Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

"Between sunlight and nutrients from the ground, which one would help me gain more mana the fastest?"

"I would say both are needed. The fastest way for you would be the ground since you have [absorption]. The problem is that it's not sustainable. In the long term, sunlight is your best way to gain mana."

I really needed more mana, a ton of it. If I kept draining mana from my clone bodies, it would affect their growth; that was my main concern. Hence, during my breaks in between work shifts, by using [conglomerate] I increased the focus on root growth and applied a tiny bit of aggressive [absorption] to allow my clones to gather more resources for me. Passively recovering mana like all living creatures wasn't enough to keep up with the speed I condense my mana. Currently, the conversion rate was around ten to one. It could probably be refined to even higher quality but time and mana was required.

Majority of my clones were already only producing leaves, roots, and stems. Some places that had lots of prey, I allowed the clones to flower. As for strawberries, I kept the bare minimum so De Planck wouldn't eat me up in place of the strawberries. Just to be safe, I kept ten ripe seedless strawberries dangling on three of my clones every day, the ones I noticed that had been harvested consistently.

Due to my consideration for mana gathering, I modified the clones to remove any unnecessary growth such as thorns and needles. It wasn't like anything would eat parts of my bodies when I had the [reaper] trait. Leaves were enlarged to twice to three times the original size. Stems were strengthened. And finally, roots were entrenched deeper and were spreading out like a network. The purpose was to absorb more nutrients and to avoid forest fires.

Maybe I can spread clones with clones? Will that work? I can't just leave this city without causing suspicions. Who knows if I'm under surveillance or not?

I ran my ideas with Smoothie just to be sure. But surprisingly, she quickly approved.

To speed up the process, I decided to create runners and special leaves to spread the clones automatically. Runners, just like regular strawberry plants if I remembered correctly, were basically stems that spread out to form new plants. In this world, such a function didn't exist for strawberry plants or any other plants I had seen. After all, I couldn't really call it a strawberry plant no matter how I examined it, aside from producing strawberries. I might as well had been a reborn as a watermelon tree. Those modifications was just too much of a stretch.  

Some special leaves were made like parachutes. They would detach once a breeze blew, carrying them to distant lands. It was a similar concept to dandelions.

Ahahaha... Having an ambition sure felt good. It made ideas flow easier. I was a genius after all! Now, my clones are finally spreading! Mana, more mana!

Whatever trouble these clones caused was none of my business.

"Mother, you're being a creep. Stop cackling by yourself."

"Sorry, I couldn't help it." But she shouldn't have to call me a creep. I was definitely not a creep!

Before my next work shift in a couple of hours, I decided to take a break from training and roam the outfitters. It was important to understand the fashions of this country. If there were any clothes that looked very nice, I could try replicating them.

"Ah... Anything?"

"Nn... No. Mother, yours is the best!"

"Shh... Don't say that in front of the shop owner."

The two of us were busy picking out any clothes that were suitable for us. After all, it was pointless to have money if we didn't spend them. Food was off the table. Baths were cheap. Entertainment was nowhere to be found, at least none that I was interested in. So, with that, my avenues of expenditure was next to none. Clothing and accessories were the only thing I could think of that required money.

There was one other avenue to spend money, but I didn't want to set a bad example for Smoothie. Plus, I had no desire to cuddle with furry things.

"Let's go to another shop."

With most of the stores here curtailing their designs to Juds, none of their designs were suitable for us. Not only that, there were nothing in my eyes that I could deem as fashionable, unlike their artistic architectures. It wasn't like I was negligent in my observations but there really wasn't any outfits I liked. In the first place, many of these common Juds didn't wear much, or none at all in rare circumstances. That was probably the main reason. 

As much as I tried, I didn't manage to spend a single coin. That shopping trip was a failure, a complete failure. After that, it was back to work for me. Technically, I could work more shifts but I still wanted some spare times. In fact, I found work to be a sort of entertainment. Folks around here were very friendly to interact with and there were no discrimination whatsoever. Other than the occasional odd gazes, and furriness aside, I felt like I was one of them.

As for Smoothie, she just tagged along wherever I went. She didn't do any training or work whatsoever but she seemed to be happy just to be with me. It seemed that those born from plants were super resilient to boredom. Though, sometimes she was quite demanding when it came to her time for a recharge which was a great change of pace even for me.

Magic, something I really liked the idea of. I really wished I had spare mana to test out some magic. Howbeit, I felt that condensing my mana was a priority. Everything else could wait once I was loaded with mana. In a sense, my life was a balance between work, which was kind of like entertainment, and training which was bordering work.

"I apologize for the long delay. You have an appointment with the King of Teir."

"I'm sorry. But I didn't book any appointments with anyone?"

How rude... Or is this the custom here?

Kanoko barged into our room without knocking the door first. I felt a sense of urgency from her, and yet I replied half-heartedly like a reflex without giving her statement a second thought.

"Your current accommodation is only temporary. Please come with me as soon as possible otherwise you may face eviction." She warned me. I kind of already figured what she wanted us for. It was probably some sort of assessment for us.

Aw, I kind of liked this place.

"Ok, coming!"

Smoothie, as if completely natural, accompanied me on our way to see the king of this country. From what I understood, there was someone above the king in terms of political power. That was likely the Highland Emperor. Whatever the case, meeting a king was a big deal. There were bound to be high profile and powerful beings protecting a king. With my currently abilities, I couldn't assure Smoothie's safety. Playing safe was my best bet for now.

"Kanoko, I have a question."

"Yes?"

"How come you're the only one I've seen in this city with a humanoid face?"

"My species are like that but I can transform my appearance to that of my originating species if I wish. Why do you have humanoid faces?"

"Oh, well, we were born like this."

In my mind, I kind of wished those Juds would have humanoid faces. They would look prettier that way, at least in my mind. Aside from that, I was still slowly learning how to read facial expressions of animal faces. The cultural gap was huge. And, they probably couldn't read my expressions either.

"What does the king want with us? Is there something we have to show?"

"You should be aware already. The kingdom is mustering all its resources it to fend off the invaders. In the worst case scenario, this kingdom would fall just like the other two kingdoms."

"Oh I see. How come there are no reinforcements from the other kingdoms? Shouldn't they help out?"

"I don't know the details since I'm not privy to military intelligence. At this moment, there's also a war with the reptilians."

"I see, I see. Two fronts."

"Please be polite when you have your audience with the king."

"Okay. Ehh... By the way, why do I feel like we just entered the mountain itself?"

While we were walking and chatting, we entered a random building or some kind of huge tunnel entrance. At first I thought it was just a shortcut to some other building because there were many other citizens walking this path. However, we didn't climb any staircases but rather continued to go straight.

"Yes, this is the inner city. Have you not visited in the past few days?"

The white and ashen interior was illuminated with magic crystals. The further we delved, the more expansive the hall became until finally a glistening cityscape revealed itself before my eyes. Well, it was the underground type of cityscape with tunnels like a modern version of mega construct crafted by hardcore dwarves.

"Wow...!"

Mind blown.

"I had no idea something like this existed under the mountain."

I could not help but exclaim, not expecting a magical city of this scale hidden beneath a mountain in this world. How I missed checking this place earlier was beyond me.

Honestly, if this was my previous world, it wasn't uncommon for cities to be built underground or even under the ocean. Given my impression of that first town, I had visited, I honestly didn't believe they were this capable. This world sure gave me something a lot more to look forward to.