The air was damp and the floors were grimy, but Ian had figured that this was the room where the ship's crew were the least likely to find him. Located on the bottommost layer of the hull, the room's uncleanliness and the eclectic collection of old furniture that it contained implied that nobody had gone inside it for years. It was a perfect place for a stowaway like Ian to hunker down until landing.

Ian found a corner of the room concealed by two large objects covered with tarps and dust, and scooted into the gap between them and the wall. Ezra was still out, so he pulled him into the crack as well.

"Bend over a bit Ezra," Ian whispered. Ezra had grown to be taller than an adult man, and the top of its stalk was poking over their cover. The Magical Plant complied, and now nobody would be able to see them from the entrance of the room.

As Ian quieted down, the only sounds in the room became the gentle rocking of the waves against the ship's hull. Ian tried to remain as alert as possible, but the rhythmic lullaby of the waves and his lack of sleep caused his eyes to slowly drift shut. A few minutes of shut eye wouldn't hurt, would it?

When Ian woke up, the sound of the waves had gotten significantly louder. A stream of sunlight passed in through a porthole above Ian's head, illuminating the motes of dust floating in the air. Had he slept until morning? Ian pulled himself up and peeked through the porthole, expecting to see Brenas' docks. Instead, Ian was greeted by the sight of endless blue water, stretching as far as his eye could see.

Ian sat back down. The ship had already made it out into open sea. He let out of a sigh of relief – he had no notion of how long the ship would be sailing for, no clue about where it was going, and no idea of whether or not he would be caught, but he had escaped.

Ian’s stomach rumbled. He wasn’t sure how long it’d been since he’d last eaten, but killing five men and running for your life really worked up one’s appetite. Sipping some water from a watering can that he pulled out of his Magical Farm, Ian took a look at Ezra. The plant was still in the same position Ian had left it in, bent over slightly to reduce its height. On its vines were hundreds of pea pods and his only source of food. Ian had never tried eating any of the peas grown from his plants after they had evolved and didn’t know if they were even safe to eat.

No better time to try than now, Ian surmised. He reached forwards to touch one of the pea pods, silently asking Ezra if it would be okay to pluck it off the vine. In response, Ezra shook the vine up and down, their agreed upon motion for yes. Ian gave the pea pod a small twist, breaking it off of the vine with a small crack.

Ian took a good look at the peas inside the pod. There were four peas in total, and each one was half the size of Ian’s fist. No wonder Ezra’s Pea Shot was so effective, Ian thought. Getting hit by a barrage of peas of this size would definitely hurt.

Well, here goes nothing. Ian took one of the peas and popped it into his mouth, chewing as its juices flowed into his mouth. The pea tasted a lot sweeter than the regular peas from his family farm, and its texture was slightly crisper like an apple. Overall, the peas were surprisingly tasty and Ian found himself enjoying his meal. With a gulp, Ian swallowed the pea, but its sweet aroma lingered on his tongue.

Just as Ian was reaching for the second pea, his stomach was struck by a flash of pain like he’d never felt before. The peas dropped to the floor as Ian clutched his stomach and curled up on the ground in agony. It felt like the pain from when Ian had gotten the stomach flu as a child, but a million times worse. Ian desperately wanted to scream in pain, but he fought as hard as he could to keep his voice down. Were the Magical Peas inedible?

If Midas’ ghost was watching this, he would be laughing his head off. Anybody who knew anything about Magical Plants knew that directly eating them was suicidal. Digesting such a high amount of foreign mana was beyond the capabilities of the human body, which was why Magical Plants needed to be processed into pills or potions before consumption. Ian had not known this fact, and he was currently paying the price for his ignorance.

As Ian was writhing on the floor, he saw a notification popup through his pain.

You have ingested part of a Magical Plant. The foreign mana contained inside is difficult to digest, and may cause extreme pain or even death. However, as your mana contains many similarities to the Magical Plant you ingested, the side effects will be greatly reduced. Potential stat gains may be obtained through digestion.

Time left until digestion finishes : 3 h 23 m

3 more hours until the pain would stop. All Ian could do was clench his teeth and keep his voice down to the whimpers he was letting out.

After what felt like an eternity had passed, the pain gradually started to recede. Ian lay panting on the floor, drenched in sweat. Blood pooled in his mouth from when he had accidentally bit the insides of his cheeks, and his nails were raw from scratching the floor. He had survived.

The pain in his stomach had now faded to a dull ache. A green vine reached down and poked Ian's cheek, seeming to be asking if he was okay. Smiling through the pain, Ian let out a small chuckle. Ezra always seemed to know just how to improve his mood.

Ian pulled himself back up into a sitting position. Clearly, that had not gone as smoothly as he had hoped. Ian was screwed if he had to survive on eating these peas for the whole trip. Eventually, the pain would get to be too much and he would either go crazy or die. For now, Ian checked his stats.

Status Name Ian Age 18 Class Magical Botanist HP 105 MP 131 STR 110 DEX 109 INT 140 WIS 121 Skills Farming (PASSIVE) 7 (35.3%) Manual Labor (PASSIVE) 1 (71.5%) Magical Gardening (PASSIVE) 1 (3.5%) Magic Plant Digestion (PASSIVE) 1 (8.9%) Magical Botany 2 (86.7%) Magical Crossbreeding 1 Magical Farm 1 (4.7%)

Quickly doing the math in his head, Ian saw that he had gained +7 INT after consuming the Magical Pea. That sort of massive stat gain almost made all the pain he just went through worth it. By growing only the Magical Pea Plants so far, Ian had only increased his INT, making the rest of his stats fall behind in comparison. It was a similar distribution to that of a magic based class, but Ian knew that unlike most mages, he wouldn't have any warriors to form a frontline for him. If anybody really came for his life, Ian would need to increase his STR and DEX stats to increase his survivability.

Ian now looked at his skills list. Since he had last checked, Magical Botany had almost reached lvl 3, but due to his travelling his skills had stopped growing as quickly as they had back at his family farm. Ian decided that he would make the most of his time on the ship grinding away and raising his skill levels as much as possible.

Ian almost overlooked it, but on closer inspection he realized that he had gained a new skill. When had that happened? He'd probably missed it when he was rolling on the floor in pain. Focusing on that skill, Ian opened up its description.

Magical Plant Digestion (PASSIVE) (Lvl 1 8.9%)

As you have successfully digested part of a Magical Plant, your body has learnt to absorb the mana from Magical Plants. Slightly increases rewards and decreases side effects from consuming Magical Plants.

Ian sighed. It seemed like it was his fate to keep eating Magical Peas and enduring the resulting agony. Then again, the stat gains were amazing and he needed a source of food. Just not for a while, Ian decided. After what had just happened, he needed a break.

Ian thought about how he should try to increase his fighting power. He currently had three Magical Plants with him: two Lesser Magical Peas and one Magical Pea. Ian did have some seeds that he brought with him in his Magical Farm, but they couldn’t be germinated in the Magical Farm and the conditions in the room were sub-optimal for growing. Ian pulled the two Lesser Magical Peas out of his Magical Farm. Unlike Ezra, they just sat there and looked like oversized pea plants.

In his fights against Midas and his men, all three plants had combined their powers to help achieve victory. However, Ian knew that Ezra’s contribution had been much larger than the other two plants, and that it was mostly due to Ezra’s intelligence. If it were not for Ezra, Ian would have probably died when the Mind Mage attacked and again when the rogue snuck behind him outside the warehouse. Ezra’s ability to act by itself made up for Ian’s personal weaknesses, and made it many times more valuable than the other two plants.

Ian made up his mind. He would focus on evolving the two Lesser Magical Pea plants before trying to evolve Ezra again. After that, he would either try growing some other species of plants or try evolving Ezra even further. Ian planned out his routine. He would cast Magical Botany until he ran out of mana, then work in the Magical Farm until it recovered. Regularly, he would also consume Magical Peas to satisfy his hunger and increase his INT.

Ian grabbed the first Lesser Magical Pea plant’s leaves, and got to work. His mana rushed out of him and into the Magical Plant which greedily soaked up every drop. It was the start of a long trip of pain and grinding, but Ian could not wait to get started.

A glass shattered into the wall beside Vanessa. “What do you mean you can’t find him? How could you be so incompetent to let him escape?”

Vanessa flinched. “My apologies. Your father strictly told me to only check on him if he had not returned by sunrise, and by that time Ian had already disappeared.”

The Alchemy Guild Master’s office still looked the same as when Ian had last seen it, but the person behind the desk had changed. Elias Midas was the son of Doran Midas, and was the natural successor to the position after Doran’s dead body had been found three days ago.

Vanessa continued. “Due to the fact that none of our men have been able to find Ian in Brenas, it is highly probable that he escaped by sea. I have investigated which ships left in the morning your father died, and there could only be two ships that Ian could have hid on. One is headed towards Kargas, and the other is headed towards Izen.”

Elias calmed down a bit. “Kargas is still within our influence, but Izen is beyond our reach. Send word to Kargas and place a high bounty on Ian, up to 500 gold. Bring him and his plants in alive.”

“Yes sir,” Vanessa replied. 500 gold was an extraordinary bounty, and bounty hunters would be crawling up and down Kargas looking for Ian. “Is there anything else you require?”

Elias raised his hand in a shooing manner, clearly indicating that he no longer required her presence. As Vanessa started to open the door to leave, he called out for her again.

“And Vanessa? For your sake, you better pray to Lenessa that Ian got on to the ship for Kargas. If not, I promise that this failure will be your responsibility.”

Vanessa shivered and nodded. As soon as she closed the door behind her, she could no longer hold back her emotions and trembled with fear. Vanessa knew that whenever Elias promised something, he would always follow through. She had served his father for over a quarter of her life, and so she had watched him raise Elias into the man he was today. That is why she knew better than anyone that Elias Midas was one of the cruelest, bloodthirstiest people in all of Briodelar.

Like father like son, Vanessa thought, as she picked herself up and got ready to draft the bounty notices. Ian did not know it, but he had just made an enemy that even the King of Briodelar would not wish to face.