At least it gave me something to go off of, and it was something that I could easily scan with my Aura Sight without wasting mana. Moving over to one of the simpler trees, I did my best to gently land on it, my eyes darting around me to watch for a possible attack. After a full minute of waiting, there was no sign of an attack, so I sighed lightly and got to work. It would be great if I could just spend my time on this one tree for two days, as my sense of adventure was entirely used up by now.
After I landed, I began cultivating a Seed of Plants. Not surprisingly, I found a very dense plant mana permeating the atmosphere of this planet, so much that it was even carried on the wind. Part of me worried that this might be the planet’s form of Mana Sense, but if that were the case I’d be pretty much dead already. With the density of the plant mana, I managed to finish refining the seed in barely two hours, after which I began work on a Seed of Darkness, which took considerably longer.
I was tempted to go to a lower branch and refine a Seed of Earth to complete my set, but found that my legs refused to move in order to comply with the request. The scene of the escape pod being ripped to shreds repeated itself in my mind, except it was me instead of the pod. Sometimes, having an upgraded memory is more of a burden than a help. Instead, I sat on the branch and decided to try something new. “Celeste, pull up the energy combination needed to charge the energy weapons again.”
“What are you thinking, Falenel? You don’t have nearly enough mana to burn down the jungle, if that’s what you had in mind…”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “No, I just wanted to have you see if the combination matched a possible affinity.” A mixture of fire and lightning mana was far enough away from either to possibly be considered its own affinity, such as the difference between earth and magma, or steam and ice.
Celeste paused for a moment, before smiling slightly and nodding her head. “Yes, it is in fact. It is known as the Plasma Affinity, of which you currently have a single percent of proficiency.”
I smiled, nodding back to the AI. “Figured as much.” After spending so much time using my Technomancy on the weapons, I was able to tell that they directed some form of energy charge through a magnetic current. and the only energy I could think of that was controlled in such a manner and had the same effects was plasma.
“You’re going to try and learn the Plasma Affinity now, aren’t you?” Celeste asked with a tired expression, making me laugh lightly. Sadly, that laugh seemed to be loud enough to cause the vibrations necessary for the plants to detect me, as I had vines piercing towards me from the nearest tree. Rather than dodging them this time, I used my Fire Manipulation to burn the vines with a thin screen of flame between us, which caused them to recoil, apparently in fear.
With a sigh, I moved from this tree to another one that my Aura Sight registered as safe. “Yeah. I think it’d be a good idea to do so. If I get good enough with it, I should be able to use the control skill to deflect energy weapons.”
After a moment, Celeste gave a nod. “In that case, I’d suggest also studying the Magnetism Affinity. I am unsure if the manipulation ability you gain with plasma will be sufficient to control it, and if not it would be a good idea to have a backup.”
I thought about it, but had to agree she was right. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any magnets on me to practice that affinity. Then again, the only plasma sources I had were my weapons, and I’d rather not drain them to get the affinity. After all, I might need to shoot something in this planet where the entire jungle wants me for lunch. “I can work on those after we get rescued. Until then, I’ve got other things to worry about.”
Celeste went quiet for a few moments, before speaking up. “Do you think it’s possible to copy the traits of these plants? I think the hostile trees should either be the plant form of a magical beast, or a monster. Your Nature Magic should be able to replicate it, right?”
“Maybe…” Jarl had said that it was possible to turn blood into a potion, so copying the traits of plants was certainly possible. The question is, what would I get from doing so? Flexible bark armor? The snake’s scales should be far stronger. I could maybe learn their tremorsense and mana detection abilities. So far, none of the plants had displayed a particularly useful ability for me aside from that. “Keep an eye out for any plants that have useful abilities. For now, I’m going to focus on training.”
Pulling out my enchanting staff that I received at Hascion, I decided to experiment a bit. The staff itself had no magical properties, and merely served to hold the mana gem. But that also meant that it was still, for the most part, unaltered wood. With my Plant Manipulation, I made a series of hollow sockets in the wood, and in each one I placed an elemental seed.
Fire, water, wind, light, dark, lightning, void, and plant. Eight affinities, and eight seeds to go with them. If I had my Seed of Earth, I could have completed the set. Once each seed was socketed into the staff, I used Plant Manipulation again to close it up, hiding them inside the wood of the staff. Although they weren’t plainly visible, Aura Sight still showed the eight different sources of mana hidden in the staff.
With that taken care of, I began to cultivate my Plant Affinity, as I highly doubted I would ever find a more suitable environment to do so than a world full of plants, without a single animal in side. Doing it this way also had an added effect, I soon discovered. Since cultivation required me to match my aura to match plant mana, it made me all but invisible to the local species. And no, I did not discover this by walking up and poking a plant, or using my Mana Sense on it…
…
I fell out of the tree while cultivating. Thankfully, though, my aura seemed to match well enough, because the grass(yes even the grass had the complex aura of a plant waiting to attack) did not do anything to me. If I had to guess, this was likely a planet where only a druid would be able to survive peacefully, as anyone else would be attacked constantly by the plants.
Of course, now that I knew I could hide myself by simply cultivating Plant Affinity, I was free to move around as I liked. It seemed like the plants that detected me with tremorsense also read my aura as a plant, and did not attack. With the lack of any kind of animal on this planet, I began to wonder how the plants sustained themselves, but they likely fed on the abundant plant mana in the air.
Naturally, there was no way I was taking Yin and Yang out while I was here. Neither of them were able to cultivate Plant Affinity, so there was no chance of them being safe. Every now and then, I would scan one of the plants that I passed, assessing its aura and seeing if it had any uses in alchemy. Since I kept my aura attuned to plant mana, this didn’t cause any ‘misunderstandings’ with the locals.
I wouldn’t be dumb enough to take a carnivorous plant into my grove, but I did find a few plants that were docile and had some medicinal properties. One, a large tree that bore a fruit in the form of a five pointed star, had a sap that seemed to contain a powerful medicine aura. However, the fruit itself had the aura of an equally potent poison. Using my Plant Manipulation, I plucked one of the fruits and stored it in my inventory. Once I could make a second grove, I would plant this tree there. Wouldn’t want the birds to eat it by mistake.
The next herb I found was actually a weed, which looked very similar to blood weed. However, the medicinal aura it held felt different, so it likely held a different use. Using the same trick as before, I gathered a few of these weeds for my inventory as well. This went on for a few hours, until my inventory was too full to accept anything else. In that time, my Plant Affinity had also risen sharply, from 7% to 9% in one go, and I felt like it would soon break through to 10%.
Honestly, I was getting to the point where I really wanted to sleep, but I knew that if I did, my cultivation would lapse and the jungle would attack again. Looking over to the plants, I decided that there was in fact something I could get from them, and began studying the aura for the tallest tree I could find. Specifically, I wanted to study its leaves, and how they fed energy to the tree.
>
As I suspected, I noticed that the leaves on the tree absorbed the plant mana in the air, and transmitted it through the tree as sustenance. This was true for both the docile and hostile trees, so I copied from the former. If the hostile trees qualified as a monster, than it would be far harder to copy their version of the ability.
Closing my eyes, I focused on copying this ability onto myself. For some reasons that I’m sure nobody could possibly guess, I didn’t want leaves growing out of my head. So, instead, I turned the feathers on my wings into leaves, giving me a rather interesting plant wing appearance. At the same time, I also received a handy new spell.
New Spell Unlocked!
Aspect of the Mana Leech – Nature Magic – ★★
By copying the ability to absorb mana and putting it on your own body, you have gained the powerful skill to sustain yourself purely on mana.
Mana Cost: 200
The cost and rank of the spell surprised me, but then I considered just how strong this could be. If I changed the mana it absorbed, I could siphon off the energy of spells, and use it to fuel myself. When I opened up my status window, I also saw that my mana regeneration had multiplied by four simply by having these leaves absorbing the abundant plant mana in the air. Thankfully, it also served the purpose to relieve my exhaustion, which was the main point.
“See? Knew they’d be good for something.” Celeste said from my wrist, sounding slightly smug.
“Yes, yes. Don’t worry, I appreciate it.” I smirked down to her, and she smiled happily before vanishing. With this, I’d be able to train faster than ever before, at least until help arrived. And no, before you ask, there was no way I was abandoning the beacon to stay here longer. If I did that, then I’d never be able to leave.
That night, I easily managed to get to Plant Affinity 10%, which let me simply have it work as a background process while I refined a Seed of Earth. I could feel myself still absorbing the mana and cultivating like normal, but it was as if it had become a second nature, as easy as breathing. I could focus on it to increase its effects, but otherwise it was just a constant thing.
Once I had the Seed of Earth refined, I put it into the staff like the other seeds, before returning my staff to my inventory. With that taken care of, I spent the rest of the night cultivating Earth and Dark Affinities.
Chapter 40: A Day in the Life of a Tree.
The night passed without much in the way of special events happening. Since the plants here fed off of mana rather than sunlight, there was no sign of them hibernating during the night. Though perhaps, I should instead be thankful that the day and night cycles resemble what I am used to so much? Either way, I managed to get through the night while cultivating my Earth and Dark Affinities, bringing them both up to 9% by the time morning came around. I could feel that just a bit more work on Earth Affinity, and it would make a breakthrough.
However, I had other things to worry about. Shortly after the sun came up, I saw something that I hadn’t seen the entire day I was here already. I saw movement beyond the trees. Using my Cybernetic eye, I had Celeste play the scene again with some visual editing. I saw a… naked green woman walking casually through the jungle. And before you ask, no, I did not get a peep show. Celeste took the liberty of adding black censor bars over the important bits.
Still, now I knew that there was actually someone living in this place! Even if they might be a plant person… still a plus. Standing up, I cycled through vision modes on my eye, giving it X-Ray and Zoom so that I could find the person again. From that, I could vaguely see her figure walking a few hundred meters ahead of me. Thankfully she was still just walking casually, so I would be able to catch up if I flew between the trees.
Thinking that, I launched myself into the air, finding that the leaf feathers were surprisingly capable as I flew towards the slowly advancing woman. In hindsight, I really should have thought this through before charging in. But, as we’ve determined, that’s not really my style, is it?
In under two minutes, I was already swooping down towards the woman, who seemed to notice my presence and let out a scared shriek. She knelt down in a defensive position, using her hands to cover her head when I landed in front of her. “Hello, don’t be scared? I come in peace?” I held my hands up as I spoke, hoping to calm her down.
At some point, I should have realized that she wouldn’t speak my language. I mean, this is a non-listed world, why would whatever creatures inhabit it speak wood elf? After a moment, she looked up at me, her eyes wet with unshed tears. Or maybe it was water, or both. Seeing that I didn’t intend on attacking, she slowly lowered her arms.
Who are you? I heard the voice, like a thought in my head, and felt a slight increase in plant mana I took in. It was a gentle, high pitched voice, like a scared little girl. What do you want?
I blinked slightly, suddenly realizing the language barrier, and thinking about how she is communicating with me. Gathering a bit of plant mana, I sent it to her with the intention of relaying the message, I’m Falenel.
New Ability Unlocked!
Treespeaker – Plant Affinity – ☆
By carrying a message through plant mana, you are able to communicate with plants and plant-based beings.
Thankfully, Arcane magic like this works mostly based on intention, since she seemed to react to it positively. ’I am Arianne. You do not look familiar… what species are you?’
I looked myself over, thinking that was a very good question. ’I guess you could call me an elf? I fell from the sky yesterday, and you are the first person I’ve seen with… well… legs.
Suddenly, Celeste appeared at my wrist, looking between myself and Arianne as the latter giggled from my comment. “Something wrong? You two are just staring at each other…”
Looking down to her, I was a bit surprised. “You can’t hear her? Guess it’s not something shared in the link, sorry…” Though I said that, there was really nothing I could do about that if she couldn’t interpret the plant mana communication method.
“Aww…” She pouted cutely, making me smile. Meanwhile, Arianne just stared at the holographic woman with wide yellow eyes.
’You have a wrist ghost.’ She said simply, seeming to misinterpret what Celeste was.
’Kind of. She’s really nice, but she can’t speak like we are. Are there more people like you around here?’
She thought about it for a moment, and nodded. ’I am surrounded by my family, above and below, day and night.’ With a wave of her arms, she indicates the trees around her, making me sigh slightly.
’Anyone with legs?’ Legs were an important characteristic, in my mind. They seemed to be a key difference between Arianne and the rest of the jungle.
The plant woman looked down to her legs, thinking, before shaking her head. ’Not for several hours walk. It is not often that the dryads meet, as they tend their own family.’
Ooh, a dryad. ’Ahh, I see… well… can you ask your family to not try to attack me?’
She tilted her head curiously, though maintained the magical communication. Perhaps it was thanks to my wings absorbing the mana, but I was not running out of energy from this. ’Why would they attack you?’
I tried to think of a way to say this without either scaring her or making her want to eat me. I’m not sure if dryads would eat people like the trees do, but still… ’I am not of this world. I fell from the sky in a metal pod, and then the ground opened up and swallowed it. I have been attacked repeatedly since then, until I learned to match my aura to that of this world.’
’Ohh.. you are not plant-kin. Your ‘pod’ as you call it, likely landed on grandfather. As for the others..’ She turned her head away and seemed to be communicating with the trees. ’They thought you were an invader, come to destroy us as others have before.’
I shook my head at that. ’No, I am simply waiting to be rescued. Some time tomorrow, I will be pulled from this world and ret
urn to my own.’
She thought about it for a moment, and nodded. ’I understand. The family shall continue watching you, Flanel, to ensure that you keep your word.’
…Flanel? My name is not Flanel…. Oh well… not like we’d meet again anyways. ’Thank you. It’s never good to think that everything around you sees you as dinner..’
She smiled slightly, looking to one of the nearby fruit trees. ’No, it is not, is it?’
Okay, I deserved that one. Pretty much any animal ever deserved that one. ’Is it alright if I gather some of the plants here? I am a druid, you see…. or, you might not know that term… Some call us guardians of nature?’
She looked surprised at that, glancing to the trees again before looking back to me. ’You may take what you wish, but only from those without a will of their own.’ I nodded to her condition, having no intention of putting intelligent plants in my grove.
’If possible… could I get you to help me? I am looking for plants that can be used to produce medicines.’ Saying such, I plucked a stalk of blood weed from my grove and materialized it in my hand. ’This is one such plant, although its effects are only of the lowest grade.’ Well, even though I say that, I feel like it is significantly more powerful than the ones I gathered on Hascion.
Again she thought about it for a moment before nodding. ’I can help you. I know the qualities of everyone in my family. Although I may not be able to tell you their effects on your kind, I can show you which ones possess a form of healing factor.’
With that, she turned around and walked off. While following behind her, I planted a could of the less deadly plants in my grove, which had grown significantly since I started cultivating here. After I leave, I should focus on gathering enough void mana to make the second grove.
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