As Thomas opened his eyes he seen Maple sitting beside him with her hands above his back and glowing green. Thomas stared at her for a moment and asked "What are you doing?" Maple stared at him and said "Your destructive power is greater then the amount of damage your body can take, some of your fingers broke on impact, I'm guessing it was from that final big punch you threw." As Thomas sat up she moved her hands back slightly and said "It would be best if you let me see your hands so I could heal them for you." Thomas stared at his hands and said "That explains why I had to push my mana reserves way beyond what they should've been capable of." Thomas glanced up at her and said "Speaking of mana, how long was I out?" Maple began to heal his hands as she said "Roughly around two days, I would've healed you while you were asleep however I was worried that you might turn against me and so I just started this treatment a few hours ago."
Thomas stared at his own hands and thought to himself "Poppy really must've been reducing the pain I felt, this hurts like hell!" Maple glanced at his face and said "You seem quite calm about this, aren't you in pain." Thomas stared at her for a moment and said "I'm fine, don't worry about it." Thomas sighed and said "Unfortunately I still feel extremely exhausted." Maple stared at him and said "I substituted some of that mana as you call it with some of my own power, it'll return to me once you can sustain yourself." Maple glanced back at his hands and said "There's another thing I'd like to talk to you about as well, if you wouldn't mind." Thomas stared at her and said "If this is about me leaving I'll leave soon so I won't be a bother to you." Maple stared at him with a disappointed look and said "It has nothing to do with that, I was actually wondering if you'd like to learn this spell, as the humans call it."
Thomas tilted his head and said "I guess I'd be interested in learning it, but what for?" Maple stared at him and said "The way you grew those trees, your a dryad, right?" Thomas thought for a moment and said "Wait, I only remember I'm brewing those seeds with enough to make them sprout, but they were fully grown by the time I passed out, weren't they?" Maple nodded and said "Of course, I transferred my energy through the ground in order to make them grow much quicker." Thomas sat there thinking about all the mana he wasted as he said "Then, I pushed myself to the point of exhaustion, for no reason!" Maple nodded and said "Yes, however it has made me see you in a new found light fellow dryad." Thomas stared at her and said "But I'm not a dryad, I'm a demi human." Maple glared at him and stopped heading him as she said "Then your not a dryad or an animal?"
As roots came close to his back he thought for a moment and said "Well, I guess I am technically part animal." Thomas continued to think about how he constantly just slept and ate as he said "On second thought, maybe I am more animal then I think." The roots sunk back into the ground and covered themselves as Maple continued her healing and said "Then I have no reason to go against you." Thomas stared at her in shock and said "Go against me, for what?" Maple immediately changed the subject as he asked and said "Never mind that, so are you at least part dryad?" Thomas thought for a while and said "I don't think so." Maple thought for a while and said "This spell might not work then." Thomas stared at her and said "You keep calling it a spell but you don't seem to sure about what a spell is." Maple nodded and said "That's because all of those humans and other creatures come here in search of such a thing, I don't even know why they call it that."
As Maple lowered her hands she said "I'm reaching my limit, your hands should be better then they were before, but I wouldn't recommend using them to do anything for a while." Maple stared at him and said "Now then, about this spell, I suppose I'll show it to you, but I wouldn't get your hopes up, since dozens of greedy humans have tried it and failed, of course, they were much weaker compared to you." As they stood up Maple placed her hand on his forehead and said "I'll need to focus for a moment since this isn't my own body, so please refrain from distracting me." Thomas stood there silently as he thought to himself "Standing here without saying anything is making this kinda awkward." As she removed her hand Thomas asked "So what di-" before he could finish talking a sharp root came up from the ground and slashed his stomach. Thomas was pushed back a few feet and had some blood dripping from his chest as he coughed blood.
As he held his stomach he mumbled "What... kind of spell... is that... supposed to be?" Maple pointed to his stomach and said "It barely caused a scratch on you, it strengthened your skin, much like how I would've strengthened the trees." Thomas crouched down and held his stomach as he mumbled "But I feel like my guts were just tossed around." Maple walked over to him and said "It only feels like that because you weren't prepared for the attack." Maple sat down and said "Now you try it, don't feel bad if it doesn't work, but I figured letting you try the spell is the best way to compensate you for fending off that fire creature and repairing the damages you and it caused."
Thomas stared at his stomach and said "It is a surprisingly small cut, but a heads up would've been nice, although I have recently started carrying more clothes in my sub space, so I guess it's not that big of a deal." Maple stared at him and said "If clothes are an issue, then I can command plants to cover up your privates so your not completely exposed to the cold of the forest." Thomas stared at her and said "No thanks, I'll stick to people made clothes." Maple stared at him and said "The human clothes do look comfortable, but I'm sure my plant coverage works just as well." Thomas took his jacket off and set it down beside himself and said "Enough about clothing, let's test this thing out." Thomas closed his eyes and said "I think I understand what you did." As Thomas opened his eyes he said "You increased certain chemicals inside my body in order to make the surface harder."
Maple stared at him and said "Yes, I increase the carbon in your body and compress it into a see through material, the compressed version keeps its durability and it works as a hidden armor." Thomas smiled and said "Then hit me as hard as you can." As Maple hit him he was sent flying and smacked into a tree. As he laid there on the ground he mumbled "I... don't think... I did it right." Maple walked over to him and raised the back of his shirt to reveal a bloodied and bruised back as she said "No, you completely failed, you didn't compress nearly enough of it, and you need to generate more carbon, try using that mana thing to replicate carbon cells." Thomas stumbled up and closed his eyes once more as he said "Just give me a minutes, this time I'll get it right." As he opened his eyes this time he had a thin black layer guarding his stomach as he lifted his shirt and said "Okay, now hit me." Mole stared at him for a moment and asked "Are you sure you can't take another hit?"
Thomas smiled with some blood dripping from his chin and said "Just hit me, maybe a little lighter this time, but not too light." As he was hit again he skimmed across the ground stopped once his back hit a tree. Thomas took a step forward and said "It still hurts, but it's not nearly as bad as that first attempt." Maple stared at the black layer and watched as it crumbled and fell off of him as she said "It needs a lot of improvement, it can't even take a hit, and you still took a lot of damage from that hit, I'd recommend practicing it regularly until you can do it as easily as you breathe." Thomas picked up a piece of his carbon armor and said "Really, I thought that was pretty good for only a second try." Maple nodded and said "Yes it was, however it's far from being able to compete with mine." Thomas nodded and said "Yeah, yours wasn't visible and took a lot more damage then mine."