Chapter 6
"Abandoned garden, huh…"
Does that mean this garden was made by someone before being abandoned?
Intrigued by the mystery, she walked closer to the only clue there, the stone pedestal in the center of the garden.
The pedestal was shown signs of beatered and weathered. Its color was no longer pure white, but had become gray as who knows how long it hadn't been maintained. When she was close enough, she could observe that there was a shallow indentation in the shape of something unrecognizable at the center of the pedestal.
She touched it
It feels like there is something that needs to be here.
…
"Ah… could it be!"
After long thinking, she remembered something in the similar shape in her possession.
The insignia!
She hurriedly took it out of her inventory box and inspected it again.
The insignia was in a certain shape, like a shape of some lopsided flower. The indentation on the pedestal also had a similar shape, moreover it was kind of the same size too.
It wouldn't hurt to try it, right…
She stepped closer and gently placed it into the indentation.
For a moment, nothing had happened.
*Click*
Then the token settled neatly into the place, as if it was always meant to fill the missing space.
*Hing…*
Then the ground surrounding it rumbled slightly, the silver-pink flower swayed harder making it appear as if it glowed underneath the sun. The petals began to drift in the air from all of the motions, circling around the pedestal.
Suddenly, among the drifting petals formed a faint silhouette as a light shone from the triggered pedestal.
A person, formed by the light. As if the pedestal was a projector she had ever seen before in her previous life.
[Skill triggered]
[Memory echo: A lingering fragment of the past, projected by activated island's pedestal]
The silhouette was quite blurry, but she could still identify it as a figure of a woman. However, the blurriness prevented her from identifying her features.
The silhouette was facing her, her blurry gaze carrying a hint of longing and hope. Then it looked towards the vast ocean on the horizon. After a long time she finally brought her gaze back to her, then under the blurriness she could see that the figure had smiled at her.
A gentle coise ring out through the serene garden.
"If you see me now, meaning you're finally here…"
The words were spoken in a language she never heard before. Yet somehow she could understand it perfectly.
[New Skill triggered]
[Skill]
[General Language Comprehension Lv. 1]
Sweet another new skill.
The foreign language had triggered her to get another new skill. This skill would be very necessary to navigate this new unknown world.
"Let's meet where we first met again, to the roots of our love…"
The silhouette pointed at the other side of the island, the center of it. There laid the one big feature of the island that she actually had noticed since the first time she had opened her eyes on this island. There was an enormous tree that she could even see from the edge of the shoreline area. The tree looked huge and tall even from a distance.
After pointing at the huge tree, the silhouette disappeared completely. The petals had also stopped drifting in the air.
*Click-*
Then another mechanism had sounded from the pedestal. Now it was not another memory projection, but there was a hidden compartment door that had just opened. She bent down to look at what was in it.
Inside rested some small objects and a box.
[Pedestal compartment opened]
[Obtained:
Small Porcelain Box
Everbloom Ring
Crystal Moonblossom Flower]
Wow, free stuff!
She picked the ring.
[Skill triggered]
[Everbloom Ring: A keepsake once exchanged beneath a flowering tree. Luck
+1]
A luck item. Her luck must be the leading influence of why this island was so good to her so far. So, it would be best to wear it first, especially since there were no negative stats mentioned.
She slid the ring to her ring finger.
There were 2 more items in the compartment, but she only has 1 open inventory slot.
Better to eat something first to free up some space.
Coincidentally, her hunger bar and thirst had been climbing ever since hiking to this place. So, it was better for her to handle it.
She took out the [Traveler's meal kit] and 1 [Bottled fresh water], and sat down on the grass patch of the garden.
The meal kit was like a box of meals that she ever saw in books, before the modernization of food technology. It consisted of rice, some red sauced chicken, and some shepherd dumplings.
Either because this was her food since forever as she only lives from the nutrition liquid, or because of the hunger bar, the food tastes super delicious than any nutrition liquid she had ever consumed. So it wasn't long to finish it, as she eat with so much gusto.
After eating, drinking, and resting, now her stats had gone down.
[Fatigue: 20/100]
[Hunger: 0/100]
[Thirst: 0/100]
The food and 1 bottle of water had remove any hunger and thirst, however it wasn't enough to remove all of her fatigue. She remembered the food mentioned to remove 50 hunger and 15 fatigue, so the other 5 fatigue must be removed by resting.
Now, not only her stats looked better, but she also got space to store the remaining items in the stone compartment.
[Skill triggered]
[Crystal Moonblossom Flower: A flower born from a crystalize memory]
[Skill triggered]
[Small Porcelain Box: A locked porcelain box]
After storing the items, she moved around to look at the stone pedestal even closer. But, she couldn't see anything else. However, now on the other side of the field, facing towards the Silver tree, perched the bird that led her to this place. It kept tilting its head, as if telling her that it was right to bring her here. Then, it suddenly took off again towards the center of the island, where the silver tree was located.
Ah, I really need to go to the tree now.