Licht woke up.

Feeling a little unsteady for some reason, he expanded his vision sense to get his bearings.

“Did I have a dream?”

For the first time since coming here, Licht felt like he had truly slept as if he were once again human. Dreams, let alone nightmares, seemed to be such a foreign concept to the current him, but it seemed like he had been able to have one last night. He tried remembering what it was about, but had already started to forget.

“So even as an ego, I’m still not exempt from the iron-clad law of forgetting one’s dreams.”

Licht chuckled a little bit internally and stretched his roots.

“Though I feel as though I dreamt about being human again, when I was younger.”

Licht wondered if a psychologist would be able to tell him what that meant, but put the thoughts aside. It was sort of pleasant to know he could still dream as a plant, but it wasn’t relevant for now.

Thinking of other things, he remembered Racheal’s advice. It had done him well, as it turns out, to get a day of rest. Which was about how long he guessed had passed since he was ‘ordered’ to sleep by the fungoid woman. Based on the sunlight passively collected by his forest, and the array of items sprawled out in a cloth by the fungoid woman, he had a rough bearing on the time that had passed.

With his vision sense, he panned the circular rows of trees, and quickly found what he was looking for. The form of Racheal walking around the clearing. She had laid out a cloth for her supplies and food, and was gazing at the trees. She looked at peace, probably waiting for him to wake up, he figured. Seeing that she was looking into the distance, he sighed.

Licht wished he could talk to her without obscuring both of their visions. He was glad to have [Wooden Commune], as without it he would have been lonely and likely a lot weaker, but in many ways it was an inconvenient way to communicate.

“Hello Racheal.”

The fungoid woman showed signs of shock as her vision went dark in an instant. He probably could have done that more subtly, he realized after the fact. Though her expression of shock instantly morphed into concern and relief.

“Licht! Are you feeling better?”

“Yes I am. Thank you for your concern, and for your advice. It has refreshed me greatly to get the sleep I needed. I apologize if I scared you with my antics.”

The woman laughed.

“Oh no! I was just a little surprised to see you so excited. Do you usually get so lost in your work? I couldn’t even reach you from the clearing.”

Uh oh. Licht cursed mentally. He had been so concentrated on the Manacle Blossom farm that he hadn’t even felt most of his connections. If something had happened to the elves and Racheal, he would have been completely at fault.

Lightning-quick, he checked his connections with the trees by the clearing to make sure everything was alright.

“That’s my fault, I’m very sorry. If something had happened I wouldn’t have been able to help you all.”

Licht couldn’t really describe how guilty he felt through the skill, but Racheal seemed to get an idea based on her expression.

“Don’t be! If it weren’t for your help initially, none of us would be here or have our current freedom. I was just trying to contact you to talk about our plan, but it seems you were one step ahead of me.”

Racheal motioned toward where the manacle blossoms were growing. Which of course neither party could see right now, thanks to the skill, but Licht realized what she was talking about.

“I see. But still, I hope to compensate you for my negligence. It’s not my intention to leave you all in the dark, for any period of time.”

Racheal raised her eyebrows and ignored the irony of that statement while rubbing her chin in mock-contemplation.

“Well if you’re really sorry, how about you tell me about this farm of yours? What got you so excited anyway?”

Licht slightly laughed, agreeing immediately.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

…

Racheal was amazed. The farm, as Licht put it, was a nearly-autonomous way to manufacture liquid mana. He had said, while using short bursts of his blinding communication skill so that Racheal could still see the farm, that it required about as much input from him as breathing. So long as he stayed connected to the trees that hosted the blossoms, they would continue to flower and produce petals, which he said were the source of the liquid.

It surprised Racheal a little bit that the centrally-positioned yellow orbs of the flowers were not important in this process, but Licht had said he used them for another purpose, and Racheal was too shocked with the efficiency of the farm to ask what it was. Plus, it also seemed to her that Licht didn’t want to divulge such information, so she respected his privacy.

Blackness once again shaded her vision.

“So what will you use the liquid for?”

What Racheal was most interested in was how this would contribute to a growth in strength for Licht.

The otherworldly voice of Licht responded, Racheal having grown used to it by now to not be fazed anymore.

“What do you mean by that? I’ll use the AF to increase my connections and use my skills more efficiently. Were you expecting something else?”

Racheal nodded, a little hesitant.

“I’ve never heard of a farm like this, nor of liquid AF, but I know mana crystals are used to power machines and other devices, never to directly impact a spectral’s power.”

This apparently came as a surprise to the nature spirit.

“Do spectrals not absorb the mana crystals then?”

“No…? That would kill them. Condensed mana is too pure for anyone to absorb into their bodies. It has always resulted in death. Don’t tell me when you said you’re going to use it to increase your connections, you meant to absorb it?”

“Eh…yeah.”

Racheal freaked out.

“What! That’s incredibly dangerous! You will almost certainly die! I don’t know if your identity as a spirit is what’s giving you confidence, but not even the strongest of natural spirits can get away with directly absorbing mana!”

The voice of Licht went silent. After huffing and puffing, Racheal also calmed down as well. Looking at the motionless figure of the tree that was usually so animated, using its roots like hand gestures, Racheal asked a question slowly.

“Licht…what’s going on?”

“I’ve actually already absorbed both liquid and crystalized ambient force, or mana. I didn’t experience any of the effects you’re talking about. Instead it just helped me.”

“Ehe?”

…

So Licht was stuck explaining to the fungoid woman how he was supposedly able to absorb AF when she didn’t know of anyone else who could. After a while it got kind of annoying so he asked some of his own questions. Like how she knew where to find his main body was a huge one, but as she explained he realized that he hadn’t really been all that cautious in hiding himself.

It struck a chord with him, and he was internally quite unhappy with his negligence so far, but washed it away as he said goodbye to the fungoid woman who would go back to the clearing for now. It might have struck some as a short visit, with her only actually talking to him for a few hours despite being here for over a day and a half, but Licht had already accomplished what she was planning on talking to him about. So there was no reason for her to stay when the situation at the caravan was still a little unstable.

Plus, in his mind he had plans for much larger things than she knew. As she left, he followed her with medium concentration as she made her way back to the clearing, just to make sure she was safe.

…

After a few days of harvesting fruit and their orbs from his growing farm, he looked at his system interface.

[Absorbed Ambient Force: 1155/1500 AF]

Accumulated Benefits: 57 WIS, 57 AF, 2 CHA

…

[??? Progress: 2110/5000]

The first thing Licht did was marvel at the efficiency of his own farm. In just a few days he had gathered more than ten times the benefits from absorbing AF as he had previously had, and broken through two caps on the AF absorption, one at 500 AF and one at 1000 AF, both giving him a stat point in charisma.

He had realized that the ambient force absorbed correlated to the accumulated benefit of AF added to his system at a ratio of 20:1, but hadn’t realized he would get charisma points for reaching milestones. It had been worthwhile to set up this farm, he judged.

His full interface now was as follows.

[Level: 5]

[Exp: 786/1000]

[Name: Licht Welles]

[Race: Woodland Ego (Adolescent)]

[Health: 200/200]

[Stamina: 20/20]

[Energy: 107/107 AF]

[Rank: D-]

[1 STR, 3 DEX, 72 WIS, 20 END, 2 CHA]

[Virtues: (Twig), (Branch), (Root)]

[Specializations: Wood]

[Skills: Psychometric Observation (D-), Biogenical Growth (D+), Passive Nutrition Absorption (E+), Passive Acid Resistance (E), Passive Withy Body (E+), Wooden Commune (E), Wood Manipulation (D-), Bestowal (D+)]

“Even a sloth goes out to hunt once in a while. Look at you!”

Licht’s experience had risen slightly since the last time he checked. Although focusing on the blossom farm had taken the majority of his focus, there were still critters around the forest falling into pitfalls. Of course, he had guided Racheal around these on her way back, but now that he thought about it, wasn’t she pretty lucky to not have fallen in on her way here?

Licht internally sweated a little.