I slept until I reached level 13. It was a long sleep, lasting around 2 months or so. I didn’t really pay attention. I was going to sleep until I reached level 15, But I decided to spend the time getting that level experimenting.


    I used Rapid Growth to extend the tip of one of my smaller side branches all the way down to the ground. I named myself Willow in this world, so it was about time I started looking like one.


    I spent the next few weeks drooping multiple off branches to varying distances from off the ground, ranging from dragging a few inches on the dirt to barely halfway down my 10-foot body. The Stamina requirements were insane, but they were all vital to my devised plan.


    By the time I reached level 15’s doorstep, I started to look like a proper Weeping Willow. It took a full 3 months to manage it, but I now had 20 long, drooping vines handing from my higher branches, each having a long line of leaves growing on it, so it doesn’t look baren.


    When I finally got the level 15 notification, a smile crept across my non-existent face.


    Congratulations! You have reached level 15! Please select your level reward from the options below:


    <ol>


    <li>Skill Upgrade</li>


    <li>Choose New Skill</li>


    </ol>


    I focused on the intent of being able to control these vines like I used to be able to control my arms in my human body.


    New skill [Vine Control(C)] has been obtained!


    Exactly what I had in mind. I pulled up the description to see what it does.


    Vine Control (C): Active. User spends Stamina and concentration to control their hanging vines. User can use the vines to wrap around a target or use the vines like whips to cause major slashing damage.


    Perfection! Now I wouldn’t be so defenseless against those stupid ants. Or, yah know, anything else that might try to attack me.


    For now, I only saw ants passing by at the edge of my vision, but there was a moment a few weeks ago where I thought I saw the shadow of something much larger and more humanoid walking by. I was too focused on growing my vines out at the moment to really notice, but I was positive there was something out there.


    I spent the next few nights practicing my Vine Control skill to get better at it. I made sure to keep still during the day, just in case there really was someone out there watching me. I got to the point of being so efficient at the skill that it barely cost any Stamina to move my vines at all.


    Using the skill felt extremely natural to me. It really was just like swinging my arms in my old body. The finer motions still needed a bit of practice, which I was getting, but that would take time before I was able to do anything fancy.


    On the fifth night of being level 15, I decided to start aiming at the ants that had long been my enemy. The Vine Control skill said I could use my vines like whips, so that is what I aimed to do.


    I coiled one of my longer hanging vines into a nice loop. I aimed at a nearby line of ants and flung the vine in their direction. Just as the vine was about to make contact with the ants, I yanked the vine back, which resulted in the vine slamming into the ants with extreme force. I got a few notifications after that.


    Leaf Cutter Ant (x8) has been slain. Exp has been awarded.


    Achievement has been earned: First Blood. You have killed for the first time. Will it be your last?


    I pulled my status up and saw that I had been awarded 8 Exp. I also saw I was wrong about the ants being Carpenter Ants as well. Each Leaf Cutter Ant brought me up by 1 whole Experience point. It wasn’t much, but it was some sweet revenge.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I spent the next few days killing lines of ants that passed by. It turns out Leaf Cutters weren’t the only ones in town. There were also Fire Ants, Black Ants, Crazy Yellow Ants, and a few more whose names I have forgotten. Point is, there were a lot of freaking Ants. But not for much longer.


    I had zoomed through level 15 and most of 16 in just under a week. At the end of the week, I got another Achievement.


    Achievement has been earned: Ant Slayer. You have killed at least 10 of 10 different species of ants. Ants now hate you and will actively attack you on sight.


    Oh snap. Looks like the beef is now mutual.


    Immediately after I got that notification, I was witness to a wave of ants start approaching me from all sides. I was honestly a little disturbed by just how many ants were around me.


    But this did give me a good chance to gather some Exp. Each ant on its own was only worth 1 Exp. But when I was surrounded by hundreds of ants, I could level crazy fast.


    It took the ants a few minutes to reach me form the edge of my bubble, since they were so small and slow. That gave me just enough time to steel my resolve to make it through this unscathed.


    I put aside my hesitation of being seen moving by any others, and I now attacked any and all ants on sight. I swung my longer vines around me in as wide of an arch as I could reach, which wasn’t far, unfortunately. I need to use Rapid Growth to make them all even longer when this is done.


    Ants were dying by the dozens, and I had yet to take any actual damage. My vines were looking a bit rough at the tips, but they were holding strong, and healing as my Photosynthesis did its thing.


    After the first wave of Ants all died, the second wave started approaching. I call it a wave, but it was much more accurate to call it a stream of ants. It was a slow and steady gathering of Ant as they approached me from all sides.


    As I killed them, I had to keep getting distracted by the notifications I was getting at the back of my mind. At some point, I reached level 17, quickly followed by levels 18 and 19 as well. The notifications slowed as the waves of ants slowed.


    From start to finish, it took over 4 hours of slow but steady ant slaughter for things to finally calm down. I stopped checking my notifications after the second hour of the attack, so I wasn’t sure how many Ants died during our long and arduous battle. All I knew was that my vines were sore and that only a couple hundred Ants had actually managed to get close enough to me to cause damage.


    The first few Ants to make it to me were a group of actual Carpenter Ants. They made the mistake of stopping at the base of my trunk to try and chew their way through me but were stopped by my Iron Bark skill. If I didn’t know exactly where to look and have essentially telescopic vision in my Domain of Awareness, I wouldn’t even be able to tell that they were even there.


    The second group of Ants to cause me damage were smart enough to try climbing the vines after I had just finished an attack. They latched on to the leaves at the end of the vines and when I coiled back up to attack again, they had fallen off, landing on one of my less mobile main branches, of which I now had 3.


    This group was the group that did the most damage to me. They quickly spread out and started chomping on my leaves as I attacked the main group. Thankfully for me though, I was able to use my shorter vines that I couldn’t attack on the ground with to get to the Leaf Cutter Ants that were cause me so much trouble. They still had enough time to completely strip around 10 or so different leaves down to the stem before I was able to put a stop to their nefarious activities.


    The Leaf Cutter Ant attacks on my main branches were enough to cause me to become extremely distracted, which was enough to allow for a whole army of Fire Ants to climb my trunk.


    Unfortunately for me, these Fire Ants were able to spit small amounts of fire. But also fortunately for me, my Iron Bark skill made me ‘mildly fire resistant’, which was barely enough to put off the fire attacks from the Fire Ants. They still caused a good bit of damage though. I could feel some of my sap bubbling out as it partially boiled. That was pretty painful.


    When I finally finished culling the Leaf Cutter Ant squad in my canopy, I was able to switch focus to the rest of the assail-Ants. I chuckled at my joke but reprimanded myself for getting distracted during a time of crisis.


    I wrapped my body tightly with a few of my longer vines and gave my trunk a quick scrub. This let me kill off around 200 Fire Ants along with a whole bunch of other Ants that had gotten close enough to me to climb my body.


    After a few more hours of attacking the ground, the stream of Ants slowed to practically a crawl. I had gone from getting around 200 Ants an hour all the way down to a trickle of 10 Ants in the last hour.


    When it had been 30 minutes since I last spotted any Ants, I decided to finally check my notifications. And oh boy, I had a lot to go through.