47.

"Wait... You are telling us that Garric personally invited you to this job?"

As soon as Eldric finished recounting the events that led him here, excluding the threats, Lucius couldn't help but shout in surprise.

"Umm... That seems to be the case." Eldric nodded in response. But at the same time, he saw the surprise as well as envy in their expressions.

And this confirmed his suspicion. It seemed he was the only one personally invited by Garric. But why would someone so influential and powerful care about someone as insignificant as him? The more he thought about it, the more Eldric found himself at a loss.

"How did you all get here?" In the end, he could only ask them about their process of getting here.

"..." There was some hesitation among the four as to whether to give Eldric an answer or not. After all, he had given them such a huge shock. But, in the end, it was Lucius who answered Eldric's question.

"When we were unable to get into the university and were kicked out of the school, we thought of ways to get a decent-paying job to support ourselves. It was then that we came across the City Lord's recruitment. And after applying, we went through a long process and were finally selected."

"Interesting." Eldric kept on separating the stones while thinking about what they had just told him.

"The entire process was something like this..." With these words, Lucius began to tell everything from the day they left school to how they got here. The more Eldric listened, the more he understood how different he was from them.

After leaving school, they came to know about the recruitment in the City Lord's hall. Only people who had awakened less than a month ago were eligible to apply, which meant that this recruitment was aimed at the students. They had to submit everything about themselves and, after going through background checks and a lot of interviews and meetings, they were finally able to get this job.

"Say..." While Eldric was thinking, Balor spoke with some hesitation. "Are you the son of the principal?"

"Huh!?" With a face full of surprise, Eldric almost laughed out loud at this ridiculous question before shaking his head in refusal.

After listening to them, it was only now that Eldric realized that Garric went through extra trouble just to get him here. But why? This was the question that Eldric couldn't answer. There was no need for Garric to do this. And after his threat, Eldric was sure that it wasn't done out of goodwill.

He never had any interactions with Garric; after his arrival, he even kept his distance from other students and was completely invisible there. He didn't offend anyone or have any argument with someone. And yet, after keeping to himself, Garric still threatened him. The more he thought about it, the more it didn't make any sense.

"Forget it." In the end, Eldric could only shake his head and throw these distracting thoughts out of his mind. Now the only thing he could do was to go with the flow.

After this short conversation, Eldric could feel the change in atmosphere. The other four didn't seem interested in talking to him. They would occasionally joke amongst themselves and have a laugh or two but mostly kept Eldric out of their conversation. Eldric, too, wasn't interested in joining them. If not for the fact that he was bored and wanted information, he wouldn't have talked to them in the first place.

He could understand this sudden change in them. After all, they went through countless hardships and troubles before ending up here, whereas he was just forced here by someone else against his own will. Anyone would be angry at this unfairness, not to mention the young boys who had just turned eighteen and wanted to accomplish something big.

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After working the entire day, the door to the room finally opened, and the old butler arrived.

"Please." Signaling them to follow, he led them outside the castle where five carriages were already waiting for them. The old butler didn't say anything but turned around and headed back inside.

"Should we go?" As soon as the old butler left, there was a wretched smile on Balor's face. Needless to say, he was itching to go to the brothel.

Other than Lucius who hesitated, the remaining two accepted this proposal immediately.

Eldric on the other hand didn't waste time there. He jumped inside his carriage and said just one word. "Home".

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After reaching back home, Eldric prepared dinner and after placing the meal in front of Aria's room, headed to his own.

Throughout the time, his mind was replaying the scenes of him working in the mansion. From the arrival of Garric to the small conversation with the others, Eldric knew things weren't going to stay peaceful. Perhaps, it might be his overthinking about matters that aren't there in the first place. But he surely didn't want to risk it.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and suppressed the distracting thoughts before focusing on the panel in front of him.

Even though he had spent eight hundred tokens and an additional fifty tokens on the lesson, he still had more than twelve hundred tokens remaining in his possession. Now the question was whether to use these tokens to improve his combat skills or life skills.

The sudden turn of events made him anxious. Today it was Garric and the so-called city lord who forced him to do things against his will. And tomorrow it might be someone else. As long as he was weak and couldn't protect himself, he was bound to be pushed around by others.

With this in mind, he now looked at the two combat skills with a frown. Even if he improved them, they would only give him a one-sided improvement. He could try to evolve them further but then again, it wouldn't completely elevate his combat prowess.

And Eldric still had no idea how powerful those who had gone through the second Evolution were. Perhaps, it was possible that he might not be able to break their defence with his current attributes. It was a far-fetched guess, but Eldric was not going to take a risk.

So, the only thing that could give him immediate improvement was Evolving his Gardener's skills. After all, unlike the combat profession, where he need to create his own skill to evolve further, the Life profession only needed him to upgrade his already existing skill through enlightenment. Eldric might not gain enlightenment in the short term, but he had ways to go around this limitation.

With this in mind, Eldric checked the materials needed to upgrade the skill "Nature's Embrace".

[Essence Of The Forest x 1, Starfall Dew x 1]

Remembering the names of the materials, Eldric opened the auction to check the price.

"Sure enough..." Looking at the prices, he couldn't help but shake his head.

[Essence Of The Forest: 400 Tokens]

[Starfall Dew: 600 Tokens]

Without any hesitation, Eldric directly purchased the two items. Looking at the two transparent vials in front of him, one of which seemed to contain mist and the other sparking water that looked like it was made out of tiny stars; Eldric took a deep breath and chose to upgrade the skill.

As soon as he upgraded, the two vials vanished from the air before a burst of energy entered his body.

This burst of energy was unlike anything Eldric had ever felt before. It was relaxing and yet at the same time full of life. It was as if there were countless plants were humming in his ears.

With this, an intense drowsiness overtook Eldric as he struggled to stay awake. But unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, in the end, he fell asleep on the floor.

Compared to the last time, the changes this time were even more obvious. Within a few moments, Eldric's entire body was covered by a thin green raccoon. From his skin to his hair, everything seemed to be going under metamorphosis.

Even the worn-out walls of the apartment which were missing paint were now covered with moss that seemed to have grown overnight.

But thankfully, like the previous time, the changes were limited to the room. Even if someone were standing in front of the room, they wouldn't be able to notice the changes.

The next morning when Eldric opened his eyes, he felt like his body was filled with endless energy. Not only that, he even had an instinct that he could do many new things. Things that he didn't even dare to think about.

Walking to the bathroom, Eldric stood in front of the mirror, and the first thing that greeted him was his eyes. Compared to before when his eyes were black, now they have turned completely green.

In the receding darkness of the dawn, Eldric could see his eyes glowing with an otherworldly green light that seemed to mesmerize anyone who saw them.

Taking off his clothes, he tried to see whether there were any other changes, but other than his eyes and his body which was now giving off the faint fragrance of fresh flowers, there were no other changes.

Looking outside, it was still somewhat dark, so draping himself with a black robe and wearing the mask, Eldric jumped out of his building and ran in the direction of the main city's market as fast as possible.

With the agility of five, everything around him seemed to blur as his body was traveling at a speed similar to the supercars of his precious life.

After rushing for almost ten minutes, Eldric finally stopped at a deserted place where there were a few trees.

After making sure that no one followed him, Eldric closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and raised his hand. Opening his eyes, he waved and the moment he did, the small patches of grass on the ground rapidly grew at an astounding speed. Within a few seconds, an area of almost thirty meters around Eldric now looked like a grassland, with plants reaching as high as his neck.

Compared to before, when he could only grow one plant at a time, he could now rapidly grow plants in an area of thirty meters around him.

Not only that...

Eldric waved his hand again and the grass around him suddenly changed shape, and within a few seconds, a giant green hand made completely from grass formed above his head before smashing the ground in front.

"BOOM"

With a loud sound of explosion, the entire place was covered in dust and dirt. Waving the plants around like a fan, Eldric cleared all the dust before narrowing his eyes.

At the place of impact, there was a small crater. Just the aftermath of the impact was so strong that Eldric still felt his ears ringing and his legs shaking. He was sure that even with his vitality at five, he would be smashed into pieces if he dared to receive this attack. This was now the strongest means of attack he had at his disposal.

With a heart filled with excitement, Eldric kept on experimenting, making different shapes and sizes. In the end, he finally understood the limitations of this skill.

Though it was powerful, there were still a lot of shortcomings. The first one was that after the initial area of thirty meters was formed, we couldn't move out of it.

If he got out of the area, then the plants would wither and he would have to go through the process once again.

Though he could make anything from the grass, he could only do it with the grass available in the area. This means he could form various shapes like palms, dragons, snakes, wolves, and almost anything, but their size and power would depend on the quantity of the grass. For now, he can not make anything too big or extremely complicated. Also, anything that he forms from the grass would not work outside the thirty-meter area.

He then tried the damage transfer skill, but there didn't seem to be any changes.

After experimenting for a while, Eldric was finally content. With a smile that was hidden behind the mask and eyes that were glowing green, he looked at the panel in front of him before heading back home.

[Name: Eldric Stormborne]

[Life Profession: Gardener(Tier II)]

[Skill: Verdant Sovereignty]+

{Verdant Sovereignty: Can now form plant structures and have vast control over plant life} +