Standing outside the estate, he gazed across an endless wilderness. This was the land he would one day cultivate.
While construction and development of the estate were still underway, there was no one around to observe the place apart from farmhands, servants, and construction workers. Donald planned to use his magical abilities to give the land a thorough transformation.
He opened the Book of Truth and, after browsing through most of the buildings and units belonging to the four major races and the neutral factions, turned his attention to the Night Elf buildings.
If there was one type of building that was both powerful and beneficial to the natural environment, it was the Night Elves' Treant buildings, which lived in harmony with nature. As an environmentalist in his previous life and a noble estate owner in this one, he had weighed the strengths and weaknesses of the buildings belonging to all four races. The Undead were out of the question. The moment units with an undead aura appeared before anyone, Donald figured the Temple of Agriculture and the Kingdom's various powers would join forces to wipe him out.
"The Human buildings have already given me a farm, and I have no use for the others for now. The Orc Burrow is pretty good: it has a concealed entrance and strong defenses, so it could serve as a trench or a temporary barracks. But I don't even have an army yet, so there's no point building one. The rest of the Orc buildings are too primitive and savage in style, and wouldn't suit a human's territory."
In the end, Donald decided the Night Elf buildings were the best fit.
"Every Night Elf building apart from the Moon Well, Altar, and Hunter Hall is a living creature. They can pass themselves off as trees and hide near the estate, then instantly become a defensive force if enemies attack. Treants are plant life to begin with, so turning into trees is only natural for them."
"The only problem is that most Night Elf buildings can't be summoned with energy crystals and other materials alone, unlike the buildings of the other three races."
According to the Book of Truth, Night Elf buildings were a kind of being that was half spirit and half structure. They needed not only energy but also a certain amount of spiritual power to sustain them.
Of course, they didn't need as much spiritual power as a permanently summoned intelligent creature. An ordinary Treant needed no particularly powerful soul—one with the spiritual level of a second-tier unit would do.
Plants and animals were different kinds of living beings. Plants needed little intelligence to survive, which meant their souls were simple and small. Even Night Elf Treants couldn't think as well as a Human Footman, or even a Peasant.
That was why the Book of Truth gave the Night Elf Treant buildings their own unique summoning requirements.
Though summoning them cost more spiritual power than buildings from the other three races, they had advantages that inanimate structures lacked.
For example, an Ancient Elf Tree was not only conscious and able to obey its master's commands, but could move around freely and actively attack intruders. Those advantages were more than enough to make Donald willing to spend the extra spiritual power.
The starting Tree of Life was rated as a fifth-tier unit by the Book of Truth, on a level with the starting heroes. Yet it could be summoned with only two hundred units of spiritual power. The cost was ridiculously low for such a powerful unit.
Over the past few days, Donald had also made time to visit the cemeteries in several North Shire towns and gather some spiritual power. Added to what he had left before, it was just enough to create a new second-tier unit.
"To get an Ancient Elf Tree, I'll have to set aside my original plan for now."
Donald spoke with some regret. Ever since creating his three subordinates, Clinton among them, he had come to appreciate just how useful absolutely loyal followers could be.
Aside from spiritual power, the energy needed to create the Night Elves' main base was comparable to that required to summon a Human Town Hall or an Orc Great Hall: one hundred and fifty cubic meters of low-grade Elemental Crystals, or fifteen cubic meters of mid-grade Elemental Crystals.
If Donald could have gathered enough materials in town to build at least a small town, and if a Town Hall appearing out of nowhere wouldn't have caused such a sensation, he would have summoned one of those large buildings long ago. He didn't even have territory of his own yet. If he did, he wouldn't have to build the villa little by little, and could save an enormous amount of time developing the estate.
"Just like the Footman's sword and the other items I summoned before, as well as the farm, I can use the necessary raw materials to replace some of the energy needed to create the Tree of Life. That'll save more than eighty percent of the crystal energy. Spiritual power, however, is a necessary expense. The road to becoming powerful is still a long one!"
"Night Elf living buildings are different from those of other races. The substitute materials aren't things like wood or stone; they have to be living trees. Long-lived species like oaks, pines, and firs are best. The taller and older they are, the more energy they can replace and the less I'll have to spend."
Donald didn't know whether other things were scarce in Green Cloak Forest, but ancient trees certainly weren't.
It was said that deep in the forest, there were entire groves of trees more than ten thousand years old. Even on the forest's outskirts, finding one several thousand or even ten thousand years old wouldn't be difficult.
Donald acted as soon as the idea occurred to him. He rarely spent a second-tier crystal core to summon a mount, but now he called forth a Hippogryph, a second-tier Night Elf unit best suited to flying through the forest.
Donald's build was about the same as a Night Elf Warrior's. He transformed into a Hippogryph rider, mounted up, and flew straight toward the northern edge of the forest, where his estate was located.
Green Cloak Forest had existed far longer than the Kingdom of Selt or even the oldest nations on the continent. Its origins could be traced back to the dawn of the ancient world.
It was vast and narrow, like a cloak spread open at the foot of the Cloud-Rising Mountains. It bordered North Shire and wrapped around three sides of the frontier where the Kingdom's central and southern territories met. If the forest and the surrounding mountains were counted, North Shire was undoubtedly the largest province in the Kingdom of Selt.
He wasn't there to hunt monsters, and he had enough money on hand, so to save time, Donald only made a round of the area where the forest's outskirts met its depths.
Even here, ancient trees towered overhead, and the canopy was dense. A hundred-year-old tree was just a sapling in this forest. Though he hadn't taken any exact measurements, Donald estimated that several of the ancient trees that caught his eye were more than ten thousand years old.
"You'll do!"
After circling the area, Donald chose the thickest and tallest tree nearby. It was a species of oak native to this world.
To the people of this world, the oak was a sacred tree. It was said that oaks had grown anew from the fallen branches and leaves of the World Tree, creator of the High Elves. The ancient Nature Druids, a race that had vanished from the continent, worshipped the oak as the embodiment of nature—as they would a father.
Standing before the massive oak, Donald ran one hand over its rough trunk. His keen mental senses as a mage detected the vigorous life within. He took out a crystal core from a fifth-tier magical beast and chose to summon the Night Elf base, the Tree of Life.
"Book of Truth, begin!"
Amid a golden glow threaded with vivid green light, the entire oak was enveloped. A few breaths later, the tree appeared again, completely transformed.
Its trunk and branches had grown several times thicker, stretching languidly as if waking from a nap. Its lush green crown swayed gently with them.
Perhaps because the tree Donald had chosen was exceptionally healthy and old, and had a spirit of its own, summoning the Tree of Life cost him just over thirty cubic meters of low-grade Elemental Crystals to transform its body—and, unexpectedly, a mere thirty units of spiritual power.
A faint, visible aura of Force of Nature surrounded the Tree of Life. Its branches swayed slowly as if greeting Donald, the one who had created it.
And it really was communicating with its master through the mental connection between them.
In its ordinary state, the Tree of Life was simply a tree with life and intelligence. It couldn't speak, but its intelligence was on par with that of a seven-year-old child, so it could easily communicate with intelligent beings through mental power.
Donald gave the Tree of Life an order in his mind. Its branches spread out, its sturdy roots pushed out of the earth, and the giant tree that had been rooted in the forest stood upright in the shape of a person.
In that brief moment, the ancient oak had evolved into one of the most ancient and peaceful of the legendary natural races: a Treant. Its physical characteristics had changed, too. Even the most learned botanist wouldn't have been able to tell, just by looking, that it had originally been an oak.
"Master... I will obey your orders..."
Beneath its crown was an old, wooden face. The Treant spoke slowly and stiffly, but its voice was unexpectedly childlike.
"My child, follow me. It's time to put down roots there!"
Sensing the newborn Tree of Life's deep affection for him, as if he were its father, Donald marked the spot in his mind. A narrow stretch of wild grass and brush lay between the large and small estates. It was where he had chosen for the Tree of Life to put down roots.
The Treant nodded slowly, then began walking in that direction.
Because of its size, the Treant could cover nearly ten meters in a single stride. But it moved slowly, traveling only about fifteen kilometers an hour.
Fortunately, night was nearly falling. No Adventurers or hunters were likely to stay overnight in the forest. Unlike the forest near Red Maple Town, the woods around Donald's two estates were closer to the dangerous depths of the forest and the monster-infested Cloud-Rising Mountains, so few people ever came there. The Treant wouldn't make much noise, either. One night would be enough for the Tree of Life to reach the estate from the forest and take root.
Once that was done, Donald recalled the Hippogryph as energy and returned to the farmhouse to rest.
Early the next morning, after breakfast, he went to the fence northwest of the estate. Sure enough, in the wasteland stood a massive tree, at least ten meters tall and thick enough that five people would have to link arms to encircle its trunk.
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