[X] Plan reading a bedtime story to our daughter
-[X] Class choices
--[X] Yes, you'd want this class, you'd finally have someone to talk to and your gut told you [Wood wide web] would end up stronger as a Class Skill.
-[X] W.W.W
--[X] Try and see if you can contact someone with it
-[X] Socialize
--[X] Your dryad hugged you earlier, maybe they were more than a puppet, maybe I should try talking to them.
-[X] Memories of earth
--[X] Try to remember a fairy tale to tell the dryad, preferably about trees.
[Class: Signal Tree 0/2 gained]
[Skill: Wooden Signal Tower gained]
[Skill: Greater Wood Wide Web Manipulation gained]
[Skill: Wood Wide Web transferred]
Looking over the new skills they were clear enhancements to W.W.W, which would be the classes main gimmick very few useful on their own skills but ones that synergize very well with another, makes me wonder if that type of build is common on this world would, why know several attacks when all you needed was one massive explosion!
[Wooden Signal Tower: Allows the users body to act as a range amplifier for the [Wood Wide Web] Skill]
[Greater Wood Wide Web Manipulation: Allows manipulations and alteration of the Wood Wide Web]
[Wood Wide Web: Generates a signal around the user that may be used to send information to others]
From the looks of it I was right, this was a class built all around using the Wood Wide Web, seemed to be intended to turn me into the equivalent of a relay tower and [Greater Wood Wide Web Manipulation] interested me, what where its limits could i "Program" things in to react automatically, what made this greater and does that mean a [Lesser Wood Wide Web Manipulation] exists, would i get a skill that allowed me to prevent spam messages? could people other than me get the skill would i have to worry about [Tree hackers] at some point, the thought of a [Tree hacking] skill brought the image of someone manically tapping against a leaf, making keyboard sounds. Amusing as that thought was, I had something else to focus on actually using my skill while I knew I was in some ashy wasteland. There could be someone alive who would be able to hear me, who knows maybe a dot in the distance was actually a person so here goes nothing, I focused all the skills i had collected so far which wasn't many to be fair and used them all at once to spread the Wood Wide Web, from my dryads sight it was an event with very little actual fanfare but to me and i suppose anyone who could sense the wood wide web it was a wave of power traveling from me and expanding outwards rolling over the landscape who knows how far, maybe it already covered the whole world or maybe it just got far enough to cover the wastes around where i was, trying to judge the specific distance was beyond me not unless I was able to see the edge of it and get tape measure, i just had to trust it was far enough to reach some semblance of life.
I figuratively held my breath as I waited for something to happen, dread filled me for a moment as nothing happened, I was afraid that maybe no one was around to catch the signal my worries were quickly replaced with surprise as a flood of noise and sound flowed through the signal unrestrained and unmanaged it was like a pipe had suddenly burst and it was just letting information spray everywhere, it was like a buzzing static in my mind as white noise overpowered everything I could barely hear the sound of my dryad letting out a shrill shriek. Hearing her shriek like that was the last straw before i mentally grit my teeth and shut off the skill sweet sweet silence returning just as I did so, my dryad was currently holding my small stem like a teddy bear.
I told her it was okay, sending her feeling of calmness and serenity through our bond, something I only really noticed now, even then she was still latched onto me and shaking like a leaf in the wind. I focused for a moment, willing my signal to come back again slowly and quietly just big enough to be between the two of us and said "Shush, don't worry it's gonna be okay I made the loud noise stop".
[Signal tree 1/2]
After several long hours of comforting my dryad enough that they didn't seem afraid another storm of noise was gonna appear I went back to my original plan to contact someone this time trying to see if I could change the network into something less loud, the problem with the first one wasn't that I was out of range of anyone that could respond it was that I was in range and everything was sending all their information at once resulting in complete and utter chaos, but this time maybe I could filter the information or limit it at least, I gently poked my skills to activate willing them to act less like a mass information dump but a more guided form of information sharing. Focusing for a moment I thought about how I wanted the signal to work, it should be something more like an email only transmitting information upon being asked explicitly and only towards a single chosen target.
[Signal tree 2/2 -> 0/4]
A level up notification popped up in the corner, and while it might have been my first level as amazing as that was I didn't want to lose focus, if I stopped to see what levels did then I'd procrastinate and never got back on this so for now I ignored it, and activated my skill again waiting with baited breath to see if it worked or if i was going to get overwhelmed with noise again…and after a few moments a message popped up, then another and another all no longer then a couple words saying things like 'Sun,Water,Need sun,Rain soon,Insect harm' for a moment I was confused at the constant string of text messages until i realized it was other plants sending these at me 'Not helpful but it's nice to know that there are still some living plants around, hopefully it wasn't something too invasive like kudzu or worse dandelions' I shuddered as I thought about the whole field I was in being overtaken by those terrifying yellow weeds. Refocusing I mentally pushed for me to not be sent any message under three words and it stopped just like that 'Okay so i'm going to want to work on this but for now I have a decent way of sending messages, now that i've reinvented gmail gunpowder is next' now i had two options I could send my dryad on a far away journey to find someone, or I could do the equivalent of a long range airdrop and say something to anyone in range.
[] Contact
-[] Send your dryad out to go find someone you could talk too
--[] What do you say (Write in)
-[] Send a mass message to everything within range of your
--[] What do you say (Write in)
Having managed to get my message system working without any kinks in it's system, I decided to send my dryad a message normally I would communicate to her with thoughts and not words, having some method of sharing my feelings and wants with her that while useful didn't send over words or exact information, before I thought it only told them what I wanted them to do but she had hugged me without me putting any input in to tell her that so she had to have been sentient? Sapient? intelligent enough to try and comfort me without having to say anything, so I hesitantly sent her a message, careful to send it small and with lots of warning to not startle her.
`Hello, it's me your tree` I went with something obvious and blunt, not having any other ideas on what to say.
It did startle my dryad, the girl letting out a little peep of surprise, nearly jumping into the air before she stopped to read the message, before slowly turning to me.
'Don't worry this one won't overwhelm you again' I wasn't sure if that helped calm them down but I'd like to believe it did. She remained silent despite my attempts to reassure her and so we waited in an awkward silence I had gotten accustomed too in my old life.
'So, wanna hear a story' 'yes' my dryad sent back monosyllable, shortly before I realized I didn't actually know any good stories so I needed a second to remember something, focusing for a moment to use [Memories of another world] until I got a scrap of an idea 'So a long time ago before anything existed there was a massive tree it was known as Ygssadrill it branches stretched in forever holding up worlds on it's branches', I was almost certain I messed up somewhere there but she still seemed interested so I kept talking. 'You could travel from world to world simply by walking on its branches, and its trunk was the center of the universe' I kept telling her about my scattered recollections of the story, doubtlessly missing important details but not having the time to check.
'Trees dryad?' that was not a question I was prepared for but one I could answer easily 'wasn't one' now she has me talking like this, ah well I'm sure it won't become a problem later…nah that couldn't have been a flag.
Long after my dryad had gotten tired of my story and was distracted I finally had the chance to look back at my status to see my level up.
[Signal tree (0/4) (•)]
[1 Skill point available]
[Wood Wide Web]
Extended range: Range up
Spamware: Send concentrated garbage data at a target
[Wooden Signal Tower]
Wooden repeaters: Wooden objects project signal range further, effectiveness depends on quality
Empowered signal: Increases the signals raw power
[Greater Wood Wide Web Manipulation]
Child of earth's net nostalgia: Aids in the recreation of websites from hosts memories
Lesser automation: Allows the use of Skill automatically
Antivirus: Decreases the effectiveness of hostile manipulation skills
My status now showed a singular green dot next to my class, and a whole bunch of upgrade options under all of my Skills, basic gaming and regular logic told me this was a method of upgrading my skills to be better, but all of these seemed super useful the only one that seemed to stick out was [Child of earth's net nostalgia] mostly because of the name and the idea that it might be related to me having the memories of earth skill, I could probably throw out antivirus until I actually needed it if I did ever need it but the rest seemed relatively equal, worsening my decision paralysis was the fact I had the feeling it'd almost certainly be possible to unlock better upgrade options because come on, hidden unlocks where a staple of the LITRPG series for crying out loud.
(Plan votes please)
Actions 3 AP
[] W.W.W
-[] Try and sort through all of the plant spam for something interesting, it can't all be useless
-[] Write in
Skill use
[] Humanization
-[] Maybe you could try and remake your sense of taste
-[] Maybe you could try and make yourself some seeds early try get some way to communicate besides W.W.W
-[] Write in (what human capabilities are you missing, results may vary)
[] Memories of earth
-[] Read some manga i never finished from earth
--[] A super violent battle manga
--[] A cheesy but fun shonen
--[] An okay but you still loved it romance
--[] Read a Pokemon manga you never got to read them but someone else definitely did
-[] Try and recall memories of a botany book
-[] Write in
[] Socialize
-[] Tell your daughter dryad some more stories
--[] Read her Goldilocks
--[] Read her Jack and the beanstalk
--[] Read her The jungle book
--[] Read her Sleeping beauty
--[] Read her Goldilocks
--[] Read her Paul Bunyan
--[] Read her (Write in)
[] Write in
