Sun’s out, guns out. Time to crush something.

  I looked around for something large that I can try to make smaller and found the answer in my canopy.

  As I’ve been growing larger, the Resource Berries I made so long ago have grown with me. The health berries started off looking like regular cherries, but now they were much larger, about the size of an apple. It looks aesthetically right for the health berries, but the blue mana berries just look weird being that large. The same goes for the stamina berries, though they could pass as grapefruits. I think they would all do better if they went back to their previous size.

  I think I’ll start with the mana berries, given they were already saturated with my mana. I focused on making them smaller. It felt off at first, but I think that was due to me trying to copy how I condensed the mana water. The fruits are a little more fragile, so I opted to switch the method I was using. Instead of trying to condense the liquid inside, I created a barrier of mana around the berry and focused on closing in around it.

  It started to work, making the berry visibly smaller. But, as I continued making the berry smaller and smaller, it got harder to compress it further. I decided to decrease the pressure of the mana barrier I had made and removed it completely. Keeping the high pressure up for so long was starting to become mentally draining. I let the mana barrier fall slowly, starting from the top.

  As soon as it opened a fraction of an inch, liquid mana berry spurted out the top.

  Damn. I guess that didn’t work.

  Just to be sure, I tried the same thing a few more times, hoping for a different outcome. On the last attempt, I put as much effort into making it as small as possible as I could, but still resulted in the liquid inside the berry gushing out.

  After my most recent attempt, I was suddenly aware of the elves watching. Elvis in particular seemed to be surprised at how much mana I’ve been wasting over the last hour. I could hear them talking to each other, but I opted to ignore them for the moment. I really wanted to make this work, and I doubt a humanoid could help a plantoid like myself, especially not with this particular skill.

  Half a day went by as I continued trying different variations of compressing the mana berries into smaller versions of themselves. So far, every attempt has ended in failure. Thankfully though, due to my large mana pool and high regeneration, I was able to try again with few breaks between attempts.

  Soon enough, that half day turned into a full day, then two, then a full week.

  During that week, the elves would spend their day in the common room I had made, eating the fruits I occasionally replenished and drinking from a barrel of water that I had made at their request. During the nights, they would go to their room and sleep and chat amongst themselves. I honestly paid very little attention to them, and they seemed content to be ignored for now. I was happy to let them be.

  After the end of the second week of no progress, I decided to put my pride to the side and ask for help. I could tell from a conversation during the first week that Elvis knew something that could probably help me, but I was just too stubborn at the time to ask. Two weeks of failures had gotten the better of me.

  I sheepishly connected to Elvis and requested his assistance.

  “Alright, what is it you know, oh keeper of the Vibrant Grove? How can I make my Resource Berries smaller without squishing them into a pulp?”

  “It’s the Verdant Grove, Great Tree – erm, I mean, Willow. It’s named that way due to the vibrant life that grows there and makes up the entirety of the forest.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever. The Vigilante Grove it is. Now how can you help me?”

  I could feel a spike of anger through the connection I shared with him, and it pleased me to no end. Sure, I wanted his help, but I could always continue to brute force my way through it. I still have plenty of time between now and when I finally get to start making proper golems.

  “Well, Willow,” he said with gritted teeth, “can you explain to me what you have done so far? I can’t help until I know that at the least.”

  I then explained to him all the methods of compression I’ve tried and how each one seems to end in the same way – with a busted berry.

  “Yes, Silvan and I have been watching. I’ve noticed the rain of mana berry juice. Have you tried compressing the mana before it makes its way to the mana berry rather than compressing the berry itself?”

  I stared at him dumbfounded. Out of all the ways I had failed, that was one I had yet to attempt. Hell, I even tried squishing one with my vines before I even thought of that. I threw a wave of appreciation at the link we shared before severing it and bringing my attention back to my canopy.

  I had plenty of room on my branches to make new berries, so I opted to do that instead of trying to alter one of the other berries like I had been doing so far.

  I grew out a leaf on a barren spot and prepared to fill it with mana, like I had done all the other times to make more berries. This time, I opted to fill the berry with mana compressed to just before the point of becoming mana water.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  The leaf started absorbing the mana like a dry sponge dipped in water for the first time in weeks. It rapidly plumped up to the size of a normal blueberry, similar in size as the first time I made the berries. However, it didn’t stop there and kept growing and growing, until it reached the point of my other mana berries. Then it went further and grew to the size of a pumpkin then a large beach ball, then it popped like an overinflated balloon.

  The failure was disappointing, but I was still determined. I kept at it, failing twenty more times before giving up on filling it with mana. Instead, I decided to fill it with mana water.

  I made the leaf, like before. Then I dipped into my mana water reserves, taking out enough to displace a normal sized blueberry and bringing it up to the leaf. If this experiment failed, then a whole lot of mana will have gone to waste.

  The mana water reached the leaf, and it was absorbed again just like before. This time, though, the berry stopped growing at the exact size I wanted it too! I had my first success! I even got an upgrade for it, and what an upgrade it was, gaining an entire rank!

  Through repeated trials and numerous errors, you have upgraded your skill [Resource Berry (R)] to [Resource Berry (E)].

  I quickly swiped the notification away and tried making a few more berries similar to the first successful one. Fortunately, the following berries didn’t require me to use mana water and instead compressed the mana by itself as it was absorbed.

  The next few hours were spent replacing each and every mana berry I had with a compressed version of itself. They were even upgraded from housing only 2% to an entire 5% of my mana pool. I assume that would be because of how much mana is in the mana water that made up the berries.

  Once I was done with the replacement of all the mana berries, it was time to move on to the health and stamina berries as well. I started by using a vine to scrub the branches thereby destroying the berries that were currently growing there as well as the points at which they spawned from. This enables me to create a whole bunch of new spawning points for the new berries.

  Oddly enough, the new berries didn’t require me compressing the fluid going into the berry like it did for the mana berries. Instead, once I started growing the berries, the skill sort of just took over, compressing the liquid by itself after I got the berry started. They then started to grow to their original sizes, being as small as cherries and yellow grapes. I was glad, though, as I had no clue how to compress health. It would have probably taken me a while to get to that point.

  I filled the entirety of the underside of a branch with buds for each type of berry. Overtime, they will each grow into fuller versions of their respective resource berry. I was glad I didn’t have to take such an active role beyond that, as it would have been a major pain in the ass. I checked on the new skill description as I went about my business, hoping to get some insight into how the new skill works. The only difference I saw from the previous description to the current one was in the last line.

  Resource Berry (E): Active. User pushes one of their resources into a small berry that hangs from a user-determined location. Berry color is influenced by resource type. User can access the resources held in the berry at will, though depleted berries will shrivel up and fall. Passive. Depleted or picked berries will regenerate over time. Rate of berry replacement is dependent on surplus resource regeneration. Only previously made berries will be regenerated. Resources will compress to fill the user’s desired berry size, maintaining 5% of the user’s desired resource pool per berry.

  I forgot how long of a description it was. It made sense, though, given how complex a skill it was. I can’t complain about skill description when it really is such an awesome skill.

  Making so many berry buds took a surprising amount of time, dragging out to the end of the day. I was hoping to thank Elvis for his assistance, but also figured he was probably in bed by now. I went and checked on the food supply I had set out for them and saw that he was still up and relaxing in the chair I had made for the common room.

  I reached out to him with a tendril of thought. He jumped slightly as I made the connection, but through the surprise, I could feel his usual smugness at being able to help. I had to give him credit, though. His insight was pretty useful.

  “I see you are still awake.”

  I didn’t want to jump right into giving him praise, especially given what I was already feeling through the connection.

  “I am. I was watching you work. It’s a shame to see all those berries go to waste, but I see you were finally successful in your endeavors. Do you mind if I ask if you received a skill upgrade? The new berries seem a whole lot smaller than I expected.”

  I wasn’t keen on sharing too much about my skill with him, but given his contributions, I was inclined to answer.

  “I did. If I am assuming correctly, I received 4 skill levels worth of an upgrade, going from Rare grade to Epic grade Resource Berries. I hate to admit it, but your advice was very helpful. Thank you.”

  I felt his smugness surge again, though he did well in cooling his appearance, at least. He took a second to compose himself before speaking again, during which I could feel a small, yet growing sense of confusion within him.

  “Do you not know the upgrade levels between skill grades?”

  I gritted my non-existent teeth before admitting I did not.

  “I was only told of the grades as they exist and know only what I have seen so far. I know that there is only one upgrade between Common and Uncommon, and two between Uncommon and Rare. I am assuming it doubles between each rank, no?”

  A few of my magic related skills are on the cusp of reaching Epic rank, with Fire Magic and Air Magic both being at (R+3), but I haven’t gotten any verbal verification from anyone yet, so this is just an assumption. I was just glad that Resource Berry was able to jump straight to Epic.

  Elvis nodded before responding. “You are correct. The upgrade requirements between grades double with each increasing grade. From Rare to Epic 4 upgrade levels, from Epic to Legendary is 8 upgrade levels, and from Legendary to Mythic is 16 upgrade levels, though that last one is only speculation. There has been no recorded person with a Mythic grade skill.”

  Damn. That’s… 31 upgrade levels to go from Common to Mythic. And here I thought getting to Legendary would be almost impossible. Should I focus all my level upgrades on one skill going forward then?

  I kept my contemplations to myself, though. I didn’t want to give him too much information. But it was also valuable information to have confirmed. I had been wondering how the skill levels progress, but didn’t get the chance to ask the Laughing Vipers before they left.

  “I see. I thank you for confirming that for me.”

  Double damn. Am I starting to like this guy? I mean, he’s helpful, at the very least. I don’t know if I’ll go so far as to say like yet, but he has his moments.

  “Of course. I am glad to be of service.”

  He stifled a yawn before looking around the room. I could feel through the bond that he was hoping to get to bed soon, so I gave him a farewell. There will always be tomorrow to weasel more information out of him.

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