Chapter 46: Spirit Seed

Julius tried to check the tag but it didn’t say anything that would indicate a price. Curious, he brought it to the half-elf at the counter. The shopkeeper looked up from the book he was reading as Julius approached.

“How much for this? I didn’t see a price on it,” Julius asked the man.

“Oh? The price for it is two gold and three silver,” the shopkeeper answered.

That much? For a tree branch?

“I’m sorry, but why is it so much? Is there something special about it?” Julius asked.

“Yeah, most people don’t know what they are, but that,” the man pointed at the branch, “is a life spirit seed.”

“Life spirit seed?” Julius had never heard of it before but it made sense considering the life affinity coming from it.

“Life spirits are naturally occurring spirits that are very useful for most life mana practitioners. Most get life spirits as familiars to supplement their life mana, allowing them to heal more often as they can use the mana from the familiar instead of their own. That one is only a seed, so it would require a lot more life mana before a spirit is born. That’s why it is only that much, otherwise, a newly born life spirit can cost up to a couple of platinum.” The man kindly informed Julius of this.

“That seems like a large increase for something that only requires mana,” Julius commented.

“Mana is only one requirement, time and care also matter a lot when raising a life spirit. It is not guaranteed for a seed to spawn a spirit, if the conditions aren’t met, the spirit fails to form,” the shopkeeper shrugged his shoulders.

Julius didn’t really need a life spirit and it was quite expensive, but he was drawn to it for some reason. He asked the man, “Could you do two gold?”

The shopkeeper thought about it for a second, looking at Julius and the seed with calculating eyes, “You can only grow it if you have life mana, you know.”

Julius nodded his head and gathered a small mass of life mana over his palm to show the shopkeeper he had the affinity.

The man had a look of approval on his face and smiled at Julius. “Sure you can have it for two gold. It’s been waiting for a good home for a while now,” he told Julius.

Julius happily paid the man and walked out the proud owner of a life spirit seed and two gold poorer. He didn’t mind the money. Money was meant to be spent and he had really liked the idea of raising his own spirit.

The shopkeeper had told Julius how he was supposed to take care of the seed. For one, he needed to feed it life mana twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. He also needed to make sure it was a comfortable environment, too much stress wasn’t good for the birth of a spirit.

Julius could handle it, in his old world he had a small plant he kept next to his bed for years. It wasn’t a spirit but he took good care of it for many years, even sometimes taking it with him on trips if he was going to be gone for extended periods.

He headed back to the guardhouse for the day, cradling the spirit seed with both hands. On his way back, he saw a stall that sold pretty-looking flowers and plants. He thought that the spirit might like being next to nature, so he bought several plants to put next to the seed.

When he got back to his room, he set up the plants on the table next to the bed before nestling the seed in the middle. Once he thought it looked nice, he took the glass lid off the case and admired the little branch.

It wasn’t quite night yet, but he thought a little life mana wouldn’t hurt the thing. So very gently he gathered some life mana and fed it to the branch. The seed instantly reacted to the influx of life mana and sucked it up through its leaves and branch. Julius observed as the seed pulsed softly with green mana. He kept feeding it mana until he felt it was no longer taking in any more.

He tickled the seed’s leaves and said to it, “All full little fella? I will check on you tonight to see if you are hungry again.”

He didn’t know if the seed could hear him, but he thought it wouldn’t hurt to start getting close to it now. If the seed birthed a spirit he was planning on taking it on as a familiar so building some goodwill was a good idea.

He left the room after making sure the seed was all comfy and well-fed. It was almost dinner time for him and he wanted to get a few hours of training before he ate.

Julius was laying into a practice dummy as if it owed him lunch money. Sweat was pouring down his back as his fists slaughtered the wooden figure. He didn’t take any breaks or use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to offset the exhaustion he was feeling. He just concentrated on covering his forearms in aura as he punched the dummy. Loud thumps rang out throughout the courtyard and his knuckles were getting shredded apart from his relentless attack.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Aura was an amazing thing, it was able to give his punches a heaviness to them that was hard to describe. It was like having massive lead gloves covering his fists but without any of the weight. Each strike should have shattered the wood if not for the runic inscriptions protecting the dummy.