Seedling System

Glim slowly woke up under the tree. At first his mind was very groggy and clouded.

'What's going on?'

Then his mind cleared and it came back to him. The weird voice. The countdown. The pain.

Glim bolted up and checked his surroundings. It was still just him. From where the sun sit in the sky Glim figured it had been three hours or so until.

This didn't make him feel any better though. He was alone last time when the voice showed up.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yes."

Glim hadn't expected a response back.

"Where are you then? I can't see you."

"Around your neck."

Glim looked down, but all he found was the same necklace he had always worn. It was the leaf pendant left by his mother. The only thing he had from her.

"My leaf necklace?"

"Yes."

"What the hell? I've been wearing this all my life, but ive never heard your voice."

"I had never spoke to you until now."

'That would make sense I guess. But why wait until now? And what was that "Integration"?'

There was no reason until now. The integration process was the final merging of your two souls."

"What the hell!? Can you hear my thoughts!?"

"Yes. That is how you can hear me. I am broadcasting my voice strait to your mind."

'Well that's creepy as hell.'

"Wait, what did you mean by two souls?"

"When you were born your soul was badly damaged and dying. Since I had finally found a compatible host I decided to save you. I had to find a soul of close compatibility. Once that was done I pulled it to you and started the integration process. If I did the whole thing while you were still a baby you would have died. I made it so the souls merged slowly that way the soul of the baby would get energy and grow."

"All of the places you have seen in your dreams have been because of this process. They are the memories of your donor."

Glim had been having vivid dreams and nightmares' since he was a baby. This had explained all of those places he saw, and how he was the same person every time.

"Donor? You make it sound like they willingly gave up their soul. I don't think anyone would do that."

"You did not volunteer, but you had just died. I figured since you had died so young that you wouldn't mind another chance at life.

"I was finally going to be with Annie! Who the hell are you to take that away from me!?"

Glim didn't know what came over him but he roared with rage as tears fell from his eyes.

'Wait. Annie? Who's th-'

His thoughts triggered his memories. All of those year he had watched over Annie and protected her. Skipping school to be with her. Protecting her from the other foster kids. How she smiled at the flowers in her hospital room. Annie swimming under a waterfall on one of their trip to national parks. Even her last night. He remembered everything.

The pain was hard on Glim and he lost himself in grief.

After a few minutes the sadness started to flow away a little at a time with the tears.

'I am Glim, so why do I feel like I lived the life of Dex?'

"You are Dex, but you are also Glim. When I merged your two souls together the two people became one. Your past and your present. Two souls are now one."

"So like if I was reincarnated into this body?"

"Similar, but different. If that was the case, then the soul of Dex would have taken over this body. In this case Dex did not replace the soul of this body, but merged with it."

This was giving Glim quite a headache. Not only did he have all his "new" memories in his head, but he was trying to figure out who he really was.

Was he Dex? Was he Glim? Or was he some monster born from the madness of a demon that played with souls?

Glim decide to but that aside for a moment. If this thing could mess with souls it was probably pretty powerful. He had to figure out what it wanted.

"Who, or what, are you exactly? And why are you here?"

"You may refer to me as System. As for what I am and where I came from you do not need to know. I have presented myself to you because you are compatible with me."

'System? Like those games and fantasy novels?'

Glim had read a few novels with things like systems. He couldn't believe those things were real though.

'If this thing can manipulate souls can it hurt me?'

"That would be very inefficient. I spent all of this time to heal your soul to prevent you from dying. If I wanted to hurt you I could have done it long ago.

The replying to his thoughts was still creeping Glim out.

"If you don't want to hurt me then what do you want? I don't have anything I think you would want."

"For now all I want is for you to grow."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

Glim didn't like it. If there was one thing that was constant in both his lives so far it was that almost no one did anything for free. Especially those with a lot of power.

A second later a small screen appeared before him accompanied by a light noise.

-Ding!

[Welcome. Access granted to the Seedling System.]

[1x Welcome rewards box received]

[New Mission Available]

The screen gave Glim a bit of a scare. So far he had been talking to his necklace to give the voice a body. Then this screen just appeared out of nowhere.

It was light blue and just hovered a few feet from him at chest level. He moved his hands around it and felt nothing. There was nothing holding it up. Then he poked it and felt no resistance. Like there was nothing even there.

"Seedling system? What is this all about?"

"...."

After a few seconds of waiting Glim didn't receive an answer from the system.

'Ok so there is some floating screen. How do I make it go away thou-'

With that though the screen disappeared.

'Mind reading. Of course. What else could it be? Can I bring it back though?'

...

Nothing.

'Okay, not completely thought controlled. Maybe it needs a keyword? Lets try open.'

.....

'Open sesame?'

.....

'Window come back?'

....

'System?'

....

'Menu?'

-Ding!

[Status]

[Skill tree]

[Missions]

[Shop]

[Inventory]

'Okay. Similar but different.'

This new screen reminded Glim of some videogames he had played before. He never played them for long. He always got bored and quit soon after starting.

Since the last screen had said something about a mission Glim figured he would start there.

-Ding!

[Satisfactorily harvest 30 basic herbs]

[Rewards: 30 PP, 1x Basic Seed ticket]

"Harvest herbs? What the hell?"

'Why would it want me to harvest herbs? What are these PP and seed tickets?'

Glim tried touching the quest to see if if would bring up another screen but nothing happened. His finger just went right through it.

Since there wasn't anything else Glim decided to see what all of the other options gave him. The next option he chose was the status.

-Ding!

[Name: Glim]

[Profession: None]

[Plant Points: 0]

[Attributes:]

Strength: 0.4

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.6

Intelligence: 0.9

Mana capacity: 0.1

[Skills:]

Collection: [Simple herb harvesting]

Storage: [Simple herb drying]

Glim was greeted by a windows with several rows of information. The first thing he noticed was his name. Then it was that he had no profession.

This made sense though as Glim was just a kid. He might have over thirty years of memories, but in this body he was still a kid.

Roth had taught him how to harvest and dry herbs through the years. Glim figured this is where the only two skills he had a the bottom came from.

Glim felt like simple was to low of a evaluation though.

Glim had no idea what those plant points were but he figured he would find out later. If that's what the PP was in the rewards then he might have some soon.

Next was the attributes. 'Very game like.' was all glim could think. it was quite close to those "stats' he remembered from videogames. He wasn't to sure about the numbers though. What was the scale? there was little information to go off of.

There was one that piqued his interest though. Mana capacity: 0.1

Roth had told him several times about a body had to be able to hold mana before one could train in using it. He told Glim than most people could never hold mana. They just never had the spark.

Even of those few that could, most didn't have the aptitude to grow their mana. They would only have that spark for the rest of their lives.

Glim had had Roth check him several times. He had always been told he didn't have the spark. How does he have it now then?

One could awaken their mana at any age. For almost everyone that was lucky enough to have this spark, it would show up around the age of fifteen.

Glim figured that he was only a little over fourteen, so him awakening the spark recently didn't sound to impossible.

The fact that he had mana though made Glim very happy. He had watched Roth perform miracles with his magic for years. Now he could gain the same powers as him.

Once he was done looking over his status Glim opened the skill tree window.

-Ding!

[Novice herb harvesting]

100 PP

[Novice herb identification]

150 PP

...

[Advanced tree pathology]

40,000 PP

....

[Beginner grass Morphology]

2,000 PP

...

[Basic Fire attribute herb harvesting]

60 PP

[Basic Water attribute herb harvesting]

60 PP

.....

[Diamond seed ticket]

70,000 PP

....

A never ending list of items for sale showed up in front of Glim. From this list he figured that he could buy skills and even items from the system. Sadly he had no money.

Now he at least found out what the plant points were used for. They are the currency of the system. If all the quests were like the one he had now he would remain poor forever.

There were plenty of items in the shop that cost hundreds of thousands of PP.

Glim closed the window. There was no point at looking if he didn't have a single PP.

The last place for him to look was the Inventory

Ding!

[1x Welcome rewards box]

After selecting the only thing in his inventory, Glim was greeted by a new window.

[50 PP received]

[2x basic seed tickets received]

After the window was dismissed Glim just had the ticket in his inventory now. A new message appeared after he selected the tickets.

[Would you like to consume 1x Basic Seed Ticket and get a random basic herb seed?]

[Yes / No]

'So using these tickets gives me herb seeds. Does the system want me to start a garden or something?'

Glim selected the yes option. Might as well use the ticket now.

Ding!

[2x Kotu seeds received]

'Kotu seeds, what are those? Roth might know, I'll have to ask him about them at some point.'

Then Glim though about Roth. Should he tell Roth about this system? Probably not. It wouldn't hurt to keep it a secret for now and he could make up a reason for the kotu seeds later.

Once he cleared the message he opened the other seed ticket

Ding!

[1x Black Rant seed received.]

Now that he had used the tickets he had seeds in his inventory in their stead.

[2x Kotu seeds]

[1x Black Rant seed]

When he selected the Black Rant seed a small black seed appeared in front of the window with a tiny flash of light.

Glim wasn't ready for this so he missed the seed and it fell to the ground.

Cursing his luck Glim got on his knees to find the seed. After a few seconds of looking he found the seed. At least he hoped it was the right seed and not some small piece of dark dirt. Looking back at the window still floating there Glim wondered if he could put it back in.

He got up and tried to place the seed on the screen.

Similar to when it came out there was a small flash of light and then the seed was gone.

[2x Kotu seeds]

[1x Black Rant seed]

'This is amazing! If I put all my stuff in here I would never have to carry it again!'

Glim quickly got a rock and tried to put it in his inventory.

Ding!

[Only items from the system can be placed in the system inventory]

Glim's dreams of cheating gravity were short lived. He could only sigh and drop the rock. Now that he used up the seed tickets it was time to check the other part of his welcome rewards.

[Status]

Ding!

[Name: Glim]

[Profession: None]

[Plant Points: 50]

[Attributes:]

Strength: 0.4

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.6

Intelligence: 0.9

Mana capacity: 0.1

[Skills:]

Collection: [Simple herb harvesting]

Storage: [Simple herb drying]

Well that showed that he had some spending power now. Glim was temped to go to the shop and buy something, but he figured it was better to wait for now. He probably wasn't going to get points this easily in the future.

Now that he was done exploring the system menu Glim took another look at the sun. He still had a few hours until the sun set and he had to be back.

If he got lucky he might be able to finish the first mission today. After eating the lunch of dried meat and bread he washed it down with some water from the creek and got going.