As the stress built up, I quickly lost all desire for sex, and only a lust for blood welled up inside of me. It was times like this, I would head out to hunt monsters or bandits. However, given all my hunting within the last few years, no bandit camps remained.
Not even packs of monsters dared to venture 15km near out home. Thus, I didn't even leave my bed, but used elemental magoi to rid the bed of my sweat and filth while freshening the room without waking Ivy from her sweet dreams. Afterwards, I laid back down and scrolled through my system messages.
Honestly, I wasn't even looking at the messages. I was doing what most people do when mindlessly looking at social media or flippin' channels on tv. Eventually dawn came, and it was time to make moves.
As promised, I would go to the Ancestral Glade in the Emeraldshade Forest. Once there I will swiftly plant the Abyssal Treant sapling in the soil there. With enough time, the sapling will be purified by the dense magoi concentration and may have a chance to become a world tree candidate.
With Ivy, Katya, and Saphire in tow, we loaded up in our carriage and sped off to the dark elf settlement. I can remember when we first travelled there, it took us about 4 hours at night. Now I kinda wished we left at night. The way there was jam packed with travelers, soldiers, merchants and every Dick and Harry heading to and fro.
This congestion caused what should have been a 4-hour trip to be 6+ hours. That and, I can't kill bandits in the middle of the day... God damn those smug soldiers!! They're the only ones who get to have all the fun!!
By the time we reached the glade, I had only been able to fight a few monsters, with all other potential prey running at the sight of us. As we came to a halt, Elder Alamdarra had been waiting for us alongside the 2 guardian spirits. Not surprisingly, Byakko and Shenlong remained in their bestial form and loomed over the Elder. Greeting Elder Alamdarra, I began to explain our reason for coming,
"Greeting, Elder. I apologize for the lack of notice for our arrival. Our trip here is a bit abnormal to say the least."
"Greeting, young ancestor. There's no need to announce yourself prior to returning home. I take it your stay won't be an extended stay?" Elder Alamdarra inquired seeing how we didn't pack a considerable amount of stuff.
"Indeed, but only for a few days. After our business here has concluded, we will be heading west to the light elf settlement. Has there been any changes in the forest after we left?"
"None as far as the monsters or magoi density goes. On the other hand, more sprites have been born here in the glade, causing the area to expand a bit."
It was good to hear the glade has been experiencing growth on a steady basis. With the new additions, I have a strong feeling the glade will expand even more. As a result, all this growth will cause the forest to develop too.
I can't wait to see the new flora and fauna sprouting in the forest!! Then again, I hope I will be able to hide this development from the mage organizations and Duxley. Well... I will try to hide it at least until I am strong enough to defend it or have a great enough backing. Yet, this foreboding sensation keeps rising in my gut. Making my way to the island in the center of the lake, I got to work.
When it comes to planting treant saplings which are aiming to become world tree candidates, I have to follow a strict process. Unlike normal trees, simply placing them in the ground won't do. I will need to follow the procedure for the planting without skipping any steps.
The procedure is even more demanding given this is an abyssal treant sapling. First, I will need to alter the sapling so it will be able to grow in an area with such pure magoi and not the baleful energy the dungeon used to create. For this process, the five altars for the Elder Spirits and the Creator are needed.
I alongside the Elder, Ivy, and the guardian spirits will need to petition the Elder Spirits and the Creator to purify the sapling and return it to it primordial state. Afterwards, as long as our petition is accepted, we will need to create a separate area for the sapling to be planted. I had decided to create another small island within the lake for this purpose. But first, I will need to shift the landscape a bit before the new island can be erected.
Using both water and earth elemental magoi, I slowly began shaping the lake to create a more perfect circular bowl shape. Currently, the lake was elliptical with a very uneven subaquatic surface landscape. Remove the water and one would see the landscape was filled with many caves and small stalagmitic rock formations all along the uneven floor.
The biodiversity of the lake is astonishing given the wide variety of aquatic flora and fauna living in the various depths of this lake. It was more like an ocean and not a land locked body of water much smaller than a great lake. Looking solely at the landscape partitions, the lake itself is divided into 3 layers.
The first being a shallower layer with mostly sand. There grew finicky aquatic flora growing erratically like an overgrown garden. Yet it seemed to be managed by someone obsessed with detail.
The second layer was separated from the first by a 1000m dead drop. This slightly darker layer was home to magoi infused gems and metals. Additionally, a detailed cave network is located here alongside most of the aquatic magic beasts.
Lastly, the third later was separated by another dead drop, but this dark almost lightless drop was approximately 1900m. This layer reminded me of the area at and below challenger deep. Down here were small geothermal vents which were completely out of place for a lake. Like I said, this was more of an ocean instead of a land-locked body of water.
While I sculpted the lake, I came up with an interesting idea. Creating a bubble around my head in preparation, I began diving down to the lowest point of the lake. Once there, I headed towards the central most point and I placed the dungeon.
I watched it transform from a ring into a massive upside-down pyramid. Once swiftly formed, a phantom version of its formal ring appearance remained on my finger. I then made sure it floated into the most active geothermal vent.
Next, I began pouring magoi into the ring. The result… you guessed it, the lake began to shift and expand as the dungeon acclimated itself in this new area with the greatest magoi density I could think of. While working, I could hear Dori give me status updates,
"Alert highly dense and favorable energy source detected. Dungeon decontamination protocol in effect. Alert, Foreign entities not native to the dungeon detect. Please advise the correct measures to be taken."
-End of Chapter