Chapter 18: Next generation

Year 73 Month 2

A few days after the heroes leave

The [subsidiary tree] unlocks 30 additional trees, and with that, using my natural tree spirit powers to “stimulate” plant growth, a small forest now grows out around me, and though all these new smaller trees look separate, but they are actually part of me. They are linked underground via rootnet, and they serve a few functions.

Each separate tree is actually one [customisable branch], and they collect a few things, such as solar energy, essences.

The immediate impact is of course, happier elves! Well, Jura’s happy for a few reasons. After his involvement in the battle with the 3 demon champions, though it’s mainly dealing with the lesser demons, he gained a level and successfully removed his curse. It seems growth can naturally overcome such curses.

But the elves are happy because the additional trees remind the elves of this place, before the humans, and before demonic stampedes that razed this place to the ground. Freeka, is once surrounded by forests, and the forests was once home to many natural creatures that the elves hunted, and many herbs that the elves used extensively in their cooking,

I have been trying to regrow the surrounding area multiple times, but each time a demon attacks, these regular trees do not stand a chance. These subsidiary trees, they inherit my resistances and defenses, and so, I think they will last a lot longer.

The 30 extra trees form two circles around me, 6 in the inner circle, 24 on the outer circle.

“It feels like a wall.” Jura looks around.

“It is meant to be a wall.” Indeed, a layer of demon-resistant trees is my idea of defense.

“These trees, do they do something?” Laufen asks, and Lausanne walks next to her.

Looking at Lausanne, Brislach and Wahlen, I decide to convert one of the inner trees into a playroom. The secret hideout did not have much space, given that it mostly living quarters, the food store, the lab and the medical area. Oh, and there is a small pool.

These elven kids have seen too much, and maybe a proper play area will bring a greater sense of normalcy into their lives.

The playroom has a small wooden slide, a few different wooden toys, some racks and small chairs made using my wood forming magic.

Ah children, what innocent souls.

Eh.

I wonder how a child’s soul would look like, and Lausanne is too small, so Brislach volunteers for the dip.

And a child’s soul, is the same as Jura’s, with one notable exception. The earth, or the body, is… soft. And the spring which pours out, seems inconsistent. Brislach’s soul at time surges, and then it shrinks.

“When do children start practicing magic?”

“Oh.. it differs by culture…” Laufen and Jura sits around and explain. “Some cultures believe it is best to let the body mature before attempting to draw out mana, and so the exposure to magic is late, like their mid teens. Some cultures believe it is better to be exposed early and let mana flow more freely in the body.”

“And different societies expose them differently, its not as if there is one standard way of doing it, as the bodies of different people are very different. People may learn the same spell, but the body’s elemental preference, stats can change how that translates. In fact, the only so far somewhat uniformly agreed skill that appears the same way is the most basic of spells… spark. And from what I hear, that does not apply to heroes!”

Hmm.. I suppose the shape of body, the way that water flows from the soul to the body makes that difference.

Wahlen’s next, and indeed, once he dips in, I get a notification.

[Obtained passive skill : soul grading]

And indeed, it is a skill that sort the souls into general grades, and what I see is the both Wahlen and Brislach are graded as a range of rank 2 to 4, where Laufen, Emile, Bell is rank 3, Jura is rank 6. The grade range for the 2 children seems to imply that children’s souls are still flexible and subject to influence.

Actually, looking at all this I now wonder what am I?

I am a tree spirit, but I do have a soul, and I wonder whether it is possible to look at myself, the way I peek into others?

Nope.

I can’t see myself. Though, I do have a wide array of menus and measurements. Oh well, maybe someday I will get some kind of reflection-ish ability. But menus are supposed to be a lot more accurate, after all they quantify everything into a number or a “status”. But this recent experience does draw some limitations of menus. Numbers are rigid, and yet the vision of one’s soul, and that notion of a flowing water, it explains how everything is linked, and how the body feeds back into the kind of energy produced.

Anyway, back to the children, and my new found tree-mates.

With 30 extra [customisable-branch], and the new options for them, the innermost trees are reserved for elves, so for the inner 6 trees, 1 is a playpen for the kids, 2 is some extra rooms for the elves, and perhaps future visitors, such that they don’t get inside me, and I left 3 empty for now, since the process of changing one occupied customisable branch to another type takes a good month, even though the first change from blank takes… a day.

As for the other 24, I set one as a kennel for the woodhound, 10 for essence extraction, 4 as mineral processors, 5 as housing for insect warriors, which as a result, spawns an additional 15 insect warriors in my service, and 4 unused. Perhaps I’ll get some kind of defensive option, which the remaining 4 can be used for.

I set a lot of the customisable branches for essence extraction, because wisp claims that essence is one of the key materials for the [soul forge]. Still, even now it’s not operational, the soul forge needs a power source.

The elves now walk about their expanded “safe area” protected by the 2 layers of trees. Jura takes one of the extra rooms, and the two young elves, Emile and Belle takes the other room. Laufen and the children continue to stay in the secret hideout. An unfortunately, the toilet and washroom is still in the secret hideout. Perhaps a common public bath can be made later on.

“TreeTree, will these rooms grow?”

“Maybe? I don’t really know.” Perhaps these trees can level up and I can give them more options. But I think it is quite unlikely as they are connected to me.

“Ah oh well.” Belle shakes her leg on her new mattress. In the room the 2 girls share, there’s 3 single beds, and a few cabinets. It’s fairly large, and there’s windows out to the main tree. In a away, these rooms look like they are carved out of the trees themselves.

Emile too checks out her new cabinets. For once she can move her clothes out of her chest in the hideout, into proper cabinets.

“You think the heroes will defeat the demon king?” Emile sits on the other mattress.

“Yea, of course they would. They are heroes!”

“Not as good looking as I hoped though.”

“Well, I guess history paints heroes with a whole lot of makeup!” Belle laughs and rolls on her new bed. The mattress is made of old clothes stuffed inside.

Emile stands and looks out one of the windows, to see a few of the new subsidiary trees. It’s home to the giant beetles, and a few of them are resting. The home of the giant beetles, these giant trees are hollow within, and contained inside are nectar which these beetles feed on.

She felt a little tingle, perhaps an instinctual fear. It’s weird to be so near these giant beetles, but they are minions, creations of the Tree Spirit.

Jura walks in. “Ah, the design is the same.”

“Oh Jura.”

“Settling in already?”

“Yeah. Finally a space outside!”

“Yeah, tree spirits are amazing.” There are other tree spirits around the world with similar powers, and some of these very ancient tree spirits managed to elude the wrath of the demons by ‘escaping’, by creating mystical forests that are able to disappear temporarily. The methods the denizens of the world used to survive and outlast the demons are varied, some choose to disappear, some choose to constantly move.

Year 73 Month 3 Week 2

[Demon King Andraas has been defeated]

[Maximilian Powell has died]

[Meela Adams has died]

[Hendrick Mathers has died]

[Freyasian has died]

[Gunnar Forrest has died]

[Peters Schmiel has died]

[Fang Wei has died]

[Omar West has died]

[Sally Ann Courtlass has died]

[Reese Witherfork has died]

[You received 10 fragments. You now have a total of 66 fragments]

[You gained 4 levels. You are now level 114.]

[Tree Familiar abilities upgraded]

[Skill : Defensive dome obtained]

[Customisable branch option unlocked : Shield Generator]

[Soul Tree range greatly expanded]

It started with a set of popups, and then I had a very, very bad feeling, and I asked all the elves to hide. They didn’t know why, but they trusted me commands. I activated all the defensive measures that came with the higher levels, and indeed, there is something.

There is a small delay, about an hour, but then it happened. A very strong wind swept across the entire area. It’s like a shockwave from a faraway explosion, and with it, searing, hot air. Thankfully, it seems to have weakened considerably by the time it came here.

“What the hell was that!” Jura exclaims, and looks at the other elves.

“The demon king died. And… I think some kind of massive explosion happened.”

“OH!” The elves clap their hand. “That’s great news!”

“And the heroes died as well.”

“Oh. That’s sad, but that’s great news too!” Jura frowns, and then laughs.

“What? Why?” THe other elves look at Jura.

“Surviving heroes tend to create political chaos after the demon threat is nullified. Actually, quite a few of the human kingdoms and empires we see today are descended from heroes. So… heroes, while necessary, do create a whole lot of wars and fighting.”

So what next?

“What would you do to prepare for the next demon king?”

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The elves pause.

“Uh…”

Wait. I thought elves being long lived tend to plan things out.

Jura and Laufen glance at each other. “Well, we’re concentrated on our day to day lives, training, or looking after the kids, that we don’t think much about the next demon king. Kings and emperors, heads of priests worry about such stuff.”

That somehow reminds me of regular people stuck in dead end jobs, unable to see the bigger picture because it’s deadlines after deadlines at work.

“And even if we thought about it, the demon king is so powerful that whatever we thought isn’t going to work.”

Well, fair. If it’s not something you have the ability to change, you don’t worry about it.

At this point its the children that speak up. Brislach and Wahlen laugh and say, “if we could be heroes, then we can beat the demon king!” That’s actually the ideal. If we could beat the demon king, then we need not worry about the problems that it creates.

And if I want to try that idea, I’ll need to get my [soul forge] online.

Year 73 Month 3 Week 3

The death of the demon king takes a while to get out, not everyone gets a nice notification in their menus like I do. It seems that the place where the demon king perish, is warped by the mixture of his demonic magic and the natural magic in the area, and creates special mana crystals known as “Daemolite”.

Daemolite is a valuable mineral, for it only exists at the places where the demon kings has died, and the amount of such mana crystals created is finite. But, it’s valuable for it’s ability to store mana in large quantities, and is therefore valuable in high-mana requirement spells, rituals and generally as a source of power for large, long range weapons. Even adventurers also use them as a sort of a reusable mana potion, as they lack of pains of potion-sickness, as these crystals merely store their own mana, which they can withdraw later on.

And so, the period immediately after the demon king’s death is usually a mad rush to the demon king’s site, to harvest these minerals. It is for these reasons that some adventurers have a secondary mission given by their countries, which is to observe and inform their benefactors the location of the demon king’s demise.

Yet, mining such minerals, which usually appear as crystalline structures on the surface, is fraught with challenges as well. The dense mana pool tend to attract leftover demons, and also large monsters.

Daemolite is valuable, but what gets kings and countries to send large armies to seize control of the area, is for a very rare thing, the last remains of the demon king, is a small finger sized horn, known as the Horn Of Eternity. Ground into powder and consumed, it restores one’s youth, extends one’s life significantly, and depending on compatibility, gains access to a special type of magic, known as chaos magic.

In an age where one’s life is finite, agelessness and youth is very much desired.

And, we have our first human encounter again.

“Airship!”

Oh, a magical airship. It seems those exists in this world after all. It’s a small one, and it zooms ahead quickly.

At this point, Jura looks up. “That airship…”

“Huh?”

“They belong to the Salah kingdom that attacked us.”

Ah. That’s a kingdom I don’t want to benefit from this entire adventure. Hmmm, but I can’t attack it at range, my root strike doesn’t fly so high. If only I have some kind of lasso, but I’ll work on that next time. Perhaps flying insects too.

But for now, I think my fruits can hit it, if I shoot them with it. Perhaps I can create explosive fruits next time, like explosive mangrove seeds. Maybe next time, this system has a way of creating things I think about somehow.

I create a bunch of corrosive fruits, and right when it fly overhead, I unleash a huge barrage of them. They hit it underneath, and it shakes midair, and starts to crash.

The airship shakes, and somehow manages to perform a controlled landing, and about six men pop out.

“Huh what the hell happened?” One of them came out, he seems like a fairly experienced adventurer.

“We are attacked. Something hit us with these things.” Another guy points at the remains of the corrosion fruits stuck at it’s bottom. The hull is riddled with holes.

“There’s only that bunch of trees. Something is in there?”

“Yea.”

“Let’s go check it out.” The six men draw their weapons and approach the outer trees. And as they come a bit closer, my roots pop out, and wrap around their bodies like multiple pythons.

They scream.

But my roots and vines are able to hold back a demon champion.

They struggle.

Still, my beetles pop out and bite off their weapons.

Weaponless, and restrained by vines, I wonder what do I do with them. Kill them?

At that point, I wonder whether are all men of the kingdom of Salah the same. Maybe these men are unaware of the atrocities their fellow men committed.

“Tie them up and interrogate them. Find out what they want.” I mentally speak to Jura.

Jura takes a bit of my extra-strong paralysing sap and makes all but one of them drink it, and it causes the five men who had a taste of the bitter sap to shake and convulse like they are electrocuted.

The last man, the oldest and the one who looks to be in charge, stare at Jura. “What the fuck are you doing!”

“You belong to the Salah Kingdom, and they destroyed this village some time ago. I’m just taking revenge.”

The man’s eye widen. “I have nothing to do with it.”

“Really?” Jura shrugs. “That’s what everyone says. But the sins of the nation are shared by every citizen and follower of the nations. I might spare your life is you’re cooperative, but otherwise I’ll kill you.”

The beetle carry the remaining five men into a wooden cell, one of the extra [customisable branches]. Essentially it’s a room, but with no windows and a door that only can be opened from the outside, and vines inside that holds onto their bodies.

“So.... do you want to cooperate?”

“Fine. What do you want?”

“Good.”

The group of beetles then transport the damaged airship into the area between my main tree and the sub-trees. I’ll have to take a look at them later, the idea of having my own airship is appealing, even if I can’t use it.

Year 73 Month 3 Week 4

The adventurers are alive, and my routine involves putting them under the microscope. There are certain differences in the human body compared to elves, and this is most apparent in the nature of their “water”. The elves have a very slight greenish tinge to them, and this it seems leans toward a nature-based magics, and makes it harder for them to use magics that contradict this natural disposition, whereas the humans generally have pure, clear, colorless water.

After a week of going into the pod they’ve gone slightly crazy, and it seems they are hallucinating. Perhaps it’s the sleep-inducing elements that I inject into them via the nourishing branches.

“Are we going to keep them here forever?” The younger elves are complain, but put up with it because they are monitored by beetles and restrained by the vines.

Well, I plan to dispose them, eventually. But for now, they are useful. If the soul forge is that powerful, understanding this is key.

Jura grins. “I would like to fight them one on one.”

Hmm, maybe I could set up a match between Jura and them, and let them fight for their fate. But what if he loses?

No, if he loses, I have a problem.

“Fine. IF they win, they go free.”

Jura gulps, but he is the best fighter the elf village has, with all the additional levels from the recent battles.

“Let them know, one on one, if they win, they go free, they lose, they die.”

The adventurers are more than happy with such challenges, and so they agree. So, the next day, the captain faces Jura, outside the ring of trees. I’ll still be able to easily kill them with a root strike, so I’m not too concerned.

The battle starts with a staredown, the captain and Jura stares at each other, and readies their weapons.

“Start.” Laufen, flanked by about six beetles, start of the match. She shakes her head, this is a silly men thing.

The two men starts trading swords, but it’s easily clear that Jura’s a lot stronger. I figured as much, as my investigations into his body doesn’t suggest anything special.

The adventurer tries a few dodgy tricks. A poison dagger, a random hidden weapon, and it fails. Jura as an elven warrior has fought adventurers many times in the past, so such tricks are not new.

And a slash, the battle ends. All in, it’s mostly posturing and sensing for a good 3 to 5 minutes, the actual fighting is like for 5 minutes and that’s it.

So, the adventurers will die.

Year 73 Month 4 Week 2

Some peace and quiet. It’s lovely. Rather than killing them with a root strike, I felt like trying something different so I used [absorption] on them, and drain them into nothing but a husk.

With the new weapons and items collected from the adventurers, the elves can now practice different kinds of fighting, which they will need to do eventually.

My multiple essence generators are producing well, but I think I’ll need new skills and abilities soon. And one alternative to the [soul forge] is to power it myself, but that would require a tremendous amount of energy, and so I’m exploring how to store energy, the solution came in the form of a potato.

[Tree ability : create tuberous storage]

A potato that stores energy.

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