I ended up relaxing for the night, opting to take some time off of the projects I had lined up. The last couple of weeks had been non-stop work, work, work, and I needed a break, break, break.

  Given it was night time, I basked in the glow of the moonlight, absorbing what energy I could from the beautiful rays. In my branches rested a pair of birds that had been hanging around me lately, and one of them was awake right now.

  I made a connection between the two of us and sent a request to the critter. I simply asked it to look up at the moon and to allow me to look through its eyes. Given I didn’t have any other way to look at the stars and moon above, this was the next closest I could get. In return, I brought over one of the fruits I had grown for his consumption.

  There wasn’t much in the way of acknowledgement from the bird, given its lack of sapience, but it seemed to understand that I was interested in the moon. It looked in the direction I wanted it to, thereby allowing me to see it for the first time in quite a while. It was slightly odd, seeing through the bird’s eye, but it was still a satisfying experience.

  It was a mostly clear night, and the moon was full tonight. It was larger than I remember, taking up much of the night sky. Its white hue was tinged with a bit of yellow, but its glow radiating down on me felt immaculate.

  I spent quite a few moments staring at the moon through my avian companion. I sent a steady stream of happy thoughts to my little friend, making sure it knew how much I appreciated it. After about 10 or so minutes, I slowly released the connection I had on it and went back to seeing only what was in my little bubble.

  I was happy that my Domain of Awareness was growing, however slowly it was, but I wish I could see the outside world on a more regular basis. I wish I had eyes. It was getting tiresome only being able to see as far as my roots could reach. Maybe it was time to spend some stamina growing them out more. Or maybe I should spread further out through some more uses of Parasitic Takeover.

  I looked around and saw that I still had quite a few trees that were non-intelligent left in my current ring of influence. It only took a few minutes before they were all assimilated into my ever-growing body. There were plenty of bushes as well, in fact, there were more than I remember starting with, but I opted to leave those alone. I only wanted to absorb the trees around me, nothing smaller and nothing that has intelligence.

  After absorbing everything that was already fully in my range, I opted to hold off on taking control of the trees that were only partially in range. I could easily latch on to one of their roots and assimilate them, but I think waiting will be good to work on my patience. I feel like I’ve been too pushy in the last few months, urging myself to grow faster than I needed to.

  Instead, I decided to fill up my mana water reserve. I had to use a small amount of it to upgrade my Resource Berries to epic grade, and I want to replace what I used before I go about starting a new task.

  I immediately got to creating more mana water, and as I did so, I realized something. There haven’t been any Orcs since the elves showed up.

  What’s the deal with that? I was turning away a few groups of Orcs every night when the Laughing Vipers were here. I mean, I don’t mind not having to actually do anything while on guard duty, but it’s still strange.

  And how come I haven’t gotten any visitors since they left? It’s been almost a month since they left, so I would have expected at least one group to come by and check me out. Well, besides these elves.

  As I contemplated my current situation, I started eavesdropping on the elves while I continued making more and more mana water. It was pretty much the only thing to do at the moment, anyways. I was surprised that they were up so late, but the answer as to why was quickly given. I had to admit; they were cute together.

  Elowen kept glancing nervously at the Great Tree. He was aware that this Great Tree was a lot more active than most Great Trees, but there were very few that were as magically active.

  In the two weeks that they have been here, Willow spent most of his time trying to upgrade his Resource Berry skill to decrease the size of the fruits. Most Great Trees didn’t care to do this as the larger fruits indicated larger resource pool size and were shown off as a mark of pride, but Willow didn’t seem to care as long as it did what it was supposed to. He was glad the Great Tree took his advice, but he was also surprised at how quickly the advice paid off.

  Most Great Trees tended to be slower and took life as it came to them. Willow seemed to be different in that he was proactive in creating ways to deal with possible future issues. One way he was doing that was by storing massive quantities of mana in the base of his trunk.

  Silvan shook Elowen to get his attention. During the night, the Great Tree had continued to amass more mana under his trunk, and the movement of the mana was freaking her out.

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  “It’s okay, my love. The Great Tree is just living its life as it always has. It has been kind and generous with us so far, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  Silvan shoved his arm a bit, and Elowen turned to look at her.

  ‘It’s odd for her to be this awake at night,’ Elowen thought, ‘especially given how much she loves to sleep. Is Willow moving that much mana? She’s not even the magical type. I mean, I know I can feel a lot of it, but I am a lot more sensitive than her to these things. That and I have the skill to sense it.’

  Elowen opened his arms in an inviting manner, and she gladly plopped down on top of him. That was apparently exactly what she needed, as he heard her start to snore soon after.

  They spent the rest of the night like this, Elowen not getting much more sleep beyond that. He wasn’t upset though. He would do anything to comfort his partner.

  When the sun started to rise and they finally got out of bed, they headed straight over to the dining area Willow had set up. To their surprise, though, they had a guest in the form of one of Willow’s many puppets. This one, however, seemed a lot less battle ready than the other in his employ. In fact, it looked eerily like one of the many dryads that inhabited the Verdant Grove, with the leafy hair and muscular, wooden body.

  As the pair approached the puppet, they were met with a tendril of Willow's mind. They opened themselves to the connection and accepted it whole-heartedly. It was a very convenient method of conversation, and Elowen had to admit that he wished he had picked up Mental Magic instead of the basic elemental magics.

  “I hope my nightly activities didn’t keep the two of you up,” Willow said in his deep voice.

  Elowen had to admit that if he wasn’t such a strong presence or if they had a better relationship, the deepness of his voice would be rather calming. There was still plenty of time to curate the relationship, though. They still had most of a year to convince Willow to come back with them before they had to call this mission a failure.

  Elowen smiled. “Only slightly, but don’t feel the need to concern yourself with us. May I ask what it is you were doing? That was quite a large amount of mana you were moving.”

  Elowen could feel the hesitation in the connection with Willow, but the Great Tree ultimately agreed to share.

  “I was storing mana in the form of mana water. I have had to deal with a monster where I required more mana than I had access to, and this is my solution. The water is relatively easy to make, just time consuming.”

  Elowen’s eyes shot open. Mana water was a rare and valuable alchemical ingredient. The fact that Willow was able to make it himself was incredible! Very few sapient beings could make it themselves, requiring tremendous force of will to create even a little. Yet Willow here said it was easy!

  Silvan spoke up before Elowen could.

  “You never cease to amaze me, Willow. What monster made it to the point where you needed to do this though? It must have been incredibly strong, if that’s the case.”

  “It was a giant with Legendary grade regeneration. It required a combination of Earth Magic, Fire Magic, and Air Magic to weather it down. And that’s after I destroyed its mind with Mental Magic. The beast was incredibly strong, and I want to be prepared in case I ever need to face something like that again.”

  Silvan and Elowen looked at each other with awe plastered on their faces. To overcome Legendary grade regeneration would require skill beyond anything they had access to at the moment, and they weren’t lacking in levels. Silvan would have to work tirelessly to keep it pinned down while Elowen worked his various magics to slowly tear apart the beast. It would have probably taken them a few days to take out such a threat. It amazed both of them that Willow was able to do such a thing at such a low level by himself.

  Then again, it also surprised them that such a beast was around such a low-level area. Was it attracted by something? Was it spawned during the level shift? Was it someone’s tamed beast?

  A thousand thoughts ran through their heads as they tried to imagine what could have brought such a beast to this location. Then they both seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time: Willow needed to be moved sooner rather than later.

  Grove Keepers such as themselves were given a year to persuade wild Great Trees like Willow to come with them to the Verdant Grove. The reason for the elongated length of time was due to how slow Great Trees typically interacted with their environment and the need to build a reputation with the Great Tree before moving them.

  However, Willow was a special case given how he interacts at a much more rapid pace than most Great Trees and the danger he was in in such a dangerous forest. Yet again, on the other hand, he was also perfectly prepared to deal with the dangers of the area. He has shown remarkable magical talent to defend himself as well as a sense of empathy that leaves him supporting strangers around him.

  Elowen was torn between continuing to try and convince Willow to come with them and giving up now and returning home and reporting the mission as a failure, but that Willow was still a cooperative being. This topic needed much more discussion with his partner than he was comfortable doing in his presence. Maybe it was time for the pair to go take a walk around the surrounding forest for some privacy.

  The three of them continued talking for quite a while, their conversation going on well into the day and stretching some into the night. Elowen started trying to wrap the talk up though when he noticed Silvan start yawning. They had gotten quite detailed with the fight with the giant, and Willow seemed happy enough to share details of his victory. It was bloodier than he would have liked to hear, but it was also extremely impressive to see the ingenuity that Willow possessed.

  “Willow, my friend, I think we need to retire for the night. We appreciate your company, but our bodies and minds need rest. We’ll be retiring to our room for now, but thank you for your presence.”

  Elowen would have been fine talking for a while longer, but he knew how grumpy Silvan would start to become if she didn’t receive proper sleep. For the sake of the relationship with Willow, they needed to sleep.

  “Yes, yes. Get some rest. I hadn’t realized how long we were talking. I’ll leave you be. Goodnight, you two. I’ll try to avoid keeping you up tonight.”

  Elowen was strongly appreciative of his host, given how little he asked and how understanding he was. Tomorrow, though, he needed to talk with Silvan. They had an important decision to make regarding their newest friend.

  Discord Here!