The Grand Tournament

by Ivan Kal

  “The other two are a bit more difficult,” Morgan said, looking at the others with a half-smile. “I don’t think that Clara should have one, as she mostly in the background, and while it might help her abilities some I think we need more help for the rest of us.”

  Clara nodded, understanding his decision. “That means us three.” Morgan circled his finger around the room. Ves and Vall were both looking like they very much wanted one, but as Morgan thought about it more, he realized that there was only one answer.

  “Ves.” He turned to her with a sad expression. “I’m sorry, love, but you already have your bear. It levels with you and gives you a lot of options for your role. I think that that the last two should go to Vall and me.”

  Ves sighed in disappointment. “You are right, but I could’ve used it on my shield or armor to get even more protection.”

  “Perhaps, but you are strong enough already. We just need to get you better gear,” Morgan said, then looked at Vall, who had a glint in his eyes.

  Morgan pulled out both stones, putting one in his inventory before giving the other to Vall. After the half-elf took it, he looked him in the eyes and spoke. “I think you should switch to a pole-arm weapon, more precisely the guandao that we looted in the dungeon.”

  They hadn’t yet decided what to do with it since none of them had been using such a weapon, but they had decided that Vall was to take the armor set since it complemented him well.

  “Why?” Vall asked with an open expression, clearly just wanting Morgan to explain why he thought it was a good idea.

  “Its perk goes extremely well with your stat build—you are taking mostly strength and constitution, and with that 20% strength bonus every time you’re in combat you will be getting even more. It is a well-made weapon as well, of high quality; and while your style has been that of a close-range brawler, the pole-arm will let you maintain a bit of distance from enemies.”

  Vall nodded. “I can see how that could be good, but I have never practiced with such a weapon.”

  “You have one more level to ascend before you can even use it. You can train before then, and you have Weapon Master, so you should know the basics.”

  “I think that is a good idea, too,” Lucius added.

  Vall looked around, seeing the others all nod, and then nodded himself. “All right, I will try it.”

  “Good,” Morgan said.

  “What will you use yours on?” Clara asked.

  Morgan wasn’t really sure. He could use it on his crossbow, but it wasn’t the best-made thing in the world, though he could always have Artos build him another one. He didn’t really use many weapons that would benefit from the stone, and placing it on a throwing dagger wasn’t going to cut it. Perhaps he could use it on a piece of jewelry or a ring—it didn’t need to be a weapon.

  “I’m not sure. I’m going to need to think about it a bit,” Morgan said. There was no rush, after all.

  “What are we going to do now?” said Ves.

  Morgan responded. “We have three weeks until the tournament. I suggest we go back to Skyreach. I want to do some experiments, and we might want to try and get at least Vall to level thirty.”

  The others all agreed, and once the decision was made, they moved quickly. Within three hours they were on the teleporter platform heading back home.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Morgan was inside his greenhouse, the Chimera Plant growing slowly in the soil in front of him.

  He had tinkered with the plant for about a week now; he had made it just a bit scarier, and had also streamlined its size and shape. Instead of having a thick trunk with a few branches and metal-like leaves, the plant now had a small, round core that stayed in the ground, spreading out roots from it. The part that grew above the ground was more like a small trunk with a mass of hair at the end. The “hair” was a mass of thin, vine-like tendrils that had metal incorporated into them. They weren’t as tough as the surface of the plant used to be, but they could bend like a whip in all directions and were stronger than rope, at least, and they could regenerate.

  There were three types of tendrils: one which had their tips covered with razor-sharp leaves, which resembled pineapple leaves the most, only smaller and far sharper. He had used the plant to attack a dummy. The tendrils shredded the wood like it was paper.

  The second type of tendril had buds from his acid plant on the top. He still hadn’t figured how to make it more dangerous to flesh, but it was a good thing to have against armored enemies. He wasn’t sure how it would do against higher quality metals or enchanted ones, however.

  The last type of vine was simple: thin like the others, but with needle-sharp tips, through which they could inject a paralyzing poison. Another gift from the plants of this world, it created a poison that slightly numbed any animal that tried to eat it. Morgan had of course taken the plant and mutated it further, creating a poison that if injected would paralyze a person for several minutes.

  The plant wasn’t pretty, but it was deadly. He could make it grow big, very big, until it was monstrous and could attack anything around it.

  But the problem with it, like all of Morgan’s other plants, was that they couldn’t move from where they were planted. He had tried to make them move, to try and control their roots in the ground, but it was too taxing on the mind, having to force the plants to crawl over the ground and also fight something. There were plants on this world that could move, that he knew, but he hadn’t acquired any yet. Still, his plan was something far different, which was why he needed it to be smaller.

  He pulled out the Chimera Plant out of the soil and looked at it. All bundled up, it looked it was maybe the size of a soccer ball. The tendrils were curled around the center of the plant, with their max length being around four meters. With their wire-thin size, it was easy to compact. He could change its form a bit, forcing the core to elongate or flatten, and the tendrils could pull back into the core. As he looked at it, he realized that for now at least he didn’t need so many tendrils, so he cut down all but three of each and put his energy into the plant, forcing it to regenerate.

  Looking at it, he was very much pleased, but there was one more thing that it needed. Morgan looked to his side at several fungi that were growing peacefully. They looked like tiny purple mushrooms, but Morgan wasn’t fooled by their appearance—the fungus was the most dangerous thing in the room. He used his nature alignment to take a look inside it to see how it worked, and he could make it grow or die, with his life and death aspects. His Phytokinesis didn’t work on them, however, which made it much harder to manipulate fungi. Still, he brought his Chimera Plant close and placed it on top of the mushrooms. If this thing works I will have completely screwed myself.

  Morgan could admit that he was at a times reckless, but he was also fairly sure that his ideas could work, especially in a magical world like this. He took a deep breath and focused on his perk: the ability to mutate a specific trait into a plant. He triggered the trait.

  For a moment he thought that nothing had happened, and then he saw the Chimera Plant and the fungi merge together. It was eerie to look at, but it lasted for a second only. Then the fungi were gone, and the Chimera Plant was there on the ground. Morgan looked into it and saw the result of his tampering. The plant was no longer really a plant—it was a mix between a fungi and a plant, sure, but it didn’t look like it was either. It was its own thing.

  To his Life Sense, it was clearly alive. He tried to use his Phytokinesis on it and found that he, thankfully, still could. He forced it to spread its roots into the ground and stay there. Then he stood up and walked out, heading to find Clara.

  He was about to attempt something extremely stupid and he needed his bestie to help him.

  * * *

  “You are insane. You know that, right?” Clara said as she sat on a chair in his laboratory surrounded by vials filled with powders, liquids, and decaying plant matter. He was lucky that she was in Skyreach Hold—he had forgotten that she h
ad been helping Vall and Lucius level. They were going to various dungeons with Ves and Titus, hoping to have them reach the next level before the tournament. The elemental kill had given them all a lot of experience, so they were both close. Thankfully, however, Clara hadn’t gone with them today, as instead they had taken one of the healers from the Sky Guard to get him a bit more experience too.

  Morgan was sitting next to her, and on the table in front of them was the plant. He couldn’t properly call it the Chimera Plant anymore; he had no idea what it was, really, but he did know that it was far beyond what he’d had before. He felt just a tiny bit like a mad scientist if he was to be honest, and that actually felt good. He was doing new things, pushing himself and what was possible. He was sure that he wasn’t the only person on this world who had been doing what he had—Azil had suggested as much—but he hoped that he was the first to attempt what he was about to now.

  “I’m not that crazy. This will work, trust me,” Morgan responded.

  “I don’t know if I want to be here for this,” Clara said, looking just a bit sick.

  “I need you to watch me. While I think it can work and I am pretty sure I can monitor and guide it with my own power, I don’t know how painful it is going to be, or if I will be able to stay awake. I don’t want to risk it doing things that I don’t want.”

  “Why in the name of the Great Lord would you ever want this?”

  “I have a very specific kit, Clara. I am good in areas where there are plants, but when I am away from them I have issues. I need to be able to adapt to every situation, and I need more weapons in my arsenal.”

  “There has to be a better way,” Clara protested.

  “This is not wrong, Clara. There are people out there that do all kinds of things— who augment themselves by removing limbs and putting in artificial ones. Look at Vall. His metal hand is arguably better than his real one ever was, and he only has a basic model. What I am doing is no different…if arguably a bit more disgusting to some.” He wondered what Ves would think, he had told her what he planned to do, but well... Knowing something and seeing something were different things.

  “Right,” Clara said, swallowing hard as Morgan picked up a knife. “Remember, if it goes out of control and I pass out, cut my arm off.”

  Clara didn’t respond verbally. Instead she just nodded her head, while her eyes looked as if she couldn’t believe she had agreed to this. Truthfully, Morgan was a bit worried, but he had the option to experiment. They had two healing potions, and he had managed to convince the others to let him use one—only if necessary—so that if things went south, he could regrow his arm, no harm done.

  “Ready?” Morgan asked.

  She nodded and he cut into his palm, making a long incision sideways. Then he put his hand next to the plant and used his Phytokinesis to move it. The plant’s roots went in first and he hissed. It was an incredibly unpleasant sensation, but he kept going. Then the core of the plant came; he had already shaped it so that it was flat and elongated. It went in, dragged by the roots that had punched through into his forearm, and were pulling the rest of the plant inside by grabbing his bones.

  “Fuck. Me. Sideways,” Morgan hissed through his teeth, his Life Sense blazing in his eyes as he followed the progress of the plant. His forearm was bulging now, skin stretching, and he could see roots wrapping themselves around his bones all the way up to his elbow. The plant’s tendrils remained outside of his hand, laying motionlessly on the table.

  When the core went into his forearm, he ordered the plant to begin to eat.

  He screamed and Clara’s eyes widened.

  “Are you all right, Morgan?” she asked.

  Stupid-ass question! I am not fucking all right! he shouted inside his mind, but his mouth was too busy screaming. He nodded so that she didn’t use the sharp axe next to her to chop his arm off. The plant, the fungi, or whatever it was, started to eat his flesh, his muscles. Morgan could see it do it, he was feeding it energy to do it. His muscles disappeared as the plant changed shape, molding itself to his arm, creating new tissue that replaced his old. He couldn’t move his hand, it was completely burning.

  But then the burning shifted. Instead of his entire arm feeling as though it were on fire, he felt only a slight burning around his elbow, and the rest of his arm was dead, completely cut off from him. He had no sense of touch, no pain, no nothing, as the plant ate and consumed his nerves.

  Clara watched as well in fascination with a look of horror on her face. Morgan was no longer screaming, but he was still grunting from time to time. He knew that she was watching what was happening as well. She had the same skills as he did that allowed her to see life. The plant tightened around his bones, pulling itself into place, and he felt his bone crack.

  Clara raised her arm and her life energy entered his forearm, healing the damage. Morgan kept his focus on something, anything else. The blood had stopped leaking out of his wound, and instead he could see flesh and plant matter inside. He knew that the plant had fed itself on everything in his arm but the skin and bone, including his blood. The veins that were now ending at his elbow were connected to the plant, and it was using that blood to feed itself. And then Morgan felt sensation snap back into existence. He tried to move his hand and it obeyed him, albeit a bit sluggishly. But slowly, as time passed, it became stronger and stronger. Morgan saw the plant stop feeding on his blood, and instead create new veins made out of its material that led through his hand.

  And then it was over. He raised his arm and started moving it around. It felt as if it was his own, but to his Life Sense it was obviously not. It was a strange sensation.

  “I can’t believe that worked,” Clara whispered.

  “Honestly, neither can I,” Morgan said as he tried to pull back the tendrils inside. He found immediately that he didn’t need to use Phytokinesis for this, but instead they obeyed on their own. He blinked at that. He had some vague sense of them, like they were his limbs, only somehow not, like they were a bit removed. It’s like they are half numb. I can move them, but I am not sure exactly what I am doing. This is going to require some experimenting and training.

  Suddenly, he noticed that he had a new notification. He pulled it up and read:

  New symbiotic organism created!

  Symbiotic organism detected inside user’s body!

  Symbiotic relationship established!

  He had also gotten two levels in Phytokinesis and Life Sense—and then there was another window which asked him to name the new organism. It looked like he could get the system to recognize his creations, though he wondered what the criteria was. Perhaps because his other mutated plants weren’t really viable, they couldn’t survive on their own for long, they hadn’t been considered new lifeforms. That seemed like the most plausible explanation to him.

  He looked his hand over. The slit in his hand was open, the tendrils retracted somewhere inside of his forearm. It looked strange; there was no blood inside or around the wound, and he could only see the dark green surface of the plant, or rather symbiont. He concentrated and forced it to grow some more, and a dark green layer of matter covered the edges of the wound and he then had it pull down, creating a small, dark-green line on his palm, and making it a slit that could open and close.

  Only then did he think about the name.

  “So,” Morgan said. “Any ideas on what I should name this bad boy?”

  Clara looked at his hand, now more in interest than horror and disgust. “I don’t know—Handy?”

  Morgan blinked at her choice, trying hard not to laugh. “I was thinking more on the lines of… I don’t know… Venom, Carnage…”

  “Those are stupid names for a hand plant,” Clara said.

  “Bah, what do you know?”

  He looked back at his arm with his Life Sense, and could see that the symbiont ended at his elbow. It had also grown a layer over his bones, coating them with its own matter. He shook his head and tried to think of a good name for a sy
mbiotic organism. Finally, when he couldn’t think of a good one he decided to name it after the most obvious one, Klyntar the race of symbiotes from comics he used to read on Earth, albeit a bit shortened. He entered the name Klyn and accepted. Then he turned to look at Clara.

  “Let’s try the next part,” Morgan said.

  Clara sighed but didn’t say anything. Morgan put his other hand on the table and pulled out an item from his inventory. The Stone of Ascension sat on the table for a minute before he grabbed it and put it in the palm of his new hand. He opened the slit and had the tendrils pull the stone inside. It was a strange sensation, feeling the bulge inside of his hand, but not really unpleasant. Then he focused on the stone and triggered it.

  Are you certain that you wish to use the Stone of Ascension? Y/N

  Morgan pressed Y and another window popped up.

  Searching for viable targets… One viable target found.

  Warning, bonding the Stone of Ascension to a living organism may have unforeseen consequences. Do you wish to proceed? Y/N

  Morgan grinned as he saw that it was possible. He pressed Y and waited.

  Bond complete; Klyn the Mutated Will created.

  Morgan nodded at the cool name, and then noticed that he had more notifications.

  Pet entity added… Warning, error! Pet entity does not fulfill the necessary requirements!

  Error—Entity located inside user’s body. Assuming direct control…

  Congratulations! Symbiotic relationship created with Klyn the Mutated Will. You may now view your symbiont’s screens.