Chapter 10. Rose Fairies Move In!

After about half an hour, the Aether Mana and Anima Energy she had gathered were completely consumed, making Liu Shu a bit tired. After all, she had used almost all of her entire Aether Mana and Anima Energy pools.

Four messages appeared in her eyes.

[You have produced 50 <Delicious Berries (F- Rank)>! -50 Aether Mana Shards. - 50 Anima Shards.]

[You have produced 50 <Phoer Berries (F- Rank)>! -50 Aether Mana Shards. - 50 Anima Shards.]

[You have produced 50 <Mana Berries (F- Rank)>! -50 Aether Mana Shards. - 50 Anima Shards.]

[You have produced 50 <Energy berries (F- Rank)>! -50 Aether Mana Shards. - 50 Anima Shards.]

[You've reduced the ripening time on 200 flowers by 15 days. - 200 Aether Mana Shards. - 200 Anima Energy Shards.]

The tree in front of the fairies suddenly had hundreds of flowers appear and grow at an incredibly fast pace. This made them feel dumbfounded. 

While they've known creatures who could accelerate the growth of plants and other flora, it wasn't to the point of what they just saw. 

However, when they looked at it and felt its aura, the tree's current state entered their eyes. 

Aether Mana: 58/450 

Anima Energy: 89/480 

Their heart softened as they all flew around Liu Shu in a sign of gratefulness. While they couldn't use their pollination skill, they had skills to make flora feel more comfortable. 

Liu Shu, feeling tired after using almost all her energy reserves, felt a wave of drowsiness and comfort hit her, and her <World Tree Eye> slowly closed. 

With the comforting aura of the fairies, Liu Shu's mind began drifting away, finally sleeping.

Flor ordered the fairies to stop, and they floated around Liu Shi with gentle smiles. They could feel that the tree had entered deep sleep.

Clavel giggled, hugging her trunk. "The little one is sleeping~. Thanks a lot for the hard work~." 

The other fairies also laughed and sat on the sleeping tree's branches. While Liu Shu was not that tall, and her branches were very thin as a Willow Tree, they were sturdy enough to hold the petite fairies. 

Flor looked around for a few moments and said to them. "Let's organize how we'll go about this." 

Clavel commented. "Leader, have you seen what the flowers do yet? With your high level, it's probably possible to see the hidden stats of the flowers. Sadly, I can only see the names of the fruits and not the effects."

Flor nodded thoughtfully and approached each of the flowers to look at them. As she read further, her eyes kept widening. Once she read the effects on the four types of flowers, Flor stayed silent, her face thoughtful. 'This… Are these truly the fruits a level two tree can grow?' 

Be it the <Delicious Berry> that could give three exp a day or the Phoer, Aether, and Anime berries that could regenerate fifty points of each a day, all of them were incredibly valuable.

Normal beings' natural regeneration took between a week and a month to recover all their energy reserves. Only special beings had fast-paced energy regeneration.

For example, Liu Shu could recover her entire Aether, Phoer, and Anima reserves in around 28 hours. However, Flor needed ten times that, at around 280 hours. 

An extra 50 a day wouldn't be a lot for her Aether Mana pool. After all, she could recover around 22 points per hour. However, her Phoer and Anima Energy were different. With the ability to recover not more than 7 Phoer and 10 Anime Energy, 50 extra a day would make a difference.

And this was for her, who had nearly ten times the reserves of the other fairies. For level 1 or level 2 fairies, carrying these berries would be like having two or three times their total ternary reserves. 

Flor commented. "All of you leave quickly. I'll protect her for a while as we move in. We've already delayed it enough." 

The Rose Fairies flew toward their nest and went to call and escort the low-level ones. Meanwhile, Flor rested on one of Liu Shu's branches, surrounded by her relaxing and pleasant scent. She couldn't help but laugh. 'She is not even a flower, but the scent around her doesn't lose to one.' 

"What should I do in the meantime?" 

Flor became thoughtful and looked around. Everything was very tangled, with corpses of many small creatures like bugs and such and a layer of dead leaves. 

"Hm. Should I clean up all of this and transform it into a fertilizer that the little one can eat?" 

While they didn't have specialized skills, as fairies who lived on trees, they were experts in taking care of them. The system didn't record every creature's skill, just those that required Aether Mana, Phoer, or Anima Energy to use. 

Architecture, gardening, and many other skills weren't recorded until they evolved enough to be involved with the ternary essences in the surroundings. 

Flor flew down and used her Wind Aether mastery to sweep the accumulated dead leaves and insects around Liu Shu. 

So, while their values were about "letting nature take its course," that didn't stop them from aiding nature. 

Slowly, the things around Liu Shu got ground together with dirt, creating something similar to fertilizer. Then, Flor sprinkled it around Liu Shu. 'When it rains, it will seep into the ground better.' 

Liu Shu got a good and restful sleep, and when all her energies were full, her mind slowly woke up, her senses gently extending outward. She felt her trunk being pleasantly clean, a few of the fairies attending her branches, and when she gently moved her roots, the earth was tastier. 'Oh? What happened?'

Liu Shu opened her <World Tree Eye>.

Every fairy flying around paused, feeling the small tree's presence spreading and enveloping them. A few of the low-level ones playfully flew around her while pleasantly giggling. 

"Good morning, little one."

"Did you have a good rest?"

"By the way, we trimmed your branches a bit. Do you mind?"

"Little one, do you have a name?"

"Right, we need a name!"

Liu Shu's mind could keep up with the conversation, making her feel a bit dizzy. Flor approached with a smile, her red hair and red eyes looking soft. "Don't chat so much around her, children. Remember that trees are transcendent beings, so they take time to think about things." 

They all nodded while giggling. 

Flor approached and commented. "Little one, we've decided to give you a name, are you okay with it?"

Clavel appeared, hugging Liu Shu with a large smile. "While calling you little one is fun, we want to give you a proper name. How about it?"

Liu Shu looked at them, understanding that they wanted to name her. She instantly becomes upset, her aura clearly taking a sullen look. 

This startled the fairies, and Flor asked softly. "What's wrong?"

Liu Shu, unable to communicate, wanted to tell them that she already had a name. 'I don't want to be called other than my name! Tianlian Liu Shu is really nice! Tianlian Liu Shu is my name!'

Liu Shu paused. 'Wait, why is "little one" allowed?'

She pondered at the instinctive knowledge of pet names, which was a bit strange to have. Of course, Liu Shu was not aware of what pet names were, nor that it was strange to know about that. She was confused because she didn't feel bad when they called her little one.

Clavel looked at Flor and commented. "Leader, maybe she doesn't like being named?"

Flor pondered. "But she didn't react when we called her 'Little one' or any other pet names." 

Clavel paused, looking at the moody tree with a helpless look. "Then, do we continue calling you 'little one'?"

Liu Shu stopped swaying around moodily. Internally, she thought. 'I wonder if it is possible to communicate with others in the future?' 

Flor commented. "By the way, dear."

Liu Shu paid attention and looked at her. 

"I wanted to tell you about how to use your ternary essences better so that you don't get tired."

'Oh! I can use them better?'

Flor commented. "You should see that you have a recovery speed, right? You can gain a few points by absorbing the ambient essence, and that rate is fixed on your system page."

Liu Shu looked at the numbers and internally nodded.

Flor smiled. "Then, use just a bit more of that so that you are constantly cycling the energy. This will make your expertise at using them even better, and in the future, things that now cost you 10 Aether Mana might cost you less." 

After speaking, Flor left with Clavel to check out the surrounding trees, where the fairies would live until Liu Shu grew big enough to become their house. 

In the meantime, Liu Shu slowly mulled over Flor's words in her young mind. Soon, she reached a conclusion. 'Hmm… So, I can increase the growth of 17 flowers an hour?'

With that in mind, she started moving her Aether Mana and Anima Energy. Instead of just using the skill as it was, following her instincts, she did so more consciously.

An hour had gone by since Flor mentioned it, but when her energy began moving, the Rose Fairy leader looked over together with other high-leveled Rose Fairies that had good energy sensitivity.

Instead of the massive wave of Aether Mana and Anima Energy that she had gathered in the past, they could see controlled strands of it flowing from the roots touching the ground, up her trunk, and into one of her branches. 

There, the two energies slowly intertwined, flowing into one of the flowers. This flower lightly glowed, surrounded by Liu Shu's energy, and the fairies could see a small fruit appear from her stem, slowly fattening and becoming larger. 

The fruit grew, and in a few minutes, it became a plump and delicious-looking berry. 

Aster was speechless. "Isn't she just Level 2? How in the Great Root's name does she have such precise energy control?"

Clavel laughed. "Isn't that control better than ours?"

Flor looked at them. "It's not like we have exquisite control."

Clavel pouted. "We are not that bad!"

Flor rolled her eyes. "While Level 10 is a big number around here, levels go much higher. I remember hearing that some people in a city to the east have even reached Level 20 and above."

Clavel and Aster opened their eyes and stuttered.

"L-Level 20?"

"H-How old are they, 200?" 

Flor looked at them and regretted telling them about it a bit. 'Maybe they will become upset about it and become scared of adventuring… The shock I received back when I realized it was also quite large. I almost stopped going out of fear. After all, if someone like that finds you and wants to harm you, what can you do other than lay down and wait for death?' 

Flor looked at the hundreds of fairies flying around and sighed. 'Our race is quite weak… We are quite fortunate that this forest area has very low-level resources, and therefore, the groups and races here are quite low-leveled. That old tree we resided in is the highest-level being, at Level 16.' 

She couldn't help but look wistfully at the relatively tiny tree that was slowly learning to control the energies around it. 'Level 20 and above… Maybe you are the answer to that.' 

Flor smiled at them. "Don't worry. Such beings are very powerful and usually never leave because they must protect their people against other similarly strong powers. It's similar to what I represent for you. Do you see me leaving our home often? Still, be careful when you see new beings."

The two fairies released a sigh of relief, becoming cheerful again.

Flor smiled secretly. 'A small white lie will not harm anybody.' Then, she looked around and pondered. 'We need to eliminate our traces as best as possible so that creatures don't get scared and stop approaching the little one. We don't want to come in the way of her natural development, after all.' 

With that in mind, she began giving orders.