Chapter 35: Volcano Expeditions I

Year 77 Month 1

A new year begins. Still as cold as ever though, not like the wizards gotten to the point of weakening it yet. There is still a fluctuation in the coldness, so I suppose whoever they sent to undo that cursed spell is 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 share 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 did not even think about this data security issue until Alexis did what she did.

But I guess its a bit too late now. Oh well. She’s doing alright as a research spirit though.

“I think I’m near a breakthrough.” Alexis mumbles. “I think I’ve figured this thing whole lab work thing out. All I got to do is press some buttons and the lab itself will just keep trying different combinations of materials to change stuff.”

She’s already level 10 as a lab spirit. It’s rather unfair how these hero-reincarnators still retain some of their perks, even after death.

Alexis floats over few beetles, each in one clear pod with a light green liquid, kind of like how most people imagine large glass preservation cylinders to look like. The lab itself does most of the work, as in, doing changes to the beetles which it experiments on, and then producing the results for Alexis to then interpret. The length of the research essentially is an automated number crunching exercise, derived from an estimate of x% likelihood of a favorable outcome divided by time taken per ‘test’ per biolab.

In a way, since we’re on the security topic, it’s 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, Alexis can look at the data and make educated guesses, which narrows down the options the biolab has to crunch to, so we’re more likely to make progress on a research topic.

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

“It’s a lot more mechanical than I thought it would be, it’s 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 frowns. Now that she’s a spirit confined in the biolab and it’s immediate surroundings, people can see her, and they see her as a blue apparition which haunts the biolab.

“What are some of those words…” Meela frowns.

“Mumbo jumbo.” Alexis laughs. “Really, just talking about research results and choosing what’s more likely to work based on the testing results. I know you understand it, don’t act dumb.”

“No no.” Meela sighs.

“You’re just trying to avoid my fate of being made into a research spirit, aren’t ya? It isn’t so bad, actually. I get to float around and look outside of the tree. Have you noticed how starry it gets at night?”

Meela didn’t answer.

“The moons are gorgeous at night, and one of them never truly turns dark. And I think the other one’s on some kind of 3 month cycle, instead of the 1 month we’re so used to.”

Well… the moons are different after all.

“Meela, seriously. Take a leap, do something, see the world with me. Again. Don’t just hide there in the comfort of TreeTree’s soul realm...”

“No...”

Alexis pauses, and she floats up to the top of the biolab tree. She sits on one of the branches, and she looks out. “Well, the sunrise’s going to be gorgeous.” There are some things I cannot see, given the limitations of my tree vision. And what I cannot see, those in my soul realm cannot see either.

I too wish to see how the sun rise truly looks, instead of an augmented version pieced together by the collective data formed through Trevor and Dimitree’s gathered sensors and receptors throughout the valley.

Maybe I should actually have… eyes.

[Eye-Tree Stage I research option unlocked - 24 months needed]

Whoah. I mean, the word itself kinds of scare me, and I try to image myself a tree with eyes. No matter how it still comes out as a little freaky, probably the kind of stuff that belongs in a lovecraftian epic.

Heh. Why don’t just give me the eye tree, but I suppose certain kinds of abilities now go through research. I mean, I’m a bit confused actually, does the system actually have a way of saying what I can research, or what I can get through my skills.

There’s discussions that say leveling grants skills on a random basis. Essentially there’s a big pool with skills in it, where skills you are more likely to get have a higher probability, and then you essentially draw. Research, is what happens when you fail to draw the skill you want, and as a consolation, you could still work towards the skill?

Anyway. Mysteries of the system. For all you know, it’s just one person up dare deciding what to give me, and what not to, and just rolls a die every now and then for the fun of it.

Year 77 Month 2

Strangely, I think the wizards succeeded. On the eve of the 2nd month, a strange lack of cold sweeps through the land, and the cold didn’t come back.

“It’s probably just a reduction, not a complete removal.” Trevor spoke. “We can still faintly detect the presence of the spell, just… in much lesser amounts.”

“Huh.”

“Probably a reduction in the power of the spell’s effects, so the valley being so far away experience a significant improvement.”

“You know, if you have some lab that focuses on magic, you could find out…" Alexis butts herself in.

“It’s a biolab, with magical sensors that focuses on living things. Its not a magic lab.”

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

"Its not as if I desire for a magic lab, then I will get a magic lab."

"Research?" Alexis taps a few screens in the biolab.

Alexis floats onto the middle of the lab, and uses a skill, [Research Planner].

"We'll 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 1.5 years worth of research. But you'll get material lab within 6 months!"

I'm thinking.

"What do you say? I think it's a good idea!"

I'm 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 sighs. "Okay…"  She pouts and she goes back into her biolab-tree. Somewhat-unnervingly, this biolab-tree derives its energy from Alexis, not me, and so it gains new equipment and abilities as and when Alexis levels.

Alexis is now level 14, and her most recent skill is [Probability charts], which produces an estimated likelihood of outcomes for a test, before actually going for it. In short, her skill simulates testing, a bit.

Her biolab-tree has a small chamber which functions as her personal room, where there's a bed that actually interacts with her spiritual form, so she can sleep. Actually, the entire biolab-tree seems to be able to react to her as if she of a solid, real person, and at the same time, she can switch it off, and then pass through things.

Alexis goes back to her room, and decides to take a nap instead. Maybe she’s not that happy with my decision.

Anyway, now that the snow stopping, its a great chance for me to boost my growth!

GROW!

Expand!

I think my tree instincts are driving me a little crazy.

EXPAND!!!

Yeah.

So we have more trees. After losing close to 7,000 trees to Alexis, thanks to this month’s returning warmth, and my newfound winter resistance, we’re back up by 3,500 trees. So yes, more trees. MORE. TREES.

The trees are also now starting to feed energy and resources back to the [tuberous storage].

[Tuberous storage upgraded.]

[High density tubers unlocked. Tubers will be naturally upgraded]

Oh. Yay? They store 2 units of energy now.

Back to expanding, and food!

And so, I decide to try my luck with the damned [ginseng tree], again.

“Alexis, can you also keep watch?” The ginseng tree’s right next to the biolab, with a lot of beetles and web spiders protecting them.

She covers her head in a pillow. “Didn’t hear you.”

I know she did, and I know she will. Because her soul-contract compels her to.

Anyway, New Freekans are happy. Warmth means a return to regular farming, stockpiling, and less burning through their stockpiles.

Yet, it’s also bittersweet, because the opportunity for Salah to now attack them is returning. The winter sort of gives New Freeka a natural ‘terrain deterrent’ from war. Even in a world of magic, not everything runs on magic, and so terrain still has 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’ve decide to state that they have no claim in this war, and would prefer to stay out of it. It’s a way of not pissing Salah too much, as this gesture would suggest that New Freeka is genuine in not participating in any conflict.

---

“If Baroosh were to endorse New Freeka’s independence, do you think that’ll go well?” One of Yvon’s councillor speaks to the exiled wizard of Baroosh, they seem to be rather close acquaintances, perhaps, even friends.

“Knowing my king, I doubt that’ll ever happen. He has never endorsed or supported any allied nations, what more one as far away as New Freeka. He is not a man of many friends, and 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 councillor nods, “Ah. I’ll need to get this message to the trading corps, let’s start with a trade.”

“That’s a good idea. By the way, I heard about the Tree spirits demands…”

“Yeah. It’s kind of extortion, isn’t it?”

“I don’t 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. Can’t expect it to think like we do.”

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

“Hmmm. Some of the councillors 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 it’s 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 or somekind.”

“It’ll just sound like preaching. The other councillors 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 does my words carry?”

The councillor sighs. “There must be another way.”

“Maybe you don’t actually need to give the tree spirit actual jewels, you know.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a tree spirit right… perhaps all it wants is a nearby location that contains those jewels, even if it’s hidden or buried under mountains of dirt and rock. Or, maybe, it doesn’t 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 royalties do. Maybe it just wants raw… jewels. So be it if it’s mixed with rocks and whatnot.”

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The councillor rubs her chin. “That’s actually a good point, and worth clarifying with the tree spirit. We’ve gotten so used to Noble's expectations to have jewels in a certain condition, that I didn’t think that a tree may not need it in a similar… state.”

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

“Yes. Tell Lady Yvon, we would require more information. If we can glean an understanding of the tree spirit’s intent, we can act accordingly.”

Year 77 Month 3

"This room is awesome." Lausanne jumps. Apparently she levelled up.

"Indeed." Jura nods, holding a set of wooden weapons. "The passives to your training reminds me of the effects of a skilled military drillmaster. Such rooms would be useful in any preparation for war.”

Lausanne blocks the wooden sword, she’s gradually getting better at all the combat skills that Jura is passing on to her, and Jura’s complaints has been getting less. It seems the term, ‘late bloomer’ is real, or perhaps it’s just the influence of [dream tutor], constantly feeding the combat-skills to her.

They practice for about two hours. “Alright, enough for now. How are you feeling?”

“Sore!” Lausanne talks about her muscles aching from all the blocking. Jura’s pulling his punches, after all Lausanne’s only just turned 8, so her physique isn’t comparable to Jura, who had years and years of training, and has a body of an adult. Lausanne’s at least 10 years away before her body could stand up to Jura at full strength.

Jura passes her an ointment, made of preserved healing fruits. Laufen’s experiments in preserving the healing fruits granted her some basic [ointment-making] skills, as it seems the juice from the healing fruits mix with the vinegar to form some kind of basic pain-relieving liquid. It’s not a potion, though.

Lausanne sits on one of the chairs in the training room, and applies the ointment to her sore joints.

“I expected to find you here.” Laufen walks through the door.

“Hi mom. Just finished practice…”

“I spoke to some of the merchants in town, and found out there’s a proper [teacher] for Elvish writing. Do you want to?”

Lausanne nods, “Oh really. Good. Can he come here? This training room has training boosts, maybe I learn better here.”

“I’ll ask the teacher about it. Anyway, come, we need to go work on the olives, now that we’re finally getting some fresh batches.”

“Aww man…” Lausanne pouts.

Jura pushes her along, making hand motions, chasing her away.

-

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

Volcano research is complete, so I task Alexis to research more volcano-related countermeasures.

• Beetle winter adaptation stage II - 1 Months 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’s enveloped in the new special armor. With these changes, 3 beetles could take on one magma monster.

So, with the improved status, the beetles attempt to head further, closer to the volcano, and find a bit more information about the inner volcano…

Failed.

Too many magma monsters.

Undeterred, I create more subsidiary trees, all designed as beetlenests. Each beetle-nest houses 5 beetles, and with an additional 30 subsidiary trees, I send the larger beetle army into the volcano.

And still failed, because there’s just way too many of those magma monsters inside.

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

So I spawn another 70 subsidiary trees.

[Subsidiary tree limit increased to 1,500]

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

“Horns, you take command of the beetles and do some recon, alright?”

“Got it boss.”

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

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

“We can’t get past the magma golems, they are far too powerful.”

“I see.” It seems the upgrades are still insufficient to take on the larger monsters. So I will have to wait for more upgrades.

"If Alexis could do some research…"

"I am already doing them."

"Ah yes."

"It'll take time, even with my skills." Well, she's not lying, and I foresee materials to be my next bottleneck, as higher tier research requires exotic materials, which will be harder to get.

An expansionary approach is necessary, at least to secure additional materials that I will need. My current [root extraction], [mineral refining], [essence harvesters], reactivated now that I no longer have to be in "winter" mode, are 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 have a total of 3 now. It seems this is an incredible rarity, a gift that even kings desire. A fruit that guaranteed a level? That's worth a ton, and I think it is something I should use to make a trade some day, for something of equally great value.

"I wonder whether I can detect the demon king's coming…" Alexis muses, tinkering with the lab. "You sure you don't want magic labs? And sensors?"

"You still hung up about it?"

"Yes! There's so many things I want to know. Can we reliably predict the demon king's 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? Don't 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 volcano's powers. My instinct tells me a volcano, as a natural force of nature, is similar to a leyline."

"...okay that makes sense." Alexis pauses and then floats onto some branches. Her biolab grew over the month. It added another branch which houses more pods, smaller ones, which is used to run smaller experiments, which then helps to speed up the entire research process.

"I mean, that's what I think. My gut feel is there are natural energies in the leyline, magic of the world, and perhaps I need to find ways to tap it. Gain new research. Perhaps its raw form is not so easily accessed as a leyline, but it is a kind of 'native' leyline. So I want it, happy? Help?"

"Huh." Alexis pauses, and I think she buys my explanation. "So you want some kind of permanent establishment on the volcano, which allows you to tap on 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 am a tree spirit, and gaining more powers for my soul forge is logical, I could even say its something that drives me.

[Research planning]

"Ah."

"I checked. Its not clear yet, I can't see a clear path to it, but it seems having [magma tolerant roots], [tremor resistance] and [natural energy harvesters] seem like the few basic precursors to collecting energy from volcanoes. What else you need… its still unclear."

"That's 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, you're not worried a demon king pops up and ruin your project? I think he's about… 5, or 6 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 don't always appear in the same place."

"Then?"

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

Alexis sighs. "I guess you have a point. Even heroes just gears in this system. That just keeps churning. So much for… heroes."

"I think heroes are a stopgap measure, to solve the demon king problem." Well, that's how I see it. Maybe the gods hoped some heroes become so powerful that they could beat multiple generation of demon kings, but so far, that has not happened. The best is a generation of heroes surviving 3 demon kings, according to Yvon's knowledge of history.

"Has it always been this way.?"

"Ask the gods." I mean, thats really the way, right?

"They don't 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, their job is to give it to them."

"What's in it for the gods. What's their stake in keeping the world this way. Can't gods just snap a finger and make things back?" My personal guess is, they can't. Perhaps their abilities of intervention are… limited. So they resort to heroes.

"I have no idea."

Year 77 Month 4

I am Level 129 a few months ago. When am I getting the next one?

So, I decide to go to the volcano and [root strike] on a lot of magma monsters. And it proves to be less effective than I thought it would be.

I mean, they still destroy the magma monsters in a single hit, but near a golem, it still took like easily 15 shots of the root strike to kill it.

And thats way too much.

I wonder whether its because my super effectiveness against demons, so I previously did not feel my root strikes were that weak, or is it these magma golems have special defenses against root strikes. Might just be a passive that goes, 'reduce damage from nature or tree based sources by 50%'

Or perhaps its some 'pierce damage reduction'.

Or perhaps I am really so weak.

"You know… rather than constantly theorise what exactly is the problem, you could just consider to use [inspect]?" Meela suggested. "That's what Alexis would do."

I pause.

I feel like an idiot.

Idiotree.

I mean, its seriously basic, no? Use inspect on monsters. I even have the inspect skill.

Have I been a tree for too long that I forgot such basic monster hunting… basics?

Did I lose common sense somewhere along the way?

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