Down, down to goblin- town. You go, my lad. Ho, ho! My lad! God, the 1977 animated was so good. I mean, more than two months without any tv or books and I still remember that whole song. Most of the song… 50% of the song… Alright, just those words. But still! It was a great soundtrack. And the animation!

This was one of many such conversations I had with myself as I focused on growing my root structure. There were several reasons for this. First was, obviously, water. I had found it, but it had already started slipping away. Not to mention, I had here 2+ months when I started this root project and it hadn't rained once. I was surprised there was as much water as there was this close to the surface.

I could try and grow towards the water pump and hope whatever it was connected to would still have water left, but I could dry out before even reaching it. Not to mention I would actually have to grow down it until I actually found its source.

With ground water, I had a little bit more of a chance. Especially since there was at least a little bit here already. Who knows, if it actually did rain again then the spread of my roots might help retain some of the water in the area, instead of letting it all drain away. That would be nice. Rain in general would be nice.

Second. Miryam told me about an experiment or something some college kids had done. They, somehow, took a tree and flipped it upside down. So that its branches were in the dirt and the roots were exposed to the sky. The tree had survived and essentially switched. Its branches became roots and its roots became branches.

I wasn't hoping to flip myself over or anything, but a strong root system would be incredibly beneficial. The hope was that even if I got chopped down, gnawed on, or trampled, as long as I had even a sliver of HP left, I could regrow myself from the roots up. It would be nice.

Day by day my roots spread. I didn't guide or direct them as much. Instead, I let them grow in what I hoped would be a natural pattern. For a wisteria, anyway. As far as I knew, different plants did have different root systems. Some went deep, some spread out. According to Miryam, wisteria as more likely to spread out than to go down, but it tends to depend on the breed. Species? Do plants have breeds?

I seemed to do both. In part, I think, because I started off with only really being able to grow down, being in the garden well. The other part being because I had already directed so much growth downward in general.

Eventually my roots did spread out after growing far enough down to be under the garden well wall. Near the top, the courtyard floor, it was bone dry. The ground even cracked in a few places as my roots grew under it. It gave me gaps to be able to observe and look around the courtyard. Otherwise, I only was able to sense if something was crossing the ground just above my roots.

My perception didn't change above ground much at all, except I now had little spots where my roots poked through. That was a strange sensation whenever I let my perception diffuse out. Most of it was focused around me in the garden well, but being able to see small areas away that weren't connected to that at the same time? It was a little unnerving at first, but eventually I got used to it.

With some of Miryam's help, I gauged that I had grown about 30 feet outwards. Maybe about half of that down? If I hadn't already gone about 5 feet down before spreading out, I don't think I would have gone as far down, naturally anyway. But now I was about 15-ish feet down into the dirt. A little hemisphere of roots.

What I did find there was interesting. The source of my water. It was a trickle, but it was consistent. About 10 feet down there was a sluice? Or duct? Sewer? Something that provided cool water. It was made of bricks, and I think the inside was coated with clay? It was a guess. But there was a crack in it and water was leaking out, making the sail deep under me nice and damp.

Eventually, I might try and invade the water way, but for now. I had a clear source of water. I had an extensive root system. Miryam said that it was equivalent to about a fully grown wisteria's root spread! I had done in 3 months of growing and securing my root system, what would have taken a lifetime without the Growth skill.

Stolen story; please report.

That both explained a few things and raised more questions. First of all, over the last three months of growing downwards, nothing above ground had grown. Even without using the Growth skill to focus on any above ground growth, I'm surprised to see that I didn't really grow at all. It was as if, either all of my growth got directed downward by the skill, or I didn't grow at all without it. I was leaning towards the second of the two likelihoods.

The things that it explained had to do with the changes on my character sheet. The ones that popped up with I leveled. Oh yeah! Level 2, baby!

Name: Cy

Species: Wisteria, Level 2 Racial Experience: 343.32/600 Health: 36/36 Stamina: 72/72 Mana: 27/27 Unspent Stat Points: 5 Unspent Skill Points: 3

I mean, I had leveled about a month-ish ago, but I wanted to finish establishing my roots before I did anything. Couple things I noticed right away. Wisteria no longer had the 'Seedling' bit listed after it. Was that due to size? To age? Regardless, that seemed to have bumped up my Health and Stamina a little bit.

I am no longer on the brink of death! Woo! I more than doubled my hit points! Now if it was due to my size or to no longer being a seedling, or both if they were related, I couldn't tell. What I could tell was that I got so much more health. Actually, I wonder what Miryam's stats are at? I should ask her sometime.

Unspent Stat Points and Skill Points though. Those had been gnawing at me this entire time. Now that I was done growing, I could finally spend them! But what to spend them on? For Stats, well it was still between my three. Health, Stamina, and Mana. But now that my Health has gone up, does the change between the number of points I put into it increase the stat more? When I had put 5 points into Health, it had raised by only 1 point before. But when I did the same with Stamina, it had raised by, what, 3? Something like that. It has been a couple of months.

So what do I put them in?

And Skill Points? I only got 2 again, for a total of 3 from the 1 I had saved before. But what to spend them on? I ruled a few things out. Now that I had a stable source of water, I don't think I will need Desert Resilience. Illusory Foliage, Entangling Arcana, and Arcane Sap I think were things I could all skip for now. Granted, they weren't things I could really afford yet anyway.

Huh, that's weird. Sap reserves is greyed out. Unavailable Pending Review? It almost feels like this System hasn't actually done any of this before. I let out a pheromonal sigh and returned to the list. Out of the things that were here that I could afford were Vine Manipulation, Wisteria Bloom, Root Perception, and Spore Production. Each of them only costing 2 Skill Points per.

While Verdant Sanctuary and Nectar of Vitatlity looked interesting, they were expensive. Don't get me wrong, they look particularly helpful. Though I think only Miryam will really benefit from Nectar, at least at first. Verdant could be very useful for both of us. Each of them do cost 10 points though. I suppose I could save for them. That wouldn't be terrible. Especially if I can't decide on anything right away anyway.

But that wasn't all. There was a new skill on the shop list. Toxin Synthesis. From the sounds of it, Toxin Synthesis essentially did what I was doing with my poisons already. It made it a biological function, rather than a repurposed attack. Not only that, but it cost 3 points.