Now that I had an army of golems and a couple of dryads protecting my forest, I think it was high time I took a bit of a sabbatical.

  For a while now, I have been very active in my surroundings. When I first came to this world, I was truly a tree. I was an occasional influence on my surroundings; hence there are no longer any ants in the forest. However, I spent much of my time simply existing. I soaked up the sun, spread my roots, and grew up to be big and tall.

  But lately, I’ve been doing what I feel like is too much. I think it’s high time I go back to my roots, pun intended.

  Confident in my safety and the safety of Honey and her hive, I returned to my clearing. I checked on my little bee, and sure enough, she was buzzing away, birthing new larvae and orchestrating the creation process of honey in her hive. I watched her for a short while, enjoying the peace and simplicity of life. Next thing I knew, night was falling. I took this opportunity to talk to Honey about my plans.

  “Tree God!” Honey exclaimed, suddenly becoming aware of my presence. “What can Honey and Hive of the Tree God do for Tree God?”

  “I’d like to let you in on my plans for the foreseeable future.” I felt her snap to attention, all her focus shifting to me. “I plan on resting for a while. Think of it as a sort of… hibernation. Between the Mana Fog preventing foreign casters, the multitude of golems I have spread throughout my territory, and the caster golems set around the clearing, I feel that you will be plenty safe during this time. I won’t be able to contact you during my time hibernating, so I wanted to make sure you were okay before I slept.”

  I could feel a ping of sadness coming from my loyal bee queen, but I could tell she understood the need for some entities to sleep for long periods. Apparently, some kinds of bees enter an inactive state during the winter, which is what she equates to hibernating. As long as she understood, then it would be fine.

  I went around my territory, checking on things. I grew a few extra thorny shrubs for the rabbits and other critters to hide in, since most of the ones I had made before were occupied. I added some nutritious fruit to many of my branches and shrubs for all sorts of critters to enjoy, and I even added a few resource berry nodes as well, though I kept them small and didn’t make them as potent as the ones in my clearing.

  Once I made it to the edges of my occupied land, I went ahead and claimed a few dozen more trees to join my hive. In the grand scheme of things, that didn’t really add much, given how many hundreds of trees I now consisted of. I had been adding a few trees per day for the last few weeks, but it was still nice to gain land. After they were adjusted to fit in the surrounding land (added vines, thorny shrubs, extra fruit), I went back to my clearing. I felt like it was finally time to spread my awareness and relax.

  I got back to the clearing and informed the caster golems of my intentions as well. Just before I spread my mind, I remembered I had promised a way for a couple of the golems to come back and recharge their resources. The only way I could think to do that without my direct input would be to put a caster in charge of it.

  I created an acorn core, giving it the Mental Magic and Earth Magic skills. It would be able to use the first skill to communicate with the incoming golems about how to recharge, and use the last skill to open the way for them.

  On the outskirts of the clearing, I created a small cave; it was big enough to comfortably allow the largest of the golems I made while small enough to not require additional supports. Inside the cave, I grew a series of branches that each contained bunches of resource berries. Since none of the golems could use magic, I limited them to Stamina Berries and Health Berries. They should be able to consume them to regain the resources they need to continue with their missions.

  Directly above the cave entrance was a set of bushes. I removed those bushes and grew a replacement that was nearly identical in shape and size. Then I extended a root that reached down into the chamber of mana water, which would fuel the golem’s magic. With the preparations done, I placed the core into the golem and waited only a moment before connecting to it and giving it its mission. The greeting was now standard, and we moved on to the particulars.

  “Your mission will be an easy one. I want you to use your Mental Magic to connect to any golems of my creation and guide them to the cave below you. In the cave lies a collection of berries that will let the golems heal and grant them the energy to continue the missions that I have bestowed upon them. Use the Earth Magic skill you have to open the way, and when they are done, close the cave entrance. This cave is special, and I can’t have any unknown beings enter.”

  The golem seemed to understand its job well enough, but it did have a request.

  “During my downtime, might I be allowed to use the magic for more… extracurricular activities?”

  Curious, I asked what it had in mind.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Well, with my Mental Magic, I can feel the minds of other golems similar to myself. Might I be granted permission to communicate with them? And as for Earth Magic, am I allowed to use the skill to otherwise entertain myself?”

  I thought about it and made my decision.

  “You may communicate as you wish and entertain yourself as you please. However, you are not to interfere with their given missions. The defense of myself and the hive in the branches will always take priority. If you interfere, you will be removed from your post and replaced. Am I clear?”

  If a bush could nod, I know this one would be. It quickly agreed to my terms, stating that it would even help coordinate the defense, acting as a sort of command center for the others when it came time. I also gave it the limitation to avoid overusing mana to prevent the mana water stores from sinking too low, though I doubted that would be a problem. I actually went ahead and expanded the size of the chamber below my tree to allow for more storage, if needed. It had been so long since I last spread my consciousness and experienced the time dilation effects of doing so that I was unsure of how long I would be “out” for.

  Having settled my immediate affairs, as well as preemptively solving a few potential problems, I brought my awareness back to my body. It had been a while since I looked at myself, and in doing so, I realized just how big my body had gotten. I was now several hundred feet tall, and my circumference was quite impressive. The size reminded me of a few trees from different games I played in my last life. I absentmindedly wondered if I would be able to create rooms inside my body at some point.

  Now that I was unencumbered from day-to-day life and taking a break to be a tree again, a series of notifications hit me like a brick. I was overwhelmed by how many I had.

  Orcs x3 have been killed. Experience awarded.

  Orcs x3 have been killed. Experience awarded.

  Orcs x3 have been killed. Experience awarded.

  You have leveled up!

  Orcs x3 have been killed. Experience awarded.

  Overwhelmed, I tried condensing them.

  “Condense notifications!” I mentally shouted.

  Calculating….

  A loading screen appeared in front of me. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I had stopped getting kill notifications from my golems performing their duties for a while now. And on top of that, I hadn’t leveled for quite a while, either. I wondered why, but I guess it had been a while since I was calm about the whole situation, and I guess the system went ahead and held the notifications back until I was ready to read them. Now that I was getting ready to relax and be a normal tree again, the system must have considered this an appropriate time to slam them all down my nonexistent throat.

  The loading screen took a few minutes to finish calculating, but when it was done, it was a doozy.

  Orcs x164 killed. Experience awarded.

  You have leveled up x5!

  Level cap for Race [Tree] reached! Select evolution path!

  Orcs x610 killed. Experience awarded.

  Level cap reached. Experience lost.

  Skeletons x411 killed. Experience awarded.

  Level cap reached. Experience lost.

  Orc Zombies x216 killed. Experience awarded.

  Level cap reached. Experience lost.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. When the hell did so many Orcs get killed? Where are their bodies? And skeletons? Zombies? When did that happen?”

  During my exploration of my land, I had noticed a few rough-looking Orc trios walking around; well, more stumbling around than walking. But were those the zombies? And what about the skeletons? I didn’t see any of those around!

  I was half tempted to go looking again, but decided to instead vamp up my protective forces.

  I quickly went to my experimental pond area and froze the ground before covering it with a layer of dirt. I then created a dirt puppet to pilot myself. In a nearby tree that was just an extension of myself, I grew a spear, the end being crafted of iron I pulled from the ground. I went through a few basic drills that I remember from different shows in my past life, just enough to learn a specific skill.

  Through practiced effort, you have learned the skill [Spear Mastery (C)].

  I dropped the spear and dispersed the dirt golem. I removed the covering layer from the pond and brought myself back to my main body, where I created a few new golems. I don’t know why I hadn’t gone through and learned any and all weapon skills that I could have before, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

  In the golems I created, I gave each one a layer of iron coverings. It should act as armor on top of the already hard bark that all my creations naturally had, though not as strong as if I gave them the Iron Bark skill.

  Each golem received the Spear Mastery skill, as well as Body Manipulation. They were given military personalities, as well as an overwhelming loyalty to me and a desire to protect my bees. The spears they wielded were also given cores, essentially creating sentient weapons. The spears were given the Iron Bark skill, which allowed them to be naturally sharp and have a hardened exterior. The accompanying Body Manipulation skill should act as a secondary weapon, allowing the weapon to also wield itself. The spears were given similar personalities to their wielders, as well as a desire to cooperate with them.

  I created 6 such golem combinations, and I was honestly proud of how impressive they looked. If I didn’t know better, I would say they were proper knights! I sent my new defenders to spread out at equal intervals around the clearing. Once they were in their proper spot, I grew roots from the bottom of their right foot and the bottom of the spears. This would act as their charging stations, as they didn’t have the required vines and leaves to regenerate resources on their own.

  Once again, I felt confident in my defensive measures. I knew that the Common rank skilled golems wouldn’t be a match for advanced monsters, but with the number of them that were present, paired with the caster golems, I felt assured that they would be safe during my resting period.

  I brought my mind and awareness back to my trunk and went through the notifications again. There was one line in particular that was of interest to me.

  Level cap for Race [Tree] reached! Select evolution path!

  “So, I can evolve, huh? That’s new. Let’s see what my options are!”

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