4 - Evolution

I blinked to clear my vision, but the words remained.

New Village established!

Scanning...

“Scanning?” Barry asked. “What does—”

Scan complete.

Village already exists.

Upgrading existing village: Tropica...

I shook my head, but before I could turn to Barry and ask him what the frack was going on, the System spoke up again.

[Tropica has evolved and become a Tier 2 village!]

“Barry...?” I asked, slowly spinning his way.

“Yes, Fischer?”

“Any idea what all that means, mate?”

He blinked at me. “No clue.”

“Yeah, me neither...”

Now that the System was done having its way with my field of view, I gazed out at the surrounding world.

We stood in a giant crossroads, atop smooth stones and surrounded by buildings. Most of the constructions were only a single story, much like the homes and shops that made up Tropica. But unlike those structures, these were made by the system. Though built of simple stone, there was a beauty to their uniformity.

Without realizing what I was doing, I wandered toward the closest building. Just like the church, gilding lined its door. Taking a deep breath, I turned the handle and pulled it open. With Barry at my side, I gazed into the newly constructed smithy. Though it was only slightly larger than the above ground one in Tropica, six forges lined its walls. Myriad anvils, trenches, and tools were scattered around the room, positioned perfectly to make use of the space.

I ran a hand over the surface of one of the furnaces, pausing as I furrowed my brows. Something was... wrong.

“You feel it too?” Barry asked, drawing me from my thoughts.

“Yeah... what is it?”

Barry pressed a stone button beside the forge, and unlike the ones within the church, nothing happened. The System’s magicy bullshit wasn’t working.

“It’s incomplete,” he replied, pursing his lips.

I reached out with my awareness in search of the power that I expected to find lacing everything around us and my eyes went wide. “It doesn’t have any chi...”

Since my last breakthrough, I had been able to sense the faint lines of essence running through each brick making up the church. They were particularly strong around the crafters’ workshops there, but this smithy had none.

We strode around the village quickly, finding the buildings that we’d poured the coins’ power into. There were crafting spaces for every vocation imaginable. An ampitheater large enough to seat hundreds. The prison Barry had insisted on, each of its cells spacious and lavish. The living quarters were constructed like townhouses from back on earth, and were the only two-story constructions in the village. I wondered if I’d subconsciously influenced their shape.

Barry and I strode into one of them, and when I tried to turn the shower on, I shook my head. “No fantasyland hot showers? This village sucks, Barry.”

He smirked at me, hearing the joke in my tone. “What ever will we do without hot water? The people will revolt.”

I nodded along. “You’re telling me, mate. They’ll have us strung up and lashed for our crimes against humanity.”

We lapsed into silence as we walked beneath the sea of stars, both lost in our thoughts. When I felt a pulse of power from ahead of us, I picked up my pace, filled with curiosity. I knew what I’d find there, and as we rounded a short wall, I gazed out into the grove. Its chi signature was unmistakable, feeling exactly like the one I’d sucked the essence out of back in the capital city.

The smell of freshly tilled soil sprung up to greet me, its scents reminiscent of a forest after rain. I breathed deep of its life as I strode between rows of dirt, a small smile coming to my face. I let out a slow sigh, feeling reinvigorated by the chi crisscrossing the very earth beneath us.

The sigh died in my throat as I felt something gathering power.

Barry leaped back and took a defensive stance; he’d felt it too.

Unlike Barry, I recognized who it was, and I barked a laugh as a blue sapling sprouted in the grove’s center. Its trunk creaked as it thickened, and within a matter of breaths, a mature tree blocked out the night sky.

“Hello, Lemon. Didn’t expect to see you here so soon.”

“Lemon?” Barry demanded, lowering his arms.

Lieutenant Colonel Lemony Thicket shook her leaves in greeting. I’d expected her to sprout a root and nod vigorously, but she was too busy being awestruck. Her emotions radiated from her trunk, wild and ferocious. As Lemon’s awareness extended to the mesh of surrounding chi, her curiosity only grew. She was cautious at first, hesitantly extending her essence toward the alien-feeling power.

The moment they touched, the world shuddered.

The entire village shook as her network of roots joined to the grove’s life-giving spirit, and when light shone from all around Barry and me, I grinned. In slow motion, luminescent beams shot up from the ground, casting a pillar of solid white into the night sky. A wave of ecstasy washed over me. Barry’s legs buckled beside me, so I reached out, grabbing his shoulder to keep him upright. Within the blink of an eye, the light was gone and I let out a shaky breath, letting my eyes adjust to the returning darkness of night.

Before I could inspect the grove, words rushed up to meet me.

Domain has evolved!

[Error: Insufficient power.]

I hadn’t seen my old nemesis in a while. I waved the error message away, unable to stop myself from frowning.

But then I saw Lemon.

“Oh...” Barry said, staring up at her canopy.

“Yeah...” I agreed, my eyes running over her mighty boughs. “That’s something.”

Lemon’s tree had, for lack of a better word, aged. She had at least doubled in size, her formerly smooth trunk now covered in thick bark. Knotted roots branched out into the earth, giving her the appearance of a centuries-old oak. Though it was still Lemon within the tree, her chi felt... different. When I sent my awareness out toward her, I realized why—she and the alien-feeling power had merged.

No. She had absorbed it.

“How are you feeling, Lemon?” I asked, taking a step forward.

Awe, excitement, and joy oozed from her. At my question, she seemed to come back to herself. A giant root sprouted from the ground, so big that it split the earth in giant chunks. It wrapped around me gently, hugging my torso tight.

“I love you too,” I laughed. “What the frack just happened, though? How did you even get here?”

What followed was a conversation between myself and a prehensile root that would have made even the most compassionate of observers assume I was batshit crazy.

“What did she say?” Barry asked, giving me side-eye as I giggled and batted away an attempted tickle from Lemon.

“What? Oh, right.” I patted the part of Lemon’s root that served as a head. “When she felt us creating the village—or the extension of Tropica, I suppose—she came over to see what we were up to. She trailed us around, inspecting the stones and buildings from underneath, and when she got to the grove...” I shrugged. “It was irresistible. She had to grow a tree here.” I cocked my head. “How long have you been able to do that, by the way? Just grow more trees?”

She sent me the emotional equivalent of no, then pointed me toward the power she’d joined with.

“Oh! It gave you the ability to do so?”

Yes, she nodded.

“Well, there you have it,” I said to Barry. “Just your typical cultivatory shenanigans.”

“Yeah. Nothing new.” He shook his head with a wry smile. “With the addition of the grove, I think we have almost everything we need until we can gather more coins to finish the village.”

I shot him a glance. “About that... I was thinking there was something else we could try.”

He gave me a questioning look.

“The one thing we were missing from last time was pearls, right?” I answered. “Lucky for us, I have it on good authority that some local weirdos filled a nearby bay with a bunch of oyster cages.”

Barry squinted, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Midnight feast?”

“Midnight feast,” I agreed, delighting in the look on his face.

We split off, Barry running for Lemon’s old clearing, and me dashing for my shore. When I arrived, I took a minute to stare up at the crescent moon, stealing a moment of peace all for myself. Small waves lapped the shore, their constant susurration making a deep calm wash over me. I lost myself to the sensations of my body.

And was abruptly returned to the present when an otter wreathed in lightning barrelled into my back.

“Oof!”

I slid in the sand, stopping myself just before crashing down into the ocean. Before I could ask Claws what that was all about, she climbed around my body like a squirrel, staring up into my eyes.

“Claws...?”

She screamed a chirp at me, so loud that I almost didn’t catch its meaning.

“Yes, Claws. We’re getting the oysters.”

How many? she chirp-screamed again.

“How many, huh...?” I tapped my chin in thought, drawing out the moment. “All of them, I suppose—”

She shot from my chest, using me as a platform from which to launch herself out into the bay. I shook my head at her lightning-covered body as it rocketed down next to the cages.

“Little deviant...”

The rest of my animal pals and Maria arrived a moment later.

“Is it true?” Maria asked, skidding to a stop before me.

“Uh, which part?”

“All of it! The village! Lemon’s transformation! The Domain! The oysters!”

“It’s all true,” I replied, scooping up Sergeant Snips into a hug, who gazed up at me with affection. “I’ll need your help to retrieve the cages, though.”

It took less than a half hour to retrieve over a hundred cages from the water, all of which were filled with full-grown molluscs. When I emerged from the ocean with the last of them, we immediately started shucking oysters. We were a well-oiled, shell-opening machine.

Borks was a tail-wagging delivery service, constantly bringing us new cages to open.

“Found my fourth!” Maria called.

My second, Pistachio bubbled, his overlarge clackers not the best at handling the tiny things.

Tenth, Snips hissed.

Ten-billionth! Claws lied, shooting me a mischievous grin when I glowered at her.

The pelicans worked together, Pelly holding them, and Bill using his beak’s claw to crack them in two.

Even Cinnamon helped out, using her little hoppers to kick still-closed oysters our way.

By the time we finished, we had an entire pouch of the overwhelmingly valuable stones. I turned, intending to run it back to Barry, but found myself looking at a sea of faces.

All the cultivators had awakened and been led down to the shore. Some looked angry. Others were confused. Some had tear-streaked faces. Most, however, were some mix of the above. They cast every possible emotion over me, my animal pals, and the congregation that was arrayed around them. I gave them a kind smile and flung the pouch at Barry, who caught it with a look of wonder on his face.

When he opened it, he let out a soft whistle. “Yeah. That should do it...”

I glanced up at the sky. Predawn light had arrived, and the sun would rise in the next hour. I walked over toward the cultivators. “Hello, friends. I’m Fischer. I don’t really have time for proper introductions or explanations right now, but we’ve harvested a whole bunch of seafood. You’re welcome to try, but chances are you won’t like them raw.” I turned toward Peter. “Would you be happy to cook some up, mate? I’m a little busy, I’m afraid.”

Barry stepped forward with the bag of pearls.

I held up a hand, halting his assumption. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

Barry raised an eyebrow at me as we walked far away, but I waited until we were far enough for no one to hear.

“There’s something I didn’t tell you yet, mate...”

As he listened to my explanation, his face grew pensive. “You’re sure you want to do this, Fischer?”

I nodded. “Yeah, mate. It needs to be done now. I’m not willing to risk it.”

“Who are you taking?”

“Borks, Claws, and Snips.”

Barry shook his head. “You need to take more. You’re being too reckless.”

“Less is more, mate. The sun is about to rise and the villagers will be lining the street.”

He chewed his lip. “Pelly and Bill have to watch from above. If you can’t agree to that, I’m not on board.”

“Deal!” I said, spinning. “Borks, Claws, Snips! Let’s go!” I called. “Pelly, Bill—follow us in the sky!”

They were at my side in a moment, and I raised an eyebrow at the uninvited guest. “Can I help you, young lady?”

“You can.” Maria laced her hand in mine. “I’m coming.”

“You don’t even know where we’re going…”

“Really?” She gave me a flat look. “You don’t think I know you well enough to figure out you’re going to speak to some nobles in Tropica?”

I blew air from my lips. “That obvious, huh?”

“To me, you’re an open book.” She smirked, clearly not willing to relent.

I sighed, accepting my face. “See you soon Barry.”

“Good luck,” he replied, turning.

“Cheers, mate!”

“I’ll let Roger and Sharon know where you went.”

Maria poked me in the side. “Ready when you are.”

I looked down at her, staring into her eyes. She wrinkled her nose up at me and made a funny face, doing her best to appear unattractive. It didn’t work.

“Come on,” I said. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go fishing.”

With a cute girl’s hand in mine, my animal pals at my side, and the sun threatening to rise over the eastern horizon, I made my way toward Tropica.