Waking up the next morning the changes to the glade were drastic. All of the plant life had grown and changed. The flowers were all much larger and new scents permeated the air. There was also a huge change in the mana in the air. The mana while still dense, was in a much purer state. I can feel the difference in fact the difference is so distinct that I sit and meditate for a while before eating. I can feel the difference in my mana when I am done. After I am through meditating I eat and then head back.

When I get back to the clearing nothing has really changed, he is still in the same place. But as I approach, I feel him start to stir.

He turns and looks at me. Now instead of his eyes being pinpricks, they are glowing balls in the sockets. His very look carries new weight.

“I apologize my young friend. What you told me. I had never heard that information before. Once you explained it to me something clicked. I understood our place in the full circle of life. Once that happened the changes were instantaneous. I know you had probably had something happen where you made changes and you were surprised at the results! That is what happened to me yesterday. I apologize.” His voice was now much deeper and melodic.

“Yes, it was something I wanted to ask you about. I can tell you leveled up but your now level one again how does that work?”

He stood and picked more fruit from the trees. When I looked it was the same tree as yesterday, the fruit had grown back since last night.

“Yes, well I level more like a beast than one of the races. This is why beasts and monsters are so dangerous” he says. “While we level like the races do, we also evolve. When we evolve, we keep our strength, and everything we have learned up to that point. So, we don’t really start over. You would have had to notice that with your friend.” He nods at Akurra.

“Yeah, I noticed but I didn’t really understand, and it’s not like he could explain it to me. Plus, it seemed like different beasts had different stages, and I didn’t understand how that worked”

He nodded his head in understanding.

He went on to explain the differences. There are many different types of Beasts, Great Beasts, Magic Beasts, Demon Beasts, Divine beasts, and Mythic-Beasts. Some beasts can evolve through the entire chain though that rarely happens. Most spawn as one and stay in that class the whole time. In the class they are in there are three stages, Lower, Normal, and Greater. You can also get Alpha beasts in some species. I had fought quite a few of these types already. The rats and squirrels were beasts. The spiders and snakes were great beasts. The spider queen is a divine beast, and Akurra was a magic beast. The creeper was a demon beast. From what he said I was glad I had not run into a mythical beast. From what he said it presence alone would have been enough to crush me.

There were also issues in the naming sometimes. While he was listed as a Divine Guardian Tree, he was actually a mythic being since he found his final form. He also now had increased control over his domain due to my input. He had seized control over all of the mana wells in his domain. From what he said this had enraged a few different powerful beasts. This included the SkyWeaver Queen who had been using the mana well under her control to fight the effects of her run-in with me. He had also seized the mana well in the lake near the glade. He had not needed to tell me not to go into the water. I had gotten a bad feeling from the lake just looking at it. From what he said there was a greater hydra living in the lake.

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He explained to me what mana wells were. Sometimes when a portal was done spewing beasts. It condensed down and began to spew mana out in large quantities. When this happened, it was called a mana well. A sufficiently powerful beast could then take control of the created well and grow more powerful. This is what had happed with the queen spider. She had nested in that space and a portal had opened up in her nest she had trapped whatever had come out and eaten them all. Then the portal had turned into a mana well. Then she had used the mana well to grow. Then more portals had formed in the same location, and she had repeated the cycle. She had taken the easy meals until she had become too large to escape the confines of her cave. If she could have come out of the cave my journey might have ended much sooner.

Now with his upgrade, he had been able to size all of the mana wells in his domain. That was part of his ascension, he had realized why unlike the other powerful entities he was unable to size the mana wells. Previously he had been trying to seize the mana wells to empower himself. With my insight, he realized what he had been doing wrong. He had stopped trying to seize them to make himself more powerful. Instead started trying to purify the mana wells. Once he did that the mana wells gravitated to him. Once he explained it was a simple and elegant solution. The trees of the forest now take the mana in from the mana wells purify it and release it. There are now no spots of the forest with an increased mana density. All of the available mana is being spread evenly through the forest. While this is a good thing for the forest itself it also has drawbacks. The evenly spread mana will increase the strength of all of the beasts in the forest. That will make the forest a more dangerous place overall. It also might spur a few random evolutions. But no more powerful beast would become a true titan. He also now had control over a number of the beasts in the forest.

“And now we come to the matter of my debt to you, young human. What you have done for me is worth more than you could understand. I have an idea of a few things I wish to gift you, but what would you like” he asks me seriously.

I think about his request I have a feeling that I could ask for a lot but the more I ask for the less I would receive overall. I have to truly think about what I need, and it doesn’t take me long to come up with an answer.

“I need more knowledge. I would guess that you know the plants and animals of your forest well. I would like some of that knowledge. I would like to know what plants are edible and which are poisonous. I would also like to know which plants have other uses, like for medicines.”

He tilts his head and looks at me.

“You could ask me for anything, my young friend. Are sure this is your request? You could ask for power or wealth I would do my best to grant it to you” he says jovially. “Are you sure you only wish to ask for that knowledge?”

“To me that knowledge is priceless I have been eating bland meals for almost a month now. I have been walking through your forest for some time and I don’t know what I am looking at. I seem to be okay power-wise and with the right knowledge I can make my own wealth.”

He watches my face for a while before he stands and heads back to his tree. “I was sure you were special before, but now I am sure of quite a few things young human.” I watch as he waves his hand at a large branch of his tree. He also points to a flower, and it closes up and the petals fall leaving an immature fruit growing. “That will take a few days I hope you were not in a hurry to leave my young friend. I will grant your request. I am impressed by your restraint you did not ask for wealth or more power. You are correct that in your situation knowledge is more important for you. I will though grant you more than you have asked for.”