Customisation and crops

Customisation and crops

Year 73 Month 4 Week 3

One tuber for every [customisable branch]. So for a total of 40 potatoes, given that my main body grown and has 10 customisable branches now, and 30 for each of the subsidiary trees. These standard sized potatoes is also now my standard unit for energy.

The energy cost of my [soul forge] activities will be measured in potato units (PU).

And we see a group of returning refugees.

Dislocated by the demonic invasion, these men and women seek to return to their old home, to rebuild, and to see whats left. Their expression a mix of fear, excitement, relief, and worry, to return, there is a lot to think about. They probably lost a lot to the demons, and yet they still want to return. They however did not get too near, and mostly just went on their journey.

I wonder how are the rest of our village? Laufen sits at one of the flat roots that link the main tree to the other tree. Juras opposite her.

They are in the elven kingdom, Id like to think they will be fine. Jura nods, but he probably is being optimistic. Not many survived the journey, and to restart in a foreign land is hard.

Do you think they will come back?

If they know what we have, yes. Jura pats the flat top of the wood. Its like a table now.

Theres a lot of things to do, though, and one of it is for me to make contact with other spirits.

To further extend the range of my [local area rootnet], I would need to engage in some infrastructure projects. But of course, it is a difficult exercise, so its important to locate other spirits first, and then attempt to link up.

The elves unfortunately do not remember where is the nearest tree spirit, and it is possible not all tree spirits are known, though it seems that those attuned to nature can generally sense it, and so, I wonder whether I can sense it.

And I get pulled into the soul realm.

Its the Wisp. It seems it can pull me in here whenever it wants to.

Hello. The wisp floats, surrounded by multiple other floating souls They glow like little balls of white light, orbiting the wisp.

Oh. Hi Wisp.

One of the little balls stop and float right in front of me. Tree Spirit.

Huh? Oh, is this like Gewa? I take a better look, and this ball is.. different. Its glow pulses, and the color is bluish.

One of your heroes. Unlike the others, theres something holding it back from returning to the gods.

So, you are? Heroes? Ah well, heroes are supposed to be special, their spirits belonging to the gods.

Meela. Died.

How?

Her souls in pretty bad shape, whatever caused the death is really bad. Souls, even those of the gods also naturally decay unprotected, and its actually amazing it made the journey here. The wisp floats. Youll need your soul forge to repair her back to normal.

Why? I ask Meelas ball of light.

Promise. Help. Tree Spirit.

My guess is it followed the path of the familiars attached to it, else it would have given up and return to the gods She holds rather strong emotions of debt to you, so she returns.

Ah. Its a bit like Gewas case, but in this case its due to her promise. Ill need to figure out how this works better.

Okay will it decay further?

Nope. Now that its in your soul realm, the decay stops. But to repair whatever caused the damage to her soul, youll need your [soul forge].

I see. It seems everything related to souls must start with having a functional soul forge. Can I ask what happened?

Demon King. Explode. Die. Meelas soul bobs up and down.

Oh okay.

I think thats all it can manage for now. The wisp stops me from going further. You can talk to her again tomorrow. Her soul need to get recharged now.

The wisp then moves away, and the other souls follow.

The rest are the other reincarnators? I ask, noticing the other souls, but they do not look like Meelas. They look ordinary.

No. Just random souls that died within your range. You get a lot of these. Kind of like a magnet that pulls souls towards me. Or is it gravitational field?

Doesnt these souls have information I can use? I mean, if they can talk like Gewa, that means I get a constant stream of information as long as people die!

Maybe, but you need a soul forge to squeeze it out of them.

Seriously! Must everything be dependent on a [soul forge]?

No, you can also get a skill, but youre not there yet. Spend more time in the soul realm, you might learn something. The Wisp bobs, and then wooshes off.

Year 73 Month 4 Week 4

Refugees! And adventurers. They have somewhat aligned interests, refugees want to return to their old homes, while adventurers want to check out whats left behind. Perhaps from the many demon battles, those who perished leave valuable items behind, useless to demons, and they need the refugees knowledge of their areas. Perhaps they are here to raid any abandoned castles or stuff.

There are about four batches of refugee humans, and then one odd lizardman. Too bad the lizardman didnt get close, I would love to put him under the scope. And they mostly avoid me. It seem a gigantic tree surrounded by two rings of trees is scary!

I did some thinking and I came up with three threats which I need to prepare for.

The first threat are the nearby kingdoms, their adventurers and armies will seek to restore their rule over the land, and that will include coming back here and claiming this place. I will therefore need to prepare for an army, easily larger than before. And this will include their adventurers as well, that may see myself as a prize, or a bounty.

The second threat are the non-demon monsters. I had it easy with my various buffs against demons, but now that the demons are gone, we are back to the regular monsters. I recall I can handle most of the regular ones, but if there are greater monsters, of which the abilities are unclear. There may be dragons, or monsters of that level, which may now be attracted to my larger size.

The last threat is obviously the returning demon king. From the past trend, it looks to be a ten year cycle, and Im not sure whether ten years is enough to prepare, so Ill also want to know whether I can somehow influence the return of the demon king, perhaps the rift sizes influences the demon kings return, or something. If I can figure out how to push the time back even a year or two, that may allow more options, maybe even push it back indefinitely.

The kingdoms are the immediate threat, of course, and I would like to get back at the Salah kingdom for what they did to the elves. So, dealing with a conventional army, I would need a large amount of area effect abilities, a standing army, perhaps in the form of a large beetle army, or some converted woodhounds, and some camouflage or ambush-like abilities to take out unprepared forces.

It seems the political situation for most nations is held together by the big bad guy, the demon king, and once its dead, the cracks in most nations tend to emerge, so the period after the demon king is usually followed by all sorts of rebellions, coups, power grabs and so on. I could offer protection from demons that these kingdoms cannot, and thats a strategy to gather supporters and rebuild Freeka.

For non-demons, itll be on the elves. Ill need to get them to the point where they can handle monsters, but dragons or other powerful flying beasts, if I ever encounter them, would bel a headache. My anti-air options are limited, my fire resistances may or may not apply against dragonfire, and I hope I dont have to find out.

For demon kings, I honestly dont know where to start, but first of all, I need data. What has been written about demon kings in the past, and that means finding libraries, scribes, historians, other tree of knowledges, if there are such things.

TreeTree. Emile snaps me out of my thoughts. They can call out to me anywhere around my main tree, and somehow I can receive it.

Yes?

Can you put your smaller trees anywhere, or must they be next to you?

Good question. I didnt think about it, the moment I got the ability I just instinctively put them around me.

At this point a popup appears on my menu.

Subsidiary trees can be placed anywhere within your root network. Each subsidiary tree also extends your root network.

Its like a build-range thing strategy games have. I should have pylons.

Why did you ask, Emile?

Oh, I thought itll be cool if we could like have a room to stay at the end of every days journey. If we were on a journey. Im just daydreaming. Haha. Emile laughs and rolls on her bed. Or maybe the trees can become a wall or something

Year 73 Month 6 Week 2

Shrubs and small trees grow around my circle of trees now. Theyve been growing since spring began, and now they form a layer outside. Throughout the valley, weeds and small shrubs pop up, and so it is now a layer of green.

My presence contributes to this burst of nature and vegetation, of course.

And roads.

Yes, actual roads are being built. A group of 40 men, using a mix of earth magic and fire magic are building a road across the valley. Theyre accompanied by cartographers, and some guards.

Lets mark this in the map.

Its Freeka isnt it?

Yeah, whats left of it. But it looks like other than the destroyed forests, the general area is unchanged.

At least thats a piece of the map we dont have much to change.

Yea. One of the men scribbles on what looks to be a very large floating book.

The earth mages keep on forming bricks and the fire mages blast them, cooking the bricks, and then it is magically arranged on the floor by the other mages. Its a continuous, ongoing process, that builds tiled bricks for faster travel by merchant wagons.

But we do need to note down that giant tree. Itll be a landmark.

Giant trees. Probably magical. To be investigated further.

And thats the end of it. They moved on.

In this world, the devastation caused by magic is incredible. Towns flattened, hills destroyed, forests razed. But similarly, the natures magics also restore the hills, and forests at a speed far faster than my own.

And despite the really huge deaths from every demon attack, it seems the worlds population is still growing rather steadily. Not all continents are affected by the demon king, though the demon kings move and rotate its appearance between the continents. So, the destruction is localised, and gradually spreads, as the demonic rifts open in more and more places, until the demon king is killed.

To some extent, the presence of reincarnators and heroes made the natural denizens of the world lazy. Lazy. And selfish. Because its not their problem. The heroes will deal with it.

The armies from those nearest to the demons are there just to buy time and reduce the destruction, but kingdoms across the other continents would not send armies to aid. I find my thoughts constantly coming back to how the demon king is a regular disaster. Its like a hurricane that happens every 10 to 15 years, and if what Meela briefly suggested, slightly stronger each time.

And that brings me to the next question. What if no heroes come the next time? I hope I dont jinx it, but, what if? Ah, maybe I should ask the gods. Can I talk to gods in this world?

Maybe I should not think so much. I am a tree, right?

Next day

TreeTree. Lausanne sits on my roots. Ah, yes. I got distracted. Baby duties. When the adults are busy with the olive press or splitting the cotton fibres, Laufen asks me to keep Lausanne entertained. Brislach and Wahlen are old enough to be given some tasks, but Lausanne at 3 is still too small.

Yes?

Play time. Please make a wood ball?

Oh okay. Sure. A wood ball appears, and she grabs it. She has many wood balls, but she seems to enjoy the newly made wood balls the most. She says the surface is smooth.

Ball.

Yes. Ball.

Balls are like round fruits. Like oranges. But smoother.

Yes. Lausanne hops around carrying her wood ball. She walks out of the hideout to the inner circle courtyard. The other elves are working with the wooden press.

Can you make a big ball?

Yes, how big?

Bigger than the tree? Bigger than.. the world?

Well, no. I cant make a ball that big.

Oh. Lausanne looks down.

Can you make a treehouse? So I can throw balls further? Well, I could make a mini treehouse in her playroom. But shes 3.

Ah. Yes, I can.

No. Wait. I dont have the skill? But I could create a treehouse like structure, but its not secured to the tree

Can you make one now?

Uh no.

Why?

I need to prepare.

Can you make stairs?

Yes. Where is Lausanne going with this?

Can you make stairs between trees? Thats like bridges, no? Should be possible, even though the trees are not linked.

Mommy says I am growing. Are you growing too? You are a lot bigger now.

I.. I think so.

I think I am growing. I can reach for things on the table now.

Yes. Yes you are.

How much taller and stronger can I grow? Will I be a hero someday? Lausanne kicks the wooden ball. Its hollow and smooth, so it doesnt hurt so bad. The ball rolls onto another bunch of roots.

Maybe like your mommy.

Can I be strong instead, so I can protect mummy and everyone?

Why not. If you work for it.

Uncle Jura says not everyone has the ability to be heroes. Needs to be born with the talent.

Man, Juras a bit too realist there.

Im just telling her to not pursue the impossible. People are born with a ceiling to their ability. Everyone gets there and they plateau off.

Really? Maybe his understanding is incorrect. But then again, Im not sure either. Is this world so fatalistic that everyone settles at a certain level? Do the mechanism of levels actually form a cap?

I can, right? Lausanne looks at me, hopeful. She wants to be a hero, and, I think she can.

Yes. Of course.

She smiles, pick up one of the small sticks and starts swinging it around like shes fighting. Shes a bit too young for that, honestly.

Laufen shakes her head, but doesnt stop her daughter. She then goes back to work, sorting through the cotton threads. They have some kind of basic loom invented, but needs quite a bit of manual assistance to make basic cotton cloth.