Saying goodbye to the wolfkin, Roge checked his inventory screen to make sure everything was in order for the day. His inventory wasn’t large, but it had enough room to fit a small closet inside. Nodding to himself after making sure his notebook, pencils, and 2 spare sets of clothing were still there, he headed out of the main door to the main square of the city. The houses had not changed shape all that much, as well as the layout of the town, but gone were all of the modern sidings, sidewalks, etc. In their place was cobble streets, various carriages moving along the middle, and all stone and brick houses and shops. Every half a block or so was the streetlamps, though those were all powered by magic when it got dark.
Strangely enough, though, it was never the houses and strange streets that hit him the hardest about walking into work, it was the things the carriages were being pulled by. Instead of horses, massive wolves, cats, and other four legged creatures of all shapes carted them. Because of the magic of the world, any type of monster could be physically strong, thus any could be a load-bearing animal. He even had seen one bear the previous week, though he assumed it was rare as the wolves and cats were more common.
He’d at the very least become used to the various people walking past, though the road wasn’t overly busy that day. Elves, orcs and dwarves mainly looked human, though elves and orcs had their pointed ears, orcs had their slightly bigger fangs, and the dwarves were all half the size of them. They were in the minority, though, as most of the town was taken up by beastkin. Various people would catch his eye, some looking like a human version of a deer, fox, and many other kinds of animals. Some even looked like him, though he was told dragonkin were very rare. Most were crockin or some other kind of reptile, not given the same breath ability he had. His was apparently was specific to dragonkin, which he didn’t see as very fair, but the other species had their own perks, so he guessed it all evened out.
He decided to head in a straight path to his work today, every other day moving in a more roundabout pattern to see as much of the city as he could. This time though, he passed by a building under construction, something he hadn’t seen before. Even though he was in a bit of a rush, he stopped to stare at the magic at play, watching the various spells fly through the air to manipulate the different materials. With the right crew, he surmised, you could finish a building like that in a day. He made a promise to himself then to see if the city planning had any kind of listing for what was being built when. It had been his first glimpse of spells actively in public after all.
Roge pulls himself out of the Spellwork, turning back to his path for work and soon arriving through the slightly open back door. The space was somewhat cramped, shelves lining the shop floor with various herbs and smoking paraphernalia. It had some kind of system, but the owner of the shop never let him know exactly what that was. His main job was to help stock the floor and to tend to the plants in the greenhouse out back. Even without being able to use Nature Spells, his Draconic Breath ability gave him a slight edge in that regard that made his workdays boring, but mostly easy. Or so he found.
“Well you’re here early!” a voice sounds, the person it belonged to coming in from the greenhouse. “You look better today son. Finally feeling a bit more at home?” Madam Madrid had been the second person Roge had told about his memory problems, though not having told her the cause. It had been pretty obvious when he had no idea what to do on his first day the previous week, causing him to have to explain to a complete stranger. She’d grown on him since, but his previous programming job had no boss like her. She was a bit shorter than him, although not by much. Stocky had been the first word that popped into his head, her girth more muscles than any fat. Of course, being an orc, stockiness came naturally to her, even with the green skin making her look constantly sick.
“Possibly,” he muttered, glancing down at the rug behind the counter. “I never know how you get enough sleep with the night hours you keep. I just now got the Well Rested buff and that was after a week of trying to sleep for 8 hours.”
Madam Madrid scoffs at this, landing a solid pat on the back that almost made Roge fall over. “With how often you talk about my nightly business, I’m shocked you haven’t taken up my offer on one or two of my products. Even for just a…” She trailed off, giving Roge a smirk to balance his glare. “Just a suggestion son. Now get back to the back. I know you didn’t come here early just for me.” With a smack to his ass, Roge complied, grumbling about nosy bosses as the greenhouse door closed behind him.
Here he could actually relax, taking the time to go around the greenhouse to Inspect the various plants. Madam Madrid mainly specialized in smokables, both cannabis and tobacco taking up a third of the greenhouse, but she also sold various teas and medicinal packs that went over well with the patrons. Making sure everything was in order was paramount to having good products, which made his skill even more important.
Inspect: See more detail on what you look at.
Cost: Very Low Mana
Specialties: Plant-life (Nature Magic)
Tobacco Rank 2
Abilities: Smokable(2), Stimulant(1), Toxic(1)
Status: Healthy Adult
Tobacco Rank 3
Abilities: De-Stress(3), Smokable(2), Stimulant(1), Toxic(1)
Status: Healthy Adult
Cannabis Rank 2
Abilities: Mellow(1), Smokable(2)
Status: Healthy Adult
Cannabis Rank 3
Abilities: Anti-Depressant(3), Mellow(1), Smokable(2)
Status: Healthy Adult
Roge nodded at the various stats of the plants, some of them varying in Rank, though they had gotten better in slowly breeding the lower ranks out or upgrading them. Obviously they only sold products of the Rank 3 versions, the added effects welcomed by the customers and not costing any more in maintenance. They had not found any other plants that developed the Smokable(2) Trait at a higher Rank, though, which left the other herbs and such only useful in consumables like tea and foods. And this is what he hoped to get in his little experiment.
Taking a deep breath, Roge took a few seconds to fill his lungs with Nature Magic, saturating the air inside before blowing it out slowly like he would blow through a straw. The Nature Magic ballooned across the greenhouse, Roge turning his head to saturate all of the cannabis and tobacco plants. It helped them to grow stronger and rank up easier, allowing the store to sell more product than they would normally with a greenhouse that small. He couldn’t put that idea on himself though, Madam Madrid having told him that’s why she had hired him after watching him help grow his mother’s garden as a kid. His next idea, though, was all him, though he wasn’t sure the idea would work.
He then made his way to his own little plot, Madam Madrid having given him one to experiment on. In the last week he had grown several plants to maturity, though having only planted a tobacco plant the previous Friday. It had barely grown and he hoped it would enable a success. After all, young things tended to adapt better than things that were fully grown.
He stopped at his peppermint plant, grinning as he read the Inspection for it.
Peppermint Rank 2
Abilities: Drinkable(1), Detox(2), Stomach Calmer(1)
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Status: Healthy Adult
Roge looked at the status for a moment, his grin widening now that it was an adult plant. With the system effecting things, only adult plants could be harvested for materials, as he took advantage of with plucking a leaf off of the stem.
Peppermint Leaf Rank 2
Used in teas, this leaf helps keep the stomach calm. Rank 2: Helps the body with lowering toxic levels of harmful chemicals. (Serving: 1 cup)
Nodding, Roge takes the leaf over to the Rank 3 tobacco plant, taking a moment to check it still had Status: Healthy Sprout while trying to calm his nerves. It may not work the first time after all. He then stares at the peppermint leaf as he takes a small breath, only saturating his lungs with the tiniest amount of Nature Magic and blows it on the leaf, watching it soak up the magic greedily. Good sign there… Roge breathes in again, this time focusing on the leaf and the magic inside of it. At first nothing happens, causing him to somewhat lose hope, but trying a couple more times. Then something happens.
The magic saturating the leaf peels off, leaving the plant-life to brown and crumple, quickly dying in between his fingers. This takes him so much by surprise that Roge coughs, though no Nature Magic escapes his lungs. On closer inspection, the Magic was no longer in his lungs, some pocket right next to the organs keeping it safe from accidental exposure. Hoping that was a good sign and moving over to the Sprout, it then takes him a few tries to try and release the Magic, finding he had to use long unused muscles to squeeze the tiny pouch. It felt really weird, almost as weird as the new muscles he had for his tail. He aimed it mostly at the tobacco plant, though the magic wafts over it and dissipates in the air instead of being absorbed.
Trying with another leaf, this one only takes two tries to absorb the magic, though this time he tries saturating the leaf with a bit more Magic than before. After a third try to breathe it out, he finally sees he effect he wanted, the magic absorbing into the plant rather than dissipating. A use of Inspect practically makes him jump for joy, almost missing the notifications that pop up after.
Magic Tobacco (Non-Toxic) Rank 3
Abilities: De-Stress(3), Smokable(2), Stimulant(1)
Status: Healthy Sprout
Inspect Skill increased in Rank! → Rank 2
Draconic Magic Skill Tree Unlocked!
Draconic Accelerated Growth Skill Unlocked! (Draconic Magic)
Draconic Magic Plant Destruction Skill Unlocked! (Draconic Magic)
Draconic Magic Plant Creation Skill Unlocked! (Draconic Magic)
Detox Rank 2 Magic Trait Added to Magic Trait Library (Draconic Magic)
Trait Slots Used: 1/10
New Class Available: Draconic Mage (Plant)
It was a lot for Roge to take in, especially with some of the skills being very long in length with the Draconic modifier. He pushed that out of his head however, pulling up his Expanded Status to find it now being very crowded.
Expanded Status Screen
Name: Roge Youngston
Age: 28
Species: Dragonkin
Class: Novice Gardener (1 available)
Strength: Low
Dexterity: Above Average
Agility: Below Average
Constitution: Average
Intelligence: High
Charisma: Below Average
Abilities - [Fold]
Draconic Breath
Static Mind
Nature Magic
Skills - [Fold]
Gardening Rank 2
Inspect Rank 2
Draconic Accelerated Growth Rank 1
Draconic Magic Plant Destruction Rank 1
Draconic Magic Plant Creation Rank 1
Quests – [Unfold]
Skill Trees -
Gardening Rank 1
Draconic Magic Rank 1
Magic Trait Library (1/10) -
Detox Rank 2
Roge had never even heard of Magic Traits before, let alone known that there was an entire Skill Tree relegated to Draconic Magic of all things. Of course, considering he’d never gone to any school past the normal one after age 14, he could be forgiven for that lack of knowledge.
Draconic Magic Skill Tree -
Rank 1 -
Obtained: Draconic Accelerated Growth, Draconic Magic Plant Destruction, Draconic Magic Plant Creation
Available: Unknown
Very helpful that…
Draconic Accelerated Growth: Plants will grow faster after absorbing your natural breath.
Cost: Average Mana
Uses: Once per day per plant, Seed → Adult in (7/Rank) Days (7 Days)
Draconic Magic Plant Destruction: Deconstruct a plant that has absorbed your breath, adding one of its Traits to your Library.
Cost: Low Mana
Warning: Destroys plant targeted.
Draconic Magic Plant Creation: Use a Trait from your library to add to a plant.
Cost: Low Mana
Warning: Only usable on a Sprout or younger.
Roge cocks his head at the descriptions, a wide grin coming back to his face. Normally someone outside of the Church was disallowed from learning magic, but he’d looked up the laws the week prior, hoping to get around that. It only prevented him from learning Spells, lest he be locked up for breaking the law. Skills on the other hand, had no such restrictions in that regard, otherwise that would be a whole other nightmare to try to control. Or something like that, Roge had barely understood the book that tried to explain the history of the Spell ban. What he had read though, specifically mentioned that Skills that were magical in nature were not banned in the slightest.
“Watcha staring at son?” Madam’s voice piped up behind him, causing him to nearly jump out of his skin before glaring at the orc.
“See for yourself,” he stated after a moment, calming his heart down as she used Inspect on his tobacco plant, her eyes widening as she did so. As she stared off into space like he had, Roge quietly used his new skill to Accelerate the plant for the day.
“You… how did you… please tell me that is not a Spell,” she finally sputtered out sharply, Roge quickly giving her access to his Skill list to assuage her worry. “Oh good. For a second there I thought I was going to have to get my favorite employee arrested. Don’t scare me like that son.”
Roge nodded at this, a little relieved after how scary she had sounded. “Nope. Skill usage all the way in that regard. Though once I get this guy fully grown in a few days, we should have a new product. Non-Toxic cigarettes would probably go over pretty well.”
Madam Madrid nods at his comment, clearly not paying attention as her eyes grow sharper on his Skill list. “You have just earned yourself a raise young man. Now,” she refocuses, sharp eyes focusing on Roge now, “you go catalog the other plant traits while I send a request to my seed contact. We need more traits from other plants, as well as try and see if you can transfer flavors. No need to just stop at effects my dear.” Roge’s eyes widen at that suggestion, remembering his question from earlier in the week as to why she’d not made flavored cigarettes. It turned out that it required a whole new set of processes that she had not been interested in doing, including soaking the processed tobacco. Even then, most didn’t work as the flavor instantly burnt up after lighting it, making the process almost worse than useless.
Nodding to himself as Madam Madrid races off to the front, Roge pulls out the notebook and pencil to start cataloging the various traits of the plants, idly wondering if he could effect wood just the same. Maybe a pencil that didn’t need lead, but wrote on its own? Focus.