Tom’s mind interacted with the wood in his hands. The nature of the two different sections was clear to him, and he could see the paths that would let him alter both.


    For almost a minute, he sat still, feeling out the exact quality of the changes that Baptiste had made. Using every aspect of the skill he could, he probed the sections and zeroed in on the underlying biological cells. It was, he discovered, exactly like what Baptiste had suggested it to be. It was the magic of the find-and-replace type rather than the transformation method that his skill naturally tended toward. The previous ironwood cells had been switched to becoming pine en masse. Even the leftover out of cell detritus had been replaced completely.


    To his senses, half the wood had always been pine. This was not a cheap alteration to make the ironwood look like pine. It had been transformed into the softer wood at a fundamental and absolute level.


    “Fascinating,” Tom muttered as he focused his attention on where the two woods merged, as well as at the sharp transition between the two cell types. Then he cycled through what his own ability could do. It couldn’t transform, but it could grow new cells, could impact the structure of dead cells and alter the existing ones. It wasn’t clear if he could do what Baptiste had asked him to, but he searched for a workaround anyway.


    Another five minutes passed as he explored the various available options before finally settling on the type of adjustment he needed. While Baptiste’s talent had altered the nature of the cells, that was not what he could do. He could grow new cells, alter the expression of existing cells, and influence the pattern of the constructed fibres, but that was the extent of his abilities. He couldn’t just make a wish and then suddenly have an entire section change to pine. Tom set about duplicating the pot plant’s efforts with his inferior tool set. Tough linked lines of fibres ruptured, an occasional cell burst, and new cells that had fewer links with its neighbours were created. All of those changes acted on a fundamental level to make the wood softer.


    The process was slow and after five minutes of effort that pushed his already stressed skill tolerance to the point of breaking, Tom stopped. A further ten percent of the lump of wood had been converted. For a proof of concept and first attempt, it was probably enough.


    Wordlessly, he passed it to Baptiste.


    The pot plant examined it curiously. “It’s not the same,” he finally said. A long, nasty thorn appeared on one of the vines; it plunged first into Baptiste’s section, then into Tom’s. Both times, the piercing action looked effortless courtesy of his friend’s strength and the softness of the wood. “Not quite as soft as what I created, but it was pretty close.”


    Tom shrugged, pleased to having had mostly succeeded.


    “Mind you, you’ve only changed a small amount, and the transformation appeared challenging.”


    “My skill doesn’t work like yours,” Tom told him animatedly. “The further I have to shift the nature of the wood, the harder it is.”


    “Ah,” he exclaimed. “So if it was only a tiny change, like enhancing it to be slightly harder, then you could do something like that easily. Is that right?”


    “Yes. Well… kind of. I haven’t tested the efficiency.”


    “Great, let’s practice.” The wood they had been using disappeared, and a new one appeared in its place. Together, they started playing with Tom’s ability to improve the wood. Providing he wasn’t trying to create a significant change, his skill proved to be surprisingly efficient. It had also grew easier to use, and he suspected he knew why.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    With a thought, he imagined seeing the skill on the screen in front of him.


    Skill: Living Wood Growth – Tier 2 – Level 4


    You are able to make wooden plants grow to your desired specifications.


    Threshold Bonus 4: Adjusting properties of the wood costs 70% less mana.


    Sideways Evolution 1. You’re able to find a seed of life even in wood that others would assume is long dead.


    The text had instantly appeared on a patch of the table free of obscuring weapons. Baptiste and anyone else in the line of sight could see it, but Tom didn’t care to keep this secret, and the profile he had entered already had all his sensitive information. There were no secrets to be had, but the evidence that this place worked like April’s trial was a godsend.


    He wanted to jump up and down in excitement, but stopped himself. While he used the ritual status screen in the isolation room regularly, it only provided two slots a day or sixteen per week. That was fine currently, but when the number of skills he possessed was going to increase, being limited like that would stop him from keeping regular track of his changes.


    Then another thought occurred to him: what happened if, instead of this place being like April’s trial, it was actually better? What if the trial allowed him to skip the status screen restriction? He focused on a different thought. He wanted to see his true status sheet.


    Text scrolled on the table, starting with his missing class and then attributes.


    Panic flared in him, and he killed the scrolling information.


    His heart was thumping.


    That had almost been a mistake. A costly, pointless error, because it had displayed his own painfully constructed status sheet, not the clean system one. The ridiculousness of him nearly printing out his whole sheet shocked Tom’s sense of self confidence. He wasn’t supposed to make those types of mistakes, and he felt nauseous just imagining the damage it could have caused.


    He hadn’t thought to pre-block the title section.


    Baptiste had been sitting next to him, and he had almost displayed all of his titles. The unredeemable injury it would have done to him and any other pre-system child watching could have been immense. Tom felt sick thinking about it, and it wasn’t like he was sure the system would have prevented the mistake.


    DEUS would, if she could; but the other GODs had a say in the rules of this place, and who knows what they had collectively decided was appropriate.


    Idiot, he berated himself internally. He couldn’t believe he had made that mistake.


    “What was that?” Baptiste asked suspiciously, probably picking up both on his actions and some of Tom’s panic.


    “It was my handcrafted status sheet,” the table had returned to showing only his Living Wood skill. Given Baptiste had been paying attention ,Tom was glad his instincts had kicked in as quickly as they had.


    “Why would you do that?”


    The first couple of responses he thought up were aggressively stopped by Social Silence. He coughed and spluttered as he tried to regain control over his vocal cords.


    “Are you sick or something?”


    “No, my throat was irritated.”


    The plant’s body language reflected confusion and suspicion.


    “It’s a human thing.” He volunteered.


    “Sounds annoying.” Baptiste stated in a clipped tone, clearly not fully convinced.


    Tom smiled at that description. Social Silence was, by design, both a blessing and a curse, so at times that second part of its nature made it annoying. However, overall, it was designed to help him and benefit him, and it did just that.


    “It can be very frustrating,” Tom agreed. “As for your question... I find quantifying my advancements helps me maintain my motivation. That might also be a human thing.” He smiled wryly.


    “No, it sounds pretty cool, actually. Not something pre-system people usually do, but I might talk to my elders to determine if it could help me. Now,” a vine extended to tap the piece of wood Tom held. “No more distractions. Let’s see you make it resistant to fire.”


    There were no more breakthroughs in the session, but it was fun. Once Tom started to grow tired, he begged off and took control of his cocooned body. Within seconds, he was fast asleep.