A dream. A dream that contains visions of what looks like my home world.

It begins, in a vast sea of stars, like the milky way and more. A galaxy, and a nebula in the distance. From the vastness of space, it zooms in on a solar system, then a planet. Earth. Or is it? The dream does not linger, and it moves a bit too fast. The scene zooms in on a hospital or a clinic A doctor, a nurse, a child and probably the child’s family. The child smiles and nods. A few around him cry.

And the child sleeps, and those around him give him a hug, crying.

Then it zooms out again, back to the view from space. Stars. Thirteen streaks of light, all from the planet. They shoot up, and then the view speeds up, like a warp, or a slipstream.

A white layer emerges around all the streak of lights, and just as it exists the slipstream, a black barrier appears. It shatters, like glass.

And a green planet is seen. Thirteen streaks of light, they fly towards a point, but one’s brightness starts to flicker, and move a little slower. And that one streak of light loses speed, and starts to drift apart from the rest of the group.

And it crashes into the planet. A little while later, the twelve streaks of light crash on the planet as well.

[Twelve reincarnators have arrived!]

Year 71 Month 10

2 Months. I’ve been asleep for 2 months? The elves! What happened to the elves?

Oh. I still feel them here. The elves are alive, thankfully. I had a scare whether my fruits or [secret hideout] or [nourish] would be disabled when I woke up, but everything seems to be… alright?

“Jura, Laufen… what happened?”

“Oh?!” The elves jump, surprised. “Tree Spirit, you are awake!”

“Ah. Yes.. I’ve been sleeping for two.. Months?”

“Yes. All of us are really surprised that you did not respond earlier, and one of the captains mentioned it could be a kind of mana-sickness.”

“Then?”

“Oh, erm… The humans left after the battle 2 months ago. They want to talk to you but they all left after waiting for a few days. After the demon champion is defeated, it’s quiet around here for a moment. The demon hordes in this region are in disarray and their behavior is erratic. Other than that, nothing much, we mostly continue hiding here, your fruits and [nourish] ability is still working… so we knew you are merely sleeping. So, we've been keeping ourselves busy since. We gained a few levels too!”

Jura did participate in the battle against the demon champion, so, it makes sense for him to gain levels. “Ah. how many levels did you gain, Jura?”

“Oh levels. Erm.. I think I gained 4 levels, and a skill?” Well, that's a big difference. Is it because I landed the finishing blow?

Jura smiles and nods. “Thank you, most importantly, battling such a huge golem helped with my worries and boosts my confidence, and my [tormented warrior] has improved to [tormented warrior (mild)]. I think if this keeps up, I will lose the penalty soon enough!”

Laufen and the rest shake their head, no levels for them. All they did is just hide after all, if you didn’t participate, you don’t get levels. Sounds fair. In fact, this whole fuzzy logic behind leveling incentivizes hard work and participation. It’s probably designed by a school teacher somewhere to reward kids, no? Laze off, don’t take risks, and you get nothing!

Year 71 Month 10

A few days after I wake up

Ah, that reminds me, I have new skills. Kind of forgot about them in the daze of waking up. It feels like a bad hangover really.

[Wood Magic]

A wheel pops up in my mind, at the center of it a leaf shape. There is a lot of greyed out skills and menus that grow out of that wheel.

Ah, I unlocked the magic type, and I have under it two skills. [Bind] and [Bloom]

[Rhizofiltration]

This is a passive skill. Will extract minerals and other items via roots, and automatically filter out negative effects in the ground.

[Dream Tutor]

May use dreams to learn, and to teach. Requires a collection of spirits, memories and objects to unlock more “Dreams”. Essences can be used to bestow certain skills via dreams. Target must be sleeping for the ability to kick in. If sleep is interrupted, learning may not be effective.

I immediately test it out on the elves, once they go to sleep at night.

Year 71 Month 11

The effects of dream tutor seems quite varied. It works very well in the case of Jura, as he gains a new attack skill. For Laufen and Emile, they seem to be feeling a little lost, the dream felt more disorienting and confusing than enlightening. But they seem to say they are learning something. For the youngest Lausanne, it seems to cause her nightmares, so I choose not to use it on her until she is much older.

Perhaps dreams are just scary when you're 2 to 3 years old.

Nothing much happened this month. It is really cold again, and the elves spend time mostly resting in the expanded hideout which now has an additional room.

Occasionally, they would pop out to kill whatever creature that comes too close. Powerlevelling. I should get a skill like that.

Year 71 Month 12

[Melur Marin has died. You received a fragment. You have 56 fragments.]

What. That is way too fast for one of the reincarnators to die. It is only slightly more than a month since they arrived!

Are they in danger? Or maybe a conflict broke out? I ask Jura to gather more information, but he wants to be here, with the rest of the elves.

"I don't think its good for me to leave, tree spirit. It's better if we stay in this hideout. It's really the safest place with you around."

Oh well, the nearest town is a human one, and maybe the elves won't be so well received anyway....

[Your root has harvested some materials. Raw Iron x 5. Do you want to disable all similar notifications?]

Oh. Okay.

Materials, like essences, are used for making stuff, and its part of my [wood creation], so the iron and essences get absorbed into the wood, and the wood then forms itself into the item I want to make. It’s a slow process.

Year 72 Month 1 Week 1

I create a wooden ring, with iron and essence of lesser fire. It’s more like its been growing within a branch, and once its finished growing the outer layers peel off to reveal the inner “product”.

A popup appears.

[Material compatibility is low. Effects are reduced by 50%].

Ah. Laufen, being the resident inspector, then advises on its effects. Honestly it felt like I am at a masterchef competition waiting for Laufen’s judgement.

“Boosts fire magic (minor), and attack stats increase.” Ah. Not bad. Maybe I won’t get disqualified this round.

The rest of the time, its a lot of resting and the occasional monsters.

[Woodcrafting upgraded] Oh that’s easy.

Week 4

Demons. A group of hounds. I kill them, and let the elves kill a few.

Obtained new skill : [Powerleveling I]

Ah! Finally. The elves, other than Jura, gain a level.

Year 72 Month 2

Quiet month. More demons, more killing. More levels for the elves. Other than that, the elves can’t wait for spring. Winter is finally ending.

[Essence of winter (minor) x 1 obtained]

[Essence of cold (minor) x 1 obtained].

Ah, auto-mode [essence harvesting].

My new discovery that most of my harvesting/material type skills have an [auto] mode. I mean, I am a tree, and the cells of the tree extracts mineral without the need of my conscious interference. Its kinda like breathing.

Year 72 Month 3

Near me, a few small bushes and trees start to grow. The remains of the previously destroyed trees, now regenerating. The recovering bushes and trees start to add some texture and features back to the previously empty field.

This is also the season when the elves start to plant their crops, so that they have a better variety of diets on top of my fruits and [nourish]. Surviving on fruits alone is possible, but not the most tasty way to do things.

Demons, or more accurately the hounds appear like locusts. Swarms of them, here and there. I kill those that I can, and ignore those clever enough not to come too close. I mean, it's not like I can chase them. KInda like a venus flytrap. Gotta wait for my stupid prey to come near. Maybe I can get a "lure" skill some day in the future.

[Level up. Level 87!]

[Healing fruit upgraded] [Healing vines upgraded]

Obtained a new skill: [Solar-healing]

Oh. I feel like a bulb shaped monster now.

Year 72 Month 4

A horseman passes through. He rests a while under the tree.

He sleeps under the shade, right on my trunk.

I drop a fruit on his head.

“Ouch.”

He grabs it, examines it for a while, and then eats it.

“Thanks, tree.” He rides off after his nap.

[Skill : Fruit-attack obtained]

Oh.

Year 72 Month 5

More demons.

Seriously, these things never end. How do these guys deal with so many demons?

“The demons appear on average twice a week, that’s pretty okay. When demons are actually terrorising us a few years ago, they appear daily.”

Ah wait, I keep forgetting my sense of time is different from the elves. Killing all the demons though gives me a new skill.

[Obtained skill : Root surge]

[Obtained skill : Lesser demon suppression aura]

Year 72 Month 6

Big harvest! The elves have crops, and some of the trees around me are growing larger. Its quite unnatural to see them grow so quickly, but apparently a common occurrence if there are tree spirits around. Apparently I've grown taller as well, and I am now about the height of a four story building.

Excess mana harvested by tree spirits (who usually do not spend their mana) is dumped into the land around it, and that turbocharges all other plant growth.

Also, thanks to [wood creation], all the elves are now equipped with weapons and armor I made, which also gave that skill an upgrade.

Year 72 Month 7

One thing being a tree, I am mostly immobile. So in a way, I really spend a lot of time doing mostly nothing. It's really a waiting game, hoping for things to happen. Do trees always feel like this, just waiting? Or maybe a rock? So I usually try to use my plentiful idle time to help the eleves, by using my skills [dream tutor], [powerlevelling] and [wood creation].

Right now, Jura is level 54, Laufen Level 31, Emile is 26, Belle is 25, Brislach and Wahlen Level 11 and Lausanne is still unknown.

Lausanne, the now 3+ baby can talk quite well but still does not know how to access her menu. Maybe in a few more months she will tell me what level she is.

"Tree-tree." Lausanne would walk around, her steps now quite stable, and crawl up and down the roots.

Laufen would then pet her daughter's head. "Now now, that's not how to refer to a tree spirit."

"Tree-tree." Lausanne mumbles. "tree-tree?"

I kinda like that name, I should call myself that.