bzzzzzz

  Huh?

  bzzzzzz

  Go away, I’m sleeping.

  bzzzzzz

  Oh, for fucks sake! What do you want?!

  I opened my consciousness to the world and realized that I had a few notifications demanding to be read.

  Through practice, you have learned the ability [Short Rest (C)].

  You have reached level 39. Congratulations!

  Oh damn! 39 already? I could have sworn I just hit 38 after killing the giant.

  …

  The giant! The Laughing Vipers! Oh crap!

  I quickly stretched out my mind, searching for the presence of anyone near me. As soon as my mind left my body, I remembered that I could see literally everything around me, and started looking around the old-fashioned way. It took only a second to realize that there was nobody around.

  I started wondering where they were, when I remembered the reason that they came here in the first place. Their gear was still set up in the hut I had made for them, along with a new set up for what I had to guess was a watch station. It was basically just a log in front of a dug-out fireplace. Since I was asleep, they most likely used that to keep watch for monsters.

  I felt bad for neglecting my promised duty to them, but there was little I could do about it. Once I was knocked out, the only surefire way to wake me up was through notifications. That and pain, and obviously they wouldn’t purposefully try to hurt me.

  When I spread my consciousness through my body, I still remained aware of my surroundings. I reacted to stimuli just like normal, but there was a time dilation effect that just made my responses slower. That was the main difference that I could tell between the two states of resting.

  Speaking of resting, I was curious what this new skill was. I assume it was related to me getting knocked out from mana deprivation (not a fun feeling, by the way; I still had a major headache even after presumably fully recovering my mana).

  Short Rest (C): Passive. For a short time after battle when you are resting, your regeneration is ever so slightly increased.

  Great. Another regeneration skill, because I was so lacking in those. Maybe I should ask Aspen when she gets back about a skill that increases resource pool size. I’d rather not have to go through the headache of lacking mana again.

  I spent the next few hours just meditating. I wasn’t spread through my canopy like when I was alone, I wasn’t spread through my roots enjoying the feeling of feeding on the earth’s nutrients. I was just enjoying the feeling of the sun on my bark, the wind in my vines, and the sounds of birds chirping in the trees.

  Wait. Birds chirping in the trees?

  It had been a while since I saw any birds around here. In fact, the last pair I saw had left me quite a while ago.

  I hope they’re doing okay.

  I looked through the canopies of the surrounding trees trying to find the source. Unfortunately, they were nowhere to be found. But I did have an idea of a way to try and lure them out.

  I looked to my branches and saw that I still had all of my resource berries plus all the regular fruit I was capable of growing. I picked out a few of each one and placed them in an impromptu bowl I made. I brought them down and used my wooden puppet to walk the bowl over to the edge of my domain closest to where I heard the birds.

  I set the bowl down and flattened it out into more of a platter to give it a proper spread. I wanted the birds to be able to see all the choices I had and hopefully get them to drop by.

  With the bait set, all I could do now is wait. That was something I was good at, so it didn’t bother me too much when night started to fall and the Laughing Vipers made it back before I got the chance to say hello to some possibly new avian friends.

  I left the bowl under a tree near where I heard the birds and piloted the puppet over to the trio to say hello. When they first saw my puppet, they all readied their weapons before relaxing. Well except for Aspen. She ran over and hugged the puppet very tightly before backing up.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “I’m so glad you’re finally awake. We waited for a few hours the day you told us it was over, but on the second day of no contact from you, we just assumed you were taking a much-needed nap. The amount of magic you used was in line with what a damn arch wizard could use, so you definitely deserved it!”

  Axel came up next to her and slapped my shoulder. His namesake weapon was missing at the moment, but I did see a large wooden club in his hand that had a large amount of blood splattered across it. I wondered where he got it from. As long as it wasn’t a tree in my domain, I didn’t mind. But if he went and chopped a limb off of one of them, I’d have to have a few words with him.

  “You did great! Kicked that thing’s ass! Well, burnt it to a crisp, more like it, but the thought counts!”

  Archy wasn’t far behind, making some comments about how bold I was to use Fire Magic as a tree, but he seemed overall pleased.

  As they praised my efforts, something was bugging me. Aspen said something like ‘on the second day’ of me being asleep. How long exactly was I knocked out for?

  I looked the group up and down a few times and did a more thorough scan of my domain. I did see signs that a few Orcs have been through here, but there was nothing to indicate time. I hadn’t even checked how far into level 38 I was to see how much exp I got from photosynthesis.

  Why do I always over complicate things? I can literally just ask how long ago the fight was and they’ll literally tell me.

  I did so, and Axel was the one to respond.

  “You’ve been out for about ten days. I know because I broke my axe the day after you passed out while fighting an Orc that had a sword of its own. It also had a few scars on him, so I guess he earned it. It was a piece of crap, but it was still enough to break my favorite weapon.”

  Axel seemed distraught at the memory of his namesake. I was about to offer my condolences when I remembered the two metal golems I used when grinding the giant. I might be able to work those into a weapon for him and maybe use my own wood for the handle.

  “I might be able to help with that, but I need you to give me a few minutes.”

  He perked up at that and started to say something, but I already switched my attention to the oven chamber where the fun happened those few days ago.

  Towards the end where the giant’s head laid stood a solid lump of metal. It looked as if it was once two separate lumps, but they were squished into one. That’s when I remembered how violently I crushed the last of the last piece of bone.

  If memory serves, I needed a lot more mana to move a metal puppet than to move a dirt puppet, so I started by creating a table of dirt underneath the metal lump and walking it out of the chamber. It was an awkward endeavor, but I made it work.

  I turned a bit of my attention back to the trio as the metal lump rose out from the ground, and I saw Axel’s eyes light up at the sight of it. He looked like a kid in a toy store, running right up to the display model while looking too afraid to touch it.

  “This is the remnants of the two metal puppets I was using to grind the giant’s bones down. I had to get creative at the end, as I was running out of mana, but it should be perfectly fine to use as a basic crafting material.”

  Aspen walked over to the table and examined the lump of metal.

  “This is incredibly pure iron. How did you refine it so well?”

  I honestly wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I just showed the three my memories of the creation of them.

  “I basically just grabbed the heaviest portions of the dirt, burned off the extra bits, and I was left with this. How can you tell what metal it is?”

  All three looked at me like I was crazy. Aspen was the one who actually explained to me through a short exchange.

  “Do you not have an identification skill?”

  “Unfortunately, I do not. Is it common to have one?”

  “Most parents advise their children to acquire one with in their first 10 levels. In fact, most get it by level 3. It’s just so convenient. But if you don’t want to waste a level on getting it, there’s also a pretty simple way to earn it without needing to waste a level on it. Here, try this.”

  Aspen went to her room and asked me to try making a few educated guesses at what things are. A few were simple, like combs, brushes, articles of clothing, but a few were more complex, like guessing what material the scarf was made from, what kind of seeds she had in a small bag. After examining everything a few times and getting the answers to her questions right, I was awarded with the skill.

  Through tutelage and practice, you have earned the skill [Identify (C)]

  “I got it!” I exclaimed, not only to her, but to the other two as well.

  Axel was not as happy about that though, as he grumpily replied, “Great, now can we get back to making me a proper weapon? I’m tired of waving around this damn stick all day.”

  I apologized for getting distracted, though it really only took at most 5 minutes. He spent that time getting changed into non-blood-soaked pants and rinsing the blood and grime off of his body.

  I brought my attention back over to the table I made and the lump of iron on it.

  “So, I assume you want another axe, correct? How big do you want the blade?”

  What followed was a few minutes of us talking in circles about the design. I eventually got fed up with the non-descript descriptions he was giving and decided to first make a model out of wood. I reconnected my puppet to a nearby root and used that to supply resources to make the model. I started off with a basic design: a halfmoon blade attached to a long stick.

  “Okay, show me what you want. I’ll alter it as we go.”

  Axel and I went back and forth about how large he wants it, where he wants the curves, and how the balance should feel. At the end, we decided on a double-sided axe with two large blades on either side and an extra thick shaft. I got him to hold the wooden handle and molded the grip to his hand, but he said he would prefer a straight handle as he liked to slide his grip as he needed. I thinned the handle a bit more to compensate for his hands then got to work trying to make this work.

  I started off the same way as I always did: I flooded the metal with as much mana as it would take. When I could see it start to glow from mana saturation, I started bending it to my will.

  Except, it wouldn’t budge.

  I poured more mana into the metal, hoping that it was just a fluke, but it still wouldn’t bend to my desires. I contacted Aspen, hoping she would have the key to understanding this, as I clearly didn’t.

  “I’m sorry Willow, but I’ve never heard of someone controlling metal the way you described before. I wish I could help, I really do, but I just don’t know. The only thing I can think of is to replicate the situation and see what’s different between now and then.”

  Ugh. This is going to take a lot longer than I thought.