" Please ! Eileen or Betty ! Abandon your hunt and come here ! " Sera prayed.
She could not remove the space suit with a single hand. She can not let go of one of the transfer objects mid energy transfer.
She's wearing a maximum absorbency garment a.k.a space diaper. That's only useful for one time. But right now, her situation looks like she was going to stay here for more than sixteen hours.
Right now, she is at level sixteen.
That means she has absorbed two to the power of sixteen amounts of vitality, the plant still has vitality to spare.
The amount of vitality she absorbs per second has leveled up five times now, reaching ten thousand per second.
It's not a small number. It means she is killing one adult tree as thick as an arm every second.
The little grass has more energy than such a tree.
She is extremely thirsty, she's already feeling the pangs of hunger.
Finally, unable to bear it, Sera opened a box of juice, drank it to raise her blood sugar level.
Day turned into night.
All the students returned, including Betty and Eileen. Looking at the battered up faces of her teammates, Sera could not bring herself to ask them to remove her space suit.
She just has to suffer this way.
" Are you not returning to the ship ? " Eileen asked in surprise when she heard Sera is not moving.
" No. I have to stay here. Can you send me juice, lollies or chocolates? Just anything with lots of sugar. Also, take this card with you. I will pay you a hundred for every point you use." Sera answered.
Eileen took the card in surprise.
She removed the juice and dessert from her own supply box, and placed it on Sera's open window. Then, out of a rare display of compassion, she pushed the supply box near sera, so that she could reach out and take it.
" Don't expect us to guard you for the night. " She grumbled.
However, internally, Eileen is reeling. She had not expected a squeamish young lady like Sera to act as their bait throughout the night in order to help them. Did she have such an idea from the beginning ? Did she, Eileen, judge a book by its cover ? Did she fall so far off the mark to mistake a self sacrificing girl for an extremely selfish one ?
' It's the same thing with her ex-boyfriend.' Is she, Eileeen, cursed with irreparable bad judgment of character ?
Sera did not know she had caused such a beautiful misunderstanding.
Betty returns to the spaceship, after promising Sera she will bring juice and chocolates tomorrow. All the student teams returned, save for Eileen's ex-boyfriends.
Sera took a duct tape from her supply box, taped her hand to the grass in an unbreakable manner.
Even if she sleeps, she has to sleep face down without disturbing the energy transfer.
She concentrated her all on the energy transfer, and just like that, she fell asleep, the transfer continued to happen at an even more efficient rate.
She woke in the morning and felt the urgency to piss !
But the weed is still alive.
She's absorbing a hundred thousand HP per second ! That's a giant thirty year old tree worth per second !
Sera could not help it. She has reached her limit !
After a moment, she felt pleasure like nothing else, and finally the pressure on her bladder disappeared.
She directed her newfound energy and anger at the weed in front of her. This time, she has a better idea.
If she could cut off the roots of this weed, then, the little cut off plant body is also counted as a star beast.
Isn't that better than trying to absorb all its energy ?
Thus, Sera retrieved the shovel from the plant kit, and controlled the little digging robot to dig around the weed.
She's as the first one foot is dug, she twisted the weed around her hand like a rope, and continued.
The little digging robot dug slowly, almost to one meter.
The weed is still going on and on downwards.
'What the F*** ? '
Sera stopped digging after two meters. After all, two meters length is the needed limit for the demon mutant plant, and this plant already filled it. She's not here to be a savior, but to just get enough grades. After all, even if there are mutant plants and star beasts in this ground, they are all approved by the university. Isn't it taking away chances of another distant cowardly junior if she kills this plant all the way ? She decided to leave such easter eggs for her juniors to clear in time.
For now, she will just absorb the vitality of the plant.
She brought the digging robot out, changed the shovel for shears, and sent it in again.
They cut it with shears, but the shears could not cut the roots. They are pliable, yet sturdy !
It's a combination only organic matter could achieve.
Betty and Eileen arrived to greet Sera.
" Actually, you could stay with her. I will go on the perimeter check by myself. " Eileen said.
After all, yesterday, Betty caused more trouble than helped her, and such a clumsy person is not suited for this job at all. However, even if one gets the lowest marks in a combat university, they could get a better job than normal students. There are plenty of such bottom crawlers all over the combat universities. Universities allow them, for revenue. Alliance also needs them. After all, a war needs more than fighters.
" Betty ! Can you do me a favor ? " Sera asked if she made sure there's no one around.
" Can you enter my mecha, and help me take off the space suit, save for the helmet ? " Sera asked.
Betty thought it a strange thing, but it's not exactly dangerous. She got in after much tussling. Sera directed her to get the compost bags, toilet tissues and the portable station near herself.
.
Ideally, Sera would like to make sure an energy generating chamber moves near her. If she asked Betty to do such a delicate operation on such a novel mecha, she would be asking for a disaster. Thus, she settled for the compost bags and the toilet seat moving near her.
After that, Betty helped her take off the space suit, without her letting go of the little weed.
" Can you not let go of it at all ? " Betty asked curiously.
" Not any time soon, I think. " Sera answered, despite her unwillingness to give details.
" Where is the energy going ? " Betty asked once again.
Warning bells rang inside Sera's head.
" It's dispersed. It will naturally be absorbed by the trees and grass in time. " Sera answered.
" So you can't absorb it ? " Betty frowned. ' What a useless skill ' is written all over her face.
" Do you want to return to your mecha ? After all, this mecha is made of wood, and it's never going to be as safe as your own. " Sera reminded her.
" Yes. I do. " Betty suddenly remembered the feeling from the last night, when both Eileen and herself thought Sera was acting as bait.
Now, Betty added one more leaf to it. Sera is not just sacrificing herself for the team, but she's sacrificing herself for the entire planet. What a selfless person ! a veritable saintess !
" Thank you Betty. I really appreciate your help. " Sera said.
" Don't worry about it ! It is my honor to serve you. " Betty answered back.
Sera felt a little off at the unexpected words, but she's not in a position to think about anything other than absorbing vitality from this plant, so she just ignored them.
The day turned into night, and the hundreds of thousands of vitality turned into millions, but the weed still has life left.
At this point, Sera is absolutely sure she has bitten off more than she could chew. This is not a mutant grass, but an offshoot of some other gigantic mutant plant, perhaps from a far away location. That is why she is not attacked yet.
The plant would have become very violent by now. Perhaps, violent enough to set off beast tides from a far away location. Any time now, the beast tides will cause rippling waves, pushing all the Ribbits towards students.
To think she was the origin of the disaster !
Eileen finished fixing all the traps and returned, settling in for watch near Sera.
The first team to return was another low level team, with an extremely cautious leader.
As soon as he saw two Ribbits tied together, they rushed to the beasts.
Most of the Ribbits they gathered fell into traps made by Eileen.
" Hey ! we have ourselves a good haul ! " The team rejoiced.
" Oi ! Those are our traps. " Eileen turned on fighting mode.
" Hey ! If we did not attract those beasts, would your shitty traps catch any starbeasts at all ? " a random player on the opposite side bit back.
" If you are that powerful, then why didn't you kill them when you saw them ? " Eileen taunted.
" Hey ! What's your attitude ? Do you want to fight ? " The boy came up.
Eileen raised her lance, and placed it on his neck before he could take a step.
" Whoa ! Whoa ! Let's all calm down. This Miss! How about this ? we split the prey half and half. After all, we did lure the beasts. No beasts would have come this way as long as the starship was there. " The team's captain bargained.
Eileen was about to refuse.