The impaled beast man slid down the weapon under its own weight until it hit Xander’s hands, which were still gripping the wooden shaft. Hot red blood flowed down over his fingers and dripped onto the ground below, the beast man’s vacant eyes staring into his own from inches away. He had never killed anything other than a few insects before, and this being had been clearly sentient, if somewhat stupid and very violent. Xander would have expected to feel something… regret, or horror, or guilt, but the only thing flooding through him was relief, and exhaustion. The dead weight of the body was starting to get really hard to hold on to, so he let the spear go and watched the hyena-man slump to the floor of the forest.

  A bunch of new system windows started popping open, but he just didn’t have the energy to deal with that right now and pushed them away with his mind. They disappeared obligingly, leaving him once again standing with only trees for company. His chest still hurt, and looking down he could see that, yes, there was still a gaping hole right in his cleavage with a thick amber fluid leaking out. The fluid wasn’t quite as runny as regular blood, but neither was it as viscous as he thought tree sap would be. It had still managed to get all over him, running down both his front and back during the short fight. He could even feel it oozing down his butt crack like the most disgusting kind of swamp ass. Yet, for all that, he could actually see the wound beginning to close. “Regeneration 10, I think I love you” he muttered.

  Before he had time to do anything else, he heard a whooping cry in the distance, followed by two others. They had the same sound as that of the monster he had just killed, and he just knew they were headed this way. A chill went down his spine, and he knew that this time he had to run. Having nowhere else to go, he made a beeline back towards the oak that he had woken up in. It wasn’t until he was most of the way back that he realized why he had instinctively headed that way. He had the ability to merge with his linked oak, and he couldn’t ask for a better place to hide at the moment.

  ---------------------------

  Rhek’ur Mirepaw looked down at the body of his former pack member and scowled in displeasure. He sniffed the air, his muzzle wrinkling at the sweet scent of tree sap mixed with the coppery scent of blood. For all intents and purposes it looked like the fool had tripped on tree branches and impaled himself on his own weapon. There was a strange amber liquid on the spear mixed in with the gnoll blood, but it didn’t smell of prey. Tho’kerk started edging towards the body, drool beginning to leak from his muzzle at the sight of free meat, but Rhek’ur barked at him. His subordinate flinched and then whined “Sorry, pack leader, it is your right to take first, but I’m just so hungry…”

  Growling to cut off the fool, Rhek’ur then said “We will not be eating this idiot, he is not worthy of giving the Last Gift and returning to the clan’s spirit.” The gnoll leader glowered ferociously at the other two members of his pack, then motioned with disgust at the body. “The clan does not want the spirit of someone so stupid as to die on their own spear, may he rot forever more. Leave the fool, we have wolves to catch, and then you may hunt your fill.” The other two whined in complaint, but complied sulkily and moved back off into the woods at another glare. This hunting trip was proving to be very irritating, and he just hoped that they could leave this accursed forest soon.

  Luckily for the pack leader, they indeed found a pair of dire wolves shortly thereafter and were able to head back home with their new bonds, completely unaware of the wounded dryad’s flight back to his tree.

  —-------------------------

  Xander woke slowly, an incessant itch disturbing his slumber. As he became aware again, he could feel something rubbing against his bark uncomfortably. His bark? That question bothered him greatly, which brought back more memories, and then he jolted awake again. The pain and fear of the previous day roused his consciousness with the expectation of more violence, but after a few seconds, he smirked to himself mentally. His senses told him of a young buck stropping its antlers on the bark of his oak repeatedly.

  As his mind settled, he started checking through the oak’s senses for any sign of more hyena-like humanoids, but then felt like a fool. If there had been aggressive predators nearby, the buck wouldn’t be tending to its antlers in such a carefree manner. With that realization, he started to get a bit sleepy again, and considered just letting himself rest more. Yet that desire felt wrong somehow, like it wasn’t his own wish. His will rebelled against the soothing allure of more sleep, and with some effort he began to pull himself free of the oak’s embrace. The deer looked up, startled, then bounded off into the woods as Xander moved out of the tree.

  Once he was separated from the oak, the call receded, and he could think more easily. “Shit… note to self, the oak wants me to take long naps” he chuckled, looking around. The air felt much colder than it had the day before, and now that he was looking, the trees seemed to be showing a lot more color. Sunlight peaked through the oranges and reds of the sparse canopy, and a carpet of leaves was underfoot. “The hell?” he asked no one in particular. If he didn’t know better, he would have said that yesterday was late spring and today was fall. That was impossible of course, yet the forest around him seemed to disagree.

  Memories of the fight distracted him from that mystery and caused him to look down and examine his chest closely, but the green skin was completely unblemished. “Score one for regeneration 10 I guess” he smirked, though the sight of his bare female chest once again made him very uncomfortable. Another thought crossed his mind, and he mentally commanded the system to bring back the windows he had dismissed while running for his life. They popped up without hesitation, and he began reading.

  

  You have killed a Gnoll Hunter (Level 11). For defeating an enemy 10 levels higher than yourself you receive an experience multiplier.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  You have reached level 2. Two stat points awarded.

  You have reached level 3. Two stat points awarded, one advancement awarded.

  You have reached level 4. Two stat points awarded.

  New Achievement: Beginner’s Luck

  You managed to hit a vital spot on an enemy with a weapon you don’t have a proficiency for.

  Reward: Improvised Weapons

  Improvised Weapons (Passive): Anything can be a weapon in your hands. You intuitively understand how to deal at least minor damage with anything you are holding.

  New Achievement: Massive Blow

  You killed an enemy at a higher level than yourself with a single strike.

  Reward: Intimidating Aura

  Intimidating Aura (Passive): Creatures instinctively fear you. This fear can be overcome with sufficient Insight, and creatures at a higher level resist this fear more easily.

  The amount of information presented might have been overwhelming if it hadn’t been broken up into individual windows, or if Xander hadn’t played various RPG’s. Armed with knowledge from his previous life though, it was actually quite manageable. Concentrating on pulling up his personal information, the disk shaped window appeared again easily. He still wasn’t sure why the floating screen was in such a strange format, but his stats now all had a plus sign after the number. Two stats per level seemed a bit miserly to Xander, but he had gotten three levels all at once, so he at least had 6 points to play with. His abilities also had a plus sign next to them, which he assumed was for the advancement reward he had earned at level 3.

  Upgrading his abilities sounded way more interesting than allocating stat points, so he focused on reading those options first on the gently rotating screens. Most of the options for advancement were pretty straightforward, either reducing the mana cost or allowing additional targets for his spells, but one in particular caught his eye for the Control Plants spell.

  

  Plants under your control can now obey simple commands or be controlled directly.

  Xander tried to whistle at that, but his lush lips were the wrong shape for his muscle memory and he failed. He was too excited about the ability to care though. “Dude, does that mean I can have planty minions that do their own thing now? Hell yeah!” Without any hesitation he confirmed the choice, and could instantly feel something change in his core. He couldn’t have said what precisely had changed, just that his new sense of magic told him that something had. His core felt like it had expanded slightly, or become more robust. With a huge grin splitting his face, he looked around until he found a vine, and reached out with his magic to connect with it. “Come here…” he commanded, and the vine uncoiled itself from the branch and slithered through the autumn leaves like some kind of serpent.

  “Hehehehehehehe…” Xander cackled with glee, though it sounded more like a giggle now than he would have preferred. “Stand up and spin in a circle” he told it, and it coiled up into a spiral taller than he was and began to turn around slowly. He laughed and spent the next hour or so trying out various commands and just having a bit of fun. As it turned out, the description hadn’t lied, the plant couldn’t do anything too complicated, but it was fine with things like “Smack that tree” or “If something moves over you, trip it.”

  Deciding it was finally time to move on, Xander finally got around to allocating his stat points. After some debate, he spent two points each on Magic Resonance and Mana Pool. It was almost always better to focus on what you were good at and become better at it than anyone else. Jack-of-all-trades types were pretty much always outshone by specialists. His last two points went to strength and resilience though. Having a strength score of one just seemed… ill advised, and he could spare a single point. At least there was no gym time involved. Raising his resilience and gaining 10 more HP also seemed absolutely necessary after nearly dying to a single spear thrust.

  Xander shivered at the memory, hand going to where the wound had been. He didn’t plan on getting into many fights, or any at all for that matter if he could help it, but this world seemed to be rather dangerous already, and he wanted to live. Shaking the thoughts off, he decided it was about time to try his other spell for the first time before he set off in search of whatever passed for civilization around here.

  

  Nurture Vegetation: You can expend mana to cause a plant to grow or to heal a damaged plant.

  The spell didn’t really give any indication as to how much mana would be used, so with a shrug he found a sapling a little ways away from his oak and focused on the baby tree. Instead of the green tether of the control magic that he was getting more accustomed to, he focused on drawing out the earthy brown energy from his core. He could feel the rich, loamy nature of the energy, and after a bit of trial and error managed to push that nurturing mana into the sapling. He winced in surprise as the little plant latched on to the energy and tried to suck it straight out of him. “Greedy little bugger…” he smirked at it, feeling his mana reserves drop like a stone.

  The effects, however, were pronounced. Where once had sprouted a reed thin sapling barely four feet tall, there was now a young tree almost three times as thick and standing at least twice as tall as Xander himself. He then yelped as a voice squealed in pleasure from seemingly all around him. an androgynous voice yammered excitedly. Only, it wasn’t coming from around him at all, it was talking in his head.

  “What the actual fuck?” Xander groaned, reeling away a bit, and trying to block out the chattering voice in his head. To his relief, the connection immediately ceased when he willed it to, though it took him a moment to recover and gather his thoughts. Having someone talking directly in your brain was a very unsettling occurrence, but it eventually dawned on him that he must have experienced one of his class features, the ability to speak telepathically to plants. He could only assume that it was the sapling he had fed magic that had started speaking to him, but had absolutely zero desire to reconnect to the spastic tree again.

  With a shake of his head he decided not to use that ability again, at least for a while. But at least he had some idea of his capabilities now, and he was stronger, tougher, and more prepared for whatever was out there. Reaching out to one of the nearby vines, he animated it and told it to follow along behind him as he set out once again to find other people.