Beyond the walls of the Grove, somewhere in the Trescult Woods, Licht stood at the boundary line between two ecosystems.
In front of him, stretched a sea of diverse foliage. Conifers and shrubs of all shapes and colors stretched out into the horizon.
The rolls and bumps of hills carried the tops of the trees like leafy waves above the surrounding green landscape.
Occasionally, he even saw the dark form of a hawk swoop down through the trees, grabbing a small rabbit off the ground and ferrying them off to a less-inviting place.
Licht turned around.
There, he was met with a different kind of landscape. The coarse and artificial land that was born from his own hands.
A dense mass of dark trees and branches blotted out beams of sunlight as the only illumination to the forest floor came from the pulsing red bulbs hanging above.
The air was motionless, unlike what lay behind him, the space between the trees was not occupied by the sounds of birds or the rustling of leaves.
Licht looked around for a moment, but couldn’t find any signs of life running around his side of the forest.
It was a land nearly totally lacking animal life, yet this didn’t diminish the beauty of the environment in Licht’s eyes. There was still a certain serene and mysterious quality to his patch of the surrounding woodland, despite its conformity and rigid appearance.
“I shouldn't expand in this direction any more. The Giving Tree is this way, and I don’t want to test the effects of the Ironlight on it after all that it's done for me.”
Licht shook his head. Though he hadn’t interacted with the giant tree in a long time, Licht’s debt to the plant life form was unarguable. Despite his curiosity on whether or not the tree was strong enough to resist the integration, he wouldn’t take the risk of harming what he perceived as a friend. And expanding close to the tree’s domain was likely to do that.
The fact of the matter was that wherever his tree species expanded to, the land there was stripped of its biodiversity, as evident by the view before him.
As Licht had grown up and lived on a farm, he knew some things about forestry and plant ecosystems, and was beginning to understand the impact of his new creation.
“It would seem that all the creatures that used to inhabit this area have fled. Running away from the Grove’s surroundings and taking refuge in the natural forest.”
Licht glanced at the natural scenery behind him. Yes, he had begun to understand the path he was taking with creating new species. It was volatile, slightly reckless, but he wondered if that was what was intended for him to do. He wondered if all beings like him, Woodland Controllers or Nature’s Ego’s even, traveled along this path. Protecting yet destroying their environments at the same time.
The woodland giant looked down and to his right.
“Well, maybe not all the creatures are leaving.”
At Licht’s side lay the bisected corpse of another serpenti. It hadn’t even begun to start rotting yet as it had only fallen to Licht a few minutes prior.
Though upon killing it when he arrived here, Licht had immediately regretted it. As the experience gained only made the itching sensation across his body all the more terrible.
Licht reached up a hand to scratch his neck.
“I have to avoid gaining any more experience until my evolution. Otherwise this feeling is going to quickly become unbearable.”
Scratch scratch.
Licht mused as he was unable to resist scratching himself.
“I just need to focus on gaining the virtue. But this might become a problem.”
Licht looked forward. His gaze falling over the thousands of bulbs that hung before him.
“There are too many here. Individually absorbing each of the sap concentrates within is going to take ages. Maybe even more than the week I have left.”
Licht spoke to himself. He was hoping to evolve before the twin’s birthday in a week’s time.
Scratch scratch.
He opened up the system window.
[??? Progress: 72/12,000]
There displayed the fruits of his labor. Even after absorbing bulbs along the way here, the conversion rate to the virtue’s progress was abysmal. It felt even slower to harvest than the Manacle Blossoms, and that was without considering the larger point requirement.
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“Damn! This is slow! This virtue better be game-changing for twelve thousand points!”
Licht cursed as he dipped his hand into another bulb that was handed to him via root. The one good thing about this was that he could now control the roots semi-subconsciously. He just had to find a clear motive, and the roots around him would work to accomplish that as long as they could.
Without that ability, this whole process would have gone even slower. Licht dreaded the thought as he continued.
Scratch scratch.
[??? Progress: 145/12,000]
“Agh! I can’t take it anymore!”
Though it had only been a few minutes, if Licht had eyes they would have been bloodshot. Seeing the progress tick up so slowly as he was busy scratching himself sent a hot pulse of rage through his body. He had to find another way!
Licht looked around himself.
There were thousands of bulbs hanging in the vicinity, and due to his high wood manipulation skill, hundreds of roots were working to extend themselves from the floor and pull them down one-by-one.
Their efficiency was akin to an automated factory line, but they could only perform so complex of a task. Lich still had to cut into the bulbs himself or via a deliberate root manipulation when they arrived at him before absorbing the sap, which slowed down the process a lot.
Scratch scratch.
“Fuck this! Here is what’s happening!”
Licht hit a root that was handing him a bulb to the side before walking forward.
Stopping in place, he raised both hands forward, drawing up every ounce of willpower he could channel into his skills. He wasn’t acting based on a plan, but a feeling.
Once again Licht had decided to follow his instincts, as they gave him a vague premonition of the possibilities of his skill, however mysterious that seemed.
After all, the increased level of the wood manipulation skill allowed him to use it on a near subconscious level, and as for his growth skill which was in a higher tier, it almost had a mind of its own.
But what happened when he consciously used them together? When he actively drove his willpower into each and every fragment of wood around him?
“[Wood Manipulation]!”
The ground around Licht started to rumble as the trees shook in their positions. Roots sprung up from the ground from where they had been buried.
Those that were already out and had been helping with the harvesting suddenly snapped forward, their bending structures simultaneously shifting toward Licht as if reacting to his will.
Licht clasped his hands together on instinct.
“[Biogenical Growth]”
BOOOM!
The forest erupted. Dirt flew as all the roots of the surrounding trees sprang forward and shot directly up. They straightened forward as they flew towards the air, stabbing into the pulsing bulbs like spears, each aiming for the centers of the glassy growths.
“Yes!”
Through a sudden burst of pre-evolution itchiness, Licht laughed as he watched the bulbs all around him get skewered by the explosion of roots.
Still swept up in the actions his instincts implored him to do, he then pressed down with both hands and clamped them together again as the roots began forming into a single mass.
The bulbs, thousands of them from around the visible forest, had been picked clean and were being compressed into a single mixture of their concentrated sap.
Licht stepped forward, walking over to the growing mass of roots and placing his hand on its exterior. He chanted as his hand sank into the root structure’s exterior.
“[Warmth].”
The skill radiated out from his palm, causing the exterior of the column of roots to visibly soften as the sap on the inside was aided in its decomposition.
Licht stepped away from the sap container. After a moment he ceased his active control over the entire process.
He waited for a few moments as the bulbing sound from within the container came to an end.
Scratch scratch.
Licht moved his hand. Attempting to alleviate the crawling sensations in vain while he beheld the result of his work.
“Incredible…”
Licht stuck a hand inside the column of roots, his hand hitting sap after passing half a foot of the dense wood.
Licht took a look at his system as he started taking in the substance.
[??? Progress: 152/12,000]
[??? Progress: 520/12,000]
[??? Progress: 2,209/12,000]
[??? Progress: 10,397/12,000]
[??? Progress: 11,999/12,000]
…
[Virtue Learned: Flare]
[Virtue Learned: Heartwood]
[Skill Gained: Blaze (B-)]
[Skill Gained: Flash (C+)]
[Skill Gained: Integration (B)]
[Skill Gained: Density Manipulation (B)]
[Skill Gained: Weight Manipulation (B+)]
…
[Learned Virtue Organically!]
[+1000 Experience]
[Learned Virtue Organically!]
[+1000 Experience]
[Learned Rare Virtue!]
[+10,000 Experience]
“Five skills? That’s—aaahhHHH!”
Licht’s legs nearly buckled as a burning tremor ran throughout his body.
His mind was left nearly no quarter with which it could contemplate the scope of his own achievements, and what the implications of the new virtues were. Instead, the itchiness that had enveloped him since his outing with Hemlock vanished in that moment, replaced by an intense burning like nothing he had ever felt.
Licht’s legs finally gave out as the intense burning feeling grew to incredible heights within his body. A fizzing sound started to ring out as Licht witnessed his own body begin to meld together.
Licht was at his limit. He needed to evolve now!
Licht cursed, abandoning the idea of upgrading his body first as he opened up the system interface again.