Chapter 151: Activating the Maze Lock
On the day the Tree of Life was upgraded, the elves already settled in the Moonlight Forest. Although the houses had not yet been built, for elves—especially those druidic elves who revered nature—living in the wild was quite common. They had their own unique ways of building homes.
Donald was very curious about how these druidic elves built their houses, so he went with Kelthas and over a dozen other natural druids to the chosen location.
The elves selected a new home site on the side of the Sacred Ground of Transformation, near the periphery of the Tree of Life. This area was covered by the Tree of Life’s influence.
Upon arriving at this cleared space, the druids scattered and each took out a seed of an unknown plant from their pockets. They then cast spells on the seeds and threw them onto the ground.
The seeds, glowing with green light, quickly sprouted as soon as they touched the ground. They broke through the soil, buried their roots deep underground, and began growing upward at a speed a thousand times faster than normal.
In just a few minutes, strange-shaped trees grew right there. These trees resembled species with only trunks and underdeveloped branches and leaves. By the time all the trees reached the thickness of several people wrapped around them and reached three stories tall, the elf druids cast a second spell.
Under the green light of the natural power released by the elves, those strange-shaped trees expanded like balloons, gradually forming beautiful wooden houses with doors, windows, and roofs covered in green leaves.
Most of these houses had two or three floors, resembling small villas. There was a fenced yard outside, and the elves also controlled the branches and leaves of the trees to create exquisite decorations on the roofs and around the doors and windows. It was like little wooden houses from a fairy tale world.
“These are the unique tree houses of our druidic elves,” explained Elder Ilya. “These are created by druids using seeds of hollow trees—trees with empty interiors—and then using natural spells to control their growth into the shape of houses as they envision them.”
“This type of tree house is highly adaptable; any design can be created as long as one can imagine it. Of course, hollow trees have limited growth potential and cannot be turned into overly large houses, and they also have a lifespan of their own. Once built, a tree house can be modified at any time according to the owner’s wishes. However, ordinary hollow trees typically last around ten to twenty years. Once their lifespan ends, what remains is a regular wooden house that can no longer be altered as before.”
Donald never expected these elves to use druidic natural magic to create such fresh and exquisite wooden houses. Since the Tree of Life could convert sunlight beneath its canopy, allowing lower plants to receive ample light for growth, the days here were equally sunny. Under the sunlight, a beautiful elf tribe settled there, appearing truly dreamlike.
The elves built their town according to the scale of a small town. According to Elder Ilya, although the population was small now, it was conceivable that with the existence of the Tree of Life, it might eventually develop into a true elf town.
After constructing the tree houses, the elves cast spells again around this town filled with elfic style, growing a wall of green trees and vines around it. Donald also joined in the town’s construction, summoning ancient trees in the form of Ancient Guardians at regular intervals within this green wall to silently protect the town.
He also built a fountain pool in the center of the town, modeled after those in Darknight Manor. This pool was the Neutral Structure, the Fountain of Life, created by the Book of Truth.
The Fountain of Life and the Fountain of Magic—these two miraculous springs could restore the life and magic of surrounding creatures. Of course, that was in the game. In this world, they would have to follow the rules; these springs couldn’t appear out of nowhere with such powerful properties.
Thus, the effects of these two miraculous springs created by the Book of Truth relied on continuously absorbing energy from the surrounding air, which then accumulated within the pools to produce such miraculous effects. The pool itself functioned like a large magic array capable of gathering external energy, while the water was merely a temporary carrier of that energy. Once separated from the pool, the energy would dissipate, turning into ordinary water composed of pure water elements.
After completing these tasks, Donald thought, “Since that’s the case, could empty crystals that have lost their energy be placed in the magic spring to restore them to new magic crystals and elemental stones?” So he built another magic spring. With his wealth now substantial, he didn’t mind the costs involved. Through the magic spring, Donald conducted several experiments and found that it indeed could restore the energy of empty crystals, though the process was slow—it took about ten days to produce one magic crystal or a lower-grade elemental stone. Moreover, the effectiveness of the spring itself diminished over time. Yet, despite the long duration, the savings would be enormous. Not only could his limited number of magic crystals be reused repeatedly like rechargeable batteries, but the lower-grade elemental stones, once formed in the spring, would continue to absorb elemental energy and evolve into medium, high, or even super-grade elemental stones. Thus, Donald decided to place a batch of empty crystals in the magic spring to let them grow on their own—who knew they might become a great surprise in the future! The town was beautiful under the moonlight, and the strong natural energy emitted by the Tree of Life created glowing points in the air, making it look as if it were covered in stars at night. Therefore, Donald named the town Starlight Town, and the elves loved this beautiful name. All the elves were very satisfied with their new home, which was even more beautiful than their original tribe’s territory. Currently, all the residents of Starlight Town were members of the Druid Elf tribe. Kelthas, the blood elf mage, naturally became the first mayor. His high elf lineage and powerful strength earned the recognition of all elves, including Illia. As for Donald, the lord, his elf lineage and status as a mage also earned him the elves’ approval. To his surprise, he was elected as an elder of the tribe, giving him significant decision-making power. Donald was quite confident about the elves in his territory. Even without considering the influence of the Tree of Life, these elves, descended from ancient druids, were naturally indifferent to fame and fortune, preferring a life in harmony with nature and peace. They were even more reliable than his human subjects.
It is said that the nature of the elven gods also differs from that of the human gods who cherish expanding their followers; they are more like the ancestors of the elves, paying little attention to the mortal world’s affairs, unless there is a grave threat to the development of the elves. Most of the time, they let things develop naturally. Therefore, Donald need not worry that failing to recruit a hundred elves will draw the attention of the elven gods. Instead, the two major elven forces currently existing—the elven royal court and the forest elf tribes—are likely to send people to investigate, as the pride of these elves makes it hard for them to tolerate their kin being ruled by humans, even if it’s a tribe abandoned by them. Thus, elven news must be kept secret for a while. Fortunately, the druid elves are just as reclusive as mages, spending their days either in the town or guarding the Tree of Life, with little desire to go outside, so it’s unlikely anyone will discover anything in the short term. In the Moonlight Woods, few adventurers venture in the direction of the Tree of Life; they usually go the other way to explore the Green Cloak Forest. Still, Donald needs to prepare for this. His plan is to activate the arcane lock he obtained from the ruins. These days, Donald has also analyzed the interior of the altar using the Book of Truth and found that the magic arrays inside are indeed extremely complex and mysterious. Even with the power of the Book of Truth, it took two full days to fully analyze the types and functions of these arrays. The most basic function of this arcane lock is to manipulate the weather to create mist that surrounds the area, forming an outer defense layer that serves to conceal and alert. Within this mist lies the power of illusions, which can cause any foreign creatures approaching the area to get lost in the mist and unable to enter. For those strong enough to break through the illusions and force their way in, there are powerful defensive barriers and attack arrays behind the mist. With sufficient energy, even a gold-ranked warrior would find it difficult to break in. Donald plans to initially control the scope of the lock to protect only the Tree of Life, and expand it to cover the entire territory if enemies attack. With the combined effect of the lock and natural barriers, Donald had Uther try it, and even this silver-ranked paladin was unable to enter the lock, his strength suppressed to just 10%—any bronze-ranked swordsman could easily stop him.
However, just because the Book of Truth understands it doesn’t mean Donald can comprehend it either. With the help of the Book of Truth and after studying with his teacher Messel for several nights, he only began to grasp the operation of a few outer magic circles. The only one he could basically master was the outermost arcane circle in the Maze Lock that created mist.
Water and temperature are key factors in forming phenomena such as mist and vapor. At high temperatures, water vaporizes; at low temperatures, it liquefies, and even lower temperatures cause it to crystallize. This is a theory known even to elementary school students in his past life, yet in this world, only ancient archmages, modern mages, and a few scholars know it—though most of these latter groups only have a superficial understanding and fail to comprehend the powerful laws underlying these simple physical phenomena.
Still, Donald isn’t a professional scientist, so he only knows the surface aspects of these principles rather than the underlying reasons. Yet compared to most mages in this world, he knows much more.
Only by reaching the Golden Rank can one truly understand the existence of these laws. For example, Vincent, the Golden Sword Saint, understood the concept of fury within the laws of wind.
Although he only mastered one arcane circle, he didn’t need to re-construct it. With the existing Maze Locks available, they simply needed to input energy and activate them.