Tree Spirit Guard

For two days straight, Du Ke explored the area around South Lake. The Great Blue Forest was simply too vast; there was no way he could explore all of it alone. He could only begin by thoroughly understanding the geography around Earth Valley.

Moreover, mountains surrounded the area beyond South Lake. The trees in those mountains were especially towering, and one of them was probably a hundred meters tall, its trunk so thick that dozens of people could not encircle it. In such a forest, almost no light reached the lower levels. It was pitch-black and full of danger. Although Mind Armor protected him, Du Ke still did not want to venture in rashly. The atmosphere alone was truly terrifying.

"By my count, I've been in the Fantasy World for almost a week." That evening, carrying the Spore Powder from the fourth Devil Explosion Flower he had found, Du Ke returned to the sea of flowers for the night.

It was also that night that Shawa Shawa, who was in the midst of advancing, hurried back into her blue reed blossom after taking a mouthful of Spore Powder and giving him a quick greeting.

"Is she advancing?"

Du Ke watched the closed flower carefully. Then, he saw it miraculously shrink until it vanished entirely. He already understood that Shawa Shawa had gone to sleep among the blue reed's roots. A full hour passed before a new flower bud grew from the top of the blue reed. Under the light of the three moons overhead, it slowly bloomed with radiance.

The petals unfurled, and Shawa Shawa, curled up within them, stood and stretched.

She let out a crisp cry. "Ah."

Du Ke blinked, confirming that Shawa Shawa had successfully advanced. She was now three palm lengths tall, nearly sixty centimeters in height. Her overall appearance remained much the same as before, but she now had three pairs of wings. No longer transparent, they had taken on a faint grass-green hue while retaining their translucent texture.

She still held the Heart Flower Stamen in her hand, but she was no longer dressed in primitive clothing woven from petals and leaves. Instead, she wore an exquisite dress that looked almost like silk. Its surface shimmered with flowing colors, giving her an ethereal air.

"Du Ke!" Shawa Shawa flew up to the window of the bird's-nest dwelling and greeted him. "I advanced."

Her speech was far smoother than before.

At this time, the other flower fairies all flew over. They bowed to Shawa Shawa, then cheered her name together: "Shawa Shawa!" They were celebrating the birth of a new leader—the only flower fairy of the Sea of Flowers Tribe to undergo a second advancement since the old leader had passed away. Previously, Shawa Shawa had barely served as the flower fairies' leader by virtue of being the largest, but she had certainly lacked authority.

Now, she was unquestionably the queen of the Sea of Flowers Tribe.

"Shawa Shawa, you're even stronger than the old leader." Riding her Displacer Beast Spirit, Xise Xise also bowed to show her submission. A flower fairy like her, who had only advanced once, was not even half as tall as Shawa Shawa.

After the gathered flower fairies expressed their submission to Shawa Shawa, they flew off to play again. Carefree joy was the theme of their lives. Even twelve-year-old Xise Xise was the same, soon riding off stylishly on her Displacer Beast Spirit to play somewhere unknown. Other than the flower fairies who came to mooch off his air conditioning, the one who most enjoyed talking with Du Ke was still Shawa Shawa.

"The petals I shed turned into this dress. Pretty, right?" Shawa Shawa spun around proudly, making her dress flutter with particular grace.

"Did it give you new magic?"

"Mhm. I call it the Colorful Skirt, and it gave me a new spell—Tree Spirit Guard." As Shawa Shawa spoke, she waved toward a large tree not far away. Green light rose from her body before descending onto that tree.

The next moment.

The large tree suddenly began to tremble. Then its trunk thickened, its canopy curled inward, and its roots pulled free of the earth. The entire transformation lasted around three minutes. An unknown tree had become a "treant." Though it had not grown a human face, it could slowly walk across the ground on its bent roots under Shawa Shawa's control, while swinging branches that had become whip-like.

Most amazingly, it could use Earth Magic—summoning huge stones and hurling them into the distance. Perhaps it could be called the Rock Throwing Technique.

"So this is a Tree Spirit Guard?" Du Ke observed the strange tree at close range, unable to describe exactly what kind of existence it was. Was it a plant or an animal? Its bark remained hard, yet its branches could bend and extend freely, and it could even use Earth Magic. There was no way to give it a biological definition. He could only attribute it to the power of Magic Elements.

"How many Tree Spirit Guards can you summon?"

"My Magic Power is limited. I can maintain three Tree Spirit Guards of this size at once. The larger the tree, the more Magic Power it consumes. If a tree is extremely large, I might not be able to awaken it." After thinking it over, Shawa Shawa answered. Her fluency and vocabulary had improved noticeably. This advancement seemed to have greatly improved her intelligence as well.

Whenever he encountered unfamiliar flower-fairy words, Du Ke could only rely on Touch of Mind to communicate, then learn the new vocabulary.

That night, Shawa Shawa summoned three Tree Spirit Guards in one go, stationing them to the east, north, and west of the sea of flowers to protect her people. Though the Tree Spirit Guards moved slowly, taking a full minute to walk ten meters, they did not throw stones slowly at all. They also seemed to possess endless Magic Power and never grew tired, continuously using the Rock Throwing Technique without pause.

With the Tree Spirit Guards standing watch, the flower fairies of the Sea of Flowers Tribe gained another layer of safety.

"Predators often came to the sea of flowers to hunt us before. Now we have Displacer Beast Spirits and Tree Spirit Guards. We'll definitely be able to drive off many predators," Shawa Shawa said confidently.

The night passed.

Morning sunlight spilled over the land. Du Ke waved to Shawa Shawa and watched her return to her flower to rest.

After washing up, he ate some roasted meat and Spore Powder, then began exercising. That was when he noticed that the three Tree Spirit Guards still stood to the east, north, and west of the sea of flowers. Their roots were firmly planted in the soil, their branches spread wide, and their leaves bathed in the morning sunlight. They stood motionless and silent, as though they were still ordinary trees. Only their shapes were unlike normal trees, with trunks disproportionately thick.

Du Ke reached out and patted one of the trunks, but the Tree Spirit Guard did not react.

He stopped disturbing the Tree Spirit Guards, mounted his Mountain Motorcycle, and sped toward the forest in the east. Today, he planned to inspect a small pool in a mountain ravine, investigate its ecosystem, and see whether he could find more Devil Explosion Flowers or other valuable items along the way. The flower fairies could help him determine which things had nutritional value and were edible.

Several days of Spore Powder and magical-beast meat had made him feel that his physique had improved tremendously. He was probably even stronger than an athlete.