By the time the sun rose, I had a plan. A very situationally dependent plan, that depended on me being able to create the situation, but a plan. Yeah. This was going to be fine. Right? The night had passed slowly. Occasionally I noticed some scuffling near the edges of my perception, but nothing crossed into my pheromone field. It was hard to tell if the field extended past my range of perception, due to not… being able to… see… past that… A little self-explanatory, much?
My senses turned towards the sun, and I activated Photosynthesis. ‘Good god, that’s good.’ I basked in the warmth of the light. The same heady pleasure, as before, from the sun’s warmth collecting on my leaves and pumping through me was bliss.
However, this time I wasn’t as distracted by the sensation and there were two things that I noticed. First was the steady, minute-by-minute uptick of my Stamina as it slowly refilled. A good thing to note, as that meant I didn’t have to wait for the skill to finish to actually get the Stamina back. Second was the actual sensation of the skill working. It was a strange feeling as the light collecting on my leaves shifted into a stream of energy. It flowed through my leaves to my stem, where it ran down to the spot right above where my stem split into roots. After it reached this spot, it just seemed to… fade away? Then, every minute, my Stamina would fill.
As my Stamina hit 100/100, I could feel it. There wasn’t a ping or notification, but more a feeling similar to knowing when you are full versus being hungry. ‘Something to look into. Anyhow! Time to get started! Let’s go!’
With a determined focus, my perception shifted to my roots. I was well aware of the dirt around my roots, though I couldn’t see through it. Once more, it was more a feeling or knowing. Shaking off the distraction, I chose the direction where I’d sensed most of the ant’s activity the night before. The spot I had selected was about halfway down my root system, about the same distance as I was tall. ‘I’m not sure how technical I have to be for this, so… wing it and learn from it! Growth!’
The progress was painfully slow—each millimeter gained felt like an eternity. By the time the first twenty minutes, the full duration of Growth that I could maintain, was over, I was bored. Not out of my mind, but enough to realize I didn’t want to spend my time almost literally watching the grass grow. Thankfully, I did get a good grasp of the situation. While I would have to maintain a focus on keeping the skill going, I didn’t have to devote all of my attention to it.
I took only a brief moment to look over my progress before restarting Photosynthesis. Even with the near pleasurable experience of the skill, I found myself wiggling my leaves by the time it had finished filling. ‘Damn! Two hours just for one cycle?’ Glancing back at what I had accomplished so far, ‘This might take a little longer then I had thought…’
I felt the sun on my leaves and tried to gage how much it had moved during the first cycle. ‘About… between… two hours’ worth. Yup. Because that is a distance the sun has moved.’ I shifted my leaves. ‘It’s not like I can even properly measure it. Though it would probably be a good idea to track that, eh?... Maybe later.’ With my focus turned back to the task at hand, I continued my work.
Each Photosynthesis cycle was relaxing, the sun’s warmth infusing me with its energy. Each time my focus drifted over my small, circular patch of dirt and I lazily tracked the sun’s ascent. By the third cycle, it was roughly just overhead. ‘Give or take a few minutes, that means it took about six hours to reach noon, right? That wasn’t so hard to figure out. Pfft. Math is easy!’
During all that time, no one came by my little garden well. Not even a shadow seemed to pass by. ‘Looks like I’m not part of someone’s garden after all. No one has come by to water me, either this morning or last night.’ The brick surrounding my dirt patch came into focus. I couldn’t even see the full width of it, just the edges of where it met my dirt. ‘But then, where did these bricks come from? Are they still around?’ A shiver of unease ran through me. Existential crises were best saved for the night. Daytime was for feeling good and focusing on Growth!
By the end of the day, there was enough time to complete two more cycles, top up my Stamina, and then spend the rest of the evening relaxing and enjoying a little extra sun. The sun was so close to the ground by that point, that while I could run Growth one final time… ‘But then I won’t have any light left to refill my Stamina again. Which means I will be defenseless during the night.’ The project had progressed, but it was nowhere near the size I wanted it. It was evident that there was quite a bit to go over the next few days before it was ready. With a glance in the direction of the ants, ‘Let’s keep what I got, then shall we? If any of those ants come by again, I’ll just do a little puff of ‘Stay the Fuck Away’ and bada bing, bada boom, I live to see the morning.’
Over the next few days, the cycle was repeated five times a day. The morning started with a little Photosynthesis to top off any Stamina used during the night. The evening ended with just enough time to refill once more, with a little time left over to just enjoy a good sun soak. Steadily my little nodule grew, inching closer to the surface.
Experience: .5/100
‘Okay, what is happening here? Don’t get me wrong Mr. Angel Admin, I do appreciate it. Truly.’ It wasn’t much, but it gave me some hope. That somehow, at least a little bit, I was heading in the right direction. ‘I have been doing this for four days now though. Why now? What did I do?’ Just as before, I was just talking to myself.
For company, I did have the ants. Occasionally they would come up to the edge of my perception. Unlike that first night, I didn’t immediately blast my STFA Pheromone whenever I sensed them. Unless they came too close to my body, I let them cross into my domain to poke around and explore. For my plan to work, I needed them to not find this place too uninviting.
I had begun to notice that it was usually around the evenings that the ants seemed to be the most active, and then again at dawn. ‘From what I can tell they leave their nest around dusk, spend the night doing things, and then return about dawn.’ As the last of the sun’s rays warmed my leaves, I watched as a party of three of them stepped off the brick onto my dirt and begin to look around. ‘Maybe cause of the heat? I have begun to notice it more the last few days. It’s a guess, but I may be running out of water.’ That was going to be a problem, if true.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
I still found their stained-glass rears to be quite fascinating. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t a single duplicate of colors or patterns. It was actually nice to be able to observe them without making them freak out. Once they were within my perception, I could zoom in quite close to take a look. At first my nights were spent using my Illusions to replicate the patterns in the air. It was fun, and good practice. Bonus, Illusions didn’t cost stamina.
Things got more difficult when I decided to start replicating the ants themselves. I was starting to get pretty good! Adding in all the little details was tricky, but surprisingly I could modify the illusions even after I created them. Though I usually would run out of time before I was truly satisfied with them. If I spent the mana on an illusion before time ran out, I could keep it going for another stint. Hey, at least I was getting better at judging ten-minute increments.
‘A week. A whole goddamned, buttered biscuits week.’ The nodule I had begun to grow from my roots had bloomed beautifully over the last seven days. It was so close! It hadn’t breached the surface, not yet. As the day wound down, as if to reward my hard work, I received another .1xp.
Experience: .6/100
‘Where is this coming from? It’s even slower than my Growth progress!’ My roots writhed in place with my frustration. ‘.4 on the first day. Then .1 four days later, but three days later I get the same amount in less time? I have been here a week and I don’t even have a full point of xp?’
I toyed with one of my ant illusions as I thought. It was about double the size of a normal ant, with pink and green colorations. ‘Maybe it’s an end of day thing based on what I did that day?’ The image’s antenna twitched. ‘Sweet. I finally got some movement.’ With a plant-y sigh, ‘Either way, I should be finishing the bulk of the project tomorrow. I wonder if that will net me something more?’ I removed my attention from the illusion and checked out the skill I would need for the next step of my plan.
Poison Production
Level 1
Effect: Produces a toxin that causes mild numbness and irritation upon contact or ingestion.
-
Range: Limited to direct contact or a very short-range dispersal around the plant.
-
Control: The user can control the concentration and flow of the toxin.
-
Stamina Cost: 5 per use
‘This is oddly… unspecific. It doesn’t really say how I can use it, how long it lasts… Maybe I should have played with this a little more already.’ A light breeze shifted my leaves, I ignored it. ‘Direct contact or a very short-range… but nothing about a duration? Just 5 Stamina per use.’ I could work with that. I was going to have to be creative, but I could work with it.
I turned my attention back to the project as I muddled over the possibilities of the skill. Thankfully, the rest of the night went fairly quickly as I plotted and planned. As soon as the sun rose, the cycle began anew.
As my anticipation, and impatience, grew, my perception was directly focused on the ground just above the node. ‘Oh thank, Fu-inally! Four cycles! It’s afternoon! My day is almost over, and you finally decide to finish!’ The bark was woody and rough as it pushed aside the dirt. From the top center of the bubble, the bark broke apart, revealing a hollow interior. Bit by bit it pushed back the dirt until I… ran out of Stamina.
I marveled at my little pitcher pod. The opening was half as wide as one of my leaves was long, giving a lip to the inner well. ‘It’s not quite as big as I would like. An ant could walk right over that and not go in.’ With a mental shrug, I checked every inch of the space. It was a couple inches around inside, with roots connecting to the bottom of it. In the meantime, I started my Photosynthesis once more. ‘I don’t think it’s done. It’s close, but not quite there.’
‘Fill up faster! Please! Mr. Admin! Can I watch a video to speed this up? Come on!’ Photosynthesis triggered and Stamina slowly filled my bar as I willed each point to tick up faster. My sap started pumping, well not really, but it felt like it! My leaves shivered with anticipation. ‘Oh yes! Growth! Go! Gogogogo!’ Stamina began to drain as minutes crawled by—one, two, four—until finally, at the ten-minute mark, something happened.
The pitcher shuddered and trembled. ‘Oh. Oh! Ah!’ A pulse rolled through the entirety of my small frame. From the walls of the pitcher, sap began to ooze. ‘Haha! Yes!’ Sticky sap began to pool at the bottom of the well. As the feeling of satisfaction filled me, I cut off Growth and glanced at my sheet.
Notification
Growth has increased to Level 2
Effect Increased: The growth speed has increased.
‘Wait, what? That can happen?’ If I had eyes, I would have rolled them. ‘Of course that can happen. Each skill has a level under it.’
Name: Cy
Species: Wisteria, Seedling
Experience: .6/100
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 50/100
Mana: 100/100
Skills
Growth
Level 2
Effect: The user can spend Stamina to increase their growth speed temporarily.
-
Control: At this level, the user can choose one direction or area to focus their growth.
-
Stamina Cost: 5 per minute of accelerated growth.
-
Growth speed has been increased.
‘This is amazing.’ My focus remained on the sheet for a few moments. I couldn’t help but feel a little pride. My hard work from the last few days was vastly different from what I would have called hard work before, but it had been hard work. And I had done it. I had put in the work and completed a very important task and got rewarded for it! ‘Will the skill level up every time I complete something? Or did it happen because this was an important milestone?’
I pondered the thought for a few minutes before turning my attention back to the pitcher pot. Now that I have my pot, it’s time to add some ingredients.