Shocking.

I’m not shocked at the new material available to work with.

I’m not shocked at the treatment I now receive from Vex’s subordinates.

No, I’m shocked at something far more important.

I’ve grown.

It’s almost barely detectable with my senses.

Barely.

One millimeter of growth in three millennia!

Wait, I’m making a huge false leap of logic here.

What if my growth spurt has nothing to do with my length of time alive?

Let’s think of the things that happened when I arrived here.

Killed some stuff.

Made a friend.

Killed some vermin.

Took a nap.

Accidentally killed some humans with my self-defense measures.

Eh?

I’m not seeing anything out of the norm on this list.

There has to be a reason for growth.

After being such a small size for so long, I refuse to believe it takes anything less than Divine intervention to grow.

Wait!

Divine…

Yes, wasn’t there a…

A guy…whatshisname…priest!

A High Priest!

That’s right! How could I forget something so important!

I turn my attention to one of the nearby servants that Vex has provided for me.

“Hey, Scaled Guy.” I say, vibrating the air to mimic speech.

“Y-Yes, Exalted One?” the lizard monstrosity nearby says, nervously.

“Do any of the new materials have a relation with divine beings? Like priests? Priestesses are ok too, shrine maidens, anything?” I ask in a hopeful tone. I’ve been small for so long, the chance to grow bigger is just too attractive!

“Uh…yes?” the lizard guy replies.

“Bring them all in! All of them, to me right now!” I shout. I’m almost drooling at the opportunity to grow.

I can tell that even though I have only grown by a sliver compared to normal plants, my power reserves have almost doubled.

Growth is apparently the easiest way to increase my pool of Chaos with which to work.

On a side note I take stock of my recent spells.

Chaotic Casino, Organic Organize, Linguistic Laz-Faireness, Gene Geometry, Soul Binding and one more.

The recent addition to my group of spells, Crunchy Munching, courtesy of putting myself on auto-pilot to cast Chaotic Casino while I was sleeping.

It took just under a decade for a useful spell!

The other random garbage I’ve learned due to the Casino, is tossed in a corner of my steel vault mind and forgotten.

Who cares how many lemmings die in a single year? Not me!

As the assorted clergy are ushered into my presence I take a good look at them.

And there it is.

The shining spark that hangs about each and every one of these people.

Divinity.

The touch of a higher power, formed from the very Chaos I am familiar with.

It reeks to my senses, like a rotten odor, a taste I can feel on my tongue, the taste of Order.

The mystery is solved now.

Consuming that High Priest and his Order, which is likely a result of his service to a higher power, allowed me to grow.

Now I’m in a bit of a pickle.

I well remember from my farm days before I got educated back on Earth, before my glorious career in Botany…

That famous quote my father was so fond of.

You can shear a sheep a thousand thousand times, and only slaughter them once.

In essence, killing the High Priest was a tragic accident.

I much would have preferred the guy to be captured alive like this bunch.

Once I figure out a method to drain the Divinity from them in small amounts so that it is allowed to replenish over time, if that is possible, then…

I’ll finally be able to grow.

This of course ties into the inspiration I had about getting Dryad a physical form while sleeping.

I’m reasonably certain that Dryad has to form herself from me.

To be more precise, she has to form her physical body from my own.

Normally this would not have been an issue if I was a normal Mana Tree.

Due to my issue of stunted growth, it appears that Dryad has suffered as well.

She can’t form a body from a mini-bonsai size tree.

These clergy are the answer to both our problems.

I have the servant line them up in rows before stripping them of clothing.

I need the clothing out of the way in order to place Runes on them.

Runes of Servitude, Agelessness, Drain, Transfer, Power, and Compulsion are branded on all the huddled clergy.

Servitude will ensure they don’t attempt something drastic like suicide, or escape. I’m merciful, the things in the castle moat are not.

Agelessness is so that they can last a long time, like rechargeable batteries back on Earth. I’m not really worried about the mental side effects that a long life span might have on these folks, after all, I’m perfectly sane? Why would they have any issues!

Drain is to slowly drain the divine power of Order from them, Transfer is to feed it to me.

The rune of Power is a stroke of genius on my part. Increasing their Power has two crucial functions. The first function is to make sure they aren’t killed out of hand by anything, like say, Vex. The second is that increasing their power also increases the amount that can be drained, a sort of positive loop. Over time, the amount of Order that is drained will be a net plus in terms of gain.

My last rune, the Rune of Compulsion, is a final safeguard against any issues that might arise.

In the event that another creature of Chaos, even though I don’t know of any such thing existing, gets ahold of them…

They won’t be used against me.

Simple as that.

Now that those few problems are taken care of, time to go back to sleep!

Hopefully, everything works out well in the end.

I can vaguely feel a bottleneck approaching, this recent setup should allow me to break through!

With a successful breakthrough, I am almost one hundred percent sure I can get out of this dreary place.

Closing off the main part of my consciousness I leave a small portion running in the background of my sub-conscious.

This is my first attempt to split my mind, in order to avoid the accident that happened with the destruction of the High Priest.

A divine-touched mind is a horrible thing to waste!