The palace tree

After a few more minutes under the astonished eyes of James, the outer shell of the seed showed a few cracks.

From the cracks, there were small thread-like things extended outwards. These threads soon pierced into the surrounding flesh.

Followed by this first batch there were more and more cracks on the seed surface and new threads emerged and moved into the surrounding flesh.

Soon the seed was pulled deeper inside the flesh by the threads.

At this time the first batch of threads was thicker and longer. They slowly took a shape of tree roots and spread out in the surrounding.

This scene looked a bit creepy. James was almost about to turn around and run away due to fear.

The seed was pulled inside and was no more visible on the surface. Instead, the surface was covered by a carpet of dark red roots which spread in all the direction and were concentrated at the location of the seed.

The overlapping roots of varying sizes completely covered the hole.

What amazed James was that those roots were even able to absorb the Yin Ice. And the absorption rate was many times more than when James used the magma slime. This showed the huge energy requirement of the Palace tree and also its strength.

Being a descendent of the world tree it was of course not an ordinary tree.

Thinking about it James was looking forward to the future abilities of the palace tree when it is grown fully.

It seemed that the energy from the titan whale's flesh and the Yin Ice was more than enough for the palace tree. Since in a few seconds, a small bud grew out of the net of roots, then a small leaf grew on it followed by another.

The growth of it looked like a fast-forwarded video.

What was even more amazing was that as the bud grew rapidly it absorbed more and more energy and the surrounding was being cleared out of the Yin Ice.

Though this tensed James a bit since with this huge consumption of Ice he might lose his daily income but trading it with a chance to leave this place was not that bad.

As the bud grew into a plant and then into a small tree the roots also kept growing rapidly. But what was odd about these roots was that instead of growing downwards inside the flesh they were rapidly growing in all directions.

If seen from above one could see a large carpet of dark red roots forming a circular shape of carpet around the palace tree.

When the palace tree grew to the size of a small tree of 2-3 meters its growth got odd too. Instead of growing higher, it grew thicker, and at some time the bark cracked from the center.

As it kept growing the crack grew to the size of a hole enough for an adult to walk in. The bark was also thick enough to have a small living space for an adult man to live inside.

When James thought it was the end of the show the tree started growing rapidly again.

This time it grew in both thickness and height. It stopped after reaching a full 20 meters high. While the thickness was more than that.

Instead of looking like a tree, it looked more like a bloated potato. The root below also grew in thickness.

At the base of the tree, it grew in the shape of stairs leading to the hole in the bark which has now taken the shape of a wooden door with flowers and leaves giving it natural beauty.

The root structure below also showed an obvious opening as if a door to the basement. There were even doors in these holes made up of wood.

When James was observing the things in front of him another magical scene happened.

Tiny light spots appeared on the tree. The scene looked like a mythical tree covered with stars.

These light spots were one of the properties of the palace tree. It came along with its natural lighting, power, and water system.

These light spots were small insects born from the leaves of the palace tree and they can leave a certain vicinity of the tree. They had no harm to those living inside the tree. And their slow movement around the tree added a different beauty to the tree.

When the light spots appeared they immediately illuminated a large area around the tree. The roots below his feet were distributed around the surface in a circular area almost three times the area of the main bark.

All this area was illuminated by the light insects.

When James tried to feel the roots with his legs he was surprised to find that they were soft to touch life grass and were flexible but also had good strength.

The pit that James had dug for all this time disappeared or rather it was expanded in size. The walls of the pit were out of the area under the roots and the roots seemed to be increasing slowly.

It seems that the boosted growth of the palace tree came to an end and now it will grow slowly.

This was good and bad news for James.

Good, since the Ice was not completely absorbed and he didn't lose his daily income yet.

While bad news was that he still didn't see any end to the Ice cave.

He sighed and turned his attention towards the palace tree,

{Palace Tree(Villa stage)

Elements: Wood, Life, Water(Yin)

Note: It has completed its hibernation period and has grown to the second stage of growth. Since it has absorbed a large amount of Yin element it has gained a mutated water Yin element. The water provided by the palace tree will contain a Yin element which is good for health.

Hint: This can be a nice home.}

Seeing the system description James was shocked.

'What a magical thing this is. Growing a villa out of seed!'

But he was also happy since now he had his own villa to stay at. Until he can leave this place.

While he was immersed in these thoughts his attention was moved towards the hint from the system.

This was the first time the system had given an active hint.

-----------------------------

Thank you all for your support.

Hope you keep supporting me in the same way.

And Happy Dasara to all my Indian compatriots.