This was the longest fight I had. Three days, three whole days he resisted until I had taken him over. Now I am sorting his memories and find rather few holes inside it. Must be because of heavy damage on his psyche. I found many nice things like herbal knowledge and even much needed territory knowledge. While sorting I will review his race for starters.
The root elves who call themselves the Roots are the first elven race known to walk the forests in general and they take extreme pride in it. They are the ancestor elves who are so close to wood sprites, they might even be a distant cousin of the dryads. The definite signs of their ancestry is the bark on their back. The Bark is the cast of bark of their mother tree, as the gestation of a root elf has more stages than normal creatures.
The first impregnation is normal and goes into a different Direction after they are born. With the placenta not at the front where the navel is but rather at the back of their body they are put on the bark of a tree. The placenta merges with the tree bark and starts a symbiotic lifestyle. I bet there is some kind of CO² exchange going for nourishment growing their bodies. While the pregnancy is only around a solar cycle (should be a Year in this World), the time an elf is growing on the mother tree is fifteen to twenty sol… well years.
It is fascinating how this works. They grow slow old and would, for this even have a pregnancy close to decades, but Roots circumvent this by lending the nourishment from trees for that. Even their blood is kind of green. Impressive!
…
I now know where I am. Starfall crater seems to be the name from the Roots. It is to the North of the Woods, which means I am on the south side of the World, as the sun travels over the northern Mountains I can perceive on the other end of the crater. The mountains might have a name, but for the Roots they are just ‘the mountains’ so nothing of worth there. The Woods are at least two hundred kilometers in diameter it seems and are formed slightly like an acorn. Red saw a map in the city of the Roots and knows it by heart for traveling purpose.
The ‘city’ is fantastic and I would love to see it myself, but the Roots are rather heavy Isolationists and rarely even let other elves in the city. Their city itself is made out of living vines and other sturdy Lianas to create whole streets on the top of the trees. If you do not know the city is there it would just look like another dark place in the forest without much telltale. Quite ironic for the Roots to live in the treetops, but okay.
About a square kilometer with multiple stories it is impressive to think this whole thing is made out of only living things and no processed materials. While the City is in the middle of the forest there are outposts hidden in the treetops invisible for even the most perceptible outsider. Around Starfall crater is no such outpost as they just look every few years if something did change in the circumference and stop worrying about encroachment from it. They more keep the other sentient creatures out of the woods as there is a rather by mouth non aggression pact between them. Humans do not go deep into the woods and for that they will not suddenly go missing. Rather brutal, but effective, as people stop cutting too much trees or find Monsters deeper inside.
The Magic of the Roots are primal in nature and only make plants do their bidding. This can be amplified with multiple members and could topple cities or even kingdoms if they really want to. If they want they could triple the size of the forest in mere months by infusing the growth speed of trees. They just don’t want to, as they are content with their freedom, and a bigger forest means more land to guard.
Their clothing is… non existing. Vines, leafs and pouches of bark are the most they wear and use. Art is also on the low end, with their best aspects of artistic prowess to blend perfectly with the environment.
The kingdoms around them are all the same in their sight. Grassers all the way and nothing else. By the way Grasser is their derogatory term for People other than elves. Even other elven races are not spared from their spite. ‘Pretty flowers’ they call other elves, as an insult as they are only flower, no root and as such useless.
…
Taking Red apart gives me luckily a spirit body and this means not only Monsters have them. I was scared about that at first, but now happy to be right with my assumption.
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No Miasma inside but still intent is there. Strange to see this fusion of plant and animal in a spirit body. It is a mammalian creature crossed with a plant in a rather strange way. The wood on the back is part of him and not some remnant of his mother tree. Oh, by the way, no bellybutton. Should be obvious, but it is an interesting thing to mention.
I see the bark is a part of the body, but it should be possible to remove it with surgery on the physical body and let the spirit adapt, like tailless has no tail. With more changes I could create a humanoid avatar I can use to speak and inspect other parts of the world. Unfortunately this will have to be far in the future, as I have more pressing matters.
For now I put him back together and his shoulder wound should be fixed. Next is to understand how his skin feels like. It is a long time moving a humanoid body.
…
It is hard to relearn how to walk on two feet again. Every step I take is wobbly and rather clumsy. I think four paws are easier, but then again it should be good training to move different bodies. Maybe I should capture a snake or a bird to have more knowledge about moving in different ways.
And one thing I could do without are the voices I am hearing. At first I thought I go crazy, but I can hear the whispers of the plants. They are no words or anything but more like kind of brabble. If there is a way to understand them, I can not. Well best ignore it for the time being.
Left foot, new center of mass, right foot, new center of mass, left foot… Woah, that was wobbly. This will take time to be used properly. I will have to train every day.
In the meantime I build a House for Red. He needs a place to rest, if I start to peel away the bark and modify him in other ways. Maybe I can catch another one and fuse them? It should make the body stronger.
…
While building a small mansion I create a small place for trees. The arrows Red had were in secret tree seeds, made to grow a shaft with nutrients inside to explosively grow inside the body of the one who is hit. The arrowhead is the seed. Rather sinister to make the pierced arrow take root and kill by wrapping, squeezing and piercing the internal organs.
With those I should be able to make more arrows and the best of all I can start farming wood. I need some better materials for doors, frames and many other aspects to become sufficient.
Sadly I still do not know how to create good metal wares. Iron and copper are nice, but they are not the best materials. I know about steel and it had to do with something of carbon, but would that make steel? Need to burn a few trees to get coal then.
While I am at it maybe I should start to build a whole base here. I am already invested in this place, so I can build the first area here, as I already have a body and right now am searching for a base to study the Worlds laws.
…
Tailless is out and searching for more plants. With the knowledge from Red I can say, with tailless I can now find things way better. I never knew there are Plants hiding under the ground and only quickly blooming, when they want to spread new seeds. The World is different with such knowledge.
Also I can now find more places where different plants grow. The local flora is rather versatile if you have the insight to look for it. Although Roots eat much tree sap and drink collected dew favorably, they know some edible plants hiding in the forest.
There is a kind of radish, that is hard to see, and some berries. They are not the best food for the wolves, but can be sustenance for a while for Twin. Boost did get disassembled for the time and I look after ghost to check for changes. Until now no changes are visible to me and gives me hope I can store bodies with this kind of trick forever.
Right now I am foraging for my garden, but I notice more and more small Monsters in the vicinity. Some look more fit than the desperate kinds I saw a few weeks ago. Maybe I can finally capture more Monsters for more tests.
…
The Mansion is ready. Red helped with it, as with him I can increase the growth of plants. The stress on the plants is rather high and they have a hard time to create new seeds, so I can not do that with all plants, but to get wood, it is rather nice.
Wooden frames and wooden doors. How wonderful to have something resembling civilization. Just you wait rock wheel, you will be replaced in the near future with a massive wooden gate.
While I try my best to create glass It is not the best. It has a rather strong tint and seeing through is not really possible but it lets in some light while not letting draft in. Final touches can be made later, but I am happy with it for now.
The Mansion is has two stories and is rather big for simple housing. The bottom floor has the entrance hall with stairs up while two separate rooms on the left and a large storeroom at the right. Up the stairs there is a small balcony leading to two more rooms on the left and two on the right. So I have six rooms and a storage. With this I should be able to make a library and write my findings down, while having a ritual room, experimenting room, alchemy room, rest room for Red and some to spare. I am starting on making glass jars for some things I want to preserve and have at the ready.
The next step would be creating a well and a few separate gardens for different tests. Oh, a Mine would be nice too, but I do not know where would be a good place for that. The mountains are way to far away for now.
I grow steadily and have a Domain of around five hundred meters but this is not even close to be reaching the other end of the crater. More metal should still be nice. What to do, what to do…