Chapter 2151: Grabbing Fruit

If this worked, then she was really lucky. After all, the space stones and now aether stones happened to be useful. How many people would have both of these on hand?

It was said that quasi elves were blessed by this world thanks to the sacrifice of their forefathers; now they feel it to be true.

Althea inventoried the remaining aether crystals and looked at the fruit. Garan moved forward first. He had aether crystals in his own space, and he took out one to use for the experiment.

While the crystal was on his palm, he grabbed the fruit and pulled it with all his strength. It wasn’t easy, as the fruit was firmly attached to the branch, but the fruit did move a bit, like a few fibers connecting the fruit and the branches had given way.

At the same time, the fruit began to absorb the aether in the crystal. While the fruit absorbed the aether, Garan continuously pulled it bit by bit until it was about halfway pulled out.

It was then that the aether crystal got consumed, and before it could consume his internal life energy again, Garan had to pull out another one.

Fortunately, it stopped on the second crystal, with a little bit to spare.

Althea went over to check Garan’s vitals. As she touched his cheek, she looked at him in concern. "Are you alright?"

Garan nodded, naturally rubbing his face on her palm. "You’re correct, as always," he said with a smile. "It really worked."

They simultaneously looked down at the fruit on Garan’s hand. After it was pulled out, it stopped absorbing energy. Fortunately, it seemed to be stable without signs of instantaneous rotting.

Confirming that it was alright, it was then that Garan did the same to the other fruits.

While Garan did this, Althea was staring at the tree with her [Eye] to see its vitality with her wood elements.

She had to make sure they were not harming the tree by pulling out its fruits. This plant was a treasure, and as a wood user, she was particularly fond of it.

The tree itself was obviously a good thing. From what they gathered, other than its passive ’aura’ that could kill, it hadn’t actively harmed anyone. Those who died approached it while it was just standing there, so those skeletons couldn’t be blamed on it at all.

On the contrary, it had the effect of strengthening the beings around it—like the wild roots, like the monster roots—giving them improved abilities to protect themselves. It was just survival of the fittest.

As a wood user, she would not condone harming these precious trees.

Fortunately, after checking, they really weren’t causing damage by taking fruits. Interestingly, for every fruit they harvested, a bud would flower soon after that.

It seemed like it would still fruit in the future, though how long it would take, she had no idea.

While her husband was busy, Althea stared at the first fruit in hand and studied it. She even scraped a bit and tested it on Tori, but it was so...mysterious.

There were some classic organic compounds, elements, and so on, but she realized that a bulk of it was put together by aether itself.

Perhaps its strong suction of aether when it was being pulled was its way of stabilizing the energy inside, as well as giving feedback to the tree, allowing another to grow sustainably.

Althea looked at it deeply, staring at its smooth iridescent appearance. It was like staring at a liquid rainbow in her palm, and it was subtly moving like the surface of a bubble. It was almost hypnotic.

Suffice it to say, Althea found it very, very fascinating. Soon, her pupils seemed to enter a daze, as if entering deep thought.

Althea, though her self-discipline had improved somewhat, still had this tendency to place plants in her mouth. This time was no exception.

A moment later, the fruit entered Althea’s mouth.

It wasn’t big and could be eaten within a few bites, so a single bite already took a third of its mass.

Crunch!

Garan, who was walking back to give another fruit:

"!!!!"

"Althea!"

Garan rushed to her with furrowed eyebrows. He wanted to reprimand her, but she looked like she had entered a daze. She absent-mindedly raised her hand to eat the rest, and Garan held her arm to stop her.

Her emerald eyes cleared a bit as she stared at her husband.

"I’ll be fine, I promise," she said. But then she took out one of the sleeping mats from her space and set it up on the soil next to her, casually lying down.

"..."

"I’ll be fine," she said, waving him away.

"..."

Garan watched as she lay down on the mat, relaxed, and ate every part of the fruit. It had no pit, making each bite soft and easy. At least that was what it looked like.

This was no normal fruit, after all, so Garan couldn’t help but feel worried for his wife. If something went wrong, he doubted it’d be diagnosed as a mere stomachache.

Garan stared at her figure for a while. After some time, he saw no adverse reactions, and he could only sigh. He took note of this, though. He’d have to punish her after all this was over.

How old was she? Why was she still eating weird things??

Garan didn’t dare to take the other fruits for now, lest something happened while his attention was elsewhere. Anyway, the initial suction of aether took a toll on his body, and he needed to rest.

That single fruit took away so much energy it felt like he had been wall climbing for a whole day. Not only was he exhausted, but his arm ached.

After his gaze went over his wife’s again, Garan finally closed his eyes to rest. Despite this, every other sense was still heightened, so he was ready to move the moment an anomaly happened around his wife.

About an hour after Althea ate the fruit, the atmosphere changed. An immense energy started to condense around Althea, as if a whirlwind of vague force was concentrating in her body.

Garan opened his eyes and watched the entire process, though his attention was exclusively on his wife. The moment she showed pain or any other abnormalities, he was sure to move.

Of course, she told him that it would be fine, so he would have to temper his movements lest he ruin the entire thing for her.

Fortunately, Althea never seemed to have any reaction at all. She just lay there as if she was asleep. She looked quite comfortable, too.

This remained unchanged all the way until the whirlwind of force completely condensed into her body.

The energy looked a bit like translucent, shimmering water, except it only floated around Althea’s body. From certain angles, she looked like she was having a bath, except there were no containers.

It took an entire day for things to calm down. The ’water’ soon disappeared into Althea as if it was sucked into her pores. Althea’s complexion improved, and it seemed like her skin got even smoother than before.

It had always been good skin, but now it looked ethereal. Garan’s eyebrows rose and looked at her ears. For a moment there, he wondered if her ears got elongated or something. It didn’t, but as a quasi-elf himself, he could tell that the quality of the bloodline had definitely been improved.

Althea took another day before waking up on her own. Garan didn’t dare disturb her rest since he had no idea about the process.

"Husband..." she said as she opened her eyes, her voice a little raspy. Garan immediately took a water cup from her space and helped her up to drink.

"How are you?"

"Very good," she said, grinning weakly. "Very good!"

She then released her aura, and Garan realized that his wife rose directly to level 34!

"It’s so amazing!" she said, and Garan smiled gently, caring more that she was awake already.

"You know, this level up is just a side effect, too." The clearer effect was that she could feel her elements better, especially her wood element!

Specifically...

Althea looked at her husband, whose wounds were still scabbing from grabbing the fruit without protection.

Further, the wounds from the Urfrukt were very special and persistent, much like how burn marks from elemental fire would take several times longer and would take more healing potions to heal.

She wrapped his calloused hand around her small ones, gently rubbing it. She then wrapped her vine around it, and translucent vines appeared, wrapping around his palm.

Garan’s eyebrows rose at the movement, but he just sat still, willingly allowing himself to be the guinea pig.

He felt the vines warm up a bit, with the vines heading towards where his wounds were, and he watched as they got better little by little.

Garan looked at his wife in amazement. It seemed like she had awakened a sort of healing ability!