Sibil (Human, Level 75 Scribe)

In front of me is a young man, who can't be any older than twenty five. He has red hair, purple eyes, and old timey spectacles on top of said eyes. He's wearing what could best be described as a green and white scholar's robe, complete with several ledgers and writing instruments strewn across his belt.

“Are you serious Rask! I’m expecting a delicate package and you play a prank on the servant and make them drop it! And you! Do you know what you’ve done? What if the contents are damaged!? The lord will have our heads!” Sibil screams, with an actual hint of concern in his voice.

Rask just starts laughing again, causing Sibil to just stand there gobsmacked while I finish repacking my crate. Finally Rask finishes his laughing fit and straightens up.

“Sibil, she does not have the package, she is the package. And now I’m handing her off to you. Further instructions should have already come in via communication from the lord. She is your charge now, I have other matters to deal with.” Rask says as he turns to leave out the only door to the room.

“Wait Rask, you mean to tell me that she is….” Sibil starts to say, only to be cut off by Rask abruptly closing the door in his face and walking off.

He stops for a moment before readjusting his spectacles and turning around to face me.

“Well um, greetings then miss Petal. I am Sibil, the scholar assigned to work with you by lord Preston. The message I received told me to expect you and a new monster to work with but I didn't expect them to be, well, the same. A lot of the list makes much more sense now, though, I don't quite see the dryad part.”

I just huff and turn off my blend skill. Instantly I feel the boost of my stats returning to normal as my skin returns to its normal green color and I feel the vines winding their way back through my hair. Sibil takes a small step back and looks me up and down.

“Better?” I ask.

“Yes, that is an interesting skill. I have a list of things we need to investigate and long term objectives sent to me by the lord, so if you don’t mind I’d like to get started.” Sibil says.

“Well it’s not like I have much of a choice in the matter so let's get this over with.” I reply.

“Don’t worry, many of the points on my list are optional. I’ve been told specifically not to force the matter on any optionals if you prefer to not do them.”

“And if I don’t want to do any of the ‘required’ points?”

“Well, I believe those revolve around your agreement with lord Preston, and I’ve been instructed to leave the matter between you and him if you don’t cooperate.”

"Fair enough I suppose, so I was promised a garden area for myself. Mind if I drop my stuff off there?"

"No problem, I'll show you to it. I would actually like to observe your process of setting up your pod if you don't mind. Oh and please do turn your disguise skill back on until we get to the garden. Many here don't know, and do not need to know of your presence." Sibil says as he starts to lead me out of the room.

I'm a little hesitant to let anyone watch my pod deploy, not because it's personal or anything but I'm concerned about what they could learn and try to use against me. Last thing I need is them figuring out how to curse my pod so it won't deploy or something.

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"I'm going to have to go with a no on that, for personal reasons" I say.

"Fair enough, I do have some other questions to ask along the way if you don't mind."

"I guess." Is all I say in reply.

I reactivate blend as me and Sibil move through the maze of a complex that me and Rask teleported into. Dull gray stone walls, ceilings, and floors around every turn. Occasionally we pass through a basic but well fitting wooden door. All the while Sibil is bombarding me with questions and writing responses into one of his pads.

"So, does your growing ability affect all plants or only certain ones?" Sibil asks.

"All plants as far as I can tell."

"Can you make plants mature faster or only change their shape?"

"I can only change their shape, I cannot change how they function."

"Interesting, interesting. Do you have access to any other minion types aside from these, twiglings, I've been told about."

"No, only twiglings right now."

"Is there a limit to how many twiglings you can make?"

"As far as I can tell, no."

"Any limitations on the creation of the twiglings? Level ceilings, increases in cost, diminishing returns the more are produced?"

"As far as I can tell, the ceiling is about four fifths my level, they cost more mana and sustenance to make the level higher their level. Number produced doesn't affect cost."

"Hmm, yes this is looking good. I suspect that your plant growing abilities will improve at level fifty, as is seen in regular dryads. Next question, how many things can you grow at a time?"

"That depends, minions need my full attention to grow so I can only do one at once. But with regular shifting of plants I can kind of split my attention to move two or three at once at the cost of slower shifting between all of them."

"What else should I know about your plant changing abilities?"

"Hmmm, well, if I shift a plant it will eventually return to its original form, unless I break it off from the main body. I can also reinforce plants with mana to make them stronger, but likewise that will wear off eventually unless the affected part is broken off from the main body."

"What defines the main body, or I should ask, what specific part of the plant does it need to be separated from? The roots, trunk, other branches? Just the majority of the plants being?"

"I don't know, never check that deeply into it."

"I see, I'll make a note to test it more later. The next set of questions revolve around your race. Do you have any intrinsic knowledge that comes with being a dryad?"

Wow, he's jumping straight into it I see. Ehh, telling him about it can't be that bad. I've already told him about the twiglings' limitations, though to be fair to myself they probably could have figured that out themselves given enough time. Fine, I'll humor him a bit longer since he isn't a douche canoe.

"Do you mean stuff I was born knowing?" I ask.

"Yes, or any instinctual things you know about." Sibil replies.

"Well, I know how to use my pod, skills just help with that. I also naturally know how to use my plant magic, again the skills only help out, make it more efficient and timely."

"Interesting, some races and creatures have natural abilities similar to how your magic regarding plant control sounds. It is actually a major boon as the system provides greater skill enhancements to a race's natural magic. An example is the Crystralas's natural ability to draw in mana to replenish third mana pools. Many Crystralas get offered skills by the system to enhance this aspect of themselves, to a much greater extent than any race without the natural inclination for that magic type could accomplish."

"That's interesting, so what you're saying is I get more bonuses to plant magic versus say, a human trying to specialize in it, because it is a natural part of my race?"

"Precisely, this is why you don't see many nature mages. The effort and points put in to reach a usable level is much better spent elsewhere. But with your bonuses, well, I'm not going to say the sky's the limit, but it's fairly up there. Who knows, maybe one day you will be able to grow a tree to the sky. Following the same line of questioning, do you naturally know the properties of the plants you manipulate, or do you have to learn them?”

“Um, Yes and no. I don’t just know the plant, how it works, or what it does normally. But when it’s on my network I know everything about the plant.”

“Oh fascinating, so much can be learned from that. Looks like we have arrived at your garden space.”