Chapter 33. Liu Shu Checks Out Her New Knowledge!

After looking at the information newly stored in her head, Liu Shu began pondering what to create. 'What do Flor and the others need?' She was interested in asking, but because she couldn't communicate complex thoughts yet, she decided to do something that could be used.

Thankfully, Liu Shu had seen them fight a few times, so she knew that they preferred ranged attacks. Looking through the catalog of weapons stored in her mind, she excluded all the melee weapon designs and focused on ability-enhancing ones.

'Hmm… What to do~? What to do~?' Liu Shu pondered and went one by one through what she had. 'Bows? Hm… It doesn't suit them. A bow usually relies on tension force to transform into kinetic force. With their petite size, creating a helpful bow would be very inefficient. Not to mention, the arrows would be needle-like.'

Something Liu Shu learned with all the information indirectly was how tiny Rose Fairies were. At first, she thought that Rose Fairies were the standard humanoid size while Thornstride, River Beavers, and similar monsters she had seen were giant. But after seeing the measurements needed for weapons for average-sized races, she learned that Rose Fairies were very petite and cute. 'Hehe, I didn't know they were so tiny~. They are very cute!'

Considering all of this, Liu Shu ignored all projectile-based weapons and moved toward staffs, orbs, talismans, chains, amulets, etc.

'Which one would be best for them?'

Each had an advantage that could be used, but taking into account her current production capabilities and the Rose Fairies' combat style, she finally decided to make amulets.

While it didn't change much weapon-to-weapon basic stats-wise, they each had a certain chance to have different types of abilities. For example, <Staffs > usually had offensive abilities that could be channeled often but lacked explosive strength, <Orbs > were useful while summoning creatures, <Talismans > had powerful abilities with long cast times and rest times, <Chains > were apt to develop immobilizing spells, and <Amulets > were adequate to give buffs to the user.

There were more types that Liu Shu wasn't currently considering, like <Books >, <Wands >, and many more.

While some of the ones she discarded would be perfect, she didn't have the materials for them, and the process of creating them was not maintainable.

While Liu Shu was not a genius of any kind or a planning master, she was a tree, and trees liked the "long-term" benefits of things. Creating a non-sustainable production method was entirely against her nature, only doing such things when she either had no chance or didn't realize the "long-term" benefits of something.

'Hm… Let's go with… Amulets!'

After considering it for a long time, she believed that amulets were the best choice. First of all, amulets were one of the easiest equipment to obtain materials for. They were smaller and, therefore, needed much less to create effects similar to those of others. However, in turn, the complexity of making them was much higher.

This was not that big of a problem for a World Tree; after all, the complexity spoken about before was related to standard races. If World Trees were known for something other than their specialness, it was their energy manipulation abilities.

Seeing the miracles that World Trees could create with the same amount of Aether Mana or Anima Energy that other creatures used was mind-boggling. As a recent example, Liu Shu's ability to assimilate the entire <Lignified Vault> as hers at Level 3 was nothing but miraculous, even between World Trees.

Usually, a World Tree would need five to ten thousand minimum Aether Mana Reserves to perform a similar action, but Liu Shu did it with 1,000.

'Hm. Let's begin. What do I need to get first?' Liu Shu pondered and exclaimed. 'Right, I need to choose which rank item I want to create. How much does it cost each?'

Liu Shu explored her mind, and she knew the costs of each item. 'So, for F- Rank items, I need around 10 <Shards >; for F Rank, I need 100; and for F+, I need 500. Then, for E- Rank, I need around 10 <Ores >; for E Rank, I need 100; and for E+ Rank, I need 500 as well.'

Liu Shu recalled. '<Ores > need to be either collected directly or fabricated from <Shards >. To create one, you need to fuse around 100 <Shards >. It depends on the efficiency.'

Then, she looked at how many she had in her system interface. 

Currency: Sylvanium Shards [150], Etherium Shards [150], Ascendium Shards [150], Celestium Shards [150], Cognium Shards [150].

'What to do… Do I create one F Rank and Five F- rank amulets? Or do I create 15 F- Rank amulets?'

The possibility of failure didn't cross Liu Shu's mind because, with her current knowledge, it was almost impossible to fail at creating Basic-Grade equipment, meaning equipment ranging from F- to F+ rank.

Equipment from E- to E+ was called Low-Grade equipment, the ones from D- to D+ were called Medium-Grade equipment, and finally, the ones from C- to C+ were called Advanced-Grade equipment. Then, the sublevels were the same for all and were called Flawed, Complete, and Flawless.

For example, Flawless Medium-Grade equipment would be D+ Rank equipment.

Of course, Liu Shu was simple, and she preferred calling everything by the letter. In her mind, it was more straightforward and easier.

Liu Shu thought about it for so long that the light around her turned orangish as the Sun slowly set.

'Hm. I'll do the F Rank and then five F- Rank. These amulets are meant to help the strong people get stronger. When I gather more Sylvanium, I can create weaker ones to help the lower-level little friends.'

With that in mind, she used her connection with the <Lignified Vault> and began gathering materials. 'Wind attribute… Wind-attributed materials… Ah, here they are.'

[You've retrieved one unit of Zephyrheart (F Rank) and five units of Breezewood (F- Rank) from the <Lignified Vault>.]

'These will be the primary materials… then, I need support materials.'

Basic-grade weapons were easy to make for our World Tree, so Liu Shu just needed to find three support materials for each of them. The support materials didn't have a specific attribute and could mix perfectly with the main component.

They were very easy to find in nature, so the Rose Fairies had plenty stored, which translated to Liu Shu having plenty, as they had stored all their belongings in the <Lignified Vault>.

Her roots, highly mobile around the vault, slowly picked up things and gathered them at the side in piles. Liu Shu saw how many she gathered, and she became a bit concerned. 'There isn't much… Even if I had enough Sylvanium and Etherium, I could make, at most, around twenty amulets.'

She opened her <World Tree Eye> and searched for Flor. 'Oh? She is resting on my branches~. Hehe.' Then, she recalled. 'Hm. Let's try to communicate with Flor about what I need.'

As Flor had taught her before, she sent a pulse of energy, meaning "come."

Flor was resting on Liu Shu's branches, covered from the Sun by the thin but lush branches, when she received a pulse of energy coming from the tree below her. "Hm? What's wrong Liu Shu?"

She didn't move, which made Liu Shu feel a bit helpless. So, as a young tree would, she spammed the pulses.

Flor was suddenly assaulted with the "come" feeling once a second, and her lips twitched as they bent upward in an amused smile. 'Really, she is like a child.'

"Okay, okay. I'm moving. You can stop sending signals."

Her wings quickly buzzed, and she gently lowered her body, looking at the middle part of her trunk. "Well, what's wrong?"

Liu Shu looked at Flor. 'How do I tell her to go the vault?'

Flor waited in front of the tree and heard no answer, making her eyebrows twitch. 'This time difference between answers is sometimes difficult.'

BAM!

Flor jumped as she heard a loud sound and looked over. She saw one of Liu Shu's roots opening the vault's upper door and then closing it at once.

BAM!

The second loud sound made Flor understand. "You want me to go into the Vault?"

She quickly received an affirmative energy pulse, and Flor nodded. "Okay, don't touch it."

With her words, the roots stopped holding the half-opened vault, and the door closed, trapping one of them.

Liu Shu screamed in her mind. 'Ouch! My root!'

Thankfully, the Rose Fairy Queen was quick to realize and moved the heavy door up. "Oh dear. Are you okay? That must've hurt, right? This door is quite heavy, after all."

Flor carefully caressed the injured root. Liu Shu felt a strange, pleasant, and tingling sensation, making her avoid Flor's touch by hiding the root in the ground again. The Rose Fairy Queen blinked twice; not sure of what caused that. 'Hm. Did it hurt when I touched it? Anyways, let's go inside and see what she wants.'

Once inside, Flor looked around with curious eyes. 'Did something change? Hm…' Looking around, she felt that everything was like before. If she had to point at something, a few piles of items were separated from the rest. 'Did someone sort them like that?'

As Flor approached, she saw one of Liu Shu's roots pop from the ground below them and surround one of the piles. "Hm… Did you separate these? What are these for? Ah."

Flor almost smacked her forehead. 'I feel like I've wanted to do this action more often lately.'

Liu Shu looked at Flor, who was wryly smiling in confusion, waiting to see if she understood what she wanted.

Flor commented. "These are probably the materials to create the weapons, right?"

Liu Shu became ecstatic that Flor understood right away and sent a few acknowledging pulses of energy, like a child nodding her head a lot. Flor was bombarded again with signals, making her laugh as she waved her hand. "Ok, ok. I understand. Congratulations, Liu Shu. You can start creating those soon! You were quite eager lately, right?"

Liu Shu happily sent another affirmative pulse, and Flor asked. "So… You wanted me to see that you are going to begin the weapon-making process?"

Our Tree realized that she still hadn't made her guess the most important thing! 'Oh, I need Flor and the other little friends to search for the materials! Not for you to admire them!'

So, she sent a negative pulse of energy. When Flor received it, she was surprised. "Not for that? Then why?"

Liu Shu became thoughtful about how to go about it, making Flor wait until midnight. Finally, when Liu Shu had an idea, she looked at Flor and saw that she was sleeping on one of her protruding roots. 'Huh? When did she fall asleep?'

Looking outside, she saw that it was already nighttime. 'Hm… I should wait until Flor wakes up. She always waits for me to wake up, after all.'

So, Liu Shu patiently waited while preparing how to tell Flor about it.