“I would like to offer you your old post, that of the head of the royal advisors.” Cosmos offers Plantus. His face goes wide, seemingly in disbelief from the offer. He is unable to hide his expression from sheer shock.

  What!? I-I am getting offered my old post back now!? That is why that bastard brought up the stuff about Eden; to pressure me into taking my old post! If I do not accept it, who knows what Cosmos may do. Plantus ponders on. He attempts to regain his composure, though this is only halfway successful as most people, especially Cosmos, can tell Plantus is still shaken.

  “You seem surprised, Plantus. I can hardly blame you, but I must admit you are best suited to lead those old fools, or at least better than the current guy, your old vice-head Venus. You will be paid the same as before, so 250,000 gold per year, if you retake your post. Though I must say, the gold you would have would be far more than that meager sum. Who knows if someone might raise taxes, or do something a bit more drastic. War funds are not cheap after all.” Cosmos informs Plantus. Cosmos also lets out a decent bit of mana, breaking down Plantus’s nerve by a good bit. A hint of fear festers inside of him, but Plantus still stands like a rock.

  He is not giving me a choice in the matter. He must be celebrating my foolishness towards Eden! You know what, fine Cosmos! But I am going to milk it for all that it is worth. Cosmos declares to himself. He faces Cosmos dead in the eyes and begins to speak. The courage from Plantus gave off a slight appearance of surprise in Cosmos, though none could tell if it was genuine or not.

  “Your highness, if I were to take up my old post, I would require double the pay.” Plantus says to Cosmos, who would be raising an eyebrow if he had any.

  “And why might I do that?” Cosmos questions, letting out a bit more mana, just enough to make Plantus fall down a bit. His muscles tense up, and he glares at Plantus with great malice. Plantus remains steadfast in his choice however.

  “I am already under great stress with my current workload, such as but not limited to taking care of Eden, ordering my workers around, having the chefs cook proper meals to keep them happy, etc. Adding on such a role would damage my skill in all tasks, so I naturally need more money to hire others to lessen my workload.” Plantus explains to Cosmos, who scoffs at the idea. However, Cosmos pulls back his mana shortly after, and takes out a thick stack of paper. He holds the stack in one hand and places his other hand on the stack.

  “Alter Nature!” Cosmos exclaims as a large green glow appears on Cosmos’s palm, the one placed on top of the paper stack.

  (Spell Details)

  Alter Nature, Life type- (C+) Action

  Attack class- Support

  Attack subclass- Alteration, plant

  Extra Requirements- Has D grade or higher life magic mastery

  (You can alter anything made from nature. You can target any item or material that is less than 30 lb (13.61 kg), is/made from paper or plants, you are touching said item or material, and you have ownership/pression to use this spell on the item or material, and alter what some properties about it. This can be used to add/remove writing on the item, and/or increase or decrease the grade of the item or material by 1 grade. If used on an item, the grade change gives + or -10% to all positive stats, depending on if you increased or decreased the grade. If used on a material, this grade change also applies to the crafting grade ranges of the material. If this is used on a spell tome, the writing change effect will instead allow you to change what the spell is, given it is of the same magic type. This spell can only be used on an item or material once, and this does not work on A grade or higher items or materials. Costs 290 mana points.)

  “Fine, I shall grant you a pay raise, but I shall inform you that you are on a thin branch right now. Now is that all?” Cosmos questions with great force. This is supported by a massive wave of mana Cosmos lets out at the tail end of his words. A thick green mist coats the entire middle of the room, causing Plantus to be slammed into the wooden floor, albeit not all that hard. If it were any other wood spirit, perhaps pardon those of the highest order, they would have been crushed under the weight. Plantus raises his hand, holding what looks to be one finger up.

  “I have but one thing to say. I dearly apologize but the price has gone up to 3 times my original pay-” Plantus says, but is cut off by a humongous punch to the gut. A blast of wind follows the blow, trying to catch up to Cosmos’s movements. Plantus was sent flying by a blow that could atomize countless others, crashing into the door with a loud thud. The whole room shook, and countless flowers and other plant life fell to the ground. A massive crater was made in the door, so large in fact that it was a surprise it still stood. No part of the wall where the door was can be called undamaged, but it could be easily repaired through the use of life magic. What could likely not be repaired is the relationship between the two top tier wood spirits.

  “YOU DARE TRY TO CON ME PLANTUS!!? How naive do you believe me to be!? Let me remind you who is the king here! Let me remind you who is your ruler!” Cosmos roars in a raging fiery, strong as a hundred suns. An explosive amount of mana is expelled from Cosmos, knocking a few items around the room. Plantus takes a while to respond, both from the mana suffocating him and the grave wounds that he faced, though compared to what any other being in the whole kingdom he took it far better. But what is most surprising of all is Plantus’s expression, not one of fear but of a light, almost mocking grin.

  I have never been more thankful for having the heavy knight(e) class. Plantus thinks to himself as he starts to get up. His body has shrunk down, about 3/4th the size of a normal wood spirit. However his body is slowly growing back in size from his passive regeneration, giving him the strength to fully get up and back to floating. He faces the now far away Cosmos and slowly floats closer.

  “I have not forgotten who you are, Cosmos. If I had, I would have not picked up on your wishes. You would not have asked for me to take my old job back if you had anything better to take my place. You want me, and no matter how much you threaten me, you should know a happy worker is a good worker. Now will you agree, or will you cost us both time I know you cannot spare?” Plantus declares as he gets ever so close to Cosmos; the cockiness in his voice is evident. Cosmos looks at Plantus with a gaze of disgust, and lets out one final burst of mana on Plantus before speaking.

  “FINE! Take your damned pay raise and go back to your job!” Cosmos says as he throws the papers he was holding. Cosmos had already cast “Alter Nature” on them to update Plantus’s pay.

  “I thank you, your highness. But I must ask you to give me a moment to read over this.” Plantus tells Cosmos, who begrudgingly agrees. Plantus begins to read the lengthy stack of papers, taking him half an hour in total.

  About the same as the last contract. No use fixing what is not broken. Plantus thinks to himself as he signs the papers with a magic quill he had on him. He hands the papers back to the now reseated Cosmos, whose eyes have been droopy for the last couple of minutes.

  “I thank you for this opportunity." Plantus jabs at Cosmos.

  “Yeah, yeah. You shall start the day after next in your old office.” Cosmos informs Plantus.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “I will require a week at least.” Plantus responds back. Cosmos loudly sighs and stares Plantus dead on.

  “5 days, no longer.” Cosmos declares, giving no hint of budging further. Plantus seems to have no intention to push his luck anymore either, so he makes no comment and just nods in agreement.

  “You are dismissed!" Cosmos yells out, much more lively than his former tone. On cue with what Cosmos said, a green sigil glows, coming from the throne, and suddenly the two guards come in. It is far easier for them to enter due to the door being so heavily damaged, as it has lost a lot of weight. Hints of surprise mixed with confusion can be noticed on the guard’s face as they look around the room, but they make no attempt to question anyone, so they go over to Plantus and escort him out.

  Eden wakes up from his queen sized bed. He pulls off the deep red thick blanket and gets up from the bed. He notices a few of his snow-like pillows fell onto the floor, so he quickly grabs them and sets up his bed. He places two pillows against the bed frame back wall, and one pillow on the left and right side of him, making a miniature couch. He walks over to his dresser and changes his clothes, or at least the outward appearance of them. Apparently graded gear can hide its appearance and you can place ungraded clothes on top, as long as they are made from similar material types. For example you could not put on an ungraded dress over metal armour. Furthermore the ungraded clothes act purely as a cosmetic, so even if the ungraded clothes do not cover a part of the body the graded armour does, it will still be protected. Eden had learned this fact last night when he found he was given a few different sets of clothes in his tall dresser and walk in closet. He looks out the window to see light shine down, but he cannot see the sun that is making the light.

  How does a sun exist in a tower anyhow? There are so many things in this tower that make no sense. Eden ponders on as he thinks back upon his experiences. He blankily stares out the window in silence for a good few minutes, only breaking out of reminisce when a ring is heard from outside.

  Someone is here? Old Man who has just walked in, so it is probably Plantus. Eden concludes as he walks out of his room. He goes down the stairs and to the front door. When Eden opens it he is a little surprised, as it was not Plantus nor Old Man. Standing before him was an old man in all black; an appearance clearly inspired by a ninja. Toxin had come to visit Eden.

  “H-hi.” Toxin quietly says while looking down.

  “Oh, Toxin! I did not think you would show up here. Come in, surely you had something you needed to talk to me about.” Eden tells Toxin, who slowly walks inside of the house, not saying much nor making much noise at all, but not quite as quiet as Old Man’s movements. Eden leads him into the kitchen and they both sit down; Eden at the seat to the left of the head chair, and Toxin two seats down the right side of the head chair.

  “So what can I do for you!?” Eden exclaims to Toxin, who slightly recoils at Eden’s loudness. He regains his composure, or at least to the normal composure he has, after a few seconds.

  “W-well me and the others th-thought one of us sh-should check u-up on you. Rock Paper Scissors decided w-who would go.” Toxin explains as he raises his mask to better cover his face. He then facepalms himself.

  You idiot! Why am I being so shy now? He is going to think I hate him or something and exclude me from the group. Toxin panics in his mind, paying no attention to Eden, who was showing signs of deep thought.

  He is being considerably more silent compared to normal. Is he not comfortable talking to me by himself? He never came off as a social person in the first place. Though I cannot claim to know Toxin all too well. Now that I think about it actually, I hardly know any of them besides Old Man. Maybe the others dislike me but are too scared to say something? Would explain them fighting over who had to show up here. Eden ponders on, but then realizes he has not been paying attention to Toxin and worries if he missed something important. Luckily for him however, Toxin had not said a word, looking a mixture of embarrassed and worried about something. Eden has no clue what could be invoking such a concept in Toxin, but chalks it up to nerves. So Eden goes back into thought, not wanting to interrupt Toxin’s thought process. The silence would be deafening to anyone else if they were in this room, but for a man who loves to meager in his mind and another with lacking social skills, it was the very contrary for the two. After a good few minutes of silence on both sides, Eden recalls something about his search around the house, and breaks this everlasting silence.

  “Actually, Toxin. I did have something I wanted you to check out, as I believe you mentioned that you are mage. I found this magic item and was wondering if you knew anything about it.” Eden asks Toxin, who seemingly forgot Eden was there in the first place. He intently looks at Eden with a glimmer in his eyes as Eden pulls out the item.

  It was a crystal ball Eden found in one of the drawers in the dusty office. It had a sigil on the bottom circular platform, not a green one, as there were no green sigils found in the house, but it was colourless. It could not be called white, but it certainly was not any other colour Eden could imagine. It was pure energy; visible electricity if you will.

  “Let me see it!” Toxin calls out, far louder than he was before. Eden complies and hands him the ball, where Toxin glances at every nook and cranny. His eyes widened with intensity, completely focused on the magic item.

  “The sigil is clearly from null magic. The crystal ball implies some kind of seer would use it. It is not giving me any information, so it must have some kind of detection blocker on it. What could this be?” Toxin mumbles to himself, not yet realising he is talking out loud. Eden makes no comment, not wanting to interrupt Toxin’s work. After about a minute, Toxin notices a small indent that is faintly glowing the same way the sigil does. He hastily places a finger on the spot and puts in some mana. Suddenly, the ball starts glowing and creates some kind of magical screen, reminiscent of a tv.

  “Aha!” Toxin exclaims as the screen appears. Upon examining it it states “Magic talent: Life; Genius. Illusion; Average. Soul; Average. Dark; Below average.” in a descending list. The screen stays until Toxin takes his hand off the crystal ball. Once Toxin does this, he remembers that Eden was here, and upon looking at him averts his eyes. His face goes red and he hides himself in his mask.

  Why did I do that? Eden is going to think I am some magic crazed lunatic now! Toxin panics in his mind, not yet noticing the look of interest in Eden’s eyes. Eden waits a few seconds before talking, hoping for Toxin to regain a bit of composure before asking him things.

  “What is this thing, Toxin?” Eden politely asks after about a minute passes. Contrary to Eden’s wishes, Toxin had not come back to his senses at all, but Eden could not hold back his curiosity any longer. Toxin looks up to Eden, who has a light smile on his warm face.

  “O-oh, ah i-it is a m-magic talent ana-analyzer.” Toxin shakily whispers, hardly any louder than what Eden could hear from where he was seated.

  An item to detect talent? Though I am guessing it is limited to just magical talent, this is rather intriguing. Eden decides.

  “So the information displayed was your magical talent?” Eden asks.

  “Pr-probably.” Toxin responds, lacking any semblance of confidence in his tone. However Eden trusts his words regardless.

  “So could I use it then? It is not a mage exclusive thing or something, right?” Eden asks right after Toxin’s response. Toxin seems to stop and think on that point before answering.

  “It should only take some mana.” Toxin replies, far calmer compared to before. He hands the crystal ball to Eden and shows him where to place his finger. Once Eden does so the screen pops up once more, but the contents have changed a good bit. It states “Magic Talent: Life; Genius. Metal; Genius. Fire; Above average. Divine; Below average. Now examining the screen closer, Eden also notices a small button in the bottom right corner of it. Eden instinctively presses it, and he receives a system message, the first in a good while.

  Notice! User has discovered “Magic Talent”!

  Notice! User shall receive details on “Magic Talent”!

  3..

  2..

  1..

  Successful!

  Calling forth basic information on “Magic Talent”!

  Magic talent is something everyone has to some degree. It determines what spells someone can know and to what tier that person can use. For example, someone with below average talent in fire magic could never use an SS grade fire spell. Furthermore, everyone can only use spells of the type they have magic talent in.

  Interesting, though it seems odd. If I had to guess, genius level is decently high. I wish it would tell me the limit of it though. I doubt something with such a plan name as genius is the top, so I likely cannot learn spells from the EX grade I think(?) was the peak. God this grading system is stupid. I wish I could just change it to be more practical and actually matter a little more than a wild guess in power. Eden ponders on, pointlessly complaining about set in stone facts.

  Eden is more magically gifted than me. Wow! Maybe he will want to learn magic and I can see some new spells. He is skilled in life magic like me, but he can probably ask Plantus or something to get him a life magic teacher. Oh how I wish I had a teacher. Lucky Eden! Toxin cheers in his mind, honestly happier about Eden’s magic talent than the man himself. This excitement is evident on his face as well, something Eden is quick to pick up on.

  “Nice to see you smiling, Toxin.” Eden says, getting Toxin red in the face before continuing. “Anyhow, I have something to ask of you: might you teach me a bit of magic? I know you are a life magician and life magic is one of my highest magic types.” Eden asks Toxin, who looks dumbfounded at the question. He freezes in place, not quite sure how to respond.

  “W-well, um, I-I-I d-do not know-I mean I could! W-wait n-no, ah.” Toxin stumbles on his own words. He goes redder than ever before and hides his face with both his mask and hands.

  “Can you give me some time?” Toxin quietly tells Eden. The words are muffled from both his hands and thick cloth covering his mouth, but Eden was able to make out the sound well enough.

  “I am fine with that. However, I believe we should not waste too much time waiting. Actually, now that I mention that, we should probably get going to the old field to make some money.” Eden responds with, calming Toxin greatly. He also seems to agree with Eden, as he gets up and walks with Eden outside of the house, where they head to the fields.