Once Leonard made his choice, the result came exactly as expected. The Miniature Man-Eating Flower began changing in the direction he had selected.
Its body shrank, pale blue patterns appeared across its surface, and once the transformation settled, it opened its mouth in front of Leonard.
Leonard tried storing and retrieving items. Just like in the demonstration, an item had to physically touch the Miniature Man-Eating Flower to be stored.
As for taking things out, all he had to do was think about the item he wanted, and the Miniature Man-Eating Flower would spit it out on its own. It was extremely convenient.
The interior space of the Miniature Man-Eating Flower was about ten cubic meters. Not very large, but Leonard still had one chance left to use the secondary enhancement trait.
Once the secondary enhancement was activated, the Miniature Man-Eating Flower's internal space expanded to five hundred cubic meters, which meant it could hold far more things.
Leonard also discovered that time seemed to flow more slowly inside the Miniature Man-Eating Flower.
He could not tell the exact ratio, so he deliberately put an insect inside. Judging from the speed of the insect's flight and the frequency of its wingbeats, the slowdown was not especially obvious.
At best, it counted as a minor but pleasant surprise.
Leonard directly formed a symbiosis with the Miniature Man-Eating Flower, allowing it to take up residence on his left arm.
As evolution points were consumed, the fully matured Miniature Man-Eating Flower changed once again.
Its roots curled up and, under Leonard's guidance, wrapped around his arm. Under the influence of magic, they transformed into a special pale blue crystalline state.
Then, starting from the roots, it gradually became transparent bit by bit, until all that remained was the gradually flattening Man-Eating Flower.
In the end, the flower became a pale blue swirling pattern in Leonard's palm.
At that point, the Miniature Man-Eating Flower's symbiosis was complete.
Leonard tested storing and retrieving items several times. After forming a symbiosis with him, the Miniature Man-Eating Flower became even more convenient to use. Leonard only had to touch something with his hand to store it inside the flower.
"I wonder whether it can store living things..." Leonard murmured to himself as he looked at the pattern in his palm.
If it could store living creatures, then Leonard would not have to worry about Claudia's safety. He could just keep her inside the Miniature Man-Eating Flower and carry her around with him.
If it could not store living things, then...
For the Miniature Man-Eating Flower, not being able to store living things would at most mean there was no air inside. But for a wizard, having no air was equally deadly.
The enhancement display images were still not complete enough. Some details had not been shown clearly, such as the actual condition of the Miniature Man-Eating Flower's interior.
Those things would probably have to be explored by Leonard himself.
Leonard hesitated for a moment, then turned his palm toward himself.
In an instant, his body vanished from where he stood.
Leonard appeared inside the Miniature Man-Eating Flower. Even though the flower and Leonard were in symbiosis, they were still two separate individuals, so in theory, it made perfect sense that Leonard could enter it.
"There's air. The temperature is slightly lower than outside. It's livable," Leonard muttered as he looked around.
It was a completely enclosed space. The walls, ceiling, and ground were all made of plant fibers, and the ground felt surprisingly comfortable underfoot.
Although there was nowhere visible for ventilation, the air inside still circulated. Through unseen openings in the surrounding surfaces, the Miniature Man-Eating Flower continuously exchanged air and kept the interior fresh.
That was not especially difficult for a plant, but for such a tiny plant to maintain gas exchange for such a large space sounded a bit too miraculous.
But that was the reality, so Leonard did not bother digging into the principles behind it.
Leonard walked around the Miniature Man-Eating Flower's interior, then lowered his gaze to his palm again.
Even though he had entered the flower's internal space, the mark representing the Miniature Man-Eating Flower was still present on his hand. It was just that its function had now been reduced to only one option, leaving, with no option to reopen it from inside.
That was probably the Miniature Man-Eating Flower's instinctive way of preventing an endless loop inside its own space.
The only question was what the outside world looked like at that moment. Had he simply vanished without a trace, or had he left behind something that marked his position?
After confirming the conditions inside the space, Leonard left the Miniature Man-Eating Flower and reappeared where he had been before.
With no observer around, Leonard had no way of knowing what his disappearance into the Miniature Man-Eating Flower looked like from the outside.
If nothing remained outside when he entered the Miniature Man-Eating Flower, then it meant he could use it as a shelter. In a dangerous situation, he could leave the plant outside and hide inside it himself.
But if something obvious remained in the outside world, such as the physical body of the Miniature Man-Eating Flower, then it meant Leonard had better not enter its interior too often. That would be too dangerous.
At the moment, though, Leonard had no trustworthy person he could ask to observe from the outside, so he still could not confirm whether the Miniature Man-Eating Flower could truly be used as a shelter.
Still, it had definitely become Leonard's personal storage space, and even if he ignored its possible use as a shelter for now, it would already be a huge help to him.
Or rather, the shelter function itself was not that important to Leonard anyway.
So far, he had not yet run into an enemy strong enough to make him flee.
Once he had finished dealing with the Miniature Man-Eating Flower, Leonard turned his attention to the Parasitic Pod, which had already been stripped of all its seeds.
As the most vicious plant in Leonard's possession, it received the most vicious enhancement.
Leonard had already looked over this Parasitic Pod's enhancement paths before. They were:
The most vicious path, which strengthened its ability to control parasitized lifeforms.
The most aggressive path, which completely gave up reproduction and turned the pods it fired into highly infectious flames or ice spikes.
And the most active path, the Peashooter form.
Of those three, the first was more of a strategic weapon and could not really be used as the ability of a symbiotic plant. The third had the strongest activity, basically amounting to sowing beans into soldiers, but its offensive power was still too weak.
So Leonard chose the second enhancement. Then, after the secondary trait enhancement, he gave the Parasitic Pod the speed-focused property from the third option, lightning.
With that, this Parasitic Pod could release pods of any of those attributes during an attack, either to injure or restrain enemies. Fire had the highest lethality, killing on contact. Ice spikes could freeze and immobilize targets. And lightning allowed for rapid attacks, making it suitable for ambushes and for dealing with enemies that moved extremely fast.
As a symbiotic plant, that made it an all-purpose magical plant, perfectly suited for a wizard like Midgard, who needed to be ready for unexpected situations.