[Origin Point]
[Origin Set: Plains of Jeralt]
[Connection Established.]
[Uses Left: 1]
[Confirmation Required]
[Yes] - [No]
Yes
[Request Confirmed - Transfer in Progress]
...
[Transferring.]
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[Transferring.]
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[Transferring.]
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[Transfer-
"Are you still buffering? Did you refresh your magazine collection? Can I grab some candy off the counter or is that reserved for staff members."
[Transfer complete]
Reiss hit the packed earth with a whoomph. The grass bent to form his shape as he lay unmoving. A soft groan escaped his lips, muffled by clods of dirt and foliage. His face made a sucking sound as he extricated himself.
The system was more than capable of landing him on his feet. However, as more iterations passed, it seemed to get fed up and started flinging him into the ground, spawning him in the sky, or inside a dragon's maw.
Speaking of which...
Reiss swiveled his head around, scanning the horizon. The fields around him rolled for miles in each direction. Scarce trees dotted the landscape, providing the occasional traveler with shade or the migratory birds a resting perch. The sky was a clear blue with nary a cloud.
When he failed to find any scaly fire-breathing beasts, he chuckled.
"Scaly worm is probably still reeling from the last hundred iterations."
Standing up, he dusted his roughspun clothes and began to walk South unhurriedly. His mind was lost as memories overlayed in his mind like tapes from a projector.
Reiss did not need to hurry or run. He smiled fondly, remembering how a little flower caused time to break.
=
Plucking petunias in a prairie, Reiss collected them in a woven basket. It wasn't an odd thing for Reiss to do. The assortment of flowers was for a wedding in the town over, and considering he was a [Florist], this much was natural.
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At Level 4 there were only two skills he currently had access to—[Colorful Pairing] and [Quick Picker].
He wasn't a particularly good florist, but he enjoyed the time spent alone surrounded by pleasant scents and mesmerizing hues.
Reiss picked a daffodil and gently inhaled the scent.
The combination of his bouquet didn't mean anything in the flower language; if it did, he didn't know it. That was probably one of the reasons he was so low-level despite his passion, right alongside the fact that he plucked flowers out of the ground like a smitten pre-teen.
Luckily Reiss was a [Florist], which magically corrected minor mistakes when treating flowers and naturally increased longevity.
As he collected flowers with no particular thoughts in mind, a glimmer caught his eye.
In the distance, underneath one of the rare trees present in the fields, was a white flicker.
Absently, Reiss strode over, closing the distance. The walk was shorter than it should have been. Peering down, he saw the impossible.
Ten Winter Sprites were in full bloom, surrounded by the normal colorful flowers of the season. His class told him that for ten such flowers to bloom simultaneously, in the same year, all right next to one another... in spring, no less... was a statistical impossibility.
Staring at his reflection in their blue crystalline structures, Reiss remarked that they smell like children's laughter.
A chill ran down his spine.
[Warning! Anomaly Detected!]
[Warning! Rupture Detected!]
[Warning! Evacuate The Area!]
[Warning!]
Reiss dropped his bouquet and ran. He tripped. Falling flat.
With the wind knocked out of him, the system continued shouting warnings in his head. He attempted to regain his footing but felt an incredible chill. Reiss looked back and saw his left foot was caught in the zone of Winter Sprites. The aura froze the foot in place. There was no pain, but he couldn't move.
Frost stretched out along his leg, clawing upward.
[Warning! Anomaly Detected.]
Panicking and flailing, he clawed at the ground tearing up clumps of dirt and unearthing pitiful petunias. To his horror, Winter Sprites took their place, budding and popping up like dandelions.
They froze his hands—a glacial blue.
Hyperventilating, Reiss tried not to move, disregarding the systems repeating sirens.
If I move, they will shatter.
He didn't want to die. But if he lost his hands? What was a [Florist] without hands?
The ice pirouetted up his limbs as more of its brethren infected the area—a plague of chilling, beautiful death.
Reiss began to hallucinate. The sky turned dark with clouds showering snow.
[Warning! Rupture Detected!]
Day turned to night, turned to clear skies, turned to torrential downpours.
[Warning!]
The world's lights flickered on and off, seasons changing.
[Warning!]
Bells rang as laughing children tumbled through the air, playing.
[Warn-
The grass on the prairie grew tall as buildings, and the trees reached the stars. Then they crumbled under their own weight. The stars rained down from the heavens as more blinked out of existence.
Reiss was crushed, drowned, burned, trampled, starved, and atomized as the sun went supernova.
Then all was normal.
He sat on his rear end underneath the same tree. No Winter Sprites were present. The flowers he tore up when fleeing were back in their place, rooted safely. His bouquet lay finished in his lap. The warning bells of the system were silent.
Reiss passed out.
[Class Gained]
[Agent of Regression: Level 1]
=
Reiss halted in his steps before his sandal crushed a flower. He paused, looking down at a Winter Sprite in full bloom.
"Are you here to torment me? I'm sorry to say I've outgrown your games."
Childish laughter danced in the air before fading with a strong southern gust.
"You're right. This is my Saga."
Seemingly without effort, Reiss snatched the flower before it could dissipate. The biting cold threatened to burn his fingers off, but he was much too high-level to notice.
In an instant, he crushed the Flower of Memory between both hands. With stardust billowing off his palms, he reached up and caressed his short brown hair. Magically, it grew longer as Reiss continued moving his hands. The former brown hue turned a winter white.
His hands didn't stop moving, flowing in a mesmerizing summer dance as his hair grew longer and longer.
Healthy and vibrant, swirling in place.
Glinting in the sunlight.
Reiss let that last of the flower's energy drift away through his fingertips before tying it back with the Winter Sprites' Stem.
"[Ornamentation]."
The simplistic skill when spoken aloud magically arranged the long locks in a beautifully ornamented hairdo.
Smiling to himself he chuckled.
"Now no one can tell me I'm not the main character."