Rather than select my evolution immediately, I decided to relax for a bit. I stretched my mind out through my body and basked in the glow of the evening sun. It was a truly blissful feeling, but it wasn’t one I could enjoy to the fullest, knowing I had such an important decision to make. Still, I enjoyed a week of having nothing to do and having to do nothing. It was great.

  I retracted my mind from my body and felt the flow of time slowly compress back to normal. When I was back to experiencing one second per second, I reopened my evolution selection tab.

  “This time on ‘I’m a Tree. Now what?’ Will Willow finally choose his evolution? Will he choose to regain his previous life’s humanoid form? Or will he choose to remain on the path of a tree?”

  I laughed to myself, enjoying my humor.

  “Alright. Now what were the options again?”

  Select evolution path!

  Option 1) Middling Tree

  Option 2) Great Tree

  Option 3) Grand Tree

  Option 4) Mystic Tree

  Option 5) Middling Mystic Tree

  Option 6) Great Mystic Tree

  Option 7) Nature Sprite

  Option 8) Nature Spirit

  Option 9) Nature Pixie

  Option 10) Nature’s Avatar

  “Right! The Nature Being adult form, and the one that’s been giving me ominous OP vibes.”

  I selected the Nature Pixie option, and the visual popped up.

  The image presented to me was that of a large green ball sitting in the canopy of the tallest tree I had ever seen; it was almost as if the tree built a nest specifically for it. The tree itself seemed to glow, but given the image of the previous two evolutions, I knew that the glow was that of the Nature Pixie’s mind/essence. In the rest of the treetop, I watched as life went on. Birds flew in and out of the canopy, fruit was created, dropped, eaten, and rotted in seconds. I watched as seemingly years passed in mere moments. If I had to guess, Nature Pixies had a similar ability to trees to spread their minds and let the time fly by.

  After a few moments, I watched as the Nature Pixie condensed into a smaller cloud, still centered on its core. The cloud kept getting smaller and smaller until it was the size and shape of an average human male. As its form was reduced, the color became a more vibrant green. Once it reached its final form, it started shifting, altering the colors again to make a humanoid looking face.

  I was extremely interested in this form. Being able to gain a human shape again would be amazing for me. It would make interacting with people feel less like a whole ordeal and feel natural again. I should still be able to retain my magics, though I would probably lose a lot of my tree-related skills. That’s fine though… right?

  Hesitation hit me like a train.

  I had spent the last few years living as a tree, and I was honestly enjoying it, though I was still mentally getting used to it. I mean, I did forget I was a tree a bit ago and accidentally shot myself. But while it hurt a bit, it was easy to recover from, and the whole Iron Bark skill was pretty awesome to have. As a matter of fact, I think I might have to upgrade it at some point, given how useful it has been.

  “Well, to upgrade it, I would need to still have it. Hmm. Quite the dilemma. Would I be able to gain a similar skill as a Nature Pixie?”

  No answer came, but I was pretty sure I knew the answer. From the images I have seen of the Nature Being lineage, the core of the being is its main weakness. As a matter of fact, this might be their only weakness. As long as their cores aren’t damaged, I don’t think they can be injured. Well, maybe with Mental Magic or something similar, but they would be immune to mundane methods of attack.

  After a few moments of quiet contemplation, the Nature Pixie description screen popped up.

  Nature Pixie: A Nature Spirit is the adult form of a Nature Being. Nature Pixies have control over their domain in the way a human would control their leg. They can alter their environment with nothing but a thought. Nature Pixies grow through absorbing the ambient mental energy of other minor beings found in nature, flora and fauna alike. The fuller the life their domains become, the stronger they become as well. They are most powerful in areas full of balanced, natural life, though an imbalance may cause them to weaken. Nature Pixies are born to create life, though they can just as easily take those lives away. Requirements to evolve into a Nature Pixie are helping grow a dense enough volume of life in your territory (MET), absorbing enough mental energy (MET), and meeting all requirements for [Nature Spirits] (MET).

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  “The description could use a little work, but the sentiment is still there. I basically need the critters in my area grow in number in order to grow stronger. That feels a bit unfair, forcing me to help others grow, but I can see how it’s pretty on brand with the whole nature thing. I guess I can live up to that, assuming I choose this option. But I have to wonder: if this is the adult form of a Nature Being, is there anything after this? What would happen if I reached max level while I was evolved into one of these?”

  Yet again, no answer came. It’s not like I really expected one to pop up, but something would have been nice.

  Despite the lack of an answer, I was still very tempted to make this my choice. Not knowing what would come next isn’t that big of a deal when I didn’t know ANYTHING would come next. I was fully under the impression that once a tree, always a tree. So, this whole evolution thing was very exciting for me.

  Happy with my option, I knew it would be a mistake to not even look at such an enticing-sounding evolution path. I figured at worst, I would get some information on a different type of being that existed in this world, and at best, I would find something that is even better than the option I already wanted.

  I focused on the final evolution choice, Nature’s Avatar.

  The image that popped up was peculiar. It was an image of… me. And I mean me as I am right now. The image showed the entirety of the forest I had gathered to be under my control. If I zoomed the image in a bit, I saw the golemic guards that I had set up a week ago. There was Honey’s hive, up in my canopy. Looking around, I finally realized just how enormous I had gotten, spreading out over a mile in 3 directions; I still had yet to cross the road, though I might as well, at this point.

  I looked at the image of myself for a few more moments before that image altered. It went from an image of my forest to that of a much more generic one, though there was still a central tree that was much larger than the rest of them.

  At the base of the tree was a small gathering of goblins, almost large enough to be called a village. The group started small, with just a handful of them, but it quickly grew, as if I was watching this play out in fast forward. I watched their numbers explode, and soon enough it wasn’t just goblins there anymore. There were taller goblins, which I instinctively knew were hobgoblins, then time passed, and they evolved into orcs, then even the orcs evolved. After a few years of time had passed with the increasing levels of evolution, even a giant evolved from the once small creatures. All around the settlement, though, wildlife started to dwindle. I started seeing fewer and fewer rabbits and wolves, even the birds became scarcer. The amount of food required to feed such a village was too much for the forest to supply, and the forest was starting to suffer for it.

  I was beginning to wonder just what the heck this evolution involved when time seemed to flow more normally again. I looked around for some indication of what was going on, when I noticed that in the canopies of the surrounding trees, a large number of acorns were being created, then around those acorns, wooden bodies grew. It was extremely similar to how I created my golems, though I couldn’t tell what skills they were being given.

  The golem army grew in number, then I saw that the central tree was creating a massive golem of its own. The creation was so large that I think it might even rival the size of the few giants I saw wandering through the village. Yet, it was being created so high in the sky that the village hadn’t even noticed it yet. The smaller golems sure were, but this larger one was so far incognito.

  I watched as the goblin evolution army went to war with their golem rivals. It was a bit of a brutal thing, and I was wondering why this was being shown to me. The golems were actually losing due to the incredible number of monsters they were fighting. The giants hadn’t gotten involved yet, but I could tell they were thinking about joining in on the ‘fun’. It was at this point that the largest golem I had ever seen dropped down from the sky, performing the most epic superhero landing I had seen in this life. When it rose to its full height, the giants realized they might not be as big as they thought, as they only rose up to the thing’s chest.

  An epic clash ensued, with the giants fighting with the golem. They might have actually won too, if it weren’t for the interference of the roots that occasionally stabbed up through the ground. Sometimes they were just tripped, other times they were stabbed in the foot, causing pain and distracting them at opportune times. Of course, the giants weren’t the only ones being given such treatment. When I turned my attention away from the clash of titans, I saw that the smaller monsters were being given a similar beating. Roots would pop up out of nowhere; vines would fall at inconvenient times. Hells, there were a couple of goblins that were straight up yanked into the sky by a few thicker vines.

  When the war of monsters was done, the remains decayed quickly and became nutrients to help the surrounding life grow back to the beauty that it once was. The image picked up speed again, and after what I estimate was a couple of years, it was like the goblins were never there. More time went by, and I watched as the tree continued to grow larger and larger. The forest around it grew as well, though not nearly to the extreme of the central one. The forest mostly grew out more so than up. After a few minutes, I realized that it was the central tree that was growing out, and the trees were more of a byproduct of its growth than independent growth.

  The image froze, and I was left in a daze. I felt like I just watched a whole action-packed thriller movie that turned into a slice-of-life show. That was nothing like what I expected it to be, and I wasn’t sure what I expected from the name Nature’s Avatar.

  Another moment passed, and I felt ready to move on to the description. The image disappeared, and the Nature’s Avatar description took its place.

  Nature’s Avatar: Nature’s Avatar is a unique being; there can only ever be 1 such evolution at any given time. As an Avatar of Nature, your resource pool size and regeneration would be tied to the size of the forest that you claim as yours. You would grow by absorbing nature into yourself, gaining absolute control of the flora and fauna of your domain. Limitations on sight, as are relevant to all other tree evolutions, will be removed. As Nature’s Avatar, you will encourage life to flourish around you, keeping the balance of nature as you expand your control. Critters will prosper, and even carnivores will thrive under your care. You will ensure no faction gains too much control, and you will encourage all things to bloom under your foliage.

  Requirements to evolve into Nature’s Avatar include a size requirement (MET), mental capacity requirement (MET), minimum mana capacity (MET), minimum stamina capacity (MET), minimum health capacity (MET), a skill geared towards expansion (MET), and defeat of a near end-stage monster (MET).

  Warning: acceptance of this evolution will remove access to all other evolution lines. You will be unable to evolve again for a minimum of 10 years. This evolution does not have a level cap. Choose with care.

  “Damn. Now that’s one hell of a description. AGH! What should I choose?!”

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