Chapter 99: Reunion

Chapter 99: Reunion

The functionality of [Healing Palm] has been regained as you have restored its structural integrity!

Class [Adept] can once again be levelled up!

In his mind’s eye, Leif watched as the separated chunks of the [Healing Palm] skill finally slotted together, settling into their correct places. After countless attempts, he had slowly pieced together the correct process. He needed to will the skill together, all while maintaining a firm vision of the skill’s function. He had envisioned healing energy flowing into the hand, then being transferred into its target.

The mental image had to be firm, but it also had to be held for an extended period of time. It wasn’t the most difficult thing Leif had ever done, but mentally gathering the skill together, holding them in place all the while his understanding of the skill slowly worked to seal the cracks and mend over the damage. His improved attributes, especially [Willpower] and [Intelligence] made the process possible. But Leif suspected [Spirit] had ultimately been the deciding stat when determining if restoring the skill was possible at all.

Leif’s eyes snapped open as he slipped from the domain tree, landing steadily on the ground. A songbird fluttered down from the branches above, alighting on his shoulder and tweeting happily. Leif gave the little creature a gentle scratch with his fully working hand, a claw tipped finger stroking the bird's brightly coloured feathers. He rolled his neck, causing the animal to chirp and hop onto the top of his head, where it began rustling through the leaves he had in place of hair.

His body was more compact than it had been weeks ago, shorter and more smooth. Where cracks and gaps had been, now there was polished ivory wood. Mass had been compressed, then healed until the changes had stabilised. The faux muscles of his arms, legs and torso had been enhanced, though that had taken considerable effort to finally get correct. One of the biggest issues had been balance, perfectly getting the wood he was controlling aligned having been an agonising exercise of tedious trial and error.

But as Leif walked around the domain tree and began to cross the bridge of ivory white wood that spanned the gap between the two bluffs, he could feel the difference in power, the sheer potential waiting to be unleashed. His body was like a tightly wound wire, when he tensed strength flooded into his limbs. The bridge creaked slightly under Leif’s weight, causing him to use a minor part of [Gold Iron Physique] to make himself lighter. It wasn’t by much, but it was enough to stop the somewhat ominous noises.

The middle of the bridge was where the structure was at its weakest, he had initially shaped the roots of the domain tree into a wide platform, but quickly realised he would need to work his way towards the centre from both sides to maintain the structure’s integrity. So he had used [Embolden Vegetation] and [Wood Manipulation] in conjunction to create thin ropes of ivory roots to span the gap and reach the other side. He had then encouraged the growth of the domain tree’s roots in a specific direction, and slowly finished the construction over several days. It had made for good distraction from him accidentally losing all motion in his legs.

Leif was no engineer, that much was obvious, which was probably why he was more proud of the staircase that edged the right side of the mostly round bluff, gradually reaching the bottom at the southernmost point of the bluff. If his domain tree was at the most northern part of the rock formation, then the staircase wrapped around part of its circumference. The isolated bluff was roughly teardrop shaped, with the south being more narrow than the north.

Leif liked the staircase, growing out of the cliffside as it was, roots having been woven together to create large flat platforms. His only gripe was the lack of symmetry, he would need to grow out a second staircase on the left side of the bluff, but that would come later. He reached the larger of the bluffs and got to work clearing away the almost entirely destroyed buildings, scavenging anything that might be of use.

Golden arms moved in a flurry all around him, taking apart walls, dragging away rubble and gathering timber which he then reinforced and moved to a separate pile. He could control more arms now, around twenty, with their reach and flexibility being considerably improved. Leif moved around the destroyed settlement, finding some minor supplies, personal items and even a crate entirely full of pickle jars. He used [Wood Manipulation] to levitate the crate to one of the nearby piles of goods and kept working, his immediate surroundings a constant blur of motion.

As he worked he checked the progress of his latest skill fusion.

Fusion of skills [Time Born Sympathy] and [Combative Gumption] 69/100%

It had been over two weeks since he had started the fusion, and its current progress was with him using every mana shard he had collected except for the black death attuned crystal to fuel the fusion. He had known that the time it would take to complete each successive fusion would increase, but he hadn’t expected it to have escalated so quickly. At this rate, even if he gained one more level and reached level fifty right now, it would take him the better part of a year to bring his skill total down to fifteen.

Ideally he would gain his final level in [Attuned: Life] or his monster class, that way he wouldn’t accidentality get another skill he would have to do something with before he would be able to advance. From what he understood, which admittedly wasn’t very much, each advancement trial would be not only more difficult, but increasingly dangerous. The penalty for failure was the loss of several levels, and that didn’t sound overly pleasant. But if Leif was honest with himself, he was eager to see what the advancement trial would show him. Would it be another glimpse into his past? What could he learn?

He paused, momentarily struck with a thought, his conjured arms stilling in their work. What do normal monsters witness for their level twenty five advancement? He hadn’t considered it before, but now that he had it didn’t make sense. When he had undertaken the advancement trial it had been a key moment from his past, the vision being of a decision his still human self had made and how he had reacted to it.

I don’t think the average monster as of level twenty five would have experienced anything that would be worthy of a trial. Leif mused, brow slightly creasing as he considered the puzzle, the newly gained control over his facial features making the expression possible. Did they see a hypothetical situation? One created by the system in order to give them a choice? Or was the trial something as simple as choosing what type of prey to hunt, or cave to sleep in?

He was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. The spriggan looked up, and saw only disparate groups of white fluffy clouds. He looked to the south west, where the sound had come from, but there were no storm clouds. The rumble came again, this time louder and much closer. Then a streak of lightning shot through the sky far above, a formation of clouds parting as something blew through them at tremendous speed.

The blur of light changed directions as it fell, angling down towards where Leif stood. The spriggan crossed his arms, his real arms, shaking his head slightly as dozens of birds and other critters went scrambling in fright. Dust and debris blew in every direction as something impacted the ground before him with enough force to crater the stone.

“Well I’ll be.” Said a deep, rumbling voice as a figure stepped out from within the cloud of dust, lightning crackling between their horns, their hands hidden within the pockets of their stitched together rags. “You look all polished up.”

“You just destroyed a bunch of mostly intact furniture.” Leif pointed out flatly.

“So I did.”

“Welcome back you old bastard.” Leif said, his mouth slightly contorted into a smile. “I assume things went well.”

Ram raised his eyebrows as he looked around in mock surprise. “Not as well as things went here, I barely even feel the oppressive weight of death trying to drain my soul from my body, very nice.”

“I told you I was going to destroy the dungeon. I did.”

“Like smothering a babe in the cradle. Wasn’t that thing barely a year old?”

“I... I’m surprised you... care?”

“Oh, I don’t.”

===

===

“Fight me.” Said a broad young man, hands on hips as he beamed at Leif.

“No.”

“Aww, why not?”

Leif gestured vaguely at the house he was helping build. “I’m... busy?”

“But you’ll fight me afterwards?” Asked the man hopefully.

“Olav... you’re the chief's son, don’t you have anything important to do?” Leif asked, exasperated. This was the third time in as many days the demikin had challenged him, Leif was beginning to run out of excuses to turn him away. Would the clan hold it against him if he threw the overly enthusiastic man off the nearest cliff?

“Nope!” Olav declared, lightning dancing between his horns in a way that reminded the spriggan of Ram. Actually, the man reminded Leif of Ram in far more ways than just that “I just hit things hard.”

Combat experience: Lesser!

Age: Older!

Leif squinted mentally at the system window. “You have less combat experience than me?”

“What?” Olav cried, staggering back as if the plant monster had just struck him physically. “Untrue! Sladerious! Fight me at once!”

“The system doesn’t lie, usually, unless you have a skill that hides your abilities?”

“Hiding is for cowards!” Olav declared, regaining his poise and standing straighter. “And I’ve never lost to a tree before!”

“But you did lose to that rock crab we encountered way out west.” Came a laughing voice, followed by a woman with the same fluffy hair and horns as the rest of the clan, a hunting bow slung over her shoulder. She was trailed by a group of humans clearly ready to leave on an expedition of sorts.

The clan chief’s son’s jaw slackened as he stared at her in disbelief. “Y-you... that wasn’t... It was cheating and you know it Liv! the same way your man does with his damage reflection skill!”

“He’s my man now is he?” Liv said, turning to a blank faced Samil, eyebrows wagging.

“I am not.” Samil said, tone completely flat. “We have a hunt to do. How about you stop harassing our host and come with us?”

“But I desire battle!” Olav stated, the man repeatedly yelling his challenge even as he was dragged off by the hunting party.

===

As days turned into weeks, wooden homes sealed against the weather sprung up all over the smaller bluff. A fenced off paddock for the yaks was created on the sloped hill of the main bluff, the timber Leif had scavenged going into the temporary construction.

Small gardens for vegetables and herbs were planted, the owners marvelling as shoots sprung from the ground in half the time they normally would have expected. A system for water collection was put together by the nearby stream as everyone went about their daily tasks.

Leif continued to work on his skills and body, he spent time with his animals and interacted with the nomads. At some point Ram had left for the mountains, only for him to return a few days later with some sort of massive, tough skinned worm slung over his shoulders. According to him it was delicious. According to the stomachs of his family it was poisonous.

One day a group of not quite adult members of the clan had discovered the fact Leif could alter his body, the teens finding it endlessly amusing to suggest alterations and changes. No, he couldn’t grow a third arm, yes he could technically engrave suggestive imagery all over his body, no he wouldn’t actually do that.

That particular gathering had been disrupted when five evolved hogs had wandered over looking for scritches. It hadn’t taken him long to get used to the changes, but he was sometimes still caught off guard at the different appearances of what had once been mundane animals. Bam teleporting or Lani acting surprisingly intelligent still caught him by surprise. It was hard to imagine them as the silly little creatures that had followed him since his first evolution.

Actually on second thought no it isn’t. He thought to himself, ruefully remembering some of their most recent antics. Bam had managed to get herself stuck up the domain tree, and Lani had followed him around until he had read her parts of the textbook on healing Kala had given him after he had asked.

Truthfully he was tempted to stay, to stick around forever and watch what had once been his solitary home change day by day. But he didn’t have the luxury of staying in one place for too long. Perhaps that was a critical flaw for a tree monster to have, perhaps his willingness to try and learn, to attempt and reconnect with his past life would end in tears. But civilization was calling, with all the trappings, knowledge and danger it would bring.

With a heavy heart he informed the clan leaders he would be leaving. He just hoped it wouldn’t be for too long.