"It's the Heartwood tree..." Elara began, her voice dropping to a worried whisper. "My mom is worried that if the tree doesn't heal itself soon, we won't be able to produce more First Order Sporeborn in the future."
Scott nodded, thinking about Aunt Jorunn, his gaze shifting to the window, looking up at the canopy.
The feeling of the Heartwood Tree's weakness, he was not concerned that much, thinking back to the attribute panel of the Heartwood tree, he already had a solution.
[Name: Lvl 0 Heartwood (13,482/1000)]
[Age: Ten Bloom Seasons]
[Type: Source Tree]
[Level: First Ordered (Sproutling)]
[Gene Quality: First Ordered Foundation genes and Trace Genes.]
[Life Energy: (-230) /3000 points (Overdraft) ]
[Status: Slightly Withered, Protective barrier is weakened. Natural energy regeneration is slowed by 50% until Life Energy is above 1,000 points. ]
[Description: Heartwood Tree is a mutated plant, evolved into a Source Tree under the influence of the Ten Eternal Bloom Seasons. Born with a Shelter Gene, it provides foundational spore genes to living creatures by forming a symbiotic bond, by using its own vast reserves of Life Energy to directly cultivate the foundational traits of a First Ordered Sporeborn within a willing host.]
[Passive Abilities:
[Aura of Life]: The Heartwood projects a protective barrier around the settlement, neutralizing the corrosive pollen and toxic mists in the atmosphere. The strength of this barrier is directly tied to its own level.
[Slow Recovery]: The Heartwood tree can naturally, but slowly, absorb ambient Life Energy from the environment. Recovery Rate: +80 Life Energy per day. This rate is halved while in the Withered state.]
[Active Abilities:
[Gene Grafting: Mycelial Heart]
Method: A willing Sporeborn must be placed within one of the tree's cultivation chambers. There, they are enveloped in a cocoon of the tree's own mycelium threads. Over several days, Heartwood willingly pours a massive amount of its own stored Life Essence into the sporeborn's body, forcing the agonizing transformation. This process grafts a symbiotic mycelial network directly into the host's cardiovascular system, creating a new, biological engine at the core of their body.
Effect: The newly formed Mycelial Heart allows the recipient to initially process the spore-rich atmosphere of Sporos. It converts the host's heart, passively absorbing ambient Life Energy to fuel their body, filtering toxins, and kickstarting the formation of their Spiritual Core. An ordinary Sporeborn is reborn as a First Order Sporeborn, now capable of integrating more advanced Mnemonic Genes.
Cost: 400 Life Energy.
Effect on Tree: Enters a [Dormant Cycle] for 1 year, during which Gene Grafting cannot be used again.]
Returning back to his senses, Scott looked from the baby in his arms to the worry etched on Elara's face.
"I know you're worried," Scott said, his voice low and steady. He could feel her anxiety, a tightness in the air that had nothing to do with the lingering threat of zombies or Ghosts outside the village.
He could feel it too. A subtle change in the pressure of the air, a faint, metallic taste that wasn't there before. The tree's protective barrier was thinning.
He knew upgrading the tree was the only real answer.
It had accumulated more than enough experience points to upgrade by more than five levels.
He still didn't dare do that.
Scott knew that: a level-up transformation of this size needed a huge energy, which cannot be supplemented by the Heartwood tree by simply devouring more Sporebeasts bodies to replenish its Life Energy.
Even with their current ability to hunt faster, the Heartwood tree's ability to absorb the energy from the dead Spore Beasts might take a few months to half a year.
It's too long for him, and by then, there's a high chance of encountering unknown dangers.
Just like a fire needs a big log to catch properly, the tree needed a powerful fuel source. The tree's own reserves were almost empty.
That's where the Floral Crystal Cores (FCC's) came in.
They are solidified nodes of pure Spiritual Power and Life Energy, born inside mutated plants, rare class sporebeasts, powerful mutated fungi, and sometimes even corrupted ecosystems.
So he was waiting to get his hands on one of those by any means.
In addition to upgrading the source tree, he also planned on using his Shelter Core Gene, to transform the entire Source Tree into a new Shelter under his control.
By then upgrading the Heartwood Tree, can help unlock more functions of the Shelter Core.
He chose his next words carefully, not wanting to give her false hope but also needing to show he had a plan.
"There might be a way. I still remember that my father sometimes tells stories about special plants deep in the forest. Plants that grow with very strong life energy form a crystal at their heart."
Elara's eyes widened slightly. "Floral Crystal Cores? But Scott, those are just legends. No one has seen one in generations. They say the beasts that guard them are..."
"Are strong," Scott finished for her. "I know. But I'm strong now, too."
While Scott was planning, Old man Alistair, on the other hand, gathered a small team of the camp's most seasoned hunters near the main gate, his voice booming with a cheerfulness that hadn't been heard in years.
The other two Elders, John and Pete, stood with him radiating a quiet confidence. They were waiting for Scott.
Time pass by and soon they saw Scott walking towards them slowly.
"Come on, boy!" Alistair shouted with a grin as Scott approached. "This old body is itching for a real fight!"
Scott gave a small nod, his eyes scanning the determined faces of the hunting party.
The official reason for today's hunt was because the camp was short of meat and energy potions for many days.
But the main reason was that he couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the three old men, who wanted to try out or show off their strength to others.
You should know that the energy potions extracted from the meat of the Grave Horn Bulls were the main resource for the development of hunters' blood transformations or First Order Sporeborn's future advancement.
There were a total of twenty people, each one of them wearing a mix of tough leather and dark, patched-up leather shirts and pants, made from the tough skin of Sporebeasts.
Thick boots, scuffed and worn from countless trips outside the walls, were laced up tight.
Many had extra mycelium padding sewn into their jackets over their chests and shoulders, acting like a simple kind of armor against whatever they might face.
Belts were heavy with tools: long knives, pouches for supplies, and holsters for the few precious handguns the camp owned.
Looking at the well prepared group, Scott stepped forward.
His voice was much lower than Alistair's, but as a shelter lord it carried a weight that made everyone listen.
"Check your gear one last time," he said, his eyes sweeping over each person.
"Our primary target this time was a young First Order Grave Horn that was spotted alone a few days back," he continued, his voice even. "Killing it might give us a chance at adding a Foundational gene Bull's Frame to our chance of increasing more First Ordered fighters."
"We move in two minutes. Stick to your partners. No one goes off alone. You hear me?"
A quiet chorus of "Yes, sir," and determined nods rippled through the group.
Scott could feel it, strong pressure that came from bodies of the hunters in front of him that were pushed beyond their natural limits.
Each one of them had a strength level of at least three blood transformations, a dangerous and painful body strengthening process that made them many times stronger than an ordinary person.
A process of continuously tempering their bodies to produce more powerful blood energy.
Scott knew the path well, and this is what they must do in this harsh world under the continuous effects of Eternal Bloom and Decay, that the only way to survive is to get stronger.
Ordinary Sporeborn, before promoting to First Ordered lifeforms, need to at least complete four blood transformations.
Each transformation was a gamble, a fight against your own body, but with each transformation, the blood energy produced increases the physical attributes by a large margin.
It makes muscles like ox tendons and bones as hard as rock.
This group of twenty, having gone through at least three transformations, were the camp's elite.
Scott looked at them, at how effortlessly they carried their gear that would crush a normal man, and felt a surge of confidence.
Of course, there were also stories that mentioned the rare few, the truly talented who could transform their blood more than five times.
Those people had strength comparable to early First Order lifeforms, a level of power these hunters could only dream of for now, before becoming a First Order life form.