Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

With nothing else to say about their situation, or at least nothing that could be said through words alone, the giant retreated to his bed while Elijah entered his laboratory once again. It was only in the early afternoon that the coach would arrive to bring him and his essential items to the castle, which meant that he had many hours to work with.

‘Food?’ the duck asked as it jumped over to the other table, inspecting the spiky seeds that he put on it. ‘Eat?’

‘Not food,’ Elijah replied, putting a hand up to stop the plant from coming any closer. Small branches had already started to grow from the fake beak in an attempt to accommodate the larger size of the seeds. ‘They’ll become something better than that.’

‘Nothing better than food.’

He could feel the certainty in the plant’s voice as it replied with such. There was no doubt in its mind about that fact.

‘We’ll see,’ he said, finding a small pot for each of the vines and starting out the experimentation with the first of the seeds.

Channeling of [Accelerate Growth] has been activated! Current cost: 4MP/sec

The normal growth period for the Snarethorn was around three months in the wild. It could grow much bigger further down the line, but three months was just long enough for a vine to form and grow strong enough to be used against any smaller creatures that stumbled into its range. From there, it would take another three months before it reached the size that matched what Elijah had seen in the Dungeon this time around. From this stage, it could easily ensnare and kill an unprepared person who didn’t have the pain resistance or the dagger required to cut themselves from the vine.

Another year of growth would allow the plant to harden and be heavily resistant to cuts, requiring heavy, blunt attacks before being hurt, but that size was one that the plant rarely reached. It either required constant prey to feed on or a very sizable density of Mana in the air to be sustained, one that couldn’t be found for the first ten or so floors of the Dungeon. Below that, however, there were more of those traps than most wanted to bother dealing with, and they were at a size and strength that only experienced fighters and mages could survive.

A peculiar plant, all things considered, but Elijah didn’t bother hoping to reach those levels this time around.

He hoped to circumvent that process entirely, honestly, by using the same tricks as the ones done with the duck sitting next to him.

As with most plants, the spiky seed cracked in half, allowing a small bud to sprout and pierce through the dirt above. It stretched, searching for light at the start but quickly accepting the Mana that came from Elijah instead.

A few days of growth were breezed through in seconds, a minute more allowing it to match the duck in height, and a minute after that not even being close to the fake animal as the plant laid itself flat onto the earth it had just come from.

Those inexperienced with the plant would assume this to be a sign of its imminent death and withering, but Elijah knew better than to expect such a simple growth cycle. Instead, he merely kept up the channeling of Mana, watching as the stalk used for height was instead used to create a sizeable base. A few leaves still sat on top, to accept any sunlight that might’ve decided to come around at some point, but the main surface of the plant instead began to turn brown and lumpy to match the look of the earth surrounding it. Within another minute, one would need to look twice before realizing a plant was even in the pot.

Such a unique ability for camouflaging.

Elijah would’ve loved delving deeper into the mechanisms that allowed the plant to instinctively mimic what its surroundings looked like. The ability to do so with relatively accurate results, no matter the coloring or texture of the area, made it an enigma that had confused many herbalists in the past.

In his earlier days, while reading the thick tomes of old researchers droning on about their properties, he’d found so many theories about their possible intelligence. The fact that a mere plant, one without any implied sentience or true mind, could hide itself better than most living and breathing animals focused on stealth must’ve been an indication that they were missing its true intelligence.

A nice idea in theory, with relevance to several similar studies that had proven some manner of intelligence in other trap-based plants, but it was all false. At least from what Elijah could tell, as the three-month growth period came to a close in the span of 5 minutes of channeling his Mana, the purple spotting on the side of the plant implied as much.

With respect for the small thorns that he’d spotted during its growth, he put on a pair of heavy-duty gloves before putting his right hand onto the plant. Though it instantly tried to strike out at him, wrapping the small vine around his fingers and attempting to crush them as best as it could, he responded by having a thread of Mana reach out from the glove and onto the plant.

‘Hello,’ he sent to the plant. ‘Could you let go?’

‘No,’ came the immediate response. It was much calmer than the Sundrop Flower, sounding less like an excited child and more like a monotone adult. Quiet, with clear resolve, and no intention to back down from its purpose. ‘Want food.’

‘If you let me go, I can give you food,’ Elijah bargained, making the vine hesitate in its tightening.

‘Food can’t give food if I let go of food,’ the plant said after a moment. All the old theories about the supposed intelligence of the plant were rapidly flying out of the window, the last hints of truth in them vanishing as the Snarethorn showed wisdom below what the flower had managed in its own infancy.

‘What if I send you some food now? Will you then let go?’

…

‘Send food. If enough, food is let go.’

Elijah could work with that, sending around 50MP to the small plant. Not near the amount it’d gotten while it had been growing, but still a much quicker burst.

It went slack a second or so later, the vine releasing him and rolling back into the earth as if there had never been anything wrong.

‘I can make you another deal, if you wish,’ Elijah offered, frowning for a moment when no response came until he realized the issue. ‘I’ll give you more food for it.’

‘Explain,’ came the instant response. While it wasn’t as obviously excited about the prospect, promising anything and everything, energy was still a high priority for the plant. ‘What to do to get food?’

‘Just a few things,’ was everything Elijah said before starting out the two-hour-long process of turning the Snarethorn into something that could protect his house while he was away.

The first step was to make it understand its job, which was focused on hiding at entrances and trapping anybody who tried to enter without permission. That part was easy, as it was just a change in position while still following its natural instincts for hunting prey. Detecting intruders effectively, without having them press down on the main body, wasn’t as easily done.

This issue was actually mitigated once the plant had grown for a year or two, where it would gain a magical organ that could detect a presence from several meters away without issue, even being able to identify the unique signatures of different people.

The problem with that, however, was the fact that it couldn’t really grow into its extreme form out on the surface. Certainly not with the amount of Mana that Elijah could provide, forcing them to go off the normal path of growth.

And while that had been incredibly simple for the Sundrop Flower, the Snarethorn needed a lot more convincing. Not just in terms of food, but in terms of actually doing it. Its body was already optimized to the point where each portion had a specific purpose, and adding to them was very inconvenient and very time-consuming to do. Regardless of the headache that started forming halfway through it, however, a smaller version of the organ was able to form next to the central part of the plant. Nowhere near as powerful as the original, only able to sense people a meter away from itself, but it was enough for Elijah’s plans.

The final big change, and this was a big one, was becoming more than just a single body.

What did he mean by this? Well, it was rather simple. Instead of having a single spot in the earth, with a single body that contained one vine to trap those who got close, Elijah wanted it to have several bodies all connected together by a root-like system.

A massive undertaking, and one that only worsened his headache through the night, but it was a necessary one. Elijah's other option was to repeat the entire growth phase that had been done with this plant, convincing each of them to act as a protector. It was possible to do, yes, but it would take days to do.

Days that he didn’t have.

He did end up with a few of the other seeds, though, as a sort of baseline for the original Snarethorn to work with. He would plant them, it would connect to the stem before it could grow much, and the central organ controlling everything else would be consumed and replaced by the connection. A mildly ruthless method to use, but making the hivemind-like system grow naturally would’ve taken even longer to do.

And, if he was truly worried about the plant moving away from its protection duties, this meant that it couldn’t grow much further naturally. A success in the name of safety, though it hadn’t been his intention.

From that point on, with some twenty seeds used, Elijah was able to witness the start of a massive network of traps that only needed to be placed in their right spots. And, with several hours more before he needed to be up and about, that was exactly what he did.

Each of the individual traps was granted a window to protect, their natural abilities hiding both themselves and the dirt that they were granted to hide within. If pointed out, some could perhaps spot them, but he was confident they would do their job well regardless.

The distance that came from windows further away from each other, and the floor above which also had places that could be broken into through, wasn’t much of a challenge either. The only requirement to place traps in those places was patience, as Elijah fed the Snarethorn more and more Mana so that it could extend the root system used to connect the different bodies.

Two more hours passed before it was all completed, a thorned vine ready to strike out at anybody stupid enough to try to intrude without permission. While Elijah supposed they were still able to break through the front door, and the shopping area where he’d placed nothing since people would frequent it often, any other method of entry was hereby protected.

‘Here’s something for the good work,’ he sent the Snarethorn before sending half of what he had left in his Core. He got a thanks in reply before it went dormant, the plant busy growing some roots down in the basement to absorb nutrients from. Not too deep, of course, but enough that it could sit dormant for months if needed. ‘Remember to get as much information as possible about those you trap.’

‘Information for food,’ it sent back before he ended the connection, grabbing a cup of tea from the kitchen before going back to the laboratory. Since there weren’t too many hours left of the night, he needed to get some sleep at some point, but that could wait thirty minutes.

For now, he just needed a moment to sit down with a cup. The consequence of aging was that he could feel both so tired and so restless at the same time, making sleep impossible without some time spent on less physically intensive matters.

Taking a sip, and finding the taste a little off, he made a mental note of starting out on a new batch soon. He’d usually start later on in the year, but having access to the Royal Garden and his Mana once again meant that he had the ideal environment for growing the herb already. Wouldn’t do to run out of this variant, while it was in such high demand.

‘Am I being replaced?’

A fearful voice that he instantly recognized as the Sundrop Flower entered his mind as he put down his cup on the table. He was surprised about being able to hear it, since the duck was easily half a meter away while having no discernable thread connecting them together. Was it just his eyes being too tired to notice? Probably.

‘In what way?’ Elijah countered.

‘Replaced,’ the Sundrop Flower repeated. ‘Other taking my place.’

‘I’m not sure what place you think you initially had, but it’s not taking anything of the sort,’ he assured the plant, though it didn’t seem to take that as an acceptable answer. It leaped off the table, wings beating hard as it half-flew over to him and tried to land on his shoulder. The plant failed, flailing for a second before Elijah caught the thing and held it in his palm. ‘The Snarethorn is here because I needed protection for the house, something you’re not able to do.’

‘I can do that!’ came the instant response, the Sundrop Flower instantly sending over imagined images of it with thorny vines connected to its body. ‘See?’

‘That would be highly impractical,’ Elijah said calmly. If it decided to watch over the different possible entrances to the house with senses as well-refined as what the Snarethorn had, it would mean being constantly locked in place. ‘Your current progress would be useless. We’ve spent too long making you able to move.’

‘Is me moving useful?’

‘It’s been an interesting journey to figure out what can be done with my magic, I suppose,’ Elijah answered, the duck shaking its feather in response. That wasn’t enough. It wanted something more. He could feel it. ‘You being able to separate from your roots for what I think is now three hours shows just how much potential there is to uncover. And that you’re able to question me at all right now shows that your intelligence has been growing for the past few days, which makes me wonder when it’ll start to plateau.’

While the fake animal in front of him hadn’t been raised with specific everyday usage in mind, being more of an experiment to see how far he could push his abilities, he had to confess he’d started to grow rather fond of the former Sundrop Flower.

‘How do I become more useful?’

To that question, Elijah didn’t have much of an answer. How could he actually use it? While it was an interesting sight, a plant walking around like a bird, the daily use-cases for such a sight weren’t there.

What else could it do? The high concentrations of energy inside its fake feather were rather potent, so using it for easier access to that material was a possibility. The amounts it could produce weren’t too extreme, however, and Elijah still had to brew a concoction from it to use the liquid effectively.

‘No, you don’t!’ the duck argued, reading his thoughts as he considered the options. Elijah was surprised by it, ready to counter the idea before the back of the plant slowly opened up. ‘See?’

In contrast to the last example, where images and concepts had been used, Elijah was instead greeted by a physical sample. Healing Paste, in small cube form and slightly thicker than normal, but otherwise identical to what he could normally find.

Could it actually… No, it couldn’t be.

Grabbing one of the knives on the wall, he proceeded to cut his arm. Not too deep, but just enough that the pollen wouldn’t be able to heal it normally. It stung, as he smeared on the created healing paste, but it was worth it when the effects were seen.

A flash of heat, to the point where he nearly bit his tongue off from instinctively pressing his teeth together, but it barely took a second before the cut was gone without a trace.

Powerful.

‘See? See?’ the duck said excitedly, back feathers wagging when it saw his reaction. ‘I’m useful!’

‘I… I suppose you are, yes,’ Elijah said, wondering just how it was extracting everything without the usual techniques. Was it because it had sampled the original pastes and then recreated them by the finished product alone? He didn’t know, though the concept made him wonder. ‘If I give you a flower from another plant, do you think you could grow flowers identical to them?’

‘Can I eat the other flower?’

‘Yes?’

‘Yes!’

It seemed quite certain about it, though Elijah preferred seeing it in action before wholly believing it. Looking through his current batch of flowers and herbs that he had on the other tables, he picked out a smaller strain of pink lavender flowers normally called Breaths of Serenity. They had no strong smell and were typically ignored on the first layers of the dungeon, but their effects were rather popular.

While not a cure-for-all, adding some extract of the flower to the afternoon drinks allowed the muscles to more easily recover during the night while also providing a sense of relief in the moment. A great boon to those who worked physical labor or those old enough that walking up the stairs made muscles start complaining.

‘Copy this flower,’ Elijah requested, putting the top of the plant in front of the fake animal. Acting much like a real animal would, however, the duck opened its beak and chomped down on the pink lavender, shaking it around to separate the petals from the stalk as much as possible.

At some level, he wasn’t sure what he expected to see. Having to consume the flower to understand it was a given, and he’d been warned about it already, but the usual way that plants absorbed nutrients and whatever else was done through its roots.

Not that the duck in his hands currently had access to such things, but… whatever. Elijah didn’t dwell on it for long, when the differently-coloured Mana inside the plant started to swirl. A mild pink coloring, matching the flower steadily being consumed, along with the strands slowly replacing the long golden ones making up the fake feathers on the duck’s back.

It seemed that it didn’t feel the need to imitate the form of the flower, instead taking on the properties. Instead of the softness felt by the usual flowers, these were rougher, not bending to his touch and instead trying to remain in their straight shapes.

A curious difference, but not the important factor he needed to check.

At Elijah’s request, the Sundrop Flower grew a separate chunk of the eaten flower, letting him take off enough of a portion to brew with it like he would the normal flower. Nothing unusual happened through it, the normal scents and boiling times fit it perfectly despite the changes in form.

As for the effect… though it was better to allow it to cool down before consumption, Elijah mixed it in with the now-cold tea and emptied the cup. Within mere minutes, the sensation of his shoulders loosening was obvious, the tension gained through the day steadily disappearing.

Five minutes for effect, meaning a faster absorption rate. The sugar in the tea could be blamed partly, but there was only so much it could do for the main effects he was feeling.

Overall? This wasn’t the Breaths of Serenity that he knew. It was better.

‘Did I do good?’ the duck asked when Elijah looked down at it. ‘Am I useful?’

Truthfully? He could have done this himself. Though it would’ve taken a few more minutes, and a lot more Mana from his side, he could’ve created a variant of the lavender that would’ve worked just as well. Maybe even better, if given an hour to work with.

But he didn’t always have this flower on him. He didn’t always have every herb, fruit, or general plant in his vicinity, and he certainly didn’t have the time to upgrade each of them whenever he had the need.

But the duck in his hands could do this at any point in time. It wasn’t restrained the same way as him. Not as versatile when given ideal conditions, but its base utility with plants was above his own. Elijah could modify and enhance. The duck could create. If he spent some time feeding it every herb and fruit he could get his hands on, which he would most definitely do, he would have a library of samples ready for him to take from at any point in time.

Yes… There was only one objective truth here.

‘You are very useful,’ Elijah assured the Sundrop Flower, scratching its neck as it quacked at him. He grimaced a little, still calling it by its original name. While the golden petals still made up most of its surface, this new plant was far removed from where it started. ‘You need a new name.’

‘Are names useful?’

‘They certainly make life easier for me.’

‘I want a name!’

Though he would deny it until the day he died, Elijah laughed, scratching the duck’s neck as the back-feather continued to wag. This was far outside of what he normally entertained, so far that some might’ve thought it impossible for him to enjoy.

But he did.

A name, though. What would fit you?

Several suggestions appeared in his mind, though none seemed to stick. Too generic, too vague, too… No, there was one which fit rather well. He thought it perfect even.

“Dawn,” he murmured, raising the duck up to his head. “Your name will be Dawn.”

It quacked, having to read his thoughts before it understood what he’d said. From the reaction, he could tell it enjoyed the name. Or maybe just having a name at all. It didn’t matter to him, the happiness felt sent through infecting his own mood just a little.

There wasn’t an end to it, as the duck jumped to try and reach his face, yet utterly failed and had to be caught once again before it could fall to the floor.

‘Useful,’ it chanted again and again, sending the words through his mind while it tried again and again to climb upwards. Elijah saw it deliberately using the wings before foregoing them in an attempt to use the feet that weren’t useful in the slightest in this scenario. ‘Useful.’

He laughed.

It quacked.

He felt a pull on his Core.

[???] has been activated! Cost of activation: 67MP

Elijah frowned, a word nearly on his tongue before the duck on his lap was gone in a flash of gold. Then a lot of words left his mouth, most of them curses about his current situation, a few extra ones that were likely to get him kicked out of any temple, and a last few just to spite the gods above.

What the hell is happening?

‘This is weird.’

That wasn’t his voice, but he wasn’t channeling Animal Bond either. Elijah’s frown deepened as he looked around, making sure Dawn hadn’t suddenly manifested the ability to teleport. Seeing no sign of them, he… No, he could still feel them.

‘I can see!’

A warmth on his left shoulder. Not on it, though. Inside it, just below the skin, as if there was something there. Somebody.

‘I’m coming out!’

In the same fashion that they had originally disappeared, there was a flash of gold before Dawn reappeared, proudly standing on his left shoulder. At least for a second, as his flinch made the duck lose balance, almost falling before Elijah’s right arm assisted.

‘Thanks,’ Dawn sent Elijah noting the use of Animal Bond once again. ‘That was fun! Very weird but very fun!’

Memories of the experience flooded the bond, making Elijah relive the memories from the duck’s perspective. From one second to the other, they went from being on his lap to being… somewhere else. Able to see and process everything around Elijah, but not able to control anything nor have a real physical body. An awareness floating around the shell made of him. A strange experience, though it explained the warmth that had appeared on his left shoulder, it being an effect of the duck trying to pass through at that spot.

Personally, Elijah was not a fan.

But it was an ability previously unknown, and, from what he could tell, being inside him had rejuvenated Dawn to the fullest. All the energy spent through their time removed from the roots had returned, matching his own reserves perfectly.

Strange.

Opening up his Status allowed him to get some amount of insight, and the Spell previously filled with question marks now had a proper name.

Spells:

[Accelerate Growth](Tier 1)

[Plant Bond](Tier 1)

[Animal Bond](Tier 2)

[Plant Storage](Tier 2)

Plant Storage was the revealed name. Elijah hadn’t heard of it before, but the function was obvious enough. To store plants inside himself in a sort of stasis, not physically but still kept in their optimal health.

Very strange.

Even stranger when he felt Dawn move around inside him when he tested the Spell again and could track the duck moving around with pinpoint accuracy. It wasn’t akin to normal physical sensation, but it wasn’t like his magical senses either. A mix of the two, bordering on being both yet staying far enough away that he couldn’t tell quite what it was supposed to be.

…

Maybe he could try to see if there were any books about the subject in the castle tomorrow. Or, today, he supposed, the sun not many hours from rising. The rays weren’t far from reaching the sky already.

Maybe an hour or two of sleep would do him good.