I’m going to elect this specific swarmbug to die as a sacrifice to the thorns. Yes, you. Kill yourself upon the bramble, I must test something.

That was maybe a bit cruel of me, but I think I have my answer; living stuff can use mana in place of whatever they’d normally require to live and grow, and they can use mana to mutate. I’m not sure if it’s random, or just mutates them in a generally beneficial direction, but I’m satisfied with my conclusion, watching the brambles ‘drink’ the speck of blood mana from the swarmbug.

So I assume, then, that if Cytra suddenly came upon a human’s worth of mana, and split it with me, she’d grow in size by about half again her current size, as well as develop a bunch of either random or weird mutations. I don’t want that, but I could probably fix whatever might go wrong for her, so I’m sure it will be fine.

Regardless, I think I’m due for a bit of a-

Nap. My ecosystem is truly thriving, and I am indeed smart. Cytra is happily patrolling for a web that appears to have caught an incredibly unfortunate mouse, my wasp hive and ant colony are progressing nicely, all plants nominal. Excellent. Now all that is left is to…

Worry, unfortunately. Wherever this druid is, he’s taking his damn time! It feels like being told I’d be getting a million dollar water bill, and the mail just never comes! It’s making me feel a bit… Anxious. I need something to occupy myself. My tree, yes, how is my tree?

Large, good. Woody, excellent. Thick, and hard too. Perfect. I think it could use a little more durability on the bark. I want something like literal steel bark, but I don’t think I can make that with plants. Or, I could probably convert plant mana into whatever type metals are, but I don’t know how.

Experimenting time, then. At this point, I’m a master at grabbing globs of mana from my orb, and rather experienced in the art of making plants, if I am the sole judge, so my task is clear. Make a plant that, much like the baitplant, produces something decidedly weird. Hopefully, it will be weird in a way I can steal and apply to other designs. I think I need a dedicated spot for this, though…

Carefully, I extend and flatten a branch of my tree high up its trunk, and hollow it out. Scooping up dirt to put here would be a challenge, but I don’t need to. It takes an hour of work, but I give this fully natural ‘plant pot’ a feed of water and nutrients from the main tree itself. Satisfied with my design, I make three more off of the tree absently while mulling over designs and experiments.

I think a metal plant would be a good start. I think a design that’s basically just an incredibly thick and giant leaf would work, and then… I don’t know, keep throwing mana at it until the leaf becomes metal? Shit plan, trying it anyways.

Second experiment, I thought about doing this much, much earlier, but it was a bit scary, up here, though, if it turns out to be a horrific abomination, I could just push it out of its box to die. An ‘egg’ plant. I want to have it grow what I’m calling a monster egg. I think I’ll just shove a regular swarmbug design in the egg, since it is only a test. The plant itself is just a stalk with an egg on top, and some leaves coming out of the base for sunlight needs.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Third is the simplest of them, I just want to know if I can grow normal, plant-y fruit. Without any blood mana weirdness. Strawberries are my model. I hope for their success.

No druids still? Garbage, just show up already! Fine… New project… I just need a base creature… You. Bird. Sit still, damnit!

Ah-hah! I’ve got a bird. I don’t have any water, but with water mana, I think I could make a pond or something. As such, I want a duck. A normal duck. For now, I just want this test bird to be able to live around my little ecosystem, I’ll adapt it to whatever pond I make later. It’s male, so I’ll name you…

I’ll get back to that, promise. Take some time to adjust to the changes, I think it’ll be a while for you. I guess I should stop impulsively doing stuff, and just wait. I’ll watch Cytra in the meantime, she seems to be exploring my plant experiments.

That was… weird. I was just watching Cytra spinning a new web around the metal plant experiment, when my vision cut, and I was just looking at the corewood of my tree until I regained focus. That hasn’t happened before… What could it-

Druid. Unmistakable. No other type of person would wear nothing but furs covering their sensitive areas, have tribal-looking green tattoos on their midriff, and carry a staff that appears to have living leaves on it. She’s… a human, an attractive one too, if you cleaned off the dirt.

The look on her face is anything but pretty, right now. Outright murderous, in fact, as she scans my plants from right to left. Right, all wasps close enough, sting her.

As I watch the wasps approach, the woman turns, and I barely remember to switch to magicvision in time to catch her doing her thing. She taps her staff on the dirt, and tendrils of plant mana extend out from a pool of it inside of her, similar to my orb, and into her staff. She does a couple gestures, then closes her eyes.

Which forced me back into my orb for a moment. Annoying. So that’s what caused that? Regardless, Cytra, get into an ambush position. I need to keep watching the druid. She came alone, and hasn’t spoken, which… honestly worries me. Is she that confident? What is she even doing?

It looks like she’s made a circle of a couple different types of mana, air, plant, and water among them, as well as a few types I haven’t seen before. The circle is just sort of… free-floating in the air in front of her, like-

The way I make plants and creatures. She’s making something. A spell, I assume. I don’t know what all those designs and symbols mean or would do, but I don’t like the feeling of nervousness rising in me at the sight of it.

The wasps finally reach her, but she just ignores them as the first digs its stinger into her shoulder. The second starts doing its thing to her neck, which prompts her to break concentration on her… Spellweaving, let’s go with that, long enough for her to swat it away with a bit of air mana layered on her hand. I’m not sure if that’s just because she was using it with her spellweaving or because it helps somehow.

Regardless, I don’t think the wasps are even slowing her doing in a meaningful way. Cytra will be in position in a few seconds, but I don’t think I can stop what she’s about to do. Brace for impact, then. I send a wave of plant mana over all my stuff on that side of my clearing, with vague intentions of protecting and weathering, but I’m not sure what I’m even fighting against. Or why I’m fighting it, to be honest.

In an instant, whatever it was she was building releases, and a wave of… something. It looks like the totality of the mana she gathered in that design condensed into a solid band. Regardless of what it is, the effect is clear. The plants it hits die. It loses a bit of mana, I assume the amount it takes to kill each plant, as it goes, until it eventually stops after killing a good 10% of my plants.

Excise. To cut out. Right… It didn’t penetrate the green sea too deeply, she’d need to do that… twenty more times, assuming the density of my tree will make it harder. She doesn’t have enough mana inside of her to do that, but I don’t think I’m in the clear. If she runs… and shows back up with help… No. I can’t allow that. Cytra, try your hardest, I’m counting on you!