Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

Ashlock observed Titus, who dragged himself into the bubble of spatial Qi that was the pocket realm he had summoned with his new S-grade {Dimensional Overlap} skill.

The Ent had already visibly healed in the short time he had been awake, "System, how much would it be to heal Titus now?" A message popped into existence and overlayed the Ent.

[Titus has sustained 62% damage. Repair for 930 SC?]

"So after around an hour of being connected to me and bathing in the spatial Qi of my offspring, the number went from 64% to 62%, and the required credits dropped from 960 to 930," Ashlock noted. It was slower than Titus had healed himself in the past, and the only explanation Ashlock could come up with was that he was splitting his Qi reserves between all his Ents to heal them right now.

This conclusion was further enforced when he noticed Titus begin to heal quicker than he had been outside the spatial pocket realm, meaning the abundant spatial Qi was assisting his recovery.

"Interesting, so that's something to remember with raising too many Ents. I can't have the Ents all healing off me at the same time if I want one to recover faster, even if I have the Qi on hand," Ashlock mused as he felt his leaves graciously suck in the abundant spatial Qi and cycle it throughout his body and into his Star Core, "I guess it's like I am a power station and no matter how much power I produce, there's only so much the cables going out can handle. I still don't totally know how that strange black root that the {Necroflora Sovereign} skill uses works."

"Stella, welcome," Ashlock replied cheerfully through {Abyssal Whispers}, "Come on in, it's lovely in here."

"Oh, that?" Ashlock chuckled, "I just figured out how to summon a part of a pocket realm of my choice around me using the energy I gain from consuming corpses. However, when I went to test it, Maple used my brief lapse into the Mystic Realm as an opportunity to see his siblings and wanted me to meet them. It just so happened that Diana was nearby and got pulled into all of it."

Maple jumped down from Ashlock's branch in his usual squirrel form and landed perfectly on Stella's head.

"Yes," Ashlock said, "But he doesn't like to talk much as it consumes his energy and makes him more sleepy."

Stella collapsed defeatedly on the bench with a hollow look.

"Why do you eat the acorns anyway?" Ashlock asked Maple, "You're not even a real squirrel, and I doubt there's any benefit for you. It's not like they are full of Qi or are even that tasty."

That wasn't the answer Ashlock was expecting from a baby eldritch horror in the body of a squirrel.

"What if I gave you acorns—"

"Why...?!" Ashlock felt betrayed! Just a moment ago, he had been coming up with a plan to save Maple's family from the void, and they were in a mutual pact, so why wouldn't he like acorns from him?!

Sighing in defeat, Ashlock left Maple to his pointless acorn and changed the subject, "How was the talk with Elder Mo?"

"How can one cut anything?" Ashlock asked, "I could see the potential to cut through space with spatial Qi, but time? What would that even look like?"

"And a master alchemist?" Ashlock asked.

"And run the Ashfallen Trading Company?"

"How many?" Asklock asked, a little amused.

"You gave money to them?"

"I suppose so," Ashlock said, "What's in the rings anyways?"

"Anything useful?"

"I guess we could just sell the artifacts or get someone to verify them?" Ashlock considered. It would be a shame to let them sit in a pile like the Voidmind Elder's belongings were in his inventory.

"Woah, that's a lot of techniques for a single book," Ashlock was puzzled about how so many seemingly high-level techniques could fit in such a thin book.

Hearing it was a book of concepts was a little unfortunate, but not all hope was lost. He could learn and even invent spatial techniques with ease nowadays. He mainly just needed some inspiration.

"I'll tell you about it if you show me that book you just closed. Those were some interesting technique ideas," Ashlock replied, and Stella reluctantly nodded, so he continued, "I call this technique Dimensional Overlap. Quite similar to the Mystic Realm, but I have to expend great energy to maintain it."

Ashlock then fell silent momentarily as he saw another ten sacrificial credits vanish from his system screen alongside the two hundred he spent summoning it in the first place. The bundle of credits he had got from devouring that heap of monsters was nearly depleted, which was unfortunate.

He had wasted a bit of time talking to Stella, but one of the tests he was conducting while having the pocket realm running was to see if he could fully drain its Qi, and that would take some time anyway, and the cost of upkeep wasn't that bad... he had spent around 40 credits so far which wasn't even enough for a D grade system draw. It was the combined 240 SC that he had spent that was the real kicker.

"I thought I could use this skill to cultivate like the rest of you in the Mystic Realm, but it's not worth it. Far too expensive, and you can feel it too, right?" Ashlock asked, "It's only been up for a few minutes and already..."

"Indeed. It seems like the technique works by surrounding me with a small section of a pocket realm, and it doesn't refill, so as Titus and I absorb the spatial Qi, the pocket realm grows weaker."

"Well, I can summon pocket realms of most Qi types, so I can use it to give us an environmental advantage around me or my offspring. Just imagine Nox suddenly being enveloped in a pocket realm of light Qi!"

Stella's eyes widened, "That would be ideal."

Ashlock checked his system and saw he had around two hundred sacrificial credits left, meaning he could keep this pocket realm operational for another twenty minutes. Assuming it even lasted that long with him sucking it dry for spatial Qi.

"I can only run this technique for a bit longer. Should we take advantage of the abundant spatial Qi and have a duel?" Ashlock asked.

"Not so fast. Let me see those spatial concepts first," Ashlock reminded Stella, "I want to try and practice one while we fight."

"I don't mind," Ashlock grabbed the book, floated it up with telekinesis, and flipped the pages open. Sure enough, he could understand the sentences somewhat due to his language skill doing the heavy lifting.

"My system gives me powerful skills, but most are support-type skills for empowering my allies or altering my environment, and they usually cost sacrificial credits to use. My only direct attack skill is {Consuming Abyss}, but that has been with me since the start when it was known as {Devour} and is my only way to acquire sacrificial credits." Ashlock pondered as he flipped through the pages past the author's introduction and useless boasts about his life, "However, just like Hammond or any other cultivator, I have an affinity, and I even have a Star Core far larger than normal humans. So, I should stop relying on my system so much, hoping it will give me better ways to attack and protect myself. I would rather find solutions to those issues myself with my affinity, just like any other cultivator. I can even wield swords!"

Ashlock briefly looked at the concept of Spatial Step and decided to read it aloud for Stella, "Flash Step was first created by a disciple of the Azure Clan. It allows the cultivator to take steps that traverse great distances in an instant, effectively teleporting short to medium ranges." Ashlock paused. He had heard of this Azure Clan before. Looking in his inventory, he soon found the hefty leather-bound book engraved with the golden text Spatial Techniques of the Azure Clan.

"Huh, interesting. The clan Diana is supposedly from is called the Ravena Clan, and now I am learning about a technique from the Azure Clan."

"No idea," Ashlock admitted. Sadly, that was all the book had to say. It was more like reading a history report than an actual book with anything valuable.

Spatial Step sounded interesting, but Ashlock didn't see a need to teleport himself right now, so leaving Stella to ponder, he flipped through the pages to the one that interested him the most from the name Spatial Lock.

The reason was simple. Ashlock had just discovered the significant weakness of his new {Dimensional Overlap} skill was that people could simply walk away, and by the technique name alone, he concluded this would be useful to learn and sounded simpler than Time Dilation or Anchor Seal.

"Let's see..." Ashlock mumbled as he began reading the single paragraph of text on the page to himself, "Spatial Lock is the bane of all spatial cultivators and a greatly feared technique sometimes imbued into accursed artifacts. It allows spatial affinity cultivators with a higher cultivation stage to lock onto a target's spatial Qi, preventing them from teleporting or moving using spatial techniques such as portals or Spatial Step within their range."

Ashlock thought back to how Hammond had wrestled away the control of his own spatial Qi due to his higher cultivation stage. "I should already be able to imitate that against a weaker spatial cultivator, but this is different. Spatial Lock didn't involve wresting away control. It outright blocks the person from being able to escape in the first place! This is perfect!" Ashlock decided.

There was just one problem... the book didn't actually tell him how to perform a Spatial Lock, so he would need to figure it out himself. Luckily, he had figured out a few spatial techniques by himself in the past. All he needed was an open mind and heaven to understand his crazy ideas.