Skills

“Woody-kun, I have a suggestion… If we are doing this anyway, why not let the other nobles take part in subjugating the Gigafauna too?”

The count’s proposal was, indeed, exactly what I had wanted.

Giants were one of the world’s strongest species, alongside dragons and vampires.

Being able to defeat one would make an enormous impact.

If we could demonstrate our strength, they would not think so lightly of invading us.

And if, on top of that, we also conducted exchanges involving our village’s specialty goods and iron resources—whose mining output had been increasing lately—we could bind the other nobles with both fear and practical benefit.

But the Gigafauna subjugation became a bigger affair than I had imagined.

It grew so large-scale that it was a little frightening: not only would the count’s vassal nobles’ armies join, but even military officers from other territories came to observe, with approvals piling up one after another.

Because the required procedures kept increasing, we gained a little breathing room before the Gigafauna subjugation.

While those matters took time, I decided to resolve the elves’ problem.

“So this was the World Tree of Bibi Village…”

“It was so big…”

Because of Fana-san’s forceful “discussion,” we had been granted permission to enter the World Tree deep within the elf village.

Apparently it required various complicated procedures, and the only human granted entry was me.

I put it that way because one of our companions this time was Rebecca, the Divine Rat girl with the ribbon.

The size of that World Tree was incomparable to the one in our Tree Village.

It had probably walked through hundreds—no, thousands—of years alongside the elves.

Complex patterns had been carved into the ground around the tree, and an enormous magic circle had been drawn as if to contain them.

It seemed to have highly advanced magical effects, but I could not understand any of it.

All I knew was that it supposedly strengthened the sanctuary’s effects—like increasing harvest yields and keeping monsters away.

But compared to the glow of the magic circle encircling it, the light emitted from the tree looked painfully weak.

Even its leaves were tinged dark, and their tips had turned slightly yellow.

“Now then, Woody-san—how did you intend to heal the World Tree?”

“I thought I would try combining my power with Rebecca’s, and see what we could do.”

I had not brought Rebecca along on a whim.

Just as Simurg-san created a sanctuary and birthed an oasis, and Wheel-san created an iron mine, Divine Beasts could manipulate leylines and use their mana.

But Simurg-san and the others who guarded their sanctuaries could not leave them.

So I brought Rebecca—who was still “free” (could I call it that?)—and asked her to help.

“First I will try various things using my aptitude, and then I will have Rebecca do her best from there.”

“Though my strength was small, I will assist as well.”

Even beings as great as Simurg-san and Wheel-san found it difficult to remain away for long once they had created a sanctuary.

Fana-san, who was maintaining Bibi Village’s barrier, also could not leave the village.

Apparently she had been unable to go outside for a very long time.

Even if it was for the village, it was far too cruel.

And… for the Gigafauna subjugation, I wanted to borrow the hands of someone as powerful as Fana-san too—so I had to do my best.

“All right, then…”

There were three reasons I believed I could do something about the World Tree this time.

The first—activate Tree Guardian Beast.

When I concentrated, options surfaced in my mind.

As I looked at the options floating in my mind, I thought.

Which guardian beast would be necessary to bring the World Tree back to health?

Fire Cat was out of the question because the tree might burn, and Wind Pig also seemed unnecessary for the same reason.

The reason the World Tree was withering was not a lack of water so much as a lack of mana from the leylines… so I chose Earth Mole.

“Kyuu!”

“My, how adorable.”

“Kyukyu!”

When Fana-san clapped her hands, the praised Earth Mole looked rather proud.

Seeing that, Rebecca somehow made a frustrated face.

Why was she the one getting frustrated?

A mole and a guinea pig were not even in the same category… were they?

“Can you protect this World Tree?”

“Kyuu…”

Earth Mole approached and touched the World Tree.

I had been a little uneasy about whether it would work on trees I had not planted… but the confident little mole ran up and thumped the trunk, and a sharp-clawed mark popped into view on the World Tree.

“Hm, what was this…?”

The mark appearing was just as I knew, but when I looked closer, there was a cross cut next to it.

One of the four sections looked as if it were “the mole” itself.

(Could it be… that you could register four guardian beasts?)

Just to test it, I summoned another guardian beast and tried registering it…

It worked.

As if confirming my guess, a second mark appeared on the other side of the cross.

Since I was at it, I decided to standardize them as moles, summoned the remaining two, and registered them as guardians as well.

“Th-this was…!?”

Fana-san stared upward, words failing her.

The World Tree, towering so high it made my neck ache, had begun to flicker.

The World Tree’s condition visibly started to change after receiving the blessing of four Tree Guardian Beasts.

At first it blinked like a lamp about to go out, but the intervals gradually lengthened. After a few minutes, it returned to a steady glow like before.

The light the World Tree emitted was clearly stronger now.

It even seemed, somehow, that the leaves had become a more vivid green.

But that was only natural when I thought about it.

If you gave it guardianship, a Wood Golem became three times stronger.

With four of them, that was—by simple arithmetic—twelve times the power.

Still, learning that older trees could register multiple guardian beasts was a new discovery.

Maybe that biggest World Tree in Tree Village could register two or so.

When I got back, I would test it.

“Fana-san, how did the World Tree look now?”

“It was clearly healthier than before! Yes… roughly… it was about the same as three hundred years ago.”

According to her, it had regained vigor, but it was not fully restored yet.

Then it was time to use the second and third arrows I had prepared.

“Was it all right if I planted trees around here?”

“That was… yes, it should be fine, but…”

Good. I had permission.

I circled around the World Tree, walked to the outside edge of the magic circle that had been spread around it, and chose a candidate site.

After Fana-san confirmed that spot would fall outside the magic circle’s effects, I used my Tree Planting aptitude—

—and planted a new World Tree.

My second measure was to plant a new World Tree in this land.

Just as the Tree Barrier fused between World Trees and transformed into something larger, World Trees could share their strength with each other… not quite, but they could support one another.

So if one World Tree was withering, you could place another beside it.

And this also served a future purpose, not just addressing the present problem.

If something happened later and that largest World Tree withered, then by then this World Tree should have grown quite large as well.

Looking at that magic circle, it did not seem like you could simply transplant the tree, but I wanted to do what I could.

And I had no intention of saying this, but I also wanted to make it so I could teleport into the village immediately in an emergency.

It had been the same with Count Tristan: it was useful to increase the number of places I could teleport to as much as possible.

“Th-this was…”

Fana-san was at a loss for words as she watched me plant a World Tree.

Come to think of it, it was the first time I had shown this aptitude to elves or dark elves.

This time, I could not do anything without using it.

Even so, her reaction was astonishing.

“Was this… a skill…?”

Fana-san asked in a questioning tone.

No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a skill—but her expression was deadly serious.

When I asked, a surprising answer came back.

“Aptitudes and skills were completely different things. What you possessed, Lord Woody, had entirely surpassed the realm of aptitude… This had to be a skill.”