Jason sits in his room with a stress headache. “I am not even level ten and three different organizations tried to spy on me. Seriously need to wander off in the near future. Though I do have to wonder if the dwarves are here under James’ orders or his family wants to make sure he broke contact. This does make me feel like a bit of a flip-flop because it makes we reconsider him. From friend to enemy and now what? If he sent them nothing has changed. His family sending them on the other hand means he might not be as brainwashed as they would prefer. It doesn’t forgive him of course. At this point in time if you don’t like your situation there are enough social programs to get you out. Probably he doesn’t care about the cult but still doesn’t want to live poor. Quite a foolish idea from my point of view. The poorest person in the world lives in luxury compared to even the middle class only a couple hundred years ago. Compared to my old life the difference is even starker. Then again I guess I have an outside perspective on this.”

With a sigh Jason retrieves the portable planter from his pack. In its travel form the planter takes up little space and looks like a miniature diorama. Except of course for the fact it is empty. Jason sits down next to the planter and takes a closer look. The buttons stand out from the side ready for him to input the code. Not that he plans to use them. As the salesmen said, he can bind it with his Energy. Specifically, once he formed a core but as luck would have it that had already happened. Now the only question is how to do so.

Jason first tries the classic blood binding. A single drop of blood from the tip of his finger falls onto the planter. While there is a slight reaction but beside some sparkles the planter does not change. He shrugs, “Qi users probably use this method. On the other hand my Energy does not stay attached to my blood like theirs would. This means my next test probably won’t work either. Still worth a try.” Jason release his Energy in a cloud and surrounds the planter. More sparkles appear but still the planter is unchanged. “Yep, that is likely the way to use Mana to bind items. My Energy can form a cloud but decays away just as quick. This might be a little tricky. I guess I could ask Penny how to do it. However I want to try my own methods first. At least with her I have a backup plan. Now what to try first?”

Jason ponders the planter and his Energy for a while. Then he tried laying his hand on the planter and pushing his Energy into it. When that doesn’t work Jason sits back. His Energy needed a more direct connection to work. Blood failed because that wasn’t where it resided. Just pushing it out failed as it lost something the moment it left his body. This is good because no one can affect him through any residual Energy he leaves around. However he needed some method to bind the planter and any other similar item in the future.

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Then an idea struck him, “If the blood could almost work all I needed was a more direct connection! In fact, why did I try with blood in the first place? I don’t have blood in this world anyway. What I do have is the threads and they transfer my Energy quite well.” He already had experience with moving his threads and so after only a handful of minutes a thread in his finger moves. It extends to the tip of his finger but then stops. A few more minutes pass as Jason tries what he can but while the threads move freely in his body, his skin stops them. No matter how much his insides are a void there is too much of an expectation for him to have skin. Maybe once his threads are strengthened more, they will be able to pierce his skin. However for now it is like trying to pierce his skin with a real piece of thread.

With this in mind, Jason can only resort to another cut on his finger. With the barrier that was his skin removed the thread leaves Jason’s body. Like a spider web the thread is almost invisible with only the occasional glint of light catching it. He reaches out to the planter and with his finger only moments from touching the thread makes contact. Despite the physical nature of the thread it seems to phase into the planter. His Energy flows through the thread into the planter and for the first time something clicks. A burst of information backflows into him and directly to his mind. Compared to when he checks a plants maturity this was small fries. A simple confirmation he had bound the planter and a tutorial on how to shrink and grow the planter.

After Jason goes over the simple instructions, he can only sigh. Until now, all his skills and abilities had been passive or easily activated by thought. This planter however would likely always require him to speak aloud to activate it. Not that he would use it in a battle or other stressful situation but still. To need to say a command aloud for anything besides the menus feels so unskillful to him. Maybe if he practiced with the planter a couple hours a night for a couple weeks, he could get it down. That would take too much of his time though. Even if he just spent the time in cultivation instead the time would have been much better used. In the ends Jason can only sigh and look back to the planter. The buttons that decorated the side had sunken into it replaced with a continuation of the design. From now on until he removed his binding from the planter, only his command can control it.