Their ears perked up, a strange sight when such a thing happened to an elf, and their hearts began to race. I could audibly hear the pounding of their hearts quicken thanks to my enhanced senses. Their hands, previously at their sides, twisted and stretched towards their weaponry.

Inwardly I chuckled, as I began to piece together that they could in all likelihood somehow sense Raiz. I quietly sent her a message as well. "Be careful, my allies might have detected you. I"m unsure of why, but their hands are atop their weaponry and their body language indicates that something has spooked them. Don"t attack if they attack." I told her, commanding the newborn to stay calm.

"But master, am I in danger?" She asked, replying to me in the exact same method in which I communicated with her. I was tempted to shake my head, but we were still over three kilometers apart. It wasn"t likely that she could see me, and it"d surely confuse my already tense allies.

"No Raiz, you are not in danger. I doubt they"d strike first, and even if they did I have light-speed reflexes and can manipulate light into forming protective barriers. You"re safe." I told the newborn dryad while explaining just one way in which I could protect her.

Inwardly I knew that if I needed too I could also drain Farrane of her ability to use magic and telekinetically catch any arrows or any other weapons that Calorron might use against my servant. I felt ready to play defense if worst came to worst.

Earlier in the day, the moment I had arrived in the forest, a wolf began to dash towards me. That wolf, being a beautifully persist thing, was continuing to approach me. It was still far away though.

It took us a few minutes, but eventually, we did manage to reach Raiz. We were still in a darkened part of the forest though, and so it took my companions longer than it would have otherwise to actually detect the short, red-headed dryad who at that point had begun to patiently stand still and wait for us to reach her.

It was while we were walking towards her that I received the notification alerting me to the powers I had just gained from the f.a.gaceae subdomain for creating Raiz, which was my reason for doing so.

[Details about the f.a.gaceae subdomain:

The f.a.gaceae subdomain is the subdomain of a tree-type but effectively serves as the arboreal subdomain. By gaining influence over it, you are gaining influence over evergreen trees, and gain a.s.sorted tree-type abilities.

Once you gain enough influence over it, it officially becomes the arboreal subdomain, governing all tree-types, and its powers already affect a healthy amount of trees. It"s worth the work.

To gain further influence over this particular subdomain you must awaken and nurture tree-servants. This subdomain is the first to grant you an awakening ability, the ability to grant sapience to a non-sapient creature or ent.i.ty, though it is a limited awakening ability that will only work on trees, even if they are non-f.a.gaceae trees.

f.a.gaceae subdomain pa.s.sive powers:

Photosynthesis manipulation: This power grants you the ability to cause photosynthesis in plants, eliminating their need for sunlight. You can activate this power remotely and can use it to speed or slow the growth of plants, especially if it"s mixed with your entropic manipulation ability. This is a synergistic power that is the result of the light domain mixing with the f.a.gacaea subdomain.

Root manipulation: This power allows you to command tree roots specifically. By using it you can further use the earth or nature as a weapon, or you can transport trees from one place to another. Your abilities to manipulate roots aren"t limited to just manipulating their location either.

Roots serve a number of functions, including feeding the plants they are a part of. If you wish you could activate a root"s feeding function, causing the organ to drain nutrients, life, and energy from people or creatures entangled in them, instead of through photosynthesis or water absorption.

Tree transformation: This power allows you to manipulate the shape of a tree, enabling you to transform a tree into a humanoid-like shape, if you wish to, or something stranger if you"re so inclined. You can mix this ability with your awakening ability to create all manner of life, civilization, and art.

Leaf manipulation: This ability allows you to manipulate leaves, forming things from barriers to weapons with them at will. This power allows you to transform leaves into thorns, spines, and p.r.i.c.kles, and use them as needed.

Arboreal aura: This aura is one that ambiently heals and strengthens trees in your proximity, even if it"s just their roots under the ground you"re on top of. If attacked near trees this aura will cause roots to come to your defense and has a small chance of causing nearby trees to awaken spontaneously and temporarily to aid you.

f.a.gaceae subdomain active power:

Awakening: You can awaken trees, granting them sapience. This power"s precise effects are hard to nail down, but it causes trees to animate and gain a similar sort of will and thought-processes as humans and other humanoids have. By animating them this power grants them ambulatory abilities and the ability to speak a single language.

This ability is best when mixed with other abilities, not when used on its own. When mixed with the powers of the soul domain this power can be used to create all sorts of new species. Trees have weaker souls but possess souls nonetheless.

To truly transform an awakened tree, it is necessary to replace its soul with one of your own creation. Creatures awakened by you automatically worship and serve you.

This is perhaps your strongest power that this world"s oldest historians recognize was an ability once usable by mortals, though it hasn"t been used by a mortal in millennia, possibly as far back as the end of the mythic age. Truthfully this power is a synergistic one that stems from the intersection of various subdomains with the mind domain.

This ability can be used eight times per three hour period.

f.a.gaceae subdomain blessing and curse details:

The f.a.gaceae subdomain"s blessing is only applicable to f.a.gaceae plants. Plants blessed in this way are stronger, healthier, and if awoken become smarter and faster creatures.

The curse this power applies causes f.a.gaceae plants to be weakened and more easily destroyed.]

Shortly after reading through the entry, a process that took me a few seconds, I realized that I had a chance to set Raiz at ease using these newfound abilities. I quietly began to activate and experiment with my new abilities. I did so in a location that was far from me: right beside Raiz.

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I mentally focused on three distant trees. None of them were particularly large, and all three of them were close to my newest ally: Raiz. I quietly envisioned their diminutive, for trees anyway, forms shifting into distinct shapes, making rough use of my new ability to transform trees.

One of the trees seemed to shrink, becoming shorter and thicker, and taking on a distinctly lupine form. This process was a noisy one, one which caused Raiz"s head to turn and examine my work. As she did so she mentally messaged me.

"Master, is this your doing or should I prepare myself for combat?" She asked, fear and awe mixing in equal parts in her mental tone as I was weaving together an arboreal wolf right next to her. I chuckled and formulated a response to her.

"Sorry Raiz, I just wanted to go ahead and begin doing what I needed to do. I am creating a... honor-guard of sorts for you, as is befitting a high priestess of a spirit of nature and civilization alike." I told her, as I envisioned a tree-like wolf and set about making my will manifest. I heard her sigh and relax when she knew that I was protecting her.

This power of mine seemed to work by taking the mental images I created in my mind and shaping the targeted tree or trees in a way to create that image. It didn"t require much focus, but I still paid it significant attention, because I wanted to thoroughly master it. I could sense the potential of this power, and knew that to make such potent manifest I"d need to pay careful attention to this power.

The tree I was using as my base to form the wolf was one that was large enough for me to make the thing taller than Raiz, and look like an impossibly muscled wolf. I imagined that its paws would be enormous and that its claws would be misshapen spines made from leaves.

In order to make its face, I smoothed and thinned a bit of its trunk, and created the necessary body parts, the eyes, the snout, and the teeth, using different powers. It was an experiment, one that took a great deal of concentration since I was relying on an instinctual understanding of what a "wolf" even was. I had only ever encountered coyotes, not wolves.

For the thing"s eyes, I activated my created dark green lights where its eyes would have been located, had it been an actual wolf. For its snout, I kept thinning and smoothing out part of its trunk, elongating its face further. And for its teeth, I used my new ability to manipulate roots and wove them together tightly.

"Say h.e.l.lo to your new pet." I told Raiz, as I quietly awoke the thing, feeling a surge of power leave myself and invisibly sail towards and then into what had once been little more than a lupine statue. The second the transformed tree was struck by my power, it began to move slowly. Its paws shuddered, and then the rest of it began to lightly vibrate. I smiled and turned my attention to the other two trees I had targeted.

Both of the other trees were taller than the tree that was now a slowly animating and awakening lupine-shaped tree. They stood around five meters tall. I was gonna reduce their height significantly, but neither tree was particularly tall relative to the other trees I could see throughout the forest.

Their intended shapes were easier for me to conceptualize. I wanted them to become human-like bodyguards and servants of Raiz, to give her the appearance of someone loved and cared for by her master. Which in fairness was exactly what she was.

I envisioned the other two trees, one of which was behind the newly animated wolf-tree, and one of which was not far from either tree, thickening and losing their height in exchange for the appearance of muscle ma.s.s. I watched as both things went from standing just over five meters tall to a modest height of just under three meters, and nearly doubling in thickness even as took on a human-like appearance.

Their "skin" was made of dark brown bark, and they had enormous arms. They had powerfully "muscled" chests, made of particularly dense bark, the thickest and hardest parts of their trunks. And this was when I got brave.

"Let"s see if I can speed this up." I told myself, feeling courageous, as I suddenly pictured two whole men made of bark and other tree parts. I pictured their faces, mouths made from parted wood, teeth made of sharpened leaves, and empty eye sockets. I pictured their hands made from wood and their leafy fingers. I even pictured their root-based legs, covered in a wooden exoskeleton.

Raiz was once again alarmed as the other two trees suddenly transformed into fully-formed statues of men. An instant later I once again expelled two invisible surges of awakening energy, surges that collided with the statues quite easily just moments after I expelled them, and animated the trees.

As the elves and I got closer and closer to Raiz and her newly created honor-guard, my mind turned to what sort of items, particularly what sort of weapons I ought to give the trees, and indeed my high-priestess herself. I wanted them to be armed with items that fit their overall nature motif. It was while I was thinking about how to arm my worshipers that I received a handy notification.

[Notes about awakenings:

Awakened creatures serve you differently than non-awakened creatures do. Creatures awakened by G.o.ds are among their most fanatical servants, creatures eager to devote themselves to their awakeners. They are not always the most intelligent ent.i.ties, but their fanaticism is a powerful tool for any G.o.d and they strive to perform whatever orders they are given to the best of their abilities.

Awakened ent.i.ties were often tasked by G.o.ds to either accompany them on adventures or to guard specific locations. Only a handful of G.o.ds truly strove to maximum the awesome power of awakening ent.i.ties or even using awakened creatures to create entirely new species.

Awakened creatures count as "creations" of G.o.ds, not just as worshipers. G.o.dly "creations" include creatures given life by G.o.ds, which grant them access to a number of boons, evolutions, and divine gifts that are greater than mere worshipers can get.

You can actually peer into the minds of ent.i.ties you awaken, which you don"t yet have the power to do to other things. It might be worth doing if you"re curious about what minds are like.

Awakened creatures tend to be granted cla.s.ses by their divine awakeners. Granting the wolf-like tree a cla.s.s might require some forethought but granting the human-like trees a cla.s.s doesn"t.

Would you like to grant the two human-like transformed trees the templar cla.s.s? Templars don"t receive any particularly flashy powers or enormous stat boosts so they are a good starter cla.s.s.]

I mentally informed the system that that was exactly what I wanted to do. And then I reached into the minds of my new creations out of curiosity to see what such environments would be like.

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The three trees that ambled to life, were still in the process of ambling upwards and beginning to gain some real sense of consciousness when their "creator" peered into their newly elevated minds. What he found was both disappointing and intriguing.

He found himself in three strange places. All of them were dark, empty, and filled with potential. Althos could quietly sense the potential that existed in these minds, but he couldn"t sense memories, fears, hopes, or anything else. These three places, places he existed in all at once, were unpopulated.

The young G.o.d spent a few moments in these locations, before vacating them. But as he did, he gave his creations their first orders. They weren"t complex.

"Obey me." He told them, mentally commanding them in an incredibly powerful and authoritative tone. He had created them to obey him, and to fulfill one other purpose. That other purpose was his second command.

"Protect her." He demanded, before picturing Raiz"s face. He didn"t demand that they obey her, merely that they protect her. That was deliberate, a willful, conscious choice that he made.

The three infantile minds made quiet noises of affirmation and obedience. Althos smiled, satisfied that his creations had heard him, and vacated their minds. As he did so, the three ent.i.ties immediately began to miss the presence of their "creator".

It was around this time that the three began to fully stand up. And as they did so, the hands belonging to the two humanoid-trees were immediately filled with equipment constructed by their creator.

While portions of his mind had been in their minds, another portion of his mind had been actively manipulating light to a specific end. Althos had been hand-crafting weapons and armor from light, weapons which now found themselves in the hands of the two human-like awakened trees, and armor which found itself protectively clinging to the wooden forms of the awakened trees.

A spear found its way into the hands of each of the humanoid trees. One spear was fashioned from light that Althos had manipulated to "look" red, making it clearly visible to any virtually humanoid"s eyes. A sword found its way into the hand of the other humanoid tree. The sword was fashioned from what looked like bright yellow light, light that drew in one"s vision.

The spear-wielder found itself holding onto a dark "leash" made of tempered light that was connected to the lupine-tree, and immediately sensed that it had received one extra task: to be the animal handler of their little party. The tree was unsure of if it was ready for this responsibility, but it felt sure that its awakener wouldn"t ask it to do the impossible and committed itself to the task Althos asked of it.

The one holding the sword was given a shield as well, and quietly sent feelings of grat.i.tude towards its mysterious maker. The trees didn"t know the ident.i.ty of their awakener, they only knew that he was close, and he was approaching them. They knew that their creator had tasks for them to do, and all three creatures readied themselves to obey their maker, even as he drew ever closer to them.

Althos and the elves were inching closer and closer to the new party of woodland beings and as both groups readied themselves for their meeting, Althos and Raiz began to mentally communicate once more.

The G.o.d and creator of the arboreal party rightfully felt that it was wise for him and his dryadic high-priestess to be on the same page as he led the elves ever-nearer to his wooden and spiritual servants.