Hyperion Evergrowing

Chapter 2: Actions

Within a form of wood a consciousness stirred, it had done so several times now. Each spark of thought was greater than the one before it, more focused and slightly faster. With every thought it became more and more aware, aware of its surroundings, the taste of dirt, the warmth of the sun, the feeling of small legs climbing its branches.

Small pinpricks of light shone in its mind's eye. Each corresponding to the small animals scampering around.

The instincts of its species screamed at the tree to attack, to consume and grow. But another, slightly stronger instinct held it back, telling it that something was wrong, that something was unnatural.

There was more, the tree could sense that the second instinct was correct, somewhere deep inside knew. And though neither the origin nor veracity of this feeling could be detected the tree clutched onto it with all its focus and will.

Then, as its burgeoning identity was being pieced together, different sensations filtered through the fog of its consciousness. Small pricks of emotions and intent; Safety, hunger, nest, hide. Where were they coming from? And why could it sense them? Could it be the same presences climbing on its body?

These thoughts were quite complex, and thus the tree pondered them. A year passed.

===

Fear!

The emotion was sharp and sudden, like a knife against skin. But it wasn’t the tree’s emotion, no, it was external. Something was panicking nearby!

Another emotion but this time from a distinctly different source, the intent of this second source of emotion was directed towards the first. It could feel the location of both, a small flicker of presence.

At first the tree had used this faint sense to strike out against prey, and a part of it felt the intense desire to lash out. To send forth a sharp root from the soil and end both presences. But it hadn’t acted on such instincts in over a year.

But something had changed. The fact the tree could not only feel these emotions and sense both presences with such clarity… Something had definitely changed. But what?

Fear again! The smaller presence moved quickly as the larger bounded forwards. The fearful presence darted up the tree’s trunk and its closeness stirred something within the trunk. It remembered! The small presence was familiar, it had nested within the tree’s branches.

This realisation stirred something else, a dull protective instinct. The small thing was in danger.

Don’t lose them!

A crack resounded through the forest as a [Juvenile Blight Tree] protected the life of something else. A historic first!

Level up! Class [Noble] is now level 6!

For fighting to protect another under your watch and within your territory you earned a level!

+1 to [Willpower] +2 free points!

New class skills available! [Grand Action] or [Bloodline Insight]!

…

Uhhh…?

Warning! Make selection within 12 hours or skill will be randomly chosen!

…

Warning! Make selection within 6 hours or skill will be randomly chosen!

…

Warning! Make selection within 1 hour or skill will be randomly chosen!

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You have gained the [Noble] skill [Grand Action]!

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Grand Action:

Aspects: Enhancement

You gain a bonus to an attribute of your choice equal to 20% of your charisma attribute.

===

Whuh?

You’ll have to forgive our protagonist's lack of… reaction. You might be stunned too if a grey box filled with words and numbers popped up in your mind's eye. Especially if you didn’t know what an eye was, or a mind for that matter.

There was something alluring about this thing. This system prompt. It wasn’t the words, nor the numbers. The tree couldn’t understand either. No, it was the red and gold highlights around the edges of the window. They were so familiar that the tree didn’t even notice this was its first time experiencing colour.

Nostalgia wasn’t anything the tree had known, an alien feeling of loss and melancholy flooded its being. And so it stayed still, rooted and unmoving. It didn’t know what had caused its sudden burst of awareness of its surroundings and in the moment it didn’t care. It had lost something so fundamental to what, who, it was, and that hurt.

But the worst part was, it didn’t know what.

===

Memories, fragmented and distant, assailed the tree. Senses it couldn’t have known, emotions it had never felt, lessons it had never learnt. They slowly drifted into its consciousness over the course of months.

And it grew, not upwards, in another less physical direction. The entire time it mentally stared into the last system prompt it had received. The description of the [Grand Action] skill. It didn’t understand the words, but all skills had an innate amount of understanding injected into a beings consciousness when they were gained.

It could use something, to do something. When it finally found that something, grasping it in a mental fist the tree understood. It knew what the charisma attribute was, and by process of elimination it learnt the other five attributes in turn.

Might, physical strength and resilience. Alacrity, balance and fine body control. Intelligence, cognitive processes and memory. Willpower, focus and mental endurance. Spirit, recovery and connection. Charisma, force of personality and presence.

The tree pushed its charisma, moving it toward what it needed most. Intelligence. And suddenly everything became clearer, its thoughts sharpened and mind spun. The tree knew.

It knew that if it had one skill, it had others. And knowing that let the system pick up some of the slack. And by some I mean a whole lot.

===

Name: Leif Vin

Race: Blight Tree

Age: 8

Attributes:

Free: 22

Might: 7

Alacrity: 3

Intelligence: 1

Willpower: 2

Spirit: 6

Charisma: 14

Total Level: 10

Monster Classes: 1/1

Juvenile Blight Tree: 4/10

Skills: Savage Roots / Predators Sense

Classes: 0/2

Auxiliary Classes: 1

Noble: 6/10

Skills: Aura of Nobility I / Court Empath / Grand Action

===

Seeing the full status screen stunlocked the tree for five months straight.