“Wait… wait, wait, wait,” Vivian said, holding up his hand.

“What?” Kyung asked, crossing his arms.

Vivian reached into his inventory and drew out a Dancer’s Robe, quickly tying the sleeves together to make a makeshift sack. The neck hung open, until he stuffed a leather pauldron from the berserkers into it. Kneeling, he quickly stuffed earth, compost, and the Lady’s Vine into the robe, then sent it back into his inventory. “Alright, we’re good. Let’s get out of here.”

“Can you use that vine? At all? For anything?” Kyung asked.

“Not yet,” Vivian said.

Noah paused, resting his hands on his knees and panting.

Vivian nodded at him. “C’mon, kiddo. I’ve got the vine. Time to keep going.”

“Are… are you sure we… can’t…”

“We can rest outside the Garden. Or you can go hang out with the Lady,” Vivian said, shrugging.

Noah jolted upright. He wiped his mouth and jogged on. “I… hate… running!”

“You should probably stop stealing things, then,” Vivian offered in a friendly manner.

Noah grunted.

They wound on through the hedge maze. Sun shone ahead, sparkling through the fog. Rounding one last turn, they burst out onto the road. Walking by, a small party jumped, startled by the sudden emergence.

Stumbling across the road, Noah braced himself against a tree and groaned.

“Did something happen in the Garden? Are you guys okay?” a female Fighter asked, frowning in concern. She stepped forward them.

Vivian heaved in a breath, then gave her a dazzling smile. “Would you like to buy some gear?”

“Huh?”

Beside him, Kyung muttered something about haircuts, giving Vivian a sulky look.

One of the other party members glanced over, then scanned his eyes over the two of them. Vivian felt the familiar prickle of a sensor-type skill. “They’re NPCs, Kyrie.”

“Oh…” Kyrie glanced at them again, then turned away, almost disappointed.

The party walked away. Behind them, Vivian quickly tabbed through his newly-filled inventory, searching out the remaining potions. A half-dozen bottles sat in the depths of his inventory. I’m really running out over here. I’ve got to kill more Player… ahem, sell some of this gear and go shopping. I can’t equip any of this gear, after all. It’s useless to me, except as money.

Though… I wonder. I can pick up items, and I can pick up fallen Gold, but the gold on my body has a habit of despawning before I reach it. Is it better to leave my assets in physical form until I’m about to buy, because they’ll despawn slower than Gold?

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

He regarded the potion, then put it back away. Returning to the problem of my HP, I’m still at 5/10. I’ll save the potion until we end up in danger. Who knows? My HP might recover by then. True, we’d need to rest for that, but with ten HP, it’s not like I need to rest for too long.

Pausing, Vivian turned back. He drew his clippers.

“Vivian?” Noah asked.

He held up a finger. Leaning into the Garden, he clipped the first handful of roses he saw, quickly sending all but one into his inventory. He tucked the final rose behind his ear, storing it for the moment. With this, I can make my own SP potions. Ideally, I’d grow my own rose bush, but since I don’t have a flower box yet, there’s not much I can do about that. Still…

Kneeling, he swapped the clippers for a hand trowel, then dug up some of the roots and sliced a bit of rootstock off the rose. No guarantee on this one, but it’s worth trying. He stepped back outside the garden. Hands moving through unfamiliar familiar motions, he sliced the rootstock and one of the roses at a diagonal, adding notches for maximum cling, then snipped a bit of the bottom of his shirt off and bound the two together.

[Splice] Lvl 1

Combine rootstock and living plant to create a new copy of an existing plant. At higher levels, perhaps you’ll be able to craft new plants!

Now that’s a skill worth sinking ten points into some day, just to see what happens, Vivian mused. If I merged the roses and the Lady’s Vine, could I create a Lady of my own?

Ha! That’s a joke. Seriously, though, it might be worth it to try combining sets of dangerous plants, or mixing two healing plants together. Imagine, a single plant that produces materials for SP and HP potions at once. That’d be so nice!

He called out the makeshift flower-box-slash-robes and delicately buried the roots beside the Lady’s Vine, covering the base with rich compost.

“Are you done?” Kyung asked.

“Oh, excuse me for gardening. It’s almost like I’m a Gardener or something,” Vivian snarked. Checking his inventory, he found a water bottle one of the Players had dropped and watered the vine and splice alike.

Sending the bag of dirt and plants away, he straightened. “Alright, I’m done. Onward!”

“Where are we going?” Kyung asked.

“Back to town?” Noah guessed.

Vivian shook his head. He pointed. “Belltower Heights! Noah needs some levels, and I need to not die for the rest of the day. It’s a great place to kill two birds with one stone. Or, you know, level Noah and not die.”

Kyung regarded Noah. “What level are you?”

“Four,” Noah said.

“Better than three,” Vivian muttered.

“That’s too low for Belltower Heights,” Kyung stated, giving Vivian a skeptical look.

Vivian threw up his hands. “Look, the kid’s guild is after his ass. If we hang out around the Starter Town, we’re going to have to face more goons. Eventually, the guild’s going to send more dangerous goons than the berserkers and Kors’ party. Better to head to a place with spawns a little above his level than count on you and me to stave off a hyper-competent party of level twenties. We’re still well below the level cap, you and me, and we’re NPCs. We can’t count on beating higher-level Players all the time.”

Kyung paused, considering. After a moment, he nodded. “Belltower Heights it is.”

“Er… is Belltower Heights that dangerous?” Noah asked nervously.

“No,” Vivian said, shaking his head flippantly.

“No?” Noah asked.

“Well, no. That is, yes. It’s very dangerous. But it isn’t that bad. Kyung and I will keep you safe,” Vivian said.

Kyung grunted.

“Is… is it dangerous or not…?” Noah asked, looking from Vivian to Kyung.

“Dangerous,” Kyung stated. Giving the other two a firm look, he turned his feet toward Belltower Heights and marched off.

“But you’ll be fine! You’ll be fine. We’ll keep you safe, you’ll grab a few levels, and then it won’t be dangerous anymore!” Vivian encouraged him, giving him a thump on the back.

“Are you sure…?” Noah asked.

Vivian nodded enthusiastically. “It’s much better than entering the Ruined Castle at level four, anyways.”

At that, Noah took a deep breath, setting his jaw. Firmly, as if convincing himself, he nodded. With one last look over his shoulder, he followed the other two toward Belltower Heights.