Serie's Shock

Through Serie's hands-on teaching, Rhode quickly got the hang of plant magic.

He cast the spell, manipulating a vine as thick as a finger to slowly coil around his hand, then tighten. After gauging its strength, he loosened the vine.

Watching Rhode master plant magic so swiftly, Serie's expression turned a bit stiff.

This speed was too fast.

She should have realized it sooner.

Back when she first met Rhode outside the Elf Forest, she should have known.

Why could he cast the Elf race's Light Magic just by watching?

Why could he improve and even analyze Arrow Rain on his first try?

Why did he face no obstacles in learning magic?

There was only one answer.

This guy's magical talent far surpassed her own!

The little pride she'd just mustered shattered into nothing, leaving our Little Ancestor momentarily unable to accept it.

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

Maybe he just happened to be good at Light Magic and plant magic—he wouldn't be this efficient with other types.

Forcing herself to be convinced by this excuse, Serie put on a nonchalant look: "Not bad, a bit slower than I was back then."

"Can't help it, I tried my best." Rhode naturally had no idea our Little Ancestor was bluffing. "By the way, does your Elf plant magic have anything more useful? Like something to speed up plant growth?"

"How could it possibly have that!"

Rhode was dumbfounded. If your plant magic doesn't have Rapid Growth, what kind of plant magic is that?

That was downright heretical.

He'd been hoping that after learning this skill, he could just carry some plant seeds around, scatter a handful when needed, and solve all his food problems. Maybe the rapidly grown seeds could even be reused next time.

Endless and self-sustaining.

No need to worry about genetic limits either—magic was just that incredible.

Greatness needed no words.

"But you could try creating it yourself? That should be your specialty."

Serie said this in a teasing tone.

From the magic Rhode had created, she deduced that his creation required a basis, or a foundation.

Illumination magic and Arrow Rain were based on her Light Magic, while starting a fire seemed to need some medium.

In other words, he couldn't just have a sudden brainwave and whip up a spell out of nowhere—that would throw the world's magical laws into chaos.

Now, facing Serie's jab, Rhode lowered his head, pondering the feasibility.

"Now that you mention it, I do want to give it a try."

"Uh." Serie was taken aback. "You can actually create it? We could find an opportunity to seek out the Druids—they have similar magic."

The Druids possessed a special plant seed. When thrown to the ground and infused with mana in battle, it could rapidly grow many vines.

But that wasn't exactly magic for speeding up plant growth; it relied on the seed's own properties, still a far cry from what Rhode wanted.

Besides, if Rhode really created Rapid Growth magic with his Power of 'I Reckon', Serie would be utterly shocked.

Because that would mean he had terrifying potential.

Maybe agreeing to his adventure request back then would be the best decision of her life.

"No worries, I figure the principle should be about the same. Even if it's different, I should still achieve the same effect. Let me give it a shot."

In his past life, there were many ways to speed up plant growth.

The slower methods involved intervening with fertilizer, light, and temperature.

The faster way was to use growth regulators directly.

Luckily, he understood the principles behind all of them—after all, he'd been a miserable science major in college in his past life.

Rhode sat cross-legged and took a handful of seeds from his pocket.

These were seeds of edible plants he'd collected along the way, originally meant for tea. After all, out in the wild, no matter how tough things got, you couldn't let your stomach suffer.

Switching between flower tea, leaf tea, and seed tea was the real afternoon tea.

"First," he muttered to himself, "I need to speed up the seed's shell breaking."

Serie crouched beside him curiously, her long golden hair keeping just the right distance from the ground.

She watched as Rhode buried the seeds in the soil, closed his eyes, and green mana began to flow at his fingertips.

"Accelerate cell division, while adjusting the seed's hormone levels."

Rhode muttered words Serie couldn't understand, and the glow of mana slowly seeped from his fingertips into the ground, penetrating the seeds.

Then, the seeds in the soil emitted a faint green glow, and a tender sprout visibly pushed its way out.

"This!" Serie's eyes went wide.

He actually managed to do it!?

Fine beads of sweat seeped from Rhode's forehead, but the corners of his mouth curled into a triumphant smile.

This kind of delicate mana manipulation was no less demanding than adding magic power to an already launched attack—it truly tested one's concentration.

One slight misstep and the entire seed would lose its vitality. Rhode had been prepared for failure, but he never expected to succeed on the first try.

"Why stop there?"

Seeing that the sprout had only put out a single shoot and showed no signs of continuing to grow, Serie asked in confusion.

"It's nighttime now. I'll have to wait for daylight to use photosynthesis to promote growth."

"Photosynthesis?"

Serie tilted her cute little head. From the start, this man had been muttering words she couldn't understand.

Cells, hormones, photosynthesis! She had no clue what he was talking about!

Was this some kind of secret knowledge unique to humans?

"Uh, it's sunlight. Plants need light to grow—it's knowledge from my homeland," Rhode quickly explained.

In response, Serie extended a pale, delicate finger, and a small Illumination Technique appeared at its tip, shining brilliantly in the night.

"Will this work?"

"No. That kind of light is too intense for plants."

The Illumination Technique cast with magic was different from sunlight.

It was like the artificial sun of the Land of Light versus Earth's sun—the former could drive an entire civilization's evolution, while the latter was just a big sun.

"But how did you actually do it?"

Even though the plant hadn't grown to the level she wanted to see, the fact that it had broken through the soil already left Serie utterly astonished.

She murmured, "Could you really create Druid magic out of thin air?"

Rhode scratched his head. "Actually, the principle is simple—it's just accelerating the division and growth of plant cells."

Seeing Serie's blank expression, he changed his tune. "Uh, it's like making the plant think it's already been growing for many years."

Serie stared at him in disbelief, her expression clearly saying, Are you taking me for a fool?

To that, Rhode spread his hands, signaling that was indeed the case.

"That's just too weird."

In the end, Serie squeezed out a single complaint through gritted teeth.