Theo carefully cleared out the area surrounding the doors. Taking the time to make sure that nothing unwanted was going to be able to sneak up on her or block her retreat should she need it. The infested animals at the door were by and far much healthier than most of the ones he had encountered before and Theo was unwilling to risk taking on dozens upon dozens of them at a time.

  She had briefly considered trying to start a forest fire or something, but that both felt too indiscriminate and a test with a dead flower showed that they weren’t particularly flammable. The smoke it gave off was also black and smelled like burning chemicals. So after she had made sure she had safety to retreat to she went on to other tests.

  The flowers themselves didn’t seem to share a hive mind, but they did react to each other should one become agitated. Still, Theo was able to pick off a decent amount of them by simply showing herself to their animal carriers. Something in the flower’s control over them let the flowers use their eyes and if she timed it well she was able to get them to leave in groups of anywhere between two and eight.

  Dispatching them was a little annoying. Having to constantly reveal herself to retain their attention or they would wander away randomly, returning to the mindless pawing that seemed to be a common habit of the infected animals.

  She used the time to practice her skills, moving her body in ways that would have strained something at the very least before her rebirth. But her real success was with [air bullet]. Taking a page from centuries of firearm development, she added a spin to the projectile before shoving it from her body. The centrifugal force causing it to expand under her control required more effort on her part, but it also allowed her to stuff just a little bit more mana into it. The impact was devastating against the soft flesh of the animals. If she hit bone, the impact was jarring and could stagger them, but if she managed to get the bullet into the soft tissue of a creature there was always a muted thud followed by a small spray of foul gore that more often than not completely disabled the flower’s control over the creature.

  The time it took for her to form the projectiles was decreasing, but still not something she felt comfortable while dodging attacks or fighting close. But it worked wonders at thinning the trail of creatures she repeatedly gathered during her kiting exercises.

  At this point she wasn’t really worried about dealing with the creatures. More so about the wall of flowers and the massive, car sized bulb that dominated the giant doors.

  Without a doubt the moment she approached close enough, those flowers would come alive and begin to rain attacks down on her and she had a feeling that simply wasting their attacks was a losing battle. Their root network was extensive and seemed to be pulling the vitality from the giant tree they were embedded in.

  [Air bullet] could work, but she had no idea how much time it would take to slowly whittle down each and every flower and with no idea how the big one would react she needed to figure something else out.

  During her explorations she also discovered strange piles of mushed creatures. Something quite large exterminating the infected animals with a prejudice that looked a little more than excessive. Each of the dead flowers she found at these sites were pulverized beyond recognition, pounded into the ground until the bodies they controlled made a foul smelling muck.

  Theo spent a long time improving her skills and thinning the numbers of creatures around the forest. Each time she woke from her rest she carefully stretched and warmed up her body before resuming her work. The number of creatures always slightly replenished and it would have felt endless if not for the fact that she was clearly able to see the difference she made “day” after “day”. She had started to stock pile the cores she had found. She wouldn’t be able to carry them all, but she was going to go through and pick the best ones before she left this place. And she had to admit it just felt cool to have a growing pile of shinies that gave off their own subtle glow as the numbers increased.

  Theo was finishing off a recently kited group of flower monsters when she felt a bone rattling “thud” not two dozen feet away from her. The hair on the back of her neck rising as she turned to see a massive ape. Its green coloration a glossy sheen with a healthy and intelligent gaze focused on her.

  It was several times the size of the apes that had broken her leg and was definitely not infested by a flower. It sniffed at the air glaring at her and she tried to remember what nature documentaries had told her about avoiding pissing off the giant monkey.

  She made herself smaller, trying to adopt a non-aggressive posture as she avoided looking in its eyes. It snorted and she flinched. She could feel the strength of its mana and it told her she would be paste before she so much as scratched the thing.

  Time flowed like molasses as she waited. It stepped closer and she resisted every urge in her body telling her to scream and run. When it drew close enough that she could feel the gust of breath it released with each motion of its chest she saw its arm rise and she flinched.

  Instead of turning her into Theo-paste, she had a confused moment before realizing it was pointing. Its long, wrinkled finger pointed at one of her recent kills.

  Unsure she nodded while not making eye contact before stepping a few steps away from the dead flower and its yet unharvested core. The ape let out a pleased sounding chuff as it ambled over to the corpse and with strength that made it look like it was pulling apart a grape took the core from its body and ate it with a “crunch”.

  It pointed again and Theo nodded agreement again. The process repeated twice more before the ape took it as total agreement and it ate each of the cores it wanted before it looked at her once more, head tilting.

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  Theo was still scared, but clearly seeing the animal wasn’t aggressive and actually quite intelligent if it could understand the universal gesture she had an idea. She pointed back towards her basecamp and the ape tilted its head again.

  She began to walk in that direction, looking over her shoulder to see if the ape would follow. With a hunched posture it followed her, using its hands and feet to propel it forwards with a speed that did not match something of its size. It could probably lift a city bus or maybe even an airplane, and Theo found herself quite intimidated by its presence. But if she could buy its loyalty then maybe she could figure out how to fight with it against the flowers.

  The ape patiently followed her until she reached the two fallen trees she had set her bag and collection under. With deft movements she grabbed a few different cores before turning to the ape, offering them with open hands.

  Like an excited kid, she saw the apes eyes flash in surprise and it gingerly reached out to collect them. Letting Theo place them in one of its massive palms.

  It picked through the assortment, setting aside the cores it didn’t like, the wind ones all ignored for the wood and forest aspected cores. Though it also ate the cores that had aspects she wouldn’t have expected like a mud core and one the system had called a bristle aspected core that she had retrieved from a large flower infested reptile and a zombified porcupine type creature.

  It had a look of bliss on its face as it munched and Theo thought ‘fuck it’. Before she retrieved nearly all of her cores, going so far as to offer the mirrored core that she had gotten from the spider. She had no use for it, and while it was probably worth something, using it to buy the friendship of such a powerful creature was well worth the price in her opinion.

  Its eyes flashed greedily, it actually wiping its drooling mouth as she walked over with the orange sized lump in her hand. It looked unsure as she offered it to the ape, like it didn’t want to take it from her. But she insisted, the ape relenting before eating it like it was candy made from solid gold.

  The look of bliss on its face was unmatched as an even louder crunch sounded out. There was a sudden shift in the mana around the ape. She felt it then, the System’s focus. This time it wasn’t on her, but instead focused on the massive ape. Its green fur went from glossy to polished. A green copper that made the ape glimmer in the light like a shiny statue.

  It took what must have been a few minutes before Theo felt the System’s presence fade and she had to admit that seeing it work on someone else had been a cool experience. Like watching an artist complete their work, or a chef plate a beautiful meal.

  The ape drew in a deep breath and roared. Thumping its chest as it shouted to all who could hear it. It walked over to her, Theo’s fear mostly forgotten as it reached out to brush the top of her head.

  With a gentleness that did not match the strength that practically radiated off the ape, she felt mana shift inside of it and blinked as a System alert appeared in her vision.

  [Forest Guardian’s blessing. Trait gained.]

  Quickly pulling up her status sheet she couldn’t suppress the grin on her face.

  [Theo Caulder]

  [Tier 2]

  [Affinity: Myriad Wind]

  [Skills]

  [Air Bullet]

  [Body Enhancement]

  [Internal Mana Manipulation]

  [Strike]

  [Traits]

  [Vigor of the Forest]

  Unlike her skills the trait actually gave her a description when she glanced over it.

  [Vigor of the Forest - You have been blessed by a forest guardian. Physical recovery drastically increased why surrounded by forest aligned mana.]

  ‘Holy shit. That sounds good.’ She thought to herself. Unsure quite how much or how well it would heal her. But even if it only cut down her recovery by a tenth, that would be incredible. She could feel it even now. The forest’s energy reacting around her. Pushing mana into her that sunk into her bones and flesh. It didn’t convert to her own mana, but instead brought a vitality to her body that was like soaking in a hot bath after a hard day.

  She looked at the ape, and it looked at her as it reached out to pat her head. It was obviously much smarter than any animal back on Earth and she wonders just how much she could communicate with it.

  After their tier increase the ape seemed to grow tired. It sat down heavily in a goofy posture with its legs sticking out in front of it. Theo decided to follow its example, she had been hunting for a little while but it never hurt to take a break. Eventually she wanted to see how the ape reacted to peaches. She had been saving her last can for something special and this felt like a fun use of it. She was growing sick of the canned goods anyways.

  Though she would have killed for some salt and pepper. She hadn’t found any searching around her ruined home and if it wasn’t so far away she might have gone back to dig around until she did find some. Small game was definitely not something she liked eating with its gamey taste.

  She walked over to the giant ape with can in hand before pulling to top off and eating a peach before offering it to them. Its eyes focused on the treat with laser focus and it tenderly held the can between two fingers before it dumped it into its mouth.

  It chewed with another look of bliss and Theo laughed.

  Sitting down she watched the ape as it finished licking its lips before it lay back and with an ease she was jealous of, it passed out. Its deep breaths slowing as it fell fully asleep.

  She tended a small fire that she used to reheat some of the meat she had preserved to make it more palatable. She was content to wait, happy with the companionship she had been sorely missing. Just the fact that the ape was friendly and honestly kind of cute relaxed her. Not to mention the safety she felt with what had to be the apex predator nearby.

  She wasn’t sure when she drifted off to sleep, but when she woke up she was in for a surprise.

  Dozens of apes had gathered around her small clearing. Some warming their bellies by the dying fire, others busy grooming each other. The large ape was awake again and was idly sitting around. It noticed when Theo woke and gave her a small “whoop” in greeting.

  She stood up and stretched. Some of the apes copied her in a manner she found quite endearing. She wanted to get back to her hunting and maybe with the ape and its family she would be able to make more progress against the flowers.