I continued to experiment on Lace. And I even managed to make a pretty big breakthrough thanks to Azrezel.

After telling him about my problem he recommended that I try to create a new mind to think for me, and then somehow link my own mind to the artificial mind. I thought it was stupid till he demonstrated that very thing in a couple of his own undead, apparently his various improvements need a bit more brain power and that was the only thing he could get to work.

This got me thinking, connecting my mind to something like that would be pretty easy, I do something like that near constantly when I communicate with my plants. But figuring out a way to make a brand new mind to think with wasn’t nearly as obvious to solve. So I didn’t try to solve it, instead, I tried to improve the mind of a tree. I didn’t try to manipulate an old tree like that, it’s simply easier to control new growth than old growth. So I made a new tree, this one I focused on improving its mind with a combination of Astrie and Lace. I had no idea what I was doing, but intention was enough. And I know enough about plants to fill many of the gaps. I had a tree that had a lot more processing power than most, still not satisfactory but it was a proof of concept. Again, I had no idea what I was doing when I tried to link my thoughts up with the tree, but again, Intention was enough, if barely.

The connection I formed with the tree was strong, much stronger than my normal, much more passive, connection. But it still flawed in very obvious ways. Ways I can probably fix. Almost immediately I felt a crash of hair-raising pleasure and self-satisfaction. The tree was proud of itself, and I could feel every bit of that. It was rather intoxicating. Maybe I could figure out a way to do something similar with Azrezel when we are alone together?

Anyway, after proving that I could indeed make use of the excess processing power of the tree, of which there was quite a lot, I spent the day trying to figure out ways to improve both the processing power of the tree and my connection to it. With the current quality of the connection, I can make use of about half of the available processing power.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

One unexpected side effect of this was that it opens me up to the instincts of my grove much more than I was before, but when have my trees ever led me wrong?

Around lunchtime, I was interrupted by a loud popping sound, and a colorful stone falling into my lap. Demon Glass, arriving right on schedule. Teleported in by the looks of it. I wasted no time in adding it to my crown, taking a bit of time to improve the overall structure while I was at it. I could almost immediately feel my mana pool triple, and with all of my mana draining into it I felt famished. Luckily for me, lunch was being served.

Par’s soldiers started marching yesterday and tomorrow they begin their first siege. I don’t know much of the details about it as I am not really interested in military type stuff but I wish Par the best of luck, for more reasons than just the selfish ones.

We were also attacked here. Well, I was attacked. The potential assassins were subdued easily once their cover was blown, they were banking everything on a single crossbow bolt that failed to kill me despite the fact that it hit me dead on in the face. It would be a smart move if I was made of flesh and bone, but nothing important happens behind my face. They would have been better off shooting for the chest and gut, much more to mess up in that area. As it is all damage was easily healed and aesthetic at worst, yeah I lost an eye but mana based eyes are a cinch to replace. Again, it would have been much harder to heal the eye if I was made of flesh and bone.

Still, it did hurt quite a lot, I had to take some Flore for the pain. As a result, I may have used a bit more force than was strictly necessary, though Azrezel’s undead did most of the work.

It hasn’t even been a day since the ban dropped and I already have assassins aiming for my head, literally. It feels nostalgic almost. Reminds me of the siege of Pearlhold and will hopefully be just as fruitious.

That pretty much sums up all the interesting stuff from today.

Anyway, Good Night Diary.