Aswelth

Aswelth took a deep breath as he stepped into the Arch Ducal emergency council. The Council was basically everyone of any importance in the Arch Duchy in one place together.

“General Aswelth, commander-in-charge of the Arch Ducal forces and current regent of the arch Duchy.” Hagril announced to the room, acting as if he was just a lowly secretary. Hagril might technically be the Archduchess’s secretary with no power, but he had also controlled who saw the Archduchess and when.

The man had become a force to reckon with in the arch Duchy, his sharp tongue cutting the metaphorical flesh of many a delegate. A secret power, one might say.

“Hello, fellow council members. I will be honest with you today. As I am sure you are aware, the Arch Duchy is in a state of crisis. The first step, thus, is to find out exactly how large the crisis is. The foreign affairs department has the stage.” he began.

“The diplomatic relations are a wreck. At the moment, we have received requests for alliance from at least a hundred nations that we have had next to no contact with before. As far as I can tell, the number is both reduced and increased by the current global situation.”

“The forces under Grand Elder Betaca and Grand Elder Itacia have been reluctant to establish relations due to Grand Elder Artica’s enmity with them. On the other hand, Grand Elder Antasia’s forces, and of any other nation on our side, has been extra eager to establish relations.”

“The fact that Archduchess’ step-father and mother are Grand Elders along with her Warrior Tree of a grandmother makes it seem like we are a major player in the Arctic forces. So I must ask you, General. Are we a major player?”

“Is there something I am missing? Because there seems to be a certain weirdness between the Archduchess and her family, and if I am to navigate this mess of a situation, I will need all the information.” Kerrin’s replacement, Gar, said. The member of the Gorge people had migrated to the Arch Duchy and been a valuable addition since. But he was rather curt at times.

“I understand your concerns, Gar, and I share them. On the subject of the Archduchess’ relations, I will only say that she and her mother had a disagreement a while back. But Grand Elder Artica will be coming here to make the Arch Duchy her base, so I assume we have their support.” Aswelth said.

“General, I would like it to be noted on the record that I do not consider the leader of one of the world's factions coming here on the eve of a world war a good thing. And neither should you. I expect the coming of a number of Spirit Trees, and expect the Administrative Wing to approve an extended budget for them.”

“Or do you think they will pay for themselves while they are here?” Gar stated, his irritation clear. Aswelth couldn’t blame him, the Arch Duchy had just become target number 1 with the Grand Elder coming here, it was just that he wasn’t quite sure if it wasn’t before.

“Now, can the Adventurers Guild please brief the council on the situation with our people. I understand it's a mess, but I want to know what kind of mess and how we should fix it.” Aswelth demanded.

“The first step, General, would be to get Guild Head Xerte back. I only represent the Guild Council for the meeting General, and I can make no promises. The Guild is divided to the point of uselessness at the moment”.

‘ Xerte kept the adventurers in line, and without him people can’t even decide on a leader. I might be the one he picked to lead, but Adventurers have certain freedoms, and they are using their freedoms to not listen to me. At all.” Hariet said.

Aswelth massaged his head, tired at the situation.

“Ok, first of all, you need to take command, Hariet. Xerte didn’t just lead because he was the most powerful, he led because he was a leader. And if he chose you, then you can be one too.”

“I will tell the Adventurers to behave, but in the end you are the one that has to command. Now, I asked you a different question you have yet to answer.” Aswelth answered.

“Oh, that's a mess, alright. The main problem is Qi. Or rather, how to acquire it. A few hours after everyone became a cultivator, the fortress received a sudden rush of people wanting to enter the fortress to level up. I stopped them, of course, there isn’t enough Qi in that forest to level up the millions that will be coming, General. Not even close. “ Harriet answered, her tone grim.

“The seed? What are they? The only way out is if the people have other ways to get Qi that isn’t killing things.” Aswelth said.

“Thankfully, you are right, the survey is incomplete, but nearly ninety percent of the Seeds allow for other sources of Qi. The difficulty is that even with that, the source has to be something that increases the chance of killing things. The number of things that give Qi without killing other things is very few, Aswelth.” Hariet answered.

“Well, make those things! The world is about to go to war, Hariet, you have the perfect excuse to increase the production of arms, make walls, fortresses, whatever is needed to keep the Qi rush quiet.”

“I will mobilize the entire Ducal Guard to make sure they stay in line, and anyone that tries to go on a massacre will be dealt with. The answer is to make ways to earn Qi. As for the ten percent that can’t get Qi like that, get them to join the Ducal Guard. I will get them to become parts of it.” Aswelth said.

“But what about the future, General?” Harriet asked, for someone supposedly not good at being a leader, she sure did plan a lot. And know a lot. “The war won’t be around for too long, and we will eventually run out of fortresses to build and things to do. The way the System exists, the Arch Duchy will have to expand, to go to war. I cannot see any way other than that.”

“The Valley suggests that a nation can exist quite nicely in stagnance. But I get your point. The people are used to progress, to growth and increased opportunities. The path of the Valley may not be feasible, they would revolt if they are denied growth. But I also cannot see another path here. I can only hope that the Archduchess does.” Aswelth replied.

The situation was unresolvable, and to his eyes looked like the main reason that the bigger powers did not turn large portions of their population into cultivators. The need to grow came with the Seed germinating, after all, who could reject the pull of power that came with it? Aswelth was sure very few. The way things were going, unless the System started giving Qi for doing things that weren’t violent, the Arch Duchy would either collapse or lose its way.

“Administrative Wing. I know you have a complaint. What is it?” Aswelth said, frustrated at the situation.

“Well, ours is very simple, we are overwhelmed. The Archduchess, General, handled half of our workload. And made all the important decisions. And with all due respect, you do a tenth of the work she did.” the Administrative Guild’s interim head said.

Aswelth laughed, he couldn't help it.

“Well, Administrator, you have the ability to hire as you wish, please, take some of the many manycultivators available. I have to take care of the Ducal Guard on the eve of the war, have a wife and children and a lack of willingness to do all of the work. Please use the rest of the budget and hire more people. The treasuery has ballooned these years, I suppose it was time the spending did too.” Aswelth said.

“Now, does anyone else have anything to add?” Aswelth said, sighing, nearly immediately as half a dozen voices spoke up. The Archduchess better return soon, or he was going to quit.

Altura

I looked down with an observing eye, trying to make sure everything was alright. The plan had taken a long time to form, to make sure that everyone would gain not just some, but a sizable amount of Qi from this.

“Archduchess Altura here, the plan is a go” I said into the communicator. Quarnessa had been kind enough to show me how to make them. The devices were simple, space Qi covered in ceramic. The paired communicator had a matching signature due to being manufactured by the same person, and this allowed for things to be transmitted. The principle was Treeling level stuff.

“The ground acknowledges, stage 1 has begun.” the answer came. Retre was efficient if nothing else.

A part of the zone was suddenly on fire, the vines burning to crisp as fire elemented cultivators burnt the vines away. I watched with great glee as the first part of my plan was successful. The vines were sure to grant some measure of Qi.

After that came the Naturesingers. The most non-violent class I had ever seen, they got Qi from singing things into a form. But I suppose they were pursuing a different kind of destruction, the destruction of ecosystems. After all, the ‘plan’ would leave the zones’ ecosystem destroyed, turned into a useless urban city just for Qi.The thirty of them began their song, singing in concert as the part of the zone shook.

The trees began to change shape, first from a tiny corner that the Naturesingers occupied, outward. The trees grew treehouses, houses of various shapes and sizes. The process was slow, glacial even, but it happened.

A few hours in, the NatureSingers had finished their landscaping. I switched on the communicator, calling Retre. “I think it might be prudent to have stage 1 start on the next part of the zone as we finish with this one. The Naturesingers take too long.”

“I concur, I did not expect them to be so slow. Are we sure civilization replication will not take longer, though? And this did give the fire team a chance to break through. The entirety of them are now in Grand Tree stage, Archduchess, a total of five hundred million Qi was gained among the twenty-three among them. The lot of them should reach Spirit Tree stage by the time we are over Archduchess, the vines are giving far more Qi than predicted.” Retre said.

Huh, I did not expect that. I had hoped that it would be counted as an invasion and that people would get Qi from it due to that, but the vines counting as a monster did not occur to me. Was it because they were targeting the vines specifically that they were getting Qi? Or was the System cheating around? Just giving me Qi?

“Retre, how much Qi did the Naturesingers get?” I asked.

“A nice twenty-two million Qi each. A good amount of them will get to Spirit Qi too.” Retre replied, his voice gleeful. Well, I did just double the amount of Spirit Trees Elder Antasia had.

So this way, after six of these parts they would get one hundred and thirty two million Qi. Not enough to reach Spirit Tree by itself, but it would allow any Mid-Grand Tree to reach it. But I had my own Qi to take note of.

System, please show notifications.

Qi gained!

1 million Qi: Democracy founded

3 million Qi: Retainer growth

Organization founded!

Unnamed co-operative organization.

59 million Qi

Qi gained!

Unnamed organization levelled up!

15 million Qi: level 1

35 million Qi: level 2

Breakthrough requirements met!

Calamity approaches: The Qi rush.

The Arch Duchy has, for a long time, pursued excellence and progress. But now it's lauded progress turned against it as it finds itself lacking the resources needed to grow. The people will not wait for long, they expect to grow, one way or another.

What? I had no idea what the System was talking about. Had the forest run out while I was away? The reports had said that the forest would be enough unless everyone suddenly became a cultivator and wanted to level up simultaneously. I needed to get down there as soon as I could.

And I had a lot of Qi again. Well, there was no harm in leveling up now. I could figure out why I had gotten Qi from the System later. Though the part about democracy really interested me.

System, begin trial.

And so I was back in my spirit space watching a hole form.

The hole was once again silent, asking me to show it something interesting. But I had a problem. On the first question, I had made Spirit Qi, but now I had no idea what to do for my second.

Perhaps I could decorate the Spirit Tree? But that just felt… cheap. What, oh what, should I do.

Hmm… a nice tree needed a hill to stand on. And I could make hills with spirit. Not as impressive as Spirit Qi, but it would have to do.

I drew spirit in, forming a hill below the Spirit Tree. The process was simple, basic even, but it worked. And showed off my power. After all, one needed to draw in massive amounts of spirit to do it. I had yet to meet a Spirit Tree that knew how to draw spirit in, so I was doing something interesting.

The hole accepted it, moving away as I leveled up into a Mid-Spirit Tree. I would have to think of something impressive for the Late-Spirit Tree.