Book 13: Chapter 55: Ecosystem

Path of Dragons

“How big do you think you’re going to get, Treebie?” Elijah asked.

The tree did not answer. It never did. Probably because it was a plant and incapable of speech. But that hadn’t stopped Elijah from holding long, one-sided conversations with it.

It had all started because he’d remembered multiple studies that suggested that plants fared better when their owners spoke to them. Part of that could be chalked up to increased levels of carbon dioxide, but even that wasn’t enough to account for the overall uptick in their relative health. So, knowing just how much depended on the tree’s continued growth, Elijah had started talking to it.

But in the back of his mind, he knew it went further than that. He was lonely, and despite his reliance on the bestial side of his mind, he recognized his fundamental need for companionship. And given his lack of options, he’d chosen to bestow his conversational skills upon the tree, which was the closest thing to a sapient creature living in Druhmor.

Over the past year since he’d recognized the pattern of its growing roots, Elijah had stopped feeling self-conscious about it, too. He knew it couldn’t understand him. He was well aware that talking to the tree was no different than holding a conversation with a boulder.

Yet, it was comforting, and it made the passing months more bearable. That was all that really mattered.

“I think you’re going to eventually be more than a mile tall,” he said, looking up at the tree’s spreading canopy more than thirty feet above him. It was already the size of a mature oak tree, though the spread of its limbs was a bit wider than any normal tree. “Maybe you’ll just keep growing eternally.”

He shook his head. “But maybe height isn’t your thing.”

That was a safe bet, considering that the bulk of its growth over the past year had occurred below the surface. Its roots had long since torn through the limits of the well, and when Elijah cast his awareness downward along those shoots, he found that they didn’t stop until they’d reached more than ten miles deep.

The breadth of those roots was comparatively narrow, spreading only as far as the third circle. Already, the effect had transformed the area, suffusing it with naturally occurring vitality that surrounded the inner third of Druhmor like a dome of life.

Even bacteria and fungi had begun to flourish. Only animals were missing, and he didn’t think those would come anytime soon. Perhaps not ever, considering they would need to evolve from scratch. Even with magic, that kind of process would take millions of years.

Briefly, Elijah had considered trying to replicate the time-bending incubation chambers he’d seen back in the Labyrinth of Dead Gods. But in the end, he was forced to admit that he lacked the expertise and the materials to bring that vision into reality. It would be far easier to simply import animals once he managed to escape the planet.

In any case, he’d found a new way to overcome a problem by using Eternal Plague to flood huge swaths of Druhmor with butterflies. It was a little difficult to get them to work on pollination, but with Elijah’s newly upgraded emerald mind, he managed it well enough to make it a viable solution that saved him quite a lot of time.

Until that point, he’d done everything by hand, which was slow, tedious, and frustrating. Now, it was still all three of those, but to a lesser extent.

The only comfort came from his routine, which rarely wavered, and only then when monsters attacked off-schedule. Otherwise, each day blurred together – a trait supported by the unchanging atmosphere. There were no sunsets or sunrises to mark the passage of each day, so it was easy to lose track.

In addition to his normal tasks – defending Druhmor, tending to the plants, exercising, and lending the power of his soul to Treebie – he also worked on his notes. He’d already filled his notebooks, so he’d resorted to using clay tablets instead of paper. Currently, they were stacked at the edge of the inner circle.

He’d also spent a few months’ worth of free time sculpting increasingly accurate depictions of his friends and family. However, that was made more difficult because of something he realized about half a year after Treebie’s most recent evolution.

It had hit him like a bomb going off in his mind, shattering so much of what he’d taken for granted. And for a long time, he’d just sat there, unmoving and wondering how he could forget how they looked.

Their features had blurred in his memories, and even when he focused, he couldn’t recall specific details. Just vague representations. Instead, his mind had latched onto specific events.

His faulty memory plagued him for a few more weeks before he shunted the resulting pain aside and focused more on the beast within. He needed to remain human. He needed to maintain his draconic pride. But mostly, he just needed to survive. And lamenting the loss of something so fundamental to his memories of home was ultimately an unproductive use of his thoughts.

But it wasn’t all bad.

Treebie’s growth had brought with it a host of benefits and new traits. The most obvious was the aura of vitality, but only slightly behind that was its ability to combat corruption. Even now, Elijah could feel its effect on the surrounding area. When the tentacles – belonging to subterranean monsters – came from below, they found themselves completely incapable of moving. Eventually, Treebie’s roots drained them of power.

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It was proof that the tree would eventually be capable of protecting itself – a fact that Elijah found both comforting and horrifying. Because without the need to hover over the tree and guard Treebie, what would he do? How would he fill his days? It wasn’t so different from a parent dreading an empty nest.

In addition to that ability to protect itself, Treebie had also begun to change its form. Flecks of crystal had started to form within its bark, and they glittered in the scant, purple light. In addition, the leaves’ veins had turned milky white, forming a striking contrast with their normal blue color.

What’s more, the change suggested that further evolution would soon follow.

But Elijah was less concerned with that than he probably should have been. Treebie seemed to have its own ideas for how it was meant to grow, and Elijah was incapable of doing more than nudging it one way or the other. Instead of direct intervention, the tree followed Elijah’s secondhand guidance, taking its cues from the formations he’d grown throughout Druhmor.

So, much of his time remained dedicated to tending to and adjusting the natural array formed by the plants.

That was how he ended up standing next to one of the stones comprising the fourth ring and using Soul of the Wild to examine the bacteria clinging to its surface.

Most Runemasters would have considered it a contaminant, and Elijah couldn’t deny that the bacteria – as well as the fungi at the base – cut the efficiency down by no small degree. But instead of seeing a nuisance, Elijah saw an opportunity.

After all, he wasn’t just capable of guiding plant growth. He could mold bacteria and fungi as well.

To that end, Elijah got to work. Often, he was forced to use Eyes of the Eagle in conjunction with Soul of the Wild just to track the changes. After all, he was working at a nearly microscopic level, and doing so required appropriate focus.

Fortunately, he had nothing but time on his hands. And he was more than equipped to handle the tedium the project required. So, he gradually guided the bacterial and fungal growth into a web of symbols and glyphs that accentuated the overall array.

Of course, his efforts didn’t come without mistakes. There were plenty of those, and one instance cut the energy flow by nearly half. Panicked, he’d quickly scrubbed the fungi from the stone, restoring it to normal efficiency but forcing himself to start from scratch.

Thankfully, that happened just before a monster surge, which allowed him to take out his frustrations in a productive way.

Eventually, he was happy with the work, and he moved on to the next stone. And the next after that. Thankfully, he’d altered the bacteria and fungi to the point that they would only grow according to his patterns. His efforts harnessed the same mechanisms that made fractal arrangements common amongst microbials, though on a much larger scale – relatively speaking – and with far more stringent rules.

The result was that those lifeforms would only grow according to his patterns, which served as an enhancement to the already-active ritual circles he’d built into Druhmor. The overall effect wasn’t terribly impactful, but Elijah hoped that his efforts would serve as an example for Treebie’s growth.

If so, it would open the door to all sorts of possibilities.

Gradually, Elijah enforced the new microbial patterns across each of the circles before turning his attention to the area between. Those living formations were just as important to the overall ecosystem, and Elijah wanted to ensure they benefited from the lessons he’d learned from manipulating the bacteria and fungi.

The only problem was that Druhmor was more than a hundred miles wide. That size, combined with the microscopic nature of his medium, meant that the task before Elijah was a mammoth one indeed.

But as had become his habit, Elijah reminded himself that he had no other way to spend his time. And he’d never had trouble putting negativity on the backburner and focusing on what really mattered – the work itself.

He did not complete his task quickly, but that seemed to be the constant refrain accompanying his entire time in Druhmor. Such was the life of a Druid. The toil was the point, and as far as Elijah was concerned, nothing worthwhile was ever grown without significant time and effort.

It didn’t help that he wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfection.

But that was part of it, too. That ongoing pursuit of flawlessness was a key component of any endeavor.

The passage of so much time did give Elijah plenty of time to think, to plan, and to revisit his past mistakes. He tried not to dwell on the latter, but in his darker moments, they were all he could think about. There were so many things he would have done differently, had he a chance to go back and revisit those early days.

But he was no Chronomancer. He had no control over time. The only solution was to forge ahead and vow to do better in the future. Elijah was well aware that he wouldn’t always meet that standard. More mistakes loomed before him, ready to pounce on his every impending decision.

Yet, there was hope as well, and it lay in his ability to change. To learn from those same mistakes. And to keep striving for perfection.

That thread of optimism, often so thin that it was barely detectible, got him through those darker days.

And then there were the moments when his efforts bore fruit. Simple instances where the ecosystem came together and worked toward a common goal. That made it all worth it.

Nearly three years passed like that. At times, it felt like the days flew by. At other times, it felt as if every minute contained years of misery. But Elijah continued, often letting his bestial side take center stage. He never went fully wild – he had more control than that – but he embraced the parts that made his solitude more bearable.

When he finally finished, he celebrated by explaining everything to Treebie. His clay statues were there, too. They were poor imitations of his real friends and family, but in that moment, they almost felt real.

By that point, Treebie had reached a height of more than sixty feet, and its growth showed no signs of slowing down. More importantly, the roots had plunged dozens of miles into the planet’s crust, while spreading almost to the very edge of Druhmor.

Elijah was eager to see if they would keep going into the Abyssal Moat. But for now, he could only appreciate the completion of yet another project. There was more on the horizon, but at that moment, he was content to bask in the feeling of satisfaction that came with achieving a milestone.

That lasted for a few days before he was once again called to defend Druhmor from another wave of monsters.

“The labor never ends, does it, Treebie? No – you stay here,” Elijah said, patting the tree on its trunk. “Focus on growing big and strong. I’ll take care of the extermination.”

And with that, Elijah took on his dragon form and set off across the land he’d so arduously cultivated.