Chapter 19

The VeganCarnage

Rudolf had closed his eyes, pretending to be off guard, but the boy had stopped further away from him, making him wonder. Instead of creating the seed in his hands, he was remotely spawning it right beneath Rudolf’s sun Lounger and he succeeded. the old man sensed some changes in the vicinity but did not react to them. He was confident about breaking whatever creepers that this little brat had made.

Instantly, vines spawned, encasing Rudolf tightly from beneath. The old man nearly got surprised but didn't show his expression to Hans. he felt the vines were not stronger than before. The only difference was the dark purple colour that had taken over the usual green.

He laughed at Hans, "Changing colour is not an improvement brat... Oh...I ..I..see, it's poison."

Rudolf did not feel numb as he should have, but the tingling sensation of poison trying to enter his system was making him alert. He raised his aura a little, but this time the vines didn't shatter like before but got loosened. Seeing his little strength fail, Rudolf increased the aura a little more and shattered the vines.

Hans cried in disappointment. He believed that he finally got this old knight, but it turned out to be a pipe dream. He ran inside the house, shouting that he will be back. Sierra came to her husband and asked, "Was it really poison?"

"Yeah, if I wasn't careful, that could have made me a little numb."

"Hans is improving." She commented.

Rudolf said in seriousness, which turned into shamelessness. "No, that brat is evolving. I am getting scared, dear; I need a hug." However, Sierra turned him down and went chasing after Hans while remaining silent. Rudolf got disappointed, indirectly fulfilling one of Hans’s real objectives, but the boy was nowhere around to see his downed face.

Hans was preparing for round three, but instead of taking the help of the book, he was trying it out on his own. He observed his first and second failures, the first was because the vines were not strong enough and the second was because the poison was having a hard time penetrating Rudolf’s thick skin. He searched in his stash of seeds and found a tough-looking seed, which was more like a pebble of metal.

He thought of including this feature in the VeganBInd, it would undoubtedly increase the toughness of vines and, for skin penetration; he needed something that could scratch his target’s tough skin at least and for that, he also found a perfect plant.

The metal pebble was a seed of a plant called OrganicIron, which used to coat things in metal and another one was called Fine hair Regasia, a bushy plant which was home to a bug-type beast. It has fine hair like a syringe that secretes formic acid to protect the beast living inside of him. The fine hairs were like tiny sharp blades, and this was what Hans needed. He didn't need the old man to bleed, but if some of the numbing poison could enter him, he could achieve his goal.

He started the experiment of mutation with three seeds: mutated VeganBind, OrganicIron seed and fine hair Regasia. He failed many times, but in the end, he achieved what he wanted. But before preparing for round three, he wanted to perfect this developed VeganBind. He was searching in the stash and found an unusual-looking seed which was matte dark.

Hans could feel that this thing was alive, but was not capable of intelligence like treants. He tried to find out about it in the books, but it was a total mystery. His curiosity led him to the man he was trying to take down. On seeing Hans coming to him, Rudolf got cautious and asked him, "So ready for the next failure," However, Hans shook his head and threw the odd-looking seed at him and said, "What is this?"

Rudolf cautiously catch the seed considering it a new trap but when his worries became fruitless, he remembered where he had picked it up; he replied to Hans casually, "I don't know, I just thought it was interesting, so I bought it for you."

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"How irresponsible?" Hans complained, "What if it's poisonous, or carries a disease?"

"Do you take me as a moron, brat?" Rudolf said, enraged.

"Don't know, a moron would never know that he is a moron, anyway." Rudolf took some time to process what Hans had just said. He was concluding, but Hans interrupted again, "Where did you get it? I mean geography, its location?"

Rudolf felt the boy was looking down on him but a more terrifying existence was glaring at him from the child’s back, so he just sucked up and told him, "It was from a barren land. That thing survived there, so I thought it could be interesting."

From Sierra's point of view, her husband should have not brought something unknown for their child to play with. After all, this place was Ghost Isles. Hans had already studied the weird-looking seed and was perfectly confident in replicating it, but he was feeling ominous. He decided to use the strange seed first instead of integrating it into his VeganBind.

He found his life practice target and aimed his hand at him. Sensing malice from Hans, the old knight got alerted. Hans was playing dirty with the only aim of beating his grampa. His intent was so strong that Rudolf's senses marked him as an enemy. It can by no means be said that a child sees his grandparent as such, but rather as prey.

With some visible twirls of mana strands right between Hans and Rudolf, an ominous thing was forming. Sierra sensed it way before them and jumped to pull Hans back. But she was late. The seed finally formed, and it screamed like a wounded beast. Its shrieks were strong enough to plant fear in others, but fortunately, its opponent was one of the strongest men.

With its shriek, the seed fell into the ground and tentacles like creepers grew out of it. They acted like octopus legs, but they were dull black with ends that looked like sharp edges. The seed kept crying and attacked the nearest person, “Rudolf”.

Instincts of Rudolf were telling him not to take this abomination lightly. Hans had his controls denied on the crying seed, and its tentacles matched Rudolf's swings. Rudolf had summoned his sword 'ThunderClap' and was seriously fighting with this ominous thing. The seed was alive just like Hans felt while he was observing its structure and Hans’ making it with raw mana had seriously evolved its qualities.

Rudolf had to make genuine efforts this time to subdue it. He was looking at Hans with astonishment, just like Hans was looking at the disposed seed. the feeling of almost kissing the feet of death was still giving him goosebumps. If Sierra didn't pull him at the right time, then he was a goner for sure.

The child laughed without realising that his grandpa was wearing a creeped-out face, Rudolf was genuinely flustered so he shouted back, "Hey brat, were you planning to kill me?"

The book did not teach Hans any offensive spell, but this crying seed was powerful enough to make Rudolf use his aura and ThunderClap to fight seriously. His expectation of what more the book had in store for him was making him giggle. He thought deeply, If he had released multiple of those seeds around Rudolf, then he could have easily hurt him.

Hans was giddying up while both of the elders were genuinely concerned for his mental health. He assured them and said, "I shall name this TheVeganCarnage." He took out his journal and noted down the discoveries about seeds. He didn't see the full prowess of the crying seed, but this was not something that he could experiment with on his own. He looked at Rudolf like a researcher looking at the lab rat that sent chills down the spine to the old man.

"Gramps," Hans said grinning, "let's go hunting."

Rudolf felt relieved, he thought he had to fight several of those crying seeds by himself, but Hans seemed to be interested in seeing the full capacity of the strange attack. It was not bigger than an almond, but it sure packed the power to dominate a class four beast with its mere presence and it acted like it had intelligence. He was also getting curious, he killed it too soon to know about its capabilities. Sierra did not object to them but only warned them to stay a safe distance from the strange seed.

Soon the young and old reached their hunting ground. Rudolf was ready to take Hans away and escape the range of crying seed on his command. Hans spawned the seed as far as he could and with the shriek, the seed conjured instantly and its eight speared tentacles sought prey hiding in range. With high speed and precision, it pierced the heads of a beast per tentacle.

Its actions were fast, and it even found a beast which was in stealth and running away. Hans and Rudolf observed the crying seed which was targeting the head and sapping its fluids. They could visibly see the penetrated heads had shrunken brains. The crying seed withered after killing the beasts in its vicinity. It looked like the seed needed brain fluids with mana to survive.

Hans noted his findings in his journal, and Rudolf acknowledged Hans's naming capabilities. "You named it perfectly kid, it's really carnage."

"It's VeganCarnage gramps," Hans corrected, proud.

"What part is it VEGAN. It's terrifying. Can you control it?"

"I don't think so. It's like killing is hard-coded in its instincts and if not careful, I might end up becoming its food, too."

"Yeah, use it in moderation."

Hans wanted to know how well these crying seeds worked together, but he got disappointed because when he released two of them, they attacked and ended up killing each other. So his plan to attack the same target with many of them failed before hatching

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