I’m surprised Alex and Shara didn’t question the fact that I’m camping outside of town, maybe they just wrote it off as me being the weird new girl. Either way I need to find a good spot to set up my pod. I don’t know how long I can go without connecting to the pod but I don’t want to find out by starting to go into shock resulting from withdrawal or something. I’m about half way down the road through the fields that I assume surround the town on all sides. All around me are the strange plants I saw earlier in the day. It still amazes me how diverse the crops are here, even if it’s only six or seven types total. I take a look at one of the plants closes to the road, seeing if I can learn anything about it.

????:????

Yea, should have seen that one coming. I’m not connected to these plants, yet. I hope to set up close enough to town that eventually the network will reach its way out here. But at the same time I need to be careful, too close and someone might stumble upon it just meandering about close to town. But too far is also an issue, other monsters probably don’t get to close to town, which means hunters have to go far out to find them. Placing my pod too far out also increases the likelihood of someone stumbling across it. I need to find the sweet zone where people wandering outside of town are least likely to stumble upon it and hunters going out to hunt don’t find it while looking for other monsters. Granted they may just be confused given that the thing looks like a giant acid trip gone wrong.

That reminds me, I don’t have many points after getting Universal Communication, but I should put what I do have into mobile podding. It will help with placing down the pod so I can actually get some rest, not that I need it. It’s funny, I don’t think I need to eat food but I still want to, likewise I don’t need the sleep but I want to anyways. I just hope I don’t have another nightmare. I pull up my status to add the points in and immediately notice the level and class parts have changed.

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Name: (Nina) Petal

Race: (Human) Masquerade Willow Dryad: Level 10 (Rare)

EXP: 47

Class: Novice Paladin: Level 1 (Rare)

EXP: 9

Nutrition: 82/100

Race Traits:

1. Child of Nature

2. Flora Control

3. Blessed life

4. Magical conduit

5. Flora Network

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First off, I have a second level set for my new class, second off it seems to gain exp separately from my race. But what have I done to gain nine exp as a paladin? I think back and realize it was probably healing. I got race exp for playing with the plants, so it makes sense I would get class exp for using class skills and spells. Now three points should get mobile podding to level three. And done.

General skills:

1. Universal Communication – Level: 1 (Max)

2. Blend – Level:1

3. Plant Forming – Level: 1

4. Mobile Podding – Level: 3

Easy, hopefully the pod puts down faster than it picks up. I get to the edge for the fields and look into the forest. I need to be quick; the sun is fading and there are already a few dark areas under the canopy. I decide to follow the road until I find something I can use as an easy landmark to know where to turn off the path. After five minutes of walking, I find a nice large stone off the right-hand side of the path and decide to make my turn off there. I decided to take the simplest path to minimize the traces I would leave walking through here. After a few minutes of walking, I came across a small open area with a break in the canopy above it. It’s barely bigger than my pod would be fully deployed and surrounded by vegetation large enough to help obscure the pod from prying eyes at most angles.

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It’s perfect, so I take my pod off my back and place it on the ground, then I realize I have no way of getting it to start setting up. When I packed it up, I gave it a command while I was connected via the tail. Now that it’s packed up, I don’t have a connection with it, not even the plant-fi wireless. So, I can’t open it. Please tell me this thing has a manual release.

I place the pod pack on the ground roots down and wait. Nothing happens, so I move over and start poking it. Nothing happens again, maybe it needs some encouragement? I start gently petting the pod, giving it encouragement.

“Who’s a good little pod, come on you can do it.”

Wait, it’s not a dog. God I’ve lost to much of my sanity, I need to get off this damn planet and back to earth soon. OK I need to think. Everything has been intuitive or instinctual so far, so maybe I just need to think of how to do this from a different angle. I try reaching down and trying to lightly pry it open myself but get no reaction. Hmm, maybe it needs to be connected to me first? I pick up the pod and hold it over my lower back and varying angles but again get no reaction. This thing is locked up tight, how the hell am I supposed to open this….. I just realized I’m an idiot. This is the result of a skill, so I probably need to use the skill to make it open again. Sure enough the moment I think about using the skill I feel mana start to flow out of me and a connection form with the pod. I wait but nothing happens, expect for mana keeps flowing out.

Maybe the skill only opens a connection, I order the pod to unpack to full size and immediately feel it spring to life. The roots untangle and dig into the ground while the bulb cracks open and starts to expand outwards. I notice the connection is open and still drawing mana, so I think about the skill again and shut it off. The pod continues to work without interruption, and a moment later the outer petals start to turn from green back into the drug trip rainbow gradient they had before packing up. Shortly after that the roots finish digging into the ground and the pod levels itself out and secures itself to the ground.

Once it has finished stabilizing, I feel the plant-fi kick on. Now I can remotely give my pod orders and view my network. Currently the network only consists of the pod and about three centimeters of dirt around it but it’s expanding at a moderate pace. I can tell the pod itself will be ready for use in about thirty minutes, meanwhile the network expansion will probably take another hour or so.

While I wait, I try to think about what kinds of questions I should have ready for Shara and her crew tomorrow. I should ask about how the leveling works, as well as for any tips they may have on leveling. I should ask about skills too, how they rank up etc… I should ask if there is any way to identify objects you know nothing about, both as a precautionary and exploratory measure. Oh, I need to ask about the elements too, and the gods of this world. I think Alex has referenced them before, so I better ask now before I draw too much suspicion. Alex and crew seem to have bought the 'hidden from the world as a child' story for now so I’ll milk this as much as I can. Worst case, hunters go out into the woods and don’t return all the time, right? Although I don’t know if fighting hunters higher leveled and more experienced than me is a good idea, so let’s keep that as plan z for now. Let’s see, maybe I should ask geographic information too? It would be nice, but I need to be careful not to ask too many questions at once. As I finish my list of questions the pod lets me know it has finished deploying and is ready for use. It will still take an hour to two for the network to finish expanding but I’m not concerned about that.

I walk over and the inner rainbow petals open up, granting me access to my upgraded sleeping space. Going to admit I’m already enjoying the extra room. I jump a little as a small shock run through my lower back. Damn connecting tail snuck up on me. As I lay on my comfy flower bed I just stare up at the stars for a while. The sky in this world is even better than my last one thanks to the lack of light pollution. It just reminds me of how much I want to go home honestly. I sigh and stand up, then strip off my rags and stuff them and my mace under one of the outer petals. I don’t think the rags would do well covered in sap and I don’t feel like cleaning them off. I lay back down in my bed and enjoy the soothing sensation of the sap filling the chamber as I drift off into sleep.