Of course, there was. He shouldn’t have been surprised that April knew what she was doing.
Almost immediately, the scenario fell apart, and a new one was constructed. Rather than being free, he was bound by metal strips, a host of plants surrounding him. Then a pulse of growth energy flowed through them, and he wondered what he was supposed to do. That was until he sensed the monsters moving towards him and breaking grass stems as they did.
Tom sought to protect himself from the incoming, terribly slow monsters. It was easy, as all the previous months of practice had taught him how to create shells of wood to surround him.
But the available energy was reduced.
It became a challenge not to die, and he failed regularly. The monsters were some sort of slow reptilian rat creature, and they kept coming relentlessly.
He died almost as often as he stopped them. There was another ding, and his head started to swim with the effort that the continuous use of skills was putting him under.
The rats became slower, but the stores of growth energy that he was tapping into reduced alarmingly. There wasn’t anywhere near enough power. The days of a solid shell were gone. The best he could do now was creating a hedge of spikes to stop them approaching. He lost half a foot before he was fully protected. His Blood Replenishment spell meant he was never in any real danger, and Heal Cut closed the wound, even if doing so in any other circumstances would have been a mistake. When under a GOD shield, preserving tissue to allow proper regrowth later wasn’t a consideration. He triaged the wound, and then, with the help of the very occasional pulse of growth energy, he hunted the two creatures that had eaten him and happily killed them.
Everything reset.
It was the same scenario as before, but he reacted faster this time. The rat things didn’t get close enough to take a nibble.
The configuration changed.
There was even less old growth around him that could be redirected to form a barrier now. He died twice before his skill grew sufficiently to stop the attack.
Another change occurred. He was in a jumble of dead wood. There was nothing living nearby him.
Panic surged.
He had to build his wooden cage to protect himself. He knew the rats were coming.
But there was no living wood around him. It was dead to all senses but those of his new skill. Deep within the wood, he could feel the life, the cells that had shut down and were in hibernation.
That was enough.
The monsters were approaching, so he focused. It hurt to do so, but being eaten alive hurt even worse. The near-dead wood responded.
There was a ding. He started twisting the wood, growing sections to bend the stiff sticks down in the direction he wanted.
The world shivered.
Tom found himself in the café. It was like the last time. His senses were all over the place. Nausea swelled within him and he vomited. It tasted disgusting, but the substance vanished the moment it touched the ground, and the scent of freshly brewed coffee didn’t disappear.
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He sighed and looked across the table toward April. There were multiple angels sitting there.
He blinked.
Now there was two. Every heartbeat was like the beat coming through a sub-woofer. On the table in front of him there were six… no, that wasn’t right: there were only two wooden bracelets. One was constructed of dark wood and filled with life, while the other was made of a white higher-tiered wood, but it was dead. With the way he was feeling, he dreaded what she was going to make him do. Any skill use now would only make everything worse.
He glanced up at April, she briefly split into two before consolidating back to a single person, admittedly a blurry one. “What do I do with them?”
“Nothing,” she giggled. “I was just playing a prank.” They vanished from his vision, and then his hands were holding a thick mug. “Drink that.”
It was some form of warm apple cider with lots of honey. He wasn’t sure if it was alcoholic or not, but it tasted medicinal in a nice kind of way. He drank it, enjoying every sip.
April said nothing as he recovered, and then passed a folder across to him.
Skill: Living Wood Growth – Tier 2
You are able to make wooden plants grow to your desired specifications.
Sideways Evolution 1. You’re able to find a seed of life even in wood that others would assume is long dead.
“It’s tier-two.” He said, zeroing in on the key information and ignoring the sideways evolution. At a glance, it was clear that it was a very niche advantage at best. He wasn’t sure he would ever use it in the outside world. Here, in the trial, the situation might be different, because he had a suspicion that April had been driving for him to receive this capability. He suspected it would somehow help him to improve his value add.
“Yes, you’re an overachiever.”
He glanced down at the second slab of text.
Title: Underage Skill Development (II) - Upgradable - Grants 1 free attribute point every four levels.
His head made it hard to concentrate. “My title upgraded.”
“Yes, you got four points because the new skill was tier 2.”
“It’s still only uncommon.”
“Because anyone who puts effort into it can get this.”
“Um, maybe,” he stopped talking for a moment, unable to continue the thought as he swallowed the bile that came up. “What do I do now? I’m clearly suffering skill exhaustion. Does that mean the rest of today is wasted?”
“Um... you’re partially right, we can’t have you doing any skill work, that’s for sure, but I’m happy for you to do magic practice.”
“How will I accomplish that? I only know healing, and I need wounds to advance it. Maybe I can fight with a hammer or something?”
“I don’t know if practicing with a hammer is a good use of your time. As for how are you going to do that… Well, for a start, that drink was poisoned. You wanted to work on your Heal Muscles spell, didn’t you? Unless you fix it within fifteen minutes, your heart will fail, and then, even if you solve that problem a few minutes later, the muscles that let you breathe will likewise go.”
With a curse, he set to work. The setup was a great opportunity, apart from one very significant factor. “I can’t do this. I don’t have fate to optimise.”
She shrugged. “Then avoid doing it perfectly. Don’t worry, only this one is targeting muscles. For future poisons, I’ll guide you through the spell forms to fix the different failing organs.” The folder that he recognised from the isolation room appeared in front of him. The idea of doing any studying caused his nausea to surge. He turned away from the table and threw up.
“I’m going to enjoy this.” She declared, and then pretended to crackle manically.
He smiled and then put her out of his mind as felt the first twinge of damage to his muscles. A single point of mana into Purge Foreign Substance told him that he could use it to deal with the problem, but he resisted the temptation and set about practicing healing through the continuous poison damage like April intended.
When he got into the trial a week later, he went to the café.
“It’s now time to acquire the final skill you need before you can start carving. This is easier.”
She waved her hand, and a bracelet appeared on the table. Then it grew until it had a diameter of a metre and a half.
“This,” April said after a long pause. “Is the ritual that will underpin a danger sense bracelet. All you have to do is to take this design, imprint it on a wooden circlet, and empower it with your precognition mana.”
There must have been ten thousand different wires, all of them creating different geometrical shapes. Tom was used to seeing Harry’s rituals, and this was a level more complicated. His mouth opened, and he stared at what she was proposing in shock.
He had to duplicate all of that in miniature.