CHAPTER 18
THE JOURNEY TO LIMITLESS BEGINS
It was afternoon and both of the elders were just sitting and discussing something. Hans came up to them, excited with an obvious expression, eager to be asked what had happened. So the lady humoured the boy. "Did you learn something new, child?"
Hans maintained his excitement and pulled her by the hand to their backyard. He wanted to surprise her, and his actions did. Hans opened up his empty palm and a fluctuation of mana became visible in his palm. First, it was as small as a grain of sand, but it grew and formed a quality seed.
Sierra and Rudolf never saw a wood mage before, but they knew that what Hans did was not normal. A man can not create life. It was a god’s domain as far as they knew, but both of them didn't interrupt the child who was happily looking at their way. They realised before that judging Hans by human standards was not fitting, so they let the child enjoy his achievement.
Hans did not grow the self-created seed before coming to them, so the next step was also his first try too. He threw the seed into the ground and poured the raw mana into the seed, but unlike other times; the seed did not grow slowly but sprouted instantly into a seven metres tall thick plant with many flowers several times larger than the original one.
The growing process was so fast that it could have been called instant growth. All three of them got surprised and Rudolf let out the words, "What blasphemy he is studying?"
Hans took those words as a compliment. He hid his surprised face and acted as he was aware of this. He proudly said, "What do you think? I am amazing, right?"
Sierra said while patting his head. "Yes, you are Hans."
Hans left the surprised elders behind and ran into his room. He wanted to learn more and was yearning for an action spell because his actions till now looked cool, but it was suitable for a farmer rather than a battle mage, which he aspired to be after his dreams of becoming a knight got shattered.
He opened the book and resumed,
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> VEGANBIND
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> As you would have seen, the seed produced by Sprout has no limit to its growth, as long as you supply the mana in it and its structure can hold. It would have outgrown its normal size by several times. It might not be the thing you wanted to do, but it is a necessary foundation for the upcoming spells.
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> This spell is what I call a perfect restraining spell and you could also use it as a weapon. Now, for creating this spell, you must raise a vine just like you have created the plant. If my thoughts are right with mana manipulation, you can gain control over the vines. It will act as a whip, but the beauty of this vine is that it won’t consume any of your mana and won’t disappear until you free the mana held in it
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> So get a vine seed and start practising. After successfully creating a vine and controlling it to your will, you can read further.
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Hans closed the book and ran to Rudolf. The old man, who was still in the backyard observing the overgrown flower plant from before, got surprised not because Hans had spooked him or anything, but because he didn't know what Hans would do next. Rudolf asked in haste, "What do you want, squeaky?"
"Not much, but can you find me some seeds for vines? It would be better if it is a classified plant, not the normal one."
"Do you need it now?"
"Come on gramps, don't laze around."
"Hey! I provide you with three meals a day. Can't I get some respect here?
Hans looked at Rudolf dumbfoundedly and replied with an unconcerned face, "NO, get going now."
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Rudolf glared at him but had no choice except fulfilling his wish, so he left for the task. In the meantime, Hans hung around with Sierra until the old man came back late in the evening. With not even a concern about how he was, Hans went for the bag he was holding in his hand and opened it. Several types of different seeds were a welcoming sight for him. Rudolf knew that he will have to go on these errands from time to time, so he had already picked up almost every type of seed he could find in advance.
Hans praised Rudolf with a grin."Being lazy is efficient, gramps."
"Why do I think you are insulting me, brat?" Rudolf responded.
"You could take it as an insult, but that was a compliment."
The old man grunted, his laziness brought several test subjects for Hans. Little did he know that this act of Rudolf was going to give him one of his deadliest spells. It was late for experimenting, so Hans only recorded the mana structure that had made the seeds. Surprisingly, he could easily memorise the pattern compared to the things Sierra wanted to teach him through literature.
He was having a hard time sleeping because of overexcitement, but eventually, his exhaustion won over his enthusiasm, and he fell asleep. In the late morning, he was sorting the seeds and doing something in the backyard. Sierra was with him throughout the time and with a bit of time she asked the boy while sorting. "What spell are you working on?"
"A restraining spell." Hans answered.
"That's why you need vines, right? I recommend you this." She picked a dark green seed of Turtle vines, an industrial class raw material, which is used to make tensile ropes in the Genas. It was famous for the perfect balance of toughness and flexibility. Hans agreed and produced the seed with mana in his hand and soon the vine grew instantly in the shape that Hans was thinking.
It was easy to manipulate the movement of these vines while growing. These creepers suddenly surrounded Rudolf, who was munching on some kind of fried snack, and on seeing the perfect execution, Hans tightened his hold. He made the creepers with the purpose of restraining and because of that, these were several times stronger than regular ones, but Rudolf didn't like what Hans was doing during his snack time. He just flicked his aura, and the vines got blown away.
Rudolf laughed at his disappointed face. This spell was meant to restrain knights and mages, but it was too weak to even hold his old gramps. Hans was standardising knights as Rudolf, without knowing that his old man held the ninth rank in the world of knights.
He consoled himself by saying that he had not even read the whole page, so the outcome should not discourage him. He told Rudolf that he will perfect the spell and make him acknowledge it. After he ran inside, Sierra chided Rudolf for his childish behaviour of belittling Hans's efforts.
Hans reopen the book and find the line where he left off,
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> I hope you have created some creepers and might be able to control them as you wish but you see, these are fragile things that can’t even hold a second class beast, so you need to mutate its origin for producing stronger and more tenacious vines.
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> First, we will mutate the vine into a poisonous type that will numb the target so it won't struggle much. It will not make the vines stronger, but our target weaker. Follow the steps.
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> Step 1: create a seed of normal vine and a poisonous plant
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> Step 2: pass the raw mana on both while trying to connect them with each other
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> Step 3: maintain focus, this is a fragile connection which could break easily. Now grow it till it bears fruit and seeds.
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> Step 4: pick the seed and let the flow of mana stop.
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> You will see the fragile mutated vine that you have created would wither away because it was not meant to exist but in your hands you have a fruit of a brand new species. Try learning its structure and mana patterns. Here you go a mutated VeganBind with poison features.
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Hans couldn't hold himself to try this out. Rudolf already had picked several seeds, and it didn't take long to find a perfectly suitable poisonous plant. His selection was another vine that was weak in strength but potent in its poison, called poison ivy. Others knew the poison as purple sleep used in medical facilities as a knockout drug.
Hans showed an evil smile and started doing what Sam had written. As he followed the procedure and acquired the mutated VeganBind seed. It was time for round two with Rudolf. He found the old man enjoying the rare sunshine of the Ghost Isles. Hans tried to be as sneaky as possible, but both the elders were waiting for what he was up to. They already realised Hans was approaching Rudolf the moment he appeared around, but they chose not to expose him.
Both Rudolf and Hans were smiling wickedly inside, imagining the face of their opponent in disappointment while Sierra was waiting to see who would win this round.
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