Chapter 26

The next morning I woke up feeling like I was on the verge of getting suffocated. Groggily I looked around and realized I was practically covered in female bodies. Emma was laying against my right side and Kristen was pushed up against my left side. Surrounding the three of us were at least a dozen sleeping dryads. I had no idea how I hadn’t woken up previously.

The night before I had been wondering why I hadn’t seen any of the dryads. Eventually I was told that between fighting, and the movement of their trees, they had exhausted their energy. Which meant that they had to stay in their trees until they recovered some energy. Obviously overnight they had at least partially recovered their energy.

Eventually I managed to extricate myself from all the female bodies. A few of the women partially woke up and then went back to sleep. Amazingly I didn’t fully wake anyone up. It certainly helped that I was a level seven cultivator while in my universe. I was easily a hundred times more powerful than the average human. It was amazing how being stronger impacted how quietly you could move.

The prior evening a latrine had been set up along one of the edges of the universe. Fortunately the dryads just considered anything inside fertilizer. As long as the latrine was on the edge of the grove they didn’t care. They even made sure the nearby plants processed everything inside. So it was clean compared to what I had been expecting.

As far as food, the choices were limited. Every dryad tree was a bit different and quite a few of them were able to produce fruit and a couple even grew nuts. There were also a few types of herbs that produced fruit. Also some of the crops I had left in the dryad grove and been transported with the grove. Which meant that we had plenty of fruit and vegetable choices and a few nuts for breakfast. Anything meat or bread related was missing.

There were also a few birds that were egg layers in the grove. Although they were the size of quail eggs instead of chicken eggs. Which meant there weren’t nearly enough for a hundred people. Perhaps three or four people could have had a few bites of scrambled eggs. Or we could kill the birds themselves and a couple dozen people could have a bit of meat. For now I decided to pretend like the option didn’t exist. I’d rather eat vegetables, fruit, and nuts than deal with an argument about eggs and a couple of birds worth of meat.

An hour after getting up I found myself sitting around trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. That was when elder Yui found me. “Have you considered what to do once we escape clan Hill?” He asked.

I couldn’t help but shake my head. I hadn’t given it any thought yet. I had planned to slowly grow my strength while I was part of clan Ashton. The last day had completely destroyed that plan.

“I hope that I can depend on you to help me and the survivors of clan Ashton. If not and you want to leave us after we escape I understand.” Elder Yui said.

“Why would I do that? I get energy from everyone that is inside my space. I’d be a fool to kick anyone out of my space that is willing to stay here.” I said.

Elder Yui grimaced. “Unfortunately the environment of your space is terrible. It’s peaceful but I doubt many people will want to stay here.”

I frowned. “I know it’s a bit small. But that will change as more energy is absorbed.”

“It’s more than just the size that’s an issue. Since your core is shattered you probably can’t tell. The energy density here is terrible. Any lower and it would be considered a null area.” Elder Yui explained.

Now I was also grimacing. That was a serious issue. Short term it wouldn’t impact anyone living in my universe. Long term it meant that it would be nearly impossible for them to reach higher cultivation levels.

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“What do you think we should do?” I asked elder Yui.

“We should find a new place to settle. Perhaps find a clan that is willing to give us protection. That is what my wife and I did with clan Ashton. I provided them alchemy pills and access to the defense of a level nine cultivator. In return they kept our existence secret and gave us added protection.” Elder Yui explained.

“Would any clans go for that deal now though? You told me earlier that your strength is decreasing. We also have quite a few dryads and nearly a hundred clan Ashton survivors.” I said.

“Unfortunately I can’t think of any other solutions. Your space is great but the energy density issue is a serious problem. None of us will be able to become powerful living here. Even the dryads won't be able to gain much power living here.” Elder Yui said.

“We have a few days before we can escape clan Hill. Maybe I can think of a solution during that time. Or even just some alternative plans we should consider.” I said.

Elder Yui nodded. “I think we should all think about what we should do. Maybe one of the survivors will think of a good idea. Rubi has also been a good source of ideas recently.” He said.

For the next few hours I wracked my brain. I also talked to the other humans and even some of the dryads. There were a few ideas. However, they all had risks or potential downsides. For instance, I could become a merchant. With my space I wouldn’t need wagons to transport products around.

Another suggestion was to head into the wild lands. We could hunt monsters there. The death energy would help grow the universe. At the same time the valuable parts of the monsters could be collected. Then we could head back to human lands and become rich.

Talking to elder Yui I also learned quite a bit about this world. I was shocked to discover that he didn’t come from any of the human lands I had heard about. He had been an explorer before meeting his wife. I had always thought that the border clans that lived on the edge of the wild lands were on the southernmost boundary of human civilization.

To the north were the ice lands. Even level nine cultivators didn’t venture there. The further north you went the colder it got until it could kill even a level nine cultivator. There were also stories of terrible monsters deep in the ice fields. To the east and the west were two oceans. Nobody ventured beyond the coasts into the ocean. The creatures that lived in the ocean were even more terrifying than those that lived on land. Plus humans weren’t able to fight as well in water. It was suicide to try to travel across the oceans.

Many considered traveling through the wild lands suicide also. However, elder Yui was a human that had done it. On the other side of the wild lands were the beast plains. They were occupied by races that were half human and half monster. Although they were dangerous they weren’t as dangerous as monsters. They could be reasoned with and even occasionally traded with humans.

On the other side of the beast plains were multiple kingdoms. There were even other races. Dwarves and elves both had nations and traded with humans. Although none of the races were overly friendly with each other.

I was tempted to try to travel to one of these human nations. That would put us far away from any of our enemies. Unfortunately, elder Yui reminded me that I didn’t have the strength to travel through the wild lands. Even as a level nine cultivator he had only survived through luck. I may be immortal. However, dying hundreds of times trying to make that trip would be foolish. It would be better to wait until I was stronger before attempting such a journey.

Although that did give us one possible long term plan. If we didn’t find a good solution we could travel through the wild lands once I gained enough strength. Gaining that much strength may take years though. So meanwhile we needed a short term plan.

Hours later I finally remembered that I could ask the tutorial questions. I nearly felt like an idiot after I asked if there was a way to increase the energy density of my universe.

Universe can be compressed in order to increase energy density. As energy density increases the universe will need to be compressed an increasing amount to achieve higher energy density. It’s advised that you wait until your universe is larger first. The increased power of beings growing in an energy dense environment will not make up for the decreased space.

A quick inquiry about how much the energy density would increase versus how much the space needed to be compressed was a bit disappointing. It followed a curve based on square roots. Meaning if I wanted to double the energy density of my universe, then it would end up being a fourth the size. If I wanted to triple it I'd have a ninth the space. And if I wanted to multiply it by four I’d have to live with one sixteenth the space. It didn’t seem like there was a limit. However, there was a practical limit based on how much energy I had absorbed.