Year 217

“It’s emerging!” One of the Treefolks Lord could not control his excitement as a treefolk grew out of it’s little shell from the specially-fertilised ground. From the ground, a charcoal-colored treefolk emerged with a natural magical presence.

The treefolk was small, the size of a small pot, but the fact that it survived was great. The Valthorn researchers watched in admiration, and then got their gear. “It’s amazing”

A void mage made the first contact, as he approached the young ‘baby-treefolk’ as it stretched. He yawned, and stretched his super tiny dark-wooden limbs. The Treefolk Lord immediately reminded him to be super gentle. It looked so frail, so tiny like just a finger could easily snap the twig.

They touched him with the most gentle of touches, and it looked, its eyes hazy and blurry. Then, it followed.

The baby treefolk could walk from birth, but it was uncertain and wobbly. The void mage nodded to the treefolk lord, “I think it’s safe.”

The treefolk lord immediately approached and extended a finger to the youngling. Decades of experimentation with life, led to the birth of the first void-sensitive treefolk. The goal, eventually, was to engineer a void mage stronger than Stella, so this first young void-treefolk would not be the strongest, because we would get better at it.

But the fact that we could, made me really happy. I’ve mostly devoted the application of my evolutionary powers to the races that I found most malleable, like treefolks, lizardfolks and to some extent, the humans. Elves, centaurs, dwarves and Canari were a little more difficult to work with on an evolutionary standpoint, mainly because their life cycles were naturally much longer, so it had an impact on the experimentation-cycle of birth-growth-maturity-death.

The treefolks were also naturally long lived, but they could easily ‘crossbreed’, a hereditary feature of their plant-origins, which made them my researchers’ first choice to attempt an infusion of magical powers, and create super mages.

In fact, I sometimes wonder why treefolks were not more common throughout the multiverse, given how adaptable and malleable they were magi-genetically.

My researchers were delighted, of course, and many would want to plan more detailed variants, like water-element focused treefolks, or specific-skillset types.

Along this, we continued our efforts to train more specific ‘class-types’ as part of our effort to counter the demons. In particular, the physical combatant such as wrestlers and other barbarian class types, and even have a very good mix of racial talents, from centaurs, dwarves, lizardfolk and treefolk too.

We had relatively good success, we got some of the ‘barbarian’ or ‘brawler’ type candidates up to level 75 to 80, but it’ll take a decade or two before we start to see the first Level 140ers that we would then push towards getting their domains.

A relatively short time, all things considered.

For the ‘exorcist’, ‘alchemist’, ‘witch’ classtypes, we struggled a lot more. There were very, very few witches in this world. So few that there were probably less than 10, and they seemed to be a class-in-decline. For exorcists, well, they didn’t exist. These were roles normally performed by priests, so ‘exorcism’ as a specialisation was unnecessary. For ‘alchemist’, the difficulty was getting levels and helping the alchemist ‘level’ in the relevant classes.

We tried our best to provide various types of exotic materials, but progress was slow. This experience replicated itself across to the ‘blacksmith’ or ‘crafter’ classes as well. We managed to get a few to level 100s, but then they plateaued significantly. They took on bigger projects, and more ambitious creations, but somehow the levels moved really slowly.

Like Alka’s case, he seemed to gain most of his levels from his weapons manufacturing, and it’s subsequent use in battle. It’s almost as if the system told us to fight, and I hated that the system encouraged conflict.

It sucked, but I kept providing them with more exotic materials.

Sand and soil from the Moon. Soil and minerals from the other worlds. Remains of beasts from the high-tier dungeons.

I don’t know how long I’ll take, but I really didn’t want to believe that the systems forced ‘crafters’ to make tools of war as the way to gain level.

But the evidence was undeniable. Lilies did it with their death-weapons, Aira and Aispeng did it with their ice-weapons, Alka with his bombs. I did it indirectly, through my familiars. I gained experience when my familiars served those who gained levels, and they gained it through combat.

***

The parasiteworld’s astral paths vanished when the demon mother was slain, and in it’s place was a black cloud that engulfed the entirety of the world. Stella projected that it would clear up in a few years, that this was essentially ‘void-debris’, left from the collapsed structure of the world’s astral paths.

That was both good, and bad, since it meant we couldn’t see if anything cut through that cloud and invaded the parasiteworld.

Despite that, my beetles soon swept the parasiteworld of demons, and we captured more and more of those spawning pools.

Then I got an upgrade to my existing skills.

[Biolabs upgraded: Living Sacs and Chrysalis added. You may now create or grow certain types of creatures through your trees. These creatures will grow in sacs over a certain period of time. You may also insert living beings into these sacs to grow or alter their biological makeup. Alterations may cause loss of levels, classes and monsterfication.]

[Demonic spawning pools will be converted to biolabs]

The spawning pools changed overnight, as they were replaced with frankly grotesque trees filled with liquid-filled sacs and massive fruits. The demons were converted into beetle-ish variants.

Parasiteworld was eventually purged of it’s demons, and the terrain began to change. As the energies returned to the world’s core, the tectonic movements underground began to restart. Energies began to spread out from the core, and ley lines began to reemerge.

In the later half of the year, we observed slightly more tectonic movements, some of these were frankly massive earthquakes where huge continents were shunted upwards. Some of my trees were suddenly cut off, as the once ‘flattish’ terrain started to reshape itself into something else.

It thus seemed to me that the will of the world had significant influence on the terrain of the world, and now, it began to reassert its control on the world.

Also, the Canari eventually decided to send a small delegation to the parasiteworld, along with the Treefolks, Lizardpersons and dwarves.

The terrain was still rather unstable, though the area around my clone tree has been very safe so far. The core has not tried to kick me out, yet, even if I sensed it’s will slowly, very slowly, waking up.

It’s almost like it was in a dream.

***

“How long will it take for you to reach Snek’s world?”

“Another ten years.” Stella answered. “For now, we should be focused on our other issues, such as the demon king of the Mountainworld, or perhaps... Threeworlds.”

“Oh.” Lumoof said. “I almost forgot about those guys. We should visit them, I wonder how they are doing.”

“We?”

“Yes. Or at least, try to visit the other two guys. The humans are hostile, once they learn we are of foreign origins. You can help me move around with your portals, then we can avoid those that seek to attack us. I’d like to avoid using our powers to kill when it’s pointless.”

Stella shrugged. “People can be such a pain for no good reason.”

“Are you speaking from experience?” Lumoof smirked.

“Well, maybe.”

“Do you really believe there’s an end?” My priest asked Stella for her view of the void forest.

“I’m not sure, even if there isn’t an end, I very much don’t like the alternative.” Stella then suddenly laughed. “I just realized that question would normally be asked by the non-clergy to the clergymen. You’re the priest, Lumoof, that kind of metaphysical, philosophical question should be your area of expertise.”

“True that.” Lumoof smiled as he too realized the irony. They were both walking in Branchhold, their presence meant to reinforce our power. “Do you think we are expanding too fast?”

“Fast?” Stella laughed. “I don’t consider a few years to be fast.”

“Well, Aeon thinks we are expanding a little too fast, and wants to spend some time consolidating our strength. He’s exhausted from the constant demon king battles, and is even thinking of sitting out of the next fight.”

The [void] domainholder stared at the priest. “Aeon wants to sit out?”

“Yes. He thinks I’ve been suffering quite a bit and wants to pick his battles. Let the others gain more experience, because he seems to think he’s hoarding the bulk of the experience. He thinks that with the pantheon’s protection, it’s best for the rest of the domain holders to get stronger and play a bigger role in the main battle.”

“That’s strange. But what Aeon did with the antimagic demon was pretty effective.”

Lumoof made a long, long sigh. “That’s exactly the problem, I’m going to try and repeat what I did with the next demon king. So... in two years, I’ll need to go to the next world.”

The next demon king for Treehome should be around Year 221 to 222. For Mountainworld, they have a longer, fifteen-twenty year cycle, so we’re looking at year 223 to year 228.

“We need to go to the next world.” Stella smirked. “I’m coming too.”

“Trust me, nothing’s good there. Every demon world I’ve been in is just full of fighting.”

“I know.” Stella said. “But I really want to see it for myself. It’s one of those things that really sounds like it’s worth seeing.”

“I hope you don’t regret it.”

“Don’t see how I would.” Stella smirked. In some ways, Stella’s void domain makes her very different from the rest. Her presence in the world was coated in this dark haze, a sheen of mindbending black oil that disrupted any attempts to look closer.

Even in the biolab, her soul spring of void mana located within a temple of onyx and black marble, built on a black-marble foundation that looked like stars in a night sky. The stones that formed her soul’s temple were just different, even if structurally we all had the similar presentation.

“I’ve seen the things of the void, and that creature on the other side of the demon’s core. What else could be worse?”

Lumoof paused and nodded. “That is a good point.”

***

“Are there accidental summons in your world, too?” Ken sat and asked Kelly and Adrian one day.

“Maybe. Not surprised if there are. I wish we could locate them. They sound like they’ll all die within the first few days.”

“Consider Stella, who was accidentally summoned, and apparently, so was Aeon.”

“Aeon’s from Earth?”

“Yes. Or at least, one of them.” No one was quite sure whether they all came from the same world, because each of them seemed to have a slightly different version of earth. It didn’t help that everyone had a different memory of earth, so it’s not entirely impossible it’s the same earth, just that their own memories were flawed.

They were children, after all.

It was a good point, so I pulled Ken aside one day. I waited at least a month before I spoke to him.

“Ken. I want you to be in charge of something else. I will give you a set of funds, and a small crew, but aside from the league of heroes, I want you to run an accidental summon rescue group. Stella will support you to get you teleports if needed, and some void mages will be under your command. Use them to scan the skies for those who came, accidentally.”

The Valthorns and my spies were always on the lookout for accidental summons, but I felt that having a different group running it in parallel, led by someone else, could be a better way of getting these accidentally summoned guys to accept them.

Like it or not, the Valthorns had ‘big-government’ plastered all over them. They were seen by the citizens of the world as the “men in black suits”, even if they dressed super normally and conducted themselves well.

One of the realisations I had, governing the Central continent, was it’s impossible for a single organisation to do everything, while maintaining any semblance of coherence. There was no way to do everything, because the circumstances on the ground were so varied, and ultimately, it is highly dependent on the quality and training of those on the field.

Thus, as ‘wasteful’ as it seems, running parallel, ‘competing’ organisations was actually a better approach. It’s even better if they were seen as independent. It reminded me of a book I read when I was an indie designer, about self-cannibalisation in the tech industry.

Each of the organisations were, in reality, a slightly different tool, with different finesse and precision.

They all had a niche.

If they achieved their stated goals, the ‘cost’ on a societal level is essentially negligible, since labor unused is wasted, and the Central continent is flushed with most types of ‘resources’.

***

On the Mountainworld, I’ve arranged for some of my experienced Valthorns to take the role as adventurers. I had to be discreet about it, so I smuggled them there through secret tunnels and Stella’s void portals.

I knew there were some hidden chambers in the many mountainous valleys of this world, secrets that even those locals couldn’t find become of my exceptional senses of the ground underneath them.

My roots, as they spread through the ground, are sensitive to the presence of magic and unusual structures, and my artificial minds would then compare this data to our growing knowledge of the Mountainworld’s geography.

From this, we would notice inconsistencies. Most of these inconsistencies are minor, like small shifts of terrain due to movement of the earth, after all, maps were made at a snapshot in time, and for magical worlds such as the Mountainworld, they didn’t have satellite mapping. There were also mortal errors arising from measurement differences, weather and the use of imprecise tools.

What we really wanted to look for were entire ‘omissions’. Areas where entire ancient segments were not recorded altogether, or where the recorded history didn’t really make sense.

For this, I sent guys in the level 100s. Low level 100s, but they were pretty much mini-demigods when compared to the creatures of the Mountainworld.

I wonder what it’ll be like to go to a world where levels are high. There had to be some worlds where ancient civilisations still existed.

I refuse to believe that the entire multiverse was a waning world.

***

My artificial islands finally made it close enough to the Northern islands and also the Southern continents back on Treehome, that my roots could finally reach these two continents without the need of using portals.

Naturally, this was a huge game changer for my efforts to protect Treehome. I was now able to project power there, and have direct insight into their activities, without them realizing it.

Politically, these man-made military port-islands were greeted with outright suspicion and a whole lot of denouncements and accusations, but we were rightfully the world’s superpower, and that’s all they could do.

It didn’t help that they didn’t even detect all of it, especially some of these island bases where essentially cloaked in a perpetual mist thanks to my earlier powers.

The Northern Islands were frankly familiar territory, and this was where the two-former heroes made their base.

Alexis and Meela continued to do what they did, and they did maintain some semblance of communication with us. Lausanne, as the one who did meet Meela in her earlier stint back in New Freeka, served as my liaison with the two. It gave her a chance to have regular trips up north with her now adult son.

Of course, with my trees spreading through these two newly connected lands, I took the chance to spy on the temples, and hunt for more information. I wasn’t sure whether my spies missed, or even the temples themselves didn’t know about the existence of methods to summon the gods. I still had questions for the old gods.