Johan had oftentimes wondered how his skill Growth Acceleration worked. From what he learned and observed, it promoted cell division and nutrient absorption that happened over days to a few seconds. That meant it released the byproducts from those reactions in that short window, too.

  So far, he hadn’t faced any problem with the skill, since he used it on normal vegetables and simpler magik plants. And, Phantasia carried hard.

  However, this time it exploded in his face, well, almost.

  Out of the hazmat suit, he lay on the bed of grass nearby. Slick in sweat and trembling. But his mind kept working. The bio-poison pot. Why did it explode as it did?

  Before running away, he had seen the clay-like soil dry up before it cracked. Growth Acceleration had worked as intended. It drew in all the essential things for growth and gathered them into the seed, promoting fast growth. However, in doing so, it packed the soil tight by taking in all the moisture, leaving no way for the gases to escape.

  “That was almost like a grenade. Can I use it in combat?” He laughed, covered in cold sweat.

  He didn’t want to try with bio-poison again.

  Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. Johan was a staunch believer in that saying most of the time.

  That’s how the first and last Bio-poison test of Night Bloom Flower came to an end. But before he could proceed with the heavy metal test, he had to clean the mess inside. Which wasn’t an easy task, both physically and mentally.

  Even with four layers of protective suit, his skin stung. The heat and mist trapped inside the tent made it unbearable. But the mist soon congealed into a brown liquid on the half-melted black tarp, so he mopped it all up with prayers and removed the few burned layers.

  What he gathered wasn’t anything less than a chemical hazard, so Johan couldn’t exactly toss it in the back-alley bin and call it a day. At times like these, connections helped.

  A quick dial to Adrian brought a truck to his front door with Cara trailing behind in her own car.

  “Not a Mad scientist, you said.” Her gaze stung, but the words hurt more.

  “I am not, I swear.” If Johan could, he wouldn’t go near this project again. But his peace was riding on it. If Master Adelan died, the top Hunters wouldn’t know how to fill in the gap. That man raised the Hunter’s strength by 30% with his equipment alone.

  “Sure, buddy, whatever you say.” Cara patted his shoulder with a smirk and left.

  Apparently, Adrian had found himself so worried that he decided to keep a disposal team on standby outside the mart. He even suggested sending a few of the clan alchemists to help, but Johan couldn’t accept that, as kind as the gesture was.

  It’s not like I can take them to Phantasia. Maybe he could build himself a lab outside at a later date? That would help a lot. He was lucky the poison didn’t spread outside the tent.

  “Let’s do that after I finish Project Night Bloom. No wait, why am I thinking of doing something like this again?!” After giving it a name, Johan added to his only page on the Bio-poison experiment while holding back tears.

  Unfortunately, he needed to restart the heavy metal experiment from scratch. The poison landed on that soil too. The good part was that the seed was safe. As for the one in bio-poison.

  “A clean four-way split, what a grenade.” The loss pierced through him. He couldn’t find much, even after the failure.

  But that was ok, he reassured himself with some hope core videos after mixing the soil with heavy metals once again.

  He sowed the same seed the next day and made sure to poke some holes in the soil’s surface with a needle. Exploding pots was a novel experience; he wanted it to stay that way.

  “Growth Acceleration.” His skill activated, the dim light and missing magik power confirmed it.

  However, that was all. Minutes turned into hours before he finally dug into the pot. The seed was still intact, no cracks, no change.

  Did it turn inert because of the explosion? That could be possible. But the Seed Sense would tell him if that happened. Regardless, he took a new seed from the case and retried.

  However, the outcome remained the same.

  “So, the seed isn’t the problem.” Johan looked at the soil, which could be the only culprit.

  Was the soil in Phantasia too good for the Night Bloom flower? It was an ideal soil for any crop, especially because it had high nutrients for plant life. It was fertile soil, even if he used heavy metals.

  The red-purplish carrot in his hand confirmed that.

  Name: Poisoned Carrot

  Rank: D-

  Effects: Will cause extreme diarrhoea for a day, and cloudy eyes for an hour.

  The soil still had nutrients to grow normal vegetables, err, not exactly normal. But he could see the problem, at least he believed so.

  Perhaps Night Bloom flowers don’t require the typical nutrients that other plants need. What if it fed on the magik in the soil, along with the metals? In that case, the soil of Phantasia was the worst match for it, no matter how much he tried.

  Sometimes being too perfect could backfire.

  “Would soil from a rift work?” Johan muttered.

  A soil not suited for agriculture, clumpy, and rich in magik power. It did meet the requirements. But how should he acquire it?

  “Soil from a rift? No problem.” Adrian spoke in his usual calm over the phone as he had asked for some chicken nuggets. “Any additional points I should know?”

  “It would be helpful if I could get samples for different ranks of rifts.” Although Johan knew that might be pushing it, considering he did reject their offer, he had to ask since the way revealed itself.

  “Noted, samples from Rank-F to Rank-C should arrive before midnight, but Rank-B and A will take it until tomorrow morning because of some mandatory procedures,” Adrian added. “If you need anything else, do not hesitate to tell Cara.”

  As the call ended, Johan wondered if this was Merilyn’s doing. Maybe she expected he would need help and asked Agni Clan to cooperate? Then again, this could just be Adrian and Lucas trying to help in their own way.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  I’ll give them a big discount on the next order. Touched, Johan handed the phone back to Cara.

  Her gaze burned into him. She didn’t even have to say a word; she didn’t need to.

  “For the last time, I am not a mad scientist.” He sighed.

  “Why are you so against it? If I were one, I’d say it proudly.” She laughed, donning a white lab coat from God knows where. “Hi, I am Mad Scientist, so cool! Sonovabitch!”

  “Please don’t say you know me if the ethics court catches you.” Johan shook his head.

  “So cold.” She pouted.

  He would’ve laughed at the reference any other day, but he had a lot on his mind regarding the task. Since he had undertaken the task, he had to complete it. There was no way he could say he failed after getting so much help.

  If the fate of the world’s best blacksmith wasn’t a big enough pressure, he just piled more onto himself. But that was ok, Johan worked best in high-stress environments.

  I have to succeed, no matter what. Under the LED lights of the store, he made his vow with clear and bright eyes.

  ***

  A week had passed since Johan made his dramatic promise to himself. Now he lay on the bed of grass outside the experiment tent in Phantasia. His eyes had turned red and blurry, dark circles expanding into his cheeks.

  “Yeah… let’s give up.” A shaky laugh came from his dry throat as he rolled over, coughing.

  In the last week, he studied the rift soil, more studying, and guess what? Even more studying. Even the sight of papers made his stomach juices bubble up.

  Johan had paid immense attention to the soil from the rift, its composition, the magik density in it, and what grew in them.

  F-Rank rift soil wasn’t much different from soil on Earth, aside from one key factor. The Magik power reader showed a reading of 1.8 per 100 grams of soil. The same reading one would find in the areas around the rift.

  E-Rank rift soil experienced a jump, reaching 10. But normal grass and weeds still grew in the rift, at least from the pictures he had seen.

  D-Rank rift soil was a weird one; the grass’s colour changed here due to the excess metal in the soil, copper. With a reading of 100, this soil was enough to give normal humans mild headaches if pressed against their faces for a minute.

  Johan had tried to plant the seed in this soil, and to his initial happiness, it germinated. However, the white stem’s growth halted the moment it broke through. Before he could even do something, it blackened and turned to dust.

  Worried about his limited number of tries, he skipped C-rank rift soil and landed on B-Rank.

  With a magik reading of 10k and the lack of grass made it look promising. Johan felt confident since the heavy metals were present in the soil. His confidence translated into the growth of the first stable stem.

  The finger-thick stem had a cloudy colour, and it was the first to sprout a leaf. A leaf as wide as Johan’s palm. It was a deep red with purple veins and an oily surface, like someone had put on too much moisturizer.

  Johan expected to see success, but only saw the leaf fall from the stem like his dreams. Soon after, the stem curled up, blackened, and turned to dust.

  Johan felt a bit stumped. But he understood something important when he checked the moisture and magik reading of the soil before and after planting the seed.

  “Water and magik, it needs a lot of both.” Johan thought that maybe it needed more water to lower the heavy metal concentration. What was Magik’s role then? Did it substitute sunlight in the reaction? If so, how did the reaction go?

  Johan didn’t have many chances to figure the whole thing out. He doubted he could even if he did. But he could get some key hints thanks to the data he gathered.

  Name: Night Bloom Seed

  Rank: —

  Information: A seed to grow the Night Bloom flower, a flower that thrives in poisonous soil with heavy metals. It kills all nearby life. Exposure to Sunlight is harmful.

  Additional Information: Soil’s Magik Reading should be between 30k and 50k.

  According to the report from Agni Clan’s Lab, the current heavy metal concentrations in the soil were Nickel: 15,00 ppm, Zinc: 5,500 ppm, and Cadmium: 900 ppm.

  Even a tenth of this would kill any other plant, magik crops included. But somehow, the Night Bloom flower needed an even more toxic environment.

  Another thing he found out was that the more he learned and tried, the more information he unlocked in his skills. So, with enough tries, he could nail down the process 100%. This seemed like a hidden advantage of the Seed Sense skill. But he had a hunch that random bullshit go won't work. It was a crutch, but relying on it too much wouldn’t help either.

  After that, Johan worked a full day to create the soil base again. To increase the magik reading, he used the B-Rank rift soil as a base and mixed in soil from the A-Rank rift little by little. The method worked out well. So, he did the same with heavy metals, though that took more delicacy than just mixing soil.

  After a day of work and many mistakes, he planted the fourth seed in the soil. This time, he wasn’t shy with magik water and gave the soil a muddy consistency.

  The seed germinated much faster this time, almost too fast. The stem became translucent, not a hint of cloudiness. And the oily leaves increased, reaching four. Johan could see the glimmering liquid crawling up the stem, reaching the tip.

  And slowly but surely, the colourless bud started to turn pink. Soon it became redder than blood and grew as big as his thumb. But before it could open, the leaves started to crack. In a matter of minutes, they wilted, and the entire stem collapsed on itself.

  The water content didn’t seem like an issue, as Johan had continued to add water whenever he saw the soil drying. The roots of Night Bloom flower were fibrous ones, perfect for high absorption. The magik reading also didn’t show a problem, since the water kept replenishing it.

  So, he retried with the fifth seed and went to the high end of the heavy metal limit.

  This was the most promising growth Johan had seen out of any of his attempts yet. The bud formed four deep black petals with specks of glowing purple. The centre of the flower was a pale white, almost cream-like colour with darts of pink.

  However, before Johan could even rejoice, the flower wilted away.

  With only two tries left. Johan racked his brain for three whole days. No matter how he thought or tried to hypothesize, it just wouldn’t click.

  In the end, he wasn’t a professional in this. Just someone trying to do a pro’s work, trying to copy a method that he had never even seen. Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten cocky over growing a few carrots and a golden pear tree; the jump in difficulty was too high.

  “Coo…” Maybe sensing his falling mood, Eunally and Nunally arrived beside him.

  They were tapping their warm paws on his face. He would’ve stayed and enjoyed it a bit more, but he just had to hit the time limit at that moment.

  Curse this thing. Won’t even let me have a relaxing moment. He fought back a yawn and looked at the clock. Only a few hours before the Mart’s opening.

  Stumbling up the stairs, he reached the counter. Eugene was already there, wiping the shelves with a cloth. The floor already looked wiped and shiny.

  “Hello, teacher.” He waved all jolly.

  “Doing good today?” Sometimes Johan wished he had that cheerfulness. Or maybe that was asking for too much.

  “Yes, after training, I feel more motivated.” He came over to the counter, a look of doubt on his face. “Are you alright, teacher?”

  “Not really, I can’t figure this problem out. It seriously blows.” Johan slumped on the counter, so tired that he could sleep right there.

  “Is it about the thing you have been working on for the past nine days?” Eugene’s footsteps went farther, and the freezer’s door opened.

  “Yeah, it might be the death of me.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes against the sleeve of his old, sweaty t-shirt.

  When his blurry eyes readjusted, Eugene stood before him, holding out a chilled energy drink.

  “Maybe you should take a breather, teacher.” He said, placing the can on the counter.

  “Breather?” Johan tilted his head.

  “Yes, like a breath of fresh air. Our Rift combat teacher says that it always helps if you are under too much stress.” Eugene popped the can, and the fizzy foam shot out and landed on the counter. “Sorry, let me handle this!”

  Eugene turned to get the cloth. But Johan stood straight.

  “A breath of… fresh air?” His previously groggy eyes now wide open. “That’s it… right, fresh air!”

  Leaving behind a confused Eugene, Johan rushed back into the basement.

  Water, magik, no sunlight, and heavy metals, Johan thought he had covered all the points. But he had neglected one, and probably the most important one, when it came to Night Bloom flowers. Maybe… No, he could definitely figure this out if he nailed this last point.

  The moment his call went through, he poured all his emotions in.

  “Cara, get me some metal salts!” His words echoed in the potion workshop.

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