The choices were plenty and the tokens few. He thought for what felt like a week, yet they have only been five minutes of indecision. Ultimately, he made a list of what was most important and chose accordingly.
The healing potions were a necessity. Three felt like a steal for only one token, especially after he realised these could be used to create more soulless husk minions. With these, he had a plan B should situations turn dire and he would be faced with a fatal wound.
“It had already saved me when Hundred landed her attack. If I did not ask the shopkeeper to make a healing salve before that fight, I would have…”
He considered it best not to follow those train of thoughts and rather focus on the next item. His second choice was an NPC Token.
“Edgar helped me solve my food problems. If I can get an NPC that does something related to water, I might find a permanent solution for our issue.”
He did not waste any time with using the token. Summoning it from his inventory, he observed the interesting coin for a few seconds. Since it was presumably made by Woodrow, it did not possess the same quality as the first NPC token created by the game. This gave way to concern regarding the summoned NPC’s quality, but Tanuki was at a point where his desperation overshined all possible consequences regarding a bad roll.
Furthermore, he had a trick up his sleeve for that occasion.
“Woodrow, please remain seated. I do not know what would happen if you were in the way of our new friend.”
“What do you mean?” he looked at Tanuki, confused.
“I think if you were touching the portal as it opens, it might cut you in half.”
Though it was just a theory with no basis, Woodrow got too scared to question it.
Tanuki cast the token. It rolled twice before falling to the ground. For a second, it looked like nothing would happen. Tanuki walked over to grab the coin when he noticed something growing from the space between the floorboards akin to branches and roots.
His eyes widened and his hands swooped towards the coin, but they were too slow to stop the branches from bursting through the floor, snapping a floorboard in half and raising the token to an eye-level. The growth engulfed the coin. From its right, a branch grew out in the shape of a lever, and the head of the mass formed to resemble a slot machine. Three rows and lines were carved into wooden cards that moved to roll as he turned the lever.
Tanuki waited patiently as the thing creaked and the turning of cards slowed. Once it finally stopped, his heart rate grew, and panic washed over him.
Despite its magical appearance, it was a one-armed bandit, a kind of gambling machine made to extract money from the desperate. In the real world, they were programmed with an astronomically small chance of actually paying out. To expect a jackpot from a single pull would be like looking up at the sky only for a nanosecond and expecting to see double comets burning through the night.
When the machine stopped on three distinct faces, nothing happened. Tanuki panicked and pulled the lever again, and to his surprise, it began the roll once more. He did not lose his chance to win an NPC, simply the worse quality of the token made it so retrieving a new person would be maybe not harder, but certainly more tedious.
After the third try of nothing happening, he nearly kicked the machine in rage. Because Woodrow was watching, he exercised well behaviour.
His frustration showed in a nervous laugh paired with a head-scratch. “Guess I’ll try later.”
Tanuki observed Woodrow’s wares once more. Since this was his last token, perhaps forever, he wanted to spend it wisely. The last remaining items were a class token and two mystery gifts.
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The idea behind the class token intrigued him. He was sure the system would find a way to feed him with more, but he was unsure whether that would happen through level-ups or purchases with vendors.
It was a tricky situation. If this was meant to be his chance to gain his next class, he would do wrongly to not take it. On the other hand, this might be a trap, not one set by anyone in particular, but one born from the fear of the unknown.
Perhaps there were other ways of acquiring new classes and buying a token here, while certainly not a faulty decision as it would speed his momentum with unlocking new abilities, would lock him out from experiencing what the mystery gifts may be. What made things even worse was the realisation that one of the mystery gifts might actually solve his issue with the lack of water.
He thought about it to no avail. Finally, he decided to listen to his heart which was easily manipulated by the excitement of something unknown.
“I’ll have one of the mystery gifts.”
“Which one?” Woodrow responded, sending Tanuki spiralling back into uncertainty.
“Which one should I choose, the first or the second box? There has to be a logic behind them. The first is meant to give something that can help me grow strong, the second must help me strengthen my realm. Or perhaps the other way around? When was I supposed to get these? Could I have brought one of these during my time in the dungeon? Then the first one is definitely something meant to help me with that, but now that I’m out of there… But what if it’s the other way around? Perhaps I was supposed to redeem the last box before taking on the final boss of the dungeon?”
Woodrow observed Tanuki’s blank expression and trembling mouth. He was not good with masking his emotions, even in front of plantfolks.
“Perhaps I could help you decide?” Woodrow put an elbow on the table and rested his head. Tanuki nodded, to which he continued, “You should choose the first one.”
“Why?”
“Things should be taken in order, one at a time. Let me guess, you fear to make the wrong choice, never to see what the other gift might hide?”
Tanuki felt some shame wash over his heart. “Yes. You understand well.”
“Maybe you will never have another chance to see the other option and find out what lies behind that other door. However, should that be the case, let me ask you my Liege, did you ever have a choice?”
Tanuki did not know the proper response. He stared at the plantfolk with confused eyes, as he truly did not understand what he wanted to say.
“What do you mean?”
“With every action, a different root penetrates the ground. What way will it grow is not something the tree knows when exploring unknown directions. The best it can hope for is that path will lead it long towards better grounds, until it has to grow a new root and find a different path.”
“Woodrow, that really did not help me understand what the hell you want to say.”
“You are the tree, my Liege. When you make a choice, you choose a direction. A path can only lead one way. When you build it, all other paths cease to exist. The illusion of choice might have you think they were there and now they shall remain forever unexplored, when in truth, nothing of that sort exists outside the realm of the mind. What’s real is the now. Anything outside the current is unreal.”
A plantfolk’s plant-based metaphors best helped someone of their kind. It was a bit hard for Tanuki to get it, but the more he opened up to the abstract, the more he understood the reality of his situation.
There was no second option. Nor third, nor fourth. In truth, he made his choice the moment his heart wavered, if not long before.
“Give me the first box,” he spoke with a clear voice devoid of hesitation.
Woodrow nodded with joy. The box did not go into his inventory, rather appeared on the table in front of the shopkeeper. It was green with a brown ribbon, resembling those others he had seen related to Yoshimura and the essence of green.
Tanuki stood over the box. Woodrow’s words echoed in his mind as he calmed his racing heart and slowly put his hand on the lid. This one did not blow away from his touch. It served his hands well and let him reveal the blue glow from within. As the colour met with his gaze, Tanuki smiled.
He made the right choice. Or rather, the right choice came to him.
When he put his hand inside, the glow faded and an item appeared in his hand. It was small and as thin as a pen. It had a wooden texture that through some unexplainable means felt like it came from a tree that grew near the ocean. Had he licked his fingertips after touching it, he might have felt a faint taste of salt.
A flat brush longer than his open hand rested in his grasp. Its end still bore a light blue paint that though did not dribble still felt wet to the touch. That feeling did not go away with time, and the brush refused to turn dry.
“What’s that?” Woodrow leaned forward in his chair. Though it had yet to prove itself, the brush amused him.
Tanuki smirked. His hands adjusted to the brush almost immediately, after all, he had spent a lot of his free time painting in his youth, and feeling this tool brought him not just comfort, but also confidence in himself.
“This is the solution to our problems.”
[ Brook’s Brush ]
[ Description: Drawing a line on any surface creates a small stream of water between two endpoints. The amount of water is based on the length of the line. The depth and width of the stream are measured based on the size of the brush’s head. ]
The era of drought would finally come to an end.