Book 3, Chapter 38

As You Sow, You Shall...Oh s.h.i.+t!

    "That was awesome! You can just keep a

whole lot of enemies at bay if you play music like that. Your skills are area

of effect right?"

    "Yup. And the effect range is pretty big. There's

no limit to how many people I can affect as long as they're within range. And I

can determine which targets to affect and which targets are not. But actually

they're not as powerful as you may think."

    "Come on. What you did just now is already

impressive. People can't use any attacks or move, how will they fight then?"

    "That's not how it works. The effect shows up

slowly. I need to play long enough to achieve something I just did to you. People

can just come attack me when they notice what's going on. My Variation song needs 3 minutes

to completely immobilize someone. I have even lower HP than casters, anyone can

kill me before it happens."

    "That's no problem. So you can't do any solo

battles but you're a deadly killing machine in group fights. You can dominate

the whole battlefield if someone protects you for long enough!"

    "That's sounds good but...I can't."

    "Why's that?"

    "I can't get out! I was teleported here just after

I left the Rookie Village. Then I found out I need to beat the minotaur at the

entrance to leave this place, and it will be a one-on-one fight so I can't find

any helpers. There's no way I can do it!"

    "You have companion slots?"

    "Six. That's

a lot right? I added a lot of Charisma on purpose!"

    That's...quite beyond the average. Though mine is way

more OP. I can bring 9 companions after getting my new cla.s.ses.

    "Yes, that's

a lot more than others. So why didn't you get any? Find some companions that

can keep you safe for 3 minutes, then you have nothing to worry about."

    "I thought about it too. But...I don't have [Capture]

skill."

    "Take this." I took out the "almond".

"Plant this thing into the dirt and grow it using the spring water, you

will get a plant-type companion."

    "Sunflower seed? I have lot of these." She

pulled out a handful of them from her pocket.

    Blast it. That old SoB tricked me! He gave me this daily

snack and pa.s.sed it as a companion! And I've been treating it as a treasure

until now!

    "Hold on a minute. Where did you find so many of them?"

    "They grew on that tree over there. But the tree

bites, I have to play music and lock it up to get near and collect these seeds.

They taste good too. You want some? I never knew these are companion seeds, or

I'll be out of here already."

     She buried a seed into the dirt and splashed

some water on it. A small sprout came out, and puff! It quickly turned into a

tree. Then the tree transformed into a green ball, before it finally

disappeared underground.

    "Huh, so it IS a companion. That old man wasn't lying after all."

    "But... it

didn't listen to my orders?"

    "Oh. You forgot blood. You need to put your own

blood onto the seed before growing it."

    "Got it."

    She did again, it turned out better

this time.

    She grew several more while humming happily like a teenage girl. I quickly

stopped her. "How many have you planted? You can't change your companions,

it will be trouble if you use up all your slots."

    "Oh oops... I forgot! I already got six of them."

    "Ugh. Now you're a musician AND a gardener."

    "Gardener? It's fine, I love flowers. I haven't

introduced myself right? I'm

, my real name is ShangGwan

Yuri."

    She gave that out before I can stop her.

    "My name

is

, real name is Sairin. Don't trust people too easy. We just met

and you already told me your real name. That's dangerous you know."

    "Are you a bad guy?"

    "Um, no."

    "No problem then!" 

    She smiles. I think that

mild smile is always on her face.

    "Oh right. I almost forgot why I came here. Do you

have any almonds left, Yuri? You won't mind me calling you that right?"

    "I don't mind. But what almond?"

    "That

sunflower seed you were just planting. I need one as well."

    "Eh?" Her face turned red. "I'm sorry! I

was too excited just now, I put them all to the ground! Don't worry, I'll take

you to that tree."

    We reached that giant tree after crossing through some

brushes. I mean, it's HUGE, it will take like six people together to hug the

tree with their arms spread.

    Yuri pointed at some red fruits on the tree.

"That's it. You can find the seeds if you crack these fruits open."

    I walked ahead. Yuri dragged me back.

    "Not yet. The

tree bites people. Let me freeze it first."

    Well that seems the safer

approach, so I agreed. Though frankly speaking, I do want to hear the nice

music again.

    The good news is, she successfully stopped the tree after a brief

performance. The bad news is, she forget to switch her attack mode so she froze

me up as well!

    I had to ask Yuri to pick a fruit for me. I told her I need one

but she still collected any last one them within her sight!

    Then I listened to her Sun Anthem again to recover. Geez,

we should really be careful with these songs. They hurt. 

    I broke the fruit to start my planting operation. First,

I cut my own fingers and dropped some blood on it. That green ball monster mentioned I

can power it up by giving more blood, so I called my team and collected some

blood from every one of them.

    The seed has become pitch black when I've finished the job.

Looks like there's something in me that will simply turn anything black when I

decide to mess it up.

    Then I dug a hole and put the seed under. I had to ask

Yuri for help again to water the seed. I can't do anything on my own if she's

not here.

    A small root came out of the dirt quickly. Different from the ones we

saw, this one is completely black as well.

    Something went wrong just as Yuri tried to spoon water

on it. The black vines definitely look like some sort of Dark-affinity creature.

The spring water just caused a lot of white mist and fizzing noise on it. It

looks as if we're pouring strong acid on it!

    The root didn't get knocked away

like me but is obviously hurt.

    Before I decide to give up, Yuri played her Sun Anthem

again. Right, so getting hurt by holy water is considered negative effect too, which

means we can clear it.

    The root straightened itself up but...something doesn't

look right. The leaves on it turned red, then all the veins became blood red

too, like blood vessels.

    I felt the ground shook, like a herd of horses are

galloping somewhere nearby. The shaking got stronger, before several vines shot

out, bond everyone including my companions and Yuri, locking us up off the

ground. We're not losing any HP though, so I told the struggling Lucky to stop

moving. More vines came up and formed into something like a platform. We are released onto it.

    It's pretty safe up here, I looked down towards the

spring, which is now a total mess.

    Countless tentacles grew from the vines. One stretched into the

spring water, then burned up in a blink of an eye. Without stopping, the other

tentacles shot themselves into the water one after another.

    The first ones were all burned to ash. But there are

just too many, they managed to cover the whole spring up in the end. A really

thick tentacle crashed into the spring hole on the rock, breaking it apart. The

spring stopped flowing.

    Next, the vines started to spread around us, the whole

garden is covered by the vines in no time.

    The spring is now dried out, the trees died. A strong

wind current blew over, turning the once beautiful scenery into a wasted desert!

    "Holy-- What the heck happened? Phantom, ask him what's that all about!"

    Phantom paused a little. "He over-evolved because

we used too much blood. He's now level 900, the [Enhanced Creeper]. He was

trying to absorb the surrounding energy, this is what happened."

    "That was crazy!"

    Yuri looked at

the desert land below us with some sadness. "This is...terrible."

    A black rose and a

crimson rose suddenly appeared on a vine near her.

    Phantom said: "He says

that was his instinct to get fully grown and he couldn't control it. He won't

and probably cannot do that again. He gave those flowers to Yuri as an apology."

    ...Is this plant actually trying to pick up a girl?

    "Okaaay. So,

I'll be calling you 'Rosa' from now on. Let us down, please?"

    There. It feels safe if you can actually touch the

ground with your own feet. I think I've been "in the air" for too much today.

    Rosa recovered to his original size as well.

    We still got problems, though.