I started charging the World Tree seed with magic power first. The World Tree seed was like a dry sponge absorbing water as it continuously sucked up my magic power.
「………… this is quite tough.」
Although I’ve thankfully recovered magic power thanks to drinking mana potions after the fight, it seems even after absorbing almost all of the magic power that I, someone confident in the amount of magic power I possess, have.
「Then I’m next. I leveled up considerably, so my magic power increased by a lot.」
Akane took the World Tree seed from my hand, and started to pour magic power into it just like I did.
「…… uu, it’s still not enough?」
「Then it’s my turn next.」
Even when Akane loaded it up to her limit, the World Tree seed still wanted more magic power. Laeva then started her turn.
「Ah! The magic power is overflowing, Any more than this and it wouldn’t absorb it.」
A short time had passed since Laeva began charging it with magic power, the World Tree seed stopped absorbing.
「It seems that was enough. Next, it says it wants to be sown near the spring.」
Afterwards, we planted the World Tree seed into the spot Sophia had indicated.
「It would be better to water it, right?」
Magically conjured water loaded with magic power gently watered the soil covering it. For some reason, my intuition tells me that it would be better to do that.
「This water isn’t foul, but it’s not clean either, is it?」
With the defeat of the Skeleton King and its underlings, as well as the Zombies and Ghouls, and the purifying abilities of Sanctuary Field and the Purification spell, this land had become pure, which was unthinkable in the savage lands dotted with monster nests.
I drank mana potion and rested a little bit, then invoked Sanctuary Field to encompass the spring. And so, the spring turned perfectly clear and pure.
「As I thought, it looks like it was polluted by miasma. The World Tree seed will likely bud easily now.」
「Then while practicing our Light attribute magic, we’ll purify this surrounding area, won’t we?」
Having seen me purify the spring water, Akane accompanied Laeva and began purifying the faint remains of miasma.
Now then, the retrieval of magic stones and drop items seems to have finished, so I was thinking we’d go back to Volton once Akane and Laeva purification finishes, but at that time, there were signs of something moving, and I looked around.
「Wha?!」
The World Tree seed that I planted just a while ago had already sprouted. Furthermore, it had grown 1 meter in height right before my very eyes, and it even had 20 lush green leaves.
「The World Tree grows this fast?」
「N-no, I have heard that it grows fast in land abundant in magic power, but growing this much is unheard of.」
After that, by way of Sophia, the Spirit Tree née World Tree seed (the tree grown from Yggrdasil’s seed, apparently called the Spirit Tree) had a request. It wants to enclose the surroundings in a Holy Barrier with the Spirit Tree and the spring at the center.
And so, Laeva and I split up, creating 100 pieces of disposable 1 meter stone piles using Earth magic. Then with the heaps of magic stones from the Skeleton Knights, we engraved the piles with Holy Barrier magic. We hammered them down in a circular formation with the Spirit Tree in the center.
「For a tree to push us around…………」
「The Spirit Tree has arms for pushing?[1]」
At the few words I grumbled, Lulu-chan asked curiously.
Having finished hammering in all 100 stakes, we immediately went back and made camp, then departed for Volton early morning the next day.
Incidentally, the Spirit Tree that was 1m yesterday has now grown to 2m.
3 days after returning to Volton, we went back to the Spirit Tree once more.
This time, instead of the disposable Holy Barrier, we created a continuously operating Barrier MD that automatically absorbs magic power from the surroundings. The stone stakes embedded with magic stones previously installed are designed simply, and we had promised to make that land uninvadable from here on.
( A promise with a tree. If other people heard that, they’d suspect I’m wrong in the head. )
That place was originally one of the monster nests that dotted the savage lands. Even though the dense mana (magic source) had been purified with the Holy Barrier and Sanctuary Field, time will pass and miasma will begin to seep again. Should the Spirit Tree grow large, the land and its surroundings will be purified, so magic devices that would continuously purify that place are necessary until then.
Before we reached the spring where the Spirit Tree was, I, with my mouth agape, had to ask about the scenery.
「…………huh, this was the place from the other day, right?」
「…………yes, I am quite certain that this is the location of the tree and spring.」
The reason I inadvertently asked for Sophia’s confirmation was because the Spirit Tree had grown close to 10m in height and its trunk had grown so thick I couldn’t put my arms around it.
The Spirit Tree wasn’t the only thing surprising. The ground that couldn’t grow weeds now had lush grass sprouting over its entire surface.
The carriage stopped and we approached the Spirit Tree.
「Hey, it feels cleaner, but I’m not imagining that, am I?」
「Yes, it’s as if we’re in a sanctuary.」
That land centered around the Spirit Tree had become full of pure magic power that seems like it could annihilate weak Ghosts and Zombies in an instant.
「I have a feeling that the atmosphere here is purer than the church in Volton.」
「Akane, you think so too? It’s just one tree, but the Spirit Tree is such an important thing.」
「No Takumi-sama, I believe the Spirit Tree alone could not turn it into a sanctuary-like place in such a short time. I dare say that the effects of the Sanctuary Field during the fight with the undead and the disposable Holy Barrier MD afterwards were enormous.」
The significance of a monster nest becoming a sanctuary is something I don’t know, nor do I need to understand. At the start, I had decided to install Holy Barrier MDs in this land.
This time it will be one set of 6 magic devices. With Laeva’s cooperation, we installed the magic devices In the shape of a hexagram.
「Oooii~! Is your set up okaaay!?」
「Yeees! Preparations are okaaay!」
Laeva and I proceeded with starting up the magic devices, and when the last magic device was activated, a hexagram of light stood out from the ground with the Spirit Tree in the middle. The light soon vanished, and I checked if the barrier had activated. The Holy Barrier stretched across the land in a circular form with a 200m radius from the Spirit Tree that was at its center.
This barrier would not directly prevent the invasion of monsters aside from the undead.
It’s a magic device that makes an environment that monsters would avoid by purifying the land that had been a monster nest filled with mana and miasma, consequently changing the land to become one that monsters would find hard to approach.
「Alright! With this, the chances of it being invaded would probably decrease.」
「It feels like sacred space, but even though the miasma is gone, it’s still a monster nest with dense mana, isn’t it?」
With the work of installing the magic devices over, Laeva came over and asked the question that was on her mind.
「That’s right, it’s definitely a monster nest. That’s why it wouldn’t be a barrier to monsters that don’t avoid the Light attribute.」
Only, there are also cases of monsters who don’t need miasma that can coexist with people. Representatives of those are Demon Horses and Ryuumas like Tsubaki. Kaede, a unique species of Arachne, is a monster that prefers miasma, but the moment she was connected to me by a path of magic power as my familiar, that disposition changed.
「Ｍａｓｔｅｒ， ｈｏｗ ａｂｏｕｔ ｐｒｅｐａｒｉｎｇ ａ ｎｕｍｂｅｒ ｏｆ ｓｔｏｎｅ ｇｏｌｅｍｓ？」
「…… You’re right, I don’t want monsters to damage the precious Spirit Tree. Can I leave it to you?」
「Ｐｌｅａｓｅ ｌｅａｖｅ ｉｔ ｔｏ ｍｅ。」
Since Titan had come to recommend stone golems to protect this place, I decided to entrust Titan with it, including the creation of the golems.
The golems that Titan make can only act on simple orders and work, but assigning them to protect this place is enough.
Titan created 4 stone golems and deployed them in the 4 cardinal directions with the Spirit Tree in the center. With this, if everything is normal then the Spirit Tree won’t be damaged.
And so, we discovered the World Tree seed from the chance encounter with the Skeleton King and purified the land that the Spirit Tree would grow in afterwards. However, we hadn’t imagined at this time that this land would give rise to discord among a portion of the elves.
***
Footnotes:
1. The previous sentence is actually “顎で使われる” which uses a word with chin 顎, and it means to boss someone around by using their chin to point. And so Lulu-chan asks if the Spirit Tree has a chin, but that wouldn’t really make sense in english.
Important – Sphy’s Note:
Early chapter today because I have to sleep early. For the next 3-5 days, I’ll be at a different city for a bunch of medical procedures (I won’t go into detail about it), and so I most likely can’t post updates during this time. I don’t want to delay chapters again since I already made you all wait, so I’ll at least still try. I hope to have your understanding on this. Thank you ?