Ashlock woke up to clear blue skies, the rising sun, and the chirps of birds.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3542

Daily Credit: 15

Sacrifice Credit: 2,694

[Sign in?]

It took a moment for his brain to kick into gear, but when it did, Ashlock dismissed the system message floating in his vision and activated {Eye of the Tree God}. Picking the direction Nox had escaped into the wilderness, the lush meadows blurred below him as he traveled to the edge of his roots range and glanced around.

Nothing but rolling hills, some weak monsters devouring a line of corpses and trees for miles. Spreading out his spiritual sense, he sighed as he came up empty. Nox was long gone and had left a trail of death in her wake.

"I wouldn't have been able to stop her with anything in my arsenal even if I managed to stay awake through the night, but it's still frustrating she got away," Ashlock grumbled as he opened rifts above the corpses, which caused the weak monsters to flee in fear. Thorn-covered vines descended on the many half-eaten carcasses and brought them back to his body to be devoured for credits or fed to his summons.

Returning to Red Vine Peak, he knew there was a long day ahead of him. The battle with Nox and the Merchants had been an... eye-opener.

"I knew the Merchants were strong in cultivation level alone, but I didn't expect them to be that capable in combat, but I suppose it makes sense. They traverse the monster-infested wilderness and delve into rifts for a living, after all," Ashlock mused, "I guess I let my guard down because I managed to kill a few cultivators near the peak of the Star Core Realm in the past, like the Voidmind Elder, but that had been with cheap tricks. I don't think the Voidmind Elder was that well-versed in combat. He was a researcher who likely believed he was one of the strongest in the area, so it made sense that he was careless, unlike the Merchants, who, despite being stronger than anyone here, were hyper-alert during the entire meeting and acted as a unit without even communicating."

Ashlock looked around the mountain peak. Stella was lazily relaxing below him on the bench in the morning sunlight. Diana was asleep or cultivating against a water affinity tree with Kaida wrapped around her like a blanket. Elder Margret was missing, but Ashlock knew she had been healed and should be alive and well.

"Actually talking of the Redclaws, how is the Grand Elder doing? The last I saw of him, he was fighting off a horde of shadow wolves in the forest. I remember sending Larry to go help him before falling asleep..." Ashlock left everyone to sleep a little longer on the mountain peak and searched for Larry. It didn't take long before he sensed three powerful presences in the eastern forest near the wall.

"Why are there three?" Ashlock wondered as he looked closer and saw Larry munching on the corpse of a large wolf while the Grand Elder, who was badly scratched up, was resting on the ground while downing healing pills.

The third presence was, surprisingly, Elder Mo, who handed the Grand Elder a waterskin. "Never thought the day when our Grand Elder lost to a pack of wolves would come," Elder Mo wiped away a fake tear and sniffled, "Oh, how far the Redclaws have fallen!"

"Stop being a dramatic old man," The Grand Elder rolled his eyes, "They may be normal wolves now, but each exhibited the strength of a peak Star Core Realm beast! Not even I and the guardian beast here working together could take down the savage pack, and it wasn't until dawn arrived that we could finally prevail."

Elder Mo raised a brow, "Really? Could these common forest wolves really display such power?" As if in disbelief, he poked the nearest one with the tip of his sword, "You're not pulling my leg?"

"Elder Mo, shut up," The Grand Elder grunted as he stood up and handed the waterskin back, "How did you not notice the massive battle we had yesterday? Half of the White Stone Palace is even destroyed!"

"You're serious?" Elder Mo scratched his balding head, "I just came out here for my morning walk to clear my head after an intense night of wielding spirit fire and then found you looking all beaten up and sorry for yourself, so I came over to poke some fun."

Grand Elder Redclaw placed a firm hand on Elder Mo's shoulder, "Come with me. Now." He said as he summoned a large sword. Elder Mo reluctantly followed the Grand Elder's lead and got on the floating sword.

Ashlock watched as the two flew off toward the White Stone Palace in a trail of blazing flames, leaving Larry to happily munch on the pile of wolf corpses.

Ashlock saw no need to take those wolf corpses away to consume as he could feel the low amount of Qi in their bodies, so they were hardly worth any credits.

"I wonder why Larry is even bothering to eat them. Is he just hungry?" Ashlock wondered as he returned to Red Vine Peak.

"Morning Tree!" Stella said the moment his attention returned to the peak, and she jumped up from the bench.

"Good Morning Stella," Ashlock replied with {Abyssal Whispers}, "How are you feeling today? Any lingering pain or headaches? I can get Sol to heal you again if needed..."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Stella waved him off, "Just a lot to think about, you know? Yesterday did not go how I expected at all, and I suddenly feel both weaker and stronger than before."

"Oh? How do you feel both weaker and stronger?" Ashlock asked.

Stella summoned her sword and swung it around with surprisingly good form and footwork as if she were fighting an enemy only she could see.

"When my bloodline activated and I fought on par with Nox by reacting and mirroring her swordsmanship, I felt calm and totally in control," Stella explained as she spun around and her sword cleaved through the air with a whistling sound. Her long hair fluttered in the breeze, and she smiled, "Sure, I might have been unable to actually pressure her into defeat as I was constantly on the defensive, but in that short moment, I felt invincible!"

"I see... and then what happened?"

Stella stopped twirling and cutting the air, and her mood instantly soured, "Well, I got knocked out cold by a single attack from Lucius. Woke up and tried to fight Nox again to chase that same high, and instead of having another good fight, I couldn't even leave a scratch on her and got my organs scrambled from a single kick... eh heh," Stella awkwardly scratched the back of her neck as her sword hung lazily in her hand, "I really thought that if my bloodline activated again, I could fight her just like before. Yet, after some self-reflection, I realized I was like an ant to Nox."

"The moment the sun dipped below the horizon, and she got away from Lucius's light, she basically became a god to us," Ashlock agreed, "Although you do have to remember she is eight stages in the Star Core Realm above you, Stella. You will be as strong as her one day."

Stella nodded slowly but then sighed, "Even so, the fact her shadow armor stopped my sword like it was nothing is a moment I will struggle to forget. She was right there, a meter in front of me, yet an invisible chasm of power separated us that's so hard to see until it's too late. If not for you saving me with that portal, I definitely would have died last night!"

"I'm glad you came to that realization. So what now?" Ashlock asked.

"Mhm, well..." Stella tapped her chin as she looked around, "How long till the Mystic Realm opens up?"

Ashlock brought up his sign-in system and did some quick maths, "Around ten days from now."

"I see..." Stella hummed to herself as she looked at her reflection in her polished sword, "Not really in the mood to sit down and barely progress in my cultivation. I would rather find other ways to get stronger, like practicing swordsmanship or perhaps even upgrading my sword."

"Upgrading? Isn't that sword already top quality? I gave it to you from the Voidmind Elder's stash."

"Yeah, but when I needed it to cut, it didn't." Stella pouted, "Your swords also couldn't get through Nox's shadow armor, and you are in the middle of the Star Core Realm. Surely, we can get better swords somehow." Stella then seemed to remember something, "Oh, actually! Didn't Elder Mo get the inheritance of some immortal smith or something? Couldn't I ask him?"

"I think he is still learning. You must remember he only gained the power of spirit fire like a month ago," Ashlock chuckled, "But I did just see Elder Mo get dragged to the White Stone Palace by the Grand Elder a moment ago so you could go speak to him over there."

"Okay, I will go over there then. Unless you need me for anything here?" Stella asked, depositing her sword back into her spatial ring and looking around while rocking on her heels.

"No, I should be good for a while. I am planning to see if there's a way to heal my Ents," Ashlock replied and refrained from mentioning his system and wanting to spend his many credits.

"Alrighty, see you later then!" Stella ran forward, and a portal snapped into existence.

Ashlock watched as she zoomed across the mountain range through the demonic tree forest, making a mile apart portals each time.

With her gone, Ashlock decided to check on his Ents. Khaos and Zeus were standing motionlessly near his trunk. A decent chunk of Khaos's torso was missing, as if a laser beam had blasted through it. Meanwhile, Zeus was missing an entire arm, a part of his chest, and half of his head.

"Mhm, so they are healing naturally, just incredibly slowly. Is it because there isn't any void or lightning Qi in the area?" Ashlock mused as he tried to get a black root to emerge from the ground and link both of them up to him, "If I provide some of my Qi, maybe they will heal faster?"

The link worked, but it felt wrong. Unlike usual, where the Ents would try to greedily suck him dry of Qi as fast as possible, it felt like blowing air into a crumpled plastic water bottle this time. It was still possible, but clearly not ideal.

"System, how can I heal Khaos and Zeus faster?" Ashlock asked and was somewhat surprised when two system notifications floated above them in his vision.

[Khaos has sustained 27% damage. Repair instantly for 324 SC?]

[Zeus has sustained 43% damage. Repair instantly for 645 SC?]

"Holy shit, I can heal my Ents instantly with sacrificial credits? System, why didn't you tell me this before?" Ashlock cursed. If only he had known about this before, he could have eaten Hammond and then used those credits to repair Khaos to hunt down Nox!

"Actually, wouldn't this also be a broken feature during the beast tide? If I am given an unlimited supply of monsters to consume, I can send out waves of raised Ents to fight back against the horde without the risk of losing too many, as I can bring them back to be repaired either at my main body or a Progeny."

That aside, Ashlock couldn't help but gasp at the prices. Why were they so darn high?

"Over six hundred sacrificial credits?! Just to repair Zeus's head and an arm? I could get a new A-grade skill for that much!" Ashlock lamented, "I supposed Zeus, with his abilities, is an A-grade skill by himself... But I gave up hundreds of sacrificial credits by not eating the corpse I used to make him. Then I slowed down my cultivation progress by powering him up with overpriced Qi, and now I have to fork over sacrificial credits to repair him? Why does this feel like owning a sports car back on Earth?"

Ashlock sighed and stared at the numbers a little longer before losing it again, "System, these are ridiculous prices. This is far too expensive. A thousand credits just to heal two Ents? That's almost enough for an S-grade system draw!" Ashlock grumbled and then remembered that Titus was missing. Using {Eye of the Tree God}, he went to find Titus and was somewhat surprised to find him still out in the wilderness beyond the wall where the battle between Stella and Nox had occurred. The titan of black wood lay there motionlessly, but his eyes were still lit like a dying liliac candle flame instead of their usual blazing radiance.

"System, how much to heal Titus?" Ashlock asked, but no system message appeared, "Strange... do I need to link up to Titus to be able to repair him?"

Now that he thought about it, that made perfect sense. Otherwise, he could have an immortal Ent in combat by pouring sacrificial credits into it as it fought.

Opening a massive rift in the sky, Ashlock dragged Titus through with a mixture of telekinesis and his thorn-covered vines, "Holy shit, this fucker is heavy," Ashlock groaned as he dumped the heap of black wood beside the other two Ents and snapped the portal closed.

The loud noise and rush of wind seemed to wake Diana from her slumber as she let out a loud yawn. After looking around sleepily, she slowly got up and strode over with Kaida lazily snaking beside her.

"Morning, Patriarch," Diana said while stretching her back, "Did we win? I was too busy trying to stabilize the demonic Qi in my Soul Core and body to be able to ask anyone."

Diana still didn't know the ancient runic language, so he had no choice but to answer her with {Abyssal Whispers}, which immediately made her wince before he even spoke.

"Some gains and losses. Nox got away, but I raised a new Ent called Sol that I used to save your life from Lucius's corpse."

Diana swallowed what he assumed was a Mind Fortress pill and frowned as she gulped it down, "Nox getting away is a rather big issue, I must admit. We revealed maybe a bit too much to her, and if we are unlucky, she might force us to reveal the Ashfallen Trading Company to the world sooner than we hoped."

"Indeed, which is why we need to get stronger. Fast."

Diana raised a brow and glanced at the rather sad group of Ents that looked like a pile of timber, "So what are you doing with these? Turning them into firewood?"

Ashlock chuckled, "With how expensive they are to repair? I am debating it."

"Expensive? What do you need? Spirit stones? Dragon Crowns? Wood?" Diana listed off in her usual monotone voice, which made her sound like a bored secretary having to clean up after their bosses' mess for the tenth time today, "We should have anything you could possibly need in their spatial rings."

"Corpses," Ashlock admitted, "I need fresh corpses of powerful monsters. The more corpses I consume, the stronger I become, and the faster I can repair these Ents as well."

Diana looked at the pile of carcasses Ashlock had retrieved from Nox's warpath through the wilderness, "Are these not enough?"

"As I get stronger, I need corpses of higher cultivation to reap the same benefits," Ashlock explained, "These corpses aren't bad, but they are all below me. They might give me enough to repair only one of my Ents."

"I see," Diana nodded thoughtfully, "Well, Elder Brent should be returning soon with a group of Redclaws that went hunting for corpses for you. Anything I can do?"

Ashlock had actually forgotten about Elder Brent's excursion out into the wilderness among all the craziness that's been occurring recently. Sadly, he doubted their catch would result in all that many credits.

"Nothing for the moment."

"Alright, I will just relax and cultivate on the bench then," Diana wandered over and perched herself on the bench under his canopy's shade.

Ashlock withdrew his presence from within her mind, which clearly affected her quite a lot, and focused back on Titus, whom he had now connected to with a black root. And to his despair, a system message appeared above the near-dead Ent.

[Titus has sustained 64% damage. Repair for 960 SC?]

Ashlock now really regretted throwing Titus at Nox without a second thought in a last-ditch effort to stop or slow her down. "Sorry buddy, looks like you are going to be on life support for a while, but you seem to be healing faster than Zeus of Khaos, so you should be up on your feet soon," Ashlock sighed as he looked back at his sign-in system.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3542

Daily Credit: 15

Sacrifice Credit: 2,694

[Sign in?]

Realistically, he only needed Khaos to be operational to survive if Nox returned right now, so if he signed in and then devoured as many corpses as he could find, he should have credits enough to repair Khaos and a few spare for his {Consuming Abyss} skill if needed.

"Fuck it. System sign me in."

[Sign in successful, 2,709 credits consumed]

Ashlock watched his daily and sacrificial credits drop to zero, and another notification appeared.

[Unlocked an S-grade skill: Dimensional Overlap]

Ashlock felt the world around him shudder and tear as if it were made of paper. He saw glimpses of the other side. A strange void filled with celestial fog and large creatures that moved between the clusters of sealed pocket realms.

"Are those the world walkers?" Ashlock wondered as he felt information flood his mind. Not only about the new skill, he also felt himself connecting with the celestial fog and saw glimpses of millions of pocket realms flash through his mind. And then it all ceased as quickly as it had begun. Reality snapped back to normal. Peaceful blue skies and Red Vine Peak replaced the void and horrors just beyond the veil of reality.

"System, do you have to give me an out-of-body experience every time I get an S grade skill?" Ashlock complained as he made sure he was all put back together. That wasn't the worst one he had experienced, but it was certainly up there.

There was a sudden ripple in the void, and an exhausted-looking Maple materialized on his branches and seemed to be sniffing the air.

"Oh? Nice of you to reappear!" Ashlock said with sarcasm dripping from his every word, "What's your excuse for going missing this time? You know Nox wouldn't have gotten away if you were here? I hope you have a really good explanation, like destroying a country or something."

As usual, Maple offered no such explanation and just kept sniffing at the air in confusion and glancing around.

"Whatever," Ashlock dismissed the fluffy eldritch squirrel and focused on his new skill. "Mhm, I see, how interesting. {Dimensional Overlap} is effectively an offensive version of the Mystic Realm." Ashlock mulled over the information a little more and condensed it down.

"Basically, I can temporarily overlap a pocket realm onto the real world in an area around my body at the cost of sacrificial credits depending on how large I want the area to be and what Qi type I want to use. The skill cost is reduced if I use a pocket realm with the same affinity as the body I cast it from. However, this skill does not transport anyone to the pocket realm but instead overlays it onto a localized area."

In summary, Ashlock could alter the environment around himself or one of his Progeny by creating a bubble of a pocket realm just like from his Mystic Realm skill. But unlike his Mystic Realm skill that was designed for training with its time dilation and having a variety of pocket realms to choose from, his new {Dimensional Overlap} skill was to be used offensively but ensure he could gain the environmental advantage.

"I wonder how Nox would enjoy fighting Sol in a pocket realm that's nothing but desert and ten suns in the sky?" Ashlock chuckled evilly, "This skill will also come in handy when fighting the Patriarch or any other cultivators out of my league. If I can trap them in a pocket dimension devoid of their Qi type, I just have to win in a battle of attrition."

Now hyped, he decided to test the skill but realized he would need to acquire some sacrificial credits first.

"System, why can't you take my Qi as payment instead? Why does everything with you have to involve sacrificial credits or nutrients?" Ashlock complained as he devoured the nearby pile of corpses.

As the mountain peak was filled with the sound of crushing bones and melting corpses, Ashlock activated his new skill. A menu appeared and showed him an expansive list of pocket realms he could conjure. "So there is an initial cost and then a fee of ten sacrificial credits per minute to maintain the skill? Ugh. My poor money..."

Since he was about to test a new skill, he decided to warn Diana first, "Diana, could you move to the other side of the mountain peak? I am about to test something."

Diana nodded and got up to leave with Kaida.

Deciding on a spatial Qi pocket realm that would only encompass a few meters around him as it was the cheapest at a hundred credits, he clicked the option and felt reality around him warp and change.

However, before the link could be fully established, Maple did something. The pocket realm Ashlock had picked was ripped from his system's grasp, and Ashlock found himself and Red Vine Peak surrounded by the void and stared down by a group of Worldwalkers.