Chapter 22: The Tree of Life and the Moon Well (Part 1)

Standing outside the manor, gazing at the endless wilderness ahead—this was the land he would soon cultivate. While the manor’s development was still in progress, with no outsiders other than farmers, servants, and construction workers around to observe, Donald planned to use his magical powers to transform this place thoroughly.

Opening the Book of Truth and reviewing most of the buildings associated with the four major races and neutral factions, Donald focused on the elven constructions. If there was any type of building that could serve both a powerful purpose and promote natural ecological development, it was undoubtedly the elven treefolk buildings—structures that harmonized with nature. As an environmentalist in his past life and a nobleman-owner of a manor in this one, after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each race’s architecture, he knew the undead were out of the question. If any undead units appeared before others, Donald assumed he would soon be eliminated by the Agricultural Temple and various royal forces working together.

“Human buildings: Farms have already been built; nothing else is useful for now. Orcish burrows are good—hidden entrances and strong defenses, suitable as trench strongholds or temporary barracks. But since they don’t even have an army yet, building them is pointless. The other orcish architectural styles are too primitive and barbaric, not suitable for human territories.”

In the end, Donald decided that night elf architecture was the most suitable.

“Besides the Moon Well, altars, and Hunter Halls, all elven building units are living beings. They can usually disguise themselves as trees and hide near the manor. In case of an external threat, they can instantly transform into defensive forces. Treefolk are already plant life, so transforming into trees is entirely natural.”

“However, this means that most elven building units cannot be summoned using only energy crystals and other materials, like the other three races.”

According to the Book of Truth, as semi-sentient, semi-structural entities, night elf buildings require not only energy but also a certain amount of spiritual power. Of course, this spiritual power doesn’t need to be as great as that required to summon intelligent beings permanently. Generally, treefolk only need a spiritual level roughly equivalent to that of second-tier soldiers.

Plants, unlike animals, do not require much intelligence to survive, which means their “souls” are simple and weak. Even the treefolk of the Elven race have lower thinking abilities compared to a human infantryman, let alone a peasant. Therefore, the Book of Truth sets unique summoning conditions for the Elven treefolk structures. Although this requires more soul power than summoning structures from the other three races, it grants advantages that inanimate objects lack. For example, Elven ancient trees are conscious, can follow their master’s commands, move freely, and can even attack invaders proactively. These advantages are enough to make Donald willing to pay more in soul power. The initial Life Tree is rated as a level 5 unit by the Book of Truth, on par with the initial heroes, but only 200 units of soul power are needed to summon it—this is highly disproportionate. During this time, Donald also visited the cemeteries in several towns in the North County to gather some soul power. Combined with what he already had, it was just enough to create a new level 2 unit. “For the Elven ancient tree, I’ll have to put my original plans on hold for now,” Donald said regretfully. Since creating Clinton and his three subordinates, Donald has come to realize how useful it is to have such utterly loyal subordinates. To create an Elven base structure, the energy required, aside from soul power, is equivalent to that needed to summon human towns or orc halls—150 units of primary elemental crystals or 15 units of secondary elemental crystals. If it weren’t for the fact that Donald couldn’t gather enough materials in the towns to build even a small town right away, and the idea of suddenly creating a town hall seemed too outrageous, plus the fact that he didn’t yet have his own territory, he would have already summoned those large-scale structures. That way, he wouldn’t have to build villas step by step, saving a great deal of time for the development of his estate. “Just like when summoning infantry, long swords, and other items or buildings like farms, creating a Life Tree also allows one to use raw materials needed for construction to replace part of the energy required. This way, over 80% of the crystal energy can be saved. Soul power, however, is still a necessary expense. It seems the path to becoming strong is still a long one!”

“However, the creatures of the elves build differently from other races. Instead of using materials like wood or stone, they need living trees. Oak, pine, or fir—trees with long lifespans—are ideal, and the taller and older they are, the more energy is available and the less consumption is required.”
In the Green Cloak Forest, Donald wasn’t sure if other things were scarce, but ancient trees were certainly not.
It was said that deep within the forest, there were entire groves of trees over ten thousand years old. Even on the periphery of the forest, finding an ancient tree spanning thousands of years wasn’t difficult.
Acting on his thoughts, Donald, for once, spent a second-tier crystal core to summon a mount best suited for flying in the forest—the elves’ second-tier creature, the Horned Eagle Beast.
With a size and weight similar to that of an elf warrior, Donald transformed into a Horned Eagle Beast rider and flew toward the forest outskirts in the north, where the manor was located.
The Green Cloak Forest had existed for far longer than the Kingdom of Celt or any other ancient nation on the continent, dating back even to the ancient world.
Vast and elongated, it lay like a spread cloak at the foot of the Ucloud Mountains, surrounding three sides of the borders beyond the northern counties and the central-southern territories of the kingdom. If the area of this forest and its surrounding mountains were included, the northern counties were undoubtedly the largest territory in the Kingdom of Celt.
Since he wasn’t here to hunt magical beasts and still had sufficient funds, Donald only surveyed the area where the nearby forest met the deeper parts to save time.
Even here, there were towering ancient trees with dense canopies. A hundred-year-old tree in this forest was merely a child. Though no precise measurements had been taken, Donald estimated that several of the ancient trees he noticed were over ten thousand years old.
“That’s the one!”
After circling around, Donald chose the thickest and tallest tree nearby, which turned out to be an oak from this world.
In this world, oaks were considered sacred trees. It was said they grew from the branches and leaves of the World Tree, created by the high elves. The ancient Druids, a race now extinct on the continent, revered oaks as the embodiment of nature, worshiping them like fathers.
Standing in front of this large oak, Donald stroked its rough trunk. With his keen magical senses, he felt its vibrant life force. He took out a fifth-tier magical beast crystal core and chose to summon the Life Tree of the Night Elves.
“Book of Truth, begin!”

Within a golden glow, a vibrant light of pale green flowed, enveloping the entire oak tree. After a few breaths, the tree that reappeared had completely changed its appearance. Its thick branches, now several times larger, stretched lazily as if after a nap, while its dense green leaves swayed gently with the branches. Perhaps because the tree Donald chose was excellent in both growth condition and age, and possessed its own spirituality, summoning this Tree of Life required Donald to use just over thirty primary elemental crystals to transform his body, with only a mere thirty units of soul power consumed—far less than expected. At this moment, the Tree of Life was surrounded by a visible layer of natural energy; its branches swayed slowly, as if greeting Donald, its creator. The Tree of Life was indeed communicating with Donald through the mental connection between them. In its normal state, it was simply a living, intelligent tree that couldn’t speak on its own, but with an intelligence equivalent to that of a seven-year-old child, it was fully capable of communicating with intelligent beings through mental power. Donald gave instructions to the Tree of Life in his mind, and immediately the tree’s branches stretched out, its strong roots breaking through the ground. What was once a giant tree rooted in the forest had now transformed into a human-shaped, upright tree. In just this short moment, the ancient oak had evolved into one of the oldest and most peaceful treefolk in the legendary natural races, with all its physical characteristics altered. Even the most knowledgeable botanist might not be able to tell that its original form was an oak. “Master… I obey your commands…” The treefolk’s head was an aged wooden face beneath the crown; its speech was slow and dry, yet surprisingly childish in tone. “My child, follow in my footsteps and take root there!” Feeling the deep affection the newly born Tree of Life had for him, as if it were a child, Donald specified the coordinates in his mind—the narrow strip of overgrown grass and trees at the boundary between the large and small manors was the place he had chosen for the Tree of Life to take root. The treefolk nodded slowly and began walking in that direction. Due to its size, the treefolk’s steps were large, allowing it to cover nearly ten meters per step, but because of its slow movement, it could only travel about fifteen kilometers per hour.

Fortunately, night was approaching soon. There should be no adventurers or hunters staying in the forest overnight. The forest around his two manors was different from that in Red Maple Town—it was located further deep in the dangerous forest, near the Mount Izumo range filled with magical beasts, so it was usually unpopulated. The noise made by the tree people wasn’t loud either. A whole night was enough time for the Tree of Life to travel from the forest to take root in the manor.

After finishing these tasks, he converted the horned eagle beast back into energy and safely teleported back to his farm house to rest.

Early the next morning, after having breakfast, he went outside the fence on the northwest side of the manor. Sure enough, he saw a massive tree standing on the wasteland—thick enough that at least five people would be needed to encircle it, standing over ten meters tall.