Chapter Twenty-Seven

Arden found himself in what could be best described as a greenhouse, or at least what he thought a greenhouse would be based on his reading. Rows of plants flanked him on both sides, planted in moist soil. His shoulders drooped as the wondrous scent of plants and soil reached him. It was nothing like the desert he grew up in. Even the humid warmth felt nice.

So relaxing was his new environment, it took him a few moments to notice a lack of pain in his leg and his flashing bracelets.

Welcome Arboretum

Observe the Arboretum.

Trial begins in 10 seconds.

He jumped to attention, scanning his surroundings, but there was nothing but rows of plants. Nothing malicious stuck out to him. Even the rainbow garden had a toxic feel to it, but in the greenhouse there was nothing but nourishing plant attuned mana.

When the timer hit zero, his surroundings changed. Instead of a greenhouse filled with fully grown plants, the planters became empty.

However, it wasn’t that they died, but reset as sprouts poked up through the soil moments later. Within a minute, every plant reached their full size before reverting to a seed if he had to guess.

Was this stage like the first poison stage? The more he learned, the better he would do on the next stages if he was right. It said observe, so that was what he would do.

He turned to the nearest plant to his right and watched it go through a complete cycle, starting as a seed before sprouting into a young plant, then little green bulbs grew. Those bulbs became palm sized and a darker shade of green before the plant reset.

On the next cycle he peered deeper, watching how the mana interacted with the plant, gasping when he realized each plant had a different sequence. It wasn’t like how he used his Accelerated Growth card. There was no brute forcing involved. The mana fluctuated in a unique sequence, giving the plant the best potential for growth.

It was almost like a melody of mana.

The outside world fell away as he let himself fall into the countless melodies making up the orchestra of the garden.

Unbeknownst to him, a presence fluttered in excitement.

On autopilot, he walked down the aisle, eyes closed. His mana sense spread wide, mind filled with the beautiful orchestra of magic.

Unfortunately, like all good things, it ended too soon. All at once, the music silenced, breaking him from his trance.

When he opened his eyes, he found all the planters empty and his bracelets flashing. He paid it no mind as his eyes landed on the nearest planter. His Accelerated Growth card activated. However, something was different. Not only did the abundant plant attuned mana siphon into the activation, but the mysterious deep green mana added itself to the mix.

Without thinking, he spread his arms wide, conducting his own orchestra. All around him, plants sprouted from the planters.

At first it was a quiet whisper, but soon his own tune built upon itself. More and more mana flowed into him and out into the work of magic, growing the plants taller and fueling the melody.

Soon all the plants in a five-meter radius reached their last stage of growth, then reset. Undeterred, he restarted growing his little garden faster than before. Whenever he spotted imperfections in the melody, he tweaked them, trying to reach the same level of perfection of the orchestra but never quite reaching it.

That didn’t mean he gave up the next cycle beat the last, but still it was slightly off tune. It didn’t have the power nor the perfect sequence of notes and that displayed itself on the surrounding plants. They grew, but while they appeared healthy, they never reached the same size or speed of growth he observed in the first stage.

Unfortunately, his chance to match the orchestra perfectly eluded him as, just like the first stage, the orchestra silenced once more.

Broken from his trance, his eyes fluttered open, a relaxed smile on his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his bracelets flashing, telling him he completed yet another stage.

Suddenly, a different tune exploded to life in more ways than one. Plants appeared in the planters all around him, but they differed from the previous assortment, as was the orchestra. Almost violent notes exploded through his mind, putting him on edge.

Like the previous stage, instinct took over he followed the tune, jumping back as a vine lashed out only to land within range of the jaws of another plant.

Instinct guided him. Instead of lashing out against the plant or dodging, a familiar yet unfamiliar card activated on its own, releasing a stream of mana at both the vine and carnivorous plant. Both of them stilled, then turned away from him, focusing their attention on the surrounding hostile plants.

Before anymore could strike, he spread his area of effect to all plants within a five-meter radius. Like the soothing melody of growth, this new melody promising violence fell under his control.

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With him at the epicenter, vines, thorns, and carnivorous plants lashed out at anything within reach of their planters that were hostile to Arden.

Different from before, a vicious smile grew, but sweat poured down his brow, a headache building. Even with the assistance of the trial, he neared his limit, but he didn’t care. He was too engrossed in the violent tunes, which promised a terrible end to anything within its radius.

Blood dripped down to the floor from his closed eyes, but he pushed and pushed, trying to reach ever greater heights. His violent radius of plants grew centimeters at a time, but so did the strain.

First, one note fell out of tune, then another before they all came cascading down. His mind rushed out, trying to correct the violent melody but only hit a brick wall as his awareness grew dim, blood now pouring from his eyes and ears.

Darkness took him, but unlike the end of the rainbow garden, he collapsed with a vicious smile.

When his eyes fluttered open, the blurry ceiling of the hut coming into view, the smile remained at least until a soft, yet powerful voice spoke in his head.

He jerked upright, eyes focused on the light green crystal suspended in the clear wood.

“Marvelous! I never thought I would hear the melody of life again. I can rest easy knowing after so long the melody survived. Go forth with my blessing and spread growth, but don’t be afraid to prune those who stand in your way.”

The crystal shined for a moment before going dim. Three cards materialized in his hands a moment later, the top one drawing his attention first.

His heart skipped a beat as he took in its shining holographic features. Several moments passed with him staring blankly down at the card in disbelief. The shining card with a holographic picture of plants surrounded by musical notes filled his entire world.

Almost robotically, his eyes shifted down at the description, shocked to his core that he held such a valuable card.

Melody of Growth (Epic)

Type: Ability Card

Affinity: Nature

Attunement: Plant

Effect: Listen to the melody of life to aid in plant growth. Increased mana usage improves guidance. Must be in the user’s active hand.

A gentle nudge broke him from his trance. Unlike the previous trials, the presence didn’t immediately kick him out, but it was obvious it wanted him to leave.

Still in shock, he stumbled out of the hut, the entrance closing behind him. A friendly flutter of the presence was the last thing he felt before it went silent.

Without hesitation he added the Melody of Growth card to his deck, frowning when he felt his bracelets grow heavier, as if his deck weighed more.

He gave the other two cards a quick glance, but they were what he expected. The Melody of Growth card was the true reward for the trial.

Plant Manipulation (Rare) Level 1

Type: Manipulation

Affinity: Nature

Attunement: Plant

Effect 1: Use mana to manipulate plants. User must separate the plant from its source. Strength and durability depend on the plants used. Must be in the user’s active hand.

Plant Resistance (Rare) Level 1

Type: Resistance

Affinity: Nature

Attunement: Plant

Effect 1: When in use, a passive draw on mana will provide plant resistance. Must be in the user’s passive hand to function.

Arden checked he had enough space in his deck. It turned out he had plenty. The two cards would put him at 50 out of a hundred. The weight must be from something else.

He put both cards in while also adding them to his active and passive hands, at least for now. Soon, resistance and manipulation cards would make up most of his hands. Tough decisions were coming, but for now, he would put them off. He still had one slot left in his active hand out of ten and his passive hand had two out of five.

That was when he noticed he was standing on his injured leg without pain. Curious, he bent down and rolled up the robe to find unblemished skin. The bruise was nowhere to be seen. Either his body healed much faster than before or the trial or presence somehow healed him. He wouldn’t complain either way.

Most likely it was the trial, as his body shouldn’t heal that fast yet. Maybe in the future when he reached higher grades, but without a healing card he wouldn’t wipe away a bruise like that so quick on his own.

Upon climbing down to the clearing, he couldn’t resist any longer. He scanned his surroundings, trying his best to ensure nothing would jump him before dropping to the ground under the platform cross-legged.

After digging around in his pockets, he found a seed. With a push of will, he activated his new epic rarity card. However, contrary to his expectations, the melody didn’t play. In fact, nothing played.

Confused, he scanned his surroundings, expecting the various plants to produce something, but they didn’t.

His focus shifted down to the seed in his hand. Only then did he feel a whisper of music. He grasped onto the anemic tune, letting his instincts direct him like in the trial. Information filled his mind, prompting him to dig a hole in the ground with his finger and plop the seed inside.

Then he fed it mana following the tune pattern. Far slower than in the trial, but still within a couple of seconds a sprout broke through the ground. It then grew upward into a bush at least a third larger than the previous bushes he grew.

Now much louder, he followed the melody further, connecting the bush to the ambient mana like he did with his Accelerated Growth card.

Curiosity drew his focus away from his newly grown bush and onto an unknown green leafy plant. Instead of trying to cast his focus wide like he did in the trial, he drilled his eyes into the plant.

A soft tune played in his mind, giving him the instinctive knowledge there wasn’t anything he could do to improve the plant. It was fine the way it was. Anything more would only hurt it, like when he tried to force the grass taller when he first used his Accelerated Growth card.

Next, he tried to focus on multiple plants at once, but before he could, his bracelets went dim, cutting his connection.

A growl escaped him as the soothing melody in his mind abruptly vanished. Immediately on guard, he grabbed his spear and scanned the clearing again.

Why did he think it was a good idea to play with his magic out in the open? So far, both times he completed a trial, a creature appeared.

Though no matter how hard he looked, there was nothing waiting to attack him. Sure, there was a bunch of bush coverings easily capable of hiding something the size of his stalker snake, but nothing large enough to hide something, say the size of the tortoise or Lamia.

Despite his thoughts, he stood up and traversed the clearing, poking at every moderately sized bush or plant, only satisfied when nothing jumped out. He didn’t want a repeat occurrence of the tortoise battle.

Sure, he won, but if something followed up right after the battle, he wasn’t sure he would’ve survived. He couldn’t take the risk. Only when he had strength could he relax in such an environment.

One such risk was leaving the clearing while his bracelets were on cool down, so he remained at the center until they returned to their normal luminosity.

The temptation to play with his card again sparked, but he quashed it. He needed to get moving.

Spear tip waving in all directions, he left the clearing, venturing to the next trial and one step closer to hopefully completing his quest.