The little world tree soon warned him that they were coming, which had him cursing himself for having wasted time and not planning his next steps sooner. He settled on a special kind of medical grass first, choosing to grow it by the cloud tree. He wanted its roots to enrich the soil, hoping this would be a compromise for the cloud tree. He focused on wanting their blades to have a purifying effect.
He planted them in hopes their grass blades would be a good counter for curses, black mages' spells, and even poisons, should the former two exist, and a counter to the latter. Hoping to be prepared for anything, he also tried to will his intent for their roots to make the soil match what the old god had given him. That way he would have more soil, and even if it fell short, it would at least give the cloud tree a better patch to grow in.
Time was running short. The moment he watched a few small blades break through the soil, he quickly rushed to the front entrance near the ancient ent, where he chose to plant bamboo. Trying to focus on having it be not just strong and grow far more rapidly than the kind he knew, but to also spread rapidly.
He remembered from many media how abundant and resourceful it was, along with the old man's lesson of something similar existing in this world, making it worth trying. He tried to imagine it having the ability to grow thicker over time and to have a hardness comparable to steel.
He even remembered back in one of the history lessons he didn't sleep through how it was used as scaffolding and housing, and in his novels, they were an excellent blunt weapon. If they grew fast enough, he might even manage to sharpen them into throwing spears for the coming fight.
His mind, even while trying to focus on growing the bamboo, wandered to the next set of plants he was going to turn out, wondering what kind of vines he should grow next even before the bamboo had properly begun to sprout. That small loss of focus caused the bamboo to become something... different.
It sprouted rapidly like he wanted, growing from a small sprout into a rapidly thickening green shaft, but then it began to change further. Slowly it started bending until it was entirely flopped over, stretching across the ground as if it were a lazy caterpillar. Small seed pods forming and falling as it went, some of them rapidly growing into straight beams of bamboo at a far slower pace, while others seemed to slink across the ground lazily like the one that spawned them.
"No, no, no, you're supposed to be straight like those ones!" He yelled with frustration, his plans of using them as his multi-purpose plant crumbling before his eyes. "Not act all floppy like a wet noodle!" He cursed at them softly as he saw it continue to thicken and stretch across the ground before it seemed to freeze up. The soft female voice vainly speaking about its own flexibility from the time it sprouted seemed to grow silent, making a slight shiver run through him as he got the impression it was looking him over now. Its voice began to distort into a firm male voice that made him think of a drill sergeant.
The once lazily crawling bamboo straightened itself with such speed it let out a whip-cracking noise, followed by the rest doing the same as it barked orders towards them, ever so steadily growing straight now while taking on a faint silvery sheen.
"Great. I made something weird again." He muttered softly as it asked almost tauntingly if this was good enough for him before calling him out on his remark by yelling that it came from his lack of focus. Barking on him needing better discipline and focus.
He watched as it then began to order the others to present. Each one bending forward and hardening, their tips becoming razor sharp. Then, as if sensing his thoughts of wanting to test them but not having the time to cut one down or hurt them, the first grown gave an order to present, taking him by surprise when one bent and swung to the side, cutting cleanly through its partner near the base of the smallest one amongst them.
He worried that they had turned on one another before calming slightly when the main one told him it would grow back stronger, how no harm was done to it, before urging him to collect his test weapon. He could hear it laugh and tell him to stop acting like a seedling when he carefully picked it up, showing possibly too much care. It then all but ordered him to try using the damn thing before questioning if it should try to instill the same steel into his spine as what its fine bamboos who stood tall and proud had.
Trying to ignore its taunts, he focused on the bamboo pole in his hands, finding it far lighter than he thought. And when he swung it, the air let out a hiss as if cut by a blade. It further explained after flopping down and reverting to a female voice that its soft form would be only slightly weaker in its hardness, yet trading its rigid nature for elasticity, acting as powerful, fast-growing vines and whips.
That comment had him waste more time trying to calm the strangle vines, who tried to argue that they were still the best vines, almost starting a fight with them and other vines, stretching out along with swelling up to appear intimidating while having their needle flowers pumping threateningly.
He ended up planting the next pair of vines at their base, along with promising to let them guide their growth and giving them platitudes of being 'the best' vines as they were the first vines he grew. He didn't like it but didn't have much choice in the matter as it was one of the only ways to placate them. He couldn't afford to have the plants fight among themselves with the bandits already on their way.
Unlike all the others who had stems break the surface, this pair acted differently. Once the first bit of green broke through the ground, they began rapidly running across the ground in a straight line towards the entrance of the village. Glistening, needle-like thorns looking like glass rapidly spread across their form before a thick layer of leaves grew over them as what he could only imagine to be a shield.
He stumbled back only for it to swing around and wrap around his waist. Its leaves keeping its thorns from touching him as it pulled him closer. Not a single needle even touching him, much to his surprise and shock, as he expected to be in pain.
A voice like a child hyped on sugar began rapidly thanking him for growing it, promising it would learn from its mentors and even went so far as to start calling him 'daddy,' which he knew should have bothered him, especially since he could feel the world tree growing jealous.
This was meant to be a vine version of a gympie-gympie plant mixed with what was described as a blade edge vine, its name being given due to the sharp and often jagged edges lining its thorns hidden beneath its sharp needle-like points and stunning nature. It was a risk to try and grow something that mixed both of them, especially with the pain the gympie-gympie causes people, hoping the medical grass and shadow vines would be able to counteract it. It soon let him go and began to run a few more stems across the ground around the small village happily before pulling back in upon his urging.
It was meant to disable and cover the strangle vines' weakness of not being able to disable enemies who got too close to his home. He was already walking back over to check the grass while planning out the razor-like blade grass he wanted to try and grow to blend with it, but the little world tree told him the bandits were almost there. That made him shake slightly and curse once more as he clutched the silvery bamboo 'staff' tightly.
Every fiber of his being was screaming for him to hide inside the hut with the world tree, to have the vines and other plants protect him again. But he couldn't do that this time. No matter how much they urged him to, he needed to be part of it this time.
He wasn't able to help the old man when the beasts attacked. He wouldn't be absent when those he grew were now at risk. He had to make a stand. Had to stop hiding. And he needed to face what came. He needed to prove not to the old man's spirit that he was changing, but rather he needed to prove it to himself. To prove that he could survive in this world.