In the woodlands near the barrier separating the real world and the unregulated realm, Ian's feet treaded lightly over the ground, carefully crushing the twigs and primroses without making a sound. Each step took meticulous effort to maintain the natural melody of the woods. The occasional chirping of the birds and rustling of the squirrels played in the background, masking some of his movement. As he crossed over, the digital display indicating 6:24 AM faded. He stayed hidden in the between the trunks of the ash and pine trees, avoiding the open meadows. Wildflowers and hornbeam shrubs covered the ground and hid potential threats like vipers. However, inside the unregulated realm, the most dangerous threats weren't the monsters, but the people and traps scattered about.
By the tallest pine tree in the area, Ian threw the grappling hook upward, looping it around a branch. Once secured, he scaled up the tree until he saddled near the top. Using the ten magnification monocular, he surveyed the surrounding area. The coloring of the Birming Unregulated Realm was uniquely green, almost an unnatural color, as though shaded in green-tinted color filters. There was nothing but woodlands and the occasional patches of meadows. He remained vigilant and waited. If there was a chance that the Desmond could detect him, he needed to escape as soon as there was any unusual movement.
According to the rumors about the Desmond crime family, they had a powerful magician working with them. Of all the spells at their disposal, Ian was the most concerned about detection spells. It was a scouting ability commonly used to detect spiritual plants and monsters. Different lifeforms had different resonance auras that could be tracked and a scout had to train for a long time to properly tune into their frequency. For a criminal organization, Ian assumed that at least one of their magicians specialized in tracking other rankers. He also assumed that it would be more difficult to track the entire radius of the realm. At best, an A-ranked scout could detect rankers from within a 3-mile radius. Ian, who barely had any SP, could avoid detection if he remained out of their range.
Ian stayed close to the border for three days, cataloging the plants around the area. After three days, no unusual movements from the center of the woodland. As Ian had acclimated to the environment, he felt comfortable enough to venture further into the woods, toward a strange scent. The scent led him to a small clearing filled with sheragon lilies. They were two spiritual plants hidden amongst the flaring green bell shaped flowers. The green tint of the realm had help to conceal the slight glow of the spiritual plant. He drew the plant, creating three D-rank sheragon lily image cards. Unfortunately, he was u able to sense any other unusual scent from around the border. It was possible that there were more spiritual plants closer to the center of the Birming Unregulated Realm. He looked toward the darkness of the shaded woods. It was best to remain near the border until he had more information on the Desmond family.
By sundown, Ian returned to Birming City where he had rented a small studio apartment. The studio had sparse furnishing and decor, making it appear bigger than it really was. He didn’t need much besides a cheap folding table and chair for research and a sofa for sleeping. As he unpacked, he placed the sheragon lily on the table. He stared at it for a while and then leaned in closer toward the plant. He sniffed the plant, a regular habit he had developed after discovering his ability. It was the only ability he could rely on in the real world. The problem was the natural scent of the sheragon lily, which mixed in and intertwined with the mana scent of the plant. As he gathered more image cards and studied the plants, it became easier to distinguish between the two scents.
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He closed his eyes, and sniffed the different parts of the plant. He felt the movement of the mana scent, flowing around the plant. It was difficult to understand the sensation he felt. At first, he thought it was the plant’s vascular system, but the movement felt too chaotic and wasn't contained within the plants. There seems to be a pattern, but he wasn’t sure how to draw it out.
It was possible for it to be a glyph. As a fundamental part of spellcasting, glyphs were extensively studied. However, due to its complex and vague structure, it was difficult to discern their true nature. A simple firebolt spell could be casted using different pyr glyphs.
Inside the item creation space, Ian focused on the sheragon lily. There were two dozen sheragon lilies in his item creation, varying in size and age. Without the natural scent of the sheragon lily, it was easier to trace the movement of the mana scent from within the space. The pathways of the newly acquired D-rank sheragon lilies were more harmonious, less chaotic, and had stronger movement.
At certain pathways, the mana pulsed stronger than usual. The pulse location varied from the different sheragon lilies, some in the roots, some in the buds and some in the stems. Ian paused for moment to look up spiritual nodes theory on the web.
In the early days, many people believed that organisms had a core. It was the location that stored the most amount of mana. However, modern scholars believed that organisms had multiple spiritual nodes. In plants, the buds, shoots, leaves and roots had equal chances of containing the nodes. Although Ian could locate the spiritual nodes, he wasn’t sure how to process the information to make it useful.
"How to create a stronger plant?" Ian scribbled in his notebook. There were seedings, cuttings and grafting methods.
Suddenly, Ian opened his eyes as an idea popped into his mind. Feeling an urge to experiment and test out the hypothesis, he grabbed his cargo bag and rushed back inside the unregulated realm.
In the middle of the night, the soft green glow of the moon casted a hazy light over the woodland. Ian approached the sheragon lily field with contained excitement. He needed to be even more cautious at night. Although monsters rarely venture near the border, there was still a possibility. He threw one bait far away to attract any predators and walked the opposite direction toward the lily field.
As he arrived, he uprooted the sheragon lily and he smelled the stem. The mundane plants did not have a glow, but they still have a scent, which was too faint to sense unless he was right next to it. A mixture of fragrances entered his nose. He switched his mind back into the item creation space, comparing the mana scent with the real plant in front of him. Using the method, he removed the layer of grassy and limey notes, and followed the mana note that matched the mana within his item creation. As he familiarized himself with the scent, he followed the flow of mana of the sheragon lily and located the spiritual node within the stem. Then, he removed the roots. If the spiritual node was in the roots, then he would remove the stem.
He prioritized finding plants with nodes within the roots and stems. With dozen of stems and root pieces collected, he grafted them together, making sure the movement of the mana scent continued to course through the entire plant. He spent hours grafting together various sheragon lilies and replanted them closer to the barrier. Then, he drew the grafted plants, documenting them into his item creation space. The SP from the original plants were around 30s, but the grafted plants went up to the 40s. If he could find higher ranked plants, he wondered if it was possible to create a spiritual plant. He gathered the few sheragon plants in the 40s, and grafted them together.
Ian experimented for several days. On the fifth day, he grafted together his first spiritual sheragon lily.