Trait Hoarder
Chapter 247: Tree Grandmother – (2)

Tree Grandmother – Part 2

The mutants all stood with their mouths agape.

“World Tree?”

“World Tree!”

One and all, they wore expressions of disbelief.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“But it’s Sword Star.”

“Still, even if it’s Sword Star, some things are just impossible.”

“If Grandmother could become a World Tree, she’d have done it already.”

“There’s only ever been one World Tree on Earth—and that was way up in Norse lands.”

“And even that one burned down during Ragnarok, didn’t it?”

“Sword Star, even for you, this is a stretch.”

Even Grizzly Bear wore a doubtful look.

“A World Tree… Do you really know what you’re saying? A World Tree is a true divine being. Grandmother would have to live tens of thousands of years more just to reach that level.”

Only one person responded positively.

Skeleton Snake.

She looked at me with eyes full of trust and unwavering confidence.

“I believe in Sword Star. Just look at me.”

Skeleton Snake pointed at her own chest.

“He’s the one who turned me into a synthetic human when I was in a rampage. And thanks to the same method, a few other kids were turned too—they’re living in the city now, going to school. I believe in him. If it’s Sword Star, maybe he can turn Grandmother into a World Tree.”

“Sure, what he did for Skeleton Snake was amazing, but still…”

“Yeah, come on. This is different.”

“Turning mutants into other mutants is one thing. But making Grandmother a full-fledged divine being? That’s another dimension. A whole other level.”

That’s how most would see it.

But I wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place if it were impossible.

I’ve done this plenty of times.

Raising gods.

It was part of the Episode 9 update, Dimensional Rift content.

One of the quests included nurturing Tree Grandmother right here in Monster Village.

There were similar quests like raising divine beasts or training the Dragon King.

Sadly, I couldn’t raise Red into a Dragon King, but still.

Sshhkk.

Right next to Grizzly Bear.

A sprout popped up, quickly growing into a thin twig and stretching toward me.

It gently bobbed up and down.

This was how Tree Grandmother expressed her will.

The movement resembled a puppy tilting its head in curiosity.

I nodded firmly.

“It’s possible.”

Bobble-bobble.

The twig tilted side to side, more exaggerated this time.

She wanted me to explain more.

I held up three fingers.

“Allow me to break it down. Grandmother, for a tree to grow, it needs three things: light, water, and nutrients. Even if you’re a divine being, if your essence is still that of a tree, these fundamentals won’t change. Isn’t that right?”

Bobble-bobble.

The twig nodded up and down.

In other words, yes.

“To grow through normal means would take an immense amount of time. Because you’d need immense amounts of light, water, and nutrients. We’re talking at least ten thousand years to gather enough to ascend. But if we can provide that scale of light, water, and nutrients in a short time, it means Grandmother could ascend without having to wait millennia.”

“Uh…”

“…Is that how it works?”

“Now that you put it that way, it sounds kind of plausible?”

The mutants offered their takes.

Tree Grandmother reacted similarly.

After a moment of silence, the twig nodded up and down again.

Another yes.

I smiled and activated my power.

Swapped traits.

I infused each of my fingers with a different trait.

Supreme Flame in my first finger, Earth in my third.

Only the second finger remained unlit.

“With this power, I’ll supply the light. And with this one, the nutrients. As for water, that’ll come from the goddess of Sky River—who was once the goddess of the Nile.”

[So that’s why you brought me.]

“Yes. You can do it, can’t you? I’m not asking for a piece of your origin. Just pure water, the elemental essence of water.”

[Well, that’s easy enough. But will that really be enough? It seems like it would consume an absurd amount of power. I’ve seen your flames before, so I know their class is sufficient—but the third one, your Earth… it looks pretty weak.]

To be fair, she had a point.

Compared to Supreme Flame, or the water essence produced directly by a goddess, the Earth trait lacked impact.

So I snapped my fingers.

“Goddess. Please open the cargo bay.”

[Why would I—huh? Wait. What is all this? Why do you have this stuff?]

Sky River’s cargo bay.

It was packed full of material.

Dragon flesh and dragon blood.

Unprocessed dragon bones, horns, scales, nerves—miscellaneous body parts.

And more.

The corpse of the Polar Emperor.

I had given a good chunk of it to the Castle of the Inexplicable, but there was still plenty left.

Most of it was low-value material, but that didn’t matter.

It was more than enough to be used as fertilizer.

Right. Fertilizer.

I was going to use the corpses of a Golden Dragon, a Corpse Dragon, and the Polar Emperor… as fertilizer.

The Earth trait was just the catalyst to mix it all together.

Of course, that still wouldn’t be enough.

I dug into my golf bag and pulled out a jar.

“Cornucopia!”

“Wait—how do you have that? I thought the Dokkaebi had it.”

“Long story. I’ll explain later.”

“Okay, okay.”

The other mutants looked puzzled, but Grizzly Bear and Skeleton Snake were clearly shocked.

I ignored them and loaded up the nectar.

And immediately, duplication began.

Not just nectar—elixirs, too, came pouring out.

At the same time, I checked the Cornucopia’s status with my sixth sense.

When I sensed a twinge of danger, I swapped traits again.

[Heaven Defiance]

Just one activation was enough.

The swelling misfortune gauge was completely neutralized and reset.

Skeleton Snake, who had been watching, blinked in disbelief.

“Did… fate just flip?”

“It’s one of my abilities.”

“There was no such thing!”

“Just sort of ended up with it.”

“Tojeong really has an eye for people. Guess keeping his ring in my heart for centuries paid off.”

I laid out dozens of bottles of nectar and elixir on the ground, along with the Cornucopia.

The fish-people croaked as they hauled over piles of corpses.

A mountain of rare materials piled up.

No—rare didn’t even cut it.

These were practically legendary-grade materials.

I pointed proudly at the pile.

“Well? Goddess? And Grandmother? Isn’t this enough?”

The twig began waving in a dazzling flurry.

‘What’s she saying?’

Grizzly Bear, the priest, wore a strange expression as he tried to interpret it—like a communications officer trying to decode Morse code.

Eventually, the Goddess of the River, sounding a bit exasperated, relayed Tree Grandmother’s words.

[Celestial Gold, True Silver, World Iron… 99 kinds of rare metals, plus demon blood, angel’s tears, otherworld creature fluids… She’s requesting 99 more rare materials.]

“That’s… more than I expected.”

[Did you think ascension would be easy?]

It’s fine.

This is what subordinates are for.

I tapped the Dragon Monarch’s Pavilion.

The built-in computer understood my will like it was reading my mind and instantly drafted an order.

The list of materials the goddess had recited.

Sorted and sent to someone.

A reply came quickly.

[I’ll prepare them right away and head over.]

“How long will it take? If you don’t have everything, just bring whatever you can.”

[I’ll be there in under two hours.]

“Two hours? Seriously?”

[Hehe, who do you think I am? It’s me—Choi Sunsoo. Just hang tight.]

Rare metals were manageable.

They’d be all over the Divine Market and stacked in auctions at the Sun Mage Tower.

But angel’s tears?

That was the main ingredient for elixirs.

Even harder to find than finished elixirs.

Elixirs were circulated widely, but angel’s tears were next to impossible to find outside the Grand Labyrinth.

Still, Choi Sunsoo was Choi Sunsoo.

It wasn’t for nothing that I saved him with an elixir.

Maybe he’d been stockpiling these rare ingredients bit by bit all along.

“The requested materials will arrive in two hours.”

“Seriously?”

“For real?”

The mutants looked skeptical.

The goddess hovering in the sky, on the other hand, spoke as if it were only natural.

[That’s the level I expect from Sword Star. If he couldn’t even gather a few materials, he wouldn’t be worthy of being my ally.]

[Long live Sword Star!]

[Long live the alliance!]

The fish-people let out raspy cheers, croaking and hollering.

Thanks to the river’s blessing, I could understand them perfectly—but the mutants looked visibly uncomfortable.

They cast wary eyes at the level 7 fish-people standing at my back and those poking out from the deck of Sky River.

Anyway, two hours.

Even that felt like a waste of time.

I dumped top-grade mana potions into the Cornucopia.

Using Heaven Defiance strategically while duplicating, I eventually created a whole mountain of potions off to the side.

‘That should be enough.’

I duplicated nectar and elixirs with the same intensity.

My hands hurt from dunking the jars in and pulling them out over and over.

If only the cooldown was shorter.

Skeleton Snake crouched beside me, watching.

“You could sell just this stuff and make a fortune.”

“Maybe? But to be honest, I’m past the point of caring about money.”

“Must be nice.”

“What, you need money? You’ve got to be rich after living hundreds of years.”

“It’s not money… I just need some nectar.”

Her eyes turned toward the heaping pile of nectar.

And yeah, it made sense.

After becoming a synthetic human, her trait set had changed quite a bit.

Her level had gone up from 6 to 7, too.

To adapt to her body and her traits, nectar was the best option.

I didn’t miss the opening and tossed her an offer.

“Then how about working on my ship? I’ll pay you in nectar.”

“Nectar? How much?”

“Ten bottles a month.”

“Ten bottles? Seriously?”

“Yep. Use it, sell it—I don’t care.”

“You’re serious? Ten bottles every month?”

“Uh-huh. I’ll even pay you a salary on top. You need to eat and buy clothes too, don’t you?”

“Deal! Friend—I mean, Boss! I swear I’ll be loyal like a scholar!”

Not like a dog—but a scholar?

I just gave a casual wave.

Better to keep her on as crew than call her in as an occasional ally.

The other mutants started to creep in.

“Ahem, ahem.”

“Sword Star boss. You need an Electric Man by any chance?”

“I dabble in magic myself…”

“You know the Three-Eyed’s power? They say I can see past, present, and future!”

I answered cleanly.

“Level 5s get 1 bottle per month. Level 6s, 3 bottles. Level 7s, 10 bottles. Salary and other benefits to be negotiated.”

“Deal!”

“Okay!”

“Boss! Thank you! Loyalty, loyalty!”

As the mutants bowed at the waist, Grizzly Bear just sucked on his fingers.

“Dang. I want in too, but I’ve got too much work.”

“Chief, what work? You just stuff yourself with bingsu and ramen all day.”

“I do plenty, okay?! I have to perform daily rituals for Grandmother. It’s because of those rituals she protects us, got it?”

“That’s true.”

“The chief really works hard.”

“Grandmother’s still fragile…”

Right now, yes.

The mutants and Tree Grandmother are in a symbiotic relationship.

Without the daily offerings of mana from Grizzly Bear, she wouldn’t just stagnate—she’d slowly regress.

But still…

Will that still be true after she becomes a World Tree?

Tutu-tutu-tutu.

The sound of rotors echoed in the distance.

Massive arcane science helicopters were swarming in.

Painted on the sides in the most tasteless fonts were the words [Warrior Construction], [Warrior Security].

‘I had helicopters like those in my company?’

Feeling a little awkward, I scratched my cheek—right as a booming voice rang out.

“Teacher!”

Baek Sorin poked her head out.

She didn’t even have the [Lion’s Roar] trait—why was her voice so loud?

It wasn’t just Baek Sorin.

Right behind her, Janet, Kali, and Seo Woojin were waving as well.

In fact, in another chopper, Kim Chulkwon, Kim Mabeob, and Kim Saje were aboard.

TAANG!

Of course it was Baek Sorin—always impulsive.

She jumped right out.

The other disciples followed suit.

Even Kim Chulkwon, Kim Mabeob, and Kim Saje leapt out like it was nothing.

‘Where do they learn this stuff?’

I gave a wry smile and waved.

“Long time no see. You all doing well?”

“Teacher!”

Baek Sorin landed in a perfect hero landing, eyes blazing.

“You said you’d call us! Why didn’t you?!”

She meant back in the Great Rift.

Right after we handled Kalaratri.

I’d left the three of them there for real combat training and returned alone.

That’s when I reached level 7.

I thought the zombie crisis would unfold as planned.

So I figured I’d call them when the time came—but things changed. I had to intercept the High Priest in the South Pacific and fly all the way to São Paulo.

Which meant… I’d kinda ghosted them.

“My bad. I thought everything would go down in Seoul. Never imagined the Wraith King would show up in São Paulo.”

“For someone surprised, you sure moved real fast!”

“I moved fast because I was alone. No time to call you guys and coordinate.”

“Cheh. I guess I’ll forgive you—since you saved thirty million people. But next time, you have to take us with you! No, actually, we’re sticking to you like glue from now on. Got that?”

“Haha. I’ll be grateful for that.”

I’d just about finished growing.

Level 8—the final battle level—was right in front of me.

Once I got Tree Grandmother’s blood and secured four Mana Cores from the otherworld species inside the Great Rift, I’d have all the materials I needed.

By my calculations, I had less than a month left to reach level 8.

I calmly assessed my disciples and the Kim Party.

All four were just on the brink of level 7.

The three members of the Kim Party weren’t far behind either.

They weren’t quite at the disciples’ level, but they looked set to hit level 6 soon.

While I’d been running around Earth, they’d been training like their lives depended on it.

“Perfect timing. I was just thinking I needed more hands. Since you’re here, help me out.”

“Sword Star-nim. What do we need to do?”

Kim Chulkwon was the most eager.

He needed my help more than anyone if he wanted to reach level 6.

“First…”

I looked around Monster Village.

The whole village was essentially Tree Grandmother.

Each house walled with ivy, each vine sprouting expectant flowers, swaying gently as if in anticipation.

I voiced the words Grandmother most wanted to hear—clarifying exactly why I’d summoned Choi Sunsoo.

“Let’s start mixing fertilizer.”

“Uh… fertilizer?”

The first stage of raising a World Tree.

It began with fertilizer mixing.

Much more efficient with a group than solo.

And obviously—

Outsourcing it was way more comfortable than doing it myself.

“Yeah. I’ll give you all work clothes, go get changed.”

Was it the heat of summer—or something colder?

Baek Sorin gave a full-body shiver.

–TL Notes–

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