Chapter 28: Chapter 27 – Story of a Jubokko

"I was born in a forest, a tree, like all others, but I was a bit larger than the rest. Humans came and fell most of the other trees at some point. But they left me behind because I was larger than the rest. After that, they decided to stay around me. I was happy at that time because they gave me a lot of food so I could keep growing.

At some point some of the humans got angry and they fought each other around me. They had also stopped feeding me properly. I was hungry so I drank the blood contained water from the ground, it was a bit heavy at first but I quickly got used to it. But I was so large that it was still not enough, so I ate the dead humans too, I didn't touch the living naturally. I thought it would be better for them to have some use rather than rotting away. But the surviving humans got angry at me and attacked me so I had to defend myself.

Then, there was nothing for a while after which humans started fighting again. At that time, I got really annoyed so I ate them all and thought to myself 'why don't I just leave?', but I couldn't move as a tree. Then I decided I should be more like humans if I want to be able to walk, so I just did that. After that, I decided to look for a good place to sleep so I walked from one forest to another. And here I am!"

Her explanation is all over the place... So, she started as a 'normal' tree, after deforestation she was made into the center of a town or some settlement. Then war broke out there? She became a Jubokko from the battlefield, after that she kept eating everyone around her. I'm not sure how much time passed between each of these events, but after being alone for a while another war broke out where she was which led to her learning transformation to walk somewhere more silent...?

I can imagine that there was a huge time skip between the two battles, so it would be two different wars. Her 'home' probably became a place of myths about battles that's why it was decided to be used for the battle. It might be a far stretch but that is all I can think of with the information she gave me. I probably won't get any more details from her either.

"You now know about my situation, right?"

"That you're from another world? Yeah."

"I actually have a few questions about this world, could you help me with them?"

"Sure, just ask me what you need to know."

"Thanks. Then, how do people get titles? You have some scary ones, but I also don't know the criteria for how one acquires a title."

"Mm, depending on how you view it, there are either two or three ways to acquire a title. The first is by having many weak beings recognize you for something, these titles usually have no real effect on you. The second is by having a powerful existence recognize you for something, these 2 ways are essentially the same. The stronger the person is the stronger the effect of your title, it is usually only gods that can do this on their own though. If the whole world recognized you for the same thing, you would probably also gain some effect, but I'm not sure when that happens. The hardest way is receiving a title from the world itself, these titles always have an effect, but I don't have much information on that either. Most of what I know I either knew from birth or heard from humans around me."

"Then your titles?"

"[Child of the Forest] I had ever since I was born, it is a title given to me by the world. [Man-eater] and [Devil of the Battlefield] I got after I started eating the humans and I received [War demon] after I changed into a human-like shape and left the battlefield of the humans in search for a quiet place to sleep. None of these three titles have any meaning or effect."

They do have a meaning though, they show how scary you are!

"Then how do you receive skills? And what type of skills exist?"

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"You receive skills either by putting a lot of work into something or being very talented in it or through your occupation. I don't know what skills exist."

Occupations, huh? I didn't use appraisal on many people but the only one who had one was 

"What are occupations? Both you and I have none, I can look past myself but you've been alive for a very long time shouldn't you have some occupation?"

"Occupations have nothing to do with what you do in your life. You can gain an occupation simply by asking the gods for one. I never did that, neither did you, so we don't have one."

"How do you ask a god for one?"

"I don't know, ask someone who did that. I only heard that you have to ask the gods."

"Hmm, I see..."

"Anything else? I want to go to sleep."

Didn't you just wake up? How much are you sleeping?

"I'm sorry for being rude, but what is the difference between you and a monster? When I appraised monsters before, they only had a name and stats, but you have a status similar to me."

"Mm, even monsters can have a normal status, once a being gains enough wisdom, they will earn the right to ascend, that is when their status changes. Usually, the name becomes their race and their name becomes empty like mine. That's it for now, it's time for me to sleep."

After talking she lies down where I lied down before to meditate and instantly falls asleep. But I still have more questions... What about gods? Right to ascend? Don't just leave me hanging like this!