Tree ways to the End

Year 191 (continued)

The battle was over, and I rested for a few days. Lumoof, thankfully, recovered from the damage far faster than I did. It seemed that in ‘avatar’ mode, all the mana was transferred to my main body, so I bore the brunt of the mana intoxication. Patreeck and the rest of my artificial minds assisted to regulate the excess mana, and stored them in the potato batteries. We will come back to it someday. I hope.

Edna had to take a long, long nap and spent days doing nothing but sleep. Though her ability gave her combat immortality, once the one-day timer was up, she was pretty much a puppet whose strings were cut. She could barely walk or move. 

But it was worth it. She gained a lot of levels, and hit Level 165, and gained even more abilities with it. Her new ability [Regenerating Guardians] granted her the ability to create 5 guardians that shared her toughness. 

Lumoof too, gained some levels, but most of it only enhanced his connection with me such that he could withstand more of my power. 

But more importantly, was those that we wanted to groom. Roon, Johann, Alka, and Stella all gained levels from the victory for their contributions to the combat effort.

Roon, Johann and Alka were now in the higher level 140s. It’s likely that we could breach the level needed to obtain their domains by the time of the next demon king, 

No, more importantly, I returned to my notifications. I activated the menu and instantly a long list of notifications appeared. 

[You have gained 9 levels. You are now Level 208]

[Level 200 grants Minor Pantheon Powers. Minor Pantheon Powers are dependent on subdomain choices.]

[Further skills once a subdomain power has been chosen]

[Subdomain Power Choices- you may choose one out of three choices below]

[Subdomain choice - Tree of Life. This choice leads you down the path of regeneration, evolution, immortality and life creation. Each of your main body and your cloned bodies gains significant regenerative abilities, This choice allows the creation of cloned bodies under the Tree of Clones. Your trees gain the ability to adapt to all kinds of environments, and terraforming ability. ]

[This subdomain choice will lead to creation of life, greater-monster minions, evolution-alteration, healing, endurance, regeneration, clones and multi-body skills in the future]

[This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - Immortal Tokens - Domain-level individuals who join your pantheon can be remade and regenerated even if they are killed. On death or destruction, their souls will return to you for ‘respawn’. The respawn time depends on how strong they are. Stronger deities require longer respawn times. However, choosing this ability will mean the death of these pantheon members will no longer grant Titan Souls, and you will not be able to gain any stored experience from their familiars. These domain holders can still die if all your tree of clones and your main body are destroyed.]

[Choosing this subdomain also unlocks the Trees of Clones - You may now create clones  in addition to your own. The number of main-body clones increases with level. You cannot die unless all cloned bodies are destroyed. You can regenerate any destroyed bodies after a small recovery time. Each clone body and your main body are magically intertwined and you may move items and people between them, subject to a distance-adjusted mana cost, with a discounted or minimal cost for Aeonic-related items, classes and individuals and also familiar-holders. Clones initially take the form of a basketball sized seed that can be transported and planted elsewhere. Tree of Clones may be placed anywhere and naturally terraforms their environment. They do not need to be physically linked as their connection is through the system]

[Subdomain choice - Will of the World. This choice takes the first step in merging with the world that you are in. This choice removes any distance or depth restrictions for roots and trees. You will thus be able to spread your roots anywhere in the world, through oceans and under them. You may also create underwater trees. This choice leads to terrain and elemental magics and abilities, significantly improved offense and damage for you and those touched by your powers, creation of elementals, weather control, terrain shaping, and wielding the land as your weapon.]

[This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - Strength of the World  - this grants significant stats and strength boost (at least hero tier), improved elemental resistance and enhanced abilities with the four main elements. Pantheon members also gain the ability to terraform and gain ability to temporarily transform into elementals]

[Choosing this subdomain unlocks - Elements of the World. This is a path where you gain access to the controls of this world. This includes more accurate astral maps, ability to move the world in the void sea, bend space and distance around the world and its neighbours.]

[Subdomain choice - Crown of Magic. You gain the ability to use all kinds of spells without requiring skills or classes, and simultaneously generate star mana, void mana, blood mana and any other mana type you discover. This path leads to ‘global’ and ‘multi-world’ spells and abilities. You will also be able to override any hero-item restrictions and use them to their full potential. Your magical laboratories and sensors gain increased sensitivity and functionality. Your main tree can now learn magic just by sight, and certain types of hero-abilities. You can also grant magical abilities to a limited number of individuals]

[This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - A Land of Magic - Domain Members can access and store their unique mana types in areas where your trees are present. They may also pre-cast and store skills and spells in the land itself, thus skipping any casting time and mana cost restrictions. Your trees will function as magical amplifiers for their abilities]

[Tree of Magics - You may create Great Magical Trees. Each of these magical trees can generate a choice of star mana, void mana, blood mana, or any other mana type discovered. These Great Magical Trees can weave and cast multiple magical enchantments that apply over an area as large as a continent. Magical Trees can significantly enhance existing ley lines, link distant ley lines together, cast wide scale protective spells and interfere with other magic.]

[Crown of Magic also allows you to Forge Magical items without restrictions. These weapons and items can generate their own mana, act as the locus of area enchantments  and amplify magical powers. You are also able to fuse Titan-Souls with deity-class (or higher) magical items to create unlimited-class weapons that can grow, gain their own levels and transform into weapons that can exceed even the gods]

-

I sat down and looked at the three choices.  [Tree of Life] allowed me to bypass the Avatar limitation and free up Lumoof to truly be my mobile avatar. It also pretty much makes me functionally immortal, especially if I can get my seeds off world, to the other two worlds, or any uninhabited world. 

This was a good choice for expanding to the demon worlds and the other continents, and is essentially a step towards an intreedimensional empire.  A true multi-world force. I could, through this ability, even take on demon kings on other worlds, thus speeding up our levelling speed.

The pantheon ability also made it less risky to put any lesser domain holders like Lumoof, Roon, Alka right before the demon king. That said, this ability was quite useless with Edna, since she could already take all the damage. 

The second choice, Will of the World, had the main benefit of bypassing all distance restrictions all over the world. With this, I could invade all the continents at the same time. That said, this choice did not allow me to spread my roots to the other worlds, and my main body still remained the single point of failure. 

But the boosted stats to all my domain-wielders meant this ability synchronised really well with Edna’s [Duty Beyond Life and Death]. She could endure all the hits the demon king could dish out and then keep dealing damage with her significantly improved offensive abilities. 

From the battle with the demon king, it was quite obvious that the heroes did a lot of the damage, if not most of it. Even my root strikes, which were generally super effective against demons, did not do exceptional damage against the demon king. If I wanted to kill a demon king with myself and the rest of my pantheon members quickly, this seemed like a decent choice. It also negated and weakened a range of the demon king’s elemental attacks, so it wasn’t a total tradeoff against survivability either.

The last choice, led us down the path of magic. It seemed to overlap with Stella’s void magic, perhaps this meant I could amplify her power to actually deny the demon king, and the global magics suggested I could also use them to hide the world or redirect the demon kings. 

This choice enhanced survivability indirectly through the stored spells and skills, which felt like an exploitable mechanic. The growing weapons that had no limits also felt exploitable, though I needed more time to think about a good way to abuse it. The ability to ‘grant’ hero tier magical abilities was also an interesting choice, again, I didn’t know what exactly that meant until I’ve used it. 

Did it mean I can functionally create heroes? 

I could link ley lines together with the ability, so that was also a very good interaction with my dungeon ability, which would allow me to create even stronger dungeons for my Valthorns. 

This path had the most unknowns, because I didn’t know what magic was capable of at that level. This choice potentially had the means to break the cycle through some kind of great magic, or perhaps, it’s possible to ‘seal’ off the entire world from the demons, buying us some time to grow and recover. Alternatively, the enhanced magic could possibly interfere with the demon king’s void magic. 

-

All these choices were interesting, and I brought the matter to my senior Valthorns for their input.

Edna was first to answer. “Honestly, can we delay it until Stella, Roon, Johann and Alka all gain their Domains? If we could see what domain abilities they receive, we could choose what we lacked.”

Lumoof nodded at Edna’s suggestion. “I must say I agree with that assessment. We really don’t know enough.”

Kei and Stella, who were both present, stated their case. “We can extrapolate the powers from what they have now. It’s likely Stella’s domain will be some kind of void ability, so perhaps Stella can create even more powerful portals?”

Johann nodded. “I like the regenerating and immortal ability though. It meant we could pretty much fight the demon king with not a care in the world since we can’t die. We can actually win the demon kings purely by attrition, a really interesting reversal of the situation. I believe this seems to be a long-term idea, and plays well with Stella’s void powers. We could send a clone to the demon world!” 

“The Will of the World is immediately more useful, though. It would functionally enhance our grip on the world.” Alka said. “The lack of depth restrictions meant we could dig even deeper, and even below the heat. There must be treasures and more lost cities we have not seen.” 

Kei then added. “Doesn’t it mean Aeon’s trees can be everywhere? That meant he could use his beetles everywhere!” 

Stella paused and then added. “What if all of this is just an illusion of choice? That all these choices eventually result in the same thing, even if the journey to achieve those choices is different. Take how the tree of clones essentially extended Aeon’s range, the same way the Will of the World does.”

“That does make some sense.” Alka nodded. “If so, should we think of this as ‘which ability we can’t replicate or substitute with other abilities or spells’? If a few of us will eventually reach and acquire our own domains, then some of our domains must be able to substitute these skills.”

“Is that an argument for Tree of Life? Since immortality is not easily replicated.” Lumoof asked.

“Eh. I thought it didn’t really say anything. I think the immortality ability has substitutes, like my own.” Edna’s [Duty Beyond Life and Death] was case in point. 

“Then its’ the underground ability.” Alka said. “The Will of the World. We could find all sort of stuff! Maybe there’s a secret even at the center of the planet!”

Kei smacked her face. “Given what I’ve seen, I’m actually afraid you might be right.”

“I’m sure there are magical abilities for that. It is possible that your [Domain] ability as a scientist may grant you the ability to find such treasures hidden beneath the ground, regardless of what’s in your way.” Edna quipped.

“That’s certainly not the only use.” Alka protested. “Merging with the world sounds like Aeon will be the planet itself.”

“The magical ability to cast global spells.” Stella then suggested. “We should take that. It sounded like it worked well with my abilities and would improve my chances to delay or deny the demon king.”

“A mage with [domain] could possibly do such spells too. If we think of demon kings as domain-class, we have seen demon kings use global abilities. No, actually, are you trying to wriggle out of having to get your own [domain]?” Kei looked at Stella. Stella shook her hands in protest.

“In the long run, all these choices probably make little difference.” Stella said. “But looking at the medium term, over the next few decades, these choices would affect how we survive the demon kings.”

Johann nodded. “I think the Tree of Life makes good sense. If none of us can die, we can all aim and plan.”

“Doesn’t that just trivialise death?”

“I’m sure the regeneration time of a [domain] holder will be quite long. Maybe years or decades.” Kei said. “This world does seem to take inspiration from games and ancient myths, and it’s not unusual for ancient evils or great powers to recover from destruction over very long periods.” That reminded me of so many stories that started with the rebirth of the evil god.

“Oh, so we may not die, but we waste a lot of time.” 

“Time that may save lives and other worlds.”

“I’m against the magic route.” Roon said. “I feel that once a sufficient number of us can take on the demon king, and with immortality, we can effectively continue fighting the demon king. No, fighting the demon king is even better since we become stronger with each fight. It’s a risk free route. The earlier civilizations were destroyed after a long war of attrition.”

“Yes but we will have to keep fighting forever. The magical route essentially offers a chance to close this issue by blocking us. No. The magical route also means we may have spells that create larger, more sustainable portals. With that, we may be able to invade the demonic world.”

“That still sounds like playing defense.” Roon responded. “Being immortal allows us to go on the offense.”

“We don’t know that.” Stella answered. “What if we invade the other worlds and find that there’s no solution there? The Gods clearly have tried something, but they too failed in destroying the demons. Hiding may well be the only true way to avoid this fight.”

“Until when?” The ranger responded. “We cannot hide forever.”

“What if merging with the world allows both?” Alka wondered, as he tried to steer the conversation away. “There must be something more to this ‘merging to the world’ thing. If Aeon becomes the world, Aeon may also be unkillable. With that solid foundation, we’ll just need time to have Stella and the rest of the void mages gain their own domains.”

“A really long time, mind you.” Stella protested. “Void magic isn’t so easily taught.”

“He doesn’t have a point. We have 20 void mages in your void school, and Aeon can give you upgraded classes.” Alka said. 

Kei paused and took the conversation in another direction. “Aeon, is it possible that at Level 250, you may actually encounter these choices again?” 

I thought back to my Level 150 domain choices. [Nature], [Spirit], and [Astral]. I chose [Nature] then. 

As I thought about it, I thought it may be more accurate that both Will of the World and Tree of Life are essentially paths that went deeper along the path of the [Nature] aspect. [Living Magic] seemed to take a detour through magic, taking a bit from both [Spirit] and [Astral]. 

So I answered Kei’s question. “Not exactly. These level 200 choices were not what I got for my level 150.”

Edna circled back. “I stand by the earlier suggestion. Hold on the choice until more of us get our domains. There’s no time limit, right?”

Everyone took a look at Lumoof who remained mostly silent. Lumoof shrugged. “Don’t look at me, I’m Aeon’s number one faithful, and if it’s me, I believe in Aeon’s wisdom to choose.”