35. Technique (Patreon)

“I really have to hate myself if I’m eating this crap,” Aloe said as she ate stew. “And also hate myself for torturing myself this much by living here. I said myself too many times. Myself.”

Aloe had taken a nap before having lunch, but she still felt tired.

“It’s this food the root of my problems, fuck this.” She left the bowl on the desk and took a sip from her glass. “And today it’s getting even hotter. Ugh.”

The sun shone powerfully on its zenith, giving Aloe zero wishes to go out.

“I’ll just stay inside till the afternoon, I guess it’s a good moment to finish the cultivation technique. Not a lot remains in that book.”

“Infusion took a lot of time out of Evolution.” Karaim explained. “Whilst infusing plants is way cheaper than evolving them, I tried to infuse every plant in the greenhouse and then the oasis. I, unfortunately, failed to accomplish such a goal. I know my time is coming to an end, my vitality is regenerating too slowly, and a simple cut has taken me weeks to heal. I don’t think I’ll last more than a few months. I intend to visit my sweet daughter and granddaughter before I kick the bucket, so anything on these lasts page will be my latest discoveries on vital arts. Sorry for only giving you three evolved plants, I may have exaggerated my findings a bit.”

“You shouldn’t be sorry for that, old man...” Aloe muttered. “You should be sorry for not telling Mom and me this before, you bastard! You absolute buffoon, if you only told us what you knew we would have fucking understood. Aaaaaah!”

Aloe punched the table and grunted. Karaim had a lot of chances to make it right and he wasted them all. And that infuriated Aloe to no avail.

“Senile bastard.” She took another gulp out of the water glass and continued reading.

“Plants need more vitality to be infused depending on their future size, so with the same amount of vitality you would need to infuse a palm tree, you could infuse a whole flower bed.”

“Okay, I already guessed this. You better give me better intel.”

“After practicing a lot, and I mean A LOT, I became able to infuse certain properties of the plants. I don’t expect you to do this soon, and I, unfortunately, don’t have any guidelines to give you. It isn’t a process that can be learned overnight like Evolution or Infusion, so you’ll have just to be patient. For example, after the palm trees in the oasis finished growing up, I modified their established infusion so instead of growing faster they were more bountiful with their fruits. You don’t have to fear running out of coconuts or dates.”

“Now that’s interesting!” Aloe bit her fingernail in thought. “If I could rewrite the growth of the pistachios to give more pistachios, that means I wouldn’t spend money on spoiling Fikali, and it will also help export products... Hmm, if they grow as fast as Karaim suggested, then I could technically buy another dweller and cart and just constantly sell them. Coconuts don’t sell for a lot, but dates do. Hmm, dates~”

As her meal had been utter garbage, Aloe donned her straw hat and went to the oasis to gather some dates. The trees were absolutely bountiful, so with a single branch she had enough dates for a whole week.

“Yeah, this is far better.” Aloe downed three dates before going back to the cultivation technique. “Hmm~” She let out a gormandizing groan.

“I won’t admit that I have discovered all the modifiable properties, but I can assert that there are a lot of them. They also take on a ‘shared space’ and ‘capacity’. I know I’m being vague, but it’s difficult to describe. Accelerated growth and bountiful harvest take the full Infusion capacity, but if you were to give plants resistance against the elements or better taste, then you may apply multiple. Just not these two together, I have tried.

Aloe frowned her brows as she ate another date. “Resistance against the elements maybe be even better than accelerated growth. I could make them need less water so when I go back to Sadina they won’t die from not being watered. Food for thought, indeed.” And she put another date in her mouth.

“But this is about normal plants, evolved ones are a tougher nut.”

From here on out, Karaim’s handwriting became more erratic and less orderly. Aloe checked the pages, only two remained. It was clear that he was coughing attacks, as that was how he had arrived at their home more than a month ago. A coughing mess with a foot on the grave.

“My first try to infuse an evolved plant was the Na’mul Ter’nar. Evolved plants grow far faster than normal ones, but the Na’mul Ter’nar had only sprouted a little sapling by the time the Aloe Veritas had almost fully grown, so I tried to boost his growth as I did with the palms at the oasis. And oh boy, I almost died.”

Aloe squinted and reread the sentence; she didn’t trust herself to understand the messy writing. But yes, that was what Karaim said.

“Quite a... jovial way to deal with death?” Thoughts of senility swam in Aloe’s mind. She didn’t linger on her thoughts and continued reading. Not before having another date, of course.

“Not only the Na’mul Ter’nar was a tree, which fair, totally my fault the Aloe Veritas description said that in the sobriquet. Unfortunately for me, I still had to discover the inner workings of these two evolved plants just yet. So, because it was a tree and an evolved plant besides my advanced age, the sheer vitality needed to be infused was colossal. It took me instantly to my knees and left me gasping for breath. It would be easy to attribute my health problems, but I clearly know that it's just age catching up to me.”

Aloe reached for yet another date but found herself empty-handed.

“Huh?” She looked at the empty bowl. “Did I already eat them all?” She was flabbergasted, but that didn’t stop her from grabbing more dates from the branch she had taken and pour them into the bowl.

“I have yet to discover all the intricacies of the vital arts and vitality, but I can present you some heavy assumptions, solid theories if you might.”

This was the last page.

“Evolution is not always successful. I have tried evolving more plants, but not every single one worked. I’m inclined to believe that it depends on the plant rather than having a chance of failure. Evolution also does not work in grown plants; it can only be used in seeds. You aren’t metamorphosing plants; you are evolving them. If I’m fully right with this theory though... I don’t like to imagine what lead to the apparition of monsters.”

Aloe’s breath turned heavy; it was easy to imagine what he was implying. “But what about hu-“ She quickly cut herself, erasing those dark thoughts from her mind.

That was the section dedicated to Evolution, two more remained.

“As I have explained, I don’t consider Infusion a fully-fledged vital art, just a sort of nexus between the others. I can’t tell you much more besides what I already have, except that evolved plants take double vitality to infuse than common ones. Be wary of that. Oh, and before I forget. Yes, you can infuse yourself. But the sheer amount of vitality needed makes it worthless.”

Aloe almost dropped her date to the ground.

“Infuse... myself?” Her mouth was left agape. She couldn’t process it. That was... “This is a game-changer! If I could make myself stronger, everything would be easier! Or taller... or...” She looked at her diminutive body but stopped talking. “Well, but if it was as significant as I think, Karaim would have been more enthusiastic about it. Maybe it was because he was so old that he could not infuse himself...”

Her eyes diverted to the last section.

“Even if vitality is the main fuel source for every vital art and every living being has it, I don’t know much about it. Why is it that we can only detect vitality after training? And why not more people know it if it’s this easy to detect it? I fear that these are secrets not for ignorance or lack of research, but because they are being suppressed. I have my reasons to think why, but I think you’ll be safer without knowing them.”

Karaim seemed to have written something, but it was obfuscated by blobs of ink. It didn’t look like an accident.

“Tomorrow I’ll return to Sadina, but before that, I have to tell you something. Don’t forget to train your vitality. You aren’t born with a static amount, repetition and exercise will increase it, very much like stamina training. So train it. Use it every day and every hour you can. I know it. I know deep down in my heart that there is far more to Evolution. Aloe, if you want to reach the levels I dreamt of, you’ll need vast quantities of vitality. You are young, you already possess more vitality than my trained reserves, so use that time to grow yours even more.”

A single line rested at the end of the page.

“I know you’ll be able to reach new grounds, you always had a spark in you. Sincerely, your grandfather, Karaim.”

Aloe looked at the last line, a knot forming in her throat. She laid her back on the chair, her body slopping down, weakened.

“I...” No words left her throat. She only knew one thing.

She would not be able to go back to her previous life now.

The vital arts called her.