Night came and went, with the Goblin brothers leaving as the sun rose. I was happy that they came by again, since it gave me a chance to test my Telepathy ability. It also gave me a feeling for Mana, which I quickly used to create a bunch of Mana Berries on one of my main Branches. I was happy, as I now had berries for all 3 resources. It would be nice if I never came upon a situation where I’d never need to use them, but I was a realist. A need for them would come up eventually. Right?

I watched the two brothers leave, using a branch to wave goodbye to Dagger. Club had his back turned to me at that point, so he missed it. I guess he’ll go on thinking I was just a regular tree and his brother was just sick in the head.

The next few months came and went. I used this time to grow out some more vines to use in case I ever needed to kick butt again. I was up to 32 vines when I got mildly bored of the monotony of the task. I had decided to vary the lengths of the vines again, but this time, I made sure to keep the shortest vines long enough to reach at least 2 feet off the ground.

I found that I needed to extend the length of the original vines as well. Where they had draped at least 5 inches on the ground when I first elongated them, they now hung a foot off of the ground. I guess I had grown about a bit since I first made them.

I made the decision to make one extremely long vine as well. It was more of a humorous project than the need to have one ridiculously long. I grew out vine number 33 and made it long enough to touch the ground. The I used Vine Control to drape the vine off of the Stamina Berry branch. I then poured some more Stamina in it to make it touch the ground again. I continued this process a few times until the vine was at least a hundred feet long.

I uncoiled the vine and realized that I was starting to get out of practice with using them. I had been dormant for too long.

Okay, from now on, I will spend at least 1 out of every 10 days practicing my Vine Control. I don’t want to get rusty with my skills. I guess I should also spend that day growing my vines out a bit too. I wouldn’t want to grow so large that my vines can’t reach any attackers.

I started off by placing the hundred-foot vine back on my branches and focusing on controlling the regular vines instead. I whipped each one of them, alternating between using one vine with extreme control and using all of them to attack various places around me. It was actually pretty therapeutic having so much freedom of motion compared to what I had before.

After a few hours of vine practice, I took control of the big boy. I made sure that when I was creating this vine, it had a thick connection to me and that the entire length of the vine was an inch in thickness at minimum, with some sections growing to an inch and a half.

I unfurled the giant vine and stretched it out to the edge of my vision, about 30 feet away from me. I was tempted to go further, but I can honestly say I was scared to do so. Instead, I snaked the giant vine around me, doing loops and tying knots wherever I felt like. I spent the next hour playing with it. It was honestly the most fun I’ve had by myself since I woke up in this body. Emphasis on by myself though. Messing with Club is going to be hard to beat.

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After a few more hours of playing with my vine, I put it back in my canopy, draping it over itself a few times before calling it good.

I went back to growing my vines out for now. I had spent so much time in my half-awake state that I forgot that was on my to-do list. I still had to wait until I reached level 30 to upgrade Domain of Awareness to include letting me hear sound. I wasn’t sure if it would add ears to my body or what, but it was funny to think about ears randomly growing on either side of my trunk.

I grew another 18 vines before I called it good. That gave me 50 regular length vines ranging from 5 inches off the ground to 5 inches on the ground and one vine that was 100 feet in length. I was proud of the mile-stone I had just reached in terms of growth, but I guess the system wasn’t as impressed.

I practiced my Vine Control skill some more until it was dark out again, then I decided to go back to my half-awake state of being. It was quite relaxing and a great way to pass the time to reach level 30. It was going to be a pretty good skill upgrade, if I do say so myself.

The following day, my relaxation was rudely interrupted. I immediately brought myself back to being fully aware as soon as I saw it. There was a giant bird flying overhead, and it appeared to be circling me. The shadow gave it away first, but when I was fully aware again, I could feel the wind in my leaves being shaken in an extremely strong wind.

The bird dove down and landed on my Stamina Berry branch. It didn’t hurt me at all, though it was certainly a giant specimen.

The bird in question was a 5-foot-tall chicken, that was somehow able to fly. It looked pretty thick too. I estimated it had to weigh at least 250 pounds, though it was probably les, given its flying ability. I doubt a bird weighing that much would be able to fully support itself in the air for long.

The bird clucked around my branches, and I was tempted to attack it, but it seemed peaceful, so I let it be.

After a few minutes of the chicken jumping from branch, it settled back down on my Stamina Berry branch and closed it eyes. It shoved its head into its armpit and quickly went to sleep. At least, I assumed sleep, given the steady vibrations that came from the monstrous fowl.

I let it sleep, but I made sure to keep a close eye on it. I didn’t want to go losing any Resource Berries to the bird. I wouldn’t mind sharing a couple if it were injured, but it looked perfectly healthy to me.

The bird slept for 6 hours on the dot. Nothing had really happened in that time, so I just let it be. When it woke up, it looked around, appearing confused. It tilted its head from side to side appearing to be listening for something. I moved my hundred-foot vine a little bit away from its foot so it wouldn’t trip if it shifted, and the chicken jumped off my branch and flew away. I was just happy it didn’t poop on me.

I mentally waved goodbye to my new feathery friend and went back to my relaxing half-sleep. I still had a long way to go before I was going to be able to hear anything.

Damn. I bet that chicken would have been some great experience. I guess I could have killed it. Oh well, it didn’t attack first, so I guess I shouldn’t be so murder hungry.

With that final thought, I drifted back to sleep. I spent the next few months waking up every few days to practice my Vine Control and growing new vines. I stopped at 100 vines for now, thinking that should be more than enough if I were attacked again.

The next thing I knew, I was getting woken up to a blue notification box. A smile grew across my nonexistent face as I read the long-awaited words.

Congratulations! You have reached level 30! Please select your level reward from the options below:

1. Skill Upgrade

2. Choose New Skill