Touch of Fate

Chapter 287: Talking Roots

"Hm...interesting." Lily finally finally, after her questions had been answered to some degree. She'd asked for a bunch of information that was far too technical for him to really explain, but he did his best to describe what little he knew about soil health and the requirements for plant growth. This of course led to yet further questions, but was eventually able to stave them off with the well worn excuse that he didn't really know how he did it, but his skills made it possible.

Once her curiosity was more or less satisfied, she took a sample of the soil and returned to the cabin where she was presumably going to conduct some experiments.

Mike asked William to follow her and keep her from creating any more damage. He was hoping that Lily would be distracted enough by whatever mystery she'd noticed in the soil that she'd avoid messing with anything dangerous. Then again, this was Lily they were talking about.

[She did once manage to create a fair sized explosion by heating water, so there is no telling what might happen in an actual lab. Maybe I should build some kind of bomb-proof lab for her so that I at least don't have to worry about her causing too much collateral damage.]

Interrogation dealt with, Mike turned his attention towards one last issue that would hinder efforts to grow plants in the demi-realm. Or rather, the problem was brought to his attention.

Sera, having finished her investigations of the cabin, had wandered out in time to catch the tail end of his conversation with Lily, and chimed in once they were done. "I know this whole soil thing is supposedly a big deal, but I've been meaning to ask for a while now, what are you planning to do about water?"

"I've been thinking about it, but I haven't come to a decent solution just yet. I'd thought I'd have a little more time before we were ready to begin planting. For the time being, I can use Water Magic."

The Oracle frowned in thought. "That might work in the short term, but it would be better to make this realm somewhat independent. I know we have that tree, but I can already tell he'll be useless when it comes to magic."

"Ah, but I have a positive attitude and perseverance on my side! At the end of the day, isn't that what's really important?" Reber shot back. He was standing with his wooden feet dug into the ground, evidently experimenting with the ground in his own unique manner.

A vein popped out on Sera's forehead as her brow furrowed in obvious irritation. After taking a few seconds to control herself, she continued while pretending that no one had interrupted. "Ahem, did the control pillar have any options to create precipitation?"

Mike shook his head. "I don't think so, but honestly I don't know enough about it to be sure. It's possible, but I get the feeling that this place was never meant to be an independent world. Weather patterns are probably outside of its scope."

"The place is too small and too cut off to create any kind of air movement," The tree man broke in again, showing no indication that he was aware of Sera's hostility. "Of course, the control pillar probably does something regarding ambient weather conditions."

"What makes you say that? I looked all over it, and didn't see anything that would have that kind of effect."

"Simple deduction, my good man." Reber replied jovially while tapping the side of his head. Mike thought he heard the sound of Sera's teeth grinding in response. "If this place really is isolated, then something must be keeping it habitable by regulating temperature, pressure, air composition, humidity, and all that. Since there really is nothing else here that would fit the bill, it makes sense that the control pillar is involved somehow. "

"So you're suggesting that there is some kind of life-support function built in? While that might be the case, I don't really want to mess with it."

"Fair. But that leaves back at square one. I do have one idea that might just be crazy enough to work..."

Already sensing that this was gearing up to be a major digression, Mike headed it off before they got too involved. "It's alright. For the time being, I'll just come back every day to do the watering. When I have some time, I'll work on creating some kind of sprinkler system with Artifice."

Reber shrugged. "Suit yourself. It would have been a pain to find that much tapioca anyway."

[...No, not engaging.]

Plans firmly in place, he quickly escaped before he could get dragged into anything else, and made his way back to his workshop.

Firing up the forge for the first time, he tried turning one of his iron ingots into a flat sheet of metal. While there was no immediate purpose for doing so, he figured that it would be a good way of testing out his tools while working on his Smithing skill.

It quickly became apparent that he'd overestimated his ability to create things with Earth Magic, as roughly half of the items he'd brought into existence were fundamentally flawed in a manner that practically made them unusable. Hammers would shatter on contact with a metal surface. Tongs would refuse to close without breaking. Even his anval quickly developed a significant crack. Before he could do any real work, he was forced to spend some time painstakingly recreating new items while paying close attention to their composition.

After a few hours of dedicated work, he succeeded in refurbishing his tool collection and making the metal sheet he'd originally been aiming for. Once it was fully quenched and ready to have the excess cut off, he took a moment to examine his handiwork.

To his admittedly inexperienced eye, it looked to be fairly regular in terms of both thickness and general shape and he felt a bizarre sense of pride in his accomplishment. He doubted that the piece would stand up to the scrutiny of any experienced smith, but it was not bad for a new crafter just starting out. From this point on, he would work on refining his techniques.

Deciding that his next attempt could wait until tomorrow, Mike used the last few hours of his time in the demi-realm constructing Lily's lab. He decided to go with more or less the same layout he used with his workshop, but kept the work area fairly open in order to reduce the concussive effects of explosions that took place there.

Figuring that durability was key, he made the walls thick and reinforced them with rods of steel he created with Earth Magic. After forming a few tables and workbenches, he decided to call it a day. Due to the specialized and delicate nature of most alchemical tools, they would need to acquire some from specialty shops to properly outfit the lab.

[Of course, I can probably get most of that from the cabin. HmmI'll have to work with Lily to come up with a list of things we might need.]

Before leaving the demi-realm, he took one last look through the cabin and its surroundings. Apparently, the others had already returned to the dorm, so the only one left was Reber. The tree man was busily sowing seeds in the freshly tilled soil. He stopped and waited patiently as Mike approached, before asking, "How's it hanging?"

"Uhmgood? I guess...What are you up to?"

"Planting." He replied simply while holding up a handful of seeds as if to prove his point.

"I got that much. Where did you get those?"

"Made them myself, actually."

"I don't know much about tree biology, but I didn't think you could grow grass seeds. Then again, I guess you are technically a unique organism"

Reber grinned. "Didn't do it the natural way, if that's what you are asking. It will probably be a few weeks at least, before I get a chance to try it out with my own nuts...so to speak." He paused to chuckle at his pun. "This time I just used a druid spell to duplicate existing seeds. All I need is a small sample, and I can produce a nearly infinite supply, given enough time and mana."

"Sounds pretty useful, but I'm guessing there are some drawbacks."

"Of course. I was always told to not use it too frequently, since it's supposed to weaken succeeding generations and make the whole population more vulnerable to disease. The way I figure it, that was probably because it creates genetically identical seeds, which will probably be fine in the short term, but could lead to all kinds of problems eventually. Not to mention, it's also considered somewhat unnatural, so there was a bit of stigma attached to it." The tree man explained while shaking his head in exasperation.

"I'm also somewhat limited on the types of seeds that can be produced. More complex plants or magical ones require exponentially more mana to recreate. At a certain point, it becomes functionally impossible."

Mike frowned in thought, wondering if such a thing would be possible with his new Life Magic. Based on what little he understood about it, he doubted it would be difficult. "Out of curiosity, what sort of magic do you use. I know you call it Druid Magic, but I don't exactly understand what that means."

Reber chuckled, "That's fair. It's basically a kind of divine magic, only we don't really worship any deity in particular. Instead, Druids tend to revere nature and supposedly utilize their skills to better coexist with it."

"Supposedly?"

"Well, if you couldn't tell by the way I act, Druids aren't all tree-hugging flower children. My circle in particular had a major problem with people abusing their abilities for personal gain, even at the expense of nature. They would pay lip service to the whole coexistence thing, but it wasn't uncommon for senior members to forcibly harvest rare natural resources and sell them to traders. That said, they still get hung up on certain things, like they can convince nature of their worthiness by following a dogma. Which is also the reason I don't think they'd appreciate what I've become."

"Really? Wouldn't you be closer to their ideal of living in tune with nature?"

The tree man shrugged. "You'd think so, but they're big on keeping things natural. Real purists, you know. Turning into an animal or even a plant for a few hours wasn't a big deal, since you're only making use of your Divine Magic talents, but becoming a tree permanently is something else. Basically, if I ever went back, they'd probably consider me an abomination."

Mike wasn't really sure what to say. He knew Reber had a tragic past, but he had a hard time keeping that in mind thanks to the tree man's jovial and carefree personality. Finally, he offered a lame, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't worry about it." Reber replied with a dismissive wave. "I didn't have any intention of going back in the first place. Unless you forget, I was basically held prisoner by them. Besides, most of the people I know are probably already dead. Hell, I'm not even sure if the circle is still around. They could have been wiped out by raiders or Anhilites or something."

"Still, it sucks that you don't have a place to go back to."

"What are you talking about? I not only have a place to go back to, but I'm more or less required to come back here on a regular basis."

"That's not what I meant. I was just trying to say it must be difficult to not have any rootsyou know what, I'm just going to stop talking."

Reber laughed. "Relax man. It's all good. I'm at peace with my place in life. And that's not just the lack of glands talkingOr at least I think so. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I've been human. Doesn't matter though. I'm perfectly happy with the way things are."

[How enviable.]

"Right, well, I'm going to head out then. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Take it easy. I'll try to have something growing by next time."