—POV Mathias —

Yea, not being able to hear what they’re saying sucks. I can’t use telepathy because I think I can be detected easily if I make a connection. But damn, this is going to be hard by just using leaves and leaf follicles. Well, maybe not, let’s see if I just can’t do this right now. First, I need to make something like a spiral shell, with tiny leaves that go from microscopic to a centimeter long at the entrance. And the entrance needs to be covered with a thin membrane that vibrates and transmits the vibrations inside. That way, I think, sound waves enter my ear, and based on the location that the leaves vibrate at within my ear and the intensity at which they vibrate, I should be able to hear like a human. With a dome-like flower attachment, I can also make it not look like a massive ugly protuberance and instead be accepted in nature. Plucking by people will be a problem though zzzz.

I am pretty sure though that I’ll have a massive problem, even after I build this thing. I have no idea how to interpret vibrations into actual words, that’s what being a baby was all about, spending 2 years straight learning how to do things. I guess this is where I can spend some GP and take a shortcut. Let’s go ahead and try building my hearing apparatus and see what upgrades I can potentially get using my ability.

First, the inner mechanisms need to be put together, a small bud the size of a dime should do. With the directional flower the receiving equipment doesn’t need to be big. My roots already can sense long-range, low frequency vibrations anyways. Fuck, it’s taking so much energy to make this… Really? Each individual “hair” in my ear is costing me 0.1 GP despite being much smaller than that… I need thousands of these things too. Uggh… For now let’s trim up the number of hairs to focus in on the range these guys are speaking at. Humans typically don’t go lower than about 20 Hz or higher than about 300 Hz. Might as well cover 1-500 Hz. But that means ~3 hairs each, leading to 1500 leaves totaling 150 GP. I guess that’s acceptable. My current GP growth/hour during the day is already really high, close to 100, but I lose so much just because I can’t transmit my energy effectively over a long range. Putting research into that on my future to-do list.

Okay, flower ear created. And I hear gobbledygook. Just as expected. I was never good at learning languages either. And I don’t want to wait for a year or two to learn the language myself. I guess I should just bite the bullet and hope the system will allow me the option to learn their language.

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Tribal Elvish Rank F-

Learn the local language of the elves. Tribal Elvish is an early language that shares little in common with other local languages. Does not include the magic language/system used by the elves at this location.

Cost: 5

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Tribal Elvish-Mixed Rank F

Learn the local language of the elves. Tribal Elvish is an early language that shares little in common with other local languages. Does not include the magic language/system used by the elves at this location. Includes words and phrases taken from the surrounding species in use at this location (humans).

Cost: 15

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… Great, localized languages. Tribal languages. Meaning each tribe has a different language. Zzz. That’s so dumb!!! No other options are appearing for me either for languages. I guess I have to be exposed to the languages first. At least the costs are reasonable for the rank and the actual information provided. I’m finally getting a good deal from this crappy system. Let’s go ahead and pay the man and get my magical language ability.

A slight draining feeling… and poof, along with a headache I can understand what they’re saying! Totally worth it. Ish. Headaches do hurt - and I’m pretty sure this isn’t a physical headache, as again, I’m a bundle of grass. No Ibuprofen will work for me. Maybe in my I can imagine some… damnit, what was that chemical formula again? It would be good to stock up on some drugs that I can remember, but then again I can always just procure some grass-coffee and hope that deals with it.

…

Caffeine helped a little bit, but at least now I can imagine myself looking grumpily at everything while sipping my coffee. Now to listen to some chatter and get acquainted with the local life.

— POV Child A & B —

Where did Taeya go?

Who?

That girl who we beat up last time to take her food! The little bastard girl!

Oh. I dunno. We should ask her parents! They always tells us where she is and gives us candies!

Yea, little bastards like that shouldn’t get any good stuff! We should beat her up again!

My dad showed me where to hurt someone where people can’t see. I wanna try it out!

— POV Mage —

I’m running out of people with talent to take in this measly village. The elders and I need to find a solution to keep up our deterrence shield. The last couple of children barely had any talent for me to utilize, they barely kept me at my current level. Absorbing their ability through blood was something that I thought of to improve myself, however, it never lasts long enough. I need a new dose to prolong the effect. That bastard kid still had a little left afterwards, I should go look for her. I haven’t gotten the go ahead for any other kids yet, so she’ll have to do.

— POV Mother & Father of Taeya —

Where’s that little shit-stain? Today of all days she goes missing. Fuck. Why’s everyone looking for her anyways. I could get another favor from the mage.

Hmmph. I can’t beleive she’s even lived this long. We should have just kicked her out into the wilderness years ago. Would’ve saved us a lot of food.

At least she is worth something though. In another year or two we could sell her to the big city or something when a trade caravan comes through. Wouldn’t get much, but you could get a new dress and I could probably get a new hammer.

That damn bitch! Where is she?

— POV Mathias —

It looks like there’s no saving them. Their values are too ingrained into their lives, even the children are spouting the rhetoric of the adults. Reminds me of the Hitler Youth campaigns from WWII. It’s much worse here though due to lack of knowledge and globalization. I really don’t even want the tiniest bit of this culture entering my glade. Once there, it would be hard to thoroughly excise. That mage has got to go. Absorbing blood (I.e. mana reactors) is bad business. It needs to be nipped in the buds. If this idea gets out there, and is popularized, Taeya could be in danger. Blood magic is pretty easy to vilify too.

Looks like anyone recruited from this area is a no go. So recruiting children may be bad, but maybe an infant? Maybe? Not yet, no one would be able to take care of a child. Taeya is too young, and I’m not into the whole genetic hacking/experimenting on kids. Whiping memory of a young child might work, but the underlying personality might be influenced anyways.

Fuck it, I’ll just have to look for another elf tribe later on or something. I don’t want any of these people to come to my glade. I also need to spread around more, I can’t hear inside of the houses yet. I’ll just set one of my mind threads on autopilot to secretly grow roots to houses and to grow a flower of each porch or seomthing. Ah, there’s an idea. I’ll make my vines/roots help bind their huts together. This should let them leave the vines alone, as it makes their structures more sturdy and rain-proof.

Speaking of recruiting people and species and stuff, how will the High-Elf species as a whole play out. Yes, I created one. One cannot propagate, right? Must have something to do with the [Species Protection] that is currently activated on her. I should read what that does. I’m assuming something like she can’t die for awhile, will be safe, so on and so forth.

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Species Protection Rank X

Activated when a new species is born/created. Basic needs reduced to minimum (food, water, shelter) with no permanent harm until five members of the species are recognized. Provision finding to fill needs is boosted. Species will seek their own kind Can still be killed by other means, though likelyhood of these harms will be drastically reduced (Massive boost to luck). Genetic diversity will be artificially boosted in first 50 generations by *******, guided by the vision held by the creator/maker at the time of genesis. Species is also placed in the appropriate evolution path for a species with evolution conditions specified by the maker (Set now?)

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Oh shit. That sounds pretty OP. Pretty much a starter kit for a new race. Thank goodness for some of those, genetic diversity is important. And so is the fact that they can be evolved into instead of me needing to create another and basically having to give my Taeya away to someone. No one I’ve seen so far is worthy enough, and I doubt with the harm she’s had in her past that she’d be happy to even converse with another elf. Looks like I should set the evolution conditions now rather than later, so that others can start to gather towards my glade to protect me. It might take years though for them to arrive. Maybe even decades zzzzz.

Ok, evolution conditions. High elves need to be tied to me somehow. That way I can have a semblance of control over them. Make them have to gain the approval of me, have high aptitude in magic, and has a heart that cares for nature (indirectly conserving me).

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Rejected Evolution Terms

Evolution conditioned on mortal aspect (Too restrictive - rejected. Must be based on current High Elf as well)

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High aptitude in magic - Choose a value compared to base race - top X% (elf)

Friendly nature relations - Accepted

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Well, plan A has been shot down. Time for plan B. Evolution dependent on acquiring Nature Mana abilities. So far as I know I should be the only one who can give this ability. But to be honest, I’m sure there are a ton of ways to get it. I wonder if the mage in the village could get it his way, by siphoning blood out? Not good. Shit. It can’t be based on me… So what should it be? As for aptitude, that’s pretty easy. With the difference between an elf and a high elf being so large, and say a level 5 on magic out of log base 10 is high, and theoretically 8 is the highest… Magic users aren’t everyone, no information, but can extrapolate from data in the village… one acting mage out of 100 people… his level is low, maybe level 2… Couple of level 1’s in the adults… Let’s say 10/100 have ability, 1/100 have level 2… Population I’d assume is around 100 million in the world… Within this continent only about 1/3, so 33 million… To have a good level of High Elves only level 4 on magic is doable. At that range about 3700 elves would be possible to become a High Elf if that was the only requirement. And I assume around a third of those can fill the rest of the requirements and can evolve. But I need to make them naturally work for me/help me if I need it.

…Maybe if I look at my current Status I can get an idea of what I should do.

Name: --- (Mathias) Age: 3.5 Months Gender: ♂/♀ Level: 5 Class: Plant Sage+ Race: Bermuda Grass Unique Variant: Mana Vampire HP: 50/50 Mana: 25/25 (+10,000 pt/hour) Growth Points: 650 Growth Rate: 125 (50) pts/hour day (night) Strength: 5 Vitality: 25 Agility: 1 Intelligence: 155 Tamed Species 2 Tamed Total 13 + 2 Titles: [Destined to Die], [Reincarnator], [Martyr], [Boundless], [Late Bloomer], [One of Many], [Eaten Alive+], [Kin-Slayer], [Bug Tamer], [Unnatural Predator] Abilities: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Drug Compounding: Caffeine, Cyanide, Simple Sugar, Octopamine, Nightshade Toxin, Milkweed Toxin

As restrictive as possible, but not too restrictive… What makes me unique… I’m a sentient Plant Sage who is also a plant. I’m a grass mana vampire. I’m also a reincarnator - but I’m probably the only one. Let me try this:

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Rejected Evolution Terms

Evolution conditioned on mortal aspect (Too restrictive - rejected. Reincarnator.)

Evolution conditioned on other races/classes (Plant Sage, Mana Vampire)

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Set Evolution Terms

High aptitude in magic - Must reach level 4 magic abilities - Accepted

Friendly nature relations - Accepted

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Dang. Okay, I guess I’ll have to settle on Nature magic restriction.

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Set Evolution Terms

High aptitude in magic - Must reach level 4 magic abilities - Accepted

Friendly nature relations - Accepted

Ability to commune with and use Nature Energy - Accepted

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Zzzzzz. Great, looks like I can’t have the order/control I’d like, but unless there are Dryads who’d give out this ability haphazardly then I’d be the easiest way to become a High Elf.