The botanical gardens had grown so much that it was really a hassle to get through, especially without anything like a proper blade. Luckily, using the undine's water magic combined with the two wisps, Ashton was able to just cut away at the thinner plants. The thicker branches and based were either circumvented or snapped.

  Here and there, Ashton spotted some flowers and herbs that were particularly full of magic. He collected all of them. There were some that he knew, but not all, and it felt too unsafe to let Poppy come out to check the colour for him. So it was the safer idea to collect everything that seemed useful and check the specific colours and qualities later to create the best dye for his clothes that he could. Even if these plants weren't useful for dye, they would be wonderful ingredients for something else. There was hardly a useless plant out there, especially in a place with such varied flora as here.

  There weren't just plants from earth that had been collected here, but also otherworldly plants. Some that Ashton knew, because they came to Lumia after the council invaded, or simply because there were a few that originated in Lumia in the first place. It was a bit weird seeing them here, but Ashton was also glad that he knew exactly what to do with them. So, he also didn't hesitate to collect them the moment he could.

  He also gathered some more of the myconids so that he could use them to make a decent stir-fry later. They tasted pretty damn good the last time Ashton cooked them.

  Ashton continued forward for a while. The gardens weren't that big, but the way they were now, they were hard to navigate, so it took him a while to get around. But before long, Ashton found exactly what he had been looking for.

  Pretty high up, but still within view of his wisp-sight, he spotted treehouses. All the bridges that had been built, even if they were pretty well-hidden, were leading to this place. A large number of myconids were hiding out here, too. Though they didn't seem particularly fazed that someone had invaded their home. The reason for that became pretty apparent the moment Ashton was hanging upside-down by a sling.

  "Oh! A classic, very nice," Ashton said with a smile on his face. The moment he did, a large spear shot out from the ground, and a large number of darts were shot at him from tiny holes in the trunks of nearby trees. Without hesitation, Ashton bent his leg and swung up, grabbing the thick vine that his leg was trapped in. He pulled himself up with a quick tug, quickly reaching the level of the treehouses. "Thanks for the lift."

  Twisting his body around, using the vine to let himself spin more freely, Ashton swung his staff at any structure that he could find. The myconids fell to the ground, and were quickly snapped in half through the wisps with the water fused into them.

  Once a large number of the small monsters were taken care of, Ashton held onto the vine as high as he could, and had one of the wisps snap at it repeatedly underneath his hand. As it loosened up and dropped to the ground, Ashton once more pulled himself up, this time swinging forward.

  He reached one of the larger treehouses, lodging his staff between some of the nearby branches so that he could hang off them.

  "Ah, there they are," Ashton said with a satisfied smile, having briefly shrunken down his channelling range to see things more detailed. He had spotted a handful of inkcaps in here, preparing for some kind of spell. With a good kick against the supports of the treehouse, though, they soon fell to the ground and were cut in half before reaching the trampled leaves below. A large amount of the myconids were dead now, so he wanted to take a look around. Maybe they were hiding some item in here. Really, despite being worth 9 coins, if you knew what to do, these guys were pretty damn easy to get rid of.

  Ashton decompressed his channelling range, noticing a few more myconids hiding out and trying to prepare for another attack, though Ashton took care of them through the wisps before they could even move. He slowly let himself back down, trying not to impale himself on the spear that was now sticking out of the soil, with a slight grunt.

  But hidden by that grunt, something else sounded out. Some kind of bells were ringing nearby. They sounded almost like...

  Not a single thought was able to pass Ashton by before he started running toward the source of that ringing. It was dim, and it might have just been something random or something he imagined, but he could absolutely swear that there was just a fairy nearby.

  Ashton ran toward the source, a relatively central place within the botanical gardens. There were supposed to be benches and tables around and places for people to sit and relax, but right now, they were all overgrown and had practically disappeared. But on one of the tables, Ashton spotted a few more myconids.

  They were making a sound that could only be called 'cackling', though it was a little weird coming from mushrooms. A little squeaky, somehow. They were surrounding a wooden cage that they probably built themselves. And in there, Ashton spotted mana that didn't belong to one of these guys. Instead, it was definitely a pixie.

  A smile on his face, happy that he was finally about to meet another fairy like Poppy, he pushed his staff forward and threw the fist-sized myconids away, to begin with. There was one of the big puffball myconids there, which Ashton was very happy to simply kick away like a football.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The remaining ones started to freak out and were trying to attack Ashton back, but they weren't really able to do much against him. One of their darts got a little close to Ashton's arm, but he knew it wouldn't actually hit him. He hadn't gotten as much as a couple of scratches since entering the gardens, and most of those came from branches he was trying to swat out of the way while moving through this place.

  Within about a minute, all the nearby myconids were killed. Ashton walked back over to the wooden cage, and compressed his channelling range so that he could see inside properly. Within it was a pixie, just as Ashton thought, sitting in the corner of the cage, holding their knees. Just like Poppy, they were somewhat moth-like, with fur-like scales covering their body. He wasn't certain what sort of pixie they were, though. He couldn't see the colour of their scales, and otherwise, the only hint would have been their wings, but... they had been ripped out.

  Ashton couldn't spot them anywhere nearby, either. To pixies, being wingless was practically a death-sentence. It was the main way that they escaped from dangers, after all. But this one barely had the base of their wings left attached to their back, and those few parts were clearly unhealthy and starting to rot already.

  "Hey there... everything's okay now, I got rid of all of the monsters here," Ashton said, carefully grabbing the cage and snapping the wood that made up the 'bars' so that the pixie could come out. But even so, they were still just sitting there in the corner, too scared to come out. With a slightly bitter smile, Ashton held forward his hand, calling Poppy out of his vessel.

  She came out a bit confused, but soon realised what was going on. Poppy stared up at Ashton, and nervously looked back at the other pixie. She could tell how scared they were, and were worried about what to do. So, Ashton quickly got out a small piece of candy from his belt-pouch and gave it to her.

  With a bright smile, Poppy climbed into the cage through the hole that Ashton had torn into it, and held out the piece of candy to the other pixie. The sound of two different bells started ringing out. One was high-pitched and bright, that was Poppy. And the other was a little deeper, but most importantly... dull. Like a rusty bell with too many dents in it. It was the equivalent of a weak, hoarse voice for humans.

  For a little while, Ashton decided to let Poppy and the other pixie talk for a while, whatever it was they were saying. He had tried to learn how to speak pixie for a while, but he simply didn't have the means to produce or fully understand the sounds they made.

  Maybe about ten minutes later, Poppy climbed back out of the cage, holding the hand of the other pixie. They were wiping away some tears and holding a chunk of the candy that Ashton had given to Poppy.

  "I'm Ashton, it's really nice to meet you."

  The other pixie hid behind Poppy, clearly still scared of Ashton. It was actually a little funny-looking, since they were a good bit bigger than Poppy. But he figured this was fine. For now, he just wanted to find them a safe place to stay, so that they wouldn't fall victim to the plants and monsters in this jungle. But for that, Ashton had to know what kind of pixie they were. And as if she was reading his mind, Poppy quickly pointed at Ashton, and was trying to get him to understand something. But... he wasn't sure what she wanted exactly. He knew she was trying to tell him what kind of pixie they were, but the specifics were a bit hard to grasp.

  Poppy thought about it for a few moments, and then smiled brightly. She held forward her free hand, and then held out a loose fist with her thumb pressed against her index finger, before mimicking the action of flipping a coin and catching it.

  "A coin, huh..? A luck pixie?"

  Clearly annoyed, Poppy shook her head, once again doing the motion before pointing at her palm. Ashton smiled and nodded, opening his status window.

  "Okay, okay, I think I got it this time," he said, pulling out a coin that he quickly held forward. The pixie that had been hiding behind Poppy's back this whole time immediately perked up at the sight of the shiny coin. They stared at it, and then up at Ashton again, and he smiled a little. "Here, you can have it. I've got plenty of these."

  He set the coin down on the mossy table in front of the two pixies, and slowly, the wingless one came forward and grabbed it. They pulled it to their chest, and quickly hid behind Poppy again.

  Ashton squatted down next to the table and smiled. "You're a 'Treasure Pixie', right? Now that's a surprise. I didn't realise there was any treasure nearby."

  Pixies were magical beings born from a special, magic- and meaning-filled object. For example, Poppy was born from a poppy flower, but she was overall a 'Flower Pixie' and had the correlated powers. There were some slight difference between specific powers, but the bigger factor was personality rather than the flower they were born from. The same was the case for 'Treasure Pixies'.

  They were born from particular, expensive treasure. Coins, gems, those sorts of things. Back in Lumia, where precious metals and gemstones were still the central currency in a lot of places, it was common to see them in treasure vaults of castles or banks. Their abilities were pretty simple. They were drawn to treasure. Any kind of treasure, not just the coins and gems. Special magical items or extremely valuable plants also often counted as 'treasure'. What they were focused on really depended on their personality.

  Slowly, the wingless pixie turned around, and pointed a bit away. Ashton remembered what was over there. There was some kind of fountain there. Slowly, trying not to startle them, Ashton put his hand out to the two pixies and waited for Poppy to pull their new friend onto his palm.

  They were clearly nervous, but Ashton slowly walked over to the place the pixie pointed, and they seemed to relax as they got closer. And there it was, a fountain filled with mucked-up water, covered in plants. Normally, it would be impossible to tell what was in that water, but Ashton could see what was below the surface. Numerous coins laid within the fountain, so many that it would be impossible to see the stone underneath.

  "So this is where you were born? From a fountain people asked for good luck from?" Ashton asked, and the pixie seemed confused. Of course, they had no idea why people would do something like that. They probably hadn't even met a human before. All they knew was that there were lots of coins here.

  The pixie seemed comfortable here, but it was far too dangerous.

  "... I would like to find you a new home. Is that alright?"