The party that gathered in Danika's garden was the group that Danika was most familiar with. Shrubbery, Kit, and MatchlessMinion had joined her and ShinZing in their attempt to farm jewel scarab wings.
The fairy dragon and the dryad worked together to arrange the witch crafted berry bushes around the apple tree, that had grown from the seed of a witch crafted apple. It wasn't that there was any evidence that it would be more efficient, it was just that Danika and Shrubbery liked the symmetry.
ShinZing read through his skill information once more, and then told the berry bush in front of him firmly, "Gift your strength." Nothing appeared to happen at first, but ZipZing's plant identification spell said that the berries on the bush were becoming more effective with every passing second. After a bit, the leaves on the bush started to wilt, and ShinZing said quickly, "Enough."
Shrubbery quickly stepped forward and used one of her more advanced gardening skills to feed the bushes energy, while MatchlessMinion pulled the scarabs from their cage one at a time.
One of Kit's new skills as the Empress let her command attention, although the apparent effect on the beetles wasn't much different than ZipZing's dazzling, in theory they were listening to her instead of just being momentarily stunned. While she had their attention, ShinZing used his legendary sword to neatly slice their wings off while MatchlessMinion held them.
The pain broke the skill effect, but the chinchillamin simply released the scarabs to browse in the berry bushes. The Witch had obviously known that they would be able to read the identification information on the berries, which said that they would be twice as effective if they were willingly eaten. When a scarab found and ate a berry, it's wings would begin to regenerate. The healing wasn't instant like ZipZing's prayer, but it was almost as good as any of the healing skills that Magna Silvam could use that only consumed energy.
As soon as one of the shiny scarabs began to heal, Danika or Shrubbery would catch it and return it to the cage. It made it a little more difficult for MatchlessMinion to pull out unscathed victims, but it prevented the beetles from eating more berries after they'd gotten enough.
Hikaru, the firefly, flew in lazy circles around the proceedings with no sign of distress at all. Danika commented, "I'm kind of glad that Hikaru isn't afraid, but it's a little strange since it's also a type of beetle."
"Pets in games usually completely trust their owners, so it's not that weird is it?" Kit asked. "My Noepets would let me starve them for weeks if I couldn't log in, but never had their affection stats drop."
"I don't think your species really matters in this game, so as far as that goes, your firefly has no reason to act any different than a cat or something would," MatchlessMinion pointed out.
"Species matters," Danika objected. "The different races always have conflicts."
"I never thought about it before, but this game really has a lot of racism doesn't it?" Shrubbery asked.
MatchlessMinion replied, "Yeah, every fantasy rpg has that. Dwarves hate elves, and everyone hates goblins, and so on. But this is the only one I've ever played where you can have a kid with literally any other creature in the world, so maybe it doesn't matter if you're torturing other beetles or something else, and it's all the same to your pet?"
ShinZing paused before slicing the wings off the next scarab and said, "Okay, I have never really considered it that way before. Doesn't that mean that there are only races and only a single species in this world?"
"Pretty much, I guess?" Danika agreed after a moment.
They all looked at each other, and then ShinZing cut the wings off the beetle MatchlessMinion still held.
After a minute, Shrubbery asked, "Does anyone else suddenly feel really guilty about all the creatures we've killed?"
"I was more thinking that if every creature in the world is part of the same species, why aren't there ways to permanently change your race without reincarnating?" Danika admitted.
ShinZing grinned at her, but Kit asked Shrubbery, "Are plants the same way then? I mean, dryads are half tree, right?"
"And ShinZing's witch skill that only works on things that can reason sure works on a lot of plants so far," Danika agreed.
--
They kept collecting wings while they talked, and had to stop every now and then so that they could let ShinZing force the production of another batch of super effective healing berries, and Shrubbery could revitalize the drained plants.
Danika asked ShinZing curiously after a while, "Are you really okay with being a witch?"
He looked up at her with surprise and replied, "Sure, why not?"
"It seems like they specialize in working with plants, and since you can fly naturally, the levitation of plant material seems less useful?" she replied.
"Hey, what's wrong with working with plants?" Shrubbery objected.
"Nothing," Danika replied quickly. "My plant skills have been really useful, I just…"
"Don't think it suits me?" ShinZing suggested neutrally.
"It doesn't really does it?" MatchlessMinion asked. "I mean, you're basically an air elemental. Earth or water seem more plant compatible."
ShinZing gazed at the chinchillamin with a considering look, and then turned back to his fairy dragon familiar, and said, "I am already insanely powerful for my level, and I think ZipZing should be practically indestructible, so I've got no complaints."
"What do you mean I'm indestructible? And how are you insanely powerful?" Danika asked with shock.
"You have the same boost to your health and energy that I had as your familiar, your energy has barely flickered with all of your skill use tonight? And since the skill I kept when I reincarnated was the meditation skill that multiplies my health and energy, I can use all of your skills much more freely than you ever could mine," ShinZing pointed out.
"Fair enough," MatchlessMinion agreed.
"Can you use her assimilation and impartation skills?" Shrubbery asked with interest.
"Yeah!" ShinZing agreed with a grin. "If our familiar and master combination seemed unbalanced before, we are practically a cheat now. I spent my time in the mobile version during the day trying to learn assimilation so that I can permanently learn the others even faster and reduce their cost. With the reincarnation boost, I think I should be back to my old accumulated level within a couple of weeks."
"Efficient," Danika commented. His method of play seemed casual, but the way he built his skills up was as organized as the way he sorted his plushy keepsakes.