The mont Aron logged in, Nova wasted no ti and teleported him to a private simulation she had specially created for the event.
"It took quite so ti," Aron remarked as he settled into the chair she had prepared for him.
{Since their brain structure differs from ours, and they’ve evolved various ways of interpreting things throughout their existence, I had to restart the decoding process several tis after analyzing each evolutionary phase. They’ve had quite a few of those over their long history,} Nova responded. As she spoke, she materialized visual representations of the distinct brain structures she had to decode, showcasing the complexity of their evolutionary changes.
"Why didn't you just use the little protagonists in our two workers to speed up your analysis?" Aron asked, puzzled by her decision to use a more manual approach.
{The little protagonists can monitor and interfere with the brain, but due to the power level of the beings we're dealing with, they can't fully control them. Right now, all they can do is imprison their consciousness and use the body in place of the original owner by mimicking the brain's signals—that’s the extent of their current capabilities,} Nova explained.
She projected a series of visuals, detailing the limitations of the little protagonists. {Even our current VR tech isn't advanced enough to brainwash them. I had to rely on manual thods by analyzing their brain data and mories alone.}
The visuals illustrated how, once a being reached a certain power threshold, the little protagonists beca less effective, achieving only up to 75% control. Despite this, they were still able to incapacitate these higher-level beings, just not fully dominate their minds.
"Yeah, and about that, please run so diagnostics on them and give all of the weaknesses. I need to update them now that they've faced real-life scenarios, and we know their limitations," Aron said, ntally noting the need for upgrades. His drive for perfection stemd from his long-term plans—these "little protagonists" were not just tools but weapon he intended to use against other civilizations.
{Will do,} Nova responded promptly, creating a separate instance to initiate the diagnostics and begin the detailed analysis required for the updates.
"Okay, show what you got," Aron said, taking a deep breath to emotionally prepare for what was about to unfold. He knew this would be an extensive experience, sifting through what might be a massive trove of mories. Rather than assimilating the data directly, which could overwhelm him with irrelevant details, he opted to watch it first. Assimilation was reserved for vital information, and only if sothing truly important erged from these tree folk mories would he consider integrating it later.
{Since the mories span thousands of years, most of which involve long periods of inactivity while they waited for the results of their experints, I’ve filtered out all those parts. I’ve left only the monts where sothing significant happened or where they were engaged in activity,} Nova explained as the environnt around Aron transford.
Suddenly, the room shifted, morphing into a scene of nothingness. It was an empty void, the starting point of what he called "swimming"— a way of experiencing mories as if living them. He could now imrse himself in these monts, becoming an invisible observer while also feeling the emotions and sensations tied to the events.
The first mory began to unravel before him.
The scene unfolded slowly, with small white dots gradually appearing in the void, representing the awakening senses of the tree folk.
As ti accelerated, more and more dots erged, each one signifying a sensory perception coming to life.
This marked the beginning of their relationship. From then on, they would regularly et, exchanging information about their exploration of the world. They shared discoveries, updating an internal map of the planet as their senses extended farther and farther across the surface.
Over the years, they discovered more of their kind, repeating the process of introducing each new tree folk to the Tiless adow, where they would be brought up to speed. Eventually, all five tree folk had t, and together, they mapped the entirety of the planet, their bond growing closer with each new revelation.
After nearly a thousand years in this accelerated mory, Aron could finally comprehend what these white dots represented—the tree folk's ability to sense their surroundings had fully developed.
At first, the tree folk explored their newly awakened senses, gradually learning how to extend their range. Months passed, and eventually, one of them encountered another tree folk. It was a discovery that led to the first attempt at communication.
Without the knowledge of how to interact, the tree folk tried various thods until, by pure chance, their senses intertwined. When that happened, both were suddenly transported to a place that was strikingly familiar.
"Tiless adow," Aron said softly, recognizing the space imdiately as it ford before him.
The two tree folk stood in awe of each other’s forms, which manifested as vast, sprawling roots, each hundreds of ters long. Communication ca instinctively when one of them attempted to transmit thoughts, and to their surprise, it worked.
This marked the beginning of their relationship. From then on, they would regularly et, exchanging information about their exploration of the world. They shared discoveries, updating an internal map of the planet as their senses extended farther and farther across the surface.
Over the years, they discovered more of their kind, repeating the process of introducing each new tree folk to the Tiless adow, where they would be brought up to speed. Eventually, all five tree folk had t, and together, they mapped the entirety of the planet, their bond growing closer with each new revelation.
However, their connection wasn’t without conflict. Though still limited in power, disagreents led to fights, initially only ntal clashes. As they continued to grow, however, their roots extended enough to physically intertwine during these fights, adding a new dinsion to their interactions. It wasn’t just conflict that arose from this intertwining, though.
The tree folk discovered that when their roots rged and expended mana, they could create things they already understood—trees, for example, which were scattered across the small landmasses of the planet. This revelation led them to shift their focus from exploration to experintation.
Thousands of years passed, with the tree folk steadily growing in size and power. Eventually, their senses extended far beyond the planet, allowing them to observe the entire star system. It was during this period that the Proximian fleet arrived.
At first, the fleet went unnoticed, but soon after, the tree folk detected the newcors. Fascinated by these beings unlike anything they had encountered in their thousands of years of existence, they devoted much of their ti to observing them.
The mory stream continued up to the present day, marking the end of the swimming.
It was then followed by silence.
{What’s your conclusion?} Nova asked, breaking the silence.
“...........”
Aron remained silent, still processing the flood of mories he had just witnessed. Nova, recognizing that he was amidst his contemplation, waited patiently, understanding that he would speak once he had fully digested the information.
After a few monts, Aron finally broke the silence. “Everything I’ve seen from their beginnings to their discoveries is pointing toward sothing, but with the data we have now, it’s too early to draw a definitive conclusion. This will require a deeper dive before I make any solid assumptions.”
{I agree, but if you were to form a hypothesis based solely on the current data, what would you say they are?} Nova pressed, almost as if she was eager to compare her own analysis with his.
Aron pondered for a mont before replying, “I’ve got three possible theories. First, they were created deliberately. Second, they’re the result of a mana anomaly, possibly evolving naturally from it. And lastly, they may have been birthed or produced by soone, or sothing, perhaps from this planet—or even from another star system—and then sent here.”
His answer was asured, but he was curious now, sensing there might be a reason behind Nova’s insistence.
{Looks like we’re on the sa page. Although I’ve co up with more theories than you, the most likely ones align with yours.} Nova responded, revealing her reasoning.
Aron nodded, then quickly gave an instruction. “Have the exploration team gather samples of the different levels of roots from the two tree folks. We’ll send them back to Earth for further research. I want to see if we can confirm any of these theories.”
{I’ll handle it. And what about you? You still have a few hours before your scheduled tour of the planet.} Nova reminded him, aware of the tiline.
“I’m going to start researching how to create a body for them. The goal is to see if their main consciousness can be transferred into it. If successful, we can perfect the body and have the two tree folks inhabit it, allowing us to use their original forms as research material. If not, we’ll test the new body to determine if there’s a distance limit for their split consciousness and, if so, how far it extends. Depending on the results, I have several plans for them,” Aron explained, outlining his strategy and noting that he would need Nova's help for the body creation.
{Let’s get to work then,} Nova responded, her excitent palpable as their surroundings transford into a high-tech biology research laboratory.
“Bring a copy of the two tree folks' progeny and one of mine,” Aron said, shifting into research mode and ready to dive into the project.
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