Once the bowls filled again, I picked them up and drank the sap one by one, waiting for the system to respond, and this time it worked again, giving me another +2 to both strength and endurance. I stayed there and waited for them to fill once more, then drank again, but this time there was no notification and no change in my body.
I waited a bit longer, let one bowl fill again, and drank it as well, just to be sure, but nothing happened. It seemed like I had reached the limit of what this sap could give me for now.
That settled it.
I set the bowl back down and stepped away from the tree, my decision already made as I adjusted my grip on the axe and began moving forward again, leaving the clearing behind as the forest closed in around me once more.
As I walked, my thoughts shifted inward, not toward the next fight but toward something I had been ignoring so far, something that had started to matter now that the scale of this territory was becoming clearer.
