The night passed quickly as Jason finished meditating on his new understandings and was ready to test them out the next day. Not that anything happened the next day. While the wilds are dangerous, it isn’t like he is currently in an actual danger zone, like last time. After all, these might not be the most traveled roads but they are traveled. If someone on the road was attacked literally every day, the nearest kingdom would send an army out to clear things up.

Jason can only sigh. Things had been so eventful right up until he had something new to try out. So, without a more violent method to play with, Jason focuses on his plants. After all, they were the source of his inspiration.

The first thing he focused on was the gloom weed. Jason had originally placed them around the outside just because there wasn’t really anything else to go there. Sure, he had a few reasons but now he had a better understanding. While the plants themselves were void of power, the main reason he had them was that they pushed any energy they did absorb into the soil.

Jason had been using that to help the ginseng grow, but now he took a closer look at it. After all, no matter how much he had a theory based on his own cultivation, that doesn’t mean reality has to conform to what he believes. Though his idea was mostly correct, except for some of the small details.

First was that while the gloom weed pushed power around, it was still restrained by local fields. So if there was a Mana based plant on one side, only Mana would be able to drain in that direction. This was able to combo with the second thing, that the roots were what moved the power into the earth. Not exactly groundbreaking findings, but apparently, the System thought it warranted a knowledge bonus.

{Knowledge Bonus Earned

+2% success rate when guiding Gloom Weed roots}

Another small bonus that will help smooth things out. Though Jason does feel a bit disgruntled. Sure, he knew that the System was only going to give these types of things out for known things, but he had discovered so much dealing with the nature of the System itself. In the end, he did admit that giving out bonuses for screwing around with the System probably wasn’t the smartest thing for the System to do, but he still wanted to be rewarded for it.

Besides that, Jason also felt the recent lack of such bonuses in general. The entire spectrum of play was covered by those little bonuses. From the bonuses he got to growing Energy Herb to the bonus damage he receives against cats, basically everything has its own quirks. While the setup could get cluttered, it was the best way the System had found to recognize the small differences between people and yet at the same time not handing out a skill for everything.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

After all, his minor bonus to damaging cats could have just as easily been a passive skill. He was so distracted it took Jason much too long to realize exactly why he hadn’t been receiving more bonuses. Of course, the reason was also incredibly simple and obvious in hindsight. Why in the world would the System give out bonuses to messing with itself?

Good thing Lily is there to comfort him for being such a blockhead. To give such a bonus would be like the police providing lessons on how to pick handcuffs. Sure, it would be useful for some, but definitely not in their best interest. So with that minor epiphany to the back of the head Jason returns to his discovery.

Since the Gloom weed would guide the power through its roots, guiding its roots would guide the power. Not only that, but his other plants could be used to block off two of the three powers. Which also explained why the center was doing so good while the outside was not.

His circle of Energy herbs was blocking off most of the other powers from getting through. So while the ginseng was happy to use all the Energy it could get, everything else was suffering. And just like the answer to why he wasn’t getting bonuses, the answer for how to solve this problem was just as obvious.

So obvious, in fact, that he had already used it within his own cultivation irl. Just open up some gates to let the power through. Though Jason didn’t stop there. He had just received the bonus to guiding the roots and he planned to take full advantage of it.

The first step was to bring order to the roots of all the plants in his planter and after a quick internet deep dive into bonsai, transplanting, and such he felt ready. With his sealed silver snips at his side, Jason began the process of digging up all his plants once more. This time at his side was a towel soaked in a water and sugar solution. Then, one at a time, starting from the center, he dug up each plant.

Any roots that had grown too long or too tangled got snipped. Jason did try to do as little of that as possible as even if they were supernatural plants, transplant shock was a very real danger. Before, he had been a good bit more callus, and it was only a miracle that prevented any of them from dying. Though seeing as one of the big things with transplanting was to disturb the roots as little as possible, this time had a much bigger risk.

Jason couldn’t help it though, as the next step required it. Whereas before he had just worried about the location of the main plant, now each root represented a potential disruption to his Gloom weed plans. Though that thought does stop him, well, it does after he finishes his touch up on the bloody lingzhi. He has been calling the gloom weed a weed for too long now. Just like the Energy herb is referred to as a glow weed, the gloom weed should be similar.