The Clone Project

The center of my effort for the past few weeks, and the bringer of change to the level at which I can project power upon farther lands.

It was born when I thought that it might be possible to assimilate other trees into my main body, unfortunately it is surprisingly hard to overwhelm the natural trees surrounding me, and they give minimal benefits besides providing a small percentage of their energy output.

The process usually involves trying to convert a tree into an extension of myself, but I need to not only strengthen the tree’s features to be more attuned to myself, but they weigh on my mind, the same way the blood servant weigh on me.

Though, it is not done through a skill which just increases the pressure with far less gain.

So I wanted to produce a tree that is an extension of myself, and does not weigh but improves my mental capacity, or at the very least, does not add anything to my already pressured mind.

So I started growing trees from my roots from scratch, unfortunately that is not so easily done than said. It took me tens upon tens of tries to call upon my natural instincts to grow for a single bud, to come out of the ground.

And this bud was a quasi-part of my body, where it both weighs on my mind while at the same not much but far more useful than its previous version.

It extends my range for the mental connection, slightly improves my mana storage relative to its size, and can handle a tiny amount of energy inflow from myself to lessen mana usage.

Unfortunately, it became parasitic for some reason, lacks a decent quality, and barely responds to any mental commands that I send to it.

So I worked, and worked upon it for it to improve as it is crucial to the safety and difficulty of continued expansion.

The various mana plants, some weak and some as strong as the mana beasts with an attribute, was deeply useful for increasing the level of my knowledge and in turn, the development of the project.

In fact, if I was able to obtain the Pink Flower, my estimates are that I should have been able to lessen the days I needed to spend by at least a week.

Maybe even lessen it further with the bodies of the Mind Bat, Quick Poison Snake, and the Lightning Bird.

But well, time is already spent and I have already gotten my desired results.

200 meters due north, is the first site of the new skill I got when I managed to make a decent tree clone.

[Branch Trees] is the new skill.

It is the ability to produce an extension of myself that can release a partial amount of my main body’s capabilities, greatly extends my mental connection range from itself, and makes the domination of surrounding trees profitable for myself.

It also increases my mana storage by a substantial amount, and increases the amount of my root coverage with little decay to the utilization, providing me with more land to absorb nutrients and especially atmospheric mana.

But their strength is relative to the strength of my main body, meaning they cannot grow bigger than the main body and their power is relative to my power.

So its full size is currently 2 meters tall, so basically a glorified bush, and the limit to their size is around 20 meters. They unfortunately cannot grow taller than that unless I consume a tree with a higher or bigger adult stage, directly modify them, or an upgrade makes the limit higher.

And I feel like they are a blank slate, containing plenty of potential improvements to their composition.

The surrounding normal trees and the trees between the branch tree and the main body have also been connected, but there is no attunement besides their submission and energy contribution.

For now, that is their only purpose but with due time, I believe I can diversify their uses further in the future.

But for now, I shall focus in creating the branch trees now.

Right now, the system tells me that I can create 100 branch trees, so better start growing now I guess.

Though, lemme check my status a bit.

Status!

<System Interface>

Name: Mikael Amorous

Race: Tree Spirit(Blood Tree)

Level: 25

Skills: [Hibernate], [Carnivorous Roots], [Mana Recovery], [Fruit Bearing], [Mind Eater], [Blood Aura], [Mana Detection], [Mind Control], [Magical Enhancement], [Mana Resistance], [Blood Servant], [Healing Roots], [Wood Melding], [Branch Trees]

Talent: Nature’s Child, and Environmental Regeneration

<System Interface>

I got [Wood Modifier] from manipulating wood and forming structures with it, like armor and weapons. It also gained a property feature by changing the concentration of red veins for the offense-type roots, and increasing the inner structure of the constrictor-types.

I’ve also been stuck in level 25, or rather chose to stay in level 25.

Level 25 is making me choose an evolution option the same way back when I grew my stalk.

According to the system, Level 25 is the point where one truly becomes a leveler and will gain an exorbitant upgrade in strength. This holds true for all beings under the system

For humanoids, it is where they finally gain a class while for monsters, it is where they experience their first evolution.

Right now, I have these options.

<System Interface>

Tree Options:

Greater Blood Tree

Bloody Elder Tree

Corrupted Mind Tree

Greater Elder Tree

Evil Soul Tree

Runic Blood Tree

Alternative Options:

Blood Treant

Soul Treant

Evil Dryad

Mind Blood Fairy

Royal Blood Fairy

<System Interface>

I have temporarily delayed the evolution process as I am not satisfied with the options that I am given, though I only decided to delay because I observed that I can still grow stronger without leveling and that the experience I get is stored, and will be used after I chose my path.

I am currently trying to find a hivemind-like option to maximize my survivability, something that has a strong core with the capability to kill strong opponents while having the abilities to maintain huge swathes of minions for power projection.

While there are some tempting options like the Royal Blood Fairy and Corrupted Mind Tree for the latter criteria, and the Runic Blood Tree and the Evil Soul Tree for the former, they lack far too much in the other side of the requirements

The Greater Blood Tree is just an overall increase of quality of current one I hold, but the Blood Tree path was never meant for controlling armies and maintaining a state but rather killing armies that comes to oneself.

That view about the blood tree path was formed when I hit level 25, and was given a view of one of the peak figures of the blood tree species.

Rabid hordes of the dead, led by an Undead Emperor, A blindingly white sea of soldiers with a Light Archon leading them, and finally, one of the Elven Nation’s Orders with the Arch-Executioner commanding them.

The Light Archon from a distance looked like a white sun, with the faint silhouette of an individual inside. With the assistance of the system, I was able to see that the person inside is wearing a loose silver cloak, with similar loose clothes beneath the cloak.

Within the opening of the silver cloak is darkness, like those of the starless night sky, with 2 white eyes with silver pupils being the only thing visible.

The Undead Emperor was not any less open than the Light Archon, with every inch of its body covered with thick and spiked black armor. The black armor’s surface is covered with tiny green markings, with no place where the eyes could peer outside.

On its helmet is a green-black crown that is attached to the helmet itself, releasing a steady stream of green mana that is far larger than the small amount of black mist that surrounds the body of the Undead Emperor.

And finally, the Arch-Executioner, which surprisingly has a normal looking attire compared to the other 2. He is only wearing a black suit that is eerily similar to what we wear in the modern era, in massive contrast with the green-gold army below him. His face neither looked too feminine nor too masculine, with a gentle expression constantly being donned.

He looks just like a normal human, with the exception of slightly pointed ears. And of course, the banyan tree that stretches behind him, which emanates an aura equal or even stronger than the Light Archon’s white sphere.

In that vision, I understood what the position of the prominent individuals as the system said their title when I looked at each their figures. In that moment, I felt like a single speck of dust in the presence of their auras, or a tiny paper boat in a storm that spanned the entirety of the solar system’s borders.

In the center of the 3 armies’ hate is a tree. It had leaves and wood that bore the appearance of something that would put even rubies to shame, looking like a massive tree sculpture made out of precious gems.

It stretched from the ground to outer space on a planet which at least a hundred times bigger than new earth, something that I knew when the system showed a new earth-sized celestial structure next to it. Most importantly, this planet is dead, with only weak dirt everywhere on its surface and depths.

And on one of its gigantic branches is a woman. Her eyes is filled with melancholy, her black hair swaying under the winds produced by the red aura of the blood tree, and her lips pursed as he gazed at the armies that came to destroy her.

She is an energy manifestation of the blood tree, or also known as the second coming of the Supreme Being of Blood.

Suddenly, the entire red tree started to shake and glow, its aura becoming berserk as it moves the energy hiding within its body.

A seemingly endless amount of patterns and words suddenly appeared above each army, every individual soldier resonating with the floating words above them.

The tree glow just continues to light up, its glow so blindingly bright that only being close to a supernova would match the crimson light’s brightness. The 3 commanders of the army just looked on with focus, as the energy of each army focused on them for an attack.

Still perched on the branch, the woman looked at the armies with the same gaze.

She raised her hand and whispered “Civilizations’ Doom”.

The entire tree lit up even more brightly as it released a torrent of red energies that rushed at the 3 armies, the wave of destructive energy being accompanied by wails filled with hatred and killing intent.

And that is the end of the vision.

Unfortunately, I never understood anything from that besides the absurd levels of negative emotions within the vast blast of evil mana, nor did I see the clash of the 2 forces.

I asked the system about it, and apparently a vision is given to every individual that reaches level 25.It is a vision for the most suitable available path for them, with it being different with each person or monster but always ridiculously over the top like what I saw.

According to the system too, it also gives visions of the most suitable path despite the lack of availability of that option, but I am not certain about that being the case for me as it is exactly what I would expect from having the greater blood tree as the option with the most affinity.

I also asked the system if what happened was real, and it answered no. Most of them are forgeries by the system, used to motivate those that desires for power and widen their perspective about the limits of the world.

The explanation sounds fine, but something doesn’t seem right though, I just can’t put my finger on it.

Either way, let’s continue working on the placement and growth of the branch trees now.

=====

{Month 2}

A large blue lake is surrounded by land in most directions, with the exception of the rivers that flow into it, and the rivers that goes out of it, and into the ocean. Southwest of this lake is a plain, with 2 rivers flowing from the lake.

Further within the plains until the large lake could no longer be seen, is a large settlement that could be considered as a city. It has an incredibly inconsistent and varied border walls,

Beyond the walls is more cement structures that is similar to what is inside the walls, but only the ones near the walls are barely in shape while the insides of the city is not any better.

The people seems to be working on rebuilding and fortifying the city, while some is constantly going in and out from the forest, south from this location.

Within the former Cebu city hall, the seat of government in Cebu city, are a bunch of people with different attires. They are currently within one of the rooms, seated on one of the large tables.

They do not emanate any aura, just a weird calm as they each do their thing while sitting on the table. Some are slouching on their chairs, some is constantly hitting the table with their fingers, some are busy reading a book or paper, and some are just calmly waiting for someone.

Suddenly, the doors are opened to reveal a fierce-looking middle aged man with 2 persons behind him. They enter the room with frantic footsteps and the fierce man sat on one of the chairs, while the 2 behind him just stayed standing up besides his chair.

Each of the persons within the room suddenly took out laptops, and opened them. They each fiddle a bit with it until a person appears on the screen of each laptop.

“Good morning, leaders.” The fierce man said when all of the laptops already have someone on them, his voice solemn while his hands are together and supporting his head.

No one made a sound from within the laptops, their eyes darting between each other, at least for the ones that they can see.

“Ahem. I am the representative of the forces of the Cebu Stronghold, and I can be called as simply Fire. I do hope that everyone would introduce themselves for this meet-up.” The fierce man or now known as Fire said in the same tone.

“I am the Boss of the Thunder group that currently administrates a part of the former territory of Lapu-Lapu city”

“I am the representative of the forces of Mandaue, nice to meet everyone”

“I am the Leader of the allied forces of Danao”

And the introductions keeps on coming as each person the screens of the laptops introduces themselves.

“So, shall we start the discussion now?” Fire says after everyone introduced themselves, with all 13 members present.

In the streets of the Cebu Stronghold is a woman in her late twenties, her eyes a bit lost as she looks at the horrible state of some of the buildings and the people trying to restore their respective places.

She takes a sip of the fruit juice in her hands, a bit grateful at the fact that she can at least rest a bit easy now. She walks through the tattered cement streets, passing by people, buildings, and even some blood stains still on the wall and pavement.

“Oh! Hello Fe, how are you?” Suddenly, she encounters an old man who is carrying an entire tree by himself, barely looking like he is struggling.

“Grandfather Jon, I see you are still working on trying to make a log house” She comes out of her enthralled state, and replies a bit cheerily at an acquaintance, clearly a happier that someone familiar is alive.

“Well, it is not every day that we can build a house without having to worry property and stuff. This also helps me level and all.” grandfather Jon replies with an equal amount of cheer, though there seems to be hidden emotions within such positivity.

“Still as opportunistic I see”

“So, back to my question, how are you? And also, where’s the little guy”

“Fine I guess since the place is calming down a bit. As for Mikael, he probably still hates you for that nickname” She thinks for a bit whether or not to divulge her uncertainty about his fate, but decides to keep it vague.

“Oh, I see, I see. Either way, how about you go to the eatery later this noon at that part of the Stronghold? It is my treat” He says while pointing at a direction.

She agrees to the little gift, and proceeded to just watch as grandfather Jon continues carrying the log, eventually disappearing into the mix of rubble and dilapidated buildings.

She sighs as she looks at the blue sky, the sun’s hot rays barely hurting her eyes at all.

After that, she continues to walk until she arrives at a surprisingly well preserved café. She opens it with a key that she is carrying with herself, and enters the place filled with dust.

The appliances are still in the same place as she left them, the chairs still arranged, and the tables empty. The dust is currently thick on all parts of the store.

She proceeds to open the door inside the employees-only part of the store, and opens another door that opens to a flight of stairs.

She then climbed up and saw the 2^nd floor of the place, with a similar situation to the floor below. She puts down some of her stuff and start working on the place, cleaning it and trying to fix the place as best as she can.

Eventually, she got some progress in cleaning the place. And she already covered the broken windows on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors first before cleaning, while using a broom, water bucket, and water to slowly clean the place.

Noon came and she had to stop cleaning her place, she looks around a bit and takes a look at her status screen.

<System Interface>

Name: Fey Amorous

Race: Human

Profession: Shadow Scout

Level: 27

Skills: [Shadow Merge], [Shadow Control], [Regeneration], [Detection], [Appraisal], [Stab], [Nocturnal Eye]

Talent: Shadows’ Friend

<System Interface>

She smiles looking at her status a bit, but it quickly turned into a scowl. She rushed at the place, where a lot of people are eating. She spots Jon and waves at him.

The loudness of the location is bringing some kind of semblance to the world 2 months ago. But many have changed, as almost everyone here has lost someone dear to their heart. May it be within, or out of the rubble of the city’s destruction.

[Author's note: Please do leave feedback, really appreciate it]