Arthur gently pushed the sapphire-blue dew back toward Hermione.
"This isn't rare," he said casually. "The Erdtree produces one of these droplets every so often.
Besides, it barely does anything for me now. I prepared this one for you."
Only then did Hermione accept the orb.
But after a moment she frowned in confusion.
"Cousin… how do I use it? I'm not supposed to… eat it, am I?"
She stared at the fist-sized bead with visible distress.
Arthur chuckled.
"Once the droplet touches gold, it dissolves.
Come—I'll show you another plant I've acquired."
He led Hermione down to a separate chamber beneath the Erdtree.
There, in the quiet golden light, sat a single enormous white blossom.
Around it lay scattered piles of gleaming wizarding coins.
Hermione gasped.
"A Marigold!"
"Yes," Arthur nodded. "A golden marigold. It produces one Galleon a day."
Hermione's eyes widened.
One a day sounded small—until she remembered Arthur's Zen Garden could accelerate time.
With the time dilation active, a single day inside the garden could produce dozens of Galleons.
Her cousin's passive income was… monstrous.
He made more in a week than most Hogwarts professors earned in a year.
No wonder he never looked at price tags.
Just then, Ranni appeared from who-knew-where. She poked the marigold thoughtfully and turned toward Arthur.
"No wonder you hesitated when I asked for plants," she said. "You only have a single marigold."
Arthur laughed awkwardly.
"Well, yes… It's basically the core of my income. Can't have it dismantled."
After all—Ranni had once dissected his pea-shooter seed into eight pieces in the name of research.
Arthur turned to Hermione.
"I also had one last pea-shooter seed. I gave it to Ranni to study. Let's see how she's doing."
Ranni's eyes sparkled. "I've made some progress. Want to see?"
"Of course. But first—let Hermione drink the droplet."
Arthur grabbed a handful of Galleons, transfigured them into a golden goblet, and passed it to her.
Hermione stared at him, speechless.
So that's what he meant by "touch gold."
She dropped the crystal orb into the cup and it melted instantly into shimmering liquid.
With a breath, Hermione drank it in one go.
Warmth surged through her body.
Her mind grew clear—troubling problems she'd struggled with in books snapped into place like puzzle pieces.
Arthur extended his spiritual sense and scanned her.
Hermione's spirit power now rivaled Li Xuanjian's, just a little below him.
Her magic reserves were still small due to her age, but in actual combat?
That would be far more complicated.
Wizarding magic favored trickery, strategy, and specialized spells—very different from the more straightforward Taoist arts.
Hermione also had far more combat exposure, especially after all the dueling lessons and practice bouts she'd done with Ranni.
Li Xuanjian, by contrast, mostly guarded Chinatown.
Arthur doubted he'd been in many life-or-death fights.
"Alright. Let's go see Ranni's results," Arthur said.
He missed the sight behind him: Hermione, red-faced, head bowed, fidgeting.
The reason was simple—
She had felt his spirit sense sweep through her.
That moment felt…
like standing unclothed before him.
Her heart thumped wildly.
Ranni's research room sat beside Arthur's alchemy workshop.
Inside, the first thing Arthur saw were rows of pea-shooters—the familiar green stalks, shiny round heads, and leaf-collars exactly like in the game.
Arthur reached out and tapped one on the head.
The plant jolted—then immediately launched ten fist-sized peas at him in rapid fire.
They didn't float lazily like in the game.
They flew like high-caliber bullets.
Arthur caught them all, though the impact stung even his god-tier physique.
Hermione quickly retracted her hand, which she'd started to raise to touch the plant.
No thank you—she wasn't as indestructible as her cousin.
Arthur stared at the panting pea-shooter in shock.
Pea-shooter?
More like pea-cannon.
"Is this their natural power, or did you modify them?" he asked.
Ranni shook her head.
"No modifications. That's their base strength.
They simply can't fire endlessly like in the game. Reality behaves differently."
"So even the basic pea-shooter is this strong… then what about later plants?"
Arthur's mind jumped immediately to Doom-shroom.
Would that thing be a portable nuclear device?
"We'll find out soon," Ranni said. "I've isolated the mutagenic substance that causes plant evolution. I only need new subjects to test."
Arthur blinked.
She hadn't been studying reproduction—
she'd reverse-engineered the mutation catalyst?!
Hermione, far less burdened by scientific despair, clapped her hands.
"Then let's get more plants!"
She dashed into the produce section and returned with floating piles of vegetables: potatoes, corn, cabbages, cherries, melons, peppers—everything.
Arthur sighed and stepped outside into the real garden to pluck some ordinary marigolds.
When he returned, Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
Her cousin really was hopelessly plain in his plant preferences.
Ranni examined the piles of produce and said:
"Since we have limited mutation elixir, I choose… sunflowers.
Their ability to produce sunlight will be the most useful."
Arthur summoned sunflower seeds with a thought.
Hermione smacked her forehead—she'd forgotten he could conjure anything in the garden with will alone.
Ranni dripped pale green fluid onto the seeds.
Within minutes the liquid was fully absorbed.
"Alright. Time to test."
Arthur sowed the mutated seeds, then maxed out the time acceleration.
The seedlings sprouted, grew, and bloomed in minutes—giant sunflowers, each a meter in diameter.
He kept the time flow accelerated.
Within fifteen minutes, each sunflower glowed bright orange.
The light condensed into small thumb-sized crystals that plinked onto the ground.
Arthur scanned one.
Sunflower Sunlight Crystal: Instantly matures any plant.
(Note: Nice try. Doesn't work on the Erdtree!)
The System actually joked this time.
If not for the disclaimer, the crystals would've been immeasurably valuable.
Now they were… mildly useful, at best.
Arthur told the girls the result.
Both sighed—his Zen Garden made plant growth trivial anyway.
Arthur had another idea: grind the crystals into powder, dilute, and turn them into fertilizer.
Perfect for the Weasley twins' future shop.
But that was a plan for later.
After the sunflower experiment, Arthur lost interest in testing the rest.
The mutation elixir worked only on seeds, so his marigolds weren't ready.
And Ranni had only a little elixir left, which he left for the girls to use as they saw fit.
He waved goodbye to them and returned to his alchemy workshop.
There he drew a rune-carving knife and began engraving dragon-summoning runes onto himself.
After seeing Gransax's colossal form, Arthur had developed a new ambition:
He wanted a dragon.
There was something deeply satisfying—primally so—about raising a massive beast of his own.
The runes were completed quickly.
He engraved them onto his left hand.
A god-body could host runes anywhere without loss of function.
When he finished, Arthur was stunned.
The runes' power worked perfectly on him—full amplification.
He had expected the runes to be weakened by his divine nature, or not work at all.
Most ordinary buff spells hardly affected him anymore.
But these?
Perfect synergy.
System-grade quality never disappointed.
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