Arthur took the time he was alone to sit alone in his thoughts while he recovered his mana. He had rarely been left alone and had been moved from one task to the next so far. He didn’t mind it really, but he wanted to be useful. The people around him had poured all of their time and energy into him and he didn’t have much to show for it. Collecting the beast cores was a good start, but the others who were assisting him in the process could’ve gone out on their own and sped up the process tenfold.

Those problems would be solved with time hopefully. The long-term problem he set his mind on was what he wanted to do to better fit in with the ‘team’ he had been assigned. Lucas covered the scout and long-range attacker role well and Kendra and Aria were already well versed in explosive and crowd control magic respectively while he was just starting on his journey as a magic-user.

Arthur also focused internally on the runes within him. He had been cautious to mess with them too much because he didn’t know all of their functions yet nor how all of them interacted with one another. Of the optimizations, all of them had been done within his limbs because they were less complex. After all, their main functions were to move as he directed and move mana necessary for him to cast spells. Inside his chest and head, however, led his repair function as far as he could tell, and other runes he did not feel ready to explore yet. As he examined his leg’s runes he was broken out of concentration however by the sound of someone walking down the cellar stairs.

“Hello, Arthur. Come on up here. There are no plants down here to practice magic on. Follow me to the gardens,” said the man.

Arthur turned to face him and made his way to the stairs. The man was one of the oldest people he had interacted with so far. The man was also an elf which meant he was even older than he appeared. The pair of them walked together with Arthur following shortly behind him.

Gnome villagers walked around the outpost and stared at him as they had regularly for a while now. They all in the end returned to their work soon enough. Arthur didn’t care anymore because they had never bothered him about it, though they had likely been told to do so. If he was in their shoes he mind be doing the same thing. It is not an everyday occurrence that one might see a giant metal man walking around. Though it was now at least a biweekly occurrence for them. The researchers had kept him away from the villagers and Arthur had decided that it was likely because his presence and the others brought to the outpost were disturbing them in some way.

“I am Andre by the way. Please refer to me as such in the future. Formal titles can get annoying.”

“I will keep that in mind if that is your desire.”

“Good. Now let me tell you about the first spell I will show you. It is called [Plant Growth]. The use of the spell is rather self-explanatory, but it does have some limitations that you should keep in mind. First, the mana required varies based on the amount of plant mass being affected and the stage of their growth. This spell can grow a plant from a seed to maturity, but the total amount of mana will be front-loaded due to the initial growth required. Second, the spell can restore only injured plants and not old ones. If you try and bring life into an old plant it will fail. Finally, let me show you how most people use this spell.”

Andre walked over to one of the smaller nearby plants and removed it from the soil. It was a simple mint leaf plant that had grown about a foot tall. Andre began to break it in half down the middle and set aside one half. He then planted the larger half of the two in its original spot before casting [Plant Growth].

The green inside of the mint plant began to grow back and beneath the dirt, the roots expanded outward. Over the next minute, the missing half grew back to two-thirds its original size before the spell finished.

“This technique is called agricultural cloning. This has allowed magical farmers to expand their crop quickly at the expense of their mana and help avert famines before they can start. This has also allowed specialty farmers with the assistance of a mage like me to quickly breed and iterate on strains of particular plants. Though I think you will have a much more mundane use for this spell. With it, you should see a noticeable increase in your ability to heal your internals if you can cast this spell on yourself while performing your regular healing. Now let me show you the spell once more and you can replant this other half of the mint plant for me.”

Arthur watched again as Andre cast the spell on another nearby herb plant. This time the spell was focused on growth rather than repair, so the branches expanded further, and its stalk grew taller.

“There is one more thing for you to remember that I forgot. While this spell can bring a plant to maturity with enough mana it cannot bear fruits and the like any faster.”

“I understand.”

Arthur picked up the mint plant and planted it next to the first before beginning the spell. He went through the last two examples in his mind and formed the spells in his mind before casting them through his hands. He cast the spell both in his mind and in his hands several times before the process was completed successfully. Green light formed around his hands and then enveloped the plant in front of him. He continued to pour mana into the spell and the plant continued to suck it all in. Soon the plant was fully healed, but he continued on until the second mint plant matched the first in size.

“Very good. I had heard you were a fast learner. I’m glad I could finally see it in action. Let us move locations now that this spell is finished. The other spells will work much better when we are closer to the forest.”

The pair of them left the gardens and walked just past the first trees of the forest.

“The second spell I will teach you is [Vine Trap]. You need to be cognizant of where you cast this because you can ensnare friends in this spell as well if you lose focus during this spell. The location is also important because if there are no vine-like plants around the spell won’t do anything, so you must scout the location in advance. These forests around us are great for this spell because there are possible targets for the spell both on the ground and hanging on the trees. Like this one.” He grabbed hold of some mossy vines hanging from the tree. “Now watch this spell carefully. If you lose concentration during the spell then don’t finish it. Some eager students of mine have done so and end up caught in their own traps.”

Andre cast [Vine Trap] in the area around them which caused the ground and trees around them to shake. The plants around them shifted and seemed to sway. The vines wrapped around the trees began to unravel and started to move themselves to cover Andre. Arthur noticed that Andre might’ve added the effects of plant growth to the spell because the vines seemed longer than normal and the plants around them more alive.

“I can feel the mana fluctuations in the air as you affect the plant,” said Arthur.

“Oh, you can feel that. I suppose with your power you can. This spell will die down shortly. I hope you can continue to practice it as it is a very versatile spell, though that is the case for most nature spells. They may not be as destructive or flashy as spells of other affinities, but they are strong in the right situations and often have more than often use per spell. This is something you will have to explore yourself.”

“Thank you for your guidance and wisdom.”

“Just pay attention and show me how powerful you can make this spell. With your higher mana capacity, you can extend the range of this spell quite far. I’m going to start casting this spell once more, but I won’t finish it and will instead start it over a few times, so you understand it. And again, pay attention.”

Andre went through the motions of casting the spell once more, but before he finished it he let the spell dissolve. He repeated the process three more times for Arthur to watch. Arthur focused his attention more so on the movement of the mana than exactly what Andre was doing. The spell demonstration ended after another minute before Andre turned to watch Arthur cast the spell.

The spell's power radiated outward in a circle around him and connected to all of the plants in the area. The plants affected by the spell writhed and moved as one. Arthur watched as the spell interacted with the two of them in particular. Unlike other areas of effect spells this one was more discriminatory in who it could hurt.

‘This will definitely be a go-to spell for me in the future. I should look for other spells that can produce a similar effect to this one. If I could grow a section of plants just for this spell I could also increase its effectiveness and make it a more lethal attack. I can also feel a connection however faint it might be to all of the nearby plants. I can’t control all of them, but maybe with a more powerful spell I could.’

The spell died down in the same amount of time as Andre’s and the forest returned to its quieter state. The vines hanging from the trees shrunk back to their original spot. Arthur also felt his connection to the surrounding plants dwindle until it disappeared completely.

“Good. I could feel you tapping into the power of the nature domain within the spell. Understanding what it means will help you greatly in future spells that affect the nature domain. The final spell I have to share with you today is a fungal spore spell I have modified to help you. While it will not be very useful against beasts or elves it will be a decent deterrent I hope based on the tests I have run. The spell creates spores in the air that spread outwards in the direction you cast and will feed on bones and the chemicals within rotting flesh specifically. And it does this all while only causing a mild allergic reaction in elves. I’m not sure how gnomes will react, but it should be the same. I hope this will help you. Once you get closer to getting enough strength and knowledge to fight the dragon we will give you some proper light and darkness spells. Consider this a milestone gift for the progress you have made.”

“Thanks for your kind words. This gives me more motivation to continue growing in strength to meet and exceed yours and other people’s expectations in me.”

“Now watch as I go through the spell process a few times as usual. Currently, the spell won’t do anything but test it out next time you hunt. It is not very fast acting but will last for a while and repeated castings of the spell will aggravate the spores and worsen the effects.”

Arthur watched Andre present the third spell. This time he held a different air of focus and intensity as he watched the old wizard teach him the spell. This time when he watched he saw how the spell was set up and constructed piece by piece before completion. With this spell, he didn’t feel the need to practice the spell in his mind and cast it right away instead. This time it was Andre’s turn to study him as he performed his spell.