Caltrus

As he turned his attention to one of the cards, it became a little bigger and glowed slightly purple within its golden hues. It had the symbol of a flower at its centre, which shone purple as he read the contents of the card.

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『Caltrus』

[ltem Rarity: Unique Low Grade]

[Description: An edible plant once poisoned by the 'Fog of Doom' now freed. Due to its previous exposure, it is now immune to the Fog, and offers slight resistance once consumed.]

[Ownership type: Absolute]

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~Caltrus huh?~ he thought to himself. Its description was enticing to say the least, and the fact that it spoke of consumption meant that it was an edible plant.

He then focused his attention on the next mist-card, and with that, the purple glow of the Caltrus card faded away. The new card grew slightly larger and began glowing silver, the symbol of a coin at its centre.

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『System Currency』× 100

[ltem Rarity: Common Mid Grade]

[Description: System currency that can be converted to any other currency at the request of the holder.]

[Ownership type: Holder]

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~Something tells me I can't choose both of these,~ he realized. The fact that the other card would stop glowing as soon as he dropped focus on it was not very promising for this being an 'all yours' sort of thing.

And if he was forced to choose, he'd rather go with the Caltrus. Sure the system currency was going to give his system quite the boost, but still it was a fixed amount, not to mention that its item rarity seemed to indicate it was more common than Caltrus'.

Caltrus on the other hand could prove to be a valuable investment. From what he had seen, most of the forest was infected with that odd black goop, and he had a burning suspicion that food was a problem in these parts -made painfully obvious by the state of Afina's body, which was rather bony even for a girl her age.

~So am I going to take a risk and try to make Caltrus work for me? Or am I going to take the 100 system coins, and perhaps get a really good headstart with my system?~ he thought to himself.

~Well, I'm not a poverty-stricken idiot who gets blinded by instant gratification. I already gained more than 20 system coins thus far, and I'll be able to gain even more in the future. Caltrus however is a different story,~ he decided, before reaching out his hand for the Caltrus card.

"Ignite," he whispered, snapping his fingers, and with that a magenta flame erupted around Clatrus, turning its golden body to the same colour as the flames.

The system currency card poofed into golden dust, before disappearing completely along with the rest of the golden mist which the chest exuded.

After a few moments, the chest itself also disappeared and only the Caltrus card floated in front of Edric.

"Magnificent," Edric whispered under his breath, in complete awe at the show that was being put on for him. However, it seemed this was not the end.

The Caltrus card began glowing bright purple, before turning to mist. The mist slowly trailed its way towards Edric's arm, before slowly entering. His arm burned for a moment, before several of his scales began glowing, forming the symbol of a flower.

Once the process was done, the glowing scales were now translucent, leaving the impression of a pink-glass tattoo on his forearm.

『You now own Caltrus!』

"Did you claim your bounty?" Afina asked softly, apparently having waited for Edric to finish before she opened her mouth.

"This tattoo looks an awful lot like a-" he whispered, as he touched the tattoo. With that, a cloud of purple mist effused from it, showing the Caltrus card once again.

"-rune," he finished, now inspecting the mist.

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『Caltrus』

[Health: 10/10]

[Water: 100%]

[Sunlight: 50%]

[Nutrients: 100%]

[Fruit Production: 75%]

[Gem Slot 1: None]

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~This is sort of like those information screens several of my farming companies used... well a little less advanced, but I suppose that just means taking care of this won't be too complicated,~ he thought to himself, before whispering 'ignite'.

The card erupted into flames once again, and this time a holographic image of the flowers that lined the walls floated in front of him. A moment later, the vines in the room, began to shift and snake, before forming a stalk right beneath the holographic image, rising up until it was akin to a tree trunk.

A second after, the purple flowers all along the walls began floating towards the vine tree-trunk, as if attracted by magnets.

Once the process was done, the entire tree was covered by purple flowers.

"So this is mine?" he whispered to himself, a warm feeling filling his chest as he stared at the first asset he had acquired in this world. It was nearly enough to bring him to tears.

"That's a pretty tree," Afina interrupted, disturbing what Edric would've termed an important life moment.

"Yes Afina it is," he whispered back, in slight annoyance.

"Ignite," he whispered next, snapping his fingers. The tree erupted into pink flames, before turning to mist. The mist then streamed towards the tattoo on his forearm, disappearing completely.

"Good, I wouldn't want to leave my newest asset in a random rundown village," he whispered to himself before looking around the room to see if there was still anything valuable lying around.

"Afina, go check the other houses, there might still be stuff we need for the city," he said.

After all, that was where his first base of operations would be. And now with an asset he could use to boost his business activities, he was more than eager to start his empire.

~My dream will soon be reality,~ he thought to himself with a smile, his eyes glazed over as he reminisced about the dream he had earlier.

"I-I can't go alone," Afina mumbled in response, moving closer to Edric ever so slightly.

~Maybe after I dump this girl,~ he decided to himself, before heading towards the ladder.