I stand over half a mile away from the beast.
It stalks in my direction until it comes just short of the invisible line that separates the zones and then it simply stops there. As I walk back and forth, it moves to accompany me without stepping foot out of its habitat. Its entire focus on me is unnerving as it stands at guard without coming a single inch forward. I approach step by step until I’m only 15 paces away. This is just inside the range of my perception field.
I don’t trust that this beast will remain on the other side and that is why there are thousands of roots protecting me. From far away, they appear limited to knee height, but they are coiled and can spring in instant several meters high. I’m also completely covered with the strongest root armor I managed to make and a fully powered mana shield. That wasn't even counting the other shield and a few other tricks up my sleeve hidden in the formations underground.
I am as prepared as I can be in the short term, so if it wanted to attack me at least I would be hard to chew and maybe give it indigestion. Analyzing it, the system informs me nothing besides its level, the very level disparity that was the likely culprit.
Black Panther – Lv. 106
Not even the useless description it normally adds is present here.
The black panther calmly sits there. In its eyes I see intelligence that even Aster, the oldest of bunnies in my inner world, with all her progress would be hard-pressed to match. We continue with the staring contest as I use my perception field to on it or rather him, whatever you prefer to call it. There are no visible scars or injuries in his body and his claws easily pierce the ground. Each of s muscles is relaxed, but somehow I know he is ready to attack in an instant, it wouldn’t even need a tenth of a second of preparation.
A thin sheath of fur covers its skin and if the feedback I get from the field is even half accurate, it is one of the strongest materials I ever felt or saw. This is the first time I have run into a monster that is not warped and it is even scarier than the ugliest mutt running around in between villages.
Well, the first is not warped excluding the rabbits or the monsters from the system’s attacks on the village. Why this new class of mobs is trying to bite our heads off is still a mystery but perhaps I will find clues when I enter its territory.
My roots slowly grow on the other side of the line. Besides the immediate surroundings of this Panther, I don’t spread my roots around focusing on extending my range inward. Occasionally I open a small portal to my inner world to allow one of the bigger seeds near the path I’m growing the roots so they can spread and form a net instead of disconnected tendrils.
I take a quick look at the contraption in the inner world. It isn’t anything too complicated, a swinging arm a release mechanism and runes to power it, but it is quite useful in its simplicity. It has been tested a couple of dozen times and I don’t notice any wear and tear or anything outside the norm. Blackwood’s work lives up to the reputation even on something like this. This contraption also gave me a better idea of what he can do and how well he can work metal.
The very first time a seed is flung out of my inner world faster than any human, even with the system’s help can throw an object, I notice a reaction from the Panther. Not with my eyes, even considering the significant benefits from my class on the perception stat the movement is not visible. I only notice it with my perception field. A slight tightening of the muscles, but in an instant, it relaxes and as I shot again and again even focusing my perception field on the beast doesn’t reveal anything.
The only movement from the Panther is his breathing. Surprisingly the 10 foot long and 5-foot high creature breathes even slower than me, almost looks like he is meditating as he breathes in once every minute or so.
But the beast being meditating is absurd, right?
I sit on the ground and begin growing a quick formation underneath me. In a few minutes, a dome mana shield stronger than anything a suit of armor could hold comes to life and with another layer of protection around me, I let my muscles relax. With everything in place to delay any attack long enough for me to run away, I can imitate this beautiful creature but before I start meditating, I increase the pace of the ‘planting contraption’ to once every second.
Over the next few minutes, the pitching machine shoots a thousand of the apple-sized seeds. I only stop when the entire space, a one-mile diameter circle around me is filled with the seeds. Technically I didn’t need to also include anything behind me, but I have plenty of seeds and I only stop because I can’t reach beyond the half-mile limit using these seeds. Even with the dimples and the shape to improve the aerodynamics I was already at the limit. Their density and strength put a limit to how far I could shoot them without making the shells larger.
As I start meditating, I slowly but surely connect every single one of the seeds and over the next half an hour the mesh forms as I end up with full coverage.
I use my perception to look over the entire place, every single square inch. I go back and forth but nothing stands out about the place. Perhaps if I expanded further inside, but I don’t want to remain here for so long. With no point in remaining, I say goodbye to the Panther and am on my way.
I distance myself from the boundary leaving behind a bright red line. A visible and clearly delineated limit for the next people around. I don’t want anyone getting chomped for an honest mistake about where the line stood.
With the vast collection of new plants and my experiments, it is easy to change the color of the roots and branches to a bright, almost neon red. Unexpectedly, a couple of interesting plants start to show up, but I don’t spend too long experimenting with them, just collect one or two shrubs of each and send them to the inner world.
As the miles accumulate, I spend a few minutes here and there accelerating the growth of my persimmon facsimiles with fractions of a mana point at a time. I could use a lot of mana to speed the process a lot, but I had done that for only a couple of them.
I keep running north along the invisible line, though I’m very careful. If I enter the territory without noticing I may stop noticing things altogether, permanently.
The panther, like a few of the subsequent mobs I encounter, followed me for a minute or so but stayed behind when it became clear I was moving away from their territory. The one thing I don’t understand, as smart as they are, why don’t they try to lure me inside the limit by pretending the line is further in if they are so eager to chomp down on us.
Could it be some system limitation?
I let the question go as I concentrate on the ground, the trees rushing past and where the high-level zone starts not to accidentally enter it. Occasionally, I take from my inner world another contraption, the runic compass though that is not a very good name for it I respect the inventor by using it. Moving a bronze pointer overlapping the pair of needles in the palm-sized device, I calibrate where the high-level zone diving line is, and the black needle tells me precisely where it’s safe to head which I follow always paying attention to my right as I follow further north.
I occasionally run into beasts when I stop to calibrate the compass and I am not shy about planting seeds, sending mana, and preparing the place for warning lines to grow in the days and weeks to come. Specially modified seeds with the same bright red coloration I planted in the vicinity of the Black Panther will tell anyone precisely where it’s safe to move.
Though most of the time I just run in a slightly curved line planting seeds along the way in three parallel lines. One where I run as near to the diving line as I dare and one to each side at about two hundred meters away. The throwing machine is working with the big seeds as fast as it can, swinging from side to side and firing as I plant several of the apple-sized seeds in the middle.
As I continue, I start to notice a slight shifting in the climate and foliage. Only someone who understands the forest could notice the subtle difference, luckily I am one of them though I’m not sure how useful the information is.
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Is the extreme north colder than where we are? Is the vegetation there different? And about the south, would it be colder or hotter them the ‘equator’?
As questions begin to fill my head and the thrill of the exploration sends my heart racing, something that was missing is finally in place, and all is well in the world.
After over a day goes by, I give in to my protesting legs and need for sleep and finally stop. Setting up a little hut takes me less than 10 minutes including growing a small formation with a mana shield to surround me and a little hut.
Letting the tiredness take me deep into sleep I just imagine the refreshing feeling and how much further I will be able to go when I wake tomorrow.
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Springing out of the comfortable bed I made, I take inventory of what my buddy has done. I connect with him and the roots of the hut I made yesterday before sending my awareness through the tendril growing back.
“You are getting much better at this.”
The warm feeling I receive in return is so pure and innocent, it could only come from someone like Pando or him.
“We need a name for you, don’t we? I can’t just keep calling you Pando’s seed. What do you think of calling you: Pando II, or just the second, or better yet, Junior?”
As I speak, I try to transmit the best translation of each of those names. Being able to broaden my communication with him to something close to what I had with Pando has been a blessing. He understands much more and will slowly be able to help me with even more.
I don’t get a positive response to any of the names. He is fine with me calling him Pandon’s seed but if I want to change it, I need a better option, not something worse, but even as I stop, the distressed feeling transmitted through our bond only grows.
“Fine, I won’t call you that. Don’t worry, it’s fine, everything is fine. Pando’s seed, Pando’s seed”
Talking to him, especially given how young he is is a different experience. His cognitive functions grow at an astounding rate, but his emotional growth will take a little longer. The smallest of things can set him off. The only thing I can do is to reassure him and try to avoid the same mistake in the future.
I focus on what my senses tell me of his growth and how he went about it. He is focussing much more on the way the roots spread with the help of the seed, maximizing distance first and leaving strength and mass for later.
For the 4 hours I was asleep he must have continued with a fairly thin stream of mana withdrawn from the inner world battery and I can feel the impressive results. A glance at the nodes of the network he has set up and a look at the smaller stockpile of seed sends me laughing.
He started using the seeds somehow, with him able to control my inner world he has the potential to bring tremendous harm, but I trust him so it doesn’t bother me. I don’t know how he used the seeds, but I doubted it was with the help of the pitching machine and now I know what to teach him today.
In a few minutes, after stretching and eating a few persimmons, I’m on my way.
Behind me, I leave a mile-wide disk of roots that will greatly accelerate the growth in this region in the months, maybe years to come. The tendril going back the way I came extends nearly a hundred miles. Very impressive for a being lacking the system’s help handling the mana and too little time had passed for the seeds to fully grow. But even then, if I let the endeavor of spreading to infinity in his hands he still would do an amazing job.
“This is my little friend,” I say standing a little taller. “Keep it up.”
I continue to run North. The long process of explaining how the machine works begin. Maybe I could even teach him how to build one on his own. Now wouldn’t that be wonderful?
My thoughts eventually turn to his big brother back on Earth, and how he is faring. I hope things are going well over there. Nah, I don’t have to worry, Pando can manage for a little while longer on his own. Even if I stick around for a year he is much older than that, he will do just fine without the short-lived friend he just acquired.
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Pando’s POV
The time of the attack arrives again. I have learned a lot in the last attacks, especially from the strange metal implement from the one that tried to take control of me. The mana he wielded is very useful, but I still failed to make full use of it. It was much harder to control. So I concentrated on the strange shapes and carved them on the roots underground and in the bark of many of my limbs.
It was a slow and time-consuming process, with several limitations placed by the ‘SYSTEM’ itself. Strange word, ‘SYSTEM’. I had some access to it, but ….incomplete. The small beings needed much less mana to achieve the same effect, about a dozen times less mana for the same effect even after all my improvements. The difference had to be related to the system
With the help of these symbols and shapes, I am slowly making some headway. One of the most useful runes I found can store mana for later in my limbs.
So I started to grow massive reservoirs of mana. Though they are only massive when compared to the mana the little creatures wield. When compared to my reserves it was a modest increase, though the mana batteries grew by the day.
I have yet to see any of the ‘ELFs’ after their initial foray, but somehow I know they are out there watching me.
All those thoughts are filed away the instant something changes in the periphery of my domain. An organized group comes in, much larger than usual and I wait as more and more head in and start to circle the grove.
I use the one skill the system gave me and identify them. Among the mass of useless or incomprehensible information, I find their names.
(@¨s - Ogre - #$ #&
*%3 $(4@! - Shamans- *&
All around about 500 shamans of various types and about 15000 ogres. The largest attack to date. Except for this time, there are no weak enemies to pad the numbers and I know this will be much more difficult than in previous attacks.
They enter the edge of my domain and start circling. Burning or chopping off each of the saplings there. They march over the ashes as fast as their shamans can burn.
Anger fills me at their actions, but I can do nothing to stop them so far away from any of my real defenses. When the ogres brush against one of my limbs not too badly burnt, I release some spores. They slowly accumulate on their skin and armor. Hopefully, enough will enter their bloodstream. When the time is right, I will send the signal for the spores to release the agent inside them simultaneously.
I didn't use much nature mana because of its limitations, but in this instance, it is very useful in connecting to the spores. So long as they stand in my domain I would be able to control them.
They continue this for hours. Not a single new enemy arrives, but only a few of them are caught by surprise or distracted enough that the defenders of the grove manage to finish them off.
Hundreds of thousands of saplings later, when they are starting on the second round around the grove with trees a few months older, they finally step on another of my surprises. Something much greater than a few spores.
Making full use of the runes, I wield the mana much more effectively.
At my signal, the defenders of the grove head in. My roots underground start defending against the fire in earnest, while also sending destructive magic amid the enemy.
As I activate the spores in all the enemies affected, over a thousand drop to their knees. Poison hits their veins, enough that they can’t even stand. Another thousand start having trouble standing, so I take the opportunity to finish them off, though, most of the focus goes to the other type of enemy.
The ‘Shamans’.
With thousands of strong animals heading in and my help, most of the magic wielders fall in the initial confrontation. When there are only a few left, the ogres start to lose their cohesion, and most of them head roughly for the middle of the grove.
That just makes things easier with the more concentrated defenses. But it’s the few that concern me. The ones reading out of the forest. I can’t do anything about that, so I stop worrying and focus on the enemies heading deeper into my territory.
Close to fifty shamans and nearly a thousand ogres. Fire and lightning, roots moving with strength and speed until not a single one of them stand.
Safe for the moment, concern comes back to gnaw at me. This is the second time in an attack where the attacking force retreats. Only a few this time, but I have a feeling that this is not a good sign. I know far too little about how things work.
Concentrating on what I can affect, I move all the roots around the grove and start to drag the few living remainings of my saplings, and the dead ones back in place. The living ones, I can integrate back. It would be faster than growing them from scratch. The dead ones will be food for the soil and make the next generation grow faster.
This is the natural cycle, what is not natural is how frequent they became, and this time far too many of the youngest fell. Five out of every hundred trees became ashes and some of those enemies are still out there somewhere, possibly waiting to cause even more destruction.
Not being able to even tangentially observe anything outside my domain is a very big limitation. The defenders are much smarter and more organized than before, but they still did not remotely approach what I have started to grow into.
Lessons Nash tried to teach me for years suddenly started to make sense, even stuff I thought I couldn’t remember. Each time I exercised my mind or limbs, I noticed a very small but noticeable increase in my capabilities.
I need to find out more about these new enemies.
An idea comes to mind. I send a thread of nature mana to the farthest reaches of my domain into a tree outside of it. At first, I fail, but I’m nothing if not relentless and hundreds of attempts later I succeed. My roots integrate into this other tree and although there is something different, I notice that my domain grows and I can sense all those who stand near this tree.
Ideas come to my mind. I could be much, much larger in a relatively short time if I could do this continually, I may even be able to see enemies before they enter my domain.
The excitement rinds to a halt as a couple of questions come to mind.
How do they know the edge of my domain? Does my perception have something to do with it? Should I expand my domain or explore this before doing so? Yes, both explore and find better ways to grow much much larger and stronger. If the enemy can stop playing by the rules, why can’t I do the same? I have finally begun to develop a way to counter their advantages, and I’m going to take advantage of it.
To grow,
To learn,
To understand,
To survive.