Chapter 773 - Name for the Nameless Tree (Patreon)

As we head through the forest, I leave it to the others to deal with the monsters and to scout ahead. Since they actually gave a fuck about this floor, unlike someone who had to spend their time fighting with severe mana deficiency, they are quite good at it. Especially Izzy, Maya, the twins, and Min-Jae, who have been living here for a year.

Now that I think about it, isn't it the longest time we’ve spent on a floor by far? Izzy is 13, as much as I still refuse to see her as anything other than her 10 year old self who used to cling to me like a baby koala on the third floor.

So let’s say she is truly 13 and not like my mental image of her. Humans barely remember anything until you are what? 4 years old? 6 years old? Even then, you forget most of it and all that stuff. So let’s be generous and say Izzy started “living” around 5 years old. That is eight years until now. With one year on this floor, it means she spent over 10% of her life on this floor and close to half of that life inside the tutorial.

How weird such a thought is, and I wonder how important to her all of it seems currently. In the future, as she becomes stronger and turns 100, 200, or older, it will be nothing, just a drop of time in her life. Yet, she spent a big part of her puberty here and her formative years in the tutorial.

Of course, it is Izzy. As much as I’m sure it will change her, she is a gentle person, unlike many of us here who are quite screwed up. But many other children trapped in the tutorial won’t be the same. And the same goes for people on awakening Earth. Even I likely had my part in it with my visit that caused millions of people to awaken.

I glance to my right at Min-Jae, who even now spins orbs made from my mana and from metal around him.

Noticing me looking his way, he turns to me. “Yes?”

“How was the 9th floor for you?” I ask.

“I thought you would be in your focused mode. Levelling up. All dark and concentrated and not in the mood for conversation.”

I lift my eyebrow. “Am I that easy to read?”

“Not really, but it becomes easier. We’ve known each other for over 3 years already. I spent more time with you than with Kevin, and he used to be my best friend. That is even as you went on your own and to the beyond a lot,” he says with an expression that suddenly turns a bit sad before he pushes it away.

“That’s true. There were months we were seeing each other day after day for weeks. As for your question about my mood, I did my preparations and will continue after I enter the beyond. I’m also sure I can do my part here and push myself. But at the same time, I got curious and wanted to know the answer, and I have no reason to be all broody and mysterious. For now.”

He smiles. “I like this floor. I got to spend a lot of time with the twins and the girls and got to know them much better. We saw amazing places, met a lot of demons, and put our lives on the line many times during fights,” Min-Jae pauses. “Izzy says that Tess wants us to go through the danger together. She believes that people who experience things together that other people wouldn’t understand will create a strong bond, and I think there is something to it.”

“So all was rainbows and sunshines?”

“Not a chance,” he chuckles. “There was a month Maya was fighting with Izzy because she decided to be a brat. I also had Dennis trying to beat me in a duel, but he kept losing and got annoyed at me for flying and didn’t talk to me for a while. Noodle broke Aaron’s gaming console, which you brought.”

After looking around to ensure no one is listening, he steps closer and whispers, “I also think Izzy is getting to the age where she starts noticing boys and might be crushing on Aaron a little bit, and for that reason, continues to avoid him and possibly does her best to not read his feelings.”

I blink a few times.

Seeing that reaction, Min-Jae nods. “Then there were these fights where Izzy almost got killed, and Maya got very scared, and for that reason, she got really angry and wanted to keep her somewhere safe. I also once disappeared for a week for a hunt and didn’t let them know in the Community, so I got screamed at for that.”

He shrugs awkwardly and tells me a bit more about their time here. All the good and the bad. He also talks about the tribes they met and the places they visited, things that feel like they happened in books.

As he talks, I reflect on what I have seen as well and how, as of late, I started considering some things to be normal.

For example, the Megacity that really reminds me of Minas Tirith in a way. The fact that I travelled to other worlds for beyond quests.

The fact that I have a disciple. Me. A disciple that isn't even a full human, but of a demon race that was created an incomprehensibly long time ago by a guy everyone wants to kill for some reason.

A black hole with a ring of flesh the size of planets circling around it, made from a single person’s body. The fact that I flew through space on an asteroid turned into a spaceship by an Elf.

How insane all of it is if I think about it for a while.

“I had hoped you would bring your Nameless Tree here. I wanted to see it, and it could help us with the floor,” Min-Jae says as we stop again while Tess and Maya head ahead to deal with a group of monsters that remind me of monkeys mixed with wolves.

I observe the fight while I answer, “If I need to use everything and even the Fragment just to clear the tutorial floor, I might as well just lie down and die.”

“Nice jinx.”

“I know,” I agree. “But I have been thinking. I want to make it so the leaves and maybe the trunk can absorb heat from sunlight and turn it into thermal energy. It could also take kinetic energy from wind or earthquakes. Or I could plant it in water and do it with waves.”

“Or you could absorb the momentum of the planet as it spins around its orbit or circles around the sun,” Min-Jae jokes. “If you want to absorb sunlight, maybe turn the leaves into a magnifying glass? Turning them black?”

“It needs to look cool. A purely black tree would look weird.”

“It needs to?”

“It needs to,” I confirm.

“How about planting it in a volcano? That’s a big source of heat. Do you want to focus on kinetic energy or thermal? Or knowing you, both?” Sophie, who is nearby, joins the conversation she must have listened a bit on.

Seeing her here, I notice Lily coming closer as well.

“I would like both,” I say.

“That could be less effective than just one,” Sophie says.

“If it became too strong, wouldn’t it eventually turn Earth into a frozen planet by absorbing too much heat, or cause some other disaster by blocking all waves? Wouldn't that be bad?” Lily asks.

“You. Have you been listening until now? You were quite far away.” I face her.

“I continue to train in improving my senses!” she answers happily.

“Can’t you put it on the moon? Without an atmosphere, you could absorb more heat, and the temperature when the sun shines on it is what, around five times more than in the hottest deserts,” Min-Jae continues to theorize without minding the petite invader of privacy. It worries me.

“Can’t you plant more trees?” Min-Jae asks again, before I can express my worry, so I just stare Lily down until she turns away.

“Just one tree,” I say. “The moon idea sounds cool.”

“Because it is more effective, or you just like the idea of a giant tree growing on the moon?” Sophie snorts.

“Yes.”

Laughing at my answer, the bulldozer says seriously after, “It will need a good name. It can’t remain the Nameless Tree.”

"Greg."

"Fuck off, Dennis," I say right away.

"World’s Okayest Tree," he tries again.

"How are you able to join the conversation so fast, anyway? And no."

"From some point, I was listening in on Min-Jae, starting when the Ruler of Lust joined the conversation."

I turn to the mentioned Korean boy. “Isn’t that against some kind of privacy law? Or at least basic human decency? Shouldn’t there be a blinking red light in your eyes when you let someone watch through them? Maybe a warning label. Or a consent pop-up.”

“No such regulations were set yet,” he answers immediately, completely straight faced. “There was a discussion once, but for some reason it turned into an argument about whether telepathic surveillance counts as eye contact.”

"What? We will have to seriously talk about that." I say.

"Leaf Me Alone."

"Okay, Lily, while I think it is funny, and I bet if I let you talk, you would say something like how such a name fits me and my personality..." I pause and think of it again. "It really is funny," I mutter unwillingly.

That causes the bulldozer to become happy, and Izzy offers another name, "Colossal Ordinary Rooted Green Individual."

"I see what you did there. Did your sister help you with the name?"

"Yup!"

"I thought so. There is no need to think about it anymore, I have already chosen the name. I will call it the Mana Tree."

"Nat, you can't do that. It doesn't fit with you wanting to use it for primordial energies." Min-Jae seems bothered, as if it is against his OCD or something.

"But it is accurate," I defend myself. "In the end, all those primordial energies will be turned into more mana."

"I should have fucking realized it would end like this. Let's go Izzy, I sensed Biscuit heading west, and there is that T-Rex friend of his’ signature as well, so we will check on it," Sophie ends up dragging her sister away like I’m some sort of weirdo.

Meanwhile, I explain to the rest of the people around me, "It will be a node of my domain, and I will connect Ley Lines to it so I will be able to spread them all over the Earth to build myself a permanent teleportation network. It will gather primordial energies and turn them into mana to power it all. I will likely add more to it. Some defensive arrays, something to strengthen my [Eclipse], mana battery, and stuff."

“Mind if I offer a counterargument?” Min-Jae asks, and I can see how much the name bothers him.

"Sure."

"You know of solar panels, right?"

"What do you take me for? Wanna get a beating?"

“I don’t! I asked just in case. Okay, so hear me out. Solar panels absorb sunlight, right? That sunlight gets converted into electricity, yet we still call them solar panels, not electric panels. In your case, you might be converting thermal or kinetic energy into mana. So it would make more sense to call it the Kinetic Tree, the Thermal Tree, the Thermokinetic Tree, or even the Primordial Tree, rather than the Mana Tree, if you want to keep the name simple.”

"In such a case, solar panels are named wrongly, and I won't make such a mistake."

Dennis puts his arms around the Korean boy, and I notice he has to reach up a bit, as Min-Jae is growing pretty tall. "Leave him be, he won't change his mind."

Min-Jae sighs, rubbing his temple. “I know. I just feel obligated to try.”

Both of them leave soon afterwards, Dennis walking a step ahead while Min-Jae follows, still shaking his head as if replaying the argument in his mind.

For a while, Lily and I move side by side, and I keep expanding my senses to watch the surroundings and observe how the others fight. I also check on where Sophie and Izzy went and where I can sense Biscuit and his T-Rex friend with the mana crown that are moving towards the main group now.

All the while, I keep gathering more mana. I accumulate it in the crown I have set over my head, where that mana constantly moves in currents. The more I do, the more I find myself comfortable constantly moving mana rather than letting it sit still. Mana Cycling, [Current], and even Thermal Cycling, I will experiment with.

There is a lot I have already gathered and bound to myself this way, but everything from the past three months has been collected for the fight against the mana-specialized Champion. It will be needed, even more so now without Nyssa.

Maybe, for the first time, I will see what Lissandra mentioned long ago. That even beings a grade more powerful relying on mana will find themselves weak against my black mana.

I push these thoughts to the background and glance at Lily, walking next to me. She surveys the area, a soft smile on her face as sunlight passes through the giant trees and warms her features.

Unable to help myself, I whisper quietly, "Leaf Me Alone, really?"

As expected, she hears me, and turning her face to me, she smiles brighter than the sun shining on her face.

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