Dead Gardens - Chapter 6

‘You know what had been bugging my mind these past few minutes we spent together, Dominion?’

<Oh my god! We’re still talking!? I thought I already answered all of your questions!?>

‘Unfortunately not. And if I’m gonna have to get used to your temper, you’ll have to get used to my questions. Both annoying. Deal with it.’

<Urgh… Fiiiiine! Haa… I hope you fucking die.>

‘What was that?’

<NOTHING! ARGH! YOU’RE ASKING TOO MANY QUESTIONS! YOU’RE MAKING ME LOSE MY MIIIIND! Haa… Haa… Haaaaa… What’s your question again?>

‘You mean, “what was that?”‘

<No! The one before that!>

‘Oooohh… Do you know what has been bugging me so far in our joy walk together?’

<…Pray tell.>

‘I’m walking.’

<Ha?>

‘I mean, don’t you find it weird? I’m walking!’

<What’s so weird about that? Everybody walks! It’s supposed to be weird if you can’t.>

‘See, that’s the thing! I should not be walking right now.’

<Uhh… Wh–I’m not sure if I follow.>

‘A monster chewed my left foot off earlier, remember? Did you give me a new leg?’

<What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t give you a new leg. I gave you a new body!>

‘Oh, wait, yeah! HAHAHAHA! YOU’RE RIGHT! I’m sorry. Nevermind me, then.’

<This is why I fucking hate answering questions.>

‘Then…’

<Why are we still doing this, Aleph? Can’t we just BE QUIET!?>

‘I just wanna ask what happened to my side.’

‘What?’

<I mean, yeah, now that I remember that I’m using Gres’ body, isn’t it fair for me to ask how my body is fully healed? I see a dent on the armor I’m wearing, but there are no issues on my sides. Didn’t Gres die because a monster chewed his sides off?>

‘I healed your body using my super amazing god powers when we merged. But I can’t do it again since I’m too weak. NOW, CAN WE PLEASE BE QUIET?’

‘I see.’

Silence soon enveloped us.

‘Hey, Dominion.’

<I’m not gonna answer you.>

‘What’s the name of those trees?’

<ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!?>

‘I’ve been seeing them since I lifted the fog off my vision. I’m just curious what they are.’

<You are, by far, the most annoying thing I had ever seen in my life.>

‘Likewise. The feeling is mutual. I never thought a god would be as infuriating as you. Look, you either put up with my nonsense or kill me. I’m sure you can do it somehow.’

<You know I can do it, right?>

‘Yeah, and hey, I should already be dead right now. I’m very thankful you saved me, but my fate has been sealed ever since I was born a human. I will die, if not now, soon. I should’ve died earlier, but you allowed me to live, which I am still grateful for, but if you can’t stand me, then let’s quit wasting our time: just kill me and find a better host.’

<Careful with that, Aleph. You might just cut everything around you with all that edge!>

‘I’ve been told something similar before.’

<Haa Multiple times, I presume. Alright, Yes, you’re right. Men like you are bound to die, unlike gods like me. That’s pretty much rule #1 of your kind. Well, there’s another way to cheat that rule…>

‘What do you mean?’

<Nevermind. Look, I’m going off tangent here. Yes, I can kill you. I can kill you now; I can kill you later; I can kill you earlier. But many factors are stopping me from doing so. I’ll be frank with you. I’m weak, same as you. We’re both powerless with our current state now. If I use my energy just to off your head, it will only be a waste. Plus, it’s troublesome to find another host with circumstances as perfect as yours.>

‘So, once you’ve regained your strength, you can just dunk me into the dumpster and find a better host?’

<I’m not planning to, but if you keep annoying me, I most definitely will.>

‘Hmm… Well, that won’t be good.’

<Yes, so just shut the fuck up and keep walking.>

‘But I really want to know more about that tree…’

<You are so… GRRAAAAGHH! YOU’RE MAKING ME LOSE MY MIND! Fine! Just lock your vision on a tree you’re so curious about and say ANALYZE.>

I promptly did as Dominion instructed. All of the trees looked pretty much uniform, so I assumed that they’re all the same or at least hailed from the same genealogy. These trees are almost leafless. They have a rather rough dark brown exterior, thin trunks, and slithering branches.

“ANALYZE,” I said out loud with a monotone, back hunched forward, and bored expression.

Without even a few seconds of intervals, a translucent light-blue textbox suddenly popped into my vision with an arrow pointed at the tree I was looking at.

“HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE–”

I jolted backward, shocked at how the textbox just suddenly jumped in my eyes. When my vision moved after taking a step back, I also noticed that the textbox moved along with it. Curious about its existence, I read what was written on the darn thing.

|Name: Buloke

| Classification: (1)Natural Resource, (2)Alive [W], (3)Raw Material

| Status:

|STR: 3

|VIT: 5

‘Hey, Dominion. You’re gonna hate me for this, but…’

<Oh god…>

‘I have a few questions.’

<Haa… To be honest, I don’t know why I still get mad at you for all the asking. Just ask already. It’s not like I can stop you.>

‘What the hell am I looking at?’

<Uhh… A tree?>

‘No, no, no! I mean this plastic-looking textbox.’

<Ah… That? You said ANALYZE, right? My System just acknowledged your command, analyzed the damn tree you were yapping about, and gave you the necessary and most bare minimum information you’d need.>

‘Can you run me through what I’m looking at here? Classification? Status? The only thing I understood is “Name.”‘

<Isn’t it self-explanatory already? Aren’t you supposed to be a genius? Or did I misread your stats? Haa… You know what, I’ll just answer.

<As you may already be aware, “Name” means the name of the object you analyzed. This particular tree is called a buloke, a pretty sturdy material. You’d best keep an eye on this tree.

< Classification is precisely what the word implies. It talks about where the object belongs in the grand scheme of the world. Notice that this tree has three sub-classifications. Some have much more sub-classifications than this, but everything in the world has at least three sub-classifications; I have yet to see anything lower than that, but you’d learn soon that the Dead Gardens has many ways of surprising you.

<Let’s talk about this buloke’s sub-classification. Pay attention. I will not explain this again. The (1) mark means its main-classification; it will say if it’s an entity, resource, elemental, among others. You’ll learn more about main-classification as our journey progresses. Obviously, the buloke is a natural resource; it means you can find this tree in nature, go figure.

<The (2) mark answers whether the damn thing is alive or not. Quite easy to understand.

<The (3) mark talks about the object’s use. Is it a material, weapon, armor, food, etc.? This mark answers that. Un-harvested material will usually be called “Raw Material.”

<Lastly, Status is the numerical capabilities of the damn thing you analyze has and will give you if you use it. If you make a sword using a buloke, you will gain 3 Strength and 5 Vitality. If you use buloke as a raw material for, let’s say, a stone sword, that weapon will gain the numerical stats of the buloke added with the stats of the other raw materials you used. Let’s say, for example, the stone you used has 5 Strength and 5 Vitality, and you combine it with a buloke, then you will gain 8 Strength and 10 Vitality when you equip the weapon.

<Any questions?>

‘Yeah, about the…’

<Are you fucking serious?>

‘I just wanna hear a more in-depth lesson about the numerical status.’

<Haa… Well, fine. You’ll know about this sooner or later anyway. Okay, listen up!

<As you may have already known, the world is governed by six gods. We surrendered our power to our favorite items and bestowed every individual of all races a bit of our essence. This includes raw materials. Having six gods means having six numerical Status.

<Strength, Vitality, Intelligence, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charm.

<The more Strength you have, the stronger your body hits.

<The more Vitality you have, the sturdier your body gets.

<The more Intelligence you have, the better your mana regeneration can be.

<The more Dexterity you have, the faster you are, and the better you are at handling pieces of equipment.

<And well, the last two ones can get a bit more complicated. But the simplest way I can explain them is that…

<Wisdom makes it possible for you to use magic longer.

<Meanwhile, Charm, well, gets you hella bitches.>

‘So I guess since you’re one of the six gods, that means you control one stat.’

<That’s right.>

‘And that is?’

<Charm.>