“Mister Joshua, do you need anything?”
Tylene placed down her controller. Together with Ciri, she ran over to Joshua’s desk and sat down before it.
After two weeks, this frost elf had grown very close to Joshua. No, it was not only Joshua. It would be more accurate to say that she had grown close to all the people down in the Hearthstone Tavern below.
Especially Ynor. The frost elf seemed to be very fond of Ynor.
“How’s things going with the World Tree’s growth?” asked Joshua.
“Mmmm...”
Tylene summoned out the World Tree. Still only a seedling, the World Tree has yet to break out from the seed at the bottom of its stem.
After being summoned out by Tylene, the World Tree’s soft shoot curled back into the seed. Then, it rolled from Tylene’s shoulder all the way to the top of her head.
If the World Tree was able to materialize its consciousness right now, it should be standing atop Tylene’s head and ‘growling’ at Joshua.
After all, Joshua had pulled off two of its four young leaves yesterday.
“Umm... after Mister Joshua helped me sell the musical records, the World Tree has shown no sign of weakening...”
As the cat lady of the World Tree, Tylene should be speaking out for her World Tree when its ‘growling’ at Joshua.
Unfortunately, if it wasn’t for Joshua’s help, the World Tree might not even be able to ‘growl.’ It would be so weak that it would continue to remain in Tylene’s body waiting for the gray mist to erode it.
But, ever since Joshua sold the first musical record, Tylene would receive what Joshua called ‘Faith Energy’ entering her body on the daily. Although the quantity was very small, it was over a hundred times better than her condition in the past.
If Tylene and the World Tree were fishes on the verge of death in a dried up river before meeting Joshua, they were now able to at least circle around a small fish tank once or twice.
Even though the Faith Energy wasn’t a lot, Tylene was still extremely grateful toward Joshua.
“Then, how long will it take for it to... grow a couple more leaves? I mean, when will it start growing again...?”
When Joshua asked that question, the World Tree that had just poked out from the seed immediately retracted itself back into the seed. Its action was very similar to how a cat will hide in a narrow place when threatened.
“About that, it might take ten years... or fifty years.”
Tylene gave Joshua a conversative answer. World Tree’s growth times were generally calculated in thousand years. To the elves that were able to easily live for several thousand years, it was not a long period of time.
To Tylene, fifty years was a period of time similar to a month in human time. The concept was similar to how humans would think about ‘It’s the end of the month, time to ask the boss for my salary.’
Tylene noticed how Joshua’s expression grew stiff. Carefully, she asked, “Fifty years should be a very short period of time for demons, no?”
“No. Let me tell you this in secret. We Chaos Demons are like humans; we’re a race that judges our time in a manner of tens of years. With my current lifestyle, I believe my lifespan would be even shorter than Ciri who’s sitting next to you.”
Joshua took a glance at Ciri who sat next to Tylene.
“I’ve been reminding you to go to bed early every day! You’re the one who refuses to listen!”
Ciri naturally knew that Joshua has been staying up all night long these days. She had tried to urge him against it but they were all useless.
“It’s an occupational disease. Besides, this body’s ability to stay up all night is first-rated.”
Joshua extended his thumb. That said, the racial traits of the Chaos Demon was not something to brag about.
“Why are the Chaos Demons’ lifespan so short?”
This time around, Tylene was the one to be shocked. The Chaos Demon were the most dangerous race of demons in this world. According to rumors, the Sin Demons were able to live for five thousand to ten thousand years. Thus, how could Chaos Demons’ lifespan be equivalent to humans?
“Eh... you should ask my father that question.”
Joshua also felt it to be a miracle for the Chaos Demons, with how short-lived they are, to be able to rule over the demon realm. That said, their ability to ‘stop magic’ was completely ‘broken’ in this world dictated by magic.
“Well then, let’s talk about proper business now. Tylene, you said the World Tree needed ten years to grow...”
“Ah... what I meant is that it needs that much time to grow another leaf.”
Tylene broke off Joshua’s sentence with a remorseful tone. She actually was looking forward to seeing the day when the World Tree would reach the sky again with Joshua. But, with the World Tree’s speed of growth, Joshua would only be able to see it produce four to five leaves in his lifetime.
“Okay. Then, what if the World Tree is able to gain more Faith Energy?”
Joshua picked up the ‘Hearthstone Tavern Marketing Report’ placed on the table. That report was prepared by Mrs. Melina. She would make a new report every week.
That report has recorded how the sales for Tylene’s musical record was. As the promotion for the musical record was lacking, they’ve only managed to sell three hundred and seventy musical records so far.
If the amount of times the musical records were used to listen was increased two fold, it would only mean that Tylene’s singing was listened to seven hundred and forty times.
The Faith Energy from seven hundred and forty people will support the World Tree to grow one or two leaves within ten years. What if the amount of Faith Energy was increased to a hundred thousand people’s worth?
Moreover, this was only limited to those people listening to Tylene’s musical record only for an hour to half a day on the daily at most.
“I remember our race’s Grand Elder has once said that the lushness of the World Tree is determined by the number of people we have in our race...”
Tylene’s words were practically confirming to Joshua that the World Tree’s growth speed would be faster the believers it had. If the number of believers broke a million, it wouldn’t be an issue for the World Tree to produce over ten thousand leaves per acre.
Norland was a big city with a population of approximately 1.7 million. This number was not including the non-residents too. While a city of 1.7 million wouldn’t be considered to be large on earth, the current Norland was in a state of Industrial Revolution. Joshua couldn’t possess too much of a demand from this newly emerged civilization.
“I possess a method that could convert half to even two-thirds of all the people in this city into nourishment for the World Tree.”
Joshua spoke of something that completely shocked Tylene.
“You... you’re planning to sacrifice half of the entire city?”
The first thing Ciri thought of was some sort of sinister war-level magic formation.
“Rest assured. A terrifying magic about to uproot an entire city is something that I will never know in my entire life. What I’m indicating is to have more people in the city hear Tylene’s voice.”
Joshua opened his magic network system and closed the Mage Forum’s webpage. He revealed his desktop to Tylene. He tapped into the other ‘default application’ on the desktop besides the Mage Forum.
Originally, Joshua had named that application as ‘Norland Broadcasting Station.’ But, after thinking about it, he decided to change its name to ‘Voice of Norland.’