Explorer of Edregon

Vin saw no reason why he should wait after getting the runic formations from his magical apprentices, so the rest of the day was spent in isolation as he put together his two newest spells. Despite Ronald’s spell being in the second tier, neither of them were all that complicated at his current level, and both were welcome additions to his magical toolbox.

New spell learned! Tier 2 Fire spell (Warmth)

New spell learned! Tier 1 Water spell (Firm Water)

Naturally, his days of receiving experience for learning magic from his allies or witnessing their spells were long behind him, but he couldn’t complain too much about the lack of easy experience. It had been just over a month since he’d hit his second prestige, and already he was up to level 45. While it was far slower than what he’d accomplished in the past, five levels in a single month at this stage was incredible growth, according to basically everyone he asked. It almost made facing down multiple epic monsters and nearly frying his brain to a few grand arcane discoveries worth it.

After showing off his latest spells to Lumel and laughing as he tried and failed to keep her from moving around in one of his Aqua Sphere’s with Wanda’s Firm Water spell, he called it a night. The discovery that he could cast Warmth on himself before falling asleep was a dangerous one, as his stronghold of slumber was already getting to the point where he almost didn’t want to actually get up in the mornings.

A small part of him feared if he improved upon it any more, he’d simply decide to forgo running around in favor of sleeping all day.

“Any idea where Shia is?” Vin yawned as he stepped into the common room the next morning and spotted Scule sniffing leaves of differing colors. Vin could only assume the petian was doing something that would be highly dangerous for anyone who wasn’t immune to poisons, as every so often he paused to lick one of the leaves as well, making hilarious faces at the different tastes.

“Pretty sure she’s been helping Mary figure out how to make those flowers that will bloom down in the Crater,” Scule said, shuddering at the taste of a leaf with blue spots all over it before tossing it down to the table and kicking it further away. “It’s already been five days since you last spoke with Nohral. Probably shouldn’t keep the dwarf waiting if you want that armor for your people.”

“Oh crap, it has already been five days, hasn’t it?” Vin realized, grimacing at the thought. “Thanks, Scule, time always seems to get away from me somehow.”

“It’s what I do,” Scule said, nibbling at the edge of a blood-red leaf and looking like he was going to be sick, much to Reginald’s amusement.

Lumel was planning to spend the day down in the Underside, so Vin ran off in search of Terra’s resident Druid. Thankfully, Shia had told him the location of Mary’s secret garden, so it didn’t take him long to find her.

Though to his surprise, not only did he find Shia and Mary, he found Casper working alongside them as well.

“That strain can handle heat, but a lack of humidity dries them out too quickly,” he heard Mary mutter as he approached, the Herbalist not even looking up at him as she turned to her fellow plant-lovers. “Shia, can you try using Rapid Growth on this strain over here? I think it looks promising, but I can’t be certain.”

“You’re going about this the wrong way! I’m telling you, we should build off the clippings from the cacti from the red desert!” Casper snapped, as though this was far from the first time he’d suggested such a thing. “It’s the best example we have of a plant surviving in extreme heat!”

“We tried that already! Unless you’ve forgotten, we didn’t get flowers, we just kept getting spiky sticks!”

While Mary and Casper stared daggers at one another, Shia stepped back and gave him a tired grin. “Hey, Vin. What brings you to this neck of the woods?”

“I was actually curious as to how the heat-resistant flowers were going,” he admitted, peering over her shoulder at the two Herbalists who looked like they were preparing to start grappling with one another. “…I see it’s not going well.”

“The Crater is a pretty extreme biome for plants,” Shia admitted, sighing as she watched the two Herbalists fight. “Even with my ability to talk to plants and encourage them to grow in certain ways, we’ve been struggling. We can create strains of plants that can survive in the heat, that’s not the problem. The issue is trying to create flowers that don’t look like they’re barely clinging to life. Even our best attempts only manage to hold up for a few hours before withering.”

“I didn’t realize this was going to be so difficult, but I guess it makes sense. The Crater was probably the least pleasant fragment to be in heat and dryness wise.”

“It comes with living in the center of an active volcano,” Shia snorted. “Though I’m glad you’re here, I actually had an idea I wanted to try that might work, and I need your help to do it.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Whatever you need, just let me know,” he said, happy to hear he could be of assistance. “Terra needs this deal with the dwarves. The armor they’re willing to provide would be a massive game changer for the future waves.”

“Mary, Casper, calm down before you start rolling over all our hard work,” Shia snapped, causing the two Herbalists to jump and finally notice Vin’s arrival.

“Vin! Good to see you again!” Casper smiled, getting up and shaking his hand. “It’s been a while since we last ate together. How are you?”

“Doing fine! Hopefully here to help, based on what Shia seems to think.”

“What’s this idea of yours, Shia?” Mary asked, giving him a polite nod. “I’m aware that The Roamer has some magic under his belt, but I figured he wouldn’t have any nature magic that you didn’t already possess.”

“True, Vin doesn’t have any nature or life magic I don’t… But, there is one spell he’s picked up that might solve everything, if we can get it to work,” she said, grinning at the three of them. “Vin knows Protection from Fire.”

Mary and Casper gasped at the revelation, but Vin merely blinked and gave her a confused look. “Even if my spell works on plants, which I don’t actually know if it will, isn’t that just a temporary measure? I would have volunteered my services ages ago if I thought that would work.”

“They’re not common, but magical plants naturally grow on different parts of Edregon,” Casper explained as Mary began muttering to herself once more. “While Mary and I have found a number of them and experimented with them, neither of us have tried actually growing our own from scratch. Shia, would something like that even work?”

“With my Capstone and ability to influence plant-life, I think we can pull it off,” she nodded. “I am a twice-prestiged Druid, after all. I wanted to give the two of you a chance to try and solve the problem yourselves and hopefully level a bit from the challenge, but we don’t want to keep the dwarves waiting too long. It’s time we added some magic to the equation.”

“We’ll have to see precisely how much heat the spell is able to withstand, that will determine which of the preexisting strains we can start with,” Mary said, her eyes snapping to Vin. He knew from Shia that whereas Casper was all about searching for new plants, Mary devoted her time to propagating entirely new species. The thought of growing a magical plant that hadn’t existed before seemed to have ignited a fire within her eyes, and Vin found himself standing at rapt attention as the Herbalist directed him toward a portion of the garden. “These seeds over here, let’s start with them. Shia, can you coach the plants to accept the magic as he casts?”

“I’ll do my best.” As the two of them crouched down, Shia halted him before he could start casting. “I know you haven’t actually made an artifact just yet, but what we’re about to do here is somewhat similar. Don’t just cast your magic on the seed, you need to create the runic formation and then push it into the seed. Push the entire mana construct from your core into the seed itself. I’ll be actively coaching the seed to accept your runic formation, so it should make it even easier. Hilariously, if you can get this, I’d say you’re officially ready to try creating an actual artifact.”

“Seriously?” Vin asked, taken aback by the sudden declaration. “You think so?”

“Vin, you’ve been crafting entirely new spells,” Shia drawled, looking at him like he was an idiot. “Artifact creation is far less dangerous than that, seeing as it uses preexisting runic formations. You’ve just been so busy we hadn’t gotten around to discussing it. Not to mention you need certain materials and to prepare them correctly, something me and Lumel still need to teach you.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, laughing at the realization. “I suppose I never thought about it. Maybe once we get this trade going with the dwarves I can finally give making an artifact a shot. It has been quite some time since Abby first asked me to enchant some badges for her guards.”

“Guards later, plants now!” Mary snapped, causing them both to flinch as she suddenly appeared between them. “Start casting!”

Not wasting any time, Vin did as ordered, easily throwing together the runic formation for Protection from Fire within his mana. Though as Shia had instructed, rather than letting the spell activate, he purposefully held off on flooding his mana through the structure, and instead focused on the physical seed held between his and Shia’s hand.

Alright… How exactly do I shove a runic formation into something else?

The first half of the problem was actually surprisingly simple, as Vin already had experience moving entire runic formations from artifacts into his mana pool. As long as the spell was simple enough, he could do the same thing in reverse no problem.

The issue was he couldn’t find the seed to place his spell within it.

With artifacts, so long as he was touching them, he could feel something akin to their own mana pools, and even see the runic formations floating within. The seed clasped between their hands, however, didn’t have that.

Or at least, it didn’t have that at first.

Even as he tried to figure out what to do, he started as he realized the seed suddenly had its own tiny mana pool spring up into existence. Shia had to be working her magic and preparing the seed for him, because before his very own senses, he watched as the tiny, artificial mana pool that couldn’t hold a tier 0 spell, much less a tier 1, slowly grew wider and wider. It wasn’t long before it became large enough for his runic formation, and he got to work.

Gingerly, careful not to accidentally trigger the spell or mess up any of the runes, Vin pushed the runic formation out of his own mana and into the seed, relying on Iron Mind and his own high focus attribute to keep the structure stable as it drifted from him to his target. There was a brief moment as he tried to push it where the structure seemed to catch and falter, and he almost lost the entire thing, before he felt some unseen force from the seed reach out and almost pull it over that strange hump. He could only assume that force was Shia working from the other end to help him along, and he nodded his appreciation as he kept focusing.

With an almost audible pop, his runic formation hopped from his mana into the seed, and Vin blinked as he realized he was no longer holding any sway over the formation. The switch had been near instantaneous, and he opened his eyes to find Shia grinning at him.

“Congratulations,” she said, holding up a seed that looked totally normal to the naked eye, but that he could feel gentle magic radiating off of. “You’ve just taken the first step toward creating a new species of magical plant!”