Chapter 13

“What is this?” I asked in a stunned voice.

“Follow me. You will understand soon.” Elder Yui said and then started down the tunnel.

By the time I recovered from my shock I ended up scrambling to catch up to him. I was starting to think that Elder Yui had even more secrets than I did. Scratch that. He definitely had more secrets than me. I just wasn’t sure if any were as big as the dimensional originator inside my chest.

After a few dozen feet we reached the opposite side of the tunnel. In front of me was what looked like the middle of a forest. Then I realized it was too small to be a forest. Kind of like how a lake wasn’t an ocean. There were a lot of trees though. And their canopy was nearly as dense as the foliage of the tunnel we had just traveled through.

Suddenly a woman stepped out of a tree next to Elder Yui. It surprised me enough that I took a step back and stumbled over a root. I fell down with my back leaning against one of the trees.

“Husband. You’ve come to visit.” The woman said.

It was only then that I noticed that she wasn’t a human woman. Instead of skin she appeared to be made of wood. I was fairly certain that she must be a dryad. Except instead of young and nubile this dryad looked old. When she was younger she had probably been stunning. But now the wood that made up her skin was old and gnarled. Which probably wasn’t surprising if she was Elder Yui’s wife and just as old as he was.

An arm reached out of the tree behind me and started to wrap around me. With a yelp I rolled forward away from the tree. Looking back I saw a second dryad stepping out of the tree I had stumbled against. This one matched my expectations of what I had imagined a dryad would look like.

She was stunning. It looked like someone had carved the figure of a goddess out of wood. Her hair was made of braided vines filled with flowers that trailed down behind her. If her face hadn’t been made of what looked like polished wood I knew that most women would have killed to look like her. Many had spent thousands at plastic surgeons trying to achieve what was probably natural for a dryad. My eyes continued downwards. She had an athletic body and pert C cup breasts with nipples that I couldn’t help but want to tease. I wondered if they were as sensitive as a human woman’s nipples.

It was about that moment that it fully sunk in that dryads didn’t wear clothes. In my defense since they were made of wood it wasn’t something you would think about at first glance. Kind of like seeing a marble statue that was naked. At first glance your mind merely thought of it as a statue. It wasn’t until you looked closer that you thought about what the statue was, or wasn’t, wearing.

“Father. Have you finally brought a mate for me and my sisters?” The dryad asked Elder Yui.

“Sisters?” I started to ask and then turned and looked back at Elder Yui. As I did I noticed that more dryads were stepping out of their trees. Like humans, each was different. Although each and every one of them was made of wood and vines. They were also each stunningly beautiful. Like if Aphrodite had decided to make women out of wood and flowers.

Elder Yui coughed, which drew my attention back to him. He gave me a slightly embarrassed look. “That wasn’t my intention today. Although from the looks of things I’m thinking Adam’s not opposed to the idea.” He said, sounding a bit surprised.

I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed when I realized that I had pitched a tent looking at the beautiful dryads. Although I had no idea why elder Yui was surprised that I was attracted to dryads. They were all amazingly beautiful. Even his wife would be considered stunning if her wooden skin wasn’t quite so weathered.

“We can discuss that later. Adam here wanted to meet the caretakers of the garden. He also has some questions about which plants release large amounts of life energy. I decided that I would like to introduce him to my family. Although I expected him to be scared of monsters.” Elder Yui said.

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His mention of monsters finally made me realize why he thought I’d be scared. For Zhao monsters were something on the edge of civilization. Something he never expected to meet. He had barely spent any time studying the monsters of this world.

Most people in this world would definitely consider dryads monsters. Although they were more peaceful than most monsters. Any intruder in their territory was either killed by the plants they controlled or disappeared never to be seen again. Practically everyone on this planet would have been terrified if they found themselves in a grove full of dryads. But as long as you avoided their territory they wouldn’t attack humans.

That was when another part of what Elder Yui said finally processed in my brain. “Wait, did you say your family?” I asked.

Elder Yui nodded. “Besides my wife, all the dryads in this grove are my daughters.”

Feeling a bit dazed I looked around and tried to count just how many dryads there were. I was guessing around two dozen, but it was almost impossible to tell. Considering how they blended into their woods, and had a tendency to go in and out of their trees, it would probably be impossible to get a firm count.

“How many daughters do you have?” I asked after giving up on trying to count them.

Elder Yui grinned. “No idea. I slept around quite a bit before I met my wife. It’s possible there are a few I don’t know about.” He said in a teasing tone of voice.

“I guess I deserve that for my reply earlier.” I said with a matching grin. “Let me rephrase that question. How many dryad daughters do you have?” I asked.

“Thirty eight. Although if my wife had her choice I’d probably have a hundred times more.” Elder Yui said.

The elder’s wife shrugged. “It’s in our nature to grow and multiply. Just like any other plant. Our grove is safe and I can’t help but wish to see it expanded as much as possible.”

“Perhaps Adam will help us expand the grove.” One of the other dryads said giving me a look like she wanted to jump me right then.

The look she gave me was intense enough that I actually felt uncomfortable. Especially when I realized that most of the dryads were staring at me the same way. Kind of like I was prey for a pack of hungry wolves. It reminded me that often mythology considered nymphs and dryads interchangeable.

“I know I’ve said this a thousand times. Expanding the grove further would be unwise. Most of the humans in the area don’t know you exist. If the grove is expanded too far they will find out.” Elder Yui said.

All the dryads looked sad and disappointed as they listened to him. Elder Yui sighed. “However, part of the reason I brought Adam here is that he may eventually be the solution to that problem.”

I gave Elder Yui a confused look. “How am I going to solve expanding the grove without clan Ashton realizing?” I asked.

“Once your space is large enough we should be able to transport the entire grove inside. Worst case we can then move the grove to a safer location. However, after doing some further testing it may be possible for the grove to stay inside your space. That would be the perfect solution. The grove will provide you with energy and your spatial area will increase. Which will give the grove room to expand. The only real issue would be figuring out what happens to the space if you die? Does it disappear, slowly shrink, or just remain? Hopefully a space mage will be able to give us an answer to those questions. Although contracting one that will keep their mouth closed will be difficult.” Elder Yui said with a grimace.

I looked at him with shock. “Wait a second. You want me to store an entire grove of dryads inside my space? And then you want me to have children with them?”

Elder Yui gave me a sharp look. “The first yes. I’m reserving judgement about the second. Even if they are dryads they are still my daughters.”

I shuddered a bit. It would probably be better if I stayed away from the dryads. Having a level nine cultivator as a father in law sounded like a terrible idea. He didn’t need a shotgun. He could probably get rid of me with just his pinky.

“First we need to figure out how to expand your space large enough to fit the grove. Right now you aren’t close to being able to fit a single tree. Let alone all thirty nine of them. Which is why I brought you here.” He said.

Elder Yui then turned to his family of dryads. “Girls. I need some advice. Adam here has a special ability. It’s a spatial based ability that lets him store practically anything inside. Even living items. He can absorb life and death energy that is near him or from anything stored in that space. Upon doing so the space increases. We need to figure out how to expand his space. What’s the plant that gives off the most life energy for the smallest area in the garden?” He asked.

“Besides for us?” One of the younger looking dryads said.

“Yeah. Mother gives off far more life energy than anything else in the garden. Even with how large our trees are, almost all of us naturally release more life energy than any of the herbs.” One of the older looking sister dryads said. By older looking I meant that she looked like she was in her late twenties instead of early twenties.

“Why focus on life energy? You should focus on death energy instead.” A dryad said in a quiet voice.