Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos.

Chapter 261. Berries. Conversation With Fortuna.

“A new day starts~!” 

Liu Shu felt the warmth from the Sun on her leaves and happily wiggled. Sleeping was not something she did, but during the night, she would become somewhat drowsy and relaxed. Her metabolism allowed her to continue during the whole day without any real rest. Still, with an entire city of sleeping people, the atmosphere just felt too quiet to continue being as active as she was during the day.

“Let’s check my berries today~... Wah!? What happened to my Aether and Anima essences!?”

Liu Shu saw that her Aether Mana Cores and Anima Energy Cores were half-wasted instead of having recovered during the night. Checking on the reason for it, she noticed that her <Nature’s Gift> skill was using a lot of it, far over her insane regeneration. ‘Huh? Why? Should it be more efficient now that it is of a higher rank?’

Reading the description, she noticed that the acceleration of her Berries was 100 days instead of the previous 65. This meant that now she was officially producing a berry daily for the lower gestation berries like <Delicious Berry>. This, added to the new berry’s cost, her Ternary Essence reserves were being drained quickly. ‘Hm… So, instead of this number here and that number there…’ Liu Shu played a bit with the numbers, and she eventually managed to come up with new numbers for each of them.

‘Nice! With these numbers, I’ll grow a lot of them monthly! Let’s see… Each month, I will be producing 120,000 <Delicious Berries>, 22,500 <Phoer/Mana/Energy Berries>, 33 <Breakthrough Berries>, 500 <Resonance/Refinement/Affinity/Palace Berries>, 20 <Energy Cycle Experience Berries>, and 3 <Cerulean Bloodfruits>.’

Looking at those numbers, while they were less than before, the effects significantly compensated for the new numbers. <Breakthrough Berries> especially. After all, now they were able to raise someone’s <Tier> up to the D- Rank! That was insanely strong.

‘Hm… <Mind Palace>... I haven’t unlocked it yet.’ 

She could make others unlock the stat, but she couldn’t unlock her own <Mental Palace> stat. This made her a bit sulky, but she quickly moved on. ‘Well, I will eventually unlock it. It’s not much of a problem.’

“Tianlian Liu Shu.”

Liu Shu heard the gentle and profound voice, and she instantly knew where it came from. She was actually a bit scared to answer this voice, fearing that the crazy being would suggest another absurd idea. 

“What do you want, Fortuna?”

Fortuna spoke softly. “There is an army that has arrived to my town to take you on.”

“Oh…” Liu Shu was confused. “Why did you tell me? Isn’t it better if I am defeated?”

“Defeated?” Fortuna laughed. “They can’t defeat you.” 

Liu Shu was interested. “Oh? Are they weak?”

Fortuna’s voice sounded a bit playful as she answered. “They have 10 Level 30s and more than 200 Level 25s.” 

“WAH!” Liu Shu exclaimed, fearful. “Isn’t that a super strong army!?”

Fortuna asked, curious. “Oh? Haven’t you recently improved your strength by a lot?”

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Our adorable World Tree paused and realized. “Oh, right! I forgot!”

“...” Fortuna was left speechless with Liu Shu’s answer. ‘How can someone forget about their own strength…?’

“Anyway, I don’t feel that they would be a threat to you. However, many armies like this one are arriving due to your past feats. The forest around my city has also become more dangerous due to your presence nourishing the flora and fauna…” 

Liu Shu’s roots were just five kilometers away from Fortuna City, so her influence on the nearby area was something that Liu Shu felt surprised about. The World Tree was about to speak when she felt a sharp pain. “Ouch?”

Looking north of her domain, Liu Shu located a group of six people excavating and cutting her roots while speaking with each other. “These roots are tough. If we didn’t have tools specialized in slicing wood, forget about cutting through them; even making a dent would be difficult.”

“I wonder what plant is the owner of these roots? They are quite pretty.” Receiving strange looks, the woman was quick to explain, pointing at the bleeding root. “I mean, look at the glowy blue sap that’s spilling from the wound! Have you ever seen something like this?”

A man in the group extended his hand and scooped a handful of the sap with curiosity. The woman by his side pulled the man back with a yank. “What are you doing!? What if it is toxic!?”

Liu Shu almost cursed aloud. ‘Toxic!? Who is the toxic one here!? You go around cutting roots of trees you don’t know, and you call me toxic!? If Wisdom were in charge, you would’ve probably become my fertilizer already! Moreover! My sap is the purest and bestest sap there is! It can heal so many illnesses and wounds that listing them might take a few years of your life!’

The man who touched the sap suddenly saw a System message jump in front of his eyes.

[You’ve come into contact with <Cerulean Bloodsap>! Your hidden illnesses are healing…]

Seeing the man looking forward with widened eyes, his friends became somewhat scared. “Is it really toxic? Do you need an antidote? Mar! Prepare to-”

The man quickly reacted and cut her off. “No, no! On the contrary, I feel better than ever. I can feel the sap penetrating through my skin and healing my wounds. It’s healing me!”

Liu Shu paused and noticed the six people’s faces change from surprise to pure happiness as if they’d found a treasure. This made Liu Shu’s core squeeze with a strange feeling of worry. ‘Um… Wisdom, how many people like these have come in touch with my sap while I was sleeping?’

[Wisdom: nearly 246 intelligent creatures have discovered it.]

‘And how many have you killed…?’

[Wisdom: 246 were killed to protect you.]

‘Ah…’ Liu Shu came to a realization. ‘So this is not the first time…’

Hearing them speak, she noticed that they were planning on cordoning the area and carrying more tools to slice through her roots and collect her sap. The thought of being harvested like an unintelligent vegetable was so jarring and uncomfortable that a slight touch of anger ignited in her core. 

‘They need to die.’ 

Liu Shu’s body pulsed with energy, sending a wave of Aether and Anima energy to that location as her presence descended on it. The group of six people felt the surroundings become stifling, and their faces instantly paled. “W-What’s happening!?”

Liu Shu’s voice spread in the area, her tone cold and menacing. “You shouldn’t have touched my roots.”

Realizing that the owner of the roots was able to project their presence with such intensity around them, the male leader of the group started apologizing. “C-Creature of the Forest! Please, mercy! We promise never to come here again and bother with your roots! We’ll also use healing spells on them!”

“Lies.” Liu Shu snorted. “I saw your greed. You covet my sap. <Living Roots>.” 

“W-Wait!”

BOOM!

The soil around them burst as several roots rushed at them with such a speed that avoiding them felt almost impossible. 

“ARGH!?”

CRACK!

[Congratulations on defeating <Level 23 Ceperet Human (E+ Rank)>. You've gained 85 Experience Points.]

The woman who had pulled the man from the sap was violently twisted by Liu Shu’s roots, making blood spew from everywhere. Seeing that sight, everyone else wanted to flee. However, it was naturally too late.

“M-MERCY!”

SPLAT!

A root lashed sideways, splashing him around like red paint. 

[Congratulations on defeating <Level 21 Ceperet Human (E Rank)>. You've gained 25 Experience Points.]

“W-WE PROMISE TO NEVER COME AGAIN! PLEASE!”

BANG!

Another root slammed onto him, sending him flying against a tree with all his internal organs broken.

[Congratulations on defeating <Level 24 Ceperet Human (E+ Rank)>. You've gained 105 Experience Points.]

“HELP! SOMEONE HE-”

BOOM!

A root descended from above, squishing his body against the ground and smearing him all over the forest ground.

[Congratulations on defeating <Level 20 Ceperet Human (E- Rank)>. You've gained 0 Experience Points.]

The last person alive was another woman who was in a state of shock, looking blankly forward with her pupils dilated. The first person who died was her sister, so seeing the brutal death was naturally something too impactful to process.

Liu Shu was ruthless this time around and coiled her root around her head, squeezing powerfully once.

CRUNCH!

[Congratulations on defeating <Level 22 Ceperet Human (D- Rank)>. You've gained 132 Experience Points.]

Finally, Liu Shu coiled around the man who had touched her sap and pulled from his head and body with two roots. The man’s body ripped from the middle, instantly dying.

[Congratulations on defeating <Level 23 Ceperet Human (E+ Rank)>. You've gained 85 Experience Points.]

After those few seconds, everything returned to calm, and Liu Shu observed the area. ‘Hm…’ The World Tree muttered. ‘Too bad for you. But my sap must not become a treasure to harvest.’

“Hm… Are you done?”

Fortuna’s voice reached her, and Liu Shu paid her attention again. “Yeah. There was a group trying to harvest my roots, so I had to kill them. Sorry for the wait.”

“Huh?” Fortuna asked, curious. “Are you so against people harvesting a bit of your massive root system? That’s a bit stingy, no?”

Liu Shu asked back, surprised at Fortuna’s words. “You allow people to harvest your roots? Really?”

Fortuna answered with a somewhat dispirited chuckle. “It’s not like I can resist. My skills are not too fitted for physical resistance. So, if someone is strong enough to cut my roots and harvest them, they usually are strong enough to escape my attacks.” 

Not convinced, Liu Shu asked. “Why not attack them with your soul attacks? I remember you did something like that to me, right?”

“Well…” Fortuna spoke softly. “I can’t attack intelligent creatures without permission from the City Lord…”

Hearing that made Liu Shu feel uncomfortable. Fortuna was a World Tree, but her entire being seemed sapped of energy and spirit. As if she was just there, existing and not… living. “Why?”

“Hm?” Fortuna didn’t understand what Liu Shu was asking her. “Why what?”

“Why do you need permission to do anything?” 

Fortuna heard Liu Shu’s somewhat frustrated tone and felt faintly moved. It was clear to Fortuna that Liu Shu didn’t understand her own situation. So, the older World Tree explained slowly. “When I became a World Tree, I was a relatively large tree in my own forest. Level 11, if I remember correctly. Sadly, I was not of a very high <Tier>, so advancing in levels was somewhat costly. Eventually, I was discovered, and people began gathering around me.”

Fortuna reminisced about her first years as a World Tree. “At first, the people were all very welcoming. However, eventually, a very strong person for my strength back then arrived and asked me to either surrender or be destroyed.” Fortuna sighed. “I fought, but he was just too overwhelming, and I came within an inch of being killed. He even cut my canopy and split my trunk vertically in half. At that last moment, he asked once more, and delirious between life and death, I chose to surrender. It was then when I was named Fortuna and Fortuna City was born.”

Liu Shu listened and, after evaluating the tale, she commented. “You are cowardly.”

Fortuna paused and made a questioning sound. “Huh?”

Liu Shu commented. “I was in a similar situation once against a Malachai person. He used a very powerful spell that burnt me entirely. However, I fought until the end, until my conscience vanished. I didn’t know if I died or lived at that time, but I could relax my conscience in peace. You could’ve fought me until the end as well, but instead, you chose to submit again. You cling to life a lot…”

Liu Shu asked the shaken World Tree. “Why is it so easy to surrender for you? Why do you cling to life so desperately? Why can’t you accept death after fighting with your all?”

Fortuna didn’t answer for a long time, but eventually, she spoke softly, her tone a bit weak. “Because after living as a normal tree for so long, losing what I gained feels… regretful. I don’t want to die; I want to live.”

“Even if you are reduced to nothing but a vessel of your former self?”

Fortuna couldn’t answer Liu Shu’s words, but the lack of answers for Liu Shu was as good as confirmation. “I see…”