Year 1 Month 1 Week (Day 5)
It was morning, at a time that seem to be in between dawn and early morning. There a small vine was slowly making it's way around or maybe slithering would describe it better. Like a snake wondering aimlessly and on a closer look you can identify small red streaks on its suspicious looking green shade of color and the red streaks adds another layer of shadiness. The other small vines seem to sense it's movements and quickly wrapped around it preventing it from attracting unwanted attention and as the vine with red streaks try to escape again the normal vines suddenly grew more cooperative and if back then they looked like they were following their instincts mindlessly doing what they felt was right, moved like multiple different entities but now they move all at once like a singular creature with a clear goal in mind and with that cooperation they quickly subdued the odd vine.
'tsk still in the red after all of that'
'I already caught 6! and it's so early I finally got my closest experience to sleep in this world and I woke up before the sun can even rise!' Alex said while looking at the vines from his black world.
Alex was complaining and whining so much that the only thoughts on his mind are Mayamin waking up as early as possible.
Maya's body sat at the center of Alex's tree body heavily protected. As they were there(Alex mainly) bored with nothing to do except complain to himself and baiting birds Alex's got bored fast You might think Alex's patience would be high since he is a tree (Albeit a suspicious looking one) but in fact it somehow worsened.
'Hmm a few more and I will be back on white. The roots the feeding skill had enhanced with it's dark aura are slowly losing their bonus from being starved'
Alex was confused at first until his system answered a question by itself for the first time.
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That one sentence was the answer. Turns out skills can be enhanced he just doesn't know how as he was wondering that.
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Well simple enough he also got a rundown on what happened to his skills since the system is being extremely nice as of late. The System showed it without even asking since he/she already knew what he wanted to see.
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[--------------------]
Nutrients Point: -8(red) (5000)
Completion rate: Negative
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Rank 2(low) Treant
Title: Living Tree
Common skills:
Mana absorbing roots Lv3 (body)
Trapper Lv9
Bait Lv9
Uncommon skills:
Sense Surrounding
Nourishment
Bird Language
Tree editing Lv8
Feeding Roots Lv4
Rare:
Sharp Branch
Familiar skills
Familiar: Summon
Unique: N/A
Blessings:
Umm maybe a holy being? (Too weak to read other details)
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//Blessed\\
//Hunger\\
Alex with the help of the system managed to make a optimized status for when he about to battle. That shows his HP and MP without having to keep a flouting panel on.
'Well sure I might be overthinking things but if I'm ever find myself in a battlefield where I have to fight I will need it and what better time to make it than now when the System is being helpful.'
'Hmm the teaching methods the system is getting better if back then when I get taught something it feels blurry now I can more easily remember it maybe Ranking up really does improve it?'
He also added a stamina bar but it only showed the total amount of nutrients.
'Hey I am slowly seeing a pattern here don't tell me I use nutrients as stamina? You know the second kind of Stamina the one that limits how much you can move in game. Yeah that kind of stamina'
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'Hmm sounds good enough to me' As he was finished putting the battle mode system and about to try baiting birds again.
He continued only partly listening to what the system is telling him without being asked.
'But hey who would complain?'
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'What? this is' As he looked around he saw himself back in a world of darkness. But not in his version of it (Yes he got the idea about making the black domain from his promotion) but in the original.
Why? Of course he had no time to ask as this time the ... Promotion process seem to be in a rush.
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<<60>> <<59>>
As he saw it start counting down he steeled himself to choose the magic but ... something was different from before.
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'Umm why does it feel as if this 3 look familiar?'
After looking a bit more closely he came to the conclusion that ...
'Hmm so my guess was right the Bodily Modification is the Learn: Hardening but better I guess. Then the Magic talent would be learn magic then the Random Affinity is now a dark affinity.'
<<45>>
The time was slowly getting lesser and lesser but he was in no rush as he tried to learn more about this dark domain and the biggest reason being ...
'I can only choose Magic Talent' Yes the other seem to be greyed out Impossible to get.
'Plus Magic talent is something I would get anyway' Because the fact that maybe he can get talent simply like that ... well it would change everything. Suddenly gaining knowledge is one thing but becoming talented is something else entirely and from what he knows this is the best in the long term.
'Well Magic Talent here we go' Alex choose inwardly hoping he becomes something you would call magically talented
This time instead of shooting an orb of light at him the Orb of Light in that was shot at him last time instead glowed blue before dimming. After that the entire dark place seem to change but not because it changed how it shows itself but rather how he see's it.
'This is ... more complex than complex is this what they call being so stupid that I wouldn't know real music if it hit me in the face?'
Because that is what it felt like a kid realizing how what he is watching in tv is made of countless small pixels just to project a talking sponge.
'Is this what it feels like to see through the eyes of a genius?'
As the second wave of choices came up seeing there are no changes he continued to choose magic with only a small hint of hesitation.
'With the magical boost and the Magical talent I will have to at least become above average in this world's standard'
Satisfied with his improvements Alex continued on without even further questioning why he is being given this second promotion ritual.
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'Umm did the System just make a pun?' before anything of course not even questioning why he is being given a bonus. He first asked if the System made a pun.
With a sound as if the power source had been cut off the darkness covering him slowly disappeared and faded out.
'Ok let's test the magic talent if I can make a simple spell or two i can give Mayamin a nice surprise'
After doing some testing he easily got a skill before after 15 minutes he stopped as his progress slowed down by a lot.
'Damn this is harder than I thought but it sure feels easier than when I tried to use magic in the past'
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Yes he tried to in the past but it wasn't very helpful all he did was be able to sense his mana and where it is which by the way seemed to go around his body like veins in which there are spots with more mana than others and the bigger ones being the upper part of the trunk and the roots in that order.
His logic was "If Treants in games can use a buttload of of spells while having a outrageous amount of Health then it would make sense I can learn magic too right?"
'But the Mana Sense 𝘪𝘴 helpful since I can better see and distinguish what I see ... maybe I can form a circle here and try to add things into it like a balloon ...' As he quietly experimented in underground cavity 2 he original used to store food which is a meter long and a little short of half a meter tall. Underground cavity 1 is the biggest which is 2 meters long and has two "floors" in which a floor is half a meter high which currently only floor 1 has anything on it.
As noon arrived and so did Mayamin start to wake up.
'The shaping of the strands of many should be ..' Then when Alex finally noticed it he stopped what he was doing and the mana underground dissipated
As Mayamin woke up instead of any sort of abnormal reaction like shock or fear of the moment before she fell asleep or why she is suddenly in her "room" Yes she was given this space by Alex since she decided to stay and he wasn't fond of the idea of letting her sleep in literal death traps he created for murdering birds.
But Mayamin instead of those feelings felt safe even before she could realize she was in her room (not well furnished yet) she felt "safe" for some reason she currently has no idea that this is one of the indirect affects of the familiar skills that have been raised a rank.
Alex quickly fetched the seeds he gathered up.
'Though I don't know what she likes specifically gathered quite a few by spreading using my already spread roots since my nutrients is still low it is very little but I sure did get a few high in mana' Alex had remembered what the system said before about how some rank 3 monsters can survive mostly on mana so he thought the more mana the better.