Chapter 8: Chapter 8 – Plans

Year 10 - Month 6 - Day 20

Yesterday, the Twilight Empire inducted another two hundred elite soldiers so Cat’s plans had to be pushed back, but today we’re back on schedule. Cat insists that he has a way to solve everything if the potion does indeed harm me, but… well I said I’d trust him. Who knows? Maybe this is the last day I’ll be alive. I doubt that though. I wonder what will happen…

 

“Ready for your present?” Cat asked my avatar who was standing on the sidelines with Lily. Cat was currently by the base of my tree trunk, somehow managing to hold the opened potion bottle steady with his two small paws.

 

“Yes,” I answered.

 

Cat tilted the bottle and the thick liquid slowly started falling out in big globs. Just as the liquid hit the ground, I could feel it enter my nature senses. It immediately killed off the grasses, however, I felt fine. It attempted to burn into my bark but its efforts were fruitless. Slowly it sunk further into the grass until it disappeared completely, leaving behind a circular patch of dirt.

 

“What was the point of that?” Lily asked Cat.

 

“It proved that Tree-chan, or his tree body at the very least, is indeed from this world.”

 

“How so?” I inquired, sending my avatar to walk back to my trunk and investigate the dirt patch left behind.

 

“Potions tend to fail whenever they attack something from a different world, this didn’t fail.”

 

“But it did nothing?” Lily questioned before following behind my avatar, who was almost beside Cat.

 

“Nope, it worked, it tried to burn through the trunk, it was just too weak,” Cat explained while I nodded along to confirm it.

 

“Okay. Well, now what?”

 

“Nothing.”

Year 10 - Month 7

Cat did indeed have nothing else planned. For the past ten days, not much happened. Cat forced Lily to take him on a few more tours to common places in the city. They ended up visiting a blacksmith, where the blacksmith completely disregarded the princess and endlessly tried shooing the pest of a cat out of the shop, then they stopped by a library where Cat just snuggled with studying students. One day, Cat visited a variety of food stalls and restaurants, taking a taster of everything. I really wish I could join him. 

 

During the period I also had to participate in another battle, it went much quicker this time and my boost was never needed. Complete waste of time. After the battle, I explained as much as I could about my abilities to Cat, who listened intently and gave some ideas to try. Today, we are planning to try some.

 

First up, since I seem to be able to create any skill, can I make a skill that specifically gives me more divine points than I invest?

 

[Root 3.6: Divine Exchange - Cost: 25,000 - For a fee, convert material items into raw mana, which can then be used to create divine points.]

 

Well, not exactly what we wanted. Although I’m sure our request would never work, this alternative could still prove useful. We’d just have to investigate how expensive one point is, something tells me it won't be very cheap.

 

The second idea was to summon another familiar, which we decided to put off for a little while. It wasn’t that we couldn’t do it now, it just felt too sudden considering we had just summoned Cat.

 

The third and final major idea was to activate [Raturous Roots] again and try to localize the growth in one direction, which would allow us to see if the cost was cheaper, and how my avatar boundary works.

 

[Rapturous Roots; Direction North]

 

[Direction is not a recognized subcommand, would you like to augment base skill Rapturous Roots by purchasing supplement skill Mana Navigation in slot Root 6.1?]

 

Uh, sure?

 

[Root 6.1: Mana Navigation selected!]

[Destiny Points: 77,545]

 

Now, let’s try that again.

 

[Rapturous Roots; Direction North]

[Destiny Point drain: 500 per second (breakdown?)]

 

And now we wait a bit…

 

[Rapturous Roots deactivated! Impregnable barrier hit.]

[Destiny Points: 47,545]

 

Oh. Well, I was going to run out of points soon anyway. We’ll need to do something about that barrier though. Now, to see how my range expanded…

 

Lily led my avatar south as far as it could go. It ended up in one of the numerous identical hallways, but it was certainly further than my southern roots could reach. It was at least an additional sixty or so meters, which is expected since my northern roots extended about sixty meters. I believe this is a success. With some caveats of course.

 

While I can extend my roots at half cost with this, it also only creates one larger root. The default creates an entire web of roots. If someone were to destroy that one root, I would presumably lose access to however far it extended. It should be fine inside the castle grounds though.

 

A slightly bigger issue was posed by the barrier. It was of magical nature, the last line of defense, a barrier that contains the castle. We ended up hitting a castle wall. Lily’s going to try to get permission to make some small gaps, but who knows how that’ll go…

 

Only time will tell.

Year 12 - Month 1

A lot happened in the past year and a half.

 

First, the war with the Carabello sultanate is winding down. There is currently an ongoing siege at their last large city. The war also netted me quite a few followers.

 

[Followers: 42,937]

 

And of course, Destiny Points.

 

[Destiny Points: 734,537]

 

Unfortunately, I’m still stuck at level nine.

 

In regards to personal matters, Lily has not been successful in getting me a method to extend my roots past. She has been able to show me around a large part of the castle, and I got the opportunity to taste some foods, although nothing truly impressed me. The food tasted good, but it just didn’t invoke any feelings in me. Maybe because I’m a tree.

 

Cat has continued exploring the city, now often venturing alone at night to more questionable places. He’s been pestering me to do more with my powers and trying to come up with a way to get past the barrier. He finally had an idea. We just need to be useful, then the imperial family would have no reason to reject us, so he suggested we create a spy network. Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch, a tree leading a spy network, but after looking through some abilities and skills… it has potential.

 

“What are your thoughts?” I asked Lily from my avatar.

 

“It sounds insane… but I guess I can show it to my father, it might just work.”

 

“Lovely.”

Year 12 - Month 2 - Day 9

“He approved it!” Lily came running into the courtyard with the news while Cat was teaching me a bit more about how to play chess. I will beat Lily sometime and make her feel my suffering.

 

“Took some convincing, but we can do it.” Lily continued as Cat and I started cleaning up.

 

“So, now we should summon another familiar!” Cat exclaimed.

 

“Huh?” My avatar looked at Cat.

 

“I want a friend! It's already been two years. I’m lonely. Go get supplies for a shadow magic summon, princess.”

 

Lily sighed. “Fine.”

You are reading story The Skill Tree at novel35.com

 

Then I remembered something. “Lily do you have a familiar?”

 

“Oh, yea. It’s water-based so you’ve never seen it. I’m surprised kitty didn’t tell you.”

 

“Cat…?”

 

“It’s not even worthy of mention. It’s just a stupid oversized fish.”

 

“It is not! It’s a leviathan!”

 

“Oversized fish!”

 

“Le-vi-a-than!”

 

While they argued, I activated [Rapturous Roots] and was delighted to find out there were four small gaps, each in a cardinal direction, for me to expand.

Year 12 - Month 2 - Day 17

I can now officially walk on the entire castle grounds. I let my expansion run for a whole five hundred seconds, bringing my range to around five hundred and fifty meters. After my expansion, Lily purchased all the supplies for my next summoning. Cat insisted on doing something very different which doesn’t need the useless mana crystals.

 

My avatar was once again seated in a circular formation, but this time there was only one, much more detailed, ring. Along the ring were various stealth-based creatures. A raven feather, a few snake and spider poisons and parts, and a couple of other strange beasts.

 

“You sure this is going to work?” Lily asked Cat skeptically. They were standing about ten feet away from the base of my trunk, which was where the formation was.

 

“Of course! Now, poor some mana in Tree-chan.”

 

I did just that and…

 

[Advanced summoning ritual detected. Would you like to further increase treebute with Destiny Points?]

 

Yes.

 

[Confirmed. Enhancing summoning with 250,000 Destiny Points.]

[Destiny Points: 23,574]

 

Wow. That’s expensive.

 

And…

 

Nothing?

 

…

 

No chant?

 

…

 

The items disappeared, but… nothing?

 

“Hey Cat, did it work?” Lily asked.

 

“It should’ve… unless…”

 

Heh.

 

What?

 

Lily looked around in confusion, hearing the same strange voice, while Cat just sighed and walked toward the magic circle. As he reached it, he tapped his foot causing the runes and designs to disappear.

 

As soon as they disappeared a shadowy female figure appeared in front of my avatar.

 

“Really? Why do you always do this Nyx?” Cat sighed.

 

Nyx, the swirling shadow, chuckled. “It’s fun! Regardless, I didn’t expect to see you here, Cat.”

 

“I’m sure I came for the same reason you did.”

 

“To visit this odd tree?”

 

“Indeed. Tree-chan, meet Nyx, the shadowy idiot who claims to be a god.”

 

“I am a god. You just don’t ever believe me Cat.”

 

“You are the literal antonym of a god.”

 

“Am not. Also, what’s your name tree?” Nyx turned away from Cat and looked toward my avatar.

 

“Tree.”

 

…

 

“Creative. What can you do?”

 

“Uh. I make skills.”

 

“Why’d you summon me?”

 

“Ask Cat.”

 

Nyx faced Cat.

 

“Obviously to have you head our new spy and intelligence network.”

 

Somehow, Nyx’s pitch-black eyes lit up and her voice quieted down sending a shiver down my avatar's spine. “Sounds fun…”

 

---

 

Tree-san's Stats: