Hot water

Year 76 Month 6

The past 2 weeks kinda zoomed by, as I focused on restoring the damage from my battle with Alexis. The valley’s damage is severe, some of the blue flames continue to burn, so I had to find ways to put them out, such as throwing a pile of dirt at it. The residual fires did end up burning a few more trees, but eventually I got to them, thanks to snow.

“Ah, good to be awake. I’m back, seems like I’ve slept…”

“Yes Trevor. Time to fix our valley.” Indeed, our valley’s heavily damaged by the fires, and Trevor’s restoration abilities will be much needed.

Trevor’s presence sends an update to my entire point of view and interface, and more data floods in. He is clearly getting into it, I could sense him checking on various trees and quickly using his abilities to regenerate some of them. Well, this fixing thing will take some time, since the cold weather is making it hard for us to do much.

Next, I checked on the elves. They are back now, living inside the [secret hideout] once more. I think they actually just miss the warmth of my [secret hideout], where the temperature is always constant, and there is always some fruits or potatoes to eat, and they were delighted when I told them they could return to the [secret hideout].

The girls are exceptionally happy to get their beds back, and quickly snuggled in.

“Ah I am so tired of this cold.” Belle jumps on her bed. “So glad that my bed’s still here!”

“The blizzards gonna just get stronger after this. I wouldn’t want to be out there.” Emile sighs, “I hope the rest of them are doing okay. I feel kinda bad hiding in comfort here.”

“That sucks. But… oh well?” Belle shrugs. “It’s kinda amazing that all this is undamaged despite how crazy the fighting was.”

That’s partly because the [secret hideout] is pretty much fire resistant?

Meanwhile...

New Freeka’s new hunter corps and merchant arms, they successfully acquired food, in exchange for furs, and wines. The underground and covered farms are also in full swing, as more and more of the refugees acquire skills necessary to manage their underground and indoor farms.

But politically, things are not going so well for New Freeka. The three nations resume their mudslinging, as talks break down on who is responsible for the blood sacrifice blizzard spell.

So, Salah has came up with a strange ultimatum to New Freeka. Side with the kingdom of Salah, and the truce conditions are waived. Choose not to, and bear their wrath.

“This is an insult.” The advisors say.

“I know, but what choice do we have? We have no military power to stand up to Salah.” Yvon sighs.

“But they expect us to forget that we were expelled from them? That we were massacred, our long escape from Salah, and the countless lives lost as they go about their bloodthirsty ways?”

“...”

“Our people will insist we have a bit more spine.” The advisor shakes his head, and try to convince the rest of the advisors. They too feel really mixed about this.

“Is the lives of our people less important than some principles?”

“How do we know? Salah may well be the one that cast the spell, then if we side with them, we would be wrong too!”

“If so, the answer must be to insist that Salah prove their innocence, then we stand on their side?” One of the advisors suggest, and it’s quickly attacked by the other advisors.

“That still won’t go down well with the people. Remember, we are expelled from Salah, many of us. Now they demand us to stand on their side? Even if they are truly innocent in terms of this accursed spell, I, and I speak for many others, cannot accept it. We’d rather go to war with Salah.”

“But war, leads us to a lot more death, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid. We shouldn’t go to war and put our people’s lives on the line?” Another advisor says. “Our people are tired, and are finally starting to rebuild their lives here. Do we want to throw them into the fire again?”

Tough choices, for the New Freekans, so they could not come to a decision.

Year 76 Month 7

“Meela!”

“Alexis!”

The two girls jump happily when Alexis’s damaged soul is finally received its first layer of repairs. I had to wait for the forge tree to recover, and some of my energies to return, before I could get to fixing her and knocking her out of stasis. Like Meela, the damage her soul has taken is enormous, and it speaks of the incredible resilience of souls that after a layer of repairs, she is already able to speak. The kinds of damage is a mix between Meela’s and that princess who experimented with void magic, so I am more than able to repair quite a bit of the damage her soul suffered, but there’s still some which needs different colored soul forges to fix.

“I’ll hug you if I could.” Alexis shrugs, her soul now appearing in my soul realm after the repairs.

Meela laughs, “I don’t think ethereal spirits can have hugs.”

“Yeah… I feel a lot better after the tree fixed me. None of that crazy demon voice anymore.”

Meela’s soul bobs.

“The demons have been reading my mind.”

Well, that’s a bombshell that came from nowhere.

“That means they know what I know. Of gods, of our technology, of… home.”

“Oh.” Nothing worse than the magics of this world has to offer.

“I doubt it’s their first time.” Meela shrugs. “Heroes has been summoned to this world time and time again, pretty sure a few times demons have captured heroes before.”

Alexis sighs, “Well, that’s out. Feels good to finally say it.” Seems to be a sigh of relief, of a weight finally released from her shoulders. “Having my brain read all the time isn’t a pleasant feeling.”

“Well, you’re… sort of dead, so I doubt that’s any better?”

“I’d rather be dead, honestly. I’m really relieved that the tree spirit is able to defeat me, I initially fear being the vehicle for more of the demon’s destruction.”

“Well, luckily, I have just the set of abilities to counter you.” I jump in.

“Yes. Interesting set of… operations you’re starting here.” Alexis muses.

“You like it?”

“It’s… not bad.” Alexis’s spirit bobs around.

“See, someone appreciates it for a change.”

Meela shrugs.

“Anyway, what spell did you use in the end?”

“Oh… It’s a reduction-to-spiritual-form spell, something I learn from being stuck in the fireform for too long, since my body is disintegrating, and then a merge-self spell.”

“Merge?” That’s when I realised Alexis might have tried to hijack my body.

“Yeah. I tried to merge with you, but your soul is far too strong, and instead I got absorbed...”

“Don’t do that ever again.”

“Ah… I’m sorry. I just wanted to still somehow live…”

Anyway, I still have to figure out so alternatives, so I speak to the wisp, separately. “Wisp, any way I can control what the souls do against me?”

“Well, in their soul form they have no ability to harm you, at least directly. They are after all souls that exist with your soul realm, and the soul realm is a contained ‘other’ space. Once confined and merged into a vessel, their ability to harm you depends on the vessel.”

Hmmm… lots to think about there.

“But, there are safeguards you can perform, such as entering into a soul contract. Such act will constrain their actions for the next 1,000 years.” Ah yes, I am an idiot, but I suppose I have to, if I ever want to give them a vessel.

“There’s a vessel already developing inside the pod, which the lady Alexis used. It seems to be a woman made out of wood, but will be some time before it is ready.”

“How?” I mean, how’d Alexis do that?“Her spell managed to only take control of the pod, and so she used it to become a cocoon to grow herself a new body. But because her magic is decayed, the new body that is growing is now under your control.” I therefore take a chance to have a look at the body she’s growing, it’s essentially a body made of wood. But the limps, and the joints are all made of some kind of soft vines.

[Hamadryad Body - Developing]. The body is made from the nimble wood of a soul tree, and the soul that lives in this body derives energy and life support from the soul tree. So, the body will die when the soul tree does.

Hmm, but at least this body aligns hers and mine, as she dies when I do. But then, she could just hop bodies, and she might still try to take over me, rather than become attached to me. For now though, she’s still in my [soul realm], so I need to think of some precautions. She failed previously, but that’s because her body and soul is in terrible shape. If she’s in her best shape, might she succeed?

“Alexis.” I return to the two ladies, who are happily chatting away.

“Yes, tree spirit?”

“Do you plan to stay in this world? Or do you plan to move on.” The soul realm is where souls prepare for their onward reincarnation after all. If she leaves, then my fears will be less.

“Ah… if what Meela tells me is right, I might see Nobuo in the next few weeks. They’re a bit slow to catch up on such matters. I’ll see what he says first, but I think I’ll stay.”

Oh. That’s a disappointment.

“Because the price of my failed attempt to merge with your body… is that my soul is now subordinated and shackled to you for a thousand years.”

And just to be sure, I checked.

[Alexis]

[Status : Soul-contracted to TreeTree]

Ah, so the variant of her attempt to merge with me, ends up backfiring and turning it into a soul contract. That’s… rather weird.

So I go back and ask the wisp more questions.

“Can a body have two souls?”

“Maybe, but one is always the ‘master’. In your case, you’re the soul tree, and you’re the undisputed master of your own soul. The lady is reckless to have attempted to take over as ‘master’ of your body, after all, there is nothing in the world that can remove a soul tree able to manipulate the souls of others, from its own body.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing. Even a god can’t touch a soul tree’s soul, until the soul tree dies, in which your soul then becomes any other soul. Think about it, how can a being able to repair, create, and upgrade souls, lose control over their own body to another soul? The power to manipulate souls comes from the soul tree’s innate structure, and to kick you out involves tampering with that innate structure.”

Hmmm. “But you said early she could harm me?”

“Well, yes. She can cast spells at you, and physically attack you if they desire to. Both Meela and Alexis, if they are combined into a vessel, are their own persons, and they can attack you if they choose to. But chase you out of your own body is not one of the things they can ever do.”

Ah, I misunderstood a bit. I suppose that changes the types of precautions I have to take.

Hmmm...

Year 76 Month 7 Week 2

Everyone is busy doing farming, especially of the underground or indoor type. Those that can’t are busy hunting. It’s going to enter into the really cold months soon, and if the magic behind this snowstorm does not weaken, it’ll just mean colder days ahead. So, although there is the threat of a re-escalation of the war between the three kingdoms, the people of New Freeka are just single-mindedly focused on preparing for more harsh winters.

It’s really the only thing on most of the people’s minds.

On my side, I do my part by growing potatoes. I mean, I can grow a lot of potatoes, so that’s what I do. And those fruits of healing and warming fruits as well, which I get the elves to store in the secret hideout.

The elves, purchased vinegar from the traders, and use them to create pickled fruits, so these pickled fruits, kept in large wooden containers, are what they store for winter. It seems the effectiveness of thea healing and warming reduce by half, but in exchange we get much more longer-lasting fruits that don’t rot so quickly.

By now, the valley’s damage from the fires are gone, but of the many trees destroyed, only 20% rejuvenated. After all, the weather is too cold for trees to grow.

It seems that there is actually a few groups of wizards attempting to dispel and weaken the blizzard, after all, for some wizards, this is a chance to level up, try to do something that few other wizards have done before, at the same time earn some good brownie points with the rulers of the three kingdoms.

I hope they are successful, this stupid winter has gone on for far too long.

“Fear not, master. The winter research is going on well, and once that is done we will be able to regrow even more trees.” Trevor and Dimitree both try to comfort me, but I still feel a bit annoyed.

Aside from that, my soul harvesters return! I get a lot more souls, it seems the winter is really killing a lot of people, so I have enough to create one more artificial soul. The only problem is, I don’t have enough power for it.

Year 76 Month 8

Beetle winter adaptation stage I - completed!

Tree volcanic adaptation stage I - 1 months remain

Tree winter adaptation aura - 1 months remain

Ah yes. My beetles can move now. With the first stage beetle winter adaptation, I notice the beetles now have some kind of internal-warming system, where there is a some kind of warm sap which gets pumped to their joints and limbs to keep it warm. However, the sap is produced only in the [subsidiary trees - beetlenests], so they have to periodically return to the trees to restock on the saps.

This gives them an effective operation time in winter of about 2 hours, which isn’t that great, but, at least they can move and function in winter, which is a whole lot better than them sleeping in their nests!

I wonder if this gets taken to the extreme, would the beetles actually gain functional hot blood pumping hearts?

“Interesting stuff you have there.” Alexis is a lot more nosy than I expected, she’s extremely interested in the kinds of research and actions I’m taking, and thanks to the repairs she’s gotten, she and Meela can both be nosy.

Still, the fact that she tried to merge with me makes me a little defensive around her.

“You’re feeling suspicious of me because of what I did before I died. And I can understand that, and I would like to apologise again. But, let me be useful to you, after all, there are still many ways you can use me.”

Well, in this respect, Alexis actually wants to be useful, but Meela just… seems rather happy loitering around. But you know, this little incident does make me wonder how… loyal Meela would be. “Paranoid.” Meela chimes in.

“Yes.”

“But so long as we are in our soul form, we are stuck. Here, as souls, we have no ability to take action. But, if we are to earn your trust, you need to first invest that first leap, to let us be of assistance to you.”

Well… Alexis is right there. Ah, it’s a risk I have to take, all I can do is task my artificial souls to keep an eye on them, and use the existing spells and contracts to keep them under control. But for now, I will put that idea off.

The weather is experiencing some oddities. On one day, the weather suddenly got better, but then it got a lot worse the next day. I suspect it’s the wizards trying to meddle with the magic of this snowstorm.

The New Freekas are still busy digging in, building large storage facilities to store the hunt, and they have even started curing meats so that they can be stored for longer. To be honest, I think this blizzard’s proving to be a boon for them, because they are developing more unique food storage abilities, which would last them through future hardships.

Politically, they have yet to decide who to side with on the whole Salah ultimatum, and that’s gotten them a rather stern warning letter from Salah, who insists that they pick a side, and do so soon. Or else.

Anyway, as I turn my attention back on the elves.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better.” I started work on Jura’s wounds after the elves returned to the secret hideout, his wounds are mostly a whole lot of broken bones, and a bit of burn marks. Bamboo, being wooden armor that protected his body, absorbed most of the damage from the explosion, but that meant Jura still had to deal with the fall damage.

“Good.” His burns are now fully healed, but what is left is the broken bones. The bones have fused together, but are no in the healing process and will take some time before they regain their past strength.

I foresee Jura should not join in any combat related activities for at least 2 months, or those repairs may break.

Year 76 Month 9

Tree volcanic adaptation stage I - complete!

Tree winter adaptation aura - complete!

Hell yeah. My trees are growing in the muthafooking winter. With the completion of the winter adaptation aura, trees near me all gain some resistance to winter, and are now able to grow in it.

This means a return of growth!

This feeling of finally being able to grow after not growing for so long, kinda feels like being able to taste food after losing your taste buds for weeks. Ah, how glorious it is, to be able to grow after being stunted for so damned long.

At this point I do realise that I am somewhat a growth addict. I really enjoy watching another patch of snow covered dirt have a bunch of green shoots, which then transforms into proper trees. And the central trees, those closer to me, are even able to feed energy back to me.

Its kinda like being for sick for so long, that you kinda forgot how being healthy felt like, and now, woosh. Hell ya.

Grow grow growwwww!!!

“Is the tree always like this?” Alexis asks.

“I think he’s gone a little crazy.” Meela shrugs.

Also, there is still the volcano thing. The first stage of the upgrades means my trees can now approach the volcanic area without dying, but I am still a distance away from the volcano itself. There are however,, a lake that is being warmed by the volcano’s magma, and since the valley does need some hot water, I place a few subsidiary trees next to it, and activate my heat transmission system. It’s essentially a kind of root system which pushes the hot water from the heated lake to the valley.

[Secret hideout upgraded! Hot water now available]

[Hot volcanic bath obtained!]

Oh. Did I really have to go that cliched route of getting a damned onsen inside my own secret hideout?

Although there is some transmission loss. It’s good enough such that I could get the valley’s trees a bit warmer too, so there’s a bit of steam and mist now emerging in the valley, as the hot water interacts with the cold weather above it.

[You’ve acquired the skill : Mist]

Oh.

“I like hot springs.” Alexis shrugs. “Now I want a physical body.”

“Me too. I haven’t had one in ages.” Meela also comments.

“Which one, the hot springs, or the body?”

“Why not both?”

Are these two ladies going to commentate on all my actions and achievements?

“I find their banter amusing, master.” Horns too finally recovered from his injuries, and he too shares a bit of the winter upgrades, so like the other beetles, he has a sap in his body that acts as a heater. “Will they be useful?”

Anyway, the main volcano itself is still further in, and to get there I need to work on my next stage of the volcanic adaptation research, which also involves getting more materials from the volcano.

Beetle winter adaptation stage II - 6 Months remaining

Volcanic adaptation stage II - 8 months remaining. Requires 200 x sulphur.

Tree winter adaptation stage II - 8 months remaining

Ugh, I think the higher stages are going to take more time, or so I’ll need to increase the number of biolabs working on them in the future.

“Assign me.” Alexis volunteers. “I volunteer to do research.”

Her dryad body is fully developed by now, and if I’m not mistaken, is designed with herself as the template, and so it’s going to be making her a dryad, which then undertakes research in the biolab. “I’ll think about it.”

“Oh come on. You can cast spells on me if you want to keep watch. I won’t do strange stuff, I swear!” Alexis pleads.

Hmm…

Year 76 Month 10

Oh, more growth. I love growth.

This resurgence in growth is most keenly felt by the New Freekans, who are amazed to see the bigger trees sprout even in this snow, and it applies to the potatoes as well. Thanks to my newfound powers, the potatoes produced daily increased to 2,000! Double! All because of winter resistance!

And I hide all my potatoes, using beetles as my carriers. There is really no need to let the New Freekas know there is a huge stockpile of potatoes underground.

This makes me think of the poor chap so many years ago, that ask me for a healing fruit but I could not give him one, because I still didn’t have winter adaptation back then.

Ah, well.

Speaking of which, when did the demon king die again? About 3 years ago? Is there going to be a 10 year gap this time?

“Generally 10 years.”

“Was not asking you?”

“I know, but I want to answer it.” I think she’s a bit of a smart alec, and maybe a bit chunni. “And I think its important. When I was researching the ancient text, it seems the 10 year cycle is just a rule of thumb. There has been occasions where the demons choose to delay their invasion although the supposed time is up.”

That’s a whole lot more long winded than I thought it would be. But I suppose it would be useful to know, somehow.

“I still don’t know why though, and what exactly does the otherwordly demons want.”

Huh. What do the demons want? Don’t they just behave on instinct and act out their directive to kill all lives?

“I mean, so far the demons from the other worlds can’t be reasoned with, so we don’t actually know what they want… unlike the local demons.” Oh there are factions in the demons too, well, when I think about it, it figures, creatures of evil are not equally evil or evil in the same way.

Anyway, back to the growth thing, with the warm waters from the volcano, areas where the hot water is released turns into a bit of an oasis in the cold, and the area there is a bit more fertile. The hot water is also mineral rich, so I notice the potatoes I cultivate are a little bit larger and different in color.

“Actually, master, if we use the minerals extracted by our roots, and infuse them into the potatoes, we can achieve a similar effect.”

Yes, thanks for reminding me that I have a huge pile of minerals I did not use and indirectly hinting I am a dumbass. At the same time, maybe this is why I need all these assistants, I clearly am not making the most of my resources and abilities.