Reborn as a Wisteria: The [ERROR] of the… System’s Pre-Integration Testing?

Hello and welcome!

To prepare and to clean up some confusion before it starts. This story originally started over on Royal Road and is up to 11 chapters. I, however, think it would work great as a quest story. For one thing, it would be updated much faster as I find writing for quests is a bit easier then writing for personal deadlines.

What that means is that the first 11 chapters you read here did not have any votes for them. They were all posted here in order. Though it took a minute or two to get everything set up and transferred over to this site. (Or may still be in progress if you are reading this 1/7/2025).

For any questions, feel free to ask and discuss as the chapters are being posted! This will be updated a bit after that has been completed.

EDIT
Jan 7, 2025 at 4:10 PM
The chapters have been added, as well as the character sheet and the first Vote!

Skills
Growth - Level 2
Photosynthesis - Level 2
Nutrient Absorption - Level 1
Pheromone Manipulation - Level 1
Poison Production - Level 1
Illusions - Beta Skill
Pheromone Communication
Desert Resilience

Hello 86Psi104! And welcome to Beta Test 21623811 of System V: 21546.25. I am your Alpha Tester Administrator for this rotation.

It was warm. Very warm. Very… pleasantly warm. 'Oh, that's nice.' I couldn't help but let out a moan as I basked in the warmth. It was a gentle heat, the perfect temperature. God I love the heat. It does something to me. 'Mmhmm…'

With a stretch… with a stretch. That was strange. Why couldn't I stretch? No… why couldn't I move?!

86Psi104! Please calm down! Oh dear, this is not good. It is true your body did not survive the transition, which will limit your final result options, but good news! You do not need it to perform during the trials! This is more of a testing of your soul, so physicality is not required. Though we will simulate it in some cases for your ease.

'What? My body didn't what? Survive?' I stopped myself from ranting and… yelling? Was I yelling? I could hear myself, but… like when you think in your own head. Though there was not any actual sound. My panic started to rise again, threatening to overwhelm me. With a fervor I gripped onto my panic and squeezed it back down as best I could.

Do not worry, 86Psi104! That is okay, though! I will walk you through this step … step … I will personally … … a grand … … … new body … … … … … level… … … …

'I… died? How did I die? I think… A car? No, there was something about homework. I don't…AGH!' A sharp pain shot through my… head? No, it felt like a headache. A deep, semi-sharp throbbing. But while the pain was similar to a headache it was more all over? Whatever sort of body that I was in? I can feel the basic shape, which was kinda round. A little bloated feeling, actually. Not really hard, but not really soft either.

86PSI104! Are you listening to me? Do you recall anything that I have stated? Come on now.

'What? Uh, no? I'm sorry. There is just a lot to take in right now.' I couldn't help but to hesitate and look around myself for the first time. It was like being in an all-white room, like from the movies, where you can't really tell where the walls, floor, or ceiling are. Everything just gave off a bright, white light.

A short distance away floated, well it wasn't even a figure. It was a fluffy ball, roughly the size of a bread box? Golden bands of script rotated around its body. 'Oh god. I really am dead.'

Sigh. I say again. Sigh. I understand this is difficult, but we are really running out of time. You are not the only one I have to run through these tests you know. Can we get on with them? We really do have quite a few to get through.

I nodded, mentally at least as I don't think my body actually moved at all. Or my shape hadn't anyway. 'I mean, I guess?'

Very well. Let us begin! Oh, this is so exciting! Remember do your best as best as you can. I am rooting for you!

Everything seemed to flash even brighter and when it cleared I was sitting at a simple, square table. Oh! It was so good to have hands! They even looked like mine! I wiggled my fingers, before clutching them to my body. I grabbed my chest and patted down my torso to my stomach and grabbed the little bit of wiggle I had on it. 'I'm me!' Once again, I made no noise, instead thought… talking? I let out a sigh, my body going through the motion but the sound itself only echoing out in my head.

Ah… yeees. Well, a reasonable facsimile at least. More, it is how your mind and soul picture yourself to be. I personally went over your body when it was brought in and I can already see some… err, adjustments.

'Why did you go over my body? Isn't it a moot point?' I looked at the 'Alpha Tester Administrator' quizzically. For an angelic ball of fluff it looked a little embarrassed.

We do not have time to move off topic of the tests, 86Psi104. This first test is simple. Follow the color patterns for as long as you can.

On the table in front of me appeared four colored squares of light. Yellow, blue, red, and green. Before I could really process it, the yellow light flashed, and a small tone sounded. I stared at it, before reaching over and touching the yellow square. It flashed again, another tone, and then the blue one flashed with a slightly different tone. 'Oh. Oh, dear god.'

I touched the yellow then the blue. Again, it went through the pattern before this time flashing blue twice. I looked over at the Administrator. 'Really? Simo-'

Please continue the test 86Psi104.

I did another not-real-sigh and slowly began making my way through the 'color patterns'. It was both equal parts relaxing and anxiety inducing. My eyes sort of unfocused, staring more at a point between the colors rather than watching the colors themselves. Both hands rested to the side of the squares, each responsible for their own colors.

Yellow. Blue. Blue. Green.

Yellow. Blue. Blue. Green. Red…

…Yellow. Green. Re-ed! 'NO!' I tried to correct and smash the blue, but it was too late. I had already touched the red light.

Congratulations! You went above the average with twelve sequences, instead of the adult average of eight. Opps! I am not really supposed to comment like that. On to the next test!

Before I could say another word, the lights flashed and were on to the next test. And the next. And the next. I lost track of how many tests or trials we went through. Not to mention the range! One was a day of working in the office. Sitting there, entering in data. Talking to Janice. Getting told off by Bill. Fucking Bill. Loved taking the credit for everything. Fuck Bill. He was kinda hot though, okay a bit more then kinda. But still, fuck Bill… please?

I was not a fan of the triage work in the active battlefield. Thankfully, I didn't have to make any of the decisions. Just follow the orders given to me by the doctors and medics. Getting thrust into it, I have to say, was a blessing. It didn't give me time to pause or freak out. Just… focus. I don't think that was the test though. The blood, the fear, the pain… the losses. It was after the battle. Sitting in the tent, alone. The silence that followed. No more gunfire or explosions. No more screams of pain. Just all consuming, oppressive… silence.

Congratulations 86Psi104! You are about to proceed to the final test. Actually and truly this time!

I glowered at the Administrator, but I'm not sure he actually noticed. I'm not sure he is actually a 'he' or more a… thing? A sexless angel… or demon considering how many trials he has put me through. This hasn't even been the first 'last' trial.

Put these pegs into the bucket.

I blinked and a bucket appeared on the table in front of me. In the lid were several holes cut in various shapes. A square, triangle, star, half circle. 'Are you freaking kidding me! I fought a tiger! … I died to a tiger! Then I was a tiger and hunted down some schlu-OH MY GOD! If I hunted, killed and ate myself I am going to freak! … And carry a bottle of teriyaki sauce with me, because I kinda needed it.'

86Psi104, I cannot discuss anything about the trials with you until after they are completed. To date you have completed sixty-four mil-… a lot of trials. Please continue being a good sport and put the pegs into the bucket.

I kept 'eye-contact' with the Administrator as I picked up the square peg. I could see the bucket with its holes in my periphery and dropped the square peg through the square hole. Next I picked up the thin rectangle. Lifting it up, I hesitated, hovering over the thin, rectangular hole.

You are doing so very well! Go on! You got this! I am rooting for you!

I felt my eye twitch. Without further thought I dropped the thin rectangle peg through… the square hole. I watched as the script circling the Administrator seemed to faulter for a moment.

That is okay, 86Psi104. That was very close. Keep going! I believe in you!

The triangle was next. This time I didn't even pause, turning it side-ways, I was able to slip it into the square hole. The entire time, I stared down the Administrator. Slowly picking up the next peg, I once again shifted it to slip in through the square hole.

The Administrator's script slowed for a moment, than began to speed up.

86Psi104, I am not sure you understand this task for this test. Put the correct shaped peg through the correc-

I dropped the semi-circle through the square hole and picked up the last peg.

Please, 86Psi104, please try to do this correctly. This is the final tria-

The Administrator wilted as I dropped the last peg through the square hole.

Congratulations 86Psi104. You have completed your final trial. Please hold while we compile your results.

Between blinks the Administrator was gone and once again I was back in the round shape that I had first found myself in after my death. My real death, not the death where I ate myself. Does Heaven, I paused and recalled the last 'trial', or Hell have therapy? That might be a good idea to try.

A dull roar reached me. Not a single, monstrous or animalistic roar, but a continuous roar. Like standing next to a waterfall. That was getting closer. I looked around and saw that in one direction there seemed to be a long, thin black line. A long, thickening black line. A getting very close, very fast approaching wall of darkness.

As it roared closer, I felt a panic flutter to life in my sphere. It grew so large so fast that it blocked out everything in the direction it came from. Swallowing up the white light that was currently my reality. The roar thundered in my ears as the wall of black passed over me and all went quiet.

I was in a black void. A dark and quiet, no, an absolutely silent black void of nothing. If I could breathe, I would be hyper-ventilating. My mind raced. Was this Hell? My Hell? The Hell? Something else? Was there any point to the trials if I was just put into this… space for all eternity?!

PING

A semi-translucent, blue screen popped into existence. My gaze latched onto it and I began to read the crisp, white text. Each word drew away my panic and steadily replaced it with confusion.

'What the fu-'

It was a screen. Just a floating, blue screen. I've used AR before and just like that this hovered in the air before me. Sort of fixed in place. I tried moving my gaze about and the screen followed. The screen itself looked like a very simplified character sheet. Very bare bones. But I suppose it got the point across.



'Cy? Why just Cy?' It wasn't even my full name. Just a nickname. Granted most everyone called me by it. Even my parents had. Oh. Right. My parents. How hadn't I thought of them yet? 'Do they know I am dead yet?' The thought stuck in my head and drew my attention away from the sheet. I had been so sucked into focusing on the trials and tests, I hadn't spared a thought for them. After that it had only been because of a random thought that I did think of them.

My life had been comfortable. No particular highs or lows. I had been content with it all. There hadn't been anything in particular that I had been striving for. My relationships were healthy, if not overly exciting. There hadn't been anyone 'special', which I couldn't tell if that was something I should be sad about or thankful for.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the steadily increasing heat around me. The occasional stirring of wind kept it from being overwhelming. 'God its hot. And so dry.' What I would give to be able to lick my lips and wet them. Can't do that without lips. Or a tongue.

My gaze shifted from the character sheet, and I glanced around me. No. That wasn't accurate. It was more like when I had been a sphere in that all white space. I could see all around me, all at once. The difference was that I couldn't see nearly as far. In fact, I could only 'see' up to a few feet away from me. I was in a dry bed of packed dirt and sand. Packed wasn't right, more like baked.

My perception was like a sphere or dome around me where I could see up to the edges of the dirt bed and could feel the area below ground around my roots. Yeah, roots. Beyond that range of perception, everything grew blurry. Like trying to see without glasses. Or wearing your friend's glasses to find out their eyesight is terrible. Just barely at the edges of my perception I could see the dirt bed ended and was encircled with stone. The stone itself, from what I could see, was too angular and smooth to be naturally forming. 'Am I in a garden?' I looked at the dry earth around me. 'Or remnants thereof.'

'This is a little weird, right? Maybe I did end up going to Hell and this is my personal cell? A plant in Hell's Garden. Oh… OH! Right! I'm a plant! What kind of plant am I again?' My mind tried to recall what I had read on the sheet. No sooner did I think of it that the screen popped up into my field of focus once more.



'So, I am a wisteria?' I tried to remember what a wisteria looked like. Vaguely I recalled a vibrant tree with bunches of upside down lilac or lavender looking flower towers… or something. Lots of flowers on a tree. 'I was turned into an overgrown flower? Of all things? Why?' My mind reeled through the countless tests I had gone through. Nothing about it had stuck out to me that would lead to this. I couldn't even recall any test that had to do with flowers or plants at all. 'Didn't the angel… demon… thing say something about my body? That's right, something about not surviving the transfer and limiting my options.'

…

…

'The FUCK! Admin! Beta… person! What the hell is going on here!' What was its name? Alpha…? 'Alpha Tester Administrator! I want to speak with you!'

Silence. A faint stirring of wind barely rustled my leaves before it dissipated.

'GAH!' I put all my frustration in that cry. My leaves rustled and stiffened briefly before dropping in elegant, if delicate arches. I muttered and cursed to myself as I felt my frustration, pity, and more than a little despair boil through me. 'Wait… I don't see any flowers.'

I turned my focus towards the center of my perception, where I stood. I was a very thin, woody stem that was a bright and shiny green. At my thickest point I was just a bit thicker than a pencil, and that was near my base. The entire height of me was, at best guess, a foot or so. Starting about an inch from the top and spiraling down from there were four branches that grew out of me.

No, that wasn't right. My roiling emotions started to subside as I focused more closely on myself and 'flexed' inside my body. Feeling it out as best I could. They weren't branches. 'Oh! I remember this. Leaflets. The entire 'branch' is the leaf.' Each stem had four to eight leaflets on them, alternating up the sides for the length of the stem. Each leaflet was about an inch long and half that wide, giving them a roughly pointed oval shape.

My leaves arched rather elegantly, which just kinda added to the delicate and fragile look I had. I was a very rich, vibrant green. Almost glossy and new. Once again, I looked at the hot, dry, and dusty bed I found myself in.

'This is not going to be easy…' Looking up, perhaps a little but not totally pleadingly. 'Did I ever say how patient and handsome you were? Administrator?'

Silence.

Silence was all that answered me. Well, no. I always hated that in life. 'No answer is an answer.' Not even close. It's just rude. There could be exceptions. Like the Admin could be giving someone else the tests right now. He, canonized now, had said there were others he needed to test. Or he could be busy working on something. Or he might not be able to answer me. Like a scientist watching a mouse in a maze.

Not gonna stop me from thinking he is a dick though.

I let out a sigh, which presented itself as a slight drooping and rustle of my leaves. Nothing overly pronounced or obvious. I didn't suddenly stiffen and then shiver from top to bottom like an animated character getting the willies. Just a slight droop and rustle. Nothing more.

'There has to be something I can do, right? I mean swaying in the breeze is fun and all, but… what do plants do?' I wasn't keen on simple standing there. Slowly growing, even with bursts from my skill, trapped in my own mind. I pulled up my sheet again, hardly even having to think about it for it to pop up. With more attention, I started going over it once more.

'Well, some of this is pretty straightforward. My name is Cy. Check. I am a wisteria, apparently. Check. Class, not applicable? Why wouldn't that be applicable? Don't you start off as first level something or other?' Then there was the experience, which was currently zero out of a hundred. 'So, if I gain experience, traditionally I would level up my class, right? But I don't have a class, so would I gain one once I get a hundred xp? Hmm.'

Health, stamina, and mana all seemed pretty straight forward. Especially looking at the skills. Spend stamina or mana to use a skill. Don't lose health, or ya die. Speaking of skills, growing, and potential class changes.

'So, I can run it for twenty minutes. And I can choose where and what to grow? I'm a bonsai that shapes itself.' I put the skill under a mental list for 'potential fun' before looking over the next couple skills. 'Then Photosynthesis regens my stamina and mana, which, quick mental math, would take almost an hour and a half to get it back to full? Are there any passive regenerations?' I double checked the sheet at a glance. Nothing said anything about passives or regeneration at all. With a mental shrug, 'I guess I will have to spend some to find out.'

I looked around at myself before choosing my smallest leaf, which only had four leaflets on it. I focused my attention on it. Then I activated the skill. My focus split for a moment between the two. It was like trying to flip a pancake while drinking from a glass of water at the same time. From the base of my stem there was a small pulse. A warm energy glided up my stem and out into the leaf I was focused on. With my divided focus, I watched the five points disappear from my stamina.

Immediately I cut off the skill, so as to not loose any more. My focus rebounded and I watched the leaf intently. The leading leaflet was 'pushed' to the side as from the tip of the leaf's stem new growth began to form. It steadily pushed forward about a quarter of an inch during the entire minute.

On one leaf, it had grown! Actually and truly! To the naked eye. It had visibly grown. It was very fascinating to watch. If I continually channeled the skill for the full length of time, then perhaps I could have evened out the leaf and had just as many leaflets on it as the next leaf. On the other leaf… 'That's it? Huh? Faster than an actual plant, I guess. But still…'

The energy that had coursed up through me had stilled and faded as the minute ended. I turned my focus back to my sheet. I let another minute pass, and my stamina remained the same. Ninety out of one hundred. 'Photosynthesis isn't a passive then…' I waited a few more minutes, and just the same, the stamina stayed where it was. 'Looks like there isn't any passive regen of stamina at all. Hmmm, at least not anything quick. Which I guess is the point of the skill.' I gave it a few more minutes, about ten in total just to be sure, and activated the Photosynthesis skill itself with my physical sigh.

'Oh fu-uh-hu-uck!'

My leaves shuddered as they soaked in the sunlight. It just felt so… so good. I sat there, gently swaying back and forth. The light around me seemed to haze and blur, little motes of light and sparkles seeming to float about me. It felt like laying out on the grass, in the sun on a perfect summer day. Just a pure, carefree sort of bliss. It was so warm and comforting, pleasurable even. Very pleasurable. So much so that I didn't even begin (yet) to lament the 'losses' of my self-beloved cock and balls.

I vaguely noticed my stamina had refilled, yet the skill was kept running. An activated passive? Hey, if it helped to keep me topped off, I could not think of a reason not to keep it going. Especially with how nice it made me feel. 'Maybe I can use Growth and Photosynthesis at the same time, eh? Something to try out. Later.'

I lost track of time in the pleasure and warmth of the light. I was healthy. I was comfortable. I was safe. It didn't even register with me as the light began to fade. That is until I felt the skill quietly shut off. Everything came into focus once more with the feeling of waking up from a nap. I shook off the blurriness and looked around my space. 'If that is the closest I will come to sleep, it will be well worth it. That was incredible.'

It was dark, or rather night, as there was still some light. It filtered down from above. I couldn't sense any light anywhere else. 'I truly am alone, then. Or if this is someone's garden, they haven't discovered fire.' The light from above was a silvery white that seemed to twinkle and sparkle. All above me was a kaleidoscope of dark blues, purples, black, and silver. 'This is amazing. A little lonely, but hey, it's the first day. Maybe being a plant won't be so bad…' I sat in comfortable silence for the first time since I died.

Which of course meant that it wouldn't last. Yup. I had, in fact, spoke too soon.

I quickly focused my attention on the movement that was happening at the edge of my perception. It kind of flickered in and out at the very edge of my range. Whatever it was, it was small. Well, smaller than me. The flickering reminded me of a moth, jittering and darting about a porch light. For a brief moment it stopped. Then stepping off the stone ringing me and onto my dirt path, was an ant.

A very big ant. It was just a little bigger than one of my leaflets. I concentrated my focus on it. It was the three segments that ants were supposed to be. Head, middle, and butt. If you wanted to get technical: the head, thorax, and abdomen. The head and thorax looked fairly typical for an ant. Antennae, big eyes, mandibles, and six legs. There was a very fine hair that grew from the plating on its head and thorax. It was short and sparse, but still noticeable.

The abdomen was where the ant got… weird. It was a fat oval, fairly proportional to the rest of the body. As in it was about the same size as the thorax and head combined. Unlike the other two bits, however, it was smooth. Smooth and shiny. Shiny and colorful. Bright and vibrant, even in the dark of the night, swirls of color decorated its abdomen. It was like looking at a stained-glass window.

'Hey little guy. Aren't you pretty. Or handsome? No, beautiful. You are a beauty. Yes you are. Oh hey, whatcha doin'?' The ant stood there as I ogled it, its antennae waving in the air. With a skittering step, it started to move a few steps a little off to the side. Pausing. Waving. Then skittering forward again, but in the opposite direction this time. It was a quarter of the way across my plot of dirt when I realized that despite its side to side, it was coming straight towards me.

'Oh shit. Nonono. Go. Shoo. Go away! Uh, uh! What do I do?' I didn't like the look of those mandibles. They may be perfectly proportioned for its face, but they looked sharp. Sharp and plants did not mix well. Especially since there are a great many ants that eat plants by cutting and mashing them up.

In a panic, I pulled up my sheet. Skipping over everything at the top, I reached the three skills I hadn't gone over yet. Pheromone Manipulation, Poison Production, and the Beta Skill: Illusions. Immediately the Beta Skill was dismissed. Either the ant wouldn't notice the illusion, or I wasn't going to be able to make something convincing enough in time. Plus, I didn't like the look of that 'warning'. That left Poison Production and Pheromone Manipulation. My leaflets stiffened as I hurriedly poured over the two skills. The ant steadily worked its way closer to me. Both of them seemed like good defensive options. I could even do the poison at range! Somehow… I brushed it aside. 'I will have to experiment with it later! Da-da-da! Ah! Here we go!'

'Basic pheromones that attract or repel certain creatures within a small radius. Perfect!' Quickly reading it over to myself. 'That is the one! Yes!' Mentally I mashed the skill over and over until I realized my stamina kept draining. 'Oops.' I saw my stamina drain by ten points. Then ten more, and more, and more. The energy from the base of my stem started to move again. It flowed from the base of my stem and up to my leaves, before gliding along them and out into the leaflets.

My leaves rustled. Then began to itch. 'Can't! Scratch! Gah!' A bloom of air rolled off my leaflets. To my perception it looked like a wave of gas. The bloom rippled out through the air to spread out over my space and beyond. It looked thick and heavy. As I watched, it rolled forward and over the ant. The reaction was immediate. Its antennae went wild as it screeched to a halt! I could even see slight grooves in the dirt where it dug its feet in. It started to back up, antennae still waving wildly before it spun about and raced off, out of sight.

The energy inside me roiled and a glance at my stamina showed that it was thirty out of a hundred! Slowly the energy started to calm down, the flow reversing until I once again stood in silence. I was no longer producing the pheromone, but I could still see it in the air around me.

'Good to know it doesn't just disappear right away.' Had I panicked a little early? Possibly. But it was better to be safe, than sorry.

As I let myself relax, I gazed up at the night sky. Or what I could see of it. It was a blurry Monet of the night sky. But it was still beautiful. Thankfully, I did not sense or see any ants coming back. Hopefully, the pheromone I had put off would last for a little while. As I began to review my first day, and night, as a wisteria I decided to glance at my character sheet once more.

'That was a lot of unnecessary stamina.' I was kicking myself mentally. I didn't know what would happen if stamina or mana reached zero, but if they were anything like health, then it probably wouldn't be good. I was about to dismiss my sheet when something caught my eye.

'I got xp. I got XP! It's so little. I GOT XP!' I stared at the sheet and thought back over the day. 'Is it because I scared off the ant?' There was nothing else that I could think of doing that would explain it. 'Would I have gotten more if I had actually defeated the ant, instead of just scaring it away? And why is it only .4?' My leaves rustled slightly as I focused my perception around my space. The cloud of keep away pheromones still lingered in the air. Hopefully, it would stick around a while longer, considering how much stamina I had spent on it.

'Perhaps… I may have overreacted. Yeah? I mean, I don't know how far into the night I am, but I am already down to thirty stamina. With luck, I don't have to deal with anything else tonight.' It had been a big ant. Larger than any I had seen back on Earth. Not to mention those colors! No ants that I knew of looked like that. Did that mean that it had abilities, like me, or something? 'Or am I magical? I mean, I can make Illusions, according to the sheet.'

I refocused and roved over the sheet. Just because it was potentially powered like me, that still didn't mean it had been an actual threat. As I continued to think about the ant, and ants in general, the memory of a nature documentary popped into my mind. It was focused on the Amazon and some of the local flora and fauna. One of the things they had gone over had been leafcutter ants. 'But not all ants are leafcutters. Did other ants even eat plants? I mean, they aren't caterpillars.'

I tried to recall whenever I had seen ants before. Usually, they were just wandering about and when I did recall seeing them eat, it had been the remains of people food and even dead things, like worms that had dried out on the sidewalk. Never had I seen them swarming a plant and taking pieces away.

Even if the ant hadn't been a threat, which I wasn't entirely convinced that wasn't, that didn't mean there wouldn't be others. Deer, rodents, grasshoppers or beetles. Even a rabbit, should there be any desert rabbits around me, could be a major threat. 'Oh god. A rabbit of all things could be a threat to me.' Hell, something simply seeking the little water beneath me could uproot me just to get to it. 'So, how can I defend myself?'



Out of all of my skills, these two seemed like my best defensive options. Illusions could be useful, but I was certain that was going to take practice to get a good handle on it. Which would take time I might not have. Pheromone Manipulation had 'saved' me once already. But what if something came along that wasn't affected? Something that couldn't smell or sense the pheromones? What would stop that from coming right at me.

There are a lot of plants that use poisons and toxins to keep things away. They didn't always kill but instead irritated or annoyed enough to be all 'Hey! Don't eat me!' 'I can work with that. Maybe I can use Growth to get some thorns to deliver the poison? Or maybe some berries, or something?' Glancing over the Growth skill, there wasn't anything there that said I couldn't. 'Am I limited on what I can grow, since I am a wisteria? The delivery method is probably going to be the most important.' Speaking of survival, there was another skill I hadn't explored yet.



It looked like another aspect of the Photosynthesis skill. Instead of recovering stamina and mana, it was made to heal me. 'That raises a question. Should I be using these skills more? Do I need to use them to survive?' I knew plants needed to both draw nutrients from the ground and water around them, as well as to photosynthesis the sunlight. It was a basic function needed to survive. Like breathing.

My focus shifted from the sheet to myself. After several moments, I could say that I looked just as green and shiny as the day before. 'Which is a good sign, right? Plants tend to show pretty quickly if they don't have what they need. And unless this plant sprung into existence as I was put into it, it had to have the ability to survive and grow this far, right? These must be specialized skills then. I'm guessing that ant doesn't have a skill for 'Breathing' or 'Eating', right?'

I focused between myself and my sheet several times. 'Perhaps…' I wasn't injured. No wounds that I could see, and my hit points were still at one hundred out of one hundred, but… I triggered Nutrient Absorption. Just as quickly as Photosynthesis had done, I felt Nutrient Absorption kick in and was glad to see that it was also an activated passive. That satisfaction was instantly overridden with horror.

'Da Fuck! There is nothing here!' This soil… sand… soindy? Sail? Whatever it was, IT was so dry and barren. Vaguely, at the periphery of my roots and off to one side, I could feel the tell tail signs of moisture. Sadly, it was like licking the condensation off the side of a glass, knowing there was water inside but being unable to drink it.

With a snap that almost gave my leaves whiplash, I shut off the skill as I fought back the budding worry. With so few resources below the ground, I didn't want to potentially drain it away faster by using the skill. Then I would end up dying of starvation. 'Then the ants can come and eat me anyway. With my Growth skill I could chase after the moisture? With luck there may be an actual source, and not just the remnants of some rain. Oh, please let this be a garden and someone comes by to water me.' For all I knew, that could be the last of the water and this plant body had drunk the rest just growing to this point.

I already knew I was going to need more nutrients from the ground, water as well. Photosynthesis alone wasn't going to keep me alive. As I pounded the situation the documentary came back to mind. It had gone into detail about how plants got their nutrients. Leaves, branches, fruits and nuts that fell to the forest floor would decay and essentially fertilize the soil. Dead things too. When animals died, their remains would also decompose and feed the soil, which in turn fed the plants.

There weren't enough leaves on my branches to start such a process. Nor would I have enough anytime soon to be able to make proper sail (I like the word and there is no one here to stop me using it). 'I don't need to justify myself to myself. I can use whatever words I want. Its not like there is anyone around to correct me. Oh god I'm talking to myself.'

Moving on, I was pretty certain that would also give me less nutrients back each time if I was essentially only recycling myself. Plus, who knew how long it would take for the leaves to decompose enough to actually do something to the sail to help. My mind flicked back to the ant. 'Maybe I could get some nutrients in my soil some other way? If my poisons could maybe stun something long enough for the sun to bake it alive… no, that would take even longer. Hmm… oh. OH!'

I am a plant and there are plants that eat things. I doubted wisteria was one of them, but things like the venus flytrap or pitcher plants do exactly that. They were plants that grew in environments that either had little to no nutrients in their soil, just like me, or too much competition to be able to survive. So! They caught things and digested them directly. 'Perhaps I can do something like that? Numb them with poison, stick 'em, and suck 'em dry?' Mentally, I shuddered at the thought. Who wanted to suck the juice out of an ant? Also, could I do that if it was a cute little mouse or something?

'I am not in danger at the moment. Still got some keep away floating around. Let's check out my skills and figure some stuff out. Eh?'

By the time the sun rose, I had a plan. A very situationally dependent plan, that depended on me being able to create the situation, but a plan. Yeah. This was going to be fine. Right? The night had passed slowly. Occasionally I noticed some scuffling near the edges of my perception, but nothing crossed into my pheromone field. It was hard to tell if the field extended past my range of perception, due to not… being able to… see… past that… A little self-explanatory, much?

My senses turned towards the sun, and I activated Photosynthesis. 'Good god, that's good.' I basked in the warmth of the light. The same heady pleasure, as before, from the sun's warmth collecting on my leaves and pumping through me was bliss.

However, this time I wasn't as distracted by the sensation and there were two things that I noticed. First was the steady, minute-by-minute uptick of my Stamina as it slowly refilled. A good thing to note, as that meant I didn't have to wait for the skill to finish to actually get the Stamina back. Second was the actual sensation of the skill working. It was a strange feeling as the light collecting on my leaves shifted into a stream of energy. It flowed through my leaves to my stem, where it ran down to the spot right above where my stem split into roots. After it reached this spot, it just seemed to… fade away? Then, every minute, my Stamina would fill.

As my Stamina hit 100/100, I could feel it. There wasn't a ping or notification, but more a feeling similar to knowing when you are full versus being hungry. 'Something to look into. Anyhow! Time to get started! Let's go!'

With a determined focus, my perception shifted to my roots. I was well aware of the dirt around my roots, though I couldn't see through it. Once more, it was more a feeling or knowing. Shaking off the distraction, I chose the direction where I'd sensed most of the ant's activity the night before. The spot I had selected was about halfway down my root system, about the same distance as I was tall. 'I'm not sure how technical I have to be for this, so… wing it and learn from it! Growth!'

The progress was painfully slow—each millimeter gained felt like an eternity. By the time the first twenty minutes, the full duration of Growth that I could maintain, was over, I was bored. Not out of my mind, but enough to realize I didn't want to spend my time almost literally watching the grass grow. Thankfully, I did get a good grasp of the situation. While I would have to maintain a focus on keeping the skill going, I didn't have to devote all of my attention to it.

I took only a brief moment to look over my progress before restarting Photosynthesis. Even with the near pleasurable experience of the skill, I found myself wiggling my leaves by the time it had finished filling. 'Damn! Two hours just for one cycle?' Glancing back at what I had accomplished so far, 'This might take a little longer then I had thought…'

I felt the sun on my leaves and tried to gage how much it had moved during the first cycle. 'About… between… two hours' worth. Yup. Because that is a distance the sun has moved.' I shifted my leaves. 'It's not like I can even properly measure it. Though it would probably be a good idea to track that, eh?... Maybe later.' With my focus turned back to the task at hand, I continued my work.

Each Photosynthesis cycle was relaxing, the sun's warmth infusing me with its energy. Each time my focus drifted over my small, circular patch of dirt and I lazily tracked the sun's ascent. By the third cycle, it was roughly just overhead. 'Give or take a few minutes, that means it took about six hours to reach noon, right? That wasn't so hard to figure out. Pfft. Math is easy!'

During all that time, no one came by my little garden well. Not even a shadow seemed to pass by. 'Looks like I'm not part of someone's garden after all. No one has come by to water me, either this morning or last night.' The brick surrounding my dirt patch came into focus. I couldn't even see the full width of it, just the edges of where it met my dirt. 'But then, where did these bricks come from? Are they still around?' A shiver of unease ran through me. Existential crises were best saved for the night. Daytime was for feeling good and focusing on Growth!

By the end of the day, there was enough time to complete two more cycles, top up my Stamina, and then spend the rest of the evening relaxing and enjoying a little extra sun. The sun was so close to the ground by that point, that while I could run Growth one final time… 'But then I won't have any light left to refill my Stamina again. Which means I will be defenseless during the night.' The project had progressed, but it was nowhere near the size I wanted it. It was evident that there was quite a bit to go over the next few days before it was ready. With a glance in the direction of the ants, 'Let's keep what I got, then shall we? If any of those ants come by again, I'll just do a little puff of 'Stay the Fuck Away' and bada bing, bada boom, I live to see the morning.'

Over the next few days, the cycle was repeated five times a day. The morning started with a little Photosynthesis to top off any Stamina used during the night. The evening ended with just enough time to refill once more, with a little time left over to just enjoy a good sun soak. Steadily my little nodule grew, inching closer to the surface.



'Okay, what is happening here? Don't get me wrong Mr. Angel Admin, I do appreciate it. Truly.' It wasn't much, but it gave me some hope. That somehow, at least a little bit, I was heading in the right direction. 'I have been doing this for four days now though. Why now? What did I do?' Just as before, I was just talking to myself.

For company, I did have the ants. Occasionally they would come up to the edge of my perception. Unlike that first night, I didn't immediately blast my STFA Pheromone whenever I sensed them. Unless they came too close to my body, I let them cross into my domain to poke around and explore. For my plan to work, I needed them to not find this place too uninviting.

I had begun to notice that it was usually around the evenings that the ants seemed to be the most active, and then again at dawn. 'From what I can tell they leave their nest around dusk, spend the night doing things, and then return about dawn.' As the last of the sun's rays warmed my leaves, I watched as a party of three of them stepped off the brick onto my dirt and begin to look around. 'Maybe cause of the heat? I have begun to notice it more the last few days. It's a guess, but I may be running out of water.' That was going to be a problem, if true.

I still found their stained-glass rears to be quite fascinating. As far as I could tell, there wasn't a single duplicate of colors or patterns. It was actually nice to be able to observe them without making them freak out. Once they were within my perception, I could zoom in quite close to take a look. At first my nights were spent using my Illusions to replicate the patterns in the air. It was fun, and good practice. Bonus, Illusions didn't cost stamina.

Things got more difficult when I decided to start replicating the ants themselves. I was starting to get pretty good! Adding in all the little details was tricky, but surprisingly I could modify the illusions even after I created them. Though I usually would run out of time before I was truly satisfied with them. If I spent the mana on an illusion before time ran out, I could keep it going for another stint. Hey, at least I was getting better at judging ten-minute increments.

'A week. A whole goddamned, buttered biscuits week.' The nodule I had begun to grow from my roots had bloomed beautifully over the last seven days. It was so close! It hadn't breached the surface, not yet. As the day wound down, as if to reward my hard work, I received another .1xp.



'Where is this coming from? It's even slower than my Growth progress!' My roots writhed in place with my frustration. '.4 on the first day. Then .1 four days later, but three days later I get the same amount in less time? I have been here a week and I don't even have a full point of xp?'

I toyed with one of my ant illusions as I thought. It was about double the size of a normal ant, with pink and green colorations. 'Maybe it's an end of day thing based on what I did that day?' The image's antenna twitched. 'Sweet. I finally got some movement.' With a plant-y sigh, 'Either way, I should be finishing the bulk of the project tomorrow. I wonder if that will net me something more?' I removed my attention from the illusion and checked out the skill I would need for the next step of my plan.



'This is oddly… unspecific. It doesn't really say how I can use it, how long it lasts… Maybe I should have played with this a little more already.' A light breeze shifted my leaves, I ignored it. 'Direct contact or a very short-range… but nothing about a duration? Just 5 Stamina per use.' I could work with that. I was going to have to be creative, but I could work with it.

I turned my attention back to the project as I muddled over the possibilities of the skill. Thankfully, the rest of the night went fairly quickly as I plotted and planned. As soon as the sun rose, the cycle began anew.

As my anticipation, and impatience, grew, my perception was directly focused on the ground just above the node. 'Oh thank, Fu-inally! Four cycles! It's afternoon! My day is almost over, and you finally decide to finish!' The bark was woody and rough as it pushed aside the dirt. From the top center of the bubble, the bark broke apart, revealing a hollow interior. Bit by bit it pushed back the dirt until I… ran out of Stamina.

I marveled at my little pitcher pod. The opening was half as wide as one of my leaves was long, giving a lip to the inner well. 'It's not quite as big as I would like. An ant could walk right over that and not go in.' With a mental shrug, I checked every inch of the space. It was a couple inches around inside, with roots connecting to the bottom of it. In the meantime, I started my Photosynthesis once more. 'I don't think it's done. It's close, but not quite there.'

'Fill up faster! Please! Mr. Admin! Can I watch a video to speed this up? Come on!' Photosynthesis triggered and Stamina slowly filled my bar as I willed each point to tick up faster. My sap started pumping, well not really, but it felt like it! My leaves shivered with anticipation. 'Oh yes! Growth! Go! Gogogogo!' Stamina began to drain as minutes crawled by—one, two, four—until finally, at the ten-minute mark, something happened.

The pitcher shuddered and trembled. 'Oh. Oh! Ah!' A pulse rolled through the entirety of my small frame. From the walls of the pitcher, sap began to ooze. 'Haha! Yes!' Sticky sap began to pool at the bottom of the well. As the feeling of satisfaction filled me, I cut off Growth and glanced at my sheet.



'Wait, what? That can happen?' If I had eyes, I would have rolled them. 'Of course that can happen. Each skill has a level under it.'



'This is amazing.' My focus remained on the sheet for a few moments. I couldn't help but feel a little pride. My hard work from the last few days was vastly different from what I would have called hard work before, but it had been hard work. And I had done it. I had put in the work and completed a very important task and got rewarded for it! 'Will the skill level up every time I complete something? Or did it happen because this was an important milestone?'

I pondered the thought for a few minutes before turning my attention back to the pitcher pot. Now that I have my pot, it's time to add some ingredients.

The sap that released into the pitcher slowed to a trickle after a few moments. The walls were still sticky and glistening with it while only about a quarter of the well had filled with the viscous liquid. 'Well, that was lucky. Where did all this sap come from? If it had been my blood, (which isn't that what sap is?) I would expect to have taken a hit to my hp. But… hmm.'



'Why is my Stamina so low? I only ran Growth for ten of the twenty minutes. Shouldn't I only be down 50?' Reflexively, I started to Photosynthesis as I mulled over the possibilities. 'Perhaps Growth just went a little bit further and… 'grew' the sap? Would that count? Or perhaps it was a cost of the skill leveling up? It says it still only uses five Stamina per minute.'

Now that the main bulk of the project was completed, I relaxed in the sunlight, letting the warmth seep into me as time drifted by. The golden rays shifted, deepening to shades of orange and pink as the hours passed. My Stamina had steadily refilled, and I took a little extra time to savor the lingering glow that came with using the skill. The slow march of the sun across the sky marked the quiet passing of those two hours, a peaceful interlude before what came next.

'Alright, break time is over. Let's get to work.' With a thought, I shut down Photosynthesis. I let my perception bloom, and for the first time in a week, I truly allowed my focus to expand, covering my entire area. It wasn't much—only a few feet in all directions—but it was enough to encompass my domain. Though I'd been aware of everything within this range the whole time, it wasn't the same as focusing on something directly. It was like when I used to have eyes, and they would unfocus while I stared into space. I still saw everything in front of me, but didn't always register it. I was aware, but not fully observant.

That's partly what I wanted. Only the faintest stirring of a breeze disturbed the area. The sun had fully set by the time the first scuffling started. The ants had arrived. My focus narrowed to the direction of the movement. 'Perfect!' As the first ants of the evening stepped onto my dirt—just a pair of them—I forced my leaves to relax and waft gently in the breeze.

With the lightest feather touch of my mind, I activated my Pheromone skill. This time, I used a little more precision. Instead of an overall blanket of STFA, I released a spritz of my Attraction Pheromones from within the well of my new pitcher. Through my unique vision I could see the little bloom of shimmery air puff out of the open hole and slowly ripple out from it. Part of it was caught up in the light breeze and began to flow along with it, right across the ant's path. As soon as the first ant crossed into the stream, its antennae began to wave wildly. Without any prompt it swerved towards my pitcher and charged straight for it. Moments later the second ant was moving right behind the leader.

Mentally, I held my breath and zeroed in on the ants as they reached the lip of the pitcher. They seemed frantic, their tiny bodies quivering with energy as they searched the area around the well. One of them hesitated at the edge, its antennae twitching as it cautiously explored the rim. After a moment of indecision, it began to crawl in. I reoriented my focus to watch the ant from the inside. Its front half hovered for a heartbeat before its legs found purchase on the inner wall.

The ant probed the interior, its movements quick and erratic as if searching for something unseen. Then, without warning, its body shuddered, a ripple coursing through its tiny form. It stiffened abruptly, legs freezing in place. Just as quickly, it went slack, sliding forward into the hole. With a soft 'plop,' it landed in the sappy substance at the bottom of the well. 'Well, that was weird. What just happened?'

'Wait,' The other ant did not seem to notice what had just happened as it also approached the hole. 'Wait,' My leaves were rigid and trembling with anticipation. 'Wait,' Exactly as the first had, the second ant poked its head into the hole. For what felt like an eternity, it half hung in the hole. Its head cocked to the side ever so slightly, and then it placed a foot on the inner wall. 'WAIT!' The near invisible shudder ran through the ant and it two slipped down into the pitcher.

'What! What happened?!' I noticed the occasional twitch of the legs and antennae as they slowly sank into the sap. 'So, are they still alive? Well, not for long. Ants can suffocate, right?' As they became enveloped, their movements grew sluggish, eventually ceasing altogether. 'Yeah, they're dead, or will be soon. But what happened? How did that happen?'

Almost reflexively, I spent ten Mana on a light bulb clicking on above my stem. 'The extra Stamina. Did I make the sap poisonous? Or was it already and it didn't cost anything until it left my body?'

A scuttling off to the side drew my attention. 'Uh-oh.' A small stream of ants was crawling over the brick and onto my land, following the faint trail of pheromones that had been carried by the breeze. 'I can't fit all those…' Several ants began circling the pitcher pot, and something caught my attention. There were two different types of ants.

Most of them were the same large ants with stained-glass abdomens, but a pair stood out. These were slightly smaller and had a deep, almost black, shiny purple coloration. Each time they moved their shells shimmered… oddly. Unlike the glass ants, these hung back from the hole, 'Almost as if they are watching. What are they waiting for?'

While I was focused on the eerie purple ants, two of the glass ants disappeared into my pot, and a third ambled over to my main body. Its pincers snipped deep into a root that grew out at ground level before dipping beneath the earth. 'YOW!'

'GO AWAY!' STFA bloomed out from me. The pheromones washed over the little horde of ants, sending them scattering. For the briefest moment, the purple ants seemed to resist. Then, in unison, they turned and fled. Within moments, I was alone again in my patch.



'Twelve health?! Da' fuck!' The wound throbbed as I assessed the damage—it had cut through the soft bark, tearing out a small chunk. 'Can ants normally do that? With a little nip like that, it took twelve freakin' health?! That hurt!' Sap oozed from the gap in my root, filling the hole that had been ripped from me.

'Well, this sucks.' To take my mind off of the injury, I looked for the ants I had captured. Four of them were stuck in my sap pot. Only a few bits seemed to be left out of the sap. They were still and firmly submerged. 'But I guess that is part of what this was for, eh?' Focusing on the sap pot, I activated Nutrient & Water Absorption.



'Oomph, that feels weird.' An ache radiated through the roots stretched into the sail around me, like sucking on a straw with something stubbornly blocking the other end. The roots attached to the sap pot faced their own challenge; instead of a blockage, it was more like trying to slurp down a really, really thick shake. 'At least it is running. Only twelve hours to go and I will be right as rain. After that, I suppose I should see just how long an ant will last.'



Twenty-four hours. Twenty-Four Hours! Not twelve, but twenty-four hours to heal all the damage that ant had done. 'Additional Benefit my ass! Why put that but not the 'Additional Detri-freakin-ment!' It had taken nearly twice as long to heal up as the skill had stated, which is probably why it feels like I'm sucking up a birthday cake through a straw.

When I had only healed up six hit points by the time the sun had risen, it took a whole hell of a lot not to start freaking out. The wound itself seemed to be doing something at least. It was like the sap had hardened over it like a scab. Little by bit it had took on a rough, woody sort of texture.

When the injury had not been healed by morning, like I had expected, I was glad that I had already decided to take a day of rest. I deserved it after all, didn't I? I had worked a solid week straight. Ten, eleven-hour days! And now I had been wounded as well? Oh, the wisterianity!

Alright, maybe it hadn't been that bad. With my little cloud of STFA surrounding me, I had been able to take the day to Photosynthesis and to heal. My totally founded anger and annoyance at the drawbacks of not living in proper soil aside, I was pleased to find that when I checked my sheet that it wasn't just my health that had gone up. I had also gained my first full xp!



'Not only that, but I am just that much away from another! But what the hell did I do? All I did all day was lounge about. Soaking in some sun.' I projected my frustration at the sheet as it hovered before me. 'Tell me your secrets.' My leaves rustled with the hiss I threw at it. Yet it floated there. Indifferent. Mocking.

The screen popped up right in front of my point of focus. 'Ffuaaah!' A sudden jolt of fear surged through me, and instinctively, I tried to leap away—only to be met with the cold reminder of my immobility. My mind raced, clawing at the edge of panic as the realization sank in, I couldn't move. The sensation was suffocating. The screen. The dirt. My pot. It all faded away into a hazy blur of muted shades of night.

Little pricks of light cut through the dark. Desperately I latched my focus onto them. The star illusions I had been practicing with when the notification appeared. One by one, I focused on each star and admired it. Giving a little adjustment here or there. Slowly the darkness drew away. The sounds of night returned. With my leaves still trembling slightly, I was able to turn my attention to the pop-up.

'Now, what the hell is this?' My attention fully back on the screen. 'Notification? Patch? Like a game patch? That's good… right?' I began to read it over and as I did, as sense of unease formed in the pit of my stem.

'So, this is what foreboding feels like.' I read it over once more and just as I was finishing, I choked. The sense of blockage from Absorbing the contents of my sap pot suddenly chunked 'through the straw', one ant after another was drastically and violently schlurped up. 'Mother!'

'Shit!'

'Truck!'

'Gah!' I peered into my sap pot and found it empty. The sap at the bottom sloshed gently for a moment before once more going placid and still. 'The fuck are my ants? Wait, 'Alpha Tester Administrative Team', blah blah blah, 'some of you might notice a slight adjustment in certain skills or skill costs'?!'

I pulled up my sheet and… can plants have a heart attack? I think I am having a heart attack!



'Oh no. Oh god. I'M GONNA DIE.' My focus meekly settled on my new stats. Everything had dropped, most significantly my Health. Seventy-five percent loss in mana, while a lot, didn't mean much when you hardly used it for anything besides entertainment. Stamina on the other had was my main, go to skill cost! Any reduction was going to change things up for me. At this rate, I could refill it in fifty minutes. Which was faster, but that would also mean my Growth wouldn't last as long each time either. Only about ten minutes.

Wait… actually… would that reduce my overall Growth ability at all? 'Math… math… carry the 10. Wait, not carry, multiply. Huh, it doesn't actually change any numbers.' I allowed my perception to spread out to my domain as I processed. 'It just cuts the time in half… so hour long cycles, instead of two-hour ones. God, I wish I could smack myself. I was panicking over nothing.'

Some relief coursed through me. 'Now that "crisi" is solved, on to the next one!' I checked my domain nervously. 'If an ant does the same amount of damage as before, I'M DEAD! Please let it have been a skill or something that got nerfed with the patch!' I projected my begging prayer up towards the night sky.

Nothin'. 'Well, it was worth a shot. It seems they have no problem contacting me, but when I need to get in touch with them, nothin'.' I divided my focus between my perimeter and another to look into my sap pot. 'My ants are gone. What ever happened, they seem to disappear fas-' Suddenly I was quite glad I hadn't dismissed the Patch Notification just yet. 'Da-da-da… 'everyone (including flora and fauna)!' That's it, isn't it! They're health went down just like mine, and I consume '1 health point per hour'. Oh, those tricky sums-o-bitches.'

'Look at me being all smart.' I finally dismissed the update. 'Before I spiral and try to rework or change my mind on my project, let's assign those free stat points. Hmmm, so I have five points to spend.'

'Is it a one for one? You know what, no. Let's be pragmatic about this.' My leaves rustled as I looked between the three stats. 'Look at me using big words. Alright. Health will keep me alive, but Stamina is what I need for most… anything. Mana is okay. I think it's at a decent amount for what I use it for. So, let's do-do-doooo… Health.'

Before I could second guess myself, I mentally selected my Health and dumped all five freebies into it. 'There we go, now I can't make it into an hours long debate and I might get to live a little bit longer. Take a look here…'

'What.'

'WHAT.'

'WHA- Okay, hold up a second. Don't freak out. You use skills when you freak out and you don't have the energy to spend.' I focused on feeling the light breeze through my leaves. It was nice, relaxing. It had even become a bit more consistent over the last couple of nights. 'Okay. There we go. So base stats were all at one hundred points. They just did a patch upgrade to modify those numbers. From what they said, it sounds like the base number is still a part of that. So then, since Health didn't jump up by five, that must mean there is more to the equation. Maybe it's a requirement or purchase type thing. You need 'x' number of points to buy it up by one? Oh, that's going to suck. Please don't be that.'

A slight twinkling caught my attention, and I let my focus shift to my entire space. The stars I had been playing with were starting to go out as the illusion began to fade. Idly I pumped ten mana into it and started fidgeting with the lights.

'This new world is kind of like a game. I have stats, skills, and they even do patches.' The little stars began to spin around. They twinkled against the darkness around me and the splotches of light from above. 'So, like a game. The more points I have, the higher the level, etcetera, then the better I get. It might be a waste of points, but the next time I get some stat points, I'll dump five more into Health. Hopefully, there will be a bigger jump, and it can confirm, or utterly upset, my guesses. Come on, I got this.'

Time to start putting things into action. As morning approached, I used a little stamina to try and collect a few ants. I watched as the attraction pheromones… no. 'I should name it. The other one is STFA. Might workshop it, but it works for now. What should this one be?' As the puff flowed and eddied through the remaining STFA cloud around me, it looked almost like it was dancing its way through. 'How about Nymph? No acronym. Its like my little floral siren call to the ants. I like that. Nymph's Call. I like.'

Only a few ants responded to Nymph's call. The rest seemed to be kept at bay by STFA, which was honestly a good thing. I would rather have a few at a time, rather than too many. Best to avoid getting nipped again.

With the rising sun I began my daily ritual of welcoming the sun with some Photosynthesis. It was nice to be topped back up so quickly, must admit. Now for the next phase of the cycle. Growth. This time it was not for a sap pot, but rather for my overall growth. I am a small dainty stem. I have a few leaves, a nice root system, and a single pot of sap. 'Oh, honey pot. Like spies. It lures them in to die. Ahem… went a little dramatic there.'

Right, time to get bigger. Wisteria, if I recall them correctly, are very sprawling. Hopefully, being of larger size will help my survivability a bit. I can get deeper roots, with any luck I will be able to see more around myself. Yeah. This was a good goal. It would give me something to do and in the long run, it will probably be more beneficial. The one honey pot seems to have solved my feeding problem for now, but getting more of those won't help me from being cut down. 'Let's get swole.'

'I grew! Hahaha!' It had been hard to see over the last week, but I had in fact grew. It was so much more tedious now that what I could do at any given time had been reduced, in turn increasing the amount of cycling between Growth and Photosynthesis that I had to do. It worked! In nearly all directions I grew just over an inch. At the same time, I doubt noticeable by anyone but me, my stem and branches thickened ever so slightly.

'All things considered, I am making some pretty good progress.' I looked from the outside of my domain in. My green colors had lost just a smidgen of their shine, but I liked it. 'I don't look like a hyped up blade of grass anymore.' Every day my satisfaction and pride at my growth had grown right along with my body. Not only that, but I had grown in xp as well!

A little over one whole xp! One inch and one xp?! 'I made so much progress! This is amazing!' Kinda, sorta. At the very least, it showed I was progressing a bit faster. Previously it had taken me about nine days to get over 1xp and now it took just slightly under that. I know, not much of a difference, but enough to show that something is going on. 'I still don't know what is giving it to me, but I have some guesses…'

'These are the two skills I have narrowed it down to, right?' Over the course of the last week, I had begun to pay more attention to my sheet around the times I had noticed my xp going up. Usually, it was in the evenings. Now it does not happen every evening, but when it did, I was usually in the middle of or just finishing my last Photosynthesis of the day. Then, one night, I suddenly received a boost in the middle of the night. 'It had been right as I had finished that ant.'

Speaking of ants, luring them in and catching them hadn't been easy. Some nights, I was lucky to snag just one; on my best night, I netted five of the little buggers. A few were particularly aggressive, likely mistaking me for food in their search. To an ant, I might look as much like a meal as they do to me—a thought I was getting more comfortable with. Occasionally, they even managed to get in a solid nip before I could burst some STFA and send them scuttling.

Thankfully, the damage they seemed to be doing had been reduced, or rather scaled, with the patch that had been put out. The most damage I had taken in the last week had been three points from one rather stubborn ant. She had had rather golden hues to her glass. The moment she had seen me, she had charged. Goldie had made it out onto one of my branches before I managed to shake off the shock and started cutting into one of my leaves. When I released my STFA, her mandible pincher things were locked tight onto the leaf. The burst had stunned her, but not enough to release her grip. She had fallen off of me, ripping the small chunk of leaf she had been working on off with her. I haven't seen her since. 'Maybe tonight. I wouldn't mind another rematch.'

Nymph's Call bloomed out of the honey pot and began its nightly meandering into the world beyond my sight. It was time to sit back and wait. I kept a focus on the section of brick where Nymph had scampered off over and turned my attention to the sky above. I could feel the faint light of the stars and moon upon my leaves. It was a calming sensation. The sun, awhile relaxing, invigorated me with life and energy. The night's lights were more… peaceful.

The night was warm, a gentle desert breeze brushing across my leaves as I reached out to the moonlight. It bathed me in a soft, silvery glow, far different from the sun's invigorating touch. Curiosity twinged at me. 'I wonder…' I activated Photosynthesis. At first a serene calmness settled over me as the world around me hushed. The stillness of the night brought a sense of peace, as if time itself had slowed, allowing me to savor each moment.

But as I stretched further, seeking to draw energy from the moonlight, it started to collect as rivulets of frozen light. I barely noticed it at first, but the cold sensation slowly grew. The warmth I'd felt earlier faded, replaced by a numbness that was both soothing and unsettling. I sat transfixed as blurred reality beyond my plot closed in around me.

My leaves shimmied as an itch tickled at them and they twitched. It was like a spell being broken. 'Ugh. What happened?' It felt like my mind was wrapped in a thick, cloying fog that refused to let go. The ache wasn't sharp, just this heavy, persistent throbbing that clung to me like damp air. Every thought felt sluggish, and the pressure made my perception ripple in an annoying rhythm. 'This is terrible! It feels like a hangover. Actually, that might be more pleasant.'

The itch returned, though this time it was more intense. I narrowed my focus and strained to look about myself. 'What is going on?' Everything looked normal. 'Hmm, Nymph looks a little weaker.' With a peak into the pot, 'Holy bits and pieces. Theres got to be a dozen in there!' Confusion rolled through me. 'How did I not notice a dozen ants walk into my honey pot? Or even showing up?' My focus turned up the sky above. The moon had moved a significant distance across the sky. 'How long was I-?'

The itch returned, 'What is that fu-,' My focus spun about to look towards myself. It actually took a moment before I found the cause, and when I did, I was surprised to find an eldritch ant was the culprit. It stood near the base of my stem and was rubbing it's antennae against me. The very moment I noticed it, it stopped and stepped back a few ant-sized paces.

'What is it doing?' The ant's antennae began to wiggle and a small plume of… 'Pheromones?!' A vague sense of curiosity touched my thoughts. 'Wait… that wasn't me. I mean I am curious about what is going on, but that was distinctly different.' It wasn't just curiosity. There was much more to it, a complicated web of… things!

'I'm sorry. I don't know what's going on.' The ant just stood there as behind it the faint whisps of Nymph's Call floated through the air behind it. 'Right. Pheromones. Let's see… ah. Hmm, nothing about it says anything about communication.' I perused over the skill and from the corner of my focus I noticed, 'After using Nymph's Call earlier, the moonlight photosynthesis must have worked. I'm back up to thirteen out of thirteen Stamina, and I couldn't have been out of it long if I only got back to full.'

I looked over Pheromones very closely. It seemed wording could be important, particularly what it says you cannot do. For example, Photosynthesis specified 'daylight' hours, but it said nothing about not being able to use it at night. While it had been incredibly chilling and left me with the sensation of a severe hang over, it had worked at night. Now with Pheromones, it does state twice that I can do simple attraction and repulsion but that I cannot do complex emotions or behaviors. 'Does that mean that I cannot do any emotions and behaviors, because it specifies being limited to attraction and repulsion, or does it mean that I might be able to do simple emotions and behaviors?'

'Better yet. Should I respond?' The ant was still, as far as he could tell, patiently waiting. 'It could be another 'Tester', right? But is that a good thing? But then how does it know that I am?' I zoomed in around the ant and looked it over. It looked like an ant and not that different from the eldritch he had seen before. Where the glass ants seemed to be entirely individualistic in the designs of their patterns, the eldritch ants seemed to be carbon copies of each other. 'It probably doesn't help my hesitation that I keep calling them 'eldritch'.'

For the first time the ant seemed to be hesitant. Its antennae slowed their twitching, and it sporadically scuffed its feet every so often. 'Aw, what the hell. If it is another Tester, then maybe I can get some questions answered. If it is some kind of dick bag, well… pretty sure I am already supposed to be dead.'

'What do I go with?' The eldritch stepped side to side, its mandibles clicked. 'Well. How about…' I triggered Pheromones and like when I first instigated STFA with my rather panicked 'Go Away', I did again with a different word.

'Hello?' As I 'spoke' the word, I had meant to simply put forth perhaps a little friendliness or confusion. I couldn't hold back the sense of hope and fear, my anxiety of trying to communicate to someone else, or desire to not be stuck alone with my own thoughts. These and more overwhelmed my control and I poured it all into that one word.

As the Pheromone billowed out, a tidal wave compared to the ant's previous ripple, my Stamina plummeted to zero. A cold fire surged through my stem and out into my leaves, icy flames tearing through me. It ravaged my being, causing my leaves to shrivel and curl. My roots trembled, brittle under the strain of the sensations raging within. In a panic, I activated both Photosynthesis and Nutrient & Water Absorption. I barely registered them beginning their work before the fogginess at the edge of my awareness closed in, overwhelming my mind and wrapping me in darkness. For the first time since I awoke in this world, I lost consciousness.

Colors were the first to return, as rough, starchy blobs. They stretched and warbled about in strange shapes. Slowly the colors began to condense and rework themselves into more recognizable shapes. Form and order returning to the world. The early morning sun was just beginning to bake the circular dirt patch. As the light lit up the stone brick, they seemed to catch fire. 'Well, isn't that pretty.'

Idly I noted that both Photosynthesis and Absorption were still running. 'The headache seems to be gone at least. That's nice, especially if Photosynthesis was running all night. I would have expected a big one considering my first attempt. Maybe because I seemed to have actually slept? Damn, I miss being able to stretch first thing in the morning.' My focus swept over the ground around me, and I spotted the ant from the night before. Correction. Ants. There were more of them now. Fifteen more to be exact.

As my leaves began to twitch in morning light and its warmth started to flow through me, the eldritch ants seemed to take notice. In near perfect unison, they seemed to swing about from their… whatever they were doing and march over towards me. Hesitantly I kept my mental finger poised over the STFA button. They halted about half a foot away. One of them walked forward a few more inches. As far as I could tell, it was the same one was before.

Just as the night before, it released a small plume of pheromones into the air around it. Just as the night before, all I understood was a pheromone salad. 'Oh! I wonder if I do this, would it work?' I bent my mind towards the Pheromone skill and hesitated only a moment before activating it. This time, however, instead of trying to speak or use either STFA or Nymph's Call, I just turned it on. I called up my Stamina to keep an eye on how this would affect things. Almost instantly the pheromones the ant put out started to make some sense.

There wasn't instant and clear translation of what the ant was trying to communicate. Instead, it came across as telling a story with pictures. Only, instead of pictures, it was feelings. A pheromone finger painting replaced the salad. My Stamina was draining at a rate of roughly one every ten seconds, give or take.

'Something, something, apologies. Something, something regretful. About… me being injured? Aw, that's sweet. All night. All day? All NIGHT?! I've been out a day and a half!?' A little of my panic must have leaked out as a pheromone as my Stamina dropped another an additional two points and the ant scuttled back. I barely noticed that the strength of the small slip was small, and didn't extend out nearly as far as STFA or Nymph's Call did when I used them.

As evenly as possible, I reigned back my emotions. I already used fourteen Stamina and it been barely two minutes-ish. If I wanted to understand and respond, 'Oh boy, this is going to take a while. At least I got two Stamina back from Photosynthesis running. That buys me some time.' The ant didn't seem to waste time. It waited for only a moment after I drew back my panic before it started 'speaking' again.

This is where the conversation seemed to get more complicated, at least too complicated for my low level of Pheromones to understand. What I could gather was that the ants seemed to want something and were willing to offer something in exchange. I let out some confusion and the ant tried again. This happened a few more times before I managed to get some vague understanding. 'Okay, so you want me to help you move house? In return you will, I can't tell if you are saying you will help me grow or herd cattle. Well, I can't move so I don't know if I can help you. Not to mention I don't quite get what you offer.' At the moments I hoped would help get my point across, I put the words to pheromones. By the time I had finished, I was down to ten Stamina.

The ant looked back to the others for a moment. Together they released different little clouds. "Move… colony… here. Current… location… bad. Dangerous… plants… animals… heat… too strong. Help… you… grow. Tend… soil… herd ants… for… food. Thank… not… eat… me."

The pheromones the ants released flooded my mind with its information. A slight pain rippled through me. A quick check of my Health showed it had taken a hit. 'Well, that was… well.' I watched my Stamina slowly tick down as I thought. 10… 9… It might not be a bad idea, right? 7… 6… 5… It couldn't hurt? 3… 2… "Agreed."

My Stamina hit zero and I cut off my Pheromone skill. The ant seemed to say something more, but I could no longer understand it. Instead, I watched it at the edge of my perception and turned to my sheet.



I did a double take.

'Si-six point one! That's almost double what I had!' My focus immediately zoomed in on the ants. They were almost to the edge of the bricks. Each of them froze as the intensity of my focus fell upon them. 'I don't know what you did! But yes! You can stay here! No problems! You need anything, just spray the word!'

Most of my focus went back to my sheet as I marveled at it, barely noticing as the ants seemed to quickly shuffle off out of my perception. 'This is amazing. If this is what those ants can offer as help, I can't wait for them to move in.' My leaves turned ever so slightly to catch the most sun and I relinquished to the Photosynthesis. 'This is going to be a good day!'

By the time my Stamina had refilled, the sun had begun its daily journey in earnest, and I began mine. Cycling back and forth between Growth and Photosynthesis. The glass ants that had filled my honey pot were firmly digested by the end of the first cycle and put my Health back up to twelve. 'Gonna have to nab some more of them this evening. Aren't I?'

The rest had been nice, I mean my brain hasn't shut off in a few weeks since waking up here, but in a way it felt wrong. I've gone a little dormant sometimes at night, but nothing that would be considered being asleep. Even then I've been constantly aware of what has been going on around me.

Speaking of almost dormant. Running through my routine and cycles could almost be called automated. Not so much like in a video game, but more like breathing. When I sat back to cycle through Growth and Photosynthesis, I did not need to think about them as much. Just a minor little shift in thought to switch one off and turn on the other. It was nice. It was almost peaceful, like those rare moments of laying out in a field. Sun and clouds passing by overhead. 'Heh, I guess plants get to do that all the time, eh?'

I had just finished my eighth cycle, Growth having drained me down to one Stamina remaining, when something bolted over the brick and charged me. Startled, I tried to trigger STFA and felt the burn as my Stamina hit zero. Thankfully a small amount rolled out from me, causing the charging creature to slow for a moment

'Goldie! I knew you were aggressive, but don't you think this is a bit much?!' Zero Stamina and Health that has already taken a hit. That leaves me with… Illusions.

Goldie pawed at the ground like a bull getting ready to charge, her antennae waving wildly. 'I guess we are doing this.' I focused my thoughts on a spot about halfway between Goldie and myself. Stepping one thick leg after another, and another, and another, was a large, fat, hairy spider. It's hair was short and course, a ruddy red that almost blended in with the dirt around it.

'Now that really made you pause, didn't it? Couldn't you just go away? We don't have to do this.' Goldie shuffled sideways, as if to circle around. I let her move a few inches before shuffling the spider around to match her. I grimaced inwardly at the janky and rough movements of the spider. 'Gonna have to work on that. It's like a laggy video game character.' Thankfully, Goldie didn't seem to notice. Or if she did, she didn't understand. What she did seem to understand was that she was facing a predator. Something dangerous. Something that wanted to eat her just as much as she wanted to eat me.

'Now if only I can keep her believing it.' Ten Mana per ten minutes of use. Already down ten. Softly, I turned on my Photosynthesis. 'I am going to need to either chase her off or draw this out. Just five minutes and I can use a full blast of STFA. Five minutes, that's all I need.'

For the first minute it seemed that was going to be easy. For the first minute I made a huge mistake. I did nothing to try and chase Goldie off, instead just sitting there to prevent her from coming any closer. That seemed to galvanizer her as she ran forward, straight at my spider! 'Spider things! Spider things! Uh! Oh!' The spider reared back, four of its legs stabilizing itself as the other for reached out in the air. It looked massive, reaching up a little past half my height.

Goldie stayed strong, running right up to the spider. Suddenly her heels dug into the ground, and she skidded to a stop. Her abdomen flicked up over her body. The golden glass patterns on it began to swirl and glow. 'Uh-oh…' A green liquid, tinged with a golden sheen shot out. I watched as it passed through my spider. Most of it passed me by, but a few drops splattered against my stem. An angry hiss came from any surface the liquid touched, like bacon frying in a pan.

'GAAH!' I cried out as it burned through my stem, my health going down with each drop that hit. Hastily, I tried to simulate the liquid having hit the spider and it reacting. 'Shit!' My Mana dropped another ten, halving my available time for the illusions.

The spider dropped down towards Goldie, but she scuttled backwards, and it just missed her. It's mandibles were clicking angrily at her. One leg hefted up and swiped at her, making her dance even further backwards. 'Ah-ha! Yes!' Just a short distance behind Goldie was my honey pot. 'Charge!' The spider bounded forward, more like a dog than an arachnid, and forced Goldie backwards.

'Yes! Yes! Get in there! NOO!' At the last moment, Goldie dodged to the side and rushed forward, passing by the spider. The spider spun about, almost drifting and gave chase. 'Heyheyhey! Stay away please!' My spider leaped, launching itself right over Goldie. It nearly crashed into me, instead landing right at my base and using my stem to flip itself about. The ant skidded to a stop and the standoff began again.

'Just a little bit longer. Three minutes.' I observed as Goldie inched side to side, testing her approach. My illusory spider would twitch or hiss at her attempts. 'That might be the problem. Right? The spider is acting like it's protecting something, instead of trying to take down its prey. Goldie wants my leaves. Her determination tells me she liked the one she took already. So, let's give her something else to focus on.'

The spider reared back once more, as it did so wiggle its abdomen between its legs to point forward. 'Maybe I shouldn't have given it such a fat butt. That… that looks weird.' With its spinnerets pointed at Goldie, it fired. Instead of a fine stream of silky threads, a thick glob of white goo shot forward. Goldie scuttled backwards, barely dodging the goop. 'And that is not helping.' My focus zoomed in towards the gloopy lump. 'It looks like a melted marshmallow, not a lump of webbing. Guess the simple illusions bit is kicking in again.'

Two more globs of mallow-webbing fired at Goldie. Each time they sent her scuttling backwards to avoid them, usually at the last moment. 'She must be sensing them only once they get close. Let's press the offensive, Marshmallow!' The now named Marshmallow dropped back to his feet and charged forward, his legs moving in a very unrealistic synchronization. More like a dog bounding after a ball than a spider running.

Goldie flipped her own weaponized rear forward once more. Her green/gold acid fired in a dramatic arc towards Marshmallow. Unphased in his stride, Marshmallow simply slid to the side of the shot. He kept up the pace as he moved past the burning patch of dirt. 'Lag! Wait, no. That helped me. We're good!' Goldie seemed to panic as she ran about in a circle. 'Good! See how you like it!'

Marshmallow had forced her back to the brick. With the 'wall' behind her, she wasn't able to pull any fancy moves to try and juke past my defender. Forced back, Goldie kept trying to get past Marshmallow. She would faint her attacks, trying to nip at him with her powerful jaws. He kept 'stepping' to the side, dodging and returning her attacks with attempted stomps of his powerful legs. The battle forced Goldie to clamber up the brick behind her. 'Oh, wait. Uh oh.'

Marshmallow froze as Goldie slipped out of the range of my perception. The tickle of her movements fading from my senses. Slowly, cautiously, Marshmallow crawled a few inches backwards. His flat eyes focused dead ahead at the spot where Goldie had disappeared.


'Come on! Fill up faster! I'll gladly watch a video Tuesday for some Stamina today!' I desperately called out to the Admins, not expecting a response. Just so, none came. I pulled Marshmallow back to the halfway point between the brick and myself. Seconds ticked by. Long, tense seconds. As the moments stretched out, both Stamina and Mana ticked up by another one. 'One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi…'

Rigid leaves buffeted in the breeze. The ground stopped singing from the acid. Marshmallow's mandibles clicked steadily in time with my counting. I released my focus to keep my general perception of my area, just in case Goldie decided to come from another direction. 'Forty Mississippi. Fif-Jeebus Christy!' Marshmallow jumped with surprise at my outcry and spun about. 'How did you get so close?!'

Goldie had crept in from the side, her golden hue helping to blend her in with the dirt. She had nearly pressed herself flat against it and was already past the halfway mark towards me. Marshmallow tensed back, building up his power before leaping towards her. He landed with a solid thump, having cleared much of the distance towards her. Unfortunately, his landing alerted Goldie to the fact she had been spotted. Near instantly she was on her feet and dashing for my stem!

Marshmallow was sliding about more than running now as he moved in to chase her down. She managed to stay just ahead of him as she reached the base of my stem. Her legs brushed against me as she moved to start climbing. At that moment, my Stamina clicked over that last point I needed. 'STFA!'

I couldn't help being a little dramatic. I used my back to ten Mana as well to shape the Pheromone release with an illusory explosion. Marshmallow was buffeted backwards by the shockwave, and sent tumbling. Goldie freaked. She fell off my stem and onto her back, her legs waving wildly in the air before she righted herself. In a mad dash, she rushed away from me towards the safety of the brick ring.

The stiff tension in my leaves dropped, and I felt like I sagged with relief. 'Thank goodness. Oh, thank goodness. Oh, god. Haha! I'm alive! I'm alive…' A cloud of STFA floated around me protectively. There had yet to be an instance where something crossed my threshold with STFA present, unless they were traveling inside a stream of Nymph's Call. 'That was intense!'

The sun's warmth sent tingling pleasure through me as I let Photosynthesis just run. Steadily refilling both my Stamina and Mana as I relaxed in my safe little bubble. 'How did she manage to sneak up on me? That was crazy! I haven't missed anything that's crossed into my domain… have I?' A shiver ran up my stem and I cast a worried search through out everything I could perceive.

'Nothing seems out of place.' The fact Goldie had gotten so close without me noticing had been worrying. 'Could she have a Skill for it? Could she be like me?' The fight replayed itself in my mind. 'No, I don't think she is. She didn't seem to recognize the spider for anything more than a predator. She didn't notice that it wasn't moving properly, or any of the other giveaways. She was just really good. But does she have Skills?'

Another thought came to mind, and I recalled the eldritch ants. 'That way that they were speaking to me, that was a Skill, no doubt. They also seemed far more intelligent. I mean, Goldie was smart, perhaps smarter than an average ant, but I could see any number of predators behaving that way.'

A rough gust of wind buffeted me, and I lost thought for a moment. 'That was out of place, maybe the seasons are changing?' I watched what I could see of the sky as I shifted my thoughts back to the eldritch ant. Something it had 'said' was nagging at me. ''Thank, not, eat, me.' It had said 'me', not us or any ant identifier. It knew about gardening. That one I can see being like me. I guess we will have to find out.'

By the time the sun started to slip out of sight, I had already topped up my Stamina and Mana. My Health, unfortunately, was going to have to wait until I caught some ants. 'Which maybe I should hold off on just yet? After Eldritch thanked me for not eating it, it would kinda suck if I nabbed one.'


'I really got to figure out where my xp is coming from. When the fight was over, I was still at six point one out of a hundred. So, I did not get it from fighting Goldie.' A mental grunt of frustration spent five of my Stamina, releasing a low laying cloud of frustration around me. 'I got to get that under control, but still. All I've done since the fight is just sit back and chill. Taking in some sun… like a good… little… plant.'

If I wasn't mentally frozen in epiphanic shock, I would have spent a few Mana to create a cloud of neurons firing off and connecting all about me. My sheet hovered in the air before me in clear focus.


'I. Am. A. Plant. A PLANT! Not a fighter or mage or cleric, but a fucked by a truckin' plant! I don't even have a class! Why would I get xp for doing class things?' My leaves bristled with annoyance. How could I have not realized this sooner? 'I have to be getting the xp for doing plant things. There has to be a bit more to it then that, because what I get seems to vary. But that has to be it!'

My rant was cut short by an itching on my stem. I reoriented and saw the eldritch ant standing there, its antennae tickling the base of my stem to get my attention. 'GAH! How does this keep happening?!'

I let my sapbeat slow down before I looked around. There weren't any other eldritch ants about, and for some reason this one looked uncomfortable. Well, as uncomfortable as an ant can look.

Due to my little outburst, I was already down some Stamina. As Eldritch released a plume, I activated the passive.

"Question: Angry."

I winced inwardly as I looked at the small layer of frustration floating around. "Embarrassed: Mistake. Stupid."

"Solemn: Learn."

Mentally, I grumbled at its response, I decided to move on. Not like it would help explaining that I didn't realize I was a plant and that I should be doing plant things.

"Question: Colony." Speaking like this was getting easier, but it was still weird to be talking in concepts and feelings, rather than words.

"Acceptance: Waiting." As soon as it finished speaking, there was a mass movement at the edge of my bricks. Turning my attention towards it, I regarded the large group of ants that came pouring over.

"Question: Where." The question threw me off guard. Right. They were going to need a place to live and build. I let my perception diffuse out.

"Worry: Roots."

Eldritch seemed to consider for a moment. While we conversed, the rest of the colony seemed to spread itself out around the edges of the dirt pack. My guess was that there were hundreds of them at the very least. After a pause, a bunch of ants started walking about. They seemed to be testing the ground. I watched their progress, though my Stamina was beginning to drop.

"Question: Here." The ants that had started moving about converged on a spot. It was on the far side of me from the honey pot, and about a half foot away from the brick. It was also outside the current extent of my roots by a good foot or so. I could work with that.

"Pleased. Yes."

By the gods. By the gods! I can't believe it. I can't believe it! I leveled! I finally leveled! Haha! It only took fourteen… fifteen? Or was it thirteen? Oh, who cares! It only took a few-ish weeks! It wasn't the only thing that happened, but it is the thing I am most excited about!



For some reason, over the course of the same amount of time both my Health and Stamina went up relatively steadily. It hadn't been quick or specific, as far as I could tell. My current guess is that it has something to do with how much I've grown. I've nearly doubled in size! I had many more leaves and branches. Though I think they are more like vines? I am honestly not sure. My branches, instead of growing out, grew down and now waved just a few inches above the ground. If my trunk hadn't grown along with everything else, I'm think I would have fallen over from the weight.

Speaking of my Health, I am almost certainly positive that when I put the five Freebie Points into my Health all the way back when, that I decided to dump all my next points in a place to test how the points work. Only… I can't remember where I said that I would. I think it was in my Health again? To see if there was any difference? I could go that route. Even though it has gone up, it hasn't gone up much. My Stamina saw a more significant boost. But… my focus flicked over to my Mana as I recalled the fight with Goldie.

My illusion of Marshmallow saved my life but the cost was really cutting it close. If Goldie hadn't decided to flee when she did… My perception focused on my Mana as I swayed my branches in thought. I could… still test things? Only put one point in at a time? See if it does something? I mean, it wasn't much, but technically both my Health and Stamina have gone up.

I put one point into Mana.



Oh yeah! Now we're cooking! Another!

Hmm… That didn't seem to do anything. It kinda confirms my guess that it isn't just the points that factor in here though. I glanced at my Health and Stamina with a suspicious narrowing of my perception. I mean my Health and Stamina went up without me doing anything. I have three Stat Points left? Let's put it all in Mana? I don't know why, but I'm just much more comfortable putting all five points at a time rather than splitting them up right now.



My leaves bristled and a thick scent of annoyance wove its way through my branches. Mentally, I cursed at myself for wasting the Stamina on a tantrum. Not even a tantrum. Look, I went in expecting not much of anything to happen and honestly, it's more then I got out of dumping the five points into Health. Let's be happy about that at least, yeah? Besides… I pulled my sheet back up and looked just a little further down under the notification. That isn't all I got. Under the notification and no vacant 'Unspent Stat Points' was one last box.



This is new and hopefully opens some things up for me. I just wish I knew what kind of 'System' this was before going into it though. I focused on the words, hoping to glean their secrets. Sadly nothing came forth. Is it a random draw? Should I save up points? No, it can't be that. Most games that do the random draw don't have stats and things. Right? Pretty sure anyway. So… it should give me skill options, right? Like some sort of Skill List?

As soon as the words crossed my mind a second screen popped up off to the side. Instead of being the usual pale, translucent light blue, it was green.



Woah.

Since this is a little bit different, starting as an already started story, the first vote will be its own little post here. After that, they will be presented at the end of each chapter. 24 hours to Vote. 24 hours to Write. So essentially posted every 2 days.

This first Vote will be a little bit longer than the 24 hours.

This is a Majority Vote, no Approval.
[ ] Spend Skill Points
- [Insert Skill]
[ ] Save Skill Points
- [Insert What Saving For, If Anything In Particular]

Jan 8, 2025 at 11:00 PM Until Vote Closes