Chapter 870: Treant Wood

"Ambriel, do you think we"re going to throw you away if you can"t help?" Eisen asked with a slight frown, and the angel carefully looked up at him.

"...Of course, why wouldn"t you?" they replied, nervosity clearly written on their face. Eisen didn"t know what he was supposed to say; obviously he wasn"t going to get rid of them just because they weren"t able to help. The only requirement that Eisen held for them was that they tried to be better than they used to be when they were in heaven.

Things like their past xenophobia couldn"t go on forever, and as long as they actively tried to unlearn this, there was no reason for Eisen to try and "get rid" of them.

"Because you"re a person, not a tool. Yes, I would like your help with this, because it will especially make dealing with the Holy Empire a hundred times easier," the old man explained, "You have the right to choose whether or not you will partic.i.p.ate in this.

I understand that your situation is a bit more complicated than Satel"s, so I can"t really blame you for it if you say that it"s too much for you right now."

Ambriel slowly looked over at the devil by their side, nervously trying to see what they thought. Satel sighed lightly, placing a hand onto the angel"s arm, "It"s as he said, if you don"t think you can do it, you don"t have to. But I do just want to say that I believe you"re capable of more than what you might think you are.

You"re strong, you"re going through a lot, but you do keep making a lot of progress. Alright?"

The angel looked at the person in front of them, glancing down at Satel"s hand that was still on their arm, grabbing it with her own hand and holding it tightly. Ambriel looked up at Eisen and nodded, "Alright... I... I will try my best."

---

Jyuuk stood in his botanic garden, specifically in its centre where he was rubbing the underside of a monster"s chin. It was a boar the size of a large bus, with black plates covering its back. From behind him, Eisen approached curiously, "Oh? You"ve tamed a new beast?" he asked, and the beastman turned around with a smile.

"Mhm, I picked him up on one of the islands. He"s going to be the one fighting against Brody during the treaty meeting," Jyuuk explained, but Eisen was a bit taken aback.

"I thought you were going to lure a wild monster toward there? Plus, a boar? Isn"t that island filled with insect monsters almost exclusively?"

The beastman grinned lightly and nodded his head, "Yes, but after speaking to Brody, we figured it would be better to use a tamed monster so that we can properly curate the situation. Evalia helped out with some planning to make it a bit more dramatic.

And there"s no reason to worry about his appearance," Jyuuk said, turning toward the boar with a smile as he rubbed his hand over the monster"s snout, "Go ahead, buddy."

Given the command, the boar took a step back. It shook its body like a dog trying to dry itself after a bath, and its fur practically shed immediately. But none of the strands managed to hit the ground before dissipating, instead revealing the form of a ma.s.sive, pitch black beetle, "He"s a Mimic Beetle. They can adapt their bodies based on the things they eat.

So I"ve been feeding him a few things that seemed useful in general and training him to be able to mix and match things. I figured the boar"s tusks and its abilities that let it rush forward without break would be useful in making him feel more dangerous to the envoys."

While Eisen was certainly impressed, there was still something that was bothering him, "Wasn"t Brody supposed to kill that monster? Just chasing it away might not do the job to the extent we were planning, right?"

"Right, but that"s also no problem. I fed it some of this," Jyuuk explained, walking over to one of the nearby planters. On there was a small shrub with large white leaves that seemed to be surrounded in a cold mist.

But as Jyuuk touched his hand to the leaf, it seemed to break away into a mist itself, soon reforming, "A Ghost Shrub, and after feeding it to him, he learned an ability to enter this sort of "defense mode", which will render all physical attacks useless. So as long as Brody doesn"t purposefully use his energy, there won"t be any issues."

Eisen smiled with a quick nod, "Alright, in that case there"s nothing to worry about. But anyway, that"s not what I"m here for either way."

Curious, Jyuuk raised a brow, his tail waving back and forth behind him, "Oh? Anything I can do to help?"

"Well, there"s two things. First, will you be there for the treaty meeting itself? I will be acting as the mediator between the two sides, but having you all there would definitely be a good thing. I"ve been in contact with the different countries a couple of times now, but I know you all have been staying out of politics for the most part.

Jyuuk thought about it for a moment, and then just shrugged, "I guess I will be there. I will have to be nearby anyway to control Hercules. Oh that"s his name, by the way," Jyuuk explained, pointing at the large beetle still standing behind him, "I might as well show my face there.

You seemed very concerned about the way that all the envoys were going to act, so if my presence can help pacify them somehow, then I don"t see why not. As long as I don"t have to partic.i.p.ate in the meeting itself, and just need to sit nearby."

The old man laughed and nodded his head, "Of course, of course. Just sit back and try to be a bit intimidating, that"s all I"m really asking for."

"So? What"s the other thing?" Jyuuk wondered, before seeing the expression on the old man"s face, "Hold on, I know that look... Do you want me to help you build something? Don"t you already have your hands full with your train?"

"What, can"t a man have more than one project at a time?" Eisen laughed, but Jyuuk just scoffed.

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"Yeah, but you"ve got like a dozen. So what is it that you would like me to help out with?"

"Alright so, I need some specific type of wood. I recently remembered some hints at an item that seemed quite interesting," Eisen explained, and Jyuuk looked back with a moment of hesitation.

"...Haven"t I bred a few different wood types for you already? Why are you treating this one so special?" the beastman wondered, his tail unable to hide the excitement and curiosity that it always did when Eisen was about to ask Jyuuk for an interesting favour.

"Because it is special. I need Treant wood."

"Treant?" Jyuuk responded, "Oh, that"s an interesting one. I don"t... no, no, I think I have encountered them before, or at least similar ones. And it has to be treants specifically, and not any other sort of sentient plant?"

Eisen nodded, "Right, it has to be Treant wood. That"s one of the only things that I remember about the item"s creation process."

"I see... Yes, there might be some Treants on one of the islands, but I first encountered them on the eastern end of the central continent. Does it need to be any particular base wood, though? Treants are transformed and monsterfied trees, after all."

"A hard wood, if possible. An oak would probably be perfect," Eisen explained, "Is that going to work out?"

"Of course! There"s plenty of Oak Treants. Actually, once I capture some, I should be able to figure out how they work. Maybe I can create some myself?

I"m pretty sure there"s some aspects of necromancy involved, since treants seem to have something similar to souls," Jyuuk started getting lost in thought, trying to come up with the best method of acquiring Treant wood, before looking back up at the old man, "So, what is this item you"re trying to make?"

"It"s more like a type of item, really. "Living Items". Though, they"re not really alive, just items that seem to be able to move on their own given some pre-specified patterns."

"...Isn"t that just a golem?"

"That"s what I thought, but after looking into it a bit more, that doesn"t seem to be the case. I"ll have to see once I actually have the materials, but from what I can tell, it"s much less autonomous. Like... okay, imagine a self-opening door. A golem would be something that you have open the existing door, while the "Living Item" would be the door itself.

It looks like it would be possible to create some really interesting, small, physical mechanisms using treant wood. What I really want to use it for right now are gears that will never stop turning."