James experimented with the Rod of 10th tier warding. He was amazed when he discovered he could use the rod to directly cast the spells that it could imbue into wards, of which it had many. The downside being those spells would act like he was the caster.

So, to use the rod for directly casting spells was very mana intensive for him. He could perhaps cast 5 spells of the 10th tier before his mana ran out. The power of those spells would also be greatly reduced, so It really was not worth it right now to use the rod for casting.

Using the rod for its warding function simply exacted a price paid in gold. James set up four wards of the 6th tier spell, Control Weather, but he made it so that they acted as if they were cast at the 10th tier. The four weather control wards he installed carried a hefty price for that instillation, 400 million gold in total.

James linked the warding to the existing ward network and was about to give it a test. Then he remembered that the NPC’s he had just made were still standing in their pastures. James quickly lead each group of NPC’s to their respective homes. Now that he thought about it, he would have to add more houses.

With the NPC’s safe from the rain, he used the wards to create a cloudy sky, with some light rain. As the wards worked their magic, he stood there in the rain soaking in the feeling of the rain upon his skin. It was beautiful, then something unexpected happened.

Plants of all different shapes and sizes began to sprout from the ground. When given the water, the aura of the trees had brought forth a bounty of plants. James smiled; this was a pleasant surprise. James cut the rain as the bright sky returned and the plants were still growing. By the time all the plants had stopped growing, over an hour had passed.

James looked over to the full lake beside him, where he saw several different species of fish swimming around. James had an idea, “Let us do an ocean for the next floor. James was very curious if such an environment was even possible to create in the game currently. He would find out when he tried.

Several more hours later and James had cleared the floor of all the excess foliage. He had however kept all the resources he gained from removing that foliage. There were all kinds of edible plant he had harvested. One of the few plants he decided to leave alone was a rather strange tree that had grown in the Horse folks’ pasture.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The black tree seemed to shine still wet from the light downpour. Its branches were thin and withered. On the entire tree there were no more than a dozen leaves. Contrary to the appearance of the tree and its branches, the leaves sparkled green almost seeming to glow.

James had tried to pick a leaf to examine it. The leaf was vibrantly green, he could see golden ripples washing across the surface of the leaf. When he brought the leave closer to his face, he saw what appeared to be a tiny stem branching off from the stem of the leaf. At the end of the stem was a tiny bulb, like the beginning of flowers upon trees.

The leaf began to blacken and wither, then it crumpled itself up into a small ball before exploding into a wave of green and gold light. Everywhere the light touched it left behind a little bit of itself. James looked at his health to see how much damage he had taken, only to realize he had not taken any.

Instead he discovered that his health bar had extended past its maximum by a small degree. James tried examining the tree to obtain more information, the only information it would give him was its name, “The Black tree.”

He supposed he would have to wait and see what would happen. “A tree that bears fruit which can increase your maximum health. How exciting!”

There was a burst of light as Takeda appeared next to the tree. “What the fuck?!” Takeda immediately ran over to James, “I could not believe it when they told me that you were the one who found it.” James was stunned for a moment, apparently, he had discovered something important.

“Does this mean that you are going to tell me what it is?” Takeda smiled, “Have you ever heard of an old game called Minecraft?”

By the time that Takeda was done explaining James’ head was swimming. He had apparently hit the lottery of RNG, (Random Number Generation), and now had a tree that could grow the Notch apples of Minecraft. The apples would take a very long time to grow, however.

“I expected trees that grew golden apples, but this is ridiculous.” Takeda was too busy scanning the tree, something about copying it to a testing room for study. Takeda looked at him, bent over laughing then waved goodbye and logged out.

“What comes next?” James opened his menu to check the time, 6:05. It was time to get ready for his date.

SUNDAY

James walked in the door of his home, maybe he should invite her back to his place next time. He ran through his morning routine.

James received a call just after he stepped out of the shower, it was Takeda.

What was strange was that he was whispering, “James! Thank Buddha you picked up. You need to log in NOW!” then the line went dead. This was not good.

He quickly dried his head and then put on some sweats then logged into Yggdrasil.

James was not happy when he saw the system message.