Chapter 246

The undead horde approached quickly after their appearance, showing the benefits of their lack of concern, not caring about the lives of their soldiers — a meaningless description when zombies were concerned — or their stamina.

Still, the horde was more impressive than the previous force. Not just the numbers, but also the mana radiating off them.

It didn’t take long for them to enter into the range of the elves, their arrows flying with impressive accuracy and speed. I kept monitoring them even as I continued to feed the tree, only to notice that, with every arrow that flew, some of the mana that was a part of their body disappeared.

Making their arrows almost a spell, though a dangerous one. No wonder they were treating the guardian trees with such reverence and worship. Their dependence was even stronger than I had realized before.

Luckily for them, with my ability to convert mana from the Aether, I wasn’t lacking in some extra I could pump into their defensive encampment, pushing them to peak performance.

More than one elf had sent glances filled with worship as they turned back, looking at the tree, which they assumed to be responsible for their victory. I didn’t care much about the credit, just glad that they maintained to keep their focus on the battle rather than starting to worship the tree again.

I turned my attention to the undead force, and noted that the necromancer force chose to stay behind quite a distance, already establishing a defensive perimeter of their own, a staggering number of wards appearing.

By the number of nodes that were being built independently, I could sense that the number of necromancers was much greater than I expected, and their competency was greater as well. The biggest signal was the amount of mana they were using.

As they established their wards, they used all the mana the stream had been carrying, leaving the water as nothing but a muddy flow.

I used the tree as a medium to send a bolt of life energy, strong enough to crack the defenses they had been busy establishing, but weak enough that I was sure of its failure before sending it.

I had no intention of routing their serious attack, because if I did so, there were two options for them, abandoning the battlefront, or sending an overwhelming force...

And, at the moment, neither was to my benefit. I much preferred to slowly pull the focus of the battle to my location, with both forces reinforcing to allow me to focus more.

And maybe gather even more Divine Spark in the process.

The realization that the tree could be used to gather Divine Spark was nice, but stealing some from Elven mages promised much higher returns. Especially if the sole mage that was busy establishing the wards was not their strongest in terms of the Divine Spark they possessed.

However, while the prospect of increasing my abilities was nice, I suddenly found myself facing a different problem, this time with a personal nature.

I lacked the ability to numerically track the increase in my capabilities.

Technically, it wasn’t supposed to matter, as I could easily sense the increases and decreases on an instinctual level, but after a life spent looking at an illusionary screen, I found the lack of numbers telling my growth unsettling.

Like it wasn’t real.

It was ironic considering the effort I had put to find a path alternative to the System, but ultimately, my problem with the System was not the numbers, but the realization that it could be taken as easily — a concern that turned out to be the truth, as evidenced by my current circumstances.

It wasn’t too difficult, especially since I had the time.

The first challenge was determining the unit of measurement. What better way to measure that rather than stats, to do that, I turned my attention to my stats.

I had used my purified Divine Spark rather accidentally at first, which, in effect, spread the effect of the stats rather evenly. I used my own mana to diagnose my body more in detail, carefully measuring the various capabilities, and crossing those capabilities with what I remembered from my own growth and what I observed from others.

Only to conclude with the point, a simple self-targeting illusion spell, creating the familiar burning letters...

{Strength: 8 Charisma: 7

Precision: 7 Perception: 8

Of course, the power from the System was just burrowed while my strength belonged to me, but it was a bitter consolation.

“Spending borrowed is not smart, but it is fun,” I admitted with a murmur before I shook my head, focusing my attention on the next stage rather than lamenting about my lack of metaphorical wealth.

{Pseudo-HP: 450 Mana: 7220}

Since I added others, I decided to add a real-time indicator of the converted mana and pseudo-HP I had in my storage as well, allowing me to keep an eye on my reserves at all times.

Then, I turned my attention to the next aspect. My fake Chosen nodes. It wasn’t as helpful as the others, but still, it was better to be comprehensive about such things.

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 2.1}

“All complete,” I murmured as I put my hand on the solitary root that was passing through the cave, about to turn my attention to the battle. Then, it hit me. “Oh, how can I forget you, little buddy,” I murmured in amusement as I added another category, along with a mana link.

{MINIONS

Guardian God Tree - 0.6}

“Now, it’s complete,” I said as I turned my full attention to the battle that was going on above the ground.

{Strength: 8 Charisma: 7

Precision: 7 Perception: 8

Agility: 7 Manipulation: 8

Speed: 8 Intelligence: 8

Endurance: 8 Wisdom: 8}

{Purified Divine Spark: 43}

{Pseudo-HP: 450 Mana: 7220}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 2.1}

{MINIONS

Guardian God Tree - 0.6}

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]