Plants following my will can never bore me, every time I do it I just feel so amazing you know? Magic usually gives me the same feeling, but the instinctive way I manipulate plants, like it's second nature to me, just hits differently compared to casting spells manually.

  Seeing the plants move to where I want them to is pretty enjoyable as well, the visual just gives me a dopamine hit like never before.

  And then seeing the plans in my head coming into existence? Ugh. It's just too good I think.

  Slowly, the plants form a rectangular shape, creating a wall that runs through a large part of the swamp. Covering the lifeless pool isn't that difficult for me to do, the plants are already there so all it takes is a bit of manipulation as well as a good amount of forceful growth and they become a wall that covers the entire aberrant territory. They're strong enough to withstand attacks from the crustaceans as well.

  "That's one side done." This only took what? Half an hour? With most of the time spent being designated to giving the plants an actual design.

  A mess of leaves would probably not attract the same kind of attention as, say, a wall of wood, bramble, and rocks with a repeating floral pattern every 5 feet, between the flowers are vines I purposefully covered in symbiotic algae to give it a yellow color, creating contrast.

  "It looks nice, and the stairs aren't bad either, I can see myself climbing something like this out of curiosity more than anything."

  "You think so?" Spending a lot of time designing the wall definitely took a toll on me so I'm glad it turned out well.

  Wardcruncha's gaze went up, at the top of the wall is a flat surface that people can walk on, railings made of branches and covered in vines act as a safety feature that will stop people from falling.

  "I believe so." The mage doubled down, he looked at the ground, went silent for a moment, then nodded. "Your control over your new abilities have definitely become sharper, I can see that the roots this time around have actually managed to dig deep into the earth."

  "Yep, they won't be falling down any time soon." Being reminded of the first few times I tried building something with my chloro-kinesis was not fun. "I think I can modify the plants as well, do more than just make them grow."

  "Can you? What will you add once you figure that out?"

  "Less thorns, for starters." Picking the branches and stems with no thorns on them took a lot of work, because they are either too soft or too stiff, making it impossible to make them bend at an angle. "Getting creative when making the top of the wall flat was not fun, I wish that I had the ability to remove thorns so that I don't have to do that again. Ever."

  "What did you do to make it flat?"

  "Made some branches grow taller, and then got them to grow horizontally on the height where I wanted the floor to be." Well, okay, maybe it wasn't that complicated, still, not very convenient to do.

  "And since the branches are tall, you can modify them to become the railing, correct?"

  "Yeah, pretty much." Adding extra height should have been a given no matter what I think? "You're making it sound like I'm complaining about the simplest things you know?"

  "If it sounds that way, then chances are, you most likely were doing exactly that, the conversation just shone light on it and made you notice."

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "Okay, fine! I'm petty and complained about something I should have done." I pouted. "Now can you start scanning the earth to see if I really am taking nutrients from it?"

  "Fair enough." Wardcruncha reached forward with glowing hands and then closed his eyes, when he opened them again, he gave me grim news. "Yes, the nutrients definitely got depleted, luckily for us however, the swamp is full of it."

  "And the latest cull probably helped as well." My guess made him nod. "Great, guess I need to be careful when actually using my abilities."

  "You can make it so that making the plants grow doesn't require nutrients, but magic."

  "And what will the price for that be? A corrupted forest?" I was just joking but the way Wardcruncha smiled told me this would actually happen. "Okay... No forcing magic into plants to make them grow, noted."

  "Don't say that, you do realize that you can make magical plants right?" Wardcruncha was unphased even as I gave him the most 'are you insane?!' stare I could muster, he was just standing there, chest puffed in pride.

  Okay, let me put some thought into this then, he's encouraging me to make magical plants— by corrupting normal plants and possibly turning them into monsters. — which means it's probably safe right? The word probably is carrying a lot of weight here...

  Potential monsters aside, what can I get from magical plants? Well, gold, obviously, a lot of gold. Those things are in demand amongst mages and the best of the best will be more than happy to pay me a lot of money in exchange for some rare plant.

  And that's not counting the nobles who would want to buy a plant that can "invigorate" them in bed.

  Money aside, I can probably also attract customers here by selling some rare but harmless magical plants, right? I just need to make them sign a piece of paper that says I'm not held accountable if they ever get killed by the plant.

  So more tourists, getting a positive reputation from high ranking mages, and then I earn money?

  "... I think I see your point though." I do my best to ignore Wardcruncha's grin. "Okay, I'll consider it, I'll have to test out just how dangerous it is before I use it as much as possible though."

  "That is only expected, safety is paramount when it comes to magic, and the practitioners that don't prioritize this are either crippled or dead."

  "Haha, very funny." I drawl. Crippled or dead? Can't I escape both? "You're convincing me not to do this by talking like that, you know?"

  "I apologize then." Wardcruncha, of course, didn't get the joke.

  "Alright then, let's see if I can make another wall, shall we?" As we walked to the other side of the lifeless pool, I can't help but start thinking about all the things I can do with my new ability.

  The wall I just made has carnivorous plants that lower the insect population inside of it, making it a lot less annoying to climb and be around, so what if I do the same to our house? To our store? Can I make a plant that gives off a nice scent? What about a plant that keeps a room cooled? Like an air conditioner? I totally can, right?

  Beyond the magical plants that Wardcruncha is weirdly excited about— and I can't wait to unpack that can of worms. Yay. — there are so many things that my new ability can potentially do.

  Dryads back then must have been powerful, so what happened to them? Does Wardcruncha know? Also, just what is he? He's clearly also inhuman.

  "By the way, are you an inhuman as well?"

  "Well, I think it's easier to describe me as the exact opposite? I wasn't human once, but then I became one."

  What?

  I blink and stare at the mage, so he wasn't human once? What the fuck does that mean? Was he some kind of animal that got experimented on? What was his original species? And why was he turned into a human?

  "The Pricors wanted to see if the system they made was compatible with living beings, they tested it on animals first."

  "Ah, so you're like a lab rat?" That made sense? Even trials back on earth involved mice first, and monkeys I think? I'm not exactly big on the whole biochemistry thing.

  "Rat? Rontress, I was more than just a rat." He laughed, it's the first time I've heard him sound so creepy. "And regular rats wouldn't survive what I went through, the Pricors knew this, so they picked the strongest animals they could."

  So he's not a rat, but something more? What would that be? A... Giant bird. I guess?

  Why am I even asking this? Who cares about his previous race? And I already told myself that I don't want anything to do with the Pricorian. I should just focus on building the wall so I can get this over with.

  "That's interesting." Was my only reply. "And I'm sorry you had to go through whatever it is they put you through."

  "Don't worry, it's all in the past and besides, I like my new form, I've grown fond of it in the following years after my escape."

  Right, so he did get experimented on. Makes me wonder what happened back then, and why every single human has a system. We're basically born with it aren't we? How did that happen?