Starting from Zero

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"That was awesome! You can just keep a whole lot of enemies at bay if you play music like that. Your skills are area of effect right?"

"Yup. And the effect range is pretty big. There\'s no limit to how many people I can affect as long as they\'re within range. And I can determine which targets to affect and which targets are not. But actually they\'re not as powerful as you may think."

"Come on. What you did just now is already impressive. People can\'t use any attacks or move, how will they fight then?"

"That\'s not how it works. The effect shows up slowly. I need to play long enough to achieve something I just did to you. People can just come attack me when they notice what\'s going on. My Variation song needs 3 minutes to completely immobilize someone. I have even lower HP than casters, anyone can kill me before it happens."

"That\'s no problem. So you can\'t do any solo battles but you\'re a deadly killing machine in group fights. You can dominate the whole battlefield if someone protects you for long enough!"

"That\'s sounds good but...I can\'t."

"Why\'s that?"

"I can\'t get out! I was teleported here just after I left the Rookie Village. Then I found out I need to beat the minotaur at the entrance to leave this place, and it will be a one-on-one fight so I can\'t find any helpers. There\'s no way I can do it!"

"You have companion slots?"

"Six. That\'s a lot right? I added a lot of Charisma on purpose!"

That\'s...quite beyond the average. Though mine is way more OP. I can bring 9 companions after getting my new classes.

"Yes, that\'s a lot more than others. So why didn\'t you get any? Find some companions that can keep you safe for 3 minutes, then you have nothing to worry about."

"I thought about it too. But...I don\'t have [Capture] skill."

"Take this." I took out the "almond". "Plant this thing into the dirt and grow it using the spring water, you will get a plant-type companion."

"Sunflower seed? I have lot of these." She pulled out a handful of them from her pocket.

Blast it. That old SoB tricked me! He gave me this daily snack and passed it as a companion! And I\'ve been treating it as a treasure until now!

"Hold on a minute. Where did you find so many of them?"

"They grew on that tree over there. But the tree bites, I have to play music and lock it up to get near and collect these seeds. They taste good too. You want some? I never knew these are companion seeds, or I\'ll be out of here already."

She buried a seed into the dirt and splashed some water on it. A small sprout came out, and puff! It quickly turned into a tree. Then the tree transformed into a green ball, before it finally disappeared underground.

"Huh, so it IS a companion. That old man wasn\'t lying after all."

"But... it didn\'t listen to my orders?"

"Oh. You forgot blood. You need to put your own blood onto the seed before growing it."

"Got it."

She did again, it turned out better this time.

She grew several more while humming happily like a teenage girl. I quickly stopped her. "How many have you planted? You can\'t change your companions, it will be trouble if you use up all your slots."

"Oh oops... I forgot! I already got six of them."

"Ugh. Now you\'re a musician AND a gardener."

"Gardener? It\'s fine, I love flowers. I haven\'t introduced myself right? I\'m , my real name is ShangGwan Yuri."

She gave that out before I can stop her.

"My name is , real name is Sairin. Don\'t trust people too easy. We just met and you already told me your real name. That\'s dangerous you know."

"Are you a bad guy?"

"Um, no."

"No problem then!"

She smiles. I think that mild smile is always on her face.

"Oh right. I almost forgot why I came here. Do you have any almonds left, Yuri? You won\'t mind me calling you that right?"

"I don\'t mind. But what almond?"

"That sunflower seed you were just planting. I need one as well."

"Eh?" Her face turned red. "I\'m sorry! I was too excited just now, I put them all to the ground! Don\'t worry, I\'ll take you to that tree."

We reached that giant tree after crossing through some brushes. I mean, it\'s HUGE, it will take like six people together to hug the tree with their arms spread.

Yuri pointed at some red fruits on the tree. "That\'s it. You can find the seeds if you crack these fruits open."

I walked ahead. Yuri dragged me back.

"Not yet. The tree bites people. Let me freeze it first."

Well that seems the safer approach, so I agreed. Though frankly speaking, I do want to hear the nice music again.

The good news is, she successfully stopped the tree after a brief performance. The bad news is, she forget to switch her attack mode so she froze me up as well!

I had to ask Yuri to pick a fruit for me. I told her I need one but she still collected any last one them within her sight!

Then I listened to her Sun Anthem again to recover. Geez, we should really be careful with these songs. They hurt.

I broke the fruit to start my planting operation. First, I cut my own fingers and dropped some blood on it. That green ball monster mentioned I can power it up by giving more blood, so I called my team and collected some blood from every one of them.

The seed has become pitch black when I\'ve finished the job. Looks like there\'s something in me that will simply turn anything black when I decide to mess it up.

Then I dug a hole and put the seed under. I had to ask Yuri for help again to water the seed. I can\'t do anything on my own if she\'s not here.

A small root came out of the dirt quickly. Different from the ones we saw, this one is completely black as well.

Something went wrong just as Yuri tried to spoon water on it. The black vines definitely look like some sort of Dark-affinity creature. The spring water just caused a lot of white mist and fizzing noise on it. It looks as if we\'re pouring strong acid on it!

The root didn\'t get knocked away like me but is obviously hurt.

Before I decide to give up, Yuri played her Sun Anthem again. Right, so getting hurt by holy water is considered negative effect too, which means we can clear it.

The root straightened itself up but...something doesn\'t look right. The leaves on it turned red, then all the veins became blood red too, like blood vessels.

I felt the ground shook, like a herd of horses are galloping somewhere nearby. The shaking got stronger, before several vines shot out, bond everyone including my companions and Yuri, locking us up off the ground. We\'re not losing any HP though, so I told the struggling Lucky to stop moving. More vines came up and formed into something like a platform. We are released onto it.

It\'s pretty safe up here, I looked down towards the spring, which is now a total mess.

Countless tentacles grew from the vines. One stretched into the spring water, then burned up in a blink of an eye. Without stopping, the other tentacles shot themselves into the water one after another.

The first ones were all burned to ash. But there are just too many, they managed to cover the whole spring up in the end. A really thick tentacle crashed into the spring hole on the rock, breaking it apart. The spring stopped flowing.

Next, the vines started to spread around us, the whole garden is covered by the vines in no time.

The spring is now dried out, the trees died. A strong wind current blew over, turning the once beautiful scenery into a wasted desert!

"Holy-- What the heck happened? Phantom, ask him what\'s that all about!"

Phantom paused a little. "He over-evolved because we used too much blood. He\'s now level 900, the [Enhanced Creeper]. He was trying to absorb the surrounding energy, this is what happened."

"That was crazy!"

Yuri looked at the desert land below us with some sadness. "This is...terrible."

A black rose and a crimson rose suddenly appeared on a vine near her.

Phantom said: "He says that was his instinct to get fully grown and he couldn\'t control it. He won\'t and probably cannot do that again. He gave those flowers to Yuri as an apology."

...Is this plant actually trying to pick up a girl?

"Okaaay. So, I\'ll be calling you \'Rosa\' from now on. Let us down, please?"

There. It feels safe if you can actually touch the ground with your own feet. I think I\'ve been "in the air" for too much today.

Rosa recovered to his original size as well.

We still got problems, though.