Rowan brought Old John inside and sat him down.
"Well? Did you get it or not?" Old John said with a growing smile. It was a bit obvious since the tree branches were still in the corner with their bottoms in water.
"Yep! I did." Rowan said with a smile before walking behind the counter and pulling out the large burlap sack with wood showing out the top. He gently set it down on the countertop for Old John to see.
The old man grabbed one of the logs, gently rolling it around in his hands.
A look of joy and melancholy showing through his dim eyes.
"It's been a while since I have touched Grade 1 wood." He said softly.
Rowan stood to the side in silence at first. He was a bit surprised to see Old John acting like this. He remembered that Old John had always been a bit stern, and always seemed calm in everything he did, but this was giving Rowan a different feeling.
"Keep however much you want. I won't be able to make good use of all this." Rowan said. That wasn't exactly true, but it was due to Old John that he had even known about it in the first place.
Old John opened his mouth, but hesitated for a few moments before nodding. "Thank you."
It was all he said, but it told Rowan everything he needed to know. What sort of craftsman wouldn't like working with good tools?
Old John kept one of the nine logs, so Rowan was left at 8.
They talked a bit more, and Rowan told him about what he had experienced there, and showed him the slightly silver snake skin.
Old John had stopped by to wish him a happy birthday, before he left himself.
There were no birthday gifts, or any celebrations. It was just those two talking.
Rowan even considered getting his hands on this Silver Star wood to be a gift in its own way from Old John.
Rowan went back behind the counter, and looked back to his Status Screen.
-----
[Unique Ability: [World Seed]
-Activate to learn more]
-----
Rowan couldn't help but knit his eyebrows together when he saw this. Was this supposed to be some kind of internet ad?
He couldn't help but chuckle a little before finally activating the ability.
As soon as he did, his body vanished from the shop.
When the skill activated, he was hit by a wave of pain through his head, that made his hands clench themselves against his skull as he grimaced in pain for a few seconds before the pain finally went away.
As it did, he realized what the pain was. It was giving him information, as well as adapting his brain to the new changes.
He had learned in the past that when a person awakens their unique ability, that they can learn a ton of information about it. It was because it was an ability the user innately had.
He opened his eyes, and took a glance around.
Left.
Right.
Down.
Up.
"Well, this is a bit strange. Truly could be called [World Seed]." Rowan muttered a bit in awe.
He was standing on a small patch of dirt surrounded by fog.
Rowan slowly walked around the area, and reached out towards the fog beyond the area where the dirt spread, but his hand touched a solid barrier.
He reached up, and touched a barrier as well.
When looking up, he could almost see a few dim sparkles, but they were barely there and seemed to be struggling to shine through.
Rowan went back to the information he had obtained.
This was its own dimension.
His own dimension.
When that thought crossed his mind, a wide grin spread across his face.
"Yes!" He cheered aloud. This was an awesome ability!
Some of the conditions due to awakening it now made more sense.
The necessary mana to create it, the strong soul to hold this dimension within his own soul, and after being to two different dimensions, that had caused an extremely small but important change inside his soul.
He looked around the area he was in with contemplation. It was still too small to be called a world.
The space was small, and in the shape of a cube.
3 yards long, 3 yards wide, and 3 yards tall. (3 yards = 2.7 m)
If he were to stand up on his toes, his head would touch the top barrier.
That was because the dirt under his feet was 1 yard in depth, leaving him with 2 yards in height.
He sat down while glancing around the area, and tried to focus on what else he knew about this space, such as capabilities, and how to grow it.
This [World Seed] could allow living things inside it, such as himself, plants, animals, and even other people too!
He could grow crops in here, raise animals, build a home, and store his valuables here.
His own personal storage device!
He didn't wait much longer before focusing his new brainpower on the surroundings.
Part of the pain which he got was that he was able to 'see' inside his mind the entire dimension. Nothing escaped his sight.
When he checked his INT quickly, it had gone up by one point to 3!
He went back to focusing, and inside his mind, he could see this dimension, but when he tried to look outwards, he could the inside of his shop.
He couldn't see anyone inside it, and when he looked at where he had been sitting, it was empty.
With that thought in mind, he left it, grabbed the 5 seeds he had kept, and the Silver Star tree branches and while holding them, returned to the [World Seed].
He found one side of the cube and began planting the branches first before moving a bit to the side and planting the seeds.
"Come on, you better grow!" He said with a bit of sternness, but nothing changed.
"Fine, fine. I know you will take awhile to grow. Just don't die on me!" He said to the branches.
There were 8 tree branches, and 5 seeds, so if everything went well, he would have 13 Silver Star Trees!
After finishing with his impulsiveness, he thought about how to grow this place. Under his Unique Ability, there was something new.
-----
Unique Ability: [World Seed]
-[Energy]
-[Layout]
-[Organisms]
-----
He quirked an eyebrow and tapped on the first one, [Energy].
[Mana: 27/27 (+3 per minute)]
[Nature Energy: 4/27 (+0.8 per minute)]
This didn't really explain much to him, and he couldn't help but feel that this was odd to only have two energies. Maybe it's just for now?
He checked how the stored amount of mana was decided, and it turned out to be the cubic yards for now. He couldn't imagine the sheer amount when this world grew.
And the amount of mana being absorbed was the same amount as his INT. It was slowly absorbing the mana from the surroundings through his soul.
For the nature energy, it was the same way to determine the amount stored, but the 0.8 seemed to only come from one place. He turned his head and looked at the 8 small branches of the Silver Star tree that he was trying to grow.
Then he tapped on [Layout].
[3 yards wide x 3 yards long x 3 yards tall]
[Patch of Dirt]
Rowan couldn't help but frown a little. This was… too little. A small patch of dirt.
He wasn't sure what he was expecting.
He let out a soft sigh as he finally tapped on [Organisms].
[8 cuttings, and 5 seeds of the Silver Star Tree]
[Various bacteria and microorganisms: 0 Dangerous]
The tree cuttings and seeds were mentioned, but that didn't surprise him.
But the part about bacteria did. He couldn't help but glance down at his body then back to it.
When he selected it, he was given an elongated list of hundreds of different kinds which were labeled as beneficial, necessary, neutral, harmful, and dangerous.
When he saw the list, he saw that he was able to select to throw them out of this dimension.
He decided to get rid of all the harmful ones.
Rowan stood up and slowly stretched his body while letting out a soft yawn.
He went through the various sections of the ability, and looked at what he could and could not do.
In the future, he would be able to make a ton of changes to this place, but currently he didn't have the necessary energies to do so.
Well, there was one thing he was waiting to do.
When both of the energies reached 27 each, he would grow the space.
27 points of mana, and 27 of nature energy, would allow him to grow the space by 9 cubic yards. (8.23m)
It turned out that both were necessary for expanding the space. The mana to make the barriers extend, opening up the space. Then the nature energy to make it livable.
He was planning on making the whole space 4 yards tall in total, but 3 yards from the surface of the dirt to the sky. He didn't want to keep bumping his head.
So, while he was waiting for his nature energy to fill up, he starting storing his things in the [World Seed]. He was planning on leaving this small village soon anways, so might as well start packing it up. It wasn't like he had much in the first place.
Once it was all emptied out, all that was left in the shack was the shabby countertop he had. Taking it with him would be too much space.
He went back into the [World Seed] and looked at the [Energy].
[Mana: 27/27 (+3 per minute)]
[Nature Energy: 27/27 (+0.8 per minute)]
He gave a small nod.
"Expand." Rowan stated.
He looked up, and could see a soft rippling from the fog above him as more space was cleared up.
[Mana: 0/36 (+3 per minute)]
[Nature Energy: 0/36 (+0.8 per minute)]
Sure enough, it had drained him completely. And the amount he could store had grown.
He then decided to check the [Layout].
[3 yards wide x 3 yards long x 4 yards tall]
[Patch of Dirt]
Rowan looked at the changes and couldn't help but nod in delight with a soft smile.
"This is my home now. Maybe I should think of a name for this place? Calling it [World Seed] all the time will get annoying." He mumbled softly, but couldn't think of a fitting name. It would be a world in the future, so of course it needed a good name!
He sat down and started to finish up the carving he had been working on the past couple days. It had been more of a hobby, but he was still a bit excited that this might be the last time he would ever use a Grade 0 wood.
Rowan slowly finished up the carving before setting it down in front of him. Only about 6 inches in height, with a 1-inch base. It was a small wood snake that was curled up, and had its head risen in the air a little. He carved it to look like the same snake that he had first killed on accident when he swung the hatchet on reflex.
While looking at the little wooden snake figurine, he realized that he was really getting skilled at carving scales.
When he checked it with his [Wood Inspection Lv. 2], he saw that it did give him a +1 Snake Affinity when touching it, similar to his fish one.
But that wasn't the greatest surprise. His [Woodworker] profession had gone up a level to level 3!
With that increase in his profession, both his STR and DEX had each gone up by one, to 7 STR and 12 DEX.
While he was enjoying the sudden growth, he thought about getting something to eat. He didn't have that much food here, so he needed to go and get some.
And the fog was just starting to set in for the night.