“Heal.”

The word hung in the air, the sound seeming to come from all around, not just Leif’s mouth. Then something shifted, power built up in his hand, rising with every moment. Leif felt the well of power within him drain at an alarming rate, he had been so focused on getting his command to work he hadn’t limited the draw.

White light with dancing specs of gold flared from where he touched the deer’s back. It lit up the night, briefly outlining the shadows of a distant clump of trees. The deer bolted awake, limbs flailing and eyes wide with alarm.

The creature's body glowed with the after effects of his healing as it tore off through the camp. It stumbled, tripped, then tumbled up against a sleeping yak. The large beast opened its eyes sleepily, not seeming too bothered by the disturbance.

The deer lay, legs up in the air as it stared back at Leif. “That’s what you get for trying to eat me.” The spriggan said.

The creature let out an annoyed whine. Leif got to his feet, there was a short spike of pain from [Healing Palm]. Empowering it with [Life Spells] puts a much greater burden on the skill. Good to know.

He needed to refill his pool of vitality.

===

Leif ran his clawed fingers along the dry bark of a twisted and aged trunk. Ordinarily he would have tapped into his innate ability to drain vitality as well as the passive drain granted by [Blight’s Bounty].

But the tree before him was aged, almost deceased. It felt wrong to take away its final few years for what for him would be a minor and temporary increase. He let his hand fall away as he stepped back from the tree.

Then a thought struck him, and he reached back out. Triggering [Embolden Vegetation], making sure to not tap into his cultivated vitality, he pushed life into the tree. The energy surged through its trunk and branches, seeking to encourage growth and bolster vitality.

To Leif’s surprise it actually worked, the skill having a much greater effect than he had anticipated. Over the next few minutes the tree stood up straighter, its few leaves were now joined by dozens of new shoots. The plant practically thrummed to his senses.

Did I just cure this tree of its old age? He asked himself, partially gaping at his handiwork. The implications were staggering.

Now that the tree was well and truly alive… Couldn’t I syphon lifeforce back into [The Well Within]? It didn’t work when I healed myself, but if this works it would almost be an exploit…

He tapped the tree with a single clawed finger. Sure enough vitality began to trickle down his extended digit, slowly entering his cultivation pool. He was so focused, amazed at his discovery that when a presence bloomed up behind him as it entered his mostly restrained aura’s range he jerked back in surprise. Leif turned to see who it was, relaxing at the familiar sight.

“Hey. Hope I’m not interrupting… strange tree business?” Hera said as she tossed a small bag towards him. Her blond hair seemed to glow faintly, it outlined her face and shoulders, making them stand out against the dark of night. Leif hadn’t noticed that before, he supposed it wouldn’t be obvious while under sunlight.

Leif caught the bag out of reflex, the contents clinked around within. “What is this?” he asked.

“Mana shards from some of the evolved spiders. The harvest is split based on participation and you did quite a lot. Usually I’d say lives are invaluable, but in this case they’re around one and a half low grade shards each.”

“Ah.” Leif said, feeling somewhat foolish, he hadn’t considered payment at all. “I’m not currently fusing any skills, I was waiting to see what skills my new classes give me.”

“I see.” Hera said, stopping a few metres away. “Hmmm, you don’t have anywhere to store shards do you? I should have thought about that.” She scratched the back of her head sheepishly. Leif thought the motion looked strange, as if she were suddenly half a decade younger.

The two stood in silence for a few moments. “I can hold onto them for you if you want.” Hera offered. “You can grab them when, or if you need them.”

“Sure.” Leif said, handing back the small bag. Hera took it and the pouch vanished in a subtle blur. “I don’t know if this is a strange question, but I just healed this tree. I can now drain vitality from it into my cultivation skill. Isn’t that…?

“Oh, you have a loop? Nice. It’s not an exploit or against some unspoken rules or anything if you’re worried about that. Most people who choose a cultivation path try to get another skill that helps feed back into it. Otherwise upgrading your skill can take forever and be stupidly expensive.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Leif frowned internally. Expensive? He didn’t like the sound of that. “But can’t I just repeat what I just did until the skill upgrades again? It feels almost unfair.”

She shrugged and stepped up beside him. “Things don’t tend to be fair. It’s how the world works I’m afraid. You’ll figure this out eventually but I’ll save you the trouble. Cultivation skills require quality, not just quantity. A fire cultivator can light a bonfire and sit in it, it’s basically infinite fire right? Well, eventually that low grade fire won’t be enough, his progress will stall.”

“What’s the solution?”

Hera smirked. “Burn better things. Build a hotter fire. Big magical trees are a favourite for those kinds of people. Stay away from fire cultivators is what I’m trying to say.”

“I’ll… keep that in mind.” Leif said, trying to think of any expedition members or nomads who used fire.

“Don’t feel too pressured to push your skill ranks. The average is around one upgrade per advancement. So rank two at or before level twenty five. Three for fifty and so on.”

Leif quickly read over his skills. His aura, comprehension and cultivation skills were at rank two, while his newly acquired spell skill was still at rank one. According to Hera I’m actually slightly behind the average? I’ll need to work on that, I don't want to fall behind.

“What’s your goal?” Hera asked suddenly.

“My goal?” Leif asked, somewhat taken aback.

“Yeah. I know it's kind of a strange question to ask out of the blue. But, well, you’re a strange kind of person. I was just curious, no offence.”

Leif gave her a deadpan look, the glow of his eyes flattening out into lines. Then he contemplated her question. “Get a human body.” He said after a minute. “Apparently some monsters can do it, so why not me?”

Hera nodded thoughtfully. “And how will you do it?”

“Get stronger. Reach level fifty and see what comes next. Some of the nomads I talked to seemed to think that was an important level to reach. I haven't really thought about things much beyond that.”

“Get stronger huh? You know, I used to have that same goal. Just get stronger, it’ll help you take control of your life. If you’re stronger things will get better. That sort of thing.”

Leif frowned. “I thought, back when we first met, that you said getting stronger worked.”

She laughed. “Oh, yeah. I mean, it did. Didn’t quite go in the way I had hoped though. It’s complicated.”

Leif sighed. “Complicated… feels like things get more complicated the more I learn.”

“It’s a big, scary world. Some people make it, some don’t.” Hera said.

“And you did?”

“I made it somewhere. Not sure if where I ended up was what I had wanted. But at least I made something of myself.” She said with a shrug.

The spriggan hesitated. He didn’t want to pry, but this woman was at least tangentially connected to his past life. Also she had just asked about him. “How did you do it? Get strong I mean?”

Hera looked up at the night sky, the cracked face of season glaring down from above. “I was being led by the hand down a certain path. Back then, the Kossia family was obsessed with growing its influence. The Matriarch, my grandmother, viewed her life’s goal to get our family into as many positions of power as possible.”

“My skill note wasn’t overly positive towards them.” Leif mused.

“Right? If a random tree monster knew how bad it was, my family must be truly infamous! I bet even the dragons to the south know to stay away!” She laughed, hands on her hips.

“So you left?” The spriggan asked.

“Well, I ran away. Disowned myself really, that was fun. Melissa followed me, bless her. Without her I don’t think I would have made it as far as I did.” She said.

Inwardly Leif frowned. Surely there was a better way than to up and leave.

“Anyway, I joined an adventuring company down in Sablaris, it was a sister company to the guild Darius’s family runs. That got me to level fifty. It took a few years to advance that far but I was still too close. My family kept harassing me, demanding my return.”

She sighed and leaned back against the newly healed tree. “So I entered the empire proper. If I became a citizen of Mekrys, even the Kossia family wouldn’t be able to pull me back. I probably should have thought things through more. I was young, alone, and had the [Noble] class...”

Leif nodded as she trailed off. He didn’t really understand, but it was good to know his suspicions that Hera had the [Noble] class were correct. He remained silent, letting her piece together her life’s story.

“There are three ways to become a citizen of the empire. Well, four. But I’m not counting being born in the capital as an option. The first is buying your citizenship, it takes more fangs than sense and wasn’t an option for me. The second is marriage, if you marry a citizen then you become one too.” Her face darkened for a moment.

“The final way is through something called The Crucible. It’s a tamed dungeon below the imperial capital. If you survive and come out strong enough you can join a faction and become a citizen. Simple really.”

“And you entered this… Crucible?” He asked, Hera nodded. “And the faction you joined was the Academy?”

“That’s right. Now I’m a professional babysitter. Speaking of, I need to do the rounds and make sure nothing is sneaking up on the camp. Want to come with?”