Chapter 11: Together, Not Alone
Rialyne paused. She had forgotten. Here she was complaining about two days in solitariness, always thinking about herself and her pains, never realizing that she wasn't the only one, that others might have it worse than her.
It's true. She couldn't imagine what over two hundred days of confinement could do to the lonely mind. She wasn't the only one who could share in this solitary suffering. It wasn't that no one could understand. No, Cardisys actually knew very well…
She slowly looked up at the forlorn chartreuse cell. Reaching out a hesitant arm, she lightly patted Cardisys on his head.
"I'm sorry. You're right. I'm not alone." Rialyne smiled to the best of her cell body's abilities.
The little cell lifted itself up and seemingly peered at her with teary eyes.
Rialyne choked down a bitter lump. He seemed so much like a child. He was mischievous and impertinent but equally eager and obliging. 221 days… This small child which was no bigger than a fingernail survived alone, only able to wait and prepare for whenever she woke up.
Even though she was seventeen years of age, and this wasn't equal to 221 days, how long would he have to wait if she had lived to an old age? A few years? Would he have grown to a teenager by then? While she didn't precisely know how her reincarnation worked, she wondered what that teenager Cardisys would have been like.
On that train of thought, Rialyne wondered how Cardisys aged. Was he always the Cardinal System even before the 221 days? How old was he exactly right now? Curious, Rialyne asked him.
"Actually, my soul doesn't age," he answered sheepishly.
This was a bit of a shock. So Cardisys actually had a soul. No wonder why he was more human than robotic or NPC-like as the name 'system' might imply.
"What do you mean? Souls actually can age?"
Cardisys bobbed his body in confirmation. "Yes. It's just like how a young person can have an 'old soul.' While they might exhibit some childlike behaviors at times, these are actually the effects of the physical body that they occupy. Their souls are actually older, and their wisdom comes from the lingering experiences that they no longer remember in their previous life."
"This…" Rialyne was rendered speechlessly flabbergasted.
"I'm pretty sure I'm ten years old, but I don't know why I think so. I can't remember anything from before when this tree was just a seed. All I retained are feelings, knowledge, and vague experiences."
Rialyne contemplated for a long, hard moment. It felt like some jigsaw pieces had been discovered, and she was slowly putting them together. However, many more pieces of the puzzle were yet to be found. The puzzle of this world, her reincarnation, and her possible connection to the Cardinal System. For now, she would have to put this on the back burner as she had hit a wall.
Moving on from this, she returned to the aftermath of the golem battle.
+ 3662 HP + 255 MP + 236 PATK + 49 MATK + 288 PDEF + 127 MDEF + 31 SPD + 4 FLX
Looking at the gained Sap stats of the Dielweiss Tree, Rialyne immediately wished that the skill was at level three. Then she could've also gained the Lord ranked Stone Golem's resistances. From the battle, she was sure that it had high resistances to several elements, not only because it was a Lord, but also because it was a hill-sized boulder, and boulders were pretty impenetrable.
Stretching her body, she shook off the tension of the battle and the clouded emotions which had followed. Rialyne needed her mind to be clear. And she had one immediate goal:
To exit these damn woods with Cardisys and Kyferne.
Since Kyferne was outside of her domain, Rialyne sent Brownie to scout for him. In a matter of minutes, the hawk returned with his location. Kyferne was currently battling Wildesmen in parties of two and three who were leveled in the thirties and ranked up to Chief.
Rialyne harrumphed, thinking how lucky he was to be able to split the large group and pick off high-leveled and ranked monsters. He was able to move around well and find suitable opponents for quick growth.
"Good job, Brownie." She rewarded the hawk with an energy treat. "Please keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't run into a Lord ranked or higher opponent and die."
Although Kyferne was definitely knowledgable in fighting, after her golem encounter, she didn't want him to be caught up in a situation where he was overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of numerous enemies too.
She knew he'd return in about a couple of hours, so Rialyne decided to create her elite team while waiting for Engrain to cool down. She focused on improving her group of twenty trees ranked from bronze to gold. She had two gold, the ones she fought the golem battle with, six silver, and the rest were bronze.
High ranked trees were surely hard to come by. Even though she had other gold and silver plants, they were better suited as energy farms and plant shields. Additionally, trees grew faster and stronger with higher potential.
While she cultivated these trees, she made sure to exercise her skills to the fullest every time they cool-downed. She let the elite team get the kill while typically 'tapping' one to two skills per opponent. Soon, the trees of her elite group had up to a fifth of the Dielweiss Tree stats individually with the lowest being one eighth. Her skill masteries also grew greatly.
_________________________________
[ Sap ] Lv. 2/5
Mastery: 247 / 10000 Proficiency
-
[ Engrain ] Lv. 1/10
Mastery: 144 / 1000 Proficiency
-
[ Vengeance ] Lv. 2/5
Mastery: 1293 / 10000 Proficiency
-
[ Magic Blast ] Lv. 2/5
Mastery: 4357 / 10000 Proficiency
-
[ Thorn Missiles ] Lv. 1/5
Mastery: 1471 / 1000 Proficiency
-
[ Constrict ] Lv. 1/5
Mastery: 936 / 1000 Proficiency
-
[ Iron Bark ] Lv. 1/5
Mastery: 139 / 1000 Proficiency
_________________________________
Almost two hours and a half had passed, and with two more Engrains, her Domain HP was now nearly a whopping eight billion. Ever since Rialyne learned how to efficiently and successfully capture plants, she consistently targeted about 60% of her current Domain HP for Engrain. This ensured that she could gain a lot of Proficiency points for every use.
It was at this time that Kyferne returned without any troubles experienced with the Wildesmen. More than five hours had passed since they split up, and he was now nearly level 38. Although he didn't have a skill similar to Sap, as a human, his stats also gained a nice boost from the battle training.
Thoroughly beat, Kyferne plopped himself down by the Dielweiss roots and sprawled out his limbs.
"Tired? How many Wildesmen did you fight?"
Kyferne chuckled with somewhat laboured breaths. "I lost count."
"Well, don't exhaust yourself too much. I don't want to have to resuscitate you with my previous energy."
Kyferne coughed. "That won't be necessary."
After he spoke, he felt a cooling sensation diffuse throughout his pores. As it spread, it left a pleasant warmth that soothed his body.
"Is this the energy?" He probed Rialyne.
The end of a floating vine bobbed up and down. He smiled at the sight. Even though she didn't have a physical human body, she still found ways to express human-like gestures like nodding through the body of a tree.
"By the way, I came across a small cave near the area I was fighting the Wildesmen. It didn't look like it was their cave, but I did see some of them enter and exit it."
Rialyne's curiosity was piqued. "A cave, hm? Do you think there's something inside it?"
"Maybe. It must be pretty big inside anyway even with that a small entrance. Otherwise, I don't see how several Wildesmen could fit inside it."
The Dielweiss branches swayed as Rialyne hummed to herself. A cave, that certainly sounded very interesting indeed in this forest. There must be some way for her to explore it.
"Hey, do you think tomorrow I can check out the inside of that cave with you?"
Kyferne tilted his head back to look at the tree. "I don't see why not. It's just gazing through my eyes as per the contract, right?"
Rialyne nodded with her vine. After Kyferne stood up to head over to his makeshift shelter, Cardisys jumped on Rialyne.
"Whoa there boy!" She was a little startled by the sudden rambunctious behavior.
"Actually! I think you can do more than just gaze through his eyes Ria!" A bright twinkle emanated from Cardisys.
"Err, Ria?" She leaned back a bit at the random mention of a nickname.
"Umm, you don't like Ria?" Cardisys dipped his body to one side.
"Hm?! Uh, it's fine. Ria, Ria is ok." She sweat-dropped, and her body jiggled in a light, mock laughter.
Ever since she opened up to Cardisys and was a little friendlier, he progressively got friskier and more enthusiastic. It was a tad overwhelming at times considering she got used to his snarkiness before, but he was rather adorable like this too.
"Anyway, since he's human, you should be able to speak through him too! And additionally, since you were once human, I bet you could also move through his body as well! At the very least, it's plausible."
Rialyne became excited before swiftly calming herself down to reason the possibility. "How do you know this might be possible? Is it in your system manual or store of knowledge or whatever you have?"
Cardisys paused in reflection. "I don't know, but something in my gut tells this."
"Hrmm, well it is good to know at least. I'll discuss this with Kyferne tomorrow."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Chryiss
Chryiss Eeeep~ OMG. Just realized there's only 2 days left in the contest! o(>_<)o
Thank you everyone for your support! I hope for your continued support as we head into the last days of the contest. If we are able to rank high, I'd love to continue frequently writing this story even after it ends!
Also, once again, let me know what you like or dislike as well as anything you want to see more of in this story. We'll be out of the woods, soon! ...Heheh, that's not considered a pun, right? XD
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone