Licht’s vision encompassed his entire connected territory.

“I have connected several square miles by now, surely there is something within here that could help get rid of the caravan!”

By now, after the passage of several weeks, Licht had connected to several different kinds of trees and flora. There was bound to be something hazardous to the body. Something he could use to combat the slavers actively. Even if it could only harm humans, of which the party of caravan guards were entirely composed of, he would use it. He went through everything he could find.

Fruits, flowers, herbs, vegetables, anything that grew in his territory was brought before his focus.

“Luckily I have some means to discern the effects of each one of these, otherwise I’d be screwed.”

[Psychometric Observation]

[Davilis Root (E-)]

“A root primarily made into tonics for restorative medicine. Most tonics utilizing this root concentrate on curing men of their issues. Found to be particularly helpful for rousing the sleeping ‘dragons’ of aged and impotent men.

“Okay, that one’s a dud.”

Licht threw the pile of Davilis roots to the side.

“The AF cost for the skill isn’t too bad though.”

With a root, he grabbed another pile of herbs and flowers.

[Doomsday Mushroom (D)]

“Shiny black mushroom that’s found in abundance near water-rich areas. Be careful, as consuming this mushroom will lead to tremendous internal discomfort and flatulence.”

“What a dumb name, getting my hopes up. This one sucks too. I can't help the slaves by giving their captors the shits. They’d be more likely to take their anger out on them in that case then free them.”

No, Licht couldn’t force the slavers away. Unless he found some sort of hallucinogenic mushroom in the forest, he had no way to do that. He didn’t know if they deserved that good of a treatment either. He needed something deadly. Poisonous.

[Manacle Blossom (C-)]

“A blue flower that grows rarely in small concentrations around the mouths of damp caves. Mostly found in the forest lands to the east of the Kingdom of Pytheonia. Contains a minute amount of liquid ambient force. Cannot be cultivated artificially.”

The flower looked like an azure hand that was clasped around a yellow orb.

“I would normally be excited, considering this is the highest ranked item I’ve ever seen, but it’s not useful to me right now.”

The description was also the second time the system had mentioned civilizations in the outside world. This time, mentioning a kingdom by name. That and its possible AF content interested him, but wouldn’t be of use for now. Though he’d obviously save it away for later. It sounded like free AF after all. He was surely coming back to that, mind you.

[Psychometric Observation]

Licht stuck his root in another pile of flowers, activating the skill. He had to be in contact with the object to use the skill.

[Fool’s Oasis (D+)]

“A particularly nasty strain of its more common, benign identical cousin, the [Fool’s Gala (D-)]. In addition to instigating illusory sounds and sights in whoever consumes it, the flower’s potent concentrate will travel throughout the bloodstream, causing the body to overheat and break down in blisters. Be careful with consumption, as it can be fatal.”

“Yes, this will do perfectly.”

Licht grinned internally. The Fool’s Oasis flower was just the kind of thing he was looking for. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be enough to instantly kill the members of the caravan, but that might be good too. He didn’t want one of the slaves to accidentally die instantly because they ingested it.

Licht’s vision panned back to the caravan, counting the total present. There were about 25 caravan guards, from what he could tell. Some were inside tents and others were wandering the perimeter. Some were even agitating the slaves. Licht’s stomach dropped again. Without their leader present, the members of the caravan were steadily getting more antsy. Some got into aggressive arguments around the camp of tents, from what Licht could discern through body language.

As for the slaves, there were twelve. Easy to count, as they rarely were allowed to venture from their chained spot. There were seven females, three males, and two…children. Licht didn’t know what to make of that. Not all were elves, one was of a fungoid-looking race of which Licht couldn’t determine. That didn’t matter now though, as he had a plan to finally free them…

…

“You smell that?”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

One of the members of the caravan raised his face to the dark sky, sniffing the air.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Smells like smoke.”

“Like a hooka?”

The other guard made a face at him.

“Like a hooka? Where do you think you are? The Redsands? No, it smells like a campfire. It just seems a bit off, is all.”

The other man shrugged.

“Let’s go check it out then.”

“Fair enough.”

The two walked until they arrived at a campfire between the rows of tents. A decision that many of their fellows had made as well, as there were a fair number of them gathered around the fire, looking at what was burning.

“Yo Dagel, what’s on the spit?”

Yes, the question was on all of their minds as they watched whatever the now melted object was rotating above the fire. The man maintaining the spit, spoke between puffs of smoke. He had rolled a cigar of something.

“Flower of some kind. Actually, I think it's called a Fool's Gala? Can’t seem to remember if that was it. Psychedelic though. Very nice wrapped up.”

Fool’s Gala? Some of the more knowledgeable camp members nodded their heads. The guard who had just arrived scratched his chin. Oh yeah, he had heard of it before. Really popular with the younger city crowd, though how had he gotten it all the way out here? And held onto it for this long, moreover?

“How’d you get it, Dagel?”

The man puffed.

“Didn’t really ‘get’ it, I just found it. Whole patch of it near the edge of the clearing.”

A few of the men hummed and sat down at the fire with the man, exchanging wrapping paper. Many of them began to make their own flower cigars.

“You found it near the edge of the clearing? I scouted that area this morning and didn’t find anything like that.”

One of the scouts spoke up, prompting a distrustful look from the men gathered. The trust for scouts in the camp had started to dwindle after their leader had gone missing with two of them. Many had started to suspect the leader had been ganged up on and that the scouts were now running off with his stuff. Others didn’t believe that the leader would lose in a fight to only two of his own men.

Minded, no caravan could just completely up and disregard their scouts. They still performed a vital function after all. Yet, there were many things that a leaderless posse could make ‘difficult’ amongst their members if they wished to.

“Well regardless, I found it there. You’re welcome to go take a look, if you want.”

The scout, seeing the distasteful looks from those present, decided he might as well leave anyway. He headed toward the edge of the clearing to where the man called Dagel had said he found the flowers.

Sure enough, there was a patch of flowers gathered at the edge of the clearing. Even though it was now the middle of the night, the black patch of flowers stood out as they reflected the moonlight off of their glossy surfaces.

“Do these flowers usually grow like this?”

Suddenly from the direction of the camp he heard yelling. A man’s yelling. Then one voice became two, and two became four, and four became eight. Then came the sound of weapons clattering and a tent being knocked over.

“What the hell?! What’s happening?”

…

Licht was in a state of razor focus. After seeing that the flowers had been distributed sufficiently amongst the guard population, it was time for him to act.

Before, he had retreated nearly all of his mental energy from the connected forest and placed it into these trees surrounding the campsite. With a generous dose of [Biogenical Growth], he planned to get involved directly. He only needed a single root, just one fiber, to free the slaves.

“[Biogenical Growth]!”

“[Biogenical Growth]!”

“[Biogenical Growth]!”

He strained, sounding out the activation of the skill in his mind with each use. With each push, his root snaked its way out of the treeline and toward the chained slaves. Each spurt causing it to grow in length. As the shouting of the confused guards grew louder in the background, the root reached the locks of the chained slaves, some who had just started to notice the presence of Licht.

“Heliji! Heisilina jescu-saviriti scanima.”

“Dispan! Cheras notcha-visrinu!”

Licht grimaced, his root practically starting to sweat as he undid the locks around each slave.

“Disara! Checkav shineri!”

“Yeah yeah, I don’t know what you're saying! Just let me work!”

The slaves were now all looking at his root as he made his way through them, all yelling in some other language at Licht. It sounded urgent, or maybe they were just happy to be freed, but whatever the case was, it only made his task harder. FInally, he finished. The slaves were all on their feet, looking a little wide-eyed while rubbing their ankles and wrists.

“Okay! You're free now! Go!”

Licht wormed around in the air with his root. The slaves just looked at him with confusion.

“Hoh, this language barrier really sucks.”

Licht realized he had to physically point them in the safe direction.

“Go! That! Way!”

He mimed, jetting the tip of his root out toward the treeline like an arrow. He pointed to the trees in the opposite direction of camp. A safer direction, as far as he was concerned.

The slaves tilted their heads. Some of them looked at each other and then at him. They had a short discussion that Licht couldn’t understand, likely about what to do, before seemingly deciding something with nods.

Licht smiled. Some of the life seemed to have returned to their faces. He was glad. Wait…

“What are you doing? That’s toward the camp!”

Licht freaked out as the slaves confidently made their way toward the caravan tents.