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If Sol wasn't out of Qi, the Ent could gun them down with light beams, but alas, Sol had collapsed to the side and was still. Maple seemed equally uninterested in pursuing the small fry as he continued to sleep, and Ashlock sadly had no way to chase them down. So he had to let them go for now.

"That was surprisingly easy," Ashlock hummed to himself, "I suppose the monsters here are only adapted to fighting other spatial affinity monsters and perhaps cultivators from the Azure Clan? One flash bang and a few void tendrils utterly overwhelmed monsters a few stages above me in cultivation."

Black thorn-covered vines devoured the few corpses dotted around that hadn't been consumed by the void, and the last few notifications of sacrificial credits came through.

[+387 SC]

[+363 SC]

[+210 SC]

Stella pushed herself off his trunk and glanced around, clearly impressed.

"Wow, you really slaughtered them that easily." Stella curled her hair behind her ears, "Did you go up a cultivation stage?"

"No, I didn't actually. Huh, now that you mention it, that's rather strange," Ashlock replied and brought up his system menu. Surely killing even ten of these monsters should bring about some benefits to his cultivation?

[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 9)]

[Star Core: 5th Stage]

[Soul Type: Amethyst (Spatial)]

"Still the same... wait." Ashlock checked on his progeny and saw it had gone up a few stages in the Soul Fire Realm, and the fractured part of his soul inhabiting the tree also seemed to be glowing with power.

"I guess I will get the cultivation boost when the fractured part of my soul returns to my body?" Ashlock concluded and then brought up his sign-in system.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3552

Daily Credit: 10

Sacrifice Credit: 4580

[Sign in?]

"Holy shit..." Ashlock knew he had killed a lot of those monsters, but this was by far the most points he had ever seen. "Okay, calm down and think logically about this. Clearly, I need to sign in and spend these credits, but my last highest sign-in was around 3600 credits, and that upgraded my B grade skill {Root Puppet} into my SS grade {Necroflora Sovereign} skill. So would 4500 be enough to guarantee an SS grade or higher skill that isn't an upgrade as those are cheaper?"

Ashlock pondered momentarily and decided he didn't want to risk it. Ideally, he wanted an SSS grade draw if possible but had no idea how many credits he needed for one. "Around five thousand should be enough, right? No way I need ten thousand?"

It was annoying how randomized his system was sometimes. For all he knew, it might upgrade his darn hibernate skill or something.

"Stella, how many corpses do you have?" Ashlock asked the girl who was wandering around the mountain, balancing the fat Maple on her head.

"Huh? Let me check..." Stella closed her eyes, waved her hand, and in a flash of silver light, a pile of those fiendish corpses appeared. Despite the grotesque sight, all Ashlock felt was hunger.

"Is the darn progeny affecting my mind? I don't usually get this hungry, especially right after a meal." Ashlock summoned a black vine and used the spike on the end to skewer a corpse and then handed it to another black vine.

A moment later, after reducing the corpse to nothing but sludge, he got a notification.

[+270 SC]

"Almost... should just need one more," Ashlock picked up a particularly large one and decided to eat it as dessert.

[+387 SC]

"Stella, store the corpses away again. I want to eat them in a moment, but the hunger is too much." Ashlock instructed. He would sign in and then eat the rest to make sure he had some credits on hand.

"Sure thing," Stella waved her hand, and the corpses once again vanished, and Ashlock sighed in relief as the intense hunger briefly subsided.

"System!"

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3552

Daily Credit: 10

Sacrifice Credit: 5237

[Sign in?]

"Please, please, please don't give me something useless..." Ashlock prayed to the gacha gods, "Sign in!"

[Sign in successful, 5247 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked an SSS-grade skill: Skyborne Bastion]

"No fucking way—" Information regarding the skill bloomed in his mind, and Ashlock's vision faded black.

***

He was back in this accursed dream filled with torment and rage.

Wait, when had he been here before? Why does this feeling of agelessness and melancholy gnawing at his soul feel so... familiar?

The celestial fog of the void swirled around his endless trunk that grew to touch the heavens. It was quiet. He was all alone.

It was a peaceful but dull existence.

The life of a great tree.

But he could feel the inevitable death drawing near. It was inescapable. He was weak. No way to fight back.

They are here.

Vast brown ships made from the corpses of his children arrived once more, carrying thousands of those greedy beings here to harvest his golden sap.

Banners flew from the vessels in the celestial winds as they traversed through the pocket realms under his domain and slaughtered all the monsters he spawned in their way.

The great tree envied their ability to come and go.

All he could do was stay stagnant and accept a slow death.

Even if the great tree found a way to fight back, these mortal creatures would simply flee and come back in more significant numbers.

Though he harbored the essence of creation within his roots, his influence could not extend beyond his dominion. He could not flee.

So, the great tree accepted its fated death. Slow and sorrowful.

The vessels pressed against the tree's trunk that grew throughout the realms, and then the pain came.

It was hot and sharp as a metal tool pierced his bark and extracted the golden essence.

He screamed for eternity.

***

Ashlock snapped back to the twisted reality of the pocket realm and felt something hitting his trunk.

"Tree! Ashlock! Dad! Are you okay? Talk to me!" Stella shouted as she drummed her fists on his bark with tears running down her face.

"Stella, I'm back. Calm down, it's okay," Ashlock said quickly in her mind, "What happened? How long was I in that dream for?"

"Oh, thank the heavens you are okay. You just stopped replying, and I could feel your soul was in deep turmoil," Stella collapsed against the trunk and hugged her legs, "You were out for a few hours, I would guess."

Ashlock checked his sign-in system.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3552

Daily Credit: 0

Sacrifice Credit: 0

[Sign in?]

"According to this, a day hasn't passed... is that because it goes off the passage of time my main trunk experiences, which is outside of the pocket realms time dilation? If so, that means around an hour or so must have passed outside." Ashlock mulled but then realized now wasn't the time for pondering. He was at zero credits across the board and had just gained his first-ever SSS grade skill. If he were to be attacked either here or in the real world right now without any credits on hand, he would perish.

"Sorry, Stella, but can you summon those corpses again? I need them to regain my strength."

Stella was wiping her tears with one arm. She raised the other, and with a wave of silvery light, the pile reappeared.

"Thanks. You just relax and recover for a moment while I eat." Ashlock said as the ghastly hunger returned in full force.

She nodded slowly as he cast {Consuming Abyss}, and for a while, only Stella's shaky breaths and the sound of corpses being devoured filled the mountain peak.

Ashlock was equally as disturbed. He remembered more of those strange dreams he received from the system and became increasingly concerned about the fate of the last World Tree and this endless cycle. Even with him returning to reality, there was still some lingering phantom pain on his bark where those ships of cultivators had stabbed the last World Tree and extracted the golden sap as if it were oil.

Worst of all, Ashlock actually related to the dream this time more than ever. The feeling of helplessness as foes fled beyond his reach. Luckily, the system had granted him something to solve this issue. His new SSS grade skill {Skyborne Bastion}. Which was likely why he had received such a fitting dream. To show him the mercy the system had granted him.

The information in his mind was confusing and muddled with the dream, so he decided the best way to test it was with some hands-on experience. It was a tool to be used, after all.

Checking his sacrificial credits after the meal and seeing they were at 1580, he knew he had enough to activate this very pricey skill.

"Stella, are you ready to fly?"

"Huh?" Stella awoke from her daze and gazed up at the canopy overhead. "Fly?"

"Yeah. Never heard of a flying tree before?" Ashlock chuckled, "You might want to stand far away before I activate this technique."

"Uh... okay," Stella got up, and after making sure Maple was secured to her head, she walked away. "Is here fine?"

"Maybe double that. You're still too close," Ashlock replied.

"Here?" Stella asked from quite far away.

Ashlock mentally measured around thirty meters and decided she was well out of the way. "Yeah, that's great. Just stay there until I call you."

Mentally bringing up his system screen, he activated his new skill {Skyborne Bastion [SSS]}.

[Do you wish to activate the Skyborne Bastion? The cost is 1000 sacrificial credits and the required materials to form a Bastion Core]

"Yes."

Ashlock saw a thousand credits vanish in the corner of his vision. He then felt something begin to eat away at the stone below him.

[Forming Bastion Core...]

The mountain began to tremble, and waves of power began rippling out.

[Bastion's Qi source has been designated as {Ashlock}]

Ashlock felt the roots of his progeny disconnect from the root network yet somehow maintain a sort of ethereal connection that went across space and time. He now knew he would always maintain a link to this progeny no matter where it was.

[Bastion's operator has been designated as {unnamed progeny}]

From the information in his mind, Ashlock knew the Bastion needed a source of Qi to operate the shield and artillery. Since his main body was the largest source of Qi, it would almost always be chosen unless he mentally changed it. As for the operator, that was the tree directly linked to the Bastion Core and would give it commands.

[ERROR: {unnamed progency} cultivation too low to operate Bastion Core]

[Initiating tribulation...]

"Wait, what?" Ashlock shouted as the pocket realm's sky was ripped open. The world rumbled and flashed white as golden lightning arced down and struck the tree.

Ashlock's {Lightning Qi Barrier [A]} activated and absorbed much of the impact.

[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 5th stage]

More lightning came.

[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 6th stage]

A purple barrier rippled across the tree's branches and trunk, braving the brutal assault of heaven.

[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 7th stage]

"Tree, do you need help!" Stella screamed over the thunder.

"No, Stella. My child is facing a tribulation; do not fear!"

[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 8th stage]

Notifications flashed through his mind as the world roared with heaven's rage.

[{unnamed progeny} Soul Fire 9th stage]

[Forming Star Core...]

A blazing ball of purple soul fire rose from the top of the tree and hovered overhead, leaving nothing but the fragment of Ashlock's soul behind in the tree. This wasn't his ascension. It was his childs, and he could only watch from the sidelines as a supportive Dad.

"As my first born and the first to ascend to Star Core," Ashlock shouted over the thunder of the heavens, "I will grant you a name. From now on, you will be known as Willow Ashfallen, my first progeny."

Ashlock felt a wave of happiness from Willow that was a more profound level of emotion than he had ever felt before. But this deep emotion soon turned into absolute fear as the heavens rumbled. Lightning struck down in the dozens at his floating soul.

"Stand strong, my son. It will be over soon."

A long ten minutes passed before the tear in the pocket realm began to seal up, and the wrath of heaven subsided.

[Star Core Formed]

The blazing ball of purple fire, now many times the size of before, plummeted down and entered the tree. The inside of the trunk, much like Ashlock in the outside world, was now a furnace of soul fire, and Ashlock's soul shard was suspended in the middle.

[Bastion's operator has been successfully designated as {Willow Ashfallen}]

[Bastion's affinity type set to Amethyst (Spatial)]

Ashlock felt a giant amethyst crystal form under Willow and grow to encompass his roots. A sudden feeling of control over the surrounding rock overcame his mind as if it were an extra limb, and he could also feel Willow's curiosity.

"You okay, Willow?" Ashlock asked, and the tree actually rustled a little as if it was happy. "Okay, so not capable of complex speech yet... but this is already much better than your siblings."

[Skyborne Bastion Active]

Ashlock felt the ground crack and tremble as he mentally tried to free himself from the mountain.

"Stella, come jump on!"

Without hesitation, Stella ran over and effortlessly lept onto the mass of black rock that was breaking free and levitating away from the mountain. The Bastion was currently around thirty meters in length and ten meters in width and shaped like a boat made entirely of black stone with Willow mounted on top.

Ashlock knew that this was the basic size Bastion that came with the initial cost, and he could expand the size of the Bastion for more sacrificial credits and materials. He could even make a fleet of them so long as he was willing to pay the price.

"Tree? What is this floating rock?" Stella asked as she hauled Sol away from the edge and closer to Willow, "Are you using telekinesis?"

"Sort of," Ashlock replied, "But it can do far more than a simple floating piece of rock. This is my Bastion technique, a way for me to take the fight to my enemies."

"Oh?" Stella suddenly seemed very interested, "Does that mean we can hunt down those monsters that escaped?"

"Sure does!"

"Mhm, what makes this different from a floating rock then?" Stella tilted her head.

"Well, other than me being able to use all my other techniques through Willow on the move—"

"Who's Willow?" Stella asked while looking around, confused.

"Willow is this demonic tree I'm inhabiting, which just ascended to the Star Core Realm like you. I named him Willow Ashfallen after me as my first offspring."

"Whaaa, that's so cool!" Stella found a flimsy branch and shook it like a hand, "Nice to meet you, little bro Willow."

Willow responded in kind by raining a few scarlet leaves on her head.

"Anyway, sorry I got distracted," Stella stepped back, "You were saying Ash? What can this thing do?"

"Just sit back and watch."

Ashlock knew the Bastion had many features, so he went through and activated them all one by one to show Stella.

"System, activate the shield." Ashlock felt the Bastion Core glow with Qi drawn from his main body through space, and a bubble of spatial Qi manifested around the ship, dyeing the outside world in a slight purple hue.

[Spatial Shield: ACTIVE]

"Wow," Stella mumbled.

"System power up the artillery."

Along the ship's edge, giant flowers emerged from the black stone. They followed the color scheme of a demonic tree with black stems and petals that looked dyed in blood.

[Spatial Artillery: ACTIVE]

"Hey, Willow, fire one of the cannons at that fleeing monster in the distance."

Ashlock and Stella watched as one of the flowers rotated its petal head toward the monster in the distance. Spatial Qi surged through its black stem, setting the whole flower on fire in purple soul flames. This soul fire then began to gather on the petal head into a ball that kept condensing down until it was basically a mini black hole.

"Fire when ready, Willow," Ashlock said, and a moment later, the flower recoiled backward. The black hole ripped through the twisted reality and caught the monster by surprise, taking out half its torso.

"Good shot," Ashlock praised Willow, and the tree seemed very proud of itself, which amused Ashlock to no end.

Stella jumped through the shield that rippled around her body and dove toward the corpse while riding her sword. It was nearby, so she quickly retrieved it into her spatial ring and then returned to the Bastion.

Dumping the corpse before Willow, Ashlock devoured the corpse.

[+394 SC]

"That's a third of the Bastion's cost regained already," Ashlock mused, "Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, and this floating ship is basically like a giant Ent that will allow me to better explore these pocket realms and hunt down monsters just like the last World Tree couldn't do."

"So this floating Bastion, as you called it, has a shield and firepower," Stella said as she deposited her sword, "Anything else?"

"Well, I can alter the weather around us based on the Bastion Core type, so since it's spatial, I can make spatial storms," Ashlock explained, "But if you look around, that's a rather pointless thing to waste Qi on here as that's all this pocket realm is. One giant spatial storm."

There was a rather high Qi cost to maintaining the Bastion's functions... or there would be if they weren't surrounded by so much spatial Qi that Willow and the Bastion could absorb.

"That does make sense. Best not to waste Qi on pointless things," Stella rubbed her chin as she wandered to the ship's bow, "So? Where are we flying to?"

"Let's head for that Azure Clan building in the distance, shall we?" Ashlock felt the thrill of adventure in his bark.

"I like that idea," Stella said as she unsheathed her sword and pointed the tip at the distant island, "Chargeee!"

There was a moment of silence as the ship slowly floated forward.

Stella lowered her sword and frowned, "Why is it so slow?"

"System? Can we increase the speed?"

[Bastion's speed is limited to 10% of the maximum when traveling outside {Ashlock}'s domain, and power consumption is greatly increased.]

"So I can use the Bastion to travel outside of the range of my roots. It's just slow and expensive?"

The system didn't offer him an answer, but he suspected he was right. The Bastion could travel ten times faster than this while over land with his roots but was reduced to a crawl elsewhere.

"Sorry Stella, the thing is slow when it's being used away from home," Ashlock sighed, "Seems it's more of a defensive skill than an offensive one."

Stella shrugged and leaned against the tree, "How long can it really take? I'll just cultivate or something."

With her entering meditation, Ashlock hooked up Sol with a black root to bring the Ent back to life with some Qi. It was going to be a long journey.

***

As it turned out, it took the rest of the day to pilot the Bastion across the expanse and to dock with the island. Which meant that more than six hours had now passed in the outside world.

During the trip, the Bastion had been like a floating ball of tasty spatial Qi, drawing the attention of the monsters like a moth to a flame, making them easy to slaughter. Ashlock may have spent 1000 credits on the Bastion, but he had already made 2302 credits from hunting the monsters, which he was sitting on for now. Who knew delving into pocket realms was so profitable? No wonder the Merchants made a life out of it.

"I wonder when Stella will return," Ashlock sighed as he watched the slightly ajar grand doorway to the blue brick building. Stella had gone in with Maple, Sol, and Larry, whom he had brought here via a portal to explore the inside of this Azure Clan building. "From the looks of it, the building serves as some type of library, but due to a formation blocking spatial Qi, I can't see what's inside from out here."

Another hour went by.

"I swear I will ram the Bastion into the darn building if I have to," Ashlock grumbled. He was feeling terribly left out of this grand adventure. Feeling bored, he debated spending some credits on expanding the size of his Bastion, but 30 credits per meter sounded rather steep. But the added size would give more space to build things like runic formations or even barracks to hold his Ents?

But then something happened. Ashlock heard an explosion occur inside the building, and seconds later, Stella ran out in terror alongside Sol and Larry.

"Tree! Get the Bastion moving. We gotta go!" Stella shouted as she snapped a portal into existence to get closer to him.

"What's happening?" Ashlock asked in a panic as he powered up the shields and cannons and began drifting backward away from the island. He had never seen Stella so flustered.

"It's the Azure Clan!" Stella said while winded and collapsed on the black stone, "They suddenly came through a portal in the library and saw us!"

"Wait... the Azure Clan are here?!" Ashlock had not expected a clan that was likely from a higher layer of creation to suddenly make an appearance!

"Well, shit," Ashlock muttered as he saw cultivators in blue robes pour out of the building, and one of them pointed at the Bastion.