After two weeks, he completed a passage beneath the yew tree inside of Neuman's realm. Ian shielded his eyes from the two bright stars in the sky that casted a orange hue over a field. He was glad to see them again. After all these years, he really hadn’t thought about them. He was never interested in astrophysics, but he imagined it to be much more difficult for scholars to study them as each realm was different.
Inside of the Neuman’s realm, the twin stars were both half the size of the sun, which suggested they were farther away. However, no one had an accurate way to confirm whether the sky within the other realm was real or a hologram. The twin stars’ movement followed the same pattern as the sun, but there were realms where day and night were reversed.
The fluffy pink clouds in the sky moved from east to west like earth. Their formation and shapes seemed more purposeful than random. Even as the clouds covered the two stars, the entire field remained tinted in an orange glow, deepening the leaves into vibrant shades of orange and red.
Many of Ian’s illustrations were drawn with pens and pencils. To accurately depict the plants, Ian added droplets of water into a tray with six pigmented colors. The splashes of color added life to the illustration. Although it was not enough to boost any plants to become a spiritual plant, different scents appeared in his item creation space.
Ian investigated the space full of lifelike plants, all floating around in space. Since their creation, the plants were slowly growing and gaining SP.
For the next few days, Ian drew the trees, grasses, and wildflowers around the yew tree. He created several combinations of plants until a D-rank plant, the sheragon lily, appeared from a combination of a lilac bonnet mushroom and a common daisy. The plant had a single stem with three distinct parallel vein leaves. Sheragon lily was a well-documented exoplant, a plant with no known Earth’s origin and appeared from the portal. From a genetic standpoint, the sheragon lily was a close relative to the lily. What made it special was the spiritual properties it acquired after it acquired more than 50 SP. The flowers were widely known for their healing properties.
For it to appear in the item creation didn’t make sense. From a biological perspective, the lilac bonnet mushroom was a fruiting body that was in an entirely different kingdom from the common daisy.
Ian made more sheragon lilies, filling the item creation space with lush vegetation floating around in the space. His stomach growled and he opened his eyes as the slight discomfort from his stomach reminded him to eat. He took the last remaining energy bar from his bag, and shook the water bottle. The splashes of the remaining water in the bottle made him more thirsty, but he resisted temptation.
As he munched on the stale bar, his nose picked up a strange scent. Strange as in how familiar it was to him, but at the same time, something he had never smelled before. It had the same scent as the sheragon lily, but since it was the first time his physical nose had picked up the receptors, his brain could not completely register it.
Hoping that his instinct was correct, he trekked north, up the unfamiliar path. The northern area was used by the rankers from the northern city, Birming, located an hour north. With his arms firmly gripped on a long matchet, Ian slashed through the thick overgrown fern and stepped on the stems to form a small pathway. The giant blade leaves gently fell, barely adding a sound to the rustling of the trees and chirping of the birds. Ian listened carefully. Unlike the southern zone, Ian didn’t have an escape route if a manbi appeared.
The scent intensified the closer Ian approached north. The eerily silence alerted Ian of a potential predator lurking around. A green glow of a D-rank plant appeared in view, but Ian remained in place, opening his senses to track any potential danger. Manbi wasn’t only the predator within the otherworld realm.
Suddenly, the rustling sound became more noticeable. Two rankers appeared, one with a spear and the other with a sword. Ian remained hidden within the dense ferns, counting down slowly to steady his heartbeat. The last thing Ian needed was to be discovered and hit by a fine from the ORA.
The rankers whispered to each other, both trying to contain their excitement, as they dug out the D-rank plant. The plant could be sold to the ORA for $30,000, a relatively large sum for little effort. The two rankers left to return to the rest of their party.
In the meanwhile, Ian remained hidden to ensure that they wouldn’t return. However, the scent remained. He wasn’t sure if the rankers were still around. He stayed hidden longer until the sand in the hourglass filled up halfway. By then, most parties would have regrouped and returned back to the checkpoint.
The scent continued to trouble Ian, prompting him to carefully search the area. In between the overgrown weeds, a large burdock sprawled its large leaves around a large radius of the groundcover. The strongest came from that vicinity. He lifted the leaves of a large burdock, revealing a small seedling with a slight green glow. The leaves were barely formed, but Ian knew it was the sheragon lily. He dug the plant and returned back to the yew tree.
He continued to stay within Neuman’s for another week until he ran out of water.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
****
A strange man with tattered clothes and unkempt facial hair appeared at the entrance of Burrow’s Diner. The dining customers shifted uncomfortably from their seats, hoping that the man wouldn’t sit near them. All ten tables were filled, but Burrow’s Diner was known for shared tables amongst strangers.
“Mister…” The middle-aged waitress approached him with caution. She had seen beggars in the street, but never ones who had entered her own establishment. “Would you like food to go?”
“I’m taking the loaf of bread,” the man replied.
Marnie’s jaw dropped, popping in between the joints. She recognized her son’s voice and his hazel eyes hidden underneath the fringes of his darkened blond hair. He had been away for only three weeks, but he looked terrible. Both his dirty hands were shaking as he stole a loaf of bread from the pantry. Marnie was still busy serving other customers, so she let him go upstairs.
Later that evening, Ian’s parents asked him about his trip and then demanded that he maintained proper health and hygiene. Ian gobbled down the loaf of bread as they lectured him. Ian cleaned himself up and assured them he brushed his teeth everyday.
As he rested in his room, he created more combinations of plants. Of the combinations, another D-rank exoplant appeared, the lincour mint. The lincour mint was one of the main ingredients in many apothecary and alchemy recipes. The scent had a mixture of yellows and reds. It was the best way for him to describe the scent in colors as there wasn’t any true scent he could use as a reference.
n spiritual herbs, he could register as a scout. The problem was whether it was wise for him to disclose his ability.
He was not aware of anyone who had awakened with less than 10 SP. The testing result evaluated him with 3 SP, but that wasn’t enough to awaken a geist. Why was he any special? Was it because of the strange drug? If the strange drug was the source, then it was likely that there were other cases?
Ian searched the web for stories of people with sudden awakening within the past five years. Many stories were from overseas, where people were suffering from terminal illness and suddenly recovered by breaking the 10 SP threshold. However, many of those people had 8-9 SP prior to their awakening.
He tapped his fingers, and suddenly remembered an incident from four years ago. A high ranking political member from the southern Americas known as Joven survived a car crash, and after the incident, he awakened the geist. It was not usual for people to test their ability after the age of 21, but as he was a prominent political member, they hired a healer to heal him from inside the otherworld realm. When they entered, the healer realized that Joven's recovery rate was faster than the non-ranker. The details were not disclosed, but everyone assumed that Joven had awakened a geist.
The story made headlines around the world. Since then, Joven remained elusive from the press. There was something unsettling about the recent events, and it was best to gather more information.
While Ian was in Neuman’s, the police sent him an update regarding the toxicology report and his urine sample. As they were unable to find anything unusual, the doctor determined it was psychosis caused by stress. The police also dropped their investigation. For Ian, he was more curious about the drug, and retrieved all his belongings. Ian was able to retrieve half of his drugs, ones that weren't destroyed for laboratory testing.
Ian did testing with his own equipment. Ian looked through his computer for the mass spectrometry data he collected on the ibuprofen. The molecular mass of the compound was slightly higher than usual, but it was within the margin of error. The lab report had similar findings. Ian rotated the pill bottle around his hand and then tapped it on his table. After a minute, he placed it aside to focus on his item creation space.
Later in the evening, Ian helped mop the floors in the diner. With the space cleaned, his parents pulled him into an intervention meeting.
“Ian, your mother and I decided that it’s time for you to start paying your dues or move out,” Hogan said to Ian suddenly.
“What!?” Ian was shocked. It was a surprise given his ordeal. He thought they would become more protective.
“Not just us, Logan also agreed to it,” said Marnie. “We have been sheltering you for too long. We don’t want that for you, and we want to give you the freedom to explore on your own.”
“We know it must be tough for you to find your own place while it looks like everyone around you is moving forward,” Hogan said. Ian appeared fine, but deep inside, it was difficult to understand how his son was handling without his siblings. There was a sense of loneliness in Ian’s eyes when Luke left. “You can’t live your life jumping from one research topic to another. You have no focus in life, and you’ve been searching for so long without a purpose. Emptying your bank account is your only motivation to move forward. It’s because you know you have us and your siblings to rely on.”
Ian scratched his head. He didn’t want to rely on anyone but himself. But maybe a part of him was reckless because deep down, even if he lost everything, there were people he could still rely on.
“I’ll be more responsible from now on,” Ian said. “I’ll find a job.”
“Good. You might not be aware, but Carla is pregnant. ”
“Oh! That is great news,” Ian said. He assumed it had happened when Carla visited Logan two months ago. “I’ll chip in from now on.”
“Do you even have the money?” Hogan asked.
“Not yet?” Ian was hopeful that with his ability, he could make a decent living. His problem was getting into a party that was willing to take him in.
There was one team willing to take him in, but it was a trip into one of the most dangerous D-rank realm, Beacon #6. Mitch was already committed to a party on the same date, but Ian decided to join knowing the leader was an experienced one. With a press of a button, Ian joined a party as a porter.
However, one upcoming trip wasn’t enough to earn a living. Ian had one D-rank spiritual plant hidden within the Neuman’s realm, but he couldn’t rely on it being hidden forever. If he wanted something stable, he had two options– find a job in an S-rank city or sneak into the unregulated realms.