Sometimes you gotta enjoy the small things in life. And sometimes a lord like myself has to do the hard work himself.

This is why I am currently trying to make a very delicate deal with a dark brown haired beauty.

“Come on, I can give you whatever you want, I have enough power to do whatever you want in this little town.”

She is really playing hard to get. This nineteen year old girl is glaring at me with eyes that sends a flame down my body.

Her name is Asa. I have been forced into this situation because they have no establishments for hermits such as me.

“I told you, you godforsaken piece of shit, I am not for sale.”

Aii, her voice is divine. But the harder they fight the harder they fall.

“I am in awe of your determination, tell me what you seek of this master.”

“I want you to leave me alone. I have to train, the population of the town can only sustain itself with hunting and you are directly intervening in my training.”

“My dear Asa, how can they send such a being towards my unyielding forest? I still haven’t taken control over the wildlife. You don’t even have a respawn point in this town, what will I do if you disappear.”

Oh shit. I let something slip. Ah, damn it all. She is staring at me suspiciously now.

“Respawn point? You have a respawn point? How? Tell me!”

Ugh, this is worse than expected. Time to run, a hermit doesn’t need company anyway.

“Wait stop! Stop! Come back here you bastard!”

As much as I am tempted to turn back but nope, time to get the hell back to my training room.

I use empower: leap with empower: feet to jump up a two story build then jump across the rooftops before jumping back down. Ai, is the hermit’s curse?

I am getting the itch to go fight something. I have only one book left now. The first one gave me a passive ability.

Muscle enhancement

Through strenuous exercise and possession of beginner level energy your body has adapted and absorbed minute amount of energy into its muscles

It sounds promising and all, but how would I even increase its power, I could hardly feel a difference once I got it, very nondescript.

I still have the other book left and I still haven’t gotten a clue from looking at Herros, he and his two friends don’t radiate any energy at all.

I wonder how they do that, I and many people in this town always have a glow somewhere on our bodies.

I am about to finish the book, it should just be one or more reading sessions. I figured out I can stay on the same page until I understand it but it takes slower than reading through the whole thing even though I can’t even understand the words.

My theory that the pages indicate the difficulty has also been pretty much confirmed. My nature affinity had hundred and thirty six pages and this book has hundred and seventeen.

The empower books have around ten pages. But whenever I finish a book, the pages disappear and there is only one left with the name of the skill.

When I was in the middle of meditation, Herros barged into my room.

“Lord Abraser.”

Hmph, he knows how to properly address me at this point. But there is a very serious expression on his face.

“Sup’, Herros?”

Behind Herros walks in the beautiful girl called Asa. By everything that is green. She snitched on me. You can’t trust anyone.

“Asa, here tells me you said something about Respawn points, and I would very much like it if you’d enlighten me on the subject.”

His voice needs to calm the fuck down, how can a human possess such a dangerous weapon?

“Aii, I told you when we met I have greater information than just about the sanctuary and a map. You however do not have what I desire in trade, unless of course you are willing to hand over Asa there over to me.”

Let’s see you fight yourself out of this one.

“Asa? You want me to give you my daughter!?”

Ah shit. Ah no, please don’t do that. Herros unsheathes his weapon and towers over me where I sit down in meditation.

“Herros, I would advise you to put the weapon away, even if I won’t be able to kill you, which I assure you I can easily escape from here and believe me, you do not want a vengeful demi-god on your bad side. And even if you manage to kill me. I have a respawn point and can easily return and my attacks reach from the hidden forest to your little hovel of a base.”

I am not angry, but let me be honest here. I could slowly but surely kill everyone here, how can they compare to the beasts I’ve slain so far?

Watching Herros conflicted gaze and sheathing his blade, I inwardly sighed in relief, I still haven’t finished the book.

“Lord Abraser, I do not want it to go so far, however a father must protect his daughter's virtues. No matter the price.”

He sighs and continues trying to make my ears bleed.

“If you could be so kind as to inform me how to get a respawn point, I would be in your debt.”

Alright, it’s not so bad, I’ll make a deal real quick, finish the book and then try to conquer the third tree.

“Herros, despite your blasphemous voice. No, your voice is a torture device, how have you lived so far without having a gag forcefully stuck into your mouth? Oh, a bit off topic, but I can tell you how to set up a respawn point but if you gain any skill-books in the future I would appreciate you letting me read them.”

Unhesitatingly nodding we finalized the deal.

“With my never ending will-power I have managed to stumble on one of the secrets of the system. This information should greatly benefit you, I must ask you first. Who was it that killed the guardian of this village?”

“I dealt the final blow to the most dangerous creature in this village, it however did not compare to some of the beasts in the forest. Or Abraser as you call it.”

Hmm, that’s new information, the monsters he must be talking about are the weaker ones on the outer layer.

So I assume the difficulty of taking over a zone differs greatly and the rewards must also be lesser.

Also, Herros saw me during one of my breaks throw a spear into a target dummy, it went straight through until I went halfway through a cement wall. Which is why he is so docile.

“Good. You see, if you take over another village in this area you will receive a quest to take over a larger area, I still haven’t made a proper estimate of the difficulty between the various quest objectives but the biggest capture point should be far more dangerous.

Breathing out, this should be a nice experiment, I might even join them to take over another village.

“However, I do not have a map of this area and you can only guess where the other village is, it shouldn’t be too far away if my guess is right. Once you take over a second village, those two points will become respawn points. I however do not know if people other than yourself will respawn in these two locations as well.”

The father and daughter stood there frozen, they were standing right outside the room so I closed the door and sat back down and resumed my meditation.

My head is still killing me. I am uncertain how many days went into reading the second book but today it ended.

Energy compression

Your energy has transformed and compressed. Your energy is now more powerful and you can contain more of it with your physical body.

As usual, the description is too vague. After some fiddling, I feel it has made every ability stronger, by a tiny margin. I also no longer have my glowing hue.

I was thinking about joining the village on their trip to conquer another village but it turns out they had just sent scouts out search and I can’t be bothered to wait.

Time to go back to base, create some spears and head towards the third tree. If the guardian is of the same strength as the other two guardians I believe I can take it out.

But hopefully I will be able to do it while staying hidden, no reason to put myself in harm’s way.

Enjoying a peaceful evening in the embrace of my tree I am carving offshoot branches of the slender piece of wood I gathered.

I still haven’t read all the books I took with me. I was planning on reading them now, some of them are crafting related but the others are just miscellaneous books, everyone with odd names.

There are a lot of fillers in every book and only tidbits of useful information. I mean there are more than three hundred pages in the leather-working book.

Yet the majority of the content are things that have nothing to do with working with leather but how the author feels about working with leather.

I have two improved belts on my waist, each has ten small wooden stakes. I also made a new vest similar to a belt that goes over my shoulders, around my chest and back. On them I fastened three spears.

And of course I always hold onto one spear. Two stakes have been tied with vine and fastened properly on my right and left side.

Breathing in the invigorating scent of the forest I start making my way towards my third tree.

Even from the top of the canopy the tree is barely in sight and only because it almost reaches the sky.

I am not in a hurry so I practice my hidden presence, empower: eye, leap, feet and even hand while slowly making my way through the canopy.

I also try to find any remnants of buildings that have been laid to waste by the overgrown forest.

My backpack lays over my three spears that have been fastened to my back, filled with food and water.

Every once in a while I ponder over the words that appeared in my mind while escaping from that incredibly agile mutant beast.

Breathe in silently, breathe out slowly. No noise. Calm down. One with the tree, you are one with the naturai, embrace us. Escape from existence. Come little darling, don’t say a word. You are what dreams should be like. Still, slowly and ever-growing.

I haven’t been able to enter that state of meditation since even though I have chanted the mantra in my mind every time.

So my theory is that there isn’t a need for the words but for the state of mind. I have to reach such a state of stillness and merge with the naturai.

Naturai I assume is a different word for nature or nature energy. With answers there will be more questions.

I found a tall tree and climbed to the very top, when in the forest my body feels light, full of energy so I stand comfortably on the fragile tree top. Watching over the forest in its immense green glory.

Sometimes in the far distance, closer to the middle layer. The tree shakes before resuming their former stillness.

I can still be considered in the outer edge of Abraser so when I turn my sight from the forest I see mountains in the distance and various river streams flowing that fade into the horizon. I still can’t see too far away but empower: eye still helps a bit.

The great flame in the sky burns across the land and leaves a mirage making me unable to distinguish anything in the faraway distance.

I still hope to see more towns or villages. I wonder if I’ll ever find any humanoids aside from humans, it only feels right that there should be other races of people.

As I get closer and closer to the great tree, I see it differs a bit from the other two, its branches are thicker and reach further out, and I am already under its shadow.

Sitting down on a comfortable branch below the tree I run over some strategies.

First I was thinking about throwing a stake with a vine into one of the branches but it is far too high up, even if I reach I don’t think it will take hold. Worth a try in any case.

My second thought was to wait for night time, and hope to catch the guardian unawares.

I climb up the tree and sit on one of the branches, the smaller branches are already bigger than the trees below. Slowly I sink into meditative trance.

I tried a little experiment that I felt like should have been obvious, I activated all my active and pseudo-active abilities before I went into trance, hoping I’d gain some benefit from it.

When I came out of my mind erasing trance I felt as if I had just woken up from a short sleep, a groggy feeling washed over me and I felt like sleeping for a year.

Noticing all my abilities have been turned off, I went back into meditation to recover.

Skimming over my skill-menu

| Nature affinity |

| Rapid hand movement |

| Gentle hands |

| Hide presence |

| Energy regeneration |

| Energy shield |

| Empower: Eye |

| Empower: Hand |

| Empower: Feet |

| Empower: Leap |

| Strength and dexterity increase |

| Body enhancing |

| Energy compression |

| Skill-points: 0 |

Aii, look at that, I used up all my skill-points. I am not sure what actually got upgraded either, this menu could really be more generous with information.

It is the middle of the night. I am climbing slowly up the tree, and should take almost an hour at this pace.

Focusing my entirely on hiding my presence and feeling the breath of the tree. The breath of the tree-goddesses are all unique and overwhelming.

My breath slow syncs up with the pulse of the tree. Or as close as I have ever gotten before.

Reaching the high flat platform on the tree I keep my focus on being one with the tree. I search slowly for the third guardian.

There has been a booming ambient noise constantly ringing in my head so we can assume he is awake.

After searching every part of the tree, I still can’t find it. There is nothing here, nothing I can see.

Only one thing to do, and that is patiently wait, I focus on hiding my presence and start meditating in an unassuming branch of the tree. I occasionally wake up from my meditation to service my needs.

I am not sure if I exposed my presence here or not but I tried to keep hidden. I am not sure how long a time has passed, I am running out of supplies.

My nature affinity is becoming clearer in my mind, I can sense these changes with greater ease. But still no guardian.

I was forced to go hunt and find a source of water, I am very confused. Should I intentionally expose myself to draw out the guardian?

How can it not show itself after such a long time? Will death take the one that waits or the one who acts? I tremble when I think back to the second guardian. How do you quantify such strength?

Aii, woe is me. I came here to risk my life but I don’t even get the chance to act. I should hunt some beasts and gather skill-points so I can continue to progress.

I want to go back home and read. First I’ll read about plant-life, maybe becoming an herbalist or alchemist will be good.

In fact I might become everything. I’ll have to figure out how to install a furnace in my tree.

The days have been passing one after the other, I feel like I have lost my sense of time. I’ve been hunting beast after beast.

I’m creeping closer and closer to the middle of the middle layer of Abraser, nothing puts up any resistance.

After I enhance my wooden spears their durability sky-rocketed. I threw a spear into the ground as an experiment. Rest in peace spear, it vanished into the ground leaving a small hole in the ground.

I ́ve tuned out the constant ambient music that booms every moment I stay conscious.

I’ve gathered forty seven skill-points. I used to get two points for every strong creature I slayed but now I only get one.

I’ve left so much perfectly fine leather lying beside the carcasses of my prey.

In total I found seven skill-books. Two empower: hand, three empower: feet, one enhance body and the last is a ten page book, which I assume is some empower book.

I am unsure how many beasts I killed but they must be over sixty.

From my calculations, I either got very lucky with skill-books. Or the drop rate has fallen dramatically.

But that is all fine, because my empower: hand and rapid hand movement have both gained tremendous gains.

The reason I stayed as long as I did, wasn’t to continuously collect skill-books or skill-points but to train my rapid hand movement.

Right after I broke through, it went out of control and only every other spear went in the direction I wanted it to do.

I ́ve had to remake twenty seven stakes and seven of my spears. Most vanished when I was adjusting to the new speed of rapid hand movement and some pierced into the ground.

Mindless hunting is far more rewarding than running around empty plains of non-forest or discovering a new breed of horrible insects.

No distractions, only me, me and me. Ahhh, to be a hermit. One day I should try to be a tyrant, the world's oldest profession isn’t as prolific as I expected it to be.

I could change that. The kingdom of lust? Abraser, the forest of indecency. Cities of depravity. No? Your right, it sounds like too much work.

Standing under the great tree I’ve named patience. It never leaves me wanting for more. It’s time to either do or die, there is no try.