Chapter 5: Green Thumb
Day 17
"Erst Shield!" Naofumi stretched out his hand and deployed a translucent shield in front of a villager. The vine that attacked slammed into the shield and protected the child as it escaped.
"As the source of my power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature and power up the blades of my allies. [All Zweite Light Enchant]!"
Raphtalia touched the weapons of several of her fellow villagers, causing them to glow with radiant energy.
"Hell yeah, Raphtalia. Nice work."
"No time for applause, Rifana. Every charge!" Keel commanded
Running front and center. Keel was joined by several other villagers nearby as they cut their way through the onslaught of vines. They were soon forced to stop, their path being blocked by a wall of vines. They were about to attack it, but a filolial flew through the air and punctured through the wall like paper.
"[Zephyr Cannon!]"
Several other filolials were launched by Yuki, piercing through the wall like a speeding bullet.
With the barrage of Filolial taking down the wall, the villagers continue their advance, reaching the base of the tree with the support of the filolial.
"[Zweite Flare Clone, Zweite Flame Blade!]"
Rifana was the first to attack. Her sword burst into flames, making the flames turn gold as it combined with Raphtalia's enchantment.
"You better not fall behind Keel!" Rifana taunted. Splitting herself into four clones made of flame, she rushed forward, slashing at the base of the tree and leaving a searing gash that burnt away any attempt at regeneration. The rest of her copies soon followed behind and attacked the same spot, extending everyone's window of attack.
"I stopped his growth; attack now!"
"Don't think I'll ever be outpaced by you, Rifana!" Keel howled as he ran on all fours. Kicking his way through the vines blocking his path, he leapt forward, delivering a powerful punch at the
"I won't be left behind too! [Zweite Cross Slash]!" Joining in on the attack, carving an X into the tree, leaving a trail of light where she cut. When she sheathed her blade, the light flared up and burned its way further in.
"Nice one. Everyone attack now!" Keel commanded.
"Yah!" The kids all rushed in. The villagers attacked, each one using the enchantment provided by wrath to cut deeper and deeper into the trunk of the tree. Before long, the tree was almost cut, but Rifana's flames began to fade, allowing it to regrow its lost bark.
"Damn, it's regrowing. Double time it, Kuro!"
"The black thunder is ready." Kuro dashed through the open path, trampling and running through any vine that came their way. Dalton sat upon his back, channeling the wing around them as he chanted.
Don't mess up, don't mess up. You can do this, Dalton.
"I call upon the power of the wind. Come to me and take form. Dragon Vein, lend me your power! [Gale Slash]!"
With the hint of a demonic tone in his voice. The wind flowed into Kuro's wings, turning them razor-sharp. Using his blades to slash through the approaching vines, Kuro broke through.
And delivered the final slash to the tree, cleaving it before it could regenerate. With the final cut, the tree fell over. While everyone was cheering, however, the attack force was knocked away, as it regrew from its stump, and continued its rampage.
"Even a joint attack from our strongest people didn't kill it. This thing is tougher than I imagined."
"Tell me about it," Naofumi grumbled. No matter what they did, it just kept getting back up. The reinforcements from Sadeena only helped delay it, but even then, they won't be able to keep up at this rate.
"Are you any closer to finishing the potion?"
"Don't rush me, Melty. It's not a common occurrence for someone to make herbicide to fight a mutated plant!" Naofumi complained as he mixed the solution of liquid and other add-ons in his mortar. He was already halfway finished when the kids began their assault, so all it took was a little more mixing until he was complete.
"I need a minute to test this out. I need a shrub or something large."
A giant vine appeared over Naofumi and Melty's heads and came crashing down. Sakura, however, jumped out of his pocket and kicked the vine away.
"Well, that would do." Pouring the herbicide on the vine, the vine started to shrivel and die. The vine definitely tried to swing itself up and down, but a few kids came over and held it down long enough for the test to become a success.
"Perfect. That should quell all of Melty's complaints now."
"Complaints! The village is overrun by vines!"
"And whose fault is that?"
"Yours!"
"Um, no!?. You're the one who told me about this legend in the first place, which I may remind you, caused all of this!"
"It is not my fault that you decided to listen to that story!"
"Oh, so now it's a story now!"
"You know what I mean!"
"Stop bickering and get to fighting!" Several of the kids shouted in unison.
"Alright, geez. Since when did they get bossy? Naofumi complained as he dumped the rest of the contents into a bottle. He was certain that after this debacle was finished, Sadeena would never listen to Melty's legends ever again.
"Sadeena. Get over here." Naofumi called.
At his call, a bolt of lightning shot itself out from the heart of the three and landed right next to him. "You called little Naofumi?"
"Shut up and smash this bottle into the tree. You need to aim for the seed itself, or it'll just keep growing."
"We'll cover your approach," Yuki commanded.
"Yeah. We shall bring justice to the vines that so heinously decided to attack our poor village and bring an end to its-"
"Just start the casting already, Dynn!"
"Hpm." Dynn pouted. "I shall seek retribution for this later."
All the filolial gathered into 2 circles. Yuki and Dynn stood in the middle of both groups, swinging their arms as they controlled the wind wings produced from their circles.
"[Double Wind Typhoon]!"
Tossing it forward, the wind of both teams swirled together and created an unstoppable gale. All the vines that were advancing were blown away. The tree also didn't stand a chance, as it was ripped out of the ground and tossed away.
As the tree fell, Sadeena dashed through the recently cleared battlefield. The core had gone into panic mode and threw everything it had at the approaching killer whale, but it was a fruitless endeavor, as the Sadeena effortlessly cut through them all with her harpoon.
Out of options, the core attempted to regrow itself, but it was too slow, and Sadeena stabbed through the bark and directly hit the core.
"Let's see if little Naofumi's experiment is enough to quell your frenzy." Opening the bottle. Sadeena poured its contents onto the cores. Noises that Naofumi could only describe as a cry rang out from the core. All the vines and other plants that were connected to the tree quickly fell to the ground and started to disintegrate shortly after.
The village erupted into cheer as Sadeena returned, everyone being excited at the victory they just secured. Everyone except the moody lord.
"Well, this tells me one of two things. Plants suck, and I'm never listening to Melty's stories ever again."
"Stop trying to pin the blame on me!" Melty demanded.
"Even if I didn't, this is a major setback. Not only do I have to deal with the damages caused by this stupid thing, but we still have no proper food production, even after all we accomplished."
"There are still many options we haven't tried yet. We shouldn't be too discouraged."
"True. But it'll take a miracle to find something to accommodate the filolial. Perhaps—
"Naofumi, no!"
"I'm just saying. A little oil, some sauce."
"We're not cooking them!"
"Then what else do you have in mind?"
"Hey, I found something!" Keel yelled out.
Naofumi and Melty stopped their argument and went over to Keel. Gathering around the crater left by the tree, Naofumi witnesses an abundance of seeds on the ground.
"Good call, Keel. The bastard tried to replant itself after it died." Naofumi walked into the crater and picked up a remaining seed.
"What are you doing?" Melty asked.
"Well, if we can't plant it, we might as well unlock a few shields from it. Can't get too picky with a free stat boost." Naofumi absorbed several of the seeds and unlocked a few shields. The first one was a win in Naofumi's eyes, as it unlocked intermediate crafting recipes. But the other two caught his attention even more than the first.
Bio Plant Shield
Special Effect: Plant Reform
Mandragora Shield
Special Effect: Plant Analysis
"Plant reform?" Naofumi held up the remaining seeds and swapped them to his new shield. Activated the skill, and a screen appeared in front of his eyes, a screen that made him pissed.
Bio Plant Seed
Propagation 9, Production 9, Vitality 9, Immunity 4, Intelligence 1, Growth 9, Mutation 9
"That absolute dumbass!"
"What?"
"No wonder the seed had to be sealed. Whoever made this had the smart idea to put a 9 in almost every stat. Some alchemist. Who in their right mind would think this was good!?"
"Naofumi, what are you talking about?" Melty asked, perplexed by Naofumi's rambling.
"This shield allows me to modify plants. And from the looks of it, the alchemist who made this specific one was far from being a genius."
"Wait, so you can stop it from becoming a monster?"
"More than that. I can change its growth, intelligence, and even its vitality. No wonder it was so hard to kill. It can shrug off many of our hits and grow them back like it was nothing. I wonder.
"No Naofumi. I won't allow you to make a plant army."
"I wasn't planning that. But now that you mention it."
"No."
"I agree with little Melty here. Perhaps we should keep the monsterized plants away from the battlefield. It could cause more harm than good if it spreads to the villages we're protecting."
"I guess you're right. But I'm still going to test some of these out. Rifana, Dalton, Dynn. Prepare your highest-level fire spells."
"Yes, sir." The kids replied under the orders of Naofumi.
/~/
"You sure this won't cause another outbreak?"
"Don't worry. The only reason why the first one was a complete and utter failure was due to its stats being stupid. Its mutation and propagation with a mixture of no intelligence just made it a creature whose only goal was to spread."
It was a simple question and an even easier solution for Naofumi: just ignore the mutation stat. There were plenty of other stats that it could go into that can make the plant better than the original product.
"Now let's do some testing. Kill circle, present arms." Naofumi ordered. The circle of kids around him were all equipped with some form of herbicide or fire magic, so they could quickly kill the plant if things got out of hand.
The current seed in Naofumi's hand was a basic one. A max of 46 in growth to see how fast it would go. When he planted the seed, a tree immediately burst out of the ground and grew to a height that pierced the sky. The tree was extremely thin, and from what Naofumi could tell, bore no fruit from any of its branches. But as quickly as it appeared, it shriveled up and died, leaving the seed it grew out of.
"…Well, I didn't expect that to happen."
"It grew so fast, then it died?"
"Guess that's what the vitality stat was for. Also, if its immunity stat gave resistance to Rifana's fire attacks, then perhaps it also gave some type of resistance to its weaknesses. If propagation is what I think it is."
Naofumi picked up the same seed and started to mess around with its stats. Every stat had a minimum of one point, so he only had 45 points to work with for each category, and looking at the damage it caused with the max stat a category had was 9, he had to be careful.
After a few more tests that had varied results of successes and failures and 2 burnt trees, Naofumi finally was able to discern the meaning of each stat and properly create the perfect seed.
Propagation 5: To create a decently sized plant without the crazed spreading
Production 20: To account for all the filolial and appetite of the villagers
Vitality 4: Necessary to grow something that large
Immunity 4: It was enough to have the crazed bio plant survive, so he left it like that.
Intelligence 1: He didn't need a smart plant, at least not now.
Growth 10: To speed up its growth process
Mutation 1: He didn't want another monster outbreak.
Naofumi also manipulated the plant a bit so that it would grow into a bush and not a tree. He also made sure to find a suitable position for the bushes near the farming area and planted the seed into the ground.
Running away, a sprout quickly poked out of the ground and grew into a large bush almost instantly. And just as quickly as it grew, the fruit started to appear all over the bush until it was full and could no longer grow anymore.
"It worked!"
"Yay, food!"
"Hold it.' One of the filolials rushed forward, but Naofumi held them back. Picking a fruit from the bush. He swapped his poison frog shield and activated its poison detection skill. After dropping a fruit inside and waiting a bit. The shield spat it back up, with a screen confirming the results.
Analysis Complete: Poison not detected.
Fruit safe for consumption.
"Perfect. Alright, dig it."
"YAY!" The filolial transformed and immediately began eating all the fruit of the tree. For a moment, Melty was concerned that he'd eat through the entire supply, but her fears were quelled once she saw the fruits immediately grow back.
The kids around the kill circle also cheered and started to dig in themselves. For the first time in a while, they can finally eat until they are full.
"Melty. Tell the farming team they have another job to do."
"Already on it," Melty complained as she whistled for Hamon.
/~/
Day 18
Spirits were high today. After the defeat of the bio plant, the kids all decided to hold a feast. The kids had a blast figuring out how to use the bio-plant fruit and actually get to eat as much as they desired.
The hunters even decided to do a quick expedition and returned with plenty of meat to cook on the grill. Of course, Naofumi was forced to cook as well, but he was secretly glad that they were working together to achieve something. Not only did the feast leave some leftover monster meat for later, but they also had barrel upon barrel of bio-plant fruit that they could use for any meal.
For the first time in a while, Lurolona was doing well for themselves.
"Lord Naofumi!" Delia appeared from a hole, startling the shield hero.
"Delia." Naofumi sighed.
"Sorry, but you have a visitor."
"Tell them no?"
"We did, but it seems he's not a merchant. Melty also asked you to meet her at the front gate."
Delia burrowed back into the ground, filling the hole back up as she left.
"But we don't even have a front gate!"
/~/
"Naofumi, you're here."
"When did we get a front gate?"
"Ask your gate guardians." Melty sighed as he gestured to the two villagers standing guard.
They wave at their master before immediately getting back to look intimidating.
"Good job then… Whatever, what's this all about?"
"Emissaries from Siltvelt."
"Again?"
"Not exactly like the ones from before-."
Melty was interrupted by a blaring horn. As the cart opened, several petal girls tossed flowers to the ground as a man stepped out of the carriage. The man looked exhausted, having bags under both of his eyes. His tail droops down from the back of his trench coat.
"Greeting shield herooo~." The beaver man stretched his speech very slowly. To both Naofumi and Melty, he seemed to be putting in a lot of effort just to get that sentence out.
"Is that beaver wearing a fedora?"
"Platypus. And I read from a story that this was a desire to look for spies in the hero's home world."
"You're a shadow?"
"Not at the moment." The platypus tipped his hat. "Zalton is the name, and my mission today is to ensure this cache makes it to you. Courtesy of my—" The platypus suddenly went mute.
"Umm, my lord. He tends to fall asleep at random moments."
Narcolepsy, huh? Not my problem. Naofumi went up to the platypus and snapped in his face. "Oi, WAKE UP!"
"Huh? Woh,- oh right."
"Enough napping. Tell me what you're here for. And no, I'm not going to Siltvelt."
"Oh no, that's not the case. Although it's disheartening, we're aware of your plight and current mission to save the demi-human from the oppressive regime that is Melromarc, so the council of Siltvelt has decided to send you some aid in the form of a cache. We're hoping that it'll be enough to help you."
The platypus snapped his fingers as several men with crates walked forward.
"This should be enough to help you. Ore, food, seeds, gold, monster eggs, and building materials. Everything that you need, all packed into a fine package~"
'This country is trying to gain my favor too hard. Then again, don't bite the hand that feeds you.'
Naofumi called a couple of his kids to move the crates inside the village. When he turned back around, he saw the caravan packing back up, with the platypus asleep once again.
"Well, that was the worst shadow I've ever seen," Naofumi complained as he walked back to his tent.
"I can assure you. There are some worse than him."
/~/
Bonus Story: Naofumi's Current
Current Funds:
3 Gold, 80 Silvers, 10 Copper
70 Gold (Provided by Siltvelt)
Previous Purchase:
30 Filolial Eggs: 3,000 Silver
Housing Repairs
Currently Complete: 0
Exports
Bricks: 3 stacks for 5 Gold (Ryute)
Medicine: 26 Silver per bottle (Castle Town apothecary)
Crystal and Ore: 3 Gold per ore (Various Shops)
Fishing: (Work in progress)
Hunting: 10 Silver (Depending on the number of kills)
Bio Plant Fruit: (Work in progress)
Debt
Elhart Shop: 67 Gold (Various Equipment) (Priority)
Tailor:
47 Gold
Magic Shop: 30 gold (Multiple Grimoires, Magic Spindle)
Mirso Tavern: 14 gold (Food, bed, and booze)
Planned Purchases:
90 gold (Magical Outfits for the filolial and transforming kids)
More Grimoires for the hunters
More Cooking Supplies
Fishing Supplies
Gardening Tools
Villagers in Zeltoble
Weapons for hunters
Notes to Self:
Sadeena is banned from using village money to pay for any form of alcohol.
Melty is banned from buying filolial with any type of money.
Motoyasu and Bitch are banned from the village.
Platypus is still sleeping by the gate; deal with him later.
Siltvelt sucking up to me again; ignore even harder.
Unknown monster eggs; ask Melty later.
Wave in 10 days
Get Melty to stop pestering him about registering for the hourglass.
Multiple spottings of wild filolial keep them away from the bio plant storehouse.
Kou is banned from entering the food storehouse.
Ignore the above; all filolial are banned from entering the food storehouse. Yuki is the exception.