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Chapter 5
🕑 Added 2025-01-13 02:43:27 +0000 UTCCongratulations! You have reached level 10! Please select your level reward from the options below:
Skill Upgrade
Choose New Skill
At last! I can finally get a new skill!
I was elated when I read that beautiful notification. I wanted to jump for joy, but quickly cooled myself, since I didn’t have legs and all that jazz.
I needed to decide what skill I most wanted. I could aim for something to defend myself, like upgrading Iron Bark again. It had already proven its use over the last attack I had to deal with. I could upgrade Rapid Growth, since it was the main reason I was as big as I am now. Well, paired with Photosynthesis, that is. Which is another thing I could do.
No, I think it’s about time I was able to see more than just myself. I am going to upgrade Self-Awareness and hope it gives me a way to see the world around me.
Skill Self-Awareness (C) has been upgraded to skill Domain of Awareness (U).
As the notification entered my mind space, I was suddenly able to actually see my surrounding! Unfortunately, there was a bit of a misty wall that stopped my vision around 5 feet out. Funnily enough, that’s right around where the furthest reach of my roots goes. Coincidence? I think not!
Domain of Awareness (U): Passive. User can see as far as they are able to reach. Nothing is able to hide in the User’s Domain.
Okay, this is awesome. I can actually see everything in a dome around me, even above where the top of my leaves end. And holy crap, my leaves are Green to the extreme! I have never seen a shade of green so deep before in my life. It made the grass around me look yellow in comparison.
I studied myself for a bit longer. I was surprised at how gray the bark on my trunk looked. It was kind of odd, the way I almost looked shiny and gray.
That’s probably due to Iron Bark. Makes my bark look like iron, as well as be as strong as iron. I can live with that.
Having gotten my fill of myself, I started looking more at my surroundings.
Everything around me seemed like a basic forest floor. There was plenty of grass, with the occasional weed sticking out. I could see all the insects flying around in my little bubbles of space. There was a line of ants marching by, all of them holding some leafy greens on their ba-
Leafy greens?
I took a closer look at the line of ants marching by a few feet away from me. My view of them just zoomed in, like a camera.
Each ant was carrying a cut portion of a leaf on their back, walking straight across my domain. I had to assume they were carpenter ants, or something similar.
Are these my assail-ants? Are these the ones who cause me so much pain and agony? THESE BASTARDS! DEATH TO ALL ANTS!
I raged at the thought of these ants climbing on me and tearing apart my beautiful canopy of leaves I had growing. I had come a long way to recovery, and I refused to stand idly by while these desecrators marched across MY lands!
At least, that’s what I wanted to believe. I still have no means to actually attack them. Yah know, being a tree and all.
I pulled up my status page and checked everything out. I wanted to level as quickly as possible, but there was really only so much I could do.
User: Willow Race: Tree
Level: 10 Exp: 0/100
H:100% S:100% M:100%
Skills: Photosynthesis, Iron Bark, Domain of Awareness, Rapid Growth
I had to wait for twenty-five more days before I was able to level up. I’d spend those days growing bigger and stronger and I will become the death of those ants!
I said that, but my rage was pretty quelled by the fifth day. I was enjoying this life of mine, and I really shouldn’t focus too much on the negatives in life. At least, that was my thought process from days six through twenty. I was still using my Rapid Growth skill every chance I got, which rocketed me upwards, but I was more at peace during those days.
That lasted until those damn ants came back for round three of their attack on me.
Day twenty started off much like the rest of the days. I Rapid Growth myself a little less than a quarter inch, then went back to Sunbathing. It was my favorite past time in this life. It really was relaxing.
After a few hours of relaxation, I decided to check on my surroundings again. My range of view had gone out from a 5-foot radius to almost 7 feet. Nothing of interest was revealed, but it was still something worthy of note.
During my viewings, I checked on my leaves and branches again. I noticed there was an ant on me!
SCOUNDREL! HOW DARE YOU EVEN THINK TO CLIMB ON MY GLORIOUS BODY?!
I thought angrily at the ant. I could only watch as it waltzed over to my lowest leaf and began munching on it. I felt the similar dull pain, but it was barely noticeable. At this point, I don’t think I would have even noticed the ant trying to eat me if I weren’t watching it live. I guess that’s part of me growing.
I still swore vengeance on the lowly ant that dared to eat me. Thankfully it was just the one ant who tried attacking me, and it gave up after a few minutes of trying to remove one of my leaves at the stem. It might have succeeded in removing part of the leaf, but the stem was far too strong for an ant to cut through now.
The next 5 days went by in a blur of growth and bathing in the sweet regenerative light.
Congratulations! You have reached level 11!
The notification was taunting me, I could feel it. I desperately wanted that next boost so I could get something amazing to attack the ant with.
The next level took a full month. I spent every day using Rapid Growth to its fullest potential. I was now a towering 8 feet tall. After day 30’s Rapid Growth use, I was starting to sprout my second major branch as well, which should bump my Exp farming considerably as well.
Day 18 of being level 11 brought some exciting news as well.
I had spent the last month experimenting with my only active skill, trying to toggle the growth rate to be low enough that it essentially was low enough to not outpace my Stamina Regeneration, but still improve my growth speed. All that experimentation led to a skill upgrade.
Skill Rapid Growth (C) has been upgraded through careful and consistent use to become Rapid Growth (U).
Hell yeah! I love to see progress! I quickly pulled up the new skill information to see what the improvement was.
Rapid Growth (U): Passive. By decreasing Stamina regeneration, the User’s growth speed will be greatly increased. Active. Spend Stamina to further increase growth rate.
OOOOHH!!! It got a passive portion! The decrease regen rate is a bit of a bummer, but it means I don’t have to be as hands on about using the skill anymore, so that’s awesome.
I decided to wait for the rest of the day and watch to see just how much the new passive portion of the skill increased my growth rate.
It appears to have a very minimal effect. I could tell that my growth has definitely increased, but nowhere near what using the skill’s active portion would do for me. I guess I can still work with that. It’s better than nothing, right? I can now take a nap and have my growth still be increased from what it already was. In fact, that’s exactly what I plan to do.
