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Chapter 8
🕑 Added 2025-01-13 02:55:34 +0000 UTCUser: Willow Race: Tree
Level: 24 Exp: 880/900
H:100% S:100% M:100%
Skills: Photosynthesis, Iron Bark, Domain of Awareness, Rapid Growth, Vine Control, Fire Resistance, Telepathy
Achievements: First Blood, Feared by Ants
I still had a few days to go before I could fully unlock Telepathy, but I refused to be discouraged. Frankly, the only thing that’s discouraging me are the two little green men with giant noses and ears that started running around lately.
Neither of them have really gotten close enough for me to attack yet, but I also didn’t plan on attacking the first visitor I got anyways. At least, not until one of the little shits started trying to hack away at my branches.
One of the mostly naked men tried climbing me, but I really hated the thought of that. I made sure my vines kept getting in his way by wrapping them around my trunk. It only seemed to piss him off, as he got out a little dagger he kept strapped to his loincloth and started trying to cut my vines down. Thankfully the combination of him being weak and my Iron Bark skill making me incredibly strong kept me safe. He only caused a minor nick.
Since I still hadn’t technically been caused harm, I decided to spare the little man. I’m pretty sure that these are Goblins, given that I am obviously in a fantasy world and they match the description.
The little Goblin man gave up after a few minutes of determined slicing at my vine. When he climbed down the 3 feet he had managed to ascend, the second Goblin came over and smacked him upside the head with a heavy looking club. The two started making some mouth movements, but since I didn’t have a way to actually hear them, I couldn’t even tell if I would even understand the language they’re speaking or not.
Did this system provide a method of translation? I guess I’ll have to wait to find out. If it does, then I’ll be set when I unlock Telepathy and can communicate that way. If not, Then I’ll have to add some sort of Translation skill to my to-do list, and possibly add sound to an upgrade in Domain of Awareness. Either way, I want to be able to communicate with others. I’ve been to damn lonely these last few months, despite how awesome the rest of being a tree is.
I continued observing the two Goblins as they made a bit of a camp under my canopy. The one with a club looked to be in charge and was ordering the rusty dagger Goblin to get some food. At least I assumed, given what he did.
Dagger, as I started calling the little man, left my Domain of Awareness and I could no longer see him. He came back a few hours later dragging the corpse of a horned rabbit. I found it curious that I had never seen anything other than Ants in my time on this planet, and all of a sudden, I have evidence of two new species right in front of me.
Dagger used his namesake to quarter and divide the rabbit into equal shares for him and Club. After that task was done, which Club patiently waited for, the two dug into their meal, and they were rather messy about it.
Club grabbed his Rabbit hind quarter and shoved a good chunk into his mouth. When he ripped the chunk off, a large spurt of blood sprayed on the ground in front of him. Some even got onto one of my roots that were partially sticking out of the ground.
My root absorbed the blood and I got to ‘taste’ the rabbit. I both loved and hated it. It was a cute creature before it was torn apart by the Goblins, so I hated to see it dismembered like that. But I loved it because I got a minor rush of energy in the form of Stamina from absorbing it. It felt disturbing, but I wasn’t going to kick them out just for enjoying a meal.
While the Goblins enjoyed their meal, I distracted myself by continuing to elongate the remainder of my branch-vines. I had 18 of 20 long enough to drag at least 5 inches on the ground. Vine 19 was a few inches away from touching the tops of the grass, so I focused on that one specifically.
I spent 5% of my Stamina pool on getting it to the ground, then another 8% on elongating it to have enough to coil slightly on the ground. Then I spent another 17% to add an appropriate number of leaves to the vine to make it match with the rest.
I had a minimum of one leaf every inch, but the majority of the vines had around four or five elongated leaves throughout the entirety of the branch. When I eventually grew out more vines, I would look like a proper Weeping Willow.
Dagger didn’t seem to notice the growth of the vine a few feet away from him, but Club stared right at it as Vine 19 finished growing its last leaf. He had missed the entire elongation process of the vine, but he grew curious at the sight of the last leaf. I would have face palmed if I had a face. Or a palm.
Club got up and approached the vine he saw. He kept munching on the Rabbit ribs he was eating as he got closer. He ripped out another chunk of meat with his sharp teeth and chewed as he walked around. After he did a full lap around my vine and nothing changed, Club started walking all around me.
Having finished his meal, Club tossed the rabbit rib at my trunk and went back to sit with Dagger on one of my roots. I used one of my vines to pick the rib up off of the ground and tossed it at Club’s head, then quickly settled the vine I used back down.
I was laughing my non-existent ass off as Club looked all around for the imposter.
“Who would dare to piss off the mighty 3 and a half foot tall Goblins Warrior? They were surely a fool.” I narrated in my head.
Club ran over to Dagger and picked up his weapon. He then started prowling around the perimeter, looking for any sign of movement. As he passed by Vine 19 again, I snaked it around his ankle and pulled hard. I laughed even harder at the following scene.
Club tripped and fell hard on his giant nose, with his butt up in the air and his loincloth thankfully still covering the goods. He got back up and started shaking his weapon in the air. He appeared to be yelling something, but again, I had no ears to actually hear.
Dagger just watched as his companion seemed to trip over nothing and laughed as well as Club tripped and fell into his unfortunate pose. He kept laughing as he saw the bloody nose of his friend, going so far as to fall over.
When Club regained some semblance of composure, he saw Dagger had fallen over laughing, and went over and hit him hard on his head with his weapon. Dagger lifted his arms in defense, but Club was angry and needed a way to vent his frustrations. He hit Dagger two more times before he dropped his weapon and picked up the remainder of Dagger’s food to eat for himself.
The Goblin’s fight deescalated after that, and I opted not to mess with Club anymore for the duration of his stay in my shade. It was hilarious, but cruel to the little man. I didn’t want to be known as a cruel tree.
