Alex shared a smile with Linnea as the class made their way along one of the many paths winding around the lip of the caldera to what were clearly high-end properties just beyond the school campus proper, complete with soaring pagodas, fine looking manors, and spacious gardens. Just what Alex would expect from property enjoying such choice access to the school itself. No doubt the homes they approached were the domiciles of the school’s elite Silvers.
She sighed as they made their way to their destination. “I’d so rather be in a rift right now.”
Alex quirked an eyebrow. “You mean you’d rather be reveling in the rush of exploration and fighting for your life while claiming sweet prizes and leveling up to a more powerful version of yourself than spending the day weeding with our class?” He smirked at her expression. “Tell you a secret… so would I.”
She chuckled softly, squeezing her hand that she had never quite let go of as the students beside whispered eagerly about learning the secrets of harvesting spirit herbs while others fantasized about becoming famous alchemists making spirit pills that would send them hurtling to the deepest reaches of Silver, and on a more practical note, a few were discussing they’d they were planning to do with their future school credits.
“Now that I know that I’m wind aligned, the first thing I’m doing is seeing if I can learn a Wind Blade technique like Alex’s, so I can actually be useful in a fight!” Quing enthused, his strong cheekbones, symmetrical features, and intent brown eyes momentarily giving his words a weight and an authority beyond his years, looking so much like a handsome young master preparing for his destiny as the breeze chose that moment to ruffle the locks on his brow.
Alex’s eyes widened, tasting something remarkable in the air… before the spell was broken by a single displeased huff, as an exasperated Lilly glared his way. “I thought we agreed that we were saving our credits for pristine cycling techniques? Weren’t you the one telling me the other day that no matter how strong our individual affinities, it was the strength of our foundations that would determine how far in life we went as cultivators?”
Quing swallowed, doing his best to ignore the stares and smiles he received as they continued winding their way along the campus. “Yes, but that was before...”
“Before you found out you had such a strong affinity and weren’t just limited to being a body cultivator like most of us are?” She softened her tone with a gentle smile. “We’ll get there, Quing. Together. At least now we have something to look forward to, once our foundations are secure.”
“She totally has him wrapped around her finger,” Linnea flashed Alex a smug smile. “I bet she’ll be navigating their path through the stars of their life, and he’ll love her all the more for it.”
Alex chuckled softly. “Who can say? As long as they’re happy, that’s all that matters.”
“True.”
The excited murmurs of the class continued until they reached the end of the common grounds and entered a gate through which the private residences of the school’s elite were to be found. Alex’s eyes widened as he got a closer look at some of the grand pagodas now before them as they made their way along the ornate walkway separating the properties. The view from a distance had been spectacular, and up close the properties were even more impressive, all of them graced with magnificent gardens filled with brilliant flowers and fruit trees in full bloom, Alex detecting more than a few spiritual herbs carefully placed in the collections to add a vibrancy and arboreal flavor that translated into a breathtaking display of perfectly balanced scents and colors. And though food crops certainly weren’t the focus, the ripe peaches, plumbs, and lemons he caught sight of all looked to be at the perfect peak of ripeness.
Which made the contrast between those properties and the one they suddenly found themselves for all the more jarring.
The pagoda itself was a stately structure made of marble and exotic hardwoods… though it gave off the empty feeling of a property that had been abandoned for years. But what really served as a source of discordance was the garden itself.
Whereas the others were strikingly beautiful collections of perfectly tended flowers, fruit trees, and the occasional spirit herb, this garden had clearly once been an apothecary’s pride and joy. And just as clearly, it had been neglected for years and whatever prizes had managed to survive despite the far more arid conditions had been all but choked out by a profusion of weeds.
Restoring it was definitely going to take a considerable amount of work.
Which suddenly explained why their entire class was now at this property that was clearly being restored once more. Considering the state of the garden, there wasn’t too much that the class could do to make it any worse, and perhaps some would showcase a talent for bringing some sense of order to the garden as a whole.
“And here we are, class,” said Win with a half-lidded smile. “Your assignment is simplicity itself.” He gestured towards the small pile of spiky grass, thorny vines, and hearty-looking weeds clearly pulled free of the garden. Just the tiniest fraction of all the weeds that were hiding so many spiritual treasures he could sense with just a glance that it sent an excited shiver down Alex’s spine, realizing just how valuable this place truly was.
“You are to take a careful look at the handful of weeds now on display, and remove those plants, and only these plants from the garden.” Instructor Win pointed to a number of steel shovels and bronze weeding implements before them. “You will use these to pull free the weeds, careful to include their roots, while simultaneously avoiding any damage to the roots or leaves of any of the other plants. So long as you focus only on removing these four varieties, the new owner will consider your assignment complete.”
Alex held back a groan when the cream of the class, the strongest, most capable looking young men and women in their group, frowned and picked over the implements on loan as if being forced to hold alien slugs.
“Master Win, surely there are other ways that we might earn credits?” asked one nearby youth wearing fine silk cultivator’s robes that day, with the mien of a favored scion who never had to work a day of his life, outside of daily lessons with a jian, no doubt given by some private instructor who was far more effusive with praise than actual combat lessons, because the boy’s stance at present was terrible, nearly losing his balance with the slightest hint of Win’s killing aura as he coolly stared at the suddenly blanching youth.
“Bendon, yes?”
The boy paled, quickly nodding in the affirmative.
“You wished to ask me something, Bendon?”
The boy blinked before his survival instincts abruptly kicked in. “No, sir. I am very much looking forward to this exciting opportunity to expand my skill set and unlock hidden affinities, Master Win.”
“Very good.” Elder Win’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’ll find the weeding implements right behind you. If you’re having any issues with them, I’m quite certain that you can ask one or more of your classmate’s for assistance.”
Bendon quickly nodded. “Yes, of course, Master Win.” The boy wilted like a flower himself as he turend around and trudged toward the gardening implements, which, to be fair to poor Bendon, no one else in his clique seemed to understand any better than he.
Alex couldn’t quite hold back a wince, already knowing what was coming. He dreaded it even a he accepted the inevitability of it, though he held out hope for long moments that someone with half a clue would pick up the slack and guide the thirty odd clueless youth on at least the basics of tending to a garden.
Linnea’s gaze grew troubled. “Alex, you do know that they have no idea what they’re doing, right?”
He sighed. “These idiots are going to absolutely destroy the garden. What’s left of it, anyway.”
She tutted, shaking her head. “They look like they’re at risk of snipping their own fingers off. And it’s painfully clear that they have no idea how to treat anything with leaves, let alone understand the garden’s layout. They can’t even see the inward spiral being used to channel all the rich mana in the air.”
Alex shrugged. “I would have said Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy… but yeah. That’s an elite tier configuration clearly intended to channel energy inward to the heart of the garden. And they’re utterly clueless.”
Linnea sighed, shaking her head. “They don’t even know how to use a three-tined hoe!”
Alex groaned. “We’re so going to get stereotyped as Ruidians with green thumbs.”
She snorted. “That’s because we are Ruidians with green thumbs. Or are you blind to the travesty of what your most obnoxious students are about to do to those spirit he--”
But Alex was already moving, his natural gifts allowing all the spirit herbs to pop out in his vision much like magical plants in his favorite game of all time where he once spent hours foraging for brightly colored plants in peaceful evergreen forests until he woke up for the first time in his second life, finding that he could do it for real. Only now it was the spiritual energy they radiated that popped out like a 4-D color display to his mind’s eye.
Like the absolutely priceless ivory white blossom that Tan Yi was about to stomp and grind into the soil, as he had countless other spirit blossoms when he thought no one was looking, glaring with contempt at the spade in his hands.
But not this treasure, Alex, thought, the desperation of the moment compelling the use of a gift he had hoped to put out of everyone’s mind.
Quickness check successful! You have managed to cross the garden in the blink of an eye.
Spring Leap is now Rank 6!
You have successfully intercepted your foe’s killing blow!
Time seemed to freeze as Alex snatched Tan Yi’s ankle and jerked him straight up, the young scion’s robes tangling about his face in an unsightly heap as he furiously flailed at Alex with his gardening implement.
Which Alex effortlessly snagged out of the air with a negligent swipe of his hand, sending the tool instantly in storage while miming flinging it behind him, thinking the fool had done quite enough damage already.
“Unhand me right now, Ruidian trash, or I swear you’ll be crying tears of blood before my clan is done with you!”
Guan, who had been quietly following behind his master as the angry youth vented his frustrations on the garden, snarled and stepped forward, dao springing into his hand. “Unhand him now, Ruidian!”
The good-natured complaining and chatter of the entire class died to strained silence as they broke through the thick vines to behold the tableau before them.
Alex, holding a hollering and cursing Tan Yi by his foot while a snarling Guan tried to close, hampered as he was by undergrowth that seemed eager to catch his shoes, pants, and belt, arms already covered by scratches from thorny vines that seemed almost eager to whip about his wrists.
“Unhand me now, Ruidian scum, or I’ll see you kicked out of this school for assault!”
“Alex? What is the meaning of this?” said none other than Elder Win, choosing that moment to make an appearance.
Tan Yi’s increasingly reddened face lit up with desperate hope. “He’s assaulting me, Elder Win! Help! He’s a threat! I told you he was a threat! He shouldn’t even be allowed in the city! Mark my words, when my clan’s done with him he’ll be kicked out without a water flask to his name!”
Elder Win gave a tired sigh, gently shaking his head. “Alex?”
“This ‘aspirant’ was too busy grinding precious spirit herbs to paste to pay attention to where he was going and tripped, sir. Before I could right him back up, his henchman unsheathed his dao and approached.”
Elder Win’s smile didn’t reach his cool gaze. “You know for a fact that Tan Yi was deliberately crushing spiritual treasures?”
Alex dipped his head. “I do. And with your permission, I can prove it.”
“Bullshit!” Tan Yi snarled. “all that comes out of your mouth is spite and twisted lies!”
Alex ignored his captive, his gaze firmly on Elder Win until he got the nod he had been waiting for.
With that, he dropped his captive onto a soft patch of turned earth.
But not before claiming both his shoes.
Tan Yi’s eyes widened in sudden alarm. “You took my shoes! You’re endangering my feet in a yard full of thorns. Give them back, I say. Give them back at once!”
“You heard him!” Guan roared, snarling as he closed the distance. “Return Master Yi’s property or face the consequences.”
Alex’s heart pounded with exhilaration as he met the cold gaze of a man clearly eager for his death.
“Shall we have that rematch, then, Guan?”
“Gladly!” the garden rang with the Bronze’s cold laughter. “I’ll happily feed the garden your lifeblood!”
Alex grinned. “What a fortuitous choice of words. I was about to say the same myself.”
“You will both stop this foolishness… NOW!”
Elder Win’s voice cracked with furious intent. Even Alex felt the wave of killing aura that had a suddenly pale-faced Guan falling to his knees and dropping his blade.
Alex quenched his rage, turning it into a bow. “This one apologizes for surrendering to the heat of the moment… and presents to you his evidence.” He dipped his head once more, presenting Tan Yi’s fine silken slippers radiating an actual protective ward, because practical leather heels were clearly too mundane for the young idiot, before Win’s critical gaze.
Only then did Alex turn them upside down, showcasing the splotches of inky color all over the bottom, radiating Spiritual essence so sharp that even his classmates could sense it, more than a few rubbing their eyes as if they stung, or inhaling the sharp rich fragrance.
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“At least six different varieties of spiritual herbs were crushed under a certain ‘young master’s’ spiteful feet. And as for proof that it was malice and not simple stupidity… here is his assigned implement. As you can see, the bronze tines are utterly free of dirt or sap, because he didn’t use them to tear free any weeds at all.” Alex turned to glare at a furiously flushing Tan Yi trying to cover his humiliation with angry protests, but Alex refused to allow him a word edgewise.
“He deliberately ground those precious, priceless herbs to paste. And he did it in fine silken slippers. Which would have been stupid if he were stomping vines…”
“Because vines have thorns!” Linnea brightly interjected. “Whereas most spiritual treasures, at least those in this garden, do not.”
Elder Win frowned, gazing intently at the stained slippers before his nostrils dilated with a single sharp inhale.
Eyes widening, he turned to Tan Yi. “What do you have to say for yourself, Tan Yi?”
“What do I have to say for myself? Ha!” The angry scion feigned outrage. “I would say that I was minding my business, examining the garden before determining how best to start my task, when this Ruidian assaulted me out of nowhere, as I warned you that he would!”
Elder Win frowned. “Then how do you account for near half a dozen spiritual treasures crushed against your slipper?”
“Well how the hell am I supposed to know what’s precious and what’s not in this mess of vines and neglected spirit-herbs? It’s not like you bothered showing us anything, save what we were supposed to clip!” His eyes lit up as if inspired by sudden revelation. “If anything, the fault is yours… is it not, Elder Win? You didn’t tell us anything was to be avoided or how carefully we were to watch our step, so I did nothing I was instructed not to. In fact, the entire reason why I was so slow in pruning is because I didn’t want to make a mistake!”
He flashed a twisted smile. “So I did nothing but what I was instructed to, and my reward for my efforts is to be assaulted and threatened to within an inch of my life!” He turned around, jabbing his finger Alex’s way. “So I demand that you cast out this Ruidian menace out at once and remand him to my clan’s custody until he can be tried for assaulting the scion of a noble house!”
More than a few of their students were gazing at Tan Yi in sheer awe, speaking in low murmured tones that Alex’s uniquely enhanced Perception picked up as if they were whispering directly in his ear.
“That he would actually have the gall to say that, after we all saw him smashing those flowers!”
“Of course he would. He’s old blood. Probably has absurd pull. So why the hell is he even here, tormenting the rest of us?”
“Why the hell is Elder Win putting up with his lip all the time?”
“He probably has no choice.”
“Clearly his clan just wants to rub it in our faces… but don’t tell him I said that.”
Elder Win glared at a smirking Tan Yi for long moments. Moments that filled Alex with something close to horrified dismay as the young asshole’s smirk grew, leaving Alex forced to wonder if Tan Yi’s blatant lies would still manage to force Alex on the run while Tan Yi laughed and kicked dirt all over his hopes and dreams, making it clear that even in this life, power was everything, idealism was for fools, and those who got involved in the machinations of the corrupt and clever would inevitably and always be ground to dust.
A thought that filled Alex with a killing fury echoed in the hot howling winds suddenly whipping across the garden.
Winds so violent that more than one youth cursed when their ubiquitous desert-ware hats were torn free of their heads in a cyclone of hot fury Alex could so viscerally taste in that moment as he squeezed his fists so tightly his knuckles cracked, in that moment visualizing squeezing tight those winds around the suddenly blanching Tan Yi who’s eyes were bulging for some inexplicable reason.
Tan Yi’s hands were now clawing at his own throat as he stumbled to his knees, his horrified gaze that of a dying man unable to catch a single breath.
It was a sight so alarming that it jolted Alex out of his killing haze, his attention snapping to Elder Win’s increasingly impatient querry.
“Alex!”
He all but snapped a salute. “Yes, Elder Win?”
“Tan Yi of Clan Duo Yi accuses you of deliberately assaulting him. Do you concede to that accusation?”
Alex took a steadying breath, lips curving up in an innocuous smile as Tan Yi continued to cough and sob for breath on the ground before them, looking for all the world like he had seen a ghost as he stumbled back to his feet. “Not at all, Elder Win. I was doing my best to save the young master here from making a terrible mistake and crushing any more spirit herbs than he already had.”
Elder Win smirked. “Well, then. As young Tan Yi has freely admitted to being so blind to the value of the spirit herbs before him that he will happily walk on them all as if they were grass, then I find it perfectly reasonable to believe that he was about to inadvertently crush a spiritual treasure, and you were but doing your part to ease the financial burden his family might otherwise be forced to pay in reparations to the new owner of this property.”
Tan Yi’s smirk was instantly wiped off his features. “What? You’re saying this fool’s assault was justified? That you won’t be surrendering him to my custody?” His eyes bulged with outrage. “And that I’m somehow responsible for destroying spiritual herbs that have been neglected and ignored for at least half a decade!?”
Elder Win’s smile didn’t waver, yet they could all feel the sudden pressure in the air. “What an intriguing declaration, Tan Yi. What makes you so certain that the spiritual treasures here were neglected for half a decade?”
Tan Yi opened his mouth, then snapped it shut when no words came out, his expression of outraged indignation turned to anxious uncertainty, made all the worse by the increasing murmur of the class at large, pointing and smiling at his expense.
“A lucky guess?”
Elder Win snorted. “An incredibly astute guess at that. Because that is exactly how long this garden was neglected, sadly, for reasons none of you need worry about. Nonetheless, such an astute observation would normally be the province of scions belonging to clans steeped in alchemical tradition. Like, for example… your own, Tan Yi?”
Tan Yi blanched, eyes growing wild with desperate fury, like a trapped animal about to lash out.
Elder Win sighed. “So you owe our young Ruidian friend thanks, I think, for helping you ato void compounding your folly by crushing ever more precious spiritual treasures, such that your sheer ignorance would end up making your entire clan look incredibly foolish. And since I know you that have absolutely no desire to bring such shame to your clan, a simple debt of, let’s say… 75 school credits will be added to your account, the particulars of which I’m sure we need not worry about ever being spoken of again once we leave this garden. Are we all agreed?”
His warning gaze the student’s way was more than enough to have them all nodding in solemn agreement.
Elder Win wiped his hands as if clean of filth. “And that is the end of this affair. I assume that is acceptable to you, Tan Yi of Clan Duo Yi?”
Tan Yi clenched his jaw at the pronouncement, about to speak when Alex coolly interjected.
“The herbs you crushed were all of excellent quality, heightened by surviving for so long in what was, for them, extreme conditions. Each of them was well above median market potency. And I’ve worked at a local apothecary. If I were to take a wild guess… I would venture to say that you managed to destroy well over 300 silver’s worth of spirit herbs.”
Tan Yi’s eyes widened, before twisting into a petulant glare as he lowered his gaze. “Yes, Elder Win. Perfectly acceptable.”
“Excellent. Alex?”
Alex blinked, for a moment not knowing what was expected, before it suddenly clicked. The hot-headed scion of a very powerful clan had just lost face in front of the entire class. Best Alex give him back some, for the sake of the class, if no one else.
Alex bowed at a precise 45 degree angle. “This one apologizes for unduly startling you, Tan Yi of Clan Duo Yi. I regret not having the opportunity to personally instruct you on the worth of each of the spiritual treasures within this garden, and wished only to spare you and your clan the shame of destroying precious spiritual herbs that any alchemist would be eager to claim as their own.”
Elder Win clapped his hands almost before Tan Yi gave an infinitesimal nod, the matter now officially closed.
Not that Alex was stupid enough to believe that there wouldn’t be serious repercussions down the line.
And he would be lying if he didn’t admit that he was increasingly looking forward to them.
Blood would be spilled when things finally came to a head.
And he’d do his utmost to make sure it wasn’t his.
Yet it seemed that he wasn’t going to get off Scott-free that day either, for all that he had been doing his best to avoid the garden until the travesty that was Tan Yi became too much for his conscience to bear. A truth that Elder Win had immediately picked up upon.
“A most interesting morning!” He looked Alex’s way. “I take it that you have experience tending spiritual gardens, Alex?”
Alex winced, forcing himself to dip his head in acknowledgment. “That would be correct, Elder Win.”
The man’s smile grew. “Alright, then. Let us assume that this garden is now under your care. Not only that, I will assign you the full allotment of class credits for todays… lesson.” He blithely ignored the handful of murmured protests, as fellow classmates wisely told those complaining to shut the hell up and focus on what mattered.
“All that we ask of you is that you show us all, step by step, how you would restore this cultivation garden.”
Alex sighed, accepting the inevitable, before closing his eyes and pressing his hands to the soil.
Of course his eyes and ability to see the flows of spiritual energy had already told him a shocking amount. Far more than he had recalled ever gleaning from a garden in a single go. He wasn’t just spotting the Median Market Potencies of various individual herbs, but getting a sense of the overall health and flow of spiritual energy as a whole.
And as it stood… it wasn’t good.
Yet with his hands on the ground as he took a deep whiff, ignoring Tan Yi and several other’s derisive comments equating Ruidians to being pigs rooting in the soil… he could sense its potential.
Forest Sense skill check: Critical success!
Because it was far more than just a collection of plants. It was a symbiotic ecosystem exchanging both nutrients, spiritual energy, and water, with a secret at its heart that put an excited smile on his face, like a child who had just discovered a wondrous prize to be kept sacred and cherished.
He swallowed his suddenly dry throat, gazing at Elder Win searchingly for several long moments, ignoring the increasing murmurs of the class, wondering if there was a deeper meaning to all this. But all Win did was furrow his impressive brows, giving Alex a curious look. “Alex?”
Alex forced a smile, deciding that he would treat this as a genuine opportunity to teach and guide, knowing that he could give no greater gift than a bit of reverence for this wonder of life and growth that was the heart of their miniature ecosystem upon which all their lives depended upon.
“First, let me say that the former gardeners were doing a lot more than just planting orderly rows of plants. Even the Copperthorn vines have their place. Everything was planted here for a reason.”
Quing and Lilly gave him curious looks.
“Are you sure?” Ling Ling curiously asked. “I thought Copperthorn vines were just, well, weeds that need to be removed?”
Alex smiled and shook his head. “For all that it’s true that they themselves aren’t spiritual treasures in the normal sense, they don’t produce leaves, or roots that we use for compounding tinctures or poultices, they serve other roles vital to any garden so near the desert. And if you can actually get the conditions just right, you’ll be rewarded with fruit so sweet that even our city’s best dates will be put to shame.” Or such was the promise of potential whispered by rustling leaves, a half-smiling Alex himself curious to test that claim.
He gazed for long moments at a thicket of Copperthorn vines, his smile filled with gentle fondness even as he gently grasped a handful of said vines and slipped them free of the pile of plants they had wound so tightly around as easily as plucking noodles from a pot. Not once did he get pricked, scratched, or show signs of any undue strain as he pruned the thicket by a good two thirds. He then proceeded to one focus on thick cluster of Copperthorns after another, otherwise ignoring the hundreds of precious spiritual herbs he was nonetheless careful never to crush with his feet, pruning each of them by a good two thirds.
“The Copperthorns are actually wonderful for providing shade when terraces are established and the vines are appropriately interconnected. They’re also perfect for trapping moisture that then condenses and rains on the plants below them. Thus you can grow a surprisingly varied selection of food crops or spiritual treasures under well-tended thickets, despite living on the desert’s rim. The problem is balance. Because no one’s tended to these Copperthorns in half a decade, they’ve grown far beyond the ideal ratio, collapsed their trellises, and are throwing the alkalinity of the soil completely out of balance. In other words, for this garden to be restored to it’s former glory, the flow of spiritual energy must be fully restored.”
“So it adheres to the principles of feng shui?” Quiang dutifully asked.
Alex smiled at the eager-looking youth. “You could say that, sure. The important thing is balance.”
He then frowned at the soil, noting the Sageroot which was in suprisingly good shape, and the Silverblade stalks and Tigersbalm which were on the cusp of being utterly salvageable. Of course, he had already deduced the secret at the heart of this beautiful sanctuary, and was steadily unraveling how best to access it in his mind’s eye. Till then, there were other ways he could tend to the garden, but it wasn’t something he could do in minutes or hours, especially not with mere Bronze tier stats.
Still, there was a lot that he could do, one task effortlessly flowing into the next as wooden trellises restored themselves and Copperthorn vines wound about the rapidly recovering structures, quickly forming a latticework synergizing Wood and Water Qi elements so well and thoroughly that by the time a full two hours had past, increasingly impatient glances became touched with genuine wonder when hair was ruffled by a breeze that wasn’t only cool, but moist as well.
“I feel rain in the air!” Ling Ling said with an awed smile as she gazed at the now thick green foliage over her head, secured by countless trellises that weren’t just restored but were actively budding, as if the very rotting wood had been granted new vibrant life, which Alex decided he was fine with, as the wood in question was Qi neutral and the innocuous roots would stabilize the wooden posts to better secure the overarching canopy of vines that Alex was increasingly certain weren’t truly meant to form a canopy without any counterbalancing foliage.
“Alex?” Elder Win politely asked as Alex continued to ignore murmurs of both wonder and impatience, took a winding path through the now at least partially restored garden, not hesitating to summon his Water Shield, allowing it to spray the garden with the gentlest shower, infusing it with just the salts he needed with Earth and Metal Qi to enrich the soil with the boon it needed to blossom forth with fresh fecund life once more.
Skill check made! You have successfully used an Advanced Application of Enhanced Water Shield!
Alex shivered, suddenly filled with an undefinable sense of yearning within this increasingly lush patch of once-abandoned foliage. For just a second, he had felt as if he were connected to the great forest itself… before the feeling went away.
Alex sighed, feeling unusually melancholy and surprised to see his Spiritual Energy reserves down considerably, for all that he hadn’t used any formal techniques at all.
Though the looks his classmates were giving him told another story.
“Look at all these plants now in bloom! It smells just like the valley below.”
“The garden was nothing but dried vines when we first got here.”
More than a few were gazing up with no small amount of wonder at the restored canopy of Copperthorn vines that Alex had finally tamed into some semblance of their original function, and Alex couldn’t help smiling with a certain amount of pride at the gentle mist they could all feel against their faces.
“Incredible!” Lilly gazed at Alex in genuine awe. “Are all Ruidians capable of this?”
A beaming Linnea immediately shook her head. “Nope! It would normally take our whole tribe at least a week to restore the garden to this point. But the composition and alkalinity of the underlying soil still needs a bit more work to balance, and the moisture you feel is mostly thanks to Alex’s Water Shield, though the Copperthorns are now helping to trap the moisture, just as intended.”
Alex tried to hold on to his epiphany under the midday sun but he knew better than to force it when he took a deep breath, shuddering to full wakefulness before gazes filled with admiration, boredom, or outright contempt, finding solace in at least one interface message, even as his wonderful sense of connection to a forest perhaps lost to ancient history faded to bittersweet memory.
Congratulations! Your communion with nature has grown fresh roots. Your understanding now transcends individual plants and now incorporates entire ecosystems!
Forest Sense is now Rank 8.
“Well that was a waste of half a day for the sake of a garden that will shrivel to nothing in less than a week,” Tan Yi muttered for Guan’s benefit alone it seemed, glaring Alex’s way as Elder Win led them to the front of the property. “What did we do but puff up an arrogant Ruidian’s pride? And charging me for herbs no one would ever use is just adding insult to injury.”
Guan nodded silently, but Alex could sense that not only was he not gaining any traction with his fellows, but that people were actively avoiding all eye contact with him.
He was becoming pariah, and didn’t even realize how badly he had overplayed his hand.
People might fear him. But sure as hell they didn’t respect or like him. He was becoming a burden they might have to tolerate for the sake of his clan’s reputation, whatever it was, but people would only sigh with relief when he was finally out of their sight.
Alex did his best to keep his smile in check, but there was a definite spring to his step as they made their way to the front of the property, Elder Win saying only, “Come. Our host is eager to treat you all to a meal under his roof, in thanks for your efforts this day.”