NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Choices and Levels
Level up! Class [Juvenile Blight Tree] is now level 8!
For slaying a [Goblin Flame Chief] and chasing off his clan you have gained a level.
+1 to [Might] +1 to [Spirit] +5 free points!
New class skills available! [Blight Heart] or [Darktree’s Insight]!
Another prompt, Leif now vaguely understood what this meant. The meaning of the system messages were still hazy, but with a little focus… Yes, he felt he knew.
A level up, from seven to eight in the [Juvenile Blight Tree] class. Plus one to both [Might] and [Spirit] and five free points. There was more to the message, but before Leif could fully comprehend it another system prompt appeared.
Level up! Class [Noble] is now level 9!
For protecting your territory and maintaining the calm of your subjects you have gained a level!
+1 to [Intelligence] +1 to [Willpower] +1 to [Spirit] +1 to [Charisma] +2 free points!
Another level up, this time in the [Noble] class. Something struck Leif as odd about this class. As though he knew instinctively that possessing it wasn’t normal, but also that having it brought him great comfort, as if to go without would mean he had lost something irreplaceable.
Faces he didn’t know, places he didn’t recognise, sorrow he didn’t understand.
What is this? He thought as images once again flashed through his mind. For over an hour Leif contemplated what was going on, who he was.
I am me. He concluded, but I am not what I was. It is as though I have lived two separate lives, one as a tree and the other…
The realisation settled onto his consciousness like a weight. As if now that he knew that something was not right, the sheer amount he didn’t understand, he didn’t know, might crush him.
To distract himself Leif returned to the system prompts. After a slow and careful examination he believed he knew. Tapping into instincts and knowledge from something else Leif fully faced the choice in front of him.
Two skills, [Blight Heart] and [Darktree’s Insight]. Thinking back, Leif had never been presented with a choice of skills from his [Juvenile Blight Tree] class. His [Noble] class had always offered a choice, at least for the two skills he had gained since becoming aware. Wait… I had [Noble] levels and skills before that. But how? No, focus, one thing at a time.
He tried to focus on both options but no additional information appeared. Disappointed, he studied the names, could he gain any information from them? No… Wait, yes! He felt a distinct impression from each option.
The first skill was energy, a way to collect… Something that could grow and improve. The second… A way to learn, to become better at being what he was.
Both offered power but from different directions. [Blight Heart] would grant a pool of energy to amplify his skills while [Darktree’s Insight] would make him more proficient at his current skills.
Leif contemplated the choices, he did so for so long that the first; ‘Pick a skill or it will be picked for you’ prompt appeared.
Twelve hours to go. Time, I understand the concept but not the specifics. How can I tell how much time has passed?
Exiting his musing about the new prompt he made his choice. [Darktree’s Insight] would help him understand his current existence, clear away the confusion, help him become comfortable with who he was.
But he was more than just a [Juvenile Blight Tree], he was also a [Noble]. [Darktree’s Insight] wouldn’t help at all with his [Noble] skills, he could feel it. And if he was half tree and half something else then shouldn’t he pick the skill that could help him be both?
You have gained the [Juvenile Blight Tree] skill [Blight Heart]!
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Blight Heart I:
Aspects: Cultivation (blood), Enhancement (Body)
A Blight Tree consumes the vitality from its victims, growing ever stronger. As you gather the lifeblood of the fallen, a portion remains, filling and expanding a pool of energy that allows you to improve the output of skills.
Excess energy cultivated fuels your bodily functions and restores wounds.
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Leif immediately felt the change, like something had grown within his trunk, a pool of pulsing energy ready to be used. Though it wasn’t full. His attention turned to the piles of goblin corpses littering the ground.
He wasn’t invincible, and these creatures had posed a legitimate threat, especially the one with fire. If they had charged him all at once… But they hadn’t, and Leif had survived. He knew now that there were many things far stronger than goblins, he could die at any moment.
Strength, strength to survive, to find out what I am, who I am, and why I’m like this. Strength to protect those who relied on me for shelter. Leif’s mindset shifted, he had been passive for too long.
Spending the seven free attribute points he had gained from the two level ups he got to work. Three into [Might], three into [Alacrity] and one into [Intelligence]
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Season rotated above, for two months the weather was calm and the climate stable. Then the cracked half slowly rotated into view. Ravines of glowing red heralded the end of the hush season and the beginning of turbulence. Pulsing red, as if blood from a clotting wound spread along its surface, the planet below changed in response to the sight.
Beneath a night sky tinged ever so slightly red, a tree grew. It changed just as the world around it did, crimson stained the earth around it from two separate sources. Then turbulence had ended, the storms retreated and the snow melted.
A Blight Tree stalked the evergreen forest, it moved in a manner akin to a spider. though with dozens of twisted legs of dull grey wood. It hunted in search of prey, its red canopy a herald of violence and death.
It found what it was searching for. Prey filled with vitality slumbered in the morning light, blissfully unaware of impending doom. The Blight Tree crept closer, vaguely aware of its cousin nearby but ignoring it all the same. What could a lesser do anyway?
As the Tree struck with blade-like branches and roots akin to stakes, a golden shield flared up. The attack met the barrier and stopped dead. Then the lesser struck back, spears breaking bark and sinking into its trunk. Strength meeting, no, exceeding the evolved tree’s own, and pushed the monster onto the defensive.
Where it tried to sink its roots into the soil to gather nutrients it was blocked. When it tried to syphon the vitality from the life living within the others branches the golden barrier would flare up, protecting not only the body of the lesser but also the many animals that called its form home.
For an hour the two monsters duelled before finally one perished. The unevolved Blight Tree ripped apart its cousin and drained it of vitality.
Level up! Class [Juvenile Blight Tree] is now level 10!
For slaying a [Blight Tree Prowler] and displaying dominance over an evolved member of your species you have gained a level.
+1 to [Might] +1 to [Spirit] +5 free points!
You have gained the capstone class skill [Uproot]!
Congratulations! You have reached the level cap for your [Juvenile Blight Tree] class! Would you like to evolve? Y/N
Warning! You are vulnerable while undergoing monster evolution!