Hmmm... Let me see if I can condense these blue boxes.
I fumbled around for a bit before I was able to get the notifications down to 1 line for each category.
Ants of various species killed (x5000). Exp has been rewarded.
Achievement [Ant Slayer] has been upgraded due to Ant Kill Count. Achievement is now [Feared by Ants]. Ants now fear you and will actively avoid you.
Through intense training, skill [Vine Control(C)] has been upgraded to [Vine Control(U)].
Due to intense training, skill [Fire Resistance (C)] has been learned. Another skill offers similar effects to skill [Fire Resistance (C)]. Pulling effects from skill [Iron Bark (U)] and upgrading skill [Fire Resistance (C)] to skill [Fire Resistance (U)].
Congratulations! You have reached level 20! Please select your level reward from the options below:
1. Skill Upgrade
2. Choose New Skill
Well damn. I had just jumped quite a few levels. Let me take a minute to see what new skill I want before I do anything else.
My current skills are perfect for now. Vine Control already got a free upgrade from how awesome it was, I even gained an improved Fire Resistance thanks to Iron Bark. After that big fight, I worry that any larger creatures might approach me, so maybe a form of communication? Being a Telepathic Tree sounds awesome. But do I want telepathy, or do I want to have verbal communication?
Who am I kidding, of course I’m going for Telepathy.
New skill [Telepathy (U)] has been partially obtained. Skill will be automatically fully manifested after the next level bonus due to high rarity.
Well damn. It makes sense though. I guess stronger skills need multiple levels worth of rewards to manifest properly. How close am I to 25? Status!
User: Willow Race: Tree
Level: 24 Exp: 800/900
H:90% S:88% M:100%
Skills: Photosynthesis, Iron Bark, Domain of Awareness, Rapid Growth, Vine Control, Fire Resistance, Telepathy
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Achievements: First Blood, Feared by Ants
Okay, so telepathy still shows on my skill list, it just won’t be available for a few more days. And is there any way to revert my achievement back to Ant Slayer? That battle brought me up by leaps and bounds. I could go for something like that again after I rest some. While amazing, it was mentally exhausting.
Since I had my status up, I decided to check out the new skill descriptions.
Vine Control(U): Active. User can manipulate their hanging vines through mental effort alone. Manipulation becomes easier through practice. When used as a weapon, the vines are strengthened, and the tips are sharpened to deal more damage. User has more freedom for how the vines are used.
Fire Resistance (U): Passive. Greatly reduces damage taken from Fire and Heat damage types.
Well, that explains the mental exhaustion. Vine Control no longer has a stamina requirement, just a mental one. It should be easier to use the more I use it though, so that’s awesome. I’ll have to start practicing that more often now.
While Fire Resistance is a load off my shoulders, I wasn’t really that scared of being burned to death anyways, so I guess this is just extra protection.
Alright, I’ve gone through the leftovers from the battle. I guess I should start planning what to do next now, huh? Since I have 3 main branches plus my trunk apparently counts, I’m getting 8 Exp per day. I need 100 Exp to get to level 25 before I can fully get Telepathy, so that should only be 12.5 days, so I should be good there. But when I get to level 25, it’ll be quite a while before I can get to level 30, seeing how much the Exp requirements have been growing. I’m glad I was able to get Exp even though I hadn’t gotten my level 20 reward though. That would have been a major waste of effort otherwise.
With how many Ants were attacking me, I realized that there had to be a few Ant hills nearby. What if I were to increase my range for my Domain of Awareness by reaching my roots out further, then I might be able to see where they are and attack. Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt to be able to have a wider area to have a visual contact with anyways. I can only see around 20 feet from me, so it’ll be good to get a better idea of what’s out there.
Another thing I just realized. This whole area looks to be a forest, so where are all the other trees? And where were the Ants getting the rest of the leaves they were eating from? They only stole from me a few times, which I can understand, given how hard it was for them to harvest from me. But there was nothing else in my range of my view for them to harvest from. I guess I’ll have to expand Domain of Awareness regardless. Hopefully it’ll show something other than grass and weeds.
I brought up my Rapid Growth skill and focused on spreading my roots outward. As it was now, they made a bit of a bowl shape underneath me. I was aiming to make the top most roots stretch out even further, as far as they could go. I went ahead and brought my Stamina down to 50% before stopping.
I looked around and saw I only added maybe a few inches to the circle around me. I decided it would be too much effort to spend all that Stamina on something that will happen regardless of my direct interference.
My next course of action, that will have to take place over several days: I need to lengthen my vine branches. During my fight, I only had 4 vines long enough to cause damage to the Ants on the ground. I doubt I’ll be dealing with Ants again any time soon, but there might be snakes or other threats that are low enough to the ground to warrant such adaptions.
All that would have to wait at least until tomorrow though. I’m too low on Stamina right now to effectively do anything. The side effect of Rapid Growth’s passive effect put a strain on my Stamina regeneration, though the extra main branches I have help to counteract it.
Time to grind some levels by... Standing here and growing out my vines, which I’ve almost come to think of as my hair. This should be a fun few days.