Ch.423423 – Water Ghost Meta

by fnovelpia

# <423 – Water Ghost Meta>

When the growth products of the two seeds and the byproduct spirits were all swept away in an instant, Senior Orcatch grabbed the back of his neck and groaned.

“You bastard, you requested this match planning to do this from the start!”

“Isn’t it your fault for neglecting safety precautions, senior?”

That’s what happens when you let your mandrake get stolen!

I was just pointing out facts, but Senior Orcatch shouted in extreme anger.

“Oh really? Then why don’t you summon something too! I’ll sweep it all away just the same!”

If I were to scatter some pathetic common-grade seeds here, it would be no different than making excuses and backing out.

If my goal was to make the senior’s blood boil and collapse from high blood pressure, it would be a great success, but the purpose of this match is to show the skills of a veteran!

I need to demonstrate a safe yet vicious combo that won’t fall to the same tactics.

“Go, Chubby Plant! I choose you!”

The opening move is the Chubby Plant, which grows larger as it consumes fertilizer.

This rare plant is used as a crafting material for magic-resistant equipment like armored robes that can absorb magic by utilizing the Chubby Plant’s absorption properties.

Even without using the vacuum cleaner, it’s a rare plant that would make anyone’s eyes roll with desire. Greed appeared in Senior Orcatch’s eyes.

“Ha. Offering something even more valuable than what you stole. Are you trying to entertain me? Turns out you’re quite a thoughtful junior after all.”

“Who said you could take it as you please? I still have two more left.”

This Chubby Plant is a core seed used in builds that resist others’ oppression while maximizing my own oppressive power, depending on the combination.

“Next is Spider Plant! I choose you!”

The second is another rare crafting material plant, the Spider Plant.

This plant monster extends vines like spider webs, growing larger and tougher as it captures and devours prey caught in its vines.

The Spider Plant even has the habit of applying various spells by adapting mana knowledge acquired from its prey, giving it high mana conductivity.

Just as Blue Metal has high mana conductivity in the mineral world, the Spider Plant holds that position in the plant world!

“Hahaha! What is this? A double event? Buy one get one free? Just summoning expensive treasures one after another won’t accomplish anything, you naive girl.”

“Hmph. A buy one get one free deal always comes with a bonus gift! If you’re so confident, judge after seeing this. Let’s see who’s laughing now!”

The third and final plant came not from my pouch but from the vacuum cleaner.

“Finally, Royal Jelly Plant! I choose you!”

When the plant that was stolen from him appeared on the field, Senior Orcatch’s face turned red with rage.

When Titosoga turns on the red light on Professor Sadaco, she looks like a blood-covered ghost that scares people, but this senior just looks pathetic even when angry!

I might seem too careless, but he really had no choice but to let his guard down.

“Do you understand now? The sustainability of this build!”

“You bastard, you used my Royal Jelly Plant’s properties to enhance both the Chubby Plant and Spider Plant at the same time…!”

The Chubby Plant grows vigorously by consuming royal jelly, while the Spider Plant becomes tougher by capturing and eating spirits attracted to the royal jelly.

Moreover, the Chubby Plant absorbs magic, and the Spider Plant uses the mana knowledge absorbed from spirits to cast various spells.

It should be fighting with physical power since magic use is absurd, but with the Royal Jelly Plant’s automatically replenishing royal jelly, both fertilizer and mana supply sources are secured.

“No way. You’ve created a perpetual motion machine with higher completion than mine?”

“Hehehe! How about that? See how money shows its power when expensive seeds are used like this?”

“Ha. But you’ve messed with the wrong person. Underhanded tactics that overturn the field aren’t your exclusive technique!”

Senior Orcatch’s pride-driven spells were cast one after another on the spot.

He extracted moisture from the open space, made the ground crack like drought-stricken fields, and then forcibly lifted the dried roots that had lost nutrients.

I had to admit his quick thinking in recreating the Vacuum Cleaner(+5)’s effect with magic alone was impressive.

However, there was a crucial difference between the senior’s build and mine.

“Chubby.”

The Chubby Plant had already consumed not just royal jelly but also fertilizer from my inventory, making it considerably heavy.

Compared to the Pupu Plant and spirit combo that would sway with just a breeze, it might have less firepower but had a completely different level of formation stability and weight to hold its ground.

“Eeek!”

Senior Orcatch tried his best to increase the power of his telekinetic lifting magic by pouring in more mana, but the Chubby Plant didn’t budge at all.

“Cough!”

“Gasp, the department head is coughing blood!”

“That’s mana backflow. How much force did he use?”

“This guy eats all sorts of healthy stuff while hiking in the mountains, so his mana capacity should be enormous even for a third-year intermediate class…”

The outcome of the match was already as good as decided.

I approached the collapsed senior and patted his shoulder encouragingly.

“Remember this, senior. No matter how useful a meta becomes popular, with enough money, you can create counter-strategies using rarer seeds. Money is everything in life!”

“Damn pay-to-win brat…”

Senior Orcatch collapsed with a thud.

But what should I do with the plants I used in the match?

“Chubby.”

“Spapa-pa.”

“Zerrrrr.”

The Chubby Plant had grown massive as if building a fortress, the Spider Plant had developed enough magical power to pulverize even large species, and the Royal Jelly Plant had decided to stick with these two powerful plant monsters.

The three plants, united like soulmates, looked at the Plant Club members and me with triangular eyes while drooling.

“Oopsie. I forgot that plant mobs become aggro mobs when they grow too big!”

“This isn’t just ‘oopsie,’ you crazy junior! What are we going to do with those? Plant mobs are supposed to naturally dissipate after battles due to energy depletion from rapid growth, but these have perpetual energy and are actually continuing to grow!”

“I have an idea.”

“What idea?”

“Run away without looking back!”

The Plant Club senior members made sour faces.

“You want to just run after creating such a vicious combo in the open space?”

“Besides, those are extremely valuable specimens. At that size, they could yield amazing materials if harvested. Is it okay to just abandon them?”

“Hmm. Honestly, I’m tempted. Can’t we just beat them up with brute force and harvest their stems as materials?”

One third-year senior showed some bravado.

Greed spread quickly among the seniors.

“Think about the points. Just selling the materials to the Production Department students would easily net a thousand points per stem!”

“Wow. There are over twenty visible stems!”

“With both Chubby Plant and Spider Plant, that’s at least 40,000 points. Opportunities to earn such large amounts without standing out in class are rare.”

The seniors, blinded by points, opened their expensive pouches and threw rare materials worth dozens to hundreds of points each.

One senior created flashy explosions to inflict status effects and distract the plant mobs, another raised wind with the Wind Blade Plant to slash stems, and a third used the Claw Plant to advance stealthily through the ground and carve out roots.

The coordination of the three Plant Club seniors was so impressive that it was hard to believe they were the same ones who got thrashed by the mandrake.

They must have been holding back against a newbie like me.

“Chubby.”

“No way, it just endured the explosion with its body? And it’s so big that status effects barely work!”

A senior realized the plant mob’s specs were much higher than expected and belatedly called for a halt to the attack, but the Wind Blade Plant and Claw Plant attacks had already been launched.

“Spapa-pa.”

Normal stems would have been cut by the sharp slicing power of the Wind Cutter’s blade wind, but it was no match for the Spider Plant that had grown stronger by devouring spirits.

<Pull>

“Oh no, my plant!”

“Come back, don’t get dragged in!”

Despite the seniors’ desperate calls, the Spider Plant’s web had become strong enough to pull in enemies that attacked from a distance.

The plants that were eventually devoured by the Spider Plant drooped their stems like corpses with broken necks.

The Spider Plant opened its drowsy eyes like an evil warlock performing soul-sucking magic.

It recreated the attacks it had suffered by releasing Wind Cutter and Earth Splitting.

This was typical of the Spider Plant with its high <Attack Mimicry> talent, just like our baby mandrake with its high rarity.

“Sh-shield!!”

“Damn. It’s coming from the ground too!”

The seniors who had foolishly attempted to attack only ended up giving the Spider Plant more attack methods. They hastily retreated while deploying shields.

They should be grateful it wasn’t using explosions and toxic spores.

“Sigh. I told you we should have run away from the beginning.”

A rare plant mob colony suddenly growing in the middle of the open space.

Spider webs shot high into the sky, wrapping around the main body like a huge sphere and expanding its territory, causing nearby vegetation to wither and bushes to be uprooted and devoured.

If you approach the territory, you’ll face Wind Cutter and Earth Splitting combos targeting your waist and ankles, plus growth power that increases like perpetual motion as time passes.

These are truly vicious creatures, even though I created them.

But wasn’t I forgetting something?

“Gasp. I forgot the warning!”

━━━

Warning! Do not use the above combo unless Professor Warerd is supervising the match.

Plant mobs growing with perpetual energy will expand into a malicious plant colony with the potential to become a field boss with chapter boss-level power.

If this combo is used outside the Academy, it must be eliminated within one month or it will cause critical damage to game progression.

━━━

Sweat beads on my forehead.

It’s fortunate that I didn’t use it outside the Academy, but if Professor Warerd catches me, he’ll say “this young one has great potential” and drag me to his lab.

I don’t want to repeat the memory of rotting for five years researching sabotage using malicious plant colonies!

“Hey, first-year! What are you going to do about that!”

“Are we really just going to run away?! Won’t other students get their ankles cut off and be dragged away to be eaten if they wander nearby?”

“Um… well… that seems quite likely!”

“Then what do we do!”

“Ack! The fine!”

“We need to call a professor. Professor Warerd would surely handle it somehow.”

“Wouldn’t the student council take care of it if we report it?”

“Wait! There’s still another solution besides professors or the student council.”

I’m also scared of the fine I’ll have to pay for creating such a vicious life form.

But there’s still a third option we can take before any casualties occur.

“We can sell the location information of the rare plant colony to the fourth-year Production Department seniors!”

The fourth-year seniors can harvest rare materials, we can clean up our mess, and everyone will be happy.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘we’? This is your responsibility.”

“Right. Don’t try to blame us for the monster you summoned.”

“But the plants absorbed your plants and learned vicious new skills because you seniors attacked instead of running away.”

“Oh.”

“You idiot, why are you flustered? You should have denied it to the end.”

It’s already too late.

“If I have to pay the fine, I’ll definitely testify about the accident you seniors caused. If I go down, we all go down together!”

No matter how much the seniors want to distance themselves or deny it, they have no chance.

If they abandon me and run away, then it’s all or nothing with the water ghost meta!

0 Comments