Superior Skills

In the kingdom, aptitudes and skills were almost treated as the same thing.

But according to Fana-san—a High Elf who had lived for an exceedingly long time—these two were completely different things, even if they belonged to the same lineage.

What Fana-san said was complicated, but to summarize it roughly: skills were the superior, upgraded form of aptitudes.

“Between aptitudes and skills, the amount of blessing granted by the gods was overwhelmingly different. In other words, it seemed the goddess of the human realm expected that much of Woody-sama.”

Aptitudes and skills were different.

Hearing that, something clicked for me.

Because “Tree Planting,” even compared to other people’s aptitudes… had far too many functions.

As long as I governed my territory as a lord, I could do everything alone—from food production to territorial defense—and even strengthen our forces, teleport, and move things as I pleased.

Compared to aptitudes that simply let you use magic or improve sword techniques, it was far too versatile.

And up to now, every time my “Tree Planting” leveled up, it kept granting me new skills.

That probably happened precisely because this power was not an aptitude, but a skill.

It felt like long-held questions had finally melted away, and I was a little relieved.

“Even so, to think you could plant a World Tree… By the way, those moles you summoned earlier—what were they?”

Fana-san stroked the newly planted World Tree and turned to me.

Standing beside the tree, she looked so perfectly in place that I hesitated for a moment.

“Those were Tree Guardian Beasts. I gained a skill not long ago that let me summon them. I can summon cats and pigs too.”

“…Huh?”

Fana-san looked blank.

Had I said something bad—something that made her uneasy?

I hurriedly added words to patch it up.

“Ah—don’t worry! I plan to have them stay here permanently as dedicated guardians for this World Tree!”

“N-no, I’m grateful for that, but that is not what I meant… You said you gained skills?”

“…? Yes. The more trees I plant, the number I have planted increases, and that lets me gain various skills.”

“That is… a superior skill, isn’t it!?”

“—What, it is!? …What is a superior skill?”

“…(Thud.)”

I somehow caught Fana-san as she nearly collapsed from the knees down.

When I first met her, she gave off a sacred impression, but she was also surprisingly expressive.

But what exactly was a “superior skill”?

From the name, it sounded like an upgraded form of a skill…

“A superior skill refers to the extremely rare subset of skills that themselves contain multiple skills—like the Demon King Haiba’s ‘Door Creation,’ or the Hero Swift’s ‘City Building.’”

I see. I did have several skills—teleportation, Tree Guardian Beast, crossbreeding, Tree Movement (Revised), the Harvest Bag, and so on.

So my “Tree Planting” power was not an aptitude or an ordinary skill, but a superior skill…

But maybe that information had been lost among humans.

I had never even heard that aptitudes and skills were different.

Even when Father saw my power, he dismissed it as a useless aptitude.

“But ‘Door Creation’ and ‘City Building’… what kind of powers were they?”

“‘Door Creation’ was the power to set doors and create entirely new worlds beyond them. Haiba created many worlds, connected them to the continent, declared war across the entire land, and once conquered the world. Swift’s ‘City Building’ skill, born in the same era, was the power to freely reconfigure a city. No matter how much it was destroyed, he immediately created a new city to resist Haiba, and by defeating him, he was praised as a hero. It was said the battle between the two who held superior skills created the continent’s current geography.”

“…(Speechless.)”

…Superior skills were far more dangerous than I had imagined.

But both of those sounded absurdly powerful compared to my “Tree Planting,” so they were not very helpful as reference points.

With precedents like that, Fana-san’s reaction made sense.

…Ah, right.

I had nearly forgotten because of the new revelation, but I still had to handle the World Tree properly.

I had to fix it for real.

“Rebecca, did it look doable?”

“Yes, it seemed fine. Though with my power, I could not do anything that impressive…”

“Don’t worry. Like I said earlier, it was enough if you just bought us some time.”

“Well, if that is all…”

My third arrow—the one I brought with me—was Rebecca.

Compared to Wheel-san, she still had a long way to go, but she was a Divine Beast’s child.

She apparently could not create a sanctuary, but she could manipulate the leylines to a certain extent.

So I had her gather leyline mana into the World Tree for now, buying us time.

Rebecca’s body began to glow, and the light traveled through her feet pressed to the ground.

When it connected to the World Tree, the World Tree regained its radiance.

“…All right, this should keep it stable for a while.”

Rebecca looked up at me, sweat beading on her forehead.

When I thanked her and patted her head, she narrowed her eyes happily.

“Fana-san, did this look all right now… Fana-san?”

When I patted her shoulder as she stood absentmindedly, Fana-san jerked into motion.

After checking the World Tree and the magic circle, she turned to me with a smile.

“Yes, it seemed fine now… fine enough that even if I stepped away for a while, it would not be a problem.”

Good. It looked like we could add Fana-san and the other elves to our fighting strength.

Now preparations for the Gigafauna subjugation were in place.

We would take down that nuisance of a giant as soon as possible… and after that…

As I was thinking, I noticed Fana-san staring at me from the side.

“Woody-sama… thank you. And from here on as well… I humbly asked for your continued favor.”

Of course, Fana-san.

I was the one who should be asking you.

Perhaps because it was now known that I possessed a superior skill, Fana-san’s attitude softened even more. Thanks to her efforts, the elves of Bibi Village formally declared their intent to repair relations with the dark elves.

“The reason we became divided into two races, if one traced it to the root, was political conflict that occurred more than a thousand years ago. There is no reason why we—descendants of those involved—must inherit such a negative legacy. No matter how long it takes, we must not abandon our posture of reaching out to one another.”

Of course, it was not an official stance for all elves.

It was only a statement issued by Bibi Village.

But it was undeniably the first step toward reconciliation between two sides that had held grudges for so long.

I probably would not live to see the outcome of this event to the end, but I believed that someday they would understand each other.

Because neither elves nor dark elves were made up solely of bad people.

Elves could be arrogant, and many dark elves were rigid, but it was not impossible for them to understand one another.

So I was happy I could become a bridge for that.

And then Fana-san, the elves’ representative, and Miria-san, the dark elves’ representative, jointly drafted an official letter.

Its contents were simple: “Through our friendship with Woody, we will begin trade.”

They were forming bonds not with Woody Conrad the noble, but with me as an individual.

With this single letter, the Kingdom of Aries could only build relations with elves and dark elves through the existence of “me.”

That became one crucial card to play in negotiations with the kingdom.

Still, in this chaotic age, what was needed most was clear, undeniable power—enough to make the other side feel we could not be attacked easily.

And to show that to the surrounding powers, the most effective—and at the same time, a major event that could gather many allies—

—the giant subjugation was finally about to begin…