Chapter 9: Slow and Steady Growth

It's been two weeks since we began restoring the forest, and already life seemed to be getting better.

The forest had expanded from the previous 150 meters to about 600 meters or so, and it had taken quite a while to get this far.

Routines had to be made so that we could water everything efficiently and try to avoid mana drain as much as possible. It doesn't feel nice, I'll tell you that.

It has been increasingly difficult to maintain the area of the forest we currently have, though. I thought as I was standing at the edge of the forest that my children, Lyra and I, created; however, we had a plan to deal with it; well, Elara had an idea of how to deal with it.

"Father, we're ready," a voice sounded behind me.

I turned around to see my darling daughter Elara

"Okay," I respond.

Whoosh

I unfurled my wings and took to the sky with my daughter in tow. I hope this works, or else we have to rethink how to maintain the forest better.

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"Eryndor, Seraphina, Aria, Sylvan, Thalassa, and Riven, are you guys ready," I asked.

"Yes, Father," they said in unison

Currently, we were at the center of the forest; all the trees that were here were rearranged to create an open area for what was to come. Everyone else was standing under the trees, watching what we were doing, even Lyra

"Let's begin, shall we"

Earth mana followed my call as the ground beneath us began to rise forming a pillar of earth. Following my lead, my children also began to call on their reservoirs of earth mana as the ground began to rise faster.

Stopping at the equivalent of a six-story building. We took flight as more earth began to fly, attaching themselves to the pillar, rounding it off, forming a small hill.

Seeing that it was finished, I looked towards my children and nodded. We flew down to the base of the mountain as the ground started to crack as a small moat started to form around the hill.

Seeing that that was complete, I flew westward as the others flew in their own direction. A trench connected to the moat started to follow me as well as the others. As I was doing this, my children with access to nature mana followed them as plants and trees were moved out of the way to clear a path.

I however didn't need anyone to follow me. I had begun to practice using two elements at the same time with great results so far last week; I couldn't say I was good enough to use them to attack someone.

I mean, I did use water, earth, and nature mana to trap Lyra, but I was doing that unconsciously; I was full of adrenaline if I even had that in this body. Plus, I wouldn't say I did; more like because of my desperation, mana began to move, and while that's good, I kind of don't want to be in a life or death situation for me to overpower my opponents.

I would rather do it from the start.

Anyway, I was using nature mana to clear my own route; I was simply displaying the trees that were already there, so the mana I used wasn't that much.

I wasn't only flying straight; I also made turns to curve the trench, of course until I reached the end of the forest. Satisfied with what I had done, I began to fly back.

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"And that's everyone," I said as Slyvan came back

"Everything went as planned, right?"

"Yes, Father, you may begin."

I nodded in response.

Flying to the top of the hill, a wide but not deep hole was created in the middle as a realm gate appeared at the bottom.

Elara planned to see if a gate could be placed in water, where said water would flow out of the gate and be used as a water source to form a makeshift river. Of course, the small trenches we made weren't the river; they were more of a guideline, so as more water ran through them, they would expand to form a real river.

The gate I had created was connected to the bottom of a plunge pool I found while flying through Verdantia one day.

I looked at the gate as water began to leave it, steadily filling up the hole. The gate couldn't be too wide as yet, as we had to make sure the water actually followed the channels we had in place for it to flow, and we didn't want the water to leave the range of the forest as we wanted it to slowly expand.

We didn't want or need to rush things; at the moment we'll be taking things nice and slow.

As for the hill that was created, it wasn't really needed, it was mostly for aesthetic purposes; however, as the forest grew, we would hopefully make it larger so that the water could flow farther.

We were basically planning for the future, and who knows, maybe this small hill would become a large mountain, a mountain with a realm gate at its center. Now that is something to think about.

The water slowly but surely filled up the little moat, and by the time I flew down to my children, it was already following its proper channels. 

"I hope this works," I sighed

I turned to my precious Elara and nodded before turning to look in front of me.

There, a portal formed, one that I couldn't help but shout out at the sight of it.

"Yes!"

I was about to turn to my children when I felt a force knock into me from behind. I began to fall to the ground.

"Father, it worked. It truly worked." I heard as I looked behind me to see my darling Elara.

"Yes, it worked, my dear." I smiled as I saw the joy basically radiating from my daughter.

What worked was the ability to open multiple realm gates. We didn't know if it could actually work; however, it truly did.

As I sat up, I began to hug her, which seemed to shock her a bit, before I looked towards my children, smiling.

"Elara, this not only confirms the ability to open two portals at once, maybe even more, but it also grants us the ability to do nearly instantaneous teleportation."

"At first we thought that to portal to a different area, we would have to open the portal and enter Eldoria, then close that portal to open another one to the area you wish to reach; with this discovery, we can potentially stack two portals on top of each other; this could help us save precious seconds, my dear."

"I.. I hadn't thought of that," Elara said as her eyes filled with wonder.

"But not only that, with a permanent water source available for the forest, we have more time for leisure. All we need to do now is create more channels for the water to flow and slowly expand the forest."

"The need to continuously water the plants will slowly become unnecessary."

"But that's for the future, as we don't want to expand too fast just yet; I can't really tell you why; it's more of a gut feeling than anything, but we'll take it slow and steady."

"Father, what about the trees close to the channel? I know we moved them to the side, but from what I understand, as the water moving through the channel increases, it's going to become wider, eventually forming the rivers we want." Thalassa asked.

The rest also nodded their heads, while Lyra—who I didn't even notice she was there actually—was sleeping on a rock with not a care in the world.

"She's getting healthier; that's good," I thought with a smile

"Well, dear, to answer your question, we'll be the ones to relocate them, as at this moment though we could just use nature mana, I found out that trees are precious."

"I recently realized that we can't make trees. What we're doing is revitalizing the dead trees that were surrounding us. Everything has a trace of mana left even when they die; however, as time goes on, it dissipates."

"Basically, what I'm saying is that we used those traces on the trees to bring life back to what it once was. Not resurrection per se, but more like fixing the body; if plants, trees, etc. have souls, I don't know, but what I can say is that I don't think we are at the right point of power in Tier 1 or the right tier."

"Maybe it's tier 2 or 4, but what I know is that we can manipulate them. As with Eryndor and Lyra's battle, he didn't create those trees to fight her; no, they were probably just seeds underground, in which mana helped to speed up their growth, and he manipulated the way they would grow."

"We do, however, create grass, flowers, and maybe shrubs as well."

"So yes, we must relocate them because we don't know how many dead trees we have left to revitalize."

"Now that you've said that, Father, I also just began to realize," Orion said.

"Okay, let's begin."

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"Run, Lione!"

"We'll handle it; just protect them in our stead."

That day was probably the worst and best day of my life.