I stopped listening after the third group of Orcs they defeated on the way here. Apparently, there were a crap ton of monsters rolling in from the south, or something like that. I couldn’t bring myself to care. It felt too much like they were bragging, and didn’t pique my interest. The only thing I wanted to know right now was,

“What are your plans moving forward?”

Archy responded before Axel could. “I’d like to level up. This many monsters, while concerning, is a great opportunity to gain some additional levels. Sure, we shouldn’t rush to get stronger, and sure there are other ways of acquiring strength,” he paused to glance pointedly at Aspen, “but killing monsters and gaining experience is the tried-and-true method of becoming the strongest. That’s the main reason we became adventurers in the first place.”

Aspen rolled her eyes while everyone stared at her.

“Fine, we can spend a few days in the forest leveling. But if we run into any packs like the Wolves, we should definitely retreat. We might be B-rank, but we’re not invincible.”

B-rank, huh? That means these guys should be pretty strong. I guess they shouldn’t have any issue taking Lilly home. They will take her home first, right?

After asking as much, Axel quickly responded, “Of course! I should have clarified for Taryn. We need to report to the guild first thing about the increase in monster activity, but after that, we’ll probably try to get another support person, as Aspyn is mainly an offensive caster. If we intend to go on a long-term leveling escapade, then we need to prepare a few things.”

I thought for a moment before coming to a decision. “I see. If that’s the case, then you will no doubt need some... Resources, no? Do you perhaps have a bag that I can borrow? I might be able to offer some assistance as a personal reward for your help in escorting my friend home.”

Axel dumped out a bag. There wasn’t much left in it, but it was still more than should have been able to fit inside the thing. He looked around for a moment before landing on Lilly. She reached out and accepted the bag from him. He rearranged some stuff and split his belongings between his two companions and waited patiently and expectantly. I could only chuckle slightly as his clear glee, looking like my nephew did on Christmas day.

I could have easily filled the bag right then, but I would prefer to have the night to do it, among other things.

“You shall have this back in the morning, so be patient. But as for now, you should probably turn in for the night. That goes for all of you. I know you have had a long day, but sleep well, and know that I will be the watch for the night.”

Axel looked mildly disappointed but went with it. He and Archy grabbed their stuff, minus a bag, and went to the men’s room, while Aspen and Lilly went to the lady's room. Each pair took their time getting to sleep, but when they did, I sealed half of the holes in the ceiling to make the room a little darker and therefore better for sleeping.

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Before Lilly had gone to sleep, I asked her to leave the bag on her chair. I used a bit of Earth Magic to get the bag out of the room and up to a point where I could carefully grab it in a few smaller vines and start adding Resource Berries to it. If there were half as many monsters as the group claimed, they would likely need a few just to make it home.

I added a total of 10 of each Berry for them. I figure Axel would need the Health Berries the most, Archy would need the Stamina Berries, and Aspen would need Mana Berries. This was just presumptions, of course, but it made sense to me.

After putting the 30 berries in, I tried adding some wood in as well, just to test its limits. I was able to add the entirety of my longest vine in it, and it felt like there was still plenty of room.

Maybe I should invest my next level skill into something that can store stuff. Maybe try to get Void Storage Magic or something like that. Or how about a Pocket Dimension? Ooh, I like the sound of that.

I continued thinking of various new skills to use when I suddenly thought of an excellent use of my Earth Magic that might be able to emulate a different skill, assuming it was one. I quickly ripped my vine out of the bag and brought my attention to a patch of dirt that was outside the entrance to my little Hobbit Hole.

I poured in a bit of mana into the ground and focused on forming a rectangular blob. I then added a second, much smaller globe of dirt on top, followed by two small appendages sticking out from the sides on top. I made them similar in length as the main part. I ended it by adding two more similar sized protrusions from the bottom, and started adding joints as necessary. I was impressed at how detailed I was able to make it, but I scribbled some details out, since I didn’t deem them necessary.

Before I knew it, I had a proper Earth Golem in front of me.

Well, I called it an Earth Golem, but it still needed my direct input via mana to actually move itself. I was still happy though.

The night was only halfway over when I made my amazing artifact, so I had plenty of time to play around with it before everyone else got up. I practiced making it do basic movements, such as walking, picking up new blocks I made, and even doing some fine details with a few smaller vines I grew and tore off.

I ended up adding 5 fingers to each hand, since that was what I was most familiar with. Then I added two feet, instead of having the golem end in two rounded over nubs. I ended the fine-tuning session with a crudely formed face, with a basic two “eyes” and a thin lined “mouth”. It didn’t need either of these things to function in the slightest, but it did make conveying emotion easier. I figured that it would be better to have something for my guests to look at while they were here.

As I added the last detail of the Golem, I heard some rustling at the edge of my Domain of Awareness and saw a group of three Orcs start approaching the golem and the door to my little hovel. They were slow, as they were all sniffing at the air with their eyes mostly closed. It was clear they were tracking the scent of the group. But it was also clear to me that this would be the perfect chance to test out my new toy.

I quickly pulled up my Status page to check on my resources to see how much I had, then I remembered that 1) I was a badass tree with essentially endless resources, and 2) even if I ran out of resources fighting these pigmen, I still had a large collection of Health, Stamina, and Mana Berries. I was set. I still pulled it up though, just because.

User: Willow Race: Tree

Level: 31 Exp: 270/2300

H:100% S:100% M:96%

Skills: Photosynthesis, Iron Bark, Domain of Awareness, Rapid Growth, Vine Control, Fire Resistance, Telepathy, Improved Digestion, Resource Berry, Wood Crafting, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Body Manipulation

Oh, this was going to be so much FUN!