RePlant System Active

Day: 55

Daily System Credit: 5

Consumed Credit: 38

[Spend Credit?]

Haylock felt himself finally coming out of a fog that had taken over and stared at the notification in disbelief.

Five days?! I’ve been asleep for five days?! What in the world happened? Status

[Demonic Shoot (Age: 1 Month)]

[Chi Power: 4th Stage] 30 Chi

Skills:

* {Absorb [C]}

* {Basic Sight [F]}

* {Basic Chi Sense [F]}

* {Polyglot [C]}

* {Improved Sight[A]}

* {Basic Hearing[F]}

* {Deeper Roots[E]}

* {Enhanced Growth[E]}

* {Combatative Roots[D]}

* {Luring Scent [E]}

* {Expanded Domain [C]}

The notification before him made Haylock realize something was different. He wasn’t sure why he had so many credits, but the fact he had reached the fourth stage and his status now showed thirty Chi meant something had changed.

I wonder if I can do anything different.

Focusing on his vision, Haylock began to look around the flower garden area. The other plants seemed to be slowly dying, their petals becoming limp and wrinkly while their stems sagged. Turning his attention to himself, Haylock would have crapped a brick if that was still possible.

I’m HUGE! And I have eyes!

Now two feet taller than before, Haylock felt massive, close to eight feet or so. He towered over everything, but the pair of eyes he saw inside the flower was even better. They glowed yellow in a recessed area between a few seeds and would have scared the crap out of him had he been back on Earth. Trying to flex and squeeze muscles that Haylock had no idea how to control, he finally figured out how to shift his vision.

Holy hell… the world glows…

Everywhere Haylock scanned with his eyes, he saw a faint glimmer of power. He could see a thread of life within everything that wasn’t a rock or lifeless thing. The flowers in the garden he shared were becoming dimmer, their life soon to be gone. Massive trees that he saw around the garden blazed with a steady light, telling him there was power deep within their massive bodies.

Is this the Chi that Mimi was talking about?

That thought seemed to swirl the power within him, and Haylock peered inward, focusing on the rotating ball of energy inside. It was shifting and changing, asking to be moved through him. The noise of the shed sliding open and the hum almost made him drool from how it always meant food drifted across the ground.

Looking across the garden, Haylock saw Mimi, her body glowing with a power that he could only imagine possessing. Inside her, it flowed like a river to every part of her, and then it went back to the center, where it seemed to swirl before going back out.

Next to her was Nini, a girl with a light, maybe a third if that, of her grandmother, but it was moving slowly through her body. Not with the same speed or power, yet it was there.

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Haylock saw them both stop suddenly, and a bucket bounced off the stone.

“He has eyes!” exclaimed Nini. “Yellow fricking glowing eyes!”

“Indeed he does,” Mimi replied, and Haylock knew, even though he couldn’t make out a smile, that she was happy. “He has evolved, and it is time for him to progress! Hurry! Go get what I have tied up in the basement. We must hurry!”

He watched as Nini didn’t wait, racing toward a tiny wall and leaping over it like it was nothing.

Tied up… what would they have tied up in a basement?

“You’re awake finally,” Mimi said as she moved toward him quickly, her limp still there, but Haylock could tell she was ignoring it. “We won’t have much time. Soon, you will draw people to you, and we need to get you stronger. There is much to teach and only so much time.”

The old woman stopped near him and reached out slowly with her hand. She paused before laughing, grabbed his shaft, and gave it a few long strokes.

“You have grown! I can feel the power inside! Listen while I talk before my granddaughter returns with a gift.”

The old woman sat down after taking a few steps back.

“You need to learn to control your chi. It is going to be difficult, but I have no doubt you will manage. There are many creatures that have chi you can steal and take, others like myself can give some, but there are limits on how we as people can get chi. There are cultivators in our land who are masters of chi. Men and women are fighting to prepare for the Tower of Heaven and...” The old woman paused, and Haylock wondered why. “Do you have any idea of what I’m talking about?”

Haylock had some idea about chi, never believing in any mysticism or religion back on earth, but knew the limited amount from his world wasn’t probably the same. Slowly, he forced his head to shake from side to side.

Mimi took a deep breath and continued, “There are many realms, and I won’t get into details about them, such as cultivation and mastery of chi. Just know that in our world, there are masters who could destroy me and you with a simple thought. Their ranks are so great that only a few of them exist, and thankfully, most are more interested in ascending to the heavens than choosing to deal with us.

“There are so many different types of cultivation in our world, and you are the one most feared. Demonic in power, you will be a dark force in those who consider life to be. While those with fire, air, earth, and water are more common, the occasional have demonic or spatial. I want you to…” Mimi paused, noticing Haylock’s whole flower shaking slightly. “Am I losing you?”

Haylock’s flower nodded rapidly, and his mind was overwhelmed by the idea of people somehow harnessing the power of the elements on top of other magical things.

Like, am I going to be a demon? Do I have to make sacrifices and draw pentagrams?

Sighing, Mimi checked over her shoulder and then focused on Haylock again.

“Okay, forget that for a moment. Let’s focus on the real stuff. You can obviously see it now. That is the discovery part of cultivation. You will then need to learn to gather it. I showed you how others can give it to you. Soon, you will have a gift to help you get it another way. After that, you need to learn to circulate it within you. You can see how my chi flows around my whole body, right?”

Haylock nodded his flower, and he heard a change in Mimi’s tone when she spoke.

“Good! After that, you need to learn to purify, direct, conserve, store, transform, and dissolve. I know that’s a lot, but we don’t have much time. Right now, you’re going to get a gift from Nini and me. Know that the person we bring is part of a clan that almost wiped our family out completely. We are the last two. Once you learn to gather his and how to circulate yours, I’ll help you with the next part.”

Haylock only partially heard what Mimi was saying at this moment.

She wants me to kill a person? Absorb their life? What does she think I am?

A second later, Haylock knew precisely what she had thought he was.

“You’re a demonic sunflower, and the power that will grow inside you can be used to help Nini follow your path. My prayer is as she progresses, she will learn from you and somehow be able to follow your path of cultivation. Together, you two will need to be safe and protect each other. In time, when both of you are stronger, you will be her founder. She will form a clan and sect around you. Reclaiming the birth line we lost when they killed her mother and father.”

It felt like Haylock was watching some lousy revenge movie on Netflix or something.

Why the hell do I have to be the one killing people? I mean, is that acceptable around here?

“Here, life is cheap for the weak. They are going to come and start searching for you. If you are weak, the other cultivators will devour you and take your chi along with your life. Be prepared to fight.”

The door to the shed opened, and Haylock could see Nini coming with someone, bound and gagged. Their body seemed to glow with power, yet Haylock saw that it was not circulating as Mimi had talked about.

“Ahh, here comes your gift.”

Mimi rose, watching as her granddaughter pushed the person before them. Haylock took a moment and realized it was a man. At first, he was unsure he could tell, wishing he had a better way to see.

If they are about to do something crazy, perhaps I should spend credits–

[Credits spent successfully, 43 credits spent]

[Upgraded Basic Sight [C] skill]

It was like he had gotten glasses again, just like in seventh grade. It had been bad enough being called a midget, hobbit, shortie, and worse, but the Coke bottle glasses his mother had gotten him opened the insult dictionary. Still, he could see, and with no thought, his vision swapped between a view of one's chi and how he would see the world if he were still alive—except from eight feet up versus four.

Coming toward him was an older man, his eyes bound, mouth gagged and stumbling as Nini kept him upright along the stone path toward him.

A reflection of sunlight caught Haylock's eyes, and he saw Mimi smiling, a wicked-looking dagger now in her hand.