"Today is truly a blessed day, my lord."

"You're right, akupa. It's way better than most days I've had since getting this vessel," he said, taking a sip from the amazing tea Medusa had made.

They both sat within a well-furnished tree house built within his own tree selves canopy, made from his own wood. He'd asked the monkeys to do it. He mainly did so to test out whether the spells his vessel held extended to his true body.

So, what was the result? Did he feel anything when the monkeys reverently chopped down other parts of himself?

Nope. Nothing. Zilch, Nada. That was what he felt. Even though they'd chopped down a bunch of his branches, he'd felt nothing. The spells—at least the resistances his vessel held—did extend to his tree-self. Though his true body was still limited even after the breakthrough. He'd transported his soul back to his true body and tried to use spells, and as usual, he couldn't move the mana outside his true body the way he could with his vessel.

And the house built from his wood turned out to be pretty interesting. For whatever reason, whoever injured stepped into it got their injuries healed, at speed, without a single scar being left on the skin. And he could also very easily enhance the durability of the house's walls such that even the attacks of Luna would barely make a dent in its wood.

As for the matters that had him and Akupara saying that it was a good day—one of the reasons was the creature that was currently tiptoeing through the village square.

It was an octopus. Yes, an octopus that could somehow walk, such was the strength of its tentacles.

And it had hatched from an almost dinosaur-sized egg. Not that he'd ever seen a dinosaur egg, but it matched the imagination of one. Ehlara, who apparently had a reputation for collecting dead monster eggs, had somehow managed to hatch a live one instead.

And now she'd gained the reputation for hatching odd monster eggs.

Xuan could see the deep affinity for the element of water on the creature, accompanied by the affinity of metal.

And since this creature had little to no particles of spirit particles, that meant it was a magic-born. And from what he'd seen, they tended to lack in the consciousness and intelligence department. Though, he wouldn't say this creature was wholly empty-headed. It liked being with Ehlara, and it made a U-turn whenever it saw him, even though he'd completely concealed his mana in his vessel state and appeared like some normal elf.

Ehlara herself was ecstatic like never before at having her own pet. As for how this octopus could live so freely without needing water—it was pulling ambient mana to its body through its monster core and processing it into water mana to survive.

Magic-borns had these crystals in their bodies that allowed for gathering and usage of mana. It was different from the crystals of spirit-borns in that all of their crystal cores were round and spherical, with zero variations in structure. And they only contained mana, with only a negligible amount of spirit particles.

And though the octopus could survive on the mana it sucked in, it was only enough to survive. The amount clearly wasn't enough for it to live well. He intended to give it a few lesser spirits of water. Those would aid in its processing of ambient mana into water attribute mana.

And the other reason which made the day so bright and bubbly for them was the execution of Raynair.

"Where is it going to be held?" he asked.

"It will be held at the place of Elaneth's former location."

That was unexpected, but in hindsight, it made sense. The bastard would be buried where he'd committed his greatest sin.

Right then, Xuan saw a procession of elders of Elaneth, including the chief, arriving at his palace. On the way, Ehlara and her octopus joined them. The octopus sat on her shoulders.

"Let's go, akupa," he said.

"Go?" Akupara questioned, but by then, Xuan had already space-flickered them to the front of the procession.

The elders got startled at the sudden twist in the fabric of reality in front of them and stepped back. They relaxed after seeing him and Akupara come through.

He probably shouldn't startle people like this, especially the elderly, but he couldn't control himself. Like, come on—he'd imagined himself teleporting around in his youth and surprising people, especially after seeing the many animated fantasy serials. And now he could actually do it!

He believed his impulsiveness would eventually be reeled in; the excitement of this new body that brimmed with magic was bound to eventually normalize.

Probably.

Elhelm and Slynera came forward. He exchanged greetings with them and got to the point.

"So, are we going there on foot? I can teleport everyone there if you guys are okay with it," he offered. Though teleporting this many people—about several hundred—was going to eat up a good chunk of his mana.

Elhelm's eyebrows rose at his words, while Slynera and Akupara broke into a coughing fit.

Naevhara came through in their stead: "My lord, I believe we'd prefer to walk there. We wish to revisit that place through the same path we've taken to get here."

He went on to explain further, but Xuan could understand the reason well enough. So he spared him the trouble and began the march toward the former village. On the way, Luna came with her super pack and offered her services. Naturally, they accepted, because reaching the former village on foot would take ages, and visiting the paths on the way was the main motive of their procession.

Rovan carried Raynair's box on his back as the pack broke into a wild run.

The Great Forest of Nazaria lit up with activity at their procession, as the various magic-borns and the still few corrupted spirit-borns ran fanatically everywhere.

It didn't take long before they'd arrived at the place of the previous elven village. Now a ruin covered with vines and small vegetation. The wooden pillars and stone foundations could still be seen through the thickness of the green layer above.

Raynair's box—his prison—was lowered down atop the spot of their former village square.

The process afterward—the life replacement execution—began in earnest.

Before, he'd wished he came here in person to watch this scum's execution. Though, as the process began in earnest, that desire started to dry up. The disturbed faces of Slynera and Naevhara he'd seen previously at the meeting finally made sense.

Elhelm laid multiple sharp and thin seeds atop the cleared ground, making sure they were partially buried. Raynair was then laid flat right atop where the seeds were placed. While Phaeron cycled his mana through the channels of his wood affinity and poured it on the ground right below Raynair's. And from the way he'd manipulated the essences, it was obvious what he was doing.

The wood mana converged around the seeds, and the energy of life nurtured them. After a while of this process, thin, snaking roots emerged from the seeds. They spread rapidly beneath the ground, tangling over each other, while the continued inflow of wood mana reinforced the roots and made them thicker and more healthy. Within minutes, the root system was developed, and small, pinky-sized sprouts emerged, pushing through the soil.

They pushed through soil, then the cloth over which Raynair was laid. Then, with a sharp pulse of wood mana from Phaeron, the sprouts burst forth and through Raynair, transforming into a sapling of bamboo. A shrill scream tore through Raynair's throat at the same time.

"You bastards!" he gritted out, resisting the obvious urge to scream. Though, unlike his mouth, his body wasn't so restrained; it shivered and jittered in pain as the sprouts of bamboo grew through his bones, flesh, and arteries alike. "And you," he looked at Xuan.

"You damned tree. Cough." He coughed out blood as a sprout of bamboo grew through his lungs too, the horrific display being clear as day to his eyes. Xuan almost wanted to run away at the gruesomeness of it all. But the man's last words kept him. How'd he figure out that he was a tree, when before he couldn't? He hadn't been let out of that box even once after being confined to it. "You'd pay! The ancients wouldn't let your kind live, you extinct freak!"

The rest of his words were unintelligible. All that came through were wet gurgles and growls as the bamboo sprouts grew to full size and sucked up all the nutrients from his body, leaving only a hollow carcass behind.

So that was the life replacement execution—replacing one life with another.

Such an execution would've been impossible to conduct on such a highly leveled individual, except if he hadn't used a version of Elder Sharon's spell to take away almost all of his mana.

Though that last bit he'd left with him. He was being warned of the so-called ancient races again. He wondered what connection they had with the spirit tree turned elves, but instead of focusing on the mumbling words of the now-dead tamer, he should've kept his attention sharp on his immediate surroundings, because a signal had popped in the range of [Demon]'s scan, and he'd been unable to react immediately.

"That was probably the winged snake."

He got the data from [Demon], and sure enough, it was indeed the winged snake. By simply getting into the demon's scan, he could get a rough feeling of the creature that had entered. But anything concrete needed to be found out after deciphering the extended information that [Demon] gathered on it.

He could've moved in to catch that snake upon it coming into his detection range, but the thing appeared and disappeared so fast and suddenly. He didn't even think to move.

"Its actions imply that it is just testing my range of detection."

Except he'd also sensed fluctuations of mana from it—fluctuations that were always produced when a spell was activated. Though, the system-given spell emitted fewer such fluctuations. It had probably used some spell to peer into Raynair's execution. And considering the timing of its appearance, as a summoned minion of Raynair, it had probably acted after getting some sort of distressed signal from its master.

Too bad. His master was gone for good.

Elhelm came to his side with a bright face. "You look happy," Xuan pointed out.

"Haha, am I?"

Yes, you are. He could swear he hadn't seen the old man smile this brightly before.

He'd thought of telling him about that winged snake. After a bit of deliberation, he dismissed the idea. Elhelm was in a good mood; it wouldn't be sensible to ruin it, especially now of all times. Plus, it had been kind of his fault for not going out to find that snake. After he'd teleported the thing away during his battle with Raynair, he'd thought of going back and finding it after finishing catching its master. Except he really doubted the thing would stay in place after seeing its master captured so easily. And with its ability to fly, he'd imagined the thing had long since left the forest after sensing its flickering mana signature.

But going after it right now would also be futile. It had probably remained in place after its master was captured because of loyalty—a thing he hadn't accounted for. Like, its dead prick master had driven monsters to the brink of madness and waited until they were greatly injured after their rampage to capture them. His mind simply couldn't imagine anyone being loyal to such a cowardly individual.

Then again, based on the legends and tales of old times back on Earth, snakes did tend to be rather cowardly and scheming.

…

The feathers of his wings brushed against the rough wind as he flew through the last stretches of Nazaria. The wind used to feel good, especially after he'd ascended to a [Feathered Serpent] from a mere [Sea Serpent]. He'd found the roughness of air more pleasing than water since then.

But for the past few days, he'd been all but unable to enjoy any part of his abilities, and that included the ability of flight. The extinct creature that he and his master fought had teleported him far away before he could land his strike—an act too cowardly and shameless for a proud true elf. And yet, he'd gone even further into the depths of shamelessness and driven him into the ground through teleportation. Teleporting someone into the ground was a rule few mages with morality and pride broke, but this being seemed to have no knowledge of such concepts.

And by the time he'd been able to get himself out of the soil of Cadia and the soil of rage, the signature of his master's life—his mana—had dimmed beyond recognition. His master's mana signature before was like a raging forest fire. Within minutes of him being teleported into the depths of mother earth and setting himself free of her clutches, Raynair's raging mana signature, which had grown even hotter and resembled a Royal Guard, had been reduced to the likes of a candle's flicker during storms.

And now he is dead. A master he'd served for so long was no more. He'd died in his journey toward domination. Since he'd been captured by Raynair, he'd shown an unbearable amount of thirst for strength—a kind of thirst that surpassed his own thirst for blood and urge for strangling anything that moved.

However, Raynair's aptitude and class clashed with his ambition and desires. He was more talented toward the class of a tamer than a warrior.

Creatures were never given formal classes like spells. Spells were system-assigned based on one's capability, talents, and feats. But classes were much more of an innate trait, like how rapid breeding was the trait of rabbits—that made one helpless when their desires mismatched with their trait, their class. Though, at high enough mastery, any class could show the effects of any other class. Thus, his master had figured out fusion and had gained the ability of [Beastly Crest]. He'd seen it with his own eyes—where his master had brought down a level 700 monster to its knees using that exact spell. And yet, he'd been helpless against that being of spirits.

And in the time he'd spent in that forest after being teleported, he'd been able to figure out the nature of that elf, and his master's last words all but confirmed it.

"An ascended spirit tree."

The kind of creature he'd only ever heard of in legends and from the tales his master used to speak of. Though, in Raynair's case, he believed in their existence and, in some way, wanted to one day capture and tame one—ascended or unascended. Having access to a spirit tree provided benefits that any king and emperor would kill to have.

In the distance, a castle of white stone came into view, with glowing patterns of runic blue running across its surface.

The castle of Lord Zavian Malaevorn, under whom his master and he had served for a long time. Their goals matched—wishing to attain all strength in existence—but they were limited by their talents and position. Though, recently he'd heard of Lord Zavian's escapades around the ten border villages.

It would do good for him to inform Lord Zavian of that spirit tree. Though he was cold-blooded like much of his kin, he still craved the destruction of that wonderful entity.

When one feels good about a being from their core, despite their minds and will clearly hating it, that contradiction is but a sign of weakness.

And the last thing he'd live with was the feeling of weakness.

...

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