[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 63: Grocery Run

With the mandragoras’ aid, Sam, Raiko, and Kai came back to Matt overburdened with fruits and vegetables of all kinds. Many were familiar to Raiko, but several were unknown to all of them.

With the six mandragoras accompanying them, they brought seeds that the clan had cultivated since before Islegard was broken. Matt looked surprised at the group returning, but it was obvious the mandragoras were no threat.

“Some new friends?” he asked.

“Something like that,” Sam said. “More like allies. They’re going to come with us for the time being. Maybe they’ll go off on another Skyshard later, but….” He looked back at the six mandragoras, all hugging their relatives and making odd noises.

“Cool.”

“At least we won’t go hungry anytime soon. So long as you’re okay with being a vegan for a little bit.”

“We’re going to eat them?” Matt asked, pitching his voice low.

Sam wasn’t sure if he was joking with him or not. “No, Matt. They’re going to plant some food that we can eat. They see it as some sort of holy duty or something. It’s important, in any case.”

“Oh, right. Yes, I did not think of what it would be like to sink my teeth into that plump and juicy red tomato-looking one. No siree.”

Komachi let out a low growl at Matt. The sort of sound a cat makes when they feel seriously feel threatened.

“Get back onto the Skyshard,” Sam said. “There’s nothing more for us here and I won’t take anything away from the mandragoras.”

Apart from the food the mandragoras were practically shoving onto them. Everybody who had any room in their Inventory already had it full of vegetables and fruits that the poor things had been making.

Back on their Skyshard, things were a bit of a mess. The mandragoras danced around the [Archflame’s] campfire, and then one of them caught fire.

Oddly enough, it continued to dance, while not seeming to mind. It changed into a different variant of mandragora.

Unfortunately, it just made that mandragora smell even tastier.

Your Mandragora has Leveled Up!

Your Mandragora has evolved.

[Roasted Tomato Mandragora (Level 8)]

The drizzle of rain that picked up after their departure did little to put out the flames, but the mandragora seemed about as fazed by the whole affair as Komachi when she was dropped into water.

You would have expected a much bigger reaction.

Raiko watched the plant creatures with great interest.

“What’re you thinking about?” Sam asked.

She glanced at him, surprised that he wanted to know. “I was realizing that I scarcely know anything about mandragoras. They lived in the wilds of old Islegard.” She motioned at the roasted mandragora. “And I was wondering if this is a part of their natural life cycle. To evolve through such means. And if by evolving, do they grow stronger?”

Stomach grumbling, the first thing that came to Sam’s mind when Raiko brought that up was a bunch of mandragoras jumping into a stew and becoming a self-stirring food monster.

Of course, he didn’t say something as weird and craving-fueled as that aloud.

“Huh, does that mean that we might have a giant mandragora on our hands one day?”

“Maybe.”

Sam looked at the rest of the group as he coiled and put away the [Makeshift Rope]. “Just to reiterate, the mandragoras are our friends, not our food.”

Matt snickered. “Might want to wipe the drool off your chin, boss.”

“I’m not going to bother to dignify that with a response.”

With a thought, Sam sent Sil’mara on its way again. Now with six more occupants. We’re outnumbered by plants now. Sam shook his head. At least they’re useful, if a little ditzy.

The mandragoras were inspecting every blade of grass, every weed, the boulders… the entire Skyshard—small as it was—seemed like the most interesting thing in the world to them.

Sam left them to it and took out one of the [Marrowgems]. After cleaning it off with the [Water Concept], Sam speared it with a branch scavenged from the mandragora’s isle and began roasting the beefier magical cousin of a carrot.

Kai and Matt put out some of the vegetables the mandragoras brought with them on sticks by the fire. Shortly enough, the tantalizing aroma of roasting vegetables permeated the fresh air, beating out the appetizing smell of the mandragoras themselves.

With access to fresh water and a decent supply of vegetables and fruits, nobody went hungry. Even Matt was able to eat the food, though he seemed to prefer the poisonous spuds.

“What? They’ve got a spicy kick,” was his defense.

“Are there any left?” Komachi asked. “Cause maybe a mandragora—”

“Can grow it, then morph and turn into a poisonous variant?” Raiko butted in.

“Yis. Maybe. Dunno.”

Matt pulled out one of the spuds and showed it to a mandragora who quickly snatched it and ran away behind one of the boulders where the rest of the mandragoras were busy tilling the soil by… well, it looked like they were swimming through it.

“This is either a good idea, or a really, really terrible one,” Sam said, unsure whether to be concerned or not.

Time would tell.

Over the next couple of days, Sil’mara made a marked series of improvements.

The mandragoras sectioned off nearly two-thirds of the Skyshard to make several garden beds. There were already tiny green shoots poking up through the raised rows of black earth.

And the whole of the Skyshard just… looked better. The grass was greener, and Sam swore that the island was just a little larger than it had been.

With three people needing shelter and only two tents, the ground cloth from one was stretched between two boulders as a modified shelter.

Matt, of all people, offered to take it and gave Sam his tent. Granted, it was the tent without a ground cloth, so the bottom soaked through quite easily when it rained, but it was better than bare ground.

They didn’t have a solid home, but at least the tents kept the majority of the elements off them.

Sam spent most of his time outside focusing on his Void mana and trying to get better at his control over it.

Though he had perfected the ability to remove mana from the [Storm Crystals] and then [Wind Crystals], he still had a difficult time placing it into another receptacle.

After a bit over two days, all he had managed were 2 levels in his Void Path, suggesting that he was doing something wrong.

Considering the amount of levels he’d gotten already in such a short time, spending almost all of his free time on this should have yielded more results.

Still, the second Void Path level netted him an Adventurer level as well bringing him up to a Path level of 7 and an Adventurer level of 6.

He placed the 2 bonus points into Arcane to help catch it up to his Insight. Maybe having off-balanced Path stats was the reason he was struggling.

On the upside, his HP was now a whopping 403 and his MP crested over 100 to 108. It was insane how much his HP and MP jumped. From 336 to 403 was simply staggering. And while still small, his MP went from 93 to 108, a full 15 points.

During the downtime, when he was waiting for his MP to recover, Sam spent time with the others in light sparring sessions.

As was expected, Matt was the weakest among them. Not just physically due to his Mage Job, but in levels as well. Kai was curiously strong for his level 7 Cleric, but still weaker than Komachi.

And though Sam tried not to let it get to his head, none of them could take him in his new Thanas set with its bolstered stats. He could take all of them on in a mock battle without hardly breaking a sweat.

“That’s not fair,” Matt complained. “You’ve got stats several levels higher than your actual level! Plus, you’ve got a friggin’ Path! I want a Path!”

“Perhaps you will get a Manager Path,” Kai said solemnly, picking himself up off the ground where he had been tossed. “But Matt is correct, you are… strong. But I have found these training sessions enlightening.”

“At least I got another level,” Matt said, rubbing his arm. A nasty bruise had appeared from their training session last night and was still there the next day.

It hadn’t gotten worse, but it also didn’t get any better. One of the downsides of being undead.

“Komachi likes it when Sam throws the big man around,” his cat said with a giggling snort. Then, to show she had no hard feelings, she brushed up against Kai’s leg.

“Training is important,” Kai said. “However, I fear it is not fair to Sam.”

Rolling his shoulders, Sam bounced in place on the balls of his feet. “It helps. Maybe I don’t get much Experience, but it gives me something to do besides waiting for my mana to regenerate.”

“And it stops you from getting down on yourself for failing a dozen times in a row,” Raiko observed from the sidelines. “You are pushing your Void powers too hard. I should know.”

“I feel like I’m near a breakthrough,” Sam argued. “I’m missing something, but I don’t know what, and it’s fucking maddening. I can pull mana out of objects, hell, I even pulled the Fire mana out of the gauntlets, but I can’t put it anywhere but back where it came!”

“Enlightenment strikes in the strangest of ways.” She shrugged. “Or rather than that cliché hermit saying, perhaps you need a Profession to bridge the gap?”

Sam opened his mouth to tell Raiko what she could do with her enlightenment when he caught himself at the last moment. He wasn’t mad at her.

“What kind of Profession would allow somebody to move mana from one item to another?” he asked.

“Maybe a type of arcane crafter?” Raiko guessed. “Something that needs to manipulate mana for its creations presumably could. Alchemists and Artificers used to. I bet even a Profession specialized in the item you’re working with might be able to.”

“Well, I don’t have that, or any Profession,” Sam said. “Nobody seems to know how you get a Profession either.”

“Nobody knows how you get a Path for that matter,” Matt added. “Even you aren’t sure how you got yours.”

“Not in a way you wish to replicate, that’s for sure,” Raiko answered.

“Which is what way again?” Matt prodded.

“Let it go,” Sam said.

“Fine, fine. Keep your secrets. It could only lead to a breakthrough for either of us lowly plebs that you can beat with one arm tied behind your back.”

“If he does not wish to talk about it, then respect his wishes,” Kai said. Sam wasn’t sure he had heard him right. Was Kai actually defending him?

Sam returned Kai’s nod of respect, which was as good as hoot and a high-five from the normally stoic man.

He’d never call Sam “bruddah” or any such nonsense, but he hadn’t called him “haole” once this entire time.

Maybe I was wrong about him.

Having another Cleric around, one that focused on dealing damage and healing with [Cure] spells instead of [Regen] spells, could be a huge boon.

Because their types of spellcasting were so different, Komachi and Kai actually complimented each other quite well. Kai could pull people back from the brink, and Komachi’s regenerative healing could keep them topped off.

There were a lot of things he could tell Matt about potential ways to get Paths. Such as encountering Apocalyptic mana and surviving, or awakening a bloodline. None of these were particularly useful avenues for Matt to pursue.

He didn’t necessarily think little of the guy, but he doubted the man could discover a bloodline. Partially because the only individuals Sam knew of that had developed a bloodline were Incarnates. And if he told him to have a brush with death again, then Matt would likely just end up kicking the bucket.

He didn’t want his friend to die. He already nearly did that with the poisons that turned him into a necram.

It was as much of a surprise as Kai’s softening toward him that Sam thought of Matt—and, if he was honest, Kai too—as a friend.

They didn’t hold a candle to Chris or Kylie, and definitely not to Kale, but he couldn’t remember the last time that he had gained a new friend. Let alone somebody so different from himself, like Kai or Matt.

“All right,” Sam said. “Enough stalling. You two ready?”

Matt dragged himself to his feet, Kai squared up beside him. Even Komachi took out her jingling bell wand.

Raiko grumpily sat on the sidelines. The closer they got to her Skyshard, the weaker she became. She spent most of her strength just resisting the pull of her soul tether, even with Matt giving her all of his spare mana.