Weapon Log (2/2)

“Honestly, I’m not even sure if that’s all the women I spent time with. I only invited 7 into my harem as my consorts, but I may have had more than that. I mean, before i even started the Kingdom I already was kinda... uhm... fucking around.”

He’s absolutely thinking with his dick. “Well, now that you might die, your mistakes are now starting to act up. I wonder what your kids think about you, that have many wives.”

Harris laughed. “That’s a strange question from a tree of this world. Most people in this world are very accepting of a harem and that question has never popped up. It is a medieval world where kings like to have many wives.”

OOPS. Did I just outed myself?

“But my kids, well, they accept it. It’s just the norm here... Maybe because heroes that survived in the past... many end up having harems too. Even the women, who keep an army of pretty boys around them.”

Harris finished his second cup of tea.

“Anyway, let’s get to work.”

We made armor and shields. One of the ideas they had, if the crystal matrices were insufficient, was to make actual shields that are strong enough to take a few hits. Gerrard and Mirei both are a little weak on defense, so Harris, being the guardian, with an army of summoned shield units, wanted to make real versions, using my enchanted anti-demon wood as the base.

A mix of both heroic enchantments, star mana, and a dense, naturally anti-demon wood.

Over a course of 2 weeks, we made 5 sets of enchanted wooden armor for each of the 3 heroes, and 10 shields for each of them. They would store them in their pocketspace for later use. As payment, we also made 5 sets for myself, which I may someday award to any of my promising minions. Well, actually 1 set is already meant for Jura.

I call these 5 sets, the Woodshield Set.

I’ve learned a lot from making these items with Harris.

The heroes essentially get a special system bypass, since they get to use their mana to shape a certain item, just by thought, without needing much effort.

They also have a special skill that all heroes get, called the [Hero’s Forge], which is used to make the special hero-class weapons.

It’s kind of like some games where the heroes have the option to unlock upgrades and buy new equipment without actually having to go to a blacksmith or physical shop. The system handled those nitty gritty stuff on their behalf.

The rest of us plebeians just have to do it the old fashioned way. But, observing how one of them used it constantly made me learn more about how the system did it, and I developed a better understanding behind the process of making their heroic weapons, and as a result, I got my skills upgraded.

[Skill : Woodshaping significantly upgraded.]

[Skill : Subsidiary Tree option expanded. Woodshaping Workshop unlocked!]

I’m not sure why Harris is quite amicable with me. Why couldn’t I have such a relationship with Meela and Alexis? Where did I go wrong? Or was it them that did it wrong?

They must be alive, right? I didn’t get a notification. What have they been doing the past twenty years?

-

I shifted my focus back on the hybrids, and the growing Freshkans and Freshlands. To me, their segments 1 to 10, but each of them refer to themselves differently, and they have names that I felt too lazy to even remember.

Kavio too, came rather frequently to provide briefings. He’s gradually getting used to the role, and to ease his mental state, I made a [tree of prayers] at the meeting place, and told him to present it as if he is talking to the smaller, much, much more peaceful looking tree of prayer instead. It’s a mental crutch, because apparently his [fear] charms broke every other week.

The regular updates are mainly for news, diplomatic activities, things that I can’t see using my trees.

Jasmine, Ivy’s replacement has been hard at work securing the border together with Trevor and Dimitree, and I made three more artificial souls to help oversee my massive territory. I named them Acacia, Brootus, Cyprus, and their task is well, to monitor the new refugees, and ensure that the Protected Forests remain protected.

“How about some more beetles?” Horns asked. “We represent massive untapped potential, master! Imagine it, an army of massive hero-level beetles.”

And I agreed. It’s been too long since I made more subordinates, and now is the time for massive expansion.

Exponential growth!

Alright, I actually struggle with that concept.

So I made two more artificial souls to accompany Horns. I named them Bugsy, and Thorex, and sent them out to gain levels. They need to fight monsters, demons, to hit their level caps, but Horns was just super eager to show off to his two new juniors.

I think Horns is going to be quite useless in actual combat against the demon king, since, well... they’re too powerful.

I need to think about activating my Titan Walker, preferably with a hero’s soul. Maybe it’s a good thing that Harris is close to me. If he somehow dies of old age I’ll get the soul. Oh and Lilies. I better check in with them.

< Do you want the fragment back? Could you lend it to me again once I get the other piece? >

> Hold on to it. We do not need it. <

< Okay. I have questions. You once said that the demons won before. Do you know the details? Like, how did it happen? What happened next? What do you mean, by won? >

> God’s champions destroyed, a decade of slaughter. Still, the world recovers, and life finds a way. <

< But why? Why do the gods not intervene? >

It didn’t answer me.

Seeing that I wasn’t going anywhere with it, I went back to my own affairs. My attention is back on my large territory, and the hybrid trees.

Within each protected forest there are patches of demonic hybrid trees. I’m beginning to understand them, at least, their inner structure.

In a way, imagine a natural tree that has to deal with an overabundance of oil, and part of it’s chemical reaction is to manage the oil surplus in the environment. Naturally, they may try to break down the oil, or burn the oil, or store the oil somewhere. The demonic tree reacts to the natural mana, air and water, and so it ‘spends’ these natural mana the way it knows, which is to blow it up.

In a greenhouse environment tailored to them, they’re probably just as harmless as a normal tree.

Something tries to make trees that are adapted to the environment. I suspect, maybe it’s the spawning system.

Perhaps there’s a spawning god, who’s main job is just to populate the world. Quite like playing a strategy game with randomly generated maps and enemies. In it’s logic it tries to create something that suits the environment.

Now it would be quite lame if this entire thing is just a game, no?

[Skill : Hybrid Botany upgraded]

[Control over hybrid trees improved]