Anything ~ 30!

Andre took a deep breath and looked around the oasis that he was linked with. “You know what, Zed? For the first time since we returned to the capital, I really feel that the answer to that question is ‘yes’. Bring on the baddies. The more, the merrier. If I can take murderers and force them to help me make this? Fine.”

He felt a swell of anger, and started directing his power into the ground around him. A scattering of seeds around him caused a ring of modified mana-absorbers to sprout and rapidly grow to full size. “I don’t know if I can handle it alone, but with all these… Luke, can you pour some mana into the ring?”

“No.” The Murderhobo’s refusal took Andre by surprise, and he looked up from the meditation position that he had dropped into.

“But wh~hy?” As soon as he whined, the Druid winced. He wasn’t supposed to act like that! He was the Archdruid! “Ahem. I mean… Luke, I could really use a huge boost. If I have the mana for it, I can put together a large ring of trees that will be able to attack and defend for us. Please?”

Luke still hesitated, then reluctantly poured some of his mana-water onto the ground around Andre. The Druid stiffened as the concentration of mana in his vicinity hit deadly levels. Taking shuddering breaths, he worked to pump all of that power back out and into the work around him. The seedlings that had been planted next to the Lotus Coffins began to grow. First their root system expanded and firmed up the ground, then dug deep. So deep that they matched the watermelons and drew water for themselves instead of requiring the Sunshowers.

Then they began to grow up. Higher and higher they went, until they got to the point where Andre had wanted them. But… the mana in the area was still overflowing. The last time he had access to this much power, he had reached the Third Circle. Here, the ground was dead all around. Beginning to suffocate even with the assistance of the flowers, he drained the mana back into the trees and plants around him.

The canopy of the trees expanded wider and wider, until the twenty-one of them had reached each other and intertwined. The group was in total shade now, and between that and the new humidity, the surroundings began to rapidly cool. Soon the trees couldn’t take any more, and Andre worked to enhance everything else that was growing, bringing all the plant life in the quarter-mile area to its highest possible growth. Andre fell back and heaved for air. “I can see why you didn’t want me to use that. It’s… just way too much. I need to listen to you.”

“That isn’t why I don't want you to use it.” Luke sat down next to the drained Druid and glared at him. “When I got back here, a couple of my bags exploded or lit on fire. I’m down to practically nothing left in my waterskins. All of you, stop assuming I’m gonna let you use my stuff. Until I have more, I’d better get something good in return.”

“That’s actually really fair, you know?” Andre lifted an arm and waved at the area around them. “I mean, you get a nice and cool place to live that’s really pretty and well-protected, but it benefits me ten times more than you, easily. Let me know if there’s something you need, cause I’m really in your debt.”

Luke stared at him, then gave a single sharp nod. “Fine. Here, a seed for you. Taylor, you can use the snail shell.”

Andre fumbled the apple-sized seed that was tossed at him, and looked at it in confusion. “This is… where’d you get an Epoch Tree seed? They’re practically a controlled substance with how long it takes to grow them.”

“Yeah, figured that’s what it was. Makes sense why that ant was so big. Abyssal forests of those useless weeds.” Luke’s furious snort was ignored by the Druid.

Andre was studying the seed he had been handed, and something about it… resonated with him at a deep level. “I think… this was made by someone like me. A Druid. Not, maybe not this exact seed, but the way it grows? I feel like someone modified it like I can modify things now.”

“Does that mean anything?” Luke handed a small bag over to Taylor, who was practically dancing in glee. “Can you use it for something neat?”

“You know what…? I think I can.” Andre chuckled mirthlessly as ideas fell into place. Things that he would have never considered before coming here, before he began using Ascenders to fuel the reforestation of the Scarroco Desert. “If I can remove the limiter on how rapidly it grows, but keep the ability to live practically forever unless killed…”

Andre sank into deep thought, dark thought, until Taylor’s words pulled him away. “Listen up, team. Luke found what he thinks is a sustainable unicorn horn farm. I don’t know if any of you understand what that means?”

“Not a clue!” Zed cheerfully called back. Andre nodded in agreement. Luke stood up and loomed over the Mage threateningly.

“They’re parasitic snails, Taylor! I don’t care what you think they are. That’s what they actually are.” Luke clenched his fists, and lashed out at a flower. As he turned it to paste, the oasis around them started to shift, and Andre had to send out a pulse of power to calm it down. “They’re sneak attackers, zealots, and they are holding Cookie hostage!”

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could use your enemies to make all of us stronger, Luke?” Taylor’s desperate attempt to make the Murderhobo listen to reason worked at least a little, because he stopped and stood in one place; even if his chest was heaving. “Uni… this snail shell powder is the only known single-ingredient elixir that can increase the quality of mana channels to their highest peak. It’s also the only one that can be used more than once. That means that if we had enough of it, we could eventually get Zed sturdy enough to walk around in Murder World.”

“Fat chance of that, you need either prismatic or totally blocked channels for that.” Luke sullenly kicked at the ground. His comment generated more questions than they had time for, so Taylor powered on.

“I’ve never heard of ‘Prismatic’ mana channels, but we’ll get to that another time. Even though you only need a single ingredient, there’s a catch. A pretty nasty one.” Taylor shook her head in frustration, “There’s about a forty percent chance of dying from using it any time you try to use it. You also need to use an entire dose at once, or it just goes to waste.”

“So for every ten people that use it, four people… what? Light on fire and die?” Zed’s sarcastic remark made Andre wince in sympathy. “Been there, almost done that, really not interested in trying my luck.”

“I will say, if we can find a way to stay alive no matter what, it has a one hundred percent effectiveness. If you use a full dose and survive, you will get stronger.” Taylor’s words made both Luke and Zed shake their heads, but Andre felt like he had been electrified.

“You mean to say… if we can make it through whatever the side effects are, they’ll go away? Guaranteed power increase if we have a way to survive even if we should die?” The Druid slowly quizzed the Mage, who looked at him with a hint of hope glowing in her eyes.

“Yes…?” Taylor offered quietly. “There’s been experiments done, where healers force someone to live through it. Perfect recovery, every time. Do you have a method?”

Andre was reluctant to bring people to his world, the foundation he was building there wouldn’t survive discovery. Luke especially had a habit of being noticeable. “I might, but-”

*Wham.*

Their conversation was cut off as stones began raining from the sky. The trees took the brunt of the force, branches snapping off and turning to mulch as they were impacted. As it turned out, the rocks were a distraction; one easily dealt with. Andre simply had the trees smack anything above the size of a housecat out of the air with leafy fronds. The rocks were soon being diverted to land either out of the oasis, or in open areas where only the grass was damaged.

An all-out assault was sprung in the moments after the diversion. Power types across the board were raining down on the sandstone building, so Andre quickly retracted his will from the stone and let the building get wrecked. It was far more important to retain his mana than it was to keep it upright when it had literally been built to attract attention. They weren’t inside it anyway; no one of importance was.

The Druid leaned back and sank into the earth, closing his eyes as thin rivulets of blood ran off of him like sweat. His mana wrapped around the earth surrounding him and brought it under his control. He directed it to shift, and he began accelerating through the newly-created tunnel. He travelled around the entirety of his oasis, creating a circle of land a few feet thick that surrounded the greenery like a moat.

Andre had been trying to bring the entire oasis under his will, but had been inhibited by the total amount of land he could capture. It made sense, as a quarter mile was four-tenths of a kilometer, and there were many thousands of square meters in that amount of space. His sketchy math told him it was near four hundred thousand square meters, but he wasn’t willing to bet on it. Even so, as soon as the ‘moat’ was complete, he was able to shape the land however he wished.

Like a spider in a web, he waited for someone to make the mistake of… there! Andre yanked the ground open and sucked in the man that had been foolish enough to trespass on his land. After wrapping the man in a cocoon of rock, he dragged him over and punched the apparent mercenary in the face; then inserted a seed into his nose. It would bloom soon, and would work to keep the man in a coma until it was carefully removed. After that, he gently sent the man into a Lotus Coffin, and waited to be able to do it again.

One after another, Andre captured thirteen of the attackers using this method. Then tactics were shifted and the attackers began leaping across the open ground to reach the oasis. Andre smiled as he felt people land among his flowers. In the second after people landed, vines and entangling roots rose off the earth and began pulling people into their embrace. He no longer felt concern for their injuries; they had come to destroy him and harm the earth.

They deserved what was coming to them.