Chapter 426: Establishing the Network

After sending a message through the portal, by simply scrawling a note on paper and tossing it through, the trio waited for a few moments for a response to be sent. They did receive one quickly, although it wasn’t in the form they had been expecting.

A small seed dropped from the portal, bounced across the stone pathway, before it slipped into the cracks between the path and took root in the sacred ground.

A few seconds later, a flower sprouted from the seed and rapidly grew until it bloomed and spread its delicate pink petals. The flower twisted, seemingly scanning the area and all of the other more uniform flowers that surrounded it, before the flower simply withered and decayed.

The next second, vines lashed out from the portal, supporting the Dryad that manifested from the breach in space as she slowly lowered herself down to the ground.

The moment her feet touched the silver grass, she shuddered and the leaves that made up her hair bristled with unrestrained joy. She let out a trembling gasp, as if she was experiencing a certain wave of pleasure, before finally opening her eyes and taking in the appearance of the two standing before her.

She gave the Avatar a disgusted look, glancing over him for barely a second before shoving the thought of such a miserable excuse for a man out of her mind. Of course his status was unknown to the Dryad, and his power was seemingly non-existent even to their senses, so all the Dryad had to go off was the stench clinging to his clothes.

Her reaction to Figg, however, was much more warm.

She looked over him with a hint of reverence and joy in her eyes, her wooden face becoming a slight bit flustered as her leaves bristled again.

"My, you are even more of an impressive specimen in these lands. It makes me wonder why you lower yourself to the imitation body you wear in the other world. I don’t suppose you wish to take more of my seeds, would you? Or perhaps, I should take some of yours to spread in the poisoned lands, and hope that it will help your other feeble body to improve."

"W-what? I uh... No. I don’t want to... to spread my seed. I think you’re great and all, but I definitely am not ready to be a father yet. I’m sorry." Figg stuttered, his own face becoming stark red with blush as the plant woman batted her eyelashes at him.

The Dryad let out a resigned sigh, "Very well... Perhaps next cycle, you will be more open to it. After all, it is simple nature, and nothing natural can be bad."

"I mean... there are plenty of things that are poisonous to humans or animals that are natural."

"I fail to see the issue." The Dryad answered coldly, her wooden face not shifting from its neutral expression, which just sent shivers down Figg’s spine.

"A-anyways. We have the first haul of items, if you are able to take them over for us." Figg chuckled nervously, his hands fumbling with the enchanted pouch that hung on his waist.

With Belladonna unable to enter the Church grounds, and unable to use her [Eternal Companion] anywhere with silver grass anyways, they had to use this as their solution.

Belladonna had made a new bag for Figg to carry in, and had filled it with a selection of different items to send to the new world. Some of it was meat, some of it was various animal materials such as horns, fangs and monster pelts, and there was a variety of Dawd metals in there too.

Whilst they technically only needed the portal for the meat, it was a good way to establish business with Mr. Bloom as well as make sure that more people got armed with proper weapons and armour.

If they were going to fight against this invasion, they couldn’t be the only people with real gear. However, it didn’t mean that Belladonna had completely pushed their guild out of the equation once the material was across worlds.

Sure, they could forge the metal into swords to use. But if they wanted to enchant them, she was the best person they could bring it to, and Mister Bloom knew it thanks to her little magic demonstrations.

Business would flow to them eventually, and the more material they flooded the world with meant the more work she could do enchanting, which would increase her Esoterica stat and give her more practice with her runes all at the same time.

It was wins all around.

The Dryad took the pouch with a curious tilt of her head. It felt completely weightless in her hand, other than the weight of the leather pouch itself, but she could feel the life energy flowing through the strange item.

Her hand opened up, drawing the pouch into her body before her palm closed again and she took a curious look around.

"This world is truly divine, it shames even the grandest forest that once stood in our world, and is brimming with more life energy than I have ever dreamed possible. However, I thought that you were planning to make what you called a ’base of operations’.

Is this building your ’base’?" She gestured to the half collapsed Church behind them.

"I uh... No." Figg stuttered, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. He was desperately wishing that Belladonna was here to take the brunt of this for him, but Beans was obsessed with the statue of the Goddess and refused to leave his new bed until it was time to leave the forest completely.

"This is a work in progress, but it will look better the next time that you see it. We were just eager to get this first trade under way and make sure that you could come here."

"You were eager to see me?" The Dryad giggled mischeviously, as she reached out and gently touched Figgs cheek.

"N-no... That’s not what I-" Figg stuttered

"Don’t worry, I understand your words, even if they are in this vulgar language. I will leave and fulfill the deal. It is a shame that the next I see of you will be in that lesser body, but now that I know the true you I also look forward to our meeting.

Until then my Petrichor." The Dryad cooed softly, caressing Figg’s cheek before reluctantly stepping back. She kept her amber eyes locked on him, as she lifted off of the ground like an angel and vanished through the crack in space.

"Petrichor?" Figg muttered once she was gone, before looking at Raev in utter confusion.

"What does that mean?"

Raev didn’t answer, he just chuckled and shook his head as he puffed on his joint happily. He turned on his heels, stuffed his hands in his pockets and sauntered back into the Church whilst humming the tune of a pair of long lost lovers meeting through a secret tunnel through a mountain.

"R-raev? What does it mean! What does Petrichor mean? Raev?!" Figg shouted after the Avatar helplessly. He took one last nervous glance at the portal, the image of vines whipping out to kidnap him already crossing his mind, as he hurried after the Avatar and insistently asked the same question that he never got an answer to.