Chapter 259 - "The"

“Aah, you mean drugs, right? Psychedelics? I think that's what you call them in your language.” Bindal followed along. His decent ears may even be linked to a higher intelligence, because he picked up on hints in a way that humans never could. “Come to think of it, most plants here will make you see weird things if you don’t cook them long enough, be warned. Unless you have a really good reason to eat an Air Root, I advise against it, because it can hurt you more than it can benefit you.”

“Blue mana works in a weird way, Bindal. I need the root, because I'm going to craft a new ability for myself later on, and I can't use that ability unless I eat the root.” He said, and this time he was quite honest, because he started to believe that these dwarves were not hostile, unless provoked. “If you help me find one, and if the root does me good, consider it as the start of a beautiful relationship between us goblins, and you dwarves.”

“Goblins… that's what you are? Okay then, your deal sounds good.” Bindal said.

With the conditions set, it didn’t take long to find a root afterwards. These dwarves knew this forest like the back of their hand, so they knew where to look whenever they wanted to find certain ingredients, or in this case, drugs. It was difficult to believe that a root was a psychedelic, but then again, it was difficult to believe that an exclusively crimson forest existed, so one's perception should always be considered subjective, or flexible to what the truth was.

Anyway, the root itself looked a lot more unique when one had it in their own hand. It was red in color, which wasn’t surprising, but it also seemed difficult to consume, because it had this layer of slightly pointy lumps covering it. Common sense encouraged that it shouldn't be consumed, but Timothy was in a situation where he had to be experimentative!

“It won't kill me, right?” He asked.

“It doesn't kill us dwarves, but you best chuck it down back there, in your castle. You don't want to wander across the forest while being off your tits in Air Root, because you will either be eaten by a bug, or mate with it, there's no in-between.” Tilan answered this time, and he spoke as if from experience.

Since the dwarves had helped gather the rest of the ingredients on Ortana's list, he heeded the other's word. This was the best time to go home, and use the castle's protective walls to his favor.

“We mark our friendship today, then. Thank you for your help. We won't bother you guys, and we can share this forest as easily as we share a conversation.” He said, and then shook the hands of the dwarves in front of him. “Thank you for helping us find these ingredients as well.”

“It's our pleasure,” Bindal said, “You're always welcome to visit our lair, it's not that hard to find it. I do advise you to look for us if you visit our lair, though, ask for us by our name, for the sake of general security.”

After that, the two parties parted ways. The dwarves had been quite helpful, and their help shall be remembered, but it made no sense to follow them along any longer. With giant bugs running wild, it was always best to avoid being outside for long periods of time if one could help it.

…

Timothy and the team got back to the castle. Thankfully they got there in one piece, which was quite a blessing in this universe! They could go on with their day.

“Have you noticed that it never gets dark here? We’ve been here for at least eight hours.” Gustav pointed out, right after they landed on top of one of the towers. “It’s weird.”

“You need a sun for that, a moon too I think.” Tim said, “Trust me, it would’ve been a lot worse if there was a day & night cycle here. We don’t need a star shining on top of a needle universe.”

“Sounds like you know what you’re saying,” Gustav added, and then he let go of this topic completely. Astronomical topics were always mind-boggling to him.

The team then climbed down to the lower section of the castle, grabbed some food in the main hall, and then went to the basement. They brought the mule along with them as well. Ortana had a lot of ingredients on her, and she was certain that she could create a few potions herself! She didn’t have experience in this matter, not at all, but the alchemical books that she read a few hours ago had instructions that were quite easy to follow, so she was confident about it.

Ordinarily Tim would join her, but right now he had something else in mind. He could always pick up alchemy later, but right now, he was itching to see what this Air Root would do to him! With any luck, he’d be able to absorb telekinetic powers soon, unless the book he read actually discouraged the consumption of Air Roots, which in that particular case he would be none the wiser, because he didn’t understand the contents of the page. He wouldn’t know anything about this root until he tried eating it, and that was the risk of it all, it was an experimental situation, and he locked himself in one of the basement cells for the same reason. He didn’t want to hurt his friends while being under the influence of the root.

After he locked himself in, Tim sat down, and snapped off a tiny bit of the six-inch long root. From the looks of it, it was no different from a prickly radish. It even looked like a radish inside of it as well, so this root wasn’t as intimidating as he initially pictured, as under most circumstances, it was quite difficult to be intimidated by a radish.

“Doesn’t taste like a fucking radish,” He spoke as he chewed, “It tastes like a carrot.”

Thankfully, he wasn’t haunted by either carrots or radishes after. Psychedelic-encouraged hallucinations were largely different, and in this case, it took about half an hour until the hallucinations kicked in. He started seeing shadows at first, shadows of people, but he wasn’t exactly scared of shadows considering his recent adventures in the phantom world, so he just stared at them, and almost got close enough to slap one of them shitless!

“Me the The!” He shouted.