I stood still as the aura pressed itself into me and began to inundate me with earth mana. I felt it as it completely bypassed the passive resistance to malicious outside mana granted by the System. The way it filtered into my body and joined itself with me reminded me of how death mana acted.

The Concepts that created what would have been a petrifying effect if I wasn't already made of stone had a strangely benevolent feeling to them. Strong, Sturdy, Protective, and Enduring, turned and twisted by a mind that viewed unmoving stone as the most perfect state of being.

It explained why resisting the aura had proven difficult for adventurers. The System was designed to allow beneficial spells through with no resistance. The System made its decisions based on the intent embedded in the Concepts of a spell. It was clear from the feelings radiating out of the aura that the mind behind it saw it as a gift, and to me, they were.

I inspected them thoroughly, they were good Concepts, three of them were on my list. The fourth, Protective, was a Concept that Randy's fragment had mentioned as a double edged sword. If I took that Concept for myself, I would have to keep limits on what exactly I would be protecting. Paired with Kind though, more dangerous, aggressive Concepts would have a hard time attaching to me.

I shifted my Aspect to include them, as well as Harmless. Doing so allowed me to much more easily take ownership of the mana that the aura was releasing into my body. I worked quickly to place my own definitions in the Concepts, I could feel the mind in the aura trying to connect with my own. I wanted to use my vision of what protecting something meant to counter the impulses it was trying to implant in me.

I was impressed how it laid a clear message in its aura for anyone who was in tune with earth mana to feel. It wanted me to stay, to become a part of the stone forest. It wanted me to resonate my mana with its own, so we could protect each other. It would have been a siren's call if I hadn't had practice directing the influence of Concepts on my mind.

I had to protect Belua's people, but much more importantly, I had to protect Torill. First among the many things that my mind considered they might need protecting from was the tree itself. Because winding through its wordless message of protection was a goal. When enough beings had their cores tuned to resonate with the forest, it would have the ability to extend its protection outward.

I was very glad that my concept of protection could never include turning innocent people to stone. It didn't matter that the earth mana running through me assured me that such a state would preserve them forever. It was only my knowledge that such an action would be unkind that kept me from nodding along with the ideas the tree's aura shared with me.

While I inspected the Concepts, the mind in the aura grew more aware of my presence. It didn't take long for it to start trying to communicate with me. I had a hard time parsing what it was sending me, it was using a complex mix of emotions, and sensations that I could only vaguely begin to comprehend because of the brief time I spent as a tree myself. I could tell it was excited, and that something about me was familiar to it.

"Hello" I sent in return. "I'd like it if we could use words."

I winced as I received a mixture of confusion, loss, sadness, anger, and jealousy before the mind and aura pulled away from me. I supposed that not many spirit beasts walked willingly into the big scary aura and tried to talk with it. That didn't explain the sensation of wrenching loss that it shared with me.

I was glad that it withdrew, because I was reeling from the intensity of the emotions that it had functually shouted into my mind, and needed the time to recover. When I managed to shake it off, I realized that I was nowhere near the border of the stone forest anymore.

I vaguely recalled moving to follow the call to the center of the forest as I got the Concepts thrust on my under control. I shook my head, it hadn't felt like it had taken me long, but I could tell that I had gotten rather deep into the great stone tree's territory. I was surrounded by dense earth mana, it seemed as though no other mana could exist in the aura for long.

I took in my surroundings, it was disturbingly quiet, stone leaves did not rustle in the breeze. Stone birds did not sing or flutter about. Even the insects had been turned into still stone statues. I knew that monsters lived in the forest, but there was no sign of them.

Thankfully, finding my own trail was easy, my passage had left a small furrow in the petrified leaf litter. I followed it, expending mana somewhat recklessly to move my stone body faster. It occurred to me that the tree-monster might be deciding what to do with me.

I didn't know why it had reacted so strongly to being spoken to, but if I had offended it, I would have my hands full trying to escape the forest. It was best not to risk it, I had to protect myself from whatever it decided.

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As I moved, I kept my senses peeled for monsters. It should not have surprised me when I finally sensed the distinctive presence of a monster core, and it was buried underground. I was barely holding myself back from pushing myself below the surface and tunneling as an earth elemental squirrel seemed Conceptually prone to want to do.

I stayed on the surface though; encasing myself in the element that the great tree held dominion over when it seemed angry with me did not seem like it would be good for my survival chances.

The density of the earth mana had decreased enough that I was beginning to see some motes of air, light, and darkness mana here and there when the tree reconnected with me.

I was forced to stop when it sent me its attempt at an explanation. I was able to understand that it remembered the idea of language, it too used to think with well defined words, but that was taken from it when something terrible happened.

When I sent it questioning thoughts, it answered with a memory.

It was under attack, its stone body cracked, many of its limbs had been chopped off, it was near death. In a last attempt to save itself, it pushed all the remaining mana out of its perfect core into an aura meant to stop the conflict, it was a protector, not a fighter. The intensity of the expulsion cracked its core, shattering part of it permanently.

It worked, it created what it thought of as its protective aura, but its core no longer kept the mana from constantly rushing through its body. The presence that had helped it grow and learn, the System, tore away everything that it had given the tree after that, including the knowledge of language.

I was able to put together from its memory, and the Legend I was told, that it was once a spirit beast, or rather, spirit tree. Its sole interaction with the world before the noble sent people to chop it down had been with the System, that helped it with a class, and basic knowledge, like language.

I shivered when I realized that a broken core was all it took for the System to remove everything it had ever given. I'd almost broken my earth core once. I remembered how it had cracked when I filled it to bursting with mana.

It wasn't fair, it still had its mind, it wasn't a monster. It was in a state rather like my own when I channeled mana. It could have been reasoned with, talked to. As it was after losing so much? I wasn't sure. It was angry and scared, I could feel how its mind was lost to the mana in a way that I wasn't sure could be controlled.

I angrily mentally asked Hash's fragment if I could crack a core to get rid of the System. I didn't expect a response, but I got one.

"Woah buddy, that right there is a bad idea. Fuck man, I know you've had a rough time with it, but you really don't want to try to live without it. Also, cracking your core is dangerous, you could detonate the damn thing by accident. Also also, the System doesn't give that kind of punishment for a broken core by itself. I can't access anyone's records but yours, but I can tell you that it must have been making some seriously dangerous plans. The kind of plans that would have forced Belua to restart her world."

Like turning the whole world to stone, I thought, but that was still its goal. Losing the System hadn't changed it.

"It made it a whole lot harder to gain the power to do so. Sure, it can still extend its aura, but it'll be slow, and it is just a really durable tree at the center of that aura. It can't move, though I'm betting its legend gave Concepts that granted it some ability to manipulate stone. With the System it would have been automatically given some ability to move when it hit the 250 milestone, so it could get to a higher tier mana zone. Could you imagine the damage it could do with that aura if it could walk around?"

I cringed when I thought about the trail of devastation that it would have left.

"Yeah, so the System removed itself. What's impressive is that the damn thing lived. I guess you can blame those Concepts in its core for that. Anyway, don't crack a core, it'll hurt, and you could explode. You'd die, too. You can live through a lot, but when a core goes, there's nothing but dust left, sometimes for miles if the core is strong enough. If you manage to crack it without exploding, well, the System knows you can expel cores, so it'd probably just force you to do that. Now stop being an idiot, and pay attention to the monster."

I could feel the tree waiting for me to process its story. I sent it my sympathy, it wasn't hard to channel those feelings, I truly did feel sorry for it.

I felt its gratitude, along with its desire for me to stay, and do as I would in its safe place until the time came to expand.

I did try to warn it that expanding would be dangerous. That the people who lived outside its borders would not appreciate its protection. That everything would be better if it just stayed as it was.

It negated my ideas instantly, it didn't even pause to think about them. I got the idea that it pitied me. It withdrew, with a mental pat on the head, and the idea that I should do as my nature demanded.

I sat on my haunches, and thought for a bit, then I did just that. I spent the entire day making tunnels around the stone forest. I would try to talk sense into the tree again, but if that didn't work, I had a use for a network of tunnels.

I paid close attention to the monsters I sensed, very few of them reacted to my presence, or moved at all. The ones that did, only turned to look at me, and made no further moves.

When the sun set, I left the aura and felt a strong sense of relief when I switched my core, and shifted to my true form. It had not been comfortable to hold one Aspect, and such a small, limited form for so long.

I stopped to hunt before I returned to camp that night, I even managed to stop myself from eating everything. When I returned to camp, I flopped on the ground outside the tent. I had a lot to think about and some experiments to run, but I had the beginnings of a plan.