I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

Chapter 177: The Butterfly Garden's Dilemma (1)

[ The Butterfly Garden's Dilemma

// Some of the butterflies in The Butterfly Garden contains the value of Sacred, Legendary, or Godly Artifacts. Someone will commit a heinous crime in the garden. Prevent them from doing so. ]

The quest displaye on Elliot's Console made his senses sharpen all over. He was now wary of every little thing in the road as they walked to the enclosure.

"So that's why I suddenly got the urge to watch butterflies," Elliot said to himself. "Lance? Could we hurry a bit? I bet Dustin wants to see the butterflies so badly now."

"Ohh," Lance chuckled. "Do you, Dustin?"

"Yes!" Dustin cheered. "I want to see the butterflies."

They walked faster until they got into the enclosure. It was weird that barely anyone was in the garden when it was usually filled with people inside, watching all the butterflies.

And the fact that the butterflies contain magic bugged Elliot to no end. How would an insect contain a value of an artifact? Even a Fine artifact value would fetch you a good 100 gold coins. And top tier ones are valued at thousands of gold coins.

Artifacts are used to enhance a magic ability to the best of the ability. It is like a Skill Gem, but a Skillill Gem would only provide you a starting skill, an Artifact would give you the maximum level of that skill with a bonus effect.

The effects would vary greatly upon how the skill is placed into the artifact. Some artifacts would have a stunning effect with burn effect, some would let you take the damage you deal as your HP.

"Nine tickets, please," Elliot said to the counter.

The middle aged man there, who looked like he was about to give up on life, lazily spoke, "That would be 9 gold coins."

"Oh, what?" Ed gasped. "1 gold coins per ticket? But it was only 10 silver coins just a week ago!"

"A week ago is different from now. We're at the now, if you want 10 silver coins as your price, go back to the week before," the man retorted, making Ed's face blush in embarrassment. "There's a line behind you. If you lot can't afford the tickets, you can go."

"We can," Elliot said, handing the 9 gold coins to the man. "Thank you."

"You may now proceed inside, enjoy," the man said with a monotonous tone.

When they got inside, Dustin was in awe at the sight. 

The Butterfly Garden is like a greenhouse, a large greenhouse. Flowers of different colors that would attract the butterflies were littered inside the large room, all in order according to color and species it belongs.

"Wow," Dustin gasped in awe. "This is so beautiful. The butterflies are so pretty."

Elliot was looking around the room, almost forgetting his quest. He watched the insects gently flutter their wings with grace.

Some of the butterflies were glowing, a glow that Elliot suspected is the artifact in them. The quest did not really specify what kind of "value equal to an artifact" these butterflies possess, so Elliot concluded that they are the artifact themselves.

This is something that's beyond the imagination of an ordinary Adventurer, no beyond an ordinary person. Some insects or animals can glow with the use of magic and no one has ever attempted to put an artifact within them.

This was something that's been bothering Elliot. Which person on their right mind would do it? Unless that person is not in their right mind at least.

Elliot couldn't also simply rule out that an accident happened, giving the butterflies the powers. After all, there are some things in the world that's hard to explain, like how the Manual knows that someone is plotting against the insects and that Dustin would want to see butterflies.

He wanted to explore on his own, but it was hard to leave everyone there. It would be suspicious of him if he suddenly left, trying to explore the place without any actual clue about what 'heinous crime' the culprit would do.

With a sigh of frustration, Elliot continued entertaining Dustin. As much as he'd let the boy explore his magic in the room, there were suppression gems around, making it close to impossible to even cast a spell inside.

This relieved Elliot for a bit. At least he knew that the culprit would not do something 'heinous' with magic.

"Woah," Dustin was still in awe with the butterflies fluttering their wings in the air. There were different colors of them and some were glowing brighter than the other.

Anyone would be mesmerised by how these creatures look.

"What did inspired the creator of this garden?" Connor found himself asking. "How did he even achieved the glowing butterflies when you could barely cast a spell on an insect since they're very fragile."

"Yeah, I wonder about that too," Ed pouted. "Such amazing talent that person must have."

"You're lucky that that person is standing in front of you," an old man's voice spoke that made all their heads snap to his direction.

A man with long white hair that ran up to his back, with a floral suit and a cane with a rose pommel, was standing in front of them. To say that he was old was obvious. The wrinkles and the black spots on his skin were obvious, his eyelids were also covering his eyes even when he was opening them.

"G-Good afternoon, sir," Lance bowed. "How are you doing today?"

"I am good," the man said. He looked at the surprised faces of his guests, making him laugh in amusement. "I'm sorry. My name is Polschk, the owner of The Butterfly Garden. I used to be the Royal Gardener but retired because I was too old."

"Sir, what inspired you to make this garden?" Ed asked, running towards the man with Connor and Hope trailing him. "It's only been a couple of months but you have made this is empire of such beautiful creatures."

"Well, they say that the butterflies carries a soul of a person who had since passed," Polschk said. "I saw these butterflies and found that they indeed carry souls."

"T-They carry souls?!" The three gasped, now the younger trio, Viper, Florencia and Christina, walking over to them.

"Yes, they carry souls," Polschk laughed lightly. "Those souls who couldn't cross the Afterlife remains here in our Realm, roaming around in the form of these butterflies. They say that the brighter the butterfly, the stronger it was in its previous life."

Devin was intently listening to this when he felt a drip of water fall in his cheek. He thought it was just the watering system for the flowers inside the garden but the water wouldn't stop dripping.

He looked up, only for his eyes to widen when he saw Dustin playing a water ball in his hands.

"D-Dustin" Elliot trailed off, everyone turning to him. "How could you cast magic inside?"

Without missing another beat, an explosion sounded from somewhere inside the garden. People were screaming on that side, a dark smoke coming out of the area.

"W-What is happening?" Polschk gasped. An arrow was quickly coming towards him, but a figure blocked the arrow before it hits the man. The red glowing mist covering his body as he grit his teeth in anger.

"Hasty Aspire!"