Tree Uses Heal, Round 3 (1/2)

Year 82 Month 8

The fact that the rod worked made me ask more questions about the nature of these ‘mana sources’. Why were my normal [subsidiary trees] able to tap into the magical leyline, yet it didn’t work on the volcano?

What made the rod special?

I made a few theories, but I must admit these are shaped by my experiences with my own games.

The first possibility is that there are compatible and incompatible 'colors' for mana, and so, if my base color is blue, then red is therefore an 'opposing' color. So, I would have to go through a lot more steps and upgrades to assimilate an 'opposing' color mana, hence the [Forest Rod].

That, of course, is just a theory. I had asked the Wisp, but the Wisp is surprisingly clueless about such things, and I suspect only other Tree Spirits may be able to answer me.

The second but not mutually exclusive theory, was that there are 'tiers' to the mana. In this theory, the dungeon core and leyline beneath constituted ‘directly accessible' mana, and the volcano's natural mana constituted 'mana that required processing'.

The mental model I had for this theory, similar to the oil & gas industry, which has different types of rigs and mines, like regular pumps, deep sea rigs, oil sands, or shale oil, each with different rates of recovery, at different kinds of technological difficulty. I built this theory on the knowledge that heroes and myself have 'star mana', and the sick princess was exposed to 'void mana', so it may not be too hard to then theorise 'star mana' is like nuclear fuel. So, if we were to lay down the types of mana on a scale, there would be an increasing difficulty?

Of course, the fact that I have the ability to produce star mana challenges this theory, like... if I can make star mana, why is the volcanic mana a challenge?

Anyway... whether these are 'types' of mana or 'tiers' of mana, or even both, I frankly have no proof. Or maybe I’m just imagining things.

The rod is able to circumvent the tiers, or whether it is the colors, but other than it worked, I have little insights into the underlying mechanics of how it took the volcanic mana and made it usable to me. So, what I can do, is to keep expanding and growing, use the rods in different circumstances and then observe the outcomes.

-

Meanwhile, somebody important came. We knew its important, because that person came in a rare airship. Apparently, after some sniffing, daemolite-powered airships are quite sensitive to the magical interference by the demon king, and so many, many fleets has been grounded. This airship, is powered by Quantium, an expensive and rare crystal. The fact that it is deployed, meant a lot.

“The Kingdom of Takde summons all high level individuals to assault a demonic fortress. It’s located in the ruins of a once-large city. All individuals above level 50 are invited to participate, and Takde will bear all lodging and costs.”

The demons have managed to take down a large city, and a rod has been planted. In the ruins of a place that witnessed intense death, the rod’s magical harvesting ability mixed with the residual death energy, and as a result, they started producing special kinds of demonoids.

The envoy described it as an upgraded version of demon knights. Bound to the ground, without wings, but they are twice as large as any regular demonoid. The size of a troll or a large ogre, these demons are equal in strength to a regular demon knight, the equivalent of a level 30 to 35 captain. Not a problem per say, but the issue is really about numbers. This rod produced these demon ogres by the hundreds every week.

“Fascinating.” Alexis mused. “It’s like these rods have some kind of natural-adaptation ability to produce special kinds of units. Like an... adaptive breeder.”

It’s expected. The volcano’s ‘conversion’ created special giant beasts. Looking at this sort of trend, the former snake-dungeon might be spitting out snake-demons very soon. I should look into that.

“But why didn’t these sort of special units appear earlier?” I wondered. Perhaps it’s a condition for unlocking the next tier units, that requires the presence of the demon king. Or like Queens in a hive, it is the demon king who introduces genetic diversity into their population?

A few adventurers in New Freeka agreed to join. I had the impression adventurers avoid participating in such high profile demon-related matters unless the heroes were involved, but I suppose some people are going to bite, if the rewards are good.

“So... that snake-dungeon, are you just going to leave it?” Alexis asked. Well, no.

I looked at Stratreegy’s overlay, showing a large map, split into numerous hexagons. It’s an overlay and presentation resembling Age of Wonders, with my main body, at the center. There’s five straight lines of trees, one to the volcano, one to the south-forest, one that goes all the way to Ransalah, one that leads close to the former snake dungeon, and another one that’s headed south, towards where the other demon-walker was once spotted.

“I’m thinking.” It takes one beetle pod, one month to regrow one beetle. So theoretically, I can lose about 5,000 beetles per month with no real ‘loss’ to my force. I could consistently assault that location with 5,000 beetles, but it’s probably better to hammer it with a larger force.

Unlike the humans, or the elves, or any other nation who man their force with non-renewable lives, my beetles essentially allow me to fight the demons with their own strategy, a war of attrition.

Outside of my own extremely overpowered abilities against demons, this is my second advantage against demons.

“How about your spiders? They’ve not been seeing use. Outside making webs here.”

“They’re anti-air... and are campers. They’re not suitable as an invasion force. Beetles, being a mobile unit, are kind of like... cavalry.”

“Your other beetle-variants? The dungbeetles, or the spear-beetles?”

I looked at the map again. Visibility is still crap. A comparison to age of wonders would be being able to see only one or two 'hex' away.

“So... TreeTree, would you want to send anyone to join the Takde’s force?” Jura interrupted my thoughts, the envoy met a whole load of other adventurers and fighters.

“No.” I’ll deal with them separately. “Get me a map of where that location is.” I’m still very happy that I can actually ‘see’ now, instead of just ‘spirit vision’. I can read maps! Apparently Takde’s airship is already filled with other adventurers the envoy picked up. It’s going to be a rather massive force, and the Takde High-King intends to use a large collected group of high leveled adventurers as a sledgehammer. “What about the coalition army that Salah’s leading? Or was it Nagra?”

“It’s participating, of course. But to minimise casualties, they need this high leveled force. Every week delay increases the demon-ogre force by a few hundred.” Jura explained.

Alexis magically created a floating, holograph-like map. “So, either strike early with a smaller force, or strike later and face a bigger standing army. Sounds like fun.”

From Ransalah, a chain of trees up to the Takde Demon Fort wouldn’t be too far. I want to see the demon-ogres for myself, whether they really are the threat that the envoys say it is.

“So... you’re going to sweep in to save the day?” Alexis asked.

“The beetles won’t get there in time. Not with that kind of distance.”

“Even with your new ability?”

“It’s a pulley system based on vines, it’s better for goods, and it's not fast.” Pulley systems exist in this world. Many ports have engineers who design large contraptions to help with moving goods. It seemed one of the heroes, a long time ago, did manage to introduce some rudimentary container system, though the practice is competing with magical holding bags.

“So what’s your plan? Just create a chain of trees and watch the battle?” Alexis didn’t seem too impressed.

“Honestly, yes. I like seeing new types of demons. I think it’s fascinating, and it gives us insights into how intelligent this demon king is.”

Alexis frowned. The airship with the adventurers left. There’s some information trading as well.

-

Some of the adventurers we hired did come back with some targets. And after a few battles with smaller demon bases, this is where I made a discovery.

The rods must be collected, either when they are unused, or still under construction or in transport. Once fully channeled and transformed into a ‘base’, or a ‘fort’, most of that mana-corrupting ability is lost. Left untouched, the fully channeled rods can still continue to generate ‘small’ amounts of demonoids, but they lose most of their ‘base-creation’ ability.

In short, a single-use item. Ugh.

I had the idea of smashing some demon bases, and stealing the rods, but it makes more sense that the rods are mostly a single-use item.

Back to the drawing board.

Year 82 Month 9

[Completed The Grand Mind Tree project]. The grand mind tree resembles a bunch of walnuts stacked on top of each other, the entirely of the Mind Tree is wrinkly, with multiple branches twirling around.

Located just next to me, the moment it’s fully completed, I could see it glow a faint greenish light.

And then I had a massive, massive headache.

For a good... one hour.

But only one hour. I've had worse headaches.

[Mind Control resistance significantly increased. Each of your artificial minds will now act as ‘counterchecks’ against attempted mind control attacks. Mind control must now apply to more than half of your artificial minds to work.]

Ah wonderful. The blockchain node approach to mind control resistance.

Also, my awareness of soul matters suddenly took a giant leap. If I focus, I can now observe greater details in the folds of my [soul realm]. And most importantly, the processing power to alter souls at a fine level. It’s been something that I wanted, something I figured might solve what I have been facing with Jura.

After a string of successes with smaller rats and animals, I tried moving onto bigger things, and realised... I just couldn't.

I had ‘resolution’ issues. Because I couldn’t create a ‘canvass’ big and detailed enough. That meant, I would work halfway and realised I couldn't copy more. Even with a live version as a reference.

It was like working with a forced 600x480 resolution when I needed ten times that.

This [grand mind tree] is kind of like a massive RAM and solid state harddisk.

“Jura. Soul forge, now.” With the grand mind, I now have what I needed to create a functional copy of the ‘hand.’

He looked puzzled, but he’s not one to challenge me that much. So he agreed. I had Lausanne and Laufen gather all sorts of materials, animals and place them around my main tree.