Soul Food

Day 3

After many grueling hours, Jack completed his third day of solitary confinement. Jack was unfortunately unaware of how much time had passed but was somewhat informed on the life cycle of plants and concluded that he was somewhere around day 2 to 3, Which took a toll on his mentality, as he had felt like he had already been stuck here for ages. 

Jack's roots had split into multiple tiny legs and began protruding in differing directions. Jack knew that he was still far from sprouting, and even if he did, it wouldn't intrinsically give him the ability to see. But Jack wasn't too upset because his efforts paid off. When performing Absorption, Jack pushed his Soul beyond its comfort zone, similar to his previous test. Although it hurt, it paid off. Yesterday, Jack could only triple his Soul's reach. Now, it was thirty shells in radius. Which is a Ten Times Increase!!! That wasn't saying much, as plant seeds are tiny, though Jack didn't let that get to him.

Considering Jack's situation, his renewed vigor was massive, but he wasn't willing to continue like this forever. Jack began experimenting with the substance surrounding himself, trying to feel its presence. When he did, only after giving his 100% did he hardly feel it around him.

3 hours later

After Jack finished experimenting with his newly strengthened Soul, he felt lost. Only after a herculean effort could he sense the tiniest sliver of this substance around him, and nothing else he tried seemed to work. Jack was about to give up on finding ways to accelerate his progress. He realized that since this substance could support his Soul, it could also help his body grow. Jack used Absorption to bring this substance into himself, but this time he redirected it to his roots instead of letting his Soul suck it up. Jack then activated Absorption as usual to see the results. Jack soon realized he didn't need Absorption to visualize the change in the roots. Because soon after, he could feel a tingling sensation come from them. 

Jack was overjoyed and continued to use Absorption on his roots. After a few hours, he could move each one and vaguely felt the dirt around them. Jack decided to call this process Accelerated Growth in the future.

After some testing, he concluded that using the substance on his roots increased the connection between his Soul and body. Another thing he found was if he wanted the root to bring in the substance instead of water and nutrients, it would. Although it would be significantly slower than his Soul, it was still a huge discovery.

Jack decided to focus solely on developing one root and have none of them collect the substance, as it could damage him if he didn't get enough nutrients.

Day 4

Jack stopped when the root reached the same diameter as the seed's shell, which he now assumed to be around 2 inches or 5 centimeters. The root also had a length of about 16 inches or 40 centimeters. Jack would be ecstatic with this development if he hadn't spent the past 12 or so hours watching it slowly grow. 

Though Jack would be smiling if he had a face when playing with this root, its speed was almost practical, and he could feel the dirt like his own hand with this root. It made Jack feel like a kid in a sandbox again. It was a feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time. However, the feeling soon passed as Jack wasn't satisfied with this development and wanted more.

The rest of his body had been functioning correctly. The roots grew slowly, and some new roots sprouted as well. Jack estimated that the hours he spent using Accelerated Growth on the roots yesterday (not including the 12 hours he spent on the Main root) should have pushed his progress forward by another day. The downside is Jack can't accurately depict how much time has passed, which is a major bane for someone in his situation.

However, his body would grow significantly faster if he used the main root to gather nutrients. Jack decided against that and made it absorb the substance instead, and he discovered that its efficiency was double what Jack could do with his Soul. 

He decided against letting his roots absorb the substance and had the main root redirect it directly to his Soul. When Jack did, he felt like he was receiving a smooth massage. He currently was the most relaxed he had been since his reincarnation. Jack appreciated this feeling, but before he got used to it, he decided to use it to help him hypothesize instead. Jack's main concern now was gaining the ability to see. Jack wasn't so worried about accelerating his overall growth and knew it wouldn't matter how developed his plant body was because it wouldn't help him see.

To increase his future substance gain, Jack redirected the substance the Main root absorbed to two new roots. Then Jack would continue to strengthen his Soul with Absorption by slightly damaging it.

3 Hours Later

Jack noticed a significant decline in growth from his Souls expansion, while the two roots had each grown to be about .75 inches or 2 centimeters in diameter. It seemed that stretching out his Soul any further would be impossible. Even going the slightest bit outside of his comfort zone was painful now.

Jack temporarily redirected the Main Root to his Soul while he thought about possible solutions to this problem.

'When I increase the range of my Soul, am I strengthening it? No, it's more like I'm just stretching it out!'

With that epiphany, Jack began thinking about ways he could strengthen it. Quickly, Jack concluded he would have to condense his Soul to empower it. Jack knew that for all things, to increase in strength is to increase in density; his Soul should be no different.

Jack didn't hesitate and began attempting his theory. He tried as hard as he could to push his Soul into itself but wasn't getting any results. Jack realized his efforts were misplaced. Instead of forcing it, he imagined that his Soul was like a whirlpool spiraling into itself, and with significantly less effort, Jack started to condense his Soul slowly. After a few hours, Jack didn't feel any resistance from his Soul and realized that he had succeeded. Jack redirected the Main root back to the two roots and began testing his upgraded Soul.