Chapter 1601: Althea’s New Skill? (Part 2)
It happened during one of her practice and sparring sessions outside the territory, assisted and guarded by her husband. This was something they did at least once a week.
She was just practicing her vine control at first, which was one of the go-to skills of wood users during battles. After all, it could control or inhibit the movement of enemies, which was extremely useful.
The strength of the hold, however, still depended on the plant itself. While wood users could temporarily increase their durability, it was only by a percentage, so there were plenty of limits.
After some practice, she had the inspiration to mix the good parts of the aggressive skills and the support skills. The aggressive skill focused on controlling plants to attack, while the support skills focused on the integral enhancement of the plants themselves.
She tried it on a normal jordana vine from the wild, which was one of the more common crawlers in their area. At first, she just played around with it, allowing it to wrap around her body and carry her up.
She also chose Jordana vine because it had a few spikes on its body. She wasn’t hurt because the parts touching her body would have their spikes retracted. When she did this, she wondered whether she could do the opposite instead.
After about half an hour of memorizing the plant’s composition and life force, and after an hour of trial and error, she finally managed to temporarily reinforce the plant in a way far superior to most wood users could.
Then, she changed its form. She watched as specific spikes sharpened and lengthened to about the size of a palm. If the vine’s length was wrapped around an enemy and then she activated the spikes, then she could damage them while she contained them, depending on their level and equipment.
There was still some margin of error, though, wherein some of the ’wrong’ spikes she was targeting grew instead of the ones she wanted.
Each movement consumed a huge amount of mana, however, and it was difficult to control and maintain, but once she managed to maintain it for 10 minutes, she received the new skill.
[Plant Manipulation(C): Allows users to channel aether to nearby or attached plants, temporarily shaping them into weapons or defenses. Usage: -1 to 5 Mana for every minute of activation. Consumption depends on mass and functions of the summoned plant.]
Seeing a new skill—one that she could use in battle—excited her so, and that day, she and her husband did not go home until well into the night, with Althea just exploring her newfound technique.
It was not limited to a single plant, too, which made things very convenient for her.
After the vine, she tried a poisonous shrub, and she could make it so that the lethality of the poison was more intense, and she could also sharpen its thorns so it’d penetrate deeper into the enemy.
Of course, these all had to be live plants, and she was planning on practicing this skill on many other plants, even the ones at home.
This was particularly great for her because she had a large space with different seeds and plants, though she did have to let them out every few days to breathe.
Today, she was trying the cactus. It was a small cactus in a pot.
She was attempting to create lethal spikes from the cactus she had on hand, and she also tried to make shields from its skin.
For this one, she trained against monsters about 2 levels lower than hers. Garan chose this level because they were not as strong as the same level but just the right amount of challenging. More importantly, she could still gain numerical EXP points.
She was still salty about the fact that they could only gain experience from monsters more or less the same level as they were.
ROAAARR!
Althea watched as the two beasts lunged at her, intent on killing. She avoided them and used the vines to control their movements while she tried to use her new technique.
It was not easy—it never was—but she had been trying out the cactus for a while back in the territory, and she had succeeded; all she needed to do now was to apply it in battle.
She needed to train the quickness of her draw, how fast she could summon it in times of danger, as well as how she could maintain it while she was moving around or fighting.
ROAAARR!
For the first couple of minutes, she struggled with this. All she could do was hide and run while she tried to get the ’feel’ while she was evading their attacks.
Her husband was standing still at the side, ready to help her at any time, but she hoped he wouldn’t have to.
Finally, after a few more moments, she finally captured the ’feel’ she was looking for. If one were to describe it, it felt a lot like attunement. In more scientific terms, it was to align her own wavelength with the technique’s.
Two monsters continued to barrage at her, but this time she made no move to avoid them.
She raised her hands, and greenish shields seemingly manifested from her hands. If one looked closer, there were tendrils and fibers crawling from the cactus to her hand, expanding to create a shield.
ROAAARR!
Althea, even when she directly received the force from the two monsters, barely felt anything.
The shield was soft and absorbent, and worked as a flexible shield rather than a sturdy one.
So far, it was quite effective, though it only worked against monsters with lower levels than her.
She smiled. She expanded her palms and closed them abruptly. Like a signal, spikes shot out of the soft shield, expanding just in time for when the monsters lunged at her again, basically stabbing themselves with the spikes.
She soon received the notification of their deaths and her rewards, and the soft shield and the spikes finally contracted, returning to their original form.
That used up a large amount of mana, but it didn’t matter. Who knew when it’d be useful someday?