Cats were curious creatures. They could be warm and friendly when they wanted, and aggressive when it suited them. Trying to judge their mood wasn’t easy. One minute, they could be eating, their tails swaying as you pet them. The next minute, they’d run after you, hissing because you scratched a spot they didn’t like.

  People often likened cats to women, though Johan begged to differ. He hadn’t faced trouble with women in his life. With cats? He got scratched so many times that he stopped counting. Some, in particular, were real nasty, always going for the face.

  But despite all those problems, Johan had to agree that watching cats eat in the back alley was a blessing he didn’t want to miss.

  A day had passed since his unexpected deal with Merilyn, and he had to say the woman was as competent as she was beautiful. The mass of reporters had vanished the very next morning like smoke.

  The peace of the neighbourhood returned, and the cats with it. That itself was a sign. They indeed had a sharp sense, that’s for sure. Though he felt a bit disheartened, they didn’t help him with the reporters, but there wasn’t much they could do realistically aside from giving him moral support.

  But they provided that in spades today. And they took their payment in full. A 15-kilo case of cat food had vanished within an hour.

  As for why he had been thinking about the fickleness of cats, that’s thanks to the last visitor of the day. Misty arrived as always and ate her fill. However, when Johan tried to pet her, she hissed. Swatting his hand away like handling a flea.

  “What got into her all of a sudden?” Johan could only wonder as he tidied up the area and entered the store long after Misty left.

  Eugene had already left for his classes, and the place looked normal. Very peaceful, he must add. Fingers of sunlight poured in from the clean windows, landing on the stacked shelves full of instant meal packs and empty potion baskets. The freezer fans seemed bearable. He did call a technician, but the guy said there was no problem with it. Maybe he should just change them?

  Anyways, thanks to him grinding skills, he had enough potions to last for a while. So, no pressure from addicted Hunters for a few days.

  The last few days had been so stressful that the sudden calm turned overwhelming. It all felt like a bad dream, but reality was a nasty thing.

  Although not in his view, the articles about him appeared on the portal sites, and there was a new section in Hunter Net, added just for Johan and his potions.

  The threads discussed his potions and other unrelated things. Like Johan’s face card, which he didn’t mind in the slightest. Though some things did bother him. Like how the internet had somehow decided that he liked Pepsi because of one photo he had to post.

  Cok, err, Coca-Cola with fried chicken all the way. He caught himself before an incident.

  After a rambunctious few days, Johan leaned at the counter and smiled at the sudden peace. However, as always, peace came with a price.

  Merilyn’s call came with a package for him.

  “There are only seven seeds in there, so don’t fail, ok deary?” She hung up before he could say anything. Success was mandatory.

  The task he had to do wasn’t easy. Growing a plant with little information and a limited number of tries. Although he had agreed to it at the moment to get rid of the problems looming on his head, he sort of regretted doing that now.

  As a wise man on the internet once said, if you face a problem your past self left to you, leave it to your future self if possible, if that's not possible, curse him and get to work. Johan couldn’t do that, so he shoved the thought to the back of his mind for now. What’s done was done. Simple enough.

  In the potion lab, he opened the cardboard box with a small knife and removed the grey, wooden box from the foam and bubble wrap. Inside the box, as big as a tablet, were seven seeds on a bed of white cotton.

  Rather than normal seeds, they looked more like the pit of an avocado, just rougher to the touch and a deep black. There was a lingering smell of old coins on it, though. Almost felt like a lump of coal, good thing they didn’t leave residue.

  There was little to no information on Night Bloom flowers in the books. Mage Tower had excluded it all in every way possible, those bastards. And there had not been any reported sightings of it in any rifts so far.

  Is it an artificial flower? Johan thought that was a possibility. If so, growing it would only become more difficult.

  What he feared more was how Merilyn had acquired the seeds. Maybe the Mage Tower had given it away on purpose, thinking there was no way for others to succeed?

  That kind of made him want to succeed even more. His Class was all about farming, wasn’t it? There was a farmer in its damned name for crying out loud. What use would it have if he couldn’t even grow this?

  Granted, he had spent a lot more time brewing potions than farming. But he didn’t neglect his other skills either.

  Name: Night Bloom Seed

  Rank: —

  Information: A seed to grow the Night Bloom flower, a flower used for the Basic Detoxification potion. A flower that thrives in poisonous ecosystems.

  Even if he didn’t use it much, his skill General Knowledge was a great asset. From what he understood, the skill would take information he had and supplement a little from its own.

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  Although it needed a base of knowledge, it was useful in times when he had little information. But this wasn’t all.

  “Seed Sense.” He used the most suitable skill he had to extract more information.

  Name: Night Bloom Seed

  Rank: —

  Information: A seed to grow the Night Bloom flower, a flower that thrives in poisonous soil with heavy metals or bio-poison. Exposure to Sunlight is harmful.

  “This is a good start,” Johan noted the information in a fresh book.

  Considering a month had passed since Master Adelan's poisoning, Johan had to assume he had another month at most. Thankfully, the poison was a slow-acting one, probably to slip under the radar. And Master Adelan’s magik and physical resistance, along with healers and potions, should stretch out his remaining time. In the worst case, he had two weeks. Every second mattered, and he had to make even the failures count.

  But before he could plant the seed, he needed to create the environment it needed. Johan rushed to the storage room and picked up a tent. A tent for a party of ten hunters. It was as wide as the mart.

  It came with a black tarp durable enough to withstand kitchen knives and sword pokes.

  With the tent’s skeleton and ten tarps, he entered Phantasia. Eunally and Nunally weren’t around. So, he stopped near the fog border, without losing sight of his farm and tents, and placed the tent’s first pole in the clearing.

  It took him a while to erect the skeleton, and screwing in those bolts became a hassle even with a ladder. It wasn’t the safest option to use on soil, but it worked out.

  Good thing no strong winds raged through this forest, so he could layer the black tarps over each other with ease. It took seven tarps, less than he expected, to shroud the inside of the tent into pitch black. He used the remaining three to cover the ground and held them in place using stakes, much like the other tarps.

  Inside, Johan couldn’t see his hand if he pressed it against his face. However, this was the basic requirements done. The biggest hurdle was the poisonous environment the flower needed.

  If it were Phantasia during his class awakening ritual, it may be a good fit. But the current one was too vibrant and full of vitality. Each breath here made him feel healthier; the smoke from the city that wracked his lungs for years was getting cleansed or something.

  Since he couldn’t find poisonous soil, he could only create it. With a headlight strapped to the yellow construction helmet, he brought in a clay pot he once used to grow aloe vera on Morgan’s request. Wide enough to be a baby’s tub, but too deep for it. It was within the skill’s weight limit. He made sure to plug the hole for water drainage with a seal and filled it with the soil from Phantasia after much contemplation.

  As it was a magik flower, normal soil wouldn’t be suitable for it, he concluded.

  Now, the first real task was also a challenging one. He had to figure out how exactly should he poison the soil. There was a mention of heavy metals, so could the flower be a hyperaccumulator like Alyssum Murale?

  Considering it grew in a poisonous environment, that made sense. Herbivores would avoid it, and in a soil with heavy metals, other plants wouldn’t grow, leaving the scarce nutrients for the Night Bloom flower alone.

  But the skill also mentioned bio-poison. Like the one affecting Master Adelan. There were plenty of poisonous magik beasts, and the Association did buy poison sacs from Hunters. So realistically, he could try both.

  If he were a registered Awakened, that was.

  Back in the store, Johan found a trader on Hunter Net and negotiated with a broker. He couldn’t exactly call the Hunter Association president to get some poison sacs; he feared he might go missing.

  The cunning bastard did try to fleece him, but Johan knew the normal rates thanks to Miss Kim. F-rank poison from the acid grasshopper was around 100 per sac, E-rank poison of the red-eyed frog was around 300, and D-rank poison of the Black-spotted snake cost 500. Considering the difficulty of hunting them, this was too cheap.

  He bought five of all three, and the delivery arrived within an hour. If he tried to buy this from the Association’s building, he’d need a Hunter or Alchemist ID, but the brokers on Hunter Net would look the other way if one paid them extra.

  Money does make the world go round. Johan signed the papers, a disposable mask over his mouth and face, though he doubted the dead-eyed delivery guy would care even if he showed his face. But he wanted to be careful at least.

  As he expected, the guy stumbled away without looking back.

  Now, the true question was, biological or heavy metals, which should he try first? The answer came soon.

  “Let’s do both.” He placed a second clay pot on the tarp-covered ground.

  First, Heavy metals. Iron fillings, copper shavings, and trace lead. With gloved hands, the mixture came together well with a side of compost. Although not pleasant to the eyes, he feared the second pot more.

  “This is important, I can’t run!” He spoke through his gritted teeth as the pungent poison mixed with the soil and crushed insects.

  It felt like a slimy mixture, like the mysterious meat people thought fast food joints used. Just a tad more grotesque and blinding to look at. His nostrils burned even after he had stuffed them with perfumed cotton swabs.

  He didn’t have to torture himself for long. It only took him 30 minutes to finish. Longest 30 minutes ever. Leaving them in the tent, he stepped out for some much-needed greenery and fresh air.

  If it's this bad now, how much worse would it be by tomorrow? He shuddered at the thought, but had to live with it.

  “Eunally, Nunally, you’re back!” Johan rushed the two rabbits, hoping to recharge some energy, but the two furballs retreated.

  “Huh? What happened?” Confused, he stood rooted. Why would they run away?

  He got his answer when his sense of smell recovered. Although he had brief contact with the soil, it had done its damage.

  “Will a hazmat suit help?” Scrubbing away the smell and hiding his tears under the cold shower, Johan could only shake his head.

  No one could blame the two rabbits since they had sensitive noses, but it did hurt when even the cats kept him at a distance the next day. That hit him right in the heart. He even wore cologne for once. Maybe that drove them away?

  Regardless, he entered the tent after 24 hours had passed, this time wearing a hazmat suit with an SCBA for extra precaution. Maybe he went overboard, but better than being sorry later. Though he couldn’t smell the soil, he saw the small fumes rising from the second pot. Was it because it reacted with the magik in the soil, or was it because it burned the crushed insects?

  There were tiny holes on the soil’s surface where these fumes escaped from, shimmering in green, but the soil still seemed to hold moisture.

  The heavy metal pot looked much the same, just a bit discoloured and clumpy.

  Johan took two seeds from the box and planted them both in the middle of each pot. He added magik water from his skill and allowed it to seep to the bottom, then levelled the surface.

  Then, after a deep breath, he cast Growth Acceleration on the second pot. He noticed a reaction from the beast poison pot, a reaction that happened a bit too fast.

  An audible pop echoed in his ears. Followed by the cracking pot. He felt it in his soul when the soil bubbled. From the wet clay-like soil, a pale smoke rose from a single hole with a sharp hiss.

  “Shit!!” Johan booked it as soon as his danger sense flared.

  The moment he threw himself out of the tent, the pot exploded. The explosion almost uprooted the tent, but didn’t reach outside.

  One day into the experiment, he almost got himself killed.

  “What a perfect start.” He cursed.

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