Honkai Star Rail: I Became the World Tree — Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The Elven Little Girl

Let’s get to work.

Stelle and March 7th slipped out of the dreary, frost-bitten house, handling the narrow streets until they found an empty alleyway. With a familiar hum of energy, a portal tore open in the air, and the two girls stepped through, leaving the biting cold of Belobog behind.

Meanwhile, within the sanctuary of his domain, Samuel was busy handling the glowing system interface. He swiped through the holographic panels, finalizing the character classes for Clorinde and Neuvillette.

For the Champion Duelist, the choice was straightforward. Clorinde was assigned the [Warrior Apprentice] class. Neuvillette, however, required a bit more consideration. Among the five available starting paths, only one truly suited his natural affinity. He was granted the [Magician Apprentice] class, placing him on the exact same starting line as Furina.

The system chimed, locking in their initial abilities. Clorinde received [Pierce], a precision strike identical to Dan Heng’s starting skill, while Neuvillette was granted [Water Magic Bullet], mirroring Furina’s basic attack.

“As long as you continuously gain experience points, you will level up and your base attributes will increase,” Samuel explained, his tone calm and measured as he dismissed the glowing screens. “There is also a currency system that—”

“Samuel! Samuel!”

The frantic shouting cut his tutorial short. Stelle and March 7th came sprinting across the plaza, waving their arms with frantic energy. As they closed the distance, they finally noticed the two tall, imposing figures standing nearby.

The girls skidded to a halt, their pace dropping to a cautious walk as they stared curiously at Neuvillette’s formal robes and Clorinde’s sharp, uniform-clad silhouette.

Seeing her friends arrive, Furina immediately puffed out her chest, stepping forward with a theatrical sweep of her arm. “Stelle, March, allow me to introduce you! These two are my most capable subordinates, Clorinde and Neuvillette. As you can see, my Justice Adventure Team has officially been established!”

Stelle offered a casual nod, greeting the two Fontaine natives before turning her attention back to the World Tree incarnate.

“You two are in an awful rush,” Samuel noted, crossing his arms. “Is something the matter?”

Hearing the question, Stelle’s chaotic energy returned in full force. “Samuel, I need to get my hands on a massive batch of food. Life down in the Belobog Underworld is absolutely miserable right now. The stuff they eat down there is basically radioactive dark cuisine. It’s a crime against stomachs.”

March 7th nodded vigorously, her pink hair bouncing. “Yeah, yeah! I seriously doubt if eating that stuff won’t cause permanent health damage. We have to help them!”

Samuel considered this for a moment. “If you’re looking for fresh fruits and wild vegetables, you can simply go forage in the forest directly below the city-state.”

“What about staple foods?” Stelle pressed. “Carbs? Grains?”

Samuel raised a hand, pointing toward the rustic facade of the General Store across the square. “You can buy staples in there. Go inside, walk all the way to the back, and look to your right. There’s an automated vending machine. You can purchase basic bulk supplies like rice, flour, cooking oil, cloth, and seasonings.”

Stelle flashed him a crisp OK gesture. Without missing a beat, she grabbed March’s wrist and bolted toward the store.

“Hey! Stelle, March! Wait for me!” Furina called out. Completely abandoning her newly formed ‘Justice Adventure Team’, the Hydro Archon hiked up her skirts and chased after the two trailblazers.

A heavy silence fell over the plaza. Neuvillette and Clorinde stood perfectly still, watching their Archon disappear into the distance. They exchanged a brief, entirely blank look.

Samuel let out a dry, amused chuckle. “You two are free to stroll around the vicinity and get your bearings, or you can go test your new skills on some monsters. If you follow the main trunk boulevards toward the outskirts, you’ll run into hostiles soon enough.”

Clorinde adjusted the cuffs of her gloves, her expression returning to its usual professional stoicism. “Monsieur Neuvillette, you may proceed to the outskirts to test the local threats. I will go and ensure Lord Furina’s safety.”

Neuvillette offered a slight, polite nod. He turned to Samuel, expressing his thanks with a formal dip of his head, before turning and walking toward the edge of the city-state alone.

Inside the General Store, Samuel leaned against the doorframe, watching the chaos unfold.

Stelle, March 7th, and Furina were huddled around a wooden counter, treating it like a high-stakes war room. They were currently pooling their meager finances.

Stelle dug into her pockets, pulling out a handful of dull copper coins and slapping them onto the wood. “I’ve got thirteen here.”

March unclipped her small pastel wallet, shaking it upside down until the coins clattered onto the table. She poked them with her index finger, counting carefully. “I’ve only got nine.”

Furina stepped up, a smug, triumphant smile playing on her lips as she deposited her own stash. “I have a bit more. Sixteen coppers! Yesterday, I ventured out and bravely defeated five whole Goblins entirely by myself.”

Stelle swept the coins into a single, unimpressive pile. “That’s thirty-eight in total. With the current exchange rate, this is only enough to buy thirty-eight kilograms of rice.”

“Let’s just buy as much as we can carry,” March suggested, leaning over the counter. “Afterward, we can head down to the forest and forage for those fruits and wild vegetables Samuel mentioned.”

Furina’s eyes lit up at the prospect of an excursion. “Oh, perfect! Let’s all go together! I haven’t explored the forest down there yet. There have to be mushrooms, right? Let’s go pick mushrooms, hehe~”

“Lord Furina.”

The three girls jumped slightly as Clorinde materialized behind them. The Duelist looked at the pathetic pile of copper coins, then back to her Archon. “Regarding the matter of supplies… do you require me to return to Fontaine and have the Palais Mermonia allocate a shipment?”

Furina blinked, slapping a hand to her forehead. “Oh, right! Why are we scraping pennies together? Fontaine has massive stockpiles of supplies! Clorinde, go back and have them prepare a large batch of provisions. Stelle, March, and I will go pick mushrooms in the meantime. We can send everything over to Belobog together later.”

Stelle looked down at the coins. “So… should I still buy this rice?”

“We should,” March decided, sliding a portion of the coins back across the table. “But we should give Furina’s share back. The supplies Fontaine provides are her gesture of goodwill. The supplies we buy with our own money are our gesture.”

Furina waved her hands dismissively. “Oh, let’s just skip the rice entirely! Let’s go pick mushrooms! If we pick a massive amount, isn’t it the exact same thing?”

Stelle and March exchanged a glance, then nodded in unison. That logic tracked perfectly. Besides, mushrooms picked with their own two hands carried far more sincerity than machine-dispensed rice.

With their plan set, Furina generously spent three of her hard-earned copper coins to purchase three small bamboo foraging baskets from the store’s inventory.

A few moments later, Furina opened a portal, sending Clorinde back to Fontaine to handle the logistics. With their baskets secured, the trio made their way to the edge of the city-state.

Currently, the main gate was entirely impassable, the roads beyond swarming with high-level monsters. The only safe route down to the surface was to physically climb down Samuel’s colossal “body”—the massive, winding roots and bark of the World Tree itself.

Down in the Elven Forest, the atmosphere was vibrant and thick with magical energy.

Stelle, Furina, and March 7th treated the foraging mission more like a playground excursion. Furina hummed a cheerful, theatrical tune, swinging her bamboo basket as she skipped lightly over the mossy, ancient tree roots.

It didn’t take long for a splash of color to catch her eye.

“Ha! I found one!” Furina dashed over to the base of an old oak, dropping into a crouch. She grabbed the stem of a brightly colored mushroom and yanked it free with a satisfying pop. She held it up to the light, admiring her prize. “Hehe~ Picking mushrooms isn’t difficult at all. Look how fast I got one!”

Stelle offered a slow, sarcastic golf clap. “Impressive, truly impressive. It is a very pretty fungus.”

“Look at mine! Isn’t it huge?”

Stelle and Furina turned to see March 7th emerging from a thicket. She was cradling a massive, basketball-sized cluster of mushrooms in her arms. The entire bundle pulsed with a soft, bioluminescent blue glow.

Furina gasped, her eyes going wide. “It’s so big! And it glows in the dark!”

March puffed out her chest, beaming with absolute pride. “Hehe~ Of course! I happen to be quite the expert when it comes to wilderness survival!”

Stelle stared at the glowing blue cluster, then down at her own completely empty bamboo basket.

Good grief. She was the only one who hadn’t found anything.

No. Absolutely not. She was the Galactic Baseballer. She had fought Antimatter Legions and Stellaron disasters. There was absolutely no universe where she lost a mushroom-picking contest to an amnesiac photographer and a dramatic theater kid.

Stelle’s golden eyes narrowed, scanning the forest canopy with deadly focus. A minute later, she spotted her target. High up on the trunk of a massive ancient tree grew a solitary mushroom, boasting a vibrant, blood-red cap and a thick white stalk.

Without a word, Stelle leaped onto the bark, using both hands and feet to scale the massive tree with terrifying speed and agility.

Furina watched from below, shielding her eyes from the dappled sunlight. “Stelle, you know how to climb trees too?”

Stelle paused her ascent, looking down over her shoulder to give her hair a confident toss. “Of course! There are plenty of things I can do!”

She scrambled the rest of the way up, perching precariously on a thick branch right in front of her prize. She reached out, her fingers inches from the bright red cap.

Just as she was about to yank it free, a tiny, incredibly timid voice drifted from the other side of the tree trunk.

“P-Please… please don’t pick that… the Sudden Death Mushroom is… is highly poisonous.”

Stelle froze. She slowly peeked around the curvature of the massive trunk. Sitting on a neighboring branch was a tiny Elven girl, no taller than four and a half feet, with long, flowing white hair and trembling shoulders.