“Alright then. Get a good night’s sleep. From tomorrow onward, we have a busy schedule to maintain.”

“Yes, sire. I’ll look for you first thing tomorrow as you instructed.”

Licht bit his lip as he watched the bowing priest get up and walk off back to the residences. He still hadn’t been able to break the man’s habit of speaking like a medieval serf who was addressing their feudal lord, but Licht hoped that would change over time.

But maybe the priest was just frazzled due to exhaustion?

It was still far too early for anyone who required sleep to be awake, and Licht knew that a full day of work was waiting for the priest as soon as the sun came up. As toward the end of their conversation, Licht had explained some of his plans for the twins.

At this point in their life, their life in the grove was still under Licht's careful guardianship and protection. But in the future, possibly, or rather eventually, they would be on their own.

Licht knew that fighting was not native to them nor had they ever been taught. But they were strong children, and Licht knew that from past experiences they would understand the importance of learning how to defend themselves.

So the plans Licht had briefly talked about with Hemlock mostly involved several ways in which they could prepare the kids for the violence of the outside world.

Though it was a long shot for a priest to know martial arts techniques, he suited the role of a teacher more than Licht did. Sure Licht knew some ways to swing branches and roots around, but his assimilation into his new body made him unsuitable for teaching someone else how to use theirs. It had just been too long since he had reincarnated, and he was too used to the bodily sensibilities of an ego.

Plus, he figured in such a warring and medieval world, even a priest would serve as a better guide to combat than his twenty-first century mindset. He himself simply didn’t have the technical know-how that was required of a martial instructor.

But if the priest couldn’t come up with anything, which was what Licht was expecting, it wouldn’t change much anyway. Teaching them techniques was only a backup plan to what he originally intended to give them: equipment.

Equipment or weapons, Licht could at least see as being universally usable. Licht had none of the cliche thoughts that a guardian of the kids would often have in his position, thinking that providing others with tools beyond their means would cripple their own self reliance. No, they had all learned firsthand how cruel of a world it was, and the children deserved all the help Licht could give them.

Survival came first. Growth was merely something to strive for.

Providing them with weapons/equipment beyond their current skill was also just a matter of finding the right materials. A dense enough wood could smash through stone, and a strong enough venom could melt through steel.

At first glance the forest seemed to be a ripe basket of such materials, but this was actually the step Licht was currently stuck at, as he didn’t have the right materials to bridge the gap of the twin’s lack of experience.

It felt like he had a lot of projects going on at the same time, but the last couple years had been filled with much of the same. The only difference was that all of a sudden, a few projects were coming to fruition. He was actually hoping this new tree strain would solve most of his material issues.

As Licht finished that thought, the crevice of wood that had formed in the grove wall sealed up. Licht took a step back. His fibrously-crowned head panned as he watched the fruit of his efforts. A dense material was visible flowing through the veins of wood tangled all throughout the wall, passing through and darkening their hue.

“Now that the wall has been adjusted to my own body, when I upgrade the tree strain created with [Construct Body], all I’ll need to do to update the wall will be to introduce a small part of it, and the improved material will spread itself.”

That all said and done, Licht realized he had started to use this tree as a building material without even giving it a proper name yet. It would be tiring to keep calling it “the tree he made with [Construct Body]” especially when he might create other variants of trees for different purposes. That said, this strain of tree was made for the durability and self-repairing qualities of its bark and wood, so he wanted a name that reflected that.

”How about the steel…wait, no. That’s a little too cliche.”

He didn’t want a run-of-the-mill name for his first creation. Licht had created a unique species after all!

He felt approximately as emotional about it as he had naming his own children.

So he ought to give it its own name, relevant to its characteristics. This new species of tree could trace its origin to a couple of sources, so he could use their names as inspiration.

“Namely the Imperial Delia species, my body skill, wood manipulation, and some light skills. Hm…how about the Ironlight Delia Mk 1?”

Hmm, neat. It was almost a military-sounding name. “Delia” came from its genetic relatives and “mk 1” as it was the first of many. Licht didn’t plan to stop building off of this type of tree before moving on to other species.

Licht nodded to himself. The name carried just enough meaning that he could be satisfied that he hadn’t used a throwaway name.

”Now for the real test.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As mentioned before, Licht had made measures to store the Ironlight Delia’s information within his body so that he could replicate it anywhere. Now that he had confirmed its incorporation into the wall, he wanted to verify its properties before he replaced some of the more complex functions of the grove.

Licht held out his hand at eye-level and conjured a small sapling on his palm.

[Psychometric Observation]

[Ironlight Delia Mk1 (C+)]

”A temperate species of tree handcrafted by a Woodland Controller. Born from the flesh of that being, its very surface radiates the same virtues and attributes of its creator. Due to the process of its creation, it bears resemblance and functions to the Imperial Delia species in storing nutrients, yet features a far denser composition. Minor Virtue fragments of Light and Wood could theoretically be gleaned by condensing hundreds of such specimens.”

Licht read over the description. Everything present in it was to his knowledge, but the phrasing of the last sentence took him off guard.

“I suppose that’s right? That by farming and harvesting several hundreds of these trees, fully grown, that someone could probably condense a dewdrop of their related virtues. Similar to what’s given by my [Bestowal].”

Licht scratched his chin, careful to use his busy hand as he didn’t want to destroy the nascent sapling.

The details of the tree mentioned in its description gave credibility to the theory that one would be able to potentially farm these kinds of trees and condense a sap, one that would be all but identical to the effect given by his skill.

But would there be any reason for Licht to do so himself?

“No, my skill is still far superior in that regard, but going forward, I should consider carefully the kinds of virtues my trees are infused with. A sapling with a high level virtue falling into the hands of whoever has been targeting me would not be ideal.”

Licht frowned. Of course, he was speaking of the unknown party that had been sending over waves of obstructions over the past two years. In his mind, he was all but assured of the connection between the two parasites he had stored underneath the grove, and the fact that they must have come from the same organization.

Which meant that the parasite that had caused Racheal’s death, and the one that had led a caravan to nearly break into the Grove were from the same side. Even more, Licht suspected that this recent wave of serpent beasts were their doing as well.

They had failed the hard and direct approach, so now they were using a more subtle one.

Licht absorbed the sapling in his palm and shook his head. His next steps carried him further into the clearing as he moved toward the giant tree at the center.

Standing outside the entrance into the hollow interior, Licht slapped his hand against the abrasive exterior and willed the information of the Ironlight Delia to meld with the base of the giant tree’s exterior.

The sight of the phenomenon allowed Licht to shake off the suspicious mood he had fallen into. The area on his face-plate where his eyes would have been stretched in all directions as he chirped in surprise.

“It reacted just like how it had at the grove wall.”

Licht stepped back in satisfaction. To see the whole view of the giant tree’s transformation, it was necessary.

The stocky masses of wood that had previously made up the tree had been tightly coiled and wound together, like a conglomeration of tensed muscles. But that changed as the material of the Ironlight began to integrate, consuming the material it was in direct contact with and replacing it with its own.

The central tree began changing into a darker body of wood, growing in stature and gaining a large mass of branches at the top. The pattern of their growth was the same as the first Ironlight that Licht had planted in the forest, a winding series of spirals that flowed in a circular shape before flattening out.

The deep color of the bark that had displayed itself throughout the grove’s walls was also on display, and as the tree’s change began to finalize, Licht couldn’t help but let out a sigh of appreciation for the sheer beauty of the sight.

“How amazing, I’m starting to think I’m better at this nature thing then I thought. Nadda for two whole years and then I come out with such a hit? Who am I, Judas Priest?”

THRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH

Licht’s expression quickly shifted as the tree before him started to groan.

“Woah Bessie, what’s the matter?”

A moment before Licht thought the tree would finish with its integration into the Ironlight species, it started to shake and rumble, breaking up the land around it as roots started to shift.

The sudden event startled Licht, but his instincts suddenly took over as he stepped forward and laid a palm to the tree’s exterior. In a moment, he was able to figure out the problem.

“Oh, of course, not enough nutrients, huh?”

Licht manipulated some of the underground roots from elsewhere to plug themselves into the tree’s new body and start flooding in nutrients. Pretty soon, bundles of the familiar pear-shaped fruit started to grow down from the canopy. Their textures were glassy and pulsing with dim red lights.

“How could I now predict that? Of course, the integration of the Ironlight material has nearly no energy expenditure as it gathers all of the energy from the very substance it's converting, but it can’t generate what it doesn’t consume, like the fruit.”

Licht shook his head. Of course, the very prospect of the integration having such energy efficiency seemed preposterous, but he chalked it up to the magic of his [Construct Body] skill being at work.

“Wait…”

Licht froze. His construct body? That wasn’t right!

Licht looked down at his palm. How had he been able to diagnose the problem so easily? Licht reapplied his palm to the tree’s surface, immediately understanding what was going on.

“It’s seamless!”

His connection with the tree was no different than with his constructed body! And of course, why wouldn’t it be, when the two were practically the same? The only difference was that the tree wasn’t benefitting from as many of his skills and virtues, and wasn’t in contact with his core at all times.

“But the implications of this…”

Licht smiled, looking up at the giant tree, an organic behemoth that he could feel the wind and moonlight hitting every inch of, as if it were his own body.

“Almost seamless integration, no energy to maintain, and I can share its senses…”

…It could replace existing trees in a matter of seconds…

…He wasn’t constantly connected, there was no mental load…

…And it was tough, very tough.

Licht’s jaw started to drop as he finally understood what kind of organism he had created after two years of work.

It was like a plague, his new species of tree.

But that was perfect news.