Bloom

Neferti woke up with a horrendous headache. It felt as if someone had ripped her skin open, flayed her bones, and put everything back together in the wrong place. The only comparable feeling was when the Inquisition from the Righteous Sects managed to capture her.

That thought triggered the remembrance of being abandoned by her Mistress as she fled one of the Inquisition’s Hunters.

Taking a look around, Neferti’s eyes managed to barely focus on the strangeness of the surroundings.

First, there was the tree whose branches were currently doing something to a half-melted crystal bench. As if that wasn’t strange enough, the amount of greenery was like a tropical jungle. Sections of the greenery denoted clear workspaces. In one was a bubbling set of alchemical potions, in another metallic tools of every shape and size. Neferti didn’t even try to understand the section that dealt with herbs, she was quite sure not a single one could be recognized. There were others that seemed even stranger, one of the workspaces even seemed as if it was frozen in time.

All in all it was quite clear, she was in deep guano.

“Hello?” Neferti said aloud, hoping the owner of the strange space didn’t decide to kill her out of hand. Sometimes the older cultivators were like that, killing people randomly for no good reason, while claiming it was karma or some such pig slop. Normally there would be repercussions, but what was done behind closed doors, or cave-like greenhouses stayed there. There wouldn’t be anyone looking to tangle with someone of such obvious power for a mere stranger like her. As soon as her voice echoed out, a strange floating ball with glowing red lines flew out from the greenery to the left and floated in front of her. A singular glowing eye on the metal creature stared balefully at her face as if judging her worth.

“Beep.” the floating mechanical eyeball said, its tone questioning.

“No, you can’t have her to experiment on. What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is mine too! Now stop staring at my newest acquisition and help me get these nanites running correctly on repair cycle you floating fisheye!” a grumpy old man’s voice came from behind the tree where she couldn’t see.

Neferti inched closer to the tree trying to see who the elder speaking was. Once she managed to peek around the trunk though, her eyes grew wide. There was nothing, no footprints, no heat signature, not even the sense of Life her race normally hunted with.

While she was standing slack-jawed and confused, the crystalline workbench slowly repaired itself. It was as if a seamstress of crystal was weaving an entirely new piece of fabric into existence. Without a doubt Neferti was entranced, and all too soon the repair was finished.

As soon as the workbench was repaired, the tree she was standing near shifted until it was in the center of the entire room.

Neferti wouldn’t have made it far in the world if she couldn’t put the pieces together fast enough.

Instantly moving to give a better impression, Neferti bowed low towards the ruler of this place, the tree. “Honored elder, this one is Neferti. How may I be of service to repay being saved?”

Neferti felt a mental connection growing in her mind and stood very still. The fact that she wasn’t being asked permission stated her position in this place clearer than anything else.

Like pages in a book her memories were flipped through, as her entire three hundred years of life flashed rapidly by.

“I am Tree. Currently I am in the process of devouring the Worldheart of this Major world as you refer to it. There are three options available to you, Neferti.” the Tree said, his voice sounding like a grumpy old man. A grumpy old man who casually read memories like drinking coffee.

Neferti instantly stood at attention. She was both thrilled and terrified. A creature at the level of power to devour a Major world would at the very least be of the Supreme level. There were barely two handfuls of creatures at that power level on the entire planet, and most of them were in secluded cultivation, sleeping the millennia by. Her own True Ancestor was rumored to be one such creature, awakening only every few centuries in order to feed the blood thirst.

Service to a Supreme would be hard, as their needs were vastly different, sometimes even unfathomable. On the other hand, not a single story differed on the rewards that could be attained from service. Tales were told of those who were lucky enough to please one of these existences with great deeds or merits.

Of course, there were also tales of those who failed.

Neferti shivered slightly as the Tree continued, “First you can return to the Fire domain. You will be utterly free to do whatever you want, and would of course be forbidden from mentioning me.”

Neferti screwed up her courage and interrupted, “C-Could I see the Status?” She had to be sure the Tree was powerful enough. Serving a master without power was no different from dying slowly in a Major world.

Silence spread out from her question before the Tree said, “Sure I actually haven’t looked myself since I made the system. I wonder what it sees, Chaos System, display status to Neferti.”

A blue screen flashed into being in front of Neferti, and her eyes widened in shock.

Name: Tree

Race: Chaos Tree

Age: 7,021

Titles: One Who Devours Worlds, Chaos System Creator, One Who Travels the Void, Chaos Rune Creator, Soul Connoisseur, World Creator, Enemy of the Divine, Traveler of the Ocean of Eternity, Sealed One, Hungry One, Ancestor of the Forest, Ancestor of Flame, Ancestor of Time, Lord of Monsters, Lord of Machines, Lord of the Green, Insane Alchemist, Demented Scientist, Friend of Dragons, Gardener of Worlds, Savior of Planets, Collector, Enemy of Deep Worms

Dao Abilities: Chaos, Flame, Time

Minor Dao Abilities: Life, Blood

Traits: Chaos Body, Void Hardened Body, Immunity to Physical, Immunity to Elemental, Immunity to Mental, Immunity to Soul, Dimensional Leaves, Aura of Growth, Aura of Life, Aura of Blood, Aura of Time, Aura of Fire,….

Skills: Chaos Manipulation, Flame Manipulation, Time Manipulation, Runic Language, Alchemy, Energy Eating, Energy Senses, Martial User of Branch Combat, Martial User of Root Combat,….

Stats:

Strength: 9,999+

Agility: 9,999+

Intellect: 9,999+

Wisdom: 9,999+

Charisma: 10

I wouldn't recommend attacking this Tree, it tends to be very vindictive. -Unknown

Neferti’s mind raced, even with her vampiric mind flashing at lighting speed, her body started to heat up. She’d never seen a Status like this, some of which she couldn’t even understand. One of the few things she knew was the less specific something was in the status, the more powerful. For example when listing Dao Abilities, the single word Flame, was monstrous. From what she’d heard, this single word meant, anything goes, or in other words, the limit of imagination.

A person with a single word Dao Ability was limited to the top Clans, Guilds, or Sects in the world.

Yet this Tree had three. One of which she’d never even heard of, Chaos.

Not only that, the fact that the Traits and Skills section had to be expanded. When the Chaos System had first started spreading people were shocked. Now, it was commonplace, and actually gave fantastic benefits. The ability to quantify, or measure, a person’s growth was incredible. Gone were the days of wondering whether one was making progress in their cultivation. The advent of the Chaos System had fundamentally changed cultivation. Those who refused to use the system were slowly replaced by those who mastered it. It hadn’t been a quiet passage, but in the end, those who used the system had an advantage too great to stop.

Which was why, the words, Chaos System Creator, blared out at her gradually shell-shocked mind.

This creature was the creator of the system that changed the face of the world.

Neferti had one glorious moment to realize the potential before her eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed.

Regaining consciousness moments later took effort, as her body slowly restored itself. The constant chirping of speech and beeping the background made her fuzzy mind think of the symphony of nature in some of the gardens of her Clan Leader.

Pushing herself up from the moss carpeted ground, Neferti slowly wobbled into a standing position. Her headache from hitting the ground was fading fast as vampiric regeneration kicked into high gear.

“Oh, you're back! Vampires are very resilient, nice!” Tree said, his branches waving.

“W-What kind of s-status?” Neferti managed stammer out.

“Status, yes. A shock right? Well, I’m sure there are creatures on this Major world even stronger than me!” Tree said deadpan.

Neferti stared blankly for a moment before recovering, “Anything is possible I suppose. Like my Mistress always used to say, ‘there are mountains above mountains’ it was a mantra almost to her.”

Tree waved his branches at her in agreement, “Now as I was saying, the second option is you live down here as a Guardian, or Caretaker if you wish to call yourself that. I’m starting to practice a dangerous bit of experimental stuff that needs my full attention. Number One can handle most things, however she’s got her own interests to explore so I need someone more focused.”

“What’s the third option?” Neferti said, hoping it was better than the first two. While the first option sounded grand, she had no doubt that if she took it there would be nothing left of her body except ashes. There was no way something as powerful as Tree wanted any clue of his existence. Even if there was a failsafe to prevent her from talking, the memories could be ripped from her soul, or worse.

“The third option, well, I’ve decided to renovate my lair entrance. Since you’re a vampire I figured we’d go with something that helped you feed as well.” Tree said, nonchalantly.

Neferti stood a little straighter, her eyes brightening.

“Yes, I figured something like the Palace of a Thousand and Three Delights.” Tree said, mentioning one of the most infamous ‘pleasure’ houses in ten empires. “Places like that, people go in and out so much, it’s easy for a few to disappear here and there. Think of it like an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

Since vampires grew with blood, it was always a difficult path to cultivate. This option would allow her to grow with every victim, while easily maintaining a cover. As long as she was careful not to accidentally kill someone of importance it would be easy to remain hidden. Neferti knew several clans that practiced such a method, although the start-up cost was enormous.

Neferti paused before mustering her courage and saying, “Why me? There must be better options for someone of such power.”

“I like collecting unique and rare servants, it’s a habit.” Tree said. “Oh, and I have an experiment running currently that you are part of.”

Neferti gulped as she said, “I-I see. I’ll take option three if you don’t mind.”

“Wonderful!” Tree said. His branches twisted and the figures of her Mistress and the Hunter appeared before being vaporized into ashes. Two branches speared forward to grab their glowing souls before Tree ate them.

“They served their uses in helping me test a few things.” Tree said as if eating souls was a normal occurrence. “Now, let’s build your feeding house, and I’ll explain what you need to do to take care of things in my lair.”

Neferti nodded woodenly, at least she had managed to keep herself alive.

For now.