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, I’d 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 isn’t 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 don’t work that well underwater. It’s 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 there’s a hidden underwater chain of mountains.

Ah well.

-

“Mom.” Arlisa said to Lausanne one morning. “You’re good at fighting, right?”

Lausanne paused and turned to face her daughter. She wasn’t 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. It’s 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 mom’s 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.”

“Okay mom.” Arlisa nodded. Some of the meaning was lost on her, but she got the gist of it. “Can Aeon choose me too?”

“...I believe you have already been chosen.” Lausanne sighed. She knew of the Blessing, I told her, and she took it with a mix of gratefulness and fear. Something she confided in Laufen a lot.

“Mom, how did you deal with it... when Aeon started training me?” Lausanne asked Laufen. “How do you cope, with... the expectation?”

Laufen shook her head. “I didn’t. Things were smaller back then, when it was just us in that small ring of trees. When we were just hustling to survive the winters, when the girls had to hunt our own animals without any of the trained warriors. When Aeon trained you, it was just helping us survive. Giving us a chance. Not now though. Now, Aeon’s power has grown, and he is the guardian deity of the entire continent. For Arlisa, her expectations, and what everyone wants from her, will be higher. Her challenges, her enemies... they will be like yours in your later years. When you were ‘special’.”

Lausanne blushed. It was embarrassing to remember the days when people referred to the then teenager as Lady. They still call her Lady today, but somehow, it’s a lot more ‘normal’ and ‘appropriate’.

“As your mother then, all I could do was pray and hope for your safety. Elves like us rarely betray the guidance of our home tree spirits, their wisdom and foresight beyond that of our own. If you let Arlisa walk the path, it’s something you should really sit down and have a long chat with TreeTree. Its’ power grows, and so will Arlisa, even if her talent is no better than yours, she will exceed your power once she reaches maturity. When that happens, she will be fighting nothing less than the greater demons.”

“That makes me afraid. I never knew what it's like to fear for someone else.”

Laufen gave her daughter a hug. “Then you know how it’s like for me to feel, with you so far away. But Aeon was always with you, isn’t it?”

Lausanne thought about Warden. Warden’s power grows with mine, the star-mana link allowed it to always reproduce a lesser variant of almost all my powers. It is something unique about the Possessions of the Devoted.

“She is young, and one day you will have to let go. Aeon will give her wings and weapons we cannot yet imagine, as he once did, with you. It’s now on you to choose. Clip her wings, or teach her how to better use them. Aeon will not impose if you choose otherwise. He has eyes on the young talents all over the continent, he can spare you that choice. Time has changed. We are no longer desperate, our survival no longer hanging by a thread.”

Lausanne sat and wondered. Indeed, Laufen is right to say I would not force them. The blessings I grant to Lausanne is both her luck and misfortune to be in the right place, and at the right time.

Arlisa’s in a position of privilege. In a way, she inherited her power.

-

“Hey.” Kei walked into Stella’s apartment. “You sure you don’t want to come along?” Kei tried to reconcile with Stella after their bad first encounter a while back. Partly because Kei has matured enough. Kei even told her about the journal, but Stella just shook her head.

“No. I am rather content here.” Her apartment was filled with artwork, many of them made as posters for the various Valthorn projects. She found confidence and joy in painting, if anything, the sense of progression from levels seemed to make her feel better, and helped to reinforce her identity.

She poured her energy and negativity into her art. It’s strange how the sensation of levelling up made her progress seem more real, more.. Tangible. Even as she toiled at something as abstract and subjective as art, the levels were an anchor. It made me realise that maybe levels would be useful for those who struggled with their own self worth. That having something to hold onto, that I am a high leveled artist, or I am a high leveled warrior was a strong reminder that things are not that bad.

Kei sighed. “The world is a large place, Astia. Come with me, see the world. It’ll help your art.”

“I will, someday. But let me hit Level 40 as a [painter] then I will.” She’s at the crux, a Level 39 [Painter].

“Do you want me to wait for you?”

“No need. If I do travel, I will first visit the sights on this continent.” Though her confidence has seen some improvement, her people skills remain lacking. More like, she’s still not very fond of being with people. Maybe she’s just allergic to people.

Kei nodded and just left. After that, Kei came to see me.

“I’ve arranged with Alvin and Hans to visit them in the South. I’ll be gone for a year or two.”

“Sure.” I mean, what could I say. She’s not exactly my servant, we’re just partners at this point. She packed up, said goodbye to some of those she’s close with, mostly merchants and some other adventurers. She’s got a big travelling bug, and she’s been going from town to town, visiting almost every kingdom and nation along the way. Mostly to just have some local coffee or tea, sit around, fight a monster or two, make some money sparring with some upstart nobles, have sex with some gorgeously good looking dude by the beach, things young teens on a European style backpacker’s trip or gap year do.

I suppose it also ties in with her confusion and lack of direction in her life as a hero. The journal loosened her chains, but she still doesn’t know where to go. She needed this time off, to think and find herself.

Both of them are lost in their own ways. Then again, most of us are lost.

-

There was a bit of drama in the Treetiary College during this year, when one of the Lordlings attacked and significantly paralysed another Lordling. My eyes were watching, but I decided not to act, simply because this wasn’t the first time the two squabbled, and it seemed like they had a bit of bad blood. Rivals and stuff.

I think I could help the paralysed Lordling, but I decided to wait and let the drama unfold.

Life should have consequences, and I wanted to see it. The family of both Lordlings got into the fray, and they had discussions that quickly broke down to little wars and skirmishes. Again, we let it happen. I see this as a way of the natural aristocracy imposing its own cruel version of meritocracy and survival of the fittest.

The principal asked me to intervene, of course. I rejected him, and told him to buy a big pack of popcorn and watch the drama unfold. If I let kingdoms go to war with each other and assassinate each other, was I going to stop them here?

“But you said the FTC is a safe place.”

“Safe from everything else. But I suppose, not each other. He’s 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 other’s throats, the current unity-in-a-common-enemy no longer applicable. But those wars will be less devastating than the demon king. I’m 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, it’s 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 wasn’t 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 didn’t 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, I’m 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 [Aeon’s 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 [Aeon’s 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, I’m 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 Patreeck’s 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. [Aeon’s Demonslayer]. Nothing else.

“Can you hear me?” I spoke as I delved into her soul spring, examining her energy. She’s asleep, yet awake here.

“...yes.” She was confused, and this, to her, is like a dream-like state. It’s not too far off.

The spring was vigorous, like Jura and the other two. The spring’s vigor was the essential component, though not the only one, of a person’s 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.