Bloom

When someone rushes out of a laboratory, it is of course, an open invitation for any decent scientist to use it.

Gem arrays that focus light into cutting beams, chemical composition dissectors, mass spectrometer gamma sensors, and others are all around me. I haven’t had access to this array of equipment in a long time.

Anyone who has ever had small children near a lab environment can understand why.

For now, I’m currently using my branches along with low-level telekinesis to create a Chaos Stone.

The more common name that a person might normally use is a Philospher’s Stone.

Such a Stone has an immense amount of potential in the hands of a decent alchemist. Of course, it is highly possible that if anyone discovers my gift to the half-elf, they might kill her. I’m confident though due to my observational time, that would likely not be much of a problem for her.

It’s not like people haven’t tried to kill her for blowing stuff up already, S’neli should be able to handle something minor like that.

I’m taking a more hands-off approach, since Dryad still hasn’t woken up yet.

I’m not afraid of this brave new world, just cautious. Even though the green land dragon Mizarul gave me a ton of good information, I still am keeping a low profile. I already considered the simple fact that the information I have could be wrong, inaccurate, false, or all three.

Therefore until the other half of my Dynamic Duo is awake and operational, I’m going to just putz around with minor things.

Well, minor to me at least.

The expression as S’neli comes back into her laboratory with the ‘Sneaky Boss’ is amusing to say the least. I watch her quickly notice the new shining blood onyx colored gemstone lying on the nearby table. Her eyes immediately snap to me, but I am already positioned back in the broken machine. Without allowing the Boss to see, she quickly pockets the stone in her white lab coat.

Smart lady.

S’neli explains to the caravan leader that I’m a heat resistant species of tree, something completely unheard of.

I’m not actually heat resistant, although it won’t be an issue to create such a species that mimics me when I decide to leave.

Boss practically has dollar signs in flashing in his eyes, and there’s even a small rivulet of drool that he wipes away with the back of his hand. I had no idea that heat resistant trees were so valuable.

A short discussion goes on between the two of them as each one argues for a different goal.

Boss claims they still need to complete the rest of their route.

S’neli beats his stupidity down claiming the discovery of a lifetime trumps finishing a pathetic contract.

Boss reverses with a counterattack, “So are you going to pay the contract penalties for failure to complete, S’neli? Because if you are, we can leave for the port immediately without delay!”

S’neli stares him down with fury before muttering, “Itching powder, where’d I put my itching powder.”

I watch the poor Boss shudder in horror and escape in a lightspeed retreat. That guy has no combat strength to speak of, he probably is more survivable than a cockroach though.

The rest of the time passes quickly as the caravan finishes their route. S’neli spends each day creating various potions, alchemical reagents, explosives, and explosions.

I am able to understand the workings of almost every machine now, bar a select few. The machines I don’t understand are apparently so rarely used it is unlikely I will be able to see them in action. They also might be under the ‘use in emergencies’ only type as well.

A portion of each day is spent rather annoyingly though.

Laser beams.

Diamond cutters.

Aetheric wave-vibration.

Those are a tiny few of the methods that S’neli has tried in a desperate attempt to get a single sample from me. I found out afterwards, that the testing chamber reaching the Sun’s surface didn’t show on the outside. It was a convergence of Chaos and Chamber effects combined. That meant that to S’neli on the outside, the chamber merely malfunctioned and the machine shattered.

She didn’t have any clue that it was a result of me being myself.

As such, every day just before noon, a new attempt is made to garner a sample.

Each attempt has done nothing but reinforce the fact that Chaos Wood, of which I am made, is to put it mildly…

Solid.

I have so far had 37 tests, some of which if they were not performed on me, could have damaged the lab.

To this end, S’neli now walks around when not in her lab muttering words to herself. Several times she’s accidentally almost brained messengers while swinging a metal pipe she uses to help think.

It was very amusing to see her knock the Boss out by accident when he visited. Sharp words were said when she woke him up with smelling salts. That’s how I know we are almost to the port city.

I have been careful to keep a scan up on the surrounding 1 kilometer around the caravan. They’ve had a few fights here and there ever since my Soul Seal has restricted my presence. The caravan leader is far more comfortable now that monster activity is more ‘normal’ than before.

Even with that, no one has yet linked anything to me.

I am just a new species.

The Philospher’s Stone that S’neli is still trying to figure out how to use has nothing to do with the innocent new Tree species.

I can’t wait until she figures out the simple method I’ve set to trigger it though.

What woman can resist eternal youth?

Especially when they think it’s all their own discovery, heh.