Chapter 104: Treevial Matters

Year 121

My own curse flared up. I wasn’t sure why, but if it could happen to the heroes, it certainly could happen to me. 

 

Thankfully [Root of Life] helped suppress it, but it felt like one of those days when I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and had to nurse a migraine the entire day. It’s really one of those days. 

 

And well, it’s one of those years. 

 

I had a few rebellions to crush.  A few invasions to defeat. A surge in monsters and creatures from the Rottedlands. 

 

But, there are some good parts. I sent 3 of the ancient-tree shards to Lilies. Strangely, they actually agreed to give an ‘enchantment’ should I ever ask for it. They have some powers over death.

 

They gave me a brief origin story of their powers of death. Because they took death-ceremonies to another level.

 

In the Lake of Lilypod City, any and every death is brought back to be submerged in the lake. A tradition almost a millennia old, Lilies have developed a method of gaining experience from the bodies of the dead. Beneath the lake’s murky waters are floating roots and vines that consume the corpses of the dead. 

 

They had somehow developed a skill that allowed them to collect experience from the dead. I mean, I get experience seeds, but they get experience and levels! I wonder if it’s a function of their different species?

 

< When we were small and few, we lived in this lake where the dead were thrown away. The dead fed us, strengthened us. >

 

Class. Experience. Levels. 

 

Perhaps, so many years ago, did Indra set me off on this path of being a Soul/Spirit Tree by requesting for a familiar? Had I received experience in a different way, would my evolution had been different?

 

-

 

“I’m afraid not.” Jura shook his head. “Aeon has a rather poor opinion of the Hutan Council after his encounters with your people a few decades ago.”

 

“Could you talk to it and convince it otherwise? The Council has changed a lot over the 20 years, surely it’s unfair for the Tree Spirit to pin the blame on this generation for the sins of the previous generation?” The Hutan Council had sent a decent-sized delegation to Freshka after the news of the Great Druid-class being gifted to Faris. It took them some time, but here they are. 

 

Many want the class, of course. Some of these druids have been regular druids for decades, and saw the upgraded class as a chance to break through their stagnant life. .

 

Jura shrugged. “Trees have long memories, I suggest you come back in, say... 50 years.” I think that’s not true. It’s just that we trees perceive time differently, so those memories feel quite fresh to me. It takes more time for me to forget a grudge, even though it feels just as long or the same to me. 

 

“No. Great Druid! To a child!” The druid shouted at Jura. “Even the entire Hutan Council, only 2 druids have that class!”

 

Jura frowned. “Perhaps Aeon sees something in the child. And I don’t recall druids ever challenging the wisdom of the Tree Spirits.”

 

[Domain and Grand Mind Tree has blocked attempted influence]

 

“And Aeon has just said that he is annoyed at your attempt to use your power.”

 

The druid frowned. A few other druids looked unhappy. And they stomped off. Jasmine helped to monitor them, but then, a bunch of them were spotted sneaking into the Valthorn’s offices and buildings. 

 

“The tree spirit may have hidden some of the class-granting fruits in the premises. We should sneak in and try to find it.” They managed to bribe a Valthorn employee to reveal where valuable items are hidden in the Valtrian Order’s premises. So, they snuck in.

 

“But wouldn’t they hide it in it’s main tree itself?” Another Hutan druid asked. At this point, I think no one ever revealed to the druids that I have line-of-sight of the entire valley. Wouldn’t anyone be able to figure it out?

 

“Do you want a chance to find a Great Druid class or not?”

 

They snuck into the premises, and then got a shock when they saw the valuables store only had money. 

 

“It’s just storing money...”

 

That’s because all the weapons, and other items have all been given to the Valthorns and they are responsible for caring for their own goods. Seriously, the concept of a store is not really valid when Jasmine and the other artificial minds can pretty much track all movement of these items almost all the time. 

 

Distributing them minimised any risk of theft, and since the valley itself is under heavy surveillance, it wasn’t hard to find who took what, especially if it’s of value. Money, on the other hand, was rather worthless to me, so it’s security was left to the Valtrian Council. 

 

“You know, it won’t be there.” Edna appeared behind the druids, there were a group of other Valthorn Knights with her. “The fruits of a special class only appear when Aeon itself decides it so.”

 

“You!” The Hutan druids turned and summoned animals to fight. They were outnumbered, honestly. There were knights everywhere, the knights overwhelmed the druids, those who surrendered were arrested and thrown into a prison. 

 

Time for Freshka to hold them ransom for some rewards from the Hutan Council. I had the impression they are on the decline, though, so I wonder what they are willing to cough up. 

-

 

Later on, I awarded two more Valthorn Initiates with special classes. One, a [Mountain Druid], and another, a [Ranger Master]. 

 

To some extent, a part of me began to enjoy the chaos that these advanced classes cause. 

 

“I’m rather surprised that you have so many unique classes, Aeon.” 

 

“I’ve been hoarding them for some time.” There’s some truth to it, but I also have an orchard of class-seed growing trees in the Valley of the Unrotten. And it helps that I gather class seeds, skill seeds and experience seeds when people die. 

 

Everywhere, as long as it’s within the range of my soul harvesters, essence, class-seed and skill-seeds continue to come in. So, I always have materials to fuse into ‘bigger’ or ‘upgraded’ seeds. 

 

“Master, we need upgrades too!” Horns reminded. Their level cap has increased to level 60, but as previously, their upgrades require materials and gems. 

 

I decided to upgrade Trevor and Dimitree first, since they’ve been supporting me for so long, and they are both at their level cap anyway. After that, I upgraded Horns and Jura’s Bamboo. The Yellow-type upgrades generally grant my artificial souls to choose a ‘class-specialisation’, so in Trevor and Dimitree’s case, they both gained ‘Administrator’-type skills. Horns gained  [General]-type skills to control my large army of beetles.

 

I also created more Artificial minds, placing them subordinate to Trevor, Dimitree and Jasmine to oversee my vast empire. I already had Acacia, Brootus and Cyprus from earlier, but since Trevor can now hit level 60, I elevated him to be pretty much my chief-of-artificial-souls. Dimitree is his deputy. 

 

I feel that my artificial souls or minds are like extremely good AI. They are extremely competent at monitoring and administration, but they are constrained on creation in scope, and only improved by the new soul-forge colors. 

 

The level cap also meant that they would never be able to really ‘fight’ at the level I need, simply because enemies like the demonic walkers need a force around level 80. Thinking about it, they’re probably an organisation’s field-managers and middle managers. 

 

Somewhere, in a quiet corner of my vast kingdom, I also had a secret experiment.

 

This was far from the rest of the inhabited area, away from Jura or Freshka.

 

I created a tree, and infused it with blood. A lot of blood. My roots are able to transport liquids, so I stocked and absorbed the blood from the sick, the dead, or the dying, and then infused a tree with all the blood.

 

Though the elves didn’t agree on my experimenting with [blood mages], I could very much do it myself. 

 

So, a tree.

 

I did so secretly, and eventually, a notification.

 

[Unique Tree : The Bleeding Tree] created. 

 

I was swept with a sickening feeling, like nausea. [Grand-mind Tree blocked attempted influence from unknown source.] Then I felt better.

 

I need to further upgrade the Grand-Mind Tree. 

 

Then, I had my beetles secretly smuggle criminals to that location. It wasn’t hard, after all, through the entire Freshlands, all these vassal-states all have criminals of various kinds. I suppose I’m doing some mental gymnastics when I justify my process that these criminals are on death-row anyway. So I may as well test some basic blood magic with their bodies.

 

Conceptually, runes are a kind of rituals. Blood magic too, is a ritual. I myself, and my entire network of trees, is pretty much a massive magical array. 

 

I tried to use my roots to ‘cast’ a blood ritual.

 

It failed. 

 

I tried again. Failed.

 

It failed.

 

By the time I was done with the 50 or so criminals, I had failed all my attempted blood magic. Why did I fail? Is it because I used a bleeding Tree?

 

I was frustrated, but I got a skill.

 

[Skill upgraded! Magic Labs - Blood Magic Sensor unlocked]

 

So, later that year, I spotted another bunch of blood mages. The world is filled with blood mages, very much a legacy of the hexbomb-era, when the knowledge of how to cast a hexbomb was widely distributed to so many kingdoms and countries. 

 

Once again, I let them use their blood magic, but with my new blood magic sensors, I think I began to understand it a bit more.

 

Blood magic essentially uses their own soul as a chip, in order to hack into the souls of those sacrificed. Each use of blood magic weakens their own soul, and makes them even more susceptible to the corruption of blood magic, and the strange voices from beyond. It’s like taking a part of themselves, making that into a consumable nail.

 

So the insanity and curse that comes with all high-level blood mages is an inherent outcome of their use of such abilities. That insanity is also mixed into the very fabric of the loosely knitted outer soul fragments. Maybe it’s like using a diamond to cut another diamond, because they don’t have enough power for it’s alternatives. 

 

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“Have you never found who were spreading the hexbombs?” I asked the heroes one day. 

 

“Find them? No one’s going to reveal themselves as a blood mage!” 

 

In truth, it should be possible to find them, since their souls would clearly be ‘damaged’. Each use is like leaving gunpowder residue on their soul. But then, one would have to be able to spot it. I would be able to spot it, all I needed to do is put them under my [biolab] and it’ll be clear as day.

 

[Curse : Weakened Soul from Blood Magic]. That’s what appeared in the few captured blood mages. Their soul spring is clearly tainted, the spring itself cracked, and the waters in their spring is a muddy brown.

 

Based on all this, I’m confident in my assessment. Hex is essentially a radioactive decaying outer soul fragments stitched together with blood magic. The decay is how the outer souls ‘untangle’ the stitching and decay into normal matter. 

Year 122

I did another controversial series of tests. I hauled a bunch of death row criminals to my soul forge, and attempted a ‘clean’ version of the outer-soul stitching. If blood magic was ‘incomplete’ work, then could I, the master of 4 colors of the Soul Forge, perform a ‘complete’ version.

 

I failed at first.

 

I failed my first ten tests, and in doing so, close to 500 criminals were killed. 

 

“That’s hell of a gruesome way to die.” The heroes said. 

 

“But it’s painless. The overwhelming energies of my soul forge instantly kills them and liquefies them.” It’s true. The amount of mana used to attempt ‘clean-soul-fusion’ was absolutely insane, so much so that when I use it, everyone in the entire Freshlands can feel the mana flickering in the air. 

 

Each time, I had a better understanding of the process. 

 

“Aeon, where do you get these ideas?” The heroes asked, unaware that I’ve been watching and experimenting on the blood mages. 

 

“Dreams.” 

 

“Trees can dream?”

 

“Why not?”

 

“You don’t have brains.”

 

“Are brains necessary for dreams?”

 

Anyway, it’s key to separate the Inner Soul and the Outer Soul as smoothly and cleanly as possible. After separation, the inner soul core is released so that it can proceed with it’s reincarnation, and what’s left is a floating magical plasma blob of outer soul fragments. 

 

Next, I used my overwhelming mana to forcefully compress the outer soul fragments together. The first few times, I didn’t control my mana properly, so the outer soul fragments leaked out and then it just dissipated. 

 

Then, as the soul fragments fused together, it finally turned into a small solid object. 

 

[You’ve created a Soul-Strengthening Seed]

[Consuming the Soul-Strengthening Seed will increase the level capacity of one individual. Needs to be combined with a herb of sufficient quality]

 

“What.” I thought to myself. I expected something far more powerful than just a soul-strengthening seed. But then, the level capacity seems to suggest that each individual has a ‘cap’, and so, I have just discovered the item that breaks the cap!

 

And I know exactly the person to give it to.

 

“Jura.” I fused the Soul-Strengthening Seed with a high-quality 5-year old ginseng from my Ginseng Trees. “Eat this.” 

 

He did, and he felt like his entire body burned for the rest of the day. “Aeon, what are you feeding me! Why do I feel like every part of me is breaking!” 

 

Well, a good day later, he woke up and felt much stronger and healthier, as if he was younger by a few decades. 

 

“Aeon... I.. I have a blessing!! And I gained 7 levels in [Warlord] overnight!”

 

“Oh?”

 

“[Soul-Blessed.]” 

 

Does the Soul-Strengthening Seed give levels, or are those like overflow-levels that were not effect-ed because he was capped at around Level 80? 

 

The only way to prove it, of course, is to make more, and give it to someone else that was not stuck at the cap. It’s a little disappointing though, I had hoped to create something comparable to say... a fusion power-plant. But I suppose a level-breaking ability is not bad either. 

 

That meant Lausanne could also break past Level 80, if she wanted. But I think she’s still happily adventuring in the world. 

 

-

 

“I want to talk about Aeon” Harris said to Gerrard and Mirei. They were gathered in a room in one of the lodges in Freshka.

 

“You know he’s listening, right?” Gerrard looked at Harris like an alien. “Aeon’s presence permeates the entirety of this region. This entire region is a police surveillance state. We agreed on this. No talking about tree spirits anywhere near them! All of us have his familiars! Who knows if it’s eavesdropping on us.”

 

“I know, but I think I don’t mind if he listens.” Harris said. “I just wanted to say that he seems to be very intimately familiar with our world’s thought processes. Almost as if he knows what we know.”

 

“Evidence.”

 

“Remember how Jura described our wooden arms as ‘Power-Armor?” Harris promptly showcased his wooden limbs, made from familiar. I was still unable to fix the two lost parts, due to the effects of the curse. But at least it wouldn’t get worse. 

 

“So what?”

 

“There’s so many little references here and there that he understands. I believe he knows about earth.”

 

“Look, I can posit a few theories of how he knows about us. One, he’s old, and he met a lot of us earthers. Two, he has the power to create and alter dreams, by extension, he must have some access to our memories, such that he can create those dreams. Three, his soul harvesters harvest the souls of the dead, and each time, he gains something from the dead. If those dead include earthers, it is no surprise that he knows what we know.” Mirei said. 

 

Harris froze, and after thinking for a long time. “You’re right. I probably didn’t think it through.”

 

“We have 4 years left till the next demon king. We’re in no condition to fight it.” Mirei said, though she’s not dead, she is weakened by the curse. “If I must admit, we must be prepared to lose and die.”

 

Gerrard nodded. “So, let’s do what Astra did. Kill ourselves and bomb it to death.” 

 

“No!” Mirei said. “You saw what the system did to him! It made us hate him!”

 

“Well, if we want to go out with a bang, I can’t think of a better way.”

 

Mirei stopped. “Bang? Maybe we could make ourselves into a living bomb. You know, like that manga! This old dude fought the Ant King, but as a failsafe planted a nuke into his heart. We could try that.” 

 

They all got a headache at the same time, but Gerrard had already prepared cups filled with some herbal liquor. They all took a sip. 

 

“Damned system meddling with our minds.”

 

“It’s a good idea, but who can make a bomb that powerful?”

 

“Aeon’s been experimenting with souls, we could ask him to try it. Maybe he can do something about it.”

 

Harris looked confused and bewildered. “I cannot believe that both of you are suggesting to make yourself into some kind of suicide bomber.”

 

“It’s not suicide bombing. It’s a... contingency.” Gerrard said. 

 

“I wouldn’t do it.” Harris frowned.

 

“If the demon king lives, it’ll still kill you. You know it can and will look for us. You’ve felt it. We’re just like the Ringbearer, the Demon King can see us, one way or another. The higher levels we are, the brighter we are to him.” Mirei said. “It’s better for us to knock it out.”

 

Harris had been still busy quelling the conflict among his many sons and daughter, so the idea of dying to the demon king really didn’t sit well with him.

 

“So what are your alternatives, Emperor Harris? You know you can’t outrun it, and you cannot move your children’s kingdoms. Do them a favor, buy them some time, and knock out the demon king when you die. If the demon king lives and comes for you, your children’s kingdoms will be in ruins anyway.”

 

Harris was silent. 

 

Gerrard looked at Mirei. “Well, if anything, both of us will find a way to make us self-destruct if we die. It’s honestly a pretty fitting way to end our lives, and ironic too. We all died in a car crash, now we get to die with a Michael-Bay style explosion.”

 

“Why can’t we summon the next generation of heroes?” Harris said. “There must be a way I can trade powers for the right to summon more heroes.”

 

Then he had a massive headache, so much so that it looked like he was having fits. Gerrard and Mirei quickly fed him some herbal liquor. “Wow. That’s some intense mental-attack.” 

 

“Ugh.” Harris took a while to recover, and then said. “I mean, it takes power to summon heroes, right, but can we summon heroes, or perhaps, aid the gods in summoning heroes? That way I don’t have to die. I don’t mind surrendering my blessings or my levels as cost.”

 

“You know, that’s really a rather good idea.” Gerrard nodded. “But where do we even start, how do we even commune and discuss this with the gods?”