The answer is so obvious that I want to face palm. If I had a face. Or a palm.


    The whole time we were focused on the idea of water moving, we weren’t focusing on the water in front of us. We had an image of some random pond having some ripples flow through it. While it was a rather peaceful image, it wouldn’t have worked since it didn’t involve the bowl, the water, or the Berry Juice impurities in the water.


    I was so excited that I almost woke Lilly up right then to tell her how to do it, but then I remembered how exhausted she was the day before and let her sleep. She should be waking up in an hour or two on her own any ways, so I could wait.


    One of the interesting aspects of having an elemental skill was that I could now sense that element. When I was finally calm enough to notice it, I could sense the moisture content of the ground around me, the water in the dirt below me, and even more details of how much water was within myself. It was an odd feeling, but it would only manifest if I paid attention to it.


    As I waited for Lilly to wake up on her own, I decided to switch the Mana Berry juice out for regular water. I think it was easier for me to use the Mana Berry juice instead of water since it was already composed of my mana, so it should be easier for Lilly to flood the water with her own mana and manipulate it that way.


    I used the Water Magic skill for the first tome to pull all the contents of the bowl out and threw it to the side. I then used the sensing portion of the skill to pull pure water out of the ground and trickle it into the bowl. It came out very muddy, so I did a little finagling to get it to be purer.


    I took the stream I was making and thinned it out to as much as I could manage while still being in control of it and felt the water become more pure as less particles were able to stick to the stream. I watched as a small pile of sand and dirt formed under where the stream was thinnest. I then funneled the pure water back into the bowl and saw how clear it was. I strained my vision as much as I could to zoom in and get as close a look as I could. It gave me a headache, but I couldn’t see anything besides water in my bowl. I was happy with my work, and had good timing too, as Lilly was just waking up as I finished.


    “Rise and shine! I made a breakthrough!” I helped her get down as fast as I could without hurting her. I could feel some alarm through the Telepathy bond, but it was quickly replaced when she saw the small orb of water I had floating in front of her.


    “You did it! Tell me how!”


    I spent the next few minutes recounting everything I could without giving away that I was reincarnated from another planet. She had a few questions here and there, but I could tell she mostly just wanted me to cut to the chase.


    “Finally, the last issue I could think of was the way we were thinking about it. I watched your mind while you made your attempts yesterday, and I think the reason it wasn’t working was because we were imagining a body of water that wasn’t the one we were working on. You have to focus on the water in front of you!”


    Lilly slapped her hand against her forehead and I could only laugh as I had the same mental reaction. After she saw the orb of water floating, I had put it back in the bowl for her to try. She sat in front of the bowl and I brought down a bunch of Mana Berries for her to eat while she practiced.


    I was tempted to absorb a few myself, but when I checked my resource pool, I was already back up to 85%, despite using well over 75% of my mana last night. I guess that’s the benefit of being a tree. Extreme resource regeneration.


    I haven’t upgraded Photosynthesis in quite a while. Maybe I should make that my level 35 upgrade? Meh. I have plenty of time to get to that point. If I can’t think of anything better to use the level on, I’ll pick that for sure. Although, upgrading Rapid Growth to bump my growth rate up would be nice too. Hmmmm. Decisions decisions.


    While I was pondering my next level upgrade, Lilly was busy getting the Water Magic skill. She had to refill her resource pool a couple times by eating a few Mana Berries, but she got it after the third try. I could feel her excitement bubbling over when she got the notification.


    “I GOT IT! I REALLY GOT IT! Thank you, thank you so much, Willow! I can’t believe I wasted all that time when the answer was literally right in front of me! I finally freaking got it!”


    She was basically bouncing in her seat until she got up and started actually bouncing. Well, jumping for joy, but same thing, really.


    I sent waves of joy and pride her way, and she sent them back twofold. We had quite the celebration, and nothing could ruin this moment for us.


    .....


    I just had to say that, didn’t I? Well, at least this time it was a mild interruption. And one that I recognize.


    “Heads up, there’s a couple of Goblins coming our way.” I sent to Lilly. She immediately tensed, ready to fight them off if needed. I could tell she wanted to just go back to practicing Water Magic though. I felt the same, so I decided it was time I reveal myself to Club too, instead of just Dagger.


    “Hello little Goblins. I have a friend with me right now, so I will give you a warning. If either of you attempts to harm her, you will be destroyed. That being said, feel free to enjoy my shade.”


    Both Club and Dagger were startled by my mental message. Dagger got over it faster than Club did though, since I had spoken to him before. Club however didn’t seem to take my threats seriously, and he heaved his weapon in a threatening manner. I snatched it out of his hands before he could actually do anything with it though.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    “This is your one and only chance. Do. Not. Hurt. Her.” I sent feeling of protection and violence at the aggressive Goblin, and he soon stomped off.


    Dagger on the other hand approached Lilly. She seemed scared of him, but I reassured her that he was at least somewhat friendly. When he made it to her, he actually extended a hand for a greeting. I saw he was missing a couple of fingers that were there last time, and felt bad for the little guy.


    Lilly saw his stubby hands and accepted it at my encouragement. I told her how I had communicated with this specific Goblin before, and that he was a decent fellow, albeit a bit slow in the head.


    Lilly started communicating using only thoughts, since she was scared that any sudden noises would set Dagger off.


    “If it were anyone else trying to get me to shake hands with a Goblin, I would have thought they went senile. But I guess you were right; this one is at least not aggressive. Can’t say much for the other one though. He looks ready to murder me the first chance he gets.”


    I laughed and agreed. “Yeah, Club is a feisty one. He’s also pretty bossy, and I’m sure he hated that I took his weapon away from him. I promise nothing will happen to you though. I already told them both they would die before getting to lay a harmful finger on you.”


    “I never doubted you, big guy. That being said, why let them live? You could easily kill them where they stand, so why?”


    “They haven’t caused me any direct harm, so I see no reason to kill needlessly. Besides, Dagger over here – the one you shook hands with – is at least a decent fellow. Like you said, can’t say much for his brother though.”


    After conferring with Lilly for a moment, I added Dagger to the connection, making sure I acted as a relay between the two rather since I wasn’t sure I could even connect them directly. That was way beyond my means, and I doubted Lilly would want to be connected to a Goblin anyways.


    “So, what brings you to my neck of the woods? Y’all miss me already?” I asked Dagger.


    The little guy raised an eyebrow in a strangely human way and asked, “Why miss? You tree. You no go anywhere.”


    Lilly stifled a laugh. “He has a point. It’s not like you can exactly move.” I just sent an image of rolling eyes to her.


    “Here I was thinking we were friends. What happened to your hand?” I was tempted to offer him some Health Berries, but the way Lilly reacted to them before made me more cautious with offering them to any random sentient being needing a bit of help.


    “Fox. Steal my rabbit kill, I fight back, he eat fingers. I mad, but can no kill fox. Fox get away with rabbit.” The poor little guy looked so sad at that.


    “Here, eat these. They should help you feel better.” I gave him two Health Berries. I just couldn’t stand to see him in pain when I could do something about it. He hadn’t done anything wrong to me, and he quite frankly looked to pathetic to even try getting food a different way. At least now, he could possibly use his namesake weapon to try and get another rabbit for lunch.


    “Thanks Tree!” Dagger popped one of the berries in his mouth and his fingers stopped bleeding. All three of us stared in awe as the fingers slowly grew back. Dagger did scratch at it a bit, and I could feel how itchy it was through our connection, but he mostly left it to grow as he ate the second one.


    Dagger used his newly healed hand to grab his weapon and do a few flips before tucking it back in his waistband. He seemed rather happy with the result, and I felt his conviction to get another rabbit before he and his brother set back out traveling to wherever they go.


    “Happy hunting, friend!” I sent him as he wordlessly left to get some food. If Lilly was lucky, she might have something other than Resource Berries to eat for the first time in a while.


    I looked around for Club but gave up after doing a quick sweep of my little circle. I guess he stormed off and left Dagger behind. That was disappointing. I still had his weapon, after all. I asked Lilly if she saw him outside of my field of view, but she denied it, so I put him out of my mind.


    Lilly and I went back to practicing using Water Magic, and we actually made some pretty good progress. I was doing considerably better at it than she was, but I tried to hide how well I was doing, and how easy it came to me.


    The hardest part of using the spell was picturing what I wanted the water to do. When I had a good enough picture of it, it became a lot easier. It was also easier to use it on pure water. The water straight from the ground was easier for me to use, since I could pretty much just flood it with mana, but I had to purify some for Lilly to use on her own.


    She was thankful, even more so when I filled a small wooden tub with water for her to properly clean herself with. She was also able to use the water in the tub for practice, so it wasn’t a one and done kind of thing.


    We were practicing for around 3 hours when Dagger finally came back with his conquest. The little rabbit he was holding had a clean cut through its neck with minimal other wounds on its body. I was impressed how cleanly he killed it.


    After Dagger cleaned his kill, he looked around for Club. He seemed confused that his brother wasn’t there, but he wasn’t worried at all. Apparently, it was common for Club to have his fits of bratty behavior and refuse to show his face for a few days. I’m sure it was because of me laying down the law that he was upset, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.


    Since Club wasn’t there to share the food, Dagger offered Lilly part of the rabbit, which I could tell she wanted to take it, but she refused, since she didn’t have a way to cook it. Dagger just shrugged and scarfed as much of it down as he could, which was a surprising amount for such a little guy. There was only two ribs of meat left when he gave up and sat back for a nap.


    Lilly and I practiced our magic for the next few hours while Dagger slept. We were starting to get pretty good too. Lilly was even able to pull more water out from the ground all on her own. It turns out that sensing water was easier for me to do than her. I guess I’m just more in tune with the ground than she is.


    One of the bigger uses of Water Magic was using it as a water whip. It was harder for Lilly since she didn''t have a clear mental picture for how to do it, but it was a lot easier when I showed her. First, I made a long rope of water, about 10 feet long. then I targeted one of my vines and used the water whip the same way that I used the vine for the vine whip. It was basically a more expensive vine whip for me since vine whips only cost mental effort. It was still good practice though.


    Lilly was getting better at the water whips as the morning dragged on to late afternoon, but still nowhere near as good as I was. I did have the advantage of already knowing how to do it and I was even able to do multiple at once. I limited myself to only 5 whips at a time so she didn''t feel as bad. I made sure she was topped off on mana by providing the occasional Mana Berry. She had plenty of time to practice, so I wasn''t worried if she decided to leave me soon.


    My favorite part of using Water Magic was that I can now create water balls or water bullets. This finally gave me a ranged attack that didn''t rely on my physical body. I still had my extra-long vine that I could use for emergencies, but at least that wasn’t my only option.


    The rest of the day was pretty calm. Dagger woke from his nap and watched for a while before getting up and leaving. I assumed he was going to get his brother, but I just sent him a general farewell which he reciprocated. I hoped the little guy would be okay out there.


    When the sun went down, Lilly called it a day. She was getting pretty mentally exhausted, but I was still doing fine. I was tempted to keep practicing through the night, but decided against it. I had some other plans for how to spend my night. It would be one hell of a surprise for Lilly to see when she woke up.