I could hear Yan leave the room as I felt our minds connect with each other then split.

"Moderate passive skill: Disordered Posy has been gained... Other passive skills have been altered due to swarm intelligence... Adjusting"

There it was, the monotone voice striking our collective consciousness. Disordered Posy was certainly correct. We may seem to have one mind but I've never felt so separated before. A phantom pain unlike any I've experienced coursed through for the brief moments my mind merged with the others and yet, here I am still feeling and thinking as if I am alone. The only thing I would say of significance has changed would be the cacophony of voices now shouting over my thoughts.

"Minor Skill Transference: Translation -> Mind of The Masses"

Samwise: "Damnit, why does that always gotta sting!?"

Untou: "Mommy! Mommy it hurts! Please help me!"

Dongung: "I hear you sweetie! mama's here!"

Tyler: "How unfortunate for you to end up like this newbie"

It was certainly strange, more unforeseen events that I am begged to question. I could understand their names and differentiate their tones even though they never told me such. Their various stories of tragedy ladened within justifications and reasons that I thought would be beyond my understanding but I know them clearly. Whatever was being said outside of these cluster of thoughts I could no longer decipher, I was simply drifting along the wild memories of the bunch.

I thought the four who were active were the only ones with me but no, there were many others apart of our conscious. They seem inert, their stories appear vague as their unconscious attempts to piece it together for me to see as such, I didn't bother looking into the nameless ones. Samwise was a man who led a life of petty crime, one significant day he would steal from an elderly women a magical object and sell it off to a corporation at a high price, he soon fell in love and gave slant glances to his past until it caught up to him and cloaked figures ambushed him in an alley spraying fire from their fingertips incinerating him. Untou and Dongung were victims of unfortunate circumstances, their family was drafted for experimental testing of a magical object, during this test they would both be obliterated from existence with no-one to remember them, they were victims of the concept incinerator. Tyler was an odd one by all accounts, he was a construction worker but that seemed to just be a front for his life as a Nightfall Arbiter. An arbiter was a title for special individuals unmatched in their field and Nightfall was the name of a business who secretly took assassination requests as such Tyler lived a life cleaning blood with blood. His fall was even more perplexing, he was summoned to a business meeting with a feminine figure in a lab coat and he simply died on the spot.

I wasn't sure what to make of any of these stories, the only voices I felt sympathy for were Untou and Dongung. I find it hard to wrap my head around the existence of something that can erase concepts, even then it must not have worked properly if they're here right? Brushing that aside, Samwise was simply a man driven by greed and met his end accordingly, even if his murderers were rather mysterious in themselves. I felt nothing towards him, he led a life of crime and that was his consequence but Tyler was a different story. As in, I barely understood what led him here, it was as if he dropped dead as soon as he entered the room and someone of his expertise wouldn't have been so easily killed would he? Most of all, with all of these memories I could feel as though something was missing and when I tried to search for it, it's be like a fog encompasses their memories before I could find the answer rendering it blurry and unreachable.

Tyler: "Now that you're done snooping around our pasts, are you gonna introduce yourself or are you going to continue your lingering silence newbie?"

Tyler spoke but I couldn't come up with a response. I hadn't been human like the others here, in fact, the more I think about it, the stranger I find it that I can think at all. The common information I've gathered from the unconscious is that plants of my kind cannot think or feel as I do which begs me to question what makes me so special among the others.

Tyler: "It's odd, our minds should be connected by now so I should've heard whatever you're thinking as you are now with me. But I can't"

Samwise: "Wait a fucking minute, yea you're right! Think this fresh meat had any psychic implants before he got turned?"

Tyler: "I doubt it, implants are removed during the adaptive process. Furthering that, psychic implants are rare to anyone outside of Arbiters and nobility and we share the feeling that this one was of neither status."

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Samwise: "Adaptive Process? What in the hell are you on about? And if that's not the case, then what's the deal with this guy hm? Was it even human?!"

Their questioning thoughts had left me in deep thought, what was I? Was my previous sentiment false and I was, too, human like them? I clearly remember my birth, my days as a bud in the ground waiting to sprout. These should be confirmation of my existence but all these new reality bending concepts introduced to me in such a short time leave me frustratingly ignorant of the truth. These feelings coalescing inside of me, anger, resentment, guilt, were none of my own and yet they embolden my desire to escape. To learn the truth of what I am, what I could be, I could no longer idle away leaving my questions unanswered until those answers were forced upon me. I must put my thoughts into action and just like those speaking, pursue my own whims.

"Minor Passive Skill: Self Realization has been gained. Mind of The Masses contradicts with this skill.... adjusting."

"Skill Ascension: Self Realization is attempting to ascend into Moderate.... Ascension Failed"

Samwise: "Is this guy even listening to us?! Hey fuckwit! HEY!!"

My mind felt clearer than it did before, the voices with me now no longer able to override my own. Yet I could still feel a lingering doubt within me, perhaps gained by the stories I've witnessed. I'm not sure if I will succeed or if I would be able to accept what lies ahead but I need to go forward. This is the path I now traverse, there is no going back after what I have realized.

Their voices fizzled as I attempted to assert my will against them all. In order to realize my desire, I must take complete control.

Tyler: "Trying to control us are you? That won't be as easy as you expect"

Samwise: "Oh you're one of those? How about we teach ya why there's so many silent ones in here"

My mind reached into theirs but I felt my progress come to an unexpected halt. There was a nagging at my core as if someone was poking at it with a sharp needle only barely piercing the exterior. I felt my mind become more loose from me than before and knew if this continued, I would lose myself. I did not come to this realization to lose this easily, I pushed back against the voices that halted my progress feeling the nagging lessen as I do. This is my mind, my desire, I won't let anyone take it over. Their grip on my psyche weakens more as I push, my own blood leaking from the effort as I desperately wish to gain control. I make the final push as a sudden wave of power erupts from my core, silencing Samwise and Tyler like the others. I mustn't waste time, The rush of power leaves me as the blood that fueled it leaves my body and I point my mind towards Dongung and Untou.

Dongung: "W-wait! We won't fight you! We'll... We'll let you have control!"

Untou: "They were kind of mean anyway, they killed people!"

I sense desperation in Dongung's voice, if silencing them wasn't necessary then why expend the effort? My mind pierced theirs and I assumed control.

"Minor Passive Skill: Control the Posy has been gained."

"Minor Active Skill: Earth control has been gained."

"Skill Ascension: Tremorsense is attempting to ascend to Moderate.... Ascension completed"

I felt the scenery open up to me, now I see not just what is bound to the earth but the glass cage surrounding it and the table beneath my prison yet this artificial soil hampers my senses. My roots move with more efficiency allowing more diverse movements than before allowing me to grab the soil and a sudden understanding overcomes me as I conjure an upward slope out of the display using the soil around me. The soil was difficult to control due to its nature but the mound soon rose into a slope after a bit of concentration. I use the slope to ascend out of the display and drop onto a hard surface, I dug my roots into the natural ground and my senses were unleashed, I could feel heavy vibrations through the walls as my captors moved their heavy steps.

Untou: "Whoa, mama do you feel that?"

Dongung: "We're outside the box..."

I could hear their rising astonishment at being outside the display but my mind was focused on the vibrations I felt approaching our location. The vibrations were familiar, as though I had felt them before. All this sudden gaining of knowledge never known to me before must be the doing of these skills I realize and my body prepared itself for what was to come as the vibrations came ever closer.

It was Yan.