"That's true enough." Professor Sprout pulled over two chairs and invited Leonard to sit. "So, do you know enough about Blood Grape by now?"
"I think I do." Leonard nodded.
"Then let me ask you a few questions."
Professor Sprout went on to ask quite a few questions about Blood Grape, covering its habitat, growth habits, and artificial cultivation.
Leonard answered every one of them clearly and concisely, which left Professor Sprout very pleased.
"You haven't disappointed me, my boy." Professor Sprout patted Leonard on the shoulder. "Run along for now. I'll come find you again in a couple of days."
"That's it? Professor Sprout, what exactly did you want with me?" Leonard asked in confusion.
"It was just a test, to see whether you have any talent for growing magical plants."
Professor Sprout smiled. "You've got good instincts, and you're cautious by nature. That makes you very well suited for deeper study in Herbology. I'm planning to give you a project to work on."
"A project?" Thinking back to the task Professor Sprout had given him, Leonard paused for a moment. "You mean you want me to grow Blood Grape?"
"Of course, but only in the greenhouse." Professor Sprout's expression turned serious. "Once I get hold of some Blood Grape seeds, I'll clear out a private greenhouse for you. You can grow whatever plants you like in there, but Blood Grape will be the main focus."
"Is... is that really okay? Will Dumbledore agree to it?" Leonard clicked his tongue.
Growing something that dangerous at school. Wouldn't Dumbledore be furious?
"Hahaha, you're underestimating Hogwarts, and you're underestimating me." Professor Sprout laughed heartily. "This really isn't that difficult to manage. Besides, Blood Grape isn't all that dangerous, at least not compared to Mandrakes."
That was true. Blood Grape could cause tremendous pain, but it was not fatal, and all the victim had to do was drink wine to break the parasitic effect.
By comparison, a mature Mandrake could simply scream a whole group of people to death on the spot. That was far more dangerous than Blood Grape.
"In any case, I'll give you enough time and plenty of tools, and your job will be to take good care of the Blood Grape," Professor Sprout said. "That's our second agreement. Understood?"
"Yes, Professor." Leonard suppressed his excitement. Getting a new magical plant for free made him very happy.
Professor Sprout said he would only be allowed to grow it in the greenhouse, but with his system and talent, he could easily skim off a few seeds and bring them to the botanical garden.
And this plant had unusual abilities. It was absolutely worth cultivating. This was an unexpected bonus.
"All right, off you go. You've still got class this afternoon, haven't you?" Professor Sprout stood up. "I only called you here this time to check how well you'd studied. I still need to find someone to buy the Blood Grape seeds from, so for now, use this time to review what you know. Once I let you know, you can start growing Blood Grape."
"Goodbye, Professor." Leonard rose, said his farewell politely, and left the greenhouse.
...
[....Your plants have matured. You gained experience points]
[Current Level: Advanced Plant Expert]
[You gained Enhancement Point: 1]
[You gained new talent: Plant Modification]
Inside the botanical garden, Leonard looked at the fully matured Mandrakes, Miniature Man-Eating Flowers, and Parasitic Pods, smiling like an old farmer at harvest time.
These three magical plants were the most aggressive of everything Leonard owned. Their maturity meant that he could finally start using these large-scale killing weapons properly.
All the seeds had been automatically stored in the Magical Seed Bag, leaving only the plants themselves in the ground.
But those plants could not be left alone either.
Mandrakes could be grown not only from seeds, but also from their roots.
Leonard dug the humanoid Mandrake out of the soil, chopped it into eight pieces like he was dismembering a body, and buried the pieces back in the earth, hoping that by next year the whole plot would be full of Mandrakes.
Miniature Man-Eating Flowers and Parasitic Pods were different. They were not going to be chopped apart and replanted. They were going to become weapons Leonard could directly modify.
Both the Miniature Man-Eating Flower and the Parasitic Pod had astonishing effects, so Leonard had already planned uses for them.
But after gaining the new talent, he changed his mind.
When Leonard first saw the new talent, [Plant Modification], he had been deeply dissatisfied. Its description was simply this:
[Plant Modification: Modify plant enhancements]
The explanation was so vague, and the effect looked so useless, that Leonard had suspected the talent upgrade had been wasted.
But it did not take long for him to discover how powerful the ability really was.
It allowed Leonard to alter enhanced plants, changing the way their magical flow functioned in a rational way.
That might sound a little vague, but put simply, it meant he could make certain changes to a plant's existing abilities. The catch was that the changes had to make sense, otherwise they would not work.
Take the self-destruct ability Leonard had always complained about, for example. It worked extremely well on the plant itself, but once the plant entered symbiosis, that same enhancement became a death sentence for the host.
Not everyone had Midgard's combat instincts and could throw away a plant that was about to blow up in time.
Through Plant Modification, Leonard could change the self-destruct ability into a non-directional magical shockwave, or guide the enhancement toward [Magical Rampage] and increase the plant's attack speed.
That was what counted as a rational modification.
Leonard could not just make the absorbed magic disappear into nothing, and he could not transform that violent magic into a completely different kind of spell either, because neither of those would be rational enough.
With this new talent, Leonard could safely modify a batch of plants into powerful symbiotic partners and use them to strengthen those trustworthy werewolves.
The Miniature Man-Eating Flower and the Parasitic Pod were exactly the symbiotic plants Leonard intended to use for himself and Midgard.
As for Claudia, Leonard planned to pick a gentler magical plant to act as her symbiote. After all, the little unicorn definitely would not want to hurt anyone.
The original Bitterthorn had already been removed from Claudia because of concerns about self-destruction, which also meant the equipment slot on her was now empty.
All that remained was to choose a suitable plant later on.
"But before that, let's first see what kind of enhancement path the Miniature Man-Eating Flower has." Leonard rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
If his guess was right, the Miniature Man-Eating Flower was going to give him quite a pleasant surprise.