Chapter 15 – Synthesis

Over the next few weeks, everything came to a slow grind as I tried to get used to everything related to my evolution. Also, my loner life as a plant fey had ended. I supposed that was a good thing to me, right? Now I could only do monologues while Haelley slept. Otherwise she was going to question my sanity!

I practised using my [synthesis] ability over and over again because it was one of the two most useful abilities for me. Basically, I was able to create anything that made up of my plant body as long as I had the material. I could even modify the properties of the materials if I put in stronger intentions. It was to the point that I was able to create some clothing for myself. A free leafy dress, why not?

"Haelley, you should try wearing this dress, isn't it pretty?" I offered her a green dress decorated with white flowers.

"No. Hard to move around," she shook her head.

"Don't you want to be able to speak to mortals? They all wear clothing, right?"

"Okay, I wear it."

She was such a simple minded person that I didn't even need to put in any effort to convince her.

Once she put it on, I noticed that color match up was actually terrible. She had green and blue features, and added with the green dress, the dress really made too little difference. The only thing that looked nice was the white flower which what a normal strawberry flower looked like.

"Never mind, maybe a yellow dress would look better," I answered when I noticed her anticipating gaze.

Oops, I should have told her she looked pretty...

"Awh," she frowned with disappointment.

I'm super sorry!

"Actually, I can just make it wither, and that'll yellow it right?"

"No! Bad Berry."

The way she worded it, I felt like it was directed at a dog. Despite many weeks if me correcting her way of speaking, her improvements were mediocre.

"Alright, you keep it then. I'll make a new dress later."

Although my proficiency and efficiency with this ability had increased, it still wasn't enough to freely synthesize things without pause. However this led me to constantly use [absorption] replenish myself to the point my efficiency with this ability had increased. That was when I had confirmed that there were indeed some sort of hidden level system for all the abilities. The more I used them, the better I was at using them. Currently, I could replenish myself fully from a single tree without withering it whereas at first I had to absorb from five trees before I was full. 

The next thing I was practising synthesis with was creating plant based weapons. If I removed the pollens and nectar, my flowers made excellent weapons. They too had changed due to my recent evolution to a scary degree. Really, they were somehow more vicious than alligator jaws with the sticky parts becoming something closer to razor sharp fangs. And on top of that, I could use [absorption] as long as the flowers are connected to my through these sturdy and flexible vines I synthesized.

Yep, my weapons, something out of a horror movie, all that was me, the Strawberry Reaper. If I hid myself under a child's bed at night, I could probably induce a strawberry nightmare!

Anyway, I wasn't the only one who did lots of things over the past few weeks. Haelley had gone ground doing some sort of population control on the wild boars. Their official species name prior to evolution was [Ho-Foku]. For two weeks straight, she only had one type of meat for her meals.

"Don't you get bored of eating the same thing every day?"

"Yes, but wasting food is bad."

"How about this? I can create nectar, and you can add to your meat? It would taste good, no?"

"Berry, good idea! I try."

Nectar wasn't supposed to be addictive so it should be fine. I kind of wished I could remove the addictive properties of my strawberries. To do that, I would have to isolate whatever chemical compound or magical effect that gave my strawberries that trait.

"I have a better idea! Can you make a small fire?"

"Fire? Fire is bad," she shook her head, "fire kills forests."

Even though I didn't need to eat at all, I still wanted to try my hands on making some sweet barbecued pork chops, or boar chops?

"I can make super tasty food with fire. Please? Pretty please?"

"What is 'pretty please' mean?"

Kuh, I have to start there?

"It means 'please' but just sounds better?" Honestly, I didn't even know it myself.

"No fire, pretty please!"

She's certainly a fast learner on useless things.

"Fine," I resigned.

I handed a leafy cup of concentrated nectar to her. It wasn't like I could eat anyway. Given my current physical conditions, it was already a miracle that I could talk and have four out of the five human senses. Obviously, taste wasn't there and I had no stomach at all. I was almost like some type of homunculi created just to venture about.

"Sweet meat is tasty!" She cried out in joy as she chewed on the boar meat.

Lucky... I wish I could eat.

"Haelley, how long do you think it'll take you to reach level 50?"

"I think three years. I level up slow not like you. You are strange."

"I'm a plant."

"You are the first strong plant fey I have seen."

"Really?"

I thought I was super weak.

"Mm... Once I saw something like plant fey, a smiley fun guy, very strong."

Fun guy, fungi? But... Smiling mushroom? Were you high?

That thought came to my mind and as much I wanted to voice it out, I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Furthermore, she probably wouldn't understand either and I would have to explain myself. Seriously, I rather not teach her any strange vocabularies otherwise it was going to come back and bite me in the future.

"Can you tell me more about it?"

"No, mom took me away. She said fun guys are bad and they eat people."

Maybe I misunderstood, there was no way mushrooms could eat people.

"Oh, never mind," and the matter was closed.  

Recently, the kobolds on that mountain had been taking care of the strawberry plants. I personally went to those villages to preach the gospels of the Strawberry Empire while Haelley kept an eye on my safety from afar. Actually, I just shared slices of my strawberries and taught them about cultivation. They weren't hostile to me at all. Just have tiny slices wasn't going to make them super addicted or anything. Just to be sure, I even told them to eat very little because drug addicts weren't going to make my empire grow.

The exception was the first tiny village that we visited. A stone altar was setup next to a strawberry plant. Once per week, they would offer some sacrifices to the strawberry plant so more strawberries would grow. Honestly, their behaviors resembled those beetles, with the difference being that the kobolds offered the things they hunted instead of killing themselves. Yep, a strange cult had formed here. Unfortunately, unbeknown to them, I was the one controlling how much resources were to be spent on growing strawberries for each of my strawberry clone.

It's kind of too late to save them now. I'll be nice, and let that clone grow more flowers and strawberries.

Speaking of clones, I had lost count of them. There were probably over a thousand clones out there already. Most of them, I stopped caring how they grew. It wasn't like they could drain my resources anyway since resources weren't shared.

"Haelley, are you familiar with Kallions? I'm thinking of taming one."

Kallion was the official name for what I called minotaur. By now, it should have encountered one of my strawberry plants already.

"They are delicacy."

This simpleton only cares about food. Her vocabulary shows just that.

"Anything else? I saw one not too far away and I was hoping we could make one join us."

"Why? Am I no good? Are we not friends?" She hung a sad frown on her face.

Argh! I messed up again.

"Uhm... The more the merrier?"

"Mom said we can't be friends with food."

And I'm not food?

"But, you drank my nectar. Are we not friends then?" I threw that question back at her.

"Berry! You are different! We are friends! I promise no more nectar..." She tear up near the end.

Awh, she must really love the nectar.

"Okay, okay. You can still have the sweet stuff and be my friend at the same time."

"Okay. Can I eat kallion?"

"Uhh... sure, once you can make a small fire for me."

Roasted minotaur meat didn't sound too bad. Even if I couldn't eat, cooking shouldn't be prohibited. I should be granted this basic joy of life.

The problem was that neither of us knew how to make fire in the wilderness. Because of that, I had to hold off on the minotaur business until we learned how to make fires out here.

Minotaur, wash your neck or hurry away. The choice is yours.