World Keeper

Chapter 459: Divine Tree… Divinitree?

Following the loss of Eagle Five, a storm of activity began to take place within many of the primary worlds. Although the habitat had ultimately been lost, the fact was that the habitation itself was successful. Only the unpredictable enemy known as the ‘invasion’ had stopped a successful terraforming.

With this fact in mind, Desbar, Deckan, and even Earth all began to focus heavily on their own space programs. Spica was already doing a considerable amount of work themselves, and was currently only missing one key detail. That detail was a proper shield that could defend against the energy storms that ravage space in their realm.

As for Lorek… although it was perhaps a bit sad, they were far too behind in terms of technology to contribute to a space program. Their power came purely from personal strength, which could now rival any of the other worlds.

Six years after the invasion, proper contact was finally made within the world of Sher Dien. The Allied Nation that had been built around the gate had at last spread far enough to arrive within the inhabited lands of Dien Shur.

This contact proved to be… far more peaceful than the original meeting that the centaurs of Earth had with other races, likely due to the difference in their advancement. After being suppressed by powerful monsters for so many generations, they did not have the same arrogance that their Earthbound kin once held.

Admittedly, few centaurs chose to leave their world to venture into Earth. This was true even after they established stable portals that did not require the centaurs to cross the sea. One trait that they had largely in common with those of Earth was a strong sense of belonging in their own home.

“Ten years should give them plenty of time to advance a bit.” I mumbled to myself, setting the alarm in the system to stop fast forwarding ten years after the invasion. I wanted to give plenty of time for those within my worlds to once again step out into the stars. And not just the people of Desbar, either. There should be no reason why others can’t–

My thoughts were broken off as a system

Announcement

appeared in front of me.

“Phoenix One, we are reading your approach on Sorii.” A voice spoke up into the radio, causing a demonic woman to chuckle. After the events of the last expedition, it was no longer deemed necessary to outsource the leadership for these missions to other races. With every planet working on their own programs, each world wanted to keep its own trained astronauts to themselves.

“Ashlin, this is Phoenix One. I have a visual on– holy mother, what is that…”

Captain Alice glanced out her viewport, looking down at the red planet below. Or rather, what should have been a red planet. There was… far more green that she had remembered from the latest scans. “Ashlin, are you seeing this?”

“Patching into external cameras, give me just a second. That can’t be right…” The latest view of Sorii from both the mana scanners and telescopes had shown that the progress was still mostly on schedule for their projected estimates. Now, however, over half of the planet had become either green or blue.

What was more shocking was the massive structure that could be seen on the surface. It was… a tree. A tree reaching up roughly a hundred kilometers, needing only minimal levels of zoom to properly make out. Its width could be estimated at roughly fifty kilometers along the canopy, with a trunk that was one kilometer thick.

“Phoenix One, redirect to site three and perform scans as normal.”

“…Understood, Ashlin.” Captain Alice nodded her head, feeling like this was the right call. A tree that grew that large in the span of a short few years… they needed proper information.

Making up her mind, she turned on the radio to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, guys, everyone log out now. It’s wakeup time We’ve got an unexpected surprise waiting for us below, and I want everyone at their best. We’ll be hitting orbit in ten minutes.”

“This is… surprising.” I muttered inwardly, before pulling up the information on this new race.

“These numbers… a ‘gender’ ratio of one to one hundred million… And only the ‘progeny’ are sapient?” I muttered, pulling up the images for both.

The example progenitor was a massive tree, its roots forming an entire forest around its primary structure. On the other hand, the progeny looked… almost like an elf. If an elf were made entirely of plant matter. Its skin was green with brown, wooden joints. ‘Hair’ made of leaves and vines sprouted from the top of its head.

Although the point cost was a full one thousand, seven hundred… I actually could see it being worth that. The various traits included with the race could lead it to become a powerhouse. The only question was… where did it come from. Locating the source of the race was easy, at which point I played back its history to see for myself what had happened.

In a way, it could be said that I created this race. In a way, at least.

On the planet Sorii, when the invaders from Vanity had attacked, I deployed a large-scale spell that had its roots in solar energy. Previously, the evolution of the transplanted plants had been accelerated in such a direction that solar energy became a fuel source for them. When I deployed this spell, it triggered a reaction with those plants…

With the increased fuel spurring an accelerated growth period, the plants were rapidly seeking out anything that could be used as fuel. At that point, they found a suitable fertilizer… a dead elf. The elf’s body was pulled underground and drained, genetic material mixing in with the plants.

Normally, that alone shouldn’t be enough, even if the elf was remarkably high level. However, I was constantly using my own divinity to fuel that spell, which enabled the plants to absorb trace amounts of divine energy.

Fuel to accelerate growth, genetic materials of a high-level elf, and the divinity of a god. These three coincidences merged with the natural evolution ability of Spica’s flora to trigger a much more startling change.

Pulling up the image of this new ‘Progenitor Tree’, I ran a scan on it. Its unique evolution process had me curious about something. Sure enough, I found my answer soon.

The entire tree had divine energy running through it! While not thick enough for the tree itself to be considered a deity, it was several times more dense than the average person’s divine spark. More importantly, the quantity was millions of times greater. Millions…

So that’s why one tree can produce one hundred million progeny. It uses its own divinity to do so. Its last sparks should be to create a fruit which possesses the seeds for the next generation’s progenitor.

Currently, the tree on Sorii was still in its growth phase. Despite that, it had reached a height of a hundred kilometers, hitting the atmospheric ceiling of the planet. At this point, it was instead beginning to grow outwards, and had already birthed thousands of young progeny.

I could see these progeny walking around with a carefree attitude, casually expanding the forest with the innate talents they possessed. Despite not possessing any classes, they were as good as any druid when it came to handling plants.

“Name the race… Sylvans.” I muttered to the system. I sent a message to Tryval, in order to alert him to this development. After all, he was the God of Plants, even if he rarely used that domain. In a way, he would be the sponsored ‘god’ of this race, until one of them grew into a god themselves.

That said, I didn’t hesitate to buy these sylvans. There was no downside to doing so, and they could perhaps help with many issues down the line.

“Captain, I’m reading multiple lifesigns below!” A voice called out to the captain over the radio. “Mana signatures are roughly a hundred times denser than during Eagle Five’s habitation. Picking up ki and spiritual energy readings, and natural energy movements show stage three terraforming progress.”

The terraforming process was split into five stages, according to the space programs of the Allied Worlds. Stage one was simple, transplant a small number of Spican plants and help them multiply. This would begin the process of cleansing the atmosphere and helping to revitalize the land.

Stage two was to bring in more plant samples from both Spica and another home world. The non-Spican plants would help keep the others in check with atmospheric requirements, so long as a druid was kept on standby to monitor their growth. Don’t want the Spican plants to overwhelm the others, after all.

Stage three was mass expansion. Bringing in a greater quantity of plants capable of bearing edible fruits and expanding the affected area until it covered the entire planet. Stage three wasn’t expected to begin for another century, even with the most optimistic estimates.

Stage four would be the introduction of wildlife, though they discovered that the system would largely take care of that for them. At the end of stage four, the planet itself could be considered livable.

Finally, stage five was the introduction of people to live in the world and properly colonizing it. These stages were meant to last a hundred and fifty years, and yet… a mere twenty years had passed since Eagle Five first landed. Sorii was apparently going through stage three terraforming already… wouldn’t the later stages come sooner than they expected, as well?

“Send the data back home.” The captain said, her eyes focusing on the planet below. Currently, they were flying at a height of five hundred meters, so she only had to channel a small amount of ki to see the details on the surface.

When she did, she could see figures walking about, from one tree to another. Every now and then, they would hold hands before moving on, or lean against a nearby tree. Some of them danced, and flowers spread out beneath their feet. Others held their hands in the air, slowly waving them as small clouds gathered overhead to bring rain.

At first, the captain wanted to dismiss them as humanoid monsters. While they didn’t seem particularly violent, it was always best to be careful. However, that was when she saw something unusual. A faint, familiar light enveloping one of the rain callers. The light of leveling up.

These aren’t monsters… for whatever reason, these are people as well. It had to be known that the only time a monster was capable of leveling up was when it was bound to a monster tamer. Clearly, there was no monster tamer involved here, as the only surviving member of Eagle Five had long since been returned to Desbar. The only explanations were that this was either a new race, or one that had come to this world while they were gone.

“I wasn’t prepared for diplomacy on this mission.” She said with a groan, as the presence of a recognized race meant that they had to take entirely different measures before they could claim any land on Sorii now. Even if they were technically here first.