Plants are the path to revelation

Chapter 4 - Plants are the path to revelation

'Will all my plants die?'

Maybe.

'I should take out all seeds and wash the soil.'

But I don't want to do that.

"Hahhhh"

'So bothersome.'

I fixed my gaze on the pot.

'Can I even carry it?'

With that question in mind, I wandered to the pot standing just before it. I tilted the pot a bit so that I could put my foot under one side. I then balanced the pot on my foot so that I could take my hands and put them under the pot.

I slowly arched my back while sliding my hands down the pot, until I could reach under the pot and lift it. 

I already felt that the pot was heavy when I put it on my foot, but actually lifting it was harder than expected. The pot was pretty big coupled with the fact that I had to tilt the pot in my direction to make sure it didn't fall. It was very hard to hold the pot in the air. 

I put down the pot carefully.

"Phuu"

'I don't think I can move it around'

I stretched.

'I'm pretty weak.'

I am 15 years old and am still so weak.

'I should do something about this!'

I'm probably just going to procrastinate that.

Having reached the conclusion that I cannot move the pot, I sat down.'What now?', I pondered.

…

Life prevails!

No matter what life finds a way!

I could see a few small green plants in my pot. They were barely out of the soil, but they were ALIVE!

'Whatever chemicals were inside the soil, they couldn't stop my little babies!'

After 3 days my plants sprouted from the seeds!

"Haaah"

'Thankfully, they didn't die.'

'But man, why is this called a time-consuming hobby?'

'I literally haven't done anything other than water it a bit the last few days.'

I didn't feel like watching videos about MU plants so I haven't figured out much more about this hobby. 

'I should learn more about it, but I don't feel like it.'

But now I am responsible for these plants so I have to learn more about them.

…

'So that's why.'

After researching I found out why this hobby is supposed to be time-consuming.(A/N: just skip this.)

It mostly comes down to the care of harder plants. For example: the MU plant death flower has to be fed animals each day, not flesh, but animals. While feeding dead animals makes it a lot easier, the animal has to be replaced each day to make sure the death flower doesn't resurrect the animal into a zombie. 

Other than that the death flower has a sort of immune-system, but because the plant changes a lot each day, the immune-system begins to see it's own body as foreign and attacks it. To stop that the immune-system has to be recalibrated each day, this doesn't just require a lot of knowledge but also really expensive equipment. 

It also has to be fed the right amount of nutrients, if it is too much the plant just starts swelling and exploding releasing poisonous gas that can kill even the most powerful humans. When fed too little, it starts to rot at the leaves. Often these leaves don't rot completely but just fall down, in that case, these leaves will become parasitic to the mother plant, and removing these parasites is impossible. The words is that this can happen in mere seconds.

In addition to that the plant has multiple health risks, with most being deadly. It is extremely picky with light, animals as feeds, and nutrients, and is just generally a big pain in the butt.

Then why do people cultivate this flower?

Simple, the flower that this plant has can be sold for tens of millions and in rare cases even for hundreds of millions of credits. (A/N: STOP HERE)

'Thankfully, my plant is very simple.'

'In my case, the hobby will be far from time-consuming and I don't plan on getting any complicated plants as they sound very annoying.'

'Maybe I should get myself another hobby.'

…

It's been about half a month since the plant sprouted, by now it has become a small flower and I have to take care of it in some more ways.

'20ppm, 24ppm, 50ppm, 21ppm', I looked at the apparatus in my hand that displayed the mana density. This apparatus was called an MDS–mana density surveyor, as it gave the mana particle density in parts per million air molecules.

The mana density was surprisingly changing a lot based on location. The mana density isn't supposed to change that fast.

I walked a few steps back and held the apparatus in the location where the mana density was 50ppm, but strangely it was only 20ppm right now.

I put the apparatus close to my body and the density began rising, '30ppm, 40ppm, 46ppm, 51ppm, 63ppm.' With the apparatus directly at my body, it showed 63ppm. I must have affected the reading, for normal people, their own mana didn't affect the reading, and if only by 1 or 2 ppm.

'Is it because of my mystery?'

Probably.

'I probably have to buy myself a special MDS.'

But those aren't available to the public.

'I will have to call my father.'

I took out my hologram and searched for my father's contact.

'Whelp'

I pressed call.

Tring-tring.

An annoying sound came from my phone.

Tring-trin

"Hello?"

"Hello, Father this is Sirius, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Sirius? A favor? Of course, what do you need?"

"Well, I've acquired a MU plant, and I'm at the stage where I need to relocate it to an area with a higher mana density. However, it seems that the current MDS I have is affected by my own mana. So, could you help me acquire a specialized MDS that exclusively reads the ambient mana in the air?"

"Certainly! That shouldn't be a problem. Cultivating MU plants? Have you picked up a new hobby?"

"Yes, I found that I have quite a bit of free time and wanted a new hobby to keep me engaged."

"Hmm, so school isn't consuming all your free time these days?"

"No, schoolwork has been relatively light lately."

"Mhh, you say your mana affects the reading? By how much does it affect the reading?"

"I am not sure as I don't know what the base mana density is. But when I put the MDS directly to my body it says 63ppm"

"63. … Mhhh, have you been using your mystery recently?"

"Mystery? Ehrrrr no."

"Okay, in that case, you should probably get tested again. I will directly come to you and fetch you."

"Testing? Why that?"

"Because normally your mana should only affect the reading to a maximum of 48ppm. I am guessing your mystery has improved."

"O–okay," my voice trembled, my throat constricting as I struggled to speak. Despite my efforts to maintain composure, the tumultuous mixture of dread and hope churned within me, making it impossible to stay calm.

I swallowed the accumulated spit.

'Fuck.'