Year 161 (continued)

I received strange news from my agents across the other continents. It seemed that the swift death of the demon king rattled the leadership of the various temples, and they’ve sent agents to investigate whether I possessed weapons of incredible destruction. They didn’t think Kei was strong enough to take down a demon king on her own, so their next bet was that I had given her something of tremendous power, or she located some super-powerful artifact.

They seemed to have spent the last few years attempting to use a range of scrying and spying spells on the Central Continent, but have been unsuccessful. My [domain] must have deterred most of the spying in the immediate vicinity of Freshka. I decided to test it out with some mages, and they reported that it’s impossible to use certain types of spells around the Freshka Valley, and that ‘deterrence’ covers the 3 academies as well.

The only unprotected academy, in a sense, are my naval academies at the coastal cities, the place where we train new sailors and captains. One of the flaws of the naval academies is it’s inherent distance from me, so the effects of my various ‘powerleveling’ abilities is slightly weaker, even with the amplification effects from my Giant Attendant Trees.

So, since their scry spells failed, they attempted to use spies and doublecrossers instead. They approached a lot of Valthorns with the usual cocktail of espionage. Girls, money, power, artifacts in exchange of information.

I wasn’t going to hide the fact that I trapped the targeted location with bombs, and that I could somewhat guess the demon king’s location. I mean, that place is even a memorial now, and the tales of the Valthorns’ bravery in face of mortal danger is one of the recurring new tales most aspiring recruit holds close to their hearts. So, what was initially secrets among the intelligentsia, became a common folk’s tale. The stories of the kingdom’s massive bomb arrays went out, it was both scandalous and inspiring at the same time.

Scandalous for the temples, because the larger populace who always thought it was only heroes who could damage the demon kings.

“It seems the demon kings can be harmed by mortal weapons!”

The temples then had a counter-propaganda problem of their own.

In the past they have always let the heroes fight the demon king. Mortals of the world are nothing more than fodder. But now, the concept that the people of the world could aid in the swift destruction of the demon king was a set of ideas never ever thought possible.

“If so, then does it mean anyone can gain the power to challenge the heroes and demon king?”

A tale of hope and power. That man can challenge gods. The core ethos that ‘only heroes can defeat demon kings’, had been damaged. If we were to successfully defeat a demon king without any heroes, then we would have thoroughly broken that belief.

The temples tried to twist it to say it is my blessings that allowed the bombs to harm the demon king, that the demon king remained an enemy of only the divine.

The four temples over the centuries have implicitly told the general populace, to ‘know your place’, that the demon king is not one for mortal men to challenge.

So, the tale of Jura and Lovis’s self sacrifice to destroy the demon king was the single best counter for this tale. That it is possible for natives to rise from their stations, and seize their fate for themselves. That if there were no summoned heroes, the natives can rise to the challenge.

Hope. Glory. Legend.

The tale of the Valthorn Heroes was a hit among the general populace, unlike the tale of the foreign heroes. The bards and songstresses made different versions, with many embellishments both big and small.

Hope is a very powerful poison.

Already the stories swayed the stability of many priests, that their words of Gods suddenly seemed a little hollow.

“Surely the Gods don’t trust us with such power.” The speculation went. “That’s why the Gods imported their own people. It’s divine nepotism!”

“Why only summoned heroes get gifted powers? Why do we who live here, who prayed devotedly to our gods, not deserving of any lesser power? Is that fairness?”

Poison.

The nations faced internal conflict from the stories, so much so that the tales were banned. But banning them just led to them being propagated secretly, and there were no real ways such stories can be stopped with the proliferation of [messages].

“The Gods play favourites with their own favourite heroes. We are just cattle, offering prayers to gods that do not care for us. If this story is true, and it must be true, it is possible for us to rise and be more than this.”

That led to a small wave of refugees. The Kingdoms and nations decided that it was better to let those who believed go to the other side, than risk domestic conflict. If these refugees, empowered by hope, are to take up arms against the kingdom, blood would be spilled. Sure, they would win, but what’s the point?

Of course, this pleased me. Loyal believers from the other continents. More war potential? Sure thing, I need all hands on deck for the next time the demon king lands here.

The tale was especially popular among enchanters, alchemists and gemmakers, and more than a handful made the journey to the Central Continent, tempted by the chance to participate in making demon king-slaying bombs.

“These stories are so absurd.” Kei laughed as she heard the tales recounted to her. “It’s so much war-propaganda.”

Stella nodded. “It’s really a military puff piece. If I was a young hot blooded male with a talent for fighting, or making bombs, I’d probably sign up for the Valthorn academy right now.”

“And why did they make me into this superhero?” The tale of Kei was also similarly embellished. I didn’t find the tales of Kei exceptionally embellished, when her powers are really, truly, superhero tier stuff. I mean, magical floating cannon arrays that shoot super power mini-nuke bullets? Superhero tier.

The story had the effect of inspiring locals too. My chief researcher particularly relished the challenge of creating bombs powerful enough to kill the demon king.

The day he makes a bomb that powerful, I would have him repeat, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ Or maybe he would regret it, like how that Alfred Nobel regretted the creation of TNT.

No matter, we need bombs. Big ones. And I will have them.

-

Year 162

The Big Deep Dig went on. Progress was getting slower, as the ground turned more hostile. Certain areas were filled with hot magma that I could not spawn roots even if I wanted to.

One odd observation.

The inner part of this world isn’t uniformly hot. I suppose it’s similar back on Earth, too, since the flow of the inner mantle meant there should be fluctuations. So, we dug horizontally when we could not go lower.

I wonder whether I could invent geological survey tools. It would save me so much time if I could just scan the earth for parts where the solid ground was deepest.

...I got nothing.

System? That’s your cue to give me a skill?

Nope. Nothing.

I paused and I recall my roots already have some kind of mineral sensing ability and various filtration abilities, but I guess sonar-roots are a step too far, even for the system. Maybe it’s a domain ability?

I kept digging, and I found strange, large bones. Naturally, I excavated them and sent them to my [biolabs]. Archeologists will probably frown at my methods, but oh well. I’d like to have ancient dinosaurs, please. Ancient dragons are fine too.

Something that quickly turned up was that the bones all bore some kind of damage, claws, swords, there were even little bits of crystals in them.

I kept digging.

Bones. More bones.

Strange bones, and as my roots unearthed more bones, I soon found the strangest one of them all. It was massive. Each bone was the size of a medium sized tree, and more importantly, each bone had a ton of little gems in it.

When we placed it in the [biolab] -

I heard a voice and saw a vision-

An experience similar to that of the ancient tree shard.

The skies burned as the rift opened.

“We expected this, the coming of the Invaders. The master astrologers have watched the skies and stars for millennia and have foretold this day. The day when the demons come to our world. Invaders. Minions of the So-Called Gods. Invaders. We thought we were well prepared, the might of our dragon empire was unmatched. But our pride would soon meet its downfall.”

A sky full of stars was instantly ripped apart, and demons poured out of the rift. But they met resistance, as a flight of dragons rose to fight them. The demons did not last long against the might of the demons.

“The Invader Gods were relentless.”

More demons, and more dragons fell from the skies. More, and more demons flooded through the rifts.

“We fought. We destroyed every single one of the demon crystals.”

I saw images of dragons, they burned the demon crystals, melted them.

“But we could not hunt down every single one, as the invaders came more, and more frequently. They were crafty, and hid their demonic attunement crystals deep in the ground. Our master mages could not find all of them. An invasion that was once centuries turned to one that occurred every few decades.”

More dragons fell, as the rifts widened.

“We were humbled. Their numbers were clear, even ants could take down an elephant in sufficient numbers. Our kind took forever to replenish our numbers, and they could sacrifice millions to take us down. We could not resist forever.”

Images, visions of dragons battling it out with the demons. Gruesome, the dragons were all bloodied and injured, and they kept fighting.

“Each time, more of our fortresses fell, our younglings slaughtered.”

A continent covered with the blood of dragons.

“We sought a way to end this, but there were none.”

Then, a scene of a massive demon and its accompanying army of demon-drakes.

“The demons adopted our form. It was an insult to injury that I could not take. Our last stand, and we lost. The world had succumbed to the demons then.”

It was the will, the last words of the dragon etched into the memory of bones. But when was this? There were no humans in that world I could see, were they a society of dragons then? The bones, with the little daemolite throughout, were incredibly ancient, as my [biolab] did some tests to make an estimate.

Ancient. At least a few hundred thousand years? The magical energies that remained in the largest of the dragon bones were unfamiliar, and different. Were they the ‘precursors’ of this world?

Seems corny that this world had a dragonic origin. Or maybe, they were just one of the many earlier races. Perhaps, they are the ‘dinosaurs’ of this world.

We kept digging.

-

I asked Lilies. I honestly have not seen any. Except for the demon’s dragon. I mean, at this point, dragons are really stuff of ancient legends.

> I know not of their fate. <

-

At this depth, it’ll take almost a month to walk from the surface to the deepest level. The magical energies at this depth were already slightly more active than on the surface, and the slow progress was partly due to the terrain. The magical energies and environmental factors that I could easily resist were harder on the beetles, and they had to be reinforced with active regeneration. They were heat resistant, but even then, their performance was slower.

The lens from that Margmar city seemed to be a relic of some kind, but I still don’t understand how it works, how it’s made, and what it actually does other than create this magical barrier. It looked like a very beautiful blue glass though. But I could think of a few ways to use them. For one, how would it work as a shield against a demon king? Could they see active battle?

Two, the lens clearly twists the leyline in a way such that it becomes the shield. Could I change the shape of the shield such that it functions as a weapon?

In any case, Edna and a few high level Valthorns were the first group that made the journey into the depths. There were things I could not see or read at the depths, my vision was after all mostly limited by my spiritual sense, and my root’s ‘earth-sense’, they would descend to the Margmar city to help decipher what’s going on down there.

I had specialised miner beetles, made to haul rock and break the ground, so that my roots have an easier time clearing a path, but these miners were not meant for carry people, but my earlier versions of carrier-beetles were not suited for the deep, where there’s no light. So, we had to modi

“This is a lot deeper than I expected, Aeon.” Edna remarked once the beetles descended continuously for a week underground. I could teleport them, but where’s the fun in that. “How many such tunnels are there? Did you make them, or were they always here?”

“I made them.”

“I see.” Edna paused, the heat got a lot higher deep underground, and she activated a few personal comfort items. These were some of the “What are we looking at?”

The first one, of course, was the Blackstar veins. There were a lot of them at this depth. She and the small group of Valthorns that made the trip rested there for a day and examined the veins. They descended the next day.

The Margmar City was a lot more impressive, but strangely, the moment they stepped into the City’s vicinity, golems emerged and attacked them. They fought them off easily, but there were some defensive mechanisms that recognised people, but not trees.

Hah. Once again, people forget to remember that trees in this world can kill.

They spent a lot more time in the subterranean city, and they lived there for a few weeks.

-

Back on the surface, our training continued, and we reviewed the performance of our 2nd-generation Valthorns. This meant, their parents were also Valthorns, and these kids had some variant of the skill - [Blessed by the Soul Tree]. Most of them joined us over the past 5 years, and they were all born around 10-20 years ago.

In a way, these kids were all my other bets. I didn’t see any reason to burden Lausanne’s family on more battles and fights if they don’t want it. Arlisa, being the somewhat lazy bum that she is, was not really trying either.

There were a few of them. Somehow their ages were very close, only 3-5 years apart. A few of them were ambitious, and so we supported their ambitions by giving them specialised training, special slots at the dungeons. It reeks of favoritism, but at the same time, no reason to waste those with the right skill sets. These young teens put in the hours and hit Level 50 within two years.

That was as fast as Lausanne, even faster, considering they started out in their single digits. [Rangers], [Sharpshooters], [Knights] and [Mages]. They were also mixed with some other inherited skills that gave them certain advantages Lausanne did not have.

The products of a bit of gentle nudges, genetic meddling and little boosts during their infant years. Already I could sense their potential and level limits would be higher than the generation before them.

The idea of a Spartan generation isn’t that far fetched. Already we were doing deep ‘scans’ into the young children of many Valthorns and nobles. I did nothing to most of them, but for a few, I attempted to use my powers to ‘strengthen’ them earlier, ‘awaken’ them.

I wanted to see how far I can push them, in a few decades these younglings would be my level 125ers. If the inherited skills could be stacked repeatedly, that would make subsequent generations significantly stronger.

-