Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos.

Chapter 23. A Quest? Communicating With Flor For The First Time.

Liu Shu was happy that one of her skills made such a giant leap. However, the system's messages had not yet been finished, as one very strange but important one appeared before her.

[Quest Received: Clear the nearby surroundings and build a safe town for human-sized creatures.

Completion Conditions: Create or assimilate 10 <Basic House>, 1 <Basic Well>, 1 <Basic Farmland>, 1 <Basic Inn>, 1 <Basic Town Hall>, 1 <Basic Defensive Fence>, 2 <Basic Defense Building>.

Rewards: Sylvanium Shards [50], Etherium Shards [50], Ascendium Shards [50], Celestium Shards [50], Cognium Shards [50].]

Liu Shu looked at it in confusion. 'Quest? So… Something I need to do?'

She didn't receive a system hint like usual, so she stopped caring about it. 'Well, I know what each of those things is, but…' Liu Shu would've been frowning if she had a face. 'How do I build them?'

Although it was a question in her mind, she didn't bother thinking about it too deeply. 'Well, let's see what happened around me while I was taking a nap~. <World Tree Eye> open!'

The world around her was suddenly illuminated, and everything appeared in her mind. The first thing she realized was… 'Oh! I'm taller!'

And taller she was. Our Liu Shu had achieved breaking through the 5-meter-tall! Seeing this, Liu Shu realized that she could also grow taller without needing to <Level Up>.

Moreover, she could see that a strange wooden door with beautiful neon-blue veins was lying horizontally by her side, probably heading into the ground. Her <World Tree Eye> expanded and crossed it, looking inside. After all, that door was made from her roots. It was only normal for her to be able to see through.

'Oh! So many things!'

[Do you want to open your inventory?]

'Hm? The inventory I got earlier is this thing?'

Without any hurry, Liu Shu observed the vault. While it was made out of wood, it had a beautiful aesthetic as her energy veins covered its entirety. Moreover, because it was underground, it should've been dark. However, thanks to the glowing blue veins, there was light, illuminating everything in a mesmerizing manner.

After looking around for a while, Liu Shu nodded. 'Yes? I want to open the inventory!'

A page appeared in her mind, showing a list of items. 'Oh!'

Liu Shu exclaimed in wonder, reading through them. 'They have nice names… Even though I don't know what they are for, their names are nice! Oh! There are even a few of those shards I just received!'

And with that, Liu Shu was satisfied and closed the inventory.

I mean, she is a tree. What did you expect? For her to start investigating the effects and crafting super-optimized items?

'Now… Open system window!'

The system window unfolded in her mind, and Liu Shu received another surprise. 'A few skills have grown in level! So nice~.' Liu Shu paused and thought. 'I should sleep more often. There are so many good things after waking up… Hm?'

Name: Tianlian Liu Shu

Titles: 

<Awakened>: A title that's gained when a tree gains sapience and evolves, gaining human-like intelligence. 

<World Tree>: A tree that can grow to be an overlord, admired by many, hated by some.

Hidden titles: [9]

Race: World Tree.

Energy Method: Basic World Energy Gathering (Gathers experience points*Level per day.)

Level: 3 [0/1110]

Aether Mana Shards: 1013/1013 (+36,5/Hour)

Phoer Body Shards: 1499/1499 (+54/Hour)

Anima Energy Shards: 1044/1044 (+37,6/Hour)

Attributes: Aether 27 (21+6), Physique 37 (27+10), Anima 29 (24+5), Willpower 30 (30), Destiny 300 (300)

Affinity Percentage: Aether Resonance (25), Physique Refinement (35), Anima Affinity (20)

Resistance Percentage: Aether Resistance (31), Physique Resistance (37), Spiritual Resistance (32), Mental Resistance (35)

Talents:

<Enchanted Growth (E+ Rank level 1 [400/18000])>

<Woodcrafter (E- Rank Level 5 [1000/486000])>

<Nature's Gift (F Rank level 4 [10/9300])>

<Willow Strike (F- Rank level MAX)>

<Willow Strike Barrage (F Rank level 2 [620/1200])>

Passive Skills:

<World Tree Heart (A Rank Level 1 [0/589900])>

<World Tree Eye (C Rank level 1 [1620/144000])>

<World Tree Wisdom (SSS Rank Level Max.)>

<Charm of the Seedling (F Rank Level 5 [1000/18000])>:

Accumulated Experience: 722

Currency: Sylvanium Shards [150], Etherium Shards [150], Ascendium Shards [150], Celestium Shards [150], Cognium Shards [150].

Inventory [Lignified Vault (Basic Construct)]: Saplingwood (F- Rank [8Kg]), Drizzlewood (F- Rank [12Kg]), Sproutheart (F Rank [2kg]), Woodbreak Sword (F Rank [Broken]), Basic Phoer Berry (F- Rank [123]), Basic…

***

Her "eyes" moved and landed on the system's last line.

Accumulated Experience: 722.

Liu Shu was instantly flabbergasted. 'WOW!'

The other things she had received until now were good, but as a Tree, she wasn't that excited about them. After all, she couldn't grow taller with them.

But with this? Liu Shu was a happy tree!

Happy enough for the Rose Fairies to notice that she had woken up.

'How did I gather so much experience, though?'

The answer was with Flor. It had been around 60 days since Liu Shu leveled up, meaning she had been giving Liu Shu 9 Experience Points per day. Then, Liu Shu's World Energy Gathering worked without needing Liu Shu to do anything, and the experience it provided daily was 3 points.

Adding the remaining 2 Experience points from her Level Up, Liu Shu had accumulated 722.

As she observed the system page, she realized that <Willow Strike> was at max level. Right after she looked at it, a message popped up.

[<Willow Strike> has reached the maximum level. Do you want to spend 15 Experience to increase its tier?]

Liu Shu nodded, reducing her experience to 707.

[<Willow Strike (F- Rank)> has Tiered Up to <Willow Strike (F Rank)!]

<Willow Strike (F Rank level 1 [0/200])>: The World Tree is from a willow family, with characteristic long but thin branches. She can use Aether Mana to move them and strike a target. Range 20 meters.

'Oh? The range increased! Really nice~.'

At this moment, she saw Flor approaching with a smile. "Good morning, Liu Shu. I hope you had a nice rest."

Liu Shu answered her back in her head in a cheerful manner. 'Good morning, Flor!'

Then, the Rose Fairy Queen looked at the floor door leading to the vault and laughed. "I didn't expect it to become such an ordeal. Are you all right, Liu Shu?"

Liu Shu tried to convey her feelings, and it worked surprisingly well. Of course, as always, she took her time.

After around 20 minutes of asking, Flor felt a wave of energy hit her, conveying a simple emotion that told her to relax. This surprised both of them. Liu Shu blinked. 'When did my energy control become so sharp?'

Flor tilted her head. "Liu Shu, did you gain a skill to control your energy?"

Liu Shu tried again, sending an energy wave that conveyed a negative to her answer. This time, Liu Shu spent more concentration, making her answer relatively quick.

Flor actually understood, making her feel ecstatic. "Although it is limited. With this simple method, we can finally properly communicate!"

The usually elegant and calm Rose Fairy Queen couldn't help but giggle as she flew around the tree. Speaking of the tree. Her trunk had "matured" quite nicely.

While the female shape specific to World Trees was still not too noticeable, now you didn't need to be drunk to discern it. If someone stepped close enough, they would be able to see the budding figure of a woman slowly coming out of the gently twisting trunk.

Her branches were still willow-like, think and look, dropping around her as hairs of a woman would.

Her bark was still brown, with very dim blue undertones from the energy moving inside her body.

Flor wanted to ask Liu Shu questions now that they could communicate somewhat. However, she couldn't think of anything. "Hm… Liu Shu, do you like the plant food we prepare for you?"

Although communication was possible, from Flor's point of view, it was honestly not a pleasant sensation. After asking, the tree before her would go silent as if she was appreciating something extremely profound about her question.

Of course, Flor knew that Trees were usually slow in thinking, so she didn't mind and waited. In the meantime, Flor spoke with other fairies and warned them about it. "I've managed to communicate with Liu Shu, albeit poorly. Tell the others."

One of them nodded enthusiastically and flew around, telling the news to others. Flor also moved toward one of Liu Shu's branches and began using a specialized brush made out of the hairs of a bear-type creature.

These bears would often rub against trees to scratch their back, and at the same time, they would clean the trees they scratched against. That was why many trees that had consciousness just ignored those bears. Some even bothered, throwing them fruit or something.

Regardless, with the brush hand-made by Flor, she began cleaning the branches. Flor was not alone at this, as there were fairies attending Liu Shu almost 24/7. Our young tree just didn't realize because she ignored all of them.

Before the Fairies arrived, there were bugs and such as well. So, in Liu Shu's mind, the inhabitants around her just changed from bugs to fairies.

As a tree, Liu Shu could not be judgmental of certain types of creatures unless they were people who attacked them first.

Naturally, there were races that Liu Shu disliked because they were too brazen, but all in all, relationships in the wild weren't as simple as they sounded.

After a while, Flor felt the affirmation coming from Tianlian Liu Shu about her question and nodded. She laughed a bit. 'Honestly, I should ask more questions about her origins, etc. But I don't want to go back and forth in a yes or no answer type of question.'

Flor pondered and remembered that before Liu Shu went into a deep sleep, she had built that strange claw. "Liu Shu, what were you trying to gift me with the claws? Weapons? Do you want to make me a weapon?"

On the other hand, Liu Shu, who had been pondering how to communicate about this, cheered. 'Finally, Flor speaks about something I want. She is not the deepest root in the groove for how fast she speaks and answers. Hehehe~.'

After some deliberation, Liu Shu finally expressed her desire to help by creating tools and weapons for the Rose Fairies. Liu Shu's only reason for doing an active movement to help like this one was that this group of red-headed small women was highly attentive to her.

She liked them, and she would be sad if they all died suddenly. However, it wasn't to the point of letting her roots starve.

Flor heard the affirmation and smiled. "That's good to know. Well, let me tell you a bit about weapon designs."

After around 3 hours of "talking," Flor and Liu Shu would soon begin a weapon-building factory.