Chapter 58. Plans.

Liu Shu had been quietly listening to their conversation. She had learned that another World Tree was nearby and that World Trees didn't like each other much from the looks of it. Liu Shu didn't find it strange. After all, her reaction when other trees entered her territory was to uproot them and destroy them. 'If another World Tree tries to enter my domain, hmph hmph. Don't blame me for being ruthless! Even if we are the same, you mess with me, then… um… I'll uproot you! Yeah!'

So, as they spoke, Liu Shu learned a few interesting facts, some of which she didn't care about, like the caravan thing, and some that she found interesting.

And then, the human woman suddenly spoke about needing buildings or something. Liu Shu became ecstatic. 'I can finally ask about construction things! Flor will surely understand what I want to explain now!'

Her trust in the Rose Fairy Queen deciphering her babblings had already reached incredible levels. So, without losing a single second and reacting almost as fast as she did when fighting, Liu Shu jumped into the conversation with a loud. 'I want buildings too!'

And that aura vigorously washed all over them with the feeling of affirmation. Looking over, the five people looked confused as they looked at the tree. Flor, on the other hand, asked. "Do you want something, Liu Shu?"

Liu Shu responded with noticeable enthusiasm. 'Yes!'

Her enthusiasm was felt, quite literally. Ariel spoke with a stutter. "Her aura is quite strong. What level is she, 9? 10?"

Flor looked at her and asked. "What, you haven't analyzed her?"

She scratched her cheek. "As humans, it is complicated to see the stats of plant beings. Of course, usually there are no problems. However, when we speak about World Trees… I would need to be a lot stronger than her to see."

Flor hummed with interest. "I see." Then, she turned around without answering her question and directed her voice toward Liu Shu. "Is the thing you want of something we spoke about?"

Liu Shu giggled in her mind at Flor's usual sharpness and sent another affirmation. Flor nodded and got thoughtful. She asked. "What were we speaking about?"

Robert commented. "Defensive tactics?"

Flor tilted her head, not feeling that Liu Shu was trying to interject about that. Her lack of response was also easy to interpret as a negative to that topic. 'Hm… The other time was about making weapons, right? Then… What did we speak about that… Oh.'

Flor muttered. "Buildings."

Liu Shu would've leaped in joy if she had legs, but she still bombarded her trusty guardian with plenty of cheerful messages. 'Yes, yes! Wow, Flor! Amazing! Flor always knows what I want~.'

The people around became flabbergasted as Flor began holding her forehead while several energy auras hit her one after another. It was clear that her mutter was the correct answer.

At the side Cinderielle observed and took notes. 'I need to become good at understanding her.'

Ariel couldn't help but look at Flor with her lips twitching. "How often do you have to deal with this?"

Flor flew toward Liu Shu to pat her trunk and calm her down as she responded. "Not that often. After all, Liu Shu sometimes goes to sleep for long periods of time. But when she wants something…" Flor laughed with a pampering and helpless expression. "…Liu Shu always makes sure to pester me until she gets it."

The tone was clearly affectionate but not in a romantic way. They could feel the care of an elder toward someone younger. Usually, World Trees were treated as sacred and untouchable beings, so even if they were young, the people around them acted carefully and respectfully.

The probability of those living around them developing some sort of religion for them was nearly 100%, as most civilizations knew that World Trees were different from the rest, so they treated them as such.

A being born to be an overlord and a creature that was equipped with most things to deal with trouble since birth was naturally revered by common creatures.

Now that Flor knew what she was talking about, her chance to speak about resources increased, as she was lacking all the F+ rank materials and many of the rest. 'Hmmm… How to tell her…'

Flor looked at Ariel and asked. "Can you get those books about construction when you go back? We don't need them to be about high-level construction. Basic but accurate construction books can work."

Cinderielle spoke. "I can enter the library of my Academy. There are plenty of books about any subject. Getting a few of them and carrying them here is not hard."

Flor looked at her and shrugged. "As long as you don't bring trouble for us. Sure." Then, she looked at the World Tree and asked. "Can you build a defensive structure or something similar?"

Liu Shu looked at her options and was a bit frustrated. While she could make several meters of wall, it was not nearly enough to create a good perimeter. Building something was not much of a problem. Still, the problem was about building it correctly.

The skill Liu Shu needed to create these was <Woodworking >, a skill she had with plenty of proficiency. There were materials in these structures that weren't related to wood. However, woodworking was not just the art of shaping wood; it also involved creating things out of wood and other materials.

Taking into account that wood would make up around ninety percent of the house, Liu Shu was qualified for it as long as she knew how the inner workings of houses worked. Without her being a humanoid, she couldn't even start guessing the essential layout of rooms or even the shape of the buildings. It was something she had never seen, after all.

After observing her material reserves and current abilities, she was quite sure that whatever she built wouldn't be a "House" or anything similar.

After thinking for about one and a half hours, she gave a negative signal with a bit of hesitation. Liu Shu looked over and saw that they were doing other things, so they didn't catch her first signal. 'What are they doing?' she asked. 'Also, when did Ignatia arrive?'

Listening to their conversation, she heard Ignatia speak. "Look. I'm willing to lend a few of my children. However, I really don't want to participate in this. It will be a slaughter, and probably, of those I send, many will die. I'll also come in person, but the rest, I'd rather leave them taking care of the nest."

Flor agreed. "It will be difficult with just 100 of your ants, though. My people that are combat ready are not many more than 150. Meanwhile, we would be in a two-to-one situation since you are willing to send around 100 children, as you would like to call them."

Ignatia commented. "However, our top combatants have plenty of strength, right? Your Rose Fairies have plenty of them, and taking you into account, it is like having several Level 10s."

Flor commented. "What about the rest?"

Ignatia shrugged. "They are strong but not as strong as you. Of course…" Ignatia looked at Cinderielle with curious eyes. "Who is she?"

Flor laughed. "Someone stronger than you. Ignore her from now on and continue."

Cinderielle's lips twitched. "Oy."

Ignatia lifted her eyebrow. "Stronger than me?"

Flor smirked. "She is. What? You don't believe me?"

Ignatia smirked back. "Should I believe you?"

The Rose Fairy Queen snorted and then laughed. "Well, you can do as you please. Still, hold back from fighting with each other. We have more pressing matters to attend."

Ignatia rolled her antennae and continued. "The 100 children I'll send are not that weak. They are not the strongest since they take a bit of time to nurture, and if they died, it would be quite problematic, but the ones I'm sending are far from the 'average'."

Cinderielle joined the conversation. "My transformation doesn't last much, so you should use it wisely.

Flor asked with inquisitive eyes and a smile. "Is it that short?"

Cinderielle refrained from answering and snorted.

Liu Shu saw a chance that they were about to stop the conversation and interjected herself. 'No! I can't build anything at all~! So… Good luck! Hehe."

Hearing her answer, their conversation went on for a while longer.

Meanwhile, quite far from there, Froorar was walking with a flat expression. His reptilian feet stomped on the ground with hidden anger, and his aura was leaking, causing the lower-level beasts marching with him to have trembling bodies.

'They dared to kill her? To kill all those people?'

Froorar learned about the wipe-out not long ago. The first thing that came to mind was to charge straight at the weakened tree and see how it went.

However, he changed his mind. While his most likely heir was dead, and the legitimate one was missing and nowhere to be found, probably dead as well, Froorar felt like their race would decline if she continued sitting back.

So, to compensate for his seemingly weaker chances against the bigger and faster Rose Fairy Queen, he chooses to gather beasts all around into a battle. The way to do this was by telling them to kill the powerful Tree in the middle of the grove.

There were many ups and downs, but now, the army was rolling and getting stronger for each group they visited. Froorar had been shot down several times and beaten up a couple of times. Moreover, both those times were when he was clueless about why he was beaten down.

However, besides those slightly embarrassing moments, everything was rolling. He didn't notice that as they moved, their group mentality was getting at them.

As a group of several different races with different values, even between beasts, it was not uncommon for fights to break out during rest time.

While Froorar managed to have something similar to a [Beast Tide], it was not one. In a [Beast Tide], every creature is in a frenzy and out of control, running in one direction until it cools down or dies because of any of thousands of ways a beast had died in one.

 A chief from a serpentine race approached and asked with a hiss. Humanoid monsters were almost as rare as they could get, so even when the boss spoke, the creatures around him dealt the damage.

"When are we arriving to fight that powerful tree? Will we see it from far away?"

Froorar looked at the hissing and talkative young snake and rubbed his forehead. "She is young, so it is natural for it not to be stronger than us or big enough to see from far away." Froorar snorted. "Should've snapped it like a branch so that we didn't have to do this."

 The snake shook his head. "Did you have a chance?"

Froorar nodded. "I had. I just wanted to check on it before I snapped it because he did give resources to the Rose Fairies. This made me intrigued, so I wanted to snatch that place." Froorar sighed. "I regret it. I should've just killed her when I had the chance.