“Huh? Did I just hallucinate that or what?”

Licht wished he could blink just so he could reconfirm what he had seen. About an hour earlier, two people had appeared at the very edge of his vision sense, about where the flooded area met its shore.

They wore basic leather and cloth clothes. Which from what Licht could tell, were of a very old almost medieval-like style. Their basic bronze-colored swords also seemed strange to him, like they had just walked out of a renaissance fair. Their swords didn’t even have sheaths, for goodness sake! Just an ovaline ring attached on their belts to serve as a slot for their swords.

“I must be dealing with a couple of fellas from the peasant class.” Licht had mused at the time.

They had stood at the edge for some time, just ogling at and discussing their surroundings. The worst thing about it was the fact that he couldn’t even understand what they were saying. He had even focused his senses into a tree right next to them to see if proximity mattered, but it hadn’t. [Wooden Commune] didn’t do anything either, and they didn’t even look like they had registered his use of the skill.

It confirmed his theory that the skill was limited to conversations between plant-life only, though Licht was understandably not enthusiastic about the discovery.

He thought about moving the trees around to get their attention. Maybe sign language or perhaps pantomiming a conversation, but he was hesitant to do so as that would reveal his connection with the surrounding forest.

Giving away his greatest tactical advantage to a party with unknown motives didn’t sound like a great decision to him. Even with all the strategic expertise of his past life as a hospital owner and farmer, it seemed like a poor move to make.

So he just waited, frustrated at his lack of comprehension. Soon the two men seemed to come to an agreement, based on their body language, and they left the range of Licht’s vision.

Since then, he had been wondering how to overcome the language barrier. He figured based on how he got [Bestowal] that there was some correlation with his actions and the skills the system gave him. The way in which he had gotten [Nutrient Absorption] now made a bit more sense if he looked at it from this angle. With this thought, Licht tried a few different ways to get some kind of language skill, but he had hit a slump.

“What am I supposed to do? Speak Spanish in my head?”

He couldn’t make actual sounds with his voice yet. Actually, he didn’t even have a voice if he discounted the sort of ‘tone’ he had while using the commune skill. That was his biggest problem right there: a way to voice out his thoughts audibly. Unfortunately, getting vocal cords would be much harder than just envisioning them and using [Biogenical Growth].

It would suck if he put in a bunch of effort now and those were the last people he was ever going to see, but Licht doubted that would be the case. If this place or planet really was in the equivalent of its medieval era, it would make sense that the far outskirts of the wild would be largely unexplored. That didn’t mean however, that there wouldn’t be settlements out there somewhere.

“If you aren’t going to come to me, then I’ll come to you! Mwahahahaha.”

Licht mimed an evil laugh.

Suddenly, Licht’s senses were alerted once again as the men once again entered the range of his senses. However, this time they were accompanied by another man, one who was taller and unmistakably better-equipped than the two.

“So they went and got their superior, huh. What are they looking at?

Licht shifted his vision behind the trio to see what they were pointing at.

“Hey, that looks like they're pointing at me. Wait what? They’re pointing at me?”

Licht reeled back. How could they see him? Wait, no. He shouldn’t immediately jump to conclusions. It was possible that they were just confused by the twisting surface of his tree. He was pretty proud of his work, but it was possibly just a little bit conspicuous.

But to drag out their boss just for that?

It was suspicious. Licht didn’t like it. The trees he had wrapped around himself had formed a sort of exotic beauty, one that was only ‘disfigured’ if you considered the laws of nature and normal beauty standards. But still, to have so much attention drawn to it made Licht think they suspected him as an intelligent plant.

“These might be the hunters that the Giving Tree spoke of. But they don’t seem all that threatening, really.”

They had swords sure, but he had a forest!

“Come back in ten thousand years before you think of challenging this Woodland Ego!”

…

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“So that’s what you two were amazed by?”

“Yes!”

“That’s it!”

Chuck hummed and pulled out his steel shortsword. As much as he shocked himself to consider it, the two had been right. There was something…unnatural about this forest. The walk over here had been completely normal, critters hiding in the brush, birds flickering in between the trees. But once they crossed some sort of threshold, everything had just ‘shifted’.

The only way Chuck could describe it would be unnatural. The songs of the birds had gone silent, as if there weren’t any to be found in this part of the forest. He also hadn’t seen so much as a lone squirrel. Not to mention, the trees seemed to have shifted as well. It was as if they were all brought in closer toward a center point, forming layers of a circle with perfect spacing.

Chuck smiled. He had never seen anything like it, and he knew it was going to make him rich! There was no beast or monster to be found here, those things couldn’t accomplish something like this anyway. No… this was a natural treasure!

“Hahaha! You boys have found something big here!”

Chuck grabbed the two around their necks, bringing them in closer.

“What do you mean, boss?”

“I mean that there’s a natural treasure here! You two found one!”

“A natural treasure?”

“How do you know that?”

Chuck shook his head in good spirits.

“There’s got to be one! Look, see how the trees are all organized in a circular pattern like that? That only happens when nature responds to the presence of a natural treasure. Seems like it’s been here for a long while, based on the number of trees it's affected. This is very good for us.”

“Woah! So that's why this place looks so weird. That big tree at the center must be the treasure then?”

“Right you are. Let’s go over there and collect it.”

The two scouts smiled at each other, imagining the payday coming for them after they sold something of that value.

“Oh, boss? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful or not loyal or anything like that, but, uh, we’ll get paid for finding it first, won’t we?”

Chuck gave them a good-natured smile.

“Of course, you know I treat my men well, don’t you?”

“Uh...oh! Of course, thanks Chuck!”

“Yeah, thanks Chuck!”

“Don’t sweat it.”

The three continued to walk forward though the unnatural tree line, heading for the swirling trunk of the center tree. It took longer to step through the mud than expected, as with the flooding even parts of the forest floor that looked dry had turned marsh-like. It was akin to wading through a swamp. They were covered in sludge to near knee-high levels.

It was a short walk, but one of the scouts couldn’t help themselves but want to break up the silence anyway.

“How do you know so much about this stuff? Natural treasures and the like?”

The scout’s coworker shot him a look.

“Psst, drop it. It’s not something to talk about.”

Chuck, behind the two of them, let out a sigh.

“No, it’s alright. I don’t like to talk about it, but I was very studious in my childhood, is all I’ll say.”

One of the scouts nodded, delighted to end it there. Unfortunately, the other still had a comment.

“...Yeah, I bet he read all about that kind of stuff in his fancy noble books.”

The scout murmured just low enough that only his coworker could hear. Or so he thought. Chuck blinked.

“What was that, scout? I don’t think I heard you?”

The scout scratched his beard.

“Oh? No, nothing. It’s just that around the camp it’s sort of like an open secret that you’re an ex-noble. It’s nothing to be ashamed of really, it actually gives you a certain amount of class…”

Swipe

Off came the head of the talking scout, Chuck tearing through the back of his neck as easily as cutting paper. The scout’s coworker’s eyes shot to his friend’s corpse as soon as the plopping of a head sinking into mud was heard.

“Hoh…shit. I can’t believe I did that. It would have been so much easier to retrieve the treasure with three people.”

Chuck flicked his blade, looking down at it as if it was the perpetrator of his actions and not him.

“Oh, hey, look I’m sorry I killed–wait!”

Chuck furrowed his brow, watching as the other scout started to run away in the thick mud. Wasn’t that a bit of an overreaction? Okay, yes, he had killed his coworker, but people died in their caravan all the time!

It may have been his fault a bit that he struck out at the other scout when he started to mention his past, but he hated whenever someone brought it up. That was well known throughout camp! There was really no need to run like he was going to be attacked next. He needed at least two people to carry the treasure, after all.

“Wait up! Look I’ll apologize okay? I’m sorry, I’ve been a bad leader!”

Chuck found it difficult to chase the scout through the knee-high mud, and lost him around a tree. Damn scouts and their stamina.

“Scout? Err…what was his name?”

Chuck finally caught up to the tree, only to look around it and find nothing.

“Wasn’t this where he disappeared off to?”

Chuck took a step forward, panning for the scout’s location. Surely he was somewhere within these trees. The circular pattern didn’t offer the most cover, after all. That scout would surely get a huge punishment for running when he got out of here though, he decided.

A decision, as it happened, that he wouldn’t be able to make good on.

“Ahhh!”

Chuck’s body sank through the mud suddenly, engulfing his shoulders before he could even think of looking for something to grab onto.

“Mmm!Fffffbbbb!”

A few moments later not even bubbles remained of the slaver.