After lamenting his current predicament for about ten straight minutes, Ventus finally stopped and stepped back towards the sand. He figured that if up close he couldn't figure out an answer, then maybe if he changed his perspective and looked from another angle, with a calmer mindset, then perhaps he might discover something to aid him in his quest to find the true corona cactus flower amidst these plants.

He stepped onto the sand and started distancing himself from the cactus's flower field. He climbed out and stared at the patch from atop a dune, and yet, nothing. Then he decided to move, He threw the board on the ground, stepped on it and willed it to move around the earthen patch.

He tried moving at high speed, he tried moving slowly, he tried moving in swaying motions and tried moving whilst doing a handstand on the board, and once more, nothing. He was genuinely annoyed as he tried different views for hours until the clock struck noon, and no matter what he did, nothing!

"AH GOD! What a stupid task!" he shouted in frustration, "At least they could have given a hint of how to find the damn thing!"

He willed the board to come closer to the patch and laid in the sand right outside it, the sand board held in front of him whilst hitting his head against the construct.

Thud...Thud...Thud….Thud...Thud…

The sound lasted for several minutes as he kept banging his forehead with the board.

"WHY!"

Thud!

"CAN'T!"

Thud!

"I!"

Thud!

"FIND!"

Thud!

"THE!"

Thud!

"STUPID!"

Thud!

"FLOWER!"

THUD!

His rage taking over Ventus stood up and shouted in frustration. He picked his he golden sand board and hurled it at the earthen patch whilst still maintaining it connected to himself so that he could pick it back up.

Swoooooosh…..Clang!

"Wait, what was that?"

Ventus ran towards the direction the board had landed and retrieve it. He placed it on his back and started digging the ground where it had struck till the depth the board's tip had clashed against the metallic sounding object. After excavating for about sixty centimeters he found a copper-colored root underneath the earth.

"What the heck is this thing?"

He saw that the root had not ended, as such, he decided to keep digging and follow the root to its source. After a few minutes he found that the copper root was connected to one of the plants. He grinned as his brain quickly fired a truly hopeful idea to the top of his mind. He figured that it the roots were metallic and this one had a copper coloration, then maybe, there would be a different coloration in the other roots, and if there was, then maybe that would indicate where was and which cactus was the right one for him to take the flower from.

He did not have the patience and his excitement in finding a possible answer could not be contained, this made him walk towards the periphery of the earthen patch and stomp the ground heavily. He fired a blast off mana inside the ground and connected himself to the upper, softer layer of earth. He spun his feet making the soft earth fly outwards and land on the sand.

When he saw the result of his tactic, his earlier grin grew even wider almost making him look like a creepy madman smiling from ear to ear. The ground was filled with many metallic-colored roots, many of them being copper colored as the original one he found. He also observed that some were silver-colored, golden-colored and even white-colored.

He began counting the roots to have a ratio, there were a total of 74 cactus plants, each of them was connected to a single root that burrowed further into the ground. From these 74, 37 of them were connected to copper-colored roots, 19 of them were silver-colored, 17 of them were golden in color and lastly, a single, unique and massive white root that was connected to every single one of the other roots existed.

"hahahahaha Gotcha!!" he laughed loudly.

"Took me a while but my hard work paid off." he sighed whilst excitedly grinning.

He followed the thick white metallic root to its source and found a regular cactus, but with this, he knew it was the corona strain of the bunch. He approached it and gently placed his hands on the flower before attempting to remove it.

Shiiuuu....

"What's this...AAAARRRGGGHHH!?!?!?"

He felt a sharp pain on the side of his left thigh, he looked at it and saw a needle-like thin black spike protruding out of his wound. He circled his mana to the area to prevent poison from possibly spreading if there was any and quickly pulled the spike out. He threw it away and it hit a root with a clang.

Shiiiu...Shiiiu..Shiiiuu..

He grabbed the sand board and moulded it to wrap around his legs to protect them. But to his dismay, the sharp pain now came from both his arms and one of his shoulders.

"AAAARGHHH!!!"

He circled mana into the wounds and pulled the spikes out throwing them away, another three clangs were heard.

Shiiiu.....Shiiiu.....Shiiiu.....Shiiiu.....Shiiiu.....Shiiiu.....Shiiiu.....Shiiiu.....Shiiiu....

"Oh damn!!"

He boosted his legs with mana and jumped high enough to leave the "crater" that was formed from the sand dunes around the cactus flower field. However, he soon discovered that desperate move was an idiotic one as the spikes came flying straight at him. He molded the board again and made a sand shield underneath him.

Thud..Thud..Thud..Thud..Thud..Thud..Thud..Thud..Thud..

The shield received nine impacts and cracked somewhat. Ventus infused more mana into it and repaired the damage as well as expelling the spikes, the spikes fell from the skill and nine metallic noises were heard. Once more he heard the pressurized firing noise, this time, however, he heard twenty-seven noises and before his feet could touch the ground, twenty-seven black spikes almost broke through the sand shield.

He repaired the shield yet again. This time he chose to keep the black spikes and test an idea, he touched the ground carefully avoiding the roots, and his idea was immediately proved correct.

"If I try to harm the corona cactus in any way, it will fire a warning shot. if I ignore the shot and don't retreat, its companions will start to fire increasing numbers of spikes to defend it on an exponential factor of three," He analyzed, "And apparently what triggers the consecutive firing is the impact on the roots or the attempt at theft of the Corona Cactus's flower."

"I'm literally surrounded by a cactus minefield!" He grumbled, "Damn plants!"