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19 - Wildflower Planting
🕑 Added 2024-07-27 14:20:56 +0000 UTC"It was very nice to meet you, Ryan," Dimos said with a smile as he stood by the door leading down to the basement and garage, and Ryan nodded his head, holding the pamphlets and booklets that Yanna had given him.
"Likewise! I hope you have a good rest of your night," he replied, stepping through the door.
Dimos looked at his eldest daughter, "Drive safe."
"Of course. We'll drop by Moondust and grab some coffee on the way home, do you want anything?" Yanna asked, and Dimos raised a brow.
"Coffee? At this hour?" with a deep sigh and a shake of his head, Dimos slowly turned his head toward Silvia, "But actually, could you maybe stay behind? There is something I would like to talk to you about."
A bit surprised, Silvia looked at her father's expression. He usually didn't pull her aside to talk to her specifically lately, so it must be something serious. She quickly looked at Ryan.
"Sorry about that. Talk to you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, you got it. Thanks for the help today," Ryan said, quickly giving his friend a hug to say goodbye, as Silvia turned to her sister.
"Can you pick me up a-"
"Caramel frap, you got it," Yanna replied with a thumbs up as she made her way down the stairs, followed by Ryan who just gave another quick wave as he stepped down the stairs after Yanna.
"You know what that's about?" he wondered out loud, but Yanna quickly shook her head.
"Nope. Maybe it's about her grades or something? Or someone wanting to buy something that she made. Mom and dad sort of act as semi-managers for all her art stuff," Yanna explained, unlocking her car. Ryan got in on the passenger side, and it didn't take long until the pair pulled out of the garage.
While driving, Yanna glanced over toward the young man sat next to her, "So, you know which stat you're gonna try to open first?"
After thinking about it for a while, looking down at the booklet on his lap, Ryan just slightly shrugged, "Not totally sure. But I guess I'll go for Stamina and Agility first. My shoulder's still too bruised up to do any proper strength training. But once I can, I guess I'll also try to go for Strength and Physicality."
"So the whole deal, huh?" Yanna replied with a laugh, "Well, don't overdo it, though. Especially when it comes to opening new stats, you'll have a pretty rough time. And new stats you open grow slower than your base stats anyway. And level-up improvements don't happen either, so it's even worse."
"I know, I know," Ryan replied with a sigh. It was pretty annoying, but it wasn't the end of the world. Frankly, he would have been able to lead a happy life without awakening. He was happy with his stamina or strength, so anything on top of that was just a bonus. The only issue would come if Ryan continued going to dungeons. He would have to figure out some ways to support Maximus better, because it wouldn't take long until he couldn't do anything against monsters. At least, if he wanted to fight against anything but the lowest-level of dungeon monsters.
"What about you? Did you open any other stats?"
Yanna quickly shook her head, "Not yet, no. I've been more focused on training up my main stats."
"That was... Agility, Aura, Strength, Physicality, Stamina, and Perception?"
With a surprised scoff, the minotaur looked at Ryan, "You have the Mountain Archer class memorised?"
A little embarrassed, Ryan nodded as he turned his sight away, "I've got most cool classes half-memorised. And when you awakened, I had to learn more about your class."
"Awe, how cute," Yanna replied with a grin, "But yeah, that's the ones. Perception is really, really annoying to train up. Seriously, I wish having more main stats meant you'd have more total growth, but it's just... it's just more things to train. My training results for my strength training have been really lagging behind, it's pretty annoying..."
Ryan looked over at Yanna with a slight smile, "I mean, yeah, but it all balances out. You're still low-level, but your stat growth per level has actually been pretty good, right? What was it, around 0.39 total growth per level? That's more than my average."
"Well... I guess you're right. But dude, have you seen the kind of arrows that's normal for Mountain Archers to shoot? They're as thick as your arm. Do you have any idea what kind of draw weight my training bow has?"
"Yeah, but you also only awakened a couple months ago. You're at a pretty good pace, right?"
Yanna stared at Ryan from the corner of her eye, "I don't want to hear that from someone who levelled up twice in a single day."
"Don't blame the player, blame the game."
"You suck."
"You don't mean that," Ryan replied with a grin, looking at the minotaur smugly.
Yanna sighed, shaking her head, "Whatever."
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Ryan stepped out onto the surprisingly spacious balcony of this small building with Maximus on his hand, taking in the evening sun with a satisfied smile. It was starting to heat up a little recently, and it was getting right to that wonderful mid-point of being warm enough to spend the day outside to relax in the sun, while not being so hot that you'll end up drenching your shirt in sweat. Around this time of year, you also started seeing cold-blooded species out and about more often, making the city just that much busier and more diverse. Compared to what Ryan was used to in his hometown where 90% of people were humans, this sight alone was wonderfully exciting.
However, he didn't come out here to people-watch. He came out here to work, glancing over at the large, flat planter that had recently been built here. Runar didn't let him help out, whether it was in the actual construction of the planter or by filling it with soil. Since Runar was actually pretty interested in plants already, he was able to help Ryan out with everything, including by preparing mana-rich compost.
Rather, up until now, Ryan hadn't done anything for this yet, beside gathering the original seeds. He let out a light sigh and placed Maximus down on the edge of the planter, opening the small pouch in his hand. Inside were a number of wildflower seeds, some of which were made of copper, at different stages of rust and decay.
Frankly, he didn't even know if these seeds would end up sprouting, but Runar told him to just give it a shot. Even the metallic seeds. At the end of the day, they were items dropped from a dungeon, and the only thing left from the Abandoned Copper Foundry. After the dungeon had been closed, the mana started to dissipate and the structure returned to its former, empty state. And considering that item drops were the only things from inside of a dungeon that could be taken out of it, Ryan felt like he had to give it a try. Especially since these seeds were basically worthless.
Very rarely, dungeon monsters could produce items that were useful or rare, but these were really just seeds with a surprising amount of mana. Though, just surprising considering their size, nothing extraordinary at the end of the day. He showed them to Aurora when he went to the Awakened Centre for his check-up, but she said they were only worth a few gild at most.
So, Ryan did the only thing he could do now; sprinkling them over the soil. He grabbed the small gardening shovel shoved into the bucket next to the planter, covering the seeds in a thin layer of a soil and compost mixture. Ryan then grabbed the watering can, also conveniently prepared by Runar for him, to quickly water the seeds, and then... just stood there. Staring at wet dirt. Sure, plants with higher mana concentration tended to grow faster, but not to the point where he would be able to see them grow in front of his eyes.
Ryan clapped his hands together, rubbing the small bits of soil off them, nodding satisfied, "Well. I think we deserve a break, don't you?" he asked, looking at the Knight who had watched the whole ordeal curiously.
Maximus replied with a nod, before showing a time-out sign with his hands.
Laughing slightly, Ryan reached out to Maximus as he stepped back into the domain. Usually, while at home, he was outside a fair amount. Even while Ryan was working sometimes, he would stay upstairs in the flat and do his own thing, just enjoying having a body. But when he felt like taking a break in the domain, he would show Ryan the time-out sign, and he would make it happen. Ryan needed to be close enough to physically pick Maximus up for him to move into the domain, after all.
Ready to grab himself a drink from the Café, Ryan went back inside and made his way downstairs, but as he stepped out from the back behind the counter, Runar snapped his head around toward him.
"Oh gods, finally! My saviour! I need you to take over!" he almost yelled out, "Just for like ten minutes!"
With a slight sigh, Ryan nodded his head, "Just hire more people, you cheap bastard."
"It's hard to find good employees! I'm already wasting money on one with a massive attitude."
"Well if you think paying yourself is a waste of money, you don't have to," Ryan turned around into the back room to quickly wash his hands, getting rid of the rest of the soil. He grabbed his apron and the bandana he usually wore to keep his hair up during work, and stepped back out behind the counter as he finished tying it up.
"Thanks, you're a lifesaver. Got an urgent call I've put on hold for like an hour," Runar explained, quickly taking out his phone and dialling a number.
Ryan waved him off and sighed, "Then just go and take care of it, I'll be fine. Take your time."
Without further ado, Runar ran off, leaving Ryan in charge. Luckily there wasn't anyone at the counter just yet, so he had the time to properly get ready and clean up after some of the mess that Runar left behind.
As he was wiping the counter clean, the door opened up and a customer came slithering in. A large, black-scaled Lamia. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt that openly displayed the intricate white-ink tattoos all over his dark brown skin.
"Welcome! How can I help you?" Ryan asked, quickly putting on his customer-service smile.
"Could I have an iced Latte? Oat milk, please," the lamia replied, placing his hands onto the counter with a slight smile on his face.
"Yeah, of course, just a minute," Ryan replied, quickly getting to work. He scooped up some ground coffee into a sieve and twisted it into the espresso machine. As he waited for the water to heat up, Ryan pulled open the ice drawer and filled the cup. But while he was moving around, the incessant stares of the customer were digging into his skin. Lamias couldn't even blink, so Ryan felt like every tiny motion of his was being surveyed.
As the feeling kept creeping up on him, something else popped into Ryan's mind, "Hold on, don't I know you from somewhere?" he asked with a slightly curious expression, "Do you go to NRU?"
The lamia perked up and quickly nodded his head, "Yes, I do! It was Ryan, right?"
"Yeah, that's me. And you were... something with a C?" Ryan replied, already feeling awkward about not remembering his name. He had a pretty unique appearance, so it was surprising he hadn't remembered him right when he entered in the first place.
"Christopher, yes. With a C."
"Sorry about that, man, I'm really bad with names," Ryan replied, as he got the espresso ready. He turned his head back to Christopher with a raised brow, "Love the tattoos, by the way."
Raising his brow, Christopher smiled, this time a bit broader than before. The corners of his mouth almost stretched up this ears, even though it was just a light grin, "Thank you. They're pretty special to me," he explained, the bass of his voice pushing itself deep into Ryan's head, "Do you have any tattoos on your own?"
Ryan quickly shook his head, "Nothing yet. I just moved here from this super small town, and my mom isn't the biggest fan of tattoos anyway, so I figured I'd just wait until I moved out. Not like they're cheap either, right?"
As Ryan poured the espresso over the ice in the cup, Christopher nodded his head, "I was quite lucky. My cousin is a tattoo artist, so I got a discount."
"Got any tips for a tattoo newbie, then?" Ryan stirred the cup around and filled the rest with chilled oat milk.
Christopher seemed to think for a while, and quickly came up with something, "Just make sure to be aware of the permanence. The choices we make can't always be too easily undone."
Ryan laughed and nodded, "Yeah, you're sure right about. So, how you paying?"
After Christopher held up his phone, and Ryan quickly set up the transaction. The lamia smiled as he tapped his phone against the terminal, picking up his drink.
"Very nice to meet you, Ryan. I've heard a lot about you around school."
"...Yeah, that sounds about right. But for sure, great to meet you. I'll try to remember your name until next time, Christopher with a C."
"I hope you do," Christopher replied, quickly turning around. He slithered back to the door, and soon made his way outside. Ryan pulled the payment terminal back over toward himself, looking at the screen. The payment earlier went through without issue, but now the screen was showing some display errors. The confirmation screen was overlaying the default logos that were there when the terminal wasn't in use.
"Dammit, not again..." with a click of his tongue, Ryan shook the terminal. He stopped for a few moments, and then held his hand out toward the side of the counter that was hidden by some signs. Maximus stepped out of his domain, "Just watch the place real quick, I'll be right back."
The small knight nodded his head, as Ryan quickly made his way to the back of the store. He only had to quickly go to Runar anyway, he apparently had a replacement terminal somewhere, so Maximus was just there as a quick security system while Ryan was gone for a minute.
He rushed up the stairs into the flat, and quickly made his way to Runar's office. He was about to knock on the door, but it was still just so slightly ajar, and Runar's voice came flowing out.
"...this Saturday? Seriously? It's way too soon, I can't just-" he started, stopping only as he was interrupted, "I've got my nephew here, man, I don't want him to get involved in this. At least give me some more time to talk to him about some things... Wait, are you joking right now? How do you expect me to... okay fine, that does change things slightly, I guess... but still, don't drop things like this on me without warning anymore. I don't care that I- Okay, whatever. I'll call you back later to talk more about this, I- Yes I'm busy, I've got a fucking store to run. Okay. Bye."
As the call seemingly ended, Runar let out a deep, loud groan. Footsteps approached the door, and Ryan felt his heart skip a beat. He pushed the door open, "Yo Runar, the terminal is acting up again."
Taken aback, Runar caught the door, "Oh, right, uhm... I'll grab the other one. I thought I fixed this thing..." with a click of his tongue, Runar grabbed the terminal from Ryan, who swiftly turned back around.
"I-I'll head back down," Ryan stuttered out, already on his way back downstairs. He was pretty sure that Runar didn't notice how he was acting, but either way, that really wasn't important. What exactly was Runar trying not to involve him in? And what exactly was going to happen on Saturday?
What the hell was Runar involved in?
