Chapter Sixty-Two
An unknown time later, Arden regained consciousness. He found himself lying on the platform overlooking a now empty rainbow prison. As his awareness rebooted, he felt a weight on top of him. That weight turned out to be Solanine, who, like him, collapsed onto the platform.
The reason for the collapse soon became obvious. Previously unknown knowledge floated in his mind. Unfortunately, every time he focused on the knowledge, a spike of pain speared through his mind, but even the little he saw told him enough.
Fuzzy locations surrounded by stone trees formed in his mind as he pushed through the headache. Each location was ruins not unlike the tower he found. Like the tower, they could hide a dungeon. He pushed for more information, which he felt was there, but no matter how hard he tried, anything beyond a fuzzy location failed to materialize.
Suddenly he felt the need to take flight and investigate, but as soon as moved he couldn’t help but groan as a deep soreness radiated through his entire body. Worse, Solanine didn’t seem to be in a hurry to wake up, so all he could do was lay where he was until the weakness passed.
Soon he dozed off once more.
When he awoke a second time, he noticed two things. First, the soreness disappeared and second, the weight of Solanine vanished. He sat up, then winced when he saw a small, dark green snake tumble off him.
The snake bounced off the platform, then uncoiled. She raised her head, releasing an annoyed hiss that silenced a moment later as the snake stilled, then trembled.
A heartbeat later, a scale clad girl sat next to him. Said girl shot to her feet, then leaped off the platform before striding toward the capital tree. Her strides looked dignified, but the panic leaking through their bond told a different story.
Rested from their impromptu nap, Arden didn’t follow her into the tree. Instead, he climbed down the platform, then eyed the colorful prison. As handy as a prison cell may be in the future, it looked off where it was. Why would they want a prison cell less than a dozen meters from the pond?
On that thought, he made an executive decision. He activated Nature Manipulation then used his staff to swipe through the walls. Unfortunately, all that did was slice an opening.
Next, he focused on the mana connection providing support to the walls. If he could connect plants to the ambient mana, it should be possible to do the opposite. That was what he did. With his mental hands, he cleaved through the connections. As he did, the wall browned.
He almost felt bad killing such a beautiful construct, but they had plenty of color along the borders of their capital clearing. They needed to think of a name for their home. Capital clearing wasn’t good enough for such a beautiful paradise. That was for later.
Soon the wall browned, then crumbled to dust, the plants unable to sustain themselves without ambient mana. A spike of surprise shot through their bond, but he ignored it as walked through the now ankle height wall. Even before he reached his own creation, the rest of the wall vanished as if it had never existed.
As he laid eyes on his cart, he couldn’t help but want to perfect it. Before he succumbed to the impulse, his attention turned to the fragmented knowledge, but only for a moment. It wasn’t a good idea to rush to the locations. He needed to prepare himself. His impulsive decision to enter the tower brought intruders and a territory owner.
The next time, they may not be so lucky. It was best to consolidate his gains and maybe train inside the trial dungeon.
Though maybe not.
Even though he never expected to enroll in the most prestigious school in the known world, he still read about it. His parents provided several books on Magna Schola Magica more than any of the lower tier schools. Almost as if they planned for him to enroll all along. Every school had similar basic requirements, though.
One such requirement was perspective students must be at grade one. High enough they showed an aptitude for being mages but not too high to set themselves on a path.
That requirement wouldn’t be difficult to make, especially since he didn’t know what he needed to do to reach grade two. His parents only taught him how to ascend to grade one. Each grade rank up required conscious input so he could push to the peak of grade one without worry of reaching grade two even if he knew how to ascend. In fact, that was probably the best path.
Another reason he probably should avoid dungeon delving was he needed to know more about how cards worked. After his recent card merges and evolutions, most of his cards were level one.
Now that he thought about it, why didn’t any of them level up since he left the dungeon? They leveled up without effort inside the dungeon, but outside, the spikes of inspiration stopped.
Well, less stopped more, he didn’t need them. His higher ranked cards seemed more flexible. They didn’t need to level up to complete his wishes.
Maybe that was a bonus advantage of higher ranked cards. One couldn’t have as many in their deck, but they had the flexibility to make up for it. The descriptions were much vaguer, leaving him open to use them in many ways.
Like when he destroyed the rainbow wall, he felt his Resurrecting Growth card activate on its own but not level up. If he tried what he did with Accelerated Growth, it would have leveled. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but if it didn’t stop him from creative uses of his cards, he couldn’t complain. Best to hold off forcing level ups until he knew for sure, though.
The temptation sprouted to ask his scaly partner, but upon focusing on their connection, he found it closed. Not in a cold shoulder way. More like there wasn’t a conscious mind on the other end. Maybe she went to bed.
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He glanced up, but with the thick canopy, he couldn’t see the sky. Though based on a lack of sunlight leaking through, it was night or early morning. That was when he noticed he could see with little problem.
A quick peek inward told him his dark vision turned on automatically. His body and deck were calibrating itself. That meant he was nearing the peak of grade one. With the connection between his soul and his mana core, it was natural his body and deck would learn to interpret his needs more efficiently.
He wondered what grade two did. At the peak of grade one, he would have full control over his deck with a mana system perfectly attuned to the chosen cards.
Maybe it was good they didn’t tell him how to ascend to grade two. With the paradise that was their capital, he could reach grade two without effort and maybe leave holes in his deck. Even he knew each rank up made it harder to change one’s deck specialties.
Well, in his case, a lack of specialty. His epic ranked nature attuned cards saw to that. Maybe another delve into the trial dungeon would help fill out his deck. It might be a good idea to have a full deck once he pushed to grade two. He didn’t know for sure if that was the case, but it felt right.
His parents pounded into him it was best to follow one’s instincts when it came to cultivating. If he were to fill out his deck, he needed a bunch more cards.
At that thought, he opened his full status.
Name: Arden
Age: 25
Affinity: Nature
Current Attunements: Wood, Poison, Plant, Fungi, Biological
Attunement Balance: 64/100
Wood: 24
Poison: 30
Plant: 23
Fungi: 24
Biological: 38
Deck:
Resurrecting Growth (Rare) Level 1.
Convert Seed (Uncommon) Level 2.
Plant Extension (Uncommon) Level 1.
Variable Wood Spike (Rare) Level 1.
Creeping Itch (Uncommon) Level 1.
Crawling Boils (Uncommon) Level 1.
Lurking Heart Attack (Uncommon) Level 1.
Heal Wound (Rare) Level 1.
Rotting Wound (Uncommon) Level 1.
Passive Heal (Rare) Level 1.
Nature Manipulation (Epic) Level 1.
Nature Resistance (Epic) Level 1.
Conjure roots (Rare) Level 1.
Nature Boost (Epic) Level 1.
Dash (Common) Level 1.
Active Hand: 8/10
Nature Manipulation (Epic) Level 1.
Variable Wood Spike (Rare) Level 1.
Heal Wound (Rare) Level 1.
Rotting Wound (Uncommon) Level 1.
Conjure Roots (Rare) Level 1.
Resurrecting Growth (Rare) Level 1.
Plant Extension (Uncommon) Level 1.
Dash (Common) Level 1.
Passive Hand: 3/5
Nature Resistance (Epic) Level 1.
Passive Heal (Rare) Level 1.
Nature Boost (Rare) Level 1.
Attribute Boosts
Body: 0%
Soul: 20%
Mind: 0%
Mana: 50%
Attunement Boosts
Wood: 10%
Poison: 10%
Plant: 10%
Fungi: 10%
Biological: 10%
He couldn’t help but marvel at his deck. Even in his dreams, he didn’t think he would see, let alone deck, multiple epic ranked cards. Rare-ranked cards were just that, rare, but epic-ranked cards were near impossible to attain unless one had high up connections.
Actually, being a prime and a territory owner was certainly high up. He needed to remember his status. Especially when he made his debut. He had no desire to act like some uppity noble, but that didn’t mean he didn’t deserve the respect someone of his position earned.
If he acted like a pushover, he would be just that, a pushover. He got bitten enough by one snake. No need to let the den of vipers pump him full of their venom. If only his Nature Resistance worked on that type of poison.
Well, it did, to a degree. Between his senses and resistance card, he doubted actual poison would take him down. Still, he needed to be careful. There had to be poison out there potent enough to take him down. That black flower may be one of them.
To take his mind off the impending delve into the den of vipers, he turned his attention to his staff in his right hand. He remembered a few cards within before the mana ripped out to feed the tree. His staff was supposed to be his supporter in his journey as a Prime and so far, it was.
Upon peering inside, worry sparked. At least at first. No cards jumped out to him, unlike the previous time. Just when he thought all cards fed into the tree, a dim spark reached his senses. As he focused in on it, the dim spark brightened. At the same time, the mana within the staff dropped at an alarming rate.
Despite the desire to conserve his mana stockpile, he held off. The staff fed the spark. He didn’t want to interrupt the process. What if he ruined the forming card?
Like with his previous train of thoughts, he distracted himself by focusing on the cart in front of him. He reached down to his hip, only to come up empty. Suddenly, he felt naked without his knife and bow, but he pushed through the feeling in favor of an experiment.
Instead of trying to physically perfect the cart, he rested his hand on the cart, then focused. Without his input, his desired card activated, making the cart malleable. He made no move to lift his hand, however. Instead, he drilled his eyes into the malformed cart top, trying to will it to flatten and straighten.
A throbbing assaulted his mind as if he strained muscle, but before his eyes, the wood followed his will. The previously slightly misshaped planks perfected themselves. There were limits, however, as a sharp pain speared through his mind when the last of the planks turned machined straight.
Lightheaded, he leaned on his staff to support. A glance down told him what he already knew. His Ortus bracelets entered cooldown mode. Still, he proved he could will his Nature Manipulation to work. It was too straining to use in combat, though. Best to reserve it for safe situations. Maybe with practice, he could use it longer.
He knew what was possible from his parents with their sand and earth manipulation. They were many grades higher on him, though. Just because it was possible that didn’t mean the current him could do it safely.
That wouldn’t stop him from trying. As long as one didn’t take stupid risks, hard work was usually rewarded with progress.
His attention returned to the staff acting as his support, hopefully in more ways than one. That wish turned out to be true as the moment he delved into it, he found a potent spark floating in the nearly dry staff. It was so drained he was surprised it remained materialized.
Before he withdrew the card, he dropped to the ground, wincing when he noticed the corpse of the previously potent black flower mere centimeters away. Fortunately, no mana radiated off the flower. In fact, it crumbled to dust soon after, as if unable to handle his gaze. Though more likely the act of him sitting down next to it pushed it over the edge.
Any thoughts of the black flower vanished as he grabbed at the spark within the staff. As soon as the card exited the staff, said staff disappeared into particles, depleted.
That, too, disappeared from his attention, as his sole focus was on the card resting in his hand.