“We better pause our little treatment, undead is attacking again,” I said.
She jumped up to her feet, the urgency of the situation enough for her to think that she managed to hide her awkward expression from me. “I — I better go join,” she said after a while.
I was going to send her away with a chuckle, but as I used the various wards I had implemented around to detect the attackers, I realized that something was suspicious about the attack. Namely, the number I could detect…
And their strength, or more accurately, the lack of it.
The number of zombies I could detect was significant, enough to be counted in tens of thousands. That didn’t worry me much, as, after some point, it was easy to deal with such groups, especially if they were kind enough to gather into one convenient target for wide-area spells.
It was their weak presence that made me frown suspiciously. At this point, there were thousands of elves already. There was no logical reason for sending such a huge number of zombies and nothing else.
Meaning, they were just a distraction from the real thing. I continued examining their structure, trying to understand what was being planned. The formation was the first thing that gave me the clue. Strong in the winds, weak at the center.
If it was an ordinary army they were facing, I would have assumed that the center was the bait, inviting the shock troops of the enemy before they enveloped that. But that didn’t work against elves because of their preference toward ranged combat.
A surprise through the center was the most likely outcome, probably through some kind of shock attack through the center, enough to overwhelm our strength and attack the central tree itself.
A simple plan, but not a bad one. Pity that it was destined to fail, for several reasons. The biggest reason was always my presence. Even without all the traps I had established, spreading miles across every direction, I alone could take down both the army and whatever surprise they prepared.
Near-unlimited mana was extremely convenient.
That was only the last resort, of course, as revealing myself would mean abandoning my biggest advantage. My anonymity. Still, there were other advantages.
Like the fact that destroying the central tree actually meant nothing. At this point, every guardian tree was connected to each other, acting as a singular operative, and the Divine Spark danced freely among them. Destroying the largest tree would impair the mana conversion ability of the forest significantly, but only temporarily.
Their formation suggested that they were not aware of this little fact.
Of course, the tree represented morale for the elves, and unless there was no other option, I didn’t want it to be demolished.
Luckily, I already had the weapon to prevent that. A sexy, beautiful weapon…
“You need to be careful, it’s going to be a strong one,” I said. “I could detect a strong army, several times the one that had attacked us previously.”
“It doesn’t matter, we can handle it after everyone that joined. The forest alone…”
“Exactly, that’s why I’m not feeling well about that attack. They had already lost an army when there were barely dozens that were trying to defend. Now, tens of thousands are here, and their little trick with the river was completely useless. Yet, they are still attacking…”
She paused for a moment, her lovely face contorted in doubt. “Because they are hiding a weapon.”
“Exactly, and my best guess is that it’s coming through the center, and attacking here,” I completed.
“You expect them to take down the tree.”
“Exactly,” I said, displaying more accuracy than I had been feeling — but even if I misread the situation, I could just intervene directly if the worst had happened. “I need you to leave the zombies to the others and wait at the center…” I explained, then paused.
It was a good opportunity for me to present her with another power-up.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as I displayed my worry.
“Maybe…” I murmured morosely, even as I pulled another glowing fruit from my pocket. “Maybe it’s a good time to take another risk.”
“W-what’s that?” she asked, even as she flinched at the radiating mana with shock, not sure whether to take a step forward, or slide back in panic.
“Another empowerment fruit. One that I was hoping not to use for a while, waiting for the previous fruit to bond with you properly, but this attack is giving me a bad feeling. I think we should take a small risk and empower you further.”
“T-that’s an option?” she asked, shocked at my nod.
“A dangerous one, but this attack is giving me a bad feeling,” I explained.
My explanation was partially correct. It was true that their tactical layout was giving me a bad feeling, but the part about fruit and the risks were complete nonsense. I just wanted to sell the situation while maintaining the mystery of the situation.
And, if her display could trigger some panicky undead response, even better. They would eventually attack the full force, that much was obvious from just how much undead presence I could detect from my surroundings, and the earlier they attack, the more disorganized their forces would be.
Not to mention lots and lots of Divine Spark I could gather from their failed attacks.
She didn’t take long before coming to a decision. “If you think the risk is acceptable, I’m willing to take it,” she said, not asking any more questions.
“Really?” I asked, surprised at the speed of her acceptance.
“I trust you,” she responded, which was too pure of a statement. Though, considering everything I had been doing to protect them, it wasn’t as absurd as I first thought it to be.
I just nodded as I passed her the fruit, which had even more Divine Spark hidden in its structure, but this time. As she bit into it, I channeled Divine Spark to mix into her body. It was a pity that I couldn’t use her Divine Spark for enhancing her Stats — which was the major drawback of using the natured Divine Spark — but to compensate, I
{+55 Divine Spark, Elven Priestess]
[-55 Divine Spark. God Forest]
“It’s — too much,” she gasped as she felt Divine Spark invading her body, her beautiful almond eyes widening beautifully. “I don’t think I can handle it,” she tried to complete, but I pressed my finger to her mouth and silenced her beautiful argument.
“Don’t worry, sweetie, I’m here to help,” I said even as Tantric mana flooded her, reinforcing the structure of the barriers that kept the Divine Spark from spreading freely, still keeping her in Demigod state, any dangerous spread prevented before it happened.
The endless sessions I shared with my beautiful headmistress were paying great dividends. After many sessions we shared, I developed a great sense of how to handle and manipulate Divine Spark, which was helping me greatly.
Though, even as I did so, I doubted I could have replaced that attempt easily on another human. Just like how Mariel was directly aligned with the Light mana due to her nature, elves were aligned with Nature Spark, and as a Priestess that had been already Chosen, she was even better aligned.
I had no doubt that, even without my assistance, she could have eventually absorbed and controlled the great amount of Divine Spark I was presenting to her, but it would have probably taken days, maybe even months.
With my assistance, the required time period constricted into a lone minute, Divine Spark gathering obediently into her body, giving her not only the ability to convert mana much more rapidly, but also increasing the potency of her magic significantly.
I could even feel her body getting stronger, but it was a rather limited effect compared to the other impacts.
“This power,” she murmured as she raised her hand, and my cave residence — though much more luxurious after all my adjustments — was filled with beautiful flowers. “I can just go and destroy all of the zombies, alone—“ she tried to say.
“Not so quickly, sweetie,” I said. “If you go along and swing your magic like a careless lumberjack, you’ll scare our dear enemies, and we don’t want that.”
“We don’t?” she asked, genuinely surprised.
“Of course we don’t,” I explained to her with a smirk. “They had gone through such great trouble to arrange a trap for us, why should we let them pull back. Instead, let them pay for the information about our strength...”
“And since I’ll be the one to fight, they’ll still be unaware of your presence, and when they attack again, even stronger…” she muttered.
“I’ll be there to solve it,” I said with a chuckle. Of course, I didn’t mention to her that, with every repeat, the undead would be bringing me more and more of their power, which would increase my combat capabilities further.
I couldn’t wait to bring my stats back to the range of twenties, or maybe even higher…
“You’re our savior,” she whispered as she looked at me, her gaze filled with worship. “How can we repay you?”
I smirked, never one to miss a beautiful opportunity even under the immediate danger of a battle. “How about a kiss?” I whispered.
“A … kiss,” she gasped, her blush beautiful as she avoided my gaze. “Just a kiss.”
“Oh, my beauty, your kiss is too glorious to be classified as just a kiss,” I answered, enjoying her spreading blush even more. “But, I’m willing to wait until the end of the battle to receive it. Why don’t you go ahead, and teach those useless things the mistake of trying to trap us,” I said, once again triggering the tree-elevator.
She left, a beautiful blush on her face…
{Strength: 8 Charisma: 10
Precision: 8 Perception: 9
Agility: 8 Manipulation: 10
Speed: 8 Intelligence: 10
Endurance: 8 Wisdom: 9}
{Purified Divine Spark: 520}
{Pseudo-HP: 2869 Mana: 10123}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
Guardian God Forest - 2050}
Elven Priestess - 70}
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]
