The Amber Sword volume 3 - Chapter 233 – The City of Trees

[A Nest with a portal in it. Looks like it connects to some other dimension. The way how it let us recruit the creatures is probably by summoning and negotiating with them for service.]
Brendel looked at the gleaming portal and threw in two Moon Crystal. As expected, it did not take long for the whirlpool of light to become even more dazzling than before, and a little head peeked out of the portal.
It was a tiny humanoid figure three inches tall. To put it more accurately, that was a proportionately sized miniature young girl with long curly hair, wearing clothes that were as thin as a cicada’s wings. Her body was emitting light and she easily flew in mid-air without wings.
She observed the surroundings with her body still in the whirlpool, then flew before Brendel and the others in an instant, greeting the youth politely:
“Salutations, Milourt.” Her voice was thin and her accent was a little strange. It was as if she was a foreigner speaking the Kirrlutz’s language in a robotic tone.
The girl studied everyone with curious eyes, not showing signs of fear.
“The word Milourt sounds similar to ‘my lord’, but it’s different from the idea of nobility. In the eyes of a magical creature, the person who possesses power is a natural ruler.” Medissa said.
“Hoh,” Romaine uttered a noise, though it was unclear where she understood the difference.
Brendel nodded without skipping a beat, different from the others’ reactions. He was familiar with these magical creatures because of his gaming past.
“Your name, race, and your abilities?”
“My name is Monika,” the girl chirped and introduced herself as she placed a hand over her chest, “we are Light Spirits, and answer to the request of protecting this holy land. We are citizens of the light and our abilities are for nurturing this World Tree Fortress.”
[World Tree Fortress?]
Brendel suddenly felt a sharp pain in his mind and he frowned. For some reason, this term was very familiar to him. He felt like he recognized it from somewhere, but when he searched through his memories carefully, he was unable to tell if it came from the game or he had heard about the lore in this world.
“The World Tree Fortress, or based on Milourt’s own words, calling it Valhalla would be fine. However, Valhalla is the second World Tree Fortress’s name, while is this is the third World Tree Fortress, and also the final one.”
“What do you mean by second and third? What is the exact purpose of this World Tree Fortress?”
“That exact purpose is unknown to us. Milourt, our knowledge is derived from the Legacy of Ether. Our memories are already in place from the time when we are born and I only know this point. Currently, the World Tree is in its initial stage.”
Brendel nodded again. It was typical for knowledge inherited from Legacies to be images and broken words. But his question was merely out of curiosity, and he was more concerned about Valhalla’s potential in the future.
“You say your abilities are used to nurture the tree, how do you do so?”
“The World Tree will grow slowly once it sprouts. Think of us as the gardeners, Milourt.”
“So I can say that you are the workers that this city brought along all by itself?”
Monika nodded: “You can say that as well, but we can build this city according to your designs, Milourt.”
“What exactly can you build?”
“I cannot do it alone, the Light Spirits are not omnipotent! I need more of my clansmen to work with me. If I have one, two, three more Light Spirits, I can help Milourt to build a Tree Nest.”
“What’s a Tree Nest?” Brendel was very familiar with Aouine’s building structures, including Noble’s Barracks and Smithery, including a few high-end ones as well, but he had never heard of a Tree Nest before.
“A Tree Nest nurtures Ancient Plant Whiskers, and these Treants are the most basic defensive framework of the World Tree. Their strength is close to a Gold-ranker, but they are unable to leave beyond the World Tree’s boundary. You can think of them as a defensive worker, or maybe the guards of this city. In addition, these Treants are actually part of the World Tree, so they don’t need a Mana Pool to provide energy. The Tree Nest can be built on the courtyard, or the top of the tree’s crown without being situated close to the Mana Pools.”
“Part of the World Tree?”
Brendel thought it sounded like the Decaying Beasts produced by the Golden Demon Tree. But he was still interested in the creatures that can be produced without using a Mana Pool. They were essentially free Silver-ranked guards: “How many of these Tree Nests can you currently build?”
“The current size of the World Tree allows, one, two, three, four Tree Nests. Each Tree Nest can create, one, two, three…… ten Whiskers, Milourt.” Monika calculated earnestly.
[Forty of them. That’s quite a low number.]
The youth was disappointed. If there were one hundred-odd guards, then he could rest peacefully at night without allocating any defensive resources.
[Well, even if the Tree Nests are capable of producing that many creatures, there’s no room for the tree to hold them.]
He spoke again when he thought about this point: “Valhalla…… I mean this particular World Tree, how long will it take before there’s a visible expansion?”
“That’s our mission as Light Spirits, we will use Mana to boost it in growing, but if it’s just Monika alone, for the World Tree to grow into the next stage, it will need, one, two, three…….”
“Wait, stop counting, can’t you just give me an approximate number?” Brendel was starting to feel a little perspiration on his back when Monika counted to forty.
“How would I know how many years it will take if I don’t count?” Monika looked at Brendel with wide eyes, seriously wondering if her lord was a fool for asking this silly question.
Brendel was brought onto his knees. After waiting and urging her to count faster, he finally got the answer of two centuries if she nurtured the World Tree by herself.
“Two hundred years!” Scarlett was shocked. That was almost the entire lifespan of a typical human being and it was a barrier that one could not cross.
“Does that mean that if you have two hundred of your clansmen aiding you, you can reduce it to a single year?” Brendel immediately calculated in his mind. Four hundred Moon Crystals were nothing much to him.
“Let me count……”
“Can’t you tell me yes or no?” Brendel’s lips were jerking. He realized that the Light Spirit was counting one at a time and did not skip to tens. It was as though she liked to do things without skipping a single step.
“Very well. Yes, we can, but if we are to finish it in a year, we will not be able to help you construct any structures.” Monika thought for a while before she answered.
This was not a problem for Brendel. If these two hundred Light Spirits were tied up with upgrading, then he could pay more Moon Crystals to get them to build structures. However, Monika seemed to see through this thought and instantly shattered Brendel’s delusion.
“Milourt, the numbers that can go through the portal is limited. Are you thinking of getting thousands upon thousands of Light Spirits to help Monika?”
“Limits?” Brendel’s daydream shattered like a mirror falling onto the floor. He did not expect a gate before him: “What’s the limit?”
“Each month the Whirlpool of Light can withstand, one, two, three…… twenty Energy Jumps.”
“Twenty Light Spirits are the limits?”
A limit of twenty Light Spirits. Just summoning twenty Light Spirits required ten long months. If he calculated the time for the World Tree to reach the next tier, it would be at least one-and-a-half years. Brendel immediately felt dejected. He did not have so much time at hand, and he truly thought it would become one of his main force in a short period of time.
But Monika’s next few sentences gave him hope. The summoning portal can be strengthened, but there was a prerequisite of constructing a Moon Tower.
The youth was familiar with it. It was a subtype of a Wizard Tower, and the primary usage was to train Star Seers. It was a specialized profession and their specialty was making prophecies as well as channeling Mana.
Star Seers could focus the channeling Mana and raise the effectiveness of a Nest, or raise the effectiveness of an Alchemist Lab.
Monika naturally wanted the Star Seers’ first usage. Even though Brendel had doubts about such a class existing in this world, there were no objections from Medissa and the others. A Moon Tower could raise the effectiveness of three different structures and was the equivalent of splitting the Mana Pool into three different parts. It was not really a niche build for cities, but Brendel thought he was really a rare gamer for building this structure first.
Any typical city owner in the game would build a Wizard Tower or a Crystal Pool as their first choice. People who built Nests as their priority were few, let alone a Moon Tower.
[I’m the oddest gamer out there for sure. But with this Moon Tower, the summoning of the Light Spirits doubles to forty. I look forward to Valhalla’s growth. This city is a legendary city in the game, and it’s my best potential trump card. As long as this fortress can be established, it doesn’t matter what cost I have to invest.]
Brendel threw in more Moon Crystals to summon nineteen Light Spirits. The youth’s eyes twitched a little when he saw there were no males amongst them, and each of them was a miniature pretty girl. They chattered noisily like real pixies and he felt like he was traveling through Aouine’s busy markets instead.
The youth and his followers felt a little headache coming on when they saw a group of rowdy golden balls zipping through the air. He could already imagine the future city having thousands of these Light Spirits creating ‘a bustling city’ and wondered if the other residents could ever sleep.
When he asked Monika about the time to construct a Moon Tower, he was surprised to learn that it would only take a week. If he got Ciel and his half-baked apprentices to construct the building, it would probably take two to three months. It was roughly the same amount of time for Ciel to build the Wizard Tower too.
At the same time, Monika explained that the Light Spirits also knew how to build two structures unique to Valhalla. A Valkyrie Hall and Wind Sharpshooter Garrison. They were structures that created the core strength of Valhalla. Brendel realized that they were most likely able to summon Heroic Spirits. Since the two structures did not require Mana Pools as well, he thought of implementing them as early as possible. After all, he wanted Valhalla because of the powerful units it could produce.
[The time to construct a Valkryie Hall is a month with ten Light Spirits. The Wind Sharpshooter Garrison requires three weeks. I’ll be having the hall built in the courtyard and the garrison built in the upper section of the tree. The Tree Nest can be built on the tree’s crown. This will use up all the space the World Tree has…… Hmm? Why is he here? Could it be that Bosley and Tamar have made some progress with the armor?]
When he turned around, he saw Felaern bringing along several people in the distance. It was Carglise and two Tree Elves. Carglise walked excitedly with sparkling eyes and spun his head to study the room, completely without the demeanor of a noble. But the two Tree Elves were just as excited, looking everywhere with surprise and awe in their eyes. They did not expect the World Tree to resemble the Green Tower’s building style.