Disregarding the ridiculousness of throwing a tree into a fire to modify its genes, Ed controlled the earth to carefully uproot the tree and without wasting a single second used area store to take it in its entirety.
Blood fruit trees didn't grow very large and therefore fit within the cubic area. As for any roots that stretch out of this area they would either be forcibly manipulated by Ed to enter the area or removed entirely. Ed remembered enough about plants to know that a couple of roots that stretched too thin wouldn't kill the tree. Plus, what he was about to do was far riskier for the tree's life.
As soon as Ed entered the system, he headed into the storage space. He did watch the cutscene but having seen it so many times he was already used to it and had forgotten to complain.
Ed's first impression after seeing the orc blood fruit tree inside of the completely white space was, out of place. It felt like a painting that was left unfinished. Of course, there were also many items littered around that contained colors other than white but something about nature made it seem artistic.
'Now…. how will I move this?' As Ed had used the area store instead of grabbing the tree's consciousness he wasn't sure.
Grabbing the tree with his hand might have caused the consciousness to be taken in part or for all of it to lose its shape once inside the system space. He couldn't risk either choice so he decided on taking it whole.
Nevertheless, now that he was in he could safely say that moving it would be a hassle. The system would move the souls for him but what about a tree? When looking at his own body Ed would also find that his size was too small to grab it whole.
'System, can you move the tree?' Still, asking did no harm.
[Moving physical objects will require one skeleton consciousness, offer? Y/N]
Ed was happy to have found a solution but he was also kind of stupefied. Wasn't it just moving a tree why did it cost consciousness? He relented in the end, however.
[System specializes in the spiritual]
'I'll let you off for now I suppose' Ed wouldn't mind spending consciousnesses on an upgrade but to do so for such a simple transaction felt… wasteful.
The system didn't say anything again as it simply opened up a rift in the mind space to physically transfer the tree from one room to another. Ed could tell where it had taken it through the portal like rift itself as the other side was completely visible.
'It's different than space magic' Ed noted as he walked out of the storage room and entered the forge room.
Once there, he also realized that the forge might be a little…. Little…
[Acquiring 'Large forge' costs one orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
Not missing its chance, a new upgrade appeared for Ed.
'This wasn't in the directory before... Please show me the directory first' Ed felt scammed after finding that the system hadn't shown it this upgrade previously. He needed to quickly get to the bottom of it.
[Storage++ - Added 250sqft to storeroom size]
[Large Area store - Store an area of 15sqft directly into storeroom]
[Large Forge - Combine the forges into a larger version of itself]
[Spirit Smith - An assistant capable of forging items left in the holding box]
[Unable to show further upgrades]
The answer was quickly revealed to be the following…
'Damn that's a good upgrade, system how much for a Spirit Smith?' Or not… Ed forgot the answer he sought after seeing the ghost smith upgrade.
[Acquiring 'Spirit Smith'costs 5 orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
'Eh, let's pass on it for now' Seeing the price however the enthusiasm quickly dwindled. The reason was that it was quite simply not necessary for the moment. In the first place, even if he had a spirit smith he would still need to acquire the materials himself. The spirit smith would spend a large part of its time doing nothing.
Ed instead upgraded to the large forge which was essentially just a merger of the previous upgrades that added multiple forges.
As for the answer he had ignored before… Ed could only say that it was most likely than not a result of spending consciousnesses. Upgrading the system was a process. He had acquired the system directory but it wasn't capable of showing all upgrades, one would easily guess that the next upgrades would be unlocked at the next level but it clearly wasn't the case.
While the connection was there, it was worth noting that the level two system link couldn't have had more upgrades than level one, right? Perhaps if some were leftover from level one but otherwise all of the hints were in place.
Having answered this curiosity, Ed who had been kicked out of the forge as per custom reentered the room once the process was completed. Instantly, the grandiose forge he had asked for was showing its magnificence. It stood out like a bright bulb in a dark night.
It was quite literally shining. The white flame was vibrant, large, and strong. Before Ed could say that the ethereal flames also appeared ephemeral but now… He could ascertain they were here to stay.
'It's almost as if this is the original size of the forge' In retrospect, acquiring the forge for a couple of odd skeleton consciousnesses was quite the bargain deal.
The large forge seemed to also suggest that the system dealt with all matter of creatures. In fact, Ed couldn't guarantee this was the original size either. Though the flame burned more fiercely, how was he supposed to fit trees larger than the orc blood tree?
Either the system had a better method to deal with larger things such as splitting it into parts or the forge had much more to grow.
Ed, who now truly seemed like a child, looked at the forge and at the tree. He sighed before looking up at the system.
'Could you please-' Ed didn't get the chance to fully iterate his thought.
[One skeleton consciousness. Y/N]
But the message had done all the talking. Sighing once more, Ed watched how the system managed to slowly levitate the tree and directly toss it into the forge hardly breaking a sweat.
Not commenting on its stinginess, Ed watched as the orc blood tree which was a mixture of reds and browns was melted into a liquid. The consciousness of it was also melted into a liquid that floated inside the melted tree.
Though it had been a hassle to get the tree where it was, Ed could at least say it hadn't been a waste of time. The tree was getting melted in front of him and he had roughly figured out the upgrade directory.
'As for fixing the consciousness issue, I just have to remove some of it' The risk came with not removing too much of it. All Ed wanted to do was weaken the side effect of the potion without ruining the effect of the entire thing.
Removing too much would likely kill parts of the 'brain' that were the nervous system killing the entire tree. Ed couldn't deny the chance that it could also simply kill the specific branch but it would still be a bad result. He couldn't get fruit from a dead branch.
Just a minute later, the forge finished melting the tree. The size wasn't the only thing that improved as was expected of a larger flame.
Ed made the system separate the blobs that represented its physical parts and left only the spiritual skeleton that was the tree's consciousness. It looked rather nice but now Ed had to get to work.
He cut away pieces of it and had them float randomly around the room. He then took bits from other parts and spread them thin enough to cover the portion he cut away. Essentially Ed made the consciousness cover the same space with half as much.
'Unfortunately, I can't separate whatever creates the side effect' Ed thought it might be possible with a system upgrade or even just an advance to his sixth sense but it was impossible for the current him. He had to settle for the current measly procedure.
Ed then gave the tree back its spiritual skeleton and the system threw the liquid tree out of the forge to cool down.
With the forge having gotten an upgrade, the real time-consuming part was to wait for things to solidify. Having long grown patient, Ed didn't mind it as he casually took another gander at the upgrade directory.
There was nothing new but Ed didn't forget to take the liberty to ask for prices of everything again. Ed then simply thought about when it would be most suitable to acquire each upgrade and before he knew it there was a solid tree.
The tree which tended to have maroon leaves and red patterns on its trunk seemed fine so Ed immediately brought it out of the system.
He was back in the garden and the tree which he had taken the effort to carefully move into his system space fell sideways on the ground.
'You brute!' Ed quickly pulled it up using both his physical strength and the earth and gave the tree another glance. Perhaps it was due to the shining of the sun but Ed almost had the impression that the leaves had grown weak and transparent.
'It might be temporary' Ed wouldn't feel great if someone cut him into two. He remembered the split portion of himself not giving him much discomfort but he had 800 hp and took away only 5. The tree had gotten at least half of its spirit thinned out.
'Now it's time for the real test' To create an array capable of speeding up the growth of the tree as well as adding an extra layer that kept the first one in check. Ed was looking forward to the result.
"This better pay off…" Ed muttered as he thought about the scams it had costed him.