Chapter 848 - Little Creatures
The sight unfolding before Emery's eyes was nothing short of extraordinary. The saplings slowly but surely grew. At first there was no distinct feature, but eventually what appeared to be four short limbs and one chubby body with a large rocky head manifested. Then, on its rocky head, right where the eyes should be, opened up two pitch-black eyes.
"Ku ku ku"
As soon as it opened its eyes and saw its surroundings, it seemed to immediately try to speak. And if that was not miraculous enough, the two tiny limbs on its bottom began to move, waddling around and occasionally stumbling to the ground.
"Kuuuu kuuuuu"
Emery found it even more of a marvelous miracle, when he saw the tree creature exhibit something any infant creature had - emotion, such as pain when it fell to the ground.
To see what was once just a stationary sapling turning into a plant creature that bore resemblance to intelligent beings gave Emery a great sense of achievement.
Having awakened from his initial amazement, Emery immediately tried to communicate with the creature. Unfortunately, this endeavor of his didn't bear any fruit even after numerous attempts; either because the magic symbol on his hand was unable to translate the creature's language or the creature simply didn't know any language in the first place.
Still fascinated by the little wonder of creature he had himself nurtured, Emery tried to touch its head and use his nature spirit energy to understand the intricacy of the creature further.
As his green vine-like energy seeped into the creature's body, he could sense a small pebble-like energy within the creature that seemed to be able to settle down and become the source of energy to the creature. It reminded him of, no It was exactly like a mini version of a spirit core.
Emery also surprisingly sensed a message, or rather a feeling from the creature addressed to him. The creature was experiencing an emotion and told him about it. It was feeling happy.
Still waddling its two small legs, the creature walked over to the other [Chizpur Fang] saplings. Emery watched in fascination as the creature seemed to be trying to communicate with them, but to no avail.
He couldn't hold himself from smiling, when he saw the dispirited gesture the creature was showing after his attempts of communication failed. Not willing to let the little guy down, Emery quickly went on to do what he had been doing earlier.
He grabbed another one of the [Metamorph Potion], a few more drops of his blood, and repeated the entire process to another [Chizpur Fang] sapling.
[Photosynthesis]
Just like before, the entire process required a lot of concentration on Emery's part, as a single mistake could lead to the failure of everything.
Spreading the [Metamorph Potion] liquid, his own blood and the energy from the spell all over the sapling evenly without hurting its fragile body was not an easy matter. In fact, it felt like solving a puzzle.
Throughout this somewhat simple yet delicate task, it took Emery almost an hour to finally succeed. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled happily when he looked at the fruit of his hard work.
[Chizpur Fang upgraded to stage 4]
Emery was delighted and still fascinated to see the whole process of the second sapling turning into a small yellow creature. A fond smile could be seen on his face when he saw the two creatures begin to interact with each other.
"Kuku kuku... ku"
"Ka. Ka ka ka."
Not wasting any more time, Emery quickly did the same to the other three saplings. Once they were all done, he had a group of five little yellow creatures in front of him. After that, he took a small break, while watching the yellow creatures.
It was kind of fun and entertaining to watch the five little creatures interact and play with each other. Emery couldn't help but chuckle when he saw some of them keep stumbling to the ground, because they weren't used to walking on two legs.
Now that Emery succeeded his attempts with the yellow plants, he decided to attempt the same to the dark red plant, [Hellebore].
He repeated the exact same thing he had done to the [Chizpur Fang] sapling, but even after three hours of channeling his [Photosynthesis] spell, the plant didn't even show the slightest indication that it was about to transform. It did not budge at all.
Finally, realizing nothing would come of it, Emery stopped his spell and once again studied the [Metamorphosis Theory] to find out if there were any clues as to what had gone wrong.
As he realized the only thing that differed between the two attempts was the object he was using, he concluded the root of this problem was none other than the seed - [Hellebore].
This theory was further supported when he came across a section in the book that said that some seeds would be more resistant than others. The solution written in the book was that the caster needed to further stimulate and push more energy into said seed.
Closing the book, Emery tried one more time and followed the suggestion. But this time, because he wasn't sure how much energy he should use, he accidentally poured too much energy into it and almost destroyed the sapling. Luckily, he stopped just in time.
Seeing the pitiful state of the [Hellebore] sapling, Emery eventually decided to let it be for the time being. He would tackle the sapling again in the future, when he had more experience in using his [Photosynthesis] spell.
With the [Dealyus Cap] mushroom didn't even make it to the third stage and after being somewhat more confident with all the practices, Emery finally attempted to metamorph the sapling the Arbor master had given him - the [Flora Colossi].
It was a plain-looking green sapling with normal-looking roots and green leaves. However, Emery knew for a fact that this seed was the best the universe could offer to metamorph, or else it wouldn't have been the one used by the Arbor Master. The seed was also most definitely tier 5 or even higher.
After doing a brief meditation to prepare himself as best he could, Emery took out his [Metamorph Potion] and his blood, before finally springing into action and carrying out the procedure with utmost care. He couldn't afford to mess this up, as the sapling was the only one he had.
As soon as he started, Emery realized the plant had a very different and more complicated structure than the others he had practiced on, which naturally affected his confidence to some degree. Even so, he still pressed forward, while maintaining his caution.
The [Photosynthesis] spell entered the plant. Surprisingly, Emery discovered the sapling to be much easier to connect compared to the others. He then began to apply the potion, his blood and spell energy throughout the sapling, while still maintaining the highest level of vigilance.
Over time, the blood, the potion, and even the spirit energy from the cave soil aided the process. Emery knew he was on the right track.
However, some time later, he realized he was still not strong enough.
Upon this realization, Emery let out a sigh as he let go of his [Photosynthesis] spell on the [Flora Colossi] sapling.
"I guess it's time to focus on my realm breakthrough," Emery muttered to himself.
Letting the 5 little yellow creatures roam freely and play in the spirit cave, Emery returned to his cultivation room. He took out a wooden box from his Spatial Space, within it were 45 [Spirit Foundation Pill].
His eyes fixed on the tiny pearl pills, Emery steeled his resolve to consume all of those precious resources if he had to, in order to break through to rank 9.