Chapter 92: Rankings

'You mean to say they can actively move and attack us?' Another one asked with a terror stricken face. 'Haha no need to panic kiddos. Its not as bad as you think. Else we might have been already wiped out. It's been around 20 years when we first noticed these vines and be have managed to keep them under control.' The audience sighed in relief. If they have already managed to survive for so long, how bad it can get? Master Lyod continued 'You only need to be careful when you are actively trying to destroy a vine. That's the only time they will try to retaliate and fight to survive. At other times they will remain like a normal plant without any sort of movements at all. So there won't be any threat of an ambush.' The next question directly talked about what Rick was most curious about 'Master Lyod, in that case had the vines ever proven to be fatal? I mean to say of any had lost their life defending teh trees?'

'No not a single death is reported. But that doesn't mean they are not fatal. Everytime we faced some massive retaliation, we always had made ample preparations and had means to counter it's threat. Still it has contributed to a large number of injuries in the town. One more thing is that every time the injuries took place in the presence of multiple people so they were rescued before the vise could suck mana completely out of them. So now you can understand that it will be severely forbidden to walk in the plantation alone. We will be creating two man teams and you will scout the farms only in presence of your buddy.' Master Lyod took a pause and continued 'Thats enough explanation for a day. Now we can begin with your training. One by one I want all of you to show me your abilities so I can better assign your tasks to you.'

'Let me give you an overview of the tasks. Broadly those will be divided in 3 categories first will be the manual labour. This will be assigned to those of you with weaker abilities and it will too risky to send you inside the plantation. Second will be scouts who will be responsible for scanning the area for any presence of the krypto vines. Lastly third will be the exterminators, they will have the authority to engage in the destruction of vines. So let us begin' Replying in affirmative all of them began the display of their mana abilities. Master Lyod evaluated them one by one. Those with the weakest abilities were assigned the chores requiring manual labour. While those with some powerful abilities were give the task of scouts. None of them have been given the rank of exterminators as of yet. It was turn of the hot head boy Jake when master Lyod's eyes brightened. 'So we have a fire user this time haha... good good. I will assign you as an exterminator.'

Likewise he evaluated Kyro and Kira too. But they only managed to become scouts. Looking at their downcast expressions especially of Kira master Lyod consoled 'Little girl there is nothing to feel sad about. Both of you have very good abilities but I require you to train and learn first how to form wind and water blades respectively. Once you can prove to me that you can manage that, I will grant you the title of the exterminators too haha.. so cheer up.' Then master Lyod looked towards the others 'This is true for everyone. Whosoever is not happy with their current ranking, you need to train hard and show me tht you are tough enough. I will definitely raise your ranks if you can satisfy me. But remember that the reverse is also true if I discern that instead of getting better one of you regresses then you will be demoted. So keep that mind.'

'Its your turn boy, show me what you can do.' He encouraged Rick. He was the last out of all. Rick sat down on the ground and putting his hands on the it transferred his mana. Within a few minutes knee length grass germinated all over master Lyod's lawn. As Rick got up he saw a peculiar expression in his eyes like he was still in disbelief on what happened just now infront of his eyes. No one else looked surprised as everyone was present at the ceremony except the master himself. Although almost all oc the Korua and some people even in the capital knew that they had produced a talent that can control plants, but that was not the case with Lyod here. Most of the time he resides in the hut inside the farm itself and the only one to talk with him is his disciple Sophia. Both were similar cases of shut-ins who won't talk anything else then cultivation. They hardly knew what was going on outside.

In the morning too Sophia was only interested in Rick because she came to know that a commoner and trumped others at this year's ceremony. Reining on his surprise master Lyod pulled Rick with himself inside the house and shut the door. Rick did not resist as he can feel that the old man wanted to talk something in secret with him. 'Boy did one of your parent have this ability? Since I know Jeff here he can't be it so is that your mother?' Rick didn't mind his excitement and answered calmly 'No master Lyod she is an earth user. She can't control plants at all.' 'hmm' He nodded slightly still in deep thought. Lyod decided to investigate this matter later on, for now he had bigger things to confirm first.

He hurriedly took out a virgo fruit from his pocket and planted it inside the ground. 'Now boy try to use your mana and focus it of the fruit inside the ground.' Rick realised what this guy wanted him to do and he will definitely not let that happen. Even though he had never tried to plant the fruits in this world outside of his personal space, but he had a feeling that he can make it grow. He sat down as directed and began sending his mana all around the fruit but making sure not to touch it. Already knowing how much of a earthquake it will cause in this world of people came to know that someone can make a fruit tree grow with their mana. That would be similar if some guy was able to turn stones to gold in his previous world. Realising his precarious situation it was in his best interest not to reveal his powers.

Faking to exert all his faculties, he gave up at the end and said with a downcast expression 'Truthfully saying master Lyod I had tried this already at my home but it simply does not work. So please forgive me.' Looking at the sad boy master Lyod consoled him 'Don't mention it boy. That was just an over ambitious thought of mine. How can it be so simple to grow these trees? But I just wanted to be sure. If a human gained such an ability they can simply turn the balance of this world upside down.' Rick found out something interesting form his statement. He asked curiously 'But master don't we already have the ability to plant these trees and grow them like at this farm itself. Master Lyod laughed a little as he answered 'Haha boy it's not that simple. These trees are not plated by us. I don't even think it's planted by any humans at all. Their origin has been always surrounded in mystery. Our ancestors only discovered these huge plantation of fruit trees and settled around them. We only care for these trees and harvest the fruits from time to time.'

This left Rick astounded. The ease with which he was able to discover this fact meant that it was not exactly a secret but still Ryu's memory had nothing on it. This was really shocking information for him. Till now he had believed these plantation to be man-made. But now he had the proper idea that these were more of a treasure trove then a plantation and why they are so worried about the vines that they would not mind getting their people injured in order to rescue every single tree. Because once these trees die out this whole town will be disbanded. This information raised another problem for him, if these trees were sort of a non-renewable resources to the mankind didn't his value just got multiplied by factors of ten? A shiver ran down Rick's spine.

**Hopefully the info dump ends here. So I can begin on some smut scenes.**