Earning ran straight toward the Alchemy Tower.

I hoped entering the Alchemy Tower would be as easy as getting out of the main auditorium, but that wasn’t the case.

We were stopped right at the entrance. Earning calmly caught her breath and adjusted her clothes. I could only lean against the wall, gasping like someone about to die.

“The area around the Alchemy Tower uses special techniques for security. They thoroughly detect everything, from people to a single flower or insect, as they could all be threats.”

A man in a suit approached us.

“I’m sorry, but no one except affiliated researchers is allowed to enter here. We also do not accept sponsors separately. If your visit is not pre-scheduled, please submit a separate application and wait for review.”

“Huff, huff… Review? What kind of review is that?”

Wiping the sweat on my forehead, I looked back at the path we had run. Fortunately, no one was chasing us yet.

In the distance, the grand hall was visible. Wow, we really ran a long way without stopping. That must be a record.

“I am Alchemist Earning, here for an inspection as a senior alchemist on commission from the 6th Terrarium Alchemy Tower.”

“We have received no schedule for today’s inspection. Please show us an official document issued by the 6th Terrarium Alchemy Tower. We will confirm internally and guide you accordingly.”

Would Earning, who simply came to give a lecture today, have such a thing? But she calmly rummaged through her bag and pulled out a piece of paper along with a small black bead.

“Here it is.”

As she handed over the paper, she pressed down hard on the bead held together with it. The bead squished like jelly and popped. At the same time, a black haze rose up and engulfed the person approaching to check the paper.

Huh, what did she just do? Could she do that so openly? Despite the suspicious black haze covering his face, the man in the suit casually accepted the paper Earning handed him.

“Confirmed. You may enter.”

With that, he returned the paper to Earning and readily allowed the two of us to enter the alchemy tower.

“Whoa, what did you do? Did you actually have a real official document?”

I glanced at the paper Earning was holding. ‘Lecture schedule, expected number of participants…’ No matter how I look at it, isn’t that just a simple lecture guide, not an official document?

“I used the power of alchemy. I was saving the last bit that can only be used on one person. It’s a crystal that gathers the camouflaging techniques of insects to make predators see them not as prey, but as something to avoid. In other words, it emits an aura that makes others feel the exact opposite.”

“Oh… Huh? Wait, that alchemy…”

“Yes, it’s the same power used in the branch of the black world tree you saw. But to deceive the eyes of many for a long time, a large amount would have been used. How they obtained that alchemy, which I invented and have been using exclusively, I have no idea.”

The interior of the alchemy tower was astonishing. In reality, the only alchemy tower I had visited was the 18th Terrarium’s, but I could sense that this place was on a whole different level compared to other towers.

Both alchemy towers had tall exteriors, but unlike the 18th, whose interior felt like a university building, the 16th gave the sensation of walking through a vast forest.

Everything was green. The walls were densely woven with climbing plants, the floor was soft, real grassy turf, and unknown trees grew here and there. Stone steps lay along the ascending path like a hiking trail, and the branching corridors felt like choosing and passing through crossroads in a forest.

Warm energy flowed from the orange crystals regularly hung on the ceiling, as if receiving appropriately streaming sunlight, and every wall had a waterway where water gurgled softly, while a fresh breeze, as if sweeping between the trees, pleasantly brushed against my cheeks.

Strangely, besides us, there was not a single person in sight.

“Since we’ve succeeded in entering the interior, safety is a bit more guaranteed. Even though the immediate crisis is over, now we have to think about how and when to get out of the terrarium.”

“But is this really an alchemy tower? Didn’t we get dimensionally shifted somewhere else? How can there be… such a forest inside a building?”

Touching the leaves, they were real, not imitation. Wow, truly amazing. As I kept letting out exclamations, Earning spoke to me calmly.

“Feel the energy more, as a druid. Something should come to mind.”

Feel the energy? What energy am I supposed to feel? Right now, I can only feel the energy of a hiker suddenly forced to climb a mountain. If I strapped on a big backpack here, I’d be the spitting image.

As she instructed, I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the refreshing air, and squinted my eyes to look more closely. From the start, I don’t even know what the instruction to ‘feel the energy’ is supposed to mean or how to do it.

That’s when it happened. Suddenly, it occurred to me that I had felt this gentle and serene sensation somewhere before.

Where was it? Right.

“The orchard’s greenhouse….”

“Right. You know what environment the greenhouse was designed to replicate, don’t you?”

“I think it was said to imitate the inside of the World Tree.”

“Correct. This place also imitates the inside of the World Tree. But in the end, it’s just human imagination. Don’t you think turning the inside of the World Tree into a forest like this is too cliché and boring?”

“Wow, why would they design the inside of an alchemy tower like the World Tree? Isn’t that something only needed for an orchard?”

Unlike me, who found this place completely unfamiliar, Earning walked ahead without hesitation, as if she was used to it. I hurriedly trotted along to not lose sight of her.

“Well, because they’re trying to create a World Tree, so they’re copying it.”

“Huh?”

Create a World Tree? What kind of bizarre story is that? Is the World Tree something that can be just whipped up like that? I recalled the World Tree I had seen in my dreams—so immense it was beyond amazing and felt overwhelmingly vast. Totally different.

“Inferno plans to create a second World Tree in the 16th Terrarium. Once this plan is completed, they intend to eliminate the current World Tree. Even if it sounds absurd, they are serious and have the power to do so. In fact, I find their systematically prepared plan quite fascinating.”

A second World Tree? They talk about it like upgrading a game server. And eliminating the World Tree—how do they even plan to do that?

We stopped wandering through the hallway and began climbing the stairs.

“There are seed vaults in the basement and at the top of this tower. The seeds of all plants in the world are stored in the basement. Now, do you have any idea what’s stored in the seed vault at the top?”

How would I know that… Don’t tell me…?

“Artificially improved plants, newly created through alchemy, are stored there. Oh, you’re not surprised? I thought you’d make a fuss about it being forbidden and all.”

“Artificially improved plants… That’s exactly why I visited the 16th Terrarium. So, if I want information about artificially improved species, I just need to go to the top?”

“Well, try if you can. I’d personally prefer if we could get as close as possible, since the top of the tower is the safest. The seeds in the underground vault can be obtained again anytime, but the ones at the top are different. Artificial improvement doesn’t have a 100% success rate, so many species are born by chance. In terms of value, the leader of Inferno prioritizes protecting the top’s specimens over the underground ones. If we’re close to the top, they’ll be even less likely to attack. But…”

She pushed me with her arm, making me stand against the wall. Someone slowly passed by the path we were about to take.

“The security is that tight. We won’t be able to get there easily. We should just hide in a suitable spot and figure out a way to escape. We can’t stay hidden here forever.”

“You knew it was that dangerous, yet you still went around giving lectures and visiting the terrariums. If it were me, I’d hide in the safest place and never come out.”

We waited until the insider was completely out of sight, then walked again.

“Do you think I was just traveling for lectures? Even if I sought refuge in the alchemy tower of the 1st Terrarium, hiding myself, no one—not even the leader of Inferno—could touch me.”

She muttered bitterly in a low voice.

“But that person, worried that I might betray him, plucked my precious flowers and scattered them across multiple terrariums as hostages. I hid the Golden-silver Flower myself in the 16th, so I know its location, but the other flowers were sent to terrariums I can’t even identify. I’ve barely managed to find three, including the Bird of Paradise.”

Forcing her to sever her connection with dryads and sending them as hostages? That was an utterly bizarre way to hold a weakness.

“Did the dryads… willingly accept that?”

“If you don’t cut the connection, my life will be in danger, so my flowers willingly severed themselves from me. Do you know how horrifying it is to just watch each one being torn away from me?”

The 28th terrarium belongs to someone who caused a terror attack with numerous casualties. Does he not care about anything else and only value his own?

Had we climbed about three floors? We had to stop soon. Someone was blocking and guarding the path we were about to take.

“Let’s find a spot here and hide.”

“If we’re going anyway, let’s go to the top. How many floors to the top?”

I need to get information from Wolfsbane.

“The Alchemy Tower is being expanded upward every year. When I was there, it was only 20 floors.”

Climb 20 floors by stairs without an elevator? Even worse, the ceilings here are so high that the number of steps seemed twice as many.

“And unnecessary commotion is not good.”

“Well, that’s true, but….”

That was when it happened. Suddenly, thick vines descended from the ceiling and coiled tightly around me and Earning’s waist. While we were talking, they had quietly slithered up behind us like snakes.

If I had even one dryad by my side, I might have sensed it, but even Earning’s bird-of-paradise dryad had returned to its artifact, saying it had served its purpose for a quiet move.

The tightly coiled vines pulled us. Me and Earning were being dragged in opposite directions. I hurriedly grabbed Earning’s arm, but the vines squeezed my waist as if to make me vomit, making it hard to endure.

“They noticed the intrusion! There’s an alchemy lab inside the wall space, but we won’t be taken there. They’re dragging us to a place to trap or dispose of us. Hold on with all your might!”

I’d like to, but how can I when it’s squeezing my waist like it’s going to snap me in two?

Just as the dryads sensed danger from a druid and sprang out of their artifacts, Earning and I were yanked up to the ceiling.

A small, swift daisy clung tightly to me, and we were frantically dragged through a ventilation-like passage barely wide enough for the two of us at great speed.