Stella lay back on the oak bench like a slothful empress as she snacked on the plentiful fruit dropping from Ashlock's branches.
She had an idle hand resting on Ashlock's trunk as she felt the chaotic Qi rampaging throughout the tree's giant body. It was fascinating to witness—some mystical force she couldn't understand was micromanaging the chaotic Qi by condensing it into fruit or pushing it down into the tree's roots. To Stella's surprise, the tree did not push back on her invasive Qi like last time. Instead, it welcomed her like a guest, making her feel... warm. "So bringing you snacks is the way to win you over... what a glutton."
With a light chuckle, Stella pushed her hair behind her ear and smiled as she surveyed the courtyard.
Black vines covered in tiny thorns had sprung up through the gaps in the runic formation and mummified as many of the corpses as possible. The stench of blood wafted through the air, but Stella didn't mind. Instead, she laid back peacefully, closed her eyes, and quietly hummed to herself as she enjoyed the summer breeze.
***
"This is so much easier than last time..." Ashlock hummed to himself as he let the system take care of the chaotic Qi. With the inclusion of his vast root network, he could shove endless amounts of Qi down into the mountain. Although it felt rather wasteful, he had no other way to store the Qi anyway due to his low cultivation, so he might as well speed up the progress of his mountain delving project.
A week passed, and Stella lounged on the bench for most of it.
"These cultivators are a completely different breed of human than those from Earth." If Ashlock had been reborn in a park back on Earth, the humans would stay for an hour or two at most before having to attend to something. But in a cultivator world? The pursuit of strength required patience, discipline, and meditation. All of which could be achieved under the canopy of a friendly tree.
By now, the courtyard was nearly empty of corpses. Only a pile of bones and a blood-stained runic formation remained.
Sensing his calming Qi, Stella's eyes fluttered open, and as she stretched her back—she yawned, "Had your fill tree? How was it?"
"Good question," Ashlock said to himself as he summoned his sign-in system to check.
Idletree Daily Sign-In System
Day: 2781
Daily Credit: 773
Sacrifice Credit: 1827
[Sign in?]
"Holy shit... that is five years' worth of credits!" Ashlock's leaves rustled and swayed as he got excited. "A thousand credits got me A-grade skills... but I have 2600 now." Ashlock quickly calmed down and got serious. Should he draw? What if the requirement for a skill higher than an A grade was three thousand points? Or ten thousand?
The words were at the tip of his nonexistent tongue... he wanted to say them so badly... "Fuck it. Sign in."
[Sign in successful, 2600 credits consumed…]
[Unlocked an S-grade Summon: Worldwalker]
"Summon? Worldwalker?" Ashlock's mind blanked. "I can summon things? Since when..."
[Summon: Worldwalker? Yes/No]
Ashlock didn't hesitate and pressed yes.
Stella stepped back from the demonic tree with a concerned look. The Qi surrounding the tree had suddenly become chaotic like a raging storm; bolts of high-charged Qi-like lightning flashed out, and the tree glowed with power. Stella looked up—above its scarlet leaves... a crack in reality appeared. It was a single black line without depth, shadow, or light. Something simply impossible.
Purple flames sprung to life across Stella's shoulders and arms—lightning crackled between her fingers with uncontrollable fury. She activated her earrings, an artifact she had learned to control over the years. Her eyes became swirling abysses—anything that gazed at them would feel uncontrollable terror. She wanted to be prepared for what was coming.
The black line... opened. An eye without a pupil, easily three trees tall, glimpsed through the gap in reality. It shifted—scrutinizing everything with alien curiosity.
Ashlock was baffled. What on earth was going on? He could only watch in absolute horror at what was occurring. In moments like these, Ashlock realized the system was not to be trifled with.
His branches suddenly began to grow rapidly upward—toward the rift in reality—like a hand of spindly fingers reaching for the stars. The branches elongated but withered as they approached the alien eye that gazed on in amusement.
[Summon Failed... Cultivation deemed too low.]
"What!?" Ashlock roared in his mind as the branches cracked and flaked away in the presence of the rift. "No. My credits!" Ashlock watched in horror as the tower of cards came crashing down and years' worth of effort crumbled before his eyes.
The rift began to close, the eye lazily moving away. Leaving only a hazy vision of the demonic land beyond.
But a small figure, a mere dot of white compared to the gargantuan crack in reality, sprang through before the rift sealed and its immense pressure vanished. The creature landed gracefully on Ashlock's largest branch and curiously looked around.
It was a... squirrel. The most mythical one Ashlock had ever seen—its snow-white fur was like silk against Ashlock's bark, and its golden honey eyes gleamed with intelligence as it examined around and... crossed its arms in a suspiciously human manner.
[??? Wishes to form a pact.]
"What? A pact?" There was no way in hell Ashlock was signing a devil's contract with a mythical squirrel that had just emerged from another realm where a creature with an eye the size of a skyscraper lurked.
The information flooded Ashlock's mind. A pact was a partnership where the mutual parties agreed to coexist peacefully. It differed significantly from a summon as it didn't involve mind control. "Can I change the conditions?" Ashlock wanted to include Stella in the pact. Life without her company would be too painful at this point.
The squirrel received the altered pact and looked down at Stella. The young woman had clearly not noticed the squirrel, as she had deactivated her purple flames and glared at where the rift had closed with a distraught expression.
Ashlock then saw the squirrel materialize on Stella's shoulder, scaring the ever-living shit out of her.
"What?!" Ashlock looked back at his branch, and sure enough, the squirrel had vanished. "How did it do that?" He hadn't felt any Qi fluctuations, and the coverage of his immediate surroundings was perfect!
Stella glared at the creature and was frozen in shock as the squirrel poked her cheek with its small finger. Stella still had her earrings of absolute fear equipped and active, yet the squirrel's golden eyes looked straight into Stella's without flinching. Then, the squirrel reached up and poked Stella again—this time on the nose, causing her to yelp.
"Stop it! What are you?" Stella pushed the squirrel's finger away with her own. However, the squirrel didn't resist Stella's touch and instead held the tip of her finger in its tiny hand. It then pulled Stella's finger closer— pressed its head forward into Stella's palm, allowing the startled girl to give it a head massage.
Stella's expression went from shock to utter adoration in seconds. "Oh my, aren't you the most precious thing ever?" Stella exclaimed, and the squirrel's desire for head rubs grew, so it forcefully gripped the side of Stella's hand and moved her hand up and down, its eyes closed in apparent bliss.
Ashlock watched the scene and felt a little left out... he wanted to give the demonic realm jumping squirrel a pat on the head too!
Stella giggled as she played with the squirrel's fluffy tail swooshing in the summer breeze. Then, as she stared into the squirrel's curious golden eyes, she said with a smile, "Little guy, I think I will call you Maple. How about it?" The squirrel gave Stella a... thumbs up—much to her shock, before vanishing into thin air.
[Maple has accepted the pact]
Without any warning, the squirrel had reappeared on Ashlock's branch. Ashlock tried to hide his utter surprise. "Maple, huh? Welcome aboard!" The squirrel nodded his head as if agreeing with his welcome...
"Wait, you can understand me?" Ashlock's mind spun with possibilities.
Maple tilted his little head and gave a curious smile.
Ashlock couldn't tell if the squirrel was doing random movements or understood him... "Do a spin."
Maple rolled his eyes but complied, pretending to chase his tail. The scratching of his claws against Ashlock's bark seemed to draw Stella's attention as she started rushing toward the tree.
"A squirrel might chase its tail for fun without me asking..." Ashlock grumbled at his own stupidity. "Do a flip!" There's no way a squirrel would do that randomly for fun.
Maple paused, crossed his arms, and shook his little snow-white head with a look of disapproval. As if in retaliation for being demanded to do party tricks, the little bugger pulled free a fruit and munched on it.
"Maple!" Stella called from below. "You up there?"
The little bastard vanished with a pop and reappeared on Stella's shoulder, passing her a fruit it stole. "Oh, thank you!" Stella took the fruit and gave the little guy a rub on the head.
"You little shit..." Ashlock seriously debated activating his {Hibernate} skill—even that torture would be better than being looked down on by a fucking squirrel.
"Sigh..." The life of a tree wasn't easy.