After lunch Roge finally took at look at his new Status, specifically what effects his class change had.
Status Screen
Name: Roge Youngston
Age: 28
Species: Dragonkin
Class: Novice Draconic Mage (Plant) (1 available)
Strength: Low
Dexterity: Above Average
Agility: Average
Constitution: Above Average
Intelligence: Very High
Charisma: Below Average
Draconic Magic Skill Tree
Rank 1 -
Obtained: Draconic Accelerated Growth, Draconic Magic Plant Destruction, Draconic Magic Plant Creation
Available:
Defense (Choose 2): Leaf Armor, Plant Infection (Defense), Vine Wall, Root In Place
Mobility (Choose 1): Plant Infection (Mobility), Nature Walk
Utility (Choose 3): Nature Senses, Familiar (Plant), Plant Infection (Utility), Flower Sentries
Roge blinked at the various options, having only pulled up the parts of his Status that had changed. The changes to his physical and mental stats were not much of a surprise, though, Fred having told him additional Classes and Ranking them up had a rare chance of shifting them. The Skill Tree however, had way more options than he expected. Having no combat options made sense, that apparently being in the purview of Spells for the most part, though it still rankled him. It meant he would have to rely on weapons or hand-to-hand combat for most of his damage output. He did pull up the descriptions of the skills just to see what each did.
Leaf Armor: Pushes Plant Magic to the surface of your body to create a lattice of leaves, acting like scale mail armor of the same rank.
Cost: Low Mana
Duration: 1 hour per Rank
Plant Infection (Defense): Using Plants designed to live in the body, you can instruct them to reinforce your body’s defenses.
Effect: +1 Defense & +1 Resistance per Rank
Cost: Very Low Mana, -1 Plant Health
Duration: 1 hour per Rank
Vine Wall: Grow temporary vines right in front of you, creating a wall of Plant Magic to block physical and magical attacks.
Cost: High Mana
Duration: 50 Health per Rank in Damage taken or 10 minutes
Root In Place: Grow magic roots into the ground to strengthen yourself.
Cost: Average Mana
Duration: 1 minute per Rank
Plant Infection (Mobility): Using Plants designed to live in the body, you can instruct them to reinforce your body’s mobility.
Effect: +1 Speed & +1 Flexibility per Rank
Cost: Very Low Mana, -1 Plant Health
Duration: 1 hour per Rank
Nature Walk: Filling your body with Plant Magic, the flora around you will mistake you as one of their own.
Effect: +2 Speed Per Rank
Cost: Very Low Mana
Duration: 1 hour per Rank
Nature Senses: Use the Nature around you to experience more.
Cost (Focused): Very Low Mana
Familiar (Plant): Made of pure Nature Mana, your familiar helps with Spells and Skills as it grows up.
Plant Infection (Utility): Using Plants designed to live in the body, you can instruct them to reinforce your body’s perceptions.
Effect: +2 Perception per Rank
Cost: Very Low Mana, -1 Plant Health
Duration: 1 hour per Rank
Flower Sentries: Grow sentries made of pure mana, attacking any hostile in its surroundings.
Effect: 10 Damage per Rank
Cost: Average Mana
Duration: 50 Health per Rank in Damage taken or 10 minutes
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Roge sighed as he read through the different skill description, knowing he wasn’t getting the full picture of what all they could do. Like when he’d absorbed the entire venus flytrap, the messages couldn’t account for every edge case, only giving what the Skill or Spell was generally used for. For all he knew, the Flower Sentries were almost as tall as him and could physically punt enemies. He did like that he could use the skills for any edge case that fit in their purview, he just wished the descriptions were longer.
He dismissed the Skill Tree from his view, deciding to handle the skills after his grappling vines were done growing. He wouldn’t need the Plant Infection (Mobility) Skill after all if he could do the same thing with his plants, just custom designing them to fit certain tasks.
Roge spent the rest of his day doing his job, stocking shelves and occasionally doting over the plants in the greenhouse to make sure their growth went okay. During down times he took out his notebook, writing down different ideas for what he could combine and mix plant wise. Getting drunk after work was a favorite pastime of his, drinking enough to feel relaxed without getting blackout drunk and drinking enough water to not get a hangover the next morning.
As he woke up, Roge finally feels himself not panic. The draconic face in the mirror finally looked somewhat normal. Things were looking up in that regard. Maybe it was the experimenting with plants? I always did like solving problems with code… He pushed those thoughts out of his head for the moment, giving his infested plants an Accelerate and heading downstairs, not seeing Fred that morning, which was odd, but his friend didn’t tell him everything.
As he sat drinking his coffee.. er caufee… after an over-sized breakfast, Roge Inspected the grappling vines, excitement rushing through him at the Status.
Magic Grappling Vine Rank 2
Abilities: Rapid Extension (1), Grapple(1), Parasitic(2)
Status: Healthy Adult (7/10)
It had apparently healed up 2 points of health overnight, bringing it into the upper third of its health and into healthy range. As an adult, he could now use the plant, excited to see if it was all he imagined. He shook his head at that, trying to dispell the images of Spiderman swinging around from his mind. It would never be like that, but he hoped he could at least get up to roof height by swinging.
Heading out even earlier than the previous day, Roge looked up at the top of the buildings, now a bit nervous at the prospect while looking at the 2-3 story heights. He wasn’t scared of heights like a lot of people were, but a fall from up there could seriously hurt him. Or would it? He had a magic body now. Maybe it was as dangerous as falling off a porch?
Taking a deep breath, Roge snapped his arm out, a mere thought with the action firing the vine at speed into the lip of the roof of the Inn. The flytrap portion of it instantly sticks to the material perfectly, Roge pulling with his whole body weight not enough to even strain the vine. Acting almost like an extension of his arm, he could feel the entire way up the vine, which looked more like a rope with no leaves. Right. It’s feeding off of me, not the sun.
Introspection over, Roge pulled the vine back in, launching himself forcefully off the ground and, in his surprise, swinging him roughly into the wall. That’s going to bruise, he grunted, dangling halfway up the wall with several passerby looking at him in fascination. Shaking off the stun, Roge snaps out the vine in his left arm, feeling a slight tug in his chest as it grabs onto the edge of the building next to the Inn, keeping his swinging arc in the street rather than at a wall. Letting go of the Inn, he pulls in the vine to keep himself from smacking into the ground, managing to swing almost horizontally until the middle where he shoots into the air and lets go of the second building. He narrowly missed smashing into the overhang, shooting a vine into the middle of the roof and dragging himself onto it before flopping down from shaky legs.
The roofs were all mostly flat, allowing foot traffic for people who could get up there. Of course they were made of waterproof and soundproof materials, Roge causing no disturbance with his graceless fall. He always envied the lighter traffic on the roofs and now, with some practice, he could finally do it. A lot of practice he amended, groaning as he gets up from from the roof. Shake it off. You’ve got this.
~---~
With a huff, Roge dropped back down to the street level, his vine retracting mostly back into his arm and wrapping once around his wrist. Almost as long as how much time it normally takes, he thought, checking the time out of the corner of his eye. It’ll get better once I can handle the intersections better. He’d thankfully not smashed that hard into any of the buildings trying to cross streets, getting the hang of it somewhat near the end.
As he headed into the smoke shop, he spots Madam Madrid behind the counter, prepping some leaves with her magical equipment. He was never sure how one box could dry, cure and shred the tobacco all in the span of 5 minutes, but even her simple explanations started giving him a headache within moments.
“Ah, you’re here son! Almost done rolling your new tobacco. It’ll be a minute before I’m done.” He modded at that, sitting down on one of the stools to cool off his sore muscles. He watched her deft hand move through the motions of making the cigarettes, filling up a wooden pack with another box rolling 5-10 all at once. She’d never said what she did to make then before she got the magic boxes, Roge suspecting she had enough money from her nightly work to fun them from the start.
Once the pack was done, snapped shut, and given Madam Madrid’s nod of approval, she handed it over, Roge feeling another pang of glee at the Status, comparing it to one of the boxes on the shelf.
Pack of Magic Cigarettes (Non-Toxic) Rank 3
A favorite break time smokable, these cigarettes help with stress and curbs hunger, all while being relatively harmless to the body.
Pack of Cigarettes Rank 3
A favorite break time smokable, these cigarettes help with stress and curbs hunger. Causes a buildup of tar in the lungs and weakens breathing over time.
“Awesome!” Roge crowed, returning Madam Madrid’s soft smile with a wide one of his own. “Now that we know it works I can use the seeds from that plant or marinate new plants in the trait, right?” Getting up at her nod, Roge rushed into the back with the sound of Madam Madrid’s laughter following him. He had a lot of work to do that day and no other quests to get in his way.