Chapter 25: Books are Thick.

Nikola was reading the books with the Plants are Berserkers title. So far, he found about ten ways with which he could turn just about any plant into a weapon.

Most ways started with:

Put mana in the plant.

Then ended up with:

Be very, very, angry. That will make the plants furious.

He didn't want to have to go to therapy just to manage to get some plants to behave like warriors.

He touched a small sapling. Thinking only happy thoughts.

 He thought about Dimitri, and how the vampire had cleaned his plate with a gentle smile on his face.

He thought about Jack, who had told him to come back when the sun was up, and not to bother him. But had still asked him how he felt after digging flowerbeds the entire of the previous day.

Then he thought about the customers, who were slaving away in the meadows, planting the seeds he had brought with him.

He heard footsteps. It was the Leshy again.

"I didn't think you'd delegate," the creature told him. Nikola hummed.

"The forest is big. I had no way of planting it all by myself."

The creature with the moose head sat by him, looked at the book he was reading, and then let out a huff.

Nikola promptly closed it.

"Did you think angry thoughts to this child?" The Leshy pointed at the sapling, which had grown just as tall as Nikola and now had blossoms in it.

Nikola thought that it was either an apple tree, or maybe a pear one.

He really should have paid attention in biology class way back when.

"No. I was thinking about all the things I could be grateful for," and it was even the truth.

Dimitri was his rock in these turbulent seas. Jack was the brother he never had.

"Good. dark shamans made these books. If you walk in the light, you won't get eaten."

The: by me, was clear to be heard in the being's voice.

 But Nikola was not ready to just give up like that. After all, the tree had grown.

There had to be a way to turn it into a warrior.

He looked at the sapling once more. Then back at the Leshy.

"If this book is the wrong way," he held up the cursed book so the Leshy could take a closer look at it. "What is the correct way?"

The being snorted once more.

"There is no correct way. That holds true in life and in magic. Pave your own path."

The being stood up and began to walk out of the clearing. Turning into a being as small as a blade of grass in doing so.

Nikola activated his system again.

"System, analyze this book and give me the key points," if he was really going to be paving his own way, then he wanted to do it the proper way.

"That will cost you 1,000 mana points. You have 1,001 right now. Spent the points?" The system asked.

Nikola shrugged. He didn't need mana to live anyway. What was the worst thing which could happen?

****

He was burning up.

The system was reading him the key points. The water in the bathtub even had ice in it, but that wasn't helping any.

Dimitri, bless his soul, came into the bathroom with another bucket with ice.

The vampire dumped it in the water and then sat by Nikola.

"It seems that you require mana to keep the fire god's mana at bay," Dimitri ran a hand over Nikola's forehead. "Take from mine."

Dimitri was a vampire. Nikola didn't kid himself that should he take from his mana, then he might kill him.

He was burning up.

But he would be damned if Dimitri burned with him.

"How about this," Nikola said, as he submerged in the water up to his chin. "You get me a Selkie, and I will be forever grateful?"

Dimitri sighed. Nikola didn't like that sign.

"They don't come out of the water anymore. I think the water monsters in the lake know better than answering our calls anymore. But I have an idea. Just run it by your system first, ok?"

Nikola nodded. Darn it, he knew that he shouldn't have let that young Selkie back in the water.

It must have warned the rest.

"The produce your worker is picking is rich in his mana. If I bright you something from the crates, will you eat it?"

Nikola nodded. Only to feel a heaviness in his stomach.

He didn't want to get out of the icy water. But he knew that he shouldn't eat while in the water.

He signed, took a hold of the bathtub's edge, and then got out.

As soon as he did so, he swayed on his feet. He felt like throwing up.

Was Tangra really trying to kill him? Now, after going to all that trouble to recruit him?

"I want no weaklings," the voice was familiar. There was a crate with food just outside the bathroom door. "And if you are weak, I will just use your soul for rituals."

That was all the prompting Nikola needed to make his way to the crate.

Soon, he was eating his first apple. A couple of pears followed. Then he began to munch on cherries.

"Thanks," he whispered because he knew that had he waited for Dimitri to get all the food from the shed, he might have overheated.

"By the way," the voice was whispering in his ear. Nikola looked around. Tangra was not there. "I need your help with something."

That was no plea, the brunette knew. It was a command.

"And what is it?" Nikola asked, as he took an orange and began to peel it.

He felt better, but he still felt so, as if he had a fever.

"There is a shaman who decided to end up as a born again Christian. The fool thought that he could escape me that way. Do go and get rid of him!"

Nikola felt a hot puff of air on his right ear. A final warning.

He ate his orange with a heavy heart.

Knowing that it was him or that former shaman.