Today I focused on cultivating the new plant. It didn’t take much to adapt it to the environment of my grove, though it did take a lot of mana relative to its size to grow. I almost messed up really badly when I thought to mix it with the Dead Tulip, putting the different plants close to each other elicited no reaction, but when I tried to combine them through more magical means the pollen of the Dead Tulip was rendered much more dangerous. Luckily I noticed before something bad happened, so no harm done.

I spent most of the rest of the day messing around with the Astrie plants. One of the most interesting things I did was form an armor out of it like I had previously with other plants. Like the other times I made an armor I felt an increase in the amount of mana flowing into me, but it wasn’t as large as with the others. Instead, i felt an odd sense of power, like every movement of mana inside me was exaggerated. I just sat there for a while, studying the sensations. When I finally tried to manipulate mana it was to modify a plant. Everything was easier, more efficient, and faster. It was also incredibly exhausting, not physically but mentally. I could only hold on for the space of a couple breaths before I had to remove the armor or faint.

Latter I tried making a staff out of it, like the one I've seen Mest use when doing magic. I had a hunch that it somehow assisted in magic, and my experience with the armor supported this thought. In the end, it did work, though not how I thought it would. It improved overall power and efficiency but made everything related to magic harder to control.

I actually managed to get Mest to praise the staff. He said ‘not bad, my own is only a tad bit better, and that's simply because I've enchanted it. If I enchant this one well enough it could be a much better replacement’. I think that might be the most I've ever seen him praise someone, which brings me no small amount of smug satisfaction.

Anyway, playing around with the Astrie plants has left me exhausted, so I'm going to bed early. Good Night Diary.