Ace was about to make a trip down to the small world as Noir again when he saw how the lich fell unconscious. Ark was preparing the spell needed when Phil told them to wait.

"He's waking up now," he told them.

None of the Gods could believe their eyes when they saw how fast the lich recovered. Actually, the rate that Rino was recovering could be considered terrifying. It surpassed any human limits and logical explanation until Stephanie noticed something.

"Dammit! He made that tree his spare body!" Stephanie hissed in a spiteful tone, although her eyes sparkled with excitement at the incredulous feat.

The aura around the lich was very different now. If he was like the walking embodiment of someone who murdered hundreds before, he was now emitting an aura of the grim reaper who harvested the souls of every fallen warrior. Rino looked like someone right out from the legends, and even the Gods felt awed by what he achieved.

No wonder Rino was writing such a strange rune circle! Phil initially thought Rino wanted to use that space stone to feed the magic tree mana using the six elemental runes as a shackle and elemental mana converter.

He was only half right with that guess. Nobody thought that Rino would bind his soul to this tree using the soul splitting spell given to him by the Gods. It was unheard of for liches to split their souls and take over the body of a different living creature.

This was no simple soul fusion between two creatures using the master and slave magic bond. Unlike Mutt and Fronzo's soul splitting spell, Rino was now mutually bound to the well-being of the hexa-elemental magic tree.

In other words, Rino now had two true bodies as the tree's mana and lifespan were bound to Rino's. He did not simply split part of his soul to be infused into the tree. Rino also tied his fate to the tree using that strange foreign language. Their souls were fused together, and it wasn't just a fraction of Rino's original soul. He used his present soul and sacrificed all his mana to do that.

In other words, this tree was now Rino as well. The only difference was how it was immobile despite being a powerhouse.

The recovery for his depleted mana was slow, but Rino the tree worked hard to transfer mana to the exhausted lich's body that occasionally twitched in response to the trickle of mana into that parched mana reservoir.

The Gods were able to hear Rino's thoughts again when he regained consciousness as the legendary tree.

"Oh gosh! Is that how I really look from another person's eyes?" the magician gushed, and his leaves rustled in shock at how ugly his lich body appeared from this view.

The skeleton wasn't very majestic looking, and if it wasn't for the clothes on him, Rino would think of it as a low-levelled undead. Clothes really do make a man, and Rino decided that he needed a tailor to make him good clothes once this farming nonsense was resolved. He had a labour and population crisis here. Without the means to work during the day, Rino was unable to speedrun his quests.

Thankfully, with the acquisition of this legendary spare body as the world's very first hexa-elemental magic tree, Rino knew how to get free labour. Fairies were very cautious creatures, but they were very loyal to mother nature. If this new legendary tree could recruit some fairies of its own, Rino could put them to work in the fields during the day.

He simply had to make the fields fairy friendly and provide his winged workers with working incentives.

The first of tree Rino's first curious customers flew into the cave with high-pitched bickering. The lich body was only beginning to absorb mana in the surrounding on its own when three clumsy fairies tumbled in.

Tree Rino noticed that his first fairies were very young. They must have just been born from the area near this new magic tree and were attracted to the aura by instinct.

"There it is!" the first fairy pointed and took the lead, flying past her bickering sisters to get closer to the magic tree in this dark and ominous cave.

"Wait for us!" the smallest fairy cried and broke free from her other sister's grip to fly over.

Tree Rino waited patiently to observe the fairies who fluttered over his lich body with curiosity.

"Why is there a dead human here?"

The leader of the fairy trio folded her arms in thought. "He looks like a magician who practised the dark arts. Perhaps he was trying to harm this tree and was sucked dry off his mana."

The second fairy sister raised a brow and flew closer. No matter how she looked at this corpse, it was too creepy. Why would a magician who practised the dark arts seek out a magic tree alone? That was a fool's errand. Most dark magicians were cautious and not this reckless. Perhaps this magician was not here to harm the tree. They might be here by mistake. Also, the lingering aura around this magician did not feel human.

"Stay away from the corpse," the oldest fairy warned her sisters. "Even the dead should be respected. Let's do what we came for. The magic tree looks like it was newly born. We could be its very first fae protectors."

Hearing that they had dibs, the two sisters rushed to snatch the position of the tree's first protector, only to slam face-first into a powerful barrier closer to the tree.

Rino could not help but snicker at the fairy's impatience. He did not know much about fairies and magic trees or their relationship in this world. Even in the previous world, there were very few records about how they worked.

"Foolish young ones," Tree Rino interjected before the fairies could start arguing again. "Did you think you were worthy of becoming my protectors without passing a trial?"

Hearing the voice of the great magic tree, the three young fairies quickly lowered their heads. They did not think the newly awakened magic tree would gain wisdom so quickly.

"Apologies, magnificent one. My sisters and I were too impatient," the clever oldest fairy replied before her sisters could worsen the situation. "How can we prove our worth as your protectors?"

Rino grinned. This was exactly what he wanted. He couldn't wait to introduce these three new managers to their roles in his kingdom building project after fooling them into binding their loyalties to him.