Chapter 88: No One Can Resist Ruby!
Chapter 88: No One Can Resist Ruby!
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As the day went on, everyone finished breakfast as Frank wanted to convince Gwendolyn of letting Ruby stay inside the house at night.
“So you’re telling me that this little lizard that breathes fire and could literally put the whole house on fire is safe to keep inside?” asked Gwendolyn.
“Well, you control fire with magic, right? And you are not constantly fearing that your house would get burned down…” said Frank.
“Ah! Well, that does not apply to me, or Annabelle, or any person. We have higher intelligence than monsters, of course. We know when to not use our abilities due to the consequences. But monsters or animals do not know this, they cannot perceive consequences of their actions aside from the most primal ones such as hunting to eat, drinking to appease their thirst, and sleeping to regain energy when they are exhausted,” said Gwendolyn.
“Well, that might apply to most Monsters, but Ruby is clearly different, miss. First of all, she can understand my commands and my words. Although she cannot speak by herself because she does not possess a throat nor tongue capable of modulating words as we do,” said Frank, as he gave the simple command to ‘sit’ to Ruby.
“Grawr!” said Ruby, as she sat down as if she were a puppy, waving her tail happily.
“See?” said Frank with a smug.
“Well, that doesn’t… explain anything anyways! And does not confirms that she wouldn’t try to burn the house down whenever she’s carelessly playing around, right?” asked Gwendolyn.
“Hmm… I need to show you more then. Ruby jump to my shoulder,” said Frank.
“Grawr!” said Ruby, jumping directly towards Frank’s shoulder and landing perfectly on it. Frank’s shoulders were rather strong and slightly muscular resisting her weight without any problem.
“Well, I have to admit that you’ve trained her well, but still…” said Gwendolyn.
“Ruby, walk over my head and stand in two legs…” said Frank.
“Grawr…?” asked Ruby, as she did as Frank ordered her to, moving atop his head and then, barely standing in her two front limbs.
“E-Eeeehh?!” asked Gwendolyn, finally giving in to the ridiculous performance of Ruby, she was simply obeying everything!
“G-Grawwr…” muttered Ruby.
“Sorry about that, Ruby,” said Frank, grabbing Ruby and petting her head.
“Ah, she can also reduce her size and become as little as an actual lizard, right?” said Frank.
“Grawr!” said Ruby, as she was finally asked something easy, by activating her Body Size Alteration Skill, she reduced her size and became smaller!
“Huh?! And she can even reduce her size!” said Gwendolyn.
“Ruby can sleep at my side, or over my chest, she doesn’t even have to sleep on the floor or anything. And if she ever sneezes some fire, I will be the first one to burn,” said Frank.
“That’s… Sigh… Very well then,” said Gwendolyn, defeated.
“Ruby is staying at home now!” said Hilvera.
“She’s very strong, she’ll protect us!” said Asterion.
“She’s rather cute…” said Annabelle, petting Ruby alongside Hilvera and Asterion.
“Grawr…” said Ruby as she happily received the love of the younglings.
“She’s so cute though, I never thought I would ever meet a fire-breathing lizard that would act like a dog!” said Cathyl with a grin, petting Ruby as well.
“Mommy, pet her! She might have scales, but they’re slim and warm!” said Annabelle.
“Ruby doesn’t bite,” said Frank.
“Is that… so?” asked Gwendolyn, extending her hand towards Ruby, feeling the slim and warm scales.
“You can also pet her belly, it has skin and lack scales,” said Frank, as everyone gently caressed Ruby’s belly.
“It’s so… warm…” said Gwendolyn, blushing a bit over Ruby’s adorableness.
“Is Ruby really a monster? She’s such a tame and adorable little girl!” said Cathyl.
“Well, she is a tamed monster,” said Frank.
After a few minutes of incessant petting, Ruby was finally freed from the overwhelming affection of everyone, as Frank, Hilvera, Asterion, and Cathyl went to work on the Farm.
As Frank arduously worked in the fields, he slowly began to realize that he was able to perceive every plant here, and even ‘heard’ a few their ‘desires’.
“That’s right… Druid and Botany are giving me these abilities… Ginseng was a mere and tiny radish before I raised him into a monster… if I infuse life into these plants through Botany and Druid, would something similar happen? Perhaps I could negate the monster part and let them flourish into adults immediately? No… would not that be way too unrealistic? No way that they could grow so fast! …Right?” wondered Frank.
Frank began to think about the various possibilities that such actions could bring…
“What if I end up making them all grow and mature, Gwendolyn would be able to sell them immediately, and they can also be kept inside of my Inventory so they would never rot away… We can constantly buy seeds and make them grow immediately, and make a constant profit through my power… Everything would be turned upside down and we might gather a lot of profit, enough to change everyone’s lives…” thought Frank.
“But also, people would notice, and they wouldn’t simply glance at us. It is very probably that aristocrats or someone else would send spies to see how we are capable of such a thing, as I am fairly sure that not even Life Attribute Magus in here can do so much with plants and their growth… They might even discover how I did it, and try to abduct me or enslave me, forcing me to become their golden eggs hen…” assumed Frank, through his constant use of the Prediction Skill.
“Or maybe am I simply overthinking things and being Paranoiac? I haven’t even tried this yet…” thought Frank, as he grabbed the seed of cabbage.
“Botany, Druid…” he muttered, infusing his Life and Mana into the seed, as it suddenly began to sprout, releasing long leaves one after another, filled with freshness!
“T-This…!” muttered Frank, as the cabbage grew so large that it fell off his hand!
“W-What is that?!” asked Cathyl in surprise.
“The cabbage! Frank grabbed a seed and… and the cabbage just grew!” said Hilvera.
“Frank, are you okay?” asked Asterion.
“Y-Yeah… I just discovered a little… spell,” said Frank, glancing at the place where the cabbage should have fallen, only for it to be gone!
“Huh? Where did it go?” wondered Frank, as he suddenly felt the presence of a tiny being groaning below his leg.
“Grrrr…!”
Frank glanced at the direction where the groan came, finding a large, watermelon-sized cabbage with tiny legs and arms made out of roots, and crimson eyes, alongside a large and gaping mouth filled with sharp leaves resembling teeth!
“T-That’s… a monster!” said Hilvera.
“Wait, did Frank do this?!” asked Cathyl.
“No way!” said Asterion in surprise.
“Mana Threads, Bind,” said Frank, expanding mana threads and using bind, capturing the living cabbage.
The Cabbage struggled, but it was tightly wrapped in mana, and bind entirely.
“It not only grew, but it became a monster instantly… It seems that the control over this spell might be a bit hard… No one would buy a monster corpse to eat it… or would they?” said Frank.
“S-So you have a spell that let you instantly grow a plant from its seed?!” asked Cathyl.
“That’s… amazing! Frank-kun, you’re so amazing!” said Hilvera.
“Aniki, that’s incredible!” said Asterion.
“W-Wait a second, if you use that in all of this, wouldn’t I be left without work?” asked Cathyl.
“Ah, well, that’s right. Well, there is still a lot to understand about this. And I will make sure to not let you unemployed for this, Cathyl,” said Frank.
“W-Well, if you say so, we gotta show this to miss Gwendolyn though!” said Cathyl.
“Yeah, I agree… Let’s bring this little bud…” said Frank.
After walking inside the house, Gwendolyn almost burned down the cabbage monster before Frank could explain anything, but after calming down at last, Frank and Cathyl, with the help of Hilvera and Asterion, explained what had just unfolded.
“Y-You can conjure a spell that… makes a seed grow into a monster?!” asked Gwendolyn.
“I think there is something wrong in my casting, I wanted it to grow into an adult plant, but it ended as a monster… Maybe because of the infusion of too much Mana?” said Frank.
“Too much Mana?! Boy, do you know that it has never been documented for people to simply create monsters?! Well, I think that certain Demons and the Demon King can do it… But not a human! What you can do is even greater than simply bringing crops easily, it means that you could potentially create a whole army of plant monsters and simply… generate your own force, your own army to overwhelm enemies, such precious power could be amazingly utilized in war!” said Gwendolyn.
“That is not my intention, I wanted to make it grow into a plant… And I am not planning in using this power in wars any time soon, so relax a bit, miss…” said Frank.
“Y-Yeah, I guess I overdid it there…” said Gwendolyn.
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