Elijah winced a little as the knife cut his skin. A shot of pain went through his arm, and the stinging that followed made him grimace. Twenty years ago, he wouldn’t have given this a second thought, but his body had grown more sensitive. It wasn’t as willing to be the test subject.

Sadly, nobody was around to be tested on other than him, meaning his body had to shut up and let him work his magic.

Literally.

Channeling of [Plant Bond] has been activated! Current cost: 9MP/sec

“Concentrate into a single place now,” Elijah requested of the golden flower, a variant of the Sundrop Flowers normally found on the upper levels of the dungeon. The slight changes to the structure made it so much more potent, so much more willing to be used when prodded in the right way, yet that boon was also a curse. “Release it slowly, and don’t—”

It exploded into a puff of liquid and golden spores, covering his hand in the sticky matter instantly and making him curse once again.

An eagerness to obey to the point of overdoing it. Elijah cursed that aspect of the plant. Even when properly distilled into a mostly concentrated form, even when mixed in with other plants and herbs, the personality overshadowed all others and continued to persist. Enhancing the flower was incredibly effective, increasing the potency to the point of absurdity, but it was much too unstable once it had reached that point. Partial usage was impossible, everything touched being affected without calming down after some time. And the lack of a delay…

Elijah was frustrated.

“Good thing you had those five hours of shut-eye,” Aleksi commented as he entered the laboratory, seeing the state of Elijah. No effort was made to hide his mirth. “Do you need help, or—”

“Don’t say anything. Please,” Elijah cut in, the giant putting his hands up in surrender. The sight of the man at least reminded him of a partial success in one of the other projects. While distilling it into the standard healing pastes wasn't proving successful, lowering the ratio further in other recipes seemed to work just fine. “I’ve made alterations to your heart medicine. Take this and report back to me.”

Aleksi accepted the small tablet before Elijah even finished saying what it was, studying the small thing.

“Looks more yellow than the old ones,” the giant commented before plopping it into his mouth and swallowing it. Elijah gave the usual look of judgment due to the lack of liquids being taken alongside it. “Sort of a sweet aftertaste as well.”

That made an eyebrow lift slightly. From the times that Elijah had been unfortunate enough to get some of that golden pollen in his mouth, the taste had been closer to that of sand than anything else. Maybe a side-effect of the drying alongside the other parts of the mixture? The water used had looked slightly less pure as well, so that might’ve been the culprit.

“That’s not important for now,” Elijah replied, moving back to the minute-old mess. “The color is due to the Sundrop variant’s pollen being much more frustrating to work with. It should not affect the effects, though, I repeat, you will be reporting any changes to your state of being today.”

“Yeah, I know. New recipe, new possible side-effects,” Aleksi commented, shrugging off the worried intent. “I’ll come running if my chest starts to hurt.”

A glare made the giant laugh once more before he turned to leave for work. The smithy was opening up in about an hour, and there were always a hundred things to put in order before that loud place could take customers.

“Oh, and the two are still sleeping. I think your brew was stronger than you thought.”

Oh?

Before Elijah could comment, the giant was already out the door. Not that it mattered, the observation falling back into his mind as an afterthought. The two otherworlders had already gotten food and drink for when they woke up. Since they weren’t already, it would likely first be around midday before he had to start worrying about them once again.

Which left him plenty of time to work with the order backlog.

“It would be easier if you weren’t so stubborn,” Elijah told the dried sundrop in his hands. The plant didn’t answer back in words, the magical energy inside merely wriggling around under his touch. Even without sentience, the mana could sense the presence of a Biomancer. A gift and a curse, like everything else related to this plant. “Twice the effectiveness at half the cost in weight. If only you didn’t cost my entire sanity along with it.”

He could make this work. Elijah knew that.

The amount of patience required for it was also a known factor. If that mentality hadn’t been fostered and cultivated for so many years without the crutch that was magical manipulation, Elijah knew he would’ve quit already. There was a sharp deadline of four hours to make the effect last without an instant expansion.

“No choice but to get to work,” he muttered to himself before pulling on his Core once again. “Reach your potential in dormancy. Enhance— Shit!”

An hour passed, and the front of his robe gained a distinct yellow coloring that he knew would never fully wash off, and in that hour many things were learned. The intricate nature of the Sundrop variant began to be carved out in his mind. The triggers that initiated the volatile reaction became more obvious in his mind’s eye, and slowly but surely Elijah began to be able to guide his presence through the structure of his creation without causing it to release the energy in the moment.

He could enhance the effects, make healing longer-lasting and more widespread on the body, and still be able to be stored for weeks without aging past the effective date. When it didn’t explode and stain even more of the laboratory, that is. The protective shielding around the isolated work area was doing little to help minimize the damage.

“You… frustrate me,” Elijah commented, taking a moment to clear his lungs from pollen as he ventured over to one of the exposed growth areas. With the newly regained ability to wield the magical forces, he had been able to grow some of the dungeon plants inside his home. Those on the very top floor he had always been able to do as much, albeit at a reduced effectiveness, but those below would never survive for long enough to make it worthwhile. “But you can now, can’t you?”

The Sundrop Flower variant didn’t answer back, the small plant merely bending towards him just enough for him to see. It was a simple plant but the magical density inside caused some instincts to foster that couldn’t normally be seen in the natural world. That it reacted to his presence so strongly could almost make somebody imagine it was… able to think.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

But it couldn’t. It took much more for a plant to gain anything close to sentience. That claim had been studied extensively over the past many centuries and the result had always been proclaimed the same.

…

Just like the claims about Dungeons.

Elijah looked at how the golden petals almost touched his fingers.

…

“Curiosity will be my downfall,” he predicted before calling into his Core for its assistance. Not through the well-used paths, though. Elijah needed to pull on another thread, one that he had learned the night before.

Channeling of [Animal Bond] has been activated! Current cost: 3MP/sec

A low price for a spell meant to be a Tier above what he’d been using previously. An upgrade in potential power didn’t scale in cost in the same way perhaps? Elijah didn’t care to delve into the specifics of that side of the craft now. Gently putting a finger on one of the golden petals, he knew he had more important matters to understand.

‘Hi!’

His finger was off the petal in an instant, his feet bringing him three steps away before he could process it. A voice in his head, omnipresent and loud, just as it had been with the Dungeon.

“No.”

Less loud, and less headache-inducing, but most certainly still from the same strain of communication. It was akin to the Plant-Bond in the way that he could feel the other party as it was almost himself, but with the Tier 1 spell, it was more whispers and primitive desires. Here, it had been so much more. Instead of a conceptual understanding of what the plant generally wanted, Elijah had been greeted.

A plant, not meant to have a mind of its own, had greeted him through the Animal Bond.

Ignoring the insanity of it all, Elijah understood that this was progress. And with the Sundrop Flower still staying in place, looking as it had been for the past several hours, he returned to the table and channeled the spell once again. And this time he held on.

‘Hi!’

The same tone as before. It sounded childish and cheerful, like one of those little brats that sometimes ran around in the shop without a care in the world. Curious.

‘... Hello,’ Elijah replied, once he figured out how to send back messages through the connection. It was so similar in function to the old spell, yet the methods inside required a very different touch. It was strange.

‘Hi!’

He frowned. Three greetings in the same tone, with the same attached intention. Curiosity, hunger for more energy, and a desire to grow.

‘Do you know what I am?’ he asked.

‘Food.’

… At least it wasn’t another greeting, Elijah supposed. It was an answer. It had been able to process his inquiry, in some form or another, and reply with a valid response. A response that seemed without the bundle of imagery and conceptual understanding, sure, but it was a response nonetheless.

The flower didn’t see him as a person nor did it see him as prey. Elijah wasn’t sure it even understood the concept of prey. It didn’t need to, after all. Instead, it saw him as food, the source of nourishment.

More specifically, it saw the energy inside him as food.

That was expected. Like a ray of sun to an ordinary plant, the flower craved magical energy. It was a vital ingredient for its growth cycle, and doing anything else was impossible to fathom. Literally.

You can talk, you can answer, but how does that help me?

Elijah already knew the instincts of this plant, of all the plants inside his laboratory. He’d been studying them, using them, and selling them for decades. No… what he needed to know was how to change them. How could he moderate and enhance their reactions?

‘Will you help me, in exchange for food?’

He felt weird still, treating the plant like it was a full mind capable of thought, but the insanity had to continue. His Core was already starting to threaten him about the growing void within.

‘Yes. I can give.’

‘What can you give me?’

‘Everything.’

…

“Well, you certainly never accept half-measures” Elijah commented out loud before delving back into the connection. ‘If I give you food, will you calm yourself?’

‘Yes.’

A slight pulse left his Core and reached the flower in an instant, the body of the plant reacting immediately by trying to straighten out. The speed at which it was done was unnatural, a clear sign of magical manipulation.

It was working.

Now Elijah had to make sure it persisted. With gentle prodding, he was assured that the agreement would persist. The flower was so confident in that response, to the point where he could almost believe it outright.

Almost. It didn’t matter if it would work in theory if it hadn’t been proven practically. So… that’s exactly what Elijah did. The flower was boosted even further to reach its peak before some of the petals were harvested, heated to dry them out, crushed into a fine powder, and then blended with the prepared mix that he’d already made attempts with before.

The paste was just as stable as it had been during the initial steps where he’d gotten this far.

Time for the truth.

Elijah muttered a curse as the knife cut into the back of his hand. It was deeper than it needed to be, drops running down his skin, but it didn’t matter.

“Time to work,” Elijah requested, as he scooped up a portion of the created paste and put it onto the wound. A feeling of relief spread through his body as the wound closed up within mere seconds, the only real side-effect being the feeling of pins and needles in his fingertips. “Nothing special. Yet as for the enhanced version…”

His Core, barely given a chance to properly refill itself, was pulled on once again as the energy was sent into the last part of the prepared paste. The already-golden coloring of the mixture intensified, a mild glow appearing for a second before fading away. Even without it, though, Elijah could still feel the difference in potential inside.

Even better, it wasn’t exploding in his face.

Making another incision in his skin and observing the enhanced rate of healing was almost a formality. Elijah felt his heart speed up at the proof of a working product. Though he was behind schedule in making Olivia’s new batch, this was enough to lighten the mental load somewhat.

At least until he stood in silence for a moment, trying to relish the temporary joy, and he was able to hear a yelp of pain from outside the laboratory.

The store was not yet open for customers and yet somebody other than him was already wading around inside. Elijah did not need to think for long to know who that was meant to be.

The two otherworlders had awoken, and their patience had grown thin.