Chapter 28: LifeMakerUI.exe
Ents are slow-moving creatures. Though they carry some punch to them, they’re not combat specialists like typical predators are. Their large build and slow frames lack the flexibility required to battle genetically engineered hunting beasts, making them ideal prey for creatures looking to feed on or use their mana-rich wood for their own purposes.
Just as I had expected, a new predator arrived by a river running through the forest and eyed an ent as suitable prey. It was a goofy-looking brown rodent creature with a red nose, a thick tail, and large incisors that were perfect for gnawing on wood.
It was currently chewing on an ent, likely planning to use its wood to block up a part of the river. The ent, which already had a portion of its back gouged out, was unable to resist, having lost flexibility in its damaged waist.
Why do I feel like, by looking at it for too long, I might just get into trouble with a company on Earth? Let’s get rid of it real quick before any trouble starts.
“Disciple! Show me what you have learned so far, as a Tree Monster Master!”
“Yes, mentor! Enotolia, I choose you!”
Kreeek!
An ent emerged from the earth, born and grown on the spot by Green Earth Mother’s power. This was an evolved version of the original ent we’ve grown familiar with. The large rodent stood frozen in shock for a moment, surprised by the sudden arrival of a new ent.
Green Earth Mother took this chance to attack, putting her new creation to the test. She dug her hand into the ground and commanded the new species of ent.
“Enotolia! That creature is still distracted! Quick! Use [Splinter Barrage]!”
Kreeek!
Enotolia opened up its trunk and shot forth a barrage of wooden needles, turning the large incisored creature into a porcupine in an instant. It cried in pain, throwing itself on its back as it desperately tried to pull the splinters off its body.
“Eeep!”
“The attack was super effective! This is your chance, Enotolia! Next, use [Plant Whip]!”
Kreeek!
Enotolia turned its waist, extending an outstretched root before swinging it at the incapacitated beast. The force of the whipping was enough to snap the beast’s spine in half, throwing it into the air from the strength behind the attack.
“Eeep!”
“Nice! It fainted! Good job, Enotolia!”
Kreeek!
Yeesh. This doesn’t look rated E for Everyone. At least it’s over now. It’s time for the tree to feast.
After wrapping its extended root around the rodent, it pulled the rodent’s incapacitated body into its trunk, consuming it alive.
Chomp!
“That was amazing, Enotolia! You sure showed that wood-eater who is going to be fertilizer today!”
Kreeek.
As usual, Green Earth Mother showered her beloved ent in love, wrapping her arms around its trunk and nuzzling her face against its bark after another major victory under her belt. The ent returned her affection, hugging her with its roots before opening its trunk… to speak.
“Mother… Love…”
“I love you too, honey! I hope you will grow into a big, strong tree that can protect our forests from those naughty wood-eaters!”
“Strong… Grow…!”
There’s something off about watching a young woman pampering a tree that sounds like an old man, but pointing that out now would probably ruin the mood.
Anyway, this ent was in a league of its own, with all specs improved, including intelligence, which helped it learn speech after being granted a faux respiratory system (which was originally designed to help it perform those so‑called “Splinter Barrage” attacks) to work with, though it wasn’t exactly an unbeatable force.
Just like the average ent, it was still very slow. But unlike the typical ent, this ent was capable of growing with time, practice, and experience. Given enough time, this ent might just grow into a Superior Duku Tree with all the combat abilities of a Nature-type wallet monster.
“That was excellent, disciple. It seems you have produced quite the respectable… err… individual. Using Enotolia as the benchmark for alterations, you should be able to form a solid population of ents to start with.”
“Thank you, mentor! But… I am still uncertain what your intentions are by having me do this. I understand that improving their base abilities will do a lot for their continued survival; however, I do not see how this falls in line with the goal of creating a mutualistic relationship. Could you enlighten me on the details of this plan of yours, mentor?”
“Certainly.”
The idea here is simple. If we are to establish a mutualistic relationship between elves (that have yet to be born) and ents in the future, there must be an equal level of respect between the two parties.
If one party is significantly weaker than the other, the other party might grow to disdain the former, even if the relationship between the two is one of guardian and protected. After all, most people don’t like having to play babysitter to a deadweight, even if there are benefits to the relationship.
Just look at MOBA games like Guild of Champions and hero shooters like Unravel Rivals for proof of that. I’m sure your team chat will have a lot to say about your feeding ass.
In the plan I hope to implement, I want to have elves serve as guardians of the forest (of ents), which would mean that buffing ents a little should help ensure the stability of that plan’s implementation. Naturally, there’d have to be incentives for the elves to make it work out.
“Vegans.”
“Pardon, mentor?”
“We will need to make vegans.”
No, perhaps ‘vegetarians’ is the more accurate term here. These elves should help with hunts too, to help feed the ents, so there’s no way I can call them vegans.
Whatever the case, the plan goes a little something like this:
(1) Have ents produce resources like food for elves to consume to incentivize elves to protect them, making the two races have each other’s backs. Elves, born in the forests, will have to rely on the ents and forage the surroundings to feed, forcing them to acknowledge their role.
(2) Through the elves’ continued protection of these ents, over the years, the ents will safely grow larger and more capable of producing more resources for the elves to use. In turn, this should help them create basic societal units and eventually form villages and towns around these ents. By this point, the ents will no longer be a liability in combat, but instead, a major defensive asset, ensuring the safety of a settlement, while serving as its core.
(3) As a byproduct of this mutualistic relationship between the two races, it is expected to gain significant faith points from both races. The elves will grow to respect trees for nature’s bounties granted upon them, and will, in turn, revere the Great Earth Mother more, while the ents will thank the Great Earth Mother for granting them protectors to safeguard them from threats, encouraging worship among the ents.
Maybe I should write an entire thesis on this stuff once I’m done helping my newest disciple. Not that there’s even a college for constellations in the first place, much less one that would take it.
God, that’d be a nightmare to imagine, wouldn’t it?
“As you can see, by creating this type of dynamic between these two races, they will have to form a cordial relationship to ensure their continued survival together. We will have to tune down the elves’ specs to make it work, however. And you might need to make some adjustments in the future, disciple.”
“A-Ah… Yes… I-I understand… Then I will keep that in mind for the future…”
Huh. Green Earth Mother looks like she’s struggling to process all that in her mind. Come to think of it, she’s just a newborn constellation, so dumping this on top of her is probably like putting a five-year-old in charge of a mind-numbing city development plan and then wishing them luck before walking away.
No, she’s clearly smarter than a five-year-old, so maybe it’s more like giving a quantum mechanics problem to a ninth grader? I don’t know what example fits best here.
“Mentor…?”
“Yes, disciple.”
“Is being a constellation always this complicated? Suddenly, I am starting to feel cold feet about the future ahead of me…”
No, what would I know? I’m just a constellation LARPer at best.
I’ve never had the pleasure of playing god and toying with mortals at my whim. No, actually, I guess I sort of had that with colony sims. I wonder how my in-game worshippers would have felt whenever I made their worlds a lot more livable before turning them into stages for my stories. Oh, that gives me an idea.
Alright, let’s get serious for a moment. Give her a little pep talk.
Constellation Sensei Mode… ON!
“The road a constellation walks is different for every constellation. This is inevitable, as the inherent nature of every constellation is unique from others. While some constellations may share similarities due to their origins of worship and or ascendancy, they ultimately diverge into separate paths. But as far as I am aware, there is no path impossible to tread among these. This is because our origins lie in hope born of possibility.”
“Hope… born of possibility?”
“Yes. Hope born of possibility. Mortals can only grow faithful when they can see the possibility of achieving something greater. Be it in life and progress, love and family, or even war and conquest.”
I climbed up the ent, still badly damaged from the rodent Enotolia had killed, and reached for a blue apple hanging from one of its branches.
As part of Project EROFU Garden, we’d originally come to this part of the forest to check the results of our experiment—whether apples (and by extension, other tree fruits) could actually be grafted onto ents—and, if so, how quickly they would bear apples and what quality they’d produce. Even though this ent had only recently been grafted with apple wood from Earth, the mana flowing through its body had already helped it grow a generous number of firm, healthy apples that were now blue, for some reason.
I plucked one of them and tossed it to the Green Earth Mother, who fumbled with it for a moment, almost dropping it in surprise. Then, I slid down the ent’s trunk and returned to my disciple’s side.
“Even if the desire for something better is there, it does not bloom into faith if there is nothing worth believing in. Therefore, you are the product of that hope.”
I pointed at the blue apple in her hands.
“And this is the possibility you have shown them.”
A future where they can spread their roots safely under her care, so that they may flourish as she hoped they would.
Green Earth Mother’s head went downcast as she held the blue apple to her chest, letting out a gentle sigh; a sincere smile bloomed on her pretty face, and her cheeks grew red with joy.
“... Thank you, mentor. I will be sure to keep those words to heart.”
“Think nothing of it. I just wanted to show you that you are doing great. Do not worry too much about failures that have not happened yet.”
“I will do as you have suggested!”
Attagirl.
Afterward, Green Earth Mother patched up the ent’s injury using her powers, and then…
Ji-ya jiya jiya jiyano o~, doki doki doki doki do-ki~
“What is that sound, mentor?”
“Oh, that must be my phone. Apologies. It must be time.”
This was my ringtone for an alarm I had set to remind me of the time to pick up Ori from Earth. While time flowed differently between Esphera’s world and Earth, one could still keep track of the time on Earth while in Esphera’s world by keeping a phone with them that’s connected to the internet on Earth. So long as they’ve set it to sync with internet time, there’d be no issue with keeping track of time over there.
Normally, this’d be an impossible feat to manage on my own. But thankfully, I had a really useful divine power programmer by my side—a certain gorilla who had figured out how to translate his intentions into written text using his divine power.
“Sir Gorilla. It seems that it is time to go pick up my human friend.”
“Oog.”
Ramube, who was sitting by the riverbank dressed in full fisherman’s gear, was biding his time, catching fish by the river. I have no idea where he found clothes that could fit him, but that wasn’t exactly important right now. It was time to go meet with Ori.
“Let us go.”
Zuuuuooooh.
Zuuuuooooh.
“You’re… dressed rather plainly, this time.”
“The fuck did you expect me to wear? Did you think I’d be wearing a black dress out in the woods? I’d die from sweating and dehydration before the end of the first day.”
“Well… good point.”
Yet it’s fine to wear such crazily decorated outfits on main as if they’re casual attire? I really don’t get cosplayer logic… No, I wonder if this is an Ori-specific trait?
I ought to interact with women more. I just can’t understand stuff like this.
Anyway, unlike last time, Ori was dressed in a rather plain camisole, short shorts, and a visor cap. She also put her hair up into twintails, but at this point, I’m no longer surprised.
“So… what did you need my help with, exactly?”
“Oh, right. Since you seem pretty good with aesthetics, I needed your help with elf creation.”
“Elf creation? Wait, what?”
“Sir Gorilla. Activate LifeMakerUI.exe.”
“Oog.”
“The what, now?”
Ramube pushed his hand forward into the air, and suddenly, a large transparent screen appeared before all four of us.
The screen showed a variety of things, from a text box where you write a new race’s name or modify an existing one’s, a box where you could type down various traits that the race should have, to an appearance editor to provide a base model for the race, including adjustable settings to widen or narrow the window for variance. In effect, this was like a character editor, but for creating or modifying an entire species.
This was a project that Ramube and I had been working on together during our free time. With a handy divine program like this, constellations could more easily create and modify life as they pleased—at least in terms of organizing all the information. The actual creation part still required their effort.
“Wh-What the fuck? This looks like something straight out of an RPG.”
“You’d be close.”
“What do you want me to do with this?”
“It’s simple, really.”
“Let’s make some really hot and sexy EROFUs.”
“... This fucking perverted NEET loser…”
