Resting at the Inn I lay Ava to rest for a while and look around the crater. Nothing has happened in any way, and I have kept my figurative eye on Leafy. No Messages were sent in or out the crater area and she seems a bit down.
While I could not read the letter, it seems to have sadden her a bit. Hopefully no death in the Family or something.
Although if Shimmering Petal kept her wish in her mind, she should not have told many Root of her being alive. So it should be an open secret for now, at least for the ones who have no high position.
As a plus point she has not made any attempts to reply for now. Hopefully it will stay that way.
…
Snow is a bit sluggish this night. Is it, because she is sad she could not go with me? I will see to find something delicious to bring her back. Maybe this will heighten her mood.
I have decided to keep Snow with me, as she seems to add to my positive side to the small leftovers of my humanity. I do not know, if it will help me completely, but at least I can try not to become a mindless Void beast.
While thinking of Void beast, the slime is close being finished taken over. It holds on with all might, but loses mass by the minute. It feels like digging a deep hole with a spoon. Albeit the spoon got bigger with practice, it is still a spoon.
Thinking of it as practice is the best way to describe it. Taking over Subject 1,2 and 3 (the Root Soldiers who tried mutiny, they did not deserve their Names) only took a few hours each.
3 is gone, as you could now fuse the Names and call them Red 3, but I am not some kind of edgelord who needs some kind of call sign as name, so Red he stays.
1 and 2 are in spirit stasis next to ghost, tailless and twin. Half of my Wolves are already gone. I need to be careful with them, as I am not able to force live Monsters into the Crater. They need to go over the drawbridge by themselves, and only small Animals care for right now.
While thinking about what to do, I start to think about farms. If wild plants are able to mutate, crops should have a similar effect. For this I think about creating a street up to the center of the crater. My ugly Obsidian shell in the middle can be a nice place to stop the Road. Right Now I am still not able to get completely there without stretching, but I can hold out with a radius of two Kilometer. If I would go out of the Village with my Domain and let the new Sphere take the work, It would be possible to maybe stretch far enough at day, but that would have so many problems.
I will not leave Leafy alone for her to backstab me, also the Gardens are right there, and need my attention for the flowing Miasma to work. Then there are the Monsters, who can be unruly sometimes and need a culling. No, I stay for the foreseeable future in the Village.
…
The new Day is not even more than a slightly reddened sky and I am already looking around. Most Farmers start to bring the next batch of food for the Food Shacks. Restaurants can they not be called, as their meals depend on the ingredients they can gather. Some Farmer sell in the morning, some in the early evening, but I was way too late for yesterdays Farmers Market. It is rather dirty, but the friendliness is way better than what Mercenaries will radiate in a few hours, when they take over.
Looking for things I want, I buy a whole stock of various things. Eggs with the strongest auras from a giant yellow chicken, a few white radishes, some corn, wheat and what could be some kind of rice, some live insects (the people are not that pansy with their food), berries and a few Fruits. With this my Backpack is already close to full again with things, that should grow nicely in my Domain.
As the Market came to a rather fast stop, after the first Bell ringing I start my walk to the Peddler King.
…
“Please inspect your Order.”
The books are rather battered, but it is normal, as printing is not a thing yet, and copying needs either magic or manual work to be good enough. Ilstin might have better books as they are more Merchant oriented, but they have no direct border with the Forest, sadly. The words are legible and all sides are there, so it is a plus. The alchemic book has some private Notes, as it seems to be someones prior apprentice book, but whatever.
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The Steel is a solid piece of Metal. I hope with taking over I can understand how it is made and can recreate it with my Iron. Maybe my Metals will then not that easily breakable.
“It is acceptable. Everything is here.”
“If there is anything more you need, please visit one of our Peddler King stores again!”
Yeah, only if it is easier to find, what I need. The five Copper fee is enough to stay at a cheap Inn for five days. One Copper is enough for a full days meal with meat.
“I will remember that. Bye.”
…
Traveling back is as tedious as towards. Maybe even more, as the muscles did not fully relax from the first travel. I might be back later than yesterday. Best I let Ava rest for his Muscles to heal, before removing the flesh, so the spirit has better muscles remembered for the next reassembly.
Traveling through the woods I wonder, when there will be an “accident”, but until now everything is like promised. The free passage might really be true, that makes my mood a bit lighter.
I might be a bit paranoid, but for now I can not relax as the Portal is my only way in, and if anyone understands that and seals it in some kind of way, I have lost.
Maybe when I understand the Portal completely I can relax, as I can maybe create a failsafe or backdoor, but right now I am building a boat in a bottle, except I am in the bottle and need a boat to travel ‘home’.
…
When I was back it was close to fully dark. It might be an exceptional sprint of over a hundred kilometers through a forest on foot but I am rather pathetic in hindsight what could be possible with Magic. As these death zones like the crater, the fungal and death Mountains and even the dark Forest have no resources worth losing their heavy hitters, no one cares to increase the scouring of the rims rather than what might be deeper inside.
Root are close to invisible and their higher ups might be able to do more in the forest, than just kill with Arrows. There might have been a time before Red when the Root have eliminated some elite search team, as all Countries respect the Forest.
While thinking about those things I finally enter the dark Tunnel and am home with Ava. Although I was always here, it is nice to not worry about my precious body and can now start the new projects.
…
Putting carefully the brought Items into the storage I relax the stress of the body and sit on one of the chairs. A knock shows Leafy noticed my return.
“Come in.”
Right afterwards Leafy shows up with a hot tea. I am rather parched in this body, so liquid intake should help out. Drinking the tea I start to relax even more as the warmth soothes the body.
“I brought some new plants I want to turn into a whole field. There will be large changes behind the Village in the next few days. Has something happened in the Gardens, while I was away?”
Right now I am not interested in what the Gardens do, but I want to test Leafy a bit more. Trust has to be earned and the Root started way in the negative before the Alliance was made.
“The Gardens are fine, although the water plants need a bit rest, they will drown otherwise on their own Water. The most important happening was not in the Garden though. I got a Letter from my Mother.”
Ah her Mother. Not the Tree kind but her flesh one. Tree relatives are precious, but blood relatives are too, for Root. Such a tight knit Community.
“Oh? Root were here, when I was away?”
“Only a Scout and he left before I could decline. The letter is rather formal but shows how happy she is I am alive. The problem is there was code inside. She called me her Sunshine, which does only make sense for outsiders, but she never called me that. The code is made so I write something Weather related to show if I am for example under duress as cloudy or caged with foggy. Rain is the code for indoctrination and if I use hail I am tortured.”
“So, you are telling me this, because…”
“As I said, I will strengthen our bonds between the crater and the Forest. I have seen what came out of those openings, and Root have no ability to fight most of these things.”
“Well that is true, but why do you explain me the hidden code? If you had not said anything, you could at least keep a small line open to your brethren.”
“That would be detrimental for what I am trying to do. The more honesty I show, the more you will understand the side of the Roots. We may be not perfect, but if I hide our deceptive side from you, then when those things come to light for you it would multiply the distrust you would have against us.”
That just means she told me one code, but there might be more codes and this was the one to make me relax my guard. I might be a bit too paranoid, as nothing Leafy knows about me is critical information.
“Well if you want to write back, you have my allowance. Please do not tell anything about me or what I am doing to the others. As long as we can stay friends, I will treat the Roots as friends and that includes you obviously.”
“Thank you. Do you want to read the answer, before I send it back? You can ask me to change things, if you are suspicious of anything written.”
Well, yes I would like to, but…
“No, it is OK. I will try out to trust you. I just hope it ends well.”
“It will, I promise.”
Yeah, write your Letter, I just peek over your shoulder with Miasma…