Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System-Chapter 51: Upgraded Soldiers

Then Vikram shifted his gaze toward the newly appeared members of his squad — the Archer Sprouts.

Their birth scene felt strangely nostalgic. Just like when the Guardian Sprout and Warrior Sprout had first emerged, these two also rose from the soil in quiet stillness. The only difference was their equipment.

One carried a vine-woven longbow, curved like a crescent branch hardened by sap and bark. The other had a similar bow slung behind its shoulder, with a bundle of thorn-tipped arrows growing naturally along its spine like living ammunition.

Their bodies were slimmer than the Warrior Sprout’s and lighter than the Guardian’s. Their limbs were flexible, designed for balance and precision rather than brute force.

Curious, Vikram opened their status panel.

---

[Archer Sprout (Blue)]

Type: Ranged Offensive / Tactical Support Plant Unit

Status: Level 1

Growth Potential: High

Upgradeable: Yes

Daily Plant Essence Generation: +12

Physique:

Strength: 15

Speed: 22

Stamina: 18

Reaction: 21

Level Up Requirement:

• Combat / Support Experience ×10

Upgrade Requirement:

• Plant Essence ×150

• Combat Experience ≥50

Description: A mobile ranged plant warrior born from the Plant Life System. Its body is formed from flexible vine-fiber muscles and hollow bark channels that allow rapid projectile generation. It specializes in mid-range suppression, precision strikes, and battlefield support, weakening enemies before frontline units engage.

Abilities

• Thorn Arrow Shot — Fires hardened thorn-tipped arrows grown from its own vines.

These arrows possess moderate piercing power and can penetrate light armor or mutated creature hide.

• Rapid Vine Volley — Temporarily increases firing speed, releasing multiple quick successive shots to suppress enemy movement or disrupt charging targets.

• Territory Regeneration — When inside the Host’s territory, the Archer Sprout slowly restores minor structural damage and stamina using ambient plant energy from the land.

Role: Mid-range damage dealer and tactical suppressor. Supports frontline plant units by weakening enemies, controlling approach paths, and providing consistent ranged pressure during combat.

---

After reading the Archer Sprout’s panel, Vikram suddenly felt a strange emptiness.

Until now, even though his Plant Life System had always been his greatest reliance, he still had a clear role on the battlefield.

With his bow and sharp reaction speed, he could provide precise support, finish off enemies, and even turn the tide at critical moments.

But now... even that role seemed to be fading.

First came the Fire Mage Sprout, whose destructive power alone could wipe out entire enemy groups.

Then the Guardian and Warrior Sprouts grew stronger with each battle, forming a nearly perfect frontline duo.

And now, with the birth of the Archer Sprouts, even his ranged-support position had quietly been replaced.

Vikram scratched his head helplessly and laughed bitterly.

"So in the future... I’ll just become their coolie, huh?"

"Send them to the battlefield, wait for them to finish the fight... then go collect the loot and carry it back."

The thought was ridiculous, yet oddly realistic.

From what he could see, the Plant Life System was gradually shaping him not into a lone warrior... but into a commander and territory builder.

He still didn’t know what kind of abilities the two Mage Sprouts growing in the soil would awaken. Fire had already shown terrifying dominance.

If the next ones were lightning, poison, or ice... his direct combat value might shrink even further.

Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, Vikram walked toward the greenhouse area where his cabbage fields spread in neat rows.

There, he extended the farmland boundary by another twenty-odd meters and constructed a simple livestock enclosure.

Using woven wooden stakes and layered vine fencing, he created separate sheltered spaces for the chicks and the tiny goat.

The goat was still small and fragile. He scattered several fresh banyan leaves as fodder, hoping that with proper feeding it would grow quickly and eventually provide milk — a precious nutritional source in the Wasteland.

To stabilize the temperature, he purchased two Warm Heart Ember Moss units and planted them near the enclosure.

A gentle warmth spread through the greenhouse zone, raising the internal climate to around +15°C. Still chilly, but safe enough for small animals.

The chicks, under Pinku’s watchful presence, were far less of a concern.

The old hen puffed her feathers proudly and gave a confident little coo, as if telling Vikram:

"Leave them to me."

Satisfied, Vikram finally returned to the decoy Shelter structure beside the Treehouse.

Now it was time to review the spoils from the Wolf Spirit battles.

Apart from the special high-grade chests he had already opened, there was still one Purple chest and eleven Blue chests neatly lined up on the floor.

He began opening them one after another.

As expected, the contents were wildly inconsistent.

Bottle openers. Old textbooks. Collapsed cardboard packaging. Random daily-life junk from some forgotten civilization.

Vikram’s expression gradually darkened.

Ever since the supply system had started mixing these "civilization remnants" into survival drops,

the amount of truly useful building materials had noticeably decreased.

For ordinary Survivors, this meant slower Shelter construction... and slower construction, in the Wasteland, often meant death.

From the dozen exquisite-grade treasure chests, Vikram’s harvest was honestly disappointing.

He only obtained around twenty pieces of steel and iron in total. In the past, opening a single exquisite chest could sometimes yield five or six pieces of iron if luck favored him. Compared to that, today’s returns felt rather meager.

Still, the diversification of supply drops wasn’t entirely bad.

At the very least, among the spoils from the Wolf Spirit Guards, he finally acquired something he had been craving for a long time — seasonings.

Table Salt ×2 Kg

Seasoning Masala Combination × 8 blocks

MSG ×1 Kg

Chicken Masala ×2 Kg

Just seeing these items instantly improved his mood.

In the harsh Wasteland, survival was one thing... but being able to eat properly flavored food was another level of happiness altogether.

Besides seasonings, he also gained some construction materials, along with three Vitality Fruits and two Physique Fruits.

He carefully sorted all useful resources and stored them inside the warehouse.

As for the miscellaneous junk, cracked tools, paper scraps, useless packaging, he dumped them into an empty bedroom that now functioned as a storage room for trash supplies.

Unfortunately, none of the eleven exquisite chests had dropped animal feed or anything similar.

He didn’t expect the Wolf Spirit Lord’s purple chest to contain feed either.

Taking a slow breath, Vikram pressed the release mechanism.

Click.

The chest opened.

Just as he had anticipated, every item inside glowed with a deep purple luster, and all of them were genuinely practical.

At Epic tier, useless junk almost never appeared.

Even if an ordinary item became refined, it would at most reach exquisite quality.

Epic-grade gear was a watershed — most items at this level carried distinct utility or special abilities.

The first item lay folded neatly inside.

[Wolfskin Coat — (Purple)A coat crafted from the fur of the Epic-level creature, the Wolf Spirit Lord. Provides extremely high resistance to cold environments.]

Vikram lifted it and inspected the texture.

It wasn’t armor — it was functional clothing.

Yet he felt no disappointment at all.

In the current climate, such a coat was practically a life-saving treasure. Receiving this felt like being handed burning charcoal in a snowstorm.

Without hesitation, he put it on.

Warmth immediately spread across his body. The biting chill that had seeped into his bones vanished almost instantly.

A satisfied grin spread across his face. He then turned his attention to the next item.

[Wolf Tooth Necklace — (Purple) A necklace made from the fangs of the Epic-level Wolf Spirit Lord. When worn, it exerts a deterrent aura toward creatures below Epic rank, reducing the likelihood that they will actively approach the wearer.]

Vikram’s eyes lit up.

"Oh ho... this is insane."

"Isn’t this basically a show-off artifact?"

"Creatures below Epic rank won’t even dare come near me... that means I could just walk straight through monster territory like some invincible warlord."

In his imagination, he was already standing alone before a sea of beasts — his coat fluttering in the cold wind, enemies trembling but unable to advance.

Just as his heroic fantasy reached its peak.

[Note: This effect does not apply to humans.]

"...Uh."

The system’s cold clarification fell like a bucket of icy water.

Vikram’s majestic battlefield vision shattered instantly.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"System... you really know how to ruin a moment."

There were only two items inside the Epic-level treasure chest. Nothing more.

Even so, Vikram could not deny that both rewards were extremely practical.

One was the wolfskin coat, allowing him to resist the biting cold. The other was the wolf-tooth necklace, a deterrent tool that would make dealing with lower-rank monsters far easier.

Yet a faint sense of resentment lingered in his heart.

Both of these items had clearly been crafted from the organs and remains of the Wolf Spirit Lord.

And as the ruin’s boss-level existence, the creature’s body had completely vanished the moment it died, leaving him no chance to harvest anything further.

The thought made him feel a little unwilling.

If he had been able to process the corpse, the Epic-grade meat, bones, fur, and other materials could have greatly strengthened his long-term survival.

Instead, everything had dissolved into nothingness.

Why did the Wolf Spirit Lord disappear, while the bodies of the Wolf Spirit Guards remained?

Vikram already had a vague theory.

Perhaps these ruins truly functioned like a game-style dungeon instance.

The mysterious wolf-spirit core hidden within the ruins seemed capable of endlessly refreshing minor monsters, but not the boss itself.

The Wolf Spirit Guards were numerous, relatively weak, and unrestricted in movement. They could be hunted repeatedly, almost like expendable dungeon mobs.

But the Wolf Spirit Lord was different.

It was unique.

It could only move within a fixed territory and appeared to exist as a symbiotic guardian of the ruin itself.

Once it died, the ruin’s reward mechanism was triggered — treasure chests dropped, hidden pathways opened, and even access to higher-tier dungeons became possible.

This realization made Vikram feel that the Wasteland World was less like reality... and more like a vast survival game designed by some unknown will.

And if that was true, then with the passage of time, the rules might continue to evolve.

Perhaps one day, even these boss-class monsters would gain the ability to leave their ruins and roam freely across the wasteland.

The thought sent a faint chill down his spine, colder than the winter wind outside.

He felt as though he had glimpsed a fragment of the truth behind this world.

But understanding it and changing it were two entirely different things.

At present, he was still nothing more than a survivor struggling to stay alive.

The feeling that his fate might be controlled by an unseen force was deeply unpleasant. Yet he silently vowed that if the opportunity ever arose, he would uncover the origin of this twisted world step by step.

Carrying these scattered suspicions, along with the exhaustion from the day’s relentless battles and planning, Vikram gradually drifted into a deep sleep.

Outside, snow continued to fall over the silent wasteland.

December 24th.

Temperature: −20 °C.