While I did get stronger from my Level 5 Awakening Quest, I don't think trying to use [Cleanse] here at the Pup Leisure Pond is a good idea just yet. The Skill will probably be effective here, but I'm still far too weak to cover a decent area.

Name: Evan Rethe Rank: 5 Species: Human Sex: Male Level: 5 EXP: 0/119,459 HP: 15,500/15,500 MP: 15,500/15,500 Strength: 29 Constitution: 38 Agility: 29 Dexterity: 47 Magic: 66 Mind: 56 HP Regen: 5% MP Regen: 5%

Some quick mental math says that I'll only cover a spherical zone around 16.5" in radius. The Pup Leisure Pond zone itself isn't all that large, only about seventy feet at its widest and around ninety at its longest. With the pond in the center being roughly forty at its widest and sixty at its longest… there's still quite a lot of contaminated soil to cover.

One thing I could do is just touch edges of the circles together and let the untouched parts "seep" into the cleansed areas so that it reduces down and fades from the soil naturally more quickly, but that would still be a fair bit tedious.

It would probably be better for me to wait another couple of Levels before I actually attempt to clean up this zone. While the area I have access to isn't large, there's no doubt more contaminated soil outside of it. I would need to cleanse that area as well to really let this soil recover. The contaminates from outside this smaller zone would just seep into it otherwise.

Honestly, it's that bigger portion that's making me doubt doing it now. Covering two and a half feet of space each cast would actually let me do a decent amount of this zone even if it'll take me awhile. I just don't feel like putting in that much effort when I'll have to redo it again later when the contaminates enter back in from the uncleansed zone.

"What do you think?" I look down at Aster, who looks up and tilts his head at me. "Think I should wait until I'm a little bit stronger and can use [Cleanse] on a bigger area at a time before cleaning this up? Less work for more benefit, and all that?"

Aster paces back and forth a little as he contemplates the answer, then sends me a message confirming that the easier path is the better one in his opinion.

"Thought so," I say.

He follows that up with a message letting me know he's sad it'll have to wait for more sleeps before he can hang out here again. That's accompanied by a memory of him getting thrown into the pond by the King of the Celestials for getting too rowdy while the big boy was trying to nap.

"Trying to dance on his head while he was trying to sleep probably wasn't a smart idea," I tell Aster, who nods in agreement. "By the way, you're missing whiskers. Forgot to mention that during the shower, but I noticed it when we woke up. They were there before."

Wolf whiskers form on Aster's snout as I finish talking.

"There you go," I say. "Let's head to the Whispering Life Spring. There's probably not much more I can do for it right now, but I want to give it a check anyway. My gut tells me we'll encounter others there."

We head there and find Flow in his adult form lapping up water, a few azulvitt wolf and fox pups wrestling around in the grass and flowers. There's not a concern of them doing too much damage to the plants here with how much mana is in the soil. That should bolster recovery as long as whatever really caused the plant death for this place actually has stopped affecting it.

Aster barks a few times and joins the other pups in their play as I walk over to Flow.

"Hey," I give him a light scratch on the head as he lies down beside me. "Thought I might find you here. Can I ask a favor?"

Flow tilts his head to the side a little.

"I want to grow more plants at Happy Butterfly Hill," I explain. "But to do that, I need to plant more earth magic crystals. Do you think I could borrow the pups for that?"

He gives me a dip of his head to confirm this, then sends me an inquiry.

"I'm not sure yet how long it'll be," I tell him. "I need to grab the crystals as well. Should I just come here to let you know when I'm ready?"

He nods again, so I give him another scratch, then head to the Sparkly Earth Cave to begin collecting earth magic crystals. The ones I harvested have only slightly grown back, but there are plenty more than those. Many of them are quite large in size as well.

As with last time, I use [Telekinesis] to control my tools to mine more quickly and more efficiently. My own Strength value is likely more than enough to do things quickly now but that's more effort than I need to exert so there's no reason for me to.

Other than to conserve mana, but it's not as if I'm short on mana potions right now or anything. I will probably need to restock my personal supply from the shop after today's run, but that won't be a problem if my theory is right.

Once the crystal harvest is finished, I quickly mark out the section at the Happy Butterfly Hill. The zone itself is about four hundred feet along the side of the river, but the river isn't straight and curves a little so there's more space. The first zone I planted in was about fifty feet along the border of the river and ended about thirty or so away from this.

Thanks to water in the soil from the river letting plants thrive beside the river and the time that I've spent away from here, plants can thrive in a larger area than in the other zone I've grown them in. These ones have spread to cover an additional seventy feet from the original space along the side of the river, though it's only spread about fifteen feet from the edge of the patch furthest from the water. I ended the original zone about thirty feet from what I'm figuring is the southern border of here, so it's gone all the way to there on that side.

Taking both of those into consideration, I mark this planting section out to be roughly the same size as the last one, starting ninety feet north along the river from where the first one ends. If all works out, then the two sections should meet during the time that I'm not here and this entire section of the river will be thickening with growth.

Growth which seems a bit odd to me. The berries don't seem to have spread too much but I thought blackberries liked to spread. Perhaps it's a "restriction" in place on the Mythic Forest, sort of like who can kill what?

A mystery to ask the King of the Celestials, when I meet him.

With the zone marked out, I head back to the Pup Leisure Pond and let Flow know I'm ready, then return to the Happy Butterfly Hill and begin pulling out earth magic crystals.

When the pups arrive this time, they all make sure to jump over the river instead of into it. The exception to that is Aster, who transforms into an otter as he dives into the water. He starts playing in it while the pups try to decide between joining him and helping me.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Flow must send them something, as they all suddenly turn to face me at the same time and a feeling of satisfaction comes from the more mature wolf.

"Remember last time?" I ask, and the pups give me happy yips. "Same thing. Break these crystals down and plant them in the soil, but spread out a little. Only in the sectioned-off zone. Okay?"

The pups bark in confirmation, then get to work. Flow supervises them and makes sure things are broken up and planted properly, and I get to work on growing plants in spots where the crystals are buried.

For the first few patches, I just focus on using [Grow Plant] followed by [Boost Plant Growth]. The latter isn't really necessary now as I'm now strong enough with magic for [Grow Plant] to grow them up to 8" all on their own now, giving them full seeds for me to tear off and bury a little. Even some of the flowers grow to their full size and others will no doubt do so in time.

This isn't enough for me. I want fuller patches with less work, which is why I still tear off the seeds and bury them once I've grown five blades of grass in a spot. That lets me use [Boost Plant Growth] to build up the patch further as it boosts both the blades already grown and the seeds I've buried. Even the flowers grow a fair bit larger from that, which I'm not complaining about.

As always when using [Grow Plant], I just focus on letting whatever will grow to do so. No real direction for the Skill other than what it contains innately. It picks something random from the nonmagical plants which grow in the spot it's used in when the place is in full health, so nothing grown is bad for the area.

For the fourth patch, however, I focus on attempting to direct the magic into growing a bush. The names for the different zones no doubt represent what the King of the Celestials associates with each section so this is one which butterflies enjoy Some bushes do attract butterflies and this area seems to have a liking for them when considering all of the ones which have grown in the other planted sectioned.

As the spell works… a blade of grows shoots up from the soil. That's not quite the same thing but I'm not disappointed. This will take some adjusting.

After a few more attempts, I give up for now and decide to make this a full grass patch. That requires me to try and make the spell grow only grass for ten casts in a row. It seems to be doing a flower once every eight or nine based on the first few patches so I'm sure I'll know if I succeed or not once I hit ten blades of grass.

Focusing on the Skill, I try to guide it into growing grass as I go for the fifth one and not only does a blade of grass grow, but a deeper understanding of the magic the Skill is for enters my mind as a notice appears within my vision.

You've reached Level 2 in [Growth Plant]!

So that's what it is… I can't guide the magic into a specific type of plant even in the broader categories unless the Skill itself is a decent Level. Grass is probably the only thing I can intentionally grow at Level 1, while Level 2 might include flowers. The new information I received doesn't explicitly tell me what I can grow, but it's made it clear that the Level does affect it to some degree.

The only other effect from the spell gaining a Level should be its casting time reducing, but I want to double-check so I call up the Skill menu for a quick look.

[Grow Plant] Level: 2 Grow a plant using your magical power. Cost: 1,000 MP Casting Time: 27 seconds Range: 16.5"

Just as I expected, the only thing which changed was the casting time. The range at which I can cast the spell is dependent on my Magic, so that wasn't affected by the Skill increasing in Level but by me doing so.

I close the window and tear off the seeds from the grasses, then plant them around their parents.

Just before I cast [Boost Plant Growth], an idea comes to me. If I gained a Level in [Grow Plant] by focusing it on growing a specific type, then I could possibly gain a Level in [Boost Plant Growth] by focusing its effect on a smaller area. Instead of its massive range, I shrink it down to contain just this one spot.

Affecting the other patches I've already grown sounds good in theory since it helps them spread some on their own as well, but gaining a Level in its Skill is pretty important for more efficient work.

"Although," I look at Flow, who's still in his adult form and has laid down a few feet away from me. "I probably should've just waited to use [Boost Plant Growth] until after I'd done enough patches to fill in its full range, huh?"

Flow snorts in response.

Every time I've cast it so far, several of the patches were within its range rather than just one due to how far the spell reaches now. That's made all except the last one I actually cast it at grow decently. They haven't reached their peak heights so they aren't spreading yet, but there are plenty more seeds I could grab and bury.

That's not for now, though.

I return my attention to the patch of grass and buried seeds and focus my mind on the Skill. Reduce it down from taking up nearly four dozen feet to less than one. Concentrate the power which goes into it to a smaller space and… unleash!

The gold-and-green light which flows out of my hand for this cast isn't quite the same as normal. Rather than being more diffuse, it seems more concentrated, more bold and bright. A deeper understanding of the magic at work enters my minds as a notification appears in my vision.

You've reached Level 2 in [Boost Plant Growth]!

The prior casts of this brought the grasses in the prior patches to about 6" in length for the specific ones it was growing, and then up by another 1-2" after that. This cast brings the targeted grasses up to about 9" in length by its end. That doesn't seem properly proportional, but there's likely a limit to what it can do.

Once the three seconds of duration ends, I check the Skill menu for the new information, just to double-check that the changes are as I expected. Only the casting time and duration should have been affected for this one.

[Boost Plant Growth] Level: 2 Boost the growth of a plant using your magic. Cost: 1,000 MP Casting Time: 27 seconds Duration: 6 seconds Range: 22'

While the duration went up from the Skill's Level improving, that didn't affect the cast already in progress. All future casts having that extra three seconds will be a big benefit, however, as it will make the spell work more efficiently on things which require greater work, such as bushes and trees.

With how much mental effort it takes to improve just one Skill and with having already boosted up two Skills, I decide to take a break from working on that and just focus on growing more plants. This time, I do things a little bit more smartly and use [Grow Plant] to get plenty of patches started. The seeds from the grasses are ripped off and planted when I finish the patch, then I move on to the next.

Only once a sufficient amount of patches are ready do I use [Boost Plant Growth]. Doing it this way saves me almost fifteen minutes just on the casting time alone. That does mean that each patch only receives the boost once, but it saves me mana and time so I consider that a fair trade. Things will grow more while I'm not here as well so it doesn't matter too much.

I look around at the newly-planted section once I'm done. There are now roughly fifty patches of grass with a flower or two in each. Several spots grew bushes on their own, and only one tree sprouted here, on the upper end of the slope of this section.

This zone is starting to look more like a proper "butterfly hill" and things better continue that way. If the water cycle does exist here and that's how the areas not super close to the water sources and rivers get fertilized, then I hope I'm able to get that going soon. I still really want to know how things like that work here, but answers don't just appear out of thin air.

Though now that I think about it, I do have someone I can ask that isn't going to misunderstand my question and think I'm asking if he wants to play in water.

"Hey, Flow?" I look at the wolf, who's supervising the pups and otter playing in the river.

He glances in my direction.

"Do you know if it ever rains here?" I ask. "If there's a proper water cycle? I know the sun is fake, but-"

An answer comes before I can finish my question. Impressions and memories. He's apparently asked the King of the Celestials about this before due to him noticing it sometimes rain or mist or fog throughout the Mythic Forest. The answer is that there is a sort of a water cycle, but he's not sure how it works and the big boy's explanation made his head spin.

"Thanks," I tell him, and he nods and returns to watching the younger ones play.

Now that I have a proper confirmation for that, it's easy to assume that getting the big river restarted is definitely important for me to grow plants further away from the smaller river than just where its waters reach. I'm not going to work more on that today, though.

Today's had more than enough active work for me. It's time to relax until dinner and there's a large wolf that probably won't mind me using him as a pillow again.