The core inside the tree gave him the feeling of a luminescent, sparkling radiance, as if the connection of all those cores in the other trees tied back to it, causing it to grow stronger.
How fascinating.
What if he tried to connect Bunbun's core to it? Would it take? Or would it be rejected?
"Bunbun," Alec called, and the bunny hopped to him, looking at him in askance.
Alec closed his eyes and felt around for the core, drawing out a bit of the tree's core and connecting it to Bunbun's core.
However, the tendril from the tree resisted with all its might, and the bond took on a startled hum, as if it knew what Alec planned on doing.
No matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't stick, as if they were fundamentally different.
When he thought about it, that made sense. After all, it wasn't like they were the same species. Where trees had much in common, that allowed them to 'communicate' in a sense, but whether it be structurally or sentience wise, the bunny and the trees were too far apart.
Then, Alec wondered if he could connect these trees to Javor at the Neil Clan's lakeside.
Alec reached into himself, and… the only way he could describe it was tying the two bonds together.
It was different than when the various trees came under a single tree. Instead, this was more of a partnership.
The moment the two bonds were tied, it felt as if a supernova went off in his mind, causing him to lose his balance.
He was disorientated, and his sense of balance was shot.
Alec hurriedly sat down as he examined his body.
As the two Awakened trees joined, the magic in his body abruptly entered the bonds, causing his body's magic output to plunge into the negatives.
Alec hurriedly started meditating before his body started reacting to the magic drain. There were instances of people going into comas when their body's magical reserves dropped below zero, forcing them into a stasis state as they recovered their magic.
This was currently unacceptable in his circumstances, where he was in the middle of uncharted territory with no way to defend his body should a monster come by whilst he was out of it and decide he made a tasty snack.
Alec fought against it with all his strength. He refused to be like those Main Characters, passing out left and right, thank you very much. He always thought they seemed more like damsels in distress rather than a Main Character when they did that.
Alec had no intention of going down that dark path as well.
Thankfully, his magic started recovering. Slowly, it trickled back into his body.
When he scanned the state of his body, Alec was shocked to realize that his magical capacity, that had managed to hit the late initiate stage, was back to early initiate stage.
This discovery instantly frustrated him. How long would it take for him to go back to the late initiate stage? It had already taken him so long to get there, but now all his hard work was undone.
Wait… was this why he was lagging behind the others so much?! Suddenly, it all made sense! He had been going around like an idiot, Awakening anything and everything. So, if each bit of Awakening took a bit of his magical capacity, then…
He felt a headache incoming at his stupidity. He should have noticed that something was off when every bit of progress he made seemed like a struggle!
Alec felt like slapping himself. How could he have had such a lapse in judgement? Everything was so clear in hindsight!
Alec choked down the groan that wanted to leave his mouth. Instead, he reluctantly started doing the elemental magic technique that he was already more than familiar with.
To his surprise, the magic seemed to flow into his body quicker than before. Was it because his body already had a base in it?
Hopefully that was the case because Alec had no intention of stopping his Awakening trial and errors. He would, however, be more careful about the types of experiments he carried out without a thought.
It would not be amiss to procure a notebook of some sort to record down his experiments. Of course, it would have to be in code.
As Alec did the moves for the elemental magic technique, he prodded the newly joined bond that he could sense from the main tree and Javor.
The two were tentatively prodding each other. Somehow, the sheer curiosity and puzzlement he could feel from the bonds made him smile. They felt like innocent newborns that didn't know anything yet.
When they started exchanging information, Alec left them alone.
He stopped, realizing that his magic capacity was back to the late initiate stage. In fact, it was even a little more than before. There was only a paper-thin difference between him and the transitional stage now.
In spite of himself, Alec couldn't help but grow excited. For some reason, he felt like his magic ran smoother now. Did magic even have impurities? Could it be that his magic was purer now?
Running high on elation, a random thought popped into his mind that made him recoil in horror.
They had seven days in The Great Expanse. That was a short period of time for them to put their survival skills to the test, as well as get a start on ideas about what to do with their magic, but Alec didn't have anything to show!
Not to mention, in general, Awakening Magitype was perceived as people who were able to 'open and close' things.
Alec felt like he was about to scream at someone in frustration. Did this mean that he had to go down the route where he said, 'he wasn't able to come up with anything'?
That just rankled him wrong. He felt it down in his very bones. However, he couldn't exactly just come out and say that he already Awakened Bunbun and other similar trees.
It wasn't like he didn't trust them, but that would expose that he had already been working on his Magitype for some time without any 'guidance'.
Alec frowned.
He still had the majority of six days to think of a solution, so he would put that off for a while.
It was at this moment when Alec's head snapped up, the incoming alerts ringing through the various bonds so loudly he would have to be dead not to realize.
Immediately, Alec scaled the tree, bringing Bunbun and the backpack with him. Luckily, he had ample time for him to react, otherwise he would have been caught in a rather sticky situation.
Thankfully, he had put out the fire earlier on due to his caution at any smells attracting monsters or larger animals.
The monster that came through the clearing and into their little batch of trees was a large, hulking thing. It was larger than Alec by far, and Bunbun in comparison to it, looked like a mouse compared to an elephant.
With long, curved tusks, the monster that emerged was a truly horrendous thing. It was a shade of brown, for camouflaging effectively, and had a body reminiscent of a wolf mixed with horse's hooves. Its fur spiked everywhere threateningly, and when it brushed against the tree, a few pieces of bark were shaved off.
Alec held his breath. He had seen various pictures in books, but nothing would have prepared him for the aura that the beast gave off.
There was something subtly dominating mixed into the monster's aura that made one feel like they were the prey under a predator's gaze.
Bunbun, surprisingly, was not scared at all. Instead, he glared with his little eyes at the monster that was making his owner feel afraid.
Then, Alec's heart almost stopped beating as Bunbun squirmed out of his grasp and launched himself at the hulking beast of a monster.
Top 350: 1 bonus chapter
Top 250: 2 bonus chapters
Top 150: 3 bonus chapters
Will check on Sunday for the vote rankings. Do vote for me xD