Book 3: Chapter 4: Evolution

Book 3: Chapter 4: Evolution

I blinked to clear my vision, but the words remained.

New Village established!

Scanning...

“Scanning?” Barry asked. “What does—”

Scan complete.

Village already exists.

Upgrading existing village: Tropica...

I shook my head, but before I could turn to Barry and ask him what the frack was going on, the System spoke up again.

[Tropica has evolved and become a Tier 2 village!]

“Barry...?” I asked, slowly spinning his way.

“Yes, Fischer?”

“Any idea what all that means, mate?”

He blinked at me. “No clue.”

“Yeah, me neither...”

Now that the System was done having its way with my field of view, I gazed out at the surrounding world.

We stood in a giant crossroads, atop smooth stones and surrounded by buildings. Most of the constructions were only a single story, much like the homes and shops that made up Tropica. But unlike those structures, these were made by the system. Though built of simple stone, there was a beauty to their uniformity.

Without realizing what I was doing, I wandered toward the closest building. Just like the church, gilding lined its door. Taking a deep breath, I turned the handle and pulled it open. With Barry at my side, I gazed into the newly constructed smithy. Though it was only slightly larger than the above ground one in Tropica, six forges lined its walls. Myriad anvils, trenches, and tools were scattered around the room, positioned perfectly to make use of the space.

I ran a hand over the surface of one of the furnaces, pausing as I furrowed my brows. Something was... wrong.

“You feel it too?” Barry asked, drawing me from my thoughts.

“Yeah... what is it?”

Barry pressed a stone button beside the forge, and unlike the ones within the church, nothing happened. The System’s magicy bullshit wasn’t working.

“It’s incomplete,” he replied, pursing his lips.

But then I saw Lemon.

“Oh...” Barry said, staring up at her canopy.

“Yeah...” I agreed, my eyes running over her mighty boughs. “That’s something.”

Lemon’s tree had, for lack of a better word, aged. She had at least doubled in size, her formerly smooth trunk now covered in thick bark. Knotted roots branched out into the earth, giving her the appearance of a centuries-old oak. Though it was still Lemon within the tree, her chi felt... different. When I sent my awareness out toward her, I realized why—she and the alien-feeling power had merged.

No. She had absorbed it.

“How are you feeling, Lemon?” I asked, taking a step forward.

Awe, excitement, and joy oozed from her. At my question, she seemed to come back to herself. A giant root sprouted from the ground, so big that it split the earth in giant chunks. It wrapped around me gently, hugging my torso tight.

“I love you too,” I laughed. “What the frack just happened, though? How did you even get here?”

What followed was a conversation between myself and a prehensile root that would have made even the most compassionate of observers assume I was batshit crazy.

“What did she say?” Barry asked, giving me side-eye as I giggled and batted away an attempted tickle from Lemon.

“What? Oh, right.” I patted the part of Lemon’s root that served as a head. “When she felt us creating the village—or the extension of Tropica, I suppose—she came over to see what we were up to. She trailed us around, inspecting the stones and buildings from underneath, and when she got to the grove...” I shrugged. “It was irresistible. She had to grow a tree here.” I cocked my head. “How long have you been able to do that, by the way? Just grow more trees?”

She sent me the emotional equivalent of no, then pointed me toward the power she’d joined with.

“Oh! It gave you the ability to do so?”

Yes, she nodded.

“Well, there you have it,” I said to Barry. “Just your typical cultivatory shenanigans.”

“Yeah. Nothing new.” He shook his head with a wry smile. “With the addition of the grove, I think we have almost everything we need until we can gather more coins to finish the village.”

I shot him a glance. “About that... I was thinking there was something else we could try.”

He gave me a questioning look.

“The one thing we were missing from last time was pearls, right?” I answered. “Lucky for us, I have it on good authority that some local weirdos filled a nearby bay with a bunch of oyster cages.”

Barry squinted, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Midnight feast?”

“Midnight feast,” I agreed, delighting in the look on his face.