Sean sat patiently as they waited for Marge and Hops to return from breakfast, Roge twiddling his thumbs as he looked over the information for his orange tree.
The text… *burned* him as he looked at it, for lack of a better word. It felt like a more intense and painful version of when he’d tried to look at details in a text box before he got his all seeing effect. He quickly dismissed the painful box and noticed Sean looking at him, this time in concern.
“I don’t know why but… the [Inspect] box is painful to look at for the orange trees.” He saw Sean about to burst again and held up a claw. “I know what that sounds like, but this time it is not my fault.”
“Explain,” the lion growled out, Roge rubbing his temple to get rid of his headache.
“When I talk to the orange trees, they sounded… sinister. I tried to back out, but they seemed to initiate the bond all on their own. And the other plants are… cautious? Reverent? So this is not something I could have prepared for.”
“Plants?” Roge winced at that, looking to the ground and sighing.
“Using the magical bonds effect was too easy. I barely had to lift a finger to bond all of my flowers.”
Sean sighed at that, looking at the ceiling like he was asking for patience. “Did they at least give good buffs?”
“Well… uh… kinda? They gave somewhat lackluster ones, except for the ice flowers. I now have…” Roge double checked the two screens to double check. “Seventy five resistance from my race and an extra eighteen resistance from the flowers for ice and cold effects. Is it…”
“Yes they add together, and yes, a hundred is basically immunity,” Sean confirmed, giving Roge a smug look at the dragon’s surprise. “Magic may be Hops’ thing, but defenses are mine. I assume the other flowers give you resistances as well?”
“Pretty much. But only one right now.” Roge breathed a sigh of relief as the deer and elf came back into the room, giving Hops a worried look. “My orange tree went… weird.”
“How weird?”
“Like… the [Inspect] box burns weird.”
The elf froze at that, looking wide eyed at Roge and barely breathing. “What?”
“What’s… wrong…?” Sean asked slowly, even Marge starting to look worried.
Hops took a few deep breaths before responding, giving Roge a serious look the dragon had never seen before. “Never look at that screen again. You’re lucky that [Static Mind] shielded you from most of the effects. In fact, that’s how most people get it.” Roge blinked hard at that, leaning back on the couch as Hops moved in close. “What does the buff give you?”
“Increased shapeshifting affinity.”
“Good. That’s actually really good.” The elf visibly sagged at that while everyone gave him wide-eyed looks. “That burning sensation happens when you touch upon something you don’t understand. Like… feeling a burn in your muscles because you can’t carry something for long. In this case, your intelligence is too low to understand what the box is trying to tell you.”
“Okay… that makes sense…” Roge muttered.
“Do you remember the ability the tree had?”
“Shift? I think?” The dragon was about to open up the box again but stopped himself, especially since Hops relaxed more.
“Yeah. That would do it. Imagine it’s like… someone offering you the flour from an already baked cake. Or… a table being in two positions at once…”
“Or a cat that is both alive and dead until observed?” Roge ventured, the elf giving him a surprised look in response. “You’re talking about a superposition…”
“That’s… actually a good name for it. Anyway, your tree is undecided between what it is. So the name is glitched out.”
“The… product also had that.”
“That could be interesting. Give me the healing wand?” Hops took the wand and gave it a once over, nodding his head. “And the constitution one.”
“What exactly are you going to have him do?” Sean growled out as Hops started channeling both wands into Roge’s body.
“Well, he needs to see if he can harvest from the plant. If he can do so safely, them we know there is no harm if he doesn’t look at the tree.”
“You sure about this Hops?” Marge asked carefully, Sean huffing as he sat next to the dragon.
“Very. We can’t take them out safely right now because of the rain keeping us inside. So we might as well see if its a benefit.”
“Fine,” Sean grumbled. “But I get to yell at you if this goes wrong.”
~~~
After buffing Roge’s constitution as much as they could and sending a good bit of healing to accumulate in his body, Hops have him a thumbs up. The dragon tried activating the harvest ability on one of the orange trees, feeling the plant resist and send a feeling along their bond.
‘What is it you desire?’ At the very least the words didn’t hurt him, though Roge was confused by the question.
‘Oranges?’
‘Boring,’ the tree snapped back, Roge feeling his skill complete its action as eight oranges appeared in his normal inventory.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Frowning, Roge pulled out one of the oranges, the fruit looking exactly the same as he’d expect. “Huh.”
“What happened?” Sean asked, Roge giving them a brief summary of the conversation all while looking at the ordinary fruit.
“Ask for something else?” Marge injected, earning her a confused look from Sean. “It seemed to think oranges were boring. So it expected a different answer.”
“Fair point. But what should I ask for?” Roge paused as he thought that and looked back at his inventory. “I mean… I do need more crystals…”
“Might as well,” Hops chuckled, still mostly focusing on sending the magic into Roge.
‘What is it you desire?’ The dragon felt like the feeling was almost the same as before, like that was a greeting the trees gave.
‘Pure quartz?’ he asked, feeling the tree get somewhat smug at that.
‘Greed. Wealth.’ This feeling was a bit more abstract for the dragon, mulling over what the tree was trying to communicate.
‘I need wealth to get it?’
‘No. Give me. Everything has a price.’
‘You want… money?’ Roge asked, poking at the money in his inventory in curiosity.
‘Yes! Trade accepted!’ This time Roge grunted as a large chunk of mana was drained away from him, all three of his party members moving forward as he held up a claw.
“I’m fine. That took… seventy mana? Jeez…” he muttered, looking at his coins and frowning as well. “Missing a silver and forty copper too. All for…” He trailed off at that, looking at the [Inspect] screen in wonder.
Pulling it out of his inventory only made him more awed, looking at the ball of pure quarts molded in the exact shape of an orange. Once he finally looked away, his face scrunched in confusion at his friends’ looks. They all looked at him like he was nuts. “What… why are you looking at me like that?”
“Roge… it’s just another orange. Actually it looks like the same orange.” Sean responded, Roge looking back at the crystalline fruit in confusion before the lion took it out of his hand. “See?” The lion then took a small bite out of it, Roge now having the look of someone who is crazy. What was even crazier was that the hard mineral parted like a normal fruit would, which just confused the dragon more.
“Wait… Roge… what do you see?” Hops asked as Roge grabbed the orange back to look it all over. The dragon didn’t respond at first, simply getting up from his seat and walking a bit away from his friends. “Roge?”
Without hesitation, Roge threw the fruit at the floor, wanting to know once and for all if he was going nuts. He felt shaky as he did so, using all of his strength to push back those memories. As soon as the fruit hit the floor, it shattered into multiple pieces, acting just like the mineral he saw it as. His friends all froze, Hops even rubbing his eyes before looking back at the pile of broken crystal. A noise came from the tank of the party though, everyone looking at him as he freaked out.
“You… wait it’s a rock?!” Sean shouted out, gagging as he presumably thought about the piece he ate. “How did I bite that?”
“Was it a… mind effect?” Roge muttered, looking to Hops who gave him a nod.
“A complete mental effect, I suspect. One where it disguises itself and even acts like how the person *thinks* it should act. And since it doesn’t effect you, it just acts like the material you requested. Quite fascinating. Try it with the other crystals.”
Roge gathered the mess with his inventory, grateful for the easy cleanup that particular magic provided. He then got varying quantities of crystal oranges, pulling one or two out before deciding not to continue or Sean might actually puke. He then pulled out his grinder machine and looking it over, finding no reason why it shouldn’t be able to grind up the crystals into the powder he needed. Turns out, he was exactly right, Roge grinning as the rest of his team watched oranges turn into crystal dust.
“That’s just freaky…” Hops muttered. Roge chuckled at that, finally putting the last of the dust back in his inventory.
“Too bad about not getting wood though…” Roge mumbled, looking over the last four orange trees and wondering what he wanted to get.
“You can. Just ask for another material.” Roge paused as he thought over Hops’ words, frowning as he looked everything over. He even asked the trees if he could have a different shape, but all of them said no. They only gave oranges.
“That’s not fucking with my mind at all,” he grumbled, thinking things over and shaking his head. “I can just get more wood from the other trees when I bind them. And I can’t ask for glass bottles, as I’ll just get glass oranges, and my buff doesn’t work with that…” Roge paused as he had another thought, reaching out to another of the trees.
‘What is it you desire?’
‘Iron. Something I can shape with nature.’
‘More greed. More wealth. Some blood.’
Roge frowned at that request, letting out a sigh as he gave Hops a wry smile. “It’s asking for some blood for iron.”
“No deal,” Sean grumbled, Roge letting out a sigh as he looked it over again. Fertilizer was his next idea, but the tree simply asked for dirt and blood. Seemed the trade needed to be something equal in value and relevant to what Roge wanted.
“And I’m guessing I can’t ask for a [Shift] orange,” Roge grumbled, earning chuckles from his party members.
“Let’s think on it for today and see what we can think of,” Hops recommended, Roge sighing as he got up from the couch.
“Fine. Maybe I’ll just turn them into salt to season my meal with.” He turned and left at that, not noticing, the wide-eyed looks everyone else had given him at that moment.
~~~
Roge usually didn’t think about what he ate all that much, just looking to quickly inhale sustenance and go about his day. That day, however, he took a good look at the meal he was given, noting the pleasant smell of cooked eggs, bacon and cheese in his bowl with buttered toast off to the side. He’d always enjoyed making his own eggs every morning, and he made sure to put on his list to have ingredients to cook things properly. As he was just starting his meal, Sean sat down beside him, the lion looking a bit contrite as he ordered his own bowl.
“I’ve been told I got a bit too… angry up there,” he started, Roge looking up and seeing the unhappy look on his face.
“It’s fine Sean. I know you’re there to protect me.”
“It’s not fine. I need to reign in my temper with these kinds of things. I already got a warning from the league about angrily rushing into danger to protect my team. It’s becoming… a bit of a habit.”
“And we’ll work on it together,” Roge said, taking another bite of his meal as he thought it over. “Besides, you do have some good ideas. Me going slow made it so that I didn’t make too many mistakes. Plus it makes it so I can go through my abilities and materials one thing at a time. Find all of their uses.” He hugged the lion from the side, only being interrupted by a loud clearing of the throat behind them.
They both turned around to the sight of a tall elf, one who looked pretty old if the wrinkles and white hair were anything to go by. He wore a black suit with white frills on the wrists, Roge immediately pegging him for a butler of some sort. “Yes?” the dragon asked, knowing he was being a bit short and rude, but he didn’t back down when Sean gave him a look.
“How can we help you sir?” the lion asked, Roge giving *him* a look at that.
“I am here to give a letter to one Sean Obrien. It is from Lord Tarcon him-“
“Not interested,” Sean growled, earning him a wide-eyed look from the dragon. “If this is another courtship invitation…”
“On the contrary. It is an invitation for you and your two party members to attend the Christmas Ball.” Sean paused at that, giving the butler a suspicious look.
“Three actually,” Roge interjected, the look the butler gave him not effecting him in the slightest. “Just recently joined.”
“Ah. Yes. The gardener,” the elven man sneered, Roge smirking in reply.
“Even so. The invitation is not something he can accept. It needs to include *all* of his party members for him to even consider going.” Sean gave a consenting nod at that, his grip on the counter top they were sitting at nearly breaking the wood.
“Very well sirs. I will be back soon with what you request.” At that, the elf swiftly turned around and left the inn, with Roge giving Sean a beseeching look.
“The Lord’s been… trying to curry my favor. For some reason,” the lion grumbled, waving off the conversation and sighing. “Not something I want to speak on. Now. What exactly is today’s breakfast?”
Roge allowed the topic change, going over the meal even as he ordered a second portion. He was tempted to try and salt the under-flavored dish, but it still tasted fine enough for him to eat.