[NR] The Plant That Lived - Chapter 449 (Patreon)

Gregor and the Plant

Gregor had been examining the houseplant for weeks. A true triumph of modern medical magic as the poor thing kept trying to die. Something that boy had done to it had caused it to lose the support of the System and Gregor wanted to explore things deeper.

He had bombarded the plant with all kinds of light and power. Used his most powerful observation tools to the point of having a record of every single one of the plant’s cells over multiple days. Gregor had even brought it into the guild to use some of their fancy System provided tools. And yet nothing stood out.

To his own tools, it was just a plant. Sure, it didn’t seem to be striving to grow, but a plant nonetheless. As for the System’s stuff? While they still interacted with the plant, they provided even less information. That had been his first clue.

Gregor now knew that those glorious tools that he had always coveted and wondered at the principal behind their mechanisms, were, in fact obfuscations. Without the System, those tools would be useless while Gregor’s personally enchanted tools would still work fine. The System was just cheating.

Instead of actually observing through some magic or even simple magnification, the System tools just hooked into what the System knows about the target. This, of course, means the tools are worthless at analyzing even a simple house plant if the System has lost its hold on the thing.

To think Jason was going to throw away this perfect specimen! Since the dawn of alchemy, there has been an important question. Do the potions actually work or is this all just the System at work? Maybe there was even a middle ground. After all, HP didn’t seem to directly represent any kind of actual physical thing beyond whether you are hurt or not. So do health potions actually heal or is it the System changing a number in the background and maybe providing some healing magic on the sly?

Going by this plant, the answer for at least the lowest level of healing potion is a little of column A and a little of column B. While the plant was still healed, it was slower than a similarly damaged plant given the same type of potion. Gregor can only shake his head at this, he isn’t exactly trained for this and should probably just hand the plant off to some alchemist.

That, can wait for later. Right now, the plant provided a rare opportunity to expand Gregor’s enchanting knowledge and hone his tools. While higher skill levels do bring greater knowledge, they also work through System manipulation. A good example from Gregor’s personal experience is the simple act of carving a rune into a rock.

If you are just carving a message, everything works like normal. However, once Gregor starts to carve out a rune for the purpose of enchanting, the cuts are much smoother. Some might laugh and say this was because the skill gave you knowledge of how to carve the runes better. They wouldn’t even be wrong, the skill does do that.

However, the System is also mucking around with the rock and the carving tool. The carving tool would have its blade suddenly enhanced and the rock would be easier to carve along the path of the rune almost to the point of making it hard to mess up. Gregor had even seen some of the old masters carve out perfect runes with their fingers and it isn’t like they’ve put a ton of points into Strength or Toughness.

It is only once someone exceeds the Master rank in a skill that the System starts to lose control. At least that is what would normally be the case. Gregor was 100% certain that Jason wasn’t some hidden master, so how was he able to extract this plant from the System’s hold?

Of course, this made it perfect to align his various observation tools and enchants. Without a hold on the plant, the System can’t nudge things in the correct direction. Sure, it also helps to align the tool as well, but as Gregor tweaks even his simplest of tools, he can tell he is getting a better result than ever before.

Beyond that, what System assist is happening, is better targeted. Instead of just making sure the results match what the System thinks of the plant, it is being forced to actually help fine tune the adjustments being made to the device being adjusted. Which you would think should be the default, but clearly isn’t.

The only problem is that after weeks of researching the plant, Gregor can not figure out a way to get more. Any attempts to create new plants from a cutting or even splitting the root ball fail. The second the System recognized a “new” plant, it is there. The only plant that retains the strange effect is whatever part the System considers the original plant.

This is really annoying for Gregor because otherwise he could have mass produced the things. Part of why the plant is such a common houseplant is because you can grow cuttings from it with ease. Even a small piece of a leaf can be encouraged to grow roots and develop into a new plant.

For Gregor, the worst part about this though isn’t the fact that he can’t make more for others. Rather, it is that he won’t have any backups. Something important to have when the original plant seems so willing to just die. Gregor had to develop numerous enchantments to keep track of the health of the plant so it could be babied into surviving.

Though this also revealed to him that even enchantments aren’t free from the System’s manipulation. Some of the simplest enchantments for watching a plant did not work. Gregor was at the same time horrified and ecstatic.

On one hand, those simple enchantments were used to train people at the start of their path in learning to enchant. In fact, as Gregor looked closer at all the simple enchantments he knew, they all seemed to share the same flaw, which was now blindingly clear to him. They were simple because much of the work was held up by the System.

Gregor however was also ecstatic because not all of them were like that. This proved that despite the System’s interference, you could make a simple enchantment. So with a new found goal and a single plant to test things on, Gregor began the task of making every single beginner’s enchantment work without the System. A grueling task that might one day bear the sweetest of fruit as, by not depending on the System, Gregor had already stepped onto the path of true mastery of the skill. So maybe, if the stars align, he might someday be one of the few people in NeoRealm with a Supernatural rank skill.