044 The Manatree

Dantan, one of Professor's full time assistance, inspected the leaves of the manaherb and recorded its health status in his journal. It was Dantan's day to watch over the garden.

Dantan raised his head and looked at the incoming boy. "Good evening Nico, you're early today."

"Hi Dantan!" Nico responded back, and then yawned and stretched.

Nico had recently woken up.

Dantan smiled. He knew that most students, including Nico slept through the academic classes. Although academic studies were important, they could be studied anywhere. Magic and cultivation classes were more difficult to find outside the city.

Nico proceeded to work as soon as he entered. He opened his notebook and recorded the growth of the manaplant that interested him the most. He had already increased the growth rate of eight different manaplants. If Nico wanted to, he could easily increase the growth rate of all the plants, but that would attract too much attention. Nico was there mainly to study the plants.

"Hey Dantan, do you think it's strange that mana-tree can't be grafted or grown from cuttings?" asked Nico. "Did magic scholars find out why?"

Dantan shook his head, he wasn't too sure himself. "Probably because they are sacred."

Nico had asked the other assistants the same questions, and their answers varied slightly.

"It is believed that manatrees are complex and living beings like humans," said Professor Stance walking into the garden.

Both Nico and Dantan stopped their work to bow. "Professor!"

Professor Stance nodded. "Now I have a question for you. Do you think another a human could be created simply by taking a limb?"

"No, that shouldn't be possible, humans are much more complex in our anatomical structure," replied Nico using his own logic. But then, what was the logic of this world? "Is it possible?"

"We are complex, but didn't we also start as simple and small structure?"

Nico hated when Professor Stance answered questions with more questions.

"We did, but it takes nine months of gestation period before our bodies are complete," said Nico. "An apple tree requires only a week."

"Do you know the germination period of the mana-apple tree?"

Nico shook his head. His herbology studies didn't include manatrees.

"Twenty-five weeks," Professor Stance replied.

"That's almost 6 months..." Just another three months to match that of humans.

Professor Stance nodded and posed another question. "What about the typical apple tree cuttings?"

Nico thought for a moment, he wasn't too sure. "Three to four weeks? Maybe more?"

Professor Stance nodded and approached the mana-apple tree. He slipped his hand under his long sleeve, pulled out a wooden wand, and effortlessly waved the wand upward toward the upper branch. The ripple from the wand sliced through a branch that fell onto Professor Stance's grasp.

He gave the branch cutting to Nico.

"Professor?" Nico wondered if the Professor wanted him to test the branch cutting.

"This branch will turn into ashes within seven days," said Professor Stance. "Scholars are unsure if and when it will regenerate the roots. The stronger the item, the more energy and time it requires to survive. For this branch to grow into a tree, it will need food and energy far surpassing what this garden could provide."

Nico stared at the half meter of branch cutting with a sense determination.

Dantan and Professor Stance left before midnight, leaving Nico alone in the garden. Although Nico was alone, there were still guards at the entrance. They were instructed to allow Nico to carry one item out of the garden. For that particular day, Nico was also allowed to carry out the branch cutting.

Nico finished his chores early, and sat in front of the mana-tree. He stared into it for a long time as though it was as interesting as watching paint dry. He was actually studying the different routes and pathways of the tree.

He returned to his dorm right before dawn to feed the plants and the tree branch with lifeless water.

Nico divided the branch cutting in half, and created two separate environments for the cuttings. One to be placed in partial sun and the other in a more shaded area.

He planted the tree branch in the rooting medium. Branch cutting required rooting medium with good drainage made from sand, moss, vinegar and potting soil.

After seven days, the leaves on the branches were slowly wilting away. By the ninth day, the branches turned into brown ash that looked like soil dust.

Even with the use of lifeless water, Nico was only able to extend it to nine days.

"Professor! Why is this so hard!?" Nico complained.

Professor Stance was surprised Nico had managed to keep it alive for nine days. "All right Nico, I'll let you continue to get the branch cutting, but only once in two weeks."

"Thank you Professor!"

Nico attempted again, but on his next attempt, he ground the manacore into the rooting medium mixture. The branch cuttings continued to survive beyond nine days.

Nico moved it into the Killo Restaurant Inn for safekeeping. It was better to pretend that it had died.

****

"Are you prepared for the tryouts?" Asked Jack.

"What tryouts?" asked Nico.

"The combat team tryouts in a couple of weeks."

"Why would I want to be in a combat team? It's not like the rewards are great or anything. I would rather focus on studying." Nico continued to pile more and more work onto his schedule.

Ashe stared at Nico. "You can't be kidding, do you know how important the combat team is?" asked Ashe. "It's an opportunity to raise the Windel Academy reputation and it is an opportunity to attract the associations interest."

"You mean the magician and cultivation associations?" Asked Nico. "What are those?"

"The magician and cultivation associations are very powerful entities throughout the continent," Ashe replied. "All clans, royalties and guilds have some sort of connection to them. They are highly secretive and their locations are kept hidden."

"Like a secret society?" Asked Nico.

"Well, it's not a secret society if we know about them," said Jack.

"Are they powerful?" asked Nico.

Ashe nodded. "Very, but we don't know much about it," said Ashe. "The only way to enter is to become a knight staged practitioner, or catch their attention."

Attention was the last thing Nico needed, and he would rather focus on completing the tasks and getting stronger.

After three months of studying at the Academy, Nico had reached the 12th level of the manaroot and created two more Saturns in the nodes based on the Chaotic Devil Cultivation Method.

On the 10th level, the structure of the Chaos manaroot shrunk, but it became more alive. Nico could sense its presence without using Minko or the avatar box.

There was a significant boost in his stats and he felt stronger.

Status:

Manaroot: Chaos 12

Mananode: 4

Manaspirit: 30

Strength: 49

FP: 34/34

Defense: 36

Speed: 37

Magic: 53

MP: 81/81

Resistance: 38

Casting: 31

Nico wondered if others could sense it too. The most powerful person he knew was Professor Stance.

Professor Stance didn't have much reaction, but after being around Professor Stance for a few months, Nico knew that his reaction didn't mean anything.

Professor Stance was obsessed with his research on herbs and shadow symbols, he wasn't interested in cultivation and magic. They were only the means to his quest for knowledge.

Nico had asked several professors if there was a way to sense other people stages. For the most part, people were unable to unless they had a special ability or equipment.

There were two equipment commonly used to test the stages, the first was the halostone and the second was the spirit orb. The halostone measured the overall level and the spirit orb measured the levels of the root, auras and meridians.

Before Nico left Rinlin, his halostone number was stuck at 20. His current halostone number was 27.