201,642,412,544. Why are you making these so freaking hard?

Um, it should be 80631.3636 and so on and so forth forever.

I’m not worried, I’m training my mind skills since I have nothing else to do until they all get back. He’d finished the statue of Jagal to the villagers' joy and done all the repairs to the elder’s house that he could do, leaving nothing else to work on in the village, so why not train his skills while he waited for them to get back? It wasn’t like he was doing it to distract himself from any concern over how late they all were with a full day almost having passed and the sun about to set.

“…”

Whatever, just give me some more numbers while I wait.

Myriad told him, sounding relieved to be free from hours of math questions as Ben let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding, rushing over to greet them. They all looked tired and more than a little worse for wear, but they were alive.

“How’d it go?” He asked, hoping for the best given how they looked and getting a positive reaction despite everything.

“We’re pretty sure it’s over. Just need to check tomorrow to be sure. Also, is the job crystal you made still in the house?” Sachel asked, seeming to have the most energy of all of them.

“It is. Hentath knows it’s here so the village can figure out what to do with it later.”

“Sweet, wish me luck!” She told them as she rushed up to get her hands on it. All of them followed but Skoe, who seemed the most dead on his feet and immediately went to the shed to rest.

Fontesh was playing with Delair in the kitchen but they put whatever they had been up to on hold as Sachel came in and placed her hands on the crystal, a smile forming on her lips as she did and signifying that the option she’d been hoping for was there.

It took no time at all for the smile to turn into a loud cheer from her as she quickly shared the good news.

“Tree tamer just gave me a level to my connect and the skill ‘spell unification’!” She happily cheered, and he couldn’t help but congratulate her. Spell unification was a skill he’d looked into a bit after getting access to it from Zandale, and if connect gave her a better chance of awakening her skills into plant magic, then spell unification all but guaranteed it. It was a skill that specifically made it easier for the user to create combined spells so long as they had the correct affinities, meaning that she could start practicing plant spells in earnest. While it would have been possible before, the difficulty and mana cost would be too high to make it practical, but that limit was now significantly reduced so long as she practiced and worked to raise the skill level.

Fontesh was the most emotional hearing the news, wrapping her cousin up in a tight hug. Having grown up together in the same village, she knew just how much this meant to Sachel and couldn’t help but be overjoyed for her. To finally be able to use plant magic to any real extent was thrilling, and they would have celebrated in earnest if not for their desperate need for rest.

“Well Hentath?” Ben said, tapping his foot as they waited.

“Ben we really don’t have to-”

“Nope, you did your part now she does hers. No getting out of it.”

Sachel was embarrassed and tried to talk Ben out of making a big deal of it, but he’d insisted. Hentath had agreed to apologize to her, and he fully expected it to happen.

“Ah, you really are a pain,” The elder muttered before giving in, attitude becoming far more awkward as she did so. “As for what I said before… it may have been a bit much. This is your home and you’re welcome here.”

“Still felt a little weak.”

“Thank you grandmother,” She said, trying to talk over him. “If the village ever has any problems, please let me know. I’ll always come to help.”

“Mmh, well maybe I’ll take you up on it if I ever need to. Anyway, with that done I’m going to borrow your apostle for a bit. Boy, follow me.”

He wasn’t so much asked as told as the elderly woman's vice-like grip locked onto his arm, not letting go as she dragged him into the forest.

Chances I’m about to be murdered?

Noted.

He was dragged until they got to the edge of the sacred forest, when he was told in no uncertain terms to wait and that it might be a while as she went within, seeming to search around for the bit that she was still in his field of view.

Not turned into fertilizer yet so this is probably fine. right?

Ben wasn’t really too worried. His god was watching and he was sure that if Myriad picked up anything from the woman's mind he would have been warned, he was too cheerful for there to be any problems.

In the meantime, he sat down and leaned against one of the trunks. Last time he’d come so far out he hadn’t been allowed to get so close to the woods, but since the elder had brought him here herself he assumed it was fine and let his curiosity get the better of him. The dryads were very serious about these trees after all, and seeing as how they’d actually communicate with them through plant magic, he couldn’t help being curious about what they had to say.

Placing his hand against the trunk of the one he was leaning on, he opened his minds and connected.

“Fuck!” He accidentally yelled as he broke the connection, pain tearing through his head.

I feel like I just connected to a hundred people at once! Damn it that was intense, I thought my head was about to explode.

While the intelligence level seemed to be on the same level as any other plant he interacted with, potentially a little higher, the speed they were able to think was equivalent to any of the races that Ben had connected to. Stranger still, every plant in that section of the forest seemed to be linked, at least the ones that originated from the same world, and Ben was able to connect to all of them at once.

Or or or, I use them for practice while I wait and you just monitor me and get me to stop if it looks like any damage is being done.

Rather than answer he instead connected to the plant again, feeling an uncountable number of minds taking notice of him as he did. It was an unpleasant experience, but not as shocking as when he first connected to it and he was able to hang on as his brain was bombarded with emotions and he did his best to respond in kind.

“What the hell are you doing?” The dryad asked as she shook him back to awareness, more concern in her voice than he expected.

His head was pounding and he was covered in sweat, but he thought he was mostly alright. Myriad hadn’t delivered any desperate warnings at least, though his god definitely didn’t like what he was doing even remotely.

“Since you left me here I figured I’d chat with the trees for a bit. They’re neat, never encountered any plants with such active minds before.”

“Yeah well, you somehow managed to scare the entire forest. The lot of them were worried that you were dying, saying they could feel your pain.”

“Ah, I was trying to tell them not to worry. Having so many minds interacting with my own was just a bit intense, but I’m good. I’d love to spend a few more days talking to them if I can.”

He could only imagine the sort of growth he might be able to get from his mind skills if he did, not to mention how much faster he could complete his current job, but the elder shot him down fast.

“Absolutely not. I can’t have you stressing the forest that much, if I knew you were going to do that I wouldn’t have brought you this far. Anyway, here,” She handed him three long and sturdy branches that looked like they’d long since fallen from the trees, seeming to be mostly dried out. “I’ll acknowledge you’ve done a lot for the village, even if nobody asked you to meddle, so take those as a reward.”

He looked over the branches he was handed. They were each about as thick as an arm and about as long as he was tall, with a surprising level of sturdiness to them to boot. They’d clearly fallen from their trees long in the past, being light and dry.

“Oh cool, thanks. But what can I use them for?” He asked as he inspected each one.

“You’re a craftsman, right? Use them to make staves. There’s only two or three trees in the world with wood better for channeling mana than anything from our homeworld, though since I’m giving you three, make one for my granddaughter as well since she went to the trouble of dealing with our bat problem. Suppose it’s only right to reward her for it.”

As he watched the old woman try to justify her gift to her granddaughter he couldn’t help but give a laugh as he agreed. Seems like things between them might work out, but even more importantly, he’d managed to get his hands on something good. Even if it had taken a while, the trip hadn't been too bad.