The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich

“The Great Stone Sculptor Ainslo and the others want to live here?”

This was rather surprising to hear, but it seemed that the environment and living conditions here fulfilled their requirements. Out of the blue, the Earth Elemental Lords that had come with Beifeng had made a request to live here in the Forest of Dreams.

They were six existences at the Saint rank and above—especially Ainslo, who possessed the power to fight for the mantle of the next Earth Elemental God. She was one of the strongest Earth Elemental Lords in existence, so of course I wanted to know why these six Earth Elemental Lords wanted to live here. But first… I needed to stop myself from laughing.

“Are you intending to live here as well? That’ll be wonderful… I mean I’ll miss you so much.”

Yes, that was what I was so happy about. After all, the six Earth Elemental Lords were currently in the dracon’s Soul World. If they all stayed behind here in the Forest of Dreams, wouldn’t that mean that this bastard would need to remain behind as well? Although I felt apologetic towards the inhabitants here, I didn’t really care so much since Beifeng wasn’t interested in the wood spirits.

“No, Milord. Only my sister and five brothers are going to stay here. I can’t be without you (because I’ll always meet wondrously strange species when I’m with you), so I’ll continue following and serve you (in order to seek new food), Milord. Ah! Please don’t stomp on me!”

He even tried to intentionally hug me as he said so, and then…

“Did you really think I didn’t understand what you meant? That’s what you get for making me so disgusted with you!”

After beating him up in order to vent, I finally moved on to the main topic.

It turned out that the Earth Elemental Lords felt this environment to be quite suitable for them to live in even without Beifeng’s Soul World’s support, and it was far more comfortable compared to his tiny Soul World as well. They hoped to be able to sign and become Contract Warriors and fight for Justice Points in order to obtain the right to live here.

Based on the magical system of this world, earth, water, fire, and wind—the four major elements—were the foundation of everything. Just as how ice magic was a branch of water magic, nature magic, which controlled plants, was, of course, a branch of earth magic.

This small dimension filled with nature magic would naturally be beneficial to the Earth Elemental Lords.

From a certain standpoint, being able to strengthen the Forest of Dreams’ defenses was a good thing. Not to mention that only by making it possible for the earth to move together with the trees would the Forest of Dreams truly be able to truly become a moving, living forest. If the Earth Elemental Lords helped out, I would get help in realizing some of my plans for the Forest of Dreams. The forest’s defenses would be improved several fold as well.

However, the problem was…

“Are they reliable? Beifeng, tell me the blunt truth. Do you trust them?”

“Captain Roland, although they’re my sworn brothers and sister, and that Ainslo indeed treats me quite well, I truly don’t trust them at all. Since they were willing to rebel against Emordilorcan, it’s only normal for them to rebel against us later on as well. Not to mention, Ainslo is quite ambitious; she really desires to become the new Earth Elemental God.”

From a certain standpoint, Beifeng Herault who had been with me since Sulfur Mountain City was actually one of my closest and most trusted retainers. When I heard him say this, I actually relaxed somewhat. At least Beifeng knew the situation as well and was even willing to tell me directly, which meant Beifeng could still be considered trustworthy.

I long since knew that those Earth Elemental Lords weren’t worthy of my trust. After all, I had been the main culprit behind the Earth Elemental Lords’ suffering in the first place, having destroyed the Earth Elemental Throne so that no new Earth Elemental God could be born for the next several hundred years—at least. From a certain standpoint, it could even be said that Ainslo was forced to leave her home because of me. Even I wouldn’t believe it if they said they had no grudges against me, but she and the others hadn’t mentioned anything and even became super obedient, which made me all the more vigilant against them.

Although they weren’t reliable or trustworthy, their powers would be far too useful for this forest. If the Earth Elemental Lords truly helped out, they would massively speed up my plans for fortifying the defenses here.

According to my expectations, the wood spirits didn’t even need to live on the surface. The surface could be left to the magical plants and the soon-to-arrive visitors. They would become the first line of defense against an undead invasion, and the wood spirits that had the talent of Plant Communication would basically be able to live on top of the divine trees (that was what the wood spirits called these towering trees that almost reached the clouds) and enjoy the fun of “I can hit you but you can’t hit me.”

Actually, the development for this had already begun. There were various rope bridges tied across the divine trees, and in order to increase the speed at which they could ascend and descend such great heights, rope elevators had been installed in the hollow centers of the divine trees. Every day, countless wood spirits were choosing their new homes and thinking of ideas on how to decorate them in a camouflaged fashion so that nobody could see their homes from the ground.

By the time they were finished, the wood spirits would no longer need to appear on the surface. It could be said that if the wood spirits didn’t wish to see someone, that person could walk through this entire forest without seeing a single wood spirit.

But just this alone wasn’t enough. The wood spirits still needed a safe hideout and home, and it would be best if they also had a fixed marketplace for trading with other species as well. However, it wouldn’t be safe to place these core structures on the wide-open treetops. After all, if there were any aerial attacks, the wood spirits may be able to escape into the trees, but the structures would be unable to move.

“Since the skies are no good, let’s go underground.”

Emordilorcan’s underground labyrinths in Antuen and the Earth Elemental Plane had given me a deep impression. I wanted an underground labyrinth that spread throughout under the entire forest, creating an entire underground world that only the wood spirits knew how to traverse. If this really succeeded, it would mean that anyone who managed to conquer this forest still wouldn’t be able to touch the wood spirits.

Although I had my plans set for this already, and magical plants were quite skilled at digging, it would obviously take many years to complete. It would also cost an astronomical amount of resources and labor. And even if it was completed, it probably wouldn’t compare to the Earth Elemental Lords’ underground palaces as they were all digging specialists. After all, Emordilorcan took only one or two short months at Antuen to create such a large-scale underground labyrinth that was so solid and defensible. We wouldn’t be able to achieve this level of digging skill even if we had ten years.

However, Beifeng’s six Earth Elemental Lord brothers (and one sister) were all at the Saint rank, and if they started digging together, they would probably far surpass Emordilorcan who wasn’t even in his best condition at the time. I even impulsively wanted to reconsider my overly conservative plan and make a 999-floor gigantic underground labyrinth to make any possible invaders suffer to death. I would make it obnoxious to the point where the exit was right in front of someone with just a wall in between, but it would require two weeks to reach. Despite the fact that it was only 999 floors, I would write on the entrance, “Enter the 1000 floor labyrinth if you dare.”

That wasn’t all. I planned on making other obnoxious labyrinth obstacles such as uphill paths that made one notice that they had accidentally returned to the first floor, with a sign saying “Hero, please try again.” Or, the invader would finally make it all the way through the final floor after following all the clues but then would find out that an item near the first floor’s entrance was required in order to truly reach the end. (Excerpt from Archmage Victor’s lecture, more than one thousand years in the future: By the way, Roland Mist really accomplished his dream. This endless labyrinth filled with disgusting traps and terrible psychological tricks became the most hated adventuring grounds of all. It was nicknamed: “The Labyrinth That Only a Moron Would Enter.” As the creator of such a labyrinth, Roland Mist’s name was cursed by countless people.)

Since I was currently so passionate about creating a terrifying labyrinth, Ainslo and the other Earth Elemental Lords’ offer to stay here was a huge boon. However, such a secret undertaking wasn’t suitable for untrustworthy outsiders to handle for us, nor was there a rush to complete this.

“Sure, we accept. There’s no reason not to accept.”

I agreed immediately, but I was actually thinking about how to test the Earth Elemental Lords’ sincerity. If they were truly sincere about helping us, that would be the best-case scenario. If they had other things in mind, then this was also a perfect opportunity to see what they were plotting and deal with that.

“How’s the progress on the airships?”

“The Ivy League’s completion is slightly over fifty percent. The Mizar’s modifications haven’t been going smoothly and will probably take longer than expected.”

As I walked in the forest and looked at the humongous trees around me, it gave me the mistaken impression that I had become tiny. Meanwhile, in the area of the forest by the sea, docks were already beginning to be constructed.

All the land routes to the Forest of Dreams were currently blocked by the undead. If the wood spirits wanted to contact the outside world, it was only natural for them to turn to water and air routes—ships would be absolutely necessary.

Amelia quite obviously didn’t know how to manufacture airships, which naturally meant that the wood spirits didn’t know, either. It was up to me to give them the technology and knowledge to create airships. Of course, they didn’t have the necessary materials or smiths for airships, but, just as how I had used undead materials to substitute for certain materials, they were capable of using plant materials to do the same. It was just that the wood spirits’ construction methods would remain incomprehensible to outsiders.

I named their first airship the “Ivy League,” and it was equal in strength to any one of my seven airships of the Big Dipper Squadron (e.g. Mizar). The Ivy League was three hundred meters long, and if you stood the airship up vertically, you would discover that it was actually just a gigantic hollowed-out tree. The outer bark’s hardness, however, far surpassed that of ordinary steel.

Right now, the Ivy League was undergoing detailed modifications. The large tree leaves were being transformed into a wind sail and mast, while roots tied everything together as the support. With its outer appearance making it appear just like an ancient tree, it was a rather wood spirit-like airship. The large majority of its attacking mechanisms were hidden under the tree bark.

After all, this was, indeed, a tree—a living tree, a divine tree that had just been uprooted. It was a “Skyscraper Pine Tree.” (named by me).

Yes, this was their unimaginable technology—all their airships only needed to be planted. This tremendous pine tree I called the “Skyscraper Pine Tree” was the wood spirits’ favorite type of tree to live in. This particular tree had been hollowed out; through special methods, it had been created by the Forest of Dreams itself.

Of course, apart from the Ivy League, which would become the first ship in the wood spirits’ airship fleet, there were also divine tree candidates such as the “Original Bamboo” and “Grand Peach Tree” and so on… yep, those strange names were all created by me, weren’t they great?

This was a far too convenient method to create airships. If it weren’t for the fact that these unimaginably large trees would begin withering after leaving the Forest of Dreams for too long and would eventually die, making it impossible to take them on long distance trips, I would have immediately created several hundreds of these divine tree airships.

“The Ivy League will die if it doesn’t return to the Forest of Dreams in six months, and it will start weakening if it doesn’t return in three. One can’t get quality goods for a cheap price after all. In that case, the wood spirits’ air fleet will only be able to be used in this nearby area. Still, it’ll make an excellent airship fleet for defensive battles at least.”

Meanwhile, the Mizar was also undergoing modifications at the under-construction docks. We obtained plenty of hydra hide from the seven-headed water dragon (hydra) from the earlier fight with the Queen of Storms, and its heart had already become the Mizar’s backup engine. Since the Mizar was designed in the exact same way as the Borealis, it was compatible with the same technologies for powering up. Now that the Mizar had put on a layer of hydra skin and hydra body parts, it had become a lot more similar to the Borealis.

At the moment, I had just finished my future blueprint for the Forest of Dreams. I temporarily divided the forest into six districts.

The wood spirits’ residential area would be amongst the tallest trees of the forest, their divine trees. This district would be intricately connected by endless rope and wooden bridges and would be where the wood spirits primarily resided. It would likely become a forbidden zone for other species.

The docks district would be where endless amounts of airships and naval ships parked. There would also be the business district, located not far away from the docks, which would be where outside species’ merchants gathered. There was also the divine district, where all the Gods’ churches would be welcome, even if there was only a lonely Church of Law’s stone court and church right now. Of course, this would also become the service district for all Holy War-related issues.

The central district would be for the future adventurers and Forest of Dreams’ residents. Although this was currently nothing but empty land, in the future it would likely become the most populated and largest district of all; various basic necessities stores, entertainment options, and public facilities would be set up here.

The sixth and final district was the underground labyrinth that was still a mere blueprint in my mind, but it would be exclusively for the wood spirits.

“When the Ivy League is ready, we’re going to head out!”

While I was patiently waiting, I received an unexpected visitor: an envoy from the Tark Republic undead. Their intent? To hold talks with me!