Luoli's internship has ended.
To be precise, it was Luoli who swapped his internship with Bennett, making the old clerk an intern again.
According to [ Do Some Farm Work ]'s summary, Luoli's talent for being a dog for the Soul Returner far surpasses Bennett's.
He did not waste his talent, successfully bringing it from the Blood Corpse faction to the Second Holy See faction.
When the door of the cottage opened, two counts appeared before them, completely different from the ones before.
A man, seemingly aged and with tears streaming down his face, sped towards the appearance of a centenarian.
The other person had a fawning expression, wearing a smile for everyone they saw.
[ Do Some Farm Work ] pushed out two wheelchairs:
"It's fixed, buddy."
"Is that all?"
[ Soaring Clouds ] was greatly shocked by this, and [ Do Some Farm Work ] explained:
"I didn't actually do anything..."
He looked at the two counts in wheelchairs:
"It's simply a matter of the teacher being attentive and the students being focused."
After saying that, he patted Bennett on the shoulder:
"Even our teacher was moved to tears."
Seeing this, the others stopped talking. They had overheard the conversation inside the hut and had some idea of what had happened.
" Bennett's mission is complete; he can be sent back now."
[ Soaring Clouds ] was somewhat puzzled upon hearing this:
"Has Luoli already learned all those skills of his?"
[ Do Some Farm Work ] shook his head with some regret:
"No, those abilities to manipulate Blood Corpse aren't really skills, but rather techniques, and they can't be directly taught. But thinking about it from another perspective, since they're techniques, it means that as long as you're willing to invest the time, you'll eventually master them."
"I see."
[ Soaring Clouds ] was about to say something when he saw Luoli in the wheelchair raise his head and put on a fawning expression with his old man's face:
"Hello boss, nice to meet you. I'm Luoli, a new employee. You can just call me Little Luo."
"Nice to meet you? And aren't you called Luoli Adelaide?"
Soaring Clouds was a little confused. The other party's speech module seemed to have been upgraded, and it was too modern for him to adapt to immediately.
Upon hearing the boss's question, the former count immediately responded with great enthusiasm and at an extremely fast pace:
" Adelaide is such a lowly surname, I have long since abandoned it. In my heart, there has always only been you, Boss... the moon."
"From today onwards, my name is either Luoli Soaring Clouds or Soaring Clouds Luoli, whatever you say, boss."
The dozen or so people at Soaring Sky Studio gasped in unison upon hearing this.
Even Soaring Clouds himself was speechless for a moment, and only nodded in satisfaction after a long while:
"It's definitely fixed now. Did you teach me all of this?"
[ Do Some Farm Work ] shook his head:
"I didn't teach him that much; I just gave him a brief overview of the new version."
What new version?
"In this current version, 'Master' will be changed to 'Boss,' and 'Servant' will be changed to 'Employee.' The boss will usually address the employee as a string of numbers or 'Little' plus one character from their name."
"So how did you get him to give up his surname?"
"Will you keep your old company's employee ID if you change jobs?"
"... Dude, you're awesome."
After a brief exchange, [ Do Some Farm Work ] accepted [ Soaring Clouds's ] chores assignment and went to Gray to return Bennett and retrieve the deposit.
After returning to the studio's usual base, [ Soaring Clouds ] began distributing the Vine Dog Seed he had to everyone.
"Boss, is this the limited-edition reward Ed gave us?"
"It's not exactly a collector's item; even Character Blessing Card will definitely be re-released in the future. But as of now, this item is truly one of a kind."
Spring has arrived, Valhalla has thawed, and after reading the introduction of the Aberration plant, everyone realized how rare the item in their hands was.
Soon someone bought a large stack of flowerpots from the general store and distributed them to everyone.
The group filled flowerpots with soil, inserted the spindle-shaped seeds, and then cut their wrists to bleed.
Aberration plants already grow faster than ordinary plants, and since these are artificially modified Aberration plants personally bred by Ed, the effect is even more pronounced.
The soil where the seed was buried soon began to tremble, and after a moment, a tender plant sprouted from it.
Its growth rate is astonishing; players can almost hear the tearing sound as the plant grows rapidly, much like the sound of bamboo shoots sprouting after rain in the real world.
A few minutes later, the Aberration plant stopped growing, or rather, stopped growing upwards.
The plant, which had only grown to about knee-high, began to change direction at its tip, drooping down like a winding, creeping vine.
And these vines weren't just simply hanging down; after observing for a few minutes, a player suddenly exclaimed:
"The dog's head is out!"
Upon closer inspection, everyone saw that the player's Aberration plant had been outlining a dog's head, slightly larger than a fist, layer by layer in the air. The vines were winding and overlapping in an orderly fashion, looking like a 3D printer in operation.
"Dude, how come your dog head is moving so fast?"
Looking at his dog-like nose, one player asked in confusion. Only then did he notice that the other player seemed to have cut more than just his wrist. Although he was still feeding the Aberration plant with his bleeding left hand, his right hand was clutching his throat.
"That's really tough work..."
The player nodded, moved his right hand away, and revealed his neck, which was wrapped in Vine Bandage Pack, to everyone:
"That's called efficiency, bro."
A dozen minutes later, the players' Vine Dog began to take shape.
Overall, the growth of this Aberration plant is quite regular.
At first, they will try their best to grow upwards and make their stems thicker.
Once it reaches knee height and is as thick as an ankle at the base, resembling a cone, the Aberration plant will begin to execute its predetermined program.
At its end, twisted vines will begin to grow, gradually outlining the shape of a dog through continuous twisting.
The sign of a mature Vine Dog is that the 3D printing process reaches the tail end, and then part of it dies off automatically, allowing the cane-like part to successfully detach.
"Smack!"
With the death of a vine, the player who dared to slit his throat to feed the Aberration plant obtained the first Vine Dog in the entire server.
It was a canine-like creature with indistinct breed characteristics, as its entire body was made of vines and therefore it lacked true facial features.
It hopped twice on the ground, and players could even peek through the gaps into its hollow abdomen.
The Vine Dog roughly familiarized itself with its surroundings, and like a newly born being, it uttered a sound that seemed to originate from nowhere to the player who created it:
"Woof~"