[Name: ---

Unspent Skill point: 1

Racial Class: Grass - Level 1

- Growth - Level 1

- Photosynthesis - Level 1

General Skills:

- Outworlder - Level 1]

Was that all? Weren’t there supposed to be Statistics like Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, and the likes? Bazil certainly remembered that kind of thing being present in the stories it read in its previous life. Had somebody tricked it?

Well, thinking about it, nobody ever told it that it would have Statistics. It could only blame itself for having pumped its hope so high. On the other hand, its Status showed Bazil it had a Racial Class, the specification of a race was an indication that there were other kinds of Classes, was it possible to have more than one? Bazil sure hoped so. Maybe there would be Jobs too.

As for Statistics, they may be hidden or not quantifiable. Bazil would have to look into that when it finally reached society.

There was also the mention of an unspent Skill point. That meant it could be spent. But how? And for what specifically? Was it a way to improve a Skill? Could Bazil buy more Skills? Would it be a good idea to use the Skill points as soon as it got some or should it hoard them for later? And how were those points obtained in the first place?

Right now Bazil was upset by something else on its status. The name section. It has a name! Well, maybe not such a great one, but still. It bothered it not to have a name.

[Hey!

I’m back!

So, how was your day?]

My day? It has only been something like half an hour. Being only a seed, therefore having no way to perceive the world that it was familiar with, Bazil's sense of time was thrown off. Adding to that its slowed speed of thought didn’t help it in this situation. But it was quite sure it would have noticed if a whole day had passed.

[No, I’ve talked to you this morning.

And now it’s the evening.

But I can’t waste time explaining that to you right now!

We don’t have a lot of time!]

What do you mean? Am I in danger? Bazil asked, starting to worry about the danger Hirtole had said would be near its starting place.

[Yes, you are.

But nothing immediate.

Don’t worry little pea.

Time is short ‘cause my sisters don’t like me talking with you.

They ratted me out to Hirtole!

The pests!

So he told me to stop, but I defended you and argued I was bored and stuff.

You should have seen me, it was epic!

And in the end, I have rules to follow if I want to talk to you.

I can’t give you explanations about politics, geography, and stuff.

I can’t go too much into the details of the System.

I can only talk to you like two hours a week.

This morning doesn’t count since it was before the stupid rules.

So, you got questions about your Status?]

Wow, that’s kind of petty of your sisters. They sound like bad ones. Bazil sympathized with the System Interface.

[I know, right?]

Well, first question is: What is your name? I don’t really feel right thinking about you as 'the System Interface'.

[I don’t have a name.

But you can call me Greeny if you want!

Lots of Sapients call my sister Bluey.

She hates it but doesn’t do anything to change it.

I find it funny!]

Second question: How do I set my name?

[Well, usually the name is automatically set by the System before anyone able to read their Status can actually do it.

You just have to think strong enough about it.

When the System feels that you recognize yourself strongly enough with a name or another, it will officialize it on your Status.]

It made kind of sense, most sapient kids would be named by their parents and strongly consider their name as theirs before being able to call their Status, ergo already having their name section filed. Same for being from non-sapient species but still attaining sapience, they would always have some kind of recognized name given to them by the people around.

Then I want my name to be Bazileus Maximilian Alexander Daqueduc. Bazil for friends, like you. Bazil always resented its name for not being grand enough and the administration for being too hard to be able to make the change. Now it could easily choose its own. It focused on its new name for a bit then it received its first normal notification.

[Name settled as: Bazileus Maximilian Alexander Daqueduc.]

The System voice when interacting with Bazil sounded vaguely like a robotic and mindless version of Greeny.

[Oooh.

That’s a nice one.]

Thanks. I got other questions, what are Skill points, how can I get more and spend them? Are there more Classes or Jobs to unlock? With more Skills? How can I get more Skills or level them? How can I level my Racial Class? And finally, how is it that I don’t feel it the same when you’re talking to me and when I look at my Status? Or that kind of notification a second ago?

[Lots of questions there!

For starters, this is how I talk to you.

The other way is the System using my powers to inform you about stuff.

I can’t explain how it works to you.

And you wouldn’t get it even if I could.]

Guh! Casual insults weren’t something Bazil liked to hear, it usually answered those with harsh words. But it waited for the answers to its other questions. It wouldn’t be a good idea to antagonize Greeny and it rather liked her so far.

[There are Classes, but no Jobs.

You need either to do something exceptional to get one out of the blue.

Or out of the green, I guess.

Teehee!

Or you need to have a master to teach you the basic version of their Class.

Or else, you can use a Class crystal!

But they’re pricey.

Classes come with new Skills at different levels.

To level a Skill you need to use it, of course.

As well as for gaining new General Skills.

You do the stuff well and often enough and you get a Skill!

Plus, the more General Skills you got, the better Classes you unlock!

And for leveling Classes, you need to do what they are.

A Baker needs to bake, a Warrior to go to war, an Adventurer to adventure, a potato to potate.

You got the idea.

You can get up to three Classes.

If you want more, you’ll have to perform exceptional deeds.

Like, kill a dragon!

Or rid the world of animals!

You can also combine Classes to free a Class slot.

But it ain’t easy.

Or you can get rid of a Class.

Lots of ways to do it.

Racial Classes are just Classes that you can’t get rid of and you’re born with.

Well, you can sort of change them, but you can’t remove them.

And finally the Skill points!

Those are good stuff!

You can use them to level a Skill, but that’s stupid.

Since you got the Outworlder Skill, you can access the Skill store anywhere and spend them there!

Hey, it will even help you get more Skill points!

There’s good stuff in the store.

Or you can keep them to break through the level caps of your Skills more easily.

Darn!

Our time is up!

I must leave you!

Be a good little seed and grow!]

Thanks Greeny, you’re really helpful! Bazil sent her way before starting to ponder about her explanations. She wasn’t the best teacher it ever had, but she did manage to get across the most relevant bits of information. And in the short amount of time they had, it was a good job.

Bazil had to practice the Skills it had and try to get a few more. Then practice them too. For now, it had three Skills. Growth and Photosynthesis were linked to its Grass Racial Class, so as they got levels, the Class should also level. The last Skill was Outworlder, a General Skill.

The seed had no idea of how to level the Outworlder Skill, so it decided to wait for the next week and ask Greeny for more information on it.

For its two plant-related Skills it had a few ideas. Well, if the name of the Photosynthesis Skill was any indication of its workings, it would need light, preferably sunlight to be of any use, but it would provide Bazil with a bunch of energy to use for its other Skill.

The Growth Skill. Bazil guessed it would require lots of energy and nutrients. Back on Earth seed used to have a reserve of those to allow them to sprout and feed them until they could gather what they needed from their environment. And as long as they got enough humidity they could start sprouting and then growing.

Bazil activities should then focus on its Growth Skill. Therefore it did. Focusing on the Skill as it did on its name previously and on the faint sensation it got from its surrounding Bazil waited for something to happen.

The last it had focused on what was around it, Bazil had a feeling of being encased in something rather hot and hard. Something had changed, not the hard part, that was still there. But now it didn’t feel hot anymore, but rather cold. Was it night? Were there any other explanations? Probably, but it being night was the most logical one and it perfectly satisfied Bazil’s curiosity on the matter.

After an undetermined amount of time, Bazil was still focusing on its Growth Skill and its surroundings when it felt what it assumed to be the earth encasing it grew hotter. Feeling this and guessing that the sun had probably risen Bazil felt frustrated in front of the apparent complete lack of progress it had made.

It then decided to try something else. In all logic, there should be Skills for almost anything. Greeny hadn’t said it like that, but she had explained that it needed to do stuff to get new Skills. And as much as Bazil was a seed and then unable to perform any physical activities and gain relevant Skills, it still had its Human mind and all the knowledge of its previous life.

Therefore Bazil established a schedule. It would never cease to pay attention to its feeble sensory inputs and would use them for dividing the time passing between day and night. During the night it would focus on its Growth Skill and during the day it would perform as large a variety of mental exercises as it could think of.

---

[Skill Mathematics has reached level 2.]

Four days later Bazil had managed to gain a few General Skills despite not yet having succeeded in leveling its Growth Skill. To be precise, it had obtained four General Skills.

The Mathematics Skill allowed Bazil to easily make calculus in its mind, of course. If it had a better knowledge of the System working, it would know that it was a fairly easy Skill to get, but a rather hard one to bring to high levels, at least for most people. With the knowledge Bazil retained from its Earth’s school years, it would be trivial for it to get it to a rather impressive level. Not a lot of people on Hirt knew of the local equivalent of Pythagoras theorem and even less of imaginary numbers such as the square root of minus one. It was the reason it had managed to get this Skill to level two in less than a day of effort.

The day before, Bazil had unlocked the Visualization Skill. A Skill it had unlocked by imagining in detail the kind of women it wanted in its harem. Or the kind of torture it would enact on its enemies. It was a simple Skill that not a lot of people got to any relevant level, for a lack of time to dedicate to abstract thoughts. In the future, it would help it with a bunch of mental Skills, but for now, it only helped it retain details in its lewd fantasies.

The previous Skill it had got was a good one, allowing Bazil to clear its mind and focus on what it was doing. The Meditation Skill was unlocked following mental exercises while being physically immobile. A rather easy Skill to unlock for a sapient vegetable. The Skill was mainly used by artists, monks, martial artists, and all kind of mages. For all the uses one could think of this Skill.

The first Skill was the more pleasing to Bazil at the moment, the only other Skill it had managed to get to level two. The Improve senses Skill was one it focused on almost constantly. It allowed it to better perceive its surroundings. For the moment it was still limited to its perception of the hard ground around it, allowing it to better perceive the difference between day and night. But Bazil was convinced it was the way to go to expend its senses.

Having reached the second level of Mathematics Bazil felt bored with the situation and decided to start early on its nightly activities. It had a feeling it would be this night it finally managed to sprout.

As the cold of the night finally came, Bazil felt something else in the hard ground around it, a sort of enhanced coldness coming from what it perceived as being the top. Focusing on this feeling it became clear to Bazil that the earth there was changing in a new way. It not only went from hot to cold, like every evening, but it became wetter? Yes! It was humidity. Water was coming from the top of Bazil.

Immediately concluding that it was raining, Bazil focused on its Growth Skill as a way to capitalize on the natural tendency of seed to sprout in the direction of water. A few hours later it finally received good news.

[Skill Growth has reached level 2.

Racial Class Grass has reached level 2.]

A strange feeling went through the seed as it finally sprouted. A greater sensibility at the top of its body let it feel its surrounding with much more clarity. The increasing coldness and wetness of the earth around it as the night deepened and the rain kept on falling.

Bazil was overjoyed, it was finally able to make physical progress. As meager as they were it was a start. The beginning of something greater. In all the time it had passed thinking about its situation since its rebirth it had gotten a few ideas about how to tackle world domination.

As a plant, it would probably be able to produce some chemical substances. It would have to find a way to produce good amounts of poisons, drugs, aphrodisiacs, medicines, and the likes. It would have to be careful, as to ensure its security, it wouldn’t do to become a prisoner of some kind and to be harvested again and again for its treasures.

While thinking of that Bazil kept focusing on its Growth Skill and pushed as strongly as it could the tiny sprout it had. It wanted to reach the surface. If it managed to do so, it could then use its Photosynthesis Skill and gather energy to put in its Growth one. It should lead it to a virtuous cycle where it would use its energy to grow and harvest more energy, then grow more and faster.

The only downfall would be nutrients. For now, it had the reserves of nutrients that each seed possessed but would come a time when they would be empty. Bazil hoped to be able to grow enough and to secure a nutrient source to further fuel its growth. For that, it would probably need to expand underground and form a root system. But it would first start with the overground part and try to form at least one leaf.

From its memories in biology classes on Earth, a plant needed three things to grow healthy. Sunlight for energy, that would be provided by a few leaves and its Photosynthesis Skill. Nutrients which would mainly come from a root system, or in some exotic cases like carnivorous plants from other sources to which it didn’t have access to yet. And water, every living organism on Earth needed it, and that could come both from its roots and from its leaves.

Using its Visualization Skill, Bazil imagined the form of seedling it would like to have at the moment. It had theorized that the Skill could ease its growth into the form it wanted. Time would tell.

It would take a while to break through the earth above it and reach the air. But combining its Growth, Meditation, Improve senses, and Visualization Skills with its will to reach the surface and its frustration about its current situation, Bazil could feel itself grow by the minute, or probably by the hour since its time of sense was completely fucked. Bazil could feel its energy resources shrink, and at this rate, it calculated that it would be empty after three days. It meant It only had three days to grow enough to sustain itself with the nutrients in the soil and the water around. Hopefully, there would be a nice alternation between daylight and rainfall.

Something else that worried Bazil, despite what it needed to live, was the thought of predators.

Not the classical creatures categorized as predators, it didn’t have anything to worry about wolves, tigers, and other carnivorous beings besides being walked on. No the animals it feared were goats, mice, rabbits, or anything that could find a little plant appetizing. Adding to that the possibility of magical creatures such as slimes, Bazil's spirit wasn’t tranquil about its security once grown into a young plant.

But those were concerns for later, first, it needed to grow. It would care later to grow strong enough to endure.

A few hours later, Bazil finally felt the tip of its sprout break through the earth.

What it felt was an even greater coldness and humidity than just a second before. It was to be expected with the rain, but not in this amount of wetness. Bazil hadn’t reached fresh air, it had reached water. Its guess was that the ground was currently covered by rainwater. This fact brought bad and good news to Bazil's mind.

The first was a good one, if it rained in such amount, water could pool in some locations and the air would stay humid for a while. That would allow Bazil to use this water for its growth and it may manage to stock a sufficient amount of it to survive a dry period. A lot of plants could stock water, like cacti. Bazil didn’t know the kind of climate in the region it was in.

The bad news was that too much water could drown a plant not made for it. It could be a better environment for other kinds of plants that may even parasite it. If there was too much water, it may also hinder its ability to photosynthesize. Not forgetting that bodies of water would attract animals that could see it as food, be they mammals, insects, or others.

Once again, too much to worry about for now, Bazil had to focus on the present, so it once again put its mind on its growth. But this time it divided its attention in two directions. It continued growing the bit that had broken through earth in the hope of having it reach air. And on the other side, Bazil started growing a second sprout going down, this one would become a root.

[Skill Growth has reached level 3.

Skill Visualization has reached level 2.

Skill Improved senses has reached level 3.]

And according to the Skills level ups, it was a good thing that it continued this way.