Comiak
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Chapter 204: Heroic Trees
🕑 Added 2022-09-20 00:53:59 +0000 UTC-
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Announcement: I am changing the tiers slightly. the 1$ five chapter ahead tier is now ten chapters ahead and the 4$ ten ahead is now fifteen chapters ahead. nothing major will change since we were already fourteen chapters ahead.
As for why I am making this change I am now posting to Fantranslations which pays a small amount per view from adsense so making that the new 5 ahead will hopefully be slightly more beneficial while give the free readers a way to support me at no cost to them.
I have signed no contract with Fantranslations and I am free to leave them at any time, and I wouldn't have done this if there was even a small chance of this hurting me or this story in any way.
AN: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google docs here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HNz0T60FGkJEy9JODqACR9sd5Rshhmf97kNiTuka6j4/edit?usp=sharing
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It is the evening after my training with the golems, and Kayafe and I have returned to the dungeon village to take a bath. The bathhouse is made of stone and has a constant fire under it to heat the water. It is very large as it is only one of three bath houses. The water is not as hot as I am used to, but we have to make do with what we have, right?
“Hmm,” I hum. If I can make an endless healing water source, can’t I make an always hot bath?
“Hey, Kayafe. With [Manipulate Magic], I can make it, so mana can’t leave a location, right?” I use a clone to help apply bathing oil to my long hair.
“Yes,” Kayafe nods, relaxing neck deep in the water.
I transform the mana in the bathhouse into fire mana to heat the water to Nexus temperatures and imbue with magic it so it can’t leave the bathhouse.
Warmth seeps into my body now that the water is at a proper temperature helping me relax.
“So, if I understand right, I can make it so mana can’t leave a location, but I can’t make it so mana will transform when entering a location with [Manipulate Magic]?”
“Correct” Kayafe nods with an approving smile. “The latter requires using [Manipulate Magic] on a location, not the mana itself, even though it affects the mana.”
“So the magic has to be applied to the mana, but can that affect things that are not mana?” I ask, my clones moving on to my tails.
“No, but in a way, kinda,” Kayafe answers. “The magic has to affect mana, but it can power and empower enchantments. So you can make an enchantment that does not require an influx of reserved mana, and you can make the enchanting effect far stronger. So it is through the effect of the Enchantments that you can affect non-mana things.”
So I can make more Entylamos, but Kayafe or I will have to renew the magic on it every now and then. That’s actually incredibly powerful; it’s essentially making a temporary magic item! The only thing it won’t get, though, is the tier bonus, so it will only be as powerful as I can make it.
“You never mentioned how long the magic lasts. Do you happen to know?” I say as I shift my tails to allow my clone to work on the next one, having finished with the one before it.
If it’s too short, then it’s not worth the effort to make things for commercial use.
“It’s about one day per skill level, long enough to matter, but not long enough for crafting purposes,” Kayafe says.
So just over two years. Kayafe’s right, two years is not long enough for crafting, which aims for longevity. It can change the course of a war by supplying an army with magical weapons, but it won’t keep the kingdom in power without renewal. For my personal uses, however, It’s almost perfect; I can renew the magic whenever I want.
I should take this time to practice making things with my newfound abilities, but what should I make? Item bonuses don’t stack; only the strongest one applies, so it’d be a waste to make something that empowers my beauty spells since my Dryad’s Grace staff does that. It didn’t have much use since my Kyhosa was better, but… Anyway! My Diadem empowers my minds, so I can’t do anything there. Perhaps I can upgrade my spear and dagger? It’s fairly weak to what I can make now. Plus, my armor. It never saw any use, and I hope I am never in a position where I need it, but maybe I can make it resist mental attacks and other things that I am likely to be hurt by.
I summon my spear from a storage ring to begin the upgrade process; however, I suddenly have an Idea! I put the spear away, much to Kayafe’s confusion.
Now that my manipulation abilities are vastly improved, I should be able to help grow the star tree, at least to the point that I might be able to harvest enough wood to upgrade my spear and dagger. I will have to replace the spear shaft and dagger hilt, but that’s easy to do, and the benefit should be well worth it; the star tree is heroic tier, after all.
I should also consider testing out my ritual ability from my title, and if I am going that far, I might as well try to upgrade my Diadem. If I can combine the tree items, I might be able to make the Diadem clones more powerful. Both Items have an ability relating to my clones, so it’s only natural that I try to empower them at the same time.
I get out of the bath after rinsing myself and redress myself while Kayafe follows suit.
“Are you going to explain your sudden idea?” Kayafe asks, correctly guessing my thought patterns.
“Just had a sudden realization on how to improve some of my items,” I say, “You’ll see.”
We leave the dungeon and fly to the pond where I planted the star tree seed, where it is still germinating.
I reach out over the enter Nexus with [Manipulate Magic], and with a mental command, all the mana starts drifting toward the seed, transforming to nature and beauty essence to help grow the tree. Just like how mana sustains me, the plants of this world can grow with mana, usually nature essence.
Millions of mana, perhaps billions, are consumed by the seed over an hour, the seed is unable to consume the sheer amount of mana quickly enough, and still, it doesn’t grow! It gobbles up more and more mana until I start feeling tired.
“Need me to take over?” Kayafe offers. “This is why most plant life isn’t above major tier; for some reason, the higher their tier, the longer they take to grow. Heroic tier plants can take over a thousand years to sprout, but once they do, their growth speeds up. Almost all plants that are Heroic or above received help like what you are doing.”
Well, that explains why it is taking so long!
“Thank you, I had no idea,” I say, letting Kayafe take over.
“Trees like this one are very valuable as a source of renewable resources. Normally one would need a timeless-tier material that regenerates even if it isn’t living. I once brought with me a seed for a crystal tree that was Heroic tier, but I guess it’s been lost to time.”
Hang on, a crystal tree? One’s is buried under the sea. There’s also one in the Lunaleyan lands, although that one seems suspicious.
“What did that tree do?” I ask. “There’s a topaz one on an island outside of the Nexus, but it has mind-effecting abilities, I think. There’s also a crystal one buried under the seas here.”
“It was a crystal tree that always shone with light,” Kayafe answers. “It must be the buried one.”
“I’m not sure how we can get it out, though; it would be very helpful if we had access to it.”
We don’t have a dredger, and it will be a monumental task to relocate the huge crystal tree. Papuyo only managed to get into the ruins by going in through a very tall tower. Well, it’s not ruins anymore since that cursed being rose the city out of the earth and restored it. Everyone should be moved out of it by now, which is a little surprising even though Safyr suggested not to live there permanently.
But the fact that the city was raised by magic gives me the idea that perhaps my rituals can do something similar.
“Actually,” I say, “I might have a way to retrieve the crystal tree.”
“Rituals?” Kayafe guesses, her tail playfully dancing behind her as she smirks.
“How’d you guess?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“Magic can do anything, and you’re the only one who can reliably cast a ritual spell, a magic spell.”
“Yes, but, we can do that once we figure out a good ritual to make it work,” I say with a shrug.
We continue to banter as the hours pass while we accelerate the growth of the star tree. Eventually, as the sun has passed the horizon and twilight arrives – at least that is my guess going off the feel of the sun’s light – the seed suddenly sprouts, rapidly growing before our eyes. The more the tree grows, the more mana it sucks up until we can’t feed it fast enough.
“I see…” Kayafe mutters, “It’s one of those that will only grow under certain conditions; I was starting to wonder why it was taking so much mana without even a hint of growth.”
Once the tree has reached a matured height, it starts to flower and fruit, shining star-like fruit, bathing the basin in soft starlight.
I wish I could see it like a normal person. I still have my own spectacle with colors of mana, but I really feel like I am missing out on the experience everyone else would have.
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Kayafe is enraptured by the mana being given off in beautiful patterns by the tree, like clouds of twinkling stars, showering the entire area with its beauty and nature essence as if to claim its domain.
What would it look like if she had her old body? Would there be motes of light floating about? Would it look like they are standing like giants among stars?
She can’t feel the softness of the chair she made, she can’t feel the warmth of the bath, and she can’t taste the savouriness of food. There is so much she is missing out on; it’s almost painful. Her memories torment her with everything she took for granted.
Am I going to be stuck like this forever? Kayafe wonders. Will her evolutions be able to give her the sensations she once had? How long will that take? Is it going to be one sense at a time?
She needs to know more about mana; perhaps there is another way to regain her senses, a way to change her current body to simulate what she once had. Perhaps Alysara knows something from her past life that can help her, even though that is a stretch.
“...Alysara,” Kayafe hesitantly says. “Is there anything you know that can simulate s— Uhh, touch?” She almost said ‘sight’, but that would have been very inconsiderate.
Alysara tilts her head in confusion but then opens her mouth in an ‘Ah ha!’ moment.
“Hmm…” Alysara puts a hand to her chin in thought. “While I know why a body’s sensation of touch works, I don’t know how it works. Or rather, I don’t know how to replicate the same thing with mana…” Alysara shifts her weight as her tails move expressively according to her thoughts.
Her people are very expressive with their tails, much more than even what she is used to. It makes it easy to read her body language, but that’s not always a good thing. Perhaps she should teach her how to hide her body language in case she needs to hide it?”
“Simply put, the body feels through… Information relaying… body functions… Like roads for messengers!” Alysara says, trying to find the right words to explain. “But the most important part is the brain that interprets the information into many different types of sensations like touch, pain, heat, cold, and so many more. The most difficult part would be trying to make the brain; I doubt that even if we had a hundred years, it still wouldn’t be as good as a real brain.”
“What about other senses?” Kayafe asks, trying to keep her disappointment to herself. “Are they any easier?”
But Alysara shakes her head.
“They all rely on the brain, everything the body needs or does ultimately relies on the brain, to put it simply. But we may have a shortcut! Maybe we can make a ritual to complete your body!”
A ritual spell for the tree, and now one for her body, they really need to figure out how to make them work.
Comments
Mr NerfGun
I wonder what is the tree's height. A heroic tree that has the beauty identity of cosmic awe has to have a significant height, right ?
Maxos
Hopefully she won't go psycho like Destiny's exo.
Pawzom Lz
I also found it odd that Kayafe would have a hard time getting the tree. Did she not escort the entire Runalymo people UNDER the ocean? Or maybe that part was made up and they just travelled on boats? I am guessing it will just be a ritual where all the runalymo provides some blood since they are descended from Kayafe as the basis for the new body or something along those lines? Aly's title will force the ritual to succeed. The result will depend on the ritual they manage to come up with. The body may be defective or if Aly is not specific about her intent and just goes: Help Kayafe get a new body, then the next instant Kayafe may turn into dust only for Aly to find out 1 month later shes pregnant... With Kayafe having fathered children despite being female and the Arc having modified the species as a result of that sooo many things here can go wrong.
Conor McGroarty
Considering manipulate magic is able to move such large quantities of mana, would it really be that difficult to move the sunken crystal tree to the surface (or just time intensive)? Granted we don’t know the exact size of the tree, depth it is stuck at or whether moving it could disturb any other ruins if they aren’t careful. But the tree shouldn’t be particularly fragile as it has lasted this long underground and is heroic tier. As for making a vitality-based brain for Kayafe, a shortcut would be having a copy of a brain (like a super brain scan with sense magic though need to make sure not to copy memories and only structure) instead of making one from scratch.
Pawzom Lz
I dont think any legendary creatures have been inspected so far? Edit: Gotta eat my own words here. I checked, and the only (Legendary) creatures that have been identified so far in the story are the Water Elemental Aly finds while scrying the sea and the Eldritch creatures that had a corrupted scan. This is just a guess but I think the reason Kayafe and the other legendaries around Aly have not been identified for us yet is because Comiak wants to get them right when we find out their info seeing as they will probably be very important to the story going forwards?
Collateral_ink
Maybe odd question here. Why has Alysara not inspected/analyzed Kayafe yet? Or the new tree, for that matter?
Mech Bagienny
If I remember correctly, it is a temple island.
Marek
maybe i didnt read it correctly. But where is the new hero tree located?
Luboš Hemala
I am most curious about the ritual to restore Kayafe's body. Perhaps it will involve all Runalymo and the newly fruited tree?
Pawzom Lz
Ironically, Aly's fighting style would make it so she would not benefit much from this personally as she is not likely to directly enter combat. Unless she can manage to get crafting materials to the timeless tier that is.
AClassroomSpider
thank you for the chapter!. .
Pawzom Lz
One thing Aly might be able to do to improve all her crafted items is to try to change a room so time flows faster inside similar to how she increases the space inside. That way she might be able to give them Historic tiers? This could be the magical crafting equivalent of tempering iron? Just here rather than figuring out what is too short or long, its all about finding out ways of making time flow faster without destroying the items that do not yet have historic tier, which protects them from time erosion. Maybe the room would require a spell to be regularly cast on it with manipulate magic for this to work? Then this would be another thing that sets Aly's items apart from other crafters? Maybe a ritual could make the spell permanent as long as it is fed mana?
Michael Otton
I'm not sure she even has "hearing" shes probably sensing the mana being moved by sound waves and is re-interpreting it back into sound. It's impressive but like Alysara's sight I imagine its not truly equivalent.
Andrew
Thank you!
White Neko Knight
They could use the wood from the trees as a base for the body.
Kenneth Baxter
I look forward to the potential “rebirth” for Kayafe.
Skia Elafris
Only hearing and her "sense mana skill". The skill is attached to her soul and has nothing to do with the body.
SecretsOfTheVoid
In this case, no taste, smell, or touch? Only sight and hearing? Which... I find unusual. If she has no "brain", how does she see or hear in the first place? Those visual and auditory signals are being processed by something. Can't we just magically have the other senses as well?
lan kanl
Poor Kayafe, Imagine Living But You Don't Have Almost All Your Senses.
lan kanl
First!
