Might as Well

Before going in, trying to tackle the first fracture, they spent a little more time reinforcing and prettying up the camp.

Dan collected stones that weren’t tainted by space-time fuckery and used them to build up the small wall around the wall, as well as adding more weights to the tents in case of a storm.

Clarissa already dug up a small patch of ground and planted a few seeds, wanting to see what happened to common medicinal plants grown in such an unusual environment. Though everyone agreed to keep an eye on them in case they gained sentience and ran away. Or heaven forbid, decided to eat the team.

Isabella was trying to construct training dummies out of the wood that was left over from the construction of the furniture. Sam had to admit, the girl had some talent in carpentry…

Katie was having a…tea party… with Puffball and something that Sam didn’t want to think about, so instead he turned back to his own task.

[Perception Filter is now Level 18!]

He took some thick wood branches, and using his illusionary runes as overlays, carved a few runic circles in them. Mostly, it was for the quality of life. They had such things as insect repellent, air freshener, silencing ward to avoid spooking the ‘wildlife’ (or rather to not hear what the wildlife was doing), and one that repelled lighter rain.

There was one runic circle that would repel all rain, but ordinary wood wasn’t exactly the best material for that kind of enchantment.

He finished the process by taking one of the smoothest and roundest looking stones from the shore of the small lake, used his fledgling skill in earth manipulation to make it even rounder, and then simply carved into it his Heart Rune and placed it under the firepit.

With the briefest touch of his finger, he activated the rune and watched with his Mage Sight as the bubble of delicate magic went up around the camp. As he covered the stone with soil and rocks, he only had one thought. ‘Wouldn’t stop anything determined, but by god we’ll be comfortable!’

Then, as he was satisfied with the runic circle, he turned his attention to Clarissa’s little garden.

‘I’m going to have to create one for that too… Not keen on fighting rabid carrots…’ Sam mused as he began to consider the garden and what kind of runic circle he could weave around the damn thing.

Meanwhile, Melody, with a garden shovel in their beak, was delightedly stabbing the ground repeatedly while Clarissa spread seeds into the holes created by the stab-happy swan.

“Sam, can I ask something?”

He turned to Dan and took in his slightly anxious face.

“Sure, bro. What’s up?”

“What happens when we max out the Perception Filter skill?”

“What level are you at?” Sam asked.

“Just seven, but it leveled up twice since we arrived here,” the muscled mage replied while trying not to stare pointedly at Katie.

Sam just shrugged. “My best guess is that we’ll see the same thing Katie sees…”

For some reason, Dan looked even more alarmed.

They gathered around the table, some snacking, some sipping on drinks, but all of them looked at the map that Isabella put together.

She began the debrief after taking a big sip of her own tea. “So, the situation is that we are in the center of several concentric circles of fractures. My best guess is the farther from the eye of the storm they are, and the deeper they are in this space distortion, the harder they’ll become.” She explained while everybody nodded along. “I checked the first circle, and we have four fractures. One with plants, one with rocks, one with wood, and one with water.” She scowled a little, then continued. “I asked Katie to take a look and the second circle has six fractures and the third around nine or more.”

“I couldn’t really see the exact numbers as everything is pretty hazy that far out there…” Katie interjected with a small shrug as she continued to pet Puffball.

“Right. Yes, that,” Isabella agreed, then she motioned toward the map again, where the four fractures that were accessible to them were marked. “I think we should start with the plant one as we have a fire mage with us.”

Nobody had anything to say against that, thus the meeting broke up, everybody taking a few minutes to prepare before heading toward the first fracture.

They agreed to try to finish it before they had to log out.

Sam walked up to the swirling portal that wasn’t exactly perpendicular to the ground it hobbled around a wonky axis causing some eyestrain if someone looked at it for a long time. It was a green-colored portal with specks of brown mixed in.

He reached forward and touched the haphazard dimensional energy and started immediately reading the screen that popped up.

[Plants! Plants! Plants!]

[Get them while fresh! Fracture that has been overtaken by Mother Nature. And she is not happy. Your job is to go in there and show Mother Nature who is the boss. Preferably with lots of fire. Do you have napalm? Just asking…]

[Time Limit: None]

[Penalty: Getting swarmed by poison ivy at the exactly wrong moment]

[Reward: You can rest easily]

[Charges: 3/3]

[Hidden Bonus: ???]

Sam waited until everyone signaled that they had read the screen and then motioned toward the portal leading to the fracture.

“Let’s go!”

“HAHAHA! DIE! Burn! Buuuuurn!”

“Should we stop him?” Clarissa asked idly, as they stood at the edge of the forest clearing amid charred wood and other detritus as they watched Dan go at the plants.

Surprisingly, the fracture was rather easy. The entire fracture was set up as an interconnected series of meadows and the moment they stepped into one, the flowers and other plants uprooted themselves and set themselves on the party.

They barely had to do anything, as Dan’s fire magic made short work of them. Though, just for the experience, they had Hawky, Melody, and Lucky fight some of the bulkier monsters.

As Dan walked forward, acting like a war criminal, their only job was to collect the eclectic collection of loot. Though, the experience points were also nice.

[Crystalline Fertilizer: Fertilizer that crystalized due to the presence of mana. Extremely effective on any plant.]

“Ooooh, that will be perfect for the garden!” Clarissa basically cooed as she collected all the Crystalline Fertilizers that the monsters had dropped. The rest were random plant materials useful for alchemy, cooking, or both.

So far, the fracture also dropped a few skill books, but they were extremely common. According to Clarissa, one could get them after doing the basic reputation quests at the Healer Guild. Or if they joined the guild. So, they went into one inventory and were forgotten about.

They were halfway through the plant fracture when the monsters became strong enough and, more importantly, numerous enough that the rest of the team had to join the disappointed Dan.

The small flowers and plants that uprooted themselves were joined with trunks that had dark craggy maws on them and walked with their roots, smaller treants, waving their branches threateningly, and a few snakes that looked like fat ivy.

Sam just smiled and raised both of his hands, shining with magic. He thrust them forward, sending a blast of air filled with vibrating wind blades that shredded the first line of the plant offensive.

Next to him, Katie was already wreathed in yellow-colored lighting and running forward, yelling in excitement with Isabella not far behind her. Clarissa, standing on his other side, just sighed, raised her own staff, and began to shoot a short burst of white flames.

He sent her a questioning look. “Sacred Flame?”

She shrugged. “Best I got…”

Sam just grinned, put his hands together in front of him, and summoned a dense ball of wind mana. “Add it here!”

Clarissa took a long look at him, then returned his grin and a brief burst of Sacred Flame impacted the ball of dense wind mana. Which, in turn, was transformed into a shining ball of light that was radiating heat.

A lot of heat.

Before it could seriously harm either of them, Sam simply threw the ball of mana at the approaching horde, well away from the other rampaging teammates and pets.

They watched as the ball of light arched over the plant monsters and then not-so-gracefully impacted the face of one of the treants. Where it promptly detonated, covering the area surrounding the now dead treant with almost liquid-like white flames that merrily burned anything that went near it without seemingly trying to spread out.

Sam took in the destruction, then looked at Clarissa. “Did we just create napalm?”

Clarissa nodded dumbly before speaking up. “Can we try again?”

As Sam reached for his mana to repeat his earlier feat, there was one thought in his head. ‘Good to know, she is just as big of a pyromaniac as the rest of us…’

Then there was only fire…

The boss, as expected, turned out to be a giant treant who commanded an army of leafy-looking ivy snakes. Sadly, no matter what it controlled, they were still no match to the power of fire.

The team stood amongst the ashes of their enemy and leisurely gathered the loot.

“More reagents…”

“Ohhh…this is some good wood…”

“Hey, a book!”

Hearing that, all of them looked at Dan, who was holding up a skill book.

“What kind?” Sam asked curiously.

“Let’s see… it’s Green Thumb!” he declared after a short inspection.

Sam nodded, satisfied. That was indeed a good book. Not an exclusive drop to this fracture, but rare enough that if a copy appeared in the Auction House, it never stayed there more than a few minutes.

“Can I have it?” Clarissa asked. “They sell it at the Healer Guild, but it has some really stupid requirements…”

The others looked at each other and shrugged as one. Dan then handed over the book to Clarissa who then promptly learned the skill.

“What does it do?” Isabella asked as they began walking toward the exit.

Clarissa played a little with her interface and soon all of them were reading about the skill.

[Green Thumb: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) You have a green thumb. The effectiveness of every action related to plants is increased by 1% per skill level. Sentient plants may be more friendly with you, depending on how you use your thumb.]

“Oooh, kinky…” was Katie’s contribution.

They left the fracture and made sure that nothing disturbed their camp. Katie shooed away a thing that looked like a raven, but to Sam, it seemed to have just too many beaks and eyes to be anything natural. All of them looking in different directions.

Then they returned to the plant fracture to further terrorize and commit war crimes on poor plants.

Already knowing the setup and layout of the fracture made the second run much easier and simpler, though they still let the familiars deal with the earlier waves to have them gather a little more experience.

The second run ended with fewer skillbook drops, but an ungodly amount of special fertilizer that made Clarissa very happy. Happy enough that Sam had to inquire about the reason.

“Back at the guild, I can exchange this literal magical shit for reputation points and money. No more grinding those stupid hospital quests…. Do you know how many people hit on me while I’m healing them? DO YOU?” she asked with a slightly crazed look on her face. Sam, in the end, wisely decided to back off after reassuring her that she could have all the fertilizer. Though he kept a small amount, just in case he needed it in the future.

The third time was much luckier.

One of the random monsters dropped another Green Thumb book, which Isabella took for her friend Claire, as the maid was trying to breed some super tea plant. None of them minded. If a super tea would be developed that would mean that Lucy would have it sold at Heavenly Forest for an incredible price, which in turn meant that their income would also rise.

Sam even saw Clarissa force some fertilizer on Isabella so that the young woman could give it to her maid friend.

‘That’s friendship right there…’ Sam chuckled to himself.

Then came the final boss. The treant looked a touch meaner than the last two, but under the combined assault of the team, it fell before it could do more than summon a small army of leafy snakes and snarl in their direction.

However, as they combed through the loot, Sam found a thin green book with a plant symbol on it, surrounded by runes.

Opening it, he was pleasantly surprised.

[The Gardener’s friend: This runic circle was developed for aspiring gardeners and alchemists to protect their gardens and to promote growth. Successfully deploying this runic circle increases the effect of fertilizer and decreases the chance of illness taking root in protected plants or insects swarming them. The strength of the effects depends on the skill of the one who draws the rune. Please consult a professional before using it!]

As they left the fracture for the last time, and the green portal shrank into a pinprick and then exploded into green sparks, Clarissa was already pestering him to set up a circle around the small garden she had created.