And a couple more days it was. The only real difference from previous days was their diet. Instead of dried soup blocks and meat, there were a lot of fresh vegetables and mushrooms as Lily continued to beat up on the local plant monsters. But then on the third day they saw signs of what the group had been searching for.
Jason is the first to see signs of it because of his skills with plants. The scene was common enough. A small thorny vine the others overlooked. It was a wild rose missing its bloom. After he points it out Courtney smiles, “We should start seeing more of this if the quantity of low tier undead is anything to go by. The redeath rose slug isn’t a rare monster. Our problem will be more on the end of finding one big enough to count as a boss.”
That prediction proves true enough. For a while now the group would run into the occasional lone mindless undead. Some they wouldn’t even bother with as the monsters had rotted away enough that they couldn’t even keep up with the groups pace of travel. Now that they are looking for a monster that eats the undead the group takes the time to kill those strays. After a careful search they find that some of them have weak rose slugs stuck on them.
In fact, any of the undead which start off above ground has at least a slug or two on them. All of them weak, barely bigger than a normal rosebud, but the group has just entered their territory so they aren’t worried.
Though soon enough they aren’t able to monitor the growth of the slugs. For the first time since their original encounter with the undead, they stop seeing them. A day passes and while there are piles of bones occasionally scattered around that might have one been animated. The weak skeletons and zombies are no longer bumbling around. That and there are a ton of blooming rose plants around. It isn’t even the season for them to bloom, but it seems monsters don’t care about that.
When the group settles down for the night Jason takes a closer look at one of the rose plants. Just [observing] it doesn’t show the plant to be anything other than a rose, but that clearly isn’t the case. Not only is Jason sure all these roses are the precursors to the rose slug, but his farming skill is nudging him towards harvesting the plant in an interesting way.
To satisfy his curiosity Jason peels off the sepals, those leaves that protect the flower itself, one by one until all five are removed and it leaves him with just the petals. Unprotected now, the petals rapidly curl up as if to close. This is a sign that a new redeath rose slug is about to be born, but Jason is quicker. A single snip of his sealed silver scissors and the flower comes off the plant. The curling petals freeze at the moment. Now unable to complete the transformation as it isn’t connected to the plant and can’t draw on the stored power.
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Jason holds the frozen flower up to his eyes and takes a closer look. The rose doesn’t look too different from any other half bloomed flower, but this close he can detect the subtle difference. The bud is packed full of Mana. As the flower closes up, it will draw heavily upon the plant for whatever power it has but will only use said power once ready to transform. Until that point it just stores and stores.
In fact, if Jason had waited until just before it changed to snip off the flower, it would have been packed with even more Mana. That isn’t so important to Jason though as he smiles and turns to the group triumphantly with the flower in hand. “Well, we won’t have any more troubles fighting the undead from now on!”
Courtney frowns, “I didn’t read anything about the slugs flower being of use against the undead? Did you find something else online?”
Jason shakes his head, “nothing like that. Rather, I have a hunch that I can use these flowers for something special. I am going to collect a basket full of these first and then on my watch do a small experiment. Saying we won’t have to worry about the undead might be a bit premature but if my plan goes well, it won’t be too far off the mark.”
With a shrug and a sigh, Courtney gestures for him to continue. Rosha giggles at this, “don’t worry about the camp and dinner. We can take care of that for tonight. A little research and skill progression never hurt anyone.”
Courtney scoffs at that, “It very well has and you know it. Though I highly doubt Jason is going to summon up eldritch abominations while messing around with flowers, there are things that can do that. Even irl research can be dangerous. Think about those early people to look into radiation. They had no clue what they were dealing with and some of their original research notes are still radioactive.”
Rosha goes from giggling to a full-blown laugh. “True enough! Though I wouldn’t put it past him to manage to summon something with a rose. That would be quite the sight. I wonder if the monster would be an undead or a plant? A sacrifice of undead eating monsters could go either way.”
Courtney rubs the bridge of her nose and sighs. Though she doesn’t manage to fall too far into her annoyance as Rosha stalks right up next to her and glomps on with a hug. A quick squeeze and she lets go, “don’t mind it too much! We have a camp to set up and dinner to make”. Courtney blushes at the unexpected hug but can only sigh once more before getting down to the job of making a campfire while Rosha pulls out the bedrolls.
Jason off to the side shakes his head at Rosha’s antics and goes back to harvesting roses.