Chapter 197. Level 20. First Energy Sub Cycle. BIG NUMBERS!

'Today, it is time to finally reach the first <Energy Sub-Cycle>! Let's Level Up!' 

Liu Shu was curious as to what would happen when she reached it. Why are they called sub-cycles in the first place? Today, Liu Shu was going to learn about them.

As her Experience Points were poured into her being, the formless energy transformed into nourishment and circulated around Liu Shu's body. Usually, when she leveled up, the energy would surround everything and strengthen it. However, the Level 20 Level Up was slightly different. 

Instead of dispersing and getting absorbed by everything, the energy behaved like it did when she reached Level 10. The energy surged from everywhere and was directed toward her ternary essence paths, the ones she created when she became Level 10. 

The ternary essence paths were flooded with energy waves that would leave many creatures in awe. Her <Ternary Cores> and <Ternary Shards> helped distribute and absorb ambient energy. 

Liu Shu focused on it and didn't hold back as much as she did in the past when absorbing energy. The main reason for that was that the people she was worried about already knew about her existence as a World Tree. Moreover, with her recent Level Ups, her concealing skill's strength was ridiculously high. 

Of course, Liu Shu's Level Up didn't go unnoticed. 

Liu Shu's roots covered several hectares of land. Her presence was deeply entangled with the Golden Sap forest because she was assimilating the forest. Not to mention, the limit of her roots distance was growing at a ridiculous pace as she slowly Leveled Up. 

When her aura surged, it felt like the entire forest had suddenly started breathing with her. The World Tree's roots that entangled with the vast biome fed the earth and allowed all the creatures at the bottom of the food chain to evolve and become stronger. 

Insects, bugs, plant creatures, microbes, and many other essential beings got nourished, allowing those that fed on them to grow similarly. This chain reaction would continue until a new balance was created. And while it would take a few years, as long as no one deeply disturbed the balance being developed around the World Tree, everything around Liu Shu would gradually grow as she grew. 

Being tied to a World Tree had its advantages and disadvantages. While the benefits were plenty and clear, the primary disadvantage was that if the World Tree fell, the entire ecosystem that had interlocked with their existence could collapse. 

Wert sat in his office, looking outside one of the windows. He patted the wall and smiled. "It seems that your mother is becoming much stronger. You should be quite happy, eh? Remember to make my office a bit bigger if you can~, hahaha." 

After realizing that Liu Shu was a World Tree, linking everything around him that previously bothered him was easy. He knew that the Rose Fairies didn't create these trees; Liu Shu did. She also knew that the alliance between the different monsters in the city was not due to Flor but due to Liu Shu.

Wert clicked his tongue. "The ants bother me a bit, though. If they were passing a World Tree as a Life Tree, there is no reason that they would show me a fake Ant Queen to protect the real Ant Queen."

Wert sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I really don't like the thought of that, but… I guess now I am quite tied down to this place, aren't I? I should move headquarters here as soon as I can. Many people are starting to realize the potential, and with this extra energy surging around, we are already approaching Fortuna City-levels of energy purity… Perhaps we've already overcome it, to be honest."

Wert took a deep breath and could see the numbers beside his ternary essences slightly increasing for a few moments. "Just deep breathing gives you a few points of Phoer, Anima, and Aether… How old is she, even? She can't be older than ten years, right? In less than ten years, she reached Level 20. That's a Level Up every half a year… Insane Leveling Up speed." 

Meanwhile, Liu Shu felt the ternary essences pushing against the walls of her ternary essence paths because of the egregious amounts of ternary essence flowing through them. 'Hmm… I feel stuffed and bloated, ugh.'

The World Tree complained while the ternary essence absorption kept on going with no signals that it would stop or even stop accelerating anytime soon. 'At this pace, I will burst…' 

Liu Shu's gaze went through her energy circuits, and could see a few cracks in the inner walls at a few places. '... Literally burst, it seems. QAQ!' 

As the energy continued to gather, she started getting worried. 'Okay, I get it. I will gather lots and lots of energy. But what do I do now!? Help!'

However, unlike what she expected, she received no answer. 'Huh!? You dare abandon me at this point in time!? I am going to smack you with my branches until you cry for help from the System! Wisdom, System Hint, come out!"

[...]

[...]

Two messages with three dots appeared in her vision, making Liu Shu's soul twitch with anger. 'URGH! FINE! I'LL DO IT MYSELF.'

Liu Shu first looked at the amounts of energy in her system, and she started to try to create <Ternary Cores> with it. Following similar steps to before, she focused on compressing the energy deep within her soul, and the vision of that small tree in the void appeared again. 

However, unlike the previous time, the Tree was surrounded by a vortex of penta-colored energies. 'Woah… that looks pretty… not!' Liu Shu looked closely and realized that the vortex was damaging the tree. 

'Uwah! Compress! Compress! Go down and become little balls like the rest! You are damaging the pretty me!' Liu Shu paused. 'Huh? I wanted to say "tree"; why did I say "me" instead?'

Still, she didn't have much time to think of those things as she needed to control that large torrent of essence. So, she got to work and started gathering it. 'Hmm… Those colored branches… can you help with the absorption of each color?'

She forced the vortex inside the tree and then tried to move each color toward each color-matching branch. Although, there was one problem. 'What do I do with the blue one… there is no blue branch!' 

She thought quickly and then looked below the tree, where the <Ternary Cores> were. 'This is so strange… There are five colors. A pretty pink, a bright red, a gentle yellow, a verdant green, and a sky blue… The cores below are red, yellow, and blue… The branches I have are pink, red, yellow, and green…' 

Liu Shu paused. 'Wait, pink? Since when did that branch turn pink?' Liu Shu wanted to smack herself. 'DOESN'T MATTER, LIU SHU! FOCUS ON DEALING WITH THE TORRENT OF BLUE!'

And she did so by transforming it into more cores, two more to be precise. 'Although there is still a lot of blue flying around that seems to want to go toward a branch, that's enough to not be hurting, at least. Now, the red!'

The red stream of essence was the thicker one by far. She sent a significant part toward the red branch, making it grow slightly and become more polished. Still, most of the red stream went toward the center and transformed into three more cores. 

The yellow stream did something similar, creating two more cores and nourishing the yellow branch. 

The green energy didn't transform into cores. Instead, it sunk around the large tree in the black soil that surrounded it, slowly transforming it into something like soil, with grass covering part of the tree's roots.

'Oh~! That's nice, it feels quite comfy~.'

Finally, the pink energy surged toward the pink branch while the rest soared skyward, spreading around, transforming the black sky into a lighter tone and giving it a faint sense of warmth. 

When all of that was complete, her conscience was instantly pulled outward. 'That was nice… NOT! MY BODY WAS THE ONE IN NEED AS WELL! I AM GOING TO EXPLODEEE!'

She quickly looked around her body, and she almost cried. 'Oh dear! My paths are about to burst! Why is there so much ternary essence!? I need to do something… something… wait, the paths are the ones having trouble, so… Hm… Oh? Oh… Oh! OH!' 

Liu Shu would've smacked herself if she could. 'I just need to strengthen the paths!'

With that thought in mind, instead of resisting the energy flowing through her paths and trying to contain it inside, she allowed it to seep into her paths. 'These paths I created when I reached Level 10 can't resist my Level 20 energy. Therefore, what I need to do in this <Sub-cycle > should be to strengthen everything I created in my Level 10 <Energy Cycle>! Absorb the energy and strengthen my ternary essence paths!"

As soon as she thought of that, the energy about to burst started seeping into the flexible wood-like material that created her ternary essence paths. Right when she did that, Liu Shu's mind expanded as her entire body felt like it was taking a very much-needed deep breath. 

Outside, as soon as Liu Shu took that "deep breath," her aura expanded outward like a wave. This time, everyone felt it. The tidal wave of energy ethereally passed through everyone, covering the entire Golden Sap Forest with the same strength while continuing outward later through the remaining momentum it had.

By the time it reached the surrounding cities, it was nothing but a breeze. However, it was a breeze that carried with it a very particular aura.

In the center of the large city, the enormous World Tree that had been somewhat silent opened its senses and expanded outward. 'This aura…' 

The World Tree heard a voice she hated but had come to get used to after so many years. "What's wrong, Fortuna?"

The World Tree used her <World Tree Eye (E+ Rank)> and looked at the blurry image of the Sylvan woman called Eila Neoflora. "I felt a breeze." 

"Huh?" Eila Neoflora asked. "What do you mean?"

Fortuna looked at the Sylvan, sneering in her mind. Still, she answered. "A breeze of change." Then, she ignored everything else again and continued her deep meditation.

Eila Neoflora frowned, her cold facial features filling with confusion. "What do you mean?" 

There was no answer, so her gaze moved east of their position, looking straight toward the Golden Sap Forest. 'Hm… Did I overestimate them? I should go and check…' 

Back in the Golden Sap Town, Liu Shu's mind opened, and her <World Tree Eye> expanded outward. She looked around and realized that everyone was looking at her with baffled eyes. 

Liu Shu gazes at them strangely. 'Hm… Why is everyone so petite? Like, more than usual… Huh? When did the forest trees shrink…. No. It's me, right? How tall am I?

She went to the system, and she almost choked in her own soul. 'O-One hundred and eighty meters tall!!?'

Then, she checked the system messages, and she was shocked.

[Accessory Tier Up!] [Accessory Level Up!]

[Level 20 Sylvanium Branch (Low-Grade Complete Level)]

+5040 Aether Mana

+5040 Phoer

+5040 Anima Energy

Aether (+240), Physique (+240), Anima (+240), Willpower (+240).

Skill: You can use it to gain 4 Sylvanium Shards a day. 

[Accessory Tier Up!] [Accessory Level Up!]

[Level 20 Celestium Branch (Low-Grade Complete Level)]

+3360 Aether Mana

+5040 Phoer

+3360 Anima Energy

Aether (+160), Physique (+240), Anima (+160), Willpower (+160).

Skill: You can use it to gain 4 Celestium Shards a day. 

[Accessory Tier Up!] [Accessory Level Up!]

[Level 20 Ascendium Branch (Low-Grade Complete Level)]

+3360 Aether Mana

+3360 Phoer

+5040 Anima Energy

Aether (+160), Physique (+160), Anima (+240), Willpower (+160).

Skill: You can use it to gain 4 Ascendium Shards a day. 

[Accessory Tier Up!] [Accessory Level Up!]

[Level 20 Cognium Branch (Low-Grade Complete Level)]

+3360 Aether Mana

+3360 Phoer

+3360 Anima Energy

Aether (+160), Physique (+160), Anima (+160), Willpower (+240).

Skill: You can use it to gain 4 Cognium Shards a day. 

[Level Up!]

[Aether +7, Physique +9, Anima +8, Willpower +10, Destiny +100]

[<First Energy Cycle> Upgraded! Receiving stats!]

[Aether +225, Physique +300, Anima +225, Willpower +300]

[<First Energy Cycle> Upgraded! Unlocking Potential!]

[Aether Resonance +9%, Physique Refinement +12%, Anima Affinity +9%] 

Liu Shu looked at the new stats that the accessories gave her and felt like she was looking at an illusion. 'Wait, if my accessories are this strong… How much do I have…?

***

Level: 20 [0/38,960]

Aether Mana Cores: 4.75/4.75 (474,646) (+17,100/Hour)

Phoer Body Cores: 6.83/6.83 (682,492) (+24,600/Hour)

Anima Energy Cores: 4.83/4.83 (482,228) (+17,400/Hour) 

Attributes: Aether 1584 (994+590), Physique 2061 (780+1281), Anima 1662 (610+1052), Willpower 1620 (820+800), Destiny 2000 (2000)

Affinity Percentage: Aether Resonance (43), Physique Refinement (59), Anima Affinity (38)

Resistance Percentage: Aether Resistance (56), Physique Resistance (62), Spiritual Resistance (57), Mental Resistance (61)

Summoning Affinity: Summon Cost (-61%), Summon Enhancement (+20%), Summoning Invoking Time (-61%), Summon Upkeep (-61%).

Accumulated Experience: 10505

Currency: Sylvanium Shards [2356], Etherium Shards [2010], Ascendium Shards [1335], Celestium Shards [2406], Cognium Shards [1286], Lir [190], Tyn [360], Bren [178], Syl [0], Arbor [0].

***

Liu Shu looked at those numbers, stunned for a second. However, in the next moment, her branches danced happily, and she giggled like a child. 'HEHEHEH! BIG NUMBERS! YAY!"