Syl [A Slime Evolution LitRPG] Chapter 352 : Growing

I continued feeding the sapling with Mana, which was actually a considerable amount, all things considered. I had thought this would be a relatively simple job, but perhaps, due to the sheer complexity of the plant involved, it required far more than usual.

More is good, though; it should give more experience, right?

[Nature Magic] was very weird to , as it sort of flew in the face of everything I had learnt prior. I'd seen a few different spells of it cast over ti, from various monsters, elves, and, of course, plantoids.

I don't think I could just make a "Natureball" or any of my previous spells, really. It almost feels like the odd one out in terms of [Elental Magic]. I can only assu nobody wanted to make mud magic.

To my relief, after a few minutes of uninterrupted [Grow] casting, I received my first level up.

Oh! This is exciting.

I quickly recognized the spell as this was what a few monsters had used against in the past. This turned any ordinary plant into dangerous roots, vines, brambles, and so on. It even gave you temporary control over them while the spell was in action, which I thought was pretty cool.

However, I instantly noticed three drawbacks with this new spell. Firstly, it strictly needed so form of plant matter to exist, and you couldn't get around this. Yes, it could be a few blades of grass, but Mana apparation was not an option. The other issue was that anything you used [Overgrowth] on would die shortly after, and the final issue was that it could only be used on mundane plants.

The last one makes sense. Imagine fighting a treant or plantoid and then casting this to kill it.

I naturally cast the spell a few tis, targeting so grass, roots, and even moss that was nearby. I could make it surge into various montary attack forms, which was relatively useful. I imagined this was the closest thing [Nature Magic] had to a resource generator spell, for now at least.

If I could remove the drawback, that would be a plus. Should I use [Skill Deconstruct] on it?

I was tempted, especially at this low level, but the stunning lack of information I'd received from deconstructing [Magma Magic] still left feeling bitter. I shrugged it off and continued supplying the sapling while throwing [Overgrowth] spells around to gain extra proficiency.

Since I had a network of [Sub-Cores] around the island, I had plenty of variety of plants to play around with. I figured I'd likely get a first-ti bonus with each addition, so I sought out as many different plants as I could. To do this, I left my main body casting [Grow] while I changed my perspective to my various cores around the island.

I tried it out on mushrooms, trees, shrubs, and even fruit. The last one was quite a surprise, turning the fruit into a sort of juice bomb. While I found the result funny, I decided to hide it from Vee, as I had no doubt she would be enraged by it.

When I'd finished playing around with [Overgrowth], I ca back to my sapling, to find it had already grown to around the size of a teenager. While I was happy with what I'd managed in only a morning, I was a little surprised at how it had slowed down from earlier.

Does it need more water? More brown sli?

I wasn't sure, so I gave it both, making sure to provide the soil with a nice bath in the enriching sli. After that, I continued casting [Grow], and from my observations, the roots below spread even further.

Okay, magic alone isn't enough. I need to keep feeding it as we go along.

I borrowed [Nature Commune] and tried talking to the tree. I sensed sothing there, but I got the impression it was still dormant, at least for now.

I took so ti to watch Vee at work. I swapped to Beta's perspective and saw that Vee was doing so landscaping. The ground was being tilled with [Earth Magic], and it looked like the start of a dedicated plantation.

"Oh. Master has joined us," Sylbera suddenly said.

"Hey, Syl, are you spying on us?" Vee asked with a giggle.

This damn spider asked Beta to inform her if I swapped over. I don't know whether to be offended or praise her for the clever idea…

"No, just curious what you were up to," I replied with telepathy.

"I'm having Sylbera smooth out the land a bit. Hopefully, we can have a bit of a farm going on. I definitely want an orchard at the very least!" Vee said excitedly.

"Perhaps so livestock, too?" Sylbera suggested.

"That's a great idea, Sylbera!" Vee praised. "We can have our own hogrown foods and everything."

Wait… Beta is offering ideas?

I was a little shocked at this unexpected developnt. Was [Roleplay] actually capable of this? I'd always projected a little on my cores, but this was beyond my expectations.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Should I have more cores running around the island? I can even have Vee do the creating for , since she did such a good job with Sylbera so far…

Again, I was tempted, but I decided to hold back for now. I wanted to observe Sylbera for a little longer and see if there were any side effects to having a [Sub-Core] keep [Roleplay] active for extended periods of ti.

Also, I don't really have the cores to spare right now. Unless I want to do so more purchasing…

I looked at my trait points and ntally shook my head. Ten points were already reserved for uncapping [Core Collective] as soon as possible, so I couldn't afford it at the mont.

"Well, let know once you've planted stuff. I need to cast [Grow] a lot more tis," I said.

"Will do," Vee replied.

I said my goodbyes and left them to continue their work, returning my attention to the sapling.

Oh, Pi is back.

I crushed the [Sub-Core] again. Unfortunately, there wasn't a level-up this ti, so I just stored away the precious pink sli shards.

For the rest of the day, while I babysat the sapling, I tried seeing if I could weave anything with [Nature Magic]. I had so many different spell components and concepts that I felt like there must be sothing I could do.

I tinkered the hours away and did manage to make a few discoveries by the end of the day. We were also attacked a few tis by more rn stragglers who had co for , but as soon as they set foot on the island, they were promptly taken out by the [Sub-Cores] I'd stationed.

As for my spell weaving, many of my concepts weren't appropriate, and the most effective ones I found were anything that manipulated the area or targets. For example, my very first success was creating a widescale version of [Grow], which would make Vee's farming idea a breeze in the future.

[Chaos Elents] did co into play as I was able to combine a few oddities, like producing burning vines with [Overgrowth], although as a result, the plant died even faster than normal.

All was not lost, though, as my effort eventually paid off and I was rewarded with the next level of [Nature Magic], which awarded the spell [Seedrend]. The spell allowed you to sacrifice a willing plant and turn it into a varying amount of seeds, spores, or otherwise.

So this is the true resource generator for [Nature Magic]...

The amount of seeds you got varied with the plant's health and condition, but could be offset by expending exponentially more Mana. The more complex the plant, the more Mana was required, so I could see a dying super rare plant emptying even my reserves if I pushed it too far.

As for the "willing" part, that seed to only be automatically true for anything that wasn't magical. I had no issue creating seeds from anything I set my eyes on.

I imagine the permission is for things like plantoids… Can you create treant seeds? This branch of magic gets stranger and stranger.

I had to admit I was a little disappointed when I first saw it, as I was hoping to get the spell that would let make the little plant helpers that I'd seen Trixie use. However, when I told Vee about my new spell, she was positively delighted.

"This solves almost every problem with creating our farm and orchard!" Vee enthusiastically declared. "I can hand you a fruit or veggie, and you can convert it into seeds for us."

"Sure. I need to gain as much proficiency experience as I can. I'm not having much luck creating spells…" I admitted.

"Have you already made a plant debuff?" Vee suggested.

I waved a tendril dismissively. "I tried. Rember, [Nature Magic] is supposed to be the opposite of [Corrosion Magic] according to the guild and elves."

"Not to ntion that it sounds preposterous," Leon chid in. "Have you ever heard of sothing being weak to a plant?"

"Hey, there are allergies and stuff," Vee pointed out.

Leon snorted. "I cannot imagine that warrants taking additional damage from plants."

"There's not much damage to begin with," I sighed. "Other than slapping sothing with vines, or trying to crush them, there's not much offensively."

"What about what that elf girl did in the duel?" Vee asked.

I paused for a mont to recollect my mories of that evening. "Do you an grafting?"

"Yeah, that," Vee confird. "You could mix rare plants together. Although I guess that still isn't directly damaging. Plus, you can't make plant minions yet."

"Nope… Although the idea is worth exploring. I do have the profile for plant horrors stored away."

"Just don't turn my crops into mutants or anything like that," Vee chuckled.

"The more I hear from you two, the less I understand what is going on," Leon lanted.

"What's the issue? Syl ate a plant monster, and now she can turn into it," Vee explained.

"Why? How!?" Leon demanded.

"My first evolution was the Mimic Sli mutation, and that lets turn into other creatures," I answered.

"Yeah. It's pretty straightforward," Vee agreed.

"That's a load of tosh," Leon grumbled.

"Your own abilities make just as much sense, Mister Leon," Sylbera said. "How else do you describe your ability to fuse materials into your shell?"

"What? It's far more believable than magic-shape-changing sli. My modifications are at least sowhat similar to alloying tals," Leon said defensively.

"Which you sohow can grow and shape into other parts?" Sylbera continued.

"Ooooh! She's got you there," Vee chid in.

"That's… Err… Bollocks," Leon sighed and seemingly gave up.

Vee was cackling with laughter, with Sylbera looking pretty amused. anwhile, I was staring in fascination at what I'd just witnessed. Once again, I was blown away by how lifelike Beta had beco and couldn't help but wonder where this would lead.

Is this… Pride?

Wait, another level already?

I knew it had accumulated a lot of proficiency from the ti I handed over control of Sylvain to Alpha, but still, this seed far sooner than I expected. At the sa ti, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if I uncapped [Roleplay].

No… I don't really have the skill points to afford that. Especially since I'll likely get a whole new set of skills when I finally swap to Riftmancer.

We continued to chat for a bit, with focusing a bit of attention on Leon. I asked whether he had made any progress with the resources I'd dumped on him or whether he'd investigated the yellow sli core.

He seed pretty surprised to be the sudden focus of attention and explained that he would need to build sothing around the core to utilize it. As for the materials, he'd started integrating so of them into his shell and was in the process of refining it.

"It'll take a bit more ti, but I should be able to craft so defenses in a few days," Leon explained.

Bringing him into the conversation also had a surprisingly good effect, as he started offering his own little suggestions for our island. Vee explained that the tree would be our primary residence, and we could either build sothing inside it or around it.

At the sa ti, the island's periter needed protection, and Leon offered to build outposts along the coast. While they weren't as defensible as his occupied fortress, they could function together if he upgraded the appropriate skills.

He even explained so of his unique abilities, such as [Watchtower], which let him scan for sothing within the range of a fortress or outpost. He claid that not only could it find hidden enemies, but also locate resources.

All of it sounded juicy, and collectively, we all seed to be imagining how this island would look in the future.

We've all got so big plans in the works…