“Ominous,” Barb offered. “Though only slightly so? As long as we can figure out how to grow this ‘snakefruit’, we shouldn’t need to worry much, no?”

I failed to join the barber in his optimism, even as hedged as it was. The door slamming down had raised all of my hackels across the board. The question that no one wanted to answer was: What exactly happened if we didn’t manage to grow one? Did we just stay here forever?

Well, it’s not like we’d die of thirst. Plenty of water spells between me and Eak. Food was a separate matter, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

“Right then. I confess, I’m not particularly conversant in herbalist pursuits. Does anyone know more about these seeds?” Barb craned his nose over the seed shelf, prompting the others to do the same. Jason in particular seemed drawn to one of the seven which had a brittle, almost rock-like exterior, and it looked like Kex might attempt to discern the seeds’ details via her usual method.

Before Jason decided to throw one of our seeds or Kex opted to lick them all, I rushed in. “I can. Gimme a sec.” I rushed through the identification, shooting each with God’s Eye, save for the Blazeberry seed I’d already seen.

Three of the other seeds seemed similar in that they granted certain effects or resistances.

Super-strength Rockpiercer Seed

The seed of a rockpiercer stone fruit which grows in extremely rocky conditions. While growing, the roots of this plant are capable of tunneling through rock with ease, and the fully grown fruit can impart this effect on those who consume it. This particular seed has been modified to be significantly stronger than its average counterpart.

This seed grows best in condensed, rocky soil.

Super-strength Venomsucker Seed

The seed of a fruit which can convert poisons to life mana, using the collected energy to grow. The fruit, either consumed or used in potions, can grant a resistance to certain poisons. This particular seed has been modified to be significantly stronger than its average counterpart.

This seed grows best given intense poisons or heavily condensed life mana.

Super-strength Gillvine Seed

The seed of a vine which grows in certain aquatic environments. The vine enters a symbiotic relationship with land animals and amphibians, sapping life mana from the host while allowing them to process oxygen more efficiently from water. When attached to the skin, this vine can aid the user in holding their breath longer underwater. This particular seed has been modified to be significantly stronger than its average counterpart.

This seed grows best given large amounts of water.

Nothing truly earth-shattering. Or, at least in the literal sense, I guess the rockpiercer was, but other than that, nothing too special. Frankly, I couldn’t really figure out why the dungeon would think we wanted to grow them in any case. If we weren’t allowed to take the fruits out of the room, then all of them seemed pretty worthless. Unless I was wildly off the mark, there wasn’t any poison or fire in the room, nor did I expect to be drowned underwater anytime soon.

If nothing else, it was possible they were mostly there as decoys. For parties that didn’t have anyone who could identify the other seeds, they might accidentally try to grow all the duds instead of the snakefruit they needed.

And as expected, the snakefruit seed made an appearance as well.

Snakefruit Seed

The seed of a snakefruit. A favorite amongst all snakes.

Grows best in standard conditions. For best results, fertilize the soil with ample amounts of snakegrass.

Fairly straightforward, at least compared to the others. As long as we could figure out how to grow anything, it seemed like the easiest to grow.

It was the other two, however, that really drew my attention.

The first was a silver seed with an almost metallic sheen to it. Had you told me it was made of actual silver, I might have even believed it were it not for the description telling me it was an actual seed.

Fruit of Wealth Seed

The seed to a fruit which imparts great wealth and fortune upon those who consume it.

Best grown while forged in flames in solid, metallic soil.

It wasn’t entirely clear how eating something was supposed to grant someone wealth, but it was hardly something I’d mind eating. I wouldn’t exactly consider myself cash-strapped considering who my “grandfather” was, but more money never hurt.

Even the silver seed, however, paled in comparison to the last of the bunch. Not by sight -- the final seed was a muted purple, perhaps the easiest of the bunch to overlook -- but its description painted an entirely separate picture.

Fruit of Growth Seed

The seed to a fruit which imparts growth and experience onto those who consume it.

Requires a dash of multiple types of mana, and a great abundance of life mana to grow.

I knew that the door had already slammed shut, locking us in, and that the dungeon had pretty specifically warned against trying to take the seeds or fruits out of the room. Still, even without knowing exactly what effects the fruit would grant, I was sorely tempted to try sneaking it out. If I could convince Elphaea to help grow it and then harvest its seeds, it sounded like it would be a major blessing.

I did my best to tamp that thought down. I wasn’t quite strong enough to ignore a dungeon’s warnings, and the fruit would do me no good if I was too dead to eat it.

Having finished my inspection, I shared the details with the rest of the group. As expected, the most excitement came from the prospect of growing the final two.

Well, at least from most of us. Jason still seemed enrapt with the rockpiercer seed, but that was just Jason.

Before we could get too deep into our fantasies of instantly growing wealthy and powerful from chowing down on some fruit, Eak brought us back to reality with the simplest of questions.

“So? How do we grow them?”

Sadly, a particularly pertinent question. I scanned the room, looking back at the garden behind us. In light of our new task, the grass-free area in the garden’s center looked promising. Beckoning the others, I led us to the inner circle of stones which enclosed the patch of soil. As we neared, I frowned, noticing a new detail.

“Gems?”

The circle was ringed with six obsidian, half-spherical stones, all a distance off from one another. Two of them were completely plain and unadorned, but the next four, however, each had a singular gem embedded within them. All four gems shone in different colors.

Curious, I examined one further.

Life Mana Gem

5/5 Charges

Particularly out of character for my ability, it provided no extra information. Scanning the other three gems, I found similar results, but for earth mana, water mana, and fire mana.

“I dare say this seems mostly straightforward, no? We choose a seed to plant and then attempt to use the gems to grow it?” Barb crouched down into a squat, examining the ground and the gems more closely. “I can’t imagine growing any of them otherwise, at least. Plants, as a rule of thumb, do not usually grow in a matter of seconds, so unless we plan to stay here for an entire growing season, one has to imagine magic is involved.”

Admittedly, “one has to imagine magic is involved” felt like a pretty safe bet for just about everything these days, but I saw no flaw with his reasoning.

“Let’s say that’s the name of the game then. Which seed are we picking?” The snakefruit was out, at least. The prompt had been pretty clear that we were supposed to grow that whenever we were done. Assuming we didn’t want to just grow it and scram, then we’d want to save that for last. “Feel like the growth one is the best. Start with that? Or should we pick one of the others as a trial run?” Frankly, I wasn’t feeling much of a need to pierce rocks, but at the very least, if we royally screwed up our first attempt at growing something, it wouldn’t ruin the seeds we actually cared about.

“I vote the rock one,” Jason helpfully supplied. “I’ve thrown some stones. Rarely, I’ve thrown some fruits. But a stone that’s also a fruit?” He swung his scaled head fiercely downward in a resolute nod. “Very rad.”

Not exactly the reasoning I’d have used, but I couldn’t say I had anything too against the notion.

Barb, however, seemed uncharacteristically tense, pursing his lips before pulling them down into the suggestion of a frown.

“Not to be a ‘downer’ so to speak, but I wonder if that’s wise. As much as a trial run might do us well, it would appear that we’re working with limited resources, no? Especially if, as you say, the growth fruit ‘requires a great abundance of life mana to grow’, I’m uncertain as to whether or not we have enough charges to grow it, one of the other seeds, and the required snakefruit.”

His words were met with four sets of frowns.

Jason, on the other hand, seemed unbothered. “Easy. Just ditch the growth fruit and grow the rock one. Why grow when you could have rocks?”

It was a testament to the rock thrower’s earnestness that I even considered it for a moment. Kex, however, reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, grabbing his attention before shaking her head. Jason sighed, but didn’t put up a fight. Only a second later, he perked back up.

“That’s okay. Rocks are important, but making friends happy is even better.”

Whelp. I knew the guy had just gotten gifts from multiple deities recently, but I’d have to see about getting him something myself. Maybe Sylum had some fun rocks? I’d check, at least.

“Right then!” Barb clapped his hands together, bringing us back to the matter at hand. “Keeping in mind that we may not get a trial run, unless someone has a deep need for a sudden cash infusion, I believe we’re in accordance to attempt to grow the growth seed. Shall we?”

After nods all around, he walked back to the shelf and grabbed the seed in question. “Thoughts on the logistics of this? Are we meant to tap the seed to the gems, you think, or do we bury it first and use the gems afterwards?”

On being met with nothing but silence, the barber simply shrugged before testing it out for himself. When tapping the seed to the water gem yielded no results, he opted for the other route. Bending down, he dug a small hole in the dirt before unceremoniously plopping the seed in. Once it was covered, we turned our attention to the four gems we had at our disposal.

“A ‘dash’ of multiple mana types, it said. A dash sounds like a single charge, no? Or would that be a pinch? Although I suppose one doesn’t usually ‘pinch’ mana, so- Except one doesn’t tend to dash it either do th-”

Taking matters into his own hands, Eak tapped the water gem. I could see a small trickle of mana flow from him and into it, and immediately, a much larger torrent of mana flooded from the gem and into the soil below. The dirt was, as somewhat expected, greatly dampened, but also ended up teeming with mana.

Before we could get too lost in the weeds of things, he tapped once again on the next gem, and this time, the ground grew firmer beneath our feet. Not quite rocky, per se, but it had a certain feeling of solidity to it.

Wordlessly, he hovered his hand over the fire gem, waiting expectantly for us to move off out of the central circle. Standing atop a wave of fire mana, after all, seemed like a poor idea.

With a tap and some more mana, the ground was awash with flame. Only a second later, it died down. A touch of the water had left the soil in a wave of steam, but by no means had it completely dried, and now it was warm and rife with mana.

“Let’s see then.” Eak moved to the last of the gems, tapping on it quickly before we could even build up a sense of anticipation. Life mana sank deep into the soil, and I watched as it was funneled from the dirt into where the seed had been buried, as if greedily being sucked up.

And after that, nothing happened.

“It said it needed a lot. Going again.”

He tapped the gem again, and the process repeated.

This time, however, something changed. While we hardly had a full fruit in front of us, a tiny sprout poked out of the ground. It reached up and up, its stalk a stunning almost translucent blue. At the very least, it seemed like we were on the right track.

“One more.” Eak repeated the process one final time, and the stalk shot up once more. It stopped its upwards ascent, instead growing outwards as a bud appeared. With my Mana Sight, I watched in real time as the various mana types in the soil began to rush into the plant, traveling up the blue stem and into the forming bud.

In a matter of seconds, the bud transformed into a brilliant purple flower, a similarly shaded fruit erupting from its center. More and more mana went into the fruit, until at last the soil was drained dry. Thankfully for us, it looked like Eak’s assumption on the meaning of “dash” was correct. The plant looked healthy and fully grown, and inspecting it more closely only confirmed that.

Fruit of Growth (Emer’Thalis Dungeon-bound)

A fruit born of intense concentrations of various mana types. It embodies the idea of growth and experience.

Taking at least one bite of this fruit will grant the user the following effects:

+5 skill levels spread across random skills in the Initiate tier or lower

Doubles all dungeon-related experience gains for the remainder of the dungeon run.

I looked at the fruit with unconcealed greed. We’d already cleared a few rooms, but after eating this, we’d essentially be able to turn one dungeon run into two. That wasn’t even counting the skill gains.

While he hadn’t been able to identify the seeds, it seemed like Barb was able to see the matured fruit’s description. He reached out and plucked the fruit from the stem. “Allow me.” In a flash, his scissors descended upon the fruit cutting into it again and again until five equal pieces lay before us. We each grabbed one, and after a small midair “cheers”, we threw them down the hatch.

“Oh. Melon-y.” It was nice, actually. That wasn’t even counting the taste of the mana, which was far richer and vast in a way that defied description.

“Mm. Good. Adding that to my tooth.” Kex stuck a finger into her mouth, rubbing at one of the teeth towards the back. For a moment, I had no idea what she was talking about, but then it hit me. All the way back when we’d run the Drawgin dungeon, she’d gotten a piece of loot called the Mud Seasoning Tooth which let her change the flavor of mud to whatever she wanted.

Apparently she liked the growth fruit’s flavor enough to chew on growth-flavored mud from now on.

To each their own.

Thankfully, I was spared having to think any further about mud-chewing as a notification window popped up.

You have consumed a fruit of growth!

All dungeon-related experience doubled during this run.

Detect Secret has reached level 6!

Drinking has reached level 7!

God’s Eye has reached level 8!

Mental Magic has reached level 2!

Demonic Summoning has reached level 2!

I eyed the five skill levels, mostly satisfied with the result. Admittedly, a few more levels in my magic skills and weapons skills would have been nice considering my class quests, but I’d scored a level in God’s Eye. Seeing how slowly the Epic-ranked skill seemed to level despite its frequent use, I was more than happy to see it gain a level. The extra experience from all of the skills leveling up was a nice bonus as well.

Admittedly, wasn’t too hot about the level in Demonic Summoning, but… win some lose some, I guess.

Kind of sad that Mental Magic only went from 1 to 2 though. Would have gotten more out of that if I’d been training it up. Not like I could have known I’d be eating a magic fruit in the near future, but I resolved to train it up. Maybe I’d cast Sense Minds as I walked through the dungeon.

In fact, I was about to cast it right then, but it looked like the others were done reading over their skill ups as well.

“Good. Gained two levels in knitting,” Eak offered. “Needed those.”

Not an activity I’d have pegged the man to practice, but hey we all had to have our hobbies.

“Right then. A delightful find. Now, if I had to guess, we likely can grow one more fruit and then the snakefruit after, but in truth, I’d rather not risk it. We only have two charges of the life gem left, and if the snakefruit ends up requiring them both, we’d be in a touch of trouble were we to use one of them up beforehand. Objections?”

Save for a touch of grumbling on Jason’s part, there were none. Moments later, Barb returned with the seed in question.

While he dealt with the growing process, I decided to make good on my earlier promise to train up my Sense Minds spell. I activated it, letting the thread of mental magic weave itself into the proper form. Releasing the spell, five minds instantly bloomed within my range of perception.

“Now! If I recall, you mentioned that it grows best when the ground is fertilized with snakegrass, yes? One presumes this would be the grass surrounding us. I’ll collect a bit.”

I largely tuned him out as he spoke, realizing that something felt off. I’d used the spell once before, back in my tent, but nothing had happened. The spell didn’t do anything that time.

Barb unslung his scissors from his back, intent on using them as a glorified weedwhacker to collect us some grass. I imagined any of us could have just pulled some grass from the ground, but I had to admit his way was probably easier.

That aside, the spell thing still felt odd. It didn’t do anything that first time. If I recalled, that was because it didn’t seem to alert me to the presence of my own mind.

That couldn’t be right though. Or shouldn’t there have only been four minds, not five?

Barb’s scissors swished down, leveling a good chunk of grass. Instead of bending down to collect it, however, he froze.

At least, he tried to. His body seemed to have a different idea, and for some reason, I could see as he started to visibly inflate, his muscles bulging outwards. Even more notably, however, a look of pure dread crossed his face.

“Barb? Talk to us. What just happened?” I’d only seen him grow like that a few times before, and it was only supposed to happen when-

“It’s hair,” he muttered.

It’s… “What?”

“The grass… The system said it counts as… hair. My Shave skill just activated. I just stole a frightening amount of stats from… something.”

The hell? Hair to what?

As if to answer my unspoken question, the ground beneath us began to rumble. Before I could even let out a yelp, I caught a small spike of movement out of the corner of my eye. It was then that I truly saw it.

Just as had been the case before, six half-spherical obsidian stones ringed the inner circle of the garden. Four of them had embedded gems. The remaining two sat next to one another, separated by a few paces. Unlike the others, they were notably plain.

Or rather, they had been.

Twin lights now adorned the rocks, shining from their centers.

Before I could even process what I was seeing, the lights swiveled downwards.

Staring at me.

My body finally caught up to my mind, and I bolted. Even as I ran, a notification popped up.

Note: You have attacked Slippy the Gentle Garden Snake!

Access to the community garden has been revoked.

Prepare yourselves.

Stat & Level Updates:

Detect Secret 5 → 6 Drinking 6 → 7 God's Eye 7 → 8 Demonic Summoning 1 → 2 Mental Magic 1 → 2

Character Sheet:

Name: Tess

Age: 26

Race: Human

Class: Arcane Arsenal

Level: 10

Prestige: 1222

Health: 300/300

Mana: 325/325

Stamina: 240/240

Constitution: 26

Strength: 24

Endurance: 24

Dexterity: 19 (+1)

Intelligence: 30

Wisdom: 26 (+2)

Perception: 28

Charisma: 20

Luck: 27

Skills:

Skills

Weapon & Armor

Archery: 10

Spears: 9

Medium Armor: 5

Small Blades: 4

Swords: 3

Hammers: 2

Staffs: 2

Unarmed Combat: 2

Axes: 2

Heavy Armor: 1

Movement

Dodge: 3

Magic

Life Magic: 6

Water Magic: 7

Fire Magic: 7

Light Magic: 6

Mental Magic: 1

Ritual Magic: 1

Demonic Summoning: 2

Spells

Conjure Water: 10

Minor Healing: 7

Flameploof: 8

Illumination: 7

Sense Minds: 1

Resistances

Trauma Suppression: 13

Mental Resistance: 7

Poison Resistance: 6

Bleed Resistance: 4

Heat Resistance: 2

Pain Resistance: 2

Detection

God's Eye: 8

Detect Trap: 7

Detect Secret: 6

Craft

Construction: 6

Woodworking: 7

Jewelry Making: 5

Alchemy: 1

Social

Conversation: 5

Etiquette: 5

Trade: 3

Flirt: 2

Dancing: 2

Deception: 1

General

Drinking: 7 (+5)

Gambling: 1

Reading: 1

Class Skills

Weaponmaster

Bind Weapon: 1/5

Arcane Armament: 2/5

Overload Weapon: 1/5

Armorist

Bind Armor: 1/5

Arcane Armory: 5/5

Resist Magic: 2/5

Augmenter

Mana Feet: 1/1

Arcane Vision: 1/1