Yggdrasil had grown by leaps and bounds since its creation. The root system was in the process of spreading throughout the entire world. Currently, it had connected with all vegetation within a 5,000-mile radius of its base. This covered all of South America and parts of the United States.
It was a little tricky for the roots to grow under the ocean. They not only had to travel out but deeper into the earth. The ultimate goal was to complete the expansion before the shield failed. Once the shield failed, Yggdrasil would absorb massive amounts of origin mana, which would allow the full plan to come to fruition. Yggdrasil was not just trying to expand; it was trying to connect to everything, creating a singular entity to help maintain balance on Earth. Once completed, the ultimate power would be ready to be charged.
The plan Cookie had come up with was instigated from an information pack. The knowledge required to create the world tree had activated once her bloodline was capable of the genetic alterations required to follow through with the plan. She still had no idea who had actually sent the information, but it detailed a total loss of close to 500 million lives in order for it to be successful. The sacrifices needed to have mana channels and at least the basic ability to process origin mana. The information explained that the origin mana linked each person's soul, which was the key ingredient in the power. Yggdrasil would absorb them along with their souls in order to activate its full capabilities.
This is why Cookie had decided not to share the details. She knew her father would never agree and would do everything in his power to stop her. The main antagonist they would be facing would annihilate everything without this particular skill active to help fend them off.
If her attack had been successful, her father would not have access to the creation and destruction portions of his bloodline—the only power capable of altering Yggdrasil’s genetic code. Now that he has bonded with the Matriarchal bloodline, his power should be slowly activating. It was just a matter of time before he had full access to his divine and void mana. There were only three known bloodlines with access to these, and one of them was still lying dormant. She was still unsure of how Peaches had access to certain capabilities and what her exact bloodline would end up as, but there was still hope that it wouldn’t carry the same capabilities. This was the first known alteration of the full Deca-Angelic-Formation bloodline in any universe. According to the information pack, there was no possibility of creating an offshoot of the bloodline like Peaches had obtained.
The next step in her plan was to locate the third bloodline with the proper capabilities to increase Yggdrasil’s growth. Cookie already had plans for Gabriella. She had received the original Green/Earth/Foundation bloodline. She will assist Yggdrasil in covering more of the Earth in vegetation, ultimately raising the power of the world tree. She needed the final creation bloodline on her side should there be a battle between her and her father. Once his power is fully active, she would have no chance of stopping him from continuing with his risky system that would allow everyone to live but surely doom them all in the end. She knew the system was required, but without the added protection and without sacrificing the required souls to increase the power of Yggdrasil, the universe would be doomed. Once the world tree covers the majority of the Earth, there would be no way to stop it without also destroying the planet.
As she sat contemplating everything, Hannah walked back in with two cups of coffee.
“I made it as strong as possible. I know caffeine doesn’t affect you anymore, but the flavor should be just how you like it.”
As Cookie looked at her friend with a grateful expression, she thought about how lucky she was to have her by her side through all of this. “Thanks, Hannah. It’s always nice to have some semblance of the past to remind me what life used to be like.”
Hannah smiled and took a sip of her own cup before speaking. “Have you been able to locate any possible leads?”
“After I altered the satellite to scan for the genetic requirements, I got 32 different possible leads. We need to monitor all of them and see if they show any signs of activating a bloodline.” Cookie took another sip, closing her eyes and making the expected “aahhh” sound after swallowing.
“I’ll create scenarios that will achieve the required stress level for possible activation, but I need to put up a shield on each person so my dad and his pet A.I. don’t realize if it does activate.”
Hannah took a sip of her coffee and realized that she shouldn’t have made hers as strong as Cookie’s. She could already feel the effects of the caffeine. “What do you need me to do?” Hannah asked.
Cookie looked at Hannah and smiled. She could tell she was getting a little hyperactive, and it made her smile. “Hannah, I’m sorry I can’t help you get mana channels yet. If we do it now, I would have to dedicate too much power to blocking you so my dad can’t find us. After we find the other bloodline, I promise it’ll be the first thing we do.”
Hannah took another sip, adding to her already jittery hands. “It’s fine, I know we need to do this first. Do you want me to go through the data the satellite sent? Maybe I can do that while you determine which person you want to test first.”
“Sure,” Cookie replied. “I’m pretty sure I know where I want to start.”
….
Chris and Riley were standing over the final monster. They had just finished fighting a small horde of gremlins just outside of Reykholt, Iceland.
“This guy was at least three times as big as the other twenty,” Riley said. “Do you think we got them all?”
Chris started searching the body as he spoke. “I’m not sure. Remember the mini-cyclops horde in Alaska? Once we defeated the boss, the rest just attacked each other. Maybe other types of monsters do that too. My map doesn’t show any more, but we should probably walk around and see if we can find any caves or holes they could have come from. We still need to find the mana spout that made these guys.”
Riley started looking around the countryside. There were a bunch of small caverns they could check, but she wasn’t looking forward to it. “Don’t forget, Mike told us that Peaches is evolving, so we just need to let Sim know when we find the mana, and she’ll tell us what to do with it.”
Chris jumped up holding something in his hand. “I knew it. These guys have magic items too. Check out this amulet.”
As he handed the amulet to Riley, she activated her analysis skill.
Item: Amulet of increased intelligence
Rank: Basic
Requirements: None
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Capacity: N/A
Durability: 2 of 10
Bondable: no
Skills: N/A
Shielded: No
Description: This amulet increases the wearer’s intelligence by 3 points.
“It’s not very good,” Riley said. “It only increases intelligence by three points. It’s almost broken too.”
Chris grabbed her by the shoulders as he replied, extremely excited about this find. “That’s not the point. The creatures are either using mana to create the items, or items are somehow being created by mana directly. This is the first one I can bring back to Mike and show him. The staff disappeared the last time.”
Riley looked at him and got a cheesy grin on her face.
“What?” Chris asked.
“You just want to be able to tell him that you were right and he was wrong,” she replied, snickering.
Chris made a fake offended look. “How dare you think that… okay, so what. He’s too cocky now. Just because he’s got all this power, he thinks he’s always right. It’ll be fun to show him up for once.”
Riley grabbed him by the arm, locking hers in his, and kissed him on the cheek. She got a sympathetic look on her face before responding in a mocking tone. “You’re right, my big strong handsome man. You were right and he was wrong.”
“Oh, shut up,” he said, just before leaning down and kissing her on the lips. She was about to say something else when Chris put his finger on her lips and teleported them back to Mike's house.
He had leveled his teleport skill up to level 28, but because of all the monsters, Mike had Sim bump it up to level 75. He could virtually teleport anywhere in the world now. However, depending on the starting location, it may take two jumps. Chris had a large enough mana pool now to make it almost instantly.
As they appeared in the living room, Chris started calling out. “Hey Mike, I have something you need to see.”
As soon as I heard him, I teleported directly behind where he was standing and looked at Riley. She shook her head with a smile on her face just as I winked at her. “What’s up, buddy?”
Chris turned around and had his sword that Sim had made in his hand in less than a second. I stood there dumbfounded. “That was the fastest I’ve ever seen you move in your life. That was freakin’ awesome!” I told him.
“Dude, it’s a good thing you’re immortal or whatever. I almost stabbed you.”
I just smiled. “You still can if you want.”
“All right, all right, Mr. All-Knowing and All-Powerful,” Chris said. “Explain this!”
Chris pulled out the amulet and handed it to me. As I examined it, I got a confused look on my face. “Hey Sim, what is this?”
As Sim explained what I was holding, my shock was apparent. Chris’s look became more and more smug as Sim explained it to me.
“It appears to be an amulet. Chris and Riley found it on a gremlin chief after defeating him. We do not currently have any answers on whether the monsters are creating the items or if mana itself is creating items where there is a high concentration on the surface.”
“So Chris wasn’t lying about seeing that staff disappear after it broke when he was fighting the cyclops?”
“Hey,” Chris butted in. “You thought I was lying?”
“Sorry,” I told him, “bad choice of words. So Chris wasn’t mistaken when he said the staff disappeared?”
Chris looked at Riley and then back at me. “That’s better… asshole.”
“It appears not. I am dedicating as much power as possible to finish the system on time, so even magical items I did not create appear to be hidden from me at the moment.”
“Did you guys find the mana source?” I asked both Chris and Riley.
“No,” they both said in unison. They then looked at each other before Chris started to speak again. “We wanted to bring that back right away so you could let everyone else know to look out for stuff like that. I also…”
As I thought about the ramifications of the beasts having magical items, I started to zone out what Chris was saying. I cut him off to talk to Sim. “These items could give them a leg up on some of the candidates helping clear everything. Sim, we need to do something about this. We can’t let people get hurt because we didn’t prepare them properly.”
“Agreed,” she responded.
“Go ahead and create a magical weapon, armor, wand, boots, or whatever will help each person. Have it give them a little boost that goes along with their preferred style of fighting. I'm good with some reasonably powerful items. I want it to help, but I don’t want these to be endgame items, understand?”
“Got it.”
“Okay, you guys go back and find the mana source. We had a few teams bring back solid mana instead of the liquid Peaches was absorbing. I’ve got them in a storage container right now. If you guys run into any, throw it into the ring and Sim will let me know so I can put it with the others.”
Chris had a weird look on his face. I knew he wanted to rub in the fact that he was right about the magical items, but I kept cutting him off before he could. It was hard not to laugh while I was doing it. “Alright, I will but…”
I cut him off again, this time hoping to get him to forget about being right. “Hey, I actually talked with Sim about your current stats and capabilities. She said you’re ready for me to unlock the +100 to all stats the ring gives you.”
His eyes exploded with excitement. He looked at Riley, and she was just as shocked. I gave him a little smile before I actually did anything.
“Alright. Ready?”
I focused a little and changed the ring's requirements and restrictions. I no longer needed to have Sim do things like this. I had enough control to alter things as I desired.
As soon as I removed the restrictions, every muscle in Chris’s body became stiff before he completely loosened up. I had not seen him smile this big since Riley and he had announced that they were officially a couple weeks prior.
I decided to scan Chris’s main stats. I had altered the analysis skill many weeks back because I got tired of seeing all the extra info that really wasn’t pertinent to my objective in scanning someone. It now reacted based on your will and could show everything or just the one stat, skill, or ability you were curious about.
Chris Spreckem
* Species: Human
* Age: 43
* Level: 21
* HP: 1653
* MP: 2148
* Stamina 3138
* Morality: 8
*Individual attributes list available
“Wow dude, that more than doubled some of your stats.”
Chris’s excitement showed through like never before. “I wanted to rub it in that I was right about the magical items so bad.”
I just smiled. I think he knew exactly why I had removed the restrictions right then. I wasn’t going to quit messing with him just because he finally proved me wrong.
“But now,” he said, “I don’t give a crap. Dude this is awesome. I feel like I could pick up a house. If you keep bumping my stats up like this every time you’re wrong about something instead of admitting it, I’m fine with staying quiet.”
I gave him an evil look before I finally relented.”You were right. I didn’t think it was possible and you proved me wrong. By the way, if you think you’re powerful now, just wait until you go through the Master tier upgrade. It’s a force multiplier not just an increase. Lifting a house would be as easy as picking up a child.”
I quickly flicked my finger and teleported them both back to Iceland before he could respond.
“I love having this power.” I told Sim “It makes everything so much fun!