Market Hostilitrees


    <b>Year 231</b>


    I watched the children y. The void-attuned children.


    Perhaps it was sentimental value, but I had requested for the children who spoke to me to call me TreeTree.


    My priests quickly spun it into two aspects of my divinity. Aeon, the guardian of the continent, and TreeTree, the tree of youth and children. It was a little cringe to hear the sermon in person, but I suppose if propaganda works, it works.


    It was normal in myths and legends for gods to have different aspects of themselves. Just like how Lilies had different faces, different views, because they were abination cobbled together from the spirits of the dead.


    That was a small matter, really, though I did wonder whether this was how those multi-faceted or multi-headed gods started.


    No matter, I focused on the small group of children, ying and wrestling. Ka, and the rest of the void treefolk grew up well, and we witnessed the first of the void-attuned lizardfolks. She had a ck olive-skin, her scales shone in a way that was different.


    Small, but no less dangerous in potential.


    This y-based training was not reallybat training. Not yet. Ka would speak to me, about their friends, about their lives.


    They were special, and they sensed it. By now, we had specialist caretakers. Matrons and caregivers that had skills to ensure their children grew up healthy and strong. Some even had the ability to improve stats permanently by sheer exposure, though the amount of absolute increase in stats wasnt that great. Yet, at that age, it was a rtive advantage.


    On Treehome and Branchhold, weve observed improvements in the childrens health. A regr child of the Central Continent or Branchhold, now had health and physical conditionsparable to the wealthy, powerful nobles of the past.


    That said, being sick does sometimes lead to levels. Every kind of setback was measured against their condition, their struggles, the process of healing.


    One of the issues that urred, really, was that as my [healing aura] got stronger, the speed at which my [healers] gained levels slowed. Priests also unlocked less healing spells, and more buff type abilities.


    This was a consequence of the challenge-based experience system.


    As a mitigation, to ensure my healers still kept pace, they spent more time in dungeons, to heal those injured or poisoned by the creatures of the dungeons, and so dungeons and the city around them transformed into centers where healers congregated.


    ***


    How many heroes is enough? Khefri asked the question that pretty much was on everyones mind.


    We dont know. I answered. The scorpionoid hero wanted details on what exactly she signed up for.


    We are trying to get better reads and sensors on the rtive power levels of the ck sun, and all the other defensive structures that we can see, but thats really more of a range, and does not truly convert into power. Power levels are a really fuzzy thing. Ste exined.


    You dont know. Khefri repeated with emphasis. So this thing that we are preparing for?


    Wait. Theres some misunderstanding here. Lumoof immediately rified. As I understood it, the League of Heroes isrgely a <i>defensive </i>pact. The problem, in short, is that the heroes will eventually stop. The gods ability to turn the tap and churn out new heroes is either limited by quantity, or limited by some kind of magical distance. The League of Heroes aim to prolong the survival of the living worlds by pooling together the heroes, and so effectively nullify the demon kings inherent design advantages against the heroes.


    Khefri understood the gist of it from the Book of Heroes.


    So you dont n to attack that ck sun?


    Wait. Let me rify. We, as in Aeon and the domain holders, do. Lumoof answered. With or without the heroes. If we can destroy the ck sun, we will try to do so. We want to see what happens, and whether there is an end to this stupid wave of attacks.


    And if there are other ck suns out there?


    Then were screwed. Everyone looked horrified, and Lumoofughed. Well, not really. Well just have to constantly y this game of whack-a-mole and stomp out the demon kings as they appear, or, take the battle to the demonnds, free the core, and over time, create a buffer zone between the living cities and the demon world.


    So this league of heroes. We hope from world to world and defend it from demons. Like a bunch of superheroes. Ken exined. What I do want to know, of course, is how the presence of OTHER heroes interact with the pact of the gods that your world has.


    Khefri shrugged. Do I look like I know such things? All I do is y with my pretty boys.


    The heroes rolled their eyes, but in my mind, its likely this was not unique. There must be worlds, where some local powers made arrangements with these faraway gods.


    The n is to y defense, while we find ways to go on the offense. The demons can see the heroes, we know this, but we dont really know whether this is true on a nar scale. Ken exined. This is why its best for Aeons domainholders to do the scouting.


    Alright, but lets y a number? Khefri insisted. Twenty? I mean, to attack that ck sun thing.


    No. Ste answered. At least a hundred


    Shit. Were nowhere near if each world only has 1 or 2 like me.


    Unless we find a way to drift closer to where the gods are summoning heroes. Ste said. The issue, from our point of view, is that distance has an impact on how many heroes the gods can summon. Its also likely each god has a specific range, and some ces are just too far from any god to get summons.


    Ken nodded. Thats one merit for going in the other direction, instead of towards the demon sun. Its likely that we get closer to the gods, and in doing so, we ess worlds with more heroes. That should bring us up to the number we need.


    The mountainworld hero nodded. If we ever encounter the gods again, Im going to give them a piece of my mind. Like, fuck em so hard.


    The scorpionoid heroine rolled her eyes. I should be first in line. Im not even human!


    You have a point, whats up with this humanoid supremacy for heroes? Ken agreed. Its almost as if all the heroes are derived from humans with just minor cosmetic changes.


    Maybe the first gods are human?


    Or maybe the source worlds are human? If all the source of heroes were from these earth-clones, its only natural that this gets propagated over the multiverse. Especially with how frequently heroes set up harems and mate with the locals.


    You do realize that means every human in these worlds are descendants of some horny hero somewhere? Chung interjected.


    The girls had a horrified look. E.


    So youre saying the constant introduction of heroes, which are majority human, function as super-breeders into the poption, which helps lead to a humanoid-majority poption. Ken nodded thoughtfully. Thats a very interesting theory.


    Thats like Genghis Khan''s lineage.


    The girls shook their heads. Guys, lets not take this conversation there.


    Were all adults here. Why cant we have this conversation? Chung responded. Its fascinating to consider the implications of heroes on the long term trends of the human poption. Our extended aging also means we could have more children.


    Goodness that makes heroes sound like super-breeders. Heroes as hypersexual individuals, and thats really ufortable to think about.


    Harems have effects.


    Khefri paused ufortably. She had a harem, and as it turns out, Hafiz and Adrian also possessed a harem. A small one, but a harem nheless, so they kept quiet during the conversation.


    Shouldnt this apply to all long lived creatures? Even high level individuals.


    Ken coughed. You do realize heroes have many cards stacked in their favor?


    ***


    On Branchhold, it was an era of rtive quiet, and my attempts to build a vertical, denser city encountered some obstacles.


    On one hand, theres a clear increase in overall quality of life, on the other, the density, noise and hectic environment, even when suppressed by [tree of prayers] did turn off some of the inhabitants, which led to emigrations to the surroundings.


    Sprawl, essentially. Lifestyle.


    Some people just prefer a quieter environment, but still desire the safety that we provide.


    No one tried to attack us so far, but based on my spies and trees, its an inevitability. Jealousy, fear, all these factors still pop up, though some are wise enough, or, their system gave them enough warning that theyll lose, that they decide against it.


    ***


    Lillies finally created an avatar. An inferior one, well, I suppose everything would be inferior whenpared to Lumoof, but an avatar nheless.


    The avatar was essentially a soul fragment of that greater hivemind, possessing a wooden puppet. It was created from abination of a permanent [scry] spell and some kind of projection ability.


    That said, it had zerobat power, and the range of the wooden puppet was still fairly limited. For now, it could only travel a small region around Lillies.


    With more levels, it would gain extended range. Something they really looked forward to, because they really wanted to experience and see the other worlds for themselves.


    Aria and Aispeng also tried to do something simr, because being repeatedly shown what Ive seen on the other worlds was strangely tempting. They tried to create an ice-avatar, since that was where their shaping and sculpting abilities were best, and Aria insisted that they wanted to look good.


    I privately felt like they were spending too much time on appearances, but it was inconsequential. Thats how they chose to spend their efforts.


    As fellow members of the pantheon, I tried my best tomunicate with them, and so Patreeck helped schedule me to talk to them at least once every three years, and ad hoc if there are any big developments.


    Three years felt quite regr, for my two fellow immortals. It almost felt like we were meeting every other week. I wonder whether as my age increases even more, itll feel too frequent. But for now, the conversations with the two were mostly about showing what weve seen, and they would givementary and ideas.


    ***


    On Treehome, the Continental Guild Wars, some called them the Vassal Wars or Puppet Wars, were quite messy. For now the fighting were mostly smaller scale skirmishes, and targeted attacks. Due to the guilds history and exposure tobat on the Central Continent, their first instinct was to conduct surgical strikes. Attacks to remove the leaders of the respective kingdoms, and rece them with their own puppets. Essentially a replica of how they fought on the Central Continent against each other due to our rules of engagement.


    But over time, this morphed into conventional warfare, and this was where the guilds noticed their first w.


    Theycked the high levelmanders needed to leadrge scale conventional invasions and maintain invasion-period logistics, again, due to theirck of experience on the Central Continent.


    If they hired generals from the regr kingdoms, they didnt have a level advantage against the kingdoms of their respective continents, in fact, they were frequently outleveled by the generals of those kingdoms who had more conventional war experience due to the constant kingdom wars.


    Thestrge scale conventional wars on the Central Continent were during the Sabnoc era, and most of the great generals of that time died during the final explosion, and many more were killed during my subsequent expansion to the rest of the Central Continent.


    As I remembered it, my expansion to the Central Continent was primarily led by the elite force, supplemented by a near-infinite army of beetles, and against the tide, the kingdoms folded.


    The guilds didnt have such an advantage, and so, the local kingdoms of the other continents adapted and hired significantly more security.


    As the Guild War raged, the guilds themselves found that superior equipment and technology was incredibly helpful during the first strike, but the advantage it provided diminished over time as survivors counter-leveled and managed to steal those equipment from the dead.


    Survivors adapted, gained skill-counters, and began to fight back.


    My Valthorn strategists and leaders collected data on the various wars fought by the guilds, and used them to create learning experiences and case studies on what the leaders shouldve done. Patreeck and my artificial minds also used the data to build simtions, where my strategists and leaders could try out different tactics and attacks.


    I quickly learned that the simtion was incredibly taxing, because it was impossible to ount for the use of skill and level gains by the troops on the field.


    The systems pattern of awarding levels was also something that we didnt have much data on. Most reporting of the levels, at least by my Valthorns, was done after the fact. That meant we couldnt specifically tie level-gains to specific events, even if we understood the patterns.


    We deployed Alkas crystal supeputers to supplement and speed up the simtions, and I really, really found it sad that all thisputational power is used to fight wars.


    My first observation from this conflict was wars of attrition had to be done quickly, and more overwhelmingly, with nobat survivors. It essentially encouraged ughter, since survivors have the highest chance of gaining counters.


    So, if I were to, hypothetically invade these kingdoms, it had to be swift, and strike with overwhelming force. Once the conflict drags on, the winning percentage will shrink and casualties will increase. Im still confident of victory due to the massive level gap, but more people will die.


    The second observation was that the temples were rallying the other kingdoms in defense. Aiva and the other three temples came to support the defenders, and fought against the guilds. For this reason, the Eastern Continent was the least attacked by the guilds, due to the Aivan temples higher levels and constant shared training with the Valthorns.


    The other kingdoms and temples tried to retaliate by cutting off the guilds finances on the Central Continent, by attacking caravans and trade shipments.


    On this front, I was forced into a rather annoying situation, whether I should continue to protect trade shipments from such attacks. After all, the incredible prosperity on the Central Continent was due to an active internal trading between nations, and allowing attacks on the trade routes fundamentally attacked our economy and our overall prosperity.


    In any case, I decided to stick with the principle of non-interference, and instead, marked all the expeditionary guilds as war participants, and therefore not subject to our protection. This extended to subcontractors and shipment partners. That meant trade shipments were separated, by convoys, into protected and not protected convoys. Even trading posts had to be separated into protected and unprotected. The markets had to be reorganized as well, to prevent coteral damage.


    I wonder whether the guilds were trying to force my hand, but from Patreeck and my trees observations, they stumbled into it. Isting the war participants led to an outroar from the guilds, because non-war participants could undercut them for waging war, since their shipments were protected.


    Yet, this process addedplexity into trade, because everyone traded with each other at some level, so where did the line stop? Who was subject to the protections, and who was not? Was the baker who sold bread to the warring guilds a supporter of the war? Where was the line where one wasplicit?


    I wondered whether this was simr to moneyundering issues, because protecting these warring guilds was essentially subsidizing their war effort.


    Its also interesting to observe the new [Merchant Kings] and [Guild Lords] in action, as they consolidated their powers and responded to the challenges both in their new vassal kingdoms. Communication and oversight at such distances was a problem. [Message], [Scry] and all that helped, but didntpare to the full time surveince state that I employed.


    They couldnt match our speed of reaction, or how quickly news of an attack spread. They were always a few days behind, and things changed.


    All of this dictated deployment of high level individuals, dependable ones on the ground to take over, but left them exposed.


    Some of the defending nations had [hero items] and heirloom artefacts that gave them an edge. The guilds, despite their immense wealth, could buy some from the other kingdoms, but most of the time, these items were not for sale.


    The deteriorating and stress ced on the guilds due to the war also invited attacks from non-war participant guilds, who used the chance to muscle in on their poorly defended territories.


    It was very much a criminal gang war, and I really wonder whether stepping in was the right choice.


    For now, the Central Continent remainsrgely unscathed. The Valthorns continue to protect unrted parties from these gang wars, but the embers of war are spreading.