Reincarnated As A Plant Life
chapter-232

After passing through the opening, he covered it with his shrub disguise, hoping that it would be enough to fool any passersby.

~A garden?~ he thought to himself, noting that he was now surrounded by an entire courtyard of various flowers. Some of which he recognized, though it seemed that they had been manipulated in some way as they were growing way taller than usual. In fact, most of them were taller than even he was.

~How did he get them to grow so... orderly,~ he thought to himself, as he tried his best to navigate through the small-scale flower forest without causing too much of a disturbance.

He unrooted a few of the smaller, more unique-looking ones, for later testing. However, there was one in particular, that caught his attention.

He could just barely see it through the tiny spaces in between the flower stalks that surrounded him. It was a massive flower, with green-crystalline petals, and what seemed to be a massive red gemstone at its centre.

For a moment he wondered if it was just an ornament, though he quickly dashed that thought as he could sense some radiant energy coming from it.

~That has to count as valuable, right,~ he thought to himself.

Still, there was a problem.

From what he could tell, this flower area covered the entire backyard of the mansion. And the crystal flower was at the centre, with two wooden statues of venari warriors on either side of it.

The problem arose from the guard tower just a few meters in front of it. Even if the guard stationed there was facing in the opposite direction, it would be too risky to try and do anything without first dealing with him.

~Hmm... this might work,~ he thought to himself, ripping a massive petal from one of the flowers beside him, before closing his eyes.

He began attempting to produce a very concentrated version of his 'wanderment' poison - trying to reduce its volume, and increase the amount of emotion he fed it.

However, as he did this, he noticed something odd.

Where once he could access his 'wanderment' emotions with relative ease, he now struggled to find them.

Indeed, the emotions that currently ran rampant in his mind were no longer those of detachment and uncertainty.

No, they were much different... much darker.

He tried his best to prevent these new emotions from tainting his poison as there was no telling what sort of change they might bring to its effects.

If it would even work at all.

Still, after great strain, and some skilful use of Elmando to manipulate the process, he managed to produce five drops of poison from his tail. So potent, that a mist of purple vapour wafted from it, as they dripped onto the petal he had ripped off.

~That took way too long,~ he realized with a sigh.

If he were in a battle situation, there was no way that this would be viable. In fact, he wondered if it was even viable at all. The fatigue that now consumed his body made it feel as if he had just exuded clouds of poison.

~Hopefully, this works,~ he thought to himself, as he pulled out a reinforced vine rope from his pouch, moving the axes he had packed to the side.

He then used Elmando to fuse the petals together, creating a small payload of poison, before using Elmando once again to fuse the payload to one end of the vine-rope.

~Go,~ he whispered inwardly, guiding the rope along the ground as if it were a snake.

Soon, it had made its way to the base of the guard tower, though this was where he could feel his hold on it growing weaker.

Still, he guided it slowly up the guard tower, inching ever so slightly with every second that went by. And with every second, it was getting harder to control it. The distance was simply too great.

By the time it had reached the top of the tower, a thin layer of precipitate covered his face, and it took every iota of mental fortitude he had to keep control of it. It felt akin to lifting a sack of rocks from the end of a very long stick.

"Okay," he whispered under his breath, detaching the payload from the rope.

The rope now hung onto the supports of the guard tower, decreasing the amount of strain he had to deal with. However this wasn't going to make the next bit any easier.

With explosive force, he launched the now lightened payload towards the guard's face.

The guard let out a confused grunt, perhaps wondering how the petal had flown all the way up there.

However before he could find his answer, Lucius's poison took effect. And the guard lost consciousness.

Lucius quickly surrendered control of the payload, now focusing solely on the rope, using it to hogtie the guard. Which in itself took a few minutes, as he could clearly see the now prone guard.

~That should keep him occupied for a bit,~ he thought, ensuring that the payload was directly on top of his face. Continuously feeding the poisonous vapour into his orifices.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, he quickly moved to the crystal flower, taking a quick glance at the statues next to it, before trying to dig it out.

Oddly enough, it didn't seem to have any roots. It was anchored down by a wooden structure, that hugged its entire base.

~Then how does it get its nutrients?~ he thought to himself, not stopping to think too much about it.

Lucius had become many things, but a professional-alien-botanist was not one of them. He would figure out whatever questions it brought up later.

After prying it out of its support, he carried, the extremely heavy and no doubt fragile flower back to the opening he had created on the wall.

He hid it outside the mansion, within one of the surrounding shrubs, before moving back in.

~Hopefully I have enough time to come retrieve it, once I'm done,~ he thought to himself, before venturing toward the main mansion itself.