“Ouch! Okay, okay, you got me.”

Licht cried out through [Wooden Commune] as the fruit bush sapling hit him with the newly found self-governance of its body. Like a stage actor, Licht made over-dramatic gestures and cried at the bush who was beating him with childish glee. Both were happy to have found the process worked.

After having made some adjustments, Licht was able to squeeze out a far less concentrated drop of the virtue-giving liquid this time. Thanks to the new [Bestowal] skill, it had been far easier than before to specify what he wanted to impart to the young plant. Instead of thinking about the feeling that using the virtue had given him and using biogenical growth, he was simply able to use the gained skill to select which virtue he wanted to give out.

Of course, the bestowal skill still had the AF consumption befitting its rank, and instantly sucked him dry the moment he used it. This time however, no horrific show of plant-matter dissolving acid happened, and he broke out into a jolly mood when he saw the bush’s new ability to move.

“Mrhuhuh! Appreciation! Leg move!”

“No problem buddy.”

Actually seeing the bush move had compounded the realization that the plant was no mere object. Watching it try to dig its way out of the dirt mound made it register in his mind that the being was truly intelligent, not merely a semi-sapient creature like the rabbit had been.

It was a person. With such a thought in his head Licht was more than a little guilty that he hadn’t asked it a particular question yet.

“Hey little sapling, what do you want to be called?”

The bush turned toward his root, pausing as if in thought.

“Muan. Thinking.”

Licht nodded and waited for a little bit before realizing the bush was waiting for him to speak.

“Do you mean you want to be called Muan? Does that mean something?”

The bush wiggled.

“Murua! Muan. Means ‘thinking.’ Special name!”

“Ah, well then I’ll call you Muan.”

Muan bounced around contentedly as if it was on a springboard. With that sorted, Licht pulled his focus away from the bush finally. The whole ordeal with Muan had taken a long time. Enough for Licht to have momentarily put aside hunting the creatures of the forest for a while. His focus wasn’t as comprehensive as his vision after all. While being able to see the entire space of his connected forest all at once sounded miraculous, his ability to control his trees was not that comprehensive. Controlling many trees at the same time was like fiddling with puppet strings. It took dexterity and focus, and he only had so many hands.

“Well, now that the issue with Muan is comfortably sorted out, I think I’ll take a little holiday.”

…

“Chuck, are you sure that it’s wise to set up camp so far away from the lake?”

A band of leather-clad men carrying iron and bronze weapons walked beneath the dense forest canopy. The grinding and clattering of metal could be heard following behind them as two horse-drawn wagons were pulled. The loads these wagons carried consisted of canvases for tents and basic supplies for camping. The clattering of chains could be heard just a few feet behind the wagons, as men, women, and children were cuffed on their wrists and ankles and made to trail behind the horses.

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The chained group of people wore only the most basic of clothes allotted to slaves, and they were dirty. For in their days of travel since they had been made to leave the Filigost Woods on foot and come here, stepping in horse shit was all too common. The slaves walked in dead silence.

The rest of the procession, however, was uncharacteristically quiet as well. Between the focus on guarding the slaves, or preventing them from escaping, and not having a damn clue what they were doing here in another forest, not a single caravan guard had the inclination to chatter. Except for that matter, Chuck. Who was made to speak by the incessant questions the portly man behind him was asking.

Chuck snatched the map the man was holding away from him.

“Shut your mouth you nitwit. It doesn’t matter where we camp right now, because everywhere’s got water! The monsoon just rolled in through here, so there are now tons of low-lying basins filled with water.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought about that…”

The fat man scratched his head.

“Of course you hadn’t, dumbass. Otherwise you’d be leading this caravan and we’d all be dead in a ditch somewhere.”

The leader of the slave caravan, Chuck, shooed the man before him away, before focusing on the amateur-drawn map in his hands. Indeed, a rainstorm had come through this area just a week before, leaving it still full with plenty of water. They could set up camp nearly anywhere and be in good range of clean water.

The other thing that he hadn’t mentioned though, was that he was trying to avoid the main lake as well. The Trescult Woods were not like the Filigost Woods. They were far less tame than their northern sister, and contained a myriad of vicious beasts and monsters. Animals that had evolved to become far stronger than anything a man could take down alone.

The men in the caravan all had some level of combat experience, but Chuck wasn’t delusional. He wasn’t optimistic about the chances of his group’s survival were they to take on a beast like that. It wouldn’t matter if there were a hundred more of them in the caravan. If they came face-to-face with a beast, or worse, a monster? Chuck gulped.

At the end of the day they were still merely just men.

Chuck folded the ruffled map back into his pocket and exhaled a sigh. It looked like they were finally here.

“Everyone stop! This is where we’ll set up camp.”

The caravan came to a stop and the men started to unload the wagons. As the group got to work setting up the makeshift shelter, a few of the slaves were unhooked to let them relieve themselves. A couple of them, however, were taken aside and put to work. Chuck had bought a few male slaves for this purpose. Although they didn’t sell as well as females for domestic work, they were still good to have as labor for times like these.

“Alright, and scouts! Go check our surroundings!”

Chuck yelled out from a podium that someone had brought over. The camp had a few men who were experienced with scouting, one of them being that portly man’s friend, and they were usually tasked with exploring the area around their caravan everytime they set up camp. If they found any spare rations or things that looked edible, then great, but if they found threats then the camp would usually have to move. For that reason this was always the first thing they did.

After nearly an hour the two men got back.

“What took you so long? Feel each other up out there or something?”

The two men stood before Chuck. Their expressions were still a little unbelieving, and they told their side of the story with wide eyes.

“There was a basin with water in the forest just like you said, boss!”

“And that’s not it, there was a tree there– a gigantic one! The whole place was weird though!”

“--Yeah! It was like…symmetric, or something. Like everything revolved around that one tree!”

“Oh, and also–”

Chuck raised his hand to silence them. They were a little too excited about the matter for his liking. It was good that they had found a water source, but knowing the average intelligence of his caravan members, it was likely that they were just getting excited about something stupid.

That said, there was something about the story that stayed with him. Like the details of the place being a little too… familiar? Had he read about something like that? Chuck looked back at his caravan.

A few of the men were finding places to sleep, having finished building all of the tents. Others were poking the slaves in line, trying to goad them out of their stone-like downcast expressions. Nothing that required his attention was happening here.

Maybe he had time to kill, after all. Oh, what the hell. The place sounded somewhat interesting anyway.

“Okay, show me.”