After I woke up, I realized that it was still dark outside.  So I snuck out of my room to head to my 'secret' garden.  I only call it 'secret' in name because both Ellie and mom know about it.  The guards don't though, so I can disappear into the background from most people.  As I entered the garden, I thought about how much I renovated this place since Tina dug it out for me.  I never thought much about it, but this is an underground labyrinth now.  I would just need to add a few traps and it would make a decent dungeon.

Entering the main area of my underground fort from the small hatch in the main mansion garden.  The entire area covered in various species of flowers.  Tina collected most of these flowers and I made them able to populate a more open area.  I guess my only worry about this expansion was that the weight of the mansion would crush us.  It seems Tina is quite good with nature and earth magic so she fortified this newly made basement.  The only expense for this was a large amount of magic power over a few months of work as we expanded.

Anyways, back to the flowers, I have most of the known plants in the original plant guide my father gave me.  I kind of separated them into different areas based on their magical level.  One of the most interesting things I noticed was that as these plants leveled up in levels, they would change characteristics into the next level of their category.  I have never found this in any of the plant books I've read, but it is probably because nobody has tried to upgrade plants, or they were unsuccessful.  I am surprised about this though.

So when a normal bellflower changes into a sunflower it means that it gained a level and also gained better attributes and is a better medical ingredient.  So the fact that Tina and I guide mana into them speeds up their transformation by a lot.  Truthfully, I have only successfully changed a level 3 plant into a level 4 plant at most and it took quite a while to do.  So the amount of mana to change them is most likely a lot.  

The difference between a monster and a plant is that the offspring.  Plants will only grow from the lowest level upwards while the monsters will stay at the same level.  So a level 4 plant’s seeds will start as a level 1 plant and a level 4 monster will give birth to a level 4 monster.  Monsters at a higher level can be weaker than a monster at a lower level, but that only applies to the newborn monster.  The evolved one will keep its stats and skills when it evolves.

Tina never told me what the rainbow flower is, or she doesn't know herself.  I'm not sure when it happened, but a section of this garden has turned into a bed for Misty.  It wasn't a useful part of the garden, but I wonder why she is so adamant about sleeping there and not other places.  I sometimes take naps with her down here also, just to end up getting scolded by Ellie.

Sometimes I wonder if there are too many high level plants, but Tina just brings them when she wants another flower.  I wonder where she gets them.  So I guess the best name to call this place would be Tina's home.  I need to her ask if the Fae live in a garden.

As I played with the view, the plants to calm my mind I noticed a strong nature magic source.  It was the rainbow flower.  I always wondered why I couldn't sense anything from this flower, it was because I hadn't unlocked by magic yet.

As I looked at it closely, I saw the nature magic reach out to me and it entered my sternum.  I don't understand why I wasn't panicked, but I could somewhat tell that the magic wasn't meant to harm me.  I later found out it was because of my connection to the flower, but that won't be until much later.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

As the nature magic touched my core, it surrounded my core gently and seeped its way in.  Notices popped up and quickly stacked.

Nature Magic was learned

Increased Nature Magic to Beginner Level 2

...

Increased Nature Magic to Beginner Level 5

Wow that was a quick increase, I wonder what I should do.  From what I know, nature magic is less for battle and more for well.... gardening and herbology.  Its use is for traps, but I'm not the best at those.  No, more accurately, I'm horrible at that.

I didn't realize it, but as I was down here contemplating everything, Ellie had appeared behind me.

"Mistress, I assume you like your garden, but please consider that you are the daughter of a duke.  Please put on normal clothes on when you go here and not head here in your pajamas."

I laughed awkwardly, "Oh... I forgot."

"We will head back to your room and get you dressed up."

She held my hand as she led me back to my room.  I don't think she trusts me not to get sidetracked.

As we get back to my room, my mom is standing there waiting.

"Ally, you should know by now that pajamas are for sleeping."

"Sorry mom."

"Anyways, I was just here to let you know your father and I will celebrate your birthday with you today with you friends.  They worried when you 'got sick' as we told them.  So since things settled down, we decided to take a break."

"Oh, so Rose, Kylie, Tristan, and Kade are coming.  I hope they had fun at school while I was out of it."

"Also Ally, are you ever going to stop expanding your garden or I guess a better word for it would be small prairie?"

I answered cheerily, "Sorry mom, I'm not sure if I will or not."

Mom sighed and said, "Just get dressed and make sure to remind the little fairy to find me."

As she left, Ellie quickly got me dressed, and we headed to the dining room to get breakfast.  She reminded me not to use magic while not in the magic training room because it could cause a disaster knowing me.

After breakfast we headed back to my room.  Ellie closed the door, and I heard a sound of fluttering so I turned around and saw Ellie and Tina were there with Tina standing on Ellie's shoulder.  Ellie was holding a present and gently gave it to me to open as she and Tina smiled.

I tore the wrapping paper off the tightly wrapped box and opened it.  Inside was something that  added to my pendant, it was a small rune that had a captured hologram of Tina, Ellie, mom and dad.  It seemed to take pictures from each individual and combine them into a single picture.  It could also flip on and off.

"Thank you both" I said as I gave them both a hug.

I hope that I these days can last longer.

Oh, I just remembered.

"Tina, my mom said you were to find her today."

As I said that Tina went pale, so I decided that I wouldn't make things hard for her today.  Later I realized that I kind of broke up a nice moment by not being helpful to her mind.  

I was waiting for the carriages to arrive carrying my four close friends.  I consider my other classmates as acquaintances, but not close enough to invite.

As I welcomed them, they arrived, they all told me happy birthday, and that they were ecstatic that I wasn't sick anymore.