Faith was an energy of the most mysterious kind.
As with the Blessed, the prerequisites for faith to arise were a "soul" and "consciousness."
Only living beings with both could become believers.
Based on Mu En's observations over the past few days, the word "faith" was actually a very broad term as far as he was concerned.
Fondness, yearning, respect, admiration, devotion, fanaticism... Almost every positive emotion directed at him could produce the power of faith.
The only difference was how much it produced.
For example, someone who merely felt "fondness" produced so little power of faith that it could be ignored.
Only upon reaching the level of "yearning" did someone count as a true believer, capable of providing a standard portion of the power of faith.
Beruto, before his conversion, had been at the "admiration" level. He alone was worth five or six ordinary believers.
By Mu En's rough estimate, immediately after Nausicaä's rousing speech, more than three hundred of the six hundred-plus villagers gathered below the platform had produced the power of faith.
That was hardly surprising. In a low-magic world like the Valley of the Wind, where extraordinary powers were scarce, his power was unquestionably a divine miracle.
After witnessing with their own eyes those wondrous abilities that could bring the dead back to life, restore flesh to bare bones, and conjure a stretch of fertile farmland with a wave of the hand, few people could resist yearning for such power.
The others, though they had not become standard believers, had still provided faith equivalent to that of a dozen or so people altogether.
Now, this seemingly insignificant faith, without form or substance, came surging in from every direction.
Mu En's Erdtree body, which had been in a constant state of deficit, accepted it all, devouring and converting the power of faith at a frantic pace.
The Runes it produced already amounted to several times what a Half-Knight Level Blessed like Nausicaä fed back to him.
Rain after a great drought, dawn in the depths of a long night-those were probably the best ways to describe how Mu En felt.
Before, he had been like a sponge dried to the point of cracking. Every Rune had been immensely precious, requiring careful budgeting.
Even the Wave-Type Erdtree's Favor just now had only looked grand and imposing. In truth, it had consumed far less energy than he had spent saving the forest.
But now, with the power of faith pouring into his body in an endless stream, the "waterline" of his nearly depleted Rune reserves began rising at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This meant that he, Mu En the Erdtree, had gained a firm foothold in this land.
Mu En was filled with excitement.
From this moment on, he no longer had to worry about quietly withering away because he ran out of energy or could not withstand the toxins in the air.
It was no pleasant feeling, that constant sense of urgency as he felt his life slowly slipping away, pursued by the shadow of death.
Perhaps it was because of his spiritual elevation, or perhaps it was because he had fulfilled some necessary conditions.
Mu En suddenly sensed something taking shape inside him.
"Huh? What's this now?" Mu En immediately concentrated and grew wary.
After all, even now, he still had not truly figured out how this body of his worked.
If he caused some huge commotion in front of so many believers, it would be a serious problem.
Fortunately, this change came about without a sound. The thing gradually taking shape seemed to be closely connected to his soul.
Soon, a space that seemed both real and illusory appeared within Mu En's perception.
The space seemed to exist inside his trunk, yet also seemed to float within his soul, which filled every one of his branches.
Simply put, it was likely some sort of domain constructed from both reality and spirit.
This newborn space continued to absorb the Rune energy that had just been converted, using it as nourishment to expand.
It did not absorb much energy, only about as much as could be converted from the faith provided by ten ordinary believers-an almost negligible amount.
At that moment, the celebration outside the grove was reaching its second peak.
Nausicaä was calling out names, having those being honored come onstage one by one to receive their awards.
But Mu En had no interest in the awards ceremony, whose proceedings had been decided long ago. Instead, he focused all his attention on the space whose outline was growing clearer.
"What on earth is this?" Mu En pondered.
He had a few guesses, but he could not be certain.
Only when the space had expanded to a certain extent and its outline and shape had stabilized did Mu En finally sense that it had "matured."
He could now also send his consciousness inside to examine it more closely.
But the instant Mu En sent his consciousness into the space and saw it in its entirety, he froze.
It was an incomparably familiar sight.
Above him was a dim night sky suffused with a hazy glow.
Beneath his feet was shallow water, still as a mirror, reflecting the heavens above.
Apart from the absence of countless towering phantom Erdtree images, this place was unmistakably the battlefield where he had fought the final boss, the Elden Beast, in Elden Ring in his previous life.
The domain inside the Erdtree known as the Stone Platform!
The Elden Beast was said to be an envoy sent by the Greater Will, the incarnation of the Golden Order-or, rather, the Erdtree.
Could it be that his true body was actually hidden inside this space?
Mu En immediately "looked down" to check, but saw nothing.
He was still observing this world from a perspective floating in the void.
He then spread his perception across the entire space, but... found nothing.
There was no Elden Beast, nor any other sign of life. It was empty and silent, as though it had been that way since time immemorial.
The space was not even as vast and boundless as it appeared. It had distinct boundaries and a structure like a "round heaven over a square earth," and its area seemed smaller than the Valley of the Wind.
His search had turned up nothing, leaving Mu En bewildered and a little disappointed.
Could it be that, like his Erdtree body outside, this space needed to keep growing before its purpose could become apparent?
Only when he was about to withdraw his consciousness from the space did he finally notice something unusual about it.
Although the Stone Platform had stopped expanding, it was still absorbing Rune energy.
And the point where the Runes converged was at the very center of the space.
Beneath the calm, unrippled surface of the water, a faint golden light was forming.
When Mu En looked closely at the golden point of light and saw its precise shape, he froze once again.
If he was not mistaken, that thing emitting a gentle golden glow, with natural golden patterns on its surface and a shape resembling the embryo of some enormous tree seed, was...
"...A Golden Seed?"
Only after another careful examination did Mu En dare confirm that it really was the Golden Seed used to upgrade the Estus Flask (Flask of Tears) in Elden Ring.
This seed was just a bit outrageously large, about the same diameter as a 1.7-meter-tall Tarnished.
Perhaps only the pulpy orange juice drunk by Yhorm the Giant King or the Fire Giant would be worthy of being upgraded with it?