Unmotivated Deity

As Jien was sitting quietly thinking about the best way to solve the solution Emily went and sat with Mark and Runa. They sat and waited patiently as they had done many a time during the prior training sessions. If Jien wanted their help he would come and seek it himself. It was important that he choose to seek the assistance as to realize that he wasn't the only one that could solve a problem.

Jien of course knew this and if he couldn't find a solution on his own he would pick their brains for one. However, he was a firm believer that one should at least make an attempt on their own unless it posed a danger. There would always be cases where experience was required and a guiding hand would be necessary, but if one didn't also learn to be self sufficient then they would suffer if they were on their own.

As he was sitting, staring at the plant that was now attached to his sword his eyes were unfocused. He was searching through several books worth of knowledge to try and find anything that may be of use. His Personal Library was definitely a lot more full than before given the time that he had been taking to imprint more knowledge, but most of it had nothing directly to do with magic because such books were as rare as the guides Runa had gifted him.

Magic may be everywhere and accessible to anyone that had their unsealing rite completed. However, that did not mean that texts that contained the years of a mage's hard work were easily accessible to just anyone. Jien had recorded Grafler's Theorem over time as well but this was not so much a list of spells as much as theory on mana control in many fields and theories regarding the potential uses of mana given certain criteria being met.

Jien spent a whole twenty minutes wracking his brain. This to many would appear to be a short time given the issue at hand, but was actually a drastically long time for someone that could recall information almost instantaneously and draw connections between different recorded data points even faster. In the end even with his current pool of recorded knowledge he was left with empty hands, leaving him a little depressed.

He wasn't depressed that he couldn't find the answer on his own. He was more so depressed that he didn't have the knowledge that he needed. To Jien, even more than the ability to fight the necessity of knowledge was paramount. The more one knew the better they could react to any possible happening.

With that general thought Jien stood up once more, his eyes regaining a sense of clarity as he made his way over to the three adults waiting to the side. He sat before the three of them and laid his training rapier on his lap, ensuring that the thorn covered guard was off to the side of his leg so as to not be poked and possibly poisoned.

"I can't seem to think of any good solutions." Jien stated matter-of-factly as he settled into his new spot. "I could see potential in the formations used to control golems and give them commands but I don't have access to those formations and they generally don't allow for flexibility." He looked Mark, Emily and Runa in the eyes, seeing that they were smiling warmly at him. They appeared happy that he was willing to come to them after finding that he couldn't think of anything.

Emily was the first to speak leaning her head back in thought. "If it were me I would use wind spells to funnel the plant toward your enemy or into the action you want." she stated in a light, thoughtful tone. "Though the trouble with that approach is that it is mana intensive and would require you to constantly be channeling a wind based spell. Even the most controlled caster would find the burden heavy, especially if the fight drags on." She lowered her head again to look at Jien calmly. "Then again, as a trump card in a fight it could be very handy. You would just have to think of a different method to complete the shift of your blade from hand to hand."

Jien almost had the desire to roll his eyes at her response but restrained himself. It was clear to him that though she had given up on the idea of him not using his new plant based guard, she still wanted him to choose a different method to achieve his change in the fencing style. At this point Jien could only sigh internally over the fact that he was bound to exasperate this mentor of his.

Mark took this pause as an indication that it was his turn to speak. "Though it may be a bit complex there is bound to be a way to 'tame' the plant for better lack of a word." He paused there for a moment and scratched his head in thought. "Taming magic beasts and regular animals isn't common per se but also not unheard of either. There are likewise methods on how to 'tame' plants, though it would likely be more in line with a methodology used by the elves and halflings. We likely would find it hard to find any information on such a method but you could use beast taming methods and try to adapt them."

After Mark stopped to let his thought sink in it was finally Runa's turn to speak. She didn't often give her thoughts in Jien's lessons unless he came to her specifically but she was here and it seemed that this was important to him so she chose to speak her mind. "There is one method I can think of, though it would be technically difficult to execute." She paused for a moment, placed her hand above the ground and mumbled what sounded like a long sentence under he breath. After she was done a small amount of mana stretched from her hand into the dirt, from which a small humanoid dirt figure seemed to grow.

"There is a little parlor trick of magic that is used by many adults to entertain children." she continued as small strings of mana reached from her fingers into the small dirt figure. She moved her fingers with a fluidity of someone that had practiced this very method for a long time. "I don't know if you remember Jien but when you were just a baby you used to watch me do this with some of your stuffed animals. You always seemed very happy when I would use this puppeteering method." As she moved her hand the figure made of dirt seemed to move about, lifting its arms and legs to walk a few steps before bowing.

"This method doesn't use a lot of mana in the form that I am using it, the only issue would be that you would be using it on something that will struggle against you. Too little strength and it will break free and act of its own intuition, too much and you could either damage it or you will make its movements too awkward to suit your needs." After saying these words the strings of mana faded and the dirt figure seemed to fall apart.

Jien was stunned. The solution was simple and would require training and finesse, but if used correctly would be useful in other methods as well.