Root Maker: Tree Cultivation

Year 11, Day 98

Into the Darkness, Beneath Root's roots, Ahteus’ Forge

Before Root started experimenting with Space Qi

“There, kid. Aim it a little more to the left-” 

Anno was not giving up. This was a rare and priceless opportunity that he would not waste and would not disappoint his master. His small hammer hit once more the bright red hot metal, sending sparks and particles of Iron and Iron Qi in a flash around him. His eyes stinged a bit, but he did not close them, he tightened his grip on the handle of the small black rock hammer and slammed it with a precise and controlled hit, making the metal sing. ‘It's like a melody…’ A song of heat and metal, a song that his master could also hear and hear way better than he could! It was whispers of wisdom that were drowned out by the shouting of endless voices that came from nowhere, each offering useless advice and useless information that were unrelated to what he wanted to do. His grip faltered for a moment as he watched his Master reached out- 

“-now hold still-” 

Holding his hammer still in his hands, Anno's eyes traced the big bulging rocky arms of Ahteus, his master, as he flipped the flat iron sword around. He simply grabbed the hot blade without even blinking and turned it around so Anno could hit it and practice his swing and control over his hammer on the dull blade that would be just reforged after he was done. He felt more than saw it, since he was a mortal and couldn't really use Qi, but the sudden increase in pressure around them was a pretty good sign that Qi was being used. For something… And as he watched his teacher's hand glow a soft golden coloration as the red hot metal started to flatten and turn into this sheet of golden metal, he realized what was happening- this was a process which his Master described as “covering the metal with piss gold”, he lifted his hammer and got ready, gathering his determination and- 

“-hit.” 

-slammed it down with all his strength. There was a soft dent on the sheet of golden metal. Teacher Ahteus frowned a little, making Anno panic momentarily as the metal reformed into its previous state, making him groan internally- this was another way that Master Ahteus was teaching him about forging! He needed to have a great hit strength, which was “essential if you want to at least make a few dents on the really big boy metals out here, and we're just getting started on the least powerful and going to the more powerful ones” as his Master always repeated to him whenever they were training his hit strength. And that's what they were doing again, going through the regime specifically made for him to increase his strength at the peak of what his mortal body can hold, so then he can start learning to forge and craft- but that's likely years away from him now. 

“Rest.” 

With a single and heavy sigh, Anno let go of the hammer, and as it fell on the ground next to him lifting a bit of dust, he couldn't help but groan in pain. His muscles were very sore, and he wanted to cry- But he held it in. He wanted to become a great Blacksmith! He was determined to do so, with all his might, as long as he can reach the nearest goal of becoming strong enough to start learning real forging techniques and forging real weapons, then he might be able to make his Master proud enough that he will ask the Patriarch to turn him into a cultivator! Sure, he has no Cultivation Root (his own father, Anku, checked it the moment he was born) but the Patriarch must have a way, right? He was powerful, so of course he might have a way to make him into a cultivator even though he wasn't born to be one. “So, brat, you really pushed yourself today huh.” The smirking golden teeth of his Master snapped Anno out of his thoughts. He focused his gaze in his Master's gem eyes as he smirked and said: “Might have to call Chrysalis to take a look at you, Mortals really shouldn't be pushing so hard, even more so small Mortals like you.” Although Master Ahteus acted like he didn't really care about him and would throw him to his sister's ants (He has seen them only once, and they are terrifying!) at even the slightest mistake made, he knows that Master Ahteus's heart is soft as mud even though he behaves like it is hard as stone. 

“...” He didn't have the breath nor the energy to answer his Master, making the big rock giant to sigh. “Well, I guess I'll have to call in the resident healer… Unless you're willing to pay Bones another visit?” Immediately, Anno started shaking his head even though it hurt like crazy- No! Not the creepy underground tree that has been learning to speak like a human! He still has nightmares of the way its bark splintered open wide and it began to make gasping sounds like someone who was dying- seriously, the sound was like a wailing shrill scream but instead of screaming it out, it was inhaling in. It reminded him of someone having the wind knocked out of their lungs by a big beast before they are torn apart by the beast's teeth without even having the chance to inhale a breath in. 

And Anno has seen and heard his mother die in front of him exactly like that, so he knows very well how that sounds like.

“I still find it funny you're scared of the most harmless one amongst all my siblings-” Suddenly, Master Ahteus stopped. He looked up at the ceiling of roots as they moved, and before Anno could even question what was going on, Master Ahteus rushed out. 

‘…I'm still on the floor.’

Outside. Fluttering wings of a giant moth.

“Holy shit Kaiju battle!” 

“...I just want to go back to sleep.”

“[CURIOSITY, INQUIRE, BATTLE? PARTICIPATE!]”

“[...lazy…sleep…?]”

“They fly weird, it's like there's no wind against their wings-”

“-they also feel clean of any death, differently from how they're acting. I wonder what an undead moth would look like.”

“Thunderstruck~ Thunderstruck~”

“Thrümm, stop singing that song in our heads!”

“Giant tree, versus, Giant moth!”

“Mothra is a little different.”

“Oooh, her wings look tasty!”

“I want to study it, why is it purple? Why does it react like that to Chaos? Why does it hate dad and it's attacking him so voraciously? Oh, the answers it may hold!”

“I just wanna set it on fire!”

“Help- one of the little ones got me-”

“Okay, the image of seeing several moths trying to eat Leaf's hair is pretty funny.”

“My hair…” 

“I wanna befriend one of them…”

“Damn pops, there's kaijus in this world too?” Ahteus was bombarded by many thoughts that were not his as the moment he broke through the surface, his mind was pulled by Tahsm into the “Family Group Chat” as they loved to call it. He had been removed temporarily from the connection under his request because he wanted privacy for a few moments while he taught his disciple. Silently, Ahteus watched the confusing but kinda amazing sight before him… A giant purple moth attached to Father's bark while thousands, hundreds of thousands of small purple moths fluttered their way into the world around them. The majority seemed to ignore Chaos completely while they attacked everything around them. The giant purple moth seemed to be stuck to his Father's bark as it was trying to get free, its enormous wings were losing their luster and color, and they were slowly turning to this colorless crystalline material. 

“Oh, hey Ahteus, welcome to the party.” His Father's voice greeted him with the genuine happy tone of someone who wasn't slowly murdering a kaiju sized purple moth. “If you'd please help the mortals? They're not exactly the main focus on the moths, but some are being attacked and I'd like to focus on this moth while I drain it of its Space Qi, Chaos Qi, and Spirit Qi- truly a boon in disguise.” More and more tendrils of dark green slowly grew over the purple moth, and the more it was covered, the more frantic the other smaller moths grew. He saw Lumin and Zylph have a small competition of who can hit the greater amount of moths that were covering the sky- seriously, there were enough moths to cover the sky above them and almost completely block out the sun -and they were going at it pretty strongly, with Lumin exploding thousands of moth with each strike of theirs, and Zylph not far behind. Chaos was eating whatever moth they could get their hands on, and their new form had thousands of hands and mouths exactly for that! Leaf was being depressed in the corner as his long hair was no longer there… Apparently the moths forced him to cut it off by swarming his long hair and spitting this purple liquid, and to prevent it from even touching his robes, he cut off his long hair- but just because he was sulking, it doesn't mean he wasn't killing moths! In fact, his swords were dancing in the air without his touch, cutting through moths after moths. 

On the Flareburn Peak, he could see Fiero dancing in the air and attracting the attention of the moths with his flames as Flare would periodically send out these plumes of soft flames that would get swarmed by moths, that would then be burned to ashes. Sparks and sparks of flames made him aware that the Flareburns were also fighting in their own way with their own techniques. On the other side of the forest, he could feel (with his Father's awareness being shared) what he first thought were Lesser Nature Spirits, but soon he realized they were the Novuswoods! Sharp thorns grew over vines that swung aggressively as the Novuswoods kept their protective formation, occasionally attacking large swarms of moths to decimate them. “Ooh~ Found something interesting!” Transmitted through their minds, Chrysalis’ voice sounded really excited: “They're a hive mind like the Crimson Swarm Father once faced, but their Queen- the big moth -is also their mother, and… Yep! They share a lifeline, meaning that once the Queen dies, so do they, which explains their rabid behavior and their sheer numbers, even though they don't even get close to the Qi Gathering realm, they're all really the equivalent of mortal moths with the addition of weird coloration and the ability to fuse into bigger moths too.” 

“Ah, take the big one out, cut the head of the snake and all that- You children can have fun, I'm feeding here, all this Space Qi is going to be really useful.” 

Sometimes, father is terrifying. 

-Author-

Thank you: Dallas Meck, jean, Kaleb, underdog121, DarksoulS, Maxwell Joseph, Ether's Blessed One, Jared Tate, Sin of Sloth, Harrison Brown, Golden Mold, Yerock, Robbie, Jeremy, ry10970, Me Me, Gabriel, Captain Dragnee, Tah Ma, nightmare, Arthur Stewart, and HILLARY Tchuente for your support.

Hey! Depression guy here speaking, hope you like the chapter, we getting more about the moths later- The Space Qi though? Well, that's for later. 

If you're worried about world hopping, don't worry. Root needs to break through the overlaying Chaos Qi that stops all teleportation out of the cursed world :3