Chapter 49: Elf Girl (Part 2)
Chapter 49: Elf Girl (Part 2)
The Incinerating Tyrant was a genetically engineered human from a futuristic sci-fi universe, but he was still, fundamentally, human.
Sturdier than the average person, immune to disease, superior stamina and vitality, slower aging, a different lifespan—
yet conceptually human enough. The same way we call someone from the Middle Ages, the 2000s, or the pre-apocalypse world "human" despite the vast gulf between them.
But the elf girl I was exchanging letters with now was, in every sense, an elf.
Talking to her, I felt the difference in our species with every exchange—it really drove home that I was living in a fantasy world.
During the day, when my avatar was on cooldown, sending letters back and forth had become such an ingrained habit that it was more interesting than surveilling the continent from my studio apartment.
Maybe it was a holdover from the apocalypse; having zero entertainment made me fixate hard on the written word.
[So vegetables you grow yourself actually taste better than the standard rations?]
[Yes! I'd never received food as an offering before, and it's so delicious!]
For someone like me, who'd often stared down the choice between choking down a bulging, suspect can and dying of dehydration or simply starving to death,
frozen meals with plenty of shelf life left were the food of heaven.
But apparently that wasn't the case for an elf.
To her, even free frozen food and high-end meals costing over 1,000pt a plate all carried the taste of artificial food conjured from mana.
I was stunned first to learn she could taste mana,
and then all over again when she mentioned she'd burned through 100pt to 1,000pt per meal just experimenting.
Then again, as a mid-tier Constellation who backed the farmers of the Eastern Continent, of course she'd be well-off.
In this world, there was no need to worry about a food surplus.
In my old world, supply imbalances meant food was burned in one place to prop up prices
while people starved in another, but this world ran on point-based transactions, like a game.
A Constellation creates too many farming Incarnations and there's a glut of food?
Just offer it up as a sacrifice, convert it to points, and then sponsor the war front defending the continent.
The exchange rate might be garbage, but you could convert it into finite resources like metal or oil—the more resources, the better.
[Every meal used to be so bland it was a real problem, but lately I've been so happy!]
Her round, bubbly handwriting practically radiated joy.
That wasn't a metaphor; the Dream Demon's Authority had been steadily growing stronger.
They say this thing called a branch of the World Tree bestows beneficial effects on nearby life, and it seems that's true.
It wasn't accelerating my growth by two or three times, but the fatigue from operating my avatar
and the faint headaches from sifting through nightmares had definitely vanished.
The only problem was—
[The tip of the World Tree is currently digesting a Fragment of Nightmare.]
The so-called World Tree had stretched out a thin branch and swallowed a Fragment I'd stashed away.
I only had the one, and since I had zero clue how to use it, telling myself I'd spent it on upgrading my studio kept me from getting too bent out of shape,
but the curiosity was killing me.
I hadn't even fed the damn thing. The branch had rummaged around my room while I was asleep and gobbled it up on its own—how could I not be curious?
[The World Tree swallowed a Fragment of Nightmare? I don't know much about that either.]
[The World Tree keepers were all adults, but they all died in the war.]
[I'm learning to manage it with points too, but all I know is how to prune branches and tend the leaves~]
satisfying that curiosity meant waiting.
Just as I, a novice Dream Demon, was slowly developing myself and my Incarnations with points,
the young elf girl, abandoned by adults who'd marched off to war and never returned, was also slowly learning to manage the World Tree with points.
Granted, her point totals were probably two orders of magnitude above mine.
[Looks like they're heading out soon. Let's watch.]
With that final casually tossed-off message, I moved in front of my now considerably larger screen.
I settled into a plush rocking chair carved from ebony instead of the cheap gaming chair and scanned the screen for Han Ye-ji.
I'd thought the Unfading Giant Tree sounded familiar; she was the Constellation contracted to Han Ye-ji's senior.
On the screen, my Incarnation Han Ye-ji and the Unfading Giant Tree's Incarnation, Jeong Ah-rin, were gearing up for deployment.
The reliable junior, Namgung Hui, was with them too.
[So what kind of grace did your Incarnation receive?]
[Communion with nature and sensory enhancement? I believe I gave her a basic druid manual.]
No wonder they were so good at ferreting out and tracking down hidden suspects even in the dead of night with broken streetlights.
Learning that the city's trees and sparrows were feeding her information made it all click.
Jeong Ah-rin handled tracking and detection, Han Ye-ji provided long-range suppression with her sniping, and Namgung Hui was a close-quarters brawler skilled in melee.
Watching a well-coordinated team sweep up a street gang felt like viewing a tightly directed action film.
[The Constellation, Unfading Giant Tree, is satisfied with her Incarnation's deeds.]
[The Constellation, Unfading Giant Tree, boasts about her Incarnation to Lethargic Nightmare.]
As the messages flew back and forth, one landed for Han Ye-ji's team, and I dashed over to my computer to hammer out a reply.
Even if I made a few typos, the system translated and sent it roughly—in situations like this, that was a godsend.
[The Constellation, Lethargic Nightmare, is delighted by the performance of his Incarnations.]
I was a very peculiar Constellation.
For a mere one-year Constellation, I could freely send my avatar to the surface,
and there was no cost or penalty attached to doing so.
Not that I was causing any trouble down there; I just roamed the streets, snacking on street food while encouraging my Incarnations.
Since such a strange fellow was pottering around right next to his own Incarnation, it was only natural that other Constellations' gazes would be drawn.
Namgung Hui's Constellation was a single-minded loner obsessed with self-training and paid little attention,
but Jeong Ah-rin's Constellation, the Unfading Giant Tree, had investigated me immediately.
[So, did you ask Lee Ha-rin to perform those rituals for you too?]
[Yes! My Incarnations farm those vast fields, but I couldn't eat any of it, and it felt so unfair.]
While Han Ye-ji and her team were harshly suppressing the gang of thugs disturbing the peace,
Lee Ha-rin, who had yet to graduate from the Academy, was holding daily rituals.
The target wasn't me, but the Unfading Giant Tree.
In exchange for magical reagents and funding for her ritual practice,
she offered fresh vegetables daily to the Unfading Giant Tree as a sacrifice.
Since I found even the basic provided rations tasty, wasn't this a net gain?
Unlike me, whose abilities basically amounted to manifesting an avatar or dream entities,
this elf girl could manipulate the World Tree's branches to bestow blessings upon both Lee Ha-rin and Han Ye-ji.
Compare summoning a cockroach bigger than a person to a buff that makes you feel as refreshed as a full day's rest in the forest with barely any sleep,
and the choice is obvious.
'Not as useful as I thought...'
Was it because I was still a weak Dream Demon, or was my rank as a Constellation simply too low?
Summoning entities from within nightmares was proving remarkably useless.
Masked killers with cleavers, crazed clowns with hammers—when summoned, they were barely on par with the lowest-grade Incarnations.
Giant human-sized cockroaches and hideous creatures were merely disgusting to look at, useless in a fight.
And, well... blonde and black-haired lesbian porn actresses in sling swimsuits, flashing areolas and crotch,
could certainly deliver a different kind of horror, but I had no desire to summon them in front of others.
When online wiki-like entries were already compiling intel on me from my past life,
adding 'summons homosexual porn actors' to the list was not on my agenda.
The thought of a tag like [Constellation/Controversy/Homophobia] popping up made my head spin.
I absolutely did not want that kind of entry.
[The Constellation, Unfading Giant Tree, feels satiated by the fresh vegetables.]
[A small branch of the World Tree emits a refreshing breeze and bestows a modest blessing.]
The nighttime chase had ended. As the three women trudged back to the office to handle the aftermath,
a powdery green dust drifted down over their heads like pollen.
I could see the effect immediately: their shoulders squared, and their steps grew noticeably lighter.
I knew how effective it was firsthand.
Because the same powder was showering down from the branch in my own room.
Ridiculously, the Dream Demon's body wasn't a fan of this modest blessing.
It wasn't that I took damage because I was a demon-type and would scream in pain...
the problem was it completely banished sleep.
True to the title 'Resident of Dreams,' I was usually wrapped in a pleasant languor, and this felt like being forcibly jolted awake.
Like dozing off in the warm sun only to be yanked from a shallow sleep by noisy upstairs neighbors.
[I'd rather you didn't give me that blessing.]
[Did it upset you? I'm truly sorry, I wasn't thinking.]
[Are you okay?]
[It's not that serious. It just doesn't agree with me.]
Instead of the round, bubbly writing, her hasty, scrawled replies came flying in rapid succession.
All traces of her bright, cheerful energy were gone, replaced by fluster, apology, and a heap of worry.
I gently ran my fingertips over the letter; whether it was parchment or papyrus, it was thick with the scent of grass.
So... the way I looked at her, it was exactly the same as the way she looked at me.
Faintly, through the World Tree's branch, I could sense her—a tiny elf girl.
The classic elf: pale skin, blonde hair, probably barely 150 centimeters tall.
A lively girl who found joy in small things like fresh vegetables, bestowed blessings on her Incarnations, and spoke as if singing.
But she was the last elf.
She was the leader of the hundred-and-some children left behind in the World Tree, a being who had lived for over a hundred years.
I saw her appearance and behavior and thought of her as a young girl,
but from the Unfading Giant Tree's perspective, I was the young boy.
It made sense. Combining my previous life and my life as a Constellation, I wasn't even close to matching an elf's nearly 200-year lifespan.
Setting my human past life aside, I was a greenhorn who'd been a Constellation for about a year.
Maybe that was why the tone of her letters had been so light and casual, like talking to a child.
[I'm really fine. Stop worrying.]
[Are you sure you're okay? Truly?]
[It just messes with my sleep. It doesn't hurt.]
As I mulled over the difference between an elf's gaze and a human's,
the World Tree's branch dropped over a dozen letters raining onto my head, so I focused on placating the Unfading Giant Tree.