Claff
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Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2025-01-13 01:54:18 +0000 UTCAs I planned, I spent the next five days spending my Stamina on growing my roots. I didn’t add any other objective other than ‘grow’ to it, letting them go wild. After the third day, my main root started to branch off, splitting into three separate directions. By the fifth day, the three branches had split of even further. I now had an actual web of roots growing underneath me.
The little hair roots that had started off so small only a few weeks ago were now thick enough for me to actually get a part of my consciousness in them. It was an odd feeling the first time I did that. I was experimenting with my awareness skill, and I let my thoughts flow from the main portion of my trunk and follow my tree veins down under the ground.
It was a cold feeling, being underground. It wasn’t necessarily a bad feeling, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as basking in the sun with my leaves. I did feel a lot more hydrated down here, though. The water I was sensing moving through my body had to come from somewhere, after all.
Huh. Is it starting to feel even more wet?
I noticed my higher up roots were bringing in more water than usual. I mostly expected them to act as anchor points as I grew, but now they seemed to be bringing in moisture.
I brought my mind back up from my roots and notices that my leaves were starting to sway a lot. They seemed to be pushed down pretty aggressively once in a while.
OH! It’s raining! That’s why I’m getting so much more water right now. That also explains the drop in my energy levels, too. The clouds are blocking the Sunlight, so I’m not photosynthesizing right now.
I focused on the feeling of the water hitting my leaves for a while. It was an interesting feeling. The water slammed down on the leaf, pressing it down hard, then the leaf would spring back up and launch all the water on it away. It was mesmerizing. I kept ‘watching’ it for hours.
Eventually, I got a bit bored of the feeling of my leaves bouncing around. It was a mildly tickling feeling, but one that got old pretty fast.
I focused on my Rapid Growth skill again. I didn’t feel like staying awake for the rest of the storm, since it could last anywhere from hours to days to a full week, depending on the severity.
I focused on growing just my roots. I had planned on keeping my upper and lower halves relatively even now that I had just caught my roots up, but I wasn’t interested in flying away if the wind got too extreme.
I brought the mental dial up for the skill and turned it all the way to 100 while having the image of my roots growing deeper and further out firm in my mind. Soon enough, my Stamina bottomed out and I lost consciousness. I next woke up still feeling groggy to a notification blaring in my face.
Congratulations! You have reached level 5! Please select your level reward from the options below:
Skill Upgrade
Choose New Skill
I couldn’t think of any new skill I might need at the moment, so I chose to upgrade Photosynthesis, hoping to increase the resource pool regeneration portion of the skill. If I could recharge my Stamina faster, then I could also grow faster too.
Skill Photosynthesis (U) has been upgraded to Photosynthesis (U)!
What? It didn’t change? The hell? Did I just waste a level?
I pulled up my status, hoping it would shed some light on the matter.
User: Willow Race: Tree
Level: 5 Exp: 0/30
H:100% S:24% M:100%
Skills: Photosynthesis, Iron Bark, Self-Awareness, Rapid Growth
Nothing has changed. I switched to the skill description instead.
Photosynthesis (U): Passive. User gains 2 Exp per day per major branch. Greatly increases regeneration of resource pools while in either Sunlight or Moonlight.
Ooh. The difference was in the description. It didn’t used to say ‘Greatly’ before the increased regen. I got my wish after all. These level skill improvements are AMAZING!
I watched my Stamina pool for a while. After a few minutes, it jumped up by 1%. Another 30 minutes passed before it jumped up again. The skill upgrade essentially doubled my resource pool regeneration, and thereby doubling my growth rate as well.
I still wanted to wait until I was back at full Stamina before trying anything, though.
I basked in the Sunlight, feeling the little energy I had left in me flow throughout my body. It was an amazing feeling.
Maybe I should upgrade Photosynthesis from now on. The growth potential is absolutely amazing.
I spent the next entire day relaxing in the Sunlight, being filled with increasing amounts of energy from my skill.
At dusk the following day, I decided to use 24% of my now full Stamina pool to have a bit of a growth spurt.
I turned the mental dial up on the Rapid Growth skill. I slowly started growing both my roots and trunk out. Emphasis on slowly. I was only at maybe a 5 out of 100 on the intensity level. I didn’t enjoy the groggy state it left me in after using it too much.
My fourth leaf had finally unraveled itself, exposing itself to the sun and adding to my growing crown. It felt like most of the energy spent on my top half was going towards growing the fifth bud rather than growing my trunk or the stems of my other leaves.
My roots were spreading out like normal when I used this skill on that portion of my body. It was an odd feeling, having my roots dig through the ground, spreading apart the dirt to make way for my inevitability.
After a few minutes, my Stamina reached 76% and I ended the skill. The fifth leaf was starting to unfurl, but stopped as the skill stopped supplying energy to it.
I went back to my relaxing. I had a long night of Moon-bathing ahead of me that I needed to be ready for, after all.
