∼ Day 83 ∼

Enjoying the midday rays caressing my body, I leisurely lay against the small trunk of a young and budding tree.

The location was just at the coastline to the large lake, so the view was quite stunning with the twin suns cresting the monstrous mountain range in the distance cradling this utopia of lush jungle and serene lake.

As I was appreciating our new home, I pulled up two windows.

Skill list Name Tiers LVL -Ambrosial Senses- 3 1/15 All your senses are greatly enhanced. Both physical and spiritual senses are attuned to detecting and perceiving the scent and sight of living beings. -Stealth- 3 1/15 Increased ability to hide, blend in, disguise your aura, and trick the perception of others. Can exchange stamina to greatly increase these effects and completely disappear from ordinary sight.

My fight against that fire mage and my trek through the jungle had awarded me with these advancements. Although I had been happy that they didn't just hit flat when they reached their maximum levels and could actually advance another tier, I was disappointed in the fact that they didn't really have any options of branching out, only making it possible for me to upgrade them.

However, that was not to say that I was unsatisfied with the upgrades as those two skills had gotten massive improvements. From Obscurment to Stealth, my hiding and aura manipulation capabilities has sky-rocketed, synergizing perfectly with my Shadow Magic in various ways.

As for Ambrosial Senses, it moving up from a "Lesser" skill had made all the difference, and I was once again perceiving the world in a new light as my senses picked up on even the smallest things.

Being pulled from my reveling thoughts, a small red tendril snaked its way over my shoulder to nudge gently against my cheek.

"Oh?" I chuckled bemusedly at the wiggling tendril. "You hungry?"

Casting a glance at the small tree at my back, barely considered to be more than a sapling, I grinned. A small crown of red crimson leaves, almost as if it was autumn, dark oak with a red tinge making up the trunk, giving off a soothing aroma that calmed my mind and tantalized my sense, it had truly turned into a beautiful tree.

The Jubokko seedling had grown quite a bit over the last fifteen days since departing from the tribe, and even though it was now classified as a 'Sapling' it was practically already the size of a small and young normal tree, making me wonder; just how big was it going to become?

During those few days of time, the tree monster had actually evolved twice. From a Jubokko Seedling to a Jubokko Sprout, and then now, to a Jubokko Sapling.

Although its speedy growth had initially stunned me, considering the potent nourishment from my blood and the effects of my trait, Limit Breaker, I could reason with it.

But besides just my blood though, I've also made sure to give it a healthy diet of the various beasts inhabiting the jungle, but it definitely seemed that it had developed a picky palate as it preferred my blood above all else.

With each level and evolution, the tree seemed to become more and more intelligent. Now, it even had the ability to communicate more than just emotions. It talked with me through intent and tangible thought, very close to actual speech projected directly into my head just without the use of any lingual language.

I supposed it was probably mostly because of the innate link that we shared as it has fed upon my blood and used it as a foundation for its growth, but I wasn't sure if another factor was at play here or maybe if all Jubokko trees could do this once growing strong enough.

Actually, with the new evolutions, I've also noticed quite a few curious changes in the tree which also indicated that it was anything but an ordinary Jubokko tree.

-Appraisal!-

Appraisal - Jubokko Sapling Information Attributes Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 21 Skills 3 -Race- Jubokko Sapling "Blood Oak" VIT 60 Traits 2 -Sex- Female AGI 4 Titles 0 -Rank- F+ DEX 32 Resistances -Level- 3/35 INT 6 Health 512/512 CHR 4 Physical Resistance 10 Stamina 655/655 WILL 12 Magical Resistance 5 Mana 0/0 MAG 5 Mental Resistance 3

Not only was the Jubokko now a special variant with the 'Blood Oak' affix to its race, but it had actually attained a gender.

Confused as to how a tree could have a gender and why it had suddenly gotten one after evolving into a Jubokko Sapling as didn't have any in the stages of its previous evolutions, I was left a bit befuddled to say the least. I could only chalk it up to another curiosity of this wondrous world though.

But other than that, I was more than happy to see it had gotten so strong.

Although its power level and attributes were quite high for its tier, it wasn't surprising as the monster had a major disadvantage - being stationary. So trading off not being able to relocate or move away from its location on its own, the tree possessed immense power and defense in return. I had even pitted it against a living beast to see how it would handle itself, and I was shocked to see it completely subjugating a beast of equal power to itself with immense ease.

Giving the small crimson tendril some drops of blood, it happily swayed back and forth, almost as if dancing a small jig of glee.

Tuning in with its emotions, I enjoyed the mental exchange of ambient thoughts, an experience very alien to me, but oddly soothing; like listening to the calming chirping of birds or the trickle of water going down a small stream.

At the behest of the tree, I looked to the distance, at the large island filling the heart of the lake. The intent was clear behind the tree's mental nudging, but could only sigh in response.

"I know - I know," I gently touched the swaying tendril in front of my face. "I'm sorry, but we can't disturb the kind beastkin woman."

What I was referring to was the fact that the tree had pleaded for me to plant it out on the island instead of here. Through what the tree could feel, that place was apparently optimal for its growth. But seeing as that island was the home of an overwhelmingly powerful beastkin, I couldn't do anything about it.

Actually, I had been wondering what that all-too-powerful woman was doing on that island. It seemed that she was alone here in the basin, but nobody hadn't seen anything to her or anybody else since arriving here.

"If I get a chance in the future, I will ask her," I said, patting the trunk, eliciting a string of crooning mental thoughts from the sapient plant.

"Slacking off, are we now?" A teasingly sweet voice suddenly broke through my mental link with the tree, revealing to be Lily as she appeared at my side a moment later.

"Ah, I've been wondering where you ran off to," I responded, watching as she took a seat beside me.

I hadn't seen her since she won the tournament yesterday after all. After she had won against Mia, we needed to finish the second set of elimination, which was, a rematch between Bob and Mia.

Surprisingly enough, Bob won the second time around, even though Mia had gotten a big breakthrough. Having already been subjected to her magic just less than an hour before, Bob was determined not to fail again. Amazingly enough, by the pure conviction of his will alone and experience before, he actually managed to break through her mental magic.

But remembering that Bob was adaptable and an amazingly fast learner if anything, it made sense that Mia's tricks wouldn't work a second time around on someone like him. Plus, considering his high magical resistance and will, it also made a great deal of sense.

As such, the last match, the finals, was Lily versus Bob.

Another problem rose again with the matchup though, and that was the fact that Bob possessed such destructive power with his weapon that he could actually kill Lily in a single hit if he ever managed to hit her.

While I didn't doubt that Lily would have no trouble dodging and evading Bob's attacks as she was a master of her craft, it wasn't a risk I was willing to take just for a friendly tournament. Without being able to go full-power by both parties in the duel, we found a middle ground and we gave Lily two small shabby daggers and Bob a rusty shortsword, which in his huge hands, was practically just a dagger.

Also telling them to hold back their power to not seriously harm each other, they went at it.

It wasn't a surprise that it was Lily who came out on top as she had been the favorite to win the match from the beginning, even without the handicap.

Being vastly more experienced and of a higher level, Lily already stood with an advantage in this duel. But it was still a scary thought when you realized that with the destructive power that Bob wielded, one lucky hit would be more than lethal against a frail human body like her's.

But even so, Bob was a good sport about it all. He didn't mind being second or having been restricted as he knew how dangerous his power was, and if there was anything I had taught him since taking him under my care, that was that you had to annihilate your enemies but even more importantly, you had to treasure your friends and family.

With all that, I now had gotten what I wanted from the tournaments. The friendly duels had the purpose of giving me a clear oversight over how strong my people were. So at that, I made a ranking list for each of the influential figureheads of the tribe.

Tribe Power Rankings 1. Xavier Tal'chor 2. Lily Zephyrous 3. Bob 4. Mia Tal'chor 5. Grul 6. Rena 7. Frank 8. Roc

"Well, what's up?" I asked, glancing towards the hundreds of greenskins working in the background. "Is there any trouble with the construction?"

Most of the tribe was already in full swing preparing the ruined greenskin settlement so that we could start building our own home here. But since most of the structures and buildings were utterly totaled, almost everything had to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.

There was an upside to this though, which was was that we had more than enough of already harvested and prepared materials for building with the parts we got from demolishing.

"No, it's all going fine." She said, smiling playfully. "But I did come here for something∼"

Noticing her tone turning salacious, I raised in questioning brown at the devilish grin that appeared on her beautiful face.

"And what would that be...?" I asked cautiously, not entirely sure where this hard-to-read woman was going.

"My prize of course." She said, her voice turning even more sultry. "For winning the tournament."

As she laid a sudden hand on my inner thigh, causing tingling sensations to shoot up it, I couldn't help but stare intently into those azure-blue eyes of hers.

Before I could react though, she leaned in, kissing me tenderly which quickly turned heated as I myself engaged willingly in our shared passion.

However, as time went on and my body began heating up like a furnace from the intensity of it all, the sudden shove of a crimson tendril causing the unprepared and undefended me to fly more than a dozen meters away caught me completely off-guard.

Laying sprawled out on the dirt, a bit dazed from the suddenness of my impromptu launch, I glanced back at the tree where Lily was giggling mirthfully while the tree's tendrils were flailing with clear indignation.

"Had the tree just launched me away...?"

"No way... was it jealous?" That brief suddenly thought crossed my mind.

Shaking me out of that ridiculous idea; as how could a tree possibly become jealous? I hastily got to my feet and dusted off my pants.

"Well.... okay then." I said, clearing my throat awkwardly. "-Ahem, let's get back to work..."