Year 150

Research into the Blackstar Gems soon yielded some results. They had mild generic anti-magic properties, but these anti-magic properties are exceptionally effective against ‘holy’ and ‘light’ elements. That said, once consumed, they only stay in the body for a short moment of time.

I have no way of recreating ‘divine’ magic to test out the effectiveness of these Blackstar Gems.

“Do you have any ‘divine’ abilities?” I asked Kei.

“Nope.”

Sigh. It may be effective against Holy and Light, and it’s a conjecture that this extends to ‘divine’ type of magic. I had preferred something more conclusive. Next, was research on how to actually use these Blackstar Gems. For Edna, Faris and Jura, I made specialised helmets with these gems inserted, hopefully that would give them some protection against the mind-controlling effects of the gods.

Again, it’s a speculation if this works.

-

My requests to gather the documents, records and books went quite okay. It wasn’t hard to gather details about people who were punished for their heresy.

Heretics were those who turned against their gods. I also wonder whether there are anyone that turned against me with a special class.

Is there a [heretic] class?

The Valthorns and Priesthoold were responsible for combing through the documents for any objects or items that may be of interest. Most of them were crap, and there’s a lot of misinformation in the records. Things written down or speculated by some priest that over time became the ‘canon’ understanding of a particular subject.

Again, rubbish.

But from the pile of rubbish, there are some possible chances. Items or weapons mentioned in passing. Sea serpents and certain items harvested from the deep sea. Strange. Items from the sea are common, but for them to be used by the heretics?

Why?

This was where old myths emerged. Neira, Gaya, Hawa and Aiva are referred to the four temples of the continents, but in many smaller islands, many have more localised faiths, shamanistic rituals and animism. For smaller islands with their lives intertwined with the seas and oceans, many sailors pay homage to various ‘sea gods’ and ‘sea guardians’, and strangely, the four gods don’t overtly oppose such homages, even if they frown on them.

If the land had seen so much destruction from the demons, the sea, for most part, has been spared of the destruction.

If there are any civilisations deep underwater, they must have watched the surface fight endless, pointless battles, and they would have records from a long time ago. The demons did not invade the sea. Naturally, the faith of those island nations seemed to be a bit more obscure and strange.

I felt like I was going down a rabbit hole, trying to find what’s going on, really. Maybe my answer to this problem, lies in the past.

If the memories of that ancient tree are true, there may be a time from before the demons and heroes. The lands, which have over the millennia seen hundreds or thousands of demon kings, would have been so destroyed that the odds of records surviving would be close to nil.

But the sea, the ocean so vast, if there are records somehow submerged, they may still survive. If luck is on our side.

Thus, I commanded the Valthorns and Priests to gather all the myths, legends and folklore of the smaller island nations, and the beliefs of the seafarers and sailors. If there was an equivalent of polynesian myths, I want to know.

Again, it wasn’t hard to gather a general one, but to have it in detail, most of such myths were spoken from one generation to the next, hardly written. The Valthorns and other employees of the overall FFA would have to go and meet these islanders and conduct interviews. They started with the nearby islands.

The variation in founding myths and all that differ rather greatly, and quite a few seemed to have suffered influence from the 4 temples. There were far more parallels than I thought was normal.

The sea, and the oceans are home to many giant creatures, the largest of them are the zaratans, or world turtles. The floating zaratans, large turtles with islands on their backs, are creatures spoken of in legends and tattoos, very rarely appearing and even if they did, their presence is often accompanied by a thick fog, so no one is really sure. The most unique of these beliefs stated that the first denizens of the world came on the back of these zaratans, and that these zaratans had the ability to sail from one world to another, through portals mortals cannot even fathom. Long ago when the world was bare and empty, of only land and sea, the zaratans came to the world and brought the first plants, animals and trees.

Another variant of these myths, more common in the southern islands, that the world and many others were on the back of massive world serpents, zaratans and fishes. Those stellar bodies that moved quickly across the sea of stars were travelling on speedy world serpents, the slower ones, on the zaratans. If these zaratans do exist, they may well be minor deity class creatures, maybe more if they lived for very long.

If they are indeed of the multiverse, then it would make sense that they have the power to resist the divine. Surely creatures of that level would consider gods nothing more than peers.

There were lesser myths too, and it still took some time to digest them, to separate those that may have some use, and some that did not.

What’s strangely common in the island myths, were the tales of local heroes. Quite unlike the common zeitgeist from the temples which often contained heroes from faraway lands. These island epics were tales of how ordinary men rose up to challenge great beasts. That said, the power level described in these epics were not at the level of the demon kings. They were more local nuisances, dealing with problems that affected the islands, or just the smaller chain of islands

-

“The bards are having a good time.” Jura chuckled. Edna and Faris were next to him. They met more regularly, now that they have similar challenges. “With all the stories that Aeon’s asking for, they’re making good money.”

They met in Yvon’s academy, in theory supervising, but mostly just watching a large group of young students practice simple movements. Jabs, thrusts, parries. These were children aged 6 to 12, and they were separated into groups to reflect their relative levels of competence.

“So, did you get a mental attack?” Jura asked. “I haven’t, but then again, maybe I won’t know.” I made them all a necklace and a ring made of the Blackstar Gems, after Faris complained that the helmet was impractical. Sometimes, simple stuff is best.

“No. But I really wish there were more of us.”

“Leveling someone up to the cap requires something like the Rottedlands, and now that the Rottedlands is much smaller, it’s also harder for it to generate high-tier hybrids for us to fight.” Jura just explained frankly. “Outside of our spars with the heroes, we’ll most likely have to travel to fight demon champions and walkers to gain levels. We’ll be busy once the rift opens.”

-

“Tree Spirit, are you there?” Akrenaf the wolf asked one day. “We wish to speak.”

“Yes?”

“We wish to leave the forest, and if you may, guide us to where there is magic in the land?”

“Magic in the land, you mean, leylines?” Now that my network of trees and roots spread across the continent, there’s actually multiple leylines. But, my soul forge requires different ‘types’ of energies, so an increase in the quantity of leylines merely increases the total mana available to me, but does not result in me unlocking a different ‘color’ to my leyline.

There are multiple dungeons across the continent too, and they are either [black] or [red], or [blue], colors which I already have. So, despite my expansion, my soul forge colors did not grow.

The wolf sniffled momentarily, shaking and nodding its head, and then answered. “Yes, I believe that is what they are called by the mages. The shamans refer to them as just magic in the land. Can you help us ensure safe passage, we see many humans and creatures who would fear us and attack us.”

“That can be done. I shall assign you an escort.”

Faris arrived five days later by express-beetle. “This is Akrenaf, a wolf. He wishes to travel to the leylines of the land, and I saw it fitting that a great druid is to escort him.” Druids are also commonly seen with animals and tamed monsters, so a massive wolf-monster travelling with a druid would not raise alarms.

“Well met, Wolf.” Faris said with a friendly bow. Akrenaf sniffed him slightly, and spoke.

“He smells of the city.”

Faris shrugged, “My tasks often lead me to the cities. But that should not detract from my task of escorting you.”

“It is fine.” The wolf shook it’s head. “Let us go.” They travelled mostly through the smaller routes, walking the entire way.

When they finally arrived at the nearest magical leyline, a ‘blue’ one, the wolf sniffed and tapped its massive paws on the ground a few times. It was using a skill of somekind, and then... that was it.

That was rather boring. The wolf repeated it a few times in most of the other ley lines or places with natural mana.

“Are you looking for something else?” I asked at the fourth leyline they visited.

“No, not really. This is right. We merely sensed its strength.” The wolf responded. “And your reach is far.”

Ah.

“It is for a shaman to regularly visit nearby leylines, as shamans tap onto leylines for strength and power. Their health and condition is critical to a shaman’s strength, and also why certain types of shamans often live in strange places. Quite like that of a witch.”

Faris merely shrugged. Have I met a witch?

-

Kei could fly was something I expected. What I did not expect was how high she could fly. She could fly almost to the edge of the ‘sky’ itself, almost crossing into space. Space was, as she described it, strange. The moons moved erratically at times, as if forcefully yanked out of place.

It also occurred to me that if she really wanted to win her fight against me, all she needed to do is fly really high up and bombard me from where I cannot reach. Her magical projectiles would lose some of its power at that distance, but she would not be harmed at all at that distance. Of course, I kept my mouth shut.

The heroes could have used a similar tactic against the demon king too, unless, of course, the demon king also can fly at that distance. I wonder what the world would be like if the next demon king was some kind of alien monstrosity that floated on low planetary orbit, bombarding the world with dropships filled with demons.

“We killed the demon king 5 years ago.” Yes, Year 145. So there’s 5 years left. “There’s 5 years left, right?”

“The rifts usually open 1-2 years before. You can start hunting demons once that happens to raise your levels, if you feel not confident. But once you cross Level 100 as a hero...”

Kei nodded. “Oh yeah.”

It feels like I’ve done this for umpteenth times. Is this what being a non-player character feels like? Repeating the same shit to different ‘players’ every damn time. It’s boring.

In the meantime, I scheduled more practice sessions for Kei with Edna and Jura. Edna gained a level or two from spars with Kei.

-

The Rottedland shrunk even more, at this point, it is only a quarter of the Rottedland’s peak. Furthermore, this ‘quarter’ is sliced up by all the tree-roads, and the new nations that now inhabited the reclaimed lands.

I wondered whether there was a way to tap into blood magic as a source of new mana-color for my soul forge. Perhaps, by way of a rune on the general population that granted some of their mana to me?

I have [Red], from a volcano. [Yellow] from a runic formation. [Blue] from my existing trees and networks, [Black] from a magical leyline.

From ley lines throughout the continent, most of them were already Blue, Black or Red. Do I have green? Shouldn’t trees be [Green]? Or is it from something else? If there’s [black], there should be [white] too?

Frustrated, I shared my concerns about the colors with Lilies.

> No clue. Mine is Black from all the death of people. <

No progress. I believe demonic magic is perhaps one color. This blood magic is also another. What other sources of magic? Wind? Water?

I decided to try for both.

If Wind could be a source of magic, all I needed was to spawn a lot of trees in places where there is a lot of wind, and find a way to convert that wind-energy into mana. Perhaps that’ll give me another ‘source’.

If my experience with [blue] was correct, I’ll need at least 10,000 wind-harnessing trees to unlock a new color.

For a month I experimented with various grasses, reeds and coconut trees, attempting to find a way to convert wind-to-mana. Of course, my artificial minds submitted some rather fascinating tree species for my consideration too.

Dandelions. And wind-mill tree-monsters. The windmill trees were trees with flexible branches that could twist along with the wind. They were monsters first, trees second, and they actually attack people around them. Carnivorous little creatures.

Naturally, they went into the [biolab].

[Research option unlocked : Windmill Trees - 18 months needed.]

[Research option unlocked : Wind Energy Harvesting - Grassy Fields - 18 months needed]

[Research option unlocked : Wind-to-mana - 24 months needed.]

Fuck. 2 years.

I decided to work on water-based plants instead. We were already experimenting with swamp trees and swamp adapted trees. Now, the goal was to turn wave-to-mana, and it’s associated relationships.

The druids already had a large collection of plants that exist on the shoreline. These included also certain forms of seaweeds and algae.

[Research option unlocked : Algae-to-energy (Seaweeds) Stage 1 - 12 months needed]

[Research option unlocked : Swamp wavebarriers - 18 months needed]

[Research option unlocked : Saltwater Tolerance Stage 1 - 24 months]

Oh well. I started the research anyway. If I can unlock both of them, that should lead to more mana, and hopefully a new color. Wind and water seemed natural enough.

-

A few minor wars broke out among my subordinated states. The Valthorns had to abstain from conflict, and also work with the Priesthood, together they were tasked with protecting innocents from the fighting.

The entire Central continent is a hodgepodge of rulers. The FFA and the Valthorns essentially existed as a federal government with power over all outbound diplomacy, religion, certain military rules and rights, interstate trade, racial matters and certain overarching criminal prosecution powers. There’s also federal taxes, and also the FFA regulated all of the major transport and trade routes.

Below that are the ‘states’, who retain domestic power, budgetary control over the finances of their own states, internal state trades, local criminal and law powers. These are the ‘allied’ and ‘subordinated’ states.

It’s complicated simply because certain states were ‘captured’, but we have spared the local rulers in exchange for their cooperation. So there are differences in the laws and powers of the local rulers, depending on their respective history with the FFA.

Those who converted to my side willingly retained most of their domestic powers, surrendering only minimal external-bound powers.

Again, this hodgepodge of powers, laws and all is from history. I did not want to forcefully standardise the laws, simply because there are local cultures that affect things. For example, a nation with a treefolk majority has certain local rules and regulations that cater to their needs that would be unrealistic and burdensome to apply in a city with centaur-population as a majority. There simply was no way to apply a one-size fit all approach to laws, without creating unhappiness.

In fact, in the Freshlands’ Treetiary College, there’s quite a large segment of the curriculum that focused on the various variant laws throughout the central continent. The administrators and nobles, unfortunately for them, have to be able to navigate this massive landmine of rules and regulations.

Taxes too are increasingly complicated. At the federal level, we levy a tax on the nations itself, a 10-30% cut of all incomes, depending on their past agreements with us.

Some places, like the Six Ports, and Freshka, are considered ‘directly administered territories’ of the FFA, so they only have a single-layer of tax. But for the allied states, they would sometimes face dual taxes, one from the state, and one more from the federal authority, if the state decides to pass on the tax obligation to the local rulers.

Naturally this is also a source of dispute. For example, a kingdom where one of their larger merchant organisations moved to another, perhaps for trade and tax issues, would then raise a complaint to the FFA and the Representative Council, but even if we made a ‘good’ decision, things don’t always work out.

Over time, Kavio explained that it’s quite normal for a decision to be made by the Council, but the two disputing parties still resolve to war. It tends to flare up more when the entire continent is at peace. It’s like, after they are no longer scared of a war with the temples, they now turn on each other.

So, we just let them fight. The Valthorns and the federal forces would abstain, and we would also set up certain rules of engagement. Even assassinations were permitted, so long as the targets were all members of the ruling party and the local military force. There’s also separate food stockpiles, the general food stockpiles and water sources which are acceptable targets, and the Valthorn and Priesthood’s stockpiles, which are off limits. If the combatants overstepped the boundaries, the Valthorns would interfere and we would crush whoever offended the rules first.

It wasn’t hard to pinpoint who’s at fault when my army of artificial souls monitored it. If that failed, andI couldn’t pinpoint it, it was also possible to just capture the leaders, ship them to Freshka for a trial. Patreeck would then use his mindreading abilities to discern the truth.

Occasionally, I would send a reminder to all the other nobles by skewering the offending noble. I suppose I’m a hypocrite.

Of course, the idea of letting my states fight each other was strange for Kei, who seemed to have the concept that the world should be all kumbaya and everyone should be friends. People will have disputes. Even if there’s no demon king, no demons, even if there is excess, people will fight.

It’s good for the army too. Those who fight gain levels, and I have more people that I can poach for the Valthorns. It also helps to clearly delineate the difference between the Federal authority and the State authority.

Citizens that lived through such interstate wars all learn that we have different roles, and generally have far higher loyalty to the federal authority than the state rulers, simply because the wars cause them to realise that their state rulers are just all about power.