Streetching Boundaries

Streetching Boundaries

Year 163

We cant afford to wait. Lausanne once again made her case to the council. The rifts will occur any time now, any time.

I could sense the subtle twisting of space, already my magical sensors are sharper, and more sensitive to void mana.

There will be a lot of death.

I dont see why we should assist. There are still two living heroes, isnt it? We should reserve our strength. The skeptical group. The turtles.

I agree with that view, Lady Lausanne. I strongly recommend we observe the heroes actions before even bothering to assist. What if the heroes use this chance to strike us?

Lausanne paused, the earlier crusades were a bad taste that many still remember.

The other temples have never assisted us.

She took a deep breath. Im not recommending we assist the temples. We should find favourable countries, nations that are willing to shift their allegiances. Surely there are those who have lost faith in the temples, and we should step in. This is our chance to make a foothold on those kingdoms. The refugees are a sign that the winds are shifting, we should use this tailwind to make a stand.

Im a little mixed on that. Chancellor Brandak opined. Its a waste of good resources, and I think strategically, we would reveal our hands if we sent our Valthorns to the other continents. Currently, the other nations have limited info on our true combat abilities.

Lausanne paused. The strategic element was a good argument.

I think the value of Valthorns strategic abilities is overstated. Our true power is and always is Aeons set of skills and abilities. Revealing Valthorn doesnt do much.

What if the other temples take this chance to capture the Valthorns? Surely, this is one of the few chances they get hold of our elite group. Would we risk sending our forces into enemy lines this way, far from Aeons reach? Its true. As long as they are on this continent, I can still interfere. But on the other continents, I couldnt.

Lausanne frowned, she had a short flashback of her time as a captive. That was another good argument from one of the High Lords.

That simply meant that if we do want to send aid, we must send a high-powered group. One that can resist such attempts to capture them, and it must be a large contingent as well.

Lausanne read the unsaid words. Itll be implied as hostility, simply because of the size of the force. No, its a flat out declaration of distrust. Who would want to play host to a force large enough to take over a kingdom? What if someone took offense and that force decided to lay waste to the kingdom.

Lausanne frowned, she decided to back away from her case. Can we... assist indirectly? Surely if a public assistance program is unjustifiable, then can we provide indirect support?

I personally disliked that idea, because it reeks of proxy wars played by world powers. But then again, I am a world power now. What kind of world power do I want to be?

In the council was one of the Pirate Lords, he spoke with a swagger befitting his class. There are certain islands close to the other continents that are not heavily populated. We may use those as launchpads, if our intention is to take a foothold. But we will be noticed.

Chancellor Kavio nodded. Our naval force has not fought a real naval battle so far.

The Pirate Lord agreed. Only pirates. Some of the kingdoms may have high leveled Captains and Admirals.

Lausanne shrunk a bit more, it was just a way of saying the idea wasnt worth it.The meeting soon ended.

-

Hytreerion.

Yes master.

Can you swim?

...Yes, after my recent level up I gained some ability to move over large bodies of water, but slowly. My combat abilities are also significantly curtailed in water.

I thought about it momentarily, could I create additional Titans? I do have additional Titans that I should deploy for this cause.

It was time to relook at what other Titans I can bring. Its a good way to prepare for the next demon king anyway. There must be new options by this point.

The prompts then came up again. It repeated those choices I had a long time ago.

[Giant Tree Serpent, Nydus - A massive serpent. Able to use earth and wood magic. Starts at level 70. Gains powers to summon all sorts of serpents and poisons. Master of poisons and has the ability to brew multiple types of potent poisons and cures. Able to grant poison immunity.]

[Giant Storm Bird - A massive bird with powers of wind, water and thunder. Gains power to summon eagles and hawks. Eagles and hawks can carry goods and people. Has power to grant [Wind Mage] and [Flight] ability to those worthy. Can control the local weather and improve irrigation. Starts at level 70.]

[Fusion with Horns. Starts at level 80. Transforms Horns into a Goliath Kingbeetle thats able to use earth magic and various other protective and offensive abilities. Goliath Kingbeetle can create Royal Warbeetles. Also produces very high quality beetle-silk. Royal Warbeetles can improve crop output in the area]

[Fusion with a Giant attendant tree - Creates a Warmaster Treant. Starts at level 70. High toughness and use of wood magic. Warmaster Treant is able to create lesser treants to assist in combat and other duties. Also produces high quality teas and fruits.]

These were the old options I had, well, without the ones with Jura too. Strangely, I didnt have an option for Edna. Anyway, I reviewed my new options.

[Great Levelling Dungeon - Fuse a dungeon with a titan Soul to create a dungeon that gets stronger as it levels. Starts at Level 100. Warning : Possible chance to loss of control of dungeon inhabitants]

I thought about it for a while... but then I remembered.

No. The artificial mind doesnt need to be the one doing all the thinking. Rather than tag the artificial mind and have all the computational load be with the combatant, why cant it be hived-off to a cloud?

If the artificial mind and familiar functions as a gateway or a connection, and all the actual assistance and mental computation happens here, with Patreeck and a massive network of stationary, dedicated artificial minds?

That is... possible, but we would need a familiar that can form a kind of... mind-link?

I needed to test it out, and already I have candidates. The best people I can test this on are treefolks. They are naturally already able to connect with trees.

Could I juice the treefolks with the power of an entire network of trees? Use the power of the remote forest of minds to significantly increase a treefolks combat powers? Essentially, the treefolk would have to allow us to control certain parts of their body.

The minds stewed on the idea, I could sense them thinking about it in detail.

I approached the treefolks on the idea as well.

I summoned Lord Kraveik, the de facto lord of the Treefolks, though there are few others like him, and pitched the idea.

Were looking to create specialised treefolk champions, augmented by powers of the forest. The concept of artificial souls is not everyone knows, and many of them believe those artificial souls are just extensions of me. Its true, to some extent, so I dont correct it. Were hoping to test whether treefolks can act as our gateway and avatars.

I believe they should be receptive, but Ill need to raise this topic with the warriors.

In the meantime, I need to figure out how to change familiars and artificial souls so that they can perform such a function.

-

> Are the demons near? < Reefy asked one fine day. Its language had improved quite a bit, mostly due to exposure to me.

> Will they hurt us? <

> When will they come? <

Reefy expanded in his coral reef area, and at the same time, also embedded his core somewhere deeper into the reef. I could sense his curious magical energies touching my sea-roots, like a small octopus, afraid, but yet couldnt resist it.

Hes also taken control of some fishes. I wasnt exactly sure how he did it, but perhaps it is a similar mechanism to my control of the beetles. Out of friendliness I didnt attack any of those fishes that he controlled, so I wasnt sure whether those fishes are actual living things or some kind of summon.

As he expanded, I decided to retreat and give him a little bit more space.

At the same time, I introduced Reefy to Lilies. Lilies was mostly aloof, and also very curious. The two spirits were really far away from each other, and would likely never interact in normal circumstances. Their communication required me to create some kind of dedicated paths on [rootnet], but not exactly impossible. Sadly, no new skill from that.

Strangely, both of them had very little concept of privacy and did not attempt to shield their conversations from me at all.

> If they come, will we fight? < I vaguely sensed that Reefy felt comfortable with me, but I still wasnt sure myself what my relationship with it was. Were we friends? Im not even sure if it is a friend.

At the same time, Reefy was aware of the kind of conflicts we faced on land, the demons and their invaders. Reefy, reciprocated with images of his own battles, smaller in scale, with the monsters that attempted to dominate the reef, some that thought they could even seize its core.

Those shared visions were when I realised how different Reefys sense of the world is. It viewed the world in movement, in a state of constant fluctuation of inhabitants. The reef was rarely a permanent home for the sea creatures that lived there. They were mostly nomadic.

I saw creatures that were strange, and colorful. Reefy viewed the world in a tightly mixed set of color and sound through the little nodes and eyes throughout the reef, and at the same time, sound was a very very big part of his vision. His sight was always blended with an associated sound, they were inseparable when he described things.

That was when we started sharing the recorded sounds of the creatures, animals. Whatever we have stored in our [Registree], and it was something that delighted Reefy. At least, I thought it was delighted. I wasnt sure whether it felt those emotions, despite the presence of intelligence.

Reefy expanded mostly around the shelf, and it had a mix of combat powers, such as controlling the reefs to release various types of projectiles, to support powers like accelerating reef growth. I was pretty sure it had some fish-control abilities too.

Our information from Reefys direction is limited because we pretty much gave up the area around it. Patreeck shared.

Thankfully, it was relatively easy to convince Reefy to share intel, especially when my interest was on boats and ships that happened above its location.

It didnt like boats. It didnt like people very much either, and was fond of killing those who ventured too near.

I quickly declared the reef area a natural reserve, so that none of the fishers ever come close.

There were protests from the kingdoms that shared a border with that part of the sea but between a sentient reef, or kingdoms, I soon decided it was better to keep Reefys goodwill.

I would educate it on the ways of the natives, their fishing habits and why they do so. It responded with anger and hatred, but over time, it soon softened its stance to one of displeasure, and then negotiated safe paths through Reefys area of control. Paths where ships could sail, but no fishing or diving.

There were those who did it anyway, but a few deaths later, the sailors and merchants learned their lesson. Reefy was very aggressive when faced with swimmers and divers, and would not hesitate to spear a diver to death with sharpened corals.

I would try to educate Reefy on a less lethal approach, but I foresee it will take some time.

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