Sometime after I had resumed my journey, I decided to open my map and check how far I had come and how much further I had to go. Thankfully I had only gotten a little off track and had mostly followed the line that I had drawn between the hill that I had been standing on at the time and the massive tree that was my destination.

The problems that I was having right now was that it was hard to tell how accurate the line that I had drawn was an that I couldn’t actually see the tree that I was heading towards from down here on the ground. Which meant that I didn’t really know how much further I had to go.

With a loud sigh I decided that I didn’t really have any choice but to climb a tree to see whether I could figure out how close I was. Placing the amoeba on the ground to stand watch I looked around for a tree that was both tall enough that I would be able to spot the massive tree that I was trying to reach and looked easy enough to climb.

Upon finding a tree that I thought fit both criteria I placed my axe and kunai on the ground next to it and started climbing. I really hoped that I wouldn’t need my weapons because no matter how I looked at it, climbing a tree while carrying sharp objects on your person was just a bad idea. The tree that I had chosen was one of the widest ones that I had seen in the forest with thick buttress roots that I could use to get high enough to reach one of the lower branches. Despite this climbing the tree was still tough going and about a quarter of the way up I started to find patches of some sort of slippery moss that made progressing even more difficult. By the time I was halfway up my arms and legs were burning. I had been running for half of the night and about half of the day, so I had already been tired when I had started so I decided to stop and take a short break on one of the branches.

From this viewpoint I could see my new forest home from a very different angle than I had been able to at ground level and was once again struck by how beautiful and alien it was. I could see strange things that almost resembled massive beetles skittering over the branches of nearby trees and leaping through the air. These strange creatures came in multiple different sizes with the smallest one that I could see being about half a metre long, but they all shared a few similar features. They all had some sort of shell on their back like a beetle but had four long legs that more closely resembled those of a spider that they could use to jump gaps that I estimated to be several metres wide. Some of them had tube-like mouthparts while others had mandibles that were closer to those of the beetles that these strange bugs resembled. Their shells also came in a wide variety of different colours and patterns with no two looking alike.

As I watched I noted that while some of them used their tube-like mouthparts to suck something out of the trees that they lived on much like an aphid would others were predatory and hunted down the smaller creatures and savaged them with their very sharp-looking mandibles.

Occasionally one of these predatory bugs would approach me but I simply fired a Mana Bolt in their direction which was enough to warn them off. Even the strongest of these creatures that I could see was only a Level 3 and with the size difference between us I wasn’t too worried about one or two of them attacking me. If more than one decided to attack me at once, then I could have a problem but luckily for me they showed no signs of working together.

There were also a massive number of beautiful flowers growing on the branches of these trees. I was pretty sure that only some of them were actually part of the trees that they were growing on and some of them were a completely different plant because there were several different types that I could see growing on the same tree. Just as I thought this one of the beetle creatures got a little too close to one of these flowers which rose up and leapt at the unfortunate bug, revealing itself to be some sort of animal instead of a plant. The whole thing happened so fast that I almost missed it, so I didn’t get a good look at what the thing actually was, but I made a note not to get that close to any similar flowers. Whatever that thing had been it had been big and strong enough that it had killed its prey in one hit and if one of them attacked me while I was climbing this tree it wouldn’t matter if it was strong enough to kill me in one hit. At this height the fall would be more than enough to finish me off.

And with that bone chilling thought I decided that it was time to continue my climb which got even harder as I continued. I was high enough up that some of the branches were just too thin for me to climb on and by the time that was three quarters of the way up the tree I decided that climbing any further was going to be too dangerous.

I still wasn’t above the tops of the other trees so I could only hope that there were enough gaps in the canopy that I could see what direction I had to head in now. It took me a few minutes but I finally spotted something that appeared to be what I was looking for but the gap that I was looking through was so small that it was hard to tell so I started to crawl out along a branch in an attempt to get a better look. When I was about halfway along the branch the thing started to dip slightly forcing me to stop.

Apparently, this was as far away from the trunk of the tree as I could get without the branch breaking on me. Thankfully I was now close enough to the gap in the canopy that I was able to tentatively confirm that this was the direction that I needed to head in and quickly but carefully made my way back along the branch. Just when I thought I was safe one of the beetle things landed on the branch in front of me making me shout in surprise and lose my grip sending me flailing back down towards the ground.

I bounced off several branches before I finally managed to grab hold of one and when I finally did manage to halt my descent my entire body was wracked with pain and I knew that I had at the very least cracked ribs and a bloody nose from when I had hit my had on one of the branches. I also noticed as I pulled myself up onto the branch that I had managed to grab hold of that my vision was a little fuzzy although thankfully this quickly passed. Thanks to my health regen it took me less than two minutes to recover from most of my injuries. My dignity on the other hand was going to take a bit longer to recover. As was my temper.

Which was why I blasted the next beetle thing I saw with a Mana Bolt right in its pointy face instead of giving it a warning shot. To my surprise this attack actually did a lot of damage blasting the things head clean off. I had noticed when I had fired them earlier that my Mana Bolts were larger and brighter, but I hadn’t expected this much of a difference in power. I was so surprised that I sat there staring at my hand for a few seconds before shaking my head. I had to get down before I fell off again and climbing down things was often harder than climbing up them so it would probably take me a while unless I wanted to try dropping from branch to branch which would be considerably faster but also more dangerous so I quickly decided against doing that when I was still as high up as I was. If I had fallen any further earlier, I would’ve been even more badly injured than I had been. Even with my newly increased Stats.

The beetle-things body had long since fallen off of the branch so unfortunately, I probably wouldn’t be able to find and study it but at least I had received a couple of points of Experience from it increasing my Experience to 4%. This was not a lot but then again, I had been able to kill the thing in one hit, so I wasn’t going to complain.

As I predicted climbing down the tree was more difficult than climbing up and as soon as I reached a height where I was fairly sure that I would be able to survive if I fell all the way back down to the ground, I started dropping myself from branch to branch. My increased Coordination, Perception and Toughness making this far easier and safer than it had been back on Earth and soon I was back at ground level where the amoeba greeted me by waving its cilia around excitedly.

“Okay, okay,” I chuckled as I held out my arm so that it could latch on then bent down to pick up my weapons. “Let’s keep moving.”

From what I had seen it looked like it was going to take me most of the rest of the day to get to the massive tree that was my destination and I was really hoping that I would be able to find a relatively safe place to take a nap when I got there so I told the Amoeba to get some rest as I ran. The Amoeba didn’t sleep like a more complex creature did. But it did have a sort of resting state where it was only vaguely aware of what was going on around it and this was the state that it entered as I ran through the forest.

As one might expect this forest had even more wondrous things to show me as I ran along. But I found myself unable to pay attention to them and instead merely focussed on putting one foot in front of the other. Every so often I had to take a detour around something but thanks to my Mapping Skill I was pretty sure that I was still heading in the right direction.

In all honesty without this Skill I would be hopelessly lost and probably running in circles like so many people who got lost in jungles or forests back on Earth did. Which meant that I had yet another thing to thank the Admin for as it had given me access to the Aspect that had unlocked it.

A few hours later I noticed that the trees were starting to thin out with massive roots taking their place instead. And just in time too as the already gloomy forest was starting to darken as the day dragged on. I was really looking forward to being able to rest after the past day, so my pace naturally increased as I followed one particularly large root to the tree that was its source.

Sure, enough soon I was able to see the base of a truly massive tree. The trunk was so massive that it almost resembled a skyscraper more than anything living but it was definitely a tree. I felt my body relax as I got closer as a feeling of calmness flooded me. I knew that something about this peaceful sensation was strange because my Unbreakable Will Skill started to activate but then it suddenly stopped. I wasn’t certain why the Skill stopped working but something told me that it was because whatever this sensation was it wasn’t being created by something that meant me any harm.

As I approached the base of the tree, I finally realised what was going on; this tree was sentient, and it seemed to be welcoming me. Looking up towards its massive crown which towered stories above my head I struggled to come to terms with these realisations. However just as I thought I was coming to terms with this idea a voice echoed inside of my head.

‘Welcome little one,’ the voice said making me almost leap out of my own skin in surprise.

“What, where, how,” I stammered as I stared at the monolithic tree in front of me unable to believe that this thing was not only sentient but capable of communicating telepathically.

‘Are you damaged?’ the voice asked. The voice didn’t sound worried precisely. In fact, there was no emotion in it at all but somehow, I knew that it was indeed as worried as the question it was asking suggested. ‘If you are, I’m afraid that there’s nothing that I can do to help you.’

“No, I’m fine,” I replied quickly. “I just wasn’t expecting… well any of this when I got here. The being that sent me here didn’t mentioned anything about something like you.”

‘You were sent here?’ the tree asked. ‘How… interesting. But that does explain why I’ve never met anything like you before. I first noticed you last night and decided to invite you to talk.’

I nodded at these words but chose not to reply immediately. My guard was back up now that I knew that this tree was the thing that had drawn me here. Mostly because it was impossible for me to know its motives and with its telepathic abilities it could very well be fooling my instincts.

‘Is there something wrong?’ the tree asked as it sensed my caution. ‘I don’t mean you any harm if that’s what you’re worried about. In fact, that would be foolish of me. It’s been centuries since I had someone new to talk to.’

“Wait, you’ve had other things to talk to?” I asked my caution rising once more at these words.

‘Of course, you must have seen some of the others when I invited you,’ the tree replied. ‘I’m sure you understand that talking to the same individuals over and over again can get a little boring. Especially when some of them are your children.’

“Oh, you mean the other giant trees!” I exclaimed in realisation, noting that the tree had also mentioned that some of them were its children which made sense as it was by far the largest one that I had seen when I had been on top of the hill.

‘Of course, what did you think I was talking about? the tree replied making me laugh awkwardly.

“Let’s not talk about that just yet,” I replied nervously before yawning loudly. “Sorry, I’m just a bit tired right now.”

‘That’s fine, would you like to rest?’ the tree asked. ‘I can promise you that you will be safe here.’

I hesitated briefly before my exhaustion won out. This would be a good test as to whether I could trust this tree and it wasn’t like I would be any safer sleeping out in the forest anyway. Looking around I found a patch of ground that looked like it didn’t have any roots or stones that would stick into my back and lay down.

It took me a while to get to sleep, mostly because I couldn’t help but think about all the things that could go wrong if the tree decided that it wanted me dead. But when I finally managed to the sense of peace that was coming off the tree in waves allowed me to sleep far better than I had ever since arriving on this world.

Waking up some time later I blinked slowly before sitting up and looking around. I felt so good that the memory of the past day almost seemed like a lie. In fact, if I hadn’t known better, I would’ve almost said that I had been sleeping on my bed back on Earth rather than the ground, but my surroundings told a different story.

‘Are you feeling any better after your rest?’ the tree asked me, and I nodded in agreement.

“Yes, thank you, I have to admit that I was being a bit cautious of you earlier,” I said deciding that being truthful was probably going to make things easier in the long run. “You see, I’m not originally from this world at all and I basically only know what I have figured out for myself since I got here. So I hope that you can understand that trusting a giant tree that can talk telepathically was a bit of a stretch for me. I’m sorry if I came across as rude.”

‘Understandable, you know nothing about me,’ the tree replied. As before its mental ‘voice’ didn’t have any emotion but there was a slight sense of amusement that followed the reply. ‘Just as I know nothing about you. That is why I invited you here, there has been a lack of interesting new things to learn about in recent years and I needed something to ease the boredom.’

“Good point,” I admitted. “Alright, do you have a name?”

‘What is a name?’ the tree asked interestedly making me blink in surprise, with how intelligent this thing was I had been expecting that it was part of a society that had developed to the point where they had names at least.

“Um, it’s something that you can use to refer to someone specifically so that they know that others know who you’re talking about,” I explained awkwardly. “For example, people call me Rick.”

‘I see, neither I nor the others like me really have anything that quite fits that description, we all just know who we’re talking about,’ the tree replied as a wave of interest flooded my mind. This actually made sense to me, at least up to a point. Due to their telepathic powers it was entirely possible that trees like this one could tell who they were talking about. ‘But if you want you may give me one of these ‘names.’

“Tane Mahuta,” I replied instantly. Tane Mahuta was the name of a very old and large tree that could be found in the kauri forests in the North Island of New Zealand. My family had actually gone to see it one year while we were on holiday and I had been awestruck by the sheer size of the massive tree which paled in comparison to the one that was in front of me right now. But it was the only name that I could think of that would suit it. “It means either lord or god of the forest in one of the languages of my people. It sort of depends on who you talk to. I’ll call you Tane for short.”

‘May I ask what a god or lord is?” Tane asked.

I blinked in surprise once more at this, but it made sense to me now that I thought about it. Lords and gods were human concepts so I couldn’t expect a tree to understand them right off the bat, in fact I was still amazed that Tane could understand me as well as it did.

“I guess you could say both are a way to refer to someone or something powerful that watches over those around them,” I replied after a few moments thought. This wasn’t the most accurate way of explaining these terms, but it was the easiest way that I could think of right now.

‘I think that I understand. Very well you may call me that if you wish,’ Tane replied. ‘Now I’m very interested in what brought you to this world. Do you think that you can tell me a little about the events that lead up to your arrival?’

Nodding I agreed and explained the situation to the best of my ability. I had to stop every now and again to explain something that Tane didn’t understand but that wasn’t a problem. Honestly by the time I got around to talking about standing on top of the hill that I had first spotted Tane I started to feel relieved that I now had someone to talk to, even if it was a tree. Sure, Tane was a smart tree that could talk back but it was still a tree and had obvious difficulty understanding some of the things that I had said to it.

‘Well that was all very interesting,’ Tane said when I was done. ‘You know what? I think that we can help each other out.’

“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.

‘Well, I’m bored and you’re not powerful enough to live here on your own. Or not yet anyway, so why don’t you stay here, at least for now?’

That was actually a pretty good idea. I had found out during my explanation of the events that lead me here that Tane not only had the ability to directly communicate with other intelligent beings like myself and other members of its species but could also attract beings to it if it wished. Tane didn’t do this often and instead used a similar ability that prevented other beings from approaching it. This ability wasn’t fool proof and instead made anything that Tane didn’t want to approach it feel increasingly uncomfortable. Yes, it also meant that I was essentially at Tane’s mercy, but it wasn’t like I really had a better option.

“I think we could come to some arrangement,” I agreed. “I’m not sure how interesting it would be for you, but it would be very helpful for me and I would appreciate it.”

‘Well even if you aren’t that interesting, you could also help me out with a few things,’ Tane replied. ‘I usually just attract whatever animals I need to deal with the issues that I have. But having you around would make things a lot easier. It wouldn’t be the first time that the thing that I brought in to get rid of some sort of parasite or pollinate me created a new problem. So having something that I could properly communicate with helping me out would be very useful to me.’

Okay that sort of made sense, I wasn’t sure how helpful I would be but if Tane was telling the truth then having me around was to Tane’s benefit. Eventually we managed to come to an arrangement that we were both happy with. I even managed to convince Tane to allow weaker creatures to come a bit closer to it so that I could hunt without worrying that I would be ambushed by something ten times more powerful than I was.

“Alright then, we have an agreement,” I said. “Normally I’d shake hands with you right now, but you don’t have any.”

‘I don’t understand but I am pleased that you are happy with this arrangement,’ Tane replied.

“Well, I’m going to go and have a bit of a look around if that’s alright with you,” I said turning to go. “I’ll be back in a bit.”