TREE OF AEONS 1

This was despite me being fire - resistant, but for a drought or prolonged heatwave? I wasnÆt sure.

Maybe I needed to find some kind of cold - water source from far away. A massive root could then supply cold water from there to regulate the temperature of the valleyÆs trees.

And the opposite would be to find a hot water source?

Maybe that volcano that Horns surveyed a while ago might be able to supply that.

- All this talk about the cold. -

- What? -

- I donÆt feel it. -

- ThatÆs Æcause you are blob? A floating soul with no ability to sense temperature? -

- But some of the souls were telling me about how cold they felt. Or maybe thatÆs just their final moments, carried over. -

- Wait. You can talk to the souls? - I didnÆt know why I had the impression that only hero - grade souls could talk, but I supposed I was wrong.

- Uh. only some of them. There seem to be a few that still retain their ability to talk. but all they do is repeat the same thing. Kinda like machines. -

Oh. This soul thing could be. confusing. Why could some talk and some couldnÆt?

Anyway, New Freeka was in a state of emergency. Food supplies were running low as they didnÆt expect such severe weather and much higher consumption of their stockpiles. That led to rather ingenious solutions as some of their farmers actually had rather interesting skills. One such ability was indoor farming, and that led to multiple greenhouses being built and a few attempts at underground homes.

Speaking of underground.

- Dimitree, have you taken over the labyrinth? - The leftover labyrinth of the dungeon, now supported by roots, was located in the Southwest Forest.

- Yes. The inner labyrinth remains warm, though the entrances are covered in snow. -

I thought I could propose that as an alternative location for the refugees to live, protected from the cold. But it was too far. The journey there took at least two days, maybe more in this snow.

Then there was the old tunnel, left by the giant demonic centipede. It was located quite deep underground, so as to minimize tremors and detection, but because of its relative depth, I had found little use for it. But now that I had the root tunnels ability, I could think about creating more feeder tunnels to connect to that big underground tunnel.

- Suggestion. -

- Speak, Trevor. -

- There are certain kinds of vegetation that grow in tunnels. We can grow those there, and they would provide additional energy output. Variants of subsidiary trees. -

- ThereÆs no sunlight in there. Can the subsidiary trees survive? -

- Not trees. more of a. fungi. -

- My powers extend to that of fungi? -

- Uh, no. But if we extend our roots into the underground cave, we can create an environment for symbiotic fungus to grow, which can produce energy. -

- Hmm, is the output worth it? -

- No. Fungi produce minuscule amounts of energy, but it has the effect of creating the base of an ecological system that can support certain kinds of farmer ants and insects. -

Hmm. Underground fungi.

But I did want ants. I thought ants would be interesting warriors.

- Are beetles insufficient? - Horns asked.

- Ah, that is not my point. -

- There are many kinds of beetles. I am sure you could have some kind of facility to research beetles that would help. -

Biolab - Beetle unit research tree obtained

This massive tree allows research and development of various beetle types, such as flying beetles, armored beetles, poison beetles, fire beetles, water beetles.

Uh.

- Yes. I think beetles are better than ants. -

- I get the point, Horns. But I still want ants. -

- No. Beetles are the best. We are already sharing the space with spiders. Please donÆt neglect us beetles. -

- Ants? -

- Beetles. We have dung beetles. We have dancing beetles. We have colorful beetles. Beetles are superior. -

I sighed. - Okay. -

YEAR 76, MONTH 2, WEEK 3

- How long is this stupid blizzard going to last? -

- Forever, or at least until someone manages to disable or dispel the vortex? -

- Not forever - such magics have a natural decay to them. Over time it will go away, but we are talking about years. -

Troubling news came from YvonÆs informants and diplomats. None, not Salah, not Nung, not Takde, had claimed responsibility for using a blood sacrifice spell, and in fact, all of them were now not - so - secretly launching their own internal investigation into the cause of this catastrophe that brought severe blizzards to an area the size of a country. All three nations were affected by this massive spell, and all three capitals were within range, though Salah, being the largest of the three nations, was least affected.

Well, to be honest, if that was all there was to it, it wasnÆt really that troubling. I mean, a hurricane was a country - sized disaster, no? Nobody jumped when a hurricane or a massive earthquake rattled the world, right? (Though I may be wrong. a perpetual hurricane would be equally horrible.)

The troubling thing was some of the more sophisticated intelligence claimed that it was a secret demon cult at work. A cult that aimed to summon and control the demon king. They call themselves the Circlebreakers. A demon cult that, as the rumors started to emerge, manipulated the nations and took advantage of the massive battle to somehow sacrifice at least twenty - five thousand to test out some kind of blood magic.

It sounded bonkers; which nation would want to publicly admit it used such a drastic measure, one that involved blood sacrifice? So naturally all of them would deny their involvement, even if they did do it. Besides, I presumed everyone in that battlefield was dead, and any evidence they could gather by magic was being corrupted and distorted by the presence of that blizzard magic vortex, and with each passing day, the evidence vanished. Perhaps if some of the souls and spirits could talk, I could find out a bit more, but until then, this theory sounded absurd.

So. I still assumed one of the countries did it. Or maybe it was a mix, and one of the countries collaborated with the cultists to activate such a spell.

Anyway, those were distant affairs that unfortunately affected me. It went to show that turtling strategy didnÆt work when there were large area - of - effect spells and abilities.

The merchants were quick to adapt, though. Money really had a way of making the world go round, even the magical ones.

This month we had the first visit of the cold - resistant caravan. Essentially, they were a delegation of about a hundred, with dedicated mages and special carriages that were magically reinforced to provide protection from the cold and snowy weather.

Of course, the goods were expensive. They needed a markup on such special services, after all.

Oh, well.

The Barooshians, though, the wizard at least, came back to New Freeka, with the agreed rewards, most of them the upgrade materials I needed for the root system and Horns claws.

Apparently, the wizardÆs punishment for exposing the princess to forbidden magics. was exile. And the delivery to New Freeka was his last task by the king.

Surely, the wizard couldnÆt take responsibility for the princessÆs recklessness? But such were feudal societies - you got your ass handed to you even if you didnÆt have anything to do with it.

- Surely, we would welcome a wizard like yourself to our town. - Yvon was quick to bring him over to her side.

He sighed, nodded, and reluctantly accepted YvonÆs offer of hospitality. - I guess I will stay for a while. -

They soon got him to work on some kind of anti - cold weather spell.

Meanwhile, I was expanding my territory toward the volcano that Horns surveyed. Most of the beetles were inactive in this weather, and that was a weakness with having insects.

But as we approached the volcano, my subsidiary trees were slowly dying, so I couldnÆt extend them farther. This was despite my own heat resistance, but the death wasnÆt due to heat alone.

The surroundings of the active volcano were filled with sulfur, and there were active lava flows, forming rivers in the area. And, at every eruption, a blast of energy swept out from the caldera, and the shockwave created a gust of wind. All this, cumulatively, created a hostile environment for the trees.

One of the external biolabs (only one so far) next to the inner ring had a menu prompt. Kind of like those alerts when I unlocked a secret mission.

Biolab research option unlocked: Volcanic adaptation. Estimated time required: 3 months. Materials needed to start research: 100 pieces of sulfur.

Uh. Okay! Now IÆd like to check all the other kinds of environmental adaptations.

That kind of put my plan to use trees to crawl into the volcano on hold. Thankfully, though, the area around the volcano was still relatively warm, such that I could deploy my beetles and task them with venturing into the volcano area to harvest the sulfurous minerals.

At about the same time, I created two beetle research trees to research winter adaptation. It was annoying to have so many of my beetles going into hibernation in this weather, and I was hoping to have some beetles that had the ability to function in the cold.

It was really hard to do much when my beetles spent so much time hibernating in their cozy trees.

YEAR 76, MONTH 3

The nations were now starting their work on dispelling or weakening the blizzard vortex, with spring returning, and the intensity of the blizzard reducing slightly.

Slightly. Because it was still snowing.

And that meant crops were not growing. Luckily for the New Freekans, their indoor farming experiments were working, so they now intensified their efforts to build additional indoor farms in an effort to combat food shortages. But the cold also meant my timber farms were not as productive, so they very quickly used up the entirety of the timber farm.

- WeÆve got a problem. Food supply is low - we probably have enough for another month - and the indoor farms are not producing enough food. -

- Hunt. We hunt for the foxes and winter creatures. -

- Okay. LetÆs do that, but we are talking about almost twenty - five thousand people in New Freeka. Is there sufficient meat to feed that many? -

- Maybe not, but better to have meat than not. -

- Some of our watchtowers spotted a large group of yaks that spawned. That would be ideal for us. Their furs can also serve as warm clothing for the men. -

Yvon paused and nodded. - Fine. Take fifty men and go hunt. -

The warrior nodded.

- Still, we need other food sources. Meat is good, and we still have storage. Perhaps the truce is suspended? -

- Huh. The hell with the truce, Lady Yvon. Salah wonÆt be able to retaliate in such circumstances. -

- Salah may well figure out how to dispel this magic, - another of YvonÆs advisors chimed in. - Though, depending on how we word it, we could perhaps get some leeway. -

Yvon pondered that for a while. - Can you arrange someone to visit them to convey our intentions to suspend the truce requirements, given this. disaster? -

- Certainly. -

- Back on topic. Food. Food and warm shelter. We had sixty - eight of us die of cold last month. We need to find a solution or something to stave this cold off until summer. Hopefully, we will have some plants growing then. -

The discussion was held in one of the large halls in New Freeka, and all the leaders were invited. It comprised mostly of YvonÆs comrades back when they were with Salah, but they had also gradually brought in the refugees to join the leadership team. After all, with twenty - five thousand of them, voices of rebellion and dissent would rise quickly, especially when it was cold and people were hungry.

- Can we buy them? -

- The merchants do sell food, but their prices are. extortionary. They know we need it. -

- Still, if we have to -

- Then we will. But let that day come only when we have exhausted other means; our coin is our hard - earned money. -

- We should set up our own merchant corps, get out there and buy food from the unaffected nations. -

Yvon nodded. - That is a good idea, though the merchant guilds wonÆt like it that we bypass them, but theyÆll come around. Anyone willing to volunteer to lead this task? -

A few men and women rose their hands, and Yvon nodded.

This level of eavesdropping was partly facilitated by TrevorÆs upgrade, which allowed him to process the data coming from within the valley and New Freeka in greater detail.

- So, one group to hunt food, one group to buy food. Anything else? Magic? -

- Would Baroosh be able to send help using that portal magic? -

- Uh, that is worth exploring. - Yvon nodded and assigned Eriz to the task.

- Alternatively, is there no magic spell that creates a warm barrier to keep out such cold? -

- Hmm. As far as I know, we donÆt have wizards at the level of entire towns here. We have been doing them at the building level, but the spells expire relatively quickly. - Indeed, there were mages using their spells to create fire or generally warm up certain places, but spells like this lasted short periods, sustained by mana, and they did run out.

The warming effects of certain skills, such as Comfortable House or Slow Burning Fire that some of the refugees had lasted a bit longer, but that didnÆt work on a large scale and couldnÆt house everyone.

- Does. does the will of the forest have any way to aid us? -

Ah yes, the - Will of the Forest. - It was one of the ways the refugees had come to refer to me, after the recent assistance with the potatoes. Apparently, those who visited the Tree of Prayer were those that would also end up using this particular phrase. They had been seeing my presence in their sleep, as a tree that somehow appeared in their nightmares and ate them.

Yvon didnÆt respond.

- I mean, the Will of the Forest is the one that somehow managed to heal the princess. Perhaps it has some way to aid us? -

Yvon sighed. - As you all have known, and I said this that day. the tree spirit doesnÆt give its aid freely. There is a cost to borrowing its aid, and is there anyone willing to sacrifice their soul for it? -

- Ask the elves. The will protects them. Perhaps they can figure out a way to sway his views? - one suggested, referring to Yura , Laufen, and the elves.

- Or Miss Eriz? Eriz was protected by it? -

Eriz shook her head then. - The tree has punished me for bringing all of you here, back then. I doubt it would listen to me now. -

- If enough of us prayed to it, perhaps it might? That is what the churches tell their believers to do in times of hardship. -

ooh. the religious kind.

To be honest, my ability to support the valley was also relatively limited. First of all, there were just too many of them. Twenty - five thousand New Freekans, and even with my new winter resistant crops , I could grow about twenty - five hundred winter - resistant potatoes a day, and that was enough to make maybe thirteen hundred meals per day. That still left a huge twenty - three thousand seven hundred without food. I mean, I thought I was already pretty awesome to produce twenty - five hundred potatoes per day.

And add to that. fruits. I had the warming fruits and the winter - resistant healing fruits, which only my main tree could produce, and I could produce about a hundred each for the two kinds of fruits. That was maybe another hundred.

If I had the entire valleyÆs trees, then yes, I could then tap on the normal trees to create food, but now, the normal trees in the forest were consuming energy, not creating them.

So yeah.

This weather was horrible.

- Perhaps they could make use of the tunnels, - Trevor suggested. - Maybe they can grow mushrooms in there. -

- If they have the right kind of mushrooms. And donÆt they need time? -

- True. Mushroom, as fungi, means they would benefit less from your bountiful growth effect. -

Well, it looked like the New Freekans were on their own. Too bad for them.

Beetles near the volcano then reported they had collected sufficient sulfur to start the research into Volcanic Adaptation , which I did. Immediately.

Thankfully, research still functioned under such cold.

- Trevor. Are there ways to research winter resistance? -

- As your forest minds, we are able to perform research with the aid of External Biolabs . Though our research functions are relatively limited, and a dedicated research - focused artificial soul will be needed for high - tier research. -

- Oh? -

- So if I assign you to do so, does it come at the expense of anything? -

- Yes, if you assign us to perform research on any of the external biolabs, our ability to support the valleyÆs growth will be impaired by ten to twenty percent per research topic. As you have already selected volcanic adaptation , I am already using fifteen percent of my available energy. -

- I see. What other research options do you have? -

- Well. youÆll have to tell me. ThereÆs no list to choose from. -

Hey, that wasnÆt how I expected games to work. There should be clear tech trees, not I thought of something and then the biolabs figured it out.

- Uh, thatÆs how it works in real life. Inventors do that, - Meela chimed in.

- You want to volunteer? Can I fuse you to a biolab? - I actually knew the answer already.

- Fine, why not work on winter adaptation as well? -

- Sure. -

Oh.

My ginseng tree died from a pile of snow that somehow fell onto it and crushed it.

Dammit.

Beetle winter adaptation stage I - two months remain.

Tree volcanic adaptation stage I - three months remain.

Tree winter adaptation aura - three months remain.

YEAR 76, MONTH 3, WEEK 4

I had a visitor. An uninvited one.

- Hmm. - A strange man appeared in my inner courtyard one day, right in front of my original main tree.

How did this guy get here? Right in front of me?

- Strange. - He held a strange stick in his hand, and it bent toward me. It looked like some kind of prospectorÆs stick or a divinerÆs item. Perhaps it was similar to the compass that the Barooshians had.

He looked up, and I saw he was alone, but he had a big cloak and hoody kind of set up, like an assassin. Somehow, if I had skin, I would get goosebumps. Something about his presence just. scared me. Could it be some kind of intimidation ability? Or was he perhaps a level - one - hundred assassin or something of that nature.

I woke Yura , who was asleep at the time, and he came out, armed and ready. - Hello? -

The assassin dude glanced at Yura and shrugged. - Sorry. I think I got lost. Do you know where New Freeka is? -

- No, you didnÆt, - Yura said. - No one stumbles into this inner courtyard lost. - This inner courtyard was actually specially guarded and protected, with the effect of my illusion and Camouflage ability. So the odds of walking here and actually being lost were close to nil, so by way of elimination, that meant he was deliberately here.

The inner courtyard had the forge tree , the root - brain complex , and the other large, upgraded subsidiary trees that were converted into housing. He glanced around, looking, his eyes trying to find something. Perhaps someone other than Yura ?

The assassin dude smiled. - Yes, you are right. I happen to be looking for. heroes. Do you know of any? -

Yura laughed and decided to joke to lighten up the mood. - None here. TheyÆre all dead. You gotta wait till the gods summon them again. -

- Well, thatÆs what the gods want the public to think. - The assassin looked at me, and the stick kept bending in a strange way. He then placed the stick into some kind of magic pouch and took out a different kind of item, a metal divining ball.

- Eh? - Yura exclaimed. He was alert, but he too sensed the tremendous pressure from the man before him.

The metal ball didnÆt react. - Hmm. no heavenly blessing, so you certainly are not a hero. -

- Uh, of course -

The assassin turned, and suddenly, Yura fell to the ground. He was alive, but it was as if his legs suddenly lost all strength.

Two very tiny needles almost instantly pierced his legs, and they were laced with some kind of poison. But before Yura could scream, or I could do anything, the assassin was right in front of him, tapping a strange golden metal rod into his head.

- Sorry, this wonÆt kill you, but itÆll make you forget all about me and this entire thing. -

And Yura lost consciousness, but I detected that he was still very much alive.

I speculated my chances of killing this person were slim.

I felt this assassin could probably dodge my Root Strike s easily, so even if I tried, I assumed it would take multiple shots for it to work. I would need an AoE ability to get him, or some way of slowing him down, if I wanted to hit him on my very first strike.

The assassin then looked and walked around my main tree. - Hmm, the otherworlder locator points here, though. meh. Too many false positives with all the things the heroes leave behind. -

I continued watching. I supposed he might try something on Yura , but my instincts told me to wait. Yura Æs unconscious body shook a bit, and the assassin walked over.

- Ah yes, itÆs still freezing cold. - He covered Yura in a thick blanket that he pulled from his pouch. - Sorry. -

He looked around, then gave a big sigh.

- I guess he didnÆt come here then. Dammit. -

He lifted his fist to the sky and shook it.

And then the assassin vanished. Just like that. Without a trace. Despite me and my roots covering this entire valley, I didnÆt pick up his presence after that. I still wondered how he just slipped in and out of the entire valley like that.

- Apologies, Master, but I have no idea how he slipped past all our detection and patrols, - Trevor apologized, but I couldnÆt blame him. He could walk in a straight line at me, and I still wouldnÆt see him coming. That was just how absurdly powerful his ability was.

- A skill, obviously. Very, very high - level stealth and camouflage. But add that to our list of weaknesses. - I somehow suspected my own Camouflage and Illusions also worked on him, so he didnÆt suspect much.

- He feels like a friend, though, - Meela said.

- Really? -

YEAR 76, MONTH 4

- All good over here, - Dimitree reported, explaining the status of trees in the Southwest Forest. The cold was less severe there this month, benefiting from a strong warm current.

New Freeka managed to buy some food from neutral nations, so they staved off a bit of the hunger situation. And as the seasons changed, a bit of the cold and snow from the bloodspell was counteracted by the natural warmth of the spring.

However, it was still snowing, so the crops were still not growing.

I also learned that I overestimated the refugees dietary requirements, as they actually had skills that made them better able to withstand cold and hunger. Some of them had skills like Minimal Diet , High Efficiency Body or Endure Hunger , which allowed them to make the most of what little food they had. Their experience being on the move, frequently with little food as well, gave survivors these skills, which made them tougher.

One of the most impressive of such abilities possessed by refugees was Ascetic diet , where they survived on one meal per week without looking worse than a normal person.

In fact, if all the refugees possessed such abilities, my potatoes would actually be able to feed a lot more than I initially calculated. Perhaps by a multiple of five.

- ItÆs hard out there. - Belle sat, all snuggly in her bed. - Tree - Tree, is there not much we can do to help them? -

- Well, there is, but let them figure it out themselves. -

- I think some of the refugees are jealous, - Emile explained. - They wonder how we can still be so comfortable here and not extend a hand to help them. They think we are being selfish. -

- Walen told me they have been getting weird stares, and some of the men actually cursed them openly. -

- Huh. - Well, IÆll let it slide, but if any of them make a move, I will not hesitate to punish them. I mentally made a note to Trevor to put increased surveillance on Brislah and Walen , who now lived in New Freeka.

- It is the way of the world. - Laufen sat with Lozanna , working on some cotton clothes. - It is our luck that Tree - Tree watches over us. -

- Well, some of them were driven out of their homes, too, so they feel that they have suffered much, - Belle responded. She was really cozy with a thick blanket wrapped around her. It was actually warm in the room, as the main hideout and the nearby subsidiary trees had temperature - controlled spaces.

Lozanna then pouted. - Tree - Tree, maybe you should help them. Give them potatoes? I think they will like potatoes. -

- Hmm. I donÆt want to assist them so easily. Aid breeds complacency. -

- But they are in need. Heroes help people, no? -

Hmm. How could I tell Lozanna that I honestly didnÆt care about the New Freekans all that much? Sure, they were useful, but. that was about it.

- How is your practice coming, Lozanna ? - I tried to change the topic, after all she had been receiving Dream Tutor from me for quite some time.

- Oh, itÆs okay. I have been learning a lot, and those dreams where I learn strange skills are really, really cool. -

- Why canÆt we get those dreams? - Emile and Belle complained.

- Because Lozanna Æs young mind is surprisingly receptive to it. -

- We are not old! -

- Uh. I mean her mind is still growing, so the skill - dreams seem to work better. -

Then Lozanna nodded, and she ran around for a while.

- Tree - Tree. are you going to help the refugees? - Ah dammit. I thought children easily forgot topics. Why does she recall it so well?

- Uhm, Lozanna , I cannot use my powers so easily, and there is always a cost for any other ability that I use. If the refugees ask for help, then, depending on what they offer, I will consider it. -

Lozanna paused and then nodded. She seemed to accept that power wasnÆt something used so freely. - Maybe you are right. Uncle Yura likes to say that power needs to wait for the right time. -

Heh, that was surprisingly insightful from Yura . Perhaps that new diplomat job had given him new mental perspectives.

- They must first help themselves. -

A few days later, Meela spoke to me, her voice serious. - Tree spirit? - Wisp was next to her, and we were in the soul realm.

- Hmm. -

- I have a strange dream, or. well, maybe itÆs not really a dream. But like some kind of mental whisper. But I think it means something. Something. important. -

Important? What could be important? Oh well, letÆs go with it. - So tell me. -

- I - I saw Alexis. -

- Okay. What about her? -

- SheÆs not dead. -

Oh. That is good, I suppose.

- She. Somehow my prayers to the heroes reached her. -

Hmm, then again, that didnÆt sound so good.

- Her body is currently consumed by demonfire, after she used Fireform to avoid the destruction of the demon kingÆs core. She is battling it every moment now. It seems the demonfire, when there is a sufficient amount of it, gains some kind of consciousness. or some kind of innate instinct. -

- Oh, okay. - DidnÆt sound good, but so? She was really far away, right?

- And. erm. I think the demonfire that consumes her body thinks that a hero is still around, and so. It thinks the source of the prayer is. a hero. -

Oh, no. I mean, I kind of figured that was what Meela meant. It was just. just so typical of communications to lead to such actions. - SheÆs headed this way. -

I mean, how did a demon know where to go? I guessed there were ways for that to happen.

- Yeah. -

- When will she get here? -

- I donÆt know. -

Uh. - What else did she say? -

- Not much. She mumbled about how she is a fire elemental since sheÆs stuck in her fire - body form, and that fire body is controlled by the will of the demonfire. -

Well. Shit?

Hmm, letÆs see what measures I can take against a fire - crazy demon.

YEAR 76, MONTH 4, WEEK 4

A fire elemental and a perpetual blizzard. Not exactly what I imagined to face, but here I was.

The demon-fire Alexis arrived a lot later than expected. I initially thought she would arrive perhaps within two to three days, given the heroes overwhelming cheat powers, so I scrambled to prepare myself to face a hero, but then again, her body was controlled by demonfire, and that demonfire wasnÆt exactly. intelligent.

Her arrival was easy to spot, as the demonfire was a lot flashier. Despite a snowstorm that engulfed everywhere we could see, her glowing, flaming body just shone through all that snow like a lighthouse in a storm. Her body was a huge, glowing fireball shaped like a woman. She reminded me of a female version of the human torch, or perhaps phoenix, but there, under all that fire, was something that looked like a solid core.

She arrived with a bang, shooting fireballs and firing beams of fire through the entire valley.

- This is the monster the tree spirit warned us about? - YvonÆs immediate reaction was. well, one of shock.

After Meela had the revelation, I quickly cascaded the alert down to the people, that a powerful monster was likely coming our way, so that they could prepare. But I would realize all my preparation was for naught.

Yura nodded. - Yeah. Some kind of. fire - creature. -

- That is a whole lot more than just a fire - beast. -

Alexis floated in the sky, surrounded by a dark, maroonish fire that raged violently. The remnants of the demon kingÆs fire, it looked unaffected by the effects of this magical blizzard, or even if it did, whatever effect it had was probably minuscule.

Yvon looked back at Yura and shook her head. - Whatever that is, it is flying. There are very few ways to engage that thing unless it comes down to the ground. Our arrows are not going hurt it, and I doubt fireballs from our mages will, either! -

As Yvon and Yura discussed, Alexis clearly didnÆt consider them to be a threat; instead, she still continued to shoot fireballs at the forest, blasting up a whole section of the valley, one fireball at a time. The first impact vaporized any snow or ice that had built up, and the second impact instantly set the normal trees on fire.

Indeed, given the monster was. a fire elemental, the best option was to use opposing elemental weapons or destroy the elementalÆs core.

- So? - Yura looked at Yvon. He entered into the bear - armor mode, a black - colored wood wrapping his entire body, and it made him look like a giant bear as he leaped into combat, charging in the general direction of Alexis.

The fire elemental noticed and directed the fireballs at Yura . Each time, he activated a wooden shield to parry those fireballs, but the shields were only able to absorb two fireballs, so Yura had to constantly reactivate the wooden shields.

- Well, how are you going to hit it? - Yvon wondered, activating a magical arrow. The fact that it was a fire elemental meant Yvon quickly reorganized the team she prepared for this. Not everyone was suitable to face a high - tier monster of this sort, so some of the guys retreated back to New Freeka and set up defensive positions.

Yura Æs bear - shaped legs contorted, and the wood armor twirled into a spring - like structure, propelling him high into the air, close enough to come into contact with the fire elemental.

He got blasted with a point - blank inferno. It exploded right in front of him, and he got thrown far away to the ground, the wooden armor already black, but now charred and smoking. The impact was enough to knock Yura out but thankfully not kill him, as the armor took most of the damage. I sensed Bamboo going offline. Yura would likely need to be in bed for a few days.

- Yura ! - Yvon shouted, but she quickly turned back to face Alexis, who now noticed the rest of the men and retaliated with a few more fireballs. I activated my wood shield to protect them from the fireballs.

Well, that went horribly well, I thought as I activated multiple wood shields to block the fireballs. Their effectiveness was pretty good, blocking multiple hits before getting destroyed.

- Master, they wonÆt be able to harm that monster, - Trevor quickly summarized. True, with enough wood shields I could significantly reduce the damage Alexis dealt, but we couldnÆt hit or hurt the elemental much.

And this was when I noticed Horns charging toward the monster. - For the master! -

Uh. What?

- I shall defeat the foe! -

I assumed he somehow forgot that he couldnÆt fly, so I wasnÆt sure what possessed him to attempt such a move and what he was attempting to do.

- WhatÆs he doing? -

- I think he may have some skills, Master. -

- Really. LetÆs see, but I think heÆs gonna lose. - Alexis was a hero, and that fire was from the demon king itself.

Horns charged toward Alexis, his beetle shell coated with some kind of resin, which was actually pretty good at absorbing the fireballs. And then when he finally got beneath her, he dug into the ground and shot spikes at Alexis from his shell.

Spike - attack

- Oh. I didnÆt know he could do that. -

But it was too low tier a skill, and the spikes burned up before they harmed her body. And so Alexis lobbed a few fireballs back at Horns.

He would have been a crispy - fried beetle if not for a few Wood shield s.

- Retreat, Horns. Not your match -

Alexis waved her hand and shot out a continuous jet of blue fire, and it incinerated everything in its path, including the wood shield. I instantly tried to activate a few more shields to protect Horns, but it wasnÆt good enough, the blue flame burning through the wood shields rather quickly, also burning half of HornÆs back body before he managed to run out of range.

- Master, I failed -

I sensed Horns going offline. He was. probably not dead yet, but I would need to repair him after this.

- ItÆs fine. Hibernate mode. -

Yvon, very smartly, chose to retreat all the way to me. I guessed the fact that she survived so long out in politics was no fluke.

- WeÆre no match for this monster. -

At this point, I knew. Alexis had a fire aura that burned any lesser object that got near her, and she had almost limitless quantities of fire - type magic - and that blue flame was really powerful.

- Any suggestions? -

- No, sire. I think our chances against it are quite slim. - Even now, her very presence was melting all the snow into water, then steam, and then the trees were catching fire. It was ridiculous how she could be a one - person weather changer.

- Is there really no way we can reach her? - Meela sighed. She felt upset that Alexis was burning up the forest, and she had created a path of destruction that led her right to me.

Root Strike . A root flew up and hit her. The damage was low as the fire aura incinerated the root partially, so reducing the impact.

I thought I could do a repeat of my earlier strategy by using multiple Root Strike s, but then I noticed that fire soon regenerated the damage. The Root Strike barrage would need to deliver a fatal strike, or I may just be wasting time.

Meela tried the friendship route, so she prayed and attempted to mentally communicate with Alexis to convince her to stop attacking us.

I tried a few more Root Strike s, just to be sure, and like the earlier ones, they did hit, but the damage I dealt wasnÆt much. I threw a few fruits at her just to be sure, but they burned up in midair, without achieving a thing.

- Yvon, can you evacuate the elves? And stay out of this. - This was not going to be easy, and I suspected the mages would be useless.

- Ah. yes. Certainly. - Yvon quickly took the elves and ran. A few fireballs went their way, but I blocked them with the wood shields . The shield generator trees also had been trying to block the fireballs, but as the shield generators were independent of me, their strength was inferior, and they could only block two to three fireballs.

- SheÆs in there, and she says sheÆs in great pain, - Meela actually managed to communicate.

- How? -

- ItÆs a thing heroes of the same generation can do. A kind of. telepathic link over short distances. Anyway. she canÆt help us. The demonfire is too strong, and her soul is too weak to resist or take back her body. -

- Okay, no friendship - no - jutsu route. -

Alexis burned up a few more of the subsidiary trees and then sent a few fireballs directly at my main tree, and they exploded right on my trunk.

My historical experiences with fire had made me very resistant to them, so the fireballs didnÆt even leave a scratch on my main body. My main body, unlike the skill extensions, enjoyed the full benefit of my Tree Heart , and this prompted Alexis to aim blue flames at me.

And they didnÆt hurt. The blue flames couldnÆt burn me, either.

This seemed to be a stalemate. She could burn up the entire forest, and I would still be standing, but I couldnÆt hurt her, either.

This outcome wasnÆt what I wanted, so I needed to find a different strategy.

Irritated, Alexis sent out a wave of fire from her body and pretty much burned almost all the normal trees around my main tree. The subsidiary trees, forge tree, and root - brain complex shared quite a bit of my fire - resistance abilities, but the flame was strong enough to let Trevor experience pain.

- Master, I donÆt feel so good. - Trevor was housed in the root - brain complex, and the blue fire was slowly getting to it. It inherited a smaller percentage of my godly fire resistance, and it would be invulnerable to most fires. Except one from a hero or a demon king.

- Shut down and hibernate. Horns, you, too! -

- Acknowledged. - Rather than lose Trevor and Horns from the constant barrage of fire, it was better to pull their artificial souls back from their bodies and house and hibernate their souls within me.

- This isnÆt ideal. - I shook my head. Alexis still blasted the forest, and I was doing my best to block as many of the fireballs as I could. Which worked and, as a result, it irritated the demonfire - Alexis more.

Meela shook her head. - AlexisÆs trying to take back control, but itÆs not working. The demonfireÆs will is too powerful. -

At this point, the elves had managed to evacuate to the relative safety of New Freeka, and it was just me, the spirits, and Alexis. Yvon managed to haul Yura away from the battlefield as well.

It was strange to be feeling so hot when just a little farther away was the cold blizzard. Too bad I couldnÆt channel the blizzardÆs power and direct it all at Alexis.

- We canÆt defeat her. - Meela sighed. - All you can do is stall her, but sheÆs free to run elsewhere. -

I paused and tried to think.

If I couldnÆt defeat her, then I would attempt to contain her. The logic to me was simple. She couldnÆt hurt me, so if I contained her such that she couldnÆt hurt anyone else, that was a win, too!

Alexis lobbed a few more fireballs and released multiple fire - waves, and what was once a green valley turned into a blazing inferno, with me the sole untouched tree in the middle, as the blue flame was strong enough to burn even those with higher fire resistances.

- WhatÆs your plan? - Meela asked.

- Well, remember my extremely crazy demon and fire resistance? I am going to exploit it. -

- How? -

- I am going to eat her. -

Constrict x 30. Sixty roots and vines shot out from my main body and attempted to reach out to AlexisÆs fiery body. Thanks a little to her target being me, which I supposed was due to her sensing the presence of Meela, or perhaps those fragments of heroes, she was now really close to me, trying to burn me.

I wasnÆt sure whether Alexis got the point that it wasnÆt working, but hey, if all it wanted to do is keep trying. well, go ahead.

The fire worked to a limited degree on the roots and vines. Her fire aura burned up a few strands of roots and vines, but there was enough of the constricting vines and roots to form a thick net. I had taken inspiration from HornsÆs body to coat the roots and vines with a layer of fire - resistant resin, and as they touched her fireform body, some of them burned.

With the resin - coated, fire - resistant net around her, I pulled and managed to grab her flame body, pulling her toward me, into me.

- YouÆre actually going to. - Meela looked surprised.

- Eat her. - Yes, I was.

AlexisÆs body seemed to panic and released a continuous stream of blue fire, and even stronger black fire, but closer to my main body, the root and vineÆs fire resistance increased, so she was trapped. Fireball after fireball exploded as I pulled her even closer.

AlexisÆs body now almost touched my trunk, and she released a huge chain of fire - waves, the acts of a drowning man, flailing, in an attempt to escape, but she still couldnÆt break through my vines. However, that fire scorched the surroundings, the forge - tree and the root - brain complex were burning, the ground now charred black.

Then, as she closed in on the trunk, the main body of my trunk opened up, revealing a biolab pod. The vines then pushed her inside into the biolab. The demonfire attacked the biolab, and now, I felt like I was in a sauna. Or like an arctic monkey sitting inside a hot spring in winter.

That didnÆt stop Alexis. She kept trying, releasing wave after wave of fire. Perhaps she thought my resistance was due to an extreme regeneration and I would run out of mana, or somehow, she hoped that the fire would eventually get through.

But it didnÆt.

I was kinda thankful that its only power was fire, and so its only response to any threat was to burn the shit out of it. I mean, if it had AlexisÆs brains, sheÆd probably try lightning or perhaps ice. So yeah, when youÆre a hammer, all you can do is hammer.

- This is insane, - Meela said. She was clearly rather amazed to see me drag Alexis into my main body and figuratively drown her fire out.

- Well, it works. -

I then began the next step, trying to battle the demonfireÆs presence. It was strangely. familiar. Like the Fires of Baal that used to burn on top of my trunk, the fire even felt rather pleasant. This time, I wasnÆt the same tree I used to be, and so I would defeat the demonfire myself.

I drew on all the mana I had, from the ley line, from the normal trees, from the storage, from. everything, and with it, I flooded AlexisÆs body with my mana, driving out the demonfire and the demonic mana that now ran through her body.

It was like attempting to do a blood transfusion, driving out the dirty demon blood and replacing it with my clean blood.

Unbeknownst to me at this time, from New Freeka, by putting AlexisÆs body into me, it seemed like the entire valleyÆs trees appeared to be on fire. The heat generated from the trapped demonfire was released through my roots, my branches, like how a kettle vented out hot steam, and throughout the valley, my branches and roots would periodically spit out the trapped demonfire.

From afar, my main trunk was like a furnace. There was a reddish glow from within, that trapped demonfire, a fire inside a paper lantern, and this lasted for weeks as I battled.

Single - mindedly focused on beating the demonfire, I had no idea what happened other than my long, laborious battle for control of AlexisÆs body.

I kept at it, and I continuously flooded her with my mana. Gradually, I made progress. Like my experience with the hellhounds - how they, after I overwhelmed their body with my mana, transformed into a woodhound.

Everything I had, I poured into AlexisÆs body. Though I doubted I could take control of Alexis, my theory was that it was all I needed to drive out the demonfire.

After a week, I gained ground, and I pushed the demonfire, perhaps by half. The demonfire tried and gave its all, releasing all the fire it could, trying to destroy me from within.

After the second week, I had made even more progress, and the fire - elemental form was starting to subside like a body that had finally stopped burning. And in my biolab, I began to see something resembling a soul again. Its black - colored body, a charred body, was starting to emerge from what was once a body almost wholly made of fire.

But that didnÆt look good for Alexis as it meant she was probably going to die.

So, as I fought the demonfire, I also looked into her body. I saw a spring tainted red, burning. A body that was parched, cracked like baked dirt, like a lake that was drained of water. A bloody red mana flew out from everywhere as my mana flowed into it, slowly pushing it out into the beyond.

And after the third week, I finally drowned the demonfire with all the mana I had.

I won.

YEAR 76, MONTH 5, WEEK 3

- You did it. - Meela nodded.

The demonfire was gone - finally - and Alexis got her body back. Well. what was left of it. It couldnÆt have happened soon enough, as all the ejected heat from the demonfire meant the entire valley was literally like a minefield. Any second a tree would emit fire or hot steam, so all the inhabitants of the valley tried to stay as far away from trees as possible.

But this meant the treefolk had to go out in the open, to New Freeka.

AlexisÆs body had been in the fireform for too long, and her physical body was completely burned. Now, it crumbled right before our eyes like a collapsing sandcastle. It was evidently not an ability that was meant to be used for so long.

- Help me, connect to me. -

- What? -

- Please. Just do so. - Alexis coughed. Her body, even though there was no demonfire anymore, was of no use.

To be honest, I found something strange about that request. But I did, my roots and vines entering her body and attempting to provide her with nutrients, the way a feeding tube would. But her body was a goner, unable to receive nutrients anymore.

And then Alexis mumbled something. a spell that I couldnÆt quite understand. It caused her body to crumble, then turned into a paste, and then, it. mixed into the vines and roots in her body. And then those vines and roots mixed with the rest of the biolab, and that pod transformed into a chrysalis of some kind.

- What. -

New subordinate consciousness, hamadryad Alexis detected.

Integrating.

Integration failed.

Soul condition is in extreme damage. Extensive repairs required.

Attempting to repair using soul forge.

Soul forge is offline. Expected downtime 2 weeks.

Subordinate consciousness will be put into stasis.

Alexis has died.

You gained a fragment. You have 67 fragments!

You have gained 4 levels. You are now level 128!

Biolab upgraded three times! Biolab resistance to attack increased. Biolab modification options increased! Soul - forge - linked abilities increased!

Constrict upgraded! Vines now are able to drain mana and lifeforce! Vines now able to ensnare magical creatures.

Natural Mana Overwhelming upgraded!

New tree variant obtained: Carnivorous plants.

New ability obtained: Heat transmission root systems.

YEAR 76, MONTH 5, WEEK 3, A DAY LATER

With Alexis defeated, I could finally take stock of the damage. And it was quite bad.

From all the fireballs, and the inferno that raged afterward, the valley lost over seven thousand normal trees and about a hundred of my subsidiary trees. Both the forge tree and the root tree complex were damaged by the blue flame, and they would require about two weeks to regenerate. Horns was also in a kind of repair mode, and he was holed up in one of the beetle subsidiary trees, recuperating from the damage.

Trevor was also offline, and it would be two weeks before he was back on, so my range and detection ability was back to what it once was.

The elves, New Freeka, and most of the refugees stayed far away from the forest, and so when it finally stopped, everyone looked incredibly cautious. Of course, I went and checked on the elves first to find Laufen, Yura , and gang resting in one of the rest houses.

- ItÆs finally stopped. - Laufen looked out the window, noting that the fires had stopped for a full day. With that, it meant the snowstorm was going to return as well. From snowstorm to blazing inferno and now back to a snowstorm again.

- Yeah. - Yura was awake, but his entire body was suffering from burns. He was recovering, though, as the healers tended to his wounds. - Wonder how Tree - Tree is doing. -

- The monster is inside Tree - Tree? - Belle nodded. - If so, do we still want to go back and stay there, if Tree - Tree is still there? -

Laufen nodded. - I trust that Tree - Tree will take care of us and keep the monster separated from us. -

- Hi, - I mentally spoke to the elves.

- Oh! - they all shouted in delight!

- What have I missed? -

Laufen paused and then soon elaborated on how the entire valley was on fire for a good three weeks. The heat from the burning forest helped warm the entire area, but it also made it dangerous for anyone to get near the forest as there were periodic firebursts from my roots and trees.

But other than that, all else was normal, as the refugees were still hungry and cold, so I turned my focus back to the forest.

- IÆm still around, boss, - Dimitree said, reminding me that he was spared from the damage because he was just so far away.

- Ah yes. Great! All well in your part of the world? -

- Yes, boss. YouÆve been draining a lot of mana for the past three weeks, so weÆre on low - activity mode. Now, we can get back to our usual routine again. -

Well, that was good. I then turned to the research trees. A few of the biolabs were damaged during the entire battle, and with me draining all the mana, and Trevor being out of commission, the research on the volcanic and winter adaptation was all suspended.

Beetle winter adaptation stage I - two months remain.

Tree volcanic adaptation stage I - three months remain.

Tree winter adaptation aura - three months remain.

- Dimitree, can you continue the research? - I mean, I did have another forest mind, so he could continue the research, right?

- Certainly. Please create a few biolabs in the Southwest Forest. - Ah yes, that made sense as the lab should be near the Forest Mind for it to conduct research.

Once Trevor woke, I wondered whether it would be possible to get both of them to do research. Would that speed things up?

YEAR 76, MONTH 6

The past two weeks kind of zoomed by as I focused on restoring the damage from my battle with Alexis. The valleyÆs damage was severe, and some of the blue flames continued to burn, so I had to find a way to put them out, such as throwing a pile of dirt at it. The residual fires did end up burning a few more trees, but eventually, I got to them, thanks to the snow.

- Ah, good to be awake. IÆm back. Seems like IÆve slept. -

- Yes, Trevor. Time to fix our valley. - Indeed, our valley was heavily damaged by the fires, and TrevorÆs restoration abilities would be much needed.

TrevorÆs presence sent an update to my entire point of view and interface, and more data flooded in. He was clearly getting into it. I sensed him checking on various trees and quickly using his abilities to regenerate some of them. Well, this fixing thing would take some time since the cold weather was making it hard for us to do much.

Next, I checked on the elves. They were back now, living inside the secret hideout once more. They actually appeared to just miss the warmth of my secret hideout, where the temperature was always constant, and there was always some fruit or potatoes to eat, so they were delighted when I told them they could return to the secret hideout.

The girls were exceptionally happy to get their beds back and quickly snuggled in.

- Ah, I am so tired of this cold. - Belle jumped on her bed. - So glad that my bedÆs still here! -

- The blizzardÆs gonna just get stronger after this. I wouldnÆt want to be out there. - Emile sighed. - I hope the rest of them are doing okay. I feel kinda bad hiding in comfort here. -

- That sucks. But. Oh, well? - Belle shrugged. - ItÆs kinda amazing that all this is undamaged despite how crazy the fighting was. -

ThatÆs partly because the secret hideout is pretty much fire - resistant?

Meanwhile.

New FreekaÆs new hunter corps and merchant arms successfully acquired food, in exchange for furs and wines. The underground and covered farms were also in full swing as more and more of the refugees acquired the skills necessary to manage their underground and indoor farms.

But politically, things were not going so well for New Freeka. The three nations resumed their mudslinging, as talks broke down on who was responsible for the blood - sacrifice blizzard spell.

So Salah came up with a strange ultimatum to New Freeka: Side with the kingdom of Salah and the truce conditions would be waived. Choose not to and bear their wrath.

- This is an insult, - the advisors said.

- I know, but what choice do we have? We have no military power to stand up to Salah. - Yvon sighed.

- But they expect us to forget that we were expelled from there? That we were massacred, our long escape from Salah, and the countless lives lost as they go about their bloodthirsty ways? -

- . -

- Our people will insist we have a bit more spine. - The advisor shook his head and tried to convince the rest of the advisors. They too felt really mixed about this.

- Are the lives of our people less important than some principles? -

- How do we know? Salah may well be the one that cast the spell, then if we side with them, we would be wrong, too! -

- If so, the answer must be to insist that Salah prove their innocence, then we stand on their side? - one of the advisors suggested, and it was quickly attacked by the other advisors.

- That still wonÆt go down well with the people. Remember, we are expelled from Salah, many of us. Now they demand we stand on their side? Even if they are truly innocent in terms of this accursed spell, I - and I speak for many others - cannot accept it. WeÆd rather go to war with Salah. -

- But war leads us to a lot more death, and thatÆs what weÆre trying to avoid. We shouldnÆt go to war and put our peopleÆs lives on the line, - another advisor said. - Our people are tired and are finally starting to rebuild their lives here. Do we want to throw them into the fire again? -

It was a tough choice for the New Freekans, so they couldnÆt come to a decision.

YEAR 76, MONTH 7

- Meela! -

- Alexis! -

The two girls jumped happily when AlexisÆs damaged soul finally received its first layer of repairs. I had to wait for my Forge Tree to recover and some of my energies to return before I could get down to the business of fixing her and waking her from her stasis. Like Meela, the damage her soul had taken was extensive, and it spoke of the incredible resilience of the heroic souls that with just a single layer of repairs, she was already able to speak.

The kind of damage was a mix between MeelaÆs and those of the princess who experimented with void magic, so I was more than able to repair quite a bit of the damage her soul suffered, but there was still some damage that needed different - colored soul forges to fix.

- I would hug you if I could. - Alexis shrugged, her soul now appearing in my soul realm after the repairs.

Meela laughed. - I donÆt think ethereal spirits can receive hugs. -

- Yeah. I feel a lot better after the tree fixed me. None of that crazy demon voice anymore. -

MeelaÆs soul bobbed happily.

- The demons have been reading my mind. -

Well, thatÆs a bombshell that came from nowhere.

- That means they know what I know. Of gods, of our technology, of. home. -

- Oh. - Nothing worse than the magic this world had to offer. Look at this world. They had nuclear blizzards.

- I doubt itÆs their first time. - Meela shrugged. - Heroes have been summoned to this world time and time again. IÆm pretty sure demons have captured heroes a few times before. -

Alexis sighed. - Well, thatÆs out. Feels good to finally say it. - It seemed to be a real sigh of relief, of a weight finally released from her shoulders. - Having my brain read all the time isnÆt a pleasant feeling. -

- Well, youÆre. sort of dead, so I doubt thatÆs any better? -

- IÆd rather be dead, honestly. IÆm really relieved that the tree spirit was able to defeat me. I initially feared being the vehicle for more of the demonÆs destruction. -

- Well, luckily, I have just the set of abilities to counter you, - I jumped in.

- Yes. Interesting set of. operations youÆre starting here, - Alexis mused.

- You like it? -

- ItÆs. not bad. - AlexisÆs spirit floated around.

- See, someone appreciates it for a change. -

Meela shrugged.

- Anyway, what spell did you use in the end? -

- Oh. itÆs a reduction - to - spiritual - form spell - something I learned from being stuck in the fireform for too long - since my body is disintegrating - and then a merge - self spell. -

- Merge? - ThatÆs when I realized Alexis might have tried to hijack my body.

- Yeah. I tried to merge with you, but your soul was far too strong, and instead, I got absorbed. -

- DonÆt do that ever again. -

- Ah. IÆm sorry. I just wanted to still somehow live. -

Anyway, I still had to figure out some alternatives, so I spoke to Wisp, separately. - Wisp, any way I can control what the souls do against me? -

- Well, in their soul form they have no ability to harm you - at least directly. They are, after all, souls that existed with your soul realm, and the soul realm is a contained other space. Once confined and merged into a vessel, their ability to harm you depends on the vessel. -

Hmm. lots to think about there.

- But there are safeguards you can perform, such as entering into a soul contract. Such an act would constrain their actions for the next thousand years. - Ah yes, I was an idiot, but I supposed I would have to, if I ever wanted to give them a vessel.

- ThereÆs a vessel already developing inside the pod, which the lady Alexis used. It seems to be a woman made out of wood, but it will be some time before it is ready. -

- How? - I mean, howÆd Alexis do that?

- Her spell managed to only take control of the pod, and so she used it to become a cocoon to grow herself a new body. But because her magic is decayed, the new body that is growing is now under your control. - I therefore took the opportunity to have a look at the body sheÆs growing - itÆs essentially a body made of wood. But the limbs and joints were all made of some kind of soft vine.

Hamadryad Body û Developing . The body is made from the nimble wood of a soul tree, and the soul that lives in this body derives energy and life support from the soul tree. So the body will die when the soul tree does.

Hmm, but at least this body aligned hers with mine, as she would die when I did. But then, she could just hop bodies, and she might still try to take over me, rather than become attached to me. For now, though, she was still in my soul realm, so I needed to take some precautions. She failed previously, but that was because her body and soul were in terrible shape. If she was in her best shape, might she succeed?

- Alexis. - I returned to the two ladies, who were happily chatting away.

- Yes, tree spirit? -

- Do you plan to stay in this world? Or do you plan to move on? - The soul realm was where souls prepared for their onward reincarnation after all. If she left, then my fears would be less.

- Ah. if what Meela tells me is right, I might see Nobuo in the next few weeks. TheyÆre a bit slow to catch up on such matters. IÆll see what he says first, but I think IÆll stay. -

Oh. That was a disappointment.

- Because the price of my failed attempt to merge with your body. is that my soul is now subordinated and shackled to you for a thousand years. -

Just to be sure, I checked.

Alexis

Status: Soul - contracted to Tree - Tree.

Ah, so the variant of her attempt to merge with me ended up backfiring and turning it into a soul contract. That was. rather weird.

So I went back and asked Wisp more questions.

- Can a body have two souls? -

- Maybe, but one is always the master. In your case, youÆre the soul tree, and youÆre the undisputed master of your own soul. The lady is reckless to have attempted to take over as master of your body. After all, there is nothing in the world that can remove a soul tree, one able to manipulate the souls of others, from its own body. -

- Nothing? -

- Nothing. Even a god canÆt touch a soul treeÆs soul until the soul tree dies, in which your soul then becomes any other soul. Think about it. How can a being able to repair, create, and upgrade souls lose control over their own body to another soul? The power to manipulate souls comes from the soul treeÆs innate structure, and to kick you out involves tampering with that innate structure. -

Hmm. - But you said earlier that she could harm me? -

- Well, yes. She could cast spells at you and physically attack you if she so desired. Both Meela and Alexis, if they were combined into a vessel, would be their own persons, and they could attack you if they choose to. But chasing you out of your own body is not one of the things they could ever do. -

Ah, I misunderstood a bit. I supposed that changed the type of precautions I would have to take.

Hmm.

YEAR 76, MONTH 7, WEEK 2

Everyone was busy doing farming, especially of the underground or indoor variety. Those that couldnÆt were busy hunting. It was going to enter the really cold months soon, and if the magic behind this snowstorm didnÆt weaken, it would just mean colder days ahead. So, although there was the threat of a re - escalation of the war between the three kingdoms, the people of New Freeka were just single - mindedly focused on preparing for more harsh winter.

It was really the only thing on most of the peopleÆs minds.

On my side, I did my part by growing potatoes. I mea . I could grow a lot of potatoes, so that was what IÆd do. And then there were those fruits of healing and warming fruits as well, which I got the elves to store in the secret hideout.

The elves purchased vinegar from the traders and used this to create pickled fruits, so these pickled fruits, kept in large wooden containers, were what they stored for winter. It seemed the effectiveness of the healing and warming reduced by half, but in exchange, we got much longer - lasting fruits that didnÆt rot so quickly.

By now, the valleyÆs damage from the fires was gone, but of the many trees destroyed, only twenty percent of them rejuvenated. After all, the weather was too cold for trees to grow.

It seemed there were actually a few groups of wizards attempting to dispel and weaken the blizzard; after all, for some wizards, this was a chance to level up, try to do something that few other wizards had done before. At the same time, they could earn brownie points with the rulers of the three kingdoms.

I hoped they were successful. This stupid winter had gone on for far too long.

- Fear not, Master. The winter research is going well, and once that is done, we will be able to regrow even more trees. - Trevor and Dimitree both tried to comfort me, but I still felt a bit annoyed.

Aside from that, my soul harvesters returned! I got a lot more souls. It seemed the winter was really killing a lot of people, so I had enough to create one more artificial soul. The only problem was I didnÆt have enough power for it.

YEAR 76, MONTH 8

Beetle winter adaptation stage I - completed!

Tree volcanic adaptation stage I - 1 month remains.

Tree winter adaptation aura - 1 month remains.

Ah, yes. My beetles could move now. After the first stage of beetle winter adaptation, I noticed the beetles now had some kind of internal - warming system, where there was some kind of warm sap pumped to their joints and limbs to keep them warm. However, the sap was only produced in the subsidiary trees - beetle nests, so they had to periodically return to the trees to restock on the saps.

This gave them an effective operational time in winter of about two hours, which wasnÆt that great, but at least they could now move and function in winter, which was a whole lot better than them sleeping in their nests!

I wondered. if this got taken to the extreme, would the beetles actually gain functional warm bloodûpumping hearts?

- Interesting stuff you have there. - Alexis was a lot nosier than I expected. She was extremely interested in the kinds of research and actions I was taking, and thanks to the repairs sheÆd gotten, she and Meela could now both be nosy.

Still, the fact that she tried to merge with me made me a little defensive around her.

- YouÆre feeling suspicious of me because of what I did before I died. And I can understand that, and I would like to apologize again. But let me be useful to you. After all, there are still many ways you can use me. -

Well, in this respect, Alexis actually wanted to be useful, but Meela just. seemed rather happy loitering around. But you know, this little incident did make me wonder how. loyal Meela would be. - Paranoid? - Meela chimed in.

- Yes. -

- But as long as we are in our soul form, we are stuck. Here, as souls, we have no ability to take action. But, if we are to earn your trust, you need to first take that first leap, to let us be of assistance to you. -

Well. Alexis was right there. Ah, it was a risk I had to take. All I could do was task my artificial souls with keeping an eye on them and use the existing spells and contracts to keep them under control. But for now, I would put that idea off.

The weather was experiencing some oddities. On one day, the weather suddenly got better, but then it got a whole lot worse the next day. I suspect itÆs the wizards trying to meddle with the magic of this snowstorm.

The New Freekans were still busy digging in, building large storage facilities to store the hunt, and they had even started curing meats so that they could be stored for longer. To be honest, this blizzard was proving to be a boon for them because they were developing more unique food - storage abilities, which would last them through future hardships.

Politically, they had yet to decide who to side with on the whole Salah ultimatum, and that had gotten them a rather stern warning letter from Salah, who insisted that they pick a side and do so soon - or else.

I turned my attention back on the elves.

- How are you feeling? - I asked.

- Better. -

I started work on Yura Æs wounds after the elves returned to the secret hideout. His wounds were mostly a whole lot of broken bones and a few burn marks. Bamboo, being wooden armor that protected his body, absorbed most of the damage from the explosion, but that meant Yura still had to deal with the fall damage.

- Good. - His burns were now fully healed, but what was left were the broken bones. The bones had fused together but were still in the healing process and would take some time before they regained their past strength.

I foresaw Yura should not join in any combat related activities for at least two months, or those repairs might break.

YEAR 76, MONTH 9

Tree volcanic adaptation stage I - complete!

Tree winter adaptation aura - complete!

Hell, yeah. My trees were growing in the muthafooking winter. With the completion of the winter adaptation aura, trees near me all gained some resistance to winter and were now able to grow in it.

This meant a return of growth!

This feeling of finally being able to grow after not growing for so long kinda felt like being able to taste food after losing your taste buds for weeks. Ah, how glorious it was to be able to grow after being stunted for so damned long.

At this point, I realized that I was somewhat of a growth addict. I really enjoyed watching another patch of snow - covered dirt produce a bunch of green shoots, which then transformed into a proper tree. And the central trees, those closer to me, were even able to feed energy back to me.

It was kinda like being sick for so long that you forgot what being healthy felt like, and now, woosh! Hell yeah.

Grow, grow, groww! !

- Is the tree always like this? - Alexis asked.

- I think heÆs gone a little crazy. - Meela shrugged. - But thatÆs normal. -

Also, there was still the volcano thing. The first stage of the upgrades meant my trees could now approach the volcanic area without dying, but I was still a distance away from the volcano itself. There was, however, a lake that was being warmed by the volcanoÆs magma, and since the valley did need some hot water, I placed a few subsidiary trees next to it and activated my heat transmission system. It was essentially a kind of root system that pushed the hot water from the heated lake to the valley.

Secret Hideout upgraded! Hot water now available.

Hot volcanic bath obtained!

Oh. Did I really have to go that cliched route of getting a damned onsen inside my own secret hideout?

Although there was some transmission loss, it was good enough that I could get the valleyÆs trees a bit warmer, too, so there was a bit of steam and mist now emerging in the valley as the hot water interacted with the cold weather above it.

YouÆve acquired the skill: Mist.

Oh.

- I like hot springs. - Alexis shrugged. - Now I want a physical body. -

- Me, too. I havenÆt had one in ages, - Meela also commented.

- Which one? The hot springs or the body? -

- Why not both? -

Were these two ladies going to commentate on all my actions and achievements?

- I find their banter amusing, Master. - Horns, too, had finally recovered from his injuries, and he too shared a bit of the winter upgrades, so like the other beetles, he had a sap in his body that acted as a heater. - Will they be useful? -

I shook my head and changed my train of thought. The main volcano itself was still farther in, and to get there I needed to work on my next stage of the volcanic adaptation research, which also involved getting more materials from the volcano.

Beetle winter adaptation stage II - 6 months remaining.

Volcanic adaptation stage II - 8 months remaining. Requires 200 x sulfur.

Tree winter adaptation stage II - 8 months remaining.

Ugh, the higher stages were going to take more time, or I would need to increase the number of biolabs working on them in the future.

- Assign me, - Alexis volunteered. - I volunteer to do research. -

Her dryad body was fully developed now, and if I wasnÆt mistaken, it was designed with herself as the template, and so it was going to make her a dryad, who then undertook research in the biolab. - IÆll think about it, - I replied.

- Oh, come on. You can cast spells on me if you want to keep watch. I wonÆt do strange stuff, I swear! - Alexis pleaded.

Hmm.

YEAR 76, MONTH 10

Oh, more growth. I loved growth.

This resurgence in growth was most keenly felt by the New Freekans, who were amazed to see the bigger trees sprout, even in this snow, and it applied to the potatoes as well. Thanks to my newfound powers, the potatoes produced daily increased to two thousand! Double! All because of the winter resistance!

I hid all my potatoes, using beetles as my carriers. There was really no need to let the New Freekans know there was a huge stockpile of potatoes underground.

This made me think of the poor chap so many years ago, the one who asked me for a healing fruit, but I couldnÆt give him one because I still didnÆt have winter adaptation back then.

Ah, well.

Speaking of which, when did the demon king die again? About three years ago? Was there going to be a ten - year gap again this time?

- Generally, ten years. -

- I wasnÆt asking you? -

- I know, but I wanted to answer it. -

She was being a bit of a smart alec and maybe a bit chunni.

- And I think itÆs important, - she continued. - When I was researching the ancient text, it seems the ten - year cycle is just a rule of thumb. There have been occasions where the demons choose to delay their invasion although the supposed time was up. -

That was a whole lot more long - winded than I thought it would be. But I supposed it would be useful to know, somehow.

- I still donÆt know why, though, and what exactly the otherworldly demons want. -

Huh. What do the demons want? DonÆt they just behave on instinct and act out their directive to kill all lives?

- I mean, so far, the demons from the other worlds canÆt be reasoned with, so we donÆt actually know what they want. unlike the local demons. - Oh, there were factions in the demons, too; well, when I thought about it, it figured, creatures of evil were not equally evil or evil in the same way.

Anyway, back to the growth thing. With the warm waters from the volcano, areas where the hot water was released turned into something of an oasis in the cold, and the area there was a little more fertile. The hot water was also mineral rich, so I noticed the potatoes I cultivated were a little larger and different in color.

- Actually, Master, if we use the minerals extracted by our roots and infuse them into the potatoes, we can achieve a similar effect. -

Yes, thanks for reminding me that I had a huge pile of minerals I didnÆt use while simultaneously hinting I was a dumbass. At the same time, maybe this was why I needed all these assistants. I was clearly not making the most of my resources and abilities.

YEAR 76, MONTH 10, CONTINUED

So.

Now that things were returning to normal for me - somewhat - my focus was on the volcano. The volcano was clearly of great interest to me as it generated so much heat and energy - something I would need for my valley.

But the next phase involved defeating the magma monsters that spawned near the volcano while protecting my trees. And from the initial skirmishes between the beetles and the magma monsters, they didnÆt fair too well at all. It took about five beetles to beat a single magma monster because the magma monsters were able to burn the beetles when they got near, and the beetles attacked by ramming the magma monsters with their horns.

So it was a bad matchup, really. That was one problem I needed to fix. I couldnÆt manually go in and use Root Strike on the magma monsters - okay, actually I could, but it was just that, if I did that personally, then I didnÆt have the time to do other stuff, so I needed the beetles or whatever solution I came up with to be able to act somewhat autonomously.

- Horns, any ideas? -

- Research fire - resistant protective shells and magical horns for more power! -

- ThatÆll take three and six months, respectively, Master, - Trevor added, giving the numbers. - And that would also delay our other research on further enhancements to the treeÆs resistances. -

- Ugh. - I wanted all the research. This felt like playing those games with huge tech trees, and you just wanted to choose all of the available options because in some ways, you did need them all. - Recommendations? -

- We could spread out our time on both, - Trevor and Dimitree said in unison, - but itÆll be a two - month delay for the other two projects. -

- No. I want them, too. -

So the next step was more forest minds, but clearly, I was limited in this aspect.

- Are you willing to consider my help, now? - Alexis spoke up.

IÆll think about it.

YEAR 76, MONTH 11

Winter! Well, it was rather comfortable this winter, thanks to the hot water piped in from the lake - and my new winter resistance aura.

The New Freekans were doing well, fortifying themselves, and they did manage to build up a large stockpile of food. It seemed their indecision led to Salah denouncing the truce, and now they even accused the New Freekans of collaborating with their enemies. So the truce was off!

But, even though the truce was off, it didnÆt descend into war directly. After all, Salah was still tied up in their conflict with Nung and Takde, and the winter also severely impaired their ability to wage any assault on New Freeka. It was actually a normality in the world, that war was declared but actual fighting didnÆt happen until sometime later, and for certain human nations, there were even rules of engagement that the rulers followed, or they found themselves having awarded cursed titles, for falling out of favor with the human war gods.

Gaya, apparently, was one such god that demanded certain rules of engagement: that battles were fought on open fields, each battle started with a commander leading the charge, there was clear publicly declared casus belli behind the conflict, and that a prayer was held before each large war.

Strangely enough, despite how restrictive it sounded, Gaya, as a god, participated rather directly in terms of larger conflicts, often granting commanders tremendous gifts. It was said that if heroes, the singular most powerful humans in the world failed, they would turn to the commanders of Gaya to defend the world, though, in reality, there was still a huge gap in their power. Gods in the world interacted with it in a few ways, namely through gifts, and there were rules around such gifts, that all gods followed, even the dark gods native to the world.

I partly learned this from Alexis because one of her first acts when coming to this world was actually figuring out how to go back, so she went head - on into books on gods, magic, and all that. But, of course, there were restrictions on going back, and one of those restrictions, placed by the million - headed hydra that watched over Earth, was that the souls returned clean. In short, they returned without their powers or memories, though they might still experience dreams that reminded them of their past lives.

So. back to war. The New Freekans were, of course, annoyed by the development, but knowing that SalahÆs engagement wouldnÆt happen soon, they decided to fortify themselves, to prepare for the coming conflict. Despite the cold winters, New FreekaÆs population was now a respectable thirty - five thousand, and so they had the ability to field close to thirteen thousand fighters in the battle, which was a decent fighting force.

Salah might easily have sent fifty thousand, perhaps even a hundred thousand, but they were a far larger state with more competing priorities, with their ongoing war with the Nung and Takde. So, unless Salah really provoked them, they might just let this little conflict carry on for a bit longer.

Yvon, though, was still trying to avoid war, so her negotiators instead focused on who was the real culprit of the Blood Blizzard, which, increasingly, was pointing toward the acts of a terrorist group that had infiltrated the senior army leadership of all three nations, in order to carry out such a large sacrifice.

In short, even if they did find who was behind this, the emerging fact still pointed to all three nations contributing to the blood blizzard, and none of the three nations would want to implicate themselves in the spell, so. the war was just going to go on.

So. too bad.

This week, I converted one of the large subsidiary trees into a training room at Lozanna Æs request. The weather outside was now far too cold for combat practice, so their sword - fighting practice headed indoors.

She was going to turn eight soon, and despite her earlier lack of talents, she somehow managed to pick it up. Perhaps through a combination of Dream Tutor and Power - leveling , she acquired sufficient sword fighting skills to have simple sparring sessions with Yura .

She had also started to gain levels. There seemed to be some kind of barrier preventing very young children from gaining levels, but this level barrier was inconsistent and varied across races. Out of curiosity, I had her dip into one of the biolabs, just to check on her. I had a theory previously that young childrenÆs spring - that connected their body to the soul and vice versa - wasnÆt yet fully mature, so that person was unable to gain levels. Prior to this, I didnÆt even have an assessment of Lozanna Æs estimated soul rank, but now I did.

My intuition was right. Indeed, her spring, the fountain that produced mana, now had a consistent shape. This raised a big set of questions, as in, what exactly influenced the size and shape of the fountain? I also had a few thoughts about this - one was whether all souls were the same, but there was some other thing that acted as the link between the soul and the body, and that then influenced a personÆs full potential - or, if the souls were different, then there should be a way to manipulate and change the qualities a soul had.

- Master, youÆre using my root - brain to augment your theories again. - Trevor grumbled. Ah yes, it seemed I sometimes unknowingly tapped into the processing power of the trees to think. But this had the effect of taking away processing power from Trevor, which then impaired his performance. I needed to think of the root - brain complex as a computer processor, and if I was using it, Trevor couldnÆt.

- I should have more root - brains. - It was logical, no? I came from a world of quad cores and more. It would be fascinating if I somehow stitched all these root brains together into some kind of collective super - brain, no?

Special project unlocked.

The Grand Mind Tree - significantly boosts tree - related research output and grants wider understanding of soul magic. Gains additional psychic - type magical abilities.

Requires 10 x root brain complexes and 1 ton of gold and 1 ton of quartz crystals. Once all prerequisites are complete, construction will take 1.5 years.

Ah. My own supercomputer. Well, kind of.

- Alexis, youÆre redundant if I get this. -

- Noo. - Alexis sighed, but then she paused. - But youÆre not going to get it soon. ItÆll still take time. So assign me to a biolab, please? YouÆre going to have to wait probably two to three years before you can achieve it. Maybe more. -

She was right. It was going to take a while. Construction of the root - brain complex itself required 10 x Blood Crystals and 50 x fresh animal heads, and so ten root brains meant a whole lot of blood crystals, and that meant money, which we probably didnÆt have.

- YouÆre right, Alexis. But I still donÆt really trust you, so IÆve decided that I will merge you with a biolab someday, but you will be watched and observed. -

- ThatÆs okay. IÆd rather tinker in the biological structure of trees and beetles than be stuck in this dark and dreary place. CanÆt you do something about how gloomy your soul realm is? A biolab it is then. -

- ItÆs a transit lounge for souls to reincarnate. ItÆs not helpful for it to be a pleasant place to be. I canÆt have too many souls not wanting to move on. - Well, to be fair, the souls only lingered around for six months to a year, and after that, they would move on. The soul realm, whether pleasant or not, had no influence in this.

I got sidetracked again. I mumbled to myself and resumed watching Lozanna . Her body was really young, after all sheÆs only seven turning eight, but the Dream Tutor had given her a rather varied set of skills, and so she was actually pretty versatile as a person.

She still wanted to be a hero, but lately she was starting to understand that there was a gap between herself and the true heroes that could change the world with their power, though somedays, she still believed she could stand up there. She would have to gain a lot more levels if she wanted to. Only with levels could she even think of standing up to a hero, one who was blessed by the heavens.

- Tree - Tree, do you have powers to you know. make me stronger? -

I did. The ginseng tree, and it granted a permanent boost. But the problem was that they just kept dying - usually after their first unlock. If I grew a ginseng tree inside me, maybe thatÆd work. It also didnÆt help that they died within two to three months in this cold weather, so I would have to wait until the wizards actually managed to weaken or dispel this cold weather before resuming my replanting of my three ginseng trees.

- I do, but youÆll have to wait. -

- Okay! IÆll need all the help I can get! - Lozanna raised her hand like a hurrah. - Uncle Yura says heroes are super, super strong, and IÆll need all the blessings the world can give me to be as strong as them. -

Hmm.

That was actually possible. Perhaps throughout the world there were various permanent blessings, similar to ginseng trees. If a person could gather enough of them, they could be as strong as the heroes.

- I think I should go on a journey someday, with Uncle Yura and Mom, to get those blessings. -

- ThatÆs a good idea, Lozanna . -

Yura had healed, but his bones still needed to fully recover. So he was just doing simple exercises and relying on Bamboo to provide training for Lozanna . Bamboo and Yura actually managed to achieve some kind of bond, and Bamboo now manifested itself as a flexible wooden arm for Yura , so Yura was back to being two - handed.

It was kind of like a prosthetic but with a summon. Quite a cool outcome actually; I frankly never thought of that. It wasnÆt as good as a real arm, of course, but as workarounds went, it was pretty good since Bamboo and Yura as a familiar had a mental link.

- Bamboo is due for an upgrade, too. - Yes, so was Horns.

- I think IÆll go on a journey when I turn fifteen. ThatÆs when they say weÆre old enough to start traveling. Then Uncle Yura can go with me. -

I nodded. Lozanna talked to me a lot, and that meant she listened to my thoughts about the future. Strangely, I thought this meant IÆd influenced her to think about what she wanted to do, unlike the rest of them who tended to look at things on a shorter time frame.

- How are Brislah and Walen doing? -

- TheyÆre working in New Freeka. I think Brislah Æs working in a shop selling potato breads. -

- Ah. - WasnÆt she doing something else? Ah well. Not everyone had ambitions of the grand kind, and that wasnÆt a fault.

- Walen Æs working in the treasurerÆs office as an administrator. HeÆs learning how to read and write, too. -

Literacy. It was mix and match in this world. Most of the time they were taught by a village elder in the small villages, and to some extent literacy was a valuable skill, useful in government matters and trade. Some cultures had stronger emphasis on reading, some less. Elves surprisingly didnÆt place much emphasis on writing and reading, as their long lives tended to mean they would just pick it up over the years. They also seemed to favor oral traditions, having an appointed old one in every village to remember the traditions and ceremonies - certain subtleties that the written word couldnÆt capture.

- I should learn to read and write, too. A hero must be smart! -

- Knowing how to read doesnÆt make you smart, Lozanna . -

- DoesnÆt it? But at least IÆm not stupid! -

- Not knowing how to read doesnÆt make you stupid. -

- Less stupid, - she mumbled. - I can work if I know to how to read and write. Good for traveling. -

- Good point. - Writers were useful. They were often paid to write letters and messages. Some writers doubled up as messengers, and sort of mailmen, and this was usually a relatively good way to gain admission into a merchant association or guild. - Ever thought of being a merchant? ThatÆs a good way to travel the world without involving yourself in too much fighting. -

- A hero as a merchant? - Lozanna slumped, but then she actually thought about it.

- Yeah. Why canÆt heroes be merchants? -

She was seriously thinking about it.

To be fair, I hadnÆt heard of a merchant hero before. Their neutrality kind of made it hard for them to play the role of a hero - someone who had to take a side.

- Lozanna , rest timeÆs up. Practice, - Yura called, and he picked up a wooden practice sword and shield. Thanks to BambooÆs augmented limb, he could now teach Lozanna the standard sword and shield method of fighting.

- A hero as a merchant. - It was still on her mind, but then she stood and rejoined Yura in the middle of the training - tree. Essentially, it was a large empty room in a tree.

As Yura and Lozanna resumed their regular practice, I turned my attention to the volcanic area once more. Some of the magma monsters were getting a little bit aggressive, and I had to periodically kill them to protect the subsidiary trees located nearby.

The volcano was an active volcano, its caldera partly blown apart, so there was a part where there was liquid lava flowing out. As was the norm in the world, this led to magma monsters spawning, and from what the beetles had seen farther inside, there were larger magma monsters closer to the caldera.

So far, they were territorial, so they didnÆt seem to attack us if we didnÆt approach.

- Master, it is time I got an upgrade, - Horns suggested. He was fully recovered now, so he was due for an upgrade since he capped out at level twenty earlier. Bamboo, too, so I took the chance to review their upgrade requirements.

Horns, Level 20 Beetle Knight

Upgrade options available:

Blue - Baron Beetle - 5 x blue crystals, 30 x almost - complete skeleton of a large animal.

Gains commander effects, which grants nearby beetles increased abilities.

Black - Beetle Dark Knight - 10 x obsidian rocks, 20 x large claws.

Gains combat skills.

Bamboo, Level 20 Woodbear Eidolon

Upgrade options available:

Blue - Armor path - 50 small copper ingots & 5 medium red rubies needed.

Gains defensive abilities.

Black - Claw path - 50 small iron ingots & 5 medium onyx needed.

Gains offensive abilities.

Trevor, Level 27 Forest Mind

Will be unlocked at level 30.

Black - Skull Shell - 10 x Bone of a wyvern, 1 x heart of a lion, and 50 x Bones of a lizard.

Gains a ghostly projection.

All these upgrades imposed a lot of resource requirements. So I would need more resources.

- You require more minerals, - Dimitree chimed in, with his Russian accent. It reminded me of a wraith. Or was that a terran goliath?

Ah, yes. - YouÆve been taking in a few too many of my game references. -

- Ah, whatever. If I want these resources, IÆll get them from New Freeka. -

- The tree spirit demands what? -

The advisors look concerned when Yvon shared my resource demands with the rest of her council.

- Blood crystals, gold, quartz crystals, copper and iron ingots, rubies, onyx, and blue crystals, - Yvon repeated, but she clearly understood their concern.

One of YvonÆs closest advisors then clarified, - ItÆs more of a. request than a demand, right? -

Yvon shrugged. - IÆm not too sure if I understand the tree spirit correctly, but I think it sounds more like a demand than a. request. -

- Should we? - One of the advisors looked really worried. - It feels a bit like extortion. -

- I believe most of you have seen the tree spiritÆs combat abilities, and itÆs incredible abilities throughout this valley. The recent hot water spring around the tree of prayer is a recent addition. -

- ItÆs hard, though. Those goods are not regular stuff. They are jewels or crystals. I mean, even the cheapest of those are the blood crystals and the quartz. The treeÆs asking for a lot. -

- Well, the recent burst in natural growth and the hot water in the valley helped us a lot, too. -

It quickly seemed clear that it was divided into two camps - one who thought that my demands were reasonable given my assistance to their survival, and then a bunch who thought it was excessive, and they should only give what they could manage.

Yvon mostly stayed out of it, asking the council to decide as her soul was contracted to me. She said she wasnÆt a neutral party to the decision.

Of course, from my point of view, I knew that these people need a bit of. encouragement.

So I decided to withdraw all the hot water piping into New Freeka, and so in this cold month, they had a really cold week. After that week, they met up again and agreed that it was best not to offend me, so they decided to support my demands. Between Salah and me, they decided to be on my good side.

YEAR 76, MONTH 12

Monsters slain. YouÆve gained a level. Level 129!

YouÆve gained a new skill: Training Treehouse.

Training treehouse improves experience gain, skill gain chances, and reduces injuries significantly.

Uh. This sounded like an extension of my training room. Seriously, this system leaned heavily toward the nurturing, growing side of things, really sparingly granting me offensive abilities.

I supposed that if I wanted to work around the tree, I needed to think like the system. If I was designing a system for a tree, what would I think about?

My suspicions were that a system in which a soul tree was at the center, focused on a few core principles. Again, this was just a theory that I had, based on my experiences so far.

Grow, nurture, and endure.Æ

This was the first, core principle with any tree. The logical driver behind any tree was to grow, to expand, and so I should get a wide range of abilities that promoted growth and allowed me to endure a wide variety of damage and still recover. With it, I would need the ability to support young things and also build an ecosystem with the tree as the foundation.

Enhance and adapt.Æ

A tree that expanded would need to adapt to various environments and react to the challenges that were unique to this world. This was the evolutionary, research side of what I suspected was a natural inclination. If trees were unable to react in a world where magic was native, then trees would quickly go extinct. So I believed the trees in this magical world had natural adaptational abilities superior to that of our world, and the system supported them.

Then there was the Soul abilities, which arose as a soul tree. These were not natural tree abilities, but they existed because I was a soul - related kind of entity, and so the system had to grant me abilities that were natural for a soul - tree to have.

Thinking along those lines, if I intended on getting more offensive abilities, it would grow as a result of working toward more enhancement and adaptation as a result of a tree being forced to defend itself.

In other words, to game the system to give me offensive abilities, I must put myself into a situation where self - defense was a required adaptation.

Now how did I go about doing that.

.

.

Never mind. I quickly upgraded that empty training room into this training treehouse so that Lozanna could benefit from it.

Oh, and I tested out those carnivorous plants that I got.

They functioned more like traps, really, and they sprang out to eat anything about the size of a wolf. This was pretty good, but the drawback was that the digestive period was quite long, so essentially, if a huge swarm of demon hounds came along, theyÆd be full very quickly.

So useful under certain circumstances, but its use in a large - scale combat situation was probably limited.

If anything, what I would need was a fire - breathing tree. Imagine it. If a tree could breathe fire, or even poison, that would be pretty useful. And such options were indeed available on my research options.

Being frustrated at how slow my research was, I eventually decided to take a chance on Alexis.

- If you try anything funny, I will kill you, - I warned.

- Understood, but I am soul - contracted to you, so donÆt worry about it. WeÆre aligned, trust me. -

- I canÆt, but IÆll give you the opportunity to prove me wrong. -

I initially would have preferred Meela, but the soul - contract was an additional layer of protection I had, so after some thinking, it was actually better to use Alexis first. If Meela had gone rogue, I might find that I had fewer means to retaliate.

Initiating soul forge.

Combining Alexis with an external biolab.

Combining.

A bolt of thunder struck the forge tree, and from it emerged a glowing blue seed. It was as large as a dog, and it floated over to the external biolab IÆd chosen, embedding itself in it.

Alexis has successfully merged with an external biolab!

Alexis is now a laboratory spirit, level 1.

- Oh, wow, - she mumbled before manifesting herself as a glowing blue ghost inside the laboratory. - ThereÆs so much data. So much. data. -

- Uh. -

- IÆm fine. IÆm fine! This is amazing. - She seemed to be looking at some kind of interface, tapping into my stored records of all the biolab scans I had done in the past, including herself. - Even my own records are here. IÆve never realized what youÆd been looking at! -

At this point, I decided to just observe her for a while.

- This is amazing. -

The external biolab that she now possessed, and was a part of her, was actually a tree with a hollow interior, filled with pods and various equipment for testing. It had a transportation system, in which a beetle delivered any of its required materials for research.

- Your visual way of representing the soul and the body - mind connection is incredible. IÆve read books on the theoretical basis of magic, and how the souls interact with the body, but this. this is mind - blowing. ItÆs amazing how intuitive it is, representing it as a spring and a field that spring nourishes. All those magical theory books make life difficult by overcomplicating the terminology and using difficult to understand words. This. This is concise! -

Oh. Okay. SheÆs really dived into the deep end. I honestly didnÆt think of it as that. unique, but I supposed humans with no access to the biolab would find it that way.

- Alexis, are you okay? - Meela asked, sounding a little concerned.

- Oh, more than okay. This is amazing. This is exactly what I was trying to find when I was trying to research magic! You should see this. -

- You know I donÆt like that kind of stuff. - Meela shrugged.

- Ah yes, but IÆm fine. IÆm really fine. -

Meela sighed. - I sometimes forget how much of a nerd you can be. -

- Hey! - Alexis floated and looked at other stuff. - The representation of the demonÆs presence as a parched fire with a dried field is also fascinating. It seems to imply the demonic energies are antithesis to our own, and it opens up so many options on how we can counteract their presence. WhatÆs this, a data set on our star mana and those floating vases pouring out star mana? Holy cow, this is like. mind - blowing, too! What else do you have! - Alexis was constantly floating about the biolab, looking at more and more of the interfaces.

Meela turned to me. - When she reads a great book, she canÆt stop talking about it. I think sheÆs in that phase again. -

- Meela! Seriously! This information can advance magic research by decades! -

At this point, I decided to cut in. - Alexis, your task is to research the beetles and the countermeasures necessary to conquer the volcano. DonÆt get sidetracked. -

- Ah yes, yes. But can you give me a week. Let me just have a look at this huge pile of data you have. IÆm sure thereÆs some other amazing stuff in here. -

- No. I will not tolerate disobedience on your first day as a biolab spirit. Get to work. -

She sighed and then nodded. - Okay, okay. IÆll do it, but give me daily free time, all right? I work eight hours a day, all right? The remaining hours are mine for rest and my own activities. I really want to look at all this data! -

- Twelve hours. And you will be monitored. -

- Ah fine. I know. - She then gained a level. Although her godÆs blessing was lost when she died, she still retained quite a few perks, one of which was the experience perk.

Beetle winter adaptation stage II - 4 months remaining.

Volcanic adaptation stage II - 6 months remaining.

Tree winter adaptation stage II - 6 months remaining.

Beetle volcanic battleform - 3 months remaining (may complete earlier).

Beetle volcanic defensive armors - 2 months remaining (may complete earlier).

On the New Freeka front, they received an envoy from Nung and Takde. It seemed that Nung and Takde now wanted to aid New Freeka in their resistance against Salah, but the person sent by Nung was slimy beyond belief, so Yvon and the advisors found it hard to agree with them.

There were no good guys in this war between the three nations. All of them had their own goals, and all three wanted a piece of each other, though Nung and Takde were now allies as a result of their mutual enemy.

Under other circumstances, they would probably attack each other.

So, once again, New FreekaÆs council couldnÆt decide. They didnÆt really want to turn down their aid, but at the same time, these two nations werenÆt the most upstanding and honest of nations. One of the key skills a leader needed to have was the ability to decide. Sometimes picking a choice was more important than evaluating which one was right. But YvonÆs style seemed to be more concerned on what was right. She had a need to be morally correct - at least from her perspective - and that clouded her ability to sometimes make tough, probably cruel decisions.

Ah, well.

YEAR 77, MONTH 1

A new year began. It was still as cold as ever, though - not like the wizards had gotten to the point of weakening it yet. There was still a fluctuation in the coldness, so I supposed whoever they sent to undo that cursed spell was still tinkering with it.

That little moment with Alexis and the whole database of my past research brought up a point about my data access rules. As a tree, I shared the information freely with my artificial souls, and all the biolabs, so it initially seemed natural for me to do the same. In fact, I didnÆt even think about this data security issue until Alexis did what she did.

But I guessed that now it was a bit too late. Oh, well. She was doing all right as a research spirit anyway.

- I think IÆm near a breakthrough, - Alexis mumbled. - I think IÆve figured this thing whole lab work thing out. All IÆve got to do is press some buttons and the lab itself will just keep trying different combinations of materials to change stuff. -

She was already level ten as a lab spirit. It was rather unfair how these hero - reincarnators still retained some of their perks, even after death.

Alexis floated over a few beetles, each in a clear pod with a light green liquid, kind of like how most people imagined large, glass preservation cylinders to look. The lab itself did most of the work, as in making changes to the beetles that it experimented on and then producing the results for Alexis to interpret. The length of the research essentially was an automated number crunching exercise, derived from an estimate of X percentage likelihood of a favorable outcome divided by time taken per test per biolab.

In a way, since we were on the security topic, it was really like a machine trying to break a password by trying to key in a combination.

Therefore, by adding Alexis, a sentient mind of the mix, she could look at the data and make educated guesses, which narrowed down the options the biolab had to crunch, so we were more likely to make progress on a research topic.

So, when a biolab was tasked to research volcanic endurance, it would try different combinations of trees and then see what worked. As such, my own guess was that providing the correct environment, and sufficient resources, would actually enhance the research output of the external biolabs.

- ItÆs a lot more mechanical than I thought it would be. ItÆs really all about looking at all the output and datasets and just deciding where to go as a next step, and the biolab just does it for you. most of the time. - Alexis frowned. Now that she was a spirit confined in the biolab and its immediate surroundings, people could see her, and they saw her as a blue apparition that haunted the biolab.

- What are some of those words. - Meela frowned.

- Mumbo - jumbo. - Alexis laughed. - Really, just talking about research results and choosing whatÆs more likely to work based on the testing results. I know you understand it. DonÆt act dumb. -

- No, no. - Meela sighed.

- YouÆre just trying to avoid my fate of being made into a research spirit, arenÆt ya? It isnÆt so bad, actually. I get to float around and look outside of the tree. Have you noticed how starry it gets at night? -

Meela didnÆt answer.

- The moons are gorgeous at night, and one of them never truly turns dark. And I think the other oneÆs on some kind of three - month cycle, instead of the one month weÆre so used to. -

Well. the moons were different after all.

- Meela, seriously. Take a leap, do something, see the world with me. Again. DonÆt just hide there in the comfort of Tree - TreeÆs soul realm. -

- No. -

Alexis paused, and then she floated up to the top of the biolab tree. She sat on one of the branches and looked out. - Well, the sunriseÆs going to be gorgeous. - There were some things I couldnÆt see, given the limitations of my tree vision. And what I couldnÆt see, those in my soul realm couldnÆt see, either.

I too wished to see how the sunrise truly looked, instead of an augmented version pieced together by the collective data formed through Trevor and DimitreeÆs gathered sensors and receptors throughout the valley.

Maybe I should actually have. eyes.

Eye - Tree Stage I research option unlocked - 24 months needed.

Whoa. The word itself was kind of scary, and I tried to imagine myself as a tree with eyes. No matter how I did it, it still came out as a little freaky - probably the kind of stuff that belonged in a Lovecraftian epic.

Heh. Why didnÆt I just give myself the eye tree? I supposed certain kinds of abilities now had to go through research. I was a bit confused actually. Did the system actually have a way of saying what I could research or what I could get through my skills?

There were discussions that said leveling granted skills on a random basis. Essentially, there was a big pool with skills in it, where skills you were more likely to get had a higher probability, and then you essentially drew. Research was what happened when you failed to draw the skill you wanted, and as a consolation, you could still work toward the skill. Perhaps?

Anyway. These were mysteries of the system. For all I knew, it was just one person dare deciding what to give me, and what not to, just rolling a die every now and then for the fun of it.

YEAR 77, MONTH 2

Strangely, I assumed the wizards succeeded. On the eve of the second month, a strange lack of cold swept through the land, and the cold didnÆt come back.

- ItÆs probably just a reduction, not a complete removal, - Trevor spoke. - We can still faintly detect the presence of the spell, just. in much smaller amounts. -

- Huh. -

- Probably a reduction in the power of the spellÆs effects, so the valley being so far away experienced a significant improvement. -

- You know, if you have a lab that focuses on magic, you could find out. - Alexis said, butting herself in.

- ItÆs a biolab, with magical sensors that focus on living things. ItÆs not a magic lab. -

- Okay, but why not make a magic lab? It will help since there are so many magical unknowns out there. -

- ItÆs not as if I desire for a magic lab, then I will get a magic lab. -

- Research? - Alexis tapped a few screens in the biolab.

Alexis floated into the middle of the lab and used a skill, Research Planner .

- WeÆll need to first unlock material testing, then materials lab, then into magic - attunement, and then into magic - sensitive equipment, and then a basic magic lab. Probably about a year and a halfÆs worth of research. But youÆll get a material lab within six months! -

IÆm thinking.

- What do you say? I think itÆs a good idea! -

IÆm thinking.

- After your volcano research. I want to be able to secure the volcano first. -

- Aww, man, come on. I think magic can help you fix the volcano problem, too. -

- No. Biological solutions first. I have Horns to help me manage the beetles if I can get those upgrades. -

Alexis sighed. - Okay. - She pouted and went back into her biolab - tree. Somewhat unnervingly, this biolab - tree derived its energy from Alexis, not me, and so it gained new equipment and abilities as and when Alexis leveled.

Alexis was now level fourteen, and her most recent skill was Probability Charts , which produced an estimated likelihood of outcomes for a test before actually going for it. In short, her skill simulated testing, a bit.

Her biolab - tree had a small chamber that functioned as her personal room, where there was a bed that actually interacted with her spiritual form, so she could sleep. Actually, the entire biolab - tree seemed to be able to react to her as if she was a solid, real person, and at the same time, she could switch it off, and then pass through things.

Alexis went back to her room and decided to take a nap instead. Maybe she wasnÆt that happy with my decision.

Anyway, now that the snowing stopped, it was a great chance for me to boost my growth!

GROW!

Expand!

My tree instincts were driving me a little crazy.

EXPAND! !

Yeah.

So we had more trees. After losing close to seven thousand trees to AlexisÆs demonfire, thanks to this monthÆs returning warmth, and my newfound winter resistance, we were back up by three - and - a - half thousand trees. So yes, more trees. MORE. TREES.

The trees were also now starting to feed energy and resources back into the Tuberous Storage .

Tuberous storage upgraded.

High density tubers unlocked. Tubers will be naturally upgraded.

Oh. Yay? They stored two units of energy now.

Back to expanding. and food!

And so I decided to try my luck with the damned ginseng tree . again.

- Alexis, can you also keep watch? - The ginseng treeÆs right next to the biolab, with a lot of beetles and web spiders protecting them.

She covered her head with a pillow. - DidnÆt hear you. -

I knew she did, and I knew she would - because her soul - contract compelled her to.

Anyway, the New Freekans were happy. Warmth meant a return to regular farming, stockpiling, and less burning through their stockpiles.

Yet it was also bittersweet because the opportunity for Salah to now attack them was returning. The winter sort of gave New Freeka a natural terrain deterrent from war. Even in a world of magic, not everything ran on magic, and so the terrain still had a huge influence on logistics, resources, and even petty things like warm clothing and all.

The council decides to reject the Nung and Takde offer, as they decided to state that they had no claim in this war and would prefer to stay out of it. It was a way of not pissing off Salah too much, as this gesture would suggest that New Freeka was genuine in not participating in any conflict.

- If Baroosh were to endorse New FreekaÆs independence, do you think thatÆd go well? - One of YvonÆs councilors was speaking to the exiled wizard of Baroosh. They seemed to be rather close acquaintances, perhaps, even friends.

- Knowing my king, I doubt thatÆll ever happen. He has never endorsed or supported any allied nations, especially one as far away as New Freeka. He is not a man of many friends, and he believes each nation should stand on their own strength. -

- Ah. -

- But I suppose you could convince some of the lords to lend some assistance from their private armies. The fiefdoms themselves act mostly independently of the king, anyway. -

The councilor nodded. - Ah. IÆll need to get this message to the trading corps. LetÆs start with a trade. -

- ThatÆs a good idea. By the way, I heard about the tree spiritÆs demands. -

- Yeah. ItÆs kind of extortion, isnÆt it? -

- I donÆt see it that way. Strangely enough, I now come to view the tree spirit as the guardian beast of this valley, and supporting it is probably the best insurance you can get against Salah. -

- Really? You think the tree spirit is willing to step in? From what I hear from Lady Yvon, the tree spirit is flighty, inconsistent, and acts rather irrationally at times. -

- Such are beings of another plane. Their minds are. different. -

- True. CanÆt expect it to think like we do. -

- And I doubt it ever will. Its concerns are different, and my view is, New Freeka best align itself to the tree spiritÆs desires. I think from the fire - demon encounter alone, the tree spirit demonstrates far greater destructive power than it usually lets on. -

- Hmm. Some of the councilors will find that a hard pill to swallow since we are supposed to be an independent state, not a puppet of a tree - spirit. -

- Convince them not to see it that way. Think of the tree - spirit as a potentially friendly dragon. It has its own thing going, generally lets you do what you want, and if you make it happy enough, it can sometimes help you. Perhaps get the treefolk chieftains to speak to them. They revere the tree spirit after all, as their deity of some kind. -

- ItÆll just sound like preaching. The other councilors will hate it. Maybe you should speak to them. -

- You know well enough that they look at me with the same eyes of suspicion. I am an exiled wizard from another country. What weight do my words carry? -

The councilor sighed. - There must be another way. -

- Maybe you donÆt actually need to give the tree spirit actual jewels, you know. -

- Huh? -

- ItÆs a tree spirit, right? Perhaps all it wants is a nearby location that contains those jewels, even if itÆs hidden or buried under mountains of dirt and rock. Or, maybe, it doesnÆt even need it in the processed, polished form we are so familiar with. I highly doubt it wants it for the same reason as our nobles and royals do. Maybe it just wants raw. jewels - so be it if itÆs mixed with rocks and whatnot. -

The councilor rubbed her chin. - ThatÆs actually a good point and worth clarifying with the tree spirit. WeÆve gotten so used to nobleÆs expectations to have jewels in a certain condition that I didnÆt think that a tree may not need it in a similar. state. -

Certainly, raw, unprocessed gems were worth far less than processed ones, which needed special equipment and skilled gem craftsmen.

- Yes. Tell Lady Yvon we would require more information. If we can glean an understanding of the tree spiritÆs intent, we can act accordingly. -

YEAR 77, MONTH 3

- This room is awesome. - Lozanna jumped. Apparently, she had leveled up.

- Indeed. - Yura nodded, holding a set of wooden weapons. - The passives to your training remind me of the effects of a skilled military drillmaster. Such rooms would be useful in preparation for any war. -

Lozanna blocked the wooden sword. She was gradually getting better at all the combat skills Yura was passing on to her, and Yura Æs complaints had been getting fewer. It seemed the term late bloomer was real, or perhaps it was just the influence of Dream Tutor , constantly feeding the combat - skills to her.

They practiced for about two hours. - All right, enough for now. How are you feeling? -

- Sore! - Lozanna talked about her muscles aching from all the blocking. Yura was pulling his punches, after all Lozanna had only just turned eight, so her physique wasnÆt comparable to Yura Æs, who had years and years of training and the body of an adult. Lozanna was at least ten years away from her body standing up to Yura at full strength.

Yura passed her an ointment made of preserved healing fruits. LaufenÆs experiments in preserving the healing fruits granted her some basic ointment - making skills, as it seemed the juice from the healing fruits mixed with the vinegar to form some kind of basic pain - relieving liquid. It wasnÆt a potion, though.

Lozanna sat on one of the chairs in the training room and applied the ointment to her sore joints.

- I expected to find you here. - Laufen walked through the door.

- Hi, Mom. Just finished practice. -

- I spoke to some of the merchants in town, and I found out thereÆs a proper teacher for Elvish writing. Do you want to go? -

Lozanna nodded. - Oh, really. Good. Can he come here? This training room has training boosts. Maybe I will learn better here. -

- IÆll ask the teacher about it. Anyway, come, we need to go work on the olives now that weÆre finally getting some fresh batches. -

- Aww, man. - Lozanna pouted.

Yura pushed her along, making hand motions, chasing her away.

Next stop, Volcania. Okay I came up with that name, but the volcano area was a mouthful, so I decided on Volcania.

Volcano research was complete, so I tasked Alexis with researching more volcano - related countermeasures.

Beetle winter adaptation stage II - 1 month remaining.

Volcanic adaptation stage II - 3 months remaining.

Tree winter adaptation stage II - 3 months remaining.

Beetle volcanic battleform - complete!

Beetle volcanic defensive armors - complete!

Beetle - anti - magma weaponry - 3 months remaining.

Beetle - basic magical lances - 6 months remaining.

With the completed research, the beetles near Volcania gained a special armor, and their head changed significantly, such that it was enveloped in the new special armor. With these changes, three beetles could take on a single magma monster.

So, with the improved status, the beetles attempted to head farther, closer to the volcano, and find a bit more information about the inner volcano.

They failed.

Too many magma monsters.

Undeterred, I created more subsidiary trees, all designed as beetle - nests. Each beetle - nest housed five beetles, and with an additional thirty subsidiary trees, I sent the larger beetle army into the volcano.

And still they failed because there were just way too many of those magma monsters inside.

Fine. If it was a game of numbers, I was a tree - spirit with the ability to spawn multiple subsidiary trees.

So I spawned another seventy of them.

Subsidiary tree limit increased to 1,500.

Hell, yeah. Power to the tree swarm. I was an invasive species of trees about to take over this volcano!

- Horns, you take command of the beetles and do some recon, all right? -

- Got it, boss. -

Over the next few days, Horns mounted several expeditions into the inner volcano area, only to encounter stiff resistance from large swarms of magma monsters. It seemed that the inner volcano area was crawling with giant magma monsters, large enough to be buildings on their own. Magma golems.

If not for their lack of horns, they would actually look somewhat demonic.

- We canÆt get past the magma golems. They are far too powerful. -

- I see. - It seemed the upgrades were still insufficient to take on the larger monsters. So I would have to wait for more upgrades.

- If Alexis could do some research. -

- I am already doing that. -

- Ah, yes. -

- ItÆll take time, even with my skills. - Well, she wasnÆt lying, and I foresaw materials being my next bottleneck, higher - tier research required exotic materials, which would be harder to get.

An expansionary approach was necessary, at least to secure additional materials that I would need. My current Root Extraction , Mineral Refining , and Essence Harvesters reactivated now that I no longer had to be in winter mode, and they were producing iron, copper, and a few other commonly found materials, and for essences, the common ones. The nightmare and soul harvesters brought me two experience seeds, so I had a total of three now. It seemed this was an incredible rarity, a gift that even kings desired. A fruit that guaranteed a level? That was worth a ton. It was something I should use to make a trade someday, for something of equally great value.

- I wonder whether I can detect the demon kingÆs coming, - Alexis mused, tinkering with the lab. - You sure you donÆt want magic labs? And sensors? -

- You still hung up about that? -

- Yes! There are so many things I want to know. Can we reliably predict the demon kingÆs arrival? Is there a magical fluctuation in the world that we can pin on? What are the kinds of magic that create the demon rifts? DonÆt you ask yourself those questions? -

- I do, but my priority is the volcano. -

- Why? -

- Because it is a volcano. I want to expand there. I want to gain the volcanoÆs powers. My instinct tells me a volcano, as a natural force of nature, is similar to a ley line. -

- Okay, that makes sense. - Alexis paused and then floated onto some branches. Her biolab grew over the month, adding another branch that housed more pods, smaller ones, which were used to run smaller experiments, which then helped to speed up the entire research process.

- I mean, thatÆs what I think. My gut feeling is there are natural energies in the ley line, magic of the world, and perhaps I need to find a way to tap into it. Gain new research. Perhaps its raw form is not so easily accessed as a ley line, but it is a kind of native ley line. So I want it. Happy? Will you help? -

- Huh. - Alexis paused, and I assumed she bought my explanation. - So you want some kind of permanent establishment on the volcano, which allows you to tap into its strength like some geothermal power plant? -

- Yes. - Well, yeah.

- At least I now understand your obsession with the volcano. And I see why it takes priority over magic. sensors. -

- Good. - I was a tree spirit, and gaining more powers for my Soul Forge was logical. I could even say it was something that drove me.

Research planning.

- Ah. -

- I checked. It wasnÆt clear yet. I couldnÆt see a clear path to it, but having magma tolerant roots , tremor resistance , and natural energy harvesters seemed like the few basic precursors to collecting energy from volcanoes. What else you needed. well, it was still unclear. -

- ThatÆs a good start. We can start work on that after we are able to reliably expand and hold a position on the volcano. We are in this for the long haul. -

- Still, youÆre not worried a demon king might pop up and ruin your project? I think heÆs about. what, five or six years away? The first of the rifts should open within the next few years. -

- I am betting on the chance that he spawns on some other continent. Demon kings donÆt always appear in the same place. -

- Then? -

- The heroes will come along and save the day. As they always do. I hope. -

Alexis sighed. - I guess you have a point. Even heroes are just gears in this system. One that just keeps on churning. So much for. heroes. -

- I think heroes are a stopgap measure to solve the demon king problem. - Well, thatÆs how I saw it. Maybe the gods hoped some heroes became so powerful that they could beat multiple generations of demon kings, but so far, that had not happened. The best was a generation of heroes surviving three demon kings, according to YvonÆs knowledge of history.

- Has it always been this way? - I asked.

- Ask the gods. - I mean, thatÆs really the way, right?

- They donÆt say shit. The reincarnation gods know nothing about the history of this world. All they know is the gods of this world ask for reincarnators, and their job is to give them to it. -

- WhatÆs in it for the gods? WhatÆs their stake in keeping the world this way? CanÆt gods just snap a finger and make things go back? - My personal guess was that they couldnÆt. Perhaps their abilities of intervention were. limited. So they resorted to heroes.

- I have no idea. -

YEAR 77, MONTH 4

I was level 129 a few months ago. When was I going to get the next one?

I decided to go to the volcano and Root Strike a lot of magma monsters. However, it proved to be less effective than I thought it would be.

I mean, they still destroyed the magma monsters in a single hit, but near a golem, it still took easily fifteen shots of the Root Strike to kill it.

And that was way too much.

I wondered whether it was because of my super effectiveness against demons, so I previously didnÆt feel my Root Strike s were that weak, or if it was that these magma golems had a special defense against Root Strike s. Might just be a passive that went, - Reduce damage from nature or tree - based sources by fifty percent. -

Or perhaps it was some pierce damage reduction.Æ

Or perhaps I was really just weak.

- You know. rather than constantly theorize about what exactly the problem was, you could just consider using Inspect ? - Meela suggested. - ThatÆs what Alexis would do. -

I paused.

I felt like an idiot.

Idiotree.

I mean, it was seriously basic, no? Use inspect on monsters. I even had the inspect skill.

Had I been a tree for too long that I forgot such basic monster hunting. basics?

Did I lose common sense somewhere along the way?

YEAR 77, MONTH 4 (CONTINUED)

Inspect

Dammit.

The magma golems had pierce resistance, nature element reduction, and physical damage reduction. So all those skills together meant my Root Strike was less effective than it would be on any other monster.

Less effective, but still, fifteen Root Strike s.

Okay, actually any other monster of a similar tier would have skills and passives that provided a similar level of resistance. It was how higher - tier monsters, just like how higher - level people, were exponentially stronger because of the cumulative effects of stacking different abilities.

So any other monster of such a tier would be just as difficult, in their own way.

- So. -

- Research more weapons, of course. -

- Might I suggest killing the golems anyway? - Horns butted in. - You know. Because they killed so many beetles, I would like to see them die. -

Ah.

- I would like to have vengeance, Master. -

When did he learn the concept of vengeance anyway?

- You know what? Yes. LetÆs go hunt golems. I need the damn level. -

And off I went. I spent the next few days attacking every golem I saw with Root Strike s, and then I would crawl up to another golem and continue.

It was kinda like how a zerg base used creep colonies to get close to the enemy and then attacked them with sunken colonies. And I did that, many, many times.

Spawn subsidiary tree near golems, unleash a rain of Root Strike s, kill golems, repeat.

And I saw Horns crying in joy. Seriously. He must get enjoyment from having a bigger badass kick the butt of the badass that kicked his butt. Actually, I had no idea whether that was a cry or a shout because it just sounded really. insecty.

Anyway, kill golems.

And after maybe about fifty golems, I leveled up!

You gained a level! You are now level 130.

Upgrade initiated.

The entire valley shook as a thunderstorm suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Lightning hit each and every subsidiary tree, and each and every branch on my main tree.

Was this like the starting sequence of some superhero transformation?

A hole opened in the sky, and from that darkness, massive black lightning struck my main tree.

- What. what is happening? - The elves seemed afraid as the massive black lightning continued to strike my main tree.

- I suggest all of you leave. for a while. -

Indeed, they all ran as fast as they could to the town of New Freeka, and well, it seemed they too could see what was happening from a distance because there seemed to be a massive hole in the sky.

- Any idea whatÆs going on? - I asked the rest of the souls and Wisp.

- Not a clue. - Alexis shook her head, but she looked rather amazed by it all. - And how are you still talking when that black thing is striking you like that? -

- Uh. Good point. - Am I supposed to feel pain or heat, or. I donÆt know. anything?

Lightning after lightning struck down on the trees, but yet they didnÆt do any damage. It was as if they were just making a connection.

Was this the fate of trees in a storm?

- Are you evolving or something? - Alexis asked.

- Yeah. I think. -

- Ah, man. Level one hundred? -

- Ah, secret. - Some things should be a secret, no?

The lightning strikes continued, and then, all of them stopped. The hole in the sky widened a bit farther to reveal something that looked like a rift, a small fissure in space.

And then black lightning emerged, larger than any other, and it zapped my main body.

Void energy collection completed.

Oh.

Oh, now I felt pain. It felt like every single part of my body was cracking, like a snake trying to change its skin or a sea creature replacing its shell.

My branches, barks, and trunks started to swell, and the leaves all dropped from my main tree, leaving me looking like a bare but bloated tree, all the bark expanding to reveal cracks and seams like stretchmarks.

Upgrading.

And then those cracks expanded as a new layer of skin emerged from underneath, a glossy, dark - colored bark. This cracked and expanded, and then the older layer fell away from my main body over the next couple of hours.

The hole in the sky was gone, but the ground was still constantly rumbling as my body expanded. I believed the same was also happening to my roots, and that caused the ground to constantly shake for those two hours.

And then I was done!

You have now transformed into the Starsoul Tree.

Starsoul Tree

Able to tap into and access the wisdom of the past, from exposure to ancient bones and fossils.

Gains access to a special type of leaf. Able to collect starlight and produce star mana in small quantities (maximum number of leaves capped). Also gains access to a star mana storing organ and special star - mana abilities.

Stats improved, various collection, various skills upgraded.

Soul management and access rights and restrictions unlocked.

Ah. yay?

Star mana.

As I read that update, coming across that word, I just paused and took a moment to realize what just happened. Star mana. The supercharged fuel of the heroes. And I could make them.

In small quantities, perhaps incomparable to that of the heroes, like the massive amount that Alexis used to have, a gift she now lost since she died. It was an odd thing, of course, since I thought heroes could resurrect with the right spells, but as it turned out, it was only a gift that unlocked under certain conditions, and it expired when the demon king died.

Anyway, star mana. I could make it. I could make it.

What did this mean? Had I taken a small step toward being a hero? One chosen by the gods to do battle against the demon king?

I - I couldnÆt wrap my head around that. I was a tree, and if a demon king. if AlexisÆs description of its power level was true, I was still very far away.

Just because I had star mana, it didnÆt make me a chosen hero.

So, no. I didnÆt think so. And somehow, a part of me rejected the idea of fighting the demon king. so that was also not the path I wanted to go. It went against my natural strengths as a tree.

I was a tree. And a tree was a nurturing, protective force.

So how could I use star mana? Did the other great spirit trees have star mana, too? I assumed so. Maybe with star mana they managed great escape - like feats like an entire vanishing forest.

Star mana. A great power. And a secret.

YEAR 77, MONTH 5

A small branch grew above me, at the very top. A few leaves grew, almost black in color - the star - leaves. They were even shaped like stars. It was my secret experiment in star mana gathering, and I was excited to see what I could find at the end of that path.

Then I moved my attention to the research happening through the biolabs throughout the valley.

- Well, beetle winter adaptation is complete, but itÆs not cold anymore. Maybe I should direct my attention toward volcano research as well, together with Alexis? -

Right now, with Alexis, Trevor, and Dimitree, we could run about six research topics concurrently.

- Hmm. indeed. The volcano is the biggest priority at the moment. -

- The resistance in the volcanoÆs inner area is indeed much higher than expected, so we do need stronger, or at least, more specialized beetles to counter the stronger magma golems. -

- Giant beetles. -

- Thanks, Horns. -

- Golems are big. If beetles are big, beetles can win. -

- ThatÆs a good idea, sire. Our small size is a weakness. A large beetle may be a good solution. -

- Trevor, youÆre agreeing with that idea? Giant beetles? -

- I do believe Horns is right to suggest that, and he has the combat experience to support that sort of view. -

- How giant are we talking about? -

- As big as the golems. -

- Are there some biological rules in this world on the size of insects? - I mean, there should be a limit, right? Though I kinda felt stupid, even my current war beetles were the size of rhinos. So actually, there were probably no rules on that.

- Uh, probably if we had the right materials and components, a massive beetle would be possible. -

- Alexis, any input? -

- Sure. - Once again, she used her research planner , and I swore I saw her smirking from the corner of her face. A short moment later, she nodded and came over to join in the conversation.

- Presently, there are no obvious paths to beetles the size of golems. -

- Giant beetles. Maybe half the size of the golems? - Horns sounded a little sad.

- Ah, I wasnÆt finished. But beetles about half the size of golems is possible. We would need to research enhanced exoskeletons and enhanced interior structures, and then we would then be able to research a large - beetle - pod, and then a large beetle. -

- Large beetle. -

- Not giant, but bigger than what it is now. So largeÆs a good word. -

Horns nodded furiously.

- Seems like everyoneÆs keen on the idea? -

- I still think magic is better. -

- Giant beetle. -

- Yes, sire. Giant beetle is a good path. I believe massive war beetles can do a great deal of damage on the battlefield. -

- Very well then. LetÆs go with it. -

Beetle winter adaptation stage II û complete.

Volcanic adaptation stage II - 1 month remaining.

Tree winter adaptation stage II - 1 month remaining.

Beetle - anti - magma weaponry - 1 month remaining.

Beetle - basic magical lances - four months remaining.

Eye - Tree Stage I research option unlocked - twenty - two months remaining.

Enhanced exoskeletons - four months remaining.

Enhanced interior structures - not started.

Large beetle pods - not started.

Well, I already had six concurrent research topics, but next month, I could add enhanced interior structures to it once the volcanic adaptation and anti - magma weaponry were complete.

Anyway, with that, I returned my attention to the elves and the New Freekans. The evolution I underwent last month, that one day of the great, black lightning storm, faded from the memory of the elves quickly. After all, to them, it was just one of those scary days, and I didnÆt appear any different than I did before.

ThatÆs because of Camouflage . My true appearance was unseen by anyone, except the artificial souls and Alexis.

A sense of gradual normalcy was returning, now that the effect of the blood blizzard was slowly fading from the air itself. Crops were growing throughout the farmlands, and the valleyÆs trees were surging in number, surpassing the number of trees destroyed. For New Freeka, it is war preparation time, as Salah issued a formal war declaration. They considered New Freeka as an enemy nation, and as a result, all direct trade routes between Salah and New Freeka were cut, legally.

Then followed posturing and nasty, threatening letters demanding surrender.

Which we all ignored.

Although that was the collective decision of the senior leaders, the councilors, leaders of the standing army, and the higher - ranked mages, it was still stressful and highly worrying for them. The town was now fully gearing up for war, their magic builders working overtime, building massive walls and other defensive positions.

Guards were on full alert, and all visitors to New Freeka were thoroughly screened, as there were also fears of assassination attempts.

- Yura , itÆs not a good time. - Yura stood in the middle of the council room. Yvon and the rest of the councilors sat around the table.

- The tree spirit wants an update on the demanded jewels, which was agreed upon earlier. -

- We are in a state of war, Yura . - A councilor stood.

- And the tree spirit is your best chance of defending New Freeka successfully. - Yura glared back at the councilor.

- And what exactly would a tree spirit bring to the table if Salah invades with a large army? - the councilor responded. - Some trees? Potatoes? Hot water? -

Yvon almost intervened, but another councilor next to her stopped her.

- The tree spirit has been making demands, and where we believe it is a mutually beneficial trade, if the circumstances allow it, we will support those demands. -

The councilwoman next to Yvon leaned in and whispered. - The tree spirit needs to know where we stand. ItÆs about time we make clear our position to its representative. -

Yvon sighed.

- But these are tough times. Resources, whatever we have, are all focused on our existential threat - the Salah Kingdom - who recently threatened to wipe us off the map. We need all our resources for more men, more weapons. Not the whims of a tree spirit who claims ownership over the entire valley. -

Yura listened and then laughed. And he laughed like a maniac.

Yura laughed for a good three minutes before all the councilors, them staring at him like he was some kind of madman.

When he stopped, he looked at Yvon. - Ah, Yvon, are the councilors aware of the extent of the tree spiritÆs powers? -

She paused before responding. - I did tell them. -

- What did you tell them? Perhaps your knowledge too is incomplete. -

- Uh, the tree spirit has the power of an archdruid, many very powerful healing powers, some ability to repair soul damage, abilities to absorb fire, abilities to control beetles, abilities to create hot water, spawn various trees and use root attacks, the ability to boost growth rates and spawn different types of trees. -

Yura nodded. - Not bad but let me ask you, how many beetles does the tree spirit control? -

- Three hundred? Maybe four hundred? - Yvon answered.

- Any other guesses? -

- Seven hundred? - a councilor decided to humor, saying it as a joke.

- As more recently advised, the actual number is about three thousand. Led by a beetle knight. -

The councilors all stared at each other.

- Tell me, if three thousand beetles go to war, how many men would Salah need to field? -

One of the army leaders, a captain, sitting in the council room did some mental math. - Twelve thousand, perhaps fifteen. -

- Do you all believe, for a moment, that New Freeka can protect itself from the tree spiritÆs wrath should those three thousand beetles turn against you? -

The councilors looked at each other.

- Would three thousand beetles be an existential threat, I wonder. -

One of the councilors stood. - Are you threatening us? -

- No. I believe from the tree spiritÆs point of view, you all are threatening him, by challenging his dominion over the valley. So, Councilor, you better retract such words and pray the tree spirit doesnÆt hear it directly. -

The councilor paled and took a seat.

- Yvon, I believe you recall the agreement when the tree spirit consented to your new settlement in New Freeka. -

One of the older councilors stood. - That our presence is at the tree spiritÆs grace and mercy, and we are to acknowledge the tree spirit as the rightful master of the valley. We are not to encroach on the forests more than the tree spirit allows. -

- It is but a phrase, no? - Another councilor, a younger one from the refugees, stood. - Such phrases exist in the founding documents of many nations. A. formality to acknowledge a benefactor. -

- Not when the phrase refers to that of a tree spirit, an actual magical being who resides in and controls the valley. -

There was silence in the room as everyone stared at each other.

- Back to the jewels. I have been authorized by the tree spirit to let the council and everyone else in the room know that the jewels are meant to fulfill the evolutionary requirements of the beetle champions, and various other beasts that live in the depths of the valleyÆs forests. Obtaining them will further enhance the combat abilities of the beetles. -

- If we get them. Can the tree spirit lend us his aid? With those three thousand beetles? -

- Yes. He is prepared to summon the three thousand beetles, deploy whatever other beasts he can gather from the valley to do battle, and he also has various other abilities at his disposal. But he will do all of this only in a defensive battle against Salah or any other attackers, and not for an offensive attack. -

That was simply because it was easier to control the beetles when they were nearby, as Dimitree and Trevor could both assist in coordinating the beetles movements.

- W - we need some time to discuss this. -

- YouÆve been given a week to talk it out; the tree spirit expects a positive response. -

- Acknowledged. -

Yura walked back to the valley with an air, a kind of smugness, around him. He seemed rather pleased how it went.

Also, Yura understated the number. I told him three thousand, but actually, with my most recent evolution into a starsoul tree, the maximum subsidiary trees I had increased to a mind boggling four thousand. So, with five beetles per subsidiary tree, the actual maximum beetles I could deploy would be. twenty thousand.

But, of course, I wasnÆt going to have them all as beetle - trees. I also needed essence harvesters, material processors, crop producers, biolabs, homes for the elves, surveillance trees, and so forth, so the actual number of free trees available was about two and half thousand. That still represented a massive army of twelve thousand five hundred beetles.

There were already about two thousand beetles full - time defending the volcanic area from the magma monsters, another two thousand in the south forest around Dimitree and the ley line, and then another two thousand hidden throughout the valley and its forest. The current actual deployable beetle force was. six thousand five hundred.

I liked to have some unused subsidiary tree capacity to spawn additional subsidiary trees as and when I need to, in an emergency response to any possible changes, or to reinforce new areas when necessary. So that would mean setting aside about four hundred trees.

So four thousand five hundred beetles were the actual end number of new beetles available. Nine hundred subsidiary trees.

- How did the discussions go? - I asked.

- I believe it will be positive, Tree - Tree. -

- Glad to hear that. -

- Oh, Bamboo is asking for an upgrade. -

- I am aware, but I need those jewels first. -

- Ah. Yes. I guess I have personal interest in wanting those jewels, too. - Yura laughed. He seemed rather happy.

- Do you think he is lying? - a councilor asked during their private meeting.

- I think not, - another replied.

- Three thousand beetles. ThatÆs a massive number. -

- Indeed. My initial projections factored in four hundred beetles in any defensive fight against Salah. - Two army advisors turned to take the stand - captains, both of them.

- How does this change the battle? - a councilman asked.

- A war beetle, as Yura referred to them, is actually equal to two elite soldiers. Salah would have to deploy specialized forces to deal with the war beetles, as their thick armor and massive horns make them difficult to kill using regular weapons. ItÆs possible to swarm one of the war beetles and then attack its weakness - their joints and the gaps between their armor - if they are scattered throughout the battlefield, but numbering three thousand, there would be a very low chance of catching any of those beetles alone. -

- Captain, I understand none of the technicalities of combat. What I want to know is what does that mean in a war for us, and would the price of the jewels be worth it? -

- I believe, if the numbers are true, it is our best chance of beating Salah, multiple times. Three thousand war beetles essentially means Salah must field at least thirty thousand men just to even hope to have a good chance of winning against the war beetles alone. -

- You said twelve to fifteen thousand in the earlier meeting with Yura and then two elite soldiers in your earlier sentence. -

- I fudged the numbers with Yura to understate the value of the war beetles. -

- Then the two elites? -

- SalahÆs conventional army composition comprises of one elite for every ten regulars. Thirty thousand men is then reflecting three thousand elite soldiers and twenty - seven thousand regulars. ItÆs what I would need to deploy if I was asked to defeat war beetles of that number. And mages. At least a hundred mages. -

Yvon paused. - Remember our first battle here against Salah? The one led by Waysorious Moffard, the Purple Blade? -

- Ah. why? -

- The beetles back then hid underground or in the trees. They then sprung up behind enemy lines. -

The captains nodded. - If so, that makes their defensive value even higher, and I believe there isnÆt much to discuss. I strongly request the council fulfill the demands and get assurances from Yura , and the tree spirit, that those three thousand beetles will assist us. I would pay ten times the demanded amount to get the defensive services of three thousand war beetles. -

The councilors looked at each other before they eventually all nodded in agreement. The wizard of Baroosh nudged the lady next to him. - As I predicted, the tree spirit is truly the guardian beast of the valley. -

The councilwoman turned and nodded her head. - Certainly. Even I underestimated the number. YouÆre right, I should have brought it up earlier. -

The wizard smiled smugly. - Glad to be proven right. -

The councilwoman shrugged. - Ugh. -

YEAR 77, MONTH 6

Tree - volcanic adaptation stage II û complete.

Tree - winter adaptation stage II û complete.

Beetle - anti - magma weaponry û complete.

Beetle - basic magical lances - 3 months remaining.

Eye - Tree Stage I research option unlocked - 21 months remaining.

Enhanced exoskeletons - 3 months remaining.

Enhanced interior structures - 4 months remaining.

Large beetle pods - 6 months remaining.

Beetle - anti - magma armors stage 2 - 12 months remaining.

It was time for more volcano smash. With the volcanic adaptation and anti - magma weaponry, the odds of beetle versus magma monster were now three to two. So, with two thousand beetles in the area, I attempted another round of volcano invasion.

And yes, I was a little bit closer. With upgraded weaponry, we could easily take on the regular magma monsters and claim additional territory since fewer beetles were needed to successfully defend one area, but I still couldnÆt hold the areas with the massive magma golems, so I had to avoid those areas, but that was about it. I was a step closer.

The trees in the volcanic area were black, reddish in hue, reflecting their adapted trunks and roots, which were highly heat - resistant and able to extract their resources from the dried magma that formed the earth around the volcano.

It was progress, but now consistently holding position against the magma golems would be the next hurdle for an actual volcano base, and then I would need to move on to finding ways to extract the energies from the lava beneath it.

A part of me realized that was probably the point where I needed a magic lab of some kind since extracting magic from lava was probably out of the scope of the biolab. Oh, well. Alexis would be happy then.

As I mulled things over, the first batch of jewels from New Freeka arrived, with a request for a demonstration of my three thousand beetles? Hmm.

I guess seeing is believing.

YEAR 77, MONTH 7

- I got to level twenty yesterday. -

Yura paused and looked at Lozanna . Laufen was next to him, and the little girl then said, - I got a passive ability, itÆs called Blessed by a Soul Tree . -

The two adults glanced at each other. In a way, they were now like her father and mother, and there was a mix of pride, worry, and confusion when Lozanna said she hit level twenty.

Most children never leveled so fast, with most around level five to ten at age eight. It was most likely due to the presence of my continuing involvement, the constant essence infused Dream Tutor s, Power - Leveling , and most recently, the upgraded Training Tree .

- Well, what does it do? -

- Erm, it doesnÆt say much, it just says IÆll get certain. blessings? -

- Tree - Tree, any idea? -

Well, the first thing that was clear when she gained that ability was that I could now see her much more obviously than everyone else. It was as if she was glowing in my vision. She had a constant tooltip hovering over her - one that just screamed: Look at me.Æ

- Well, rather than conjecture, would you mind coming into the biolab, and we can all find out? -

- Yeah. Good idea. -

As Lozanna walked to the biolab inside the secret hideout, Laufen and Yura both looked at each other.

- SheÆs growing very quickly, - Yura said with a sigh. - I fear for her. -

- Me, too. But I also feel I should be proud. It is what Ricola would have wanted for his daughter, to be strong. -

Yura paused and then nodded. - I suppose so. Ricola would want his daughter to be competent, even though he himself wasnÆt much. -

Laufen ribbed Yura . - Hey. -

- I mean, his talents were in being a village chieftain. Combat was never his strong suit. -

- I suppose itÆs Tree - TreeÆs influence then. -

Well, I had been giving Lozanna every single combat - related essence I generated through Dream Tutor , so it did, over a long period of time, give the necessary improvements toward her understanding of combat tactics.

Lozanna walked into the pod, and the vines wrapped around her body. I then took a look.

- May I? - Alexis asked, and I shook my head.

- Sorry, let me have a look first. -

Alexis sulked. - Okay. -

And. frankly Lozanna Æs body appeared normal. She was a regular elf after all, though I could see right next to her usual soul spring, there was a small flower.

Blessed by a Soul Tree.

Due to long - term exposure to Soul TreeÆs abilities, the body is naturally accepting of its influence. Grants additional compatibility with various Soul Tree abilities, spells, and skills, and so they last longer and have stronger effects.

- Oh. Sounds okay. - At this point, I thought it wasnÆt much. I couldnÆt see anything else different, so I let Alexis in on the view.

- Hmm. - She, too, looked at Lozanna Æs young body. Her soul spring was normal, and the water coming out of it was clear and smooth. The body seemed well, normal, the shores covered in a thin layer of grass nourished by the mana from her soul spring. It looked like there was still some ways to go.

- ItÆs generally normal, - I said. - The skill isnÆt much. -

- I donÆt think itÆs a bad skill. -

- How so? -

- I think her growth rate will be even faster since it means your training room, Dream Tutor , and Power - Leveling will be more effective on her. -

- Oh. ThatÆs a good point. -

- You have plans for her, donÆt you? -

- What do you mean? -

- I mean, you have been investing a lot of your essences into her - more than any other elf. It feels like you want her to be something. Or are you preparing her for something? -

- Huh. - Frankly, I didnÆt know why I was doing it. Somehow, I got so sucked into the narrative that Lozanna wanted to be a hero that I just went along with it. But thinking about it, I did think that it was worth trying.

- Maybe a hero would be too hard. To stand at our level she would need access to a lot of star mana, gain the various divine blessings, and unlock a cheat ability. -

Well, yeah, duh, thatÆs way too high a wall. It was like trying to climb K2 after a successful hike up a gentle hill. I was foolish enough to send Lozanna up such unreasonable. walls.

- But. I think creating a champion is a good idea. Reaching the level of the demon champions I think is a realistic target. Perhaps she can get there when sheÆs. thirty? I think she needs to learn magic next. A magic lab would do so. -

Ah, Alexis trying to sell the magic lab idea again. To be fair, I did appreciate the need for one, once we made progress with the volcano. But I would keep that to myself for now. - You want to be her tutor? -

- I donÆt mind. I think IÆll gain different skills, compared to all these research - linked abilities I have now. It would help if I regained my magical abilities somewhat. -

I felt a little threatened by the idea of giving Alexis her magic. again. She did - though it wasnÆt really her - burn down slightly less than half of the valley.

Oh.

Volcano occupation was now a stalemate. I would attempt again once we unlocked the large beetles - twice the size of rhinos. Hopefully, then the odds would be better. At present, it took about two hundred beetles to kill a single magma golem, and I only had two thousand in that area. Two hundred per golem, and there were a lot more than ten golems. I was hoping the odds changed to about ten or so large beetles per golem, then the chances of a successful occupation of the volcano would increase.

My thoughts then changed to New Freeka. They asked for a demonstration in exchange for the jewels.

Luckily, it went quite well. They had never seen three thousand beetles march out of the forest before.

YEAR 77, MONTH 8

- Salah is coming. With a force of fifty thousand men! -

- Huh? -

- That was quick, - Yura mused, but to be honest, I thought I knew why that had happened, and it was also why I held my cards back.

I suspected there was a mole within YvonÆs council. Someone close to them was a Salah informant.

I didnÆt know who exactly, but among the twenty - five senior leaders, all of them were talking about the beetles. Apparently, none of them could keep their mouth shut after they witnessed three thousand of them, and this news somehow reached Salah, who, for whatever reason, felt threatened by these beetles. Maybe they saw me as a threat they needed to crush quickly, and so they came to crush me before I got even stronger.

- It could be there is just some kind of surveillance magic happening, - Alexis mused. - As far as I can tell, there are no scrying countermeasures or spell barriers in New Freeka, except the forest itself, which gets some scrying protection from your massive Camouflage and Mist abilities. -

Yura , on the other hand, thought different. - I think they just wanted to fight New Freeka, and this is a convenient time since they are still in the stalemate with Nung and Takde. I doubt they know about the beetles. The traders and merchants I speak to seem to say Salah has been itching for a fight for some time, since the blood blizzard has significantly weakened. They just want to find someone to suffer for the punishment and misery of the blood blizzard. -

- Fifty thousand men. What are our odds? -

- I think we can win. - Yura shrugged. - But it will be a hard fight. And it also depends on who is their general. -

During this conversation, Trevor pinged me personally. He was my surveillance officer, after all.

- I see the enemy army in the outermost tree rings. I donÆt think they are suspicious, as they left the outer trees untouched. Also, they have siege weapons, Master. -

- Are you sure no suspicions? Or are they just playing the part? -

- Any mages? -

- Yes, sire. I counted a mage corps of at least one thousand. There are multiple individuals exhibiting a rather strong presence as well. -

- Okay, bring me there. -

- Certainly. -

With that, my vision zoomed to the incoming army. Thanks to my wider coverage of subsidiary trees, I had trees really far away now, and Trevor even went through the process of decorating each tree such that they looked like natural growths in the area.

And indeed, a large army was marching, comprising mostly of foot soldiers - around forty thousand - a section of cavalry - about two thousand - and then the rest being a mix of the mages, healers, siege weapon operators, and their elite forces.

- New Freeka has spotted us, - a commander said as he rode up to a man who looked like the general of this army, thanks to his elaborate armor and uniform and a long, flowing magical cape.

- Good. It seems we can go with our initial plans for now. Bombard the town with our siege machines and mages, and force them out of the town, into the open where we can slaughter them, - another man said, and he too rode up to the general. The general just smiled in return.

Heh. I have the countermeasure for that.

- We spotted the beetles that Waysorious fought during the last battle. -

- How many? -

- Five hundred, perhaps? They are really well hidden within the trees, and only our rangers can spot them with any accuracy. -

- I recall Waysorious also suspects the presence of an elvish archdruid. -

- You agree with that assessment, General? -

Ah, the chief was a general.

- Lord RosulÆs earlier expedition claims the presence of a living forest. His wizard says there is a presence that stretches the entire valley. -

- I - IÆve never heard of that. - The men around the general seemed surprised.

- It was something Lord Rosul shared only with our senior leaders, and it is why we have been treating New Freeka with such caution - and also why there are one thousand mages. -

Realization appeared on all the senior leaders around the general. Perhaps they suspected fifty thousand was overkill.

- Yes, now that the battle is near, it is time I tell you the actual strategy of this army. -

- The king and the high council suspect the presence of a magical beast - something like a great earth tiger or a king grandbeetle - that Yvon has somehow managed to convince into an alliance. It is likely to be a defensive pact, else Yvon would be more. offensive in her dealings with us. The recently observed magical phenomena in New Freeka from our spies supports this theory. A firestorm, then countless black lightning, all points to magical beasts, of a very high tier, that likely have experienced a high - level evolution recently. -

A gulp.

- Now, now, weÆre going to try to talk to it. First -

It was then a ranger appeared. He appeared to be very old.

- This is Master Ranger Falklay. HeÆs very good with magical beasts; he has the ability Commune with Magical Beasts , Locate Magical Creatures , Beast Talk - no - jutsu , and Charm Magical Beasts . HeÆll sneak into the forest first and find the magical beast. Our invasion of New Freeka will commence only after he gives us the signal on whether he can convince the magical beasts to withhold or ignore their defensive pact. Else, one of the alternatives is that we will have to bomb the shit out of the forest as well, then fight the beast. But we will weigh our chances when that happens. -

- Siege weapons against magical beasts? - a captain asked.

- Not ideal, but if we have to fight it, we best weaken it first. High - tier magical beasts are powerful, but siege weapons and magic will still hurt them. -

- Now that we are near, what do you think, Master Falklay? Confident that you will succeed? -

- I think our chances are good. There are magical creatures, and I sense a few in the forests. My senses tell me of a fairy of some kind or a forest sprite. Charming fairies will be a huge challenge, but I think I can succeed in convincing it or them to break the pact. -

Ooh, Ranger. Interesting.

- How will we know? -

- Falklay will fire a flare. Green flare for go, red flare for bomb, or blue flare for run. HeÆs also equipped with a speaking stone. -

- Run? -

- If the magical beast is a lot more powerful than we currently suspect, we would be better to retreat than attempt an invasion. No point wasting our lives, right? -

- What if thereÆs no flare? -

- Then we wait. We wait for a week if we have to. Communion with magical beasts is going to take time, and we will give Master Falklay the time to talk. But after ten days, if Master Falklay is alive, we will expect a flare. If Master Falklay is dead, we will run. But thatÆs unlikely, right? -

Master Falklay grinned. His face was really wrinkly.

- Run? - one of the younger captains asked.

- Of course. We must know exactly what we are facing. I will take calculated risks, but magical beasts are a category of monsters that is best dealt with. by powerful adventurers. - The rest of the men nodded; the general was a highly conservative man.

Falklay made his way toward the valley, under the cover of various stealthing abilities, such as hidden amongst trees and other such effects, which made him close to invisible to other men trying to spot him. except the tree itself.

So, yeah, I saw him sprinting, alone, into the valley. Despite his age, he was still clearly a high - level ranger and had the stats and abilities to back it up. And as he got closer, I noticed he would stop every now and then to use some of those abilities.

- Strange. the reading is confused, - he muttered, touching the trees, some of which were subsidiary trees.

As he made his way into the valley, he came across a few beetles. The beetles spotted him and attempted to attack him, but he had a skill where when he just lightly touched them, and they fell into a kind of sleep. I seemed to be a kind of disabling ability he had.

- He has an ability to make us docile! - Horns was shouting in my mind. - We must kill him! Kill him! He is a threat! A threat! -

On the other hand, I was very curious about this Falklay, and I wanted to see exactly what he had.

- Horns, go hibernate. Beetles, retreat as well. -

With that, the beetles quickly hid and stayed out of his way. which the ranger noticed.

- Huh. The beetles have gone. ItÆs watching me, eh? A kingbeetle with some kind of domain abilities or a fairy with gladewatch? - he considered loudly.

He walked closer, his senses sharp, and as he followed them, it led him right up to the main tree.

- Huh. - He looked around, wondering what he was seeing. - The beast is asleep? -

He then turned his eyes on AlexisÆs biolab. He glanced up and down, and then he used an ability: Identify

- A forest spirit. of the academic kind? - His face paled somewhat. - SomethingÆs not right. -

Eye of the Ranger .

He looked around, confusion evident on his face.

Then he looked at my main tree.

- ItÆs not a magical beast. - He withdrew his arrows. - No, this is a lot more complicated. -

At that moment, I too used inspect on him, but it got. repelled. It seemed he had some kind of skill protection.

He lifted his bow and arrow and aimed it at the sky. It was going to be a flare. I wondered whether he was going to bomb the forest, but then again, I had countermeasures so I decided to wait and see.

- I wouldnÆt fire that yet if I were you. - Yura stepped out of the main tree, ready for combat.

- Oh? - The ranger looked like he was about to shoot, but then he decided not to.

- So, who are you, and why are you here? -

- Hmm. - The ranger paused. - Might we settle this over a cup of tea, instead? -

- Oh, tea? -

A set of four chairs and a table magically appeared before the ranger, and he sat down. Then he started to brew a pot of tea. - Yes, tea. Clearly the proper way to speak to magical beasts is invite them to tea, no? -

- Magical beasts? - It was Yura Æs turn to be confused as he took a seat.

- Worry not, elf. The tea is laced with a fragrance that magical beasts will enjoy but does nothing to us. I mean you no harm, so here, IÆll drink it. You can use identify and detect poison , too. I wonÆt feel offended. - He swapped teacups with Yura and took a sip.

Yura laughed. - So, Ranger. What magical beasts are you speaking of? -

- The forest spirit there, and the beetle lord hiding somewhere in that tree. - The ranger pointed. - And these trees right around me. - He then pointed to the root brain complex , and then my main tree.

He then paused before shouting, - I know you are watching! You can join me for tea if you want! ItÆs good stuff, made with tender young tea leaves collected from the Sifar Mountains. -

- HeÆs dangerous, Sire. We should kill him! - Horns shouted in my mind. - We should! -

- I agree. But my curiosity is piqued, so I will humor him and watch what happens first. -

- I feel a bit of a headache coming on, - Alexis complained. - I think he used some kind of skill on me. Sucks when I lose some of my magic resistance. -

Hey, you retained your overpowered ability to level. That counts, right?

Anyway, we focused back on the little tea party between Yura and the old ranger.

Yura decided to take a drink.

- So, old man, what do you want? -

- I work for Salah, and I am here to help with General AkbarÆs destruction of New Freeka. -

Yura , strangely, didnÆt react to the news. His diplomat levels had been rising, and such news just didnÆt faze him anymore. - Oh. Why? -

- Well, Salah and New Freeka are at war. I am a servant of the king, and a soldier of Salah, so I am here to help Salah win. -

- I see. And so how does that lead you to this little forest? -

- Well, can you interfere if we attack New Freeka? -

- Unfortunately, no. We have an agreement with them. They are under our protection. -

- Why? Perhaps there is something Salah can offer you. -

Yura grinned. - Ah, well, do you know the tale of the original village of Freeka? I still remember the day almost seven years ago. -

- Hmm, has Salah transgressed against Freeka in some way? -

- Yes. SalahÆs army burned this village, killed many elves living here, and if I remember correctly, their soldiers skewered the bodies of the dead on this tree behind me. Those who survived fled far and wide. -

He paused. - Ah. I see thatÆs how it is. Surely, it is time for bygones to be bygones. -

Yura Æs face contorted. - I still remember the faces of those burned to death. The screams, the shouts. The loss of the village scarred me, haunted me for years, and it is only with great blessing that I stepped out of that shadow. -

He sipped his tea.

- So I believe I am not wrong to say my grudge, rightly, runs deep. -

The old ranger sighed. - The acts of a vast nation like Salah cannot all be attributed to the nation. There are many actors in any country, and not all are aligned in terms of our values and principles. -

- YouÆre an old man. IÆm sure you have seen many battles and know very well such statements do nothing to my grudge. This grudge, anger, and hatred are not something a quick talk can relieve. And now you, and that large army of yours, are here to destroy New Freeka. Does that not sound like Salah intends to repeat that incident? -

The old man paused and nodded. - Well, you are right. But, in war, there are no good sides. Only victory matters. -

- It is as you say, only victory matters. This is not the first time Salah has tried this, and we won the previous two battles. Do you think you can win this one? -

The old ranger nodded. - Indeed. That is why fifty thousand warriors are here. -

- Well, youÆve made your intentions clear, so you may leave now. -

The old ranger grinned. - Well, I am deep within enemy territory. Do you think I will leave without taking all of you out first? -

Root Strike .

That was the moment a few Root Strike s surged from the ground. He dodged and shot a few explosive arrows, but my wood shields blocked them.

I followed up with a few more, as Yura , transforming into his Bamboo - armor form, gave chase. Trevor released a poison field that covered the entire forest, and frankly, there was no chance of him escaping.

Unlike the assassin from before, I knew exactly where he was because his hidden by trees ability didnÆt protect him from. a tree.

He ran and simultaneously fired numerous magical arrows toward Yura .

- General. This is Falklay. Please, arrange bombing of the forest. Bomb the forest. I repeat, bomb the forest now! I am engaging with the inhabitants! - he yelled through the speaking stone while he ran. - Ah, dammit. - he added. It seemed the spiders hidden presence natural ability was a bit harder for him to detect as he had run into some spiderwebs.

He cut through the webs, but it slowed him down enough for a Root Strike to hit him, which was parried by a small buckler shield. I supposed it was magical since it actually managed to absorb the impact.

- Ah, roots. - He ducked the arrows Yura shot at him, but that gap allowed Yura to catch up.

- So why not stand and fight? -

- I reckon we are about the same level, but given my skill mix, I will lose. - The old ranger shrugged. - So. no. -

He smashed a potion on the floor, and it released a bright light followed by a thick smoke. It was a flashbang, essentially, and it briefly stunned Yura .

A few arrows hit Yura Æs wood armor, and then the old ranger resumed fleeing. - General, where are the bombs? - he shouted at the stone. - No, you donÆt have to worry about me. IÆll find a way out. -

And so the siege machines and the mages got into position, and they started to hurl rocks and spells at the forest.

- They have started the bombardment. - Yvon looked on from the new walls they had built, but as they braced for impact, they noticed the curvature of the projectiles driving the boulders and fireballs toward the forest.

- Uh. -

- The forest. -

Right before the projectiles were about to make impact with the forest, my subsidiary trees, of the hundred or so designated as shield generators , kicked into action.

Massive wood shields surrounded the trees, so the boulders and ordinary fireballs just collided against the shields, leaving some scratches and burns on the shields. Compared the demonfire - powered fireballs of Alexis, these fireballs and boulders were really basic, so some damage was taken, but it was well within our limits.

The army tried again, and the second and third volleys similarly left only some small damage on the shields.

- What do you mean the bombardment is not working? - the ranger shouted through his message as he continued to flee. He seemed to be getting caught in more spiderwebs as his concentration strayed, but he was much faster than Yura , so Yura struggled to catch up.

The old ranger was halfway out of the forest now, but frankly, I didnÆt plan to let him live. So the next moment he slowed down, when a section of spiderweb caught him, I unleashed a few Root Strike s at him.

Again, they were blocked by that small buckler, the leg guards he wore, or the magical chainmail he wore under his shirt.

It was nothing fatal, but I was wearing him down. Each of my Root Strike s were filled with paralysis and poison, and the entire forest was releasing its own poison - a mix of TrevorÆs abilities and my poison field . It was nothing lethal, especially over such short periods, but every little bit of the poison and paralysis was slowing the ranger down.

Unfortunately, he managed to swallow a few antidotes, which rejuvenated him momentarily.

Another volley came from the siege and mages - again to no effect, thanks to my shield generators.

- General, itÆs not working. Strong wooden barriers are blocking our attacks around the forests, and those shields can take one hell of a beating. -

- Ahh! - There was slight panic in the camp as a group of beetles, about three hundred, emerged behind them, attacking the siege machines and mages. They managed to destroy a few siege machines, but it was a trained army, so some soldiers were already onsite to protect them, and they quickly reorganized. The mages redirected their attacks on the beetles instead. Each beetle, with its thick armor and the recent volcanic adaptation (which granted tiny amounts of fire resistance) could endure one fireball, so the mages needed two shots to kill them.

Additional fighters rushed to protect the mages and siege machines, and the numbers were sufficient to overwhelm the three hundred beetles. However, it was enough to delay and distract those ranged attacks, giving Trevor and myself some breathing room to regenerate some of the weaker shield generators . There was some variation in the enemyÆs siege machines - those operated by higher leveled men and some stronger mages, who accordingly dealt more damage.

I continued to send more spiders after the ranger, and he demonstrated his competence as a forest ranger, cutting through the spiders as if they were nothing. But he was increasingly exhausted, and he realized it, knowing what my plan was.

Every time he slowed down, a Root Strike would appear somewhere, and I knew I was gradually wearing him down.

- Going somewhere so soon, old man? - Yura said as he finally caught up again.

- Tell me, those Root Strike s, are they from you? -

- Ah. No. - Yura attempted to slash at the rangerÆs head, but he ducked.

- ThatÆs a shame. - He somehow dodged and put some distance between himself and Yura , throwing some small knives. They hit the wooden barriers around Yura and then exploded. - TheyÆre not going to stop, are they? -

It knocked Yura back a little. - I really hate explosive attacks. Keep getting them. - He jumped and tried to close the gap with the old ranger, but the old man was still too fast. - And no, youÆd be a fool to assume those Root Strike s will run out. -

He shot a few arrows, but Yura gave me the opening I needed, and two Root Strike s flew toward the ranger as he tried to aim in midair. He managed to react in time, but the Root Strike s broke his shield buckler and armlets.

- Oh, dear. - The old man flinched from the impact of the Root Strike s, and he smashed into a tree. Before he managed to recover from the impact, I quickly activated Constrict .

Vines emerged from the tree he was against and entangled his legs, and then they injected a poison through his skin.

- Oh, no. - He realized he was done for as the vines quickly wrapped around his entire body.

Yura landed right in front of him. - Well, it looks like the bombardment stopped. I think they might be busy now. -

- Kill me, - the old man said. - As a soldier, I knew this day would come eventually. -

- Oh? ThatÆs not for me to decide. -

He stared at Yura . - You. deny me this right? -

- Oh, come on. Your country burned my village, and you want to play at being honorable? Please, did you somehow think I was in charge? -

- Then who is? -

Yura paused. - I almost answered you there, but that. is a secret. -

A root appeared, grown with the strongest paralysis and sleep poisons I had, and it stabbed him right above his heart, through the damaged chainmail. With that, the poisons spread quickly, and he lost consciousness within a few seconds.

The mages and soldiers, after a long two - hour battle, defeated the group of three hundred beetles, but there were quite a few casualties.

- General Akbar, Falklay has lost consciousness. - An adjutant reviewed the magical artifact linked to FalklayÆs arm.

- What? - The general was deep in thought.

- Should we resume the bombing? - another of the generalÆs assistants asked.

- My gut tells me there is no point. You saw those shields. They take just a little damage from regular attacks and ordinary fireballs. WeÆll just wear ourselves down doing the same thing. Get the mages to group together for a Grand Fireball and fling some oil barrels into the forest. -

Well, thatÆs no good.

So, before that happened, I launched my attack. Multiple tunnels appeared throughout their camp. It was a function of my Root Tunnel ability, and from them, thousands of beetles streamed out, horns blazing, charging into the soldiers.

From above, they appeared like a horde of ants that just got triggered, and a black tide swept out of those holes.

Then Root Field , Poison Field and Root Surge followed. The field of roots slowed down the soldiers, the field of poison weakened them, and the sudden surge of a wide area of sharp roots from beneath the ground killed hundreds of unprepared regular soldiers, while harming some of the elites.

- General, we are under attack! By a massive beetle force! -

- How many? -

- Maybe three thousand? ItÆs throughout our position, and I have not gotten a good count. Even our lookouts are under attack, and theyÆve not respon -

Before he finished the sentence, a Root Strike emerged from underneath the camp and pierced the man through his chest, splashing some of his blood onto the generalÆs face.

The general was armored with enchanted gear and probably had numerous abilities to protect himself, so I decided to first pick off the rest of his men. It was probably too much effort to kill the general now.

He drew his sword and lifted it up; it glowed with lightning. He then pierced the ground with it, and I felt an electrical zap. It stung a little, maybe nothing more than a small numbness. But, no matter, I had plenty more to go.

Another adjutant ran over. - General, the siege machines are under heavy attack from roots emerging from the ground, and almost all of them have been destroyed. -

Together with Trevor and Dimitree, we unleashed multiple Root Strike s on various positions in the enemy army, picking on the mid - tier elite forces - those who were stronger than regular soldiers but had limited defensive abilities against multiple Root Strike s.

- Retreat and stay away from trees! - the general shouted, with some kind of skill that carried his message to his entire army.

- General, our elites are falli - Another Root Strike pierced the assistantÆs legs, but it failed to deliver a lethal blow.

- I know. The enemyÆs targeting those stronger than the beetles. This is a trap, and the longer we stay, the more we are going to lose! - he shouted and activated a skill.

The skill spread out over the entire army, all the soldiers, those lightly wounded and even the heavily wounded, experienced a sudden rejuvenation in their energy, their bleeding stopped temporarily, although the wounds remained, and their steps turned into large, quick strides, unhindered by the Rooting Field or the Poison Field .

They retreated.

Our kills - mine and those of the beetles combined - numbered probably three to four thousand, though many, many more were injured. The beetles got most of the kills, but they also suffered the most casualties as I focused on the mid - tier forces. I got about four hundred or so kills.

Frankly, if the battle had gone on, it would probably have resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. The beetles were less effective than I expected, but that was due to the generalÆs passive buffs for his entire army.

They fled for as long as the generalÆs ability lasted, and that brought them quite a distance from New Freeka.

For now, the battle was over. I had no doubt the general would return with more firepower, but that was a worry for another day.

2 levels gained! You are now level 132!

You gained a new skill: Serpentine Root Strike.

Poison Field and Rooting Field upgraded.

Shield Generators upgraded.

Oh. The best part of any battle.

YEAR 77, MONTH 8

A few days had passed since the battle, and it was time to check out the loot. Since the beetles did most of the fighting, New Freeka had no right to any of the loot or remains, so the beetles collected all the remaining armor, weapons, and more to put into my Tree - asury . IÆd trade them for something someday, though, there seemed to be some magical items in there.

Next was my prisoner. Frankly, I didnÆt think he was going to talk, and I personally didnÆt really feel like interrogating him. I felt it was going to be a waste of time. After all, Salah was an enemy, and we were playing defense. The things he could tell me, I predicted, would be quite worthless.

So I didnÆt waste time interrogating Falklay in the end as my interest in him was more. academic in nature. After stripping him of his remaining magical items and storing them in my Tree - asury , I turned to my main objective.

Drugged with all kinds of paralysis and still fast sleep, I put him inside a biolab where I could investigate him. Eventually, I would suck him dry with my vines and feelers. I wanted to see how a high - level person looked under the hood - just to compare. I had seen the heroes, Yura , and Yvon, and now I had this ranger. I wasted no more time before taking a look.

There were some notable differences, mainly in where the mana and life force was strongest. The eyes, nose, and ears were more pronounced than others - probably due to his need to be sensitive to his surroundings - and his soul spring, with all the stones around it, combined to create a nice fountain. Taking a good look at the fountain, there was a kind of wooden frame around it, in between the stones, and as I reached out to touch the stones, little tooltips came up, telling me what skills he had.

I tried to yank at the wood and stones. It was just something I always wanted to try, but I never attempted it with people whom I considered my allies. I had always wondered what would happen if I took one of those rocks out.

So I yanked it. And it didnÆt move. Ah, well. I kept trying, but instead, it just hurt the ranger. It seemed it was magically tied and intertwined with his soul, via some kind of force.

So I stopped and rested for a while. Maybe I just needed more power.

After drawing a bit more mana and energy from the trees around me, I tried to yank a rock from the fountain, again. It shook, and I sensed a huge amount of pain, but he remained unconscious and strapped in. Thank goodness for the paralysis.

The rock shook, but then something pulled it back again. It was as if I was trying to pull a piece of metal away from a very powerful magnet. I could, a little, but then the magnet pulled it back once my strength let up.

Uh.

It wasnÆt working. Borrowing the root - brains for some processing power, I calculated that the amount of energy I needed to break that magnetic pull of the soul spring seemed really, really high, so I decided it was probably not going to work, no matter how many times I tried. Maybe this was like the atomic bond of souls, and that was why I needed a huge amount of energy to break it.

- ItÆs only if youÆre trying to break things. Fixing things is a lot easier since those same forces work with you. - Wisp whispered his wisdom. Thanks, dude.

I let the ranger sleep a day inside the biolab, and then I resumed my testing the next day.

There had been quite a few other things I wanted to test, and it just so happened I had a high - level person whose body was suitable for it.

Once again, I entered the rangerÆs inner realm, and this time, I flooded his body with my mana. It had been something I was curious about since I did it with the hellhounds, and then with AlexisÆs body when she was contained within me. What if I did it with a living normal person? What happened then?

His body vibrated intensely, struggling in the biolab, as my mana, like a green tide, washed into his inner realm.

SpecimenÆs compatibility with injected mana is low. Specimen body is resisting. Prolonged exposure may result in mana poisoning.

Ah. Did this happen before?

I kept it up anyway; I still wanted to see what happened. The body flailed inside the pod, kinda like a fish struggling to escape from an octopus.

Specimen body is experiencing mana poisoning.

Okay, I decided to see what happened when I healed him.

Mana poisoning reduces magic and ability effectiveness.

Really? I tried injecting his body with the healing liquids from my Healing Fruit and also the Paralysis Poison . It was a conundrum, I supposed, but the healing just repaired the damage; it didnÆt cure the status ailment.

Mana poison is still in effect. Specimen bodyÆs organs are starting to suffer damage.

Heal? But I noticed the healing was slower.

Two full days passed as I constantly drowned the rangerÆs body with my mana. He wasnÆt dead yet because one of the vines continued to supply his body with nutrients and air to stay alive, so I could continue to observe what was happening.

I was actually curious. Did the body actually gain compatibility over time? Or did the body continue to naturally reject my mana?

Specimen bodyÆs organs are failing.

Ah. Heal?

Healing effectiveness is significantly reduced due to high levels of mana poisoning in the physical body. SpecimenÆs body is dying.

Oh.

I couldnÆt stop it. The decay in the body was surprisingly quick as the mana poisoning somehow made the body turn on itself. It was as if the body was rejecting itself, and strangely, I kept watching. A part of me realized this was a rare opportunity to witness death under a microscope, and then some.

And where I paid attention to the most. was the soul spring.

I saw the land surrounding the river and lake that formed the personÆs mana start to break apart as if a great earthquake was shattering them into small pieces. Then the water in that river and lake started to leak out into the nothingness, and it revealed a crumbling riverbed of some kind, filled with unusual marks. I couldnÆt see much as the crumbling went on rather quickly.

I wondered if it was because he was dying quickly.

But I didnÆt wonder long because I had to focus. I wanted to see what happened to the soul spring then.

As the crumbling riverbed closed in on the soul spring, the spring started to dry up, the height of the spring falling and, eventually, stopping. Then the rocks and the structure surrounding the soul spring started to break up, too.

This was something I waited for, so I reached out to it and tried to grab hold of the rocks. As I touched them, they. vanished, poofing into dust. All the rocks did the same.

All that was left was a bare, empty hole floating in the nothingness as all the land and riverbed had crumbled away, the background changing into emptiness. In a way, it was like a black hole sitting solitary in space. Perhaps in that empty whole, there was once a star, once a soul there.

- The soul has gone, - Wisp whispered to my imaginary ears again.

- I see. -

YouÆve managed to salvage some of the decaying skills! Due to the decay of death, the salvaged skills are of a lower quality than the original skills possessed.

YouÆve received the following, which can be used to create seed - infused skill fruits !

class seed - ranger x 3.

class seed - beast tamer x 2.

skill seed - archery x 2.

passive seed - spark of brilliance x 1.

Oh, man. All these skill fruits were useless to me. But I guessed I would find a use for them somewhere. Maybe Lozanna .

YouÆve witnessed death as it happens in the inner realm.

Familiar contracts upgraded - skill salvaging chance increased!

Biolab upgraded - post - mortem equipment, death sensors, death - delaying equipment, and body preservation added!

Hey. ThatÆs something good. Finally. The physical body of the ranger stopped flailing like a puppet with its strings cut off. Lifeless, the body was pale and greenish from the damage of the mana poisoning over the last few days of experimentation. I later arranged for the corpse to be burned.

Meanwhile, the victory over the Salah army had made a lot of New Freekan devotees. A few days after the victory, they held some kind of feast in the courtyard of the tree of prayer , where the leaders of New Freeka thanked their lucky stars for the protection of the valleyÆs spirit and their victory.

It had free food, drinks, dances, and performances, some kind of prayer, and also worship led by the treefolk, things like that.

I felt somewhat flattered that the citizens thought that way, but the words of the leaders did feel quite hollow. Despite all the praise of their guardian and the so - called will of the valley, they somehow managed to worm in a word or two on their supposed contributions.

Perhaps it was a thing with politicians, even in this world.

YEAR 77, MONTH 9

- Tree spirit, - Yvon said. It was rare for her to come alone to the main treeÆs courtyard, but the fact that she did meant there were probably changes in the way things were organized on the New Freekan council.

She presented jewels and other items I had previously requested, stored in some kind of magical bag.

- As you requested. -

- What is it that you want? - Yura sneered. - For Lady Yvon herself to deliver the jewels, surely there is more to this than just. delivery. -

- The freeloader! - Horns shouted in my mind. Only to me, of course.

Even I knew that.

She sighed and nodded. - It is as you say, Yura . After the victory over the Salah forces, we have been receiving letters, messages, and. envoys. -

She then showed a few of these letters and passed them to Yura .

- Some of the smaller nations nearby are greatly impressed by our successful defense. And they would like to form some ties. -

- Freeloader! And now they take credit for the beetles sacrifice! - Horns shouted. He wasnÆt too happy that the beetles were the ones who suffered as it would take a month or two to regenerate their numbers.

Yura somehow seemed to be synchronized with Horns, and he sneered. - Such opportunistic behavior. It is only after such a grand display of power that you get offers. -

Yvon nodded. - ThatÆs how anyone would see it, but look at it from their perspective. They wouldnÆt dare anger a country the size of Salah, so naturally, they would avoid any association with us. But that changed when that army of fifty thousand retreated. Now, we are like a new power in the region - a force able to stand up to Salah - and so these smaller nations now view us more positively. -

- Us? Us? They had no casualties in combat! Put your men in combat, then you can say us! - Horns was rather grumpy. He wasnÆt too fond of the New Freekans - mainly because he felt some of the dead beetles didnÆt have to die had New Freeka lent some help.

I personally thought the beetles were just a self - replenishing mob, but Horns clearly cared for his hive.

Yura sneered again, also somehow synchronized. - I donÆt appreciate the we and us being thrown around. New Freeka did absolutely nothing. We only assisted once we found out they were first targeting the valley. -

Yura was hiding some details about our own checkered history with Salah there, but hey, he was the guy with the diplomat job.

Yvon gave out a long sigh. - Indeed. And that is why IÆm here. We are in an awkward position as New Freeka is clearly relying on Tree - TreeÆs ability for defenses to hold Salah off, and yet the outside world - our neighboring nations and Salah - donÆt know that. They are under the impression that New Freeka is the one controlling all the. forces. -

- Master. They are freeloaders! -

Horns, I think you need to stop shouting. I get it.

- Then clarify. Tell them New Freeka did nothing, and it is the valleyÆs protector who did, - Yura retorted. - You donÆt want to overstate your military prowess and face the consequences later. -

Yvon sighed. - I wish it was so simple. But the people of New Freeka, too, want to believe that the tree spirit is on our side. -

- Yvon, you, of all people, should know that Tree - Tree cares very little for New Freeka. ItÆs a transactional arrangement, one out of favor. It is about time you let the people of New Freeka know this as well. -

- I - I canÆt. I canÆt snuff out their hopes like that. The tree spirit is their newfound pride, their source of stability in this world. If I tell them that, I - I am afraid a riot may break out. -

- Then crush it. -

- Permission to let them run riot. Then we may have beetles running riot, too! - Horns interjected in my mind.