Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Realm Of True Evil, Shell Island

The swarm of Calamity Daughter Seed Truevils followed Scar to Shell Island. They continued to remain in the lava, watching me take root in Shell Island.

The hatchlings curiously rushed toward the shore excitedly as this was their first time seeing a male Truevil or a swarm of Truevils for that matter, but Scar reacted immediately, physically stopping them by kicking them deep into the island. They were all heavily injured, but nothing their racial traits couldn’t handle.

Meanwhile, Maworm rushed toward my side, coiling her body around my trunk and weaving her head between my branches while being gentle so her thorns wouldn’t leave marks or tear the leaves as she brushed past them. She affectionately rolled around, as if seeking praise for a job well done. She was dumber than Cloud Prowler, but eerily loyal.

Then, through Hive Spirit, she requested permission to climb up the fossilized ribcage and dig into the shell to hunt down the juicy prey hiding in it.

I instantly knew who she was referring to. It was the giant parasite hiding within the shell. It was able to break Scar’s Macro Samsara Array from outside instead of being dragged in because it had lived in the shell for so long that it was part of the shell, using which the natural array was laid. So, if the array tried to drag it into it, it would be dragging the very nature used to set it up. This paradox helped it bypass the condition of the Macro Samsara Array and break it from outside.

I was surprised to learn Maworm could sense the parasite deep within the shell when all my soul pupils were being blocked by the network of roots it was using to hide itself.

Still, I welcomed this piece of much-needed good news among the list of things I was unable to do and immediately gave her my permission. And without any delay, Maworm slithered away toward the nearest fossilized rib.

Through Hive Spirit, I noticed that the swarm of Calamity Daughter Seed Truevils didn’t show any sign of attacking the hatchlings or stepping into the Shell Island. Actually, they were all floating by the mouth and exit of the turtle shell. They didn’t enter the pool of lava surrounding the island. It looked like they were respecting the boundary of my territory.

If that were true, that was a serious problem. What right did they or the World Calamity Tree acting through them have to decide the boundary of my territory? This wasn’t an act of friendliness but passive-aggressively asserting one’s dominance.

Was I overreacting, thinking too much into it?

No, I wasn’t. I would have been more relieved if they had followed me into Shell Island. Their display of sincerity or whatever this was was completely decided by them, and I had no say in it.

Someone trying to make a friend doesn’t do that.

Well, one can counter that I didn’t even dare introduce myself to my neighbour. Then, how were they to involve me in the decision? To them, I ask, what if my neighbour was a mob boss who not only unilaterally decided the type of clothes I would wear for me, but forced me to wear them?

I tried to think of every reason not to unseal my senses and communicate with the World Calamity Tree.

It wasn’t just the noise that I didn’t understand or its mysterious effect on my form, but what I fundamentally knew about the World Calamity Trees. They were beings who, when they devoured enough, could achieve transcendence if only they were to lose their self-destructive, insatiable hunger, but if they were to lose their insatiable hunger, they wouldn’t be able to devour enough to achieve transcendence. The World Calamity Tree leading the swarm of Calamity Daughter Seed Truevils was an example of the former, while I was an example of the latter.

In short, I couldn’t trust someone who wouldn’t hesitate to eat themselves if need be. As there was no doubt they wouldn’t hesitate to eat me when the time came.

Yes, that was the World Calamity Tree’s nature.

Therefore, it would be foolish of me to assume that maybe the World Calamity Tree was greeting me in its own way.

I didn’t plan on being the frog that trusted the scorpion.

I might have taken the chance if the difference in our prowess wasn’t so big. It had already shown that I was helpless against its ways. This was the case when I wasn’t anywhere near it and it was only acting through its Daughter Seeds. What if we were to come face to face?

No matter how I approached this, I saw this ending with the other World Calamity Tree using me as another one of its livestock/Hunter/Gatherer, just like the hundreds and thousands of Truevils before me.

As such, I continued to keep my senses sealed while using Hive Spirit to watch the perspectives of Scar, Maworm, and Cloud Prowler.

Yes, I had decided what my next course of action was going to be. I planned to collect the entire damn shell after Maworm was done getting rid of the parasite. The World Calamity Tree wasn’t going anywhere. When I figured out the noise and the mystery behind it, I would return to have a proper chat with it.

It was something even the Celestial Voice that Scar and I possessed could not hear or interpret, so I wouldn’t hold my breath on it. Maybe the World Calamity Tree would be done with this realm before I could even decipher it. Regardless, I was not taking any chances when I didn’t have any kind of certainty.

Even though I planned to leave, things weren’t as simple as I made them out to be. There were a series of problems I needed to address; otherwise, I would only be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.