Our return to the surface is rather uneventful. Although we did not find all we wanted, we still acquired more than we hoped. Between all the many ores and the ender pearl, I have enough to start making some new equipment and tools. We even scored quite a few points of experience. Not much anymore but still decent. Neither of us will spit on 800 experience points

Speaking of Mewtwo, he is also satisfied with our outing. His new aura sense has been quite interesting to play with. As he discovered, most monsters have faint aura signatures that are difficult to track but not impossible. He has improved his tracking sense during the entire trip. For now, he still need to concentrate whenever he tries to sense anything, but it is still becoming a pretty good addition to his already well established psychic senses.

Although our encounter with lava almost ended tragically, its existence is quite interesting. A quick search through my system has revealed that I will need to find a way to harness the molten rock if I wish to smelt stronger ores. I wince as I remember the panic in Mewtwo's thoughs as he waited for my recovery. I may have grown stronger, but it does not make me invincible.

As we near the exit, I realize we did not find the structure Princess's helper warned us about. We might try to find it next time.

The exit is barred as it was when we first entered. Thick vines completely fill the passage. We approach and Mewtwo prepares a psychic blade to cut our way in if needed.

The face of Princess appearing among the vines makes him dispel it pretty quickly.

Princess vine face sneers at us, then vanishes, and the vines retract from our way. We travel through the underground of the central tree and soon exit back to the dim afternoon brightness of the magical forest. The sight is still breathtaking, the tall trees bordering the massive roots of the central one, the little wisp of colored light dancing between the trunks. A light breeze makes the rustling leaves sound like wind chimes. And pokemons come and go, frolicking between roots, playing with each others, or going about, doing tasks to help maintain the little society they seem to be developing.

We pass by a few, and most cheerfully wave at us. I wonder what made them open so much more. Caution and neutrality I could have understood, but cheerfulness? Is it not too early?

I put the though to a side of my mind, we will resolve that later. Right now, we have work to do.

We wave back with a smile at every mons we pass by, and return to our little cottage in the middle of the forest.

What we find there is...a few changes. Princess made good on her words. A full side of the cottage is now blocked by an impressive pile of lumber. Multiple bags of leaves, branches and other miscellaneous plants byproduct rest before the pile. Next to the door, a couple bags of food awaits us, along with seeds and, hold on. Hold on! IS THAT LEATHER?

I rush to the door as Mewtwo gawks at the lumber. Yep, a full bag of tanned animal skins. Leather. This... I can make the backpack chip!

All right, one thing at a time. First, melting the gold. Second, making as many molds as possible. Third, melting all the ores I have into parts of ingots.

Mewtwo approaches the pile of lumber and takes the top one up in a telekinetic hold. His eyes flash with psychic powers and the entire trunk turns into neatly sliced logs. He sends them toward the pure daisy and set them around the white flower.

Immediately, roots start to burrow into the wood, slowly converting the simple log into its livelier counterpart.

On my side, I have put the coal and started filling the smeltery with gold ore. Although I quickly run out of space. and have to wait for the ones already in to melt before adding more.

Mewtwo passes by and lights the coals before returning his attention to the converting wood. Already, another trunk is prepped for conversion.

As the gold melt, I turn my attention to the leather, and swear. I have yet to remake my wooden chips. Actually, can I not make them out of anything but wood? Oh Trio yes. Yes I can, and I just needed gold. Mostly... I can use the wooden chips to make golden casts out of, and then use any metal to make metal chips. They seem to be a bit more resilient, but still prone to melting should I overheat too much, and with my new upgrades, I might reach pretty hot internal temperatures, even with my current levels in coolant.

I nod to myself, I will still need the old wooden chips first to make anything.

"Mewtwo, can you pass me some logs? Not the living ones." I ask my psychic friend.

Two dozen logs come flying at me and land in a neat pile before me. "Thanks"

He nods and then turn to the endoflame. Can you spare some coal for this hungry flower?

I take fifty out of my inventory, and they all go flying toward Mewtwo.

I will also need some mystical petals. And a pile of bone meal- No, can you get me some bones?

"Give me a minute, I need to remake my chips." I stop him, already feverishly crafting my once more destroyed chips anew.

Once I have all three chips installed once more, I make what Mewtwo requested and send it his way, along with flowers on top of the petals he asked for.

I turn my sight to the leather and take a couple pieces out. I put them in my inventory and quickly assemble a backpack. I take the result out, curious, and am presented with a very large hiking backpack. Wow, should I put it on my back, it would arrive above my head. I nod in satisfaction. But quickly realize a couple problems.

Beyond its size making it a bit impractical depending on the situation, it is also only made of leather. As much as I can hope for it to be resilient, a creeper might be able to destroy it easily, and pokemons and humans may destroy it easily. I guess that's why the Trio wants me to make it into a chips rather than use it as is.

I put it back into my inventory and convert it into a chip. I get the rewards for the quest, along with the old 'Materials and you' quest. Damn I got all those ores, neat. These two completions give me two new quests to look at

Need more space?

You now have expanded your inventory 1.5 times. But is it enough?

Craft a 'Wooden copper backpack chip': 0/1

Rewards: 25xp; 1 Exp. Candy S

Hottest Topic (for now)

Good job gathering all those ores, but is your little portable smeltery large enough?

Craft a 'Seared tank': 0/1

Craft a 'Smeltery controller': 0/1

Craft 'Smeltery drains': 0/2

(Optional) Craft seared glass: 0/10

Assemble a smeltery (any sizes)

Rewards: 100xp; 2 Exp. Candy M

Okay first of, more space? This chip can be upgraded? Oh yeah, I just need to surround it with copper ingots. Thank the Trio I do not need to make a new backpack and then upgrade that backpack into its copper version. Because there are tiers to these backpacks: copper, iron, gold, diamond and something called netherite. That last one has a very specific way of being made... Interesting. If I had to remake a backpack for every one of these chips, it would be quite the waste of material.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Second, what do you mean optional? Since when are there optional tasks? Also, how many quests are actually left in chapter 1? How much did we miss with our non-stop running and barely surviving?

That's it, we need to complete every quests we get. This is beyond the rewards here, there is far more to discover and learned in those quests.

I waste a some raw copper ore to get ingots with my furnace chip to obtain enough ingots to upgrade the chip. I could have waited for the gold to finish melting and used the smeltery for more ingots out of the ore, but I I have found enough copper to allow myself to waste a few. Once the chip is upgraded, I take a look at it, and note that except for a change to the position of the holes piercing it, nothing else has changed. The quest validates, and I take a look at the next one.

Need even more space?

2 time your inventory size, but is it really enough? You could go further.

Craft a 'Wooden iron backpack chip': 0/1

Rewards: 50xp; 3 Exp. Candy S

I quickly upgrade the chip once more, and look at the melting gold... Maybe... Why not. I take out one of my remaining seared stone ingots and put it on the casting table. I let what little gold has melted flow upon it and wait. Soon enough, I am left with a pierced golden plate. I have acquired a golden ingot mold. I remove the remains of the seared brick and wait for more gold to melt.

While I do so, I upgrade the backpack chip to iron, unlocking the next quest.

More space...

3 time your inventory size, now we are getting somewhere... But there is more...

Craft a 'Wooden gold backpack chip': 0/1

Rewards: 200xp; 3 Exp. Candy M

I refill the smeltery with more gold ore and let it slowly melt. I pour out the already melted ones and barely manages the eight ingots needed for the next tier of upgrades.

More space!

4 time your inventory size. Alright, this is getting pretty spacious. Is there more you ask? Yes, yes there is =)

Craft a 'Wooden diamond backpack chip': 0/1

Rewards: 2000xp; 1 Exp. Candy XL

Yep, that will have to wait for later now. Now the Trio did warn me about making sure not to break that one. It will be the first one I make into a mold. Wait... is that a good idea? Can I upgrade a metal chip? I try to check, and actually have a some difficulties confirming it as I shift through the different recipes. Finally I find my answer, and that answer is no. I cannot upgrade a metal chip. Fuck.

This might be a problem... Oh, wait, yes. Yes, I can, but only if it is made from the previous tier material? so I could upgrade a gold 'gold backpack' chip into a diamond one, and obtain a diamond 'diamond backpack' chip, which could then be upgraded into a netherite 'netherite backpack' chip. Okay, and the chip can be molten back into its base metal if needed. So no real loss. Phew, that's good.

I look back to the smeltery and, seeing as it is empty of solid gold, fill it once more with the raw ore.

The next couple of hours are spent making molds. With our new supply of wood, I quickly assemble patterns of all possible type, make the parts in wood and then use the parts to create gold casting molds.

While this is happening, I look at what Mewtwo is doing.

----------------------------------------

For Mewtwo, the trip was fortuitous, but also worrying. Although Astra is now strong enough to face most monsters without fear and resilient enough to resist most damage, his actions upon finding a substance as dangerous as molten rock appalled him. Astra needs more protection, or someone to make sure he does not throw himself into traps without thinking.

Mewtwo feels like he has his powers well in check, and wishes to help Astra grow faster, finding new ways for him to protect himself. His body may be at its base strength right now, but it appears to still be limited in some aspects. And so, as he beheld the pile of lumber, Mewtwo made a decision.

They proved previously that he can interact with the tools and creations Astra can make. So why not try to advance some of Astra's quests while the android works on other ones? And so he decided to make his own wand of the forest and try to recreate what Astra made. He knows he do not have all the tools to do what Astra does, but with a bit of creative application, maybe his powers can compensate his lack of tools.

With his own powers, he is able to create livingwood sticks, and realize why one would need two entire log to even hope to create one. Trying to shape the livingwood log is like peeling an onion. Every layers that Mewtwo removes from the first log decays in seconds, leaving scattering wood dust behind. Once he reach the core, however, he realizes the resultant stick feels too short to be used as is. He quickly peels another log and combines both cores together.

He looks in awe as little branches grow to join the two cores together, leaving him with a livingwood stick. But could I infuse Grass energy to make a single core longer?

Curious, he tries so. He encases a log in a ball of nature energy, and slowly peels it, all the while infusing the energy into the core. Instead of decaying, the peels seems to reenter the core of the log, slowly elongating it. The process is slow, but after a minute, Mewtwo obtains another livingwood stick, made from a singular log.

Now curious to see how they compare, he turns to Astra. His companion is hard at work, pouring molten gold over wooden shapes to create casting molds.

"What's up?" The android asks him.

Could you tell me if there are any differences between these two livingwood sticks?

Astra takes both, and little WAYLA screens pop up above each.

"At first glance, none..." He stores them in his inventory, and take them back out. "And they stack together... So no, no differences here."

The two sticks had been slightly different before entering Astra's inventory, but have now been standardized into similar shapes.

Thank you, I wanted to make sure. Leave the stick creation to me for now, I can do it with one log.

"Wait seriously? Awesome! How do you do it?"

Mewtwo shows him, and Astra watches with rapt attention.

"Incredible..." He whispers. "You are awesome. Oh! Here!" Astra takes out a sixteen blocks of stone and hand them to Mewtwo. "If you want to play with livingrock as well."

Mewtwo nods and return to pure daisy. He set the stones around the flower and let it convert to livingrock, and while it happens, try to assemble a wand of the forest of his own. He marvels as each sticks fuse with each others, and once he adds two petals, they too fuse and expand. He chose a purple and a pink petal, a reminder of his own colors. He smile at the result, but then frown. If he could do it, why has no humans managed to achieve the same before?

He shows Astra his newly crafted wand and shares his worries with him.

"Well... Princess did say copies of the lexica exist in this world, but they are almost all unusable, either defaced or decayed beyond reading. So I guess unless someone comes here with perfect knowledge of Botania, they won't even know where to start with the flower? Or even that the flowers have such hidden potential..."

Mewtwo nods, they have a big advantage against the humans and even the pokemons in this world: the Trio and their system. The guidance they give is becoming more and more valuable with every discoveries.

Although they still have a scary side to them. He shudders as silent notes of Chaos melody echoes within his mind. He shakes his head and return his attention to the his experiments.

The wand he was partially confident he could recreate without Astra's help. Now the floral fertilizer... First, the bone meal. He takes one the bones he asked from Astra and, using his psychic powers, grinds it into dust. Not a single particule is lost, and soon a ball of bone dust floats before him. Alright. Now the recipe asks for petals to be added directly, but is that all there is to it? He gently puts the bone dust on top of a now converted livingrock block, and takes only the equivalent of a fist full of it back into a psychic hold.

He adds petals, and wait. Nothing happens. He expected it. Now comes the thinking part. What more does he have to do? He tries to remember what Astra's version looked like. A green powder with tiny flakes of color mixed into it... Is it that simple?

With his psychic hold, he start to mix the petals with the bone meal, adding a bit of Flying type energy to slash the plant matter apart. He settle the micro hurricane after a dozen seconds, and is left with a similar ball of green powder floating in the air, held by his telekinetic grip. He inspects it. It looks almost identical to the version Astra made.

Now for the real test. He scatters it upon the dirt, and wait. At first, nothing happens. Mewtwo feels resigned. It was kind of expected. But then, a tiny shoot sprouts from the ground, followed by another, and another. Soon enough, three mystical flowers have bloomed. He has done it. He has made floral fertilize. He shouts out his success, and Astra looks over, curious as to what has his friend so happy.

The sight leaves him gawking, and he gives Mewtwo a thumbs up and a smile.

Emboldened, Mewtwo continues his experiments. From a single block of livingrock, he manages to carve what first appears as a mana pool, but Astra informs him the system is labelling it as a diluted mana pool. A quick read reveals it serves a similar function to a mana pool, only with less space for storing mana.

Mewtwo's attempts at a mana pool ends in success after wasting a good couples of livingrocks. Making a mana pool out of a single livingrock always ends up as its diluted counterpart. However, by using four living rocks and carving them together, Mewtwo finally manages to create an actual mana pool. Both he and Astra watch in fascination as the livingrocks contracts upon themselves as each four sides of the pool fuse together. The result is similar to the system crafted one, although little imperfections can be seen. Both know they will vanish the moment Astra stores the pool into his inventory.

Mewtwo also manages to create a second endoflame. Using his self-made floral fertilize, he manages to obtain enough flowers to create a second one. He also discovers why a single flower only gives two petals when processed by the system. Plucking a full petal from a flower proves harder than it seems. Some flowers are made of a singular petal, while others end up ripped apart when removed. the pieces decay in seconds, becoming unusable. Even with the energy ball trick, Mewtwo only manages to obtain one or two extra petals every three to four flowers. Still, it is a net gain, and both are happy at the discovery.

Astra finally completes his golden mold quest, and Mewtwo realizes he also has a quest he has left alone for a long time.

Floating to the tree canopy, he gently uses his paths to gather a neat cube of leaves. The quest validates, along with the new one that it unlocked, and the next, and the next. Four quests in one. No more seem to unlock for him. Only the final paths remains for Mewtwo to complete his side of Chapter 1.