After being unconscious for an unknown amount of time, John wakes up to find all the energy he had stored gone. Groaning he thought, "How could this happen. I"m done for! With no energy stores, there is no hope of gathering enough to grow now." He sighs, lamenting his poor luck that appears to have carried over from his previous life. Now he will only face a slow death as his plant body shrivels away.With his fate sealed he decides to inspect his body. Although he feels that any struggle at this point is meaningless. It would be too boring to just sit and wait for his death. Inspecting his roots, he finds that they are still intact and in the ground. "At least I can collect some energy to extend my life." He weakly smiles.
It didn"t take long to inspect all his roots since he only has five, small strands after all. Now with his death guaranteed, John begins to wonder what he will reincarnate into after he fails to even be a plant. Perhaps he can be some small cute animal and be taken care of as a pet? "I just want a full life. Why am I so bad at staying alive?" He laments. John wanted to cry. Yet tears will not flow, from a body that has no eyes.
He then finds himself enjoying a cool breeze that was rather soothing, calming him down. "Ehh!" He senses something other than the ground, his roots were in? It"s true he hadn"t noticed until now, but there is a small stem with one bud. "Did my instincts kick in while I was pa.s.sed out?" he was astonished he went from h.e.l.l to heaven in an instant.
Now it is important for him to nurture, this small bud into a leaf. With that, he can gain energy, from the sun. In order to do this, he would need more energy. Too much had been wasted on the failed core attempt. He again focuses on his roots, now was the time to battle it out with those plants around him. Yet to his surprise, he finds no roots to compete with. "Now isn"t the time to contemplate my good luck." Shaking his head mentally, he begins to suck up all the energy he can.
After a week of scavenging with his roots, he is finally prepared. John begins focusing the gathered energy, to grow a leaf. It feels like he is opening his hand. The sensation is amazing. When controlling his roots, it feels sluggish as they dig and grow in the ground. However, the leaf was in the outside world. It is the first time he felt truly alive since he became a plant.
The energy of the sun flows into John"s stem for the first time. It feels like fire flowing through his plant veins. It is incredibly invigorating. "I never felt anything like this in my previous life! What is this?" He lightly shakes his leaf. Without a core, he will never have full control like those plant masters. Yet, he felt this surge of energy from the sun filling him with warmth and happiness. So he didn"t lament the loss.
From his many years of gardening, he knew that he needs a strong root system in order to have a solid foundation for growth. It is a balancing act between growing upwards and downwards. His five strands had split off a few times into tendrils now forming a small web. He knew that he would need more. So he begins to transfer the sun energy towards his roots encouraging growth until he has twelve. This takes about a week, with another week to spread them out. He does all this in order to create a strong base for himself. "Why are there no other roots? Why would I be the only one to survive?" The more he thinks about it and inspects the area around him, the more confused he became. If there was something so strong to kill everything around him... He can"t fathom why he would survive.
With his base set, John is now ready to grow more leaves. He still didn"t know what he was, but as he grew he would be able to get some clues. John brings the energy from the earth drawn up by his roots, to mix with the energy he collected from the sun. Bang, the energy became violent as it clashes with each other! "Eeee, What"s going on?" He begins to panic. John fights to control the energy and split the two energies apart. It hadn"t done this before! Even though he had stored the energy together for a while. This, however, is the first time he had tried to force the two energies together. He never thought that such an extreme reaction would occur.
It felt like he was being ripped apart for a whole day, as the energy flared up in a seemingly eternal battle. He hasn"t heard from his plant instincts since the battle that knocked him unconscious. He wonders if a lowly plant like him, only has access this small amount of inheritance? "I shouldn"t expect too much. It"s already more guidance then I got in my last life." Smiling he slightly nods internally. "At least I confirmed this before I had more energy stored. If I made this mistake later, I would have surely exploded!" He would have been sweating like a pig from this mistake in his last life.
John didn"t know what to do. He is scared, of the dangerous reaction so he can only send one energy at a time, to help him grow. Sun energy, then earth, slowly but surely another bud appears. He is glad that things have calmed down. However, it is exhausting to micromanage the energy. "Since I attempted to mix the two energies, it seems like they are at war with each other." He is quite frustrated. If he let down his guard, he"d find the energies confronting each other, like armies preparing to claim new territory. For now, he is resigned to this fate. He didn"t have time to experiment more, and it could even be dangerous. He needs to grow while the weather is favorable!