Chapter 48 (1/2)

He certainly had earned quite a lot of PP in the battle, but he supposed that was understandable. Part of it was the huge library of skills he currently possessed. Odds were one or two would level up constantly.

Additionally, no matter how strong you were, being surrounded added a lot of mental pressure, raising the stakes. In addition, his higher recovery rates, combined with his constant potions, meant that he could continue far longer than others, out grinding skills levels with the sheer amount of time spent fighting.

Still, the rewards this time were large, and the completion notification for Entangling Roots was a welcome sight, followed by a flood of additional notifications.

Congratulations! You have completed the The Entangling Roots Path! +3 Int, Wis, Control, and Focus; +25 Mana. Where you walk, the earth comes alive, heeding your beck and call. You have learned the skill Wall of Thorns Lvl 1. You have learned the skill Soul Seed Lvl ®.

Wall of Thorns: Produces a bristling wall of thorns. Size and sharpness of thorns based on Intelligence and skill level. Shape of the wall and distance away based on Wisdom and Skill level.

Soul Seed: A rare skill that will not level. Nurture the seed with the essence of your other skills and different plants will grow. Effects of the plants will be determined by the level of skills used to nurture them. Plants grown from Soul Seeds will have intelligence and level, and will be capable of growth.

Congratulations! As the first member of your race to unlock a rare skill, you have received the reward path “Frontrunner 0/100”. Use this path to lead your race to salvation.

For finishing the Entangling Roots path, your Skill has evolved! Synchronicity with Soul Skill “Spear of Rot Mastery” detected. Calculating mutations…

3 mutations found. Forking Path! Choose which skill Entangling Roots shall take on characteristics of: Pollen of the Rafflesia, Edge of Decay, or Spear Mastery.

Randidly looked at the notifications and blinked. The new skills both intrigued him. Looking at Wall of Thorns, he was excited to go cat hunting today, trying to find and kill the annoying things. Soul Seed was a little more nebulous.

His confidence was also boosted by the ‘reward’ path he received, although he was a little leery about another 100 PP path right now.

But for the moment, his attention was on the ways that Entangling Roots could evolve. He hesitated for a half second, but really, he knew immediately as he saw the options, what he would choose.

Congratulations! You have chosen Spear Mastery. Your skill has evolved into Spearing Roots. Level has been reset, but benefits from the previous skill’s skill level have been retained.

Immediately, Randidly walked out into the forest and tried it. The sight of dozen of sharpened roots shooting upward, boring holes in the wood of an unlucky tree, set him laughing. Although he would now need to rely on root manipulation for his control, the increased strength and power of the stabbing roots were more than enough to make up for it.

Anyways, he had been using root manipulation to touch up on the accuracy of Entangling Roots anyways. And now, for the big control, he had Wall of Thorns.

Curious, Randidly used that, and a short, waist high hedge of sharpened thorns springing up. Randidly pressed his finger against a thorn, and pulled back, impressed. If it was sharp enough to get through his endurance, most low leveled monsters would tear themselves to pieces on it.

Finally, Randidly looked at his hand, concentrating, and summoned a Soul Seed. A small, wizened looking nut appeared in his hand, weirdly maroonish in color. A small bar hovered over the seed.

Soul Seed 0% Nurtured.

Randidly scratched his chin. Nurtured, was it…? The notification had said I nurture it with skills, so do I just…?

As he focused on the nut, he felt a strange connection forming. He knew instinctively that while he had the seed on his person, it would grow based on any skill he activated. So for now, he put the seed away and turned back to his spare PP. He immediately poured it into the Meditation path, and was rewarded at 5 with 15 mana, and at 10 with +2 Wisdom.

Yawning, Randidly rubbed his stomach. Today was a good day. And every good day deserved a good meal to start it off.

****

Leaving by a side path, Randidly escaped from Donnyton without any more questions from Daniel, or any strange followers.

Lyra was beautiful, sure. And useful. Her spells were powerful too. And she was a non-classer like him, so they had that in common.

Randidly froze. And she was here.

He spun around, expecting to see her, standing there, her mana birds fluttering around her. But there was nothing, the path was deserted. Randidly frowned, then chuckled nervously, shaking his head.

Even if he had grown definitively stronger, he wasn’t so strong that he could just have his head in the clouds while searching for these cats. And today was the 5th day.

Looking at the sun, Randidly wondered again what would happen once the Newbie Zone walls fell, and the monsters from beyond the boundary roved towards the village.

Clenching his fist, he turned and began to walk. He would meet whatever came with strength.

And so for now, he would work on sharpening that strength.

****

Daniel glanced up at the nervous man, annoyed.

“What is it?” He snapped.

“Uh…S-sam wants to speak with you, sir.” The man stuttered, and then hurried away.

Sighing, Daniel wiggled his fingers at his assistants, who tiredly took the paperwork from him as he stood to leave. Despite what the rest of the people here seemed to think, a society required bureaucracy to function. You couldn’t just steal whatever you needed from wherever you wanted. That wasn’t a sustainable economy.