Mikhaïl Grona, Alchemist and Herbalist, research notebook.

Second entry, Gronernday, third of Dorbuary, 1427 Keln Calendar.

 

1. 2 days since previous entry.
2. Preliminary results.

 

Standing hypothesis:

1. Subject engineered by high lvl Herbalist/Horticulturist/other’s laboratory, seed ‘escaped’ (bird eating fruit? seed entangled in animal fur?), and sprouted in desert by luck.
2. Subject engineered by high lvl Herbalist/Horticulturist/other’s laboratory and planted in the desert for experimentation.
3. Random mutation.
4. Subject sprouted from higher and unknown parent.
5. Subject some kind of predator.

 

Ongoing tests:

1. Attraction of the subject to blood (cut hand in planter, compare root speed growth to determine).
2. Severed reservoir organ to test speed of regrowth.
3. Made TS1 (Akim) eat cooked reservoir organ part.
4. Planted parts of reservoir organ to test regrowth from it.
5. (Mix between tests 1. and 4.) Installment of one severed hand above one of the severed parts to test differentiation of speed of growth.

 

If tests successful:

1. 5. Change dietary apports.
2. 3. 4. 5. Cultivate the plant for more experimentation and providing food to kitchen for budget raise.
3. Make TS1 eat raw part, then other cooking variance. Try same on Damian.

 

Tests first results:

1. Conclusive. The subject’s roots grew more in the direction of the severed hand.
2. Conclusive. Reservoir organ growing back at high speed. Estimated time of completion, 3days.
3. Conclusive. TS1 survived without complications.
4. Conclusive. Severed parts of reservoir organ starting to sprout.
5. Inconclusive. No noticeable differentiation in growth’s speed.

 

Pursuing tests:

1. Attraction to blood.
2. Reservoir organ regrowth speed.
3. Potential for food. Make TS1 consume raw.
4. Potential for cultivation.
5. Attraction to flesh.

 

New tests:

1. Differentiation between blood and flesh (installment of severed foot directly in contact with root from main subject) (removal of previous severed hand, watering with blood from TS1).
2. Follow up on Test 3. on Damian.

 

If tests successful:

1. 5. 6. Continue experimentation on different dietary apports. Make demand for supply of corpses.
2. 3. 4. 5. 7. Cultivation.
3. Try other forms of consumption. Postponed until 1st harvest.
4. Follow up tests on Silvia.

---

[Bazil!
Good news!]

Greeny?! I’m so glad to hear you! What happened? I thought I wouldn’t be able to talk to you before tomorrow! Bazil exclaimed surprised and glad to have the girly entity talk to him one day before their meeting.

[Something good.
Something real good!
Bluey made a mistake, a big one.]

Oh? Please tell me more. The sentient plant was extremely curious about the green entity’s declaration. It had supposed she would be downtrodden about their missed meeting, Bazil sure had been. But Greeny seemed to be in an overly good mood and that made it curious.

[Yeah, the idiot did something she shouldn’t have.
She cheated and I caught her!
And when I ratted her to Hirtole he decided to punish her!
Hahaha!]

Well, that does sound good. That will teach her to bully you. So what did she do?

[She used her influence over the System to send that ball of fur after you!]

What?! The bitch! I swear I’ll find a way to reach her and rape her! The evil plant declared.

[Yeah!
That’ll teach the bitch!]

And then I’ll go to you and cuddle you! Bazil added. For you are the best girl ever!

[Yes!
You’ll cuddle me!
Ah- wait a second!
I didn’t say you could cuddle me.
I like you, but I don’t know if I like you enough for that.]

Sorry, I missed you so much that I went a bit overboard there. Bazil thought apologetically.

[Aahn.
It’s fine, but I’m not an easy girl.
It’s not ‘cause you’re the only one that you are the one.
And we have time, a lot of it.
We’ll see about that once you’ve conquered the world.
Alright?]

Yeah, sorry again. The sentient plant was a bit surprised by the mature tone of Greeny’s voice, she was usually so young-sounding and cheerful. But she was several millennia old, she had had a lot of time to grow and become a mature and powerful System Interface. Sometimes, it showed.

So, tell me. Is her punishment related to you being early? Because that sounds more like a reward for us.

[Oh yeah.
I can talk a lot more than before now.
And about a lot more things too.]

Awesome!

[Yep.
You see, Bluey influenced the System to send a man after you.
The dude is an Alchemist and an Herborist, he got the Classes, but he’s also a bad seed in sentient societies.
With his love for poisons and all.
Her plan was for him to harvest you ‘till you die.]

The bitch!

[Yeah!
But she made two mistakes.
The first is that the Beorn, that’s his species, wants to study you, so he won’t kill you.
But he may do things.]

Yeah, I noticed. Bazil thought icily, recalling his castration.

[Nobody cuts my Bazil’s dicktatoe!
You’ll cut his dick and made him eat it!]

That I will! The vengeful plant declared.

[The second mistake was that she didn’t clear her traces well enough.
I thought it weird that you were found so easily and quickly, considering your location, so I looked at the System’s logs.
And lo and behold!
I found traces of her tempering.
So I looked more into it and rated her to Hirtole!
He was mighty mad and went on and on about neutrality, non-interference, and stuff.]

Is he a fan of Star Trek?

[What?
No.
The hypocrite just wants nobody but him to play with his toys.]

Ah! Bazil exclaimed. It could at least relate to that, nobody was allowed to play with its toys but it and the people it specifically authorized.

[Then she argued about how you were a dangerous degenerate and that she could not allow you to soil his world and the people living on it, yadda, yadda, yadda.
But I intervened!
It was grandiose!
I talked about how you would be the perfect antagonist for a shining hero to appear and save the day!]

You mean a boring hero, right?

[Fuck yes, you’re right!
So, I argued about how she had wrong you by doing that.
How she was stunting your development and you would never become the great villain you’re supposed to be.
I went on and on on the fact great nemesis are what makes heroes interesting.
I played a lot on the fact that she was ruining the show for Hirtole.
And it worked!
I also talked about how that had wronged me too!
About how I was so happy to have someone to talk too other than Hirtole and my sisters and how hindering you was hurting me.
And at that moment my other sisters butted in!
They were jealous of you and me!]

I can get that, we’re pretty great. The sentient plant stated.

[I know, right?
So, they argued that they should have sentients too and that Bluey was an asshole.
At the end, Hirtole said that he would agree for each of us to select one soul and make it our champion.
He had several in stock that he had not implanted on Hirt yet.
And that we could talk to them for three hours a day and guide them.
That if we wanted to choose a soul already reborn we could, but they needed to be young, for it would be ‘inequitable’ to choose someone already too powerful.
It would make the world a more interesting place to watch.
Of course, I chose you!
You’re going to crush them!
Particularly Bluey’s guy!]

Yeah, I’m gonna get back at her by destroying her dude! Bazil was pumped up and ready for the competition. It would be good to have some rivals, it would help it to keep its motivation in the time to come. And if it could really injure Bluey for how she treated Greeny for all this time, it would gladly do so. Not that it knew more about their relationship that what its green friend had told it.

So, if I got it right, I’ll have the chance of seeing you longer and more often than before? Bazil enquired.

[Yep!
Three hours a day.]

That’s great! I assume today counts, right? The sentient plant was elated to learn that it would be able to talk to Greeny so long and so often. It would have someone to bounce ideas with and to help it stay relatively sane.

[Yup, it does]

And you can tell me more about stuff? Does that mean you can explain to me what does the Outworlder Skill do or where I am?

[That I can!
Do you want to know?]

I’m not sure, would it really be helpful to know? Bazil could hear the mischievous tone of its friend, so it decided to play a bit and be mischievous too. They had time to fool around, now.

[Hmmm, maybe.
How would you like to know about your overpowered Skill?
Or about the bandits camp you’re in?]

I’d like that a lot. Please enlighten me Oh Great Greeny! The green entity had no face to present Bazil, but if she had it was a certainty there would be impishly twinkling eyes.

[Before I start, I have a warning.
Everything I tell you, my sisters have a right to give equivalent information to their guys.
So, sometimes it may be better not to ask too much.
But for now, we are clear, I know for a fact my sisters will tell more than what I was allowed to say before.]

Warning heard. Bazil said. It would keep in mind that its competition could benefit from it if it asked too much, but it also meant that the plant could obtain free information if the others asked for more.

[So, the Outworlder Skill, uh?
That one of the best Skills there are and no locals will be able to get it.
Why?
Teehee, it’s in the name, its because you need to be an Outworlder!]

Bazil had guessed as much, but it still wanted to know more about this peculiar Skill. So it kept on listening.

[That’s the Skill that gives you so many Skill points!
It gives you one every five levels you gain in a Class.
That’s a whole more than normal.
It helps a bunch in unlocking secondary Skills.
It also helps you gain more levels.
Well, not anymore, the time for that is up and you’re at normal speed now.
And that’s the Skill that allows you to keep your memory from your previous life!
It’s a great Skill!]

Wow. Too bad for the time lost, but at least I have a head start on the others. Bazil wasn’t that worried about the loss of the leveling boost. It had already well served it for leveling its early Skills. It would have loved to keep it, of course, but it still had a lot of advantages on local people. Like its knowledge and memories from its previous life, the bigger amount of Skill points, and more importantly, the help of Greeny.
The only downside was the other Outworlders, but then, they would lose that boost too, so they were still on equal ground. Bazil’s actual position also force it to keep in mind that locals may not have the boost it had, but they were already there and much more familiarized with the System and its workings.

[Oh!
I almost forgot!
The Outworlder Skill!
It also allows Outworlders to recognize one another!]

What?! Does that mean killing one will grant me their power in a lightning show? And at the end ‘There can be only one’? Bazil jested.

[What?
No!
Idiot!
This is real life, not some weird movies.]

Hey! The TV show was great! The former Human felt obligated to defend one of its favorite shows. Well, the first one at least, the second was just meh, and let’s not talk about the anime.

[If you say so…
Anyway!
No, there’s no stealing powers or sensing the other presence or whatnot.
It just allows you to recognize another Outworlder when you see one.]

That would have been awesome though. The Grass sighed. But tell me more about your sisters, what are they like? I know Bluey’s a bitch, but the others?

[Well, they don’t have names yet.
I guess they will have soon though.
There’s a brown one, she takes care of the animals.
She’s friend with Bluey, so you can crush her pet and her dreams too.
The grey one isn’t bad, she usually doesn’t care about anything.
She takes care of stones and stuff like that, that makes her kind of boring.
The last one is purple.
I think she’s the more jealous of us.
She takes care of the ‘rest’, it means bacterias, viruses, non-sentient undead, and everything that threatens Bluey’s sentients.
Bluey hates her even more than I hate Bluey.
I can’t say anything about who they chose, I don’t know yet.]

And I suppose every thing you tell me about them, they’ll know about me…

[Exactly!]

Allright, we’ll wait for them to ask things about me first, it’s not like it matters for now. Bazil knew one was a sentient and had access to a lot more stuff than the others, itself included, and would probably be the more dangerous of the lot. Particularly if they worked with the animal one. The fact that the brown System Interface was friend with Bluey could lead to that.

The mineral one was not worrying Bazil. As a plant it was slowed in its mental processing, so it guessed it would be even worse for this one.

The last one was affiliated with the SI responsible for all kind of disseases, and undead, and other stuff not covered by the previous SI. It was kind of vague what exactly was her domain. The sentient plant assumed it would be to impractical to use a dissease, they worked by multiplicating and proliferating themselves, except if they could keep a shared mind it would be too weak to use. No, in Bazil’s mind this contender would either be an undead or something unknown. And since Greeny had not developed the other stuff in her purple sister’s care, it assumed those would be irrelevant and its rival there would be some kind of undead.

In all cases, there was no point in worrying about them for now. Like the sentient plant, they would need time to grow powerful enough to become real threats, if they choose to ever become that. The only thing interesting Bazil for now was about their geographical position to him. If they were halfway accross the glob, it wouldn’t wory about them. But if they were just waiting next town, it would be another matter entirely. Unfortunately, Greeny did not have this information yet.

At the minimum I’d like to know if they are close to me or not, and the direction they’re in. Would you please tell me when you know it?

[Of course I’ll tell you!
Who do you take me for?]

The best girl ever? Bazil tried.

[Tee-hee!]

So, as much as I love to talk to you, I have other questions. And I don’t care if the others learn equivalent stuff. I need to know were I am and what the fuck happened to me. The sentient plant refocused its thoughts on more immediate matters.

[Oh, that, let me tell you!
First Bluey the Bitch send that Beorn after you.
He found you and captured you.
I was so scared he would kill you!
But he got captured by bandits!
At the moment I thought ‘Ha! Serves you!’
But then I feared the bandits would let you dry on the desert sand and you would die…
I cried a little…
Snirfl.]

There, there. I’m alright now.

[But the bandits picked you up.
They must have thought you were some kind of important plant.]

With reason.

[I know, right?
So, they brought you and the fucker back to their camp.
It’s a big camp let me tell you, almost as big as a town, it’s more of a big village than a camp.
But then Mikhaïl, that the bastard’s name (I checked, he’s a bastard), made a deal with the bandits’ leader.
He works for them now, even got two assistants.
Damian and Silvia.
I think you’d like Silvia.
And now they’re making stuff to you.
Damian’s the one who cut you.
But Mikhaïl gave the order.]

I’ll kill the two of them. Bazil swore.

[And they’re feeding you blood and flesh.
Mikhaïl’s a Mad Alchemist, that’s a dangerous evolution of the Alchemist Class.
I don’t know what’s going on in his head.
But right now they’re conducting several experiments.
One is to see what you like to eat, I think.
It’s for this one you’re fed flesh and blood on a side of your planter.
Another is to see if your edible, they got a poor man strapped to a table and feed him your parts.
It’s the man they're taking part to feed you, though.
You’re eating one another.
It’s weird.
The last thing is to plant other parts to see if they grow.
For the moment they do.]

Any results? And what about the bit they left behind?

[It’s growing well, I’m keeping an eye on it.
And for the moment you seem edible and the parts are growing fast in their own planter.]

So, what’s a Beorn and where are we on a larger scale?

[Beorns are some kind of cross between bears and Humans, they got an Empire far north which uses a cast system, but it’s boring and far.
You, you’re in a bandit town.
The Blood Sand Bandits!
They’re among the biggest and meanest group and trade in pilfered goods and slaves.
Closets real town is Wadrabak.
It’s pretty big and the dirigents are corrupt.
It’s in the Keln Great Desert.
In the Keln Calipha.
There’s not a lot of plants around here, but they tend to be fierce.
I love them!]

Bazil and Greeny talked for the rest of their aloted time, and at the end of it the sentient plant had a lot more information about it’s position. But it wasn’t of any concret help for it’s escape plans.

It still needed to grow in strenght and bid it’s time.