Chapter 7: Recovery

Year 70 month 11

A day after the human raid

The bodies are now a mix of ash and charred flesh. Freeka destroyed, the inferno engulfed all the wooden houses and halls. The six crawl out of the secret hideout after the fire burns out. Tears. Laufen is crying. So is Lausanne, Brislach, Wahlen. The two younger ladies also squeezed into my secret hideout, Emile and Bellerive (fondly referred to as Belle) also cry.

Death. The air stinks of it. The charred smell of burnt bodies. The girls seem to gag whenver they get too close to a burnt body, and holding back their urge to vomit.

“What are we to do now…” Laufen looks at Emile and Belle, who are in their teens. Their eyes are wet, their faces dirty from all the ash and soot. Everyone is covered in ash and soot. Well, everything is coated in a layer of ash and soot.

“Keep Lausanne in the hideout. It is too dirty and dusty.” Laufen sighs, her hand still holding on to what looks to be a burnt momento, Ricola’s personal belongings.

Emile carries her, and once the hideout door opens, she gasps. “Uh.. Laufen… the.. the hideout looks different.”

Laufen shakes her head. “Not now.”

Belle goes over and she too gasps. “The hideout changed. It is not like that when we came out.”

Brislach and Wahlen jumps and walks over. “Yeah it changed.”

A proper room. Still too small for all of them, but more comfortable than the space earlier that is about the size of a cellar.

"I just gained a skill upgrade for [secret hideout]. I think all of you had to come out for it to reset and change into the new one."

A magical space, a creation of the tree spirit’s ability. 10 feet wide, long and tall, it is a lot more comfortable than the 5ft by 5ft space earlier. In the center of the ceiling, is a glowing fruit, that provides a faint light. With more space, at least the elves have a place to stay for the night. The elves nod and say a prayer of some kind. Lausanne is now one and a half years old, and can walk by herself, Brislach and Wahlen babysit her, while the 3 older elves go around, surveying what's not lost.

The three ladies are trying to recover whatever usable items they can find, perhaps some manage to survive the blaze, somehow protected by other rubble above them.

But most important is food.

“We… we are gonna starve?” Emile asks. “All our food is gone.”

Laufen sighs. She is the oldest, so in a way she is in charge. She kneels before my black trunk, “Oh tree spirit, are you there? Can you make some fruits?”

“Yes.” I respond, my body recovering from the damage. “I hear Emile’s concerns, and you may eat my fruits. I will make some.”

From a few of the black branches, a burst of life. Fruits. May not be satisfying or tasty, but fruits to deal with their hunger.

Later on, the elves recover one of the hidden chests buried beneath the houses, a place where elves store their most personal items. Multiple chests survived, as the fire tend to range above group, so only the floor is burnt. In it, some clothes, some weapons, and some personal items. All go into the hideout.

“Don’t go too far, girls. We don't know how far the humans went.” Laufen warns, still cautious.

They nod, and mostly walk about the remains of their village. I could sense their sorrow, every now and then they would cry, perhaps they stil have not come to terms with the destruction.

Brislach, the little girl asks “Tree spirit, are you okay? You are all black...” She's playing with Lausanne, and Wahlen with some sticks and stones.

“I am recovering, Brislach. Rain will wash off these black stains.”

“Uhmmm. why are the humans so evil? They killed us.” Brislach looks at me, and ask. "Why did they do this to us?"

Ah, a question about the nature of man. If I could answer this maybe I could win a Nobel Peace Prize or something.

“I don’t know, Brislach. But you must be stronger. All of us, must be stronger.”

Laufen, Emile and Belle spends their time sorting through the rubble, and at the end of the day, everything usable is now in the hideout. It didn't take long for them to sleep, exhausted.

As for me, once asleep, I look at each of my skills and abilities, and test out each and every one of them.

[Essence Harvest]

From the ashes, from the burnt wood, faint energies emerge and they join together into a ball.

[Obtained Essence of lesser courage x 1, Essence of the sword (minor) x 1, Essence of the spear (minor) x 1, Essence of lesser fire x2, essence of death x 1]

Oh? What does these do?

Essences are a type of material, used to permanently create and teach skills, enchant or imbue creatures and items, or combine them to create stronger essences.

The next day,

A small pack of demons appear. Without the walls and the fighters, and with the smell of death lingering in the air, certain demons naturally gravitate to such places. Just four demon hounds,, a tiny pack really but with only Laufen having any knowledge of combat, they decide to run into the hideout. Laufen had no confidence in taking them all on her own.

“Run!”

Laufen stands at the hideout’s entrance, with her only weapon, a dagger. She grips in hard.

“Hide, Laufen.”

She nods, and but stands next to the entrance. Her survival instincts are kicking in.

[Root Strike x 4]

The roots surge out of the ground, spearing the lesser demons who are trying to find the hidden elves. With my extra levels, I can use Root Strike a total of 10 times. Three of them die instantly. One, still barely alive, maybe I missed a critical bodypart. The root still impales the hound though, and it growls, dying.

Laufen emerges from the hideout, and she lands a killing blow. A stick to the head. The events from the day before drive her into a state of rage, and she bashes the hound’s head repeatedly with the stick until it broke.

“Arghhhhhh!!”

"ARGHH!!" She shouts. The hound is dead, but she kept smashing.

"ARGHHHHH! Die DIE DIE DIE DIE!" She shouts.

“Laufen… sis. Calm down.” Emile emerge from behind. She's frightened.

Laufen pants, her breathing ragged.

“I.. I am sorry Emile. I… I just need to vent my anger, my frustration and my sorrow at something.”

Emile nods. She too walks up to the dead hound, and kicks it. “Damn you demons.”

Anger. Maybe this is how they are coping with grief.

[You gain a level. Level 64]

Grief. We all have it. Yet if I am to protect these elves, and help these elves protect themselves, I need to get them to gain a lot of levels. In short, some assisted powerleveling is required.

Year 70 Month 12

Rain and winter. With no food supply.

“Fruits.” Laufen sighs. I think she is getting a little sick of fruits. The earliest she can start planting crops is in early spring. "And it is freaking cold outside." Her winter wear is all destroyed in the fire and raid, so they can only step out in short bursts of time.

“At least it is warm here.” Emile nods, thinking positively. The secret hideout is temperature controlled, and comes with a small tap on a corner which supplies water, which is drawn from the roots below.

Freeka, is nothing more than a flat area now. The dust and soot is gone, and the constant rain had washed it all away.

All of them, except baby Lausanne, have a familiar contract with me, and they attempt to hunt whatever animals that emerge during this time. But these girls, and one young boy, are inexperienced at hunting and so the animals all manage to run away.

So no meat. Only fruits for today, just like yesterday.

In the meantime, I get them to make a spear, to test the essence I harvested earlier.

“I think it is ready, tree spirit.” Laufen and Belle hold up a spear, a repaired one. A wood stick, a large metal tip.

[Essence of spear (minor)] I use one of the essence, and a small ball of light emerge from the lamp-fruit on the ceiling, and then lands on the spear. The spear shakes a little, and absorbs the ball of light.

“Laufen, how is it?”

“[Equipment inspect].” Laufen apparently helps with maintaining the weapons the men use, so she has this skill which reveals more equipment specific details than my general [inspect].

“Eh tree spirit, I think it absorbed it partially. Compatibility stat is at 50%, but it grants a +2 to spear combat, so it is pretty good. ”

“Huh.” That sounds like gibberish. It reminds of when one of the pure technical guys sit down next to me and start explaining about their database infrastructure. “Try using it?”

Laufen shakes her head. “I think Emile should use it instead. I have a thing with spears.”

“Thing with spears…?”

Emile nods. “She means she accidentally hurt someone a long time ago and now she has a phobia when using spears.”

“Oh. Emile, would you?”

“Yes tree spirit.” Emile grabs the spear and swings it around, and she seems rather skilled with it, or at least her movements look really fluid. But then again, flashiness is not always a sign of skill.

“How is it?”

“Wonderful. I need some time to build affinity with it, but once I do I should be good.”

“What’s affinity?” Thats a new term, I had to ask.

“Oh.. erm.. it is the familiarity of a person with a weapon, so with low affinity, your reaction time, energy use and overall ability is weakened. At full affinity you could use it like an extra limb. We get extra damage, speed and parry with high affinity weapons, so getting new stronger equipment does not mean it should be used immediately.” Laufen explains.

“How do you know this?” It still baffles me.

“Its… combat basics. Everyone knows it when learning how to use a weapon. I think the only exception to this are the summoned heroes. The legends say Weapon King Valerian has 200% affinity with any weapon he touches instantly.”

“Oh. What does that do?”

“I don’t really know, but I think the stories say the weapons are able to exceed their own limits and in his hands, the weapons often do things normally not possible.”

“Huh.” Oh ya, reincarnators have cheat-like abilities. I wonder whether I could get one for myself.

“Which of the summoned heroes were elves?”

“Our last eleven champion is the Roana the Druid.”

“Let me guess, she controls nature like a druid?”

“Yes yes. She is like the most powerful druid ever, her power over the forests and tree spirits is incredible. It is said that every tree spirit that meets her will instantly like her and will obey her. In the battle against the demons she transformed an entire forest into an army of super-treants!”

“Huh.” I somehow feel a strange pain in my head.

I also need to learn more about this world’s powers and creatures. There clearly is a gap in my knowledge.

“Anyway, please practice with it.”

Emile nods, but her face seems a bit sullen. “Okay.”

Laufen gives her a hug. “It’s just us now. I know you always thought you did not have to fight, the guys would protect us…” The thought of having to defend herself kind of saddens her.

“Yeah… we all miss them.”

“Yes. Yes we do. But we must live on. Else their deaths is wasted on us.”

Emile nods, and both of the girls cry a little.

Year 71 Month 1

Now it is really cold. The elves frequently hide within the hideout, as cold winds now frequently sweep through the place. According to Laufen, Freeka is located on one side of a mountain range, and so occasionally when the winds get strong enough to cross the range, it tends to get really cold. Previously, the village buildings create a kind of a bubble from the cold winds.

A large bear appears. It looks curious at the disappeared village.

“Oh. There is a bear.” I telepathically notify Laufen. She is playing with Lausanne, and she shakes her head.

“It’s too cold. We cannot catch it now…”

“Oh.”

The bear walks really close, and it rubs its fur against my trunk. I could kill it now. But me killing it would not be the point.

[Root strike] x 4. Using 4 root strikes out of my daily 10 is quite overkill, as a good well placed hit through the chest would have killed it.

But the point is to disable it, and get the elves to kill it. If they gain some levels they get to be more useful, and I can save up on the mana used to generate the fruits daily.

The bear screams in pain, but the four strikes means all it could do is flail its head now.

“Emile, can you come out with the spear?”

She nods, and once she opens the latch that leads out of the hideout she yells.

“Oh my god its a brown bear.”

At that point I wonder whether it is possible to use [Essence Harvest] on a bear, so I did.

[Fragment of bear essence obtained. Collect 20 to form 1 bear essence!] Ah the whole RPG grinding mechanics.

The bear struggles, immobile, and Emile stab it right through the head.

“Wow.” Emile’s hands shake. Perhaps a mix of adrenaline and fear? “We.. we have bear meat!”

Laufen and Belle comes out to assist her in cleaning up and processing the bear meat. More importantly they cut out the pelt and fur, which would help them in this winter.

“Did you gain any levels, Emile?”

“Nope. But I did get a skill [Spear thrust].”

Hmmm.. They do not seem to be gaining levels that easily.

Year 71 Month 2

The elves are happier, with the bear meat as another type of food in their diet. Spring is coming soon, and thankfully some of the crop seeds should be good for replanting.

I take every opportunity during this time, to let the elves land the killing blow on any stray demon or monster that pops up. Still, their leveling is slow. I wonder whether I am leeching off all the experience, and so I decide to change the manner of my training.

Instead of injuring the monsters, I use [constrict], a new ability I gain after disabling so many beasts. I suppose there is some sentience in this system that tries to make things easier over time. But because [constrict] required multiple roots to act, I can only use it twice a day.

The first time I use it, Emile, Laufen and Belle end up spending a good half hour trying to kill the trapped lesser hellhound. It seems a full strength and health hellhound can take a bit of damage, especially from these unexperienced elves.

But I could sense the hellhound weaken considerably once Emile use her [spear thrust].

After killing it, the three elves do in fact gain a level and skills.

“This is hard.” Belle said, recognising that between Laufen, Emile and herself, she seems to least adept at using a spear or sword, or a stick.

Still, I had to do it. Powerleveing is slow in this world.

Year 71 Month 2 Week 4

“Is there is a village here?”

“Must be a mistake.”

A human merchant group passes by.

“The map says there is an elven village.” An old man turns his map around a few times, thinking that he read it wrong. “Come have a look at it.”

Another guy goes over and looks at the map, and nods. “Yeah this is the place. Freeka.”

“There is just a tree in this place.”

“It looks creepy.”

The merchant group, about eight of them. They look defenseless.

At this point I telepathically ask the elves. “What happens if you attack innocents?”

“Nothing much if you did it once or twice. Do it often you might get a [criminal] title, which makes it hard for anyone to go to town or cities where they have a [detect criminal].”

“Should I kill these human merchants?”

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Laufen pauses. “Uh… uh..”

I could sense she is conflicted over her hate on that humans that killed her husband, but at the same time, these merchants have nothing to do with it.

“Never… never mind.” She shakes her hand, but I could see her squeeze her staff a bit. Maybe she really wants to, but a moral, just part of her still is holding on. As for me, if these elves want, I would let them have the last kill.

“Its a really creepy tree.” One of the merchants shake his head. “We should not get near, I feel its dangerous.”

“So what do we do, we are supposed to rest a day at the village before we go on.”

“We make camp here? It is a nice open space.”

“Preferably some distance from that tree.”

The merchants at least have the sense of set up camp a little further up from where Freeka is, and that night, one of the merchants actually walks up to me, and stands really close to me.

“Why does this tree feel different?”

He is one of the older ones, probably in his late 50s. He has some arms and looks like he can fight.

“Are you some kind of rare wood?” He touches my trunk, but then pulls back instantly.

He touches his hand, then he tries again.

“Eh? It’s a normal tree?”

One of the effects of [camouflage], so I appear as a regular tree. Else even animals with any sense of danger would not dare come close.

“Hmm.. I feel spirits…”

“Danton! Get your ass back here and stop masturbating at the creepy ass tree.”

“Hey fuck you I ain’t masturbating.”

The old man sighs, and then he unzips his pants. And he pees on my root.

At that moment I am tempted to kill him.

He walks away and back to the group.

Year 71 Month 3

[You gain a level. Level 65]

[You obtained Learning Aura]

Boosts exp gain by 20% for those lower level than you.

All that “guided” powerleveling led to a new skill. Still, Laufen is only level 27, Emile and Belle Level 18. Wahlen and Brislach are level 6 because they are still too young to be fighting. Despite their levels, their skills are actually mostly unrelated to combat, and only their recent levels and skills led to more survival and combat abilities.

Now that winter is over, they start to plant crops around me. It almost feels like things are getting into a new routine.

Year 71 Month 4

I see an elf. A familiar one, walking through the woods. Alone. It’s Jura, and he looks like he’s been through hell. One of his left arm is gone, and his body is covered in scars and cuts of all kind.

He walks up to me. “Tree spirit, you’re still here…”

I tell Laufen to wait, even she wants to run out and hug him the moment they saw him. I just want to be sure this is not a trap. “Yes. How are the rest? Did any get away?”

Jura kneels, his face looks really defeated and sad. “I only manage to safely send ten of them to the elven kingdom. Demons, monsters, and humans. There are too many…”

“You have done what you could.”

Jura clutches his left arm, the one that is lost. “I wish I could do more. Is everyone, dead?”

“No.” Laufen says, she could not hold back so she ran out, and gives him a hug. “Glad to see you, old friend!”

“Laufen! You all are alive?!” Jura weeps, he is overjoyed to see survivors.

“Yes. Yes. We live, it’s been really tough, but the tree spirit watches over us.”

Jura enters the secret hideout with the rest of them, and he gives everyone a hug.

“I cannot believe it. To think some of you still live.”

“The rest died … horribly.”

Jura shakes his head. “Things have not been well for us either. Or anyone, even the humans.”

Laufen sits, “Huh?”

“The demon king emerged during the depths of winter, and his swarm of demons crushed the King’s army. A few human cities near to the west rift has been destroyed, its people slaughtered. That made our escape difficult...”

Laufen shakes her head. “Serves the humans right.”

“So the demons and the death that followed made our travel to the elven kingdom really challenging. With little belongings and no money, and plenty of other refugees, we were attacked, robbed... A few of us died to robbers and bandits who think we have money.”

Emile and Belle both nod. “Oh..…”

Jura munches on a healing fruit. “So.. so we had to fight other people, and demons..."

About this time, a few riders emerge from the woods. I instantly let Jura and Laufen know, cutting short their conversation .

“Oh no, I was followed!”

Six of them, they look like bandits, their attire is messy and seem like they did not carry any armor. “The tracks of the elf leads here.”

“I like his sword. I want it. Find him.” One of the older bandits gallop around on his horse.

“Where could he have gone?”

“I thought there is a hidden village of elves we could raid. Should have strike him when we had the chance.”

They are at the edge of my range, but then I ask Jura to come out.

“Huh?” Jura did, holding his sword.

“Taunt them.” I whisper into his mind. “Stand next to me.”

“Hey you scums. You want a piece of me?”

The bandits laugh. “So there you are. I wanted that sword. Give it to me, and I might let you live.”

“Dream on. Come and get it you foul smelling scoundrels.”

The bandits charge. All of them.

Great, they are really comfortably within range now.

[Root strike] x 6. Six roots shoot out of the ground, stabs each and every one of them. The leader though had some kind of magic armor, and the root merely knocks him off his horse.

“Ahcks!” He coughs, as he lands on the ground. The armor bent a little. “Oh you are some kind of druid, eh?”

Jura is visibly surprised as well, but then he smiles. “Yes. Come and get me.”

“Can you win?” I ask telepathically.

“Maybe. With one hand I am not as good as before.”

The bandit leader slashes. Jura dodges and counterattacks. But the bandit dodges his attack. They trade a few more strikes, but they seem even.

Jura coughs. “Ugh, you’re pretty good. If I still had my arm I would have won this easily.”

“But you don’t.” The bandit smiles, and activates some kind of skill. His body radiates a kind of aura. “Now you die.”

Jura struggles to fight back, and he gets a cut.

“Aghhh.”

I decide to step in. With all my remaining [root strike].

My roots impale the bandit leader, his armor did not protect every part of him. Two roots through the thighs, one through the gap between his armor, and another punched through the dent made earlier.

“Ugh… To think you still had a trump card…”

“That was not me.” Jura stands, and taps the trunk.

And the bandit leader dies.

[Level up! Level 66]

[Root strike range extended]

“Jura.” Laufen asks him to sit. “You.. you would have beaten guy easily.”

Jura shakes his head. “Not anymore. I have a curse. [Tormented fighter.]. It weakens all my abilities and skills.”

“Huh?” A curse?

Jura sighs. “At first the effect is mild, but as time goes on I have nightmares every day, and now I cannot even wield my weapon properly.”

Emile then asks, “Jura… can it be healed?”

“Maybe. Curses can go away in time. Or if something breaks the curse.”

Indeed, Jura later demonstrates that curse affects how his skills are now cut short, and combos he easily pulled off in the past, can no longer be performed.

“Tell me what you’ve seen out there.” I ask Jura. “Maybe fighting is not something we should be doing now.”

Year 71 Month 4 Week 3

Jura’s daily routine is talking with me, playing and helping with the crops. I suspect the curse is something like mental pain, and wonder whether my [calming voice] can help resolve it.

It seems the curse is so bad it actually interferes with his ability to use familiars.

Still, an extra hand around to help do things, and he seems to really really enjoy having the kids around.

He is kind of like Lausanne’s uncle and spends time playing with them.

The first batch of crops are ready for harvesting even though they were just planted 2 weeks ago. I do in fact have a lot of levels, so perhaps they do have an effect on the crops.

“I am trying to train these girls in combat. What is the best way to do it?”

“Well, actual combat experience is the best. Otherwise will be mock battles.”

“Why are they gaining levels so slowly?” I ask Jura, even though I asked the others before.

“I don’t think they are slow. Based on what they have been doing, it seems they are gaining levels quite fast already!”

“Huh. No way to speed it up?”

“If there is a [tutor] or a master, you could… or if they somehow get hold of any of the artifacts of the heroes.”

“Artifact of the heroes?”

“Uh.. ya. I once heard Casshern talk about how the heroes artifacts can cause explosive leveling and skills.”

“Why?”

“No idea.”

Year 71 Month 5

Demons. A sudden surge in demons.

I see them enter my field of view, in the thousands. At this point, Jura and the elves are hiding inside the hideout. That is their only chance.

Thousands, they sweep through, killing everything in its path. They look like hounds, and thousands of them.

“So many of them.”

They approach, but their claws and teeth fail to damage my bark. And even as more demons sweep through, all I could do is just watch. A large demon, one wielding a fiery axe. It looks like a demon lord from Dota. It swings its axe at me, yet it bounces off.

No damage.

Annoyed, the demon lord hacks at me multiple times, but every time the axe just bounces off. Eventually, it gets tired and it too continues the march.

The army, the swarm of thousands of hounds and other kinds of lesser demons continue passing through for a week.

I only have a limited number of root strikes, so with no means of killing a massive army, I thought pretending I am harmless is the best way to protect the elves. The elves never felt so afraid in their entire life, yet are simultaneously amazed at how these lesser demons are unable to damage me. Hiding inside, whilst the demon marches overhead is probably the most scary thing they ever had. Every moment they wonder whether a demon will burst through the door.

“The demons.. a week. That's easily an army of twenty thousand!” Jura calculates, for me I did not bother. It seems I am the only surviving tree as far as the eye can see.

“The humans won’t make it.” Laufen sighs.

“If Freeka is still here, it won’t either.” Jura nods. “Thankfully I only saw a few mid tier demons. It seems to be a massive army of low tier hounds, something an army of half the size can handle.”

Later that month, one bigger demon appears, taking the same path as the hounds earlier. A large, lizard like creature. It resembles a gigantic komodo dragon, but has red horns and eyes.

“That’s a giant redhorn demon.” Again all the elves are hiding, and I secretly thank my lucky stars that we have [secret hideout].

It sees me, and it stares. Then it opens its mouth, and breath fire. It feels kind of warm. But with 80% fire resistance, it can’t kill me. Its monstrous. About the size of a three story building. Bigger than me and it tries to bite me. But its fangs could not get through the bark of my trunk.

Then it uses its claws, again no damage. Infuriated, it slashes and swipes with its claws, and then mixed with a bit of bites. Still, the bark holds. I'm amazed at my bark, there must be some kind of anti-demon buff.

Annoyed, I use four [root strikes] at it. It pierces its thick hide, and it roars in anger, biting and swiping at my trunk repeatedly. But once again it's attacks does nothing.

“Tree spirit.. how do you withstand such fearsome strikes?”

“I… don’t know?” I am starting to suspect my [demon king survivor] have a thing to do with it. Maybe it grants me resistance to demon attacks?

Its injured from my root strike, and its angry. It breathes fire again.

Nothing.

And this time when it attempts to bite me, I send 2 [root strikes] to the mouth, probably what is its upper mouth. And it pierces through, a root strike up from the mouth and through the head. Kind of like how a stick goes through the brain. The giant redhorn demon starts to burn in a strange fire, and after the fire is done, all that is left is its fangs, and horns.

“Hey why does it do that?” I ask Jura and Laufen, both ecstatic to survive.

“So it is demon king’s summoning, not a natural demonspawn. A creature mostly made of the demon king’s mana, when slain it reverts into its mana form.”

“I see….”

[You gained 5 level. Level 71]

[You unlocked the following skills]

[Rooting field]

[Local rootnet access]

[Poison field]

Whoahhhh! More offensive abilities, except that [local rootnet access]...

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