‘Condition.’
Condition Health: 100/100
Stamina: 90/90
Mana: 10/10
After meditating for a few minutes, Jean had not only restored his mana to its previous max limit but had also increased its limit by nine points. Jean had deemed it a necessary safety procedure if he was going to track the seemingly hostile group off in the distance.
‘Alright, let’s go.’
Starting off by heading in the direction that he saw the cat-people last, Jean began his journey through the jungle…
or so he thought he would.
*dum* *dum-dum* *dum-dum* *dum-dum* *dum*
Jean moved towards the sound of rhythmic drums as a processional line of cat-people came parading through.
*BARAANG* *BARAANG*
Cat-people holding instruments that resembled ram’s horns blared out notes along with drummers who consistently beat out rhythm on their wood and beast hide drums. After watching and listening for a while, Jean’s body subconsciously aligned its movements with the music.
*ding*
From your appreciation of music, the skill [Music Appreciation] has been granted to you.
Music Appreciation (Passive)
- When listening to music, increases the positive effects of the music by a small amount.
- When listening to music, decreases the negative effects of the music by a small amount.
- [Synergy]: It is now possible to use [Identify] on music.
‘Interesting...’
Jean looked over the new skill, [Music Appreciation], with keen interest. By reading the description, whether he had [Music Appreciation] or not, Jean discovered that simply listening to music could give buffs or debuffs.
‘Identify.’
Unknown Rhythmic Music
- Increases strength by an unknown amount.
- Increases constitution by an unknown amount.
- Increases willpower by an unknown amount.
- Decreases perception by an unknown amount.
- Decreases intelligence by an unknown amount.
- Decreases wisdom by an unknown amount.
- Effects of negative mental statuses are decreased by an unknown amount.
- After prolonged listening, status effect [Berserk] is applied.
Jean was slightly taken aback at the long list of effects that came from listening to the music being played by the parade of cat-people. Nearly half of its effects were negative while its only plus was that it increased combat potential.
“Usque ad montem!”
“Usque ad montem!”
Behind the trumpeters and drum players marched lines of cat-people dressed in red and gold robes who chanted lines in a language that caught Jean’s ear.
‘Is that… latin?’
Listening closely to the priest-like cat-people who chanted the words ‘Usque ad montem!’ repetitively, Jean realized that they were simply saying ‘To the mountain!’ over and over again. As he looked in the direction the parade was moving, Jean noticed a large shadow that stood behind a clearing in the trees a bit off in the distance.
‘Ever since when was that there?’
The procession marched on towards the mountain while the trumpeters trumpeted, the drummers drummed, and the chanters chanted in unison. At the very back of the group was a small platform with two cat-people on both sides holding up a young cat-person with white fur who was dressed in pure white and had a bed of white flowers all about him.
‘Identify.’
Parello Blossom
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
- A pretty white flower that is cultivated for its bleach-like properties.
- Toxicity: Possibly deadly. When ingested, the flower may cause burning in the mouth, throat, and stomach, nausea, chest pain, delirium, lowered blood pressure, coma, and even death.
- Nutritional Value: None whatsoever.
- Medicinal Value: Very little. When the Parello Blossom extracts are diluted in water with a three to ninety-seven ratio, the resulting solution can be used as a surface disinfectant and to treat drinking water.
- Practical Value: Some use. The more concentrated form of the Parello Blossom extract can be used to completely bleach all color from fabrics, leathers, furs, hair, etc.
‘Bleach flowers?’
Jean stared intently at the little blossoms with great interest. From a botanical viewpoint, to produce a chemical that removes all color and can be potentially poisonous to pollinators wouldn’t be that great of an idea for the survival of any plant. For such a flower to have survived through Darwin’s theory, it must’ve either been modified to produce bleach and to be pollinated with tools or a natural pollinator that is immune to the toxic effects of ingesting bleach exists, the latter idea being much less feasible.
Moving past his ramblings on the incompatibility of bleach and flowers, Jean noticed that the procession had moved quite far off into the distance and he quickly got up and scrambled towards the cat-people who marched to the mountain before them.
* * *
“A toast, to the twenty-fifth anniversary of Cynopolis!”
*tink*
After the people raised their glasses into the air for a toast, chatter immediately broke out in the banquet hall.
“Ah, President Ardal, it is a pleasure to finally meet you.”
The president lowered his champagne glass as he looked at a man with cocked ears and a fluffy tail with an arm extended out.
“You must be the new director of natural resources, Markus Pallin.”
“Please, Markus is too long, just call me Mark.”
With a firm handshake, the two men formally introduced themselves to one another.
“I would suppose you have a reason for approaching me other than introducing yourself, am I right?”
The director let out a short chuckle.
“Of course not! We’re both men of busy lives, what would I gain by taking your time away from enjoying this lovely banquet?”
Suddenly, the directors face turned dark.
“The source of the tremors earlier this afternoon couldn’t be traced to a natural source.”
The president paused for a moment.
“What?”
“After observing the data, the epicenter of the earthquake was located about a few kilometers away from the felisophia tribals.”
“So you’re telling me that the earthquake from earlier originated from the middle of the eastern jungle? Not because of a volcanic eruption or the shifting of tectonic plates?”
The director shook his head.
“There were quite a few eyewitnesses who claimed that they saw a massive, green, pillar-like structure suddenly shoot up into the sky and then after a few moments slammed back down into the earth at the same time the earthquake struck.”
The president stared at the director in disbelief.
“I was quite skeptical of this news myself but the number of people on the east side of the city who claimed to see this event occur are not few.”
There was a short period of silence as the president stood perfectly still, seeming to be in a state of deep thought.
“Alright, let’s say that the event of this pillar suddenly appearing and slamming into the ground actually happened and this is the reason for the tremors from earlier. Now, the question we should be asking is not, ‘How did this happen?’ but rather, ‘What caused this to happen?’”
“If I may ask, what’s the difference between the two questions?”
“Do you know of the time we had a conflict with the humans?”
The director looked towards the ceiling for a moment.
“Yes, the board of that time wished to force the humans to cooperate with their plans but then the humans brought out a energy source called ‘mana’ that could manipulate…”
The director’s face suddenly changed to that of shock.
“You don’t mean this was doing of humans? We haven’t seen from them for the last year or so…”
“Precisely! It is because we haven’t seen them for over a year that they are the most suspicious.”
“But president, is that energy they harness really potent enough to raise a pillar that was described to be over a hundred meters tall?”
“It’s understandable since you weren’t there to witness it, however, it stays true that their energy, mana, was not only capable of being easily transformed into tangible objects but could also be used to control already existing things. If a war had broken out back then, I’m afraid to say that we wouldn’t be standing here today.”
An awkward silence broke out between the two men.
“The bottom line is, we need to figure out what exactly happened in the eastern jungle. Can I trust you to send men to investigate, Mark?”
“Rest assured, president. I will not leave a single square meter of jungle unsearched until the source of these incidents are found.”
After a simple nod of agreement, the president and director both went their individual ways as they enjoyed the rest of the banquet.
* * *
Name Jean Kwon Age 31 Titles Earl of Plants (Rare) Condition Health: 100/100
Stamina: 90/90
Mana: 10/10 Status Effects Beginner’s Protection Buff Attributes Strength: 8
Constitution: 9
Agility: 9
Dexterity: 10
Perception: 10
Willpower: 11
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 12 Skills Alchemy (Expert) 73.22%
Botany (Master) 56.18%
- Dendrology (Master) 23.09%
- Herbalism (Master) 100.00%
- Mycology (Master) 43.98%
- Pomology (Master) 57.67%
Identify (Beginner) 39.00%
Library (Beginner) 3.59%
Meditation (Beginner) 9.23%
Music Appreciation (Beginner) 23.42%
Plant Manipulation (Beginner) 2.50%
Stealth (Beginner) 1.00%
Synergy (Beginner) 24.00% Traits Calm Mind (Uncommon)
Green Thumb (Common)
Beginner’s Protection Buff
- Grants protection for a period of time (22h:03m:24s remaining).
- Reduces effects of negative status effects by an enormous amount.
- Lowers the requirements for learning new skills by an enormous amount.