While he didn’t see anyone, he did have the odd sense of numerous sleeping presences scattered about him in every direction. It wasn’t the same creepy sense as if he were being watched or stalked. Instead, it was almost reassuring, like he somehow knew these beings had no animosity for him or anyone else, and would even respond if called. Setting that aside for now, he had one more important thing to work out, and that was how boned he was. Looking back to the still hovering information screen, he found that it seemed to be able to intuitively respond to his desires. It had moved off to the side for his… self exploration, but now it slid back to the center, and the spiralling words were replaced with a new window showing him exactly what he wanted to know.
“Personal Information Disk: Alexander Petrov
Race: Dryad (Level 1)
Class: (None)
HP: 20/20 MP: 50/50
Stats:
Strength - 1
Agility - 4
Resilience - 2
Regeneration - 10
Intellect - 3
Insight - 3
Magic Resonance - 5
Mana Pool - 5
Affinities:
Nature: 90
Death: -75
Fire: -50
Water: 25”
“Well damn, built to be a pure caster huh?” he muttered to himself. He wasn’t sure how good the starting stats were in relation to other races or classes, but they were clearly skewed in favor of mental and magical aptitude, with the sole exception being his regeneration. When he focused on regeneration curiously, a small new window disk appeared with a short description.
“Regeneration 10 - Recover 5 HP per 10 minutes.”
Well that was interesting as hell. In theory, he could be on death’s door with a single HP one moment, and then be fully healed 40 minutes later. He debated about trying to test out the theory, but he had no real desire to hurt himself and no good way to do so either.
The section about affinities wasn’t super clear to him either, but focusing on it also brought up more information.
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“Affinities: Reduce damage taken from magic of each affinity by its listed percentage. Negative affinities increase damage by the listed percentage instead.”
Xander winced. While the information was certainly helpful, it also told him that he had two glaring weaknesses. Shaking his head he waved at the windows, wishing they would just go away for now. He wasn’t really surprised when they did just that, leaving him standing alone in the forest once more. “I gotta get out of this place” he muttered, “And I have to find some clothes and food”.
Looking around in every direction yielded precisely no helpful signs of civilization. All Xander could see were trees and dirt and other naturey things. He was generally fine with the idea of nature, but hadn’t spent a lot of time outdoors. Come to think of it, the window had said that he had been made a Dryad because of Soul Affinity, which could only mean that his Soul Affinity was Nature. He didn’t really get how that was possible, but maybe it didn’t have anything to do with his habits and was assigned in some other way. He would have pegged himself as having the Death affinity if anything, but clearly this world disagreed.
There was really nothing for it but to set off in a more or less random direction. His gait was awkward at first since he was used to being rather lanky with long limbs, whereas now he seemed to be on the short and plump side. It only took a few minutes to get used to as he wandered through the dappled light filtering down from the canopy above, which sort of surprised him until he remembered that his agility stat had been nearly as high as his magic stats. Even with no one around to see him, he felt very conscious of his nudity, especially when a random breeze would blow his hip length hair about. Xander had never really been particularly comfortable in his own skin, but being in someone else’s skin just ratcheted that feeling up to 11. He felt vulnerable and strange, his oversized chest and butt jiggling oddly, his hips trying to swing with each step for some reason. On the other hand, he wasn’t in any environmental discomfort. The air felt perfectly warm on his skin, and the dirt and fallen leaves under his feet felt completely natural.
Needing a way to distract himself from his body dysmorphia, Xander wracked his brain for a distraction and then remembered that supposedly he was going to have magic now. “Oh shit, I can’t believe I’m going to have magic!” he said with glee in his voice. If there was one upside to this whole surreal situation, it was that he was going to be a wizard! He supposedly had access to two spells if he remembered correctly, though he could only remember that they had been nature flavored. “Well… closer to a druid anyway, but it's still magic”. The offputting sound of his own voice tried to jar him back to thinking about other things, but he tamped down on the thoughts before they could spiral out of control and focused on bringing up the information about his magic. Two disk-like windows readily appeared side by side, one for each spell.
“Nurture Vegetation: You can expend mana to cause a plant to grow or to heal a damaged plant.”
“Control Plants: You can establish control over certain species of trees, bushes, and vines. The link’s initial cost is based on the size of the plant, and requires a moderate amount of mana regeneration to maintain.”
There wasn’t any more information forthcoming even when he focused on each spell like he had with the stats earlier, but he did feel an odd sort of sensation coming from somewhere in the area of his navel. The more he focused on the feeling the more pronounced it became until he could somehow sense a core of power deep inside himself. It wasn’t a sensation that he had a word for, not being anything like one of his five physical senses. The closest description he could come up with was an ethereal tingling that was the exact opposite of the shiver people ascribed to someone stepping on your grave. It was the warmth of potential and life yearning to be given form, and it was like nothing he had ever felt before. The experience floored him so hard that he stopped moving, forgot the worrisome nature of his new body, and just reveled in the internal glow coming from that core.
Eyes closed, he could almost picture a glowing orb of leafy green and earthy brown light, but instead of a static sphere, it was liquid and in constant motion, streams of energy breaking free and winding away a short distance, only to fall back and merge into the core again. Numerous wisps of green and brown and other earthy colors extended in every direction from the darkness around the orb toward it, but they were all faint except for one. That one connection was vibrant and bright, thrumming with a powerful feeling of safety, and home, and… pain? The fact that the image was clear in his mind was a surprise by itself, as was the instinctual understanding that this core was the source of his magic. Letting the feelings guide him, he extended his hands towards that solid strand, and when he grasped it with his mind, understanding flooded through him. This was his other half, the oak tree that had borne him into this world. It had been wounded by the axe, though it would easily recover in time. The oak welcomed his presence warmly, not exactly sentient, but somehow still conscious.
The sharp snapping of a twig nearby made Xander draw back from the connection and snap open his eyes, head whipping towards the intruding sound. “What in the fucking Lion King bullshit?!” he cursed without thinking at the sight of a strange creature with a spotted fur coat. The creature had frozen at the sound of the snapping twig, but its head now swung towards the sound of his feminine voice, ears twitching, and it locked its yellow eyes on him. It reminded him eerily of the hyenas from a favorite childhood movie, though those three hadn’t worn armor or been at least seven feet tall. Drool was already beginning to leak from its muzzle as it hefted its spear and growled something. “Oh, fuck me…” Xander whispered as the humanoid hyena-like monster started stalking towards him on two legs.