Chapter 101: Fair Trade
"I thought it was some serious matter. Turns out you just need names." Hearing the Treants' request, Arthur couldn't help but laugh.
Zoltan, ever the jester, quipped: "Trees are afraid of axes and saws, aren't they? Why don't we name him Uncuttable!"
Amidst the laughter, Faiv adopted a serious expression, solemnly stating:
"Bestowing a name upon a Treant is actually an ancient magical ritual. Only after receiving a name can the Treant fully unleash its complete potential."
Arthur's heart tightened. He realized this was a serious matter, not one to be joked about. He looked at Dandelion:
"You read the most. Help us think of a good word."
Dandelion strummed his lute, singing in the richly emotional, poetic style unique to him:
"Ah, what a mighty stature! Ah, what powerful strides! Not even the Cyclops of the Skellige Isles can compare to you! I shall call you Ymir, Father of Giants!"
The Oak Treant gently shook its head: "A Treant is merely a Treant. We do not need to borrow the fame of a giant."
Kolgrim whispered: "Giants are notoriously brutal and foolish, and despised by many intelligent beings. It's normal that it doesn't like that name."
"I think they don't care whether their name is imposing or not, but whether that name comes from you."
Is that so? Arthur pondered for a moment, then placed his hand on the Oak Treant's calf, speaking with solemnity:
"Then, I shall call you Groot. This name signifies loyalty and valor, warmth and kindness, and carries the blessing of eternal life."
Groot the Oak Treant bent down, lowering its crown to the ground: "Thank you for your bestowal, Speaker of the Woods. From this day forward, I shall be known as Groot."
"Me too! Me too!" The Cedar Treant was so eager it nearly jumped.
Arthur placed his hand on its knee and continued to intone:
"I shall name you Jackbar. This name signifies righteousness, fearlessness, and irresistibility. May you become the guardian spear of Brokilon."
Jackbar the Cedar Treant twirled its wooden spear into a blur, then performed a backflip in place:
"I, Jackbar, hereby swear to the Speaker of the Woods: as long as a breath remains in me, no one shall break through my spear-ring!"
Ciri, being the lightest, was jolted by the aftershock of Jackbar's landing, but Geralt quickly caught her. Realizing he had caused trouble, Jackbar looked worriedly at Ciri, but the little girl was not frightened at all. Instead, she shouted "Do it again!", drawing laughter from the whole group.
The merriment belonged to the others. As the officiator of the naming ritual, Arthur had a different sensation.
After the Treants accepted their names, something magical happened to Arthur: two fine threads extended from his mind, connecting directly to the two Treants, forming a small psychic network.
He tried communicating with the Treants through this network, discovering to his surprise that it required no psychic energy consumption at all: "What abilities did you unlock?"
A surge of excited thought came from Jackbar, followed by decipherable information:
[Treant Spearthrower: The Treant gathers power and launches three highly penetrating wooden spears. The number and speed of the spears increase with the Treant's strength.]
Arthur nodded slightly. He had seen this move in the forest memories. Its power was indeed astonishing. If a sorcerer hadn't redirected the spears in time, that war might have had a different outcome.
Receiving the Speaker of the Woods' approval, Jackbar's enthusiasm became infectious, and he kept asking: "Can Groot do it? Can Groot do it?"... times n. Arthur had to reluctantly mute Jackbar's information feed. The fellow's mind was certainly sharp; he had even instinctively learned how to spam.
In contrast, Groot was much more modest, simply and silently sending over a massive string of ability information:
[Forest Domain: Groot can convert magical particles within a one-kilometer radius into the form best suited for a Treant's use, accelerating the birth of new Treants.]
[Creature Affinity: Although massive, Groot is consistently beloved by flora and fauna. When more than half of the plants and animals in an area feel goodwill toward Groot, that location is incorporated into Groot's Forest Domain.]
[Root Network: Through a highly developed root network, Groot can instantly know everything happening in the forest.]
[Hardened Bark: Long-term magical tempering has made Groot's bark as hard as iron and stone, difficult to damage with ordinary swords and blades.]
[Treant Spearthrower: The Treant gathers its internal power and launches ten highly penetrating wooden spears. The number and speed of the spears increase with the Treant's strength.]
[Undying Body: Groot creates a sapling clone. When the main body is destroyed, the soul transfers to the clone and gradually reawakens as the sapling grows.] …
Jackbar was utterly defeated.
Arthur, however, was overjoyed: "Excellent, excellent! Now this is what a high-level Treant should look like!"
Throughout the rest of their journey, they incessantly discussed the Treants, imagining the changes they would bring. Dandelion kept strumming his lute non-stop, proclaiming he would write a magnificent poem that would make all his colleagues want to hang themselves.
Only Geralt looked glum.
"What, still thinking about your dryad girlfriend?" Zoltan, being overly familiar, stretched out his arm. He wasn't tall enough to put it around Geralt's shoulder, and trying to reach his waist was awkward, so he awkwardly scratched his own backside instead.
Geralt sighed: "Morien told me before she died that she hoped one day she could lead the dryads down a new path."
"So this time, I came with a mission from the King of Brugge. I wanted to discuss the issue of territorial exchange with Eithné, but I was thrown out before I even had a chance to speak."
"Territorial exchange?" Arthur frowned slightly, feeling the Witcher had taken on a thankless task.
The so-called territorial exchange was for the dryads to surrender the forest east of the Vidden River in exchange for the Whispering Woods to the north.
"Geralt, Geralt, I advise you to deal less with these politicians in the future, or one day you'll be sold out without even knowing it."
Dandelion laughed heartily, leaning forward and back. Finally, under Geralt's menacing gaze, he picked up a twig and quickly sketched the outlines of Brokilon and Brugge's territories on the ground.
"See this?" The poet's twig lightly divided the map into three sections:
"If the dryads agree to the territorial exchange plan, Brugge will not only gain a large quantity of high-quality timber but also copper and iron mineral deposits underground this means Brugge's military strength will rapidly increase over the next few decades."
"And the dryads? The Whispering Woods looks sizable, but it's completely unconnected to Brokilon. Not only would the dryads be unable to recuperate and thrive there, but they would also have to disperse their already limited manpower this means their strength would be weakened."
"Right now, the proposal from the people of Brugge seems fair and reasonable. But if the power gap between the two sides widens further, do you think they will still be content with a fair trade?"
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