Strangely though, there was still only one door recessed on the wall. The only thing different was the monitor on the desk in front of the [Isolated Room.]
On the top left of the screen, it showed his original room, with a budding Darkwood vine starting to permeate through the Elven soil on the ground. On a small, semi-transparent window overlaid on top of it were the room’s current parameters. It was all green, showing a perfect environment for Darkwood to flourish.
And on the other seven screens, it simply showed a desolate space filled with nothing but whiteness.
These were perfectly sufficient breeding grounds for his Darkwood business.
Excited, he walked towards the door.
As soon as he got close, nanoparticles emerged out of nowhere at the side of the door. An instant later, eight buttons formed in rows and columns, resembling an elevator’s controls.
Ahh... so that’s how I go to the other rooms.
Pushing the button for the 1st floor, the tactile knob lit up with a yellowish glow. Then a second later, the [Isolated Room]’s door creaked as it automatically opened in front of him, immediately sucking him into the space.
He found himself back to his first Darkwood farm. It had been a good few days after he first planted it, and it had already grown a substantial amount, with the vines already breaking through the plowed soil.
Hmm... is it just me, or is this thing growing faster than normal?
He already noticed it before, but this Darkwood didn’t follow the rate of growth written in the Darkwood Experiments. It was much faster—by a small, but very noticeable margin.
Suddenly, a thought popped up into his head.
There was something about what Serena said a few days earlier.
’Legends say that Marianas Jewel will bring growth and prosperity to the ocean, but conversely it could also cause ruin to the entire world.’
Bring growth and prosperity... could it be?
He looked at the Darkwood sapling. There was just a single stalk bursting out of the Elven soil, letting him see a glimpse of the vine-like roots below.
No...Darkwood is the essence of Earth-like. It doesn’t have any correlation to the sea or the oceans at all.
He knew all the parameters inside the [Isolated Room]. The very reason why this space is special was because he could precisely control every variable inside it, making sure that there was no disturbance or connection to the outside world at all. It’s what made farming Darkwood possible in the first place.
So, this unexpected faster rate of growth was truly perplexing. Nothing should have caused such a change—at least, not something he installed.
Faced with no other explanation, he couldn’t help but think that the giant pearl-like object in his possession was somehow the cause of all this.
Since it came from an ancient leviathan creature, it was safe to assume that the object wasn’t normal and probably as powerful or as mystified as Cthulhu itself.
Perhaps, it was powerful enough to somehow break through the confines of the Pocket Dimension and influence the growth of these Darkwood.
Now, this should have been cause for celebrations, given that its effects could bring him more Sand Dollars in the long run.
However, this would force him to recognize that the unassuming and seemingly normal pearl Cthulhu gave him truly was the Mariana’s Jewel that everyone in the seven seas were looking for.
It was even more harrowing to think that he had an apocalyptic object just sitting in a little cabin in his Pocket Dimension.
No, no, there’s no way that’s Mariana’s Jewel, he said to himself.
The egocentric part of himself wanted to put the Mysterious Pearl inside the [Isolated Room] to see if it could intensify the Darkwood’s growth even more than before.
But he wasn’t that sure of his guess. Who knew, maybe using the Mysterious Pearl in such a way would inadvertently activate the apocalypse.
He didn’t want that. The whole business model of his Darkwood Farm was based on longevity. Farming more Darkwood gave him more money, which he could use to buy more [Isolated Rooms]; rinse and repeat. He’d be shooting himself in the foot if he started the apocalypse now.
So, it wasn’t worth it to try.
Let’s go slow and steady.
And with that thought, he quickly left the [Isolated Room] and started to work on planting seven more Darkwood seeds.
First, he teleported himself back to the insanely distant Elven Kingdom, lowering the mana density of the entire Parched Lands as he did so.
Afraid that he’d be ambushed by Zephyrs, he quickly dug up cubes of soil from the ground, enough to fill seven more [Isolated Spaces].
Once he got what he needed, he immediately teleported back to the Nation of Reborn’s Smithshop. There, he obtained all the materials he needed to create all the systems: sprinklers, fans, heaters, etc.
After that, he took a brief visit back to Metropolis to buy Morel Spores to be used as fertilizers. The old man offered him some shrooms again, but he denied it of course.
Once he had everything he needed, he went back to the [Isolated Rooms] and spent the whole day setting up all the farms.
Finally, after some good old-fashioned hard work, all eight Darkwood farms were up and running.
Oh, right. I should refill the water tanks.
He manually gathered water from a nearby pond in a forest and went back to the [Isolated Rooms].
But before he even entered the space, he caught something in the corner of his eyes.
He looked at the monitor, his eyes widening.
On the CCTV cameras, all eight rooms now had a little Darkwood sapling bursting a few inches out of the soil.
"What the hell?!" he cursed out loud.
He only planted those seeds for barely a few minutes! Yet now, they were in the same stage of growth as his first Darkwood sapling who had days to grow!
It’s because of Mariana’s Jewel—no, the Mysterious Pearl. It’s not the Mariana’s Jewel!
He corrected his thoughts, but even his own subconscious was starting to have doubts.