Seeding the Fields
Year 184
The heroes eventually left, well, they split up, really. Prabu, Colette and Hafiz decided to travel to the northern islands, and they wanted to do a world tour, at least before the next demon king cos along. So, a few middle-ranked Valthorns, in the level 60s were assigned to just bring them to the sights of the Central Continent.
Like Keis battlefield, and the Rottedlands. And so other stuff like volcanoes, so beautiful beaches and reefs. But not in Reefy's area. That was a no go. I did not want Reefy and the heroes to ever et. Not now, not yet. Not when Reefys still generally murderous.
The archer hero, on the other hand, took a ship back to the Southern Continent. It seed that he had other plans, and it involved so magical preparations.
Throughout the entire thing, it seed they remained oblivious of my ability to see them even from this distance, these days I feel thats truly my superpower. The ability of a massive hive-mind of trees to watch the entire continent at once, so long as there is a tree or a grass or a bush present.
The two archmages however, were not exactly just having a holiday. They were brainstorming for so kind of an idea.
Look, from what we see in the heroes mories, theres clearly rit for preparations. All the heroes that fail do not prepare all that much. We must over prepare for the next demon king, even if its skillsets are different. So, I propose to build a super flexible arsenal. Prabu spoke one day while they were touring the northern shores. They would sail to the other continent soon.
Alright, Im interested, go for it. Colette said. What do you have in mind?
The demon kings have as many shots as they want at us, and they just need to get us one ti to win. The demons bring an adapted arsenal each ti, each more honed and better at killing us.
Colette frowned. Alright spit it out. Hafiz clearly nodded at the other archmages words.
Prabu simulated so kind of global map. We beco weaker over ti, especially during a battle with the demon king. We also dont know where the demon king will appear. So, my idea is, we need to have small recharging bases everywhere. Places where we can run to instantly restore our health, our star mana, and also equip ourselves with powerful gear. We need to build mini-chas for ourselves, with different weapon loads.
And this will help us when were outclassed by the demon king?
Itll make us more durable, and we can fight longer. Our levels are the main thing that we have that gives us a chance to survive. If we can gain more levels, we can live.
Were still pretty soft. Hafiz said. Weve seen how it took two shields to protect ourselves.
Our hero items, for example, amplify our powers and make us stronger, and yet, our [hero forge] has odd limits. Like the size of our items, and the nature of powers that we can infuse into it, and how many functions.
And? Colette was impatient.
We need to find allies who can help us make superweapons. I was really tempted to tell them Im trying to do that too. But I suppose this is like being one of those old farts in a really big company watching a young one join the company and try to do sothing theyve tried doing a long ti ago.
At so point, Ill probably lose track of all their nas too. Especially when the nas start repeating, because its inevitable after so many generations that these hero nas will start repeating. Maybe Ill get a Tiffany, or a Kayson, or a Rei. And maybe a Mambo Number 5. This is part of aging right? As a tree everyone and everything starts repeating itself like the seasons going through its regular cycles.
Even the heroes are starting to feel sa-ish. Like they start to fall into these tropes of the friendly one, the resisting one, the crazy one... Just rehash and remixed versions of the sa few underlying components, at different ratios. The sches too feel similar, and feel like sothing Im trying to do too. Like, the whole superweapons idea is essentially my own mini-nuclear crystals.
-
> How do you deal with it, for things to feel like everything's ant to repeat itself? < I didnt know why that made talk to Lilies, but I suppose, its life. Despite , trying to hold on to life and aning, I am cursed to watch things repeat. Because it is just how it is.
I even feel like I had this question before.
> Thats shit. < I ntally sighed. It tends to result in my branches and leaves swaying in the sighing motion. Even heroes with their unique powers eventually fall into types, and I wonder if I'm like a voracious light novel reader at the tail end of my journey, feeling like everything has been done before and nothing is fresh.
> A little bit. < I responded. I tried to rember that life has aning, even if its been done before. So what if all these people try to do the sa thing? If it works, it works. Must every new hero attempt to change all norms? No. If the heroes want to try sothing that may work, then they should. Just because those before failed doesnt an they cant succeed.
Im at a different level now, and my powers to push the arc of the world grows with each level. If the heroes want a way to sufficiently deter the demon king, I should assist them.
> Do you bother doing the right thing? <
Lilies responded.
> At our levels of power, can we not resist? <
> if you put it that way, why bother doing anything? <
> I certainly dont see you as one of whims and fancies. <
Huh, so each of Lilies is a hivemind of different feelings.
That was a long one from Lilies.
This feeling of saness. Its the forces of inertia trying to exert itself on ? Wait. How did I even get to this point?
I felt like ntally slapping myself. Patreeck, can you check whether Im alright? Any gods trying to ddle with .
No, master.
Strange. Why am I thinking such weird thoughts?
-
The heroes clearly tried, and Kei volunteered to approach the local Valthorns authority for so building permissions for the heroes bases-all-over-the-world plan.
So youre essentially planning to leave so kind of hero item in these locations? The Valthorns asked Kei.
Yes.
Thats a strategic risk for us. What if they turn against us, or other heroes not aligned to us activate these hero items and destroy whatever thats around us? What if they use these locations as waypoints for their teleportations?
They didnt do that with existing hero items.
But these structures can be activated from afar? Lady Kei, you know very well that this is a strategic risk. The committee will not approve this, and you will have to go to Aeon to get dispensation.
But the heroes...
This is sothing Aeon and the high council must decide. The Valthorn officials responded. Matters of strategic risk cannot be decided by provincial officials.
Bureaucracy perated the entire central continent, overseen centrally by my council and senior leaders. My artificial minds generally oversee the bureaucracy, though they are more concerned with threats, internal corruption and dissent. Then I will have to go to et Aeon? But the heroes are leaving soon!
They can return once approval is obtained.
-
My artificial minds helped to track the expected tiline of the next demon king. It was relatively easy to do, now that my ability to view the astral star-ways ant the timing was super clear. I could see them co, literally. They are at least seven to eight years away. Thats good. The heroes still have a lot of ti for their plots.
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Ardi, Lausannes human husband, passed away from old age. He lived a long life for a human, about a hundred years, and already his lifespan was extended by his levels. He was in the early Level 60s. Perhaps he wouldve lived a few more decades if he reached Level 80s.
They held a small funeral for him in Freshka, where his body was buried in accordance to a simplified version of Hawas death ceremony. In the recent, later years of his life, his age really showed, unlike Lausanne, who was a pure blooded elf. Lausanne even today looked only a little bit older than the day she left on her big journey around the world.
Arlisa and Lauda too returned to see their father. Laufen, as the mother-in-law, also attended the funeral. About a week after, Laufen sat down with Lausanne. Do you regret it?
Lausanne sipped her tea. I dont know yet. I rember telling you I wouldnt, but now that it happened, Im not so sure.
Laufen rely held her daughters hand. The thing about us elves, is that when our children marry soone not as long lived as us, we will often witness the aging and death of our great-grandchildren. Like Arlisa and Lauda, as half elves they will live much longer lives, but eventually, they will die before we do. It is a very sad thing to witness our childrens children and their children leave before we do.
Lausanne just sat quietly, as she digested the gravity of the truth.
But I believed in the beauty of the mont. Its sothing humans and those with shorter lives like the lizard people are incredible at. Their ability to throw caution to the winds and just be at the mont. Us elves and the treefolks too, have a distorted sense of ti, and we worry too much about the future.
...yeah.
So, go spend ti with Arlisa and Lauda. Laufen smiled. Lauda did not inherit her mothers love for spear-combat. Instead, he was more of an academic, and reminded of Roma, whos now a senior executive at one of the central continents many trading companies. He hated her moms dungeon expeditions, and preferred more leisurely pursuits like writing, and arts. Preferably not both together.
The two siblings, born so many years apart, did not see quite eye to eye. They were born in different tis, and with different expectations. Lausanne at one point was rather stressed that she was one of the strongest in Freshka, but now, I had Edna, Lumoof and many others who are now stronger.
Perhaps, it was the weight of duty, that as one of the strongest, she felt, even if a tiny bit, responsible to this nation that I built, and not free to live the life she wanted. In a sense, I believe I neglected what they wanted personally. That weight lifted, Lauda was able to grow up with a more confident, less stressed mother, and that too, reflected in how relaxed Laudas disposition was, compared to Arlisa who was confused, easily stressed, despite her natural talents.
Training people is really a gamble. They dont always turn out the way you want them to, and they often have plans on their own. This is sothing I concluded, and so the way I could maintain a steady talent pool, was to expand the talent pool, and keep looking. People like Edna, or Lumoof, young or old, so long as they had the drive and the spark, I was willing to give them a shot.
Because Ive seen many talents fizzle out after a good early run. Lumoof, as an example, was one of those old guys who had a second wind. Now hes the 2nd strongest. Life was strange, and a lot of it required opportunity, drive, motivation, and the right mindset, at the correct ti. So of these talents had to be given ti to stabilise, to mature on their own before they are ready to be pushed further.
Its a numbers ga, and also about spotting them as they rise up.
Talent was sothing Freshka was dedicated to training. It was why I wanted all these different academies, to train different people for different things.
But like Arlisa, it was also important to acknowledge those who had all the talent, were spotted and quickly grood, but then just fizzled out.
So are like that. Perhaps sothing sniffed out the fire in them. Perhaps the comfy environnt of the academies stifled them. That they needed to be out alone, struggling against the world to succeed. People who seem to have similar circumstances can perform wildly differently.
Despite that, I still saw the rit of having a robust talent-collection network. One Edna or Lumoof easily outweighs the cost of training 100,000 students who never get there. In truth, about 50-55% would end up as above average individuals in the level 50s to 60s. About 30-45% would drop out, usually plateauing at about level 40s, and a smaller 2-5% would rise up to about Level 80s. This is despite these individuals already pre-selected for so talent. This also took years, especially with the 50-55% bunch. They worked hard, and had so talent, and yet the journey remained tough.
Throughout the Central continent we have multiple smaller academy towns. Feeder schools to train even younger kids in just basics, and recomnd anyone with an iota of talent for further developnt. With the relative safety and prosperity of the central continent, especially in the past few decades, we noticed a subtle but soon noticeable decline in young children, and more young children pursuing more trade and rcantile exploits.
As quality of life improved, it seed that families were also getting smaller. I thought this was just a modern world phenonon, but it seed even in a world like this, generally improvents in living standards did lead to decline in childbirth. Which is extrely strange, and I needed to investigate more.
There are clearly better facilities to support young children, and there are centrally funded nurseries and creches. And yet, families are just getting smaller.
Year 185
Ive got bad news, and good news. Bad news first. Stella said, concluding her years of experintation into the [Tainted Demon Core]. That Tainted Demon Core you got, Im very very sure its busted. Its damaged and cannot be repaired, not with my level of ability. Not without causing a detonation. After multiple tests, Im sure whatever caused it is due to damage from an unwanted interaction with star mana. There were few really convincing scars throughout the core.
I an, its not the first ti she told its busted, but I requested that she did tests to be absolutely sure. It took a lot of ti, of course, and I had to assist her over the past few years with the hybrid-mana and supplied tiny bits of star mana..
So, we have a dud. Confird. Now, the good news,, from what I saw and can reasonably conclude, your idea that the Demon Core is a portal generator is very likely to be correct. From the internal structure and the design, Im now about 90% sure the Demon Core is a massive shielded void battery and portal key. There are so undamaged component elents of it that responded so naturally with void mana, and there were magical pathways that tried to access so records or pathways in an inbuilt library thats unfortunately mostly damaged.
That explained the sensation that the Tainted Demon Core wanted to do sothing, like starting a computer that had so hardware failure. It was accessing the still functional parts of the Demon Core, but unable to fully complete its startup.
Stella, of course, knew I had earthly mories by now.
Its pretty much like a starships hyperspace reactor, stellar map and guidance module rolled into one.
Alright. Very sure its star mana damage?
99%. Stella said.
So, if I want the demons way of sending soone like the demon king over, Ill need to kill a demon king without using any star mana.
Well... whether the demon king is alive or dead doesnt really matter, isnt it?
.
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