. Kat could tell it was hot, and that meant Lily and Appoline had to be struggling. Appoline had already pulled out a potion and was starting to down it while Lily was getting closer to Kat to leech some of her cool to stop overheating.

The greenhouse here was a jungle at first glance, but far off to the left around the edges the entire place was burning, and it seemed to be intended that way. The pathways, once white stone, gave way to black stone with hints of what may have been lava running underneath them. Some plants that Kat could barely make out in the distance were burning... but most didn’t produce a single bit of smoke. It seemed they simply burned as part of their natural course.

Though most of that was blocked by the more immediate mess of trees and vines. Jungle esque in appearance, and likely making use of the heat radiating off the plants in the distance to keep the place at the current temperature. The water in the air seemed to remain that way... but Kat found herself wondering how. If she could feel it, the water SHOULD be steaming, the air should be filled with it... but nope, apparently that’s not how things work around here. Perhaps an enchantment, or just magic messing with physics as ’normal’.

"Well Appoline, which way are we heading?" asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged, "I neglected to ask what kind of monster we’re hunting. Logic dictates it would be a fire monster Amaranth is unable to deal with on her own due to the fire... but then how could she manage the plants growing here? I can make out several that naturally keep themselves burning constantly, and quite a few more than can combust in the face of threats..."

"Alright well how dangerous is... all of this?" asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged, "The stuff I can see isn’t too bad... but I’m betting there is plenty deadly in the area. It’s just that sort of greenhouse. I mean, ok, these few beds near us for example all contain so plants that will try to kill you, I just highly doubt their ability to even inconvenience the pair of you."

"Wait really?" asked Kat.

Appoline nodded, "Those vines can paralyse and strangle people, that tree drops fruit that explodes, and that bush over there can shoot thorns at you in great numbers... but the poison in the vines aren’t enough to stop you and I’m not sure they even have the strength to strangle you if you let them, the thorns will never get past your skin, and the fruit exploding sounds like the scariest but they’re honestly the weakest. When they explode their well armoured seeds fly everywhere and do the damage... but once again, not sure they get through your skin. Heck, I’m not even sure they’d get through MINE."

"Oh... huh..." Kat nodded after a while. She’d... not really seen too much of that. These things sounded like they’d barely be a problem for someone at Rank 1 and yet... yeah it was kinda weird she didn’t see more of them around.

This resistance would actually be proven a few moments later when Appoline started to lead the way. Apparently someone had trapped the place. Either Amaranth, or someone else, but a loose stone on the ground clicked into place as the nearby exploding tree shook. Dozens of fruits fell down, exploding into chunks. The seeds went flying... but most impacted invisible walls around the place. Some did hit Kat and Appoline... but the elf was right.

Kat didn’t even feel it. The impact was enough to move her kimono sure, but it was just that, a bunch of light pokes just about everywhere. It was such a joke that she didn’t even bother to shield Lily. Exactly one was able to hit her girlfriend, hidden around her neck as she was... and that too bounced off. It was similar for Appoline, though she did let out a hiss as one barely missed her eye.

"Alright perhaps a bit too confident," mumbled Appoline. "Even if it wouldn’t have damaged my eye it may have gotten lodged in their and THAT would’ve caused some damage to remove..."

Kat shrugged. "At least we’re not covered in juice." Even with that being said, the group was more careful about where they stepped afterwards. Kat considered flying... but a quick look upwards showed plenty of trees leaning over the paths. Whatever shields were in place weren’t quite so strict here, or perhaps simply had a height limit. It meant flying wasn’t the simple solution she’d like it to be. Hovering was possible sure... but some of those branches hung pretty low.

So as they moved, there was the occasional hiccup. A plant that snapped out at them, vines that tried to trip them as they travelled across the path. Another batch of fruit that exploded, except this one was apparently acid? "Why are we not avoiding that one?" asked Kat.

Appoline rolled her eyes. "As I’ve been saying it’s not powerful acid. In fact," Appoline swiped one of the low hanging fruit. They looked a bit like water balloons actually. Bright yellow with a thin membrane and a liquid inside of them. Appoline simply bit down on the bottom and then drunk the juice as it poured out.

At the end she made a bit of a face, but that was all, "And see, that was safe. Not as tasty as I’d expected, and very sour, but it was safe." Which... Kat supposed it had to be. Appoline was crazy but she wasn’t going to waste a healing potion drinking random dangerous things.

Still, as they got deeper things did occasionally get more dangerous. Appoline just steered them away from those plants up to this point. They’d backtracked a few times now, to slip around what had seemed to Kat like only slightly odd groups of trees, and plenty of the things packed into this area looked far, far weirder to her eyes then the ones they’d avoided so far.

Eventually they got to a crossroads, somewhat literally. "Alright, we can either go that way, or into the fire... and I think I recommend the fire," said Appoline. Kat gave her a look that said ’why’ as hard as she could. "Because I can see at least two plants that might be able to do actually damage that way... while this stuff here is just on fire, and we’re not even too deep into the heat.

"With your natural resistance to flames, and the potion I drunk before, we can both get through the fire and be completely safe despite how it looks... but Lily I’m not as sure about, so I’m asking if you’d rather fight some plants, or go through the flames?" explained Appoline.

[I’m not too hot, and sure there’s fire there but I think I’m safe? Plus, I trust you to be able to keep me cool with your demonic flames without hurting me.]

"Lily says fire," Kat explained. Appoline nodded and off they went. The plants here were wild. There was a row that acted as a sort of buffer zone, with hardier, mostly short plants that seemed to deal with the heat well but didn’t thrive in it... but the path didn’t stop there. No, instead Appoline took them deeper, past roses that looked like they had little suns inside of them, bushes that simply burnt away, and venus flytrap looking plant that simply spewed out smoke. That same smoke was collected by other nearby plants that looked like they were breathing as they sucked in it.

*Some of these plants, like the venus smokestack showed up in a bunch of the planters. Kat wasn’t sure if that was because Amaranth had a smaller variety of these sorts of plants, or if the other plants in the bundles needed them for support. One of the plants had roots that clearly extended into the lava, and filtered it... somehow. It didn’t seem to be cooler when the plant dropped it off with a different set of roots, but you could clearly see the flow and the temperature didn’t seem to differ between one area and another. It really was strange to look at.

"Surprised you aren’t grabbing anything," commented Kat. More to keep up the illusion then because she thought Appoline would.

Appoline glanced back at Kat and noticed the slight grin on her face. Appoline nodded and replied with, "Well storing them would be a pain and I can work out what I want to ask for along the way. I don’t have to pick anything right now you know?"

Kat smiled at the bits of lies that Appoline told in that sentence. Then again... with how mixed up the situation was, Kat supposed there was no reason not to lie. They had no idea what was going to happen after they found this monster... though Kat was now starting to wonder if the secret was that there was no monster, and that this place was simply meant to kill them, either through the heat or the poison and acid.