Claff

Chapter 42

It wasn’t long until the Laughing Vipers were fully awake and getting ready for their day. While I did my best not to snoop on them, I couldn’t help but hear Axel’s absurd snoring.

He was loud enough to attract two sets of Orcs during the night. I killed both groups using a quick surge of Earth Magic, sending a spiral rock through each of the monster’s heads. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t go killing the Orc’s needlessly, but if I hadn’t killed them...

Chapter 41

I felt disgusted as this new mind invaded mine. My mind was my safe space, my temple, and most importantly, one of my most powerful weapons. It was an affront that this was allowed to happen to me.

I fought with all my might to prevent this tree from merging with me until I realized that what I thought was happening wasn’t quite right. The tree wasn’t combing with my mind, it was being absorbed by my mind. I could feel my thoughts become ever so slightly clearer and the tre...

Chapter 40

Brom couldn’t help but gawk in surprise. Where were the earth golems? Why wasn’t the dryad attacking? These humans and elf seem to have a preexisting, telepathic relationship with the giant tree of the clearing, but the dryad had just spawned a few days ago, so how on Vir is that possible? The longer that Brom watched, the more confused he became. It felt like everything he should know about the situation was wrong.

As Brom watched, the trio collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain...

Chapter 39

Alright, now that I have my new puppet, I think it’s about time I took some time to relax again.

Rather than leave my new wooden puppet, I made a throne for it to sit in. I only really need it for when I have visitors, and other than the minor rustling I heard earlier, there isn’t much going on around here. In fact, it’s even been a while since I’ve seen any Orc or other monsters. I guess my little tornado scared them all off.

Anyways.

Once the throne was ma...

Chapter 38

Brom stood in shock, watching as a giant rock golem sorted through a pile of broken tree branches, seemingly looking for a specific one. It worked quickly, seemingly knowing what it was doing. That was extremely odd, since everyone knew that most golems are actually quite stupid, unless they were being given direct instructions. This one seemed to be on the smart side though.

When the golem found its desired branch, it stood straight, giving Brom an idea of how big the thing really was....

Chapter 37

I think I need a personal rebrand. I mean, the Ants were literally all trying to kill me, so I feel perfectly fine with having wiped them out. Speaking of which, I still haven’t found a single ant pile or colony around the clearing. I can see about 80 feet outside of my clearing now, since my root system has grown tremendously, but I haven’t found any evidence that Ants ever existed. Strange.

Anyways.

I was fine wiping them out since they started the attack on me first. And I ...

Chapter 36

After about a day of serenity, I noticed a bit of discomfort in my branches. It wasn’t much, something similar to what I remember a cold or flu feeling like, but isolated in my branches. The thought of a woodpecker came into my mind, so I just kind of dismissed it. I remember hearing that woodpeckers were good for trees.

After a few hours, the feeling hadn’t really gone away. In fact, it started to feel a bit more intense than before. Yet I was determined to enjoy the warmth of the ...

Chapter 35

Elsewhere

“GOD DAMNIT!”

A man was seen throwing a rather impressive tantrum. He just finished brutalizing one of many chained up goblins in a dungeon. The rest were off to the side, cowering in fear that they would be next.

“I prepared for months, no YEARS, and it’s all been for NOTHING!”

He slammed his hand down on the corpse, making the gruesome scene slightly worse. He turned to face the closest goblin.

“Do you know how much planning it takes to ti...

Chapter 34

Jesus, this growth rate boost is amazing! In only 24 hours, I have grown from being under 50 feet tall to over 80 feet! My trunk hasn’t fallen behind either, standing at almost 11 feet around. And this Giant’s blood has done wonders for my branch growth as well. Each of my 5 main branches has grown to be 3 feet at their separation points. I truly feel like a giant in my own rights now!

Unfortunately, the time has come for me to release the beast into its afterlife. I know that I cou...

Chapter 33

Okay, this guy is too big. Do I really need to kill him? I mean, Club was fun to hang around. What do I really have against this guy? Sure, he stole my kills, but other than the Orc who fucked up my now already destroyed puppet... Oh right... He destroyed my puppet, so he deserves death. Ugh.

I spent the next few hours after sundown deliberating between killing the giant or not. In all honesty, I was trying to talk myself out of it. This giant was the first being to cause me to...

Chapter 32

After a few days of shut eye, I rustled my branches and got back to work grinding my levels. I say that, but I didn’t really have much to do. I checked out my surroundings to find that the Orc corpses had decayed greatly and were being eaten by a few scavenger birds. Other than that, not much had changed. Well, except for my height.

While I was sleeping, my new skill had apparently put my growth into overdrive, doubling my passive growth to a full two inches a day. I was now 34 feet t...

Chapter 31

Given how often new Orcs keep invading my area in search of food, I doubt that I’ll need to get the monster lure skill I was thinking about any time soon. Knowing that, I decided to hold off for now on getting my level 35 skill or skill upgrade. I just left the notification hanging in the back of my mind for now. I still wasn't 100% sure about what skill I wanted.

Now that I had access to other trees through my roots, I figure I should see if I can communicate with any of them. I sent...

Chapter 30

In order to keep my branches off of the ground, I needed to either get rid of the hobbit hole, which I refused to do for now, or stretch out my trunk. Since I only had one viable option, I needed to figure out how exactly I can do that. So far, all of my growth has been adding on to the top of current height, not elongating what I already had. This would be delving into new territory for me. 

Before I started working on my trunk, I needed to test how reliable this option would be i...

Chapter 29

The Laughing Vipers ended up staying for one more night before heading back to their city with Lilly. I would miss the lass, but I knew she’d be better off with her father. I couldn’t exactly offer her an appropriate diet, and while I was safe to be around, the forest was apparently picking up in monster activity. 

Speaking of monster activity, I had to deal with another 4 groups of Orcs through the last night that they were here. They netted me a total of 3,600 EXP, which push...

Chapter 28

I shouldn’t have said that. I should NOT have said that. 

Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag. Time to tell them I’m actually a talking tree.  

While I went through the dozens of scenarios in my mind about possible ways this could go, Lilly came up behind Aspen and asked, “Whatcha talkin about?” 

I made a direct thread to Lilly and told her what had happened. 

“Any advice for how I should tell them?” I pleaded. I sudde...

Chapter 27

The first thing I did was beef up the end of the arms. Doubling the mass would double the force of each hit, after all.  

While the pigmen were still sniffing at the air in front of them, I brought my newest toy right up to them. I added two sharp spikes of stone at the end of both hands, so when I made a fist, there were two claws similar to an old superhero sticking out for added piercing damage. 

I performed a beautiful uppercut to the first Orc, and the claws went ri...

Chapter 26

I stopped listening after the third group of Orcs they defeated on the way here. Apparently, there were a crap ton of monsters rolling in from the south, or something like that. I couldn’t bring myself to care. It felt too much like they were bragging, and didn’t pique my interest. The only thing I wanted to know right now was, 

“What are your plans moving forward?” 

Archy responded before Axel could. “I’d like to level up. This many monsters, while concernin...

Chapter 25

I kept messing with the woman by flooding various parts of my little structure with mana, then moving it around. I could tell she was following the movement by the way her eyes moved to wherever I moved the mana. She kept tightening and adjusting her grip on her staff with her knuckles going white every time I concentrated the mana in one point. I wonder if it’s a magic user thing to be able to see mana moving, or if there’s a specific skill related to it.

As if on cue, I got a noti...

Chapter24

I thought we had more time.

The night was smooth and delightful. Lilly slept and I watched over her and even got to experience her dreams with her. She ended up sleeping until a bit past noon, by my estimate.

While Lilly slept, I focused more on continuing to fix the place up for her. I knew she wouldn’t care much about little things like doors, but I’d feel better if she had a bit more privacy and a more defendable place than just staying up in my branches.

The first th...

Chapter 23

Right when Lilly fell asleep, I put my little plan into action.

I dipped my awareness a little more into my roots than I usually did and started pouring mana into the ground below me. I kept to the top layer of my roots so I didn’t lose track of time, as I tended to do.

When I felt the ground below me was decently saturated with my mana, I focused on the idea of the ground around me forming into a small pillar, pulling the material needed from the surrounding earth to build up i...