My System Doesn't Give Power

The other three stared at Shobin with completely baffled expressions, and Daniel was the first to react. "Absolutely not."

Marty nodded as well. "Yeah, I’m with him on this one."

Adrian immediately moved away from the plant. "Eating a random plant in a realm as obnoxious as this is plain suicide."

Shobin looked at the three of them and scratched the side of his head. "I know how it sounds."

"No," Marty said. "You don’t. Because if you knew how it sounded, you wouldn’t have said it."

Daniel crossed his arms. "We don’t know what it is. Just because it smells good doesn’t mean it’s safe. I know at least a bunch of poisons that smell like apples and strawberries."

"That’s right." Marty nodded. "The prettier something is, the more poisonous it has to be."

Shobin lowered his gaze to the plant. "I can’t explain it properly, but I feel like these might be useful for us right now."

"A feeling?" Daniel frowned.

"It’s not just a feeling. It’s..." Shobin opened his mouth, then closed it again. His brows tightened as if even he did not know how to explain it. "I don’t know. When I touched them, I felt something familiar. Not dangerous."

"That’s still a hunch," Daniel said. "And we can’t risk our lives based on a hunch."

Shobin looked at them. "Maybe, but I think it’s still worth testing."

Daniel immediately stepped forward. "No. We’ll find a safer way."

Adrian nodded quickly. "Yes. A refined method worthy of my nobility."

"Oh, shut up," Marty said. "No one needs your narcissism right now."

Shobin took one of the leaves between his fingers. "I’ll do it."

Before he could bring it to his mouth, Marty grabbed his wrist. "No."

Shobin looked at him. "I’m the one suggesting the test, so I should be the one to do it first."

"If you’re so adamant about it, then let me do the honors." Marty took the leaf from Shobin’s hand.

"No, no, no," Shobin said quickly. "You shouldn’t be the one testing it."

Daniel also stepped in. "Marty, he’s right." Then he hesitated for a second before continuing.

"Plus... what if something happens to you and Zac comes looking for you later? What do you expect us to tell him? If he finds out we turned you into a guinea pig for some unknown plant, who knows what he will do."

Adrian immediately remembered Zac’s angry face and took another step back. "Count me out of this. I want no part of it."

Marty gave Adrian a look. "Coward."

Then he turned to Daniel. "First of all, Zac is not my guardian. Second, nobody is making me do anything. And third, I’m a defense warrior. My body is tougher than all of yours, and my recovery is better too. If it’s poison, I have a higher chance of surviving it."

"That doesn’t mean you should risk it," Daniel said.

"I know," Marty replied. "But someone has to."

Shobin tried to stop him, but before he could, Marty put the leaf into his mouth and chewed it. The others fell silent and stared as Marty swallowed the leaf.

"How is it?" Shobin asked.

"Well, it’s soft and doesn’t really have any special taste."

"I’m not asking about the taste. Do you feel anything abnormal in your body?"

Marty waited for a few seconds. "I don’t."

"Well, if it’s poison, or even if it’s something beneficial, it should at least take a few minutes to act," Daniel said. "So let’s wait."

But even after five minutes, nothing strange appeared on Marty’s body.

Adrian leaned forward carefully. "Do you feel your soul leaving your body?"

Marty looked at him. "No."

"Any sudden desire to confess your secrets?"

"No. And will you please stop talking nonsense?"

Daniel observed Marty carefully for a few more minutes. "Still nothing?"

Marty lifted his arms, turned his wrists, and checked his body. "I don’t see anything."

Daniel let out a breath. "Maybe it’s just a normal plant with a great fragrance."

Shobin suddenly looked at Marty. "Why don’t you try meditating?"

"What?"

"Use the breathing technique Instructor Matilda taught us. See if anything changes inside your body."

Marty thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "That’s actually a good idea."

He sat back down on the rock and started using the breathing technique. After a few minutes, his eyes snapped open.

Seeing the astonished expression on his face, Daniel immediately asked, "What happened?"

Marty looked down at his own body with wide eyes. "This is wonderful."

Daniel’s expression changed. "Really?"

"Yes. My newly opened meridian is stabilizing faster than before."

Daniel’s eyes sharpened. "The plant did that?"

Marty nodded. "The mana flow feels even smoother, and the strain my body had from opening the meridian is reducing much faster than it should."

Shobin’s eyes brightened slightly. "So it does help."

"What? Did you say something?" Marty asked.

"No," Shobin said. "It’s good that it’s not poison and actually a treasure in disguise."

Daniel crouched down and carefully picked up all the leaves before storing them in his inventory. "If these can help us open our meridians more smoothly, then they’re more valuable than anything else in this realm for us right now. And since there are four of us, we’ll need more plants like this."

Adrian’s face became serious for once. "Then we should go with our earlier plan."

Shobin picked up the stems Daniel had left behind. "We should store the stems too. If the leaves help with stabilization, maybe the stems have a different effect."

Daniel shook his head. "No more testing for now. One unknown success doesn’t mean we start eating random things."

Marty nodded as well. "Agreed. Before we test anything further, we need a safer place first. Plus, if we’re going to meditate, it has to be somewhere the beasts can’t see easily."

"Agreed," Shobin said with a nod.

Daniel stood up and looked in the direction opposite the burned trail. "The beast went that way after losing us. We should move in the other direction."

Shobin carefully stored the stems in his inventory and said, "We should divide them among us."

Marty nodded. "Yeah, let’s all keep some. That way, if we somehow get separated again, at least each of us will still have a portion."

They divided the leaves and stems equally before storing them in their inventories.

Daniel then said, "Most of the beasts in this area are still within the range we can handle alone, except for that horned monster. So if we’re careful, we can gather more of these plants."

"That’s right," Shobin said with a nod. "If we stick together, the amount we collect will be considerably lower."

"We’re okay with that, but..." Marty looked at Shobin. "Are you sure you’ll be safe alone?"

Shobin looked at Marty and smiled. "I may look weak, but I’m still an S-rank potential. Don’t forget that."

"Well, if you say so."

Marty then raised the most important question. "What’s the rendezvous point?"

Daniel thought about it for a moment and looked around. Soon, he spotted a huge boulder in the distance. He walked over to it, marked it with the edge of his spear, and said, "This will be our rendezvous point. Let’s all meet here when night falls."

He looked at the others. "Also, while searching, try to find a place where we can settle for the week."

"Fine," Adrian said. "But does this place even have nightfall?"

Marty looked at him. "That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said since coming to this realm."

Daniel ignored them and said, "Then let’s all set an eight-hour reminder on our VSB. After eight hours, we’ll wait near the border for one more hour. If someone still doesn’t show up by then, we’ll head to the place we found for our stay."

Everyone nodded in agreement and then went their separate ways to search for more plants.

***

On the other side of the Summer and Winter Realm, ten academy students walked together through a blazing crimson snowstorm.

All of them wore academy uniforms with white ribbons tied around their upper right arms, indicating that they were second-years.

The man leading the team was none other than the same student who had tried to punch Marty in the market and had been humiliated by Zac.

A man walking behind him stepped closer and asked, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Yes, I’m sure," the leader said. "Besides, we don’t have any other choice. The academy has already abandoned us as trash. We don’t get enough merit points or resources to increase our strength."

"I agree with that," the other student said. "But who would reward you with that much money just for killing a first-year?"

"That person specifically told me never to reveal his identity," the leader replied. "So sorry, mate. I can’t tell you."

He glanced back at the others. "But all of you will get one million Kyros for doing this. So don’t ask unnecessary questions and just follow me."

The group continued walking through the blazing snowstorm.

Oblivious to all of this somewhere else, inside a small cave, Zac sat cross-legged, trying to open his next meridian.