Chapter 8 Results of Training

(1 month later)

A man stands still in the middle of a wooden room. Slightly over 6ft tall with broad shoulders and sandy blonde hair, he may stand out in a general store, or you may notice him and move on. His outfit, though… would probably make you question his sanity.

Completely covering the man's frame are vines and branches crisscrossing in the rough shape of medieval armor. It looks like a florist decided their skills could transfer to blacksmithing.

The man is obviously James, who stands entirely still with his eyes closed to the point that one could be forgiven for thinking he is a statue in a modern art museum. Suddenly, his face twitches slightly towards the left. Shooting at him from the dark edges of the wooden room is a dense storm of thorns.

Shifting his body to become a smaller target, James flexes a finger, and a thin wooden wall appears from the ground in front of him.

Although thinner than a standard ruler, the wall stands firm against the onslaught of thorns that hit it. None of them could even stick into the other side, only able to bounce off onto the ground. The rest of the thorns not blocked by the wall rocket past James's sides.

Sensing something else coming, he jumps back, barely avoiding a vine as thick as a tree trunk that brushes past his shoulder to slam into the ground cracking the wood.

The vine, as if it has a mind of its own, shoots towards James again. Eyes still closed, James weaves around the vine, gliding across the ground as he ducks, leaps, and dodges its every move.

The rhythm is ruined as another vine shoots from the shadows from the opposite side at James, thinner and glistening with a layer of sap. James begins to frown slightly, carefully avoiding the larger of the two vines, as bits of his wooden armor are torn away by the extreme stickiness of the thinner vine with every lucky hit.

Finally, after circling the room a few times, James is back in the center, and his face scrunches up in slight concentration. The two vines do not hesitate to slam into him, the thinner one wrapping around his waist while the larger one slams into his chest like a battering ram.

However, James's figure remains unfazed. Not even a grunt of pain escapes his lips. As the thicker vine retreats for another swing, it can be seen that James's wooden armor has fused into a solid structure and melded with the floor. Near his chest are slight cracks in the wood that close up in moments, even as the thick vine continues battering every inch of his armor.

After a few minutes of useless hit after hit, the vines withdraw from James, giving him a moment to breathe. Immediately James's armor shifts back into its typical (ish) look. Changing entirely back in time for James to once more dodge as a stump barely misses his arm.

Not even a second later, another stump is launched, and then another until the view in front of James resembles a wall of stumps. Taking a stance once more, James begins to wave his arms around him as the wind in the room begins to howl and swirl to the movements.

The logs initially flying towards his body swerve to his side. Then, they rotate around him until James is standing in the center of a tornado that is hurling logs the size of his torso at a dangerously fast speed.

As if a switch is flipped, the air immediately dissipates, and the logs hover.

Finally, James opens his brown eyes. The once pristine wooden room is covered in splintered wood, thorns are sticking out of the walls, and the floor is cracked in multiple locations. All in all, the room is wrecked.

Not even looking at the damage to the room, James smiles brightly as a small blur latches onto his cheek.

"You did great, Rose. If I want to keep up with you, I will have to step up my training." James chuckles as Rose puffs her chest up in pride and sticks her nose in the air with a giant smile.

"Don't be getting too cocky now. Today was about defense for me, and you know I'm better at attacking than you are." James smirked as he watched the small fairy deflate before crossing her arms and pouting at him.

James simply chuckles and holds his hand out for Rose, which she immediately lands on, regardless of her previous pout. Placing her on his shoulder, James observes the damaged room and holds his hand out before waving slightly.

With the simple gesture, the still floating logs seem to melt into the floor, the thorns blend into the walls, and the cracks meld together. Turning the once war-torn room back into its previously pristine state.

Smiling slightly at the transformation, James thinks back on his efforts in the past month to get so far as he begins walking out of what he has dubbed the "combat room."

Over the month that he had continued his training program, James had made significant progress. Starting with his ability, he had grown the domain of his power by double.

Now able to interact with anything within two meters, James felt confident nothing could defeat him in close combat. He had found that the domain, outside of allowing him to sense and interact with his environment, actually enhanced his reaction time. He knows he would not have been able to dodge Rose's vines if that wasn't the case.

However, it wasn't simply his domain that had grown; it was also his ability to control what was within it. He wasn't at the level of control he once had. Still, he had at least ensured his ability to manipulate wood was at the level where he didn't accidentally light it on fire without wanting to.

Walking out of the combat room, James made his way up a set of stairs with flowers blooming from crevices in the walls set at random intervals. Above him, the ceiling was covered in what looked like glowing green watermelons, one of the benefits of his growth.

Unfortunately, they did not taste like watermelon. James had been severely disappointed when he discovered that.

He could grow food successfully now, though, without the need to depend on Rose, and he found the randomness of what exactly he produced was for the best. He didn't think some plants from Earth were even present in this world. Better that something happened than nothing at all.

At the top of the stairs, James walked into a spacious room reminiscent of a studio apartment. Having been slightly traumatized by his escape attempt from the golem, James had decided to use an open layout design for his new home.

His home had a kitchen, a dining area, and a bedroom, and to the side was an archway hidden by a curtain of vines that he used as a makeshift restroom. Everything was lit up using a variety of glowing plants, and the furniture was all crafted from wood.

The kitchen and bathroom only really worked because he had grown rather good at using wind and fire while training combat moves. Two elements that ensured ventilation would never be much of an issue. In the bathroom, however, he didn't need to do anything. The magic tree he lived in seemed to take care of it somehow, and he had decided not to question it.

As for his bedroom, he used the moss he created accidentally on his first day as cushioning for his bed and a rocking chair.

He thought he had come a long way since that tiny hole in the wall. Sure, his room could have been larger, the tree was truly massive, but he began focusing more on the feel of his home. This led to what he considered his most outstanding achievement and a monument to his increased control.

In the living room was a wall different from all the others. Instead of solid wood, this wall seemed made from glass, and it looked out over the view he had woken up to all those weeks ago. Over the month he had lived in this new world, he had grown to love the view.

The wall was a masterpiece of control and imagination. Taking inspiration from stories he had read as a kid, James had fashioned the wall out of light, air, and water. Using water and air, he created a wall of porous ice. Then, after ensuring it could not melt, he practiced for weeks to create illusions out of light so that his wall could act like a two-sided mirror.

From one side, it would be like the tree was undamaged, and from the other, a view of a world filled with magic and mystery.

Every day he woke up to the light of dawn breaking over the green treetops as creatures of wonder and myth flew through the canopy. Every night he falls asleep seeing the starry sky like he had never seen it before, ironically because he hadn't.

Now, as he stood looking out upon the view he had grown used to, he felt ready to challenge it. He felt prepared to hunt.