Seeing the threatening-looking appendage approach him, Licht panicked. He didn’t have any way to defend himself! What was he supposed to do, slap it away with one of his roots? They were all still buried in the rabbit. Plus, that serrated root looked like it was more solid than the entirety of his tree. With a panicked voice, he activated a skill.
“[Wooden Commune]!”
In the black tunnel vision the skill brought him, Licht saw the root immediately stop, its surface flashing with orange veins.
“Hello? Is that you Giving Tree?”
Licht waited for an agonizing second.
“...Sap-ling. Grows? Speaks?”
The familiar way the voice paused made Licht sure that he was speaking to a root of the Giving Tree.
“Ah, excuse me. We met earlier, you gave me the sap drop. Do you remember? I’m using this young tree as shelter before I can make my own.”
Well, he didn’t really know if he could make his own, but he figured that the tree would at least appreciate the fact that he was thinking of long-term self reliance.
Actually, who was he kidding, it spoke in syllables.
“...Knows. This one. Im-por-tant.”
Woah, that was new. The Giving Tree had remembered him? It also seemed to talk in more sophisticated sentences now that it knew who he was. Licht wanted to ask why that was, but looking at his ticking AF gauge, he knew he had limited time to talk.
“Thanks for remembering. Anyway, what did you need?”
“Sense dan-ger. White leaf. Hun-ter. Att-racts.”
That sounded foreboding.
“I see. Thanks for warning me. My skill is going to run out, but I will take care to look for these hunters.”
The skill then ran out. Shoddy AF gauge.
Licht’s vision sense returned to color, and his communication with the tree root was cut. The root of the Giving Tree gave a bow-like nod, as if to accept his proposition.
Licht’s mind turned to what the tree had said. If the tree had extended its branch all the way over here, it clearly felt there was an imminent need to warn the white-leafed tree. Licht realized the urgency that the Giving Tree’s mind likely held as he too knew the strain it took to extend one’s roots far past their leaves. It was a strange thought contrary to his knowledge from Earth, but it appeared that trees in this world evolved to expand their roots much further downward than around them. This also made forests much denser with trees and gave smaller plant life more uncontended space to gather water.
Licht realized that the root of the Giving Tree was still suspended in front of him.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Does it still want something from me?”
Licht thought about it. He was unwilling to come completely out of his now-fortified shelter, even though the single root could likely very easily smash it to bits. He settled on a simpler gesture to show the root he was listening. Licht uncoiled one of his tree’s roots from the rabbit’s carcass and extended it before the Giving Tree’s.
The Giving tree’s root swelled up, and a luminescent mist encircled its tip before a single drop of concentrated liquid gathered at the end.
“Oh crap!”
Licht raced to put his own root underneath it, revealing the side of the root that had his own withe tendril running along it. The drop fell from the other root and was absorbed into his own, a sensation of bliss traveling through his own root system before meeting his body.
[Virtue Learned: Root]
[Skill Upgraded: Wood Manipulation (E+) -> Wood Manipulation (D-)]
What was pure and generous comradery? This was!
If Licht could have kissed the heavily-weaponized looking root right now, he would have already been on his knees and all slobbery. There was no greater feeling than seeing an increase in one’s own abilities.
“Thank you!”
Despite the root not being unable to understand him without the commune skill, it gave a wave as if it heard him and quickly slunk back into the forest backdrop, toward the main body of the Giving Tree.
Licht was enormously thankful for its help, but also a little happy to see it go. Now he could get to practicing! A whole new Virtue! The last increase in strength from gaining the branch virtue had been considerable, allowing him to control the roots of nearby trees and connect to them, sharing senses and nutrients. With that level of progression in mind, he couldn’t imagine what the virtue of root would allow him to accomplish. Plus it had directly leveled the [Wood Manipulation] skill again, providing credibility to his theory that virtues acted as buffs to skills that they paired with.
“Alright, let’s do it.”
As he tapped into his wood manipulation skill again, his control over the roots felt incomparably better than before. It was nearly fluid-like, how effortless it was to make them tear apart the remainder of the rabbit. He felt like he could manipulate stronger materials now.
“Should I go for it?”
Licht nodded internally. It was about time to leave the sack of fibers he had created underneath the tree. In a short moment, he retracted all of the tree's extended roots back underground, converging them around the makeshift lining he had formed around his room. With a bit of a quick pep talk to motivate himself, brought all of the roots up and toward himself in a thundering motion, pushing the room he was in deep into the thick wood of the tree’s trunk.
Snap. Crssssh.
The thread structure around Licht quickly fell apart when hit against the hard wood of the tree’s main trunk, but the roots still pushed his own orb deeper into the tree. Evidently his own body was harder than the wood itself, as it seemed to make a great burrowing tool for him to manipulate to get deeper into the trunk.
Thunk.
Licht’s motion stopped, and he pulled all of the roots back out of their own tree. This was it, a new feeling of control. Licht immediately sent out a thought signal to close the gap he had formed by burrowing.
[Biogenical Growth]
He watched in fascination as the skill began to heal the splintered tunnel in the tree.
This time the skill worked, though Licht was confused as to why. Either the trigger conditions were different than the last time he used it and were met, or the virtues he had learned allowed him to negate the cost of the skill.
After the tree healed he turned his attention to another amazing thing. His vision sense.
It encompassed nearly a hundred feet in all directions! Even underground!
By pushing himself into the midsection of the tree, he had fully fused himself with the plant life form. It was completely his body now. It’s cells, his cells. His orb main body only a small part of it. Yet despite that, he could still use all of his skills!