With his mana circulating through his Magic Gem and his two pentagrams ready, Vicente cautiously approached the herb in front of him.

As he did so, he could see the field lines around it, noticing how they grew stronger as he approached it.

As he took another step closer to his target, Vicente suddenly felt the mana in his surroundings change, sending a chill down his spine.

"Shit!"

He didn't wait and moved, jumping from where he was to the side.

As he did so, he saw a dark purple root emerge from the ground where he was, attacking so quickly that if he had been any slower, it would have stabbed his body.

Seeing how sharp the tip of the root was, Vicente realized even though it couldn't change its position, the herb in front of him had its ways of acting against him.

'The roots that attacked me and the others I can feel moving through the ground are not part of its body. They are just part of the special powers of this herb.' Vicente thought as he moved, first acting defensively while trying to find an opening to attack.

The body of the medicine in front of him was only the small plant above the crystal on the ground. The roots that attacked Vicente were like a special spell!

Plants and animals couldn't cast spells for the most part. However, like magicians, they had elemental affinities.

It was much easier for them to manipulate their mana and the compatible elements around them than it was for humans. As a result, such beings could easily create elemental forms of attack and defense within their domain.

Vicente saw this in practice for the first time when he noticed that the roots attacking him were not limited by that 'little' plant position.

'Plant bodies are quite vulnerable. As long as I can reach it, I can control it.' He gazed at the plant with narrowed eyes as various roots surrounded him, coming from plants in the area, from the ground, and even from the air itself.

Through what looked like a magic circle, roots in the air appeared out of nowhere and rushed toward Vicente as if they were living beings.

However, they were not living beings but part of the plant's power and the area's natural elements, which, by the way, was very favorable to the creature.

No wonder it had evolved there!

Vicente combined his two powers when he found himself surrounded by these roots, causing the space to distort while a spherical distorted area appeared around him.

When six root tips as thick as adult hands were about to reach him, they hit Vicente's barrier, slamming into it and pushing it against him.

But they couldn't get past Vicente's defenses. They went further than any of his previous enemies had ever gone, but they still couldn't reach him, deforming the field lines around him like weights against an elastic fabric.

Vicente broke out in a cold sweat as he found himself in such a position, feeling his mana being rapidly consumed by his abilities.

'I have to finish this quickly.' He looked at the 'small' plant not far from him.

Conscious plants like the one near Vicente had many variations depending on the species they came from, the level they were at, and so on. However, they were usually weak in defense and not very intelligent.

That is, their consciousness at low levels was limited to a natural sense of things around them. An instinct that was useful for defending themselves or even hiding from threats around them.

Their intelligence was not as complex as that of the goblins, for example, who were intelligent enough to know the value of this herb, to find the way to it, and to observe it.

It just existed, and their intelligence made them try to live as long as possible, no matter their situation.

That usually gave them enough to try to defend themselves and hide from beings interested in acting against them, but it also made them vulnerable.

Once he reached the body of that plant, Vicente was certain that it would no longer attack him for fear of being killed.

He wouldn't even have to kill it to defeat it!

Since the plant's body had several limitations, if he got too close to it, even though he was weaker, he could deliver a deadly blow that it would be unable to defend against. That would be his victory.

With that in mind, Vicente used what he had to push the roots that were trying to hit him in the opposite direction, knowing that the plant couldn't control many roots at once, let alone make them disappear and reappear in other positions quickly.

'Now!'

As he acted, the roots flew in the opposite direction, and he moved, hovering in the air and heading quickly toward the vulnerable 'little' plant right in front of him.

"Gotcha!" He muttered as he made his first pentagram glow brighter, attacking the herb's body internally as he approached it.

The plant found itself in a terrible situation as it noticed several metallic spears forming around it from the metals in its enemy's body while the metallic elements in its own body trembled under Vicente's control.

If it could think like a human being, the creature would curse Vicente as it felt its whole body shaking while it couldn't control its parts even 25% as much as it normally could.

Even though there was a huge difference in mana between them, Vicente still managed to affect enough of his opponent's body to leave it in its current state!

But 25% of a mid-level Mage's power was enough to hurt Vicente.

Feeling himself in a terrible situation, the plant once again moved its magical roots against its opponent, using everything it could.

"Not so fast, plant!" Vicente floated higher while the metal objects around him fell as they were no longer controlled.

Earth Dome!

He made a few hand seals and directed his mana into a spell, preparing to combine his spells with his abilities.

While being attacked by new roots, Vicente formed a sphere of soil around the plant, then controlled the electromagnetic field around it, 'blinding' it.

Electromagnetic Pulse!

He reached his maximum using another spell but protected himself in time from the enemy attacks, destroying some roots while escaping others.

Trapped inside Vicente's Earth Dome, the 'little' plant had no way to see beyond the dome. It couldn't tell where he was due to the electromagnetic properties of that sphere covering it!

Falling into Vicente's ingenious trap, the 3rd stage plant lost its first battle since becoming a Mage two years ago.

Seeing the situation of his opponent, who couldn't reach him easily anymore, Vicente took a recovery potion to keep his enemy captive while he didn't take possession of it.

'Time to...'

However, just as he was about to do something, a beast's cry reached him, making him move his eyes toward the creature he had heard weeks ago.

Gulp!