“Soo, that happened.”

  Silvan said to her partner. They had been riding in mostly silence for the last few days, heading back to the elven forest nation, they’re only conversation being “pass the water” or “hand me the dried nuts”. It’s been tense while they process the biggest failure of their career.

  “That it did,” replied Elowen. “We were nowhere near prepared for how advanced Willow, the Great Tree, was. Not only was his mind more complex than one his age should be, but the weight behind it was that of an ancient. You hold no blame in this, whatever you may think.”

  Silvan nodded and slowly hung her head back down in shame. It was exactly what she needed to hear, but it didn’t remove the guilt she felt for playing such a big role in their failure. Elowen continued talking, doing his best to calm her while talking out the situation for himself as well.

  “Going forward, we need to train our minds for future encounters with him. He might not like us now, but give him a few years, and he might feel more lenient, especially if he has to deal with an undead horde like the one we prevented. Great Trees hate living near necrotic energy; I doubt he’s any different. We just need to keep an ear out for when this forest turns into an undead one.”

  Silvan’s head shot up at that. She looked at Elowen, confusion written all over her face.

  “In a couple of years? We’re going right back as soon as we can get the teleportation process approved. He might not like it, and we might not get all of his roots without his input, but it’s in his best interest to move, whether he knows it or not.”

  “Silvan, he’s gotten this strong in such a short time that he can beat YOU in combat. And that was him holding back. He didn’t repair his doll once, he didn’t cast any magic besides moving that doll, and he didn’t use any part of his actual body, his strongest weapon. If he can beat you under those constraints, then it’s unlikely we’ll be able to get him to go with us, even against his will.”

  “But-”, started Silvan. She earnestly wanted to be right in this, but a small part of her knew Elowen was right.

  “No buts. The best we can do for him right now is give him space, then try again in a few years. We pressured him too much. We should check on him in 5 years, then try again in 10 years. Great Trees hold grudges, you know this. Nettlewig and Oaktooth still argue about whose roots touched whose almost 35 years ago. You should remember this, given that you were the first responder to the battle. Acornio is still mad about Leaf Erikson being the first one to be planted in the Verdant Forest over 200 years ago! They hold grudges!”

  Elowen worked himself up for 20 minutes talking about the various trees and the drama that comes with taking care of them. When he was done, he deflated and leaned back in his seat. He was glad for the soundproofing in the carriage, as he could see other carriages and wagons driving by.

  “Look, we gave it our best shot. We helped him improve some of his skills, we helped him by removing an undead threat to him, and he even earned a new skill from his fight with you. If, after all that, he still doesn’t want to come with us to a peaceful, serene land to enjoy the centuries of life he could have had left, then let him get a taste of what the struggles of life as a wild Great Tree will bring him. He will be lonely, surrounded by enemies, and have no refuge in sight. At that point, we’ll swoop back in and see what we can do about that. And if he STILL doesn’t want to come with us, then we leave him be, letting him rot in this forsaken realm of humans.”

  He worked himself up yet again, spitting the last word with as much venom as he could muster. Silvan recoiled from the aggression he showed, clearly not used to how passionate he can sometimes be. She’s only seen him rant like this a handful of times in their years together, and none of them ended pleasantly for her.

  It was for that very reason that she finally relented.

  “Fine. We leave him be. But WE will be the ones to check on him every 5 years. I refuse t-”

  “DEAL!” Elowen interrupted. He wanted to see Willow safe just as much as she did, so this worked out perfectly.

  The two love birds bickered back and forth for the next few hours of their ride, finally feeling back to normal now that the air had been cleared. They were both clearly anxious to report to their boss, but it felt good to be on the same side again.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Force the roots to connect, feed it some nutrients, then absorb the minuscule amount of mental energy the tree possesses.

  That’s been my routine for the last few days. Once a day, I would add another tree to my constantly growing forest. It was nice to take over a whole swath of land in one go, like I did after the two elves left, but it left me feeling wrong. I feel much more comfortable growing slowly like this than the rapid growth I underwent before. Now I have time between acquisitions to get used to the increased body mass and mental power.

  Once I was done bringing the newest addition to the family, I grew out some vines to use and integrated this new tree into my root system. It was a tedious task, but one I very much felt was necessary.

  With that finally done, I went back to my main body and watered my garden. It’s been a few days since Honey, the bee queen, had her first drone hatch from the honey-filled cell. She’s been growing by leaps and bounds since that occurred, having over 25 drones taking care of her now. I connect my mind to hers when I get back and feel the familiar pulse of happiness radiating from her. She seems to have taken me as some sort of god, protecting her and feeding her as I have.

  “How’s the hive, Honey?”

  She doesn’t quite understand words, but she can sense my desire to check on her well-being, and responds with a flood of memories from the last hour that show me what she’s been up to while I’ve been gone and what she plans on doing for the rest of the day. Translated, it sounds a little like,

  “Good! Hive feeds on Flower God’s flowers! Make honey! I make new drones! Make hive big to spread Flower God’s flowers!”

  Honey seems obsessed with the idea of spreading the flowers I’ve planted for her all across the world, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. I mostly just want her here for the company and the sweet treat, but she seems so dedicated that I feel a little bad.

  “Good job, Honey. You’re doing great!”

  I keep the tiniest of tendrils of my mind attached to Honey and go about the rest of my business of the day. Even though she’s a pleasant distraction for the days I get irritated, I still have goals.

  I still want to make a damn golem.

  Ever since Elvis and Silvan left me alone, I’ve been trying to make a golem. I’ve tried various ratios of mana, stamina, and health, going so far as to implant Resource Berries into the chests of different puppets to see if that’ll do anything. So far, it has not.

  As I contemplate what today’s experiment should entail, I get a pulse of emotion from Honey, and I zoom in on her in her hive. Even behind a couple of inches of honeycomb blocking the way, I can still see her as clearly as ever thanks to my Domain of Awareness.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked the little bee.

  “What is this? It’s strong, gives off pulses of mana to whoever is touching it,” she sends me, less in words and more in mental images and impressions she gets.

  I look at what she’s holding and see the monster core from the Orc I killed ages ago. All this time, it’s just been up here collecting dust.

  I start to explain to Honey what it is and how I got it, when something clicks into place.

  “Elvis said something when he showed me his carriage. He said the acorn acts as that golem’s core. Does that mean that I need to create a core? I’ve been assuming the core was needed since he had all those extra enchantments and special craps going on, but what if that wasn’t it? What if EVERY golem needs to be created around a core?”

  I quickly whip up a wooden dummy to face palm. All this time, and I’ve wasted it all. Of course none of those attempts work. The core probably acts as a brain, hosting the will and mental energy of the golem’s creator.

  The big question is, will using the core of a monster work as the core of an artificial golem, or will I need to devise a way to create my own core? Does that mean I need to find a way to create acorns of my own?

  Nah, that’d be nuts.

  Ignoring my own bad puns, I start looking into various trees around me. From what I can see, plenty of trees I haven’t taken over have acorns growing on them, and some of the ones I did take over had still fresh-looking nuts all over the ground. I assume that when they join my little forest in a forest, they drop them to the ground, no longer having the skill to grow them properly.

  Let’s see if this works.

  I start with the old Orc core from up in my tree. I created a little tunnel in my trunk for the core to move through without having to harm Honey’s nest. I then created a dirt puppet to act as my hands as I implanted the core into the wooden puppet I had previously created to face palm for me. Before I implanted it, though, I went ahead and altered its appearance. I didn’t do anything extreme, just made it look more normal. Hair, muscular outlines, wolverine claws, the works.

  Makeover completed, I drained 3 berries of their juice into the puppet’s chest cavity to act as fuel. Then I slowly lowered the diamond-shaped core in, concentrating hard on the idea of a golem that knows how to box and fight Orcs into it. I grew a few sturdy roots inside the chest to connect to the core, then grew a few hair-like roots to absorb the resource juices as needed from its pool. Once completed, I closed the hatch and figuratively stepped back, holding my non-existent breath in the process.

  As soon as the chest plate, or rather, the layer of bark I called its chest, was sealed, it immediately blew up. Despite my Fire Resistance skill, the wooden puppet burned like crazy. I saw the arms and legs thrash about for a very short period of time before the whole thing went still.

  Despite being an overwhelming failure, I still feel closer to completing my longest goal in quite some time.

  It’s go time, baby! I’ve got a clear path, now I just need to keep on walking it. I’ll figure out what fried you soon enough, and when I do, there’ll be nothing stopping me from creating a whole army of wooden soldiers on my own!

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