The remaining part of the war was a systematic and slow dismantling of all the forces scattered around the Golden Sap Country. With Liu Shu's reach and the other World Trees and Life Trees guarding the land and towns, most harm had been prevented. Of course, the enemy numbers were just too many, so some isolated towns were caught in the battles, and deaths occurred here and there.
Liu Shu was omnipresent in her own domain, but she wasn't omnipotent. Her energy usage had limits, and therefore, she had some trouble defending everyone.
By the end of that day, Liu Shu's energy reserves were touching bottom, and she had been forced to dismiss the Arboreal Winged Serpents. Still, she was satisfied that most of the threat had been smashed down. All who fled toward the Wall Forest were devoured by the ancient forest, leaving in this way no people who could escape from the massacre.
One week after the day Evangeline was defeated, Liu Shu finally relaxed as she couldn't detect any additional enemy forces in her domain. "Done!"
Liu Shu relaxed her entire body as her constantly rotating energy calmed down. She was mentally exhausted to the point that she wanted to take a one-year nap and just lie back and merge with nature to refresh her mind. Of course, that was a good dream that couldn't come true.
[Do you want to see the
That single question was floating in the middle of her eyesight, as if telling her that she still had much to do. With a heavy sigh, she muttered. "Before that, have I completed the quest?"
[Negative.
"Only fifteen percent left? It jumped from around thirty percent to this much in a single war… I guess that the rest of the continent doesn't have many forces left."
The World Tree swung her branches lazily. "Ugh… I still have to deal with Warlya as well… I want to rest!"
Still, there was something that she was extremely excited about. "Experience Points! Level Ups! Hehehehehe."
Liu Shu quickly regained her motivation and spoke to the system. "How are you going to show me the Experience Messages? If you go one by one, we can stay here for hours."
[Compiling Experience Point messages…]
[All Creatures under Level 45 will give 0 Experience Points.]
[Creatures between Level 45 and 49 give between 6 and 156 Experience Points.]
[Total kills from Level 45 to 49… 264,497.]
[Total creatures killed above Level 50… 24,460.]
[Calculating tier-level relative and participation assistance. Experience Points earned are reduced from any non-direct kills…]
Liu Shu wasn't surprised by these messages. She had basically slaughtered a fifth of the enemy forces by herself, while many others had been killed by the wall forest, the soldiers, etc. What Liu Shu provided to her army was not killing the grand majority, but a battlefield where the other party was oppressed until they were helpless to retaliate.
[Calculation done! Congratulations, you've earned 42,548,931 Experience Points.]
"Eh?" Liu Shu's calmness was swept away when she read the number. "F-F-Forty-two million!?"
Liu Shu looked at how much she currently needed to Level Up.
Level: 67 [0/1,227,370]
"If Experience Points didn't go up at each level, I could Level Up 34 times. But, there is something strange." Liu Shu's branches tangled as she muttered, confused. "I remember the number being smaller…" But when she thought about it, she realized something. "Oh, right. The higher my tier, the harder it is for me to Level Up. So, I need more experience points?"
[System Hint: That's correct.]
"Wah… If that's true, in an Ideal World, you stay at F- Tier until you are incredibly high-level, and then you Tier Up. However… I guess that there are some disadvantages when you are low-tier, like the difficulty to complete
[System Hint: Once a creature reaches Level 100, the higher the
"Oh? Tell me more!"
[System Hint: Unable to speak further.]
Liu Shu harrumphed. "Che… Useless!"
[...]
Thinking about it, she snorted and glared at the system. "You seem to have thought of all kinds of things."
[The System offers a fair Experience Point distribution. There are no ways to abuse this system, as anyone attempting to do so will be heavily punished, regardless of their success in the endeavor. The System is just a window into a creature's internal workings and qualities that are hard to see with the naked eye. Trying to modify such a thing is nothing but trying to go against the natural order and manipulate reality.]
"Right…" Liu Shu almost forgot that, because the System numbers go up, it doesn't mean you will gain strength. First, you needed to gain strength so that the numbers would change. At the end of the day, the System changed those vague characteristics into visible and somewhat understandable numbers; it didn't dictate them.
Even then, when Liu Shu looked at the Accumulated Experience Points, her lips arched in a giant grin. "What Level will I reach with 45 million Accumulated Experience Points?" Taking into account what she had saved in the past, her current total was 45,670,400.
"Leaving that aside… Did I gain any title or something? I've made quite a large mess with those people, right?"
[System Hint: You've received no title yet.]
A big pout appeared on Liu Shu's lips as she puffed her cheeks. "Stinky!"
[System Hint: The system thinks you meant to say Stingy.]
"No! Both!"
[...]
Ignoring the abused System, Liu Shu turned to observe the land and her root-net structure. "So many… holes." She had blown up many of her roots while taking care of the armies and other stragglers. That was quite a good ability with enormous offensive capabilities. Although, as a result, she would need to blow up a large part of her root system and damage herself.
"I've blown up almost 0.05% of my root net… Ouch."
At first, that sounded like nothing. However, one needed to understand the dimensions of Liu Shu's root network. She covered half an entire continent and quite deeply into the sea. Point zero five percent of that area was a gigantic section of land!
"Okay… Let's recover this first and mend all my wounds and tiredness before I tackle Warlya's problem and the other half of the continent.
***
Meanwhile, across the ocean, in the mainland of the Abyssal Void Nexus, the leaders were gathered to discuss their future plans. "Once we conquer the Wild Continent, we can use it as a source of corruption to attack the rest of the World. That place has almost no one related to us, and we don't really need it. Moreover, there is too much wild plant life to comfortably set up a solid foundation while being bothered by the other three World Powers."
Another person intervened. "Sir, what if they lose against the World Tree named Tianlian Liu Shu? From our investigations, she is far from an easy target. We will want to keep an eye and make sure they don't lose against her."
That man in the lead pondered and didn't dismiss that opinion. "It is true that what we've discovered about the World Tree is quite problematic. She seems to have a strong
A hidden message no one saw suddenly took effect.
[
"Sir!"
Someone burst from the main doors and shouted, their tone somewhat urgent. "The
"Huh?" One of the
Another person walked quickly through the open doors before the first informant answered.
"Sir! Urgent information! Request to tell the news!"
The man was baffled but nodded. "Speak."
"We've spotted the three World Powers gathering forces and preparing an assault against us."
"So soon?" The man frowned and forgot about the Wild Continent matters. "Prepare to defend. These three powers are not that strong, but together, they are a threat." He muttered to himself. "Have they become antsy because we are about to acquire the
"Achoo!" Liu Shu's avatar blinked a few times, baffled. "Why did I sneeze? Am I getting sick?"
"Ma! Okay?"
A sweet and honey-like young voice reached Liu Shu, melting her heart. Opening her arms, the World Tree Mom embraced a young girl with a flower-like lower half. "Ah~. My Dewna speaks so well! Even if you are an Alraune, you are among the clever ones!" Of course, Liu Shu was exaggerating it a bit. Still, so what if her daughter was a bit… mentally limited? She was her precious baby! So she would receive kisses, pampering, and love!
The Alraune had already grown into the form of a young girl, her entire body exuding a strange and somewhat tangible natural charm. Liu Shu couldn't really detect it because of her strong willpower, but Verdantia and the others feared that someone would make a very big mistake toward the young Alraune, so they holed her up in Liu Shu's
Meanwhile, her other two babies were also somewhat grown. Her little son Eluan was also quite grown. Unlike the Alraune, he was dangerous in another sense. The young boy that Eluan could create with his roots was a supremely adorable little bun, but the scent around him was the problem. The young boy would make someone go "aww," but combined with the scent, the "aww" would transform into a crime.
Perhaps, because they were both Liu Shu's children, they were completely immune to their sibling's characteristics. So, both the Alraune and Farlune could play together without entering strange boundaries.
Looking down, Liu Shu saw a pair of large eyes from her Sylphaith daughter. Sylvia, being the youngest, was still drinking her mommy's nutritious breast milk. Her vertical mouth had entirely swallowed Liu Shu's ample bosom and was joyfully suckling away all she could. Liu Shu didn't find it out of turn as she showered Sylvia's face with kisses. "My baby always looks at Mommy with such loving eyes~. What do I do with you, baby? I don't want you to grow up so that you are always in my arms like this~."
"Ma! Ma!" Dewna bounced her lower flower body, lunging into her arms. "Me too! Me too!"
"Of course, of course~."
Slightly shyer, Eluan approached from behind, entering Liu Shu's embrace from below her arm.
The World Tree felt fulfilled with arms full of her children, while her roots could always caress and pamper her other plant children.
BANG!
Liu Shu and the three children jumped, startled, and looked toward the Petal Door. There, a red-haired Sylvan entered with an ultra-determined aura around her and dark eyes filled with desire. "Tianlian Liu Shu! No more delaying it! You will become my baby factory from now on!"
Liu Shu gulped and shivered with excitement. Her voice came out as a stutter. "W-Wait, let me put the babies away first."
Cinderielle ordered, her voice low and commanding. "Be quick!"
The aggressive and lustful gaze made Liu Shu's Avatar have soft legs as her core heated up. However, the last strands of reason allowed her to put the children away before her natural predator pounced on her.