Chapter 24 Gardener
The Gardener profession was somewhat similar to the Honorable Artisan, not limited to just one skill, but compared to the prefixed Honorable Artisan, the Gardener profession only had two skills.
Cultivation and Activation.
Cultivation, as the name suggested, was nurturing a plant from a seed state, taking care of its germination and growth. Due to being a professional skill, cultivation differed from natural growth in terms of speed and effectiveness and might exhibit some outstanding abilities.
Activation was a way of controlling plants with diverse effects, but one thing was certain. It could help the Gardener accomplish various tasks, which was quite magical,
William had experienced the post-apocalyptic world, knowing what survival looked like in such a setting. It was a life where even sleeping required vigilance, worrying not only about food and water for sustenance but also facing various dangers.
Some mutated plants were particularly formidable, often killing stealthily, becoming as powerful as monsters and mutants emerging from the Death Land, if not stronger.
William once saw a gigantic banyan tree of unknown evolutionary level, towering a thousand feet high, with a trunk as thick as a skyscraper, its canopy covering an entire city! Even Nine-Star powerhouses, monsters from Death Land, or the Mutant King all kept their distance from this colossal tree. Some reckless and low-intelligence mutated animals or monsters that ventured into the tree never returned. Over time, this tree came to be known as the Sky Tree.
William once glanced at this tree from afar. Just that glance made him feel like his soul had left his body. After averting his gaze, he was drenched in cold sweat, his mental strength taking a massive hit, requiring two days to recover. It showed how terrifying it was to approach or enter the vicinity of the Sky Tree.
This illustrated the significance of mutated plants in the post-apocalyptic world.
If a Gardener's level was high enough to cultivate or control mutated plants, the benefits of their own strength enhancement were evident.
Simply being able to grow ordinary plants like crops, vegetables, and fruits was valuable. In the early days of the apocalypse, aside from scant edible items obtainable on low-level roulette, food scarcity was a pressing issue. Crop failures, pre-apocalyptic food spoilage, and the inability of humans to confront other races led to many deaths by starvation. It was only later, as human strength improved and they could hunt mutated creatures and monsters, that their meat replaced a significant portion of the food consumption.
Even then, fresh fruits and vegetables were considered luxury items, providing not only great taste but also essential micronutrients akin to gold and diamonds in peacetime.
A Gardener, even if only capable of growing these, could amass significant wealth.
After gaining an understanding of this profession, William realized it was an excellent secondary occupation, perhaps even as practical as the Honorable Artisan.
Though avenues to acquire potent plant seeds were scarce, whether from mutated plants, roulette spins, or the Death Land, typically, only ordinary seeds could be cultivated. However, after reviewing the profession's introductory notes, William decisively chose to learn this occupation.
After a surge of peculiar energy, William became a Gardener.
Observing the Gardener profession badge divided into two areas with all proficiency at zero, William was eager to experiment.
Without seeds for cultivation, he could only try activating.
Seeing several pots of flowers on the windowsill in the broadcast room—A Peace Lily, a Rose, and a Lucky Bamboo. William approached and activated the Peace Lily.
After he received a prompt indicating an increase in activation proficiency by 1, the leaves of the Peace Lily suddenly swelled. Then, the thickened leaves smacked against the nearby glass, shattering it.
This unexpected turn startled William.
Moments later, he activated the Lucky Bamboo, which shot up a section from its original 12 inches, its small leaves expanding, swaying back and forth. Surprisingly, it bloomed, matured rapidly, and bore grain-sized seeds that shot out in all directions, causing minor havoc around except for William. Although not powerful, the display was intimidating.
Blinking, William activated the last pot, the Rose. Its transformation was more dramatic, rapidly blooming and splitting open from the middle like a mouth with rows of interlocking canine teeth, material unknown. Adjacent to the Peace Lily's leaf tip, this "mouth" snapped shut, biting off half of the Lily's leaf. The Rose then chewed a couple of times like a person, green floral juice oozing from its "mouth".
William exclaimed inwardly at the activated Rose, 'This is a miniature, weakened version of a man-eating plant!'
Rubbing his chin, William drew some conclusions from these three activations.
Firstly, activated plants generally possessed offensive capabilities, depending on the plant type.
Secondly, there's a slight connection between the activated plants and William the Gardener. While he couldn't control these activated plants yet, they also refrained from attacking him.
Lastly, upon observation, these activated plants didn't maintain their state indefinitely. Instead, they rapidly withered after depleting the mental energy injected by William during activation, losing their vitality. It seemed this activation not only consumed the Gardener's mental energy but also drained the plants' life force. This was the case, at least during the novice activation phase.
Reading the instructions, William noted that after becoming a novice Gardener, he could activate some low-level mutated plants. Judging from the performance of activating ordinary plants, once he was able to activate mutated plants, he would quickly enable them to fight on his behalf. This was more than a secondary occupation could do.
This was a good profession, leaving William satisfied with a smile.
The nearby Tricolor Roulette had lost all its luster, displaying a pitch-black color across the entire wheel, yet it hadn't vanished, likely to disappear only after another spin.
Who knew which unfortunate soul would unknowingly spin the Wheel of Doom.
After some thought, William decided to warn future individuals. He used a knife to carve an arrow pointing to the roulette on the cabinet beside it, adding the word "Caution," hoping that future discoverers wouldn't foolishly turn it upon seeing it.
After finishing, William left the broadcast room, observed briefly, stealthily heading toward the tennis court on one side.
Without surprises, the key to the secret realm should be there.
