A Plant’s Life - Chapter 63 Frog in the well!

John had not mixed the forces with one fixed percentage, rather he used small particles of different amounts until the exact format to produce the little minefield was found. Then with his excess control over energy, he disarmed the traps, as if they were child’s play; if the designer saw such a scene John would find himself a few powerful mortal enemies. Yet he had broken the small death tricks, to use the results for his level up enhancement, so in the future, he would break such dilemma with more ease!

[Name: John

Race: NA

Level: 31

Area of influence: 164 (+ 33) / 164 (+ 33) (Mind*5 + Spirit + 2)

PP (Processing Power): 456 (+ 69) / 456 (+ 69) (Mind*10 + spirit*3 + 100)

SP (Soul Power): 320 (+ 30) / 320 (+ 30) (Spirit*10)

Attributes:

Spirit – 32 (+ 3)

Luck – 17 (+ 3)

Mind – 27 (+ 6)

Skills:

Energy Manipulation (Expert): Bend the surrounding energy to the user’s will, now destiny can be noticed on targets, they cannot be under the control of a being with higher Spirit; costs 5 pp per sec.

Energy Devour (Expert): Intake any energy with medium wavelength within the area of influence, the amount under control cannot exceed SP and PP; costs 1 pp per sec.

Mind Control (Apprentice): Read and affect minds of weaker targets within the area of influence; costs 10 pp per sec.

Additional effects added: Increase in the shackles of the brain, strong focus from the system over grasping the subject’s mind.

EL (Energy Level): 0 / 500,000]

John analyzed his new stats:

“It is very interesting how despicable and deceiving every aspect of this world is, one cannot be careless in the slightest. My prior cautious behaviour has saved me from a considerable amount of problems, bringing benefits in the long run rather than the short. This new round of experimentation has proved a few of my theories, such as the advantages of mixing the energies and the speciality of each type of energy; due to gathering the life energy of a few lucky pieces, I was able to increase the value of my luck. This shows the low value of each subject in the eyes of fate, if someone is able to successfully steal the fate of others, they will be used in the plans instead of the original owner of such destiny. I need to be more careful in taking fate energy from this point forward; as it stands at the moment I am a small fry in the grand plan, but if I continue to grow fast by taking over other’s fate I will either be punished for taking more than I can handle or simply be used as a pawn. No sane player would allow their subjects to grow out of control, so it is only natural to be limited more if I grow based on my current abilities.”

John was truly angry this time, if any of is associates from his past life were present, they would be flabbergasted since John always had many plans to have all the circumstances under control. However, right at this moment he had found the tip of the iceberg and based on his personality he had estimated the depth to be unfathomable. A wise person would imagine the worst-case scenario when planning for alternate plans, yet this problem would make them drenched in cold sweat as the forces at play were gigantic. John realized more than ever his existence was placed amongst titans and one careless move was sufficient to be thoroughly annihilated; not leaving any trace as if he had never existed.

John analyzed further: “it appears this ogre that has generously offered his body as a vessel for me has the scent of dungeon core’s favour on him. This layout is very similar to the format of fate, but it belongs to this dungeon, based on such observation we can theorize the foreign fate on other subjects was placed there by the so-called gods of this land. They are all using their hidden influences to nurture their pawns for simple or complex biddings. It appears this dungeon master is backed heavily as well, to have this land available to small characters such as my previous lab rats. The gods are plotting to extract the benefits, yet the dungeon master and the backer is standing in their way, so the only possible solution is to play a long game of chess. This is good news for me, as it represents an adequate amount of time to prepare, yet the downside is that I have to be very careful since each move is directly observed by the players, so I cannot show my hand until I am ready to take it all in one fell swoop.”

John was not going to only take the mana core for himself any longer, or he would be but a minor speedbump in the grand plan of deities, he had to break the board and devour the players in one move or he would be crushed from both sides. Since he was going to acquire something both factions desired, he had no possible allies on either party, might as well take more and become formidable. No sane person would leave their life in the hands of others when even their ultimate goals were against one another!

John assessed the position of the imitation fate energy on his lab rat:

“It looks as if the core has moved this puppet to become strong and take over the position of the floor boss, keeping the underlying different kind of monsters in control. This would justify the act of the 2 kobolds, as they were clearly guiding this small group towards this room, it can be estimated that they knew something about the intruders! It is very likely their champion was the prior floor guardian and was slaughtered by an adventurer party. Thus, they hoped to achieve the same effect, eradicating this trouble for themselves.

Once a puppet serves its purpose it becomes disposable, yet in such case, the investment has gone to waste. Based on the memories of this ogre, this position has not been filled for too long so the core should find a more suitable match to become the new bearer of such responsibility.

This aligns with my plan to pass the connecting door to higher levels since any intruder will be marked by the system based on their energy level. It would not be ideal to have unknown enemies inside when the mainframe grasps even the flow of mana and can easily detect any abnormality.

My previous subjects did not meet the qualification to pass such hurdle, thus it would potentially jeopardize my trail and they had to be discarded even though their psyche could accommodate me for some more time. This new vessel is qualified to venture further, yet it has many impurities inside; as it has been raised too fast, similar to livestock to feed others, it is raised to maintain the ecology.

The most important prospect of such closed environment is the ecosystem, this is the reason the ruler of this place is using an isolated hidden part of the first floor to develop the secret garden I was born inside. Such a structure can severely affect the balance of the dungeon, it appears the plan is to mass-produce the hybrid of monsters, to most likely unleash a swarm, destroying the surrounding kingdom.

It is time to fix this defected vessel and raise its level a few times, courtesy of the generous donation of the rolling stone party!”

If the poor souls of adventuring group called rolling stone would here the last comment made by John, they would die of shock, alas even their souls were corrupted and mostly broken by the same culprit!

After some time, as John was busy mending his guinea pig sound of fighting came and died as quickly as it started, then an unfortunate soul pushed the entrance door of floor bosses’ layer.