36. Ego, Plants, and Ingrid
“System, is this amount of water sufficient?”
[Yes, it is.]
As Han stopped watering, the creature seemed somehow disappointed.
Had it expected something more?
Tap, tap.
The creature lightly touched him with the tip of its leaf.
Even without words, it was not difficult to anticipate its meaning.
“No.”
He firmly refused.
What couldn’t be done, couldn’t be done.
If he were to grow even larger just because this creature liked it, there would be no end to the catastrophic consequences.
Originally, it was a creature that should have grown in tens of meters.
If it grew larger here, it could easily break through the house ceiling and still have room to spare.
An oak tree.
The creature was a peculiar being.
There was something odd about it moving for a rooted plant, and the fact that it subtly turned its gaze towards him as Han moved around.
As Han sat in front of the refrigerator, quietly observing the elves, the creature stared at him intently with a blank expression.
Of course, plants did not have eyes.
But Han instinctively sensed.
This creature was undoubtedly watching him intently all day long.
“……”
[……]
Sensing something awkward from it, Han cleared his throat.
It felt like something was stuck in my throat.
Perhaps it was comforting to know that, being a presence rooted in a flowerpot, it couldn’t follow me all the way to the bathroom.
But still.
It was clear as day that this little guy was trying to follow wherever I went, even if just with its gaze.
No, I could feel it.
“……”
Around evening that day.
Han, lying on the bed, felt a gaze staring at him intently.
Unusually, the back of his neck felt chilly.
“Hey. System.”
After a fake cough, he spoke up.
“That thing over there is looking at me, right?”
[That’s correct.]
“……”
The response was immediate.
It wasn’t a misconception after all.
***
The oak tree seemed to have its reasons for gazing at Han with intense eyes all day long.
At least, according to the system.
[You are a deity of the Frey planet, a deity of the elves.]
“Is that… the reason?”
[Of course. The deity of the elves. It is not only the origin of the elves but also the starting point of the World Tree and all plants. In other words, to all the plants in the world, you are like a dazzling sun.]
The explanation was roughly like this.
A deity of the elves, but also something akin to a deity of the plants.
Described as a dazzling being.
“So… in short, does it mean that anyone related to plants would follow me?”
[Similar. Of course, the power originating from you does not only act on the Frey planet. It also operates soundly on Earth, so it works the same here as well.]
However, Han remained skeptical.
It seemed like quite an impressive power, but if the target was just plants, it didn’t seem that remarkable.
Unless it was about moving to the extent of having roots in plants.
‘Come to think of it, something like that did happen.’
Around that time, Han suddenly recalled a past memory.
It must have been on the last day of quitting the job.
When he left the company early and went to the park, at that time, many animals around had stared at him intently as if he was the only one they noticed.
Was there a reason for that?
But back then, it wasn’t plants but animals.
Could it be that his abilities also affected other things?
It was a puzzling matter that he couldn’t quite grasp.
‘Well, thinking about it won’t necessarily make it clear.’
As a result, one question naturally arose.
“If that’s the case, System.”
[Listening.]
“By any chance, System, a dungeon where only plants exist, would it be possible to clear it alone? Like the one that was released last year, the insect-eating plant dungeon.”
[Of course. There won’t be any risk factors present.]
“Oh….”
Certainly, being able to conquer high-risk dungeons that others couldn’t was a significant advantage.
Moreover, that place was a dungeon of unbeatable difficulty, filled with various unknown plant colonies, to the extent that even top-tier hunters hesitated to challenge it.
However, with such a definite answer, it meant that essentially, even an ordinary person could wander in and out of the dungeon without any issues.
“Impressive.”
But it seemed like its usefulness might be limited to that.
After all, dungeons on Earth that primarily targeted plants weren’t that abundant.
Most were dungeons inhabited by various monsters.
One’s ability would only be effective in a specific place.
Yet, come to think of it, there were a few magicians who contracted and summoned some insect-eating plants harvested from such places.
Perhaps there was a possibility like that?
At that moment, he found himself glancing absentmindedly back towards the oak tree.
Their eyes met, and it seemed as if the leaves were swaying to assert their presence.
Indeed, it didn’t seem like a big deal to form a contract with it.
***
As expected, asking the internet about things you don’t know is the best way.
It was such a simple answer that made him wonder why he hadn’t thought of it until now.
[Hunter World Accredited Association.]
From Noble mtl dot com
He visited the site that he hadn’t accessed for a while.
The Hunter Accredited Association, also known as the Union.
It was an international integrated federation where countless hunters from around the world joined and operated, connecting hunters from various countries and key figures related to them.
Before hunters emerged, there was the European Union that unified most of Europe on Earth. Now, a hunter association of a much larger global scale had been established.
It was created mainly by powerful and economically strong countries belonging to the G7 like the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
It was said that South Korea was also somewhat involved in this.
Today, there were countries that were not part of the EU, but there was no country that was not a member of the Hunter Federation.
It was a natural consequence since hunters existed in every country worldwide.
However, unlike the EU, this place naturally served as a gateway for hunters from any country to join and trade information among themselves.
Han was a member of this place.
Not long ago, he had posted a message about an apology on the bulletin board here.
“Where did I put my certificate?”
He began rummaging through a dusty drawer, holding up a certificate with his face imprinted on it and meticulously entering the authentication number.
Although he wasn’t a real hunter, he did have the certificate for now.
Despite being somewhat superficial, he had received some education and acquired a bit of knowledge related to it.
Upon logging in, various posts appeared on the main screen.
The first thing that came to mind was, of course, news about the top-tier hunters.
Today’s contents were about appearing in a certain city, or subjugating a dungeon, forming the gist of the content.
Among them, there was also content about the elf Ingrid.
‘Ingrid.’
Apart from the Irina and Siona siblings, she was an elf I had never seen before in my life.
Naturally, it was also reasonable for curiosity to arise.
Click.
I clicked once. Because I was curious about the content.
Upon checking, the content mainly consisted of things that weren’t particularly remarkable.
Starting from what she was doing today, to what was decided for meals, and what kind of environment she had lived in.
Just trivial and not particularly important content.
However, with numerous comments and a high number of views, it seemed that elves were still elves.
Most of the gazes directed at her were half curiosity and the other half was the population viewing the only elf on Earth with a curious gaze.
However, it is said that they still haven’t exactly grasped the original place where she was.
At a glance, it seemed that because the language she used was so complex, she was facing difficulties in conversation.
“…….”
Han carefully watched the article.
Although it had been a couple of months since she had come to this world, the interpreters still only understood basic greetings.
However, there was a strange fact.
He could surprisingly understand the elves’ words verbatim.
Suddenly, Han realized a strange fact around that time.
‘…come to think of it.’
Well, come to think of it, it was strange.
Even just among humans on Earth, languages are divided based on countries, origins, and regions.
However, to Han, the elf’s language sounded exactly the same as Korean.
These beings from a far-off place.
It was only natural that the language of their elves was completely different from Earth or similar.
“Could it be… that the elf language I heard is actually quite different from the Earth’s languages?”
[That’s correct. The elf language is divided in various directions based on dialects, regional languages, and origins. In fact, even in the languages of the characters Irina, Siona, and Yumina, there are slight differences due to mixed dialects.]
“But then, those elf languages that are so different can be understood by me?”
[You are the god of the elves.]
The response didn’t provide much explanation.
Instead, with a short and concise answer, everything was conveyed.
In the system’s response, Han suddenly felt a realization of an important fact.
“System.”
[I’m listening.]
“The term ‘god of the elves’ means… that I can understand the language of that elf Ingrid, right?”
[That’s correct.]
Han’s gaze shifted to a specific part of the article.
The way she infused magic into each of Ingrid’s words and pronounced them seemed like a form of communication akin to a code.
Currently, the U.S. government is recruiting numerous skilled professional language interpreters and cryptanalysts.
…Suddenly, while looking at the comments attached to the main text, he pondered.
To be honest, he was somewhat intrigued.
Anyway, there were several points of curiosity about Ingrid.
After all, isn’t she also an elf?
Tap, tap.
At that moment, his gaze shifted towards the acorn tree staring at him from the table.
Their eyes met, and it swayed, as if asserting its presence.
“Oh.”
His mind wandered for a moment.
He went straight to the point.
What he hoped to learn about were cases related to moving plants.
Upon investigation, there were quite a few different examples.
From plant-eating plants with legs, or cruel carnivorous plants that seduced humans and monsters with pollen and enzymes to hunt them.
It was said that there were nearly twenty species worldwide.
Although they were rare, there were some wizards who dealt with them.
“Much fewer than I thought.”
The system did not explain why his acorn tree was moving.