Path of Dragons 18 - Chapter 18 - Life as a Tree (Patreon)

Eye of the Tiger was stuck in Elijah’s head.

Making the earworm even worse was the fact that he couldn’t even sing it.  Nor could he hum it.  The best he could do was to rustle his leaves a bit, which was a wholly unsatisfying way to exorcise that particular demon. 

Of course, Gunnar seemed to understand Elijah’s plight.  How, he had no idea. But the sniper had a habit of walking near the base of Elijah’s trunk and singing the song aloud.  The only thing that made it tolerable was the thought that Gunnar was just as frustrated with the earworm as Elijah.

Probably not.

It was assuredly no more than a cope. 

But it comforted Elijah all the same. 

Thankfully, he found it incredibly easy to compartmentalize his annoyance, largely due to his Amethyst mind.  His facets worked better than ever, his thoughts moving faster and more clearly than they had before his most recent upgrade in cultivation.  In addition, his fledgling ecosystem had begun to settle, which seemed to solidify his identity in ways he’d never really considered.

The key was versatility.

That had always been Elijah’s bread and butter, and his cultivation system had now begun to truly reflect that.  The boundaries were still there, but they had begun to degrade.  Integration and solidification of his evolved design would not be a quick process.  Nor would it finish before he’d reached tier nine in every aspect of cultivation.  As such, most people would have considered him insane to even try.

After all, no one reached that goal, even if they claimed it.  Instead, everyone focused on a single aspect of cultivation, only working on the others once they’d achieved that mark.  By that point, their cultivation systems were too intractable to really change. 

That meant they all eventually stalled.

Elijah’s plan was very different.  He’d always had a talent for cultivation, and he intended to use that to help him do something most people never even contemplated.  Tier nine in every aspect of cultivation was not a goal for the faint of  heart.  Elijah was well aware of that.  Reaching that goal required not only an incredibly strong concept, but constant work as well.  And finally, it necessitated meticulous planning.

Unfortunately, Elijah wasn’t really suited for the latter, which was where his newly cultivated Amethyst mind came in.  He’d always been flighty, but with the steadiness of Shape of Trees came a level of calm he’d never really experienced.

Sure, just existing as a tree meant fighting a constant war against the surrounding wilderness.  But that came as naturally as breathing, especially with Soul of the Wild, his Mantle of Authority, and Dictate of the World Tree coursing through his soul.  With those, he could establish a dense cloud of authority over his surroundings.  How far that went was based on how much mental effort he put into it. 

But even at its most basic representation, he could exert some degree of control over the entire cave.  Considering it was more than a hundred yards long and three times as wide, that was a considerable area.  Without his Amethyst mind, Elijah could never have managed it – not without pulling back and loosening his grip. 

Fortunately, his newly structured mind was more than up to the task.  Each cluster of leaves functioned like a fully formed mind in and of itself.  That wasn’t particularly new, but the computational power and speed far exceeded the previous version.  He could think faster and more fully, and each branch felt more independent than ever before.

However, they were all tied inextricably together.  And if he so chose, he could turn the collective into a single, powerfully dense mind.  When he did that, he unfortunately grew no more intelligent.  But doing so showed benefits in other areas.

Once, Elijah had been nearly destroyed by a transcendent-tier manta ray.  It had happened in an alien world he’d only entered to get a break from the incessant hostility of the void, and it had very nearly cost him everything.  The only reason he’d survived intact was because of his mind cultivation combined with the Hidden Authority trait of his Antlers of the Wild Revenant. 

Now, Elijah felt almost certain that he could withstand that creature’s casual attention without the trait.  Not for long, but he could manage it.  With the Antlers of the Wild Revenant, he could stand up to that manta ray’s presence for quite a while longer – at least until the creature actually noticed him.  After that, the difference in tiers would be far too great for him to overcome.

For now.

When he reached deity, that might change.  And if not, certainly when he achieved transcendence.  Not because of the tier itself, though that would surely go a long way.  But Elijah didn’t intend to advance until he was certain he’d eked out ever advantage he could from his cultivation. That meant that over the course of the deity tier, he would need to advance at least twice in every single aspect.

That was unheard of.

But that was also precisely why Elijah knew he needed to do it.  Increasingly, he’d become aware that his situation was all but unique.  Few people had ever walked a path similar to his.  And those who had usually ended up dying early deaths, their vast potential cut off by one mistake or another. 

If Elijah survived, he could reach heights rarely seen.  Perhaps never. 

He was certain of that, now more than ever.  After all, Kor wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of opening a gate to Silvara if he didn’t believe Elijah was worth the effort.  The same was true of his attention from beings like the Poet.  Or Kirlissa.  Even Mano, though Elijah had to admit that his adopted brother’s support was more about familial bonds and his approval of the way Elijah lived his life.

If he’d been a little less prone to combat, Mano wouldn’t have taken nearly the same interest.

Regardless, Elijah had grown to believe that he had the potential to do things even most transcendents never would.  It wasn’t fate.  Elijah didn’t believe in that kind of thing, despite the existence of Prophets and Seers.  His life was his own, and nothing was holding his leash.

Rather, Elijah could read his own potential, and what he saw was undeniable. 

Ultimately, that was why he’d expanded the scope of his cultivation system so drastically.  Could he have achieved some results the other way?  Assuredly, he could have.  The tree imagery was powerful enough on its own to take him far.  Yet, it wasn’t enough to allow him to reach his admittedly absurd goal.

At the end of the day, that old image was limited.

But the ecosystem idea?  That was effectively limitless.  Elijah could expand on it as much as he wanted, incorporating vastly different ideas.  The only real restriction was his concept of nature, which he’d already established was flexible enough that it ceased to really be a limiting factor.

Elijah considered that as he remained planted in the center of that cave.

Most trees would have needed sunlight, but Shape of Trees was beyond such requirements.  Sure, it liked the sun.  It craved its caress in ways Elijah wasn’t yet prepared to understand.  However, it wasn’t a necessity, as it would have been for a normal tree.

Nor was water.  Nutrients were in the same boat.

Elijah could flourish through ethera absorption alone.  And thankfully, that was where his Amethyst mind shone.  The original purpose of his mind had been to funnel ethera into his cultivation system.  Since then, Elijah had expanded the concept quite a bit, faceting his mind multiple times so he could more effectively compartmentalize and multi-task. 

The original purpose remained, though, and it was more powerful than ever.  Each facet – or leaf – coincided with an atmospheric whirlpool that dragged ethera into his system.  That worked alongside his regeneration attribute to determine how quickly he could refill his core. 

And now?  After weeks examining it, Elijah could confidently say that his ability to absorb ethera had more than doubled.

However, that wasn’t all up to his advance in mind cultivation. Some of it could be laid at the feet – or roots, as it were – of his new shape.  If nothing else, trees were very good at absorbing nutrients.

In this case, that meant ethera.

Curiously, that effect wasn’t listed in the new spell’s description.  Elijah wasn’t certain why that would be, but he was more than happy to accept it at face value.  Mostly because it made sense to him.

That was enough.

Gradually, Elijah’s ecosystem grew fuller.  The scope didn’t widen.  Nor did the details really change.  Instead, it seemed to solidify – almost as if Elijah was settling into the new expression. 

It would take a while longer and quite a lot of effort on his part to finish that process. He likened it to tending to a garden.  He didn’t need to pull weeds.  He didn’t need to provide nutrients.  Rather, he needed to gradually guide its growth, much as Nerthus had in the Hartwood Grove.

It would be years before he finished.

Only then could he address the next step in his cultivation journey – his core.  The delay was probably a good thing, because he hadn’t quite decided how he wanted to integrate that aspect into the new imagery.  Before, it was the root system, combined with the beating heart of a dragon.  Now, he needed something more.

Could it be the sun, perhaps?

Maybe.

But that seemed a little too detached for Elijah’s liking.  The tree itself, with the rest of his cultivation system surrounding it as the extended ecosystem? That had merit, too.

Neither idea seemed perfect, though.  Thankfully, he had time to solidify his ideas.

Even as Elijah focused on the improvements he’d experienced, he also had begun to plan for his next steps with Orveth Kaal.  That too would be a long process, he was certain.

He also believed he knew exactly how to do it.

The key was Fungee.

Already, there were eighty-one satellite colonies that had been developing for years.  Many of those had the benefit of a sliver of the World Tree within them.  Even without that, they were mildly powerful natural treasures.  With it?

They were something else.

If Elijah could give them all that benefit, then somehow connect them to Fungee, what would they become?  Could that network become powerful enough to enable Elijah to claim the planet for himself?

He wasn’t sure.

The dragons of the Empire of Scale, many of which were peak deities, had worked for years – perhaps even centuries – to establish the connection with their lost planet.  Once they had, the system stepped in to provide the means by which they could fish it out of the abyss and bring it back to the empire.

Was it hubris for Elijah to think he could do something similar?  And all alone?

Probably, he admitted to himself.  However, he had reason to believe he could be successful.  Most of that began and ended with the Poet, who seemed to believe that Elijah could do it. 

And that was the most powerful dragon in existence, at least according to Kirlissa.  If he believed in Elijah, then what call did Elijah have not to believe in himself?

Then again, the Poet could have his own agenda.  No – not could. He certainly did.  And there was a chance that his support of Elijah’s goals was less about helping him and more about thumbing his nose at the empire he seemed to hold in remarkable disdain. 

Whatever the case, Elijah had already committed to his path.  If not because of all the benefits Orveth Kaal offered him and Earth, then because that was where Fungee lived.  He was much too large and far too integrated into the ancestral world to displace.  No – he was there to stay, and Elijah wouldn’t stand idly by while the dragons got hold of him.

They would try to tame him, just as they’d tamed the fungal colony in She’evoth.  Such a powerful and majestic superorganism, reduced to mere decoration.

Elijah wouldn’t allow that to happen to Fungee.

So, his every goal had aligned with one simple purpose – take Orveth Kaal.

And Elijah wouldn’t stop until he managed it. 

With that in mind, he continued planning until, at last, Gunnar knocked on his trunk and said, “Been almost four months.  Probably best if you come back to humanity.”

Elijah’s leaves rustled, and reluctantly, he abandoned his existence as a tree and transformed back into his humanoid form. 

A brief wave of vertigo passed through him as he readjusted to his natural shape, and for a moment, he longed to return to being a tree.  He suppressed it, and far more easily than he could have before.  Finally, he rose, let out a deep sigh, and said, “If you start humming Eye of the Tiger again, I will murder you in your sleep.”

At that, Gunnar’s lips turned up in a subtle smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”