Bloom

As a child, back on Earth, long before my current existence, I loved two things.

Plants of course, and machines.

And my wife…ok so three things. I would admit three, if under duress…

Since she died though it was down to the main two, before my own previous death.

Of course, on good old Earth technology was considerably advanced. Even then, there were things that were out of reach.

That’s right, even I remember some of the impossible stuff that science couldn’t figure out how to create effectively. Either it would be too power costly, or too financially expensive, anyways there are barriers in every world I suppose. Progress often comes at the expense of the masses after all…

Take those theorized Bio-Engineered lifeforms, or even more complex BioMech, the combination of organics and machine.

Humanity was still far from those incredible lifeforms depicted in the movies, even in my era.

However, even having been transmigrated, even as a Tree, even now, I still kept the dream alive.

For this singular reason, and the fact that I didn’t know how to run the airship on my own, I saved the gnome.

That and…golems. Golem armies.

It’s not like the image of a massive golem army marching forward unstoppably had any real impact on my choice, though.

Seriously.

Not at all…

Over the past two weeks as we flew slowly towards the center of the grasslands I have been learning the principles of Mechanics.

Don’t let someone tell you Mechanical Principles are easy.

Cause, math sucks. In any world.

All you need to advance in the Dao is a burst of inspiration, and a few bottleneck breaking pills. Ok, I know it’s sometimes more than that, but seriously, that’s the basic layout for most people.

However, Mechanics is totally different.

If you don’t apply the right amount of force, the right way, in the right time, with the right precision, nothing happens. Nothing good at least!

Even with my vastly improved faculties from being advanced in the Dao, I still had trouble understanding half the things Ralph Steelspring, my gnome tutor, was teaching me. As a gnome, especially a Master Engineer, mechanical knowledge was practically in his genes. It’s a cheat, a damn cheat I say!

When he finally realized my level of competence, Ralph handed me a book.

Basic Mechanics: Idiot Version 1.0A. The cute squiggle pictures really put it over the top.

I admit, I came close to melting him down into his component organics right then and there…

Yet! I resisted…barely.

Never let it be said this Tree would allow some simple calculation of physical forces to trump against him!

With that hearty attitude, I took the melting pile of slag currently in front of me at this very moment with aplomb.

That’s right.

Another failed experiment.

Things are a lot harder when I am prohibiting myself from using magic. Go figure.

“It was a good try, although I admit I’m not exactly sure why you decided to add three times the energy level required in the blueprints at the last step.” Ralph said, staring at the table where I had just managed another spectacular failure.

This current cabin on the airship was now my personal workshop, courtesy of a small bribe to the Captain of the ship. The previous officer level occupant had been bumped down into another section. Anyone who looked in though might suspect this of being the ship’s junking room, if they didn’t know better.

“I was sure more energy would speed up the catalytic reaction giving me a faster speed of transformation. It would also allow the device to work twice as fast…in theory.” I said, using my telekinetic powers to manipulate the air around me. I felt comfortable enough to use speech around all my ‘associates’ lately except for S’neli.

S’neli and me were still playing a fun game of, ‘I think your sentient!’ vs. ‘Nuh, uh!’ which had been going on for over a decade now.

I was pretty sure she suspected I was more than a fun loving tree that enjoyed waving my branches.

However, suspecting something, and actually going out of your way to prove it are two totally different things.

On the one hand, her life was changed enormously, she had respect, money, minions, power and more now.

On the other, she had a sneaking suspicion a tree of all things was the cause of it.

I’m sure even in her most insane moments she doubted the logic of her own belief.

I enjoyed this game, because at the end of the day, it was rather fun.

Eventually, I was absolutely sure S’neli would hit a wall in her alchemy, though.

Not a physical one mind, a mental one.

It was the same type of Wall I hit before creating the Everburning flame. It is a wall that blocks progress forward, and in this case, it would likely stop S’neli from creating a Stone.

At that point, she would have many choices.

This simplest of course was to come ask me directly for an answer. That would require her to admit I was actually sentient, so it might not happen.

Of course, then backup plan B would take effect.

I didn’t take Mishra on just for her good looks, charming personality, and ruthless business skills.

Although those didn’t hurt.

I took her on because even a Tree cannot be in two places at once.

…Yet…

Besides, even I knew that women are often more comfortable talking about their problems with other women rather than greenery.

After the issue of creating personal Chaos Stone is through though, I’m taking a long nap.

I’m not really a branches on type of Tree.

A few days later we finally decamped floating over the spot I had created the Chaos Ogress. Since it was daylight outside, I could only sense a single lifeform down below.

Clearly my previous creation is a daywalker!

I’m not worried about S’neli, since the gnomes have a simple method to protect themselves on adventures. When you’re the size of a short teenager, physical strength only gets a person so far. To that end of course, gnomes designed battle suits.

Now, they aren’t as good as some of the animation I watched back in the day. They are closer to that guy who used a metal suit and was really rich in Earth’s movies.

Of course, after learning a bit about the Dao of Fire from his seed, the Master Engineer had made a few modifications. The armor suits now were twenty percent more efficient in power usage, lasted twice as long, and had three times more ‘punch’ to them. The weapons had shifted as well to mainly a flamethrower, and a physical flechette gun. To physical form targets, these were undoubtedly quite lethal.

My personal upgrade was a half formed flywheel. At the moment I wasn’t yet good enough at mechanical principles, however when I got better things would change. Anyone who is familiar with basic mechanics knows the main reason a flywheel cannot circumvent the laws of phsyics is due to friction. Once I figure out how to properly apply a non-friction coating to my flywheel, I will begin to amass endless amounts of food!

Endless food!

Which reminds me…

I need to hire a chef.

A chef that can fix me meals of pure energy…this might be tough…