Chương 41: Potent Resource

Over the next several days Blick and his family shared stories and survival tricks. It was both rewarding and disappointing if he was honest. His people were comfortable. They had a solid schedule that kept them safe and kept the young alive. Blick could understand it, but he was ever curious. He wanted to know more and his parents didn't seem interested in new. The cultivation was useful as they could become stronger and it would make them safer.

But there was no need for them to push outside of their normal behavior. This culture didn't reward curious children. A child that was too curious wound up food for whatever predator stumbled upon them. Blick was one of the lucky ones. Nobody that made it to adulthood and had a litter of their own remained curious. He could see the stagnation. It wasn't wrong exactly. These people had family and memories. They enjoyed stories. They kept things practical and quiet. Their lifestyle was not wrong.

It just wasn't what Blick wanted. He wanted to explore and see things. That required strength to stay alive against whatever lived out there. He had learned from another culture and shared that knowledge to benefit others. He enjoyed that. With a firm acceptance of who he would be, Blick stood from his meal with his family and tried to explain that he was leaving. The culture was all but expecting children to leave as soon as they could function by themselves. It wasn't hard for them to understand.

Everyone had closure now. With a head pat from his father and a hug from his mother he left the burrow he once called home hole. Packing his book away into a small satchel his father showed him how to make from hide, he added some strips of dried meat and berries from the stockpile his family had. They were more than willing to help him get his start after thinking him lost all this time. And with that final look over his shoulder, blick left home hole for probably his final time.

The keepers stored from their evening rest as they noticed the intruder in their grove. Their territory had frown to nearly double its size over the last couple of months and they had began to slow the expansion. It didn't take them long to realize they couldn't protect any animals inside from predators if the keepers were spread too thin. Predators messed up their balanced ecosystem because they took prey and left. Keepers needed animals to thrive and live and die to be consumed by the earth.

There was balance to all things and they kept predators that lived in the deeper parts of the grove as they would kill and eat inside it. The exterior line of the grove had to be guarded to prevent predators from crossing back and forth. A small predator was fine as it wouldn't consume much. Some of the packs or the larger individuals would come in and consume entire generations of smaller creatures then just leave.

The man's they donated to the trees for growth allowed the trees to grow larger and absorb more mana from the environment. Learning to take from the larger trees had let them scale. Smaller trees had been less efficient to invest in. Two center trees could absorb a ton more mana than hundreds of the smaller ones along the edge. With their limited mist cores the keepers focused all efforts in a small region. The number of keepers would remain limited by the territory controlled by the grove.

During the day there was no significant difference between the grove and the normal forest surrounding it. So they spent their time wandering the edges consuming debris left behind by animals and discarded tree branches. They would move slowly and only acted with haste to prevent losses. Being made of wood meant predators did not seek them out. The center two trees were actively hosting the next generation of keepers.

Three pods swung from its lowest branches creating a small body that would grow into adulthood over another decade or two depending on the resources it could find to consume. Slow and steady was life in the grove. Safe and secure was their way. So when something caused them all to stir and gather it had to be extremely important to the grove as a whole.

Blick found himself near where he remembered the grove being. The travel here had been faster than he expected but the sun had yet to set so he wasn't sure exactly which trees were part of the grove and which were not. He searched the area for danger before sitting down beside a random tree and considering his next adventure. His idea was to gather another two or three drops while he had access to this resource.

Not knowing what a safe speed looked like he assumed that more than doubling his cores potential was probably something meant to take time. Rushing just seemed like a bad idea. He had needed time to adjust to his first and then again when he formed his second drop. He didn't want to accidentally reinforce his punch just to rip his own arm out of socket from the force. So he set himself a limit. Before he could decide on the next destination he saw one of the tree people step out from behind a nearby tree.

Not long after four more appeared nearby. Their camouflage was amazing. He couldn't see them moving through the forest unless they clearly wanted him to. Basing his actions off his previous encounter and all but expecting to see these creatures again, he hadn't been shocked or frightened by them showing up. He was weary because he didn't know how to communicate with them and wasn't sure how they would feel about him drawing from several trees over the next week. He wanted to condense mana, not destroy their grove.

He stood from his seated position and walked over towards a tree person with empty hands open at his side. A fairly universal way of showing he wasn't hostile. They didn't move much as he approached and he assumed that was a good sign. When he got to within a few feet of them he could make out details he hadn't seen before. Black orbs for eyes adorned a flat elongated face. Face was a general idea as he couldn't make out any sort of nose or mouth.

The thing was clearly made of wood, had two legs that ended in some sort of circular root structure that flexed like a plate with toes all around the edges. It had two arms that ended in long fingers. Distinctly not roots, the fingers had several joints and one opposable thumb like most humanoid creature he was becoming familiar with. And on top of its head was a crown of branches that broke up its silhouette. Clearly he wouldn't be able to talk with this creature.

It was completely silent as it raised a hand and waved for him to follow. The tree people lead him about a mile farther into their territory and he could see more and more small creatures in the underbrush. By the time he made it to the two giant trees, the sun had set and the animals were out in force. He had never seen so many small animals in such a small area.

These held almost no fear of the tree people as he noticed several small furballs jumped from a tree to the head and shoulders of a few tree people who then handed them some berries they seemed to grow from themselves. Blick smiled at the clearly mutual relationship these creatures shared. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. When he made it to the base of one of two nearly identical massive trees the group stopped.

The tree people pointed at the tree and then at his palms. That made Blick tilt his head in confusion.

"I don't understand." He replied out loud. The sound caused the animals to freeze and the tree people to step back. Blick chuckled just a bit realizing how loud it was in the quit of the forest. Nodding his head a few times he shrugged and held a hand out palm up so they could just show him whatever it was they wanted. Two of the tree people walked further from the main tree and began digging in a seemingly random location.

While they worked on that the closest tree person took Blicks outstretched hand and placed it on the tree then pointed at the tree and drew a line to his hand. Thinking he understood the intent Blick tried to pull through his hand and surprisingly felt mana trickle in. If it was that dense he could pull from a random part of the tree then what could he pull from the root. Turning with wide eyes he realized the two digging were uncovering a huge root.

Under the glow of the massive tree, Blick sat and absorbed the densest mana he had ever encountered. In about an hour of painless compression he had a third drop. Another hour or so later he had a fourth drop. This was unreal. He paused at his goal of four and examined the tree. It seemed fine with maybe just a slightly dimmer glow than before. He had expected to stay here for a week collecting slowly from random trees.

This was an unexpected boon and he had no way to understand why these tree people had shown him and allowed him to absorb the mana. When he finished his task he stood up and began burying the root he had been using. One of the tree people walked up and began helping him silently with the task. When it was complete the group of four tree people each walked up and touched his shoulder and gave him a nod. Blick assumed this was some form of acceptance or thanks, tho he wasn't sure why.

Then one tree person waved for him to follow and it lead him away from the main two trees. The walk was peaceful and beautiful. Each tree had an off white almost blue glow. Some trees had slight purple or red to their glow and he was curious why, but it wasn't like he could ask. He didn't even feel he should ask. He had received quite a blessing having doubled his drop count in just a few hours. So he walked silently beside his host as he enjoyed the scene. Soon enough Blick realized how large the grove had become.

Near the edge was six tree people all holding a hand to a tree that didn't have a glow. They had been standing there concentrating while he and his host walked to them. As he approached he noticed a faint glow coming from the bark around the tree people's hands. As he stood there and watched the tree slowly grew its own glow, tho much dimmer than those around it. Then he understood. The tree people used their mana to force the grove to grow. And one had watched him form a drop from one tree.

If they had used the technique and condensed their own drop they could force a tree into this glowing state much faster. Thinking fast he climbed the next closest tree and looked around. The grove was double if not more its size when he was last here. How beautiful. In the dark moonlit night there were hundreds of pale glowing trees just swaying with the breeze. Not bright enough to see from. But enough to notice against the darkness around. There was so much life out here.

As he climbed back down the tree people watched him form a second before waving for him to continue. When he passed the last of them he turned and nodded his thanks to the line of tree people standing at the very edge of their glowing grove. Later that night as Blick sat in his swinging tree bed that he found right where he had left it weeks before, he pondered how much mana was truly out here hiding inside the forest and the creatures. The beast and trees were both bigger here.

He recalled the lessons from the Crater kingdom on where resources could be found and it just seemed like they had less available. That meant the worlds had different levels of ambient mana. No way to know how it would be measured he devised his own pseudo calculations based on the different animals and plants in the two locations. There was a balance to be found in every ecosystem.

This one with high mana made the area more dangerous and prevented intelligent species from gathering and creating enough safety to advance their cultivation. Nearly a spiraling issue. The more dangerous the area the less advanced the people would be and that would make the area even more dangerous. On the other end of that was Crater kingdoms world where mana was more scarce which lead to more mundane dangers.

People could band together and form civilizations where shared trial and error created breakthroughs in cultivation that also spiraled into a safer area. Without more worlds to draw information from this was his best guess on how other worlds may turn out. His home world had too much mana. Craters world had too little. Them being connected by the gate would benefit both sides. Honestly if they could devise a way to transport mana from one world to another they could slowly bring the levels of their world up.

Or maybe the issue wasn't with the mana levels but with the beasts and trees ability to draw it in from the environment? If he made it back to the academy he would ask them if they knew. Either way it was a fun way to pass the time. Imagining what other worlds were out there hiding secrets to mana resources that he could only guess at.