A new day.

Some time passes like that with you sleeping beside your dryad minion near the warmth of the dying fire. When you awake you see her sitting near you, a strained ecstatic expression on her face as she finishes with the extraction of the essence. She pants softly when she’s done, laying the essence to the side where it hovers slightly above the ground, a wavering mass of luminescent energy.

“That’s quite a sight to wake to.” You speak softly and laugh as Sylvana starts at your voice. She looks to you sharply and flushes a deep green when she realizes you’d been watching her. “Embarrassed little rabbit? After everything we’ve done?” You smirk and watch as the deep green spreads across her body.

“N-no, it’s nothing.” She turns away from you, bottom lip pushed out in a slight pout. You laugh softly and roll easily from your prone position into a crouch. Dim dawn light is beginning to seep into the lodge through the small windows that look out. You reach out and cup your hand about the essence that Sylvana has just produced. It’s warm in your hand and there is a slight sense of weight to it, though it has no solid form. It seems to adhere to your hand based on your intention of holding it.

“Thank you.” You tell her, leaning down to kiss her neck softly. She shivers at the touch and you grin. You truly enjoy how easily she shows how you affect her. You deposit the essence into your inventory and stride out of the hut, leaving the dryad to process her feelings. As you leave you wonder to yourself why exactly you had given her thanks at all. As your minion it was her duty to help you in whatever way she was able, right? You shrug to yourself, moving from that into rolling your shoulders to loosen your muscles from sleeping on the ground for the second night in a row.

You first head for the barrier, still in the process of growing to the next tier. You want to see what difference infusing the nature spirit into the barrier will have on its growth time. When you get there you realize that the barrier is nearing the end of its growth for this tier. You pull up the menu and see only a few minutes left; so, you wait. At the end of the growth cycle you hear a rustling as the new growth of the barrier completes. At the end you can see what’s changed. The thorny brambles that had previously formed the majority of the barrier have thickened considerably, and as you watch you swear you spot several of them moving on their own. The longer you watch the area the more sure of it you are. The vines are now prehensile. Presumably they will wrap up any intruders, binding trespassers in their thorny embrace.

You wince thinking about how painful it would be to be caught in one of the upgraded vines. Even with your thick fur those thorns would be no joke. To anyone wearing little armor they would be sheer ****. You hope that since this is your lair the barrier will know well enough not to ensnare you. You eye a nearby vine warily and move towards it. Better to find out now, instead of when you need to move quickly through them.

As you approach the vine it shivers slightly, pulling itself out of your path. Oh, neat. That would actually make it easier to move through than the previous barrier. Now… time to see what was next! You withdraw and pull up the upgrade menu.

Tangle Vine Barrier

Upgrade to Paralyzing Tangle Vine Barrier?

Base Upgrade Time: 72 Hours

Grove Tender Bonus …

Total Upgrade Time: 64 Hours 48 Minutes

You begin the upgrade and are then greeted with the options regarding speeding the process.

Life Essence Detected

Use Life Essence?

Yes/No

Nature Spirit Detected

Infuse Nature Spirit?

Yes/No

Confirm All Options

You decline to use the life essence, and confirm infusing your new nature spirit into the growing barrier.

Level 1 Nature Spirit: Wispy has been infused.

Level 1 growth bonus: 1%

New Upgrade time: 64 Hours 43 Minutes

You frown as you look at the figures presented to you. The bonus was small, almost negligible but it seemed as though there was a chance that a higher level spirit would provide a greater advantage. Plus you could use multiple wisps, multiple times, unlike the one time bonus that applying the essence directly gave. Perhaps it would be worth making the investment...