Time to leave, Oberon thought as he began to run away from the Boarcupine body. These explosions certainly attracted more predators. I must be more careful next time, can’t let my guard down in this forest. Who knows what could be hiding in the next bush, stalking me. I still don’t know what creatures live in Sylvan, but judging by the ones I encountered so far, I think I can have an idea.

His legs were stomping the ground. After jogging for a good 10 minutes, he felt it was safe enough to start walking again. Oberon felt a little tired, but this was nothing compared to the exhaustion he was having when he expanded his Fire Coat earlier this day.

He looked up, but couldn’t tell the time, as the ever-present trees were blocking a good portion of the sunlight. I need to take a rest, my HP hasn't recovered yet.

Oberon stopped, activating his False Shift skill that made him look like a regular tree. His body hardened up, and his white legs began to take shape as regular, but still massive, tree roots. Should be safe this way, he thought as he closed his eyes. It looks like I’ve leveled up. This seems pretty easy for now, but I’m sure leveling up will become harder and harder judging by the doubling of the XP necessary at each level.

The Treant opened his stats. A familiar blue table revealing a message appeared. Why are they always blue?

You have 5 unspent status points. Do you wish to allocate?

I need to be careful in what attribute I should invest in, as these status points will certainly become scarce if the primary way of gaining them is leveling up.

I’m not sure what to increase. I thought my strength was pretty reliable until the Boarcupine fight, but what made the difference was my quick thinking and not just brute force. I also almost got hit plenty of times with his charging attack and looking back now, I was lucky to have survived that encounter as I lost a good chunk of my HP, even with my Barkskin, he thought while shifting his leafs, frustrated.

Oberon sighed, Dexterity and Constitution, then. I’ll look at the other ones in my next level, but it’s a safe bet to build into my physical stats, seeing the result of my fights until now.

+3 Dexterity

+2 Constitution

Strength

20

Dexterity

8

Constitution

12

Intelligence

10

Wisdom

5

Charm

5 (+5)

After doing a good check on his stats, he looked at his spells tab again. Still no new skills, eh? He thought, disappointed.

Even after that fight and my use of the Explosive Fireball, I didn’t gain the skill itself. So my theory of gaining skills when fighting was wrong. What did I do differently when I created the Fire Coat? He tried to remember the fight against the Frostfang, but ultimately failed to notice anything. It just happened all too fast. This is giving me a coreache, Oberon thought while making a mental frown.

I also need to understand what good having a proper skill on my tab does to me, seeing that I could use the attack even without it.

I know that there’s a missing piece in this puzzle, I just need to find what it is, Oberon thought while scratching his head

I’m sure I’ll find out sometime.

He sighed again, now coming out of his False Shift. He did a few jabs in the air, and three side steps. Even though I increased only a few points in dexterity, my movements really appear to be more nimble than before, he thought while smiling.

I was right, I really need to be careful investing those points, they can make the difference between winning or losing, and I can’t imagine what’d happen if I lost in any of those fights.

Oberon got those somber thoughts of his head. What I need to do now is find that Treant, Barcus.

That old lady Anna told me he was in a secluded community, deep inside Sylvan, but how did she expect me to find it? This forest is massive! Deliver the message and get my answers. That sounded a good deal back then, but this is harder than it looked.

I just hope she was right trusting me with this. He looked at the medallion she’d given him. He’d worn it like an armband, seeing it would not fit as a regular medallion on his huge neck.

I wonder what’s its significance. What’s the message I am supposed to pass with this? The world is more complicated than I thought it was.

Can’t let my mind be swarmed with thoughts of what’s going to happen, or how I'm going to do it. He took a deep breath, calming his mind.

Oberon looked around the area he was in. I can’t see anything from here. Maybe climbing a tree would help? It’ll allow me to see what’s ahead, even though it’ll probably be just an endless sea of green.

“Hey, at least it's going to be a good sight, right?” He told himself, trying to see the positive side of life.

Oberon scouted the area, trying to find the tallest tree that he could climb. It needs to be tall enough to get me above the canopy, but not so tall that I’d pass too much time just getting up. This won’t work if the night gets up before I do.

Some time passed before he found a perfect candidate for the job, a giant redwood tree. Time to climb this bad boy, he grinned.