Year 9 - Month 11

 

Another month. Another… not much changes in a month. Let’s check if Lily’s here. Ah. There she is. She’s behind my trunk and to the right. I wonder what direction that is.

 

Hmm. That’s new. It looks like she’s seated on something. Her hands are in front of her. Is she looking at her hands? I wonder what she’s doing.

 

Wait.

 

Avatar!

 

Ooh. It seems they’ve given me clothes. A very loose black cloak. I guess it’s okay. I’m not sure how human fashion works. I wonder if I’m attractive by human standards.

 

Okay. How do I control this again… push down with my hands… lift my legs… stand. Perfect. Then I move. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Left.

 

Okay, now I see Lily. She’s on a chair. And in her hands is… ah. A book. That makes sense. It looks quite old. The leather is very… hmm… dull?

 

“Hello, Lily.”

 

She raised her head with a smile. “Hey, Tree-sama!”

 

“What are you reading?”

 

She raised her book, tilting the cover toward me.

 

“I can’t read.”

 

“Oh. Sorry. It’s the ‘Magic of Secrecy.’ It’s about intelligence networks and magic spells to help spy on people.”

 

They write books about that? Huh. “Are there books about good skills to purchase?”

 

Lily set down her book on the small wooden table beside her lawn chair. “Most people don’t purchase skills, but there are plenty of books about skills. Anything you want?”

 

Hmm… I should check my skills again.

 

 

Oh. I have water magic. Some more root skills would be nice too, but those are a bit more tree focused so I don’t think there are books about them. “Maybe water magic.”

 

Lily looked into my eyes. Then she laughed. “Didn’t you ask about water a few years ago? Wow. This is only the second conversation we’ve had for years.”

 

Then she stared into nothingness. And she always complains about me getting distracted by my thoughts. “So…”

 

“Yeah. I’ll bring you some water magic books. Although I think you’ll need to learn to read first.”

 

Oh. “Yes. Can you teach me?”

 

“Of course. But I don’t want you sleeping for months, okay? If you sleep I’m going to wake you with that telepathy. Agree?”

 

That's… tough. But reading is helpful. I suppose I can put up with it for a month or so. I wonder how good my memory is. “Okay. I agree.”

 

“Cool. We’ll start tomorrow. Today, let’s play a game.”

 

“What game?”

 

An evil grin spread across Lily’s face. “Chess.”

 

…

 

That was a challenging game. I am not interested in this chess game. I must sleep.

 

Year 9 - Month 11 - Day 2

 

Tree-chan! Can I call you that?

 

That nap was far too short. That is fine.

 

Cool. Time for reading lessons. Wake up your avatar.

 

Using my avatar is very exhausting. Not physically, but mentally. Although I’m not sure how my mind works. Do I have a mind?

 

Ah. I’m off-topic. Avatar. Time to walk over to the seats. Lily brought over a second lawn chair that she placed on the other side of the table. Today the table has a newer book on it.

 

I sat down and Lily started her lesson. Okay, this book is for children so the stories might be boring but it should work.

 

She flipped open the first page. First, these seven are called primocutols. Then these are called the sectorinols. Together…

 

The lesson took four hours. I think I’ve forgotten about ninety percent of it.

Year 10 - Month 1

I have graduated. The past month has been Lily teaching me how to read and then forcing me to play chess as payment. Is our friendship not enough payment? I’ve only beat her once at chess and it was pure luck.

 

I also got to watch a batch of twenty-five new soldiers get initiated. It was quite the show. They all kneeled in front of my tree and made a vow to protect me, the ‘heart’ of the empire.

 

I asked Lily about the low recruitment number, but apparently, this is just recruitment for their elite force. My current followers are the elite force and a few thousand of the local guards for the capital.

 

Anyway, I can currently read at around one hundred words per minute so Lily has promised to bring me some books about skills today. Finally, I can improve. I’m not sure why I want to improve but seeing numbers go up and seeing a bigger skill list is just… satisfying. Plus, being stronger is never a bad thing.

 

“Hey, Tree-san!”

 

“Hello, Lily,” I replied while doing my routine walk around the tree with my body. I’ve started running and am steadily improving. I don’t have any status panels like humans but I can still improve my muscles.

 

“Here’s the water magic book.” She set a large blue book down titled ‘Water Magic Volumes 1-5.’

 

I walked over, sat down on my lawn chair, and began reading through them.

 

 

After a few hours of reading, I settled on these spells. The book uses the terms spell and skill interchangeably. It seems that some people (or some races) don’t have this ‘system’ that turns spells into skills. That seems challenging.

 

Regardless, these spells were the basic ones I found. Some were far too specific. Who would ever need a spell specifically for stopping a natural tidal wave of at least fifty feet from crashing into a house? It’s so random. Why would there ever be a natural fifty-foot-tall tidal wave?

 

Anyway. Purchase.

 

[Branch 2.1: Summon Water selected!]

[Branch 2.2: Water Shot selected!]

[Branch 2.3: Water Blast selected!]

[Branch 2.4: Drown selected!]

[Branch 2.4.1: Drown Shield selected!]

[Branch 2.5: Permanent Skill selected!]

[Destiny Points: 247,508]

 

Perfect. It seems Lily left sometime during my reading. It’s also dark outside now. I should go to sleep. Humans sleep in the dark.

Year 10 - Month 2

I did a bit more reading over the past month on numerous subjects. Much of it was not related to magic at all. Although, those books were far more mundane. However, today I remembered something. I didn’t have to choose skills, there were some set choices back before I reached level two. I also haven’t leveled recently. It must be related to cult size.

 

Anyway. Let’s see what the options are.

 

[Root 5]

[Aura of Peace] - A tranquil tree.

[Tank Tree] - Your bark is commendable.

[Rapturous Roots] - The roots must grow.

 

Those descriptions are rather lacking. [Aura of Peace] does seem nice though. [Tank Tree] is likely defense based, which I don’t need at the moment since I’m located in a castle. [Rapturous Roots] is… well… I’m not sure what Rapturous means. I guess it’s something to do with growth or expansion.

 

Let’s go with…

 

[Root 5: Aura of Peace selected!]

 

I didn’t realize it would affect me too. It’s… quite relaxing. It’s like a warm breeze on a human's skin during a cold day. All that could make this better would be some refreshing water. Oh.

 

I started moving my avatar and activated the spell [Summon Water] and spent a few destiny points to create a large blob of water and drop it right on top of my leaves. So nice. Ah…

 

This is lovely. I feel like a fresh sprout basking in the sun once more. Now, what was I doing… oh yeah. Skills. I think I could do with some more mind magic. What does the system suggest?

 

[Branch 4.2]

[Pickmind] - Steal a stray thought.

[Seed of Thought] - Plant an idea and hope it sprouts.

[Mastreemind] - Make someone think they don’t suck.

 

Those are… influential. [Pickmind] sounds cool, but also frivolous. [Seed of Thought] might be good when it’s upgraded, but ‘hope it sprouts’ sounds very… luck-based. Then [Mastreemind] is more of a troll skill. I guess [Seed of Thought] has the most potential.

 

[Branch 4.2: Seed of Thought selected!]

 

Can’t forget to make them permanent.

 

[Branch 4.3: Permanent Skill selected!]

[Destiny Points: 276,342]

 

…

 

I suppose I’ll sleep until Lily visits. Maybe I could mess with her mind a bit using [Seed of Thought]?

 

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Tree-san’s stats: