The Cosmic Tree Awakens
The Dark Elf Queen jumped in alarm, trying to pull her hand away. But the garment refused to leave the Black Mage’s grasp. Instead, it wrapped itself around her body, and she froze in shock.
Her divinity of Absorption was being completely ignored. The clothing did not vanish. It clung to her, alive, and began to dress her on its own. The hair that had covered her naked form unraveled like silk, rising into the air as if pulled by invisible hands. Then, a black dress embroidered with silver thread slipped over her body.
Shhhrrrrr. Shhhrrrrrrrr.
Her abundant breasts and hips, once hidden beneath layers of hair, were revealed to the sky. The dress settled over them with eerie precision. The bodice cupped her chest, making the full mounds quiver like waves before gathering them together, lifting and emphasizing their shape. Delicate white lace spilled over her shoulders, while thin silver threads crisscrossed the upper swell of her breasts, holding everything firmly in place.
A glowing silver belt cinched her waist, accentuating the dramatic curve of her chest. The skirt fell in a straight, elegant line, hugging her legs. High slits ran from the belt all the way down both thighs, granting complete freedom of movement. She felt the impossibly thin fabric caress her skin from toes to thighs, wrapping her legs in a gentle, sensual embrace. Finally, the belt and black straps connected with a soft click, completing the outfit.
Oooong—! Ziiiiing—!
Once the dress was fully donned, its magical patterns shimmered and flexed repeatedly, adjusting to her form. The garment clung so tightly that not even a blade could slip between it and her skin. In the thinner sections, the subtle movement of muscle beneath was visible. It felt almost like wearing nothing at all.
She examined the dress in utter disbelief. Her Absorption divinity, which should have consumed anything that touched her, was being completely disregarded.
Grade: Masterpiece (Self-Adjusting Artifact)
Effect: Completely nullifies the wearer’s Absorption divinity. Strengthens the bond between contractor and contractor. Assists in the absorption and refinement of vitality. Provides absolute defense against blades and most physical attacks. Auto-equips. Contains convenience functions.
‘This magic pattern helps absorb vitality and deepens the connection with the contractor. The material is almost identical to the hair that carries my Absorption divinity.’
Just the function that aided in absorbing vitality was enough to shake the entire Spirit Realm. More importantly, the fact that it could withstand her Absorption divinity meant it could endure nearly any form of divinity. Gods would pay any price to obtain something like this.
‘I have no idea when he prepared something like this.’
To her, who had been unable to move freely because of her nakedness, this was an impossibly precious treasure. It freed her from the fate of absorbing everything that approached her, allowing her to finally make contact with others.
‘I gave him no help at all. I only acted irritated and difficult… and yet he gives me something this valuable?’
Her heart swelled with emotion. Within that fierce wave of feeling, she made a solemn vow.
She bit her lip as she looked at the Light Spirit God floating above the Dimensional Magic God’s head and the surrounding spirit gods.
‘But before that, I cannot forgive his womanizing ways. I will fix that habit first.’
The Dark Spirit God burned with a completely different kind of terrifying resolve.
The Black Mage, completely unaware of this emotional shift, let out a deep sigh of relief.
‘I’m alive. Thank goodness she seems to like the clothes. The connection has been strengthened, so the analysis of the Dark Star’s attribute power is finally complete. Now I can finish creating night.’
The Dark Queen’s dress was a special item he had crafted using the hair he obtained when the Dark Spirit God attacked him. He had used the 10th-circle spell I Exist as Myself, So Shall You as the foundation. Originally, he had planned to make men’s clothing for his own defense, but after enhancing his magical defense, he no longer needed it and had set the fabric aside. This was the result.
‘For some reason, even as the Magic God of Dimensions, I’m hated by the Dark Spirit God. Now I’ve reached the pathetic point where I have to create clothes that dress themselves.’
Against an Absorption-type being like the Dark Spirit God, most detection methods were useless. After pondering every possible solution, he had drawn on knowledge from the Otherworld to create clothing that could cover his naked form.
‘Otherworld clothing is really complicated.’
He had based the design on a medieval European dress that boldly exposed the chest—the most splendid and prosperous part of the garment—then combined it with a china dress that featured high slits for maximum mobility. To supplement defense and insulation, he added stockings. To prevent the stockings from slipping, he attached them to the belt using something called a garter belt. After worrying about how to make her wear it without being attacked, he added an auto-equip function and various convenience features.
His innate craftsman spirit had burned fiercely. He had poured his heart and soul into creating not just a garment, but a masterpiece. And now he felt he had received more than enough reward for his effort.
‘Yes. Effort never betrays you. I’ve completely understood the nature of darkness.’
The Magic God of Dimensions had no idea what kind of profound emotion he had stirred in a certain woman. His thoughts remained blissfully simple.
‘The attribute of darkness is ultimately a state of nothingness. That is why it can absorb or reflect everything.’
Ooooooooh—!
He controlled his mana and created a barrier around the sun that possessed the reflective property of darkness. He altered the structure so that the sun’s vitality itself would not be affected by the darkness, while the reflected vitality would be absorbed. The absorbed life force was then converted into mana to supplement the moon’s power. In the Otherworld, this structure was called a solar cell.
‘With this, the moon’s mana production has increased more than thirty times. Simply put, growth and maturation will be thirty times faster. But with this much mana and vitality being supplied, there won’t be any major problems.’
‘Test operation, begin.’
Gugugugugung—!
Silver panels glowing with light appeared and disappeared around the sun in a strange rhythm. The moment they appeared, they completely covered the sun. Darkness fell over the magic tower. Then, the absorbed vitality was transferred to the moon. The moon shone more than twice as brightly as a full moon and began generating mana.
He felt the Earth Spirit God’s face turn bright red. She kept glancing back and forth between him and the moon, approaching and retreating repeatedly. It was clearly a demand to hand it over. But that was impossible.
‘Absolutely not. If she obtains that moon, she will surpass even the highest gods. I can’t handle the aftermath.’
Pretending not to notice, he turned away and began the final touches on the Survival Magic Tower.
Hwaaaaaaaaah—!
Seeds of wheat, barley, vegetables, and spices flew into the sky and scattered across the earth. The land was divided into sections by crop type. Golems modeled after Otherworld farming machinery began plowing the soil and planting seeds.
‘The highest-grade vegetables were given egos so the golems can harvest them automatically. Grains like wheat are processed into bread and other foodstuffs the moment they are harvested.’
Fruits were turned into ingredients, and the leftover harvest was turned into fertilizer and scattered again. Cattle, goats, and other livestock appeared near the lake.
“Moooo—! Mehhh—! Cluck cluck—!”
Hundreds of livestock, startled by their new environment, ran wildly in every direction.
‘The livestock will naturally form herds and thrive.’
To prevent them from damaging the crops, he created Mithril golems shaped like dogs, each only ten meters tall, one for every type of livestock. They were stationed along the boundaries of the farmland.
‘I gave them simple egos as well. If the livestock grow too numerous, they will capture the excess, separate bone and hide for butchering, and automatically prepare food to send into my subspace.’
Urrrrrrng—!
He dropped a massive silver whale roughly five hundred meters long into the sea, along with smaller fish.
‘I saw something called a deep-sea fishing vessel in the Otherworld and made this. This whale is an underwater golem designed to catch and process fish.’
He also granted the whale a simple ego so it could cook the fish internally right after catching them.
‘The byproducts from cooking are turned into food for the fish and spewed upward like breath. It should be quite a spectacle. All the golems were made with the Adamantium I obtained this time. They will never rust and will move permanently as long as the sun exists.’
Even so, the Survival Magic Tower was not yet complete. Without a proper administrator, the balance would eventually collapse and the land would wither.
‘I need a being to manage this small world.’
Tok—!
He took a small seed from his subspace and dropped it into the center of the lake he had created in the middle of a twenty-kilometer rocky zone directly beneath the magic tower.
The Magic God of Dimensions raised his right hand, drew blood from his ring finger, and let a single drop fall into the lake. Then he began the incantation.
"I am the one and only special existence in this world."
⟨ I Exist as Myself, So Shall You ⟩
- Magic Type: Law Magic, Manifestation System
- Effect: The greatest spell among 10th-circle magic. Its greatness can only be described as the pinnacle of sorcery. It designates a target and draws out that target’s highest possible potential, manifesting it into reality. If the target is metal, it becomes the greatest masterpiece a dwarf could create. If the target is human, the greatest hero appears. The limit of manifestation is one stage below the caster’s own power. What makes this magic truly terrifying is that there are no restrictions on the target—it can affect gods, demons, or anything else—and the mana cost is absurdly low compared to the result.
His original purpose had been to mass-produce demigods to assist him in the coming war against the High Elf Empire and the Divine Realm. However, he realized that beings brought to their highest potential would likely develop negative karma and become hostile toward him. With tears in his eyes, he had given up on the idea.
- First words spoken after initial manifestation
“This world is truly hard to live in. Black mages—! I will never forgive you for this.”
Gurrrrrrrung—! Shwoooooooo—!
Ripples spread across the lake where the seed and blood had fallen. Vibrations began to shake the entire space. The spirit gods from the Otherworld were visibly startled by the sudden explosive surge of spirit power in the air.
‘What I dropped into the lake was a World Tree seed. And not just any seed—I stole the largest one from the High Elf Empire.’
After losing his master and wandering in despair, he had fought the High Elf Empire indiscriminately for some time. He broke through the combined assault of the High Elf Queens, invaded their lands, pierced the defenses of their World Tree, and reached the imperial palace. There, he had “borrowed” several of their most treasured artifacts.
‘Back then I really cleaned them out. Don’t look at me with those eyes that say I’m a liar. It was a mistake of my youth. After I came to my senses, I replicated everything and returned the originals. The seed of the World Tree was among the treasures I stole while laughing heartily that it was payment for all the suffering they had caused me. I was able to study it thoroughly.’
What he had created through that process was a treasure born from replicating the World Tree seed and improving it to the best of his ability.
‘To infinitely expand the Survival Magic Tower using my dimensional authority, I need a clear coordinate that exists across all dimensions and all times.’
There was only one being he knew that existed in all times, spaces, and dimensions.
The Cosmic Tree.
It was the first tree created by the Creator. An omnipotent tree whose leaves and body formed all the stars of the material realm, converting them into life and matter. The mother of all World Trees.
‘In the material realm, only the Cosmic Tree can manage my world for all eternity.’
Although he had not yet reached the level where he could fully manifest it as a 10th-circle mage, he could at least create a sapling. Using the magic he was most proud of.
Puuuuk—!
The lake’s water exploded upward. Two enormous leaves, each three kilometers in radius, burst through the surface of the lake, spraying water in every direction.
‘Success! Cotyledons three hundred times larger than those of a normal World Tree!’
They were still modest for a Cosmic Tree, but once they absorbed the vitality of the Sun of the Origin and the mana of the Moon of the Origin and grew vigorously, the leaves would become larger than planets. Eventually, they would reach the size where even an entire solar system could be covered by the tree’s shadow.
‘Now my Survival Magic Tower will expand and prosper endlessly alongside this Cosmic Tree.’
With the birth of the new Cosmic Tree, spirit power overflowed throughout the space, instantly adjusting the environment to be optimal for life.
‘As expected of the tree that is said to have nurtured all life in the universe.’
The Survival Magic Tower, which had looked slightly dizzy before, now overflowed with life force. The seeds he had sown earlier were already sprouting, turning the earth green. Fruit trees were forming fruit, and the golems he had created were busily moving about, harvesting.
The whale golem swam through the sea, and the dog golems began herding the livestock. They were harvesting organisms that multiplied at speeds beyond imagination.
‘Just looking at it makes my stomach feel full and puts my mind at ease. With this, I hope I will never have to starve again. Hunger has tormented me for nearly half my life as a being with a physical body.’
Once everything was finished, exhaustion washed over him. This place was his Survival Magic Tower, isolated by dimensional barriers, so he was relatively free from karma.
‘As long as I don’t leave here, I should be safe. You all should leave now too.’
Seeing the Cosmic Tree’s cotyledons spreading unimaginable spirit power, he reverse-summoned the noisy spirit gods who were chattering loudly. Once the loud Otherworld spirit gods had all returned, drowsiness crashed over him like a wave.
Just in case, he layered multiple dimensional barriers and boundary spells before finally falling asleep.
‘The light of the sun and moon is so warm. I hope this light will shine on me forever. In my dream, I want to see Master, whom I met in my childhood.’
He slept for a long time. When hunger woke him, he saw only the silver moon sparkling in the darkness.
‘Have I been asleep for about a day?’
His body had been cleanly restored by the moon’s vitality, and even his mana was perfectly replenished with the tower’s support.
‘Right now, I am a perfect 10th-circle mage. While expanding the Survival Magic Tower, I feel that I have advanced one stage further.’
Thanks to the positive karma gained from the contract with the demon race that had shown self-sacrifice, and the broadened magical knowledge gained while creating the tower, his circles were finally beginning to tremble at the boundary of 10th-circle mastery.
‘If I gain just a little more positive karma and continue accumulating magical training and knowledge, I will reach the 11th circle.’
An 11th-circle Magic God could adjust karma to some extent, like a Creator God. It was even possible to slightly change fate itself.
‘I will reach the 11th circle, the realm of the Creator God, through training before I go out. Then I will be able to live like this even outside the tower.’
After so long, these positive thoughts made his mood feel like it could fly.
He opened his subspace, took out freshly prepared bread, meat dishes, and fish that were still steaming, and began to eat while looking around.
‘The area around my tower, wrapped in darkness, is quiet. Only the moonlight gently illuminates the whale golem floating on the sea.’
The dog golems protecting the sleeping livestock had stopped moving and showed no abnormalities. In the distance, the mechanical golems continued their harvest. The Cosmic Tree’s cotyledons on the lake had increased from two to four, displaying a majestic appearance.
‘The only ones who know what I’m doing inside are the spirit gods, and even they don’t know exactly what is happening.’
Of course, since he had not yet escaped the control of karma, the Chief God of the God Realm—the master of this planet—had probably noticed his survival.
Having fully absorbed nearly a hundred years’ worth of the blessing of life from the Moon and Sun of the Origin, his body was in peak condition. The wall of the 11th circle that had felt so distant now stood right before his eyes.
‘If only there were no interference from negative karma, I would truly be happy. Should I just stay here forever?’
With that frivolous thought, he checked on the demons inside the tower. They were all focused on recovering their power using the dark mana of the Great Forest. So for now, he would simply enjoy the pleasure of eating delicious food and resting quietly inside his tower.
“Living alone really is beautiful and comfortable.”
The words slipped out naturally. Then a faint ripple appeared inside the tower, transforming into a voice.
“Great Black Mage, I congratulate you on your recovery.”
The sudden male voice belonged to the Chief God of the God Realm. In that instant, an ominous premonition froze him in place.
“I’ve been waiting quite a while. I sincerely congratulate you on your full recovery.”
The ominous feeling rang alarm bells in his mind.
‘I have no grudge against the Chief God of the God Realm, but we’re not close either.’
Yet the man was going so far as to send a message through the dimensional barrier just to express concern. He had no memory of being that friendly with him. Above all, the fact that the sly Chief God of the God Realm was acting this friendly could only mean one thing.
A major incident had occurred.
“I apologize for the divine power surge last time. Although it was done by a being with faith, it is true that it would have been impossible without a god’s help.”
The Chief God of the God Realm was apologizing.
‘Is he talking about an apple you eat? When is he going to give it to me?’