Chapter Fifty-Six

Inside the tree was an empty room. A room that was bigger than it should be.

Said room didn’t remain empty for long. A curved stairway running along the outer wall spiraled upward while wood benches topped with leafy cushions appeared.

A wood table lifted from the floor in front of the benches joined by end tables. However, something was missing from the arrangement. The positioning of the furniture alluded to a living room setup with either a fireplace or tv yet neither came into existence. A fireplace, for obvious reasons.

In fact, it made everything from wood or leaves of the same color as the tree. Maybe It could only use its own body to create the living arrangement. That didn’t stop the tree from creating a cozy living room or common room area.

Arden let the pleasant scent of fresh sap mixed with leaves reach his nose as the tree continued to fill out the room.

Its next creation appeared on the opposite side of the room. Countertops lifted from the floor with overhead and underneath cabinets. Even wood utensils formed in racks. Yet again it lacked cooking appliances, but curiously it didn’t lack a sink.

Did that mean it had indoor plumbing? Even his parents’ estate didn’t have indoor plumbing, but that was because of a lack of groundwater. It was too expensive to use water enchantments regularly, so they had to rely on bottled water and sand baths. As much as he wanted to check it out, he waited until the kitchen finished forming before checking it out.

Sola didn’t follow his way of thinking as she flopped on the couch, bouncing on the springy leaf cushion before sinking down. She nodded her head as if she accepted the furniture before doing the same on the rest of the seating.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t the one who asked for the living room arraignments. His focus was on sustaining themselves, hence the kitchen, but apparently Solanine wanted more comfort. Not that he would complain. The furniture looked comfortable, but it lacked something. A wall wasn’t exactly the best thing to focus on when seated.

That thought brought another change. The previously solid wall opened to reveal a top-down look at the clearing, including the pond now sported white water flowers floating on the surface.

Top down? Shouldn’t they be on the ground floor?

Arden turned toward where the entrance should be, but found it gone. A shiver ran through him, but the moment he thought about the entrance, it appeared revealing the clearing.

The mind-fuck was the window showed a vantage point maybe a dozen meters up while the entryway was on ground level.

He shook his head and focused on the kitchen instead. It wasn’t worth trying to figure out the tree. From the moment he resurrected it, he noticed it was special. He just didn’t know how special. Though the reality bending nature could be from the territory core fused into it.

It made sense that it could manipulate things. The territory core was a larger scale dungeon core, and he knew firsthand it was possible to mess with a dungeon from the dungeon core.

No wonder the capital palaces of cities looked so unique. Maybe they fused their territory core to the building. Not that he could find out.

He doubted they would freely give up that knowledge, especially to a fellow territory owner. Or maybe the odd designs were from throwing money at manipulators. He would like to think his budding capital was unique, but somehow, he doubted it.

Still, until proven otherwise, he would think the tree was special.

Said tree hummed in satisfaction, freezing Arden, but Sola seemed unbothered as she inspected each detail with a scrutinizing gaze.

While trying to put the fact he was inside a living being out of his mind, he focused on the finished kitchen. Though was it really finished? It was more like a work in progress. Unlike a manually built home, they could change their accommodations on a whim. At least he thought so. There had to be limits.

As if to show off, mind-bendingly detailed swirling woodgrain appeared on the counter but vanished a moment later. Still, it proved its point. The tree prided itself on its work. It had full control of what it created within its body as long as it was wood or leaves. He supposed that was a limitation.

The tree wasn’t the only one with such a material limitation. He couldn’t manipulate stone or anything not nature related and even then, he doubted he had the fine control of the tree. Maybe someday with a lot of practice, but not as he was.

Yet another thing he needed to work on. Or maybe not he didn’t know his limits. Something to test later. Knowing one’s limits was essential, though he doubted fine detail work would prove to be life or death, but who knew? Some dungeons required fine control to solve puzzles or die.

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Arden shook his head and approached the finished kitchen, skirting by the peninsula edged on one side by two leaf topped stools as he made his way to the sink.

Upon turning the faucet, a familiar green tinted mana dense water came out. Instead of a drain, the liquid simply absorbed into the wood bottom of the sink.

Curiosity sated, he turned the faucet off and turned his attention to the spiral staircase. Going by the lack of a certain snake, he wasn’t the first one to venture upward.

Like the floor, the steps had a perfect blend of grippy and slip for bare feet. Though if he wore footwear, he knew it would adjust.

When he reached the top, he found another small seating area overlooking the ground floor. A window gave a higher vantage point of view than the living room. Yet again, it seemed higher than it should be.

He put that fact out of mind as he directed his attention to the two doors. A quick prod of his bond with Sola told him she was behind the left door, so he opened the right door.

Inside, he found a good-sized bedroom with a bed, desk with chair. What drew his attention, however, was an open balcony.

Not because of the balcony itself, but the view. Unlike the previous windows that gave a view of the clearing, the balcony displayed the tops of stone and budding trees for as far as the eye could see. Somehow, the balcony showed a view from the top of the tree, or the tree grew even taller since he entered it.

Unable to resist, he stepped out onto the balcony and scanned his surroundings. His first assumption turned out to be the truth. Somehow, the balcony jutted out of a branch hundreds of meters up near the top of the tree. If it followed logic, he should be at most a dozen meters above ground, but the tree seemed insistent to ignore physics.

The tree gave him a perfect launching spot. That was probably the point. With the canopy looming over the entire clearing and even a dozen plus meters over the budding trees, it made sense to give him a launching spot.

Not that it would be terribly hard to fly out of the clearing. While the tree loomed over the clearing, the canopy didn’t start until well over a hundred meters up. Plenty of room to fly under, but he wouldn’t pass up on an easy launch point.

Arden dropped onto a chair provided to him, a content smile forming as he sunk into the surprisingly comfortable leafy cushion.

He could get used to living in the tree. It was like he was royalty. He supposed in a way he was. Even if his territory was mostly dead, that didn’t change the fact he was part ruler of a large area of land.

Was it dead, though? Every time he looked, more stone trees budded. Sure, it was a tiny fraction of the territory, but every tree within a hundred meters of the clearing returned to life, though most lacked leaves.

Maybe soon they would attract wildlife. That might be a while, though. Not only did they have to traverse hundreds of kilometers of stone forest, but the desert beyond. He doubted the desert dwelling creatures would migrate to the forest.

Movement caught his eye far below at the edge of Sola’s death zone. Alarm shot through him, prompting him to transform into his bird form to get a better view.

With a flair of his wings, he hopped onto the railing and perched as he stared down at the budding forest below, zeroing in on the movement, only to freeze.

Not one, but two small squirrels jumped from branch to branch, chasing one another.

How? There was no way squirrels could reach the forest so quick. From the books he read, they lived in wooded environments, but the nearest one he knew of was near Magna Vita Urbs thousands of kilometers away.

Did the dense nature mana spawn them? That would make them magical creatures, though. Not the mundane squirrel. They didn’t show any magical ability.

Arden looked closer, eyes widening when he saw the squirrels always landed on branches, even if they should have missed it. It was like the branches moved to support them. Maybe a limited version of wood manipulation.

His heart jumped as he watched the squirrels chase one another, enraptured by the mundane sight. Unfortunately, soon the squirrels soon left his line of sight behind a tree, but they weren’t the only movement he spotted.

The eyes of a predator flicked about, spotting dozens of small woodland creatures skittering about, some he didn’t recognize.

Hours passed as he watched the creatures go about their lives, unaware of the bird perched far above. Unfortunately, the suns had other plans. They soon disappeared from the sky, making way for three moons.

Unsatisfied, he activated his dark sight, but even though it didn’t stop him from scanning the forest below, the creatures were nowhere to be found. The shift to nocturnal wildlife failing to take hold or they were much better at hiding.

Without wildlife to watch, he soon grew bored. He shifted back and walked into his newly claimed bedroom. Upon moving to sit down on the bed, he realized he still held the tattered robes. He promptly tossed on the dresser top, followed by his bow and belt, holding the quiver and knife.

Disarmed for the first time since he entered the trial, he dropped onto the bed. Though he wasn’t truly disarmed. He had a deck of valuable cards and a magical staff.

As he laid back, the leafy mattress adjusted to his unconscious desires perfectly supporting his body.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around a living home, but he couldn’t deny what was in front of him. There were books on magical homes, but those weren’t living. They used a bankrupting amount of enchantments to imitate a living home, but it was just that an imitation.

How much was he worth if he appraised the epic and rare cards in his deck plus the staff? Hard to put a number on items he would never sell. He wasn’t poor, but it wasn’t like he was rich.

It was like a business owner whose entire net worth was their company. If they sold it, they would be rich, but since all their money was in the company, did they have liquid assets?

Of course, in the business owner’s situation, they could get a loan based on their assets, but even if that was an option, he wouldn’t take a loan. He didn’t feel comfortable not owning what he had.

Did he even need anything more material wise? He would love some magic tech, but he didn’t need it. Not that he wouldn’t buy some once he visited a city. A storage device would be awesome, but he doubted he could afford one.

Of his liquid assets, he only had a handful of cards to sell and some crystals. Though his spare poison resistance card had a fair bit of value, as did all rare-ranked cards.

His thoughts soon became muddy as the dream world took hold, bringing dreams of raiding magic tech stores for every gadget he wished he had growing up.

Unfortunately, his sleep was short-lived.

The tree vibrated, shaking him awake.