Chapter 45: Gifts

Year 11, Day 41

With Root's assistance, Leaf was able to replant all the trees he had cut down, in fact, the stumps left behind started to grow these small pale green moss that soon spread all over the entire stumps. Leaf was really happy that he had a breakthrough and his technique advanced further!

[+1 Copper Ticket]

[Tickets: 1 Gold Ticket, 3 Copper Tickets]

'...huh, maybe I should use a Copper Ticket and see what comes from it, maybe I can use that as a gift for my kids? I know that Bones never received a gift from me, poor little fella, so I should give them something.' Stopping to think about it, from all his children, the ones he gave gifts to were Ahteus, Leaf, Lily, and Zylph. Ahteus got the Hammer of Great Creation and Destruction while Lily had the Violin of Death Songs. 'Oh… I wasn't that good of a father, was I?' I mean, giving gifts to your children is not how you determine if someone is a good or bad father, but Root certainly forgot to give gifts to his kids. 'Okay, I have four copper tickets, I can also make things for them too-'

[Would you like to use 4 Copper Tickets?]

'Yep, it's just 4 days. I will live for a long time… A little trinket as a gift won't hurt anyway.'

[Congratulations, you've received-

Rank F: Soft Pale Golden Leaves from a Golden Qi Tree.

Rank F: Fragments of the Scales of a Spirit Dragon.

Rank D: Guide on How to Become the Cultivator that Defies Heaven, by HeavenDefier69.

Rank F: A Guide for Dummies: Human Anatomy.]

"...Heaven Defier 69? Nice." That really did sound like the name of a troll account on twitter or something. He looked over it- it had about 349 pages, all of them had tips and tricks of how to act edgy in a way that powerful cultivators do. "...no." He let it rest on top of his "head", right beside the first gift Ahteus had ever given him. He looked over the other book, this one had 203 pages and all of them were small schematics and drawings of the human body, human organs, and human anatomy in general. It did explain a little about their functions too, but didn't go too deep into it. "I bet Bones will love this one." Bones was clearly born to be a medic or healer- oh, maybe they can also be a researcher? Learning how Demonic Beasts work and use their Qi sounds very interesting and useful. Bones also had the perfect techniques for that too! "I will give this one to them." Yeah, Bones will love it. He looked at the last two things he got: Fragments of a scale from a Spirit Dragon, and a leaf from a Golden Qi tree or something.

"Hum… Maybe…" He looked over how the Golden Qi and Nature Qi interacted within the golden leaf. It was pretty easy to understand it too, so he simply moved a few strands of Nature Qi and turned it into Earth Qi before turning the Earth Qi into Iron Qi, then Silver Qi, and at last Golden Qi. A few of his leaves turned golden as he channeled the Golden Qi into them. "That was easy." He could give this to his children, or maybe he could make it into tea? Tea made out of golden leaves sounds really rich and snobbish. 'I love it.' He softly lifted the fragments of the Spirit Dragon scale and guided them to one another, he quickly found where they connected and saw that they were completely empty of Spirit Qi. He channeled Spirit Qi through it and all the fragments clicked together, becoming one.

[Scale of a Spirit Dragon:

Rank: C

Description: Once belonging to an old and powerful beast, this scale has lost all its glory the moment it was removed. However, it carries a small amount of insight into the life of a Dragon.]

'...huh.' Root decided to give such a scale to Tahsm. Now he had two children figured out, and because he didn't want to exclude all his other children, he had 11 more to go. Leaf, Lily, Ahteus, Zylph, Fiero, Namis, Chaos, Lumin, Lilith, Freeze, and Frost. '-Is it Christmas or something equivalent?' I mean, he remembered Christmas but such a thing doesn't exist here. "Well, I just want to give them gifts." He doesn't need a reason to give gifts to his children after all. With two of them figured out, he decided to start working on his other children-

For Leaf, he made two scabbards, one for each of his swords. He made them out of his own body's wood and weaved the interior with soft Nature Qi threads. These scabbards were made to clean and repair his swords, should they be damaged.

For Lily he made an umbrella, but not a normal umbrella. He made her a Japanese straw umbrella with wood from his own body! The tip of the umbrella also had a sharp blade that she could use to fight too if necessary. It was stylish and beautiful, just like her. The umbrella could be used as a shield when opened too, it reacted strongly to Death Qi.

For Ahteus, his big boy, Root decided to make him something that will help him improve his control over gravity- He made him three small sets of iron tools that couldn't be wielded by his hands, but they were to be wielded by him using Gravity Qi to increase his understanding of the Gravity Dao. He will explain it to him when he gives him his gift.

For Zylph, his free spirited child, Roots decided to make something she could use alongside her bow- he made her several arrows. Now, these arrows were also made from wood from his main big tree body, but they were also very special because they could only reach their target if they were vibrated in the right frequency. This was a training tool for Zylph for her to understand and incorporate vibrations on her techniques, because if she used the wrong vibration on the wrong arrow, it would break! This would surely make her attacks stronger in the future.

For Fiero, his fiery child, Roots decided to give his son lessons of the Dao of Fire. Because Root had understanding about the Dao of Nature, he could grant insight on the Daos that were related to it even though he didn't truly understand those Daos! He did promise he'd help Fiero with understanding the Dao of Fire.

For Namis he decided to make a simple yet effective item: A pillow. He filled the pillow with silk made with Wind Qi and focused on making it fluffy like a cloud. That's it, that's the gift. She will fucking adore this thing.

For Chaos, Root made this seed. From this seed, Chaos would have to infuse with their Chaos Qi and slowly but surely, a Seedling would be born and would be completely immune and adapted to Chaos Qi. It took a lot of effort to make a Seedling seed that would adapt to Chaos Qi, so much so that Root got [+4%] understanding of his Nature, Change, and Soul Daos.

For Lumin, Root decided to give him this small but soft plushie. It had the form of a small but cute golden lion, the intent he pushed into the Qi while he made the little golden lion was for it to calm down Lumin both emotionally and calm down their Qi as well. It would, at least, give his child an easier time when the sun was reaching mid-day.

For Freeze he decided to make her a spear, this spear was made of wood from his own body and bathed in a lot of Ice Qi to make the wood a complete pale white. The blade of the spear was made out of pale blue ice too! The spear was a very simple item to make, it carried his will that would make the blade of the spear explode into a thousand shards of ice once Freeze activates it.

For Frost he decided to make him a shield, he used wood from his own body that he filled with Ice Qi until it turned white and Silver Qi to make the shield. Those two Qid carried his will and turned the shield into this square shaped shield that could absorb Qi attacks and either store them away or turn them into Ice Qi for Frost's use.

"-and done." It had taken him the majority of the day to make these items while at the same time keeping Tahsm unaware of what he was doing. For the better or worse, his son was a curious guy. But after a small lecture about privacy and a soft but true "No one owes you an explanation for what they are, do, or want… Unless it has something to do with you." Tashm nodded and left his father to work with whatever he was doing. He sent a small pinging sound through the bond he shared with his children, making them all aware that he was calling for them. It took about 32 minutes for them all to come to the base of his big tree body, standing there as they looked at his spiritual form. This time, Roots had taken the same pale skinned humanoid body, but his lower half was completely made out of these long vines that reached for the ground, and every time he moved he looked like an amalgamation of wood and roots, cracking and breaking to make him move. "Children." He greeted them, and in turn, they all greeted him too: "Father." ("Pops" - Ahteus) ("Dad" - Tahsm) ("Daddio" - Fiero).

"I gathered you all here for these-" He moved his hand forward, and a hole appeared on his main tree body. From that hole, 13 items floated out. Each item floated before their owner, with the scabbards floating before Leaf, the umbrella floating before Lily, the small iron tools floating before Ahteus, the arrows floating before Zylph, Fiero received this rush of knowledge- Everything Root knew about fire and flames was granted to him! A pale white pillow floated before Namis, a small black seed floated before Chaos, a small golden lion plushie floated before Lumin, a spear floated before Freeze, and a shield floated before Frost. Immediately they all received the knowledge about their items and what they did. Tahsm received the Spirit Dragon Scale, Root explained to him quickly that he wanted Tahsm to try and find insight in the scale and try and learn something from it.

Bones, of course, received the book on the anatomy of a human body.

He immediately felt his children's gratitude and happiness, and such emotions made him smile. In excitement, Fiero went to try and make new techniques, Namis went to her house to use her pillow and sleep, Zylph went to train with vibrating the arrows, Ahteus went to try and control the small tools with Gravity Qi, Freeze and Frost went to try their new weapons, and Tahsm entered Root's Soul Realm once more to analyze the Spirit Dragon Scale. Chaos started to fill the seed with a little of their chaotic Qi, slowly but surely! Bones started to read the book they received, Lily floated away with her umbrella, Lumin hugged their new golden lion plushie tightly, and Leaf rested his swords into their respective scabbards.

"Thank you, father."

Well, he made his kids very happy.

As Tahsm relaxed within Root's and analyzed the Spirit Dragon Scale, he did not notice the small and subtle change that the Spirit Beast Egg that rested beside him was going through. It was, after all, a very subtle and barely noticeable change.

"..." Root felt Fire Qi reach the end of his large forest. In the horizon he could see a large orange-red mass approaching, illuminating the twilight like a second sun that was rising.

A Fire Cloud approached.

-x-

[author] Thank you for your support, Dallas Meck, Jean, Kaleb, Underdog121, DarkSoulS, and Maxwell Joseph!

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There are chapters there. [/author]