We got a surprise once we made it to Meadran's island.

Faergin and Korvaith were there waiting for us.

Faergin had grown almost five more feet in height, though he had not gained much girth leaving him with an overly skinny appearance. New mystic symbols had developed on his bark, each glowed a faint blue.

Korvaith had trended in the opposite direction only gaining a few inches of height, while thickening up quite a bit. His new armor plates already needed to be adjusted. He had his oversized rifle's stock resting on the ground so that the barrel leaned up against him.

'We were waiting for you Young One.' Meadran's concern bled through the tree network.

'Hello, latest Arch Druid. It is good to finally be able to speak to you.' A mellow voice, like the wind through leaves, entered the network. There was the sense of seasons passing while my roots grew deeper.

'Faergin?'

Three voices laughed in my head.

'Korvaith, too? That's great!'

'Not... quite... yet.' A deep growling voice faintly responded. A deep anger threaded the connection. A desire to strike back at those who would despoil the forest, filled the air.

'Still, any progress right now is good. Look, I don't know what is coming but something has me all muddled inside. If you all could watch over the Valley until it plays out, it would help me out a lot." I tried to let them sense the turmoil inside my gut.

'Yes, that is definitely some form of prophecy. Though not a very clear one.' Faergin sent a vision of branches becoming snarled together.

'Hmm. A dark intuition, Young One.' The determination to grow through rock and stone, bubbled through the link.

'Whatever... Break... Through... ' A desire to smash foes was Korvaith's answer. I had a feeling that was going to be his answer for everything. Heh.

I asked the question I had been dreading, 'Have any of you seen Lumi?'

'About three days ago, I saw him running across the Badlands to the north. He never said anything about where he was going or why.' Faergin responded.

I pondered everything. Lumiar was meant to be my companion. Yet from the start I got the impression that Lumi wasn't really a team player. Even when we could spend time together he prefered to do his own thing. Nothing wrong with that. At least until nobody any any clue where you were, or if you were okay.

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No, the more I thought about it, Lumi wasn't normal. Now that I had been exposed to the divine, I knew that Lumi was somehow related to those energies. I was absolutely certain he wasn't what the Company had in mind for my companion.

Heh. I really had been hijacked from the start.

The question now was, what did a divine wolf want? What could such a creature want here of all places.

Nothing came to mind.

'I'll have to hope he can handle himself for now.' I shook my head as I placed my hand against Meadran.

[ Arch Druid of Renewal has reached Level 5

You have gained Shapeshift: Serpent

You have gained Shapeshift: Lesser Treant

You have gained Aura of Regrowth

You have gained Aura of Growth

You have gained +12 Spirit

You have gained +12 Will

You have gained +8 Intelligence

You have gained +16 Free Points ]

I added the levels one at a time letting each settle before adding the next. I tried not to dwell on the interesting additional abilities, for right now. I moved on and used all the accumulated free points with the same mindset, one at a time. there were so many that I likely would have fried my nerves if I did it all at once.

While I had little in the way of a model for comparison, they looked quite high to me. Considering that peak human was 10, I was now... What? Superhuman? Demigod like? I really had no way to know how I stacked up.

Jumping and stretching to test my new range of motion led to some interesting discoveries. My balance was insane, which came in handy because even what I thought would be a lite hop, launched me high into Meadran branches. However, the mistake which would normally have caused a bit of mild panic, had no effect on my emotional state. I stayed calm and easily caught myself.

Just as easily, I dropped twenty feet to the ground. My knees barely flexed. Something about hitting twenty in a stat changed things. Though I had not yet noticed any real difference when Will, Spirit or Intelligence crossed that line. Why would that be?

Feeling like I had a handle on things, for now, I turned my attention to the new abilities.

Shapeshifting was mostly self explanatory. Though I had no desire to experiment with either version right now.

Snake or tree. The Treant I got, but why a serpent?

The Auras were passive effect versions of the spells. Their standard state was on, I had to concentrate to turn them off. Basically, I made plants grow around me and also made people feel better just by being near me. Yes, Aura of Regrowth still had that effect, just not as intense.

The fellas were all shifting uncomfortably, until I managed to shut off the Aura. Thankfully, the Treefolk were unaffected.

Another interesting note was how little mana the Auras used. Maybe a quarter as much as casting the spell at the same level on all of same amount of people. That didn't seem to conform with my understanding of how energy worked, but I was somewhat inured to the oddities of magic at this point.

It was time to head back to the Valley.

But first...

'Meadran, in the worse case scenario, can you uproot and leave the area?'

'If I must.' A sense of reluctance.

'We will aid him, if it comes to that.' Faergin's thoughts were of green shoots growing through ash laden soil.

'Grrrr...' Korvaith projected confidence he could shoot anything before it was a problem.

'Thanks you guys. I really do worry about you. Stay safe no matter what, please.'

'Your concern is touching, Young One.'

I turned to the humans, "Alright time to go and figure out what the hell is going on."

'Executor, I have a report.' Alina's voice flooded the Psifield.

I held up my hand to indicate contact.

'Alright Alina, let's hear it.'

I was certain, I wasn't going to like this.