I Became a Tentacle Monster Blooming in the Academy Garden 362

## Chapter 362 – Under the World Tree (4)

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“Let go!! Haa…”

Waking abruptly from my sleep, I thrashed my legs wildly, feeling a heavy weight pressing down on me as I struggled to push it away.

It turned out to be the arm of Riel, the elf who had been stuck to me all day, showering me with affection.

Perhaps she was a heavy sleeper, lying in a bizarre position. Her arm, pressing down on my abdomen—the part of the spider’s body I was inhabiting—felt like a lead weight.

Was this a downside of having a small body?

Considering her size, Riel shouldn’t have been that heavy, but the weight of her slender arm felt incredibly oppressive.

Thankfully, I had the strength to push her arm off me while she was asleep, but it was still a near-death experience.

‘I definitely felt like someone was grabbing and dragging me away… Was it a dream…? Or was I just mistaken because of the weight? Ugh… Is this what happens when dogs sleep with their owners?’

Free from Riel’s embrace, I stumbled out of the cabin, shaking off the sleepiness.

The gentle rustling of the breeze and the sound of the few remaining leaves of the World Tree swaying in the wind gradually soothed my drowsiness.

It felt strange to have a dream after so long. I usually never slept, so I never had dreams.

Enic had animalistic traits, but was essentially a plant.

‘I didn’t need to sleep before… But I slept quite often while I was with Lea, didn’t I?’

However, the other members of the swarm, being definite beasts and animals, needed rest for their biological rhythms.

The difference was that I usually slept curled up in Lea’s warm egg sac, feeling the gentle pressure of her stroking my abdomen, in preparation for any possible situation.

So every morning when I woke up, it felt like being a newborn baby every day.

‘It wasn’t a bad feeling, surprisingly. Like being cared for by a mother?’

Having experienced a dream after so long, I quietly looked around, emerging from the life-threatening cabin.

On the other side of the World Tree, I imagined Lea sitting quietly, cross-legged on the ground, meditating.

As a skilled hunter, she would take short rests like that instead of falling into a deep sleep, so she could watch for prey or prepare to defend herself from enemies.

Even while resting, her perked-up ears, the sensitive hairs on her spider abdomen, and her other sensory organs would be focused on the sounds of the quiet forest, listening for any movement from monsters.

And in the distance, I could see the female elf hunters sitting around the campfire, taking turns standing guard.

Seeing the one who was awake stirring the fire, she seemed a little lonely on her solo night watch.

Still, seeing her diligently keeping watch, even if they were a bit airheaded, they at least knew the basics for survival.

‘Since I’m up early, should I think about a plan…’

Yesterday, I was so surrounded by elves that I didn’t have the chance to concentrate on anything properly.

‘I have no doubt about Lea’s skills. Even though she was defeated by humans, it wasn’t because she was weak.’

Humans were weak on their own, but they knew how to use their heads.

Of course, there were individual differences, but they had the ‘intelligence’ to see from the immediate present to the distant future.

Lea, a monster and demi-human based on humans, might have been naive, but she wasn’t lacking in intelligence.

That was why she was such a deadly hunter.

‘The biggest problem is that we don’t know our opponent…’

Thinking about the biggest obstacle in front of us, I sat down gently and fell into deep thought.

Earlier, I talked about intelligence as our most deadly weapon, but intelligence was based on information.

For humans to make a judgment, they needed a basis for that judgment, and that basis was information.

What strategy would Lea use? What was the probability of her getting injured in a head-on fight, or even fatally wounded? How much chance of success did she have?

Depending on those predictions, we might have to abandon everything and escape with only Lea. Information was essential for making that decision.

‘Is there any way to find out even a small clue…? If the elves don’t know, is there anything I can do…?’

Dozens of male elf hunters had been defeated.

Elves were probably strong and had great stamina. They might not have given up as much intelligence as the beastmen, but they were physically superior to humans.

‘Is the opponent a giant monster? Do they just bulldoze through everything with their sheer size…? No… If that were the case, there would be a lot of traces left in the forest. They have the ability to not miss any of those hunters.’

The female elves were protected in the village, so they might not know much about dangerous things. But the male elf hunters were different.

This was a dungeon where monsters roamed everywhere, and there were many other dangers that could threaten their lives at any time.

This small village had survived because the men had done their best to eliminate those threats.

The fact that all those men had been wiped out meant that they had been targeted by something that could overwhelm them.

‘They had something special compared to the elves. That’s why it was possible. Incredibly fast speed? Or… A high level of psychological warfare that could trap intelligent prey? What is it? What’s right?’

For a moment, I looked at the forest, wondering if I should use my small body to explore and look for traces of the monster.

Maybe I could spy on the opponent without being detected. It was a reckless idea, but it might be effective.

But I quickly shook my head and turned away from the forest.

Unlike Lea, a hunter who understood herself and her prey well, I was just a monster with a body. I might make a mistake.

Having the confidence that I wouldn’t be detected in this situation with so little information was just a reckless way to die.

‘This is the problem. Information. Information!! I can’t do anything stuck in this body…!!’

If only I could go back to my original body.

Then I could mobilize anything to find more than enough information.

If I squeezed the swarm members to the maximum, I might be able to take care of the monster without Lea having to step in.

‘I didn’t raise the swarm this far just to…’

I had tried several times to return to my original body, but Lea’s return magic tool didn’t react.

In the end, I had to solve the problem on my own with my current body.

As I was getting tired of that helplessness, something like a firefly with a faint light caught my eye in front of the compound eyes on my back.

The small, faint light from the forest seemed like it would be obscured by the light of the distant campfire.

‘Light…?’

I thought it might be something dangerous, but for some reason, I felt a warmth that I couldn’t express in words from that small light.

I stared at it blankly, and for some reason, I wanted to see that light a little more, so I started walking lightly on the dirt floor, following it.

‘Ah…’

But the light soon crumbled and disappeared, scattering into the air and vanishing.

I had been following it diligently, and now I was looking at the empty space with a feeling of regret.

‘This is a dungeon… Maybe it was just a will-o’-the-wisp…’

As I was about to turn around with the result I had derived with my own rationalization, I realized that I was standing in front of the World Tree’s huge trunk.

The tree had lived for so long that its size couldn’t be compared to the spider’s body I was inhabiting, and it would continue to disappear over a long period of time.

It might not look like much now, but when it was healthy, it probably had a majesty that the elves would have revered like a god. Its branches swayed, giving me a comfortable natural sound.

As I was looking at it for a moment, I noticed a small cluster of light disappearing behind the World Tree’s pillar, and I widened my four pairs of compound eyes.

‘Light… Clothing…?’

Feeling like I had found something, I hurriedly moved my short legs, climbing and crossing the tangled roots that felt like canyons to me.

Eventually, I arrived at the place where I had witnessed something disappearing. I found nothing, but I didn’t stop and continued to circle around the World Tree.

Then, as if playing tag around the World Tree’s pillar, something left behind only the hem of a dress that scattered a faint cluster of light like the aurora borealis, hiding behind the tree pillar.

If I moved a little faster, if I shortened the path a little more, I felt like I could catch up to that something and see that familiar figure again.

Because of the poor visibility in the dark dawn, sometimes my legs got caught on the tree roots and I rolled on the ground, and sometimes I slipped while grabbing the tree pillar.

I didn’t stop and continued to chase it with urgent movements.

And the very moment that someone’s fluttering dress disappeared behind the tree pillar, just out of reach.

“It’s been a while, Enic.”

‘Ah…!’

It was so special, so I wanted to hear it again someday.

So the comforting voice, which felt like it was being whispered in my ear, felt like it was being heard after a long time.

At the same time as I blinked, I was trapped in a darkness as black as pitch where even the moonlight had disappeared. I struggled slightly, feeling a moist and warm warmth suddenly starting to be felt all over my body, and tried to escape from the warm prison that was binding me.

“Ah!! Ugh… Husband… That’s too… If you scratch me too roughly… Ahhh!!”

‘Lea…?’

I could see Lea, who was biting her lip as if enduring something and squinting her eyes under the tree shade where the bright and warm morning sunlight was seeping through the leaves. Only then did I realize that I had come out of her egg sac.

“Suddenly… Ugh… If you rummage inside like that… But now is not… an important time!? If… If there’s something you want to do, after work… So please bear with it for now…”

‘Why… am I here…?’

“Huh…? What do you mean?”

Monsters also dream.

Very nostalgic dreams.

We can’t decide what to miss in those dreams.

And no one knows who a welcome guest might be.

‘I was definitely at Riel’s last night…’

“Are you already looking for a new female? I know that’s your species trait… But as a new bride, I can’t help but feel sad. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you fell asleep inside me yesterday, didn’t you?”

But we dream in that uncertainty.

To remember the warmth that still remains.

And that warmth may sometimes show us the light, the way out.

“Could it be that you had a dream? Do you want to tell your new bride? Did you have a good dream inside me?♡”

‘Ha… Haha…’

At Lea’s laughter, who was stroking my back with a soft smile, I turned my head slightly with a hollow laugh and a feeling of embarrassment.

And at the end of that turn, the scenery where someone’s dress seemed to flutter behind the World Tree’s pillar was unfolding peacefully, riding on the morning sunlight.

‘It’s been a while… on that side too…’