Since they’d started the training earlier in the day, around lunch was when they decided Roge would visit the Leaf’s Haunt, though the dragon had made a habit of going in through the back to avoid unpleasant customers. There, he dropped off the leaves and seeds he’d collected from his tobacco plants and looked over the various plants in the greenhouse. He’d considered getting some of the plants to get more buffs, but he ultimately decided not to. Most, if not all, of the plants Madam Madrid had could be found in the nearby forest. When they were picked up directly from the wild, they also didn’t have any magical abilities, so Roge could take full advantage of that. The only plant no one knew how to get was the elemental tulips, though Roge had an idea from where they could be sourced.

  From what he’d been told, they appeared in very mana dense areas related to their element, but normal tulips could be found pretty much anywhere. He suspected that, if he found random mundane flowers on his journey, he’d see what abilities he could unlock and eventually grow out of the need for the basic plants. Of course, he’d keep them just for their potential buffs, but plants with more natural abilities would most likely be stronger, and thus gain him more materials per day.

  Lighting up one of the blue cigarettes, laughing slightly at the blue tinted paper that Madam Madrid had her new employee start using, he walked through the inner greenhouse door. The new employee was a teenage minotaur, the quiet man never giving his name and working diligently on the various orders and tending the plants. Roge honestly approved of his silent work ethic and care for the plants, the dragon only having a green thumb due to his breath ability. He made sure there were no customers before coming out onto the main floor, looking around at the new shelves with a smile.

  “The color ones have really hit it off, huh?” he asked, earning a chuckle from the orc woman. The wooden packs displaying a rainbow of colors now took up half of the shelf space in the store, the curative effects of the cigarettes a big hit with her clientèle, for obvious reasons.

  “Of course darling,” Madam Madrid replied, getting up from her stool behind the counter and giving him a once over. “If you ever decide to make other smokable plants though…”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Roge grumbled, still a bit salty about the forced break. “They’re letting me do more tomorrow, so I’m definitely making some various boost tobacco plants.” He paused at that thought, letting out a small chuckle. “Basically cheaper potions that are better to use in town. Judson’s not going to be happy.”

  “Oh he’s thrilled,” Madam Madrid said, going around and organizing the boxes to look nice. “He’s been able to jack up the prices of the potions, since they’re only really useful towards adventurers. Kept asking when we’re going to have stronger stuff.”

  “I can… try and see if I can boost it?” Roge said, looking through his plants. “I’ll use some of tomorrow’s harvest. But I think there’s going to be an upper limit to that sort of thing.”

  “That magically stable condition right?” the orc woman asked, to which Roge nodded. “Any way you’d be able to get around that?”

  “Maybe if I find a higher rank plant with the smokable ability?”

  “Not going to taste like tobacco, hun.”

  “But it’ll heal people better if need be. The stronger stuff isn’t about taste or habit, it’s about healing. Same with the buffing ones.” Roge shrugged at her disgruntled look, feeling a bit put on the spot. “I don’t make the rules here, boss. And I can recognize a trend when I see one. I can try and see how much [Purify] I can stuff into them, but I’m betting, since they started out at rank 1, they’re going to fill up fast.”

  “I see your point darling,” Madam Madrid grumbled, sitting back down on her stool as another customer came in. Roge went over to the window to finish his cigarette, noticing the blue smoke making the room a bit hazy.

  “Ugh. Inconsiderate, man,” the customer complained.

  Roge gave him a sheepish grin, using a bit of his [Spacial Magic] to waft more of the smoke out the window. “Sorry about that.”

  “Damn dragons,” the man grumbled, Roge getting distracted by his cat-like head for a moment, causing his reaction to be delayed to the comment.

  He narrowed his eyes, feeling a bit of anger brewing up before an idea came to him. “You like those packs?” Roge asked, noting the lime green pack the cat was buying.

  “Yeah? So what?” he asked gruffly, his fur standing up on end at Roge’s attention.

  “I’m looking to workshop new effects for it. There something you’d really like?”

  The cat looked to Madam Madrid, who just gave him a serious nod. The cat seemed to soften at that, especially when the total for the pack only came out to fifty copper per pack. “You think you can make other flavors?” Roge’s thoughtful frown seemed to spur him on, the customer taking an excited step towards the dragon. “Or maybe give it a high? More energy?” Roge pulled out his recipe book at that, finding it a lot better to take notes in when he could search for what he wanted.

  “Fruit flavors work?” the dragon asked, already thinking of trying to reduce apple juice to add the flavor to cigarettes.

  “That… actually sounds good,” the customer admitted, cocking his head to the side and looking Roge up and down as he wrote more ideas with his wand. “You’re… not one of Tarcon’s kids, are you?”

  Roge looked up at that, looking very confused. “No… my dad and I moved here a while back. He owns one of the inns nearby.” He tapped the butt of his wand against his snout at that, glancing at Madam Madrid with a concerned look. “Have I been a bit of a… recluse?”

  “Considering people usually consider you one of the Lord’s sons? Hell yes,” she replied, the customer looking between them confused.

  “But… but the solution to that is just… going out and getting to know people,” he grumbled while rubbing the base of his horns.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “What is going on?” the cat man asked, causing Madam Madrid to give him a look.

  “I lost my memories a few weeks back,” Roge grumbled as the cat man’s face fell in sympathy. “And I’m finding my previous decisions to be… maddening sometimes.” Roge couldn’t handle the pity and looked back to his recipe book, tapping his wand against it. “So flavor, increasing de-stress and/or stimulant. So far, so good. Anything else you think people would be interested in? Anything to do with the smoke or-“

  “Naw man, that’s good,” the customer mumbled.

  “I’ll set up a suggestion box,” Madam Madrid offered, both men turning to look at her. “In case people have requests. I’ll make sure they know it might not be possible. Also, I’m vetoing any hard drug effects.”

  “Already on board with that,” Roge agreed, giving the cat man a smile. “If I have success, products should be up in the next week or two.”

  “I look forward to it, man.”

  ~~~

  Getting Madam Madrid’s permission to grab enough leaves to get nine of each [Stimulant] and [De-Stress] coins, Roge left the store to look over his plants, not liking the bright sun that day as he looked over his hoard. He really didn’t… *need* to tell the others his plan. After all, the rank of the plant didn’t seem to affect when he got the buffs, like his coins. Only the variety and number of plants did that. So he decided to bite the bullet and plant eighteen of the purifying seeds, placing one stimulant coin in half of them, and the de-stress one in the other. They, of course, made him focus and cost a lot of mana, as well as becoming magically sated for the day. But if he could increase the effects of the plants gradually by planting more seeds and only adding coins to some, he could have different ‘effect levels’ like vaping products had.

  Looking back at his stats for his hoards, Roge also made a note to use some of the colored leaves tomorrow to get the color stuff up to his friends’ limit. If they let him unlock one or two per day, he wanted to see how much adding more to those buffs would do. He also deconstructed a lot of his petals and other plant matter on the way back, wanting to cleanly put everything up to the limit. One thing he forgot, however, was the multiplier the [Icing] coins had, accidentally pushing the buff up to the next tier.

  ‘I… really hope they don’t get too mad…’ he thought to himself, stopping by his favorite food stand on his way back to the League. Once he dismissed his windows and finally calmed down his excited feeling regarding the new density portion of his buff, he noticed the looks he was getting from the various people around him. Looks of disdain and avoidance were everywhere when he bothered to look. But that day, he’d decided to change that, even when he got to the front of the line and the cook gave him a sour look. He looked to be an air elemental, with wisps of wind moving around their short, blonde hair and their skin tinged with yellow. This was the first time that Roge would be ordering by himself, making the dragon’s legs feel a bit numb.

  “Hi,” Roge said cheerily, trying to be a bit brighter than before. The stares had usually gotten to him, causing him to be a bumbling mess when he’d gone to that stand before with his team. “I’d like four ham, egg, and cheese bagels please.” He could see the steam coming off of the cooking meat, which reminded him that everyone else was probably much colder than he was if it was mildly chilly for him.

  “Twenty silver,” the man gruffed out, Roge feeling his face want to sour at the exorbitant price. Instead he looked up at the sign, which clearly said fifty copper for one, and gave a sigh.

  “It’s actually two,” Roge rebuffed, causing the cook to turn around in annoyance. “I know you usually charge more for nobles, but I only get paid fifty silver a week. I can’t keep coming back if I’m getting overcharged.” That stopped the cook in his tracks, annoyance fading away to confusion. Roge continued at that, taking a deep breath to steal his courage. “I know it seems like I’m lying, but I’m not. Ask Madam Madrid how much she pays me.”

  At the name drop, the cook’s confusion turned to surprise, his posture straightening at the orc woman’s name. “You work for Madrid?” he asked, glancing at the cooking food and starting to prepare Roge’s order.

  “Yes, sir.” Another burst of surprised looks from both the cook and crowd. “I recently got some [Nature Magic] classes and have been modifying the plants.” Roge shrugged. “Felt bad about selling products that were slowly killing poor people who couldn’t afford healing.”

  The more he talked, the more everyone around seemed to be warming up to him, though the attention still made him feel jittery. Thankfully, the wind elemental cook soon handed over a bag with the sandwiches, Roge giving him a smile and placing three silvers down on the counter. “Thank you. I really enjoy your food,” the dragon said, placing the bag into his inventory and hurrying off before anyone could react.

  ~~~

  “You did what?!” Sean growled, leaning closer to Roge who had a look of resignation on his face. “You have to be careful, Roge! You make too many mistakes like that, and you could pass out from too many magical changes. Where did it happen?”

  “Uh… in front of the stand I bought these from,” Roge replied, talking around the sandwich he was currently cramming into his mouth. Sean growled low at that, all while Marge and Hops chuckled and shook their heads. “I’ll be more careful, I swear. It’s just… having one thing that behaves differently from the others is… really disorientating.”

  “We can give him that,” Hops said, finishing up his writing. “He made sure to not get any more buffs with the other plants and coins he added. And he has good ideas for things that can improve others, not just his personal power.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean,” Roge grumbled, earning himself an eye roll from Sean.

  “We’re worried that you want to cram too much power into yourself too quickly, Roge. Of course we’re going to be worried about you becoming too selfish.” Sean huffed as he said that, making Roge feel a bit guilty about things.

  “Oh lay off guys,” Marge butted in, the deer woman moving to sit next to the dragon. “He specifically used an extra recipe for arrows for me. He’s making sure to try and get better wands and potions both me and Hops can use. And I’m betting he’s gunning for other things for you Sean. Right?”

  “Well… yeah…” Roge mumbled, finishing his sandwich and leaning his elbows on the table. “Trouble is, anything that I’ve found builds up your defense at the cost of your movement. Plus, you don’t have [Mana Manipulation] yet.” Sean was about to cut the dragon off, but Roge continued ahead anyway. “So I was going to see about adding coins to your armor and shield. But… the only thing I have is the boost. And I don’t think adding a bunch of con boosts to armor is going to help much to protect you. So I wanted to see what the other trees would give. I’m pretty sure we could hit the jackpot with some of them.”

  Sean fully thought over that while Hops and Marge grinned, the lion giving both of them a sour look. “Fine. That makes sense.”

  “Besides, I already have my healing wand. Since I’ll be utility, all I have to do is watch for when you need heals and stay out of trouble.” Roge shrugged, a grin forming as a smile cracked the lion’s muzzle. “I’m always thinking about how I can help you all. You’ve helped me a lot already, and I want to return the favor.”

  “Friends don’t count favors,” Sean said, the dragon blinking at the familiar quote. “They just show up.” Roge nodded in silence at that, pulling out his wand and fiddling with it.

  “So… does that mean I can use my wand to make more combined coins?” Hops laughed hard at that, Sean sighing and rolling his eyes.

  “With supervision.”