Shell Out(turtle litrpg)

Now that we were on the boat, I began to teach Willow again. After all, we would have a fed ways of free time again. It was a good time to make use of the free time to help her learn more spells.

Of course, to Lenore and Servante, I told them that it was still normal education, merely moved to the subspace for the better environment.

Lenore didn't seem to care, but Servante seemed a little suspicious.

In part because of his suspicions, I had to double up and educate her in terms of education as well as spells.

Practicing breathing methods to improve circulation during education and education while she practiced the growth spells.

Willow didn't complain however, remaining steadfast in her determination to practice spells.

I think the sudden attack last time really left an impact on her.

And she began to make some way in the growth spell.

Willow was finally able to consistently create the same plant. It's just that the plant... was a bit weird.

It was a weird fern variant.

The fern was walking.

It walked on four roots in a slow, staggering motion, with the shell of the seed acting as the main body of the plant.

Two roots extended between two roots, looking around, while an extra root extended out the other side, swaying side to side.

It was a very familiar. silhoutte.

Casting appraisal and

[Turtle fern]

[Made in the image of a creature the creator finds familiar. Less than an F-rank monster and more of a spiritual plant. Consuming it can increase one's own vitality.]

Yeah, that's me alright.

According to the guide I purchased, this is a very common phenomenon.

[For the streamlining of the high elves casting of the growth spell it is a good sign that they can reproduce the same variant of a plant.

For some, this can occur if they recreate the plant based off of something they find familiar. And this is good, because this means that they have a consistent image in their mind to recreate.

A concept. Understanding is important to the casting of spells, and the same goes for the mutated plants. ]

So this is a step in the right direction according to the guide.

The next step is controlled variation.

Now that a stable control subject has appeared, it encourages the high elf to explore variations of the subject.

This is because while variation is the problem for an untrained elf with no understanding of magic yet, where poor control results in explosive and dangerous variations, once they can establish a repeatable result, variation is not as outrageous.

SHe's also taken another important step in the form of hostility.

They have none.

None of her newer plants have had any hostility to them, at least not to us. This does change when the ant queen goes to consume them, but that was expected. It is natural for the plants to resist their own death. It is already a show of results that she can restrain them.

As for control? Well, that'll be harder. Ironically, it's easier for weaker mages to control their own plants that they've summoned. From what I understand, that's usually cause their magic is weaker, and easier to control. But for a high elf, who's issue is not magic, but the plentiful, and uncontrollable nature of it makes it difficult to restrain. She is not so weak that she cannot restrain her magic, but too strong that it isn't reigned in so easily.

But it's too useful of a tool to abandon. She is proficient in magic though, as shown by her master in basic water and fire skills. I taught her some of those since they pair well with plant magic. I taught her spiritual rain, which is a universal technique amongst spiritual/magic plant growers to water and enrich their plants.

SHe mastered it on her second try, as signified as the turtle fern which was now the size of a horse, nearly triple its previous size.

I taught er a simple fireball spell to practice burn farming techniques. While not as immediately useful as the spiritual rain spell is, it is still useful for farming and can be used for self defense.

So for now, she's good. While not strong, her magic should be enough to protect her from a D-rank attacker. That's a level many adventurers won't reach in their lifetime. So while it's not great now, I think it's a great show of progress.

Leon on the other hand, was a bit more difficult to manage.

I wanted to search the shop and purchase a method for hi to practice mental energy. If qi, mana, and faith can be practiced, then why not mental energy.

But the options available were... weird.

[Confucianism]

[psyker]

[taoist immortal]

[sentinel/guide]

[Confucianism: practice the law of righteousness and cultivate a righteous spirit. Strengthen the mental sea and empower the soul.

At a certain level, your word becomes law.

Benefit: only the righteous can practice. Can bend reality at a high enough level

Negative: One must be righteous and well read to practice. Those who are of the crooked path will find it hard to practice and should your beliefs falter, so shall power. Backfire enough, and it can cause your brain to explode.]

[psyker]

[Use the mind to alter the world and temper your physique. Low level beings can lift objects with your mind and high level ones can alter the worlds laws for a small amount of time.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Benefits: depending on potential, ones strength can explode exponentially

Negatives: prone to insanity. Very prone to insanity and fits of rage.]

[Taoist immortal: practice the orthodox method and achieve the fruit of the correct path. At the a-rank, become immortal. While few magical powers in the base method, many teachers will be willing to teach you their techniques and many such immortals will help you in bad situations.

Benefits: true immortality and great magical powers if you can find a master to worship. You will be protected by any immortal who encounters you. Less prone to insanity

Negative: Requires mysterious taoist fate which few have. Can take centuries to practice and often requires longevity gifted by masters. Most taoist immortals have entered seclusion due to current dynasty. The base method isn't very powerful and requires masters to improve. Failing your practice can often lead to the corruption of the mind. One thought can make you a buddha, another can make you a demon.]

[Sentinel/guide: awaken to either sentinel or guide. Guides wield great mental power and telepathy, while sentinels strengthen their physique with their mental power. Both will produce spiritual animals as products of the mind, capable of aiding in combat.

Benefit: guides can soothe mental energy, beneficial to all mental energy users, and mental backlash is lesser for both compared to the psykers.

Negatives: still susceptible to mental corrosion and sentinels/guides will find their preferences leaned towards the other, rather than gender and reproductive organs can change accordingly. Sentinels will become possessive of their chosen guides like animals.

Their power is also lesser than psykers, the class divided into the two groups. Guides are also valuable to all of the above classes, leading them to often be captured by these groups when discovered. Awakening this class is randomized too, so you don't get to choose.]

To say they were questionable was underselling it. Confucianism sounded nice but it was clear that a certain mental state was needed, and if it was broken, then the ability was broken. And while it wasn't mentioned, there's no body refining in that technique. From what I know, most confucianists are scholars, which is very much in line with the fragile body.

Psykers didn't sound bad but insanity and fits of rage with great power? I think not.

Taoism requires external techniques not included in the package,

The guides and sentinels was easily problematic at first glance, with the result being randomized, and the guides being targeted by all mental energy practitioners.

Not to mention the reproduction rewiring.

But all of them seemed to have the same problem.

There was a lot of mental backlash here.

But why? When I asked Stolidus, he scoffed.

[Where do you think mental energy comes from?]

The brain.

[When you stay up late and stress your mind, doesn't it hurt?]

Well of course. I mean, the brain is a fragile organ. If you push it too much, it's easy for it to- oh.

[Yeah. Duh! Mental energy, while very powerful, is a difficult path to pursue. There's a reason so few use it. Using too much of it can easily stress the mind and cause the brain to haywire. ANd respectively, too many external thoughts can easily entangle the mind, which is one of the dangers gods will often face.

Few will practice it unless they have to.]

But Leon's strongest aspect is the mental energy he has. It would be a waste not to use it.

[That's why most choose to convert the mental energy into mana or qi to improve their combat ability in the moment.]

Well why isn't that here then?

[Because it's not purely a mental energy technique, and realistically, not an efficient use of mental energy.]

That's fair. I suppose that's on me for emphasizing mental techniques. Well can I get one of those?

[Sure. I have this mind devourer technique here, soul converter, and-]

Something simple please?

[An optimized mental energy into mana technique then. I do have this assassin technique here that would be fitting for the boy if you're interested?]

Really?

[Yeah, it's not a technique I suppose, so much as a shadow spirit cultivating technique, created by an unorthodox sect during the age of taoism.

Feeding mana, qi, and mental energy into your own shadow, you can cultivate it into a shadow spirit naturally bound to the master. A properly grown one can hide its master from anyone at the same level, and even a level higher, and can serve as an aid in combat. It could hide its user from the underworld and heaven, and divination wouldn't be able to locate the user. It was of great use to assassins and was one of the best cloaking tools.]

Then what's the problem with it then? Why would it be unorthodox?

[Their sect was a sect of assassins in an age of taoism. Of course they'd be hunted down for being against the order of heaven. They were also way too good at hiding. Most importantly, once the user died, the shadow spirit was free to do as it pleased, unaffected by death and capable of hiding from cause and effect. And while most were not violent, many of their masters were not good people, resulting in a negative influence on the shadow spirit.]

But no feedback to your own mental state?

[Of course not. It wasn't stenous on the mind as all you were doing was feeding and developing your shadow. More importantly, since it was a trifecta of mana, qi, and mental energy, the impact on either of the three energies was minimal. Still stressful, but far more unlikely to cause mental backlash.]

Not impossible?

[No such thing. As long as you use your own internal energy, there is always a chance of backlash.]

Well it does sound useful and the best thing I can get for him at the moment?

[Ten thousand points for that and the mental energy into mana and qi usage technique]

I didn't ask for that last one.

[But you will need it for the technique.] Stolidus said, with a great shit eating grin, as his grubby little fingers were spread out in front of me, flexing and asking for the points.

I looked at my shop points.

[Shop points: 10,000]

Sigh

Fine.

[Deal!]

[shop points: 0]

I thought I had a lot of points, but thinking about it, I hadn't really killed a lot of things recently, so the amount of points I have? Not that much.

So I'm broke again. Oh well.

While beginning to encourage Willow to ever so slightly rearrange the nature of the turtle fern, I began to introduce Leon to the spell, which he took without hesitation.

If Willow could tell the current situation, then so could Leon. I felt a bit bad for him, as we've clearly dragged him into waters far too deep for him.

Alas, there's no easy solution at this moment. I'd say leave him with someone but we hardly have the time to do that, nor do we know anyone reliable enough to leave him with.

It also had little to no impact on him either, besides making him slightly more fatigued.

I did inform Lenore and Servante about this method, since I wasn't worried about them being about it.

Servante wasn't that close with the boy to begin with, and while Lenore was closer, she didn't feel the need to interfere in his affairs.

Borsche was just curious overall, and ended up pestering me about the mental energy.

I forgot to mention that Borsche, ever since becoming a sage apprentice, has been taking my classes as well, regarding them as a good source of knowledge. He also had no issue with keeping quiet.

I had helped him to evolve. I guess to him, there's a clear division of who he trusts more, and I'm higher up. Thankfully the others aren't here. While Borsche is curious, the rest of the time he was the most quiet of the skarpans.

Had it been one of the others, they might've exposed my by accident a long time ago.

In the days that followed, the shadow behind Leon slowly became more spiritual, wriggling and moving instinctively, as if alive.

It was slightly unnerving, though Leon didn't seem to think so. On the contrary, he seems to be regarding it as a new friend.

But wouldn't it be a bit weird to have another creature grow out of you?Like some weird extension? It's like someone else is inhabiting your body.

'Ore!'

Ah, right. It isn't that weird then I suppose.

I might be worse now that I think about it. I have an ant queen inside of me currently, and that may one day result in an ant nest.

I certainly can't comment, lest I cast stones at glass houses.

Bang!

A surprise lurching of the ship following the loud sound of a collision causes me to halt my weird line of thinking.

Huh? Another attack?

Are we really so unlucky?

As we head to the top of the boat to investigate what's happening this time, and help if necessary, we're met with a surprising sight.

People are sprawled out across the deck, clearly knocked out by the mysterious mist sorrounding the boat, save Gilbert and his men.

Gilbert was surprisingly calm compared to his shipmates, who looked extremely cautious.

As they should be, because there are TWO ADULT DRAGONS STARING AT US!

No, staring at me?

One of them a shimmering bronze, the other a weird eel like dragon with glowing stripes.

The former was feminine? Weird. I've noticed that I'm capable of distinguishing the gender of monsters now, while the latter was a male.

The bronze dragon spoke. "You are... Earl?" it asked, yet this very question brought me great pressure.

Why did it know my name?

And why was Gilbert so calm!? Dragons at the adult stage are considered S-rank creatures!

How should I respond?