Chapter 285: Planting a Seed

Slowly, the metal doors of the bunker slid open, revealing a large, dimly lit room beyond. Until now, this area had blocked my True Sight from perceiving what was within the bunker, likely as a countermeasure to prevent someone from potentially just teleporting in without clearing out any of the puzzle outside the bunker.

Along the walls of the bunker were hundreds, maybe thousands of little glass vials with seeds of various different sizes and shapes, resting in a clear fluid. Bella, Diane and I all walked inside, looking around at the vials.

Along the far wall was a terminal, much like the one that we saw in the water recycling plant dungeon. However, this one did not look aged, its controls still clearly legible.

Bella slowly blinked, looking at all of the different controls, many of which seemed to be made redundant by the existence of an ‘Automatic Startup’ button. “I bet this is just to serve as a hint for Players that they’ll need to use Timeless Traces on the terminal at the water recycling plant or something.”

Diane and I both nodded our heads in agreement. Given how much I had to use Timeless Traces both in the Sand Castle and in this dungeon, any normal user would have surely managed to reach level five, which was what I assumed was needed as the bare minimum for the water recycling plant.

“Still, we’ve spent all day here. The water would have only risen even more, so we should get this started.” I pressed the ‘Automatic Startup’ button, and the screen above the terminal flickered to life, text flying across it faster than I could register. All at once, the vials of seeds along the walls began to glow, green light radiating throughout the bunker.

The ground shook, causing the three of us to stumble, and we could see a thick beam of green light rising up from the ground outside the bunker. Moments later, a screen appeared in front of each of us.

I looked at the messages that appeared, one after another, and the reward options that followed. Each of these would have been very enticing rewards to a normal Player, but for me, there was only one option.

The Status Seed was useless to me because my base stats were those of a level one character. A fifteen percent increase would be almost entirely negligible to me. As for the Item Seed, the only equipment that I regularly used was my armor, and even that I rarely bothered upgrading these days.

However, a Skill Seed had immense value for me. Whether it was creating a new skill or enhancing one of my existing ones, both of these were options that I could fully utilize.

“What reward are you two going for?” I asked, looking at the other two. I didn’t think that it was a coincidence that it offered three rewards when there were three participants. Although the Skill Seed was the only reward that really suited me, I didn’t know if these were unique between us.

“I want the Item Seed,” Bella said after a moment, seeming to have an idea as she clicked on the window. Thankfully, the Item Seed did not disappear from my own rewards list, which solved part of my worries.

Diane, however, was busy typing out a message, no doubt asking her Player which reward she should take. That made sense, since Diane could really make use of any of these three rewards. I watched, waiting until Diane finally spoke up. “My Player says that I should go for the Status Seed. Percentage-based stat increases are really rare, and my highest stat is my agility.”

She clicked on the reward, acquiring a green seed shaped like a pill, and swallowed it without hesitation. With that out of the way, I selected the Skill Seed, which was a bluish seed. Shrugging my shoulders, I popped the seed into my mouth and swallowed it as well.

Instantly, another window appeared in front of me, choosing whether I wanted to create a new skill or to enhance an existing one. I already had in mind the kind of effect that I wanted, so I chose to empower an existing skill, after which it gave me a short list of my plant-based skills. There were really not many, just Herbalism, Logging, Basic Wood Control, Forest Titan, and Walking Fortress.

Presumably, the first two counted because they dealt with the harvesting of plants. Similarly, Walking Fortress counted because it let me use plants as construction materials. However, the target of this empowerment was Forest Titan.

I blinked in surprise, reading over the options. I had expected that I might be able to define what I wanted myself, but instead it provided me with a series of choices, just like whenever we received a power-up in the Seed Bed dungeon, or when we were given our rewards list.

Still, I wasn’t going to complain. All three options looked very appealing. If I had the chance, I would have gone for all three of them without hesitation. However, the upgrade that I was ultimately choosing was Plant Control.

With Walking Fortress, I could theoretically control plants to achieve the same effect, but the process was slower and less reliable. First, I needed there to be a suitable plant in the area for me to target. Secondly, I had to design it as if it were a blueprint, which took crucial time in a battle. This gave an enemy time to realize my plan and get away before I even had the chance to strike. 

Finally, Forest Titan was a skill that I could keep constantly active now that I had Ancient Shifter, which meant that it was always gaining experience, as opposed to Walking Fortress that I rarely had the chance to use. Thus, any effect cast through Forest Titan should be far more powerful compared to one cast through Walking Fortress.

Once I made the selection, I felt an immediate change in my surroundings. As if I had become aware of every plant nearby. This awareness lasted for only a few seconds before my senses returned to normal. My eyes widened at the implication, and I focused on Forest Titan. There was a new option to create vegetation, which I mentally selected.

A list of plants appeared in the corner of my vision, stretching down far beyond what I could see. I did not recognize the names of any of these plants, but I could guess where they were from. Forest Titan must have scanned all of the nearby vegetation to add to its roster, meaning that I could freely create any plant that I scanned after receiving this upgrade.

My first natural thought was to visit Verdantia. There were multiple high-level plant monsters there that I could hopefully scan. Even if I couldn’t scan them due to them becoming monsters, Verdantia itself was crawling with useful foliage.

Of course, there was also another option that I could make use of, though it was perhaps not as effective. There was a resource dungeon near Fallcry that produced Forgewood, a type of tree that erupted with flames when struck. However, these trees were below level two hundred, so I didn’t think that they’d be effective for combat at our level anymore. If I could find higher quality Forgewood, that would be perfect.

Once I was done going through my upgrade, I turned to look at Bella. “What item are you planning to use that seed for?” I asked curiously, and Bella beamed a bright smile at me.

She pulled out her energy rifle, holding it out towards me. “Can you break this for me?” She asked, causing both myself and Diane to do a double take. This was Bella’s most powerful weapon, and she was suddenly asking me to break it.

Noticing the look on my face, she rolled her eyes. “Sooner or later, this rifle is going to become outdated. I already have shadowbound pistols, and all of my armor is similarly capable of growth. The only item I regularly use that is doomed to become obsolete sooner or later is this rifle. Isn’t it just the obvious choice?”

Seeing that she had made her decision about this, I let out a weary sigh. My hand reached out, wrapping around the body of that rifle, and then squeezed with all of my strength. Metal groaned and cracked, sparks shooting off before the material crunched beneath my fingers.

Bella looked at the weapon with a brief pang of regret before gathering all of the pieces and taking them outside the bunker. I knew what she was planning now, so I dug out a large enough hole for her to plant the entire weapon’s remains together with the seed, and then covered it up.

Only after all of this did Diane speak up. “Uhm… the Item Seed never mentioned how long it would take to grow, did it?”

As soon as she heard those words, Bella’s face went deathly pale. She looked at the small mound as if wishing that she could turn back time. Instead, she turned her head to shoot me a pleading look. “Your Forest Titan can promote the growth of nearby plants, right? Right? Do you think this will count?”

I chuckled softly, releasing a wisp of the aura from my Forest Titan skill to cover the mound. Sure enough, the ground cracked, a small bud rising up from the soil. The bud grew larger and thicker, leaves sprouting along the top. These leaves all curled inwards as if protecting something.

When the leaves opened, there was a rifle of nearly identical shape to the one that Bella had sacrificed. However, rather than being made of metal, it was now made of wood and vines. The scope was a clear sap wrapped in flower petals, and there was a yellow fruit at the base of the barrel. As I focused on the fruit, I noticed it slowly starting to glow, gathering energy from the surroundings.

Bella let out a sigh of relief, plucking the rifle from its overgrown flower and inspecting it. “Good, I was starting to get worried there,” she said, before turning to look at the two of us. Suddenly, she paused, her gaze directed at me. “Is everything alright, Drake?” she asked, and I lifted a hand.

Suddenly, ten more stalks sprouted from the ground, each one growing to the size of a person. They had identical flower petals to the one that Bella just grew, but their petals were lightly parted to reveal the barrel of a rifle. As I studied her weapon, I noticed that Forest Titan had silently scanned it and the flower that it originated from, adding it to the roster of plants that I could create.

Bella yelped, jumping back as she saw the plant turrets circling around, and then looked at me. “Okay, that’s just not fair at all.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “I don’t think it’s as powerful as you’re thinking. I’ve got the numbers advantage, but your rifle seems like it constantly builds charge without you needing to charge it anymore. So the ones that I create like this don’t have the time to build up that charge, and their shots should be considerably weaker. Still, they should be good enough to pepper lesser mobs.”