“Maybe I should try another approach, then.”
Licht’s focus wandered between all of the objects he could see with his omni-directional sense. The bloody half of the gigantic rabbit in front of him was, of course, hard to ignore. But he reasoned it would be dangerous to start digging in now and be unprepared for another beast to come poking around. He didn’t expect that the Giving Tree would always be looking after him.
“There was also the fact that I couldn't sense very well at all once I was inside the rabbit’s body. Is it because it’s insulated or something? Or maybe its body was too dense with AF.”
Licht had by now equated the AF in his system’s interface to the fantastical energy of mana that he had read about in multiple fictions throughout his past life. It seemed a recurring theme that such an energy was contained within the body of living beings, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch in his mind to believe that AF might work in a similar fashion. Although it likely was just limited to intelligent creatures. That would explain why he couldn’t see through the rabbit or the Giving tree but could see through many of the trees around him.
“So the rabbit had a speck of intelligence, good for him.”
Licht believed that he should probably feel a little bit more guilty now that he knew the beast he had killed was a thinking creature, but truthfully he didn’t know if he did. He didn’t think it was just because he had fought back in self defense either, it was like there was something allowing him to accept killing to survive more easily.
“Alright, alright! Back to my problem.”
Holy hell, he got distracted too easily. Was there adderall for intelligent forest balls? Regardless, he needed to just focus on the problem, he needed somewhere to hide. Should he bury himself in the dirt?
Licht stretched out a withe tendril and dug a few tracks in front of him.
“No way. That’s waaaaay too slow. I’d definitely get eaten by something before I finished.”
Licht’s tendrils weren’t hard enough and his control over them wasn’t yet stable enough to dig efficiently. Plus, the utility of their mostly sharp tips was totally lost on the art of digging.
“Maybe I can hide with a skill? Though I am all out of AF for the moment. Something passive then, hmm.”
Licht opened up his skills.
[Level: 1]
[Exp: 0/100]
[Name: Licht Welles]
[Race: Woodland Ego (Juvenile)]
[Health: 50/50]
[Stamina: 20/20]
[Energy: 0/10 AF]
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[Rank: E+]
[1 STR, 3 DEX, 15 WIS, 10 END, 0 CHA]
[Virtues: (Twig), (Branch)]
[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 (E+)]
“Not a speck of experience gained so far. What have you been doing?”
“Oh, my rank increased? Is that because of the virtue I gained?”
The cage of fibers around Licht’s orb constricted as he mentally squinted at the interface.
“What’s this? How did I miss a new skill? Did that come from the giving tree as well? It’s even rank E+, making it my third highest ranking skill!”
Such a good thing had gone unused for far too long, Licht would quickly correct this mistake. He didn’t mind that he currently had 0 AF, and went to use the skill [Wood Manipulation]. Suddenly, one of his withe tendrils extended in front of him without him moving it to do so.
“Woah, my control over my tendrils is phenomenal now. This really doesn’t use AF anymore? Is it because of the virtue of Branch?”
Maybe those virtues functioned as buffs for his skills. He would need to play around with the system a little more to find out.
As Licht repeatedly activated the skill and got adjusted to using the skill, something in the corner of his sense caught his attention. Liicht stopped what he was doing as he caught the shifting of something slightly buried in the ground just a few feet away from him.
“That root… moved?”
Licht stopped practicing the skill and rolled over to what he had seen move. The light brown root of a skinny young tree was poking out of the ground. A sliver of it’s length exposed from the dirt. The ground around it looked broken up and uplifted.
“Is this an intelligent tree?”
Licht looked up at the skinny young tree and activated his communication skill. It had been more than a few minutes, and his AF had already recovered to peak. Although the skill didn’t return any sort of response back from the tree, Licht’s curious expression still didn’t leave his face.
“I wonder…”
Licht activated [Wood Manipulation] once again.
Brrrr
“Haha! Yes!”
Licht cried out. HIs manipulation skill caused an even greater reaction in the tree’s root, this time causing it to create a deep rumble and fully expose itself out of the dirt. Licht rolled around happily with his body. This, he could work with!
“Back in business, baby.”
Licht spent a few more minutes attempting to manipulate the root. A few more subterranean tendrils of the young tree popped out of the ground during this time, an unintentional side effect of Licht’s experimenting, but one he was glad to see. Once he had enough practice with manipulating the roots of the tree, he was ready to establish cover.
“It seems that proximity matters greatly with manipulating the roots. The closer I am to the root, the more finely I can control its movements, and if I am touching it, it’s like an extension of my body. In addition, if the roots that are touching me touch other roots, I gain a better connection with those roots as well.”
Licht internally smiled. With this, his biggest worry of safety was taken care of. Now he could at least hide himself. Getting a stable supply of food would be his next concern once that was taken care of, though.
“Alright, time to go into hiding.”
Licht spoke to himself with a smug tone. Should he really be so proud of that?
The skinny roots of the tree suddenly were given life around Licht as they coiled up and surrounded him like a boa constrictor snake. Once he was fully engulfed, they dove beneath the ground, leaving the only trace of their existence as a shifted layer of dirt around the tree’s base.