Year 68 Month 4
Freeka. A small village with less than fifty souls, out of town. Elves. All of them.
It seems that the presence of a spirit tree does not go well with a lot of people in the city, so the druids decide to move me out of the city. It seems a spirit that is not aligned to the religions of the world are seen as heretical to some of the believers, and so I think I am quite lucky that there are druids who look after tree spirits.
The elves are happy to have a tree spirit in their small village, and I could tell from their conversations. The leader of the village requests I be put in the center of the village, apparently for the protection a tree spirit can give.
The elves are quite chatty, and from that, I learn that the leader of the village is a middle aged man, Ricola.
“A tree spirit is good fortune to our small village.”
Somehow, he gives me a very pleasant feeling, so I immediately offer him a familiar contract the moment I could.
“An honour, o tree spirit.”
“If anyone else wants a tree familiar please let me know.” I telepathically speak.
“Certainly.”Of the village’s warriors, I give out all my remaining familiar slots to 8 more of the men and women. It helps them in protecting the village, from the frequent monster attacks.
Year 68 Month 5
Ricola’s wife, Laufen is pregnant. They come over and ask for my blessing, I reply I can’t give blessings, but if they fall sick they can come to me for some healing fruits.
Year 68 Month 6
The elven kids decorate me for a festival to the earth. The elves in this world are a little animistic, they believe in spirits of nature, and their god is the nameless great spirit of nature.
“Trees are spirit of nature, so this festival is also dedicated to you.” An older female elf, Cashern leads the ceremony. She seem to play the role of the master of ceremonies, and also a living record of the elvish traditions.
They eat fruits, vegetables, and some hunted meat, and pray to the earth for good harvest, a good hunt, and protection from demons, monsters and humans.
They too serve some kind of fermented sap, which sends some of the men in some kind of high and dance throughout the night.
Year 68 Month 8
The tax collectors visit the elves.
Ricola pays them with what little gold or silver coins they have. Some of the elves in the village sell their excess foods in the city for coin, just for the purpose of paying taxes.
After the tax collectors leave, Ricola sits next to me and sigh. “These tax collectors are bloodsucking leeches. We get no protection from the army, yet we are forced to pay taxes, lest we suffer the wrath of the Kingdom’s tax enforcement force.”
“Ah.”
“Do you have demons here?” I suddenly wonder how do elves deal with demons.
“Oh tree spirit, we do face demons. But demons are usually drawn to places with lot of souls for them to kill. Sparsely populated places like our village is usually spared of their wrath. It is only when the Demon King descends, when the elves throughout the continent gather to fight it.”
“I see.”
One of the elf kids run over and knock on my trunk. “Hey tree. Do you think you can give me a familiar?”
Ricola pats him on the head. “Brislach, please don’t disturb the tree spirit. He has given all his familiars to the adults.”
Brislach pouts and walks away.
“How’s Laufen doing?” I asks, but actually I could see from my spirit vision that she is well. Spirit vision is good at telling the overall health of a person.
“She is doing well. It's been a few years since the last birth in our village. Everyone looks forward to it, especially Brislach and Wahlen. They cannot wait for someone younger than them to appear.”
Year 68 Month 10
Harvest season before winter. Harvest is better than last year, and Ricola says it is because of me.
I can’t tell because I do not see a skill that boosts harvest, but apparently as village head, he has a skill that lets him know what effects are affecting the area.
Maybe it is race passive for spiritual trees or something, that things grow better around it.
Year 68 Month 11
Being at the center of the village, the elven villagers frequently come over to chat under the shade. I am growing quickly, and am quite close to my size before I got chopped by the demon king.
The ladies now start to do some of their leisure activity under the shade. This means things like sorting or cutting through their harvest, or occasionally, processing hunted animals.
Some of the elderly also use the shade to teach their kids. It seems elves believe that the tree spirit improves learning, but I suspect that might be a placebo.
Year 68 Month 12
Winters are mild. I can produce some healing fruits, but their effectiveness is rather poor.
The men fight some monsters during this time, it seems winter comes with its own set of monsters. Nobody gets seriously hurt, so the mood is fine. It seems one of the guys, Jura, is the village’s best fighter. He's really good with a sword, and says he is going to be level 40 soon.
Laufen and the ladies would collect whatever winter fruits I produce to make some kind of tea.
Year 69 Month 2
Another festival to mark to end of winter. The elves are preparing some kind of fruit cocktail.
The elves come over to vent their frustrations, mainly about how things are done by other elves. Elves are people after all, and at times they come into conflict with each other over rather petty things.
I generally just listen. I'm not going to play counselor.
Year 69 Month 3
Laufen gives birth safely, its a baby girl, and is named Lausanne. . The elves throw a small party, and apparently tradition has it that elvish babies are supposed to be given the juice of a spirit tree, if there is one. I make her a healing fruit with all the healing abilities I can gather.
Year 69 Month 4
One of the elves sat next to me and tells me dire news. He just returned from the city from their weekly market visit, and the demon attacks are increasing. Rumor is that the demon king will descend very soon, and based on past trend, that does seem likely.
More worryingly, for some human cults have also emerged. Some of them profess to be able to control demons and have taken control of some distance villages, and some are religious puritanical zealot who cannot accept other races.
Still, the focus seems to be on the demons. A time for human unity, they say, as the demon king will rise once again.
To some extent, I wonder why do these humans bother when the gods summon heroes to defeat the demon king. It is not humans of this world who defeat them.
“Will the gods summon heroes to defeat the demon king?”
The elf sigh, “Probably.”
“Why do you sigh?”
“Every time heroes descend into this world, we trade the methodical destruction of the demon king, for the reckless destruction of the otherworldly heroes.”
“Eh, elves don’t look at them as heroes too?”
“The elves are in two minds about it. A faction believes the god’s heroes, some of which appear as elves, are god’s blessings to the elves. Another faction believes that the gods do not want to summon the heroes, but because the destruction wrought by the demon king is too great, they had to. So heroes are a desperate response from the gods.”
“What do you believe?”
“The heroes. They are a blessing.”
Hmm.
“Has the demon king fallen to a hero from this world before?”
The elf stares at me.
“Legends has it that the demon kings of the past… all defeated by the summoned heroes.”
“Oh.”
I suppose summoned heroes must have some special thing about them that allows them to slay demon kings.
Year 69 Month 6
A small group of soldiers arrive, the villagers are tense.
Ricola talks to the captain, and it seems the city is trying to gather the numbers to fight in the demon pass.
No one goes with the captain, captain is not happy, but they leave after a while, having many other places to go.
Year 69 Month 9
Baby Lausanne starts mumbling. She’s really cute, I can’t help but remember my own nephew back on earth.
Ah, home. I wonder how things are back there.
The elves live hard lives, but generally are happy, and many of the ladies enjoy spending their time playing with the baby.
Year 69 Month 10
I gain two level when the men return from their hunt. [Level 47] The men tell me they had to fight a giant beast and thanks to my familiar’s skills, they succeed.
I also gained two rather strange skills one morning. [Nourish] and [Secret hideout]. The secret hideout creates a small room right beneath my roots, probably can fit 2 adults.
I wonder whether it is because the kids, Brislach and Wahlen frequently play hide and seek with my roots and trunk. Maybe they should play a bit more if that leads to skills.
Harvest this year is better than last year, and it seems when I am around, the soil replenishes its nutrients a little bit faster.
Year 69 Month 11
Lausanne is feverish. I grow a small fruit of healing, for the Laufen and Ricola to feed the juice within.
Ricola has an argument with the tax collectors over higher taxes this year, but eventually pays it.
Year 70 Month 1
The men report seeing more human armies on the move. And the frequent movement is disturbing animal movement. They say it's rare for armies to move about when winter has not cleared, so the demons attack must be really intense.
I gain a level [Level 48].
I have my first attack skill. [Root strike].
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