Author Rant Space

Thanks for reading! Ch. 25 can be found here: LINK

I may be changing up how I do tables - instead of the built in, just using a picture from excel. Let me know what you think.

Two parties are closing in

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— POV Mathias —

I must’ve been an architect in a previous life. Or a nature lover, or a druid, or something very prestigious I feel. I have a three-foot, beautiful tree sapling built! It doesn’t have leaves right now though. I don’t really want a tree with a grass leaf on it, and I was concentrated on building the trunk of my ultimate distraction tree!

The current trunk diameter is about 2 inches, the color is a nice green-brown, with nice swirls and little stubs where I’ll attach branches to later. At the very top I’ve affected a small swoosh to a side, very stylish. Sigh. I need someone to talk too. I’m so lonely, ever so lonely……

OK! Back to my tree-body! My structure is solid, but I only have a single ring right now. I know that trees grow by growing a new ring around the previous ring, while the inner rings eventually die and can be invaded by ants. After being invaded by insects, or rotting, many old trees can die due to structural weaknesses or fungal ingress. That won’t be happening to me! I have not only the intelligent design of tree DNA, but I can also intelligently design myself! I don’t care about efficiency on growing and reproducing - I only care about living forever. Fuck that stupid god - like hell I’m going to die after all I’ve been through! I’m almost forever spiteful! You need to do the 10 meritorious for me before one can be forgiven!

Even though the tree I’m building is still technically grass haha, I’ve already attracted some bugs that I haven’t seen before. Unfortunately I need to temporarily move my Slaughter guards over, fuuuu. I’ll miss you, ‘sniff’. Even if the bugs die after biting me, they still bite me ya know! And the bugs are even more vicious than before! There was even one nasty piece of shit that tried burrowing into me! It wasn’t actually eating me, but tearing me apart! I had to cover that bastard with some extremely thick sap and watch it suffocate to appease me. The corpse still lies next to my trunk as a testament to my ruthlessness.

I’ll keep June here though to watch over the others’ brood. Also cuz she seems more interesting than the others, she doesn’t seem to know what to do with the eggs though haha. She’s scurrying all over the place even as I try to soothe her. This is too funny. Well, back to work I guess. I’ll relieve her duties in a little bit, nothing bad should happen for the next few hours or so.

Back to my problems. 1: I have way too much mana, so I need to either use it, store it, or make it accumulate somewhere else other than right on me. I can try using it I guess? But there is no way I would ever be able to use enough mana continuously yet to deplete my mana. Storing it is still out of the question, I think. At least I don’t really want to, being hunted isn’t very fun. If I don’t have any stones, than others might just bypass the area after looking, and may in fact try to protect me. But even worse would be if some mage found my spot and used it to practice magic. I’d probably take a lot of damage. Sigh. But I would learn some more magic maybe… I’ve been working on the last answer, and I think it will work in the long run, so I’ll keep sticking with that. 2: Since I don’t want some monster tree-grass hybrid tree, I need to somehow design a tree leaf. Since I’m not in a tropical forest, large leaves are out of the question, even though they could be used as defenses. 3: While I can see the energy glow through the trees around me, they are distinctly different than my own energy patterns. Their energy flow is much slower, in bigger chunks, but it seems much more powerful than my own.I guess it would be the difference between fighting with a thousand men versus one powerful man, there’s that much of a difference. I also can’t really tell the colors of anything else other than myself, since I can only see nature, life, and mana energy, and not electromagnetic energies. Nature energy is found mostly in plants, and only a little bit in the animals I’ve seen, none in the adventurer’s party though. Mana is in everything, while life energy is only found in animals. I’m going to guess that Dryads and the like, if they exist, have some sort of mixture of life and nature energy. Maybe elves too, again, if they exist.

Well, while I’m thinking, I’ll just keep shuttling my energy into growing my trunk again while I think about my first two problems. I want to be able to cast spells, so I should try doing that, besides, it’s gotta be so much fun!!

…

This is HORSESHIT! I drew the same magic circle that wizard used, same symbols (I think), but nothing even happened. The mana in the air didn’t do anything while my mana just kinda imploded. This is hogwash. I even did like the stories told me to, imagined the spell the wizard used and tried to mimic it exactly. Fuuuuuu. It must be something deeper, like each symbol is supposed to do something, and knowing what those symbols mean will help imagine the different steps of building the spell. I think. Damnit, why couldn’t that damn wizard just use something like an icicle, or a water ball, or something easy to comprehend. The spell I saw him use from start to finish was extremely complicated. Too many symbols. I’m like a peasant trying to copy a spell that he saw once that a great archmagus used. Damnit.

Time to experiment! I’ll start off with a basic, small mana circle, only using up about 5 mana total. Check. Since this is supposed to be the most basic of basic things, I just want to do something with water. Not fire, cause ouch. Earth would be fine, but it’s potentially ouch. Wind can be sharp, so ouch. And other stuff would be too bothersome. Water is always good! Just not a water jet haha. Now that I have my circle, what to fill it with, and what to think of… Hmmm… How about a molecule of water as a symbol! That should work! Now for imagining it, I should imagine that water would come from the air, yea, since it’s pretty humid here with the spring. Oy, wait, I have a spring. Too bad it’s too far away from my main body. My control is good with mana, but only near me. I could go into my , but I’m still depressed about the whole pizza thing, and I’m not sure if magic I learn in there would be applicable out there. I need to learn how to do it here first, without a humanish body.

I have my mana circle, my magic symbol, and an image. Now to try and activate it by flooding the center of the circle with mana, having it expand to the outer ring when it. Should. ACTIVATE!

‘Drip’.

Success!!!! Hahahaha, I’m a genius! I made a drop of water! Haha, in your face god! With magic under my control, the world will tremble beneath my might!

That did not do much, but it was only a trial run on my path to glory! Now I just need to test each variable, and see how it lines up with the result! Then I can cross-graph them to correlate actions and effects, and eventually find the most efficient way of using spells! It does mean I need to do a lot of coding in my inner mind though, uggh. I’m not really good at it, maybe I’ll just use Excel and test it all myself. Damn graduate school! I never took coding classes, I only learned how to modify the variables I needed, it was the most efficient way anyways. Coder does his job, I do mine. Separation of responsibilities. Biting me in the ass, once again. But this way I get to make my own magical codex, holding the secrets of all of the magic that I manage to find! I always wanted a cool spell tomb, made with dragon leather and parchment made from some expensive beast or plant. Or woven GOLD! So cool, maybe one day.

The first step towards my mastery of all magic starts with the iconic Water Ball! This feels right somehow, like I’m following in the footsteps of every protagonist out there! If you ignore me murdering bunnies and plants and stuff I guess, but if you view them as demons then it makes me look awesome again! At the pinnacle I will be able to find out how to make this Black Fire I hid from those adventurers. I don’t really know what to do with it, it’s just sitting in a small hold I made, not really doing anything. Eh, since it’s not doing anything, might as well leave it for now.

Hmmm, so it seems the more mana I put into the spell, the more condensed the result is, e.g. the external mana it could affect, a higher percentage of that mana is drawn into the spell, like a magnet. The larger the circle the more external mana I can bend to my will, but obviously the cost increases exponentially with the size of the circle. Changing symbols in the middle of the circle doesn’t seem to affect the spell that much, but the further I think of the symbol is from water, the less efficient my spell becomes. For instance while my molecule of water for sure works the best, a droplet of water works almost as well. A symbol of a glass of water or a spigot with water also works well, but not as well as the top two. In all of these cases I imagine water coming from the air, when I imagine it coming from the ground it works too, but if I imagine it just being created from nothing then the efficiency goes way down, but the water is still only pulled from the environment. So knowledge increases efficiency, symbols do as well, but not as much. As long as there is a clear understanding of what the symbol means and represents, you’ll get some effect. However, if I put a symbol of a rock, and try to condense water, then nothing happens and the spell fizzles out, that mana wasted.

I’ll try some more stuff later, but for now my tree looks naked. I want to solve this problem first. Hmmmm… I can get a vague trace of the leaves around me, but they are pretty varied in size and shape. Nothing like tropical sized, nor pine sized either. I never really liked big oak leaves, I do however like those leaves that are palm sized with a nice, uniform spade shape. Since that doesn’t seem too far off from what’s around me, Ill go with that. Since this is a decoy tree, I need it to look mystical. I could do something like a perpetual cherry blossom tree, those are always beautiful. I like the idea, but I don’t like copying exactly ideas. I want something whimsical, but something that also showcases my abilities. Maybe I should have an on/off switch? Oooh, I’ve never seen that in nature! I’m not thinking of something simple like leaves folding up, no, this is special and will definitely draw attention to me! Well, my decoy me. I’m thinking of leaves that act like those glasses that react to light - when the sun is up they turn black, absorbing 100% of the visible light spectrum, and then during the evening they will turn crystal clear! Holy shit, I hope I can get this to work. It would create a perpetual twilight below my boughs, with a serene grassy field below it that sways in the wind.

I’ve missed having fun in this world! Please allow me this little selfishness, I want to create a beautiful fantasy plant like in my favorite stories! Don’t punish me for it!

Simulations are showing that something like what I’m thinking of can work, but I’m pondering over the potential costs and benefits.

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Genetic Mutation: Tree Leaves*

Gain the ability to generate Tree Growth Points via tree leaves, changes your species to a tree species.

Cost: 1,000

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Genetic Mutation: Crystal Tree Leaves*

Gain the ability to generate Tree Growth Points via tree leaves, changes your species to a tree species. Greatly increased generation of TGP via black colored leaves. Customized change of light spectrum absorption and refraction at different times of the day.

Cost: 100,000

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Genetic Mutation: Crystal Grass Leaves*

Modify the structure of your grass leaves to customize their shape. Customized change of light spectrum absorption and refraction at different times of the day.

Cost: 10,000

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I’m extremely interested in the Tree Growth Points, but there’s that. Yes, that. Those pesky 7 words hidden in the cost. I don’t want to be a tree! It’s definitely scarier out there as a tree! There’s gigantic monsters everywhere! Even if I look like a tree, hopefully they at least won’t be attracted to it as much as another tree. This way [Destined to Die] won’t find it’s way to affecting me too much. I have enough for the first and the last upgrade, albeit barely, but the second option isn’t too far off from being possible. Damnit, I really want to be able to have my cake and eat it too!

Fuck, I have to make the smart decision here. is what I’ll have to take. At least this way I get a hidden ability as well, the ability to change the shape of my leaves as well as control the colors, though I already kinda had that ability with my reflection ability. The refraction and absorption though are more advanced now - guaranteeing the ability for me to turn clear and to turn black. And when my leaves are black, I can absorb the sun’s energy in a much, much more efficient way. I can’t wait!

This plus my ingress into magic has made this a very productive day! Soon, soon I’ll be a magic tree with impenetrable defenses! I’ll live forever! That god made a mistake! A tree can potentially live forever if managed properly!

Now that is one beautiful tree. I want nothing more than to relax on my own body. At least the sight is calming for my spirit. It’s me, but I haven’t moved over to it yet. Yes, I can move my consciousness around my body, but I always feel a tug back here, like this is my true home. I guess it’s kinda like how a lot of people view themselves as really just their head, hands, and heart. The rest of you is really inconsequential, imagine moving your point of view to your tows and you’d understand what I mean. I wonder how I’d feel if I changed my species to a tree? I reckon the tree would feel more like home versus where I’m at now. Dang, maybe I should have changed my species.

Fuuuuu, this is dumb. Where is some rest after I die? I’m exploded, tossed around like a stupid ball, then immediately sent into a life and death struggle. Eventually I want to get around and move like my old self, exploring the world! But the longer I stay here, the more I feel like I can’t leave my main body here. If I build myself a body and leave, then I shudder to think of what would happen if someone came along and burned me here. I’m not afraid of being eaten outside anymore, thankfully that trauma from that nasty nightmare is gone, but I’m still worried of what lurks out there. That beast charging into my clearing showed me just how powerful people and beasts are out there.

Oh. My tree fell down lol. I didn’t build thick roots haha. Whoops. I should fix that, it was just a stick with some 3 inch roots holding it up haha. Thankfully nothing’s damaged but my pride. Oh well. Wait, there’s something else too… My GP generation is going way down. Wonder why that is? Maybe I’m making the field go fallow? That’s no good. Looks like I need to dig down, way down, and start leaching the nutrients from the dark. I need nutrients to grow, and without animals above me, ahem, crapping, then I don’t get much nutrients. There’s also the fact that I’m using resources way too fast for a field of this size, and that there’s not many leaves falling on my field. I need some prime fertilizer! The area near the spring has a lot of nutrients gushing out from the depths, so me digging down will definitely bring me more nutrients! But I shouldn’t do it with my grass roots so much, only from my main body and from my tree body. I should use this opportunity to build my tree roots as thick, strong, and deep as I can get them to go for a strong future!

With my Water Ball, my tree body, and my cool looking crystal leaves, I’m set for the future! Kinda!

Oh yea, June, you’re off duty haha. I’m bringing over one of the actual broodmothers. Stop fretting lol.

— POV Jard —

I smell something familiar… Is that papa!? I can sense mana that really close to his, but slightly different! Why isn’t it moving though?

Maybe it’s not papa, but maybe they are related to him? Or it could be him? I don’t know, but it seems so familiar to his mana! We should at least check it out, but I don’t want to give Torgue any false hope.

‘Hey Torgue, let’s go this way. I sense something, but I’m not sure what it is.’

When we’re closer he should be able to sense the mana too, so it’s not like I’m lying to him by not telling him it might be papa.

‘Okay Jard, let’s go that way. Maybe it’s papa! Or maybe it’s another one like us, wandering around lost! We should help them if that’s the case!’

‘Good! But keep trying to control your mana presence. So far you’ve only slightly lessened it to me, while to everything else around us nothing’s changed.’

‘I’ll try, but it’s really hard! I’m trying to contain it, but it’s really hard! I think the most I can do is reduce it for one or two beings and that’s my limit. I’ll try hard though! Let’s go!’

Chapter 25!