As the three suns seemed to disappear as if gradually melting into the night sky, Priam was thinking. He didn't want to make a hasty decision but wasn't planning to sleep another night outside the Hut.

Select the initial theme of the "Hut":

Abundance - Life II

Abundance - Aether II

Protection III

Tribulation Resistance II

Camouflage

Attraction

Underground

Comfort

Volume

Secret Passage

Water control

...

Priam concentrated. If two neurons were to connect, it was now or never. A wrong choice could lead to his death.

"Most of the themes are pretty obvious. The Shack already benefits from Abundance - Life I, Abundance - Aether I, and Protection II due to the synergy with the original tree. Tribulation Resistance II... I guess the tree doesn't want to die again against a tribulation. I wanted a tree that doesn't attract attention, so Camouflage or Secret Passage are good ideas... But if I can boost the fruit production or protection offered by the tree, it may be more interesting if the increase is exponential rather than linear!"

If the tree could produce resources like Passiflora, Priam could become extremely powerful while being safe in his home. He could already see himself sipping Passiflora syrup while endlessly increasing his stats. I'll be the most powerful vegan in the world!

The young man admired his new home. The trunk had no fixed door but could open a portal to let an inhabitant in. Priam could communicate mentally with the Hut. He sensed that it was looking for more seeds, unique fruits, or rare resources to grow faster and unlock new themes.

As the suns shone their last rays on the world, Priam decided.

"Abundance is an interesting theme, but I can find food in other ways. I can't hide for months or years in a tree. That's the lifestyle of Wuxia characters and immortal cultivators. Impossible for a normal human."

Priam stepped back to look at the tree in all its glory. Illuminated by the last rays of sunlight, the leaves looked golden.

"Protection II looks like it gives the Hut a huge amount of strength because of the original tree. Just look at the dead tree that was still recognizable, where the normal trees just disappeared. I have to focus on survival, which means Camouflage or Secret Passage. The problem with Camouflage is that a tree alone, with nothing around it, will remain visible no matter the illusion. Might as well take Secret Passage!"

Selected theme: Secret passage.

All the plants are linked within a giant web. You can open a portal to the Hut from any tree within a hundred meters.

Without additional resources, the next theme will be selectable in 30 days.

Perfect!

Priam walked over to the tree and put his hand on the trunk. The bark was soft, but the wood had a solid feel that pleased the young man. He mentally commanded the tree to open, and the wood became fluid. A liquid veil, green and golden, seemed to have merged with the trunk. Passing through the portal with his hand, Priam felt like he was stirring foam. He moved forward into the passage.

As he entered the Hut for the first time, Priam marveled. For the first time since the portal - which he had not had time to appreciate fully - he contemplated the true wonders the aether allowed. His home was spatially augmented: the volume of the Hut was greater inside than the volume of the tree measured from the outside.

Sensing his questioning, the Shack sent him a mental explanation. The tree did have a trunk with sap and wood, but a small dimension was hidden inside. It was attached to the primary dimension of Elysium. The bigger, stronger, and better the physical tree, the more stable, larger, and more comfortable the space in the Tree House would be.

He was also isolated from the outside world. Not a sound, not a mental attack could reach him here. A group of metal bands could have blown the bass ten meters away from his tree without affecting his sleep.

While enjoying his reward, Priam observed his new home. A few veins pulsating with green and golden sap lit up the single room nicely. It consisted only of an empty circle with a radius of three meters. He had twenty-eight square meters to himself. The ceiling was about six meters high, and Priam ordered the tree to create a spiral staircase along the edge of the room to create a second floor. He also realized that he could have the treehouse project a video feed of the tree's surroundings onto the walls. Useful for monitoring the surroundings.

For the second floor, using basic woodworking, Priam began to create storage in the form of shelves. He wanted to be able to store his trophies, resources, and finds of all kinds. On the second floor, he set about increasing the aether density with the theme Abundance - Aether I. A higher aether density was supposed to help when acquiring skills and leveling up, but it also served to passively purify and temper the body like metal in a forge. The immune system became more resistant, longevity increased, and the body and mind were strengthened holistically and accumulated potential.

Abundance - Life I was used to produce fruit and other resources, but Priam had to provide the tree with a sample first. I'll have to go back and visit the ants...

Protection II strengthened the tree's wood against aggression and warned Priam if the tree was attacked or if an enemy came too close. According to the mental explanation, the tree was currently very resistant. It would not suffer any damage, even bathed in the acid of the ants.

Tired, the young man finally asked the tree to produce soft leaves to make a makeshift bed. Although not as soft as silk, the leaves were comfortable. It was a great improvement over his previous nights. For the first time since his arrival, Priam went to bed happy, satisfied with his day, and confident about the future.

"I need to find a better name for my home. Cabane is too generic. I didn't even build it."

Priam hummed and thought. Naming his possessions was always complicated. When he played video games, he often spent more time naming his characters than getting them to the top ten levels. Suddenly he laughed.

"Log-a-rhythm! If I survive in this new world, it will be by singing with a smile on my face. My house must look like me. Free, proud, and above all, happy to live! Because when you don't like living anymore, you're already almost dead. Its name will be Log-a-rhythm."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Smiling, feeling safe, he fell asleep very quickly.

About two kilometers away, Arnold had put his exploration on hold. He was reluctant to venture far, alone at first. The resources became more interesting as one moved away from the portal, but the dangers were more prevalent. Despite his superiority in the Tutorial, he knew his place in the Elysium food chain: at the bottom. He was confident that time would change that. Seized by a sudden urge, he returned to the portal to check that no one had arrived since.

His sense of smell confirmed that at least two individuals had recently arrived. They had gone in a different direction than he had, and one of the two tracks was disappearing rapidly. The other was more marked, the prints deeply inscribed in the ground. After analyzing their depth and the distance between the two prints, Arnold deduced that the owner was physically superior to him and was moving at nearly 100 km/h or 62 mph. A feat for a biped.

But the last two arrivals did not worry Arnold. He had arrived before them, and he had changed since his arrival. His lead would not be easily overcome.

No, what Arnold was worried about was the First. The body was gone, and given the latest arrivals, Arnold was under no illusion. He reacted poorly to their encounter by directly eliminating the threat. No one could get through the Tutorial faster than he could without being extremely skilled or having assets. Arnold could see that he had been fooled. The First had played him and feigned weakness to check his intentions. And he had fallen for it. It was a test, and he had failed. Perhaps he was watching him now, spinning his web to manipulate Arnold to his will. Or he now considered Arnold inferior and unworthy. The Var Elegis wanted to scream in rage at his stupidity. But he controlled himself. There would be no more mistakes.

The primary goal was to accumulate power to help the Empire. He had to continue evolving, eliminating competitors, and building alliances with the powerful. He had to convince the First of the value of an alliance. Or destroy him if he refused.

"[Analysis]"

Focusing on the traces, Arnold quickly detected an anomaly in the aether. Two physical traces were present, but three traces in the aether were detected. Someone wants to play hide and seek.

The Var Elegis was not very concerned about the first two tracks. Honestly, given the mass, strength, movement technique, and arrival time of the owner of the first track, Arnold had already concluded that he would win easily. The opponent would certainly be a formidable killing machine, but he had taken advantage of his lead in Elysium. He had already created and improved his techniques and features.

The owner of the second trace was more elusive, and the homunculus hesitated. Dexterity? Perhaps specialized in the mind?

However, the first traces, the ones that had been camouflaged, bothered him. The homunculus did not usually use his instincts, but they told him this enemy would be a nuisance if he let it grow. The measurements of the analysis seemed to indicate a form of life half plant, half animal, contrary to the Var Elegis.

"Elimination of the Third in high priority. Start tracking."

Arnold began to follow the tracks of the last biped. Following the fugitive's tracks was not complicated. Arnold had honed his analytical skills over the past two days. Five kilometers down the road, the tracks led him to a huge tree, and the Var Elegis believed his prey was hiding inside. Another hypothesis was that it had merged with the tree. The tree must have been thirty meters high, and the shimmering colors of its leaves seemed artificial.

Arnold looked around briefly for a potential trap, then prepared to attack. His stats were very high, and he had no weaknesses, but the Var Elegis wouldn't use his martial skills to fight such a huge tree. Arnold planted his feet on a thick root. Tiny tentacles spread out under the homunculus' feet and penetrated the root. If Priam had been present, he would not have been able to recognize the chemical composition of the tentacles. Was this technology superior to that of human civilization? Another branch of technology? Or were there other fundamental laws governing the Var Elegis Empire? Without answering these questions, Arnold began to absorb the energy flowing through the root system. Extending his right hand, palm facing the target tree, he smiled.

"Pesticide or combustion? To annihilate this tree quickly, I'm leaning towards combustion. [Weaponry: Directed Energy - LASER]."

A continuous beam, invisible to the naked eye, left Arnold's palm and instantly struck the surface of the tree trunk. The skill was terrifying in its speed - the speed of light - and its power in the hundreds of kilowatts. Arnold could theoretically reach megawatts by drawing more energy from the roots, but he didn't want to damage his body. Some of the stolen energy was not converted into light but into heat, and the Var Elegis' body was already starting to heat up.

If Arnold's sensors informed him of the problem, the homunculus still had time before it was in danger. The tree, however, was already aflame.

Three seconds after the assault began, a shape seemed to emerge from the other side of the trunk. The tree had given birth to a semi-human form in just one second. The Drya Guardian left the tree and fell to the ground. As he rose to his feet, he turned toward Arnold and manipulated the aether into a soothing wave signifying his pacifism. Despite the homunculus' preemptive attack, the Drya had no desire to fight. He mourned the impending death of his fellow tree but also knew that his ashes would give strength and vitality to the rest of the forest.

The Guardian spoke, wrapping his words in aether to convey their intent, if not their exact meaning.

"Peace warrior. My name is Dishnu, Guardian of the Dryas. I do not seek war, I do not steal resources, and you will find me tomorrow as you do today: at peace."

Arnold closed his hand, and the spear of light disappeared. He did not understand the Drya's words, but he was aware that the Drya was not looking for war. The Empire, with the help of its archives and artificial intelligence programmed to predict the new world, had established that some beings would be peaceful or neutral. Not everyone could be thirsty for hegemonic control. Unfortunately for Dishnu, Arnold was the representative of the Empire. His opponent manipulated the aether with a disturbing naturalness, and Arnold wanted to eliminate the competition. He was educated to do so, almost programmed to follow the Empire's lead.

Dishnu instantly sensed that the homunculus was not going to stop its assault. Dryas were sensitive to emotions and the aether. Blessed by it, they could understand every living being. This blessing, this gift from the aether and the gods, drove them to be peaceful. The Dryas knew life's value and that few beings were inherently evil. But Dishnu also knew when a battle of ideas was lost. The Var Elegis would not be reasoned with by words - and they still shared no language - but by actions. That would take time.

For the time being, Dishnu intended to survive. They could become friends later. A second passed, then the fight resumed.

Arnold approached the Drya using all the power of his legs and the jet thrusters in his back, which were instantly created by his unique anatomy. On Earth, his speed would have been enough to break the sound barrier during his acceleration. Still, the atmospheric pressure in Elysium was too high, preventing him from achieving this feat. The homunculus wanted to get as close as possible to the Drya to blur the nearby aether and limit the tree-man's abilities. He knew he was outclassed in this category, but destroying was always easier than creating.

Dishnu quickly retreated and disappeared into a tree before emerging from another twenty yards away. He could use two nearby trees as portals and relied on this ability to avoid getting too close to Arnold. The two opponents had quickly figured out their respective abilities, and Dishnu knew he was physically outmatched.

Arnold stopped abruptly and turned around, sending light pulses from his hands to hurt the Drya. The Drya dodged the photonic attacks by running into trees, but its hosts were quickly burned. After about ten seconds, a fire had already broken out, and a hundred trees looked like torches. The Keeper of the Dryas and Nature would not let the Var Elegis reduce more trees to ashes. Sometimes you have to punish the child to teach him a lesson. [Nature’s Wrath]

As Arnold activated a nuclear reactor inside him to increase his power tenfold, the trees in a two-hundred-meter radius rose. Thousands of aether-strengthened branches and roots, strong enough to shred steel, slammed into Arnold.

The homunculus smiled. Living for more than a century in the order of the Empire, he had felt nothing in that time. He had never tried to feel anything, for that matter. But the Tutorial had changed that. He discovered that he liked to fight. That he wanted to win.

"[Armament: Nova]"

The forest lit up.

Status: (Average value for a male Homo sapiens before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0)

PHYSICAL:

Strength 23

Constitution 35

Agility 34

Vitality 51

Perception 24

MENTAL:

Vivacity 60

Dexterity 17

Memory 29

Willpower 44

Charisma 36

META:

Meta-affinity 8

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