Chapter 68 - Learning The Ropes

A telepathic link with the seedlings that are growing inside his body, and the ability to manipulate them as if they were his own limbs. That was what the flavour text of the skill stated, he previously thought it was an active ability that replicated other passive abilities just from the skill description alone, but nothing happened when he chanted the skill name, meaning the ability was actually passive. 

He thought back to how the rose wight fought, and how it typically had the tentacles coming from its back, and how the vines could be freely retracted and extended at will. Perhaps it was a morbid way to look at it, but he began envisioning the vine as if it were chains or rope wrapped around a spool, but in this case the spool would have been the rose wight's spine.

The envisioning part didn't really matter as long as the general idea was translated well enough. In the case of tails, it didn't matter if you thought of a dog's tail or a cat's tail as long as they functioned the same way. But tails that didn't move in a similar way or had other functions, such as a fish or scorpion's tail, probably wouldn't work.

He held his arm out in front of him and focused all his attention on the palm of his hand. He tried thinking of a chain extending out of his palm, but after a few attempts nothing happened. His next thought was to specifically focus on the vine running under his skin, escaping through his palm, but that didn't work either.

Unlike wings or a tail, where he had a proper reference of how they worked, the idea of vines capable of moving at will just didn't click. Chains, rope or vines weren't capable of slithering through the air, they were subject to gravity and didn't even have their own method of movement. Even if it did work, he would have been utilising them as whips rather than the way the rose wight was, like tentacles, or even as serpents.

Then it clicked, but before he could test his new theory, he heard footsteps coming from the forest area in front of him. As he prepared for an attack, he heard a faint creaking noise, followed by the sound of something whistling as it flew through the air. Merlin quickly leapt from his rock and rolled into the forest dirt as a shoddy arrow shattered upon impact with the rock he was previously sitting on.

Two goblins ran out from the treeline, one carrying a club and the other carrying a rusty hatchet, neither of which were carrying a bow, which meant there were at least three goblins to fight.

Merlin drew his sword and began swinging as the hatchet goblin ran towards him with its weapon raised above its head. Before the hatchet and Merlin's sword made contact, an arrow flew directly towards Merlin's face, which was swiftly blocked by his shield.

The club goblin seemed to be trying to flank, approaching Merlin's blind spot as the hatchet and gladius made contact, causing sparks to fly off and the goblin to be staggered back a step. And as Merlin was preparing himself for his next swing, the club goblin made his move, running towards him with its club raised, but Merlin merely stepped to the side, causing the goblin to miss.

'It's just a few goblins, I should get some practice.' Merlin thought to himself, now staring at the club goblin. Yet another arrow flew past, but Merlin moved his head instead of blocking it with his shield, he didn't want to waste its durability.

Merlin held his shield hand out in front of him, and while parrying the hatchet goblin's next strike, imagined a snake crawling out of his palm instead. And much to his surprise, a small rose bud formed in the palm of his hand. He couldn't feel it pierce his skin, and there wasn't any feeling of movement under his skin, it didn't even feel like it was attached to his body, but he could still tell that it was there. It was a strange sensation that he couldn't really describe properly, but it was sort of like moving your fingers while your arm was numb or under anaesthesia.

With his palm now facing the club goblin, he imagined that a snake slithered out of his hand and struck the goblin. It didn't move at first, because he envisioned that the snake lunged at the goblin and sunk its fangs into it. He instead tried thinking of the snake constricting around the goblin's neck, to which the bud suddenly lunged at the goblin, a long rope of thorn-covered vines following it, which then wrapped around the club goblin's neck.

"You're really picky, huh." Merlin mumbled to himself as he watched the club goblin struggle against the vine. He decided that maybe thinking of it more like a tentacle and less of a snake would be easier for him to imagine.

The club goblin tugging on the vine caused Merlin's arm to jerk towards it instead of more vines coming out. Merlin found this interesting, even though it was extendable and retractable at will, only Merlin could adjust its length. Not only that, even though it magically appeared somewhere on his body, he was still considered attached to it, so stronger enemies would be able to whip him around.

Another arrow was notched and fired from the exact same location as the other arrows, instead of dodging this one, Merlin imagined the snake dragging the club goblin into its line of fire. The vine viciously whipped around, causing the goblin to frantically stumble in the direction the vine pulled it in. A second later, the goblin let out a pained scream as an arrow pierced its back. Merlin retracted the vine back into its body before turning his attention back to the hatchet goblin.

Merlin lifted his shield in the way of the hatchet goblin's next strike and then thrust his sword into its exposed chest. The oily black blood began sticking to his blade, two more strikes at the goblin's neck was all it took for the creature to fall to the ground.

"Honestly, it feels a little gimmicky." Merlin mumbled to himself as he walked towards the club goblin. He noticed that the archer goblin had come out of hiding and was now running towards him with a dagger drawn, but Merlin had finished off the club goblin before it got very far.

Merlin threw his blood-caked gladius at the last goblin before charging towards it, now imagining a tentacle extending from his finger and driving itself through the goblin. And in a similar fashion to how the rose wight once did it, a vine extended from the tip of Merlin's finger and pierced the goblin's chest.

「Passive skill ⟪Rose Blight⟫ has triggered, target's stats have been reduced.」

Surprisingly, he received a notification that his passive triggered, and he could see that where the vine had struck the goblin, the surrounding skin had begun turning purple.

'Ah, so that's what that was.' Merlin thought to himself, it seemed rose poison was just sporotrichosis, or more commonly known as rose gardener's disease, but with a fantasy twist. Rose poison spread much faster and acted more like a curse than poison, or even what it really was in the real world, which was a fungal infection that was transmitted through cuts caused by rose thorns.

Merlin retracted the vine and began slamming his shield against the goblin's face, while pinning its knife arm down. It took a couple strikes, but he eventually killed it. When he stood up, he noticed that none of the goblins dropped any loot, which left him slightly disappointed, but the goblin's bow seemed to be in an alright condition, and it was kind enough to leave a couple arrows in the quiver, so he considered it a win.

Merlin robbed the goblin's corpse of the bow and quiver, they were temporary items but he had a use for them. He walked over and grabbed his sword before chanting and casting the cleanse spell.

「Skill ⟪Cleanse⟫ Activated.」

The filth that was coating his body and his sword suddenly peeled off and began floating up for a few moments before vanishing, leaving both Merlin and his sword spotless.

"Such a convenient spell." Merlin said to himself as he grabbed the goblin's dagger and started using it to cut the ears off of all three goblins, throwing them in his inventory before throwing the useless dagger away. He grabbed the goblin's bow and quiver, alongside the club the other goblin used, and walked back towards his seat next to the campfire, which was now starting to die out.

Merlin threw the club into the campfire as fuel, placed the bow beside him and began playing with the vine once more.. It seemed tentacle was the right idea, as they became much easier to control than trying to imagine a snake moving as he wanted.