Tree of Aeons

Year 75 Month 11 Week 2

A great battle broke out in the conflict between Takde, Nung and Salah, and a great, cursed spell was cast. One that sacrificed the lives of 25,000 soldiers, and with it, created an exceptionally harsh winter in that area… and beyond.

So powerful, that spell that summons a vortex, a magical vortex of ice and frost, and then, the region transforms into a snow covered land, one of blizzards, snowstorms, and strong gusts of wind.

That spell, extends to the entirety of the valley, overnight, from what is normally a light rain, into to snow and ice. Thick snow, a terrible cold snap. A few of the smaller streams froze.

This stunts the growth of the regions crops, already reeling in the earlier mild winter.

Everyone’s prepared for winter, so a huge stockpile is already there. Even New Freeka, their efforts to vastly expand their farmlands and crop cultivation meant they are facing this intense cold with at least a few warehouses and silos full of harvested, preserved vegetables and grain. What was meant to be their solution to a migrant surge, becomes a solution for exceptionally bad winter, though I wonder how long this stockpile will last.

Since it is great battle, I figured that there must be a lot of death, a lot of souls still lingering in the battlefield, so I decide to send my many [soul harvesters] there. They are like faint ghosts, and so they can travel really far, but it’ll take a while for them to come back. I think, with the soul harvesters, they expand the range of my soul absorption to almost the entire continent. Which is massive.

Massive!

Also, the group from Baroosh expanded, after about 2 weeks.

“I am disappointed, apprentice.” A wizard steps through the portal, escorting the sick princess, and followed by a healer and a paladin. They are surprised by the sudden cold, but they come well prepared and put on thick jackets and shawls. I suppose their princess waited a bit too long.

“My sincere apologies, teacher. We have tried to ask every single one, and yet we could not find one that we think, has potential. That’s why we asked the oracle whether the healer had moved or went away.”

“Excuses.” The wizard is old, he has flowing white, wrinkly hair, and a typical wizard’s hat, with a pointing tip.

The man bows, and doesn’t respond.

The princess follows behind. She’s got a very faint presence, and her steps soft, light, and the healer supports her every step and movement. I also notice the healer using some kind of potion on her, at regular intervals, especially when she starts shivering.

The wizard talks with the existing group for a while, and then he stops.

“Well, let’s find that healer.” He casts some kind of strange magical spell, and then from a small metal case, a magical arrow appears, and it starts spinning in circles. And it keeps spinning. It even points downwards at times.

The wizard then pauses, and looks at the man. The man looks equally dumbfounded.

“This…” The wizard seems stumped, and the paladin, steps up next to him.

“Wizard, what’s the meaning of this.”

“This artifact is the [compass of oracles], it links and augments the oracles ability, so that we can locate whoever or whatever the oracle learns…”

“Get to the point, wizard. Why is it flying everywhere?”

“I… I don’t know.” Yet, the wizard’s initial confusion turns into a strange smile. The earlier group look puzzled.

“Whatever. It’s cold. Let’s continue this conversation indoors. The princess cannot take this weather for very long.” The healer insists, and they retreat to the warmth of their guesthouse.

“So… What’s with this cold?” The healer asks, as he tends to the frail princess in the guesthouse.

“Aftermath of the Salah wars. Someone used a great blizzard vortex spell, with blood sacrifice…”

The wizard though, seems laser focused, analysing the compass of oracles. It spins everywhere, and it might as well be absolutely confused.

“Any ideas, wizard?” One of the men finally dares to ask the wizard.

“Maybe, maybe the land is a nourishing factor. I will need to test it out.”

“The land? This freezing place?”

The wizard ignores the man.

And the wizard runs outside, and then starts casting a few spells, spells which I could not quite identify or observe. He did that for a good half a day, constantly casting spell after spell, though, nothing in particular seems to be happening. At this point, I’m feeling a little bit… defensive. A wizard comes to New Freeka, and starts using a whole bunch of spells… that feels a little too close for comfort, so I keep watch.

A group of high powered people in search of something, and casting weird spells? That is just ringing all the bells.

“That’s really odd.”

“What’s odd.” One of the men, who seems to be the wizard’s apprentice of some sort, comes out to accompany his master.

“The readings, and compass, it all points through this entire valley, and yet I don’t detect any kind of magical presence from the earth, or is it muffled? Or suppressed somehow because of this stupid blizzard effect on the weather of this entire place?”

The apprentice shrugs, and shakes his head. “I did tell you this place is… rather unusual.”

“That cannot be. Magic still flows in this entire valley, and yet there is something that also envelopes this valley, like a large piece of cloth hiding furniture…”

“If it is so, then the healer picked the best place to hide.”

“No. I doubt the healer knows. There is more to this. Tell me, any magical structures? Is there a holy relic of artifact here?”

“You know, if you say it’s the entire valley, that kind of reminds me. Some of the people here worship a tree, you know. You want to go and see it?”

The wizard nods, “At this moment, there are few other leads. Let’s go.”

So they brave the snowstorm, that’s actually almost perpetual now, to go to the [Tree of Prayer], the courtyard now coated in a layer of white snow. Which, actually isn’t the only color of snow, surprisingly. In some parts of the world, there’s a kind of magical aberration which turns snow into different colors, like green, or blue, or yellow, or purple, anyway, I digressed.

“So, this is a tree they pray too.” The apprentice said.

The wizard then casts a spell. [Detect Magic].

And nothing happens.

“Hmmm…”

And then, the wizard pauses, and casts [Firespark] at the Prayer Tree.

And it nothing happens.

“There’s a hostile magic suppression aura here. It’s present throughout the entirety of the valley, that’s why a few of my spells seem to be not responding, particularly those of the probing type.” The wizard explains to the apprentice.

“But it is no denser here, so I doubt this tree is the source of it.”

“Huh, maybe that’s because the tree is everywhere.” The apprentice shrugs. “I hear the locals say the entire forest belongs to the tree that rules this valley, and entry is at our own risk.”

The wizard smacks the apprentice. “So, that sounds exactly like where a healer would hide. Did you check out the forest?”

“Yes we have, master. There’s just a whole load of trees and a lot of monsters.”

Oh. Wait. At this point, their earlier conversation about the magic suppression rings a bell.

Is that me? When I leveled up and unlocked the soul forge, I did get an ability called [Low Tier Magic suppression]

The wizard looks at the apprentice, shaking his head. “Anyway, lets do more tests on the type of suppression here, whether it is tier-restricted…”

He then casts, [Fire]. One again, nothing happens.

Then, he casts [Blue-fire], and this time, a blue flameball appears in his hands. “Hmm… tier 4 spells are not suppressed.”

“So… does this mean we can find the healer?”

“I think we already have a good clue. Whoever powerful enough to create a tier 3 suppression aura throughout this entire city is probably the one able to heal the princess, or would at least know the person that can heal the princess.”

Yup.

These guys are looking for me! Ah, so this is interesting, if that is indeed the case, I think I could use this as a bargaining chip, and so, I quickly summon Jura to explain the plan.

And the next day morning, despite the snow outside, Jura and Yvon went to the guesthouse.

“Oh, Lady Yvon, what brings you here?”

“Ah, I have good news for you all. I think we finally discovered who the healer you were looking for.”

“Really? Have you been lying to us the past few weeks?” The apprentice is not happy.

Yvon shakes her head. “I thought you were referring to a person.”

“What?!”

The wizard though cuts the apprentice out.

“Never mind that. The princess comes first. Bring us to the healer.”

“Not so fast.” Jura pauses. “There are a few things the healer wants to know, and wants from you, before the healer is willing to have a look at your princess’s condition.”

“Name them. Quickly.” The paladin and healer insists. “The Princess’s condition worsens by the day.”

Jura hands a list I had him write, and he passes it to them. The paladin and healer look at it, and then passes to the wizard. “This is extortion, isn’t it?”

Jura smiles. I could tell he is enjoying it. “It’s the terms the healer propose, in exchange for his aid. You can choose not to. And he did say, if he can’t improve the princess’s condition, he won’t take payment.”

“Fine. We’ll give these things. Great powers do not come cheap, after all.” The wizard says. “Bring the healer here.”

“Good. But I am afraid you have to go to him.”

All of the Barooshians look at each other, but then, they nod. It’s not as if they have a choice. So, together with the princess, all of them venture out into the snow, and make the slow walk through New Freeka, into the forests.

“Where are we going?” They did not like walking in the snow.

“We’ll reach there soon. Anyway, what’s the princess’s diseases?”

“I am afraid… even I don’t know. All we can do is keep supporting her body so she doesn’t die.” The healer shakes his head. “It’s almost as if her body wants to kill itself.”

And then they arrive at the main tree, where the beetles and spiders are sleeping, dormant.

“Eh…”

“Wait.” The wizard turns to Jura. “A spirit tree?” It’s as if he struck a realisation.

“Yes. This spirit tree rules over the entire valley.”

The wizard nods, “That explains why the compass is confused… I am guessing this massive spirit tree extends its roots everywhere.”

“Bring the princess inside.” Jura says.

The healer carries the princess, and Jura then stops the rest of them. “I’m afraid I can only allow the healer into the tree from here. The rest of you must wait outside. The tree’s rules.”

The wizard pauses, looks at the paladin, and the rest of them nod. “Fine. I can trust a spirit tree.” And so, the frail princess is escorted into the [biolab].

Once I start examining the princess using the biolab, it’s immediately apparent what her problem was.

As with all living beings with mana, there is a spring in their body, and in the princess’s case, that spring, is almost entirely destroyed. That spring appears like a regular fountain to most, but the princess’s spring is charred, dark and the structure around it has somehow turned into rubble. There’s still some mana flowing out, but it’s irregular, inconsistent, and at times, corrupted. And when the corrupted mana flows out, it interacts with the body and creates a rotting effect.

It’s as if the tap that supplies water to a body is broken, and because of that, while there is water flowing out, it is polluted water, and that polluted water “poisons” the body.

The body tries to fight back that corrupted mana, and as a result her body turns blue, kind of like a mana-gangrene.

So, I look deeper. My biolab is of a higher level now, so I get more visibility, tools, and even popups to explain what I am looking at.

“She did something forbidden, or perhaps, not her level to do.” The Wisp somehow pops up. “All this points to an attempt to summon a higher power.”

“Oh?”

As I look into the spring, a small indicator appears. [Outer-shell destroyed]

“Huh. Outer shell destroyed?” This seems to mean she is like the reverse of an artificial soul, or perhaps, similar to Meela previously. A regular soul comprises of an inner and outer layer, an artificial soul only the outer layer. So, she had somehow managed to do destroy her entire outer layer?

Hmmm… This is really strange, and I ask Jura to ask the men what did the Princess do.

“The Spirit Tree wants to know what the Princess do. She has somehow destroyed a large part of her soul…”

The wizard and healer seems really shocked, and they turn to each other. The healer starts first. “The Princess was last spotted in the wizard’s tower, what was she doing?”

The wizard stares back. “I.. I don’t know. She was going through the ancient tomes and then…”

At the same time, I kept looking into the Princess’s body, and then I discover another thing. [Exposed to void mana]

“What the hell is void mana?”

“Oh, I can answer that one. It’s raw mana form. Primordial mana, so to speak. It’s the most powerful of mana types, but… the most dangerous. The normal body of mortals is not fit to handle void mana. Even heroes can handle it in small degrees, that’s why they only get the second tier form, star mana. If one distils and processes star mana further, one would then get the normal kinds of mana.”

Heh, this sound like the big bang, and then the formation of stars, and then the heavier elements? If mana is an element that exists in the birth of the universe, it’s akin to primordial quarks, and then they would form protons, neutrons, and electrons, and those would then fuse into regular atoms.

“This surely begs the question, why would this Princess somehow be exposed to void mana?”

“Ask them what was the tome that the princess was studying?” I mentally speak to Jura.

The wizard pauses. “I think she was looking into a tome on…”

He stops.

“I don’t think it’s relevant. Can the tree heal her or not?”

The healer and paladin turn to face the wizard. “I think it is relevant. What was the Princess actually trying to do?”

“She might be looking at a tome about otherworld heroes… and theories on how to summon them. It’s one of the crazy tomes left by the Mad-Hero, Arsene Emir...”

The paladin then grabs the wizards hand. “What? Why is the Princess allowed to be anywhere near to a tome by the mad-hero?”

“I was doing research on it, and I didn’t realise the Princess snuck in.”

“Excuses! So all this was your fault, wizard!” The paladin is rather mad.

Well, I let the Barooshians continue their argument, as I turn my attention into figuring out what can I do about this Princess’s damaged soul.

The soul forge would be able to fix most of destroyed outer layer, but the exposure to void mana is going to be harder to remove. In a way, it’s like Meela’s [demon poison], but, only from another source, a more… raw source.

It took about another hour, but I’ve looked at all I could, so, Jura and the healer helps to carry the Princess to the Forge Tree. She rests inside a platform inside the forge tree, and once ready, both Jura and the healer had to go out.

As I attempt to repair her damaged soul, I got a prompt that some items of the Princess needs to be sacrificed.

“Does the Princess have any… items or personal belongings that she cherishes?”

The Paladin takes out a small hairpin, and passes to Jura, and Jura throws it into the Forge Tree.

Not enough.

“Another one.”

The paladin checks his backpack, and the healer checks a bag that contains the princess’s belongings, and pulls out a small comb. “Her mother, the Queen, gave her the comb.”

And into the forge tree it goes.

The logic of it is essentially, to repair a soul, especially one still in a bodily form, one would need to “harvest” remnants of the person’s souls, that are sometimes residing in their cherished items, to then use it and patch the soul. It’s like soul-organ-transplant surgery, but with personal belongings. Unlike Meela’s case, who’s not constrained by a body any longer.

So, the quality and relationship one has with the item, determines the value for the repair. And the comb qualifies. In fact, the comb itself is sufficient, so the hairpin flies back out.

“The comb itself will do.”

And it’s melted by the [soul forge], and it then fuses into the princess’s body. And while a snowstorm blows outside, in the immediate vicinity of the [forge tree], multiple lightning bolts rain down on the forge tree itself, each creating a connection of lightning to a branch.

“This is rather scary.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” The men,, waiting in the snow, watching lightning strike the forge tree multiple times, whilst their princess is inside.

And about an hour later, Jura and the healer goes inside the forge tree to retrieve the princess, and put her back into the [biolab] for monitoring.

Under the [biolab], the spring itself has been repaired. But, an indicator still exists on top, still saying [exposed to void mana]. I’m unable to remove this status, as I don’t have enough power to do so. It seems that I need access to a few more soul forge color types before I can.

At least I actually get to see an explanation of what it does.

[Exposed to void mana - will have occasional nightmares of otherworldly horrors. Overuse of mana will result in fainting. Cannot use mana potions, as will result in a void-mana flaring, and will cause hallucinations and seizures]

And indeed, it seems this is as far as I could go, so the Princess comes out of the biolab, and back to the worried Barooshians.

“The Spirit Tree says this is all it can do. THe princess’s body should not be killing itself anymore, but she will still have nightmares, and do not give her mana potions. Overuse of mana also will cause fainting.”

The princess’s hands, and legs, once blue in color, now gradually regains some color, and she no longer feels an intense weakness and pain through her body, so much so she is actually able to talk.

“...food.” That’s the first word she said.

The healer and paladin quickly take out, from their pouches some kind of bread for her to eat. They seem happy, because she is visibly recovering, and so, rather than eat in the snowstorm, they walk back to the guesthouse to rest.

“What did you do back in the tower?”

“I… I tried to summon a hero.” It seems the princess had not been able to hold a proper conversation, or even explain what happened because of the intense pain she was in.

“WHY?”

“I… I… I wanted a hero to be my husband. Rather than that stupid old duke.”

Ah, at this point I stop eavesdropping.

Their conversation went on about Barooshian court politics, international relations, political marriages and power balance stuff, which frankly is not my cup of tea at all.

Later on, they all used some kind of portal magic to return to Baroosh. They say they will find some way to deliver the promised goods.

[You leveled up! Level 124!]

[Subsidiary tree limit increased to 700]

[Biolab leveled up] [External Biolab unlocked. Customisable Branches can now create biolabs!]

[Winter resistance upgraded]

[You learned a new skill : Winter-adapted crops]

Ah, so I gain crops that can grow in this stupid snowstorm.

Year 75 Month 11 Week 4

Despite this horrible cold weather, the traders delivered the blood crystals. And once they did, I quickly got to it. Ah, thanks to the new leyline and soul-forge color, I also discover there’s a new upgrade choice for Trevor as well.

[Trevor, Forest Mind Level 20]

Upgrade choices -

[Blue - Root-Brain Complex. Requires special minerals to grow. Special minerals required are 10 x Blood Crystals, and 50 x fresh animal heads.]

[Black - Skull Shell - Requires special minerals to upgrade. 10 x Bone of a wyvern, 1 x heart of a lion and 50 x Bones of a lizard]

Huh. Oh well, let’s go with the immediate upgrade. The blood crystals and the heads of the animals were put together in a pile, and then, I trigger this upgrade. A few dozen roots appear, and drill into each of the heads and then the blood crystals, creating a rather messy haze of blood in the area. They twist, they turn, they tangle, and sparks fly. It’s a bit like watching a dozen snakes mate, with fireworks.

And when it’s done, a brainlike jumble of roots is formed. It’s really just roots folded and twisted many many times until it looks like a brain.

[Trevor’s level limit has been increased to 30]

[Trevor has gained a unique passive ability - Hive’s Guardian]

[Hive’s guardian - gains limited control over the lower tier monsters and beasts that spawn in the valley. Does not override their natural instincts]

Ah, fairly useful then. But then, as I turn back to my usual view of the valley, I noticed some changes. The interface is now more… game-like? And the minimap extends further, and there’s more layers to the views available. The granularity of the view is also much better, and I can see more colors.

“If you desire, master, I can customise the views for your viewing pleasure. Each of the trees in the valley send back a ton of data through their roots, and it’s a matter of processing them into usable information. With this upgrade, my processing capacity has increased! I will be able to provide better alerts and better forecasting ability!”

Sadly, the area of effect is centered around that new [Root-Brain complex], so the further I go, the data available shrinks. But it is still sufficient to cover the entirety of the valley. When I go as far as the ThreeTrees of Mana, the data available in that region is close to none. And still lacking in terms of defenders.

Therefore, it is time to create my 2nd forest mind, one for the ThreeTree of Mana’s area, which I will call the Southwest Forest.

[In order to house your new forest mind, three subsidiary trees will be merged]

[New Forest mind has been created, do you want to name it?]

“Dimitree.”

“Greetings, master.” Dimitree responds, with an accent. Is that intentional? Well, if it is, please continue. Russian/Ukrainian voice presets please.

“You’re tasked to defend my connection to the leyline, and the vicinity of the Southwest Forest. Ask for help if you foresee difficulties.”

“Acknowledged.”

Afterwards, I set up a few dozen subsidiary trees in the area, all with warbeetles, and place them under Dimitree’s command. Still, because of the freaking unnatural cold, there’s practically no army movement in the region. Instead, this harsh winter brings a lot of deaths to the region. Even in New Freeka where there’s housing, it’s insufficient protection, and the Treefolk had to construct additional barriers, and actually start a fire indoors to keep themselves comfortable.

So cold. I feel like my branches are getting frostbites.

“It’s just your imagination, master.”

Year 75 Month 12

The cold just gotten… colder. Some parts of the terrain turn almost ice-like, as if it’s an eternal winter. If such a spell is possible, and I think it is, this feels very much like it.

I suppose this is how Arendelle feels when Elsa did her winter thing. I think Elsa would be a rather fascinating reincarnating hero.

Nothing much happens this month, because everyone’s just really trying to wait out the cold. The effect of the spell, added to the natural turn of the seasons make this so crazy cold, the elves all end up hiding in the [secret hideout], where it’s warm and temperature controlled.

The New Freekans, attempt to build underground structures at this time, as a way to get a bit more comfort out of this ridiculous weather.

Year 76 Month 1

Well, I thought last month was cold. This month, it somehow proved me wrong, as it got even colder. There were days where all that happens was ice flying in the air, as any water freezes instantly.

It even causes my tree barks, that are normally winter resistant, to feel brittle, and flaky.

Since last month, myself, Trevor and Dimitree use our abilities to support the rest of the normal trees, so that the cold don’t kill off the trees in the forest. They are already in some kind of “winter-hibernation” mode, but this excessive cold would normally kill them. Even in this magical world, death by cold is still possible.

It’ll be bad if I lose my normal trees, so this is when that energy is consumed, from [tuberous storage], to create a warm flow of nutrients and energy, supplied to the normal trees, prevents freezing, and kept them alive.

This little episode with high-tier magic also reminds me of my vulnerability to such powerful magics. If say somebody cast a [meteor] or a magic of that calibre, what countermeasures do I have? I mean, a way of saying is, if I am a tree stuck in the blast radius of the Tsar Bomba, what do I do?

[Winter resistance upgraded]

[Winter-resistance aura obtained. All trees connected via rootnet are more resistant to the effects of cold and ice. Beetles and webspiders also gain some winter resistance]

[Warm Winter Fruit obtained. A fruit that helps to keep the body warm]

Uhh… that helps a bit, I suppose. With the winter. But not the tsar bomba. Or wait. Is the system saying this is the magical equivalent of a nuclear winter?

“This winter is unbearable. We need to do something.” The villagers are now trying to get Yvon to do something about the winter, but, what can they do?

Good news is, there’s absolutely no fighting in this sort of weather. Sort of bad news is, people are still dying. (Bad for them, not me) So, my soul realm is packed with souls, souls that are due for their reincarnation within the next 6 months, from the returned soul harvesters, and just generally, from all the death in the vicinity.

And from the fragments of the souls harvested, I obtain quite a fair of interesting essences, and my first [Experience Seed], a product of the [Soul harvester]’s ability. The experience seed is used to create a [Level Fruit], each seed, to create one fruit. The effect is to increase one’s level by one, up to the level cap of said person.

Yes. A fruit equivalent of rare candy.

BUT! The creator of said level fruit (me), cannot use it. Again, it is similar to that soul contract where I take a person’s level away, or where they surrender their experience to me. It’ll get converted into [transferable experience], which can then be processed into [experience seeds] and [skill seeds]. In fact, even [skill essences] can be further processed into [skill seeds].

A single level isn’t much, for those the lower levels. But I would imagine such an item being more useful and valuable to those at high levels, since it’s harder for them to level.

Year 76 Month 2 Week 1

The cold is letting up. By a tiny bit.

It’s still snowing every day, with some days having ice storms. Not fun. Again, I am burning through my [tuberous storage], trying to feed and support the forest such that it doesn’t freeze to death.

I’ve actually gotten a little positive out of this. I mean, at least it’s just ice, right? I can still keep the trees alive by giving them warm energy by consuming the stored energy. It’s kind of like winter and summer, you can constantly add layers of clothing to keep yourself warm, but it’s kinda hard to strip down to cool yourself down, when the air itself is cooking you.

If say the entire air is cursed from a massive heatwave, I would need to find ways to cool down the forest, and I think the only way I know at the moment is to pull up cool water from deep beneath the ground. And there’s not much of that. THere’s a fair bit of thermal energy coming from deep beneath as well.

This is despite I’m being fire-resistant, but, drought or prolonged heatwave? I’m not sure.

Maybe I need to find some kind of “cold-water” source, from far away. A massive root then supplies that cold water from there, to regulate the temperature of the valley’s trees.

And the opposite would be, to find a hot water source?

Maybe that volcano that Horns surveyed a while might be able to supply that.

“All this talk about the cold…”

“What.”

“I don’t feel it.”

“That’s cause you are blob? A floating soul with no ability to sense temperature?”

“But some of the souls were telling me about how cold they felt. Or maybe that’s just their final moments, carried over…”

“Wait. You can talk to the souls?” I didn’t know why I had the impression that only hero-grade souls can talk, but I suppose I’m wrong.

“Uh… only some of them. There seems to be a few that still retain their ability to talk… but all they do is repeat the same thing. Kinda like machines.”

Oh. This soul thing can be… confusing. Why can some talk, some can’t?

Anyway, New Freeka is in a state of emergency. Food supplies are running low, as they did not expect such severe weather, and much higher consumption of their stockpiles. That, led to rather ingenious solutions, as some of their farmers actually have rather interesting skills. One such ability is indoor farming, and that led to multiple greenhouse being built, and a few attempts at underground homes.

Speaking of underground…

“Dimitree, have you taken over the labyrinth?” The leftover labyrinth of the dungeon, now supported by roots, located in the Southwest forest.

“Yes. The inner labyrinth remains warm, though the entrances are covered in snow.”

I think I could propose that as an alternative location for the refugees to live, protected from the cold. But it is too far, the journey there takes at least 2 days, maybe more in this snow.

Then, there is the old tunnel, left by the giant demonic centipede. Its located quite deep underground, so as to minimise tremors and detection, but because of its relative depth, I have found little use of it. But now that I have the [root tunnels] ability, I can think about creating more feeder tunnels to connect to that big underground tunnel.

“Suggestion.”

“Speak, Trevor.”

“There are certain kinds of vegetation that grow in tunnels. We can grow those there, would provide additional energy output. Variants of [Subsidiary trees].

“There’s no sunlight in there, can the [subsidiary trees] survive?”

“Not trees… more of… fungi.”

“My powers extend to that of fungi?”

“Uh.. no. But if we extend our roots into the underground cave, we can create an environment for symbiotic fungus to grow, which can produce energy.”

“Hmm… is the output worth it?”

“No. Fungus produce miniscule amounts of energy, but it has the effect of creating the base of a ecological system that supports certain kind of farmer ants and insects.”

Hmm. Underground fungus.

But I do want ants. I think ants would be interesting warriors.

“Are beetles insufficient?” Horns then poke in.

“Ah… that is not my point.”

“There are many kinds of beetles. I am sure you could have some kind of facility to research beetles that would help.”

[Biolab - Beetle unit research tree obtained] [This massive tree allows research and development of various beetle types, such as flying beetles, armored beetles, poison beetles, firebeetles, waterbeetles…]

Uh.

“Yes. I think beetles are better than ants.”

I get the point, Horns. But I still want ants.

“No. Beetles are the best. We are already sharing the space with spiders. Please do not neglect us beetles.”

Ants?

“Beetles. We have dungbeetles. We have dancing beetles. We have colorful beetles. Beetles are superior.”

I sigh. Okay.