Swaying Grass

Swaying Grass

Year 151

The clock is ticking, and my research continued. Some of my research commenced a little too late, so only the algae-to-energy research was completed. There are many, many kinds of algaes, each type chose a slightly different mix of specialisations to excel in their respective environments.

I recall in my earlier studying days that there were certain types of seagrass or seaweeds which swayed and moved with the motion of the waves, and there are also documentaries about how certain types of deep sea algaes actually feed on geothermal vents, or certain fungi that lived in volcanic lakes. These are alien life in some ways.

Either via waves-to-mana, or geothermal-algae-to-mana, Id hope to arrive at some new source of mana.

The thought about algae also brought me back to my much earlier days of coping with a growing country.

The poop problem. There was also the whole trash-to-energy, an incinerator. There may be a way to do the same to poop. Poop-to-mana. I wonder whether this soul forge thing is just some subliminal messaging about power-source diversity. Anyway. Poop problems. Poop-to-mana, taking my earlier research to the next stage, in combination with the algae blooms.

As the research into water-based plants continued, one of my skills upgraded!

[Rootnet upgraded. Basic connection with shallow seagrass established.]

Then came the usual messaging spam. I had to filter out a lot of garbage from the seagrass. In places where the sea isnt that deep, these seagrass created underwater meadows, where fishes and other monsters live.

I found them similar to floodplains where the grasses and other plants have adapted to recurring floods.

Still, this connection into the seagrass is the first time my senses extended out to the shallow sea. Again, everything is really murky, and my hearing, sight abilities dont work that well underwater. Its muffled, or too noisy and loud.

Yet, this is a positive thing

If seagrass is possible, then, ocean-grass would be the next step. I remember in our world that seagrasses were local and constrained to the seas, and do not grow in the deep oceans. But if I could expand my research into seagrass and make them more durable and hardier in deep waters...

Either that, or have a look at the undersea maps. Perhaps there are ancient land bridges where seagrasses can cross, though from what I see so far, the central continent is really far from any of the other continents.

Or maybe theres a hidden underwater chain of mountains.

Ah well.

-

Mom. Arlisa said to Lausanne one morning. Youre good at fighting, right?

Lausanne paused and turned to face her daughter. She wasnt sure where her daughter was going with this question. Kids tend to ask the weirdest things. I am, but against monsters or bad guys. Why?

Can you win against a demon king?

Lausanne shook her head. No. That stung at a part of her that once wanted to be a hero. A demon king is a special existence, my dear. Its one of those creatures where only those chosen by the gods can defeat.

Is Aeon a god?

Lausanne paused. Ah. Uhm, sort of.

He chose you, right? I mean, a long time ago.

She sipped on her morning cup of tea, and bit into a slice of bread. Arlisa noticed her moms silence. Is Aeon a god?

Sort of.

What does that mean, mom?

She took a deep breath. Gods exist in a spectrum, a range of powers. There are weak gods and stronger gods. Aeon is one of the world-bound demigods, and is on the weaker side, but it is gaining strength over time. Someday it will be as powerful as the elder gods.

Ah. Arlisa nodded, she appreciated the honesty. She somehow knew, despite her youth. Perhaps it is a gift of children, to be able to sense the truth and lies of their parents.

So yes, I was chosen. By luck or misfortune that I was there, with grandma in the village then. We hid. We survived. Aeon has watched over us since then. Honestly.. I remember little of those early days. I was far too young.

Safe from everything else. But I suppose, not each other. Hes only paralysed, that can be... fixed. And if they ask me to, I will. At a cost, of course.

Conflict is natural. Survival of the fittest is natural too.

I considered the implications of ending the cycle, what would happen in a world without heroes and demon kings. If I removed this source of conflict, what happens next?

It is not world peace, and I think of my own world too. Home. Earth was never at peace. They would fight, they would go to war and use heinous weapons. Individuals with desires and needs will inevitably clash with each other.

This world would then naturally go to war. Perhaps the 4 temples will then be at each others throats, the current unity-in-a-common-enemy no longer applicable. But those wars will be less devastating than the demon king. Im sure of it, simply because the kinds of power the temples can unleash is fearsome, but nowhere near the multi-million single-day deaths that demon kings have done before.

So, its still good to end the cycle, especially from the perspective of the living, sapient beings. But for trees, the end of the common enemy would result in an expansion of sapient beings over time, and that would encroach on the natural territory of the others.

Would the next stage of that conflict be Man Vs Nature, once the demon king is out of the way?

It wasnt a pleasant thought to consider.

-

The two heroes that Kei would soon meet were busy doing what heroes normally did. That was, build a harem, make babies, establish new kingdoms, and generally enjoying their lives.

Alvin, established his kingdom in the Southern Continent, by essentially turning a few of the princesses and queens into this harem. Their territories were then amalgamated into his new kingdom.

Hans, travelled back to the Eastern Continent, and claimed the right to rule over a few cities and towns that lost their leaders from the terrible demonic attacks. Of course, this also involved admitting a lot of women into his harem. The two Kings were clearly competing on the harem part, even if they both didnt say it.

I think all these heroes need a harem-education program, to explain the risks of establishing a harem and the subsequent problems that would arise. Harris had the problem. Even today, his successor kingdoms continue to fight with each other. They have trade wars, stupid sanctions against each other. Again, Im not in the business of correcting stupid people, so I let them be.

-

I gave Lovis the 4th Soul Strengthening seed, as my specialist [spearmaster]. I also asked the 3 of them, Edna, Faris and Lovis, who would want to take on the role as [Aeons Demonslayer]. Faris flat out rejected it, as the new class deviated far too much from his current one as a druid. Edna was rather happy as a knight, so Lovis also accepted the new class, as my new unique-class holder.

Once she accepted the new class, her [spearmaster] class disappeared, but her classes were subsumed under the [Aeons Demonslayer]. She obtained my [anti-demon aura] and buffs against demons. In short, the damage she takes from demons reduces significantly, and the damage she deals to demons significantly increases.

But like my own [hero fragment] buff, Im not sure whether it applies to Demon Kings. We would have to test it out the next time a demon king comes around.

It took her a good month to get used to the power of her new class, and its also a strangely... twisted class.

Once she accepted the unique class, I somehow gained access to her thoughts and memories, and also some insight into her history and her past. She was one of the orphans, just like Edna and Faris, and when she received the class almost 30 years ago, back in Year 123, she was a child. She was brought into the Valthorns as the Freshlands recovered, and has since then moved up. She lagged behind both Edna and Faris in levelling, though she had practiced a lot more. This was at a level beyond Patreecks mind reading, in the sense that it was a lot more personal, more... nuanced, and contained more details of things.

I felt bad, really, that this class gave me such direct access into her mind. It made me realise that perhaps the [hero] class is actually a unique class granted by the gods, and as such, if they have access into the minds of their heroes, then the next step after access is they could alter them significantly. Which is thus evidenced by all the mind control.

I spoke to her personally, alone as she dipped herself into the biolab for further examination. She was slightly afraid, but also excited and honored. Her soulspring was now different, instead of the usual blocks, it was made entirely out of a tree, with roots holding onto all the blocks. The blocks themselves had roots growing into them.

Each class presented itself differently in the spring, and this class was a domineering one. It absorbed all her other classes, and she was now a single-class. [Aeons Demonslayer]. Nothing else.

Can you hear me? I spoke as I delved into her soul spring, examining her energy. Shes asleep, yet awake here.

...yes. She was confused, and this, to her, is like a dream-like state. Its not too far off.

The spring was vigorous, like Jura and the other two. The springs vigor was the essential component, though not the only one, of a persons level cap. The vigor seemed to determine how many skills or levels a person could support.

I wonder, why am I not affected by it?

I asked Lilies.

> Heroes, because the gods grant them boundless vigor. Us, trees, and other beings like us, for we derive our vigor from the land and the world around us. Dragons and magical creatures that tap into the land or exist on some outside source of vigor too would not have a level cap. But mortals, no. Treefolks have a higher level cap than mortals, as a part of their vigor is from the land, yet they very rarely reach those heights. <

Wait what. I have so many treefolk followers. Where are my superleveled treefolk?

The highest levelled treefolk in the central continent is a [Woodshaper] at level 74. He mainly shapes wood into utensils and tools, but also does a lot of larger scale projects like defensive walls, buildings, castles made of wood and all that.

I decided to speak to him, and awarded him a gift for skills. It significantly improved the finesse of his woodshaping, and asked him to aid in making weapons against the demons.