Mary grunted as she stretched out her waist, twisting her torso from side to side. A heap of fallen people lay on the ground before her, every one of them sporting an emblem of sorts indicating they were part of the major guilds. Mary gestured behind herself after she finished stretching, and a swarm of individuals dressed in black robes surged forward, stepping over the bodies in front. The root bracelet on Mary’s arm flashed amber, and a black, egglike object appeared in her hand. Unlike before, there were green cracks similar to roots spread over the glossy surface.

Mary twisted her wrist, inspecting the object from all angles. While looking at it, she stepped to the side and took a seat on top of a rock, crossing one leg over the other as she sat down. According to the information given to her by the Virtuous Hand, this object was a seed, and depending on the amount of nutrients it received, a variety of different plants could germinate. Nutrients could be obtained by slaying the various creatures located on the eleventh floor, but the fastest way to accumulate a large number of nutrients was to rob the resource exchange centers the major guilds had established.

It didn’t take long for the members of Virtuous Hand to return to Mary’s side. Buckets of glowing green crystals appeared by Mary’s feet as the cloaked figures dropped off their haul. Mary dropped the seed into a bucket, and the crystals within shrank and dimmed as the black object steadily absorbed the contents from top to bottom. When it was done, Mary repeated the process with the other buckets, and by the time all the nutrients had been taken in by the seed, the cracklike roots on its surface were bulging like a person’s veins.

Mary held the seed in her gauntleted hand and looked at the closest cloaked figure. “Next.”

“My liege,” the cloaked figure said, bowing his head and clasping his hands together in front of himself. “That was the last resource exchange center. There are no more places to plunder; if my liege wishes to obtain more nutrients, we can only obtain them ourselves by hunting the surrounding creatures.”

“Oh,” Mary said and nodded. “So, we’re done? I’ll plant the seed then.” Seeing as the members of Virtuous Hand didn’t stop her, she kicked at the ground with her tip of her greaves, gouging out a hole. She dropped the seed into the hole before sweeping the dirt she had kicked aside over it. She drew her sword and stabbed it at an angle into her gauntlet, causing blood to seep out. The red liquid dripped onto the ground where the seed had been buried, and within seconds, a dark-red stem shot out of the earth. She took a step back as the stem branched out and grew red and black leaves, the plant expanding to the size of a large dog.

Mary stowed her sword, not minding the blood dripping from her fingers onto the ground, and watched as a red and black, spherical bush took shape. According to the walkthrough Jackal had given her, the major guilds recorded their seed-growing results, knowing what type of plant would appear depending on the amount of nutrients it had been fed. Of course, Mary had simply skimmed through the table of contents of the walkthrough. There wasn’t a need to waste her time when there were faster ways to know what she wanted. She turned her head towards the Virtuous Hand members standing behind her. “What is it?”

The cloaked figures exchanged glances with one another. “Do you know what it is?”

“Nope.”

“It’s not in the book.”

The person at the front cleared his throat. “We don’t know. No one’s ever given the seed so many nutrients before, and if someone has, they didn’t write the result down. It’s possible my liege’s plant is a unique entity in the tower.”

Mary nodded. “Alright,” she said. “What does it do?”

The cloaked figures exchanged glances with one another once again. The same person from before stepped forward. “We’re not sure, my liege. If you submit it to the guild’s alchemists to study, they’ll be able to discern its effects after a series of tests.”

Mary glanced at the bush, and in response, the bush shook rapidly. The armored woman raised an eyebrow at the bush’s reaction, and she squatted next to it. “You don’t want to be tested on?”

The bush twisted back and forth like a person shaking their head, rustling as it did so.

Mary scratched her head. It seemed like the bush was sentient. “What can you do?”

The whole bush rose a few inches off the ground as the earth underneath it cracked. Several roots popped out of the ground, and Mary and the Virtuous Hand members watched as the bush waddled over to the fallen people belonging to the major guilds. The bush clambered over them and settled down, sinking its roots into their bodies like worms digging into the earth. Their skin visibly paled, and several tiny orbs formed on the bush. As the bodies withered, the orbs on the bush grew until they were a little larger than mandarins. When the bodies turned into dried husks, the bush detached from them and waddled over to Mary.

Mary raised an eyebrow as one of the bush’s branches reached towards her, extending one of the orbs. It shook its branch, the leaves rustling, and Mary plucked the orb off of it. She raised an eyebrow as her root bracelet flashed amber, a stream of information appearing before her. A frown appeared on her face, and the bush trembled after her expression changed. It drooped towards the ground as if it was disappointed Mary wasn’t pleased by the final result. Mary put the orb away and stared at the bush. “Can I store you in the root bracelet, or do you have to stay on this floor?”

The bush perked up before waddling over to Mary’s leg. It clambered up her body like a ball of moving leaves and made its way to her left wrist where its body slowly disappeared into the root bracelet.