The tree-man smiles wide, the bark on his face creaking.
[An olive branch? Yes. I like that.] He ponders the metaphor with a pleased hum that reverberates in his chest and sets all the plants to swaying. [The Mother Tree is very sensitive to Mana, her roots can sniff out changes from quite a long range, and her roots spread wide. When you stumbled into a tertiary root in this area, she began to expand her network, this enabled her to detect the Mana that you spoke of.]
[Wait, how much of the planet does your mother have roots through? And that massive thing I ran into was a tertiary? So, it branched from a secondary that branched from the primary? How big is the primary!]
The Grove Keeper chuckles.
[The primary tap-root of the Mother Tree is… vast. I will not bother attempting to describe it to you. As for your other question, I will not reveal much, other than to say it is likely less than you think. Our Mother is not a normal tree, but rather a monstrous tree, thus she does not follow the same set of rules you might think she does. To grow her network here, she needed to sacrifice root systems in other places.]
The bushes shiver in an accusatory fashion, and the Grove Keeper once again holds up his hands in a placating gesture.
[An olive branch,] he says to both me and her.
The plants settle again, though I can tell they aren’t happy. Can a shrub glare?
[Okay… What is it about this particular brand of Mana, I don’t even know what kind it is, that your mother finds so attractive that she would sprout up in our territory like that?]
[This… hmmmmmm. Again, I do not speak overmuch. Suffice to say, Mother is an expert when it comes to containing and eradicating this particular form of Mana.]
The branches around us creak.
[And she finds it delicious,] the Grove Keeper adds.
I raise an antenna.
[Delicious?]
[Yes.]
[I’m guessing the Mother Tree doesn’t need water to survive, right? She ‘drinks’ Mana?]
[This is true.]
[Alright then, I think I get it.] I take a look at the grove around us, just as lush and vibrant as what I saw near the Colony during the siege, if not more so. What I don’t see is nearly as many bruan’chii. There are a few here and there, tending to the plants, engaged in what appear to be lively conversations, but I expected to see many more. [Where are all your people, Grove Keeper? Has something happened?]
I can’t imagine they were assaulted by the wave. It barely seems to affect them at all here. Their grove falls outside the Colony’s territory, but only just. We’re more than likely taking the majority of the heat from the wave for them, but standing here, it feels like the madness in the tunnels is a mile away.
[Most have returned to the Mother to rest during this time of upheaval. When things quiet down again, they may return, or perhaps the Mother Tree will need them elsewhere.] He shrugs. [They will not mind regardless.]
Uh, what? They ‘returned to the Mother.’ What the heck does that mean? Are they dead?
[When you say, they returned…] I open cautiously. [Are they… still alive?]
The leafy face looks at me curiously.
[Of course they are still alive.]
Phew!
[Just checking! I don’t really know how… all that works.]
He just smiles.
[It is normal for there to be problems communicating between our peoples. There will be many misunderstandings, I’m sure. In time, we will know each other better.]
[Me too. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity and answering my questions. I’ll be sure to come back and check in when the wave is done, just to chat and see how things are going.]
[You will be most welcome.] The keeper waves farewell and we turn to exit the grove.
I’m kind of surprised that I got as much information as I did, especially considering how irritating that damn tree is. I do kind of wonder about her situation and how willing she is to reach out to allies. To do the things she does, she must be what, tier nine or above? At that level of power, she still needs help? What the heck… What exactly is threatening her? I’m also rather curious as to where her main body is. I wonder what stratum she chooses to make her home.
The moment we leave the grove, it’s like a light has been turned off. The environment changes in an instant from peaceful garden to shadow warzone. It’s so abrupt that I’m certain there must be some sort of magical effect at work.
My pets and I don’t run into anything too challenging and are able to fight our way back inside the Colony’s borders without much issue. With that mystery sorted, it’s time to return to smashing the wave back to the outer defensive line.
70. Holding the Line
It takes a day of near constant fighting to help the Colony shove the wave back to the outer defensive walls, and once again, the endless defence against the monsters continues. It’s all worth it, though. Every hour, the family is harvesting ridiculous amounts of Biomass and cores from the farm zones, and our savage, one-sided tactics are ensuring that the frontline soldiers, generals, scouts, and mages are getting a constant flow of experience.
The number of tier four ants is steadily increasing, with some rare individuals tipping over into tier five. These ants are the OG’s, possibly born to the Queen before I was. If it weren’t for a strange quirk making me the first of the Formica Sapiens, these battle-hardened siblings would be receiving the sort of respect I get. And they’d be far more deserving in my opinion!
The ‘Eldest’ salutes you, brave ants! With her constant flurry of motion, Vibrant is racking up the Levels at a prodigious rate. I ran into her not long ago and she was almost the same Level as Tiny, which is rather shocking. Despite lacking the ape’s tremendous power, her raw speed and ability to go for days without sleeping is helping her mow through the enemy at incredible speeds.
I might have to arrange more rest for her… If she manages to reach tier six before my pets, it won’t look too good…
After that point, I drive my pets even harder. More fighting! Less resting! We plough through endless hordes of shadow monsters, grind tier four and five demons into dust, and fortunately don’t run into any more toxic monsters before we retreat behind the lines for a regroup.
We push like this for a few more weeks and finally comes the time that I’ve been anticipating for so long!
Crinis is the first to reach the milestone, much to Tiny’s chagrin; her ability to pulp weaker monsters like a blender is just too much for the big guy to keep up with. Even if he scores more experience from higher tier monsters due to his incredible stopping power. Crinis is beyond excited to reach the milestone and isn’t shy in letting me know it.
[I finally caught up to you, Master!] she exclaims, leaping through the air to blob onto my carapace, giving me a quite comfortable, but surely horrendous-looking, thousand-tentacle hug.
[Well done, Crinis!] I praise her without holding back. [You’ve worked hard! I can’t wait to see what your tier six form is going to look like!]
She preens as I pat her head with an antenna, bringing a pair of tentacles up to her blobby face.
[This means I won’t be holding you back anymore, right, Master? You’ll be able to start collecting experience again and push for tier seven!]
Tier seven? I just evolved to tier six! Don’t rush the process. I need like, three hundred Levels before I can evolve again. But she’s correct that once the two of them have evolved, I’ll be able to start prioritising my own experience and growth. Not to mention we’ll finally be able to remove the seal on Invidia. The poor demon has been basically forbidden from gaining experience from the moment I reconstituted him, just so everyone could catch up. After this, the long road to his next evolution starts and he can finally start accruing experience for himself.