The familiar edge of the forest drew near.
About five kilometers off, the first houses of the outskirts gave off small lights that blinked like stars in the darkness.
Soon he would have to answer for what he had done.
Ren stopped for a moment and shifted the pack of spoils on his shoulders.
How was he going to explain all of this?
The scratches all over his body, the mud, the golden mycelium, the mantis's carapace and its core.
Maybe if he slipped in through the window.......
A presence in the darkness cut his thoughts short.
His body went rigid.
For an instant he thought it was a pack of Moon Toads driven out of their territory.
Suffering from hunger and a lack of mana, they were far more dangerous and unpredictable than usual.
But.......
Two silhouettes were moving at the edge of the forest, and one of them was carrying a faint lantern.
Even at this distance, Ren could tell they were not demon beasts.
It was his parents.
His father led the way with a hoe in his hand, and his mature Plant was poised for battle.
His mother followed behind, spreading her vines over the ground in a defensive stance.
Of course.
His own tracks would have led them here.
'The map!'
The moment he learned Ren was not in his room, his father would have noticed at once that the map was gone.
He knew well how obsessively Ren had pored over that map, how much he had pressed him about that desperate venture in search of medicinal herbs.
Where a boy who had received the weakest Spore in the world would head in search of hope was all too obvious.
Ren watched his parents quietly from the darkness.
Even with ordinary Beasts of a low grade, Ren's parents showed a perfect harmony that could only be reached through years of working as one.
He thought of the way the two of them moved in perfect time in the kitchen.
But now, his new knowledge showed him more than that.
The way his father's Plant stretched out in a particular pattern to detect movement, the way his mother's vines wove together with the surrounding roots to form an intricate defensive formation.
They had honed such refined technique with nothing but Iron-grade Beasts.
As he watched them, the mushrooms in Ren's hair shone fiercely.
Ren was exhausted, and his whole body was covered in mud and gray spores, but...... he was alive.
And now he had to face the moment coming for him.
He took one step toward the light.
It was only a single step, but the yellow mushrooms blooming in his hair gave his presence away.
"There!" his father called out low.
"If he's this close to the grassland, a Moon Toad may have attacked Ren!"
The vines shot out at astonishing speed, and Ren felt the familiar sensation of his mother's Plant wrapping around his body.
"Ren!"
His mother's cry cut through his thoughts.
The Plant's vines released their grip at once.
Ren braced himself for the worst.
He could now see through the detailed ecology of dozens of kinds of Beasts.
But he had no idea at all how to get through the situation right in front of him.
His parents' punishment would be harsh.
He had stolen his father's precious map and run from the house in the middle of the night.
But it was his mother who came to him first and held him until he nearly broke.
His father followed soon after and gathered them both into his arms at once.
The two of them...... were crying.
"My baby...... my little baby......."
His mother sobbed as she held him tightly enough to stop his breath.
"We thought you......."
His father's throat closed and he could not go on.
Ren stood stiff in their arms.
The shouting would start soon.
The scolding, the punishment he deserved for being so reckless.
He deserved it.
But.......
"I'm so sorry." came his mother's tearful whisper.
"If only we had chosen a better egg instead of a better academy....... Even if you hadn't grown properly, we wouldn't have put you in danger like this."
His father went on in a trembling voice.
"I shouldn't have been so certain that you'd get a Plant like ours. When I was ill, we......."
Ren blinked, confused.
'Are they blaming themselves?'
"But I......." he tried to explain.
"I'm the one who ran away. I stole the map. I......."
His father held him tighter.
"We drove you to this. With our expectations, with our......."
"No!"
Ren drew back far enough to look them in the face.
"You gave up everything for me. You even sold the house to send me to the best academy. You worked that hard just to get me one better egg...... and then I......."
Tears ran down his cheeks and mixed with the mud.
"I only...... I only wanted you to be proud of me......."
His voice shook.
"Child. We have always been proud of you. Always......." his mother whispered as she gently wiped the boy's dirty face.
That night, there was no shouting.
No punishment, and no scolding.
Beneath the moonlight shining bright in the night sky, while the mushrooms blooming in Ren's hair glowed softly like fallen stars, the three of them simply held one another and wept together.
And for the first time since the summoning ceremony, Ren realized something that no knowledge of any Beast could have taught him.
His parents' love was stronger than any disappointment and deeper than any failure.
It was unconditional, one of the few truths in this world.
***
The walk back across the grassland was quiet.
The only thing that broke the silence was his mother's occasional small sob as she held Ren's hand tight.
As though the boy would vanish if she let go.
When they reached the house, the feast prepared to celebrate Ren's summoning sat cold on the table.
His mother began reheating the food at once.
"You don't have to."
Ren began, but his mother was already in the kitchen.
"You must be hungry. You were out all night......." she insisted, wiping away tears as she worked.
To his surprise, when the scent of the warmed stew filled the room, his stomach cried out violently.
He devoured it like a man who had gone days without eating.
With every bite, a deeper hunger woke.
It was as though his body, having gone through a mutation, craved energy with a ravenous appetite.
"I'm so sorry, son." his father said in a trembling voice, breaking the silence.
"If only we weren't this poor, if we had worked harder, we could have bought you a better egg......."
"We shouldn't have pressed you like that with our worrying. You must have felt it......." his mother added, setting out another plate of the stew Ren had made vanish as quickly as a crab hides its eyes.
"If anything had happened to you, we...... we...... that grief......."
His father could not finish.
"Don't push the boy emotionally! Can't you see he's suffered enough? Alone in that forest all that time, hiding from toads in the mud......." his mother scolded his father.
She went to Ren and gently stroked his dirty hair.
"Shall we get you a hot bath, baby?"
"Forgive me."
His father buried his face in both hands.
"I'm useless. I couldn't get you even one proper Beast. But I promise you this. Your father will go into the forest himself. I'll find the miracle herb. Something to replace that Spore, or something that will give you a second Beast like in the legends. Anything for you, son. Don't misunderstand me. I love you even if that Spore is all you have. But for your sake, your father would......."
"No!"
The violence in Ren's voice startled everyone, even himself.
He rose from the table.
Fresh tears gathered in his eyes.
"Please, don't say things like that. Don't apologize. I...... I was the foolish one."
His voice shook, but it was full of conviction.
"This Spore...... your gift....... It's the best gift in the world. I was an idiot for only seeing that now."
Ren bowed deeply to his parents.
Tears fell in drops to the floor.
"I'm sorry I never thanked you properly. For all your sacrifices and everything you've done for me. I...... I'll prove myself at the academy, I swear it. So that you can both be proud. I promise."
The mushrooms in his hair glowed softly.
As though they were nodding at his words.
"We're already proud of you. We always have been." his mother whispered as she lifted him up and held him.
His father joined the embrace.
For a while, beneath the countless moonbeams pouring through the window, the small family was bound together more strongly than it had ever been.
Ren smiled through his tears.
There was much he had to say and much he had to explain, but for now this was enough.
He had come home.
As the warm water wrapped around his body, the whirlwind of the night finally settled, and in its place his new knowledge rose clear.
While the hot water of the tub washed the mud and spores from his skin, Ren went back over what he now knew.
The mushrooms in his hair glowed softly, sparkling on the water like small stars.
His parents' Plants.......
Only now could he see clearly what had happened.
The knowledge flowed into his mind like a perfectly detailed instruction manual.
Plant Growth
1. Iron grade: Supply 100 correct maturation points and the grade rises.
2. Early maturation: Occurs when 1000 maturation points accumulate with no particular direction.
3. Result: Weak Seedling (the only intermediate path reachable at the Iron grade)
His parents had had no other way.
In their youth, with no knowledge to light the trajectory of evolution and no resources to open that road, their Plants had been able to do nothing but pile up growth points blindly.
And the moment they reached the limit of 1000 points, they grew into their 'adult' form and any further evolution was sealed off.
Potential Growth Trajectory, Never Realized
1. Bronze grade: Bronze stage 1 (Common Seedling), Bronze stage 2 (Strong Seedling)
2. Silver grade: Silver stage 1 (Weak Plant), Silver stage 2 (Common Plant), Silver stage 3 (Strong Plant)
The water cooled while Ren reviewed this information.
It was fascinating and tragic at the same time.
His parents had worked so hard, but without the right knowledge they could not understand the trajectory of evolution.......
Ren shot upright in the tub.
There was no further trajectory to walk, but one method remained.
The knowledge unfolded in his mind, clear and precise.
Thousand-Day Training Method: The True Cultivation and Training of a Plant
What everyone called an adult Plant was in fact only an intermediate stage, a cocoon waiting to bloom in full.
For a Plant's true final evolution, three conditions were required.
1. It must accumulate 1000 specific growth points.
2. Without exception, exactly one point must be deposited per day.
3. It must carry out a three-step rite that has to be performed with absolute precision.
The method was so simple it was almost a lie.
1. Dawn: The Plant must mix one drop of refined common mana crystal with one drop of the essence of life and absorb it until it has dissolved completely.
2. Midday: The crystal must receive direct sunlight for exactly 24 minutes. Not one minute more and not one minute less.
3. Dusk: Finally, the mixture must be 'sealed' with golden pollen harvested from the 'night flower,' a common plant that blooms on a ten-day cycle.
'This is just like taking your medicine every day. The ingredients are easy to get, too, so they'll never run out.'
Ren thought with excitement.
The heart of it lay not in the ingredients but in precision and persistence.
Fail even a single day and the process had to be started over from the beginning.
Most people, even when they tried a new training method, gave it up within a few months saying it did not work.
On top of that, on the final day all the power accumulated through the process had to be sealed with an expensive rune.
In his parents' case, a 'Rune of Vitality' would be needed.
'I see why no one ever found this.'
Ren repeated to himself.
'Everyone knows an effective training method lasts 150 days at the most. They say some go on longer than six months, but.......'
Even that understanding was a misconception.
In reality every training method was a 100-day process, but people wasted their time at the start by failing to find the right method and miscalculating the amount of mana energy.
Of course, he could understand why they used less mana each day than the most efficient amount.
Mana poisoning was that terrifying.