NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 1056
“Wow, there are plenty of weak and insignificant plants in this world.”
You know, just lying around on the ground, gulping down dust the wind blows in and lazily spitting out the dirt they’ve sucked up.
Then there are those perky perennial flying weeds, just floating around, carelessly planting their roots wherever they bump into something.
In this mana-rich Middle Realm, even those plants can thrive just by munching on whatever they find.
They can dine on dirt and still grow because there’s mana everywhere, no matter where they dig in.
But once they grow bigger, things get interesting.
Suddenly, malevolent herbivores start popping up, eyeing the mana these plants have!
Elephants, hippos, giraffes, cows.
Slimes, goblins, and even grannies pulling out weeds.
Plants have to develop all sorts of strategies to survive against the dangers posed by countless herbivores.
Some emit substances that their predators hate when they sense danger.
Others make sounds that attract hunters of their enemies.
Some even anchor themselves into their predator’s bodies, reverse-hunting them.
A few go as far as brainwashing their foes, controlling and dominating them to use them as sacrifices for their own growth.
“That one’s the first type, the Saw Grass. When caterpillars munch on its leaves, it makes a ‘saw’ sound and slices those leaves with razor-sharp edges! Want to give it a try?”
The Oknodie, acting like a tour guide, pointed to a hefty plant towering over two meters with broad, pumpkin-like leaves.
Ziang approached skeptically, dagger in hand, wondering if this was just some kind of scam.
“Chop.”
“!!!”
The enraged Saw Grass shrank back.
Its broad leaves morphed into sharp spikes, slicing through the air like crazy.
This plant unleashed a basic-level magic called Wind Cutter by combining wind generation, slicing, and directional control spells.
Ziang, responding with his dagger several times, frowned.
It was too obvious and slow in its attacks.
Yet, each blow hit like a truck.
“How much mana does this thing hold?”
“It’s from Professor Weird’s dimension. Think of it as a higher realm!”
Most top-tier professors tend to have at least one secret micro-dimension of their own.
Occasionally, there are even cases like Professor Buzhaar who manages a research dimension for revenge.
In comparison, Professor Weird’s dimension was relatively tame.
Higher realms have more mana than the Middle Realm.
Especially good for plants!
“Plants have perfected what I call Natural Mana Flow Technique!”
“Natural Mana Flow Technique?”
“They purify harmful substances from the air into beneficial ones just by breathing!”
Just like how plants can turn harmful air into beneficial air, some plants convert harmful components of nature mana into energy while gaining strength.
This is essentially what the Natural Mana Flow Technique used by plants is all about.
“Kind of like Professor Diogenes’s fundamental mana studies. The ones where you can just pick up mana lying around anywhere during his lectures!”
“Exactly!”
“Isn’t it true that both that professor and Oknodie are quite similar to each other?”
“Why’s that?!”
“They just gobble up everything from anywhere!”
“Oh come on, if you praise me like that, I’m gonna get embarrassed.”
“Looks like they love it.”
As Ziang bantered back with the Saw Grass, he suddenly had a concerned look on his face.
“So, can we kill this thing? Will the professor get mad?”
“Probably not! There’s no way he’s cultivating such a weak specimen for lectures!”
“Then what is it?”
“Just food that naturally came about while creating the ecosystem or something they picked up from somewhere.”
“…Food?”
“Some monsters eat other monsters!”
No sooner had the last word left his mouth than a plant monster surged in, crashing into the Saw Grass with a bang after being drawn by its cacophonous slicing noise.
“This is the Shellcaster. If noise exceeds a certain threshold, it rushes in and tackles you. The louder the noise you make, the bigger the one that comes flying in!”
“Aren’t they just gonna wipe each other out?”
Right after the question, a dimensional gate opened in mid-air, and plant monsters rushed in like a stampede.
A senior instructor used Telekinesis Magic to snag one of the falling plants and ripped off the tag tied to the plant pillar.
“These are the plants we used in lectures. It makes sense. Those that grow too quickly and are tricky for students to handle just end up tossed in the higher realm.”
That was a fitting clean-up method from Professor Weird, who tossed away cursed beings to the other side of the dimension.
But the time of leisurely monsters was quickly coming to an end.
Green lights turned yellow again, sending warning signals like traffic lights.
“…Here we go again.”
Soon after, red lights blared.
The time for simple, lame plants was over.
As the red hour arrived, high-level plants began to spring forth from the earth, pillars, and trees.
Walking swamp monsters devoured anything they came across, a corrupted tree fairy feasted on the corpses of fallen plants, and fragments of what had been the Howling Child Poppy, transformed from cursed wood, screamed while hanging onto a treant’s body.
Oknodie’s party, having come for a picnic, fled to higher ground to escape the wrath of high-level monsters.
“Oh, there…”
Amongst the plant monsters gathered in the rubble to avoid the gooey slime monster outside, the filthy Shellcaster was in sight.
When it made eye contact with Ziang, he wondered if making noise would be a bad idea.
“!”
To his surprise, the Shellcaster looked at Ziang with a face full of disdain.
“Pfft. This plant has some awareness and is mocking us for attracting attention in a situation like this.”
“…You don’t have to interpret everything it says.”
Ziang ground his teeth at Sadi’s teasing.
—
Professor Weird sent a memo to the teaching assistant, notifying them that Oknodie was safely quarantined in the upper realm.
The assistant held no grudge.
After all, Professor Weird had the assistant handle and sign off on his paychecks, which added an extra zero to their weekly wages.
“Professor, isn’t this a bit risky?”
The memo was all well and good, but the quarantined students worried him a bit.
“They sometimes toss the corpses of humans that Professor Weird has accidentally killed as fertilizer, and some plants disguised as those corpses exist, right? What if the kids mistake them for real people and get eaten by the plants?”
“What if? It’s a shame.”
“…”
Weird’s indifferent response never failed to exceed expectations!
“By the way, don’t you worry about getting punished by Principal Omoshiroi?”
“I can just send a clone to take the punishment for me.”
“Truly impressive in every sense.”
The instructor suddenly grew curious.
“Isn’t Oknodie beating up the Plant Club seniors, committing theft with Mandragoras, causing trouble for the manager, and swiping around cultivation liquids and recipes? Are you going to teach them a lesson this time?”
“A lesson? Not really. They love the Plant Club more than I do, especially Professor Red Mountain.”
To Professor Weird, Mandragoras were just cute underlings, not worth much at all.
“Just because a giant doesn’t consider dwarves to be kin.”
“That might be so.”
Driads, being tree spirits, are humanoid spirits and are closer to humans.
This is why Professor Weird was indifferent to the Mandragora “theft,” which could be seen as baby theft.
“Besides, Okrarch actually brought back perfectly good wild Mandragoras.”
“That’s true.”
In the end, it was all the same, whether it was the one being stolen from or the one doing the stealing!
“But does quarantining inside even work?”
“It does. At least from those targeting other Oknodies.”
“Wait, doesn’t that mean it doesn’t hold from the ‘inside’?”
“She’s not so weak, even at that age. Plus… She’s already stuck, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“The principal.”
Why did it seem like the more they talked, the more questions kept arising?
“Where’s the principal stuck?”
“Inside Oknodie’s cloak.”
“The only ones stuck inside the cloak are the Mini Hydras…”
The assistant fell silent.
They asked with trembling eyes.
“Are you serious?”
Professor Weird scoffed, wearing a look that said, “What are you gonna do with that?”
Sure enough, nestled between the Mini Hydras that belonged to Oknodie was the principal, hiding in plain sight!