The garden was exactly where Victor said it was, and I found my way pretty easily following his directions… outside of nearly colliding with what I assume was a kitchen staff member, but I only knew enough to know what a chamber pot was, not the physical differences between it and a cooking pot, so I was quite happy to avoid the collision all the same.
I walked through beautiful halls covered with glass windows and bordered with limestone walls and I felt almost as though I was walking through a church-themed castle. Or a Disney castle. All the same, the garden did catch me by surprise - it made the Disneyland garden look like child’s play in comparison as I walked through its wonder. The hedge sculptures and well-tended earthen paths were absolutely beautiful, works of art and careful maintenance. I was amazed and left in awe, and I couldn’t help but feel like my own lack of landscaping knowledge left me at a loss to properly appreciate just how much work had gone into these pieces.
I stopped in awe as I followed the little path by the miniature river that seemed to run through here. I gazed upon the centerpiece left in the middle of the hedge castle, the path arcing around it in a crescent. I’d certainly seen a few hedge trimmings that took various shapes - ducks, and… some others I don’t recall besides the ducks - but this was the spitting image of a dragon, thrice as tall as I was, immaculate to the smallest detail. Part of me wondered warily if this really was a dragon, and forest dragons just happened to work a little more literally in this fantasy world.
It was absolutely huge, and I was absolutely overwhelmed with a childlike wonder as I saw it. Its great saw teeth looked totally cool. How they managed to carve such sharp looking teeth into a hedge left me a little surprised, but the resemblance was absolutely uncanny
“Are Dragons real around here?” I mumbled, more to myself than anyone. A voice still answered even though none was expected - aged, studious, and eager to impart knowledge.
“Were.” he answered. “The matter of whether they are is hotly debated, but it is believed that mighty warriors and wizards exterminated the last of their great kind long before even the arrival of The Black Court. All that are left are the drakes, and those are a matter I hope you shall not have to confront anytime soon, young one.”
I turned around to see my educative guest, seeing an elderly man in bright violet robes inlaid with gold that seemed to almost sparkle. If Victor was the thrift shop wizard, this old chap had Hollywood funding for his magical drip. A small orb even hung from the necklace he wore, glowing with an azure mist.
“E-excuse me, my name is Noah. I was told to wait in the gardens…”
“Indeed. and your waiting has brought me out.” the old man replied, alternating raised silver eyebrows as he looked me over from top to bottom. “I am Ionos, retired court magician of King Cesar.”
“Wow, really?! So you’re a bigshot! Only… wait, former?”
Ionos gave a smile through wizened lips, and I was left surprised at just how old this man looked. No part of his skin seemed without wrinkle, and his silvery beard was so long that even tied back and looped through his belt it almost touched the floor. His eyebrows were long enough you could tie knots with them, but he had these twinkling purple eyes underneath, and a smile that would have looked more fitting on a ten year old who’d just committed a particularly funny (to him) prank. What most stuck out though, was his ears: slanted and pointy!
“Indeed. Nowadays my body is too bent to cast most spells. Even helping you was done only as a favor. Besides, my grandson has surpassed me in most ways at a fraction of the age, so it only makes sense he should have my job.” the old man spoke up.
“Oh. Congratulations on finding someone at your age?” I asked with some shock.
“I didn’t meet my wife when I was old, Druid! Goodness me, are you a dolt after all?!” Ionos asked with an irritated glare.
“If the answer is yes, will you not help me out?” I asked, cringing a little bit at the thought.
“Sigh… I do owe King Cesar a favor, and I suppose I’ve nothing better to do.” The old Wizard spoke up with a harrumph, shuffling over to a nearby log bench. I shuffled over, and thinking it was the correct decision, sat down right next to him.
“Understand I only have a passing firsthand knowledge of druidism, and most of my knowledge is from former colleagues who have long since passed away.” the magician continued, “But my passing knowledge leads me to believe you must have chosen some sort of substructure for the plants you can create, yes?” he asked, pulling out a pipe as he spoke that looked to me like it was made of gold, amethyst, and jade. The smoke rings he blew created a line of smokey cheerios I followed into the sky as I half-heartedly answered.
“Yeah, I chose ‘Mesozoic’, because I thought it would open up more options, but there’s no ‘are you sure’ button for this RPG.” I said with a sigh. “So now I can make prehistoric plants. Or… prehistoric in my world.”
“What was that? Messer zoic? RPG? Buttons?” Ionos asked, his look one of irritations.
“Yeah, I pushed the Mesozoic button and now I can summon ferns, because it didn’t ask if I could confirm my buy! but it’s still pretty cool! So now I can summon prehistoric plantlife.”
The wizard-man brushed off his robes, looked me dead in the eyes, and spoke up after just a moment, looking at me like the weirdest idiot he had ever met in his life.
“...Young druid, I don’t know what a single one of those words means.” the magician asked, as confusion and frustration crept into his voice.
“Oh, well, Mesozoic is actually the name for the era before the Cenozoic, or the age of mammals as it is sometimes known, while the Mesozoic was dominated by-” I began speaking, and the Old man just stopped me after a moment.
“Slow down! Slow down! You’re speaking a mile a minute, ” the Magician snapped, and I just gave a sigh.
“Sorry it’s just that you asked me to tell you and I normally don’t get to talk about this and I just was trying to quickly inform you about the differences between the different eras of prehistory as sorted by paleontologists in my era and-”
“Just - show me!” The magican snapped, as I was cut off, and with a face slightly flush, realized I might have been oversharing a little. This old man clearly wasn’t someone I made a good impression on… I’d have to do it with my magic, rather than my words!
I held out a hand and focused. With a single thought, I brought to mind what extinct plants I knew that couldn’t be pawned off as just some modern variant. I wanted to show him that what I had was something special, something that’s not just some tropical tree.
I held out a hand, feeling those sparks from before. This time, the change was hard, but I was determined! I focused on something long-dead and special, something that was distinct - and interesting, too!
The Wizard gave an anguished harrumph, as wood and bark pushed up. “So normal forest plants, then…” He spoke up, giving a dismissive nod that pushed me to try harder. I felt that exhaustion creep in - before, it had felt more like the equivalent of staying up a few hours late, but now, it was crushing. That sleepiness was starting to push at the corners of my vision, and I was pretty sure that using magic was going to be - pretty unlikely for the rest of the day.
The tree sprouted, grew leaves, then shed them, up and up, leaving only scales of bark behind where the saplings' former branches were quickly shed. Lepidodendron was called the ‘scale tree’ for a reason, after all, and I could hear the Wizard’s grumbling turn to a surprised gasp as he saw the tree grow up and up, quickly going from a few inches tall to around ten feet. I also gasped - I’d never seen a living example of this tree! No one had! Here I was watching this scaled tree erupt into something amazing before my eyes all the same! I couldn’t look away as a smile forced it’s way across my face, my eyes gleaming with interest.
“I’ve never seen this tree before… I’ll admit I’m a little impressed, druid!”
I wanted to look over, as the scraggly leaves on top of the tree began to form, rough, thick buds that sprouted fuzzy looking cones from their tops, but if I didn’t keep looking at the tree, I felt sure I would faint. I wanted to see it blossom - needed to see it bloom into something that had eluded my species for millions of years!
“No, that is not the way! Druid! Noah!”
The tree grew up, farther still, beyond the reach of almost any terrestrial animal to consume in living memory, only I could not see the top. the darkness at the edge of my vision blurred as I blinked a couple of times, and felt something hard and gnarled bonk me hard on the head.
Funnily, even as I felt myself going down to dream-town, the status menu still opened up:
Create plant Rank 7 Overcast!
MP Used: 430
Current MP total: -367/113
Druid EXP Gained: +70. 80/100 EXP to level 2
Create plants rank EXP: +72. 84/100 EXP to level 2.
You have gained a level in the “Mana resilience” skill! Gained 50 bonus Druid Experience!
You are in Mortal Peril.
---
I awoke with a start, or more a gibbering gasp and a short scream, complete with some nervous, unhinged laughter. The ceiling was a fine wood planking, the walls some clunky cobblestone, and the bed actually quite comfortable - it was a bed of feathers and blankets that felt luxurious, and it was the first thing I’d say was inarguably better than my home life. I felt like I was resting on pieces of heaven, which was a good thing when every muscle currently felt like hell.
“Grbubs.” I eloquently said instead of anything resembling language through a tongue that felt bruised somehow. I turned my head, something that took effort, and saw Ionos sitting next to me. The old wizard seemed half-asleep. It took a few more seconds before the old man awoke with a sudden start, a gasp of someone escaping from a dream they wanted no part of anymore.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“-Oh, you’re awake! Thank goodness!” the wizard said with excitement, giving a smile broader than I’d have expected his old face to be able to stretch to. He seemed to be having a much harder time with every little movement, compared to the grace in his movement in the garden, leading me to wonder if he’d actually carried me back.
“A’wha happened?!” I asked, still bleary.
“I put a lot on you - and you answered my crabby demands with equal amounts of vigor” The wizard replied. “I am… sorry for doubting you, and you have my sincere apologies as one scholar of magic to another for not taking your claim more seriously, but what you did there.. .you should not do it again.”
“Make plants? Wait, no, that wouldn’t make sense…” I mumble.
“You managed to overcast - and go into negative mana - on what was your second casting.” Ionos explained, his lips pursed tightly. “For most, mere self-preservation tends to stop them from learning the latter just on principle, and the former still requires a certain recklessness to learn without any help. I did not expect to see you do both just from a little prodding on the subject, but that does not change the fact that I failed to warn you as an instructor.”
I thought about that, thinking on the old magician’s words, “so negative mana… I assume, is bad.”
“under normal circumstances, it would likely have meant your death, as unused to it as you are.” Ionos said, that twinkle in his eye fading slightly as he spoke.
“So what happened that made me… y’know, not asplode?” I eventually ventured to ask.
Ionos stroked his beard thoughtfully, or maybe because something was in it. I wasn’t entirely sure if stroking your beard was a thing people did because they were thoughtful or just itchy, never having managed more than stubble myself.
“That would be me… it’s quite inefficient, but any mage can give their mana to another in order to fix such problems. For a master mage like myself, I had just enough to counteract your negative mana problem.. so long as I limit myself to cantrips for the rest of the day. I then animated a small stretcher and a pair of chairs to help pull you back to my abode to rest.”
“-Wow, cool!” I exclaimed, before Ionos continued.
"I have informed the King that you will be quartered at my abode for the night, as you’ll likely not be well enough to move on your own without a few more hours of rest at the very least.”
I gave a nod, though I gave a small grunt as well. “so I actually gained a level in mana resilience, the system said. As in, a skill my class gives me, I’m not sure I myself feel very resilient right now.”
“Normally most would have to train several years, but while you are not a hero, you are still some sort of… destined traveller, so perhaps this level of growth should be expected.” Ionos said, his eyes sagging.
“Yes, some mages, particularly a few battlemages, train to be able to go beyond their limits and discover the secrets of adapting to mana exhaustion - but I would tread carefully, indulging that skill further.” Ionos added, his frown deepening.
“Many mages learn this art to be able to bring more power out in their worst moments… but it is a skill of desperation, to be used only in those terrible moments. Several of the bravest men I’d ever met trained these skills to high levels. All of them are now dead, sacrificing themselves in brave last stands or against powerful monsters, and I assure you that it was not a quick or painless death.” Ionos said, as I gave a shiver. “It is a skill that can allow a veritable storm of magic, and each one of them certainly protected their colleagues that day, but I can’t help but wonder… if they’d have lived through those situations simply by studying safer magic, gaining more mana normally with that time given to them.”
“...Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask what is up with these experience requirements! assuming I only get, like, a hundred mana a day from a rest or whatever and it doesn’t fill up superfast.”
“-it does not.” Ionos confirmed. “and you are correct in your assumptions. without extra skills, potions, or certain environmental bonuses, mana does not come back any faster for anyone, and requires a long rest to replenish more than a few points.”
“...I have some questions about that, but I can wait on those.” I say with a nod. “Create plant, as it is, is not going to even level me up to druid level 2 if I use it orthodox until I spend another good portion of a week with just a hundred mana.
“Indeed. It’s likely one of the most inefficient paths of growth a druid can take, and grows more so the more advanced the spell you use. It's why few have ever really touched the creation part of druidism, even less so than the Animal Bonding abilities.”
“Oh, I have those?!” I blurted.
Ionos just blinked, long and slow. “I’d heard the heroes were able to innately access a system that allowed them to look at what they’re capable of?” he asked.
“Oh. We, uhm, do. I just sorta… accidentally picked the one, and… haven’t looked since.” I admitted, not quite able to meet the wizard’s eyes.
“I see… Well, my understanding is that plant control is the druid’s weakest tree for learning quickly - growing slowly, rather like the trees they specialize in. In exchange, however, they can learn how to restore destroyed farmland, burned forests, things like that. For a hero, one searching for combat, it is far less useful. You may spend a lot of time growing in such a manner before gaining the ability to defeat a strong opponent on that path.”
“But I, uhhh… m’not a hero. So it might not matter.” I point out, giving a relaxed sigh as my shoulders slump.
“Perhaps not one of the four, but are you really planning on sitting out the affairs of this era?” Ionos asked, looking surprised. “Your friend Victor seemed to imply you were quite interested in learning how to support the other heroes.”
I angrily felt like shooting something back, but… something stopped me. I could cite some noble reasons that came up. I didn’t want Victor to be judged the way I was on day one for something he did initially, or not wanting to disrupt the world’s balance by slagging one of the four heroes and putting the prophecy in danger.
But that was absolutely not it. Maybe they were supporting reasons, but just the thought of telling Ionos about how Victor really was, and the ensuing rabbithole it might put me down, made me tired just thinking about it. People might not believe me. Even if they did, I’d make an enemy of Victor. If he was found guilty maybe people’d expect me to be one of the big four heroes - assuming they’d ever do anything about one of the people meant to save the world, which would be understandable.
Making an enemy of Victor by tattling felt like this big, unassailable cliff face I’d be throwing myself off of, and even if he didn’t have a particularly positive opinion of me right now, he wasn’t exactly my enemy… at least, so I thought.
I didn’t want to have any enemies. Not these Black Court guys, and Not Victor.
“...I’m sure he just misunderstood.” I wound up lamely excusing myself. “...Knowing a bit about how to defend myself might be good if this world is as untamed as our world used to be.” I said, thinking back to old stories about highwaymen and roadside bandits. “But I’ll be happy just living a quiet life, earning some money, and doing something interesting. And this Druid stuff is interesting, I just don’t want to specialize in fighting with it… I don’t really have the constitution.” I admitted with a weak smile.
“A man who can overcast a spell to the sixth degree and risk his life simply to see an interesting plant hasn’t the stomach for fighting… you are an odd lad.”
I gave a weak smile in return. If I was honest, as he explained it, I didn’t think what I had done was praiseworthy at all. My motivation was just - obsession, a desire, a burning need to see this plant I’d read of and heard of in real life, back from a millions-of-years old grave. I remember no selflessness in that moment like these battlemages, no real grit. I just… wanted to see the glory of that prehistoric nature come to be one more time.
I clenched my fists beneath the fine quilt and took a deep breath. “...Yeah, guess I am.” I said with a smile. “But hey - I can do plenty of other things, right? help people with their gardens, fix little problems. I can have a quiet life where I’m not a bother to anyone.
Ionos seemed satisfied with that explanation as I laid back. “Well, in that case - I would trouble you to come back to my home, once a week. My tutoring might help you learn more quickly, and I’ve not been troubled by the other heroes for such a thing. Even if one does, once a week’s not so much of a burden to me.”
I put a hand to my chin, thinking about it. “I certainly won’t turn down free training… I’d appreciate a little trust on what I’m doing in the future though, teacher.”
Ionos seemed to flinch a little bit, a shadow of something going across his face. “Don’t worry about it. I thought you were just some fool - and this happens to be a trying day for me.” Ionos admitted. “Today was not an ideal teaching experience, and I hope we can cover it up with more ideal teaching experiences soon. As for your abilities…”
“Hmm?” I asked.
“Most spellcasters lean on their abilities to level up, but my understanding is that heroes can gain power from learning related professions. Something that might assist you to grow a little faster as a wizard.”
I sat up slightly from the bed - or at least, I tried to. I really just jerked slightly upwards and then laid back down as the feeling of every rib in my body questioning my decisions in a painful fashion struck me all at once.
“Professions?” I asked through chattering teeth that clenched in pain.
“You may wish to look through them yourself on your menu, as you called it. Most heroes can specialize in a single profession, but all can learn an uncanny amount in many mundane professions quickly with their birthright. Learning just enough to bake bread as a baker, put a basic splint on a broken leg as a medic, things like that.” The magician states. “or so the old texts state. If you wish to continue on your path, it also allows you to gain an honest job and excel at it. Eventually, you may wish to move out of the king’s chosen room for you, and in that case, it would be good to already have coin on hand, for lodging and other needs.”
I gave an anxious sigh and a nod. “...That sounds like a good plan. Just ‘cause I’m in a new world doesn’t mean I can avoid a day job, I guess.”
The whisper of a tea kettle suddenly caught my ear, and Ionos was quick to speak up.
“Excuse me.” The old wizard spoke up, getting up from the chair with no small amount of effort, and I was quickly alone in the small bedroom Ionos had set up. No hospital TV, and lovely sunlight from the windows with some birds twittering, but not a lot else.
My boredom started to coalesce into some hard boredom, before a thought occurred to me.
“Menu.”
My status screen opened up without much further prodding. ‘Equipment’ ‘Inventory’ ‘Abilities’ ‘Skills’...
This time I opened up my skill menu in earnest, trying to learn a little more about what that old man had said about professions.
It did seem like there was quite a few basic professions I had available, around 40 or so. Many of them were lores about places, though most were greyed out in that case. I didn’t really know why I was being shown skills I couldn’t even obtain, but perhaps there was something special I needed to do to unlock them?
Reading the tooltips, it did seem to note that these were the skills ‘currently available’, so I imagined more might show up later, but many of these seemed pretty simple to understand.
at the top were ‘Keeper’ ‘Wayfarer’, ‘Conservation’ and ‘World’ levels, which were separated from the rest. I figured these were druid-specific skills.
Below that were weapon and armor skills, though Armor seemed to simply be a ‘level max’ or ‘level 0’ situation. I started with max ranks in leather and cloth armor and no ranks in the others… so I had a feeling it had more to do with what you were legally allowed to equip than as a real skill. No real surprise as a druid, I supposed.
Weapon skills were a bit more varied, though. ‘fists’ ‘staff’ ’hatchet’ ‘scythe’ ‘spear’ ‘sickle’ ‘dagger’ ‘scimitar’ ‘sling’ ‘slingstaff’,the last of which I’d never heard of in my whole life. It wasn’t a long list… but given druids were supposed to turn into bears and use magic, I figured that was pretty fair, honestly.
After that was quest EXP, which was at a firm “0”, and made me wonder what quest levels would actually give me, Mana resilience at it’s firm level 1 - notated in purple, rather than the blue square panel the rest were on. Was this to emphasize it was a hidden skill? I wasn’t sure, but I figured I’d find out later.
After that were professions and some other odd skills in there, like ‘runner’, which had such a big number of points you needed to put into it I mentally filed it down as ‘something I’m probably not getting anytime soon’ immediately, and endurance, but it also had stuff like ‘Cooking’ ‘Construction’ ‘Farmer’...
I focused on that last one, thinking about what that meant. Farmers took care of plants. Farmers got to hang out with animals… there was some potential there.
Patting the empty pouch still pinned to my belt, I gave a sigh. Somehow, even in my fantasies I was broke and looking for entry level work. But if farmer was a profession, and people here were looking for a farmhand, I think I had a plan to fix my immediate levelling problem and my immediate money problem in one go.
…As soon as I could feel something other than ‘owie’ in my limbs, that is.
