Athena in Tower Defense Game! [LitRPG]

0010 – Purple Dream Buds

...A plant that can dream?

Suddenly, this world feels both absurd and fantastical. By all reasoning, many people, upon learning of its danger, would steer clear of it.

But Athena chose to defy convention.

She took out a worn bear fur from her spatial backpack, which she had never used before. Though this thing was worn out, using it to wrap her hand to pick a few flowers seemed like a waste.

Yes, Athena planned to plant these flowers in her own backyard.

After wrapping her hand with the bear fur, she carefully pulled out the purple dream buds without disturbing them, exerting some extra force.

The flowers were pulled out, but the roots were left in the soil.

"Mistake."

Unwilling to accept failure, she pulled out several more plants, finally succeeding in harvesting five purple dream buds. She cautiously wrapped them in the worn bear fur and threw them into the system backpack.

With this harvest, this trip was not in vain. Full of anticipation, she continued walking to the left.

To no avail. Except for trees and grass, there was not even a single insect.

Shivering, even though the sun was high in the sky, at the peak of noon. Athena felt the surrounding air getting colder, knowing that it might not be just her imagination, as tonight was already the fifth day. The onset of a cold wave was imminent.

After confirming she couldn't find anything else worthwhile, she decided to head to the patch of grass she had cleared earlier. Since she was already out, she decided to enjoy the sunshine and have a picnic for the remaining half of the day.

But things don't always go as planned.

Comparing the direction, wasn't that where she was heading for the picnic? Why did one place get refreshed twice, and now three times?

Nevertheless, she was quite pleased; it saved her from running around. She didn't mind the extra packages; she felt she owed the system yesterday, and here was a new package today. However, as she joyfully ran forward, goosebumps erupted all over her body.

My sixth sense tells me not to go any further.

Even when facing other monsters, she didn't have this feeling. The only thing that could give her goosebumps all over her body was a snake.

Even standing 400 meters away, she could see the distant black-skinned snake. Estimated to be 2 meters long and as thick as an arm.

At this moment, it was coiled around a stump left by a tree knocked down by a bear.

Athena was dumbfounded.

What did she see? A large, thick snake. She'd rather be blind.

The joy of receiving packages vanished completely. Turning around, she decided to go back to her little cabin to plant flowers, at least flowers were pleasing to the eye.

These two things were much needed for Athena. With a hoe, she wouldn't have to dig with an axe every time. But Athena was determined to leave, without even looking back.

Perhaps the sound of her moving through the grass startled the giant snake in the distance. It began to crawl towards her.

Athena watched as the enormous snake slithered towards her. The notification sound was triggered due to the shortened distance.

She raised the axe and swung it fiercely at a nearby tree, instantly leaving a deep crack in it, causing the entire tree to tremble and sway.

Athena didn't even know how much force she had used.

At this moment, her heart was filled with anger, and her beautiful eyes were full of extreme disgust and fury. Gritting her teeth, she muttered, "Get lost!"

The python was startled by her tree-chopping action and didn't advance further.

Then, this human took out a piece of bear fur. The scent emanating from it made it clear to the python that the original owner of this fur was much higher in level than itself.

Sensibly, it retreated.

With a cold expression, Athena returned to her little cabin. The feeling of repulsion and goosebumps all over her body gradually subsided.

But the thought of that snake, that soft-bodied creature, slithering on the ground, sleek and slippery, like a super-sized insect, made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

"I'm just too unlucky. Why does every package refresh bring monsters!"

"Any monster is better than a snake. I'm so disgusted! My goodness, it was getting closer to me just now..."

"Ah!!"

Athena didn't have anything particularly loathsome, but snakes were one of those things. Every time she saw one, it made her feel extremely uncomfortable. This was definitely a physiological aversion. Just thinking about the scene from earlier made her feel furious.

But if one asked her to go up and fight that snake for 300 rounds and chop it up, considering the possibility of touching the creature, her anger and disgust had already clouded her mind.

She definitely needed the white package; the items inside could really help her solve many problems.

Each package lasted for 12 hours. Tonight, she planned to ask the lost soul to help her see if she could drag the package over. She really didn't want to get close to that creature. Thinking about the package being crawled over by the snake multiple times, or even played with by the creature...

If it didn't work out, forget it. When the cold wave came, the creature should hibernate. Or if the package disappeared, would it disappear with it?

To be honest, she didn't know, after all, she had killed the bear directly last time. And at that time, she didn't know that the package refresh was caused by monsters.

Athena lay on the grass mat in the cabin, soothing her 'injured soul' in silence. She washed her eyes with clean water, as if by doing so, she hadn't seen the snake at all. Then, she lifted the axe and prepared to plant the flowers in the yard. Still placing the tip of the axe downward, she stomped hard with her foot and then used her hand to dig a small hole.

She repeated this process five times at the gate of the courtyard, obtaining five small holes at the entrance.

Wrapping the purple dream buds in the bear fur, she buried them in the holes with soil.

It was a rough technique, but she believed that with the extraordinary vitality of these strange flowers, they wouldn't be killed by her simple methods.

A shallow defense measure was done.

Yes, it was the idea that occurred to her when she saw these flowers. Originally planned for this afternoon, but she had no intention of going out now, so she decided to do it now.

These past two days of cold waves, she planned to stay in the wooden cabin to keep warm. With abundant resources, she could occasionally look at the snow scene from the window, sleep a few more sleeps, chat in the chat channels.

How wonderful.

If things went smoothly, she could catch the lost souls and chat with them every day.

Patting her left and right helpers, she returned to her little cabin, ready to take a nap in the afternoon.

When Athena saw this message in the afternoon, she remembered setting this person as a 'special attention' to not miss any trades.