The garden’s foresty smell followed me into the house. I plopped on the nearest sofa and looked up. The ceiling was about five times higher than it needed to be. A long chain hung down, holding a dimly glowing rock. The light from the windows overpowered the glow and lit the room.

“What do you think of the house?” I asked.

Hui Ming stopped unpacking, “It’s befitting of somebody like me, but you should have a better place to stay. I apologize for not being able to get a better house.”

“Nah, this is fine. If I’m honest, it’s still too fancy for me. I’ll get used to it.”

I didn’t say anything else, so she went back to unpacking. She stopped again, “I should’ve asked you earlier, but why did we come here?”

I lifted my hands in a grand gesture. “Look at this place! All these young people are gathered in one place! Each will grow up to be a hero, lord, general, or something amazing. I’ll be surrounded by all these great people, isn’t that great?” This school had some of greatest seeds in the country. I sighed, content just from imagining it.

“Master… if you don’t mind me saying…”

“You can say anything you want, I’ve never stopped you.”

“They should be the ones honored to be in your presence,” she said.

I rolled my eyes, “I get what you’re trying to say, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll be in the midst of an ocean of talent, and I’ll be able to pick who I want to cultivate - that’s what matters.” I saw look on her face, “Why the surprise? Didn’t I already tell you I was going to do this?”

“Yes, but I didn’t think we’d come all the way to this school for that. I do hope you enjoy yourself. I’ll do whatever is necessary to make that possible.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said dismissively. “You can have a good time here too, you know. You still have lots to learn. You won’t be bored.”

“I’ll have my maid duties.” She said with an enormous smile, giddy to get to work.

I sighed. “Have at it. I’m here for other reasons too. I’m also here to avoid my classmates and amass power.”

So here there I was, staring up at the ceiling. I had to do something.

Oh! I sat up and went looking for a basement. I found it, but it only had one floor. I took out my wand and shook a pile of seeds onto my palm. One turned into another clump of vines and the rest became planks of shock absorbing wood. The vines went to work, laying the wood along the basement ceiling.

Beside absorbing shocks, the wood also absorbed sound. I yelled, “Hui Ming!” as loud as I could. The walls trembled. I waited for five seconds. She didn’t come busting in, so I assumed the wood did its job.

I dropped a seed to the ground, and it became more vines. They intertwined to form dozens of drill heads. The ground shook as they drilled into the floor. The old floorboards snapped and the drills continued into the soil.

The earth was a nice shock absorber itself. Everything in the school was high quality. Even the soil was tougher than normal soil. Nobody above ground would feel the effects of my project.

Ten minutes later, I kneeled to feel the floor. It was made of crushed rock, loose soil, and shredded floorboard. I opened a hole to the surface and emptied out all the loosened earth.

I had excavated three stories of bedrock. I made a glowing pineapple and set it at maximum brightness, but it still struggled to light the room. I stood at the bottom of a hole bigger than a gymnasium. The air was nice and cold.

I whistled a happy tune as I went on with my project. I created a second pineapple, using it as a flashlight, and began planting herbs in neat rows. I created three greenhouses, each for herbs that needed a special climate. I danced from one task to another.

My skills let me feel everything my plants could feel when I was near them. Just planting a carrot was like creating another part of me. Creating, planting, and cultivating. This is when I’m alive.

Vincent the Cultivator

Lv8

MP : 1003/13000

I only stopped when I started to run out of mana. Even then, I kept adding to the garden by organizing and labeling the plants.

A hand touched one of the boards covering the trapdoor. The vines I left outside the room opened the trapdoor. “Come on in!” I said. Hui Ming peered into the transformed basement. Her eyes widened, but she regained her composure within the next second.

Some extra light came from the trapdoor. I did a half smile. “It’s already morning? How long was I down here?”

“All night,” she said, “Would you like to get breakfast here or at a restaurant? The students are having their first classes, so the streets aren’t crowded at the moment.”

“Oops,” I said sheepishly. “I lost track of time. I’ll be right up- wait a minute!” I shouted the last part.

She winced, “Yes?”

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have school? Don’t let me see you til you’re done with class. Go, shoo!” Hui Ming scrambled away, apologizing with energy she should’ve put in her legs. She jumped up to the trapdoor and ran off. “Work hard!” I shouted after her.

I looked at my plants. There wasn’t much more I could do, so I climbed out of the basement. I found a piece of pie on the dinner table. Hui Ming must’ve left it for me. I picked up on a faint bitter scent. I followed it to a trash jar and found a pile of burnt eggs. “Heh.” I went back and ate the pie.

Now, where do I find talented students? They couldn’t only be talented. They also had to fit my tastes of what I wanted to cultivate. For example, I’d rather not raise a murderer.

Even so, I couldn’t afford to be too picky. I didn’t even know where they were.

There’s no use in sitting around. I left the mansion and walked towards the nearest large building. The nearest large building happened to be a gigantic golden tower, three times as tall as the surrounding buildings. Large buildings are where people hung out, or so I guessed.

I guessed right. Shops and restaurants soon replaced the mansions around me. Many were closed. The ones that weren’t had more employees than customers. School was still in session, so it was to be expected.

A girl around fifteen years old staggered by me, her eyes glazed like marbles. Holy smokes was she stoned. She looked more zombie than human.

“Hey,” I waved at her, “do you know where I can buy information on the school?”

“Who are you?” she snapped, “And what type of information?”

“Information about the top students here, as much of it as possible. I’m the servant of Hui Ming. She’s a fourth stage student.”

“Over there. The building with the flower symbol. It should like a budding rose in a circle,” she pointed to the side. “Good luck,” she shambled away.

I found the building she pointed at and was greeted by an enormous alchemy shop. The polished surfaces of thousands of glass cases lit up the interior of the shop. They glittered, transforming the store into a gigantic jewel.

Plants of all colors and sizes sat behind glass cases. Precious dried herbs sat in open boxes like cheap fruit at a flea market. The place was more like an alchemy supermarket than a shop.

A glance told me I already had these species identified, meaning I could already copy them. I walked past them, not bothering to use identify on them.

I walked up to a counter and asked for a map of where the top hundred most talented students lived. It cost five hundred shards, and they told me I needed to wait an hour. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I sat on their only bench and twiddled my thumbs.

A white haired teen went to the counter after me. He pushed them five hundred shards and bought a bag and sheets of paper. He sat next to me and opened his bag.

Laying a sheet in his lap, he dumped some of the bag onto the paper. He saw me watching. “Can’t share. I’m too poor.”

Poor? As if. He spent the equivalent of five hundred dollars on a bag weed. He can’t say he’s poor. “No thanks.”

“Whatcha doing here anyway? They’re giving out badges today, you shouldn’t miss it.” He tapped the cross carved into a metal disk hanging from his neck. “I stole mine from the prof before class, so here I am.”

“I’m a servant, not a student. We’re new, so I’m gathering information for my mistress. Anyway, you don’t care about your classes?”

“Nah, they couldn’t teach me anything anyway. By the way, do you know anything about those dragons?” he asked.

“What dragons?”

“The ones flying above the city these days. Guess you haven’t noticed them. I asked some of the commoners about it, but they didn’t know. I was hoping the people here would know more.”

I noticed, but I thought it was normal. They’d been there since I first came to the city.

An employee stumbled in front of us, “Sir, please smoke outside.”

“Bah,” he said and stood, “Gotta go. See ya.”

“Wait!” I called after him. “I’ll buy you another bag if you be my guide for the day.”

He grinned, “Deal.”

I bought a bag and headed outside with him. “How come you’re short on money?”

“I’m a genius, but I’m not rich. My higher ups don’t give me allowance. I need to earn all my money on my own. I got this money as payment for protecting people against bullies.”

“That sounds like a pain. Try buy cheaper incense, maybe?”

“I have my standards,” he said as if that explained everything.

“Do you know where they sell pills, salves, and the like?” The store we just left only had ingredients, but no pills.

“Are you completely new here? Like, you don’t know a thing about the school?”

“Yep, my mistress and I arrived yesterday.”

He nodded, “The school is split into twenty some districts, each marked by a tower.” He pointed at the horizon, where a few enormous buildings jutted out from the skyline. “They’re all many times bigger than the rest of the buildings, so they’re hard to miss.”

“Each tower is in the center of its tower district. The closest alchemy-specialized district is the district around the alchemy pyramid. You should be able to see it from here.” Covered in coiling vines, the tip of a pyramid also poked out from the skyline. “The district has plenty of the shops you’re looking for.”

“If you’re not busy, want to head over there right now?” I asked.

“Me? Busy?” he laughed, “Let’s go.”