Chapter 254: Strongest Maid & Yggdrasil

…What a pity.

I couldn’t help but feel depressed at the sight in front of me.

This underground space that was a treasure trove had turned into a junk house of ordinary stones.

The ores here had grown day by day.

Normally, it would take a very long time for a stone to absorb mana and transform into orichalcum or magic ore, but that wasn’t the case for the stones here. They were transforming at an alarming rate.

It was probably due to the leftover bath water flowing into this place.

I didn’t notice this whenever I took a bath, but I discovered it when I tried to check and fix the broken pipe. I sensed a tremendous energy coming from the bath water that had been leaking out.

Huge amounts of Halt-sama’s mana had been dissolved into the drainage water.

Such a copious amount of mana had probably transformed the soil and stones in this space, turning them into rare ores such as orichalcum, adamantite and even scarletite.

If we could mine this properly, then it would probably far more than what H&T Corp mined from all the mines it owned combined.

And yet—

Most of these precious ores had reverted back to being ordinary stones — all because of these roots.

The giant tree that had suddenly sprouted in the middle of the courtyard stretched its roots deep into this underground space and sucked all the mana out of the rare ores.

I couldn’t help but feel bloodlust against these roots.

Well, it was also my fault for misjudging the timing for mining the ores.

The ores were growing so well that I decided it would be fine even if we postponed mining them.

Halt-sama would’ve surely praised me if I managed to extract an enormous amount of ores.

It was a mistake to wait for the time when I could mine the maximum amount of ores possible, out of greediness for Halt-sama’s praise.

If I reported that the underground space I made had turned into a rare mine, then Halt-sama might have praised me already then.

I really couldn’t help but regret my folly.

By the way, not all of the rare ores had reverted back to being mere stones.

The scarletite was still there, unchanged.

It was named as the immutable metal, after all.

Its mana being absorbed by the roots shouldn’t be enough for it to return back to being a stone.

Scarletite was the rarest of all ores.

However, its market value was also the lowert.

That’s because it was a stone that couldn’t be processed.

It couldn’t even be mined, to boot.

Tools that could mine scarletite didn’t exist in this world.

Scarletite, the immutable metal, was the hardest ore in the entire world.

The ring I wore on my left ring finger was made from scarletite, and even its very existence was already considered a miracle.

Halt-sama made this ring for me back when he was still the Guardian Hero.

In this world, Level 300 was considered the upper limit of strength, but Halt-sama managed to process it by activating his “Guardian” Skill and reaching Level 360.

The current Halt-sama didn’t possess that skill anymore.

In short, there was no one in the entire world who could process scarletite at present.

“Sigh…”

I couldn’t help but heave a sigh.

It couldn’t be helped.

They might be considered ultra rare, but they were worthless, and they were the only ones left here.

“Perhaps I should…burn these roots.”

I felt the urge to destroy the giant tree that was rooted in the underground space.

—Oh?

What is this?

It seemed the roots of the trees were trembling.

Was it out of fear? A tree?

As if.

There’s no way that would be true.

I summoned some flames on my palm in the meantime.

“Eh?”

The roots that had been covering the entire underground space quickly receded, as if trying to escape the fire on my hand.

I could definitely sense fear from this tree, no doubt about it now.

This tree had its consciousness, it seemed.

I felt a tiny bit of pity in burning it.

By the way, I wasn’t serious about the thought of burning it. If I did set the roots of this tree on fire, the flames might spread to its trunk above ground, and it might even spread to Halt-sama’s mansion.

A thought flashed into my mind.

“It seems that you have a consciousness of your own, so let me tell you this. Prove to me that you are worth more than the ores in this place. If I deemed that you are useless, then…”

I cloaked myself in flames.

“I’ll burn you.”

I gave it my all to intimidate this tree.

….Ugh, just what am I doing against a plant?

What a mess.

I was irritated just because I missed the chance for praise from Halt-sama.

Even though there was no point in doing this.

I extinguished the flames covering me.

At any rate, I should tell Halt-sama about the possibility of mining scarletite for now.

If it’s Halt-sama, then he might come up with a method to process immutable metals, even.

In that case, then he might even praise me!

I felt a bit positive as I left the underground space behind me.

　──＊＊＊──

“H-Halt-sama…what is this?”

“Tina, listen! Sylph and Luna apparently planted Yggdrasil in the courtyard, and then it suddenly trembled —”

Halt-sama was standing in the middle of red fruits that almost buried the entire courtyard.

Fruits had suddenly fell from this tree in droves, apparently.

Halt-sama, Luna and even Sylph, the Wind Spirit King, had been standing here, but the fruit didn’t fall on them so they weren’t injured.

There was a word that bothered me.

“Y-Yggdrasil? T-This is Yggdrasil?”

“Yup, seems like it.”

The Yggdrasil that was supposedly only growing in my birthplace had sprouted in Halt-sama’s mansion without notice.

By the way, Yggdrasil bore fruits only once in a thousand years.

These scarlet fruits had the effect of boosting the status of whoever ate them.

As for the more specific effects, it could extend lifespans and dramatically raise the status.

If this giant tree was truly Yggdrasil, then these scarlet fruits should be the Yggdrasil fruits.

And to think that there was this much…

There were probably more than a hundred of them, as far as I could see.

Huh?

C-could it be….

“Is it because I said you have to prove your worth?”

A bright red fruit fell in front of me, as if to answer my question with a “yes”.