Unlike Lifre, Lena was well aware of why the locals were unable to gain high scores. After all, she had memorized the information of this society already. The first problem was the travel speed, which she had briefly mentioned previously.
The locals, who called themselves Woodborn, were capable of exceeding the speed of light, but only by roughly a hundred times when moving in a straight line. Compared to Lifre, who could use the Absurdity of Fate to transfer her attacks instantly to anything within her sensory range, or Lena who was copying Udona’s power to simply sap the life of the hive beasts, it was only natural that they lagged behind. Those that had already managed to obtain a score were likely those whose branch was relatively close to a hive to begin with.
Additionally, they lacked any large-scale attacks that would be capable of destroying an entire hive in a single move, due to the fact that they had always been forced to take the tree’s safety into consideration. The situation that Lifre created for them with this game might be favorable in the long run, but right now it would be impossible for them to get a high score.
In truth, what Lena was most impressed by wasn’t Lifre’s destructive prowess, but the range of her abilities. Given the astronomical distance between each hive, it would be impossible to use the Absurdity of Fate normally, just through one’s vision. Instead, she had to use a different method of sensing her target over such distances, integrating that into her fighting style.
The only reason that Lena was currently ahead in terms of points was because her power carried no risk of collateral damage to the tree. Lifre’s score was constantly being deducted, even as she detonated one hive after another, simply because her blasts reached the branches that the hives were hanging from.
On the other hand, Petra’s fighting style was similar to that of the Woodborn, as she didn’t have such large-scale techniques capable of annihilating the planet-sized hives. She and her friends simply teleported themselves into the hive to give themselves a head start, with Lifre and Lena both actively choosing to avoid destroying that particular hive so as to avoid taking them out of the ‘game’.
Really, Lena herself could simply destroy all of the hives at once with Udona’s power, but she didn’t want to do that. Lifre had taken the time to turn this into a game, and Lena did not wish to ruin her fun in such a way. Instead, she just made sure to always stay a little bit ahead of Lifre in the score… Okay, she might not have wanted to ruin Lifre’s fun, but she was still a little competitive.
Like this, she continued her assault at a leisurely pace, listening to Lifre cackling while launching flaming balls of death one after another. This continued on for more than an hour, at which point all of the hives on this section of the tree had been completely destroyed. The scores of the Woodborn were still slowly climbing, as were those of Petra and her friends, who had destroyed their second hive.
Lena, still in the body of Udona, turned to look at Lifre with a small smile. “Shall we leave the rest to them, or go and destroy some of the other hives?” She asked.
Lifre tilted her head, thinking about it for a moment. “Hmm… let’s kill some more!” She said with a beaming smile. “I mean, that’s what we’re here for, right?”
Lena chuckled lightly, nodding at that. “I suppose so. I was just worried that you would get bored fighting the same enemies for so long.”
“Well, yeah. But, if I didn’t wanna do that, I would have just written a spell to destroy them all at once!” Lifre pointed out, and Lena knew that she could have done it. In fact, such a spell would have been far easier to write than the battle game that she had created.
Lena smiled, her body shifting once again as she changed into Aurivy. “Well, let’s go, then!” She said in a chipper tone, golden mist wrapping around their bodies. In a flash, they were standing on another branch, with hundreds of hives that they could sense in the distance.
“You really are a cheat… and that’s saying something, coming from me!” Lifre said with a laugh, causing Lena to snort.
“Oh, please! I’m just too awesome.” She said, changing back to Udona once again as her voice grew calmer. “Now, shall we continue?”
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Estyle watched as Lena changed into a smaller, pink-haired female, before suddenly vanishing with Lifre. He looked around in shock, unsure of where they had gone. He had intended to keep an eye on the foreigners to monitor them, but they were now all out of his sight…
Not knowing how he could find them quickly, he resolved himself to wait for them at the branch that they had left. He was confident that they would return, if for no other reason than to claim the rewards from the end of the competition.
Thus, he waited. For another eleven hours, he stood with the book in hand. Until finally, a voice echoed through his mind, announcing the end of the game. Blue lights flashed, and hundreds of people emerged in front of the entrance to the wood. Estyle recognized his fellow Branch Guardians, nodding to them.
He didn’t even have to check the scoreboard behind him to know who would have won the game, as both Lifre and Lena had much too powerful abilities for anyone else to be able to catch up to them. “So, how do the rewards get distributed?” Lena asked, changing back into the appearance that Estyle had originally seen from her.
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“Give it a second!” Lifre stuck her tongue out in a playful manner. Suddenly, nine beams of light shot out, landing on nine individuals within the large group. Estyle was glad to see that three of the top fifty slots had gone to people from his branch, and was curious as to what they would have won.
The first to reveal their prize was Lena, who pulled a face as she looked at a jar in her hand. “Really?” She asked, shaking her head.
“What’s the matter? What’d you get?” Lifre asked in excitement, still bathed in her own blue light.
“A jar of Divine Awakening Pills. According to the item description, it can make a hundred gods.” Lena said with a shrug, walking over to Estyle. “Do you want this? I can’t use it myself.” She said bluntly, holding the jar out for him to take.
“What… what is it?” He asked, sure that he had misheard her the first time.
Still, she repeated herself. “Eat one of the pills, and you will awaken a divine domain. Oh, but each person can only have one, you typically can’t use the same method of ascension multiple times.” She said, shoving the jar into his hands.
Estyle was left shocked as he held the jar, holding it as if it were a delicate treasure. At the same time, Lifre’s reward light faded, and she jumped with joy. “Yes! I got my pen upgraded! Now it can write way faster than normal!”
It seemed as if the rewards were distributed in the order of their score. However, as things progressed, there was something that Estyle didn’t understand. Whether it was Lifre’s pen, the shadow weapons of Petra and her group, or even the rewards gained by the other Branch Guardians, they were all something that the individual themselves could use. If that was the case, why was Lena the only one to receive a prize that she considered to be ‘worthless’?
Unable to answer this question himself, he approached Lifre, the one who had constructed the game. At the moment, Lena was off talking with Petra, so he felt comfortable approaching the pale girl. “Esteemed Lifre, may I bother you to answer a question about this game that you have created for us?”
Lifre blinked, having been twirling her golden pen, and looked up at Estyle. “Hmm? Sure! What’s up?”
“I was wondering… how are the rewards created? There should be some manner of logic behind the process, but I cannot fully understand.” This was the most ‘delicate’ way that he could put the question, and Lifre hummed in thought.
“Well, it starts from the person that got the highest score, like you saw earlier, and moves down. I could have set it up so that the rewards were all handed out at once, but I set it up like this to make sure that there wasn’t any energy wasted.”
“So, once someone has been chosen for a reward, the spell looks into their mind, and sees what sort of reward they would like. Then, using the energies contained within the reward pool, it either manufactures that reward based on their desires, or enhances something that already exists. Like for me! I wanted my pen to be upgraded, because I didn’t want to sit around waiting for hours every time I make a spell like this.”
“Then, if there is any energy left from their ‘reward budget’, it gets added to the reward budget of the next person, and so on. If there is any budget left over after all fifty rewards have been handed out, the leftover energy becomes nourishment for the tree itself!”
Estyle nodded his head at Lifre’s explanation, but was still confused. “I see… in that case, why would Esteemed Lena have received a reward she couldn’t use?” He asked, looking at the jar in his hands.
Lifre giggled playfully. “Lena’s way more diplomatic than I am. She probably didn’t want a reward for herself in the first place, and instead wanted to receive something that would strengthen your people.”
Estyle’s eyes widened at that reveal. “What? I am not sure I understand… why go so far for us?”
“Far?” Lifre tilted her head. “Those pills really are useless to us, you know? Sure, they consume a ton of energy to make, and that’s why there are only a hundred of them. But if we really wanted to make gods of our own people, we could do so by the thousands. To you, this may have seemed like a battle of life and death. To us, this was just another game.”
“Lena probably asked for those pills knowing how weak your people are. If our civilizations connected right now, and a criminal came through, they could probably destroy an entire tree on their own, given enough time. Those pills will let you nurture some new gods, so that you can defend yourself if things take a turn for the worst.”
After saying that, Lifre skipped off happily, leaving Estyle stunned. Truly, the last twelve hours had seemed like a hectic bloodbath for his people, and there would have been countless casualties without the protections provided by Lifre’s spell.
As Estyle looked down at the book and the jar before him, Lena walked back over, a smile on her face. “Don’t worry so much about it. I did what I thought was best for everyone. Speaking of which…” She closed her eyes, and stretched out her hand, condensing a golden glow in her palm.
When the glow faded, there was a shining, golden orb. “Take this, too. You guys have a really primitive understanding of divinity, whether how to use it or how to ascend in the first place. Anyone who puts a bit of their mana into this orb will have the chance to receive a more comprehensive education.”
Estyle took the orb with shaking hands, feeling the weight on his shoulders growing more by the second. However, Lena didn’t seem satisfied by that. “Go ahead and use it. Don’t worry, it’s not a consumable. You can use it repeatedly.” She urged him. Although he wasn’t sure why, he did as she said, injecting a bit of mana into the orb.
Estyle’s mind was suddenly flooded with information, his eyes going wide. He even dropped the three artifacts that he had received that day, though Lena managed to catch them all as if she was expecting that. Once he recovered, she looked at him with a satisfied smile, handing the objects back. “There. Just so you know, I put a safety mechanism within the orb. If someone tries to kill you with the intent of hiding the knowledge contained, there is a single attack from me that is imparted on those who review the knowledge.”
“It won’t keep you safe from normal attackers, but if the attacker is just after keeping this information from spreading, it’ll trigger the defense. I was worried that someone might want to kill you when you come back with so many new resources.” Lena said in a serious tone, and Estyle blinked in confusion, not sure who would target him over something like that.