He told a girl she could decorate!

He might have been gone maybe two hours, let's just say three inside of his realm. And already there were changes everywhere. The mix of various small plants that Sylvia had demonstrated on a little spot had spread all around the house. And there was a strange path made of a thick, soft layer of moss that led from the Castle to the fountain.

"Master! You're here!" shouted Sylvia, running to meet him. She couldn't have seen him from where she stood and had to have used another way to know he was here. As she approached he noticed something different about her. Her body had changed; the lithe young waif had now a body that reminded him of his mom's. Especially in the chest department.

"Sylvia, what happened to you? What happened here?" he asked her when she got close enough.

"Mast... John! There's so much life; with the fountain, it is nothing like in the glade. I had to drink a lot to make some sap to help the trees start, but these grew as I was drinking," she said showing her tits. "I was producing a lot of sap, and I remembered the bucket you gave me, but once it got full, I had to think of something else. So I mixed some with water from the fountain and poured it on the ground to make this path."

Did she just say that she filled a whole bucket? On top of what she needed and got even more?

"It's beautiful, and you are beautiful, Sylvia. I was just a bit surprised," he replied to reassure her that she did nothing wrong. He could see the sun getting down; it would be night time very soon here. Of course even by night, the life orb above the fountain, the lightning stones, the moon and the pillar inside the castle would still provide some light.

Exploring would be for another time though, for it would be dangerous in the dark as he could get lost if the place was big enough, and he could only leave the place while near the pillar.

"Please, show me the bucket. I brought you a few things," he instructed her. He got out of his inventory: the two slime jars, the plastic bottles, the funnel and some rubber that he got scrapping that old tire. He could only craft one stack of ammo using the water in the jars, because of his earlier donation it would be thicker than the last time but not at a real slime consistency. There was actually little real slime material left in the enchanted jars.

"What is it? In the jars. Do you want to store my sap in those?" she asked him.

"These are enchanted, and they contain a substance similar to the body of creatures called slimes. I can use it as crafting component, and if I feed the substance, it grows full again in the jar. I want to see if I can feed it your sap; you make a lot more of it than what I used to feed them," he explained. He showed her the bottles and the funnel. "This is to store what you have in excess in the future."

While he was pouring some of the bucket's content into the jars, he remembered to ask her a few things.

"I have a few questions. How did you know I just came back? And how did you feel when we were having sex before?" he asked her.

"I used the watch flowers, the yellow ones that I grew near the entrance; I can see through them. I'm not sure I understand the other question. I was happy that we were going to make a forest here, is that it?" she replied.

John immediately thought of some uses for those flowers, but he wasn't satisfied by her answers.

"Would you be able to see through one left in the real world, say if I watered it with some of your sap mixed into water so it would stay healthy? And for the other question, I meant to ask if you felt any pleasure," he explained.

"The link is magical, so it should work outside too. I might even be able to show you what I see, I think. Oh, I was really pleased that I was getting a lot of seed to make strong trees, why are you asking?" she continued, and he realized that if his theory was correct she might not even have a concept of sexual pleasure.

"Are there things that you can do that make you feel very, very good? Like drinking from the fountain or laying in the sun, I don't know. Did what we did make you feel like that? For humans, what we did is used to reproduce, but it also feels very good. I wondered if it was the same for you. Come closer, I want to take a look at you," he explained.

She looked troubled, like she was thinking very hard about something she didn't understand. John looked at her pussy, no longer covered by the flower that was there initially, and saw that he was right. She had no clitoris, her pussy was a simple slit from which some sap was seeping. For her species fucking was just a way to transfer seeds, nothing more.

"We do this for the seed, right? To grow trees. It's different for you? If it makes you feel good, do you want to do it again? I don't need more seeds right now, but we could keep them for later," she offered.

It was like fucking a robot: she was happy to do it because it had a use and made him feel good, but she had no pleasure of her own in the process. John was curious, could he modify her body to make her feel pleasure during sex? Could he survive her if he did so? But there were some things he wanted to do first, long, boring, but useful things.

He opened his inventory and laid on the ground the few items he gathered previously that he hadn't had the time to inspect. Doing this, he decided to put his 5 points in Wisdom, both for the mana regen and to avoid stupid decisions in the future.

He first took a look at the shield: it was round and curved, like a wooden version of Captain America's shield, with a tree engraved on the center.

Wood Rampart: special item.
This shield made of enchanted wood can block both physical and magical attacks (provided you actually block them with it).
+70 armor (directional)
Magic resistant: the shield will resist spells affecting it.
Lightweight: this shield is lighter than a metal shield of similar dimensions.
Forest bounty: once a day this shield can be filled with a nourishing liquid if laid upside down on the ground.

It could be useful, and John surely would set an equipment build with it before farming next time. He then decided to look at the bottle of yellow liquid.

Potion of Courage: consumable
This potion distilled from sap and herbs of the forest makes whoever drinks it more courageous for a few hours.
Immune to fear 2 hours
+20% to social interactions 2 hours
+5 LIB 2 hours
-5 WIS 2 hours
-2 END for 4 hours once the effects wear off.

The description looked suspicious and removing the cork revealed a strong smell of ****. Fear wasn't an issue with Gamer's Spirit, and he didn't need the other bonus, so he would probably try to sell it on the Abyss Auction website.

He looked closer at the amber he got from the tree creatures.

Amber: exotic crafting material.
This organic gem is formed by crystallized sap in the heart of magical trees. It is infused with Life and Nature energy and can be used in Alchemy or as an ornament.
+2mp/ minute regen on items (might need more than one gem and doesn't stack perfectly with other items with the same modifier)
Used in the creation of some healing items.
Can be used to extract Life and Nature Essence via Alchemy. 1/10 Essence per 200 amber gems.

"Master, you have hearts?" asked Sylvia. John looked confused and then realized she was talking about the gems.

"You mean these?" he verified.

"Yes, those are wood hearts. If we used some of them on some key trees, the forest would grow harmoniously. In the glade most of it was in Father, all was centered around him. If I use seven to form a circle around the fountain, the life energy will flow perfectly," she explained.

John considered how many of the things he had, and seven seemed a good investment to advance two projects. He gave them to her, and touching them was as close to physical pleasure as he had seen from her. She thanked him profusely and ran to some small trees that had begun to grow (merely twigs at this stage, but still impressive after only a few hours).

The night would fall in a few minutes, and John wanted to advance in his quest. He still noticed that her score had changed to -80 rp (+50) from giving her the gems, she was apparently easy to please, but the fact that using sex to bring her to his side wouldn't be an option was worrying because he had a bunch of skills that would have helped with that.

"Sylvia, I will meditate in the fountain for a little while, so please do not touch me or talk to me during that time, as it would break my concentration," he told her as she approached to reach a small tree on the opposite side. She nodded in agreement.

John climbed into the fountain; he could have sat on the side where it was shallower, but he wanted to be under the dripping Life water coming from the orb. He began floating in the water on his back and moved towards the center. He looked like a boat, with his dick raised as a mast in the center. Once in position he closed his eyes and used Meditation. He worried if he could do so and continue floating, but it seemed to work perfectly. Even the droplets of water falling on him and sometimes on his dick weren't breaking the skill. For about an hour, he focused on Life, on his hp bar, on Biomancy, on Augment Body and on the piece of Amber he had put on his chest before floating in the water.

He opened his eyes and stopped floating on his back, both making sure of not letting the piece of amber fall into the pool and not to sink himself.

The message he was waiting for was here.

Augment/Reduce body lvl3 becomes:
Alter body lvl4 (life infused) 15mp
You can increase or decrease size or characteristics of the target body parts in increments of 8%. Up to 5 positive or negative charges.
Due to overcharge you can also attribute special modifiers on the body parts to alter their functions and properties.
You cannot have both positive and negative charges on the same body parts, but you can add a beneficial modifier to a negative charge and a detrimental one to a positive charge.
Increases in skill potency are retroactive and affect previous uses.
Due to the skill being life infused, it gains a secondary function: you can use it to heal 8% of the targets hp or cure small afflictions, but there is a limit of 5 uses of the healing spell on a target until its health becomes full again to reset the counter. The count on healing charges is separate from the one for alterations.

Jackpot! He could see that his dick had grown a bit and that his body felt slightly more toned. John asked himself if he should add another charge on his dick, but the prospect of it being too big due to a crit wasn't a problem anymore, he could always remove a charge if he didn't like the results.

Alter body crit!

John had an idea that Gaia always seemed to give him a leg up when he did perverted things. He looked at the results: he was a bit above 9 inches of hard dick. It was big but not big enough to warrant making it smaller. The soft skin modifier he had used had been doubled too, and he guessed the various girls in his life would have trouble letting go of his silk skinned rod in the future.

He could only see this due to the light of the orb above his head, as the night had fallen and the moon was only a small crescent tonight in his kingdom, not enough to shed any light.

Sylvia had made herself another patch of the thick moss and was sleeping on it. Considering she was feeding from water and sunlight, her night autonomy might be limited, or she was just tired (or bored).

John moved away from the fountain. First, he got to the Castle and returned to his own room, and after checking that his mom was still in her room with her door locked, he returned to his kingdom. Probably thanks to his Unlock skill, there was now a padlock indicator on every lock he focused on, and it was open or closed and red or black. The red ones meant he couldn't unlock them, like the high security lock on the front door.

He came back to his realm and tried to find the darkest place, which ended up being behind his Castle, opposite to the door and out of view from the fountain and Lightning Stones. He had completed the first part of his quest and was at two out of three for the second part. He could do this!

He decided to give himself an edge and not do it naked like he did with the Life Essence. He put his armor on and put the hood up, before sitting down and using Stealth, becoming invisible in the shadows. After that he began to use Meditation still focusing on Stealth, darkness, discretion. Just like the first time, he probably overshot his hour of meditation. It seemed like his time perception was still tied to the real world and that when he thought one hour had happened it was in fact 1 hour and 20 minutes.

A few messages were waiting for him when he opened his eyes. Stealth had risen to lvl 2, he unlocked overcharge for it, he gained Darkness infused for it, he had completed his quest...

Stealth lvl2 (Darkness infused) passive/50 mp.
You gain a greater bonus to hiding when using disguises, shadows or camouflage.
You can make shadows you could hide in darker by focusing on it for as long as you retain your focus.
Due to overcharge, you can make people less likely to notice you even when perfectly visible.
Due to Darkness infused, you gain an extra 20% bonus when using shadows to hide.
Due to Darkness infused, you can now see perfectly in the dark.
Due to Darkness infused, you can use Shadow step to transfer yourself to another dark hiding spot in line of sight for 50mp.

Not really mana efficient, but it could save his life if used right; the overcharged bit was even more useful if he could make people not pay attention to him.