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Kudzu quietly grabbed another fish that had come to check on his variation of the stupid bird trap. From what he had learned, stupidity wasn’t limited to birds. It was most prevalent in them, as evidenced by the Soul Sparrow attempting to bother his servants before teaching them how to use the Elements. Granted, he wasn’t a genius at it like Humming-That-Cuts, but he was more than enough to teach his mice.

Once his mice gained the Elements of Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, the Soul Sparrow had quickly learned there were other less hazardous things to bother. While both he and Humming-That-Cuts were powerful, they had both agreed after a long conversation that Slicer was the top, and they were right below. Servants like the Elemental Mice or the Soul Sparrow had to fight their own battles. It wouldn’t do for Masters to move at the slightest little issue. Glancing at his Status, he allowed a small burst of pride to flow through his network of vines.

Name: Kudzu

Race: Sentient Lord Plant

Class: Green Death

Level: 20

Health: 450/450 (4.5 HPs regen)

Mana: 450/450 (6.75 MPs regen)

Stats: Str 45, Dex 45, Con 45, Wis 45, Int 45

Free Stats: 0

Skills:

Silent Strangle

Quiet Movement

Detect Weakness

Alchemist’s Vine

Sap Weaving

Thorn Injection

Spells:

Rapid Growth

Integrate Plant

Analyze Anatomy

Alchemical Assay

Chemical Combination

Necrotic Touch

Ever since the Slicer had told him people considered Alchemists akin to gods in the tales of her world, his path had been set. When she further explained that people would trade him food, materials, and money for his mixtures, Kudzu had been hooked.

He had upgraded his class into this one, which doubled his Stats gained from five into ten. It was a direct upgrade, and the number one reason he had taken it was access to Alchemy. The power of creating concoctions was something he instantly related to as a plant that could create poisons. To empower his poisons, grow his own drugs, and become better than before? Sold!

Each of his four new Skills and Spells played a vital role in his current success. Looking them over, Kudzu nodded in satisfaction. Everything fit like a tightly woven vine-trap.

Analyze Anatomy

You analyze those that have fallen to your power, finding the Weaknesses within.

Alchemical Assay

An alchemist doesn’t guess. They know the exact chemical composition combined with mana.

Chemical Combination

You mix, you match, you split, and you sprinkle. To your will bends the very building blocks of the material world.

Necrotic Touch

A scratch spreads necrotic rot on your enemies.

Does quadruple damage against enemy plants.

Detect Weakness

You spot the Weakness of your enemies, enabling you to counter them with ease.

Alchemist’s Vine

Some of the greatest Alchemists didn’t use normal tools to succeed.

Sap Weaving

You can combine your Saps with flawless perfection, creating blends greater than the sum of their parts!

Thorn Injection

Your thorns inject deadly things straight into their victims!

The concept of drugs was apparently a well-understood one on the Slicer’s world. He slowly gleaned the three most important things for successful drug dealing as an Alchemical Master from extensive discussions.

First, those who took his drugs couldn’t die, at least not fast. Dying with extended use, well, that happened. Stupidity was rampant after all, and he couldn’t be at fault if his concoctions were so good people took them too often. Or too much at once, or in the wrong places on the body, it wasn’t his fault. Once it left his vine tendrils, it wasn’t his responsibility.

Second, his drugs had to be good. Good in this sense meant creating a wonderful feeling of euphoria that lasted for an extended period of time. When he had been told that the sensation of a ‘high’ only lasted for a short time from the drugs in the Slicer’s world, Kudzu was disgusted. What kind of incompetent drug makers were they using over there? Any good Alchemist could make the effect lasts for a much longer time with a good concoction. There were even Skill or Spells, which were next on his Class List to buy, and would extend the time a drug was effective.

My drugs won’t be pathetic shadows that only last for short bursts. My pride as a future Grandmaster Alchemist won’t let me make garbage! Kudzu thought. Besides, it is the Twice as Good yet Half the Cost effect to consider. If my drugs are two times better, yet only fifty percent of the competition, they will go out of business quite fast.

Third and last in the crucible for success was cheapness. If it took the rarest ingredients to make a simple basic drug, he might as well hang up his hat now. No, a true Alchemist could make grass into a lethal poison or random tree bark into a dream drug!

It didn’t hurt that Kudzu could use Sap Weaving to mix his drugs perfectly. No glassware, filtering, or any of the rest of that stupidity. No, his Skills and Spells could do everything. Weighing, measuring, dosing, titrating, all that and more was simply something Nature had given him in its infinite wisdom because she knew he was destined for this!

The only thing that wasn’t directly part of his alchemy was the Necrotic Touch in his Spells. He had taken it to ensure that if the Forest Titans attempted to move in on his territory, it wouldn’t go so pretty this time. Also, since it was clear he was an incredible plant, then it made sense to him to take something that could kill other slightly less incredible plants—no reason to let the competition survive, in his opinion.

Kudzu took a moment to watch his servants as they moved all along his vines. Each of his six servant mice had bred with the others, increasing his servant count quite a bit. It had been a bit of a lucky break that three males and three females had made it to this world, alive. There had been some minor issues, but all problems were resolved with proper care from his Alchemical knowledge. None of his servants would ever worry about inbreeding with the right application of Alchemy!

Turning his attention to one of his main servants, Kudzu focused on the yellow mouse standing on its hind feet as it waited for his attention to descend near it. A quick look revealed a satisfying Status. His servants knew well his desire for them to increase in power. They hunted the insects, pests, and vermin that attempted to invade the house at every chance. There was no need to tell the Slicer that an invisible war was going on right beneath her nose, so Kudzu didn’t. A stressed Slicer was not in anyone’s best interest to see, although she was calming down a great deal with the puppies around recently.

Name: Pim

Race: Grey Mouse

Class: Kudzu’s Servant of Earth

Level: 5

Health: 50/50 (.75 HPs regen)

Stamina: 170/170 (2.5 MPs regen)

Stats: Str 2, Dex 4, Con 2, Wis 16, Int 17

Free Stats: 0

Skills:

Earth Rush

Stone Bite

Stone Claw

Detect Vibration

Spells:

Clean Animal

Clean Plant

Mental Talents:

Stone Mind

Master-Servant Bond

Physical Talents:

Stone Body

Moving a vine directly in front of the mouse, Kudzu asked, “Yes?”

A series of squeaks issued from his mousey servant made perfect sense to him due to the Master-Servant Bond. It was a lengthy speech on the viability of earth near the lake, reports on the various patches of special flowers in the garden, and updates on the plan to prank the Soul Sparrow. All in all, a normal report from his tiny servants.

While he couldn’t harm the Soul Sparrow without retaliation of a higher amount than he was willing to endure, that didn’t mean a stupid bird got to live scot-free around Eve’s house. The wolf pups had introduced him to the idea of pranks as a result of the sparrow targeting them before Album taught it better. The stupid bird kept causing problems, but it was smart enough to do so out of the Slicer’s eyes.

“Make sure that nothing traces back to us. We are crafty, yes? Sneaky, unseen, unheard, un-smelled, yes?”

The mouse gave a solid nod before asking for a treat.

Kudzu let a tiny bit of sap drip from the vine allowing the mouse to taste one of his most recent attempts to create the perfect recreational drug. Since his servants had gained Elemental alignments, they were much more robust and thus served as good base models for how elements interacted with his Alchemical wonders. Leaving the mouse to twitch in bliss with their body spread out boneless on the larger vine it had been standing on, Kudzu turned his attention outwards towards the Forest Titans nearby. After gaining Necrotic Touch, the nearby Titans no longer attempted to run their roots near Kudzu. There was a clear, distinct boundary of ten meters between both parties now since neither wanted to directly challenge the other.

Attempts by the Forest Titans to send their flying servants had merely resulted in a marked decrease in the area's bird population. Kudzu had actually been forced to turn to fish with permission from the Slicer. He had learned the hard way that fighting in water and fighting out of it were two different things.

Eating several of the plants in the area had allowed him to understand where he had gone wrong. The key to fighting in the water was to make it work as an ally. His vines had evolved into long thin streamers that waved gently in the water attached to the main anchor vine. The streamers surrounded a bright flower that deployed a tasty scent into the water. For backup, thorny vines specially adapted to move faster in the water floated lazily around all main trap vines. If something the streaming vines couldn’t hold attacked the flower’s the thorn vines retaliated with venomous blows.

It had taken the Fat-Fast-Tongues a few losses before they realized that where Kudzu’s territory existed, they did not. Except as menu items to be broken down into their parts and fed to his ‘lab’ on the shore. Fat-Fast-Tongues, in Kudzu’s opinion, were stupider than birds. At least birds had the good taste to learn respect after a large portion of them died. Instead of respect, the Fat-Fast-Tongues seemed to think of suicide by venom vines, strangle kelp, and poison water-pollen was a good idea. It had taken clearing over half the surrounding quarter-mile of the lake before they finally got the message.

Kudzu had immediately started creating an underwater vine-maze hunting ground once they were gone. Now new species of fish, reptiles, and assorted other creatures were gradually added to his repertoire. Those that were useful would have water set aside for them to grow in without fear of predators under his thorn maze.

Those that were not useful, however, were food.

Kudzu lamented that as he grew in size, his hunger did as well. It was a sad fact that the more powerful he became, the more he had to eat. Perhaps he should look into a skill that could solve that issue after making all his Alchemy purchases on the Class List?

Yes, that sounded like a brilliant plan!