In the short periods when I come out of meditation I try to think of ways to build more things. Can’t really say anything comes to mind.

Only thing that makes sense is if I put myself in other people's shoes. So I’m making a pathway to the outside of the forest. Following that I’m going to make a pathway all the way towards Sera’s village.

I took the time to put down the watermills, piping and cables alongside a vinebridge pathway but I should be able to do that wherever, I just wanted to make it look good.

My tree-village still isn’t ready for a major influx of people but I think a hundred or so could stay here.

I’d have to build a few more living areas and connect them with running water but that is easily done. Maybe I should try mining. Don’t have a mining-pick though, never mind that.

I could try to make some of the potion from the new book. Sounds like a hassle to go out and find herbs though.

I could try to go back to the middle layer, I’ve been reflecting on my experience there. Sure it was a bit suffocating, for lack of a better word

But I think I could stay there for a day or two, even permanently, I simply don’t know what would happen. Worst case scenario I die and respawn.

Doesn’t sound too bad but I don’t feel like forgetting about simple things like ability to judge distances with some accuracy.

There are now small suspension bridges made from wood and vine all the way outside of the forest.

I had a thought to connect all the Naturai trees but I’m not sure how much silver I have to use. I might have to make the whole area bigger eventually.

Now this whole building thing has been fun but I need more food. I can’t say I’ve noticed my energy becoming stronger or whatever it should be able to become.

I completely forgot about the affinity thing so I plan on getting some food, actually, I might be a good time to check if any people want to come live here.

I’m sitting across from Herros right now, he’s giving me that blank look. If I didn’t know any better I’d assume he was in some way brain damaged. Poor thing.

“Look, Herros. I'm not asking you to give me people, I just want permission to ask a few people if they can come and do some farming and live in my tree houses. We got electricity, running water and places to grow green stuff. It’s all perfectly safe, as long as they don’t fall down or go down, or provoke animals. It’s all good.”

“You have electricity? Running water? How? In the forest?”

By all that is green, he is really slow.

“Ye, you can come check it out. I’m planning on making a library once I get two more skill-books, it’s the only thing holding me back at the moment.”

See this is why I don’t like to talk to people, they can never be content with not knowing. I’d know, I could be considered curious, even analytical at times.

So I told him if he could take over all the safe-zone that are related to his current two he could do something similar, probably.

He decided to come with me to check out my amazing treehouse village. I still have dreams of making some kind of wooden castle or mansion.

But that’s going to have to wait.

I managed to convince three ‘families’ of farmers to join me. But they were just couples. There still hasn’t been one pregnancy since we came to this world.

Not sure if six people will do, but they are free to leave if they don’t like it there, which I doubt they will do. I have made a very comfortable environment, even soft beds.

I’m glancing over at the people walking over my beautifully aesthetic vine bridges. They don’t look very confident in them.

Sure it’s a few meters down and they’d have a few broken bones if they fell, if they didn’t outright die but it still feels insulting.

“It's fine, I just build the bridges. I guarantee the quality, I swear upon the tree-mother.”

Looks like nothing can please these bastards. Unlike my prototype bridges these can be casually walked over by normal people.

“I ́ve been meaning to ask, who is the tree-mother”

My generous all-knowing, all-loving, all-embracing goddess! How can they not know the warmth of the ever-encompassing green?

“Turns out you are so ignorant. This won’t stand, quickly make haste. We’ll talk once we enter the gathering building. You poor souls.”

Ai, these poor lost beings. I’ll have to indoctri~. No, teach them the ways of the Naturai.

After a few hours of preaching the grace of Naturai I showed them around the base, I told them going up the Naturai tree was forbidden.

I doubt they’d be willing to climb that high, I wonder if I was ever scared of heights. I seem to remember people that can’t even hold it together when they watch a picture from somewhere high up.

“Ohohoho, look here. This is my greenhouse, look. Here are some valves you can turn on and off. It sprays the whole interior with water from the river.”

That’s it, look amazed. I can’t really show them the worth of electricity right now, it only lights up the inside of buildings with a green glow.

There were some devices in the normal houses, I’m not entirely sure what they are for. But from what I could understand they should be used for cooking.

“Right, so what do you think, great right? You're free to come live here, there is a certain limit to how many people can over at the moment.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

All I ask is to have food ready so I don’t have to hunt every time I come out.

I might be gone for quite a while at a time, so you should probably vote for a leader or something, though I don’t really see anything that needs doing other than eating.

You can run in and out of the forest, you could possibly hunt beasts if you’re the adventurous type.

Let me know and I’ll set the respawn point wherever you want within the Abraser outer-layer.

Okay, I’m off to hunt for a bit. I’ll be back with something to eat, might take a few days.”

I leap off the wooden platform to a tree and make my way towards the middle-layer. The density of monsters is far greater there.

I got to get a few skill-books, I want to know what the library does. Everything so far has had a bunch of things in them, so I assume there will be books. There better be books.

Raising my spear I let fly with rapid hand movement. Beast down. I grab the wrapped up meat and leather and to make it fit into one of my three backpacks. It barely fits.

So that’s one of three bags filled, after hunting down one beast. I just need three books but that might take some time.

It’s my fourth day and I’ve gotten two skill-books, this is kind of ridiculous. I’m supposed to have increased drop rate but I keep finding items

Always some kind of leather clothing. Never a weapon. Well there are leather gloves with spikes attached to them. They look pretty cool, so I’m wearing them.

I doubt it would come down to a fist fight with these things though. I ́ve tossed four items of clothing in my backpack.

Might give them to someone. Actually I could make leather armor for everyone. Later. I’ll do that later. I need to design a logo as well.

Son constantly meditates without a worry. I’m really jealous. I ́ve been trying to record less in the log. Makes it easier so I don’t have to go over endless amounts of drivel.

I ́ve gotten six books so far. Three more than I needed but I thought it might be better to get at least a few more, just in case I found something else I want to build.

I built the library near the gather building. The damn thing is a giant tree. Looks amazing! It removed three trees when I placed it down.

The tree is about three times the height of the surrounding trees and very wide. The entrance has a large branch leading out of it, which I connected with a wooden suspension bridge.

The tree has been hollowed on the inside. Every table and shelve is carved out of the wood. It looks incredible. No wonder it cost so much.

Bad news is that it has the same restrictions as in the sanctuary. Kind of pisses me off. This is my building, why can’t I go wherever I want? Pft.

I put all the books I had collected in the unrestricted area. Knowledge is power and all, but they’d still need like a year to catch up to me in strength, can’t be too paranoid.

When I left the library I saw at least a dozen or so people gathered outside the gathering building. Seems we had a few people join in since last time.

“Yo! I made a library, there are some books in there you can read, be careful of the savory princess, if you’re uncomfortable with your sexuality it might confuse you.

I’d prefer it if you didn’t actually take the books out of the library. How’s the whole farming thing going? We got any food yet?”

Haven’t they ever seen a green haired beautiful man like myself before? Oh. A woman in the group stepped forward with determination in her eyes.

“Lord Abraser, we’ve had our first crops. They grow incredibly fast. We got so much we don’t even need to hunt.”

“Great, I’m going to go meditate in the Naturai tree. May the green be with you.”

I went and cooked some of the meat I brought back. I asked them to use the rest. Can’t really eat this quantity of meat by myself in one sitting.

I sat down in my water filled wooden bath. Let’s see if we can actually get this water affinity.

Reporting it. First time I dropped out of meditation, I couldn't say I felt anything from the water. I expected my skin to prune or something but nothing seems to have changed.

I go outside to grab something to eat and head back up. There was again an increase in population. I can see the people that have set respawn points here are seventy nine.

I think I need to make a few more buildings to live in, I’m not sure if there are any problems with the water or power but that’ll have to wait. Back to meditating.

Operation has seen its first progress, I’m getting a similar feeling for the water as I do with the trees. I must be on the right path.

After grabbing some food, I checked on the whole situation. I walked into the gathering building and there was a person standing behind a desk at the entrance.

“Heya, just came in to check if the food, water and power situation was okay. Also do we have enough houses for everyone?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not authorized to tell you that.”

What?

“Then who is?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not authorized to tell you that.”

This feels awfully familiar.

“Where did you come from, what is your name?”

“I don’t know.”

Shit, we’ve been invaded. Let’s check out the library. Oh dear green goddess! There is an old man with what looks like a permanent frown.

I finally found some people, turns out these people started popping out of nowhere and started doing whatever job they wanted. Three of these soulless bastards.

The last one has been fiddling around my tanning salon. I tried shooing him away but he just ignored me and answered with the usual crap. I’m not sure what to make of this.

Eventually I found out about the housing problem, a few people have been shacking up together, so I made enough houses to accommodate another hundred people.

Can’t say the village is hidden to anyone, well from outside Abraser you’d never know. You know what, I will say it’s still hidden.

I got back to my den on top of the tree of origin. Before I start meditating, I’m going to try and sense the water before I fall under.

Something similar as to when I tried to locate that guardian wizard snake. Oh that fucking bastard, still haven’t properly vented my anger even after killing him.

So this is the third time I have come out of meditation, I must have instantly gone into a trance when I tried to sense the water.

Does water have a pulse? I’m not sure what to feel but I am definitely closer. I have no idea how much time has passed.

To be honest, I’ve given up on the concept of time for now. Not like I’m working with any kind of timeframe.

We’re up to hundred and twenty nine people living in my place. I might need more green houses.

They aren’t very expensive since they don’t need skill-books but if this keeps going on I’ll have to organize some kind of trade route to sanctuary.

Well they seem to like it here which is great. I won’t have to hunt for food anymore. I should build a training hall and teach them the way of the spear.

The throwing spear, any other spear falls short. Not sure if I’ll personally show them how to get rapid hand movement.

Actually, I’d think that would be a fairly common ability. I should tell them about the skill-menu. Right?

Let’s try meditating, after I get the water affinity I might go to the middle layer, see if there is any change. Or I might check up on Sera.

Finally.

Water affinity

You touched upon the water of the world while in deep meditation, after meditating in water for prolonged periods of time.

You can now absorb a minuscule, infinitesimal, very, very, very small amount of water energy. This energy will align you slightly towards the purest form of water.

Water energy is a deviation from the lesser form of energy and has gone into specialization.

This will allow you to blend into almost any persistently watery environment and furthermore, slowly increase every aspect of your physical and mental self.

| Nature affinity |

| Rapid hand movement |

| Gentle hands |

| Hide presence |

| Energy regeneration |

| Energy shield |

| Empower: Eye |

| Empower: Hand |

| Empower: Feet |

| Empower: Leap|

| Strength and dexterity increase |

| Body enhancing|

| Energy compression|

| Empower: Smell|

| Naturai sprite |

| Water affinity |

The change is very obvious. I can definitely feel a bit more powerful energy coursing through me.

I think it’s pretty clear that whatever being controls the world expects us to connect to various affinities in the world.

The Problem is similar to the skills though, assuming you are able to learn them by yourself.

It would be far too hard to and take a kind of attitude that exudes confidence to blindly train in a skill without knowing it would even work.

Luckily there are ways to get information, the library. As limited as it is, it is at least more reliable than guessing.

Alright, I’m getting pretty pumped. Not that I don’t want to meditate for eternity but I want to see if the pressure in the middle layer has lessened in any way.

I made a new spear, I can feel a difference in it now. I thought initially that it was all about the materials, but I can definitely feel the difference between the spears.

If I had any of my first spears, I’d probably feel a major difference. This is one of the few times my energy has made any major quality changes.

When I try to sense the water, I feel a sense of chaos from it. Nothing is in order and constantly changing. It’s nothing like the stable trees.

I walk inside the fog-screen. The ambient noise rises to levels I haven’t heard in quite some time. The pressure is already on me.

Can’t say I’m sure if it's the same as last time. Instead of traveling further inside I find a nice hidden spot to meditate. I want to see if I can stay here for a few days.

There is no point in dreaming about taking over the middle layer or hunting for new skill-books here if I can’t even function properly.

It’s a bit difficult to go under meditative trance, I have to do the tried and tested hand movements.

When I wake up, I feel groggy. There is a foul taste in my mouth. I spit out some greyish green stuff and clean out my mouth with some water. What in hell.

I still feel that same pressure, I’m also starving and feel a little weak. I’m not dead though, I can think clearly as well.

Guess I’ll try to hunt something next, I’m really hoping they drop a higher tier of skill-books. But I’m pretty sure they’ll just drop guardian level books. Or worse.