The Laughing Vipers ended up staying for one more night before heading back to their city with Lilly. I would miss the lass, but I knew she’d be better off with her father. I couldn’t exactly offer her an appropriate diet, and while I was safe to be around, the forest was apparently picking up in monster activity.

Speaking of monster activity, I had to deal with another 4 groups of Orcs through the last night that they were here. They netted me a total of 3,600 EXP, which pushed me well over the edge to level 32. I really didn’t want to become a murder tree, but damn, that was some seriously easy EXP for some very short fights.

I took the first group out using the golem again, very similar to how the last group went. Unfortunately, that led to two more groups of Orcs hearing their cries, so I used a combination of the golem tactic and a few well-placed spikes through the feet to get these 6 down.

The last group was one I had a bit more... fun with. I had gotten plenty of experience with my golem’s body, and figured it was time I practiced some more with my Telepathy and see what I can do offensively with it.

As the group approached me, I used some Earth Magic to bury them up to their necks. This way, they wouldn’t be able to escape, and I could take my time practicing. It felt a bit extreme doing it this way, but a tree has to do what a tree has to do. When the three Orcs were sufficiently buried, I went ahead and covered their mouths with a few roots so they wouldn’t make as much noise and attract others.

Now that I had my three unwilling opponents, I dove straight in and attacked the one closest to me.

I started by making the normal connection between the two of us, and felt waves of fear, anger, and hunger rolling off it. I also got a bunch of sensory information regarding their sense of smell. It was mad at how close it had gotten to having a full meal in a long time, but I couldn’t let it eat the people I promised to protect.

After my initial connection to its mind, I started gathering my mental energy and ramming it into the Orc’s mind. I essentially made a mental mace and was battering at it, hoping to cause some damage. I could tell it was working, if only a little, by the small stream of blood coming from its nose.

After 30 seconds of battering the thing’s mind, I could tell this wasn’t going to work. I needed to form a better weapon to fight with than a simple mace. The only reason I had gotten this far was due to the obvious difference in mental size. It had nothing to do with me being better than it, just larger.

I went ahead and ended the thing’s misery by stabbing it through the base of the skull with a sharpened root. That... actually gave me an idea. If I can form mental weapons to deal damage, then why don’t I try forming a sword or a dagger and try a slashing attack.

Before connecting to the second Orc, I gathered my mental forces and formed a sharp edge. It was difficult to keep it sharp, as every time I tried to switch focus from keeping the edge to making the connection, the energy I used to sharpen my mind would blob out and make the “weapon” dull. It was a frustrating process that took a good bit of time to get right, but I managed it.

When I finally got the technique right, the second Orc went down much faster. It still took a few tries, but this marked the first successful attack with just mental energy. It even gave me a few ways to consider how to attack the third Orc.

This last monster was one I wanted to take out in a single mental strike. While I only took half of an hour between killing the first and second Orcs, I would take my time to sharpen my mind into a rapier with which I could stab once and completely destroy the mind of the monster in front of me.

It took me until morning before I had molded my mind into the proper weapon I wanted. But when I did, I wasted no time in attacking. I quickly stabbed the Orc with my mind and destroyed its mental faculties. I didn’t even form the regular connection with Telepathy before I attacked, which didn’t seem to make a difference.

The biggest gain I received from killing the Orc wasn’t even the Exp I got. No, the biggest reward I received came in the form of a notification.

Congratulations! Through hard work and practice, your skill [Telepathy (U)] has evolved into [Mental Magic (R)]!

Sweet!

I pulled up my status to look at the new skill.

User: Willow Race: Tree

Level: 32 Exp: 1570/2600

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

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

Mental Magic (R): Active. Caster uses mana to manipulate mental energy. Mental energy can be used offensively, defensively, or as a utility for certain crafts or communication. User is also able to sense the minds of others as well as the strength of those minds. Strength of skill increases with practice and amount of mental energy available.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

I shoved my mind into the golem and had the creation start dancing. I was so excited by the new skill, and I could hardly wait to tell Lilly. I was only slightly saddened by the memory of the news that she would be leaving today.

The first thing in the morning, the group came out, had a quick Orc Belly breakfast, harvested the stomachs of the newer corpses and left shortly after our goodbyes. I will admit that Lilly and I had a bit of an emotional one. She was the first person I had a chance to form a real bond with in the last three years. It was a bit hard to know that it would be months before she would even get a chance to come back, and that’s depending on how the current monster horde situation goes.

After Lilly and I said our farewells, I brought Axel the bag of Resource Berries I had picked for him. I may have gone a bit extra with how firm I was on their intended use.

“These are for your group and your group only. If I find out that you went and sold these, I’ll be very displeased. You told me that it was dangerous out there, so use these to make sure Lilly gets home safely. You can keep these extras as a bonus for the difficulty of your quest, but that girl better reach her father. In return, if your group ever finds themselves in my area again, I’d be willing to play host again. But that is contingent on her safety. That all being said, y’all are good people. I wish you luck in your travels.”

I may have put a bit of extra mental weight behind the whole “get home safely” part, but I was adamant that they knew the seriousness behind my words.

Axel barely seemed to notice my temperament, as his response came as nonchalantly as ever.

“She’ll be fine. You’re acting like a father watching his daughter leave home for the first time. You don’t need to worry so much. You have my word – all our words – that our charge will see her home again. And as for the berries you have gifted us, we will gladly keep them to ourselves. While they would fetch a pretty penny on the market, I’d rather the free, tasty potions rather than the expensive gross ones from the Alchemist Guild.”

After that came a couple of thanks given by the other two in the group when Axel handed out the berries as was appropriate. It turns out that Archy used mostly stamina in his attacks, just as I had expected. Lilly said she probably wouldn’t need them, since she had a couple of potions herself, but I insisted she take them since they’ve already been long replaced by now. Needless to say, she didn’t argue much after that.

With their affairs in order, it was finally time for the group to get going. I decided I would accompany them as far as I could, by attaching my extra-long vine to the back of the golem puppet I made to act as the mana supply, then puppeteering the thing that way. It wasn’t much, but I managed to elongate it an extra 200 feet, making it 300 feet in length total. It did take most of my Stamina pool, but I deemed the cost worth it.

With my means of escort procured, the group and I headed out. I was completely unaware of what to expect outside of my Domain of Awareness, but I was extremely excited to find out.

We walked to the edge of my domain, and I hesitated. This was the extent of what I have known for the last 3 years, and I was suddenly getting quite nervous. Everything beyond this point has been a blur of colors, with no distinct figures. It was mostly a blend of white and green, but it was still my home.

I sent the signal to the golem to take the next step.

The edge of my Domain expanded to accommodate the golem’s body. The next two feet of land were exposed. Beyond was still a blur, but I was able to see an entire few inches extra.

The next step was taken, and more land was revealed.

I was able to see the edges of possible life.

The third step revealed a ring of trees all around me. They stood tall, most being taller than I am, averaging around 40 feet. I had felt pretty secure with myself, given how fast I had thought I was growing, but I guess I still had some room to improve.

I could still hear Lilly and her group ahead of me, so I knew my little hesitation hadn’t left me too far behind. I quickened my pace, making adjustments to my course as needed. There was one point where I had taken a step fully into another tree. I thought a quick apology and went around it.

This went on for a good two minutes, my world growing exponentially. It was insane to think how little I truly saw until now.

There were hundreds of trees surrounding me, and evidence of at least 70 different ant piles. I saw a multitude of berry bushes that I was interested in sampling at a later date, and to my glorious surprise, I saw a single bee fly past in the opposite direction from which I was walking. That meant that if I grew my vine out far enough, I might just be able to catch one for monster bee farming/taming.

When I reached the end of my extended reach, I informed Lilly and the Laughing Vipers. They were watching behind and stopping every few seconds to allow me to catch up until now.

“This is as far as I can go. You are all strong, so I know you can make it home. Goodbye, all.”

With that, and a few hugs of the golem, they left. I could still hear them for a few seconds, then half a minute after they left my line of sight, I heard Lilly call out, “BYE WILLOW! I’LL SEE YOU AGAIN!”

I made the golem wave then turned it around and brought it back to my base of operations. That’s when I noticed an absolute travesty. The range of my Domain of Awareness was shrinking as my creation returned.

I brought up the skill description again to take a proper look at things.

Domain of Awareness (U): Passive. User can see as far as they can reach. Every noise that crosses the boundary of the user’s domain is able to be heard by the User, including sounds outside of the user’s range of sight and touch. Nothing is able to hide in the user’s Domain.

Okay, that’s some bull right there. I can ‘reach’ 300 feet away from me at this point, so I should be able to see in a 300-foot radius from myself. Why the hell is the range shrinking when I take my vine back. Do I have to be actively reaching the 300 feet for it to count? That’s ridiculous!

Complain how I might, the radius continued shrinking until my vine passed the point where my roots reached underground. At that point, I curled my now even longer vine back into my branches and thought about what I should do next.

It became obvious to me what my next plan was as soon as my vine settled. I was too damn short.

Ever since I made the hobbit-hole for Lilly, my vines and lowest branches were all touching the ground underneath them. It was obscene that people would have easy access to my berries, so I needed to grow. And I had just the skill for the job. It was time to test the limits of this Body Manipulation skill.