This is a bit awkward. I got so used to using the recording feature in the system but forgot to actually turn it on. I do have to somewhat actively keep on. This is really embarrassing, I’ve been talking to myself for quite some time.

Son just checked for me and well. Shit. Really hope I won't need anything that has happened since I left the Alasims to their own devices down in Simcity.

Should we do a recap? Might as well I’m just waiting below the fourth Naturai tree. Oh right. Fourth tree, I already took out the third one.

You should have been there, it was glorious, majestic even. Oh, right you were there, just. Ah never mind. Well let’s see, the creatures, similar to snakes I suppose, were long and smooth leather covered every inch of the bodies.

There were only three of them, all similar sizes. Honestly they were fairly large. They were outrageous enough to try and camouflage themselves when their gigantic figure was obvious from miles away.

It was embarrassing to watch these grown, ah, that’s the word, reptiles. To watch these idiots try and pretend to be a part of the Naturai tree.

Because it has become mandatory to adjust myself to the pulse of the Naturai trees when I come to them, it was blatantly obvious that they weren’t part of the tree.

The strange part was, I was standing in front of them and I could have sworn they were not there and just an inanimate object, or a part of the Naturai tree. It wasn‘t until I tried to throw a stake at it that it finally moved.

If you can recall, we both decided to forget what happened next and we shouldn‘t get into too many details.

We for example. We’re not hit by an extremely disgusting slimy sticky tongue and swirled around inside the surprisingly nice smelling mouth of aforementioned reptilian.

We also did not get swallowed and in our panicky seize up and almost die from the acidic fluids inside a certain reptilians stomach.

This should be worth mentioning, my wooden spears do not hold up to stomach acid of a specific animal living in the middle-layer. My feather spears do not hold up very well either but once either spear is layered by energy they are unaffected by passive external forces.

After heroically escaping. No heroically retreating and then mass manufacturing wooden spears by the tens and then returning to the third Naturai tree, facing off against these insidious snakes with legs.

We finally managed to use an expert strategy I call throw and run. A true battle of attrition. Eventually I got a notification that said I had managed to take over three connected safe zones in the Kelas ranked area. Which still wasn't enough.

I took some time to reflect after that. I found a skill-book on energy pathways from the smallest reptile of the three. I say smallest, it was still considerably large.

Now. These pathways. I‘ve been reading the book and as always it's one hell of a journey. The words all look jumbled up as per usual, it's incoherent and all that nonsense.

But that was not the problem, in fact it was to be expected even. The problem is that I’ve translated it and it did nothing. It didn‘t show me the way, I know nothing about energy pathways after reading this nonsense.

Actually rereading it did nothing either. I honestly feel tricked. But! Let’s think about this for a minute, as I have been doing in these past, uhm? I have no idea how much time has passed.

When did I leave the village last? I really need a way to keep track of the days. People get all prissy when I leave for extended periods of time.

The point I was trying to get to is that something similar has happened in the past when it comes to the s damn skill-books. Energy compression was very similar.

I had no idea what happened after I read that, I did feel a change, I think. I can‘t really recall, but I do know I couldn‘t do anything with it at the time. I am now able to further control energy and even compress it into a tangible form which I can physically interact with.

Oh! You should probably know this, my energy, no matter the form, once compressed has a strange gravitation attraction to myself. It‘s extremely strange. It completely ignored any other force I‘ve met so far, well aside from other collective energy forces like Big sim‘s ability.

Still not certain what abilities Big sim has, I‘ve got to get her to properly communicate with me on this.

Anything else? Let see, got the third Naturai tree, new skill-book. Lost a bunch of skill-points along the way, got more skill-points after killing some things.

Oh, right. The monsters in the middle-layer have become increasingly aggressive, can‘t say if they are stronger or not because I don‘t let them get near me but they are very vigilant and I have to take special precaution to make sure they don‘t notice me when I travel.

Which makes me think that I wasn‘t as stealthy as I originally thought I was, they just didn‘t bother to actually attack me. Also from the message that got displayed after I channeled energy into the large feathery boss creature I assume everything progressively gets stronger the closer I am to taking over the entire middle-layer.

Hmm. I feel like I’m missing a lot of stuff. Ah, I’ll mention it if I can recall it. Currently I’m sitting down on a branch in front of the fourth Naturai tree.

I‘m sharpening a few average length branches and imbuing them with energy. I‘m not counting but I’ve got at least over twenty with me now. I‘m also trying to use or activate energy pathways, I have been constantly thinking about it. Ever since I finished reading that damnable book.

I haven‘t climbed up the tree yet but it can‘t be too hard to take over this zone. I tried throwing a spear all the way up, the wooden spear didn’t make it above the platform and sort of slumped against the tree then fell down.

The feather spear however flew endlessly, I over shot it and I’m not sure if it actually ended up hitting something, it might still be out there somewhere soaring through the great cosmos.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I‘ve got a set of black feather spears with me. All of them carved and imbued with energy.

I didn‘t spend much time in the village the last time I went, didn‘t actually meet anyone either, just dumped all my feathers in the Naturai tree, I think I called the tree Luck.

After that I took a few spears and headed towards the first conquered tree in the middle layer.

There I crafted some exquisite spears, sadly I didn‘t feel like going back to town to pour metals into the carvings and ended up just meditating for a long while and imbuing around twenty spears with energy.

It has become increasingly easier to channel energy into objects now. Actually the more I do it, the more I understand what I‘m doing.

Alright, remember this. When one injects energy into an object you are forcefully introducing a foreign substance.

This does not have negative effects as far as I’ve seen. There may be different results when you use different kinds of energy on the same object.

For example, if I only use nature energy the item becomes almost supportive, as if whispering positive thoughts to me. When I finally managed to squeeze enough water related energy, or what I thought was water related energy, the object became more supple, flexible and a bit heavier.

I‘ve tried to stick to just one type of energy but flora related energy, nature energy is the only one I have any reasonable control over. And even then I can‘t be sure I’m not moving impure energy around.

I can‘t be sure right now, as my ability to sense different kinds of energy is not very far come. I do however sense a certain familiarity with some things.

Like trees and all manner of plants. I think this means they contain a nature energy, or at least energy I can recognize. Still haven‘t been able to empirically confirm this though.

Another thing I’ve been theorizing is that when you can no longer imbue an item with energy, that is when the energy starts seeping out and dispersing means that the container for the energy has been filled up and it can no longer reasonably hold onto said energy.

I also think this may be further pushed by properly condensing energy so even if the capacity of the material isn‘t improved it can still hold greater amounts of energy.

Hm, hm. I really should write a book, later generations will and should revere me! Oh, right, for some reason there are next to no kids born.

Now that I think about it... haven’t we been a bit happy go lucky about the whole no children being born? Who’s going to take care of us in our old age?

Actually, although I can‘t really relate, people have been saying that they are aging in an extremely slow manner, some more obviously aging than others. Now, I’m not an idiot so I automatically connect this to this out of order, chaotic world.

If I had to guess, I would say energy has something to do with this. Actually who do things age? Another one of the world’s great mysteries.

Oh! Right! Oh, you are not going to like this, should i even tell you? It might be better to forget. The Fliger was shut down and dissolved in the prime of its life. The poor thing!

The Fliger, also known as the flying glider. A true feat of aerodynamic-engineering. The maximized gliding time, the reduced turbulence. It was a masterpiece. Transcending every generation before it but was unjustly cut down on this first mission.

I buried what remained of its formerly majestic self.

I’m probably forgetting a lot of stuff, I never was remembered for my amazing memory. Memory related things really took a bit hit once we started crawling around this virtually inconceivable world.

I really should start socializing more with my subjects, there must be at least a few people worth my time. Right? They can’t all be so incredibly irrelevant that I can’t even remember their names most of the time.

Nice nicknames do manage to stick sometimes. I hope they at least keep training, hunting, crafting, studying and selling things while I’m away. Now. Now I really think I’ve gone over at least what was important. Now for the less important stuff.

You’re not going to believe this, remember the camouflage boots we found at one point? My near future self, you’re gonna get psyched now man! I found a pair of gloves! If I’m hiding and someone spots my hands, they are going to be out of luck.

Camo gloves! Also they are super comfortable. Not sure if they’ll provide much protection as they look to be skin thick and sometimes translucent.

They do merge with the surrounding in a way, it’s not perfect, looks more like a reflection if anything. They dropped off one of the three reptilian snake things. Now I just need the entire set and we’ll be good to go!

Damnit! I’ve been spotted. Something is definitely trying to hunt me. Ever since I took out that third Naturai tree I haven’t gotten a proper rest.

Staying under the Naturai trees sphere of influence still leaves me some respite but as soon as I leave it the ambient music starts ramping up. It’s periodically changing now as well.

It’s always had a bit of nice rhythm to it but now it just feels like it’s trying to get me excited for something. I don’t think I’m in too much of a danger, actually if it wasn’t for the ambient music warning me I would be in for a world of pain.

As long as nothing really small and fast comes for me then I can usually take it out before it can get close enough to hit me.

I’ve been fighting these bastard animals every few, eh. Every few days? I’ve really become numb to the passage of time. I feel ancient.

I was just pretending to be annoyed, it’s actually more fun to be hunted a bit. The strange thing about this whole thing though, is the creatures coming for me are things I’ve never met in the outer or middle-layer of Abraser.

They are like variations of things I’ve seen, the most dangerous was a very small simian. Or what I think was a simian. It was insanely fast and managed to actually get a hit in, the right word would be a bite.

The freak took a small bit out of my waist. Amazingly enough I’ve completely healed from that bone deep wound. There is an ugly scar there now but I’m not worried, just another scar on my frail but beautiful body.

Alright, come at me you bastard. I know it’s around here. I’m not too worried but I think maybe climbing a bit up the Naturai tree might be safe.

Usually things don’t come to the Naturai tree for some unknown reason but these things chasing after me have been relentless and they don’t care at all about this unconquered Naturai tree.

I’ve built a decent platform here and I've been living here and crafting things. After I take out this beast I’ll check what’s on top of what is most likely the last Naturai tree in the middle-layer.

I’m not going to lie, getting pretty bored with taking over these gorgeous trees and the beasts inhabiting them. But, it’s a thing to do I guess, if I didn’t have this I’d probably have to start traveling to different areas to ease my boredom.

Bored or not bored crafting things and experimenting with my energy has become a lot of fun.

I’m mainly taking over the middle layer to see if the Kelas rank or whatever it was called allows me to further explore the library and unlock some buildings in the construction section of the system.

We haven’t really addressed the system in a while have we? Well, what is there to say? It’s ridiculous and annoying for two. I’m sad to say I’m enjoying putting down buildings even if I can’t accurately guess what they are used for.

Skill-books have become increasingly difficult to find, most of the books I got recently have been from the hunters. It seems to drop for them regularly, it’s an odd thing.

I’ve been going somewhat mad recently and killing anything I can find when I see it. That and they’ve been actively attacking me.

I’m on top of the canopy, ready to jump into the air when something jumps at me. They usually don’t take this long to attack me, I have a bad feeling about this.

Ambient music is acting strange. It’s suddenly changing the rhythm back and forth periodically. This can’t be good.

Ah. That’s strange. I can see something standing on top of the canopy a few trees away. It’s not too small but compared to the average monster it’s of the smaller variety.

It’s standing on two legs, just staring in my direction. From experience, things that walk on two legs usually feel more intelligent.

Which isn’t really an issue, it will still bleed. Should u just throw a stake at it? Maybe say hello first?

“Hey! What’s up man?”

No? No response.

“Hey! Hey, hey man, can you hear me? Do. You. Hear. Me?”

It isn’t being very co-operative. What are those things? Antennas? No, look more like antlers. Asymmetrical horns? Hmm.

I’m going to try and throw something at it. Got a bunch of stakes on me and a pile of them below on my platform below the canopy.

“I’m going to throw this at you, okay? Be careful.”

Reverse psychology.

Alright let's try this. I’m going to go all out in this throw. Get that practiced swing in, channel energy and form a condensed tip on the end of the stake. Rapid hand movement activated, try to get the timing right.

I still can’t get it to hit the apex of the swing. Not worth trying either, just making sure it flies forward and in the general direction of the target.

This is the reason I can’t really properly hit things in the head or heart, which would be the most effective spots.

Ah. It’s moving. I think it’s trying to get below the lush canopy. Let’s see who’s faster, you or me. The stake just left my hand. Well, I missed. Fucking what is this. Was it mocking me?

Pft! probably testing me, seeing what I would do. Did it know that I knew that it was coming and decided to test me? To feel me out. I don’t think I’m comfortable with that.

Well it’s somewhere below me. I can almost not think with this blaring ambient music.

That’s probably the worst part, not being able to properly hear things while I’m fighting. My eyes work nicely most of the time but if they hide, it gets a bit more complicated.

…

…

…

Hello? What. No. what? No. Come on! What! This is bullshit, how did it get me? I didn't even feel a vibration, not even the shake of the shield that was an ocean of leaves.

I can’t believe it killed me! What did I forget? Ah stupid question. Where am I? Oh. Right.