Treemeet

Treemeet

Year 84 Month 6

Master, right now on your dashboard, theres the following outstanding items.

One, extending to Giant Lilypod city. Two, finding a new location to set up a second town. Third, finding more magical leylines for more soul-forge upgrades. Four, acquire research and upgrade materials for us. Five, demonic research and telco tower further research. Six, blood ritual observation and related hex research. Seven, prepare for demon king surprises. Eight, work on Juras soul vitality and level cap. Nine, research potential anti-demonic objects to create super-anti demonic weapons. Ten, upgrading the faeces, refuse processing and absorption. Eleven....

Trevor went on. But I had gotten it. I had a lot on my big wooden plate, and well, I tend to forget things a lot. Even though trees are supposed to remember things, because of how they are burned into our tree rings.

So, lets go back on the list.

Im working on the extension to the Giant Lilypod city, and well, I should be there in one month. After that, Im hoping to establish some means of contact, if we are able to telepathically connect, if not, I might try to connect my roots directly.

Would that be too risky? What if its more powerful than me and the energy in its roots attempt to take over me instead? A direct root connection is after all a two-way exchange of information, magic and nutrients... its almost as if two trees are married. Thinking about it, I decided I probably should not connect my roots directly.

But then again, my roots are everywhere. Even treefolks have been somewhat connected to me, their roots frequently touching and making contact. Its only thanks to my [rootnet] that so far, Ive not been massively disturbed.

Perhaps, a fellow tree spirit of that level can overpower and brute force through my [rootnet]s defenses.

And what do I even say to a fellow tree spirit? Like... hi?

Feeling a little bit concerned about my competence at communicating, I asked Jura. Jura, do we have historical records of past encounters with great spirits? Can I have their stories?

Oh... well need to ask the various guilds, but sure. Jura nodded. Is something happening? Last month was about demon kings movement, and this month ancient spirits...

I just have some... thoughts.

Jura nodded. Its costing us a bit of money to do these sort of searches, since theres no central library where all these things are stored.

And thats a problem, isnt it? Wikipedias awesome. This world needs a wikipedia. Maybe I can set up a large network of trees that function as terminals for people to upload information. Id call them... treeminals. Wait. Sounds too much like criminals. Intreeface? No, sounds too much like In Trees Face. Or maybe, Wikitree? Treewiki?

Eeek.

Never mind. Im getting distracted. I need a 101 on how to communicate with other spirits.

-

Second, was the location expansion. Some of them didnt get the idea of why I wanted to search for potentially habitable locations, but it was quite obvious to the more clever ones.

Aeons looking to germinate?

Will there be a second Aeon?

Can Tree Spirits multiply? Is Aeon making a special tree?

Okay. I think they misunderstood. I have giant trees, why dont they ask whether those are my babies? I even have subsidiary trees, or do they think those are just normal trees. Or is it the way I asked?

Theres actually a few places, a bit further, thats in sort-of no-mans land thanks to the fall of some cities to the demons. After all, if demons happen every 10 years, your continent isnt going to be densely populated all the time. Theres going to be large patches where the fires have burned for so long, for so much, that 10 years wont reverse that kind of damage. Itll take a lot longer than that.

Far north, theres another valley where theres a river running through it, and some metals in the gentle, rolling hills. A rather pleasant valley, but uninhabited. Theres also a few others, but I like this valley the most, so I decided to also stretch a few trees there, and then placed one [giant attendant tree] in it. Over time, I would like this to be like the Valthorns actual academy, the Root Camp, where young Valthorns learn their roots.

These [giant attendant trees] are wonderful in their own way, their large number of [customisable rooms] meant one giant tree could house easily 100 people, and another giant tree could be converted into barracks and all the other things the Valthorns need. I recall having trading cards where massive trees were the superstructures and skyscrapers of the world, and these giant trees are my closest attempt at them.

Perhaps, one day these giant trees could even be ancients, like in Warcraft, and fight wars on my behalf.

Maybe I should get some Treefolks into the Valthorns too.

Speaking of Treefolks... my research into their fallen was quite insightful. They are built just like any normal flexible limb, just that their texture is woody, and their organs are distributed. They do have organs, and their means of absorbing nutrients via their rooted form is a very fancy thing.

But, the younger treefolks, those who benefited from my special saps and milk, are growing up and now we are able to get a clearer comparison of those who went for the longer pregnancy versus those who went for the shorter external gestation period. The saps close the gaps by close to 50-60%, so the saps significantly improve the treefolks reproduction, because now the drawbacks of the high-volume external gestation is reduced.

Of course, the whole point of looking into them was to find out how to develop flexible wooden parts. Yet, I believe Meelas tree-form was a lot more interesting, in that Meelas treeform resembled a quasi-liquid thing with a wooden layer, whereas the treefolks have more distinct muscles.

What Id like to do is incorporate these muscles and stuff into the giant trees, and essentially build my own treant. With an artificial soul in it, I could probably get a super-tank.

Which reminds me... what happens if I fuse an artificial soul with a giant tree? Do they become mini-versions of me?

Anyway, back to the list. The leylines... well, I think the nearest one to me is where the demon supercannon was, but the heroes had already placed a telco tower there after they defeated the demon. Maybe the Giant Lilypods spirit will know more.

Research and upgrades are on the way! The merchants need some time before things get back to business as usual. The presence of demons and demon kings are still quite disruptive, and the long period of when businesses essentially were dead meant alot of merchants ran into financial problems. Ah, the realities of business. I suppose its harder to be a billionaire in a world where the demon king might just wipe you out every 10 years. Businesses need long periods of growth, stability!

Unless ones a war merchant. There should be bankers or war merchants, right? I dont believe a world like this doesnt have its Rothschilds equivalent.

Are there... merchants who fund wars?

Jura scratched his chin, Uh... yeah? But usually they are a nobility as well...

> Heroes have appeared to fight them <

The droning continued, and then faded. I wonder whats on such a hive minds mind, and clearly, I fail to understand it.

Perhaps it is like us, master. Only that they all get to speak.

Im starting to suspect Ill struggle to get along with this fellow.... Tree spirit. Or tree spirits?

> How should I refer to you <

Thats... > Hello Lilies <

It sounded like those two words really took a lot of out of them. Perhaps they are not used to this sort of interaction?

And silence. I was quite comfortable with the silence, and clearly, so was Lilies. It seemed both of us being... plants, silence didnt make us uncomfortable. In fact, it was quite... relaxing

> My... disciple needs your blessing < I wasnt sure how to refer to Lausanne. Is she my minion, or is she a disciple? Or is she... a personal representative? What would she call herself in reference to me? Is she a subordinate then? Or just an employee?

> Yes <

Is it strange? > Why? < Do people not get blessings from their tree spirits?

> Why? < What. Trees dont give blessings?

I am starting to think I made a wrong decision of talking to this tree spirit. Or even attempting to get close. Their lake is still far away, and yet it already knows I am here? It must have something similar to subsidiary trees.

> Then grant your familiar to this one, as part of a whole <

It took another few more days, and I eventually reached the edge of the lake. And I had to see it for myself, so I used one of my few physical eyes. The lake was vast, and it stretched really far. And the Giant Lilypod is essentially a city around a massive moat, the lake itself.

Theres a bridge that connected the shore to the main city, but the city is actually all built on massive, like... multiple-building-sized giant water lily leaves. The largest of those leaves are larger than city blocks, and there are smaller but still giant lily-pads that acted as a landbridge, and visually, these lily-pads closer to shore are more... thorny, as if they are ready to spring a trap at any time.

Each lily pads acted as its own district, and together they form the city. There are three landbridges, formed by the lily pads, and its clearly fortified. The humans that live here also build massive forts around the entrances of all 3 bridges.

At 26,000 lily pads, Im inclined to think that its probably its version of the [subsidiary tree]?

> What do you do, when the demons come for you? <

Heh. Well, from what I can see, it looks like this spirit is more than happy to let the lily pads burn?

> How many years have you been here? <

It didnt answer me. Maybe its sensitive. We didnt speak for days, as I went about my other tasks.

-

Madeus and a few others were gathered, Lausanne was there too, since I think itd be relevant to her. The history of the Giant Lilypod city in its initial stages is lacking, but it is said that the city and the lake is greatly intertwined. The lilies that blossomed in the lake had been attacked by demons many times, and often, the lilies would be destroyed. Some of the lilies, those further inland, are about to close and submerge to hide-away from the demons.

This is of course, aided by the fact that the demons cant seem to walk in water, and the waters of the lake are filled with monstrous vines and floating things. There are also giant fish and other lake-monsters living in there that would attack any demon that goes into the water.

So essentially, they hide, and the massive lake act as a giant moat, because these stupid demons are not well adapted to underwater combat. The massive lilies are also extremely resilient and so they can take multiple hits and bombardments, they have to be, because the city is built on it. Even if the lilies are destroyed, because the core body of the lily is underwater and probably a large network of tubers and roots thats not exactly destroyed, it can just regenerate after every destruction. Its literally a water-weed, that waits for the demonic disaster to go away.

Of course, I wonder what level it is.

No one knows, and apparently, no one knows whether the Lilies can communicate. The druids apparently has attempted to communicate, but they cant even reach it, other than sensing that it briefly exists.

So, hiding its main body is a smart thing. Maybe I should do that too.

Of course, this also exposed one of the druids lies. They cant communicate with other tree spirits and yet promise such a thing to me? Or is it just Lilies that is being unnaturally shy?

Or maybe it does communicate, but it just does so very, very selectively?

After that conversation about the history of that city, Lausanne came and asked me about it. TreeTree, do you think I should go to Giant Lilypod City? Nobody has even found how to communicate with the spirit yet.

Probably... not. Lets see whether there are other spirits we can communicate with.

The next one would be the elven capitals tree spirit. I think that one is probably younger that the Lilies, but it also has a few hundred years of history to it.

But you wont mind waiting, right?

Lausanne nodded. Its fine. I want to learn more about travelling, before making the journey. I feel like all my life Ive been here, mom says I need more... uh.. Life experience. Im too young in her eyes.

Moms will always view you are their children. It is just the way they are. Talk to her and convince her otherwise.

Spaizzer

Sorry for the delay. Was too tired last night.