The next morning.
Ron opened his eyes and exited his deep meditation state.
Still lying in bed, he loosened his waistband a little—it finally felt a bit more comfortable.
Sigh… Ron licked his lips. Despite brushing his teeth multiple times the night before, there were still all sorts of strange aftertastes lingering in his mouth.
How to put it…
He deeply regretted it now.
He should never have encouraged Yuna to experiment with mixology.
That one bit of encouragement opened Pandora's box—unleashing some terrifying, hidden talent inside Yuna.
And for reasons only the gods knew, not only did she get super into it, she became addicted to inventing bizarre cocktail recipes.
Even worse, she loved forcing people to try her concoctions, and always came up with strange and exotic mixes…
Ron rubbed his forehead, rolled out of bed with a textbook, "Magikarp Flip," hit the bathroom, and then headed out to the backyard for his usual morning training.
Training, shower, and a hearty breakfast personally prepared by Nora later…
The elves arrived.
One side paid with official documents; the other side handed over the promised Scalevines.
Right on cue, the system chimed in—
[Main Quest] — [Sell 5,000 Scalevines]
[System: "Congratulations, Host. Mission complete. Rewards have been deposited into your [Inventory]."]
[System: "Upgrade quest triggered."]
[Upgrade Quest] — [Cultivate Emerald Cypress]:
[Objective: Successfully cultivate an Emerald Cypress.]
[Reward: System Level +1.]
After sending the elves off, Ron headed straight into his Dimensional Space.
He opened his Inventory, absorbed the Emerald Cypress Cultivation Method, and began reading the plant's description:
[Emerald Cypress]:
[A parasitic wood-type plant, with a main body ranging in height from several dozen centimeters.
Flat in shape, one side is covered in retractable spike-like tendrils that allow it to latch onto the trunks of larger trees.
Once matured, it must attach to another plant to survive, feeding off its nutrients.
However, after absorbing nutrients, it will secrete special nutrients in return, accelerating the host's secondary growth.
The host tree, infused with these nutrients, will gradually take on the characteristics of a cypress and grow leaves with healing properties.
The strength of the healing effects depends on the vitality of the host plant—the more life force, the stronger the healing.]
Ron was a bit surprised.
He'd expected the Emerald Cypress to be a proper, upright tree—definitely not a parasitic creeper.
And yet… this strange plant wasn't exactly a parasite either—it had a mutually beneficial setup. It fed off the host plant, then boosted its growth and granted it healing properties.
Interesting.
He kept reading:
[Parasitizing a host plant carries some risk. If compatibility is poor, the tendrils may reject the host.
Forcing an incompatible match has a high probability of killing both plants.]
Ron rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So there are limitations."
The description didn't say which species were more compatible—only that the tendrils would instinctively reject incompatible hosts.
"So I'll need to play matchmaker one tree at a time?"
Muttering to himself, Ron spent 2,000 Wealth Points to purchase 1 square meter of planting space, then sowed the Emerald Cypress Seed.
Since the main body was small, that much room was enough for now.
As for what kind of plant it would eventually parasitize, he'd figure it out once it matured.
Ron began adjusting the environmental parameters within the grow space—he was already a pro at this kind of setup. After absorbing the cultivation method via system download, he was even more confident.
In just fifteen minutes, the Emerald Cypress began to take shape.
A flat, woody structure several dozen centimeters long—one side looked like normal bark, while the other sprouted a mass of thin, writhing tendrils.
These tendrils floated and squirmed in the air in a dense, creeping pattern—so unsettling it made your skin crawl.
If someone had trypophobia, they'd have bolted from the Dimensional Space by now.
Once the plant matured, Ron heard the system again:
[Upgrade Quest] — [Cultivate Emerald Cypress]
[System: "Congratulations, Host. Task complete. Reward granted. System upgraded to Level 5. Panel Skin customization now unlocked."]
[System: "Flower shop permissions have been expanded. The Host may now choose whether or not to list system-provided plants for sale."]
[System: "If a plant is marked for sale, the system will suggest a price range. The Host may determine whether to offer discounts based on order volume."]
System: "Main Quest triggered."
[Main Quest] — [Open a Branch Shop]:
[Objective: Your flower shop has matured. Its reputation is spreading. It's time to open a second branch. Please travel to the Imperial Capital of the Human Empire and personally purchase property to establish a branch shop.]
[Reward: Unlock Dimensional Teleportation Access.]
Ron stared blankly at the system panel, momentarily forgetting about the Emerald Cypress.
Panel skins… yeah, I'll pass on that for now… Ron's mouth twitched.
But the ability to choose which plants to sell, and even set prices within a range…
Before, any plant awarded via a main quest had to be automatically put up for sale in the flower shop. Now, the system had handed that decision over to him.
Hmm… It's a decent quality-of-life feature, I guess.
It wasn't necessary, but it would give him some breathing room in future bulk orders.
And if the system ever gave him an overpowered plant, he could simply choose to keep it for personal use.
Take the Puppet Tree, for example—thank goodness that wasn't a quest reward. If he'd been forced to sell it publicly, that would've been such a waste.
Now he could actually make proper use of things like the Puppet Tree.
Finished skimming the upgrade benefits, Ron turned his attention to the new main quest.
He'd assumed it would be another "sell X number of plants" objective—but no.
This time, it was an entirely different type of task:
Open a branch shop.
In the Imperial Capital.
"Tch." Ron frowned.
To be honest, he really didn't want to return to the capital.
Especially not after becoming a Chosen of the Goddess.
Back in October, there had been an assassination attempt. Though the assassin ended up transformed into a Divine Tree by the "Vital Bloom" miracle and Ron walked away without a scratch, that moment had shown him just how dark this world could be.
Life had been peaceful lately, but behind the scenes, Sylvie and the city patrols had already dealt with countless lurking threats.
And unbeknownst to Ron, Yuna had played a part in this cleanup as well.
That said, the more Ron thought about it, the more he realized there was no point avoiding the capital.
With his current status, even if he stayed in the City of Chaos, he couldn't ease the paranoia of those in power back in the Imperial Capital.
So he might as well make the trip.
Besides, this reward—Dimensional Teleportation Access—really piqued his curiosity.