The stats menu awaited him.

HP: 42 (+3)

STR: 6 (+0)

MAG: 5 (+4)

SKL: 6 (+0)

SPD: 9 (+1)

LUK: 4 (+0)

DEF: 7 (+2)

RES: 4 (+1)

CHA: 6 (+1)

Damn, three points to HP again? At least it’s not nine. Rowan sighed and navigated to his skill list. Four skill points awaited allocation.

“Did you find your pruning spell yet?” N. Kaidu prompted.

“Jeez, honestly. Do I have to find a pruning spell? Where would I even find one? My options are garbage.”

“A poor craftsman blames his tools. What are your options?”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Rowan glanced over the skill list. He bit his lip. “Uh, Poison Resist… resist-type skills, Plant Care, Gardening Tool Proficiency, Plant Identification, Plant Affinity.”

“Can you see into the skill trees?”

Rowan clicked on Poison Resist. His display zoomed into the resist skill tree. Above Poison Resist, a second skill lit up: Paralysis Resist. The rest of the tree remained dark. “Looks like I can see one skill above my current skill.”

“Check Plant Affinity and Plant Care.”

He clicked into Plant Care. “I can’t see anything, I haven’t put any points into it.”

N. Kaidu rolled his eyes and made a go on gesture with his hand.

“You want me to waste a point on—”

“No skill points are wasted. There is a reason for every skill tree.”

“If you say so.” Rowan clicked Plant Care.

Learned the spell Watering Can!

A heavy sigh escaped Rowan’s lips. “Watering Can. Why is that even a spell?”

As the words “watering can” left his lips, he suddenly felt energy leave him. Water sprinkled out from his right index finger.

“Stop! Cancel spell!” Rowan snapped at his finger, annoyed. Energy drained from him, cold running through his stomach. His legs grew wobbly. “Hey! Listen to me! Stop watering things!”

“Kill the flow of mana through your body,” N. Kaidu advised.

“The flow of—” Rowan took a deep breath. Mana. That’s the energy that’s leaving me now. He focused his mind inward and reached out for the energy draining from the bottom of his stomach, then squeezed. His finger dried. Energy stopped flowing out of his body.

“It’s the most basic skill,” N. Kaidu said.

“I’ve never cast a spell before, how am I supposed to know what mana feels like?” Rowan asked.

N. Kaidu snorted derisively.

In the System menu, a new bar appeared near his HP. Half full, glowing blue, the letters MP appeared next to it. Rowan grimaced. Half empty from a watering can spell? I need more mana.

“What’s the next skill in the tree?” N. Kaidu asked.

“Uh… looks like…” His eyes lit up. “Pruning!” Rowan clicked the skill.

Learned the skill Pruning LVL 1!

“Yes! Aha, come at me, forest!” Rowan cheered. He searched through his bag and found a small set of garden shears, slightly rusty on the inside of the blades. “Prune!”

Mana flowed out of his body. The vine drew into focus. His hands moved, almost on their own, as blue lights lit up along the vine. Careful and precise, he snipped away at the vine. Excess leaves and thorns rained down from the vine. Offshoots fell away. More beautiful than ever, the pruned vine coiled up the tree without unnecessary, unappealing additions anywhere.

Frustrated, Rowan cut off the flow of mana. He threw down his shears and whirled on the tree. Blow after blow rained down on the tree until his knuckles bled, scraped by the bark. “Useless! Why are all my skills useless?”

“There is a use for all things. Try Plant Affinity.”

“Why? Plant Care was useless. Why will that be any different?” Rowan complained. He knelt and scooped up the garden shears, throwing them back in his bag.

“You won’t know until you try,” N. Kaidu responded.

Sighing, Rowan turned back to the interface. He’s got a point. I don’t even know what kind of skills are tied up in Plant Affinity right now, and I won’t until I invest a skill point. He clicked on the skill.

Plant Affinity LVL 1. You can now see your affinity levels with plants around you!

My affinity levels with plants around me? Rowan furrowed his brows. With a thought, he activated the skill.

The forest around him turned gray. Everything faded to the background. Only two patches of color remained.

The tree in front of him glowed a faint red, harsh and aggressive. If not for the rest of the forest turning gray, he wouldn’t have been able to make out the red glow. The vine wound around it glowed a pale green, warm and soft.

Green means it likes me, and red means it doesn’t? Rowan guessed. I pruned the vine and punched the tree, so I guess that makes sense. A second later, he frowned again. What good does that do me? Affinity level with plants? Who cares! They’re plants! They don’t have feelings!

“So?”

“It’s a really fantastic skill, you’ll love it. I can see how much plants like me,” Rowan said.

N. Kaidu nodded sagely. “I have a similar skill that shows whether clients like or hate the way a hairstyle is turning out. It has saved my reputation several times over.”

“But what good is it for plants? It’s not like a lily will pay me less if I water it poorly,” Rowan said, rolling his eyes.

“All skills—”

“Yeah, yeah, all skills have their uses, I get it,” Rowan grumbled. He turned back to his menu. What should I put my last skill point into?

He checked the skill trees’ next skills, searching for something useful. Aside from Paralysis Resist, Plant Care offered Fertilizer, Gardening Tool Proficiency offered Edgers, Shovels, and Spades, Plant Identification offered no more skills but required him to invest five points in Common Plant Identification to see the next level, and Plant Affinity offered Passive Affinity Bonus.

Useless, useless, and… it’s all useless. I don’t have five points in any of the first level skills, so I could always put another point into the skills I already have, but… I don’t really need more Poison Resist or more strength in using hand trowels, or any of the other skills. Rowan hesitated another moment, then shook his head. I’ll hold on to it for now. That way, I can invest it on the spot if anything comes up.

Closing the System interface, he glanced at N. Kaidu. “How’d you hit level fifteen, anyways? You don’t look that much older than me, and I know my mom is barely level eleven.”

“I exploited a glitch in the System. If you value a service much higher than the System considers it to be worth, you gain exponentially more EXP. I built a brand centered around myself, grew my reputation as a Hairdresser, and was able to price my cuts at several times their System-valued worth, thus harvesting EXP.”

“So if you’re famous, you can level up? Got it,” Rowan grumbled.

N. Kaidu bowed his head. “I acknowledge that not everyone is able to do what I did. My father was a highly successful combat class. I drew on his wealth to build my brand. Less fortunate support classes do not have the opportunities I had.”

Rowan opened his mouth, then sighed and shook his head. I can’t complain that he got lucky and was born wealthy. I hacked the System, I’m no better. Kaidu said it himself: any support class successful enough to take on a combat class-level challenge is going to have done something against the rules, one way or another.

Rowan snuck a look at Kaidu. Have any other support classes managed to succeed, despite the System? Or are we the only ones?