by A P Gore
System: You have bewitched the man with your mere words. +1 Charisma.
Good grace. Charisma reached 5, now he could push it to 10 with his next level up.
“Of course. But I have a favor to ask you,” Jon said, smiling.
Dave’s shoulders stiffened. “Please tell me, Lord.”
“Can you swap your farm with me?”
A wide grin spread over Dave’s face. “Happy to oblige, my Lord.”
An equally wide smile spread over Jon’s face. It was time to grow this Apple Tree of Kataja.
Chapter 22
Taking a deep breath, Jon raised his hands. Fresh air rushed inside his lungs, giving him much needed calmness. Raising his hands wasn’t necessary, but in all the movies he’d seen great characters raised their hands before casting an epic spell. Wasn’t he a great handsome character too?
“Purify.” Jon cast the spell from his arsenal to reduce impurities in the seed. But nothing happened, and the seed remained the same. Then he tried imbuing it with his Spirit, to no avail.
Maybe a unique seed couldn’t be improved by his lowly skills.
A cunning smile spread over his face as he called, “Path of Growth.”
Golden energy descended from the heavens and swirled around the apple seed Jon had planted in the soil. The golden energy poured life into the seed, increasing his anxiety. He hoped it would work.
The seed shuddered before accepting the energy and then, slowly, the golden energy slipped inside the seed.
The seed shuddered again, and this time a crack formed on its surface, sending chills across Jon’s spine. Did it fail?
No, it didn’t. A small green tendril emerged out of the crack and then grew at an alarming pace. Only after growing two inches long did it stop, and then two tiny leaves sprouted out of it.
This was a success.
But only for a moment. The green leaves turned gray and withered.
No! Jon’s heart twisted in turmoil. That was his fifteen days cooldown skill. How could it wither? It was supposed to push it to 60% growth.
A foul smell emerged from the sprout before it turned green again, throbbing with vigor.
Jon’s eyes shone with joy; his efforts had succeeded.
As if the god of darkness sensed the joy in his heart and bestowed a curse on the sprout, it changed color and turned dark gray.
Jon’s heart clenched tight as the sprout fought with the wind to steady itself. Seconds passed and then minutes, but the sprout lingered on the edge of withering and blooming. The force of the land wasn’t sufficient, but the Path of Growth was trying to hold it strong.
Mana. It needed mana.
Damn, why wasn’t it spirit? He had a formation of Spirit Congregation. Even if he had to supply the mana, he didn’t have the skills to do that.
Wait... four of his villagers had the ability.
Jon called over the three people that could imbue mana into the sprout. Initially, he had four people in the village who could use mana, but his dark vine had sucked one’s soul, and that person wasn’t back yet. Though Jon didn’t care much about it, he made sure that man’s quota was get submitted every week. After all, with his nature spells it wasn’t hard to raise a few more thousand crops on that man’s farm.
The three of them rushed to Jon.
“Guys, pour your mana into the small tree.” Quickly removing more soil around the seed, Jon made a space for the three of them to directly insert their mana into the tree.
The guys stared at him with wary eyes for a moment, but then they obeyed. Squatting, each one extended their hand and a thin thread of blue energy slipped inside the sprout.
A second passed.... two seconds passed.... ten seconds passed, but nothing happened. The sprout still shifted between withering and alive, giving off the foul smell intermittently.
Jon stroked his chin furiously. What could he do? He didn’t want to waste this moment.
“More, push everything!” Jon yelled, and the three guys shivered in fear. The thin lines of mana changed into finger-width pipes, but at the same time their faces twisted in pain. Their Mana Manipulation level didn’t seem to be that high, so they must be suffering backlash.
Instinctively, Jon cast Healing Space below them, and the pain on their faces reduced a little.
After nearly fifteen seconds, something changed in the sprout, and it grew another inch. Its greenness darkened a bit, and an aroma of apple spread into the surrounding air.
“It’s intoxicating.” Jon cheered.
Even the three guys broke out into smiles, but the very next second their smiles turned into painful grimaces.
The sprout burst into a tree. Literally. What was a two-inch-long sprout a moment before had turned into a full-grown apple tree in the blink of an eye.
One man died, his blood completely drained, and the remaining two didn’t look well.
Did the tree suck their blood when it couldn’t get enough mana?
What kind of sorcery was it? Jon knew some spells used blood if spirit wasn’t sufficient. His own spell, Vine of Light, did that to him. But a tree sucking mana out of people. Wasn’t it horrid?
“Lord...” One burly villager cried, staring at the corpse of his friend.
Jon hardened his face. “Keep this a secret for now. We’ll find out once your friend is back. As for you...” He pulled ten gold out of his bag and tossed it to the survivors. For a player in the outpost area, gold brought huge benefits, so it should keep their mouths shut.
“Thank you, Lord.” They nodded, but the horrified expressions on their faces told Jon that next time they might not participate in his experiments so eagerly. After all, he had killed two of their friends, and one wasn’t back even after thirteen days.
He hoped the one that died just now would be back soon.
Jon’s eyes shone with reverence as he plucked an apple from the tree.
Apple of Mana
Quality: Rare
Provides +2 to Intelligence on first consumption. The first consumption effect only applies once for each person.
Secondary effect:
+2 to Intelligence for 12 hours.
Cooldown: 12 hours.
This was epic. A rare fruit with a permanent stat bonus?
Glancing at the hundreds of apples hanging on the tree, Jon couldn’t restrain his evil laughter. This would sell like crazy at the market. If his Excellent quality crop fetched so much money from the market, how much would this bring? Five gold each apple? Or more?
No, he had to inquire about the prices before making any deal.
“Lord, are you all right?” A man rose and touched Jon, while the other went near the tree and plucked a fruit.
“Ben, give that to me.” Jon’s voice rose, nearly a yell.
Jumping away from the apple tree, Ben handed the fruit to Jon, his hands shaking a little.
“No one is allowed to pluck the fruit from this tree. Now, go and tell everyone.” This could have been a nightmare. If someone ate the fruit, they would receive the permanent boost, and if the news got out, people would go crazy. As if he didn’t have enough issues already.
His chest heaved as he plucked all the apples and dropped them in his Bag of Holding. The fruits were all reaped, so he didn’t have to worry about anyone eating them. For now.
Planting the tree here was a mistake, and now he realized it.
Chapter 23
Devon threw the book he was reading when his wrist PC beeped. The bitter taste of humiliation spread across his mouth. Every day, he suffered humiliation from Baltazar. Baltazar might forget his morning coffee, but he didn’t forget to vent his fury at Devon.
And the reason for Baltazar’s fury was the old pissy visible through his personal PC screen.
Devon growled, because every time he saw the old bastard’s face, his rage shot to the skies. “Denis, what are you up to now? It’d better be good, or you can forget coming out.”
“Boss,” the old man lowered his gaze.
Denis was his level 50 lackey and only had one job. Manage a bunch of level 10-20 players in the outpost area. But that pissy couldn’t even do a simple thing like that. How could he let that Jonathan guy gain a class? After that, everything went downhill. Just everything.
“Boss, Jon has upgraded the village and built a temple to Morpheus.”
Devon’s heart tried to jump out of his rib cage. “How did he do that?” This was bad. Morpheus was an NPC god, but his lackey Mathial was a Taxen employee. If he influenced Jonathan, that could mean the village would fall into Taxen territory. This was defecting, from their calculations. He must tell Baltazar about this, but how would he react?
Not well at all.
Laxania developed BlackFlame Online, but after the beta phase ended they lost control of the game to the magi-tech AI. They only got two benefits. One, the real-world magic energy from all the players, and two, the two outpost towns in every country/empire. These outpost towns generated a vast income for Laxania. The in-game currency to real world currency ratio had reached crazy heights, and everyone had been reaping great benefits from it. This specific town was under Baltazar’s control, and he had lost it to a noob. And now the town was upgraded.
When the beast tide failed, Devon had begged to Baltazar to reduce his punishment, and now the town had reached level 1.
How was he going to explain this to Baltazar?
“Boss, let’s ask one of our gods to wipe him out,” Denis said, his voice filled with fear.
Devon rolled his eyes. “Have you gone mad? Do you know how many gods we have? Just three. If we mobilize anyone, we might lose the position in the end.” That couldn’t happen. BlackFlame Online had a God’s Realm, and only a few players could reach it. After ten real life years of intense pushing, Laxania got three positions in the God’s Realm. If they lost even one of the positions because of a player, Devon’s life—not just his job—would be in danger.
“Then...” Denis mumbled. “Something weird is going on. The village Lord raised a strange tree, and it killed a villager. And now Ben is saying he won’t help us anymore. The two people that died in the village Lord’s experiments haven’t logged back on yet.”
Devon rubbed his forehead. This Jonathan was a headache. No, he was a mole on his dick. Actually, he was a catastrophe for him and Baltazar. In less than two months, that man had brought them to their knees.
First, Jon’s real body was accidentally destroyed. If that thing got out, the blow to Laxania’s reputation would mean losing half of its capital in a single day.
Second, the man triggered an expansion that wasn’t supposed to go online for ten years. So many players were signing in that their magic gathering infrastructure was losing out. They were wasting a huge amount of magic energy from these new people.
Third, the man knew a forbidden spell that could block people from logging into the game. He had already sent one player out, and now another. Baltazar wouldn’t like this.
Why did Baltazar hire Jonathan to be a farmer? Why couldn’t he just let him rot in the Aminiam mines?
In front of him, their every plan was failing.
When Baltazar offered Jonathan the village, he’d thought the beast tide would kill him, he would get the village back, and Jonathan would be stuck with the contract, but Jonathan was too sly. He had so many trump cards that he not only overcame the beast tide, he also upgraded the village. But how did he get his hands on so many trump cards? Per the records, Jonathan had never stepped in BlackFlame Online before. Then how?
“Denis, increase the compensation for that Ben. I need to know every single thing about Jonathan. Got it?”
“Yes, but what should we do about the tree? Even I can’t see through it.”
“Who cares about a tree, pissy? Just ignore it. Wait for winter. Then we’ll see how he survives six months of hell.”
Denis’s old wrinkled head nodded, but Devon wasn’t pleased at all. Though the old man was level 50, he still acted like a new player. Devil, please save them all!
Chapter 24
At first bite, the rare fruit melted in Jon’s mouth, sending a myriad of flavors bursting across his tongue. His blood raced faster, and he felt like his mana capacity had grown by a bit. This had never happened before. He’d had his Mana or Spirit increased by level ups, or items, but he’d never felt the actual effect in the sources which resided near his heart.
Then why did he feel it now? What effect did the fruit have on those sources?
System: You have consumed an Apple of Mana. Primary effect applied, +2 to Intelligence. Secondary effect applied. +2 to Intelligence for 12 hours.
Your mana source has been nourished. +1 Mana Manipulation
He was right. There was a qualitative change in his mana source, and he could feel the mana flooding through his system. Now, he had to find something similar for spirit. Maybe the other fields had such fruit.
“God! How can there be a godly fruit like this?” Jon’s eyes shone with reverence for the green apple in his hand. This was just epic, like his village name.
Speaking of the village, he accessed the resource production menu.
Current Resources:
BP: 40
Wood blocks: 3900
Stone blocks: 1550
Iron blocks: 600
Food: 1700
Resource Production:
Current BP Production: 40/day (Village buildings: 5, Population: 5, Associate Builder: 15, Basic Builders: 10, Temple of Atrizi: 5)
Wood blocks: 0 Stone blocks: 0 Iron blocks: 0 Food: 0
Ahh, the resource production. Other than BP, he’d produced nada, and he had to take care of it soon. The food would run out soon, as his population was increasing.
How would he solve it?
More gold and more workers. Yes, he needed more gold to hire more workers and increase his population, and he needed to find a way to increase BP production. With a measly 40 BP, he could only build one house a day.
And to manage these, he needed to get to Chinari.
Where was Grimish?
Pulling the map up, he checked Grimish’s position and was surprised to find him near the village.
Good.
“MASTER, WHAT ARE YOU doing here?” Grimish slid off the back of the gray horse he rode on. A second horse, as white as an angel with a thick mane, followed him. With wild gray eyes and smooth skin, the horse looked like nothing less than an exquisite trophy. Its gray eyes lingered on Jon for a moment.
“What a beautiful horse.” Stepping forward, Jon touched the horse’s mouth.
“Master, no!” Grimish cried. “She—”
Jon rubbed the horse’s mouth, sending his liking for her through his touch. In real life, he’d always wanted to have a horse. Unfortunately, horses went extinct in his planetary system ages ago, and they could only see them in TV shows.
Grimish gasped. “How strange. She’s Hiren, the agility queen. The stable owner told me she was the fastest, so I bought her for five gold.”
“Worth every penny.” Jon’s eyes glittered as he rubbed the smooth skin over her back. Every step, every action she took displayed the majesty of the whole race.
“But she’s too proud and wouldn’t let me touch her,” Grimish said. “If not drugged, she would have run away in the middle of the journey.”
Jon rubbed Hiren’s neck, and the animal reacted to his touch like it longed for it. “She doesn’t look harmful.” From the first glance, he liked her. He would tame her, no matter what.
“I don’t know. She might not listen to you. This fella gave me a lot of trouble on the way here.” Grimish shook his head, casting a disdainful look at Hiren. He pulled two black scrolls out of his bag and handed them to Jon. “Learn these, Master. They are Taming and Horse Riding skills. Each cost five silver.”
As Jon touched the scrolls, a tiny spark shot from the scroll and entered his fi
ngers. The scrolls were filled with magic.
Scroll of Taming
Teaches level 1 Taming skill to the user. Scroll burns after one use.
Taming (Passive)
Level:1
Learn the way of animals and tame them to obey your orders.
100% chance to tame a level 3 animal.
50% chance to tame a level 5 animal.
Scroll of Horse Riding
Teaches level 1 Horse Riding to the user. Scroll burns after one use.
Horse Riding (Passive)
Level:1
Learn to ride a horse.
Allows the user to ride a level 5 horse or below. The horse must be tamed to obey your order.
It made sense. He needed to tame the horse first, and then he could ride her. In a blink, he learned both skills. He loved this way of learning things. With some gold, he could learn anything, while in the real world he had to go to school and then college, and later he had to keep practicing those things.
Here? Read one book and learn the skill. Boom.
Now, what type of taming should he choose?
Closing his eyes, he went through the profound taming knowledge he had just acquired. Taming depended upon many things. He couldn’t just go and tame any animal.
There were two types of basic animal taming: subduing and loyalty.
In subduing, one had to beat the animal in strength and the animal would obey your command out of fear. If the animal surpassed the owner’s strength, or got a chance, it would flee or retaliate on the owner. However, it was the quickest way to tame an animal.
In loyalty, one had to take care of the animal and form a bond of love. Once the animal accepted the bond, it would remain loyal to the owner even if it surpassed the owner in strength. Loyalty was always better, but it would take time to form a bond of love.
