Ashlock hated to admit it, but his idea of an early warning system had only half worked.
Through his connection with the demonic trees forming a vast wall out in the wilderness, he had felt that something deserved his attention—hence he had decided to go out and hunt, but this worm monster had been beyond his expectations.
"Ugh, how can I even improve the early warning system? My body, which includes my roots, is so vast that it's impossible to pick up on things unless something directly hurts me or I focus my attention in its general direction."
Basically, he wouldn't notice a fly perched on his toes unless it bit him.
If the worm had gnawed on one of the demonic trees, he would have felt instant pain as he had a root coiling around their trunks. He also had his roots growing in the middle of mushroom clusters in hopes that monsters would have come by and feasted on the mushrooms, therefore alerting him to their presence, but the giant worm had scared them all off and hadn't tried to eat the trees.
That issue aside, he could feel through the massive tremors in the ground that the titanic worm was on the move. Oddly, he had been half expecting the worm to be heading toward him, but luckily it seemed to be heading southwest rather than directly south, where he was.
The worm had quickly traveled outside his root network's range, likely by abusing its earth affinity to swim through the ground at tremendous speeds, so he could not discern its position. Other than the missed opportunity for sacrificial credits, the worm's existence had raised many concerns.
Returning his view to Red Vine Peak, Ashlock had much to reevaluate. He had dedicated a lot of time and resources to people recently without thinking about the monsters as the beast tide appeared so far away, and other than the Dao Storm, the monsters hadn't seemed so strong.
On reflection, it made sense since human cultivators were a more immediate threat to his existence, and they could be reasoned with and bribed—whereas monsters could only be answered with overwhelming force, so he had ignored them for now with the mindset of 'I can defeat them so long as I get stronger.'
"But that's the wrong mindset." Ashlock mused, "With my biology being so slow and many of my skills reflecting that, I must prepare for threats in advance rather than being purely reactionary."
The poisonous gas cloud had reminded him of his ability to impart skills to his fruit. There was a good reason his {Qi Fruit Production} was an A-grade skill.
"Talking of the poisonous cloud..." Ashlock glanced around and noticed it was still lingering.
The wind wasn't too strong today, so it was slowly dissipating. "Hmm, I can't bring the girls back up here as it's still lingering. I guess I can check my Qi Fruit Production menu in the meantime."
"System, show me my skills," Ashlock said, and words materialized in his mind.
[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 9)]
[Star Core: 2nd Stage]
[Soul Type: Amethyst (Spatial)]
[Mutations…]
{Demonic Eye [B]}
{Blood Sap [C]}
[Summons...]
{Ashen King: Larry [A]}
{Infant Ink Serpent: Kaida [D]}
[Skills…]
{Mystic Realm [S]} [Locked until day: 3515]
{Eye of the Tree God [A]}
{Deep Roots [A]}
{Magic Mushroom Production [A]}
{Lightning Qi Barrier [A]}
{Qi Fruit Production [A]}
{Consuming Abyss [B]}
{Blooming Root Flower Production [B]}
{Language of the World [B]}
{Root Puppet [B]}
{Fire Qi Protection [B]}
{Transpiration of Heaven and Chaos [B]}
{Hibernate [C]}
{Superior Poison Resistance [C]}
{Qi Fruit Production} had been one of the first skills he had ever unlocked with his system, and back then, it had taken months to grow fruit with his pathetic F-grade poison resistance. Because of this, he had left fruit production on the wayside in favor of his new, shiny production skills that had offered potent effects.
"I know I have been really busy recently, but I still can't believe I forgot to regrow fruit with skills after the Dao Storm wiped me out." He had grown some delicious summer fruit for Stella to enjoy a few days ago but hadn't thought to add skills to them.
In fairness, his Qi Fruit Production skill hadn't been the greatest in the past due to its high cost and the fact that he could only add skills he had, and back then, his skill list was far shorter than it was today.
Turning his attention back to the production menu, he couldn't see a way to add his summons or mutations to any fruit. "Heh, well, that was to be expected. At least it looks like I can add any skill I want without a problem."
Curious how a fruit with his {Mystic Realm} skill would look, he tried adding it, but a system notification came up:
[Cannot add skills that are higher grade than Qi Fruit Production]
"Mhm, so I can't add anything higher than A-grade. I don't know why, but it relieves me that I haven't been wasting this skill's potential for that long, as I only upgraded it to A-grade a few months ago."
Even so, it was unfortunate that he couldn't add skills higher than the {Qi Fruit Production} skill's grade, as Ashlock was incredibly curious about what biting into a fruit with the {Mystic Realm} skill would do.
"What about adding my other production abilities to a fruit? No way that will work right..." Ashlock selected his {Blooming Root Flower Production}, and as expected, another error appeared:
[Cannot add production skills. Do you wish to alter the skill?]
"Huh..?" Ashlock hummed as he thought back to the past. He had only ever added poison resistance to his fruit before, and it had provided a temporary poison resistance buff. But more importantly, he had been able to alter the skill {Basic Poison Resistance} into poison that he used to kill birds.
Since altering skills had worked in the past without a problem...
"Yes," Ashlock told the system, and he watched as his {Blooming Root Flower Production} was morphed into a brand new skill called {Florist's Touch}. His flower production skill remained intact in his skill menu, so his system had created a brand new skill that he could temporarily grant people who ate his fruit but couldn't use himself.
In a way, didn't this make his {Qi Fruit Production} one of his strongest skills so long as he was surrounded by powerful and capable allies he trusted? Senior Lee's words about uplifting those around him for his survival became more and more true with every passing day.
He checked the {Florist's Touch} skill description and concluded it gave a temporary buff that allowed someone to harvest flowers without contaminating them or killing the stem.
"Huh, that's actually pretty neat." Ashlock honestly hadn't been expecting much from trying to add one of his production skills, as how could humans even use such a skill? It's not like Stella could start growing flowers out of her ears or something.
Scanning the list and selecting his other production skill: {Magic Mushroom Production}. He watched it transform into {Mind Fortress}, which significantly increased a cultivator's resistance to mind-altering effects, and unsurprisingly he couldn't add his {Qi Fruit Production skill} to itself.
"The {Florist's Touch} could be a great temporary buff to provide Elaine and Douglas when they try to harvest the flowers and mushrooms I have grown down in the cavern, meanwhile {Mind Fortress} has more practical uses in combat or could maybe even be used while cultivating."
Deciding to try his other skills, he just ran down the list. Not like he had much else to do while waiting for the poisonous cloud to pass.
{Eye of the Tree God} had to be changed into {Clairvoyance}, and the production time and Qi requirement for fruit involving clairvoyance were ridiculous, but even he could see the massive benefits, so he set a few to grow.
{Lightning Qi Barrier} was added to a fruit without issue, and Ashlock was curious how that would work. "Will they eat the fruit, and then a lightning barrier will manifest around them? Or will it appear only when they are about to take damage?"
Unsure and deciding to wait and see, he saw the next option in his skill list and felt a hint of excitement. {Consuming Abyss} was one of his weirdest skills and deeply tied with being a tree and consuming a Voidmind Elder. How could it be transformed into a temporary skill a random cultivator could utilize?
The system's apparent answer was to transform the B-grade skill into one called {Vampiric Touch}. The name alone impressed Ashlock, and the skill description only furthered that feeling. Those with the {Vampiric Touch} buff could forcefully absorb Qi from others through physical contact.
"That would be amazing for a body cultivator if they exist in this world." Ashlock hadn't run into any yet as even the earth affinity cultivators whipped out swords, but if someone out there relied solely on their hands, this would be a formidable technique.
"Although it does give demonic technique vibes." Ashlock chuckled. Elaine had thought they were a demonic cult, and he wanted to avoid that image if possible, as it was bad for business. The fact that a demonic tree ruled the Ashfallen sect was already bad enough. "But this skill is far too good not to use. I will definitely have to grow a few of them."
Ashlock sighed as he saw his immense Star Core Qi reserves dip a little lower as Qi traveled down his branches to slowly growing stalks that would soon house his new fruit.
"Anyway, what's next... oh." Ashlock looked at the next skill and felt like a potential idiot. With apprehension, he put {Language of the World} into the menu and was a little disappointed it didn't transform into telepathy but became {Language Comprehension}.
"Mhm, this gives a buff that lets people understand and learn languages faster." Ashlock sighed with relief that he hadn't overlooked such a potentially fantastic avenue of communication, although this skill was still beneficial. "I feel bad for the Redclaw Grand Elder now... his experience of learning the ancient language would have been far easier with this buff. Hell, if it's powerful enough, maybe even Diana will be willing to learn the ancient language."
It was a blunder on his part, but it had only been a month or two. "If anything, he will be extremely grateful for this fruit now rather than if I had given it right at the start."
Ashlock then paused as a thought drifted by. Why hadn't he considered selling these fruit to linguists, formation masters, or using them for alchemy? One look at his diminishing Star Core that he had planned to let fill up so he could progress to the next realm gave him the answer. This skill was too darn expensive to use on a mass scale.
"It's fine, I may use up a lot of my Star Core of Qi to produce all these fruits now, but I can always enter hibernation for a few months over the upcoming winter to focus on advancing a stage or two in the Star Core Realm."
Checking that the poisonous cloud was still swirling around his trunk, Ashlock sighed. "Still here... although my poison resistance skill hasn't improved from C grade." Since the cloud was still prevalent, he tested his last few skills.
{Root Puppet} was another skill that was specialized for trees, so it was altered by the system to {Neural Root}.
"This skill feels like something out of a sci-fi movie."
Ashlock couldn't believe root puppet would transform in this way, as he had expected something in the field of necromancy as {Root Puppet} had let him control corpses.
"Let's see... {Neural Root} is a temporary buff that lets someone control their body perfectly and greatly boosts their reaction speed. This would be amazing in combat."
Ashlock was actually rather jealous as this skill sounded helpful for him too! Why couldn't he get the good stuff?
Meanwhile, {Transpiration of Heaven and Chaos} was also special to him as a tree, so the system replaced it with a more human-friendly skill: {Enlightenment}, that helped a person establish a connection to heaven.
Other than {Fire Qi Protection}, which obviously gave a fire Qi resistance buff, the only skill left was {Hibernate}, which morphed into {Deep Meditation}.
"Phew, I hate having to go through so many skills like that... sleep is far better." Ashlock let out a long sigh.
That had been a lot to process, but he was excited to see how strong he could make his sect members with all these skill fruits combined with the psychedelic truffles and Mystic Realm.
"So to recap, other than the truffles I have promised Stella to grow for her trip into the Mystic Realm, I have created delicious apple-sized fruits with the following skills set to grow over the next few days: {Deep Meditation}, {Enlightenment}, {Neural Root}, {Language Comprehension}, {Vampiric Touch}, {Lightning Qi Barrier}, {Clairvoyance}, {Mind Fortress} and finally, {Florist's Touch}. How the hell am I supposed to keep track of all these?"
***
A few hours later, the poisonous cloud had finally dissipated. Thankfully, the slow-moving wind had sent the cloud away from the city, so he didn't need to worry about a toxic rain shower killing all the mortals he needed for... nutrients.
The mortals may not provide him any system credits. Still, their bodily waste allowed him to sustain his forest of demonic trees up on the mountain, giving him a higher Qi generation.
It was a wonderfully balanced ecosystem where everyone needed each other. Alas, he was only one man... person... tree... and his realm of expertise regarding topics like alchemy, formations, and cultivation was limited. Also, as proven by the worm, he lacked the firepower to handle all threats himself, so the development of the Ashfallen Sect would have to continue.
Talking of the sect, he should probably let Stella and Diana out of the cavern...
"Oh, she's mad," Ashlock noted as he saw Stella's expression when she stepped out of the rift—her arms were crossed, and she had a deep frown.
"Hunting a pest, you say?" She raised a brow, "One that releases a poisonous cloud that almost killed Diana? What in the nine realms were you thinking? Are you trying to get us killed?"
Ashlock could understand their anger. He got them poisoned and then shoved them into a dark cavern for a few hours without explanation.
'My apologies, Stella and Diana. I didn't realize the worm monster would emit such a potent airborne poison.' He wrote on his trunk. It was only fair for him to admit when he had made a blunder that put his weaker sect members at risk. Not everyone was as immune to things like poison as he was with his system and unique biology.
Stella let out a long sigh and gripped her nose, "You know if Diana didn't have demonic Qi in her body to fight the poison, she would have died today? What if Douglas had been up here, there's no way he would have lasted even a few minutes before perishing."
Ashlock fell silent. Although it had been an accident, he needed to be more aware of those around him. "I really need to get Douglas to carve out this mountain and turn it into a runic fortress to keep everyone safe as there's very likely to be situations in the future where I have to use my {Consuming Abyss} skill again, and I don't want my sect members to be caught in the crossfire..."
"It's fine," Diana said flatly as she walked back to the runic formation and sat down, "If I had died in such a pathetic way, I deserved it."
"Don't humor him," Stella said as she rolled her eyes.
Diana shrugged and got back to cultivating.
'Can you tell Douglas to carve out rooms in the mountain? It's too dangerous for you all to stay above ground constantly.' Ashlock wrote, and after translating his words, Stella nodded.
"Sure, but first, help me finish outlining the concealment array I was working on. I want it finished before sundown, and I am behind schedule."
Huh? How did she expect him to do that...
Stella pointed off to the side, "Just summon your black vines and use something to carve runic words into the stone. It's not that hard."
Ashlock wanted to protest and say she was a genius and that it actually was hard, but he decided to humor her. Using {Consuming Abyss}, he summoned a single black vine from the ground. Now he just needed to find something to use as a giant pencil.
"What about that oversized sword I got as a system draw?" Ashlock mused. Looking through his inventory, he soon found it. Summoning it to the real world and floating it to his waiting vine with telekinesis, he was soon wielding the stupidly big sword.
"Perfect now, come over here," Stella said, gesturing his sword-wielding vine to follow, "You see these runes? Just copy them in the same pattern over and over around the entire circumference of the mountain. I will go this way, and you go the other way. We will meet at the other side in a few hours... okay?"
It felt ridiculous being ordered around by Stella, but after a while, he soon got the hang of it.
"Haha! I'm a runic array master now!"
Although he doubted Diana appreciated the constant scratching noise of a sword against the mountain rocks.
"It's fine. Cultivators meditate to the point they can be poisoned without noticing... right?" That thought aside, Ashlock enjoyed the peaceful flow of scratching out the runes on the rock that Douglas would later widen with his earth affinity.
Alas, even in this state of peace, he couldn't help but worry about that giant worm. Although it hadn't been heading directly for him, it was still heading in his general direction, and unless he focused all his attention on his roots, he wouldn't see it arrive until it was too late.
"I should probably check on my roots." Ashlock paused his runic work for a moment as it required all of his focus and gave a brief look around through his root network.
At first, he didn't detect anything around him for many miles. It wasn't until he checked on his roots deep under Darklight City that he began to pick up slight tremors that were getting closer.
"Oh, you have to be joking." Ashlock began to panic. What if the worm emerged in the center of the city?
