Hope
The bullies were taught a lesson. The lackeys carried their leader diligently towards the tribal hall.
"What happened to him?" inquired the tribe's shaman upon seeing the distressed fat kid, recalling his presence during the awakening ceremony.
The three lackeys, however, were too frightened to speak. They hesitated to reveal to the shaman, the spiritual leader of the tribe, that their leader got hurt while bullying someone.
"Bring him inside," the shaman instructed.
Realising the children's reluctance to speak, the shaman led them to a building used for treating injured warriors. It was currently unoccupied, providing a private space.
"A dislocated knee! Did you fall?" the shaman asked, addressing the wailing fatso instead of the lackeys.
The fatso fell silent immediately.
"I see. You're unwilling to speak. In that case, I might reject your request for treatment," the shaman stated.
"Should I summon your father?" he added.
At the mention of his father, the fatso's expression changed. Fear gripped him, as the shaman hinted at calling his father.
"You're Das's son, right? You awakened the grade 2 bloodline spirit today. As a talented warrior, I need to know why you're injured," the shaman tried a different approach.
"Tell me your name first," he requested.
After a moment, the kid nodded. "My name is Dal," he said, wiping his tears with his sleeves.
"So, Dal, how did you injure yourself? I need to know to help you quickly," the shaman pressed.
"I fell," Dal lied through his teeth.
The shaman had doubts but didn't want to force the kids to speak. "Oh, you fell while playing."
"Don't worry. Although your leg is dislocated, it can be fixed quickly," the shaman assured.
"I don't need to call my father?" Dal inquired.
"No, it's just a fall injury, right? Why bother your father? He's likely busy preparing for the winter hunt," the shaman replied.
"Let me fix you up then."
The shaman efficiently treated Dal's injury, realigning the dislocated kneecap. Before Dal could fully register the pain, his leg was mended, and he was sent away with medicine.
Although the Boulder tribe was small, the shaman's expertise in healing made quick work of Dal's injury. With the support of his lackeys, Dal immediately left the tribal hall for his home.
Unbeknownst to them, someone stealthily observed their every move.
"Boss, should we go and teach the kid, Aru a lesson, for messing with us?" one lackey suggested to Dal.
"..."
"Should we tie him up and beat him?" another one proposed.
"..."
"I think it'll be easy," the third lackey chimed in.
Instead of extinguishing the anger in Dal's heart, their words ignited it. He stayed silent, allowing the rage to build up inside him.
The shaman, following the kids, overheard their conversation. Rather than intervening, he decided to see how the situation would play out. He wanted to see how the child called Aru would respond to the bullies.
—
Unaware of what happened to Dal and the lackeys, Aru returned home as night approached and began his experiments.
"System, show stats."
[Symbiotic links available - 1]
[Spirit identity - Seed form, Elemental affinity - Water 70%, Earth 10%, Lightning 1%, Wood 1%]
[Spirit energy - 3]
[Missions:
Daily mission - Share all of the user's spirit energy with the linked lifeforms—reward +1 link.
Challenge mission - Defeat a rank 1 lifeform—reward +5 link.]
"It's different from what I remember."
"I gained a wood elemental ability when I linked with the oak tree!"
"Does linking with a lifeform of a specific elemental affinity increase my affinity for that element? I can test this hypothesis with my additional link."
After establishing his first link, Aru was too tired to check the system messages. Now, he began to review the changes to exploit and use them in the future.
"There are more changes in the mission tab."
"After clearing the first mission, I'm eligible for daily missions. The +1 link reward every day is too tempting to ignore. If I could complete daily mission every day, I could at least get +365 links a year."
"Then there's the challenge mission, offering +5 links for defeating a rank 1 lifeform. Maybe there will be more missions like these in the future. I see a bright future ahead of me. Ku ku ku ku."
The wording was also crucial to Aru. "Defeating" meant he could complete the mission without killing, opening up the possibility of challenging warriors in the tribe.
"+5 link is a great reward. I need to defeat rank 1 lifeforms fast." He decided. "But before that, I have to try out the spirit energy-sharing feature and complete the daily mission."
Aru walked up to the backyard of his house and approached the oak tree. This tree was his first link. At a glance, he could notice no changes to the oak tree.
But once he concentrated his vision on it, the system message showing the status of the oak tree popped up.
[Normal Oak Tree
The oak tree had recovered a little bit of spirit energy. The weakened status also disappeared.
"The maximum spirit energy the oak tree had was 9.7. It is still in the process of recovering energy after I established a link with it."
"It is recovering energy slower than I expected."
"Why was it slow?"
Although most people would overlook the fact that the oak tree was recovering spirit energy slower, Aru couldn't just let it be. He began to think deeply about the possible reasons.
Finally, he concluded that it had something to do with the consciousness, awakening and metabolism of the linked lifeform.
Those were the most prominent differences he could observe between himself and the oak tree.
'Maybe the tree can awaken and become just as good as me.'
'I don't know if the tree would gain consciousness or not.' Although he thought that, he was hopeful that miracles would be possible in this magical world.
With that thought in mind, Aru began to channel his spirit energy. He recalled the feeling of energy passing through his body and envisioned it moving towards the oak tree.
To complete his daily mission, he had to share all the energy he had with a linked lifeform. That was exactly what Aru was trying to do.
The Ultimate Symbiosis System was kind of intuitive and user-friendly. So, he expected that to work.
And just as he expected, Aru felt the spirit energy leaving his body. A pale blue line of energy in the form of a thread formed between Aru and the oak tree.
"Swish…"
Aru felt the connection between himself and the oak tree intensify. Even with closed eyes, he could now sense the exact location of the oak tree. Each fibre of the oak tree was revealed to him through the connection.
When spirit energy flowed into the oak tree, it welcomed it with open arms. There was no rejection like when he was trying to establish the link.
Slowly and steadily, the energy flowed from Aru towards the oak tree.
After making sure that everything was working as expected, Aru stopped the transfer abruptly.
"Wait a minute." A new thought popped up inside his mind.
"How far can I stretch the distance?"
'Can I transfer energy to and from the link without considering the distance?'
'That would be too OP, right?' He thought with slight concern.
So, to test the theory, Aru sprinted around the backyard and experimented with all conceivable distances. Eventually, he found the answer he sought.
Infinite distance proved to be unattainable.
There existed a boundary to the distance over which he could share spirit energy, contingent upon the quantity of spirit energy at his disposal.
With his three units of spirit energy, he could only transmit energy within a fixed range of three meters. This distance remained immutable unless he acquired additional spirit energy.
Yet, why could he transfer spirit energy from any point in the backyard?
The explanation lay in the extensive underground roots of the oak tree. Despite the oak tree being an immobile lifeform with no manoeuvrability, its sheer size facilitated the broad distribution of spirit energy.
At some point, Aru could even transfer spirit energy up to thirty meters away from the oak tree depending on the root system.
'It's like a power source connected to an extension cord. The length of the extension cord depends on me. But, if the power source itself is big, I can use it to my advantage.'
'Sharing spirit energy means that I can also extract energy from the links.'
'Each link is like a battery of spirit energy to me.'
'I can have an unlimited amount of spirit energy if I can have hundreds of links. This is super cool.'
'If all the links are placed at the same spot, or if I can expand the distance covered by the links by chaining them together, I can rule over this entire region.'
"Ke ke ke…" Aru unknowingly let out an evil laugh.
The elderly shaman who came to check on Aru after knowing that he was bullied saw this. His heart beat loudly seeing the child laugh in the face of adversity. His opinion about the child increased even further.
After making sure that Aru was not injured, he quietly returned home without disturbing him.
The shaman felt excitement witnessing the fighting spirit exhibited by Aru. Relying on his instincts, he chose to entrust the resolution of matters among the children to themselves.