Chapter 133: Is It Okay If I Just Rebuild the Entire Forest?
“Actually… there might be a way to avoid evacuation entirely…”
“W-What?! If such a thing exists, then hurry and tell me at once!”
At my words, the Elder reacted with explosive intensity. His sudden outburst was so overwhelming that I found myself momentarily frozen, heart pounding, and spoke only after a hesitant pause.
“Um… would it be… alright if I just… completely remake this forest?”
“…Huh?”
The Elder’s face twisted in utter disbelief, as if to silently ask, What on earth are you saying? Well… I suppose that reaction was only natural.
“What are you saying…? No, it seems I was a fool to expect anything from a mere human child.”
With a weary sigh of exasperation, he dismissed my proposal so casually it stung. The Elder—despite his age and wisdom—surely had a rather unpleasant streak in his personality.
“Understood. Then I’ll just do it. Don’t complain afterward.”
A battle of words—mine, sharp and defiant—elicited a reluctant hum from him.
“Hmph… If you think you can, then try it.”
“Don’t forget, I have your words on record.”
Satisfied that I had his reluctant consent, I left the Elder’s home behind.
“That Elder really gets on my nerves,” Anii muttered, her voice tight with irritation. “He didn’t even thank us for slaying Fafnir, and his attitude… ugh. I don’t care how long he’s lived—there’s no way I’d want to grow old like that.”
“Exactly. That old man’s twisted to the core; he’s had a bad reputation in the village for ages,” Shifa’s grandfather agreed, his tone heavy with agreement.
Ah… so even the village dislikes him. That explained a lot.
“Geo… do you have some plan in mind?”
“Yes. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but I’ll give it a try, just in case.”
Either way, leaving this forest alone would let the miasma continue spreading unchecked. Worrying about the details now was pointless. I left the village behind and mounted the patch of my home garden, launching into the sky.
“It’s spreading even more…”
“The monsters are doing their best to escape too!”
From above, the forest’s condition was horrifying. The miasma surged outward at alarming speed, already consuming nearly half of the land. At this rate, it would reach the village soon enough if left unchecked.
“I need to get higher… to see the whole thing.”
“W-What?! Higher still?!”
Anii shrieked, terrified of heights. Well, if you’re scared, just close your eyes.
I raised the home garden until the village below looked no bigger than a speck.
…Alright, this should do it.
I gazed down at the forest as if praying.
〈Designate as garden?〉
Yes! Just as I had hoped, a section of the forest flickered and glimmered in response to my intention.
I concentrated, willing the flickering area to expand. Before my eyes, the shimmering spread rapidly, eventually covering nearly sixty percent of the forest.
Yes! I could designate it! I’d thought managing this scale would be impossible, but it seemed feasible after all.
〈Designate as garden?〉
“Please!”
In the next instant, sixty percent of the forest vanished.
“Wha—?”
The land was now a perfect rectangle, as if a giant pair of scissors had sliced it cleanly. Not a single tree remained. In its place was finely tilled, fertile soil.
“This… this is—”
“Yes, my home garden.”
“You mean… you turned the entire forest into a garden?!”
As Anii’s wide-eyed voice confirmed, I had transformed all areas infected by the miasma into a vast home garden. The troublesome, corrupting miasma had disappeared completely.
The sudden disappearance of the forest left the local wildlife and monsters in shock. As with the time I transformed a swamp into a garden, living creatures remained untouched—even if the trees themselves were gone. How exactly the system judged life forms versus vegetation remained a mystery.
“All that’s left now is to cultivate trees here.”
In fact, I could now grow trees as well—pines, ginkgo, cycads, cypress, cedar, camphor, beech, willow, camellia, maple, katsura, oak… and more.
“Shifa-san, do you remember what kinds of trees grew in this forest?”
“Y-Yeah.”
I carefully selected the species that once thrived here and began cultivating them en masse. That way, the forest wouldn’t appear drastically different once restored.
With growth taking only a few hours, the area would soon regain a shape closely resembling its former self.
“You’re as reckless as ever…”
“To turn an entire forest into a home garden… I can’t even follow what you’re saying.”
“Geo, that’s amazing!”
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Geo’s Home Garden
Level 57 97/285
Garden Area: 10,501,150/∞
Skills: Fence Generation, Barrier Generation, Wall Generation, Shield Generation, Guardian Summoning, Mega Guardian Summoning, Giga Guardian Summoning, Garden Concealment, Garden-to-Garden Teleportation, Garden Relocation, Remote Cultivation, Auto Cultivation, Harvest Preservation, Three-Dimensional Movement, Hut Generation, House Generation
―――――――――――
Previously, the garden area had been 501,150—now it had skyrocketed to 10,501,150. Naturally, this increase reflected the forest I had converted. The space was vast enough to fit the entire city of Arcel inside it.
…Infinity? What does that even mean? Surely there’s a limit somewhere… right?
Below, the elves of the village, noticing the forest’s sudden disappearance, were scrambling in panic.
Ah, even that cantankerous Elder was there. He had apparently been so shocked that he fell backward onto the ground, and seeing that gave me a small, private sense of satisfaction.
After confirming that the trees had fully grown, we descended back to the ground and returned to the Elven village.