Chapter 190 – Complete food chain

"Let’s hear him out at least.” Said Noah sighing, while standing inside his mind realm that night, when he confronted Ugy about the hidden nightmare.

“Well, what do you mean by suicide? Why can’t we seal it back?” He asked turning to the plush bear sitting in the armchair bound by a spider web. Noah and Yuko stood glaring at him with crossed hands demanding his explanation about the secretly nurtured nightmare of the Parasite Tree.

“It is how you heard me. You would most likely die if you try to seal it now. And not in the most presentable way. You would turn into a monster and would be put down after  leaving chaos and a lot of destruction in your wake.”

“Alright.” Said Noah breathing out a heavy sigh. He expected no less from that idiotic corrupted system of his. “Now explain from beginning to end.” Said Noah sitting down on the couch. It was clear that the conversation would be long.

“Fine. It began when I thought of a way to rejuvenate the Doonpines branch by cheating on its growth conditions, overcoming this condition in a roundabout way.” Said Ugy starting his explanation.

“Doonpine branch is a creature living on the laws and principles implemented into it by its progenitor. Its creator. Like humans that have to eat, shit, and repeat, unless they want to die. It also has to follow the cycle that Doonpine has written into it upon its creation.

And these rules were most likely the same that Doonpine had for its own materialized body. Absorb nutrients for growth from nature and grow spirit with spiritual energy contained in that soil. Like all living beings it has a digestive system working on certain laws. But what if we add another way for its digestive system to work? Make it possible for it to take in nutrients in another, totally unavailable for it previously way. Give it a new digestive organ so to say.

Imagine if humans could gain sustenance from ground and photosynthesis when food is unavailable.” Said Ugy excitedly.

“I don't know what photosyn…whatever is. But how are you suggesting we do that?” Asked Noah

“Oh, I already did. With the Parasite Tree possessing it, it is now capable of granting the branch its own method of feeding. Nutrient from a juicy leaking pussy of a…”

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Screamed Noah. “You let that nightmare possess the sapling of Doonpine?!”

“Yes.” Said Ugy his voice going guiltily quiet.

“How could you do that!? It is a sapling of Treant! A barely awakened sentience! What would happen to its mind if Nightmare takes possession of it?!” Shouted Noah.

“It will be suppressed of course for now. But what’s the great deal there’s barely anything to be worried about, that thing barely has any rudiments of reason, yet. It’s not like it’s a sentient being yet.”

“Exactly you stupid fucker! This is the time when it should learn, absorb knowledge, and grow. It has a right to live and turn into an adult for fucks sake. It’s still a kid God damn it.”

“If this is a moral side of the matter, you don’t need to worry. How old do you think that branch is? Trees are slow growing and Doonpine lived in a dungeon for decades or hell knows how much longer and we know dungeon soil is not a good enough soil to grow that saplin. This thing, according to my analysis is older than you so it's totally adult according to laws. The reason it has such low sentience still is exactly it’s Daddy’s fault. Doonpine should have taken better care of it. What I did is no worse than what its own creator subjected it to by growing it in a fucking dungeon without nutrients and spirit power that is essential for growing sentience.”

“Exactly! You dumb fuck! What good does it make to find a way to rejuvenate it, if it will forever stay a mindless tool!? You ruined it you sick fuck!” Shouted Noah.

“User…”

“Release it! Immediately!” Said Noah not wanting to hear any excuses.

“I can’t” Said Ugy quietly

“NOW!” Screamed Noah.

“I can’t! It literally can't be done. It’s….too late.” Said Ugy, his eyes not daring to gaze back at Noah.

“What do you mean by that?” Staring daggers at Ugy.

“The name of that creature speaks for itself. Parasite Tree. It’s a parasite. That’s why it was helpful from the get-go. But that’s why it’s not possible to divide them too. It doesn’t just connect or take possession, it uses its parasitism ability to integrate with the mind, spirit, and body of the branch. It didn’t just control the body as a puppeteer. To give this new ability it had to assimilate part of itself into it.”

“What the fuck have you done!?” Shouted Noah grabbing the table and throwing it into the air, sending it crashing against the wall.

“You don’t have to be so angry. Just let me finish what I have to say, ok? It’s not as bad as you imagine. The young Treant's mind is suppressed to gain control of the body but it’s not in any danger, it will grow and develop its mind as it should until it can do what it needs to do on itself. Right now we can't even reason with it. It's no smarter than a simple stick. But in our care, it will develop a lot faster than when it was in Doonpine's care. Well, maybe having a second consciousness would make it a bit skewed but otherwise, its inner self would be safe.”

“How is that possible? You said that Nightmare takes possession of his body - and parasitizes it. Now you say it would safely coexist? Don’t bullshit me!” Said Noah seething with anger.

“It’s not a lie. I said it used its parasitizing ability. I did not say it parasitize from that branch. On the contrary. It’s helping the branch. They are in symbiosis. Just like the symbiosis of humans and mitochondria that are now basically an undividable part of your human bodies, Nightmare and this Treant will supplement each other through symbiosis and protect each other. They will not harm each other. Its mind is safe. Only while it is too dumb to care for itself just yet, the nightmare would take control over its body for the time being.

“But you said…”

“User all symbiotes are initially parasites that preferred long-lasting mutually beneficial relationships with hosts, over the short-living parasitic relationship that would kill their host and then itself in the end. While making a deal with the nightmare, I made it understand the mutual benefit and the pros and cons of being your ally or enemy. I assure you that this being is on our side no less than Yuko. You do trust Yuko, right? And who was it that assured you of her trustworthiness?”

“I was not a dumb beast in the story I came from.” Said Yuko crossing her hands.

“She has a point. But alright, let’s assume it’s trustworthy. So what? What do you suggest? Let that thing do the same shit it was doing in that story? Attack women and drug them while raping them until it creates more of its offspring? Or better shove that branch into women's pussies myself so that you sick fuck could get Evolution Energy?” Asked Noah throwing up his hand in exasperation. “This is preposterous. I would rather burn that thing with the branch than let this kind of abomination roam the world.”

“I fully approve of that.” Said Yuko excited at his side. “Burn it. Right now.” She said making Ugy roll his eyes

“That is not how it works, you two. Though the idea pleases me, but no, this world is totally safe from that nightmare proliferating all over it. It merely possesses the body, not makes it similar to itself. It may grant a certain ability but not to the way of changing its very being. Any offspring of that body will stay as the Treant that Doonpine created them to be. The only one possessing this ability would be OUR Treant. Its offspring would grow as Doonpine intended them to be.”

“Also what Nightmare does is merely changing the way, not the criteria. He adds another way of getting nutrients. However, nutrients must still be heavily imbued with spiritual energy. And although shoving it in every pussy to get Evolution Energy is not a bad idea, the cunt should be special. And of all those that fit this criteria, there is only one that is currently within our reach.” Explained Ugy.

“No. No, no, no, no!” Exclaimed Noah shaking his head as the implication dawned on him.

“Yes. The only one that fits right now is Dryad Queen.” Said Ugy.

“Have you lost your fucking mind you plush ass? How the fuck would I shove that branch into her cunt!?” Exclaimed Noah in shock of the whole absurdity of that plan. “You think that’s gonna be easy? You are totally out of your mind, Ugy.”

“Worry not, User! This ingenious system of yours has foreseen this problem! Behold!” Said Ugy opening the item pocket screen and showing Noah a picture of the case that Tessa made for Noah when he left the mansion.

Then the case on the picture opened and zoomed in, showing what's inside. On the velvety pad made of Tessas Spider Silk where a branch should have been lying, was instead a big wooden dick with a thick veiny pattern streaming all over it.

“Just like Doonpine himself, this branch is a shapeshifter. Although the branch is still too dumb to do it, after taking over its body nightmare learned to use its ability. It is still too slow as it’s too weak and malnourished but, within the last two weeks, it managed to gradually change its body according to my suggestion. With this form, I can guarantee that shoving it into her hole would be a lot easier.” Said Ugu with a smug face.

The eyes of both Noah and Yuko twitched as they gazed in shock at what become of the Legacy left to him by the Legendary Being.

“What the fuck is that?!” Screamed Noah tears filling his eyes from frustration. He grabbed some vase that he made in the past as a simple decoration of the house and smashed it against the wall, screaming profanities for the whole minute. There was currently nothing he could do to that Plush bear that could hurt him immediately but he needed to vent his anger somehow. His furniture took the brunt of it.

“User. You are unneededly overly emotional. Have faith in your system. We would not need to shove it between her legs ourselves. She will gladly do that herself once we rent it to her. Of course, only after negotiating very preferable for us rent payment conditions.”

“Rent? Rent it to her? Why the hell would she want it?” Said Noah in exasperation.

“Oh, she would. Not only that. We will make her indebted to us and ask for lots of benefits from her in return. Two rabbits with one shot. You should trust my genius more. I assure you she would be happy to shove this wooden dick into herself. I made sure of that.” Said Ugy.

“Made sure of that? How? What did you do?”

“Ummm…before I explain…” said Ugy his eyes skittery. “Why don’t you calm down a bit and hear me out before judging? I assure you, I did this for your own benefit.

“WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?” Said Noah his eyes staring coldly at the bound plush bear as a feeling of premonition settled in his gut.

“User, to make Dryan Queen cooperative we need to offer her a worthy price in return. I did some study on Dryads as a whole and found exactly what they need. No, what they desire.” Said Ugy.

Noah stood gazing coldly at the bear silently listening without comment.

“Remember I asked you to peek at Dahlia in her private room? Had you done what I suggested you would not need any explanation. But oh well, this great me would enlighten you. Umm maybe you could untie me, I feel discomfort…”

““No!”” Said Noah and Yuko in one voice.

“Talk, you narcist ass.” Said Noah sighing

“Tsk. Alright. If you looked around the Core forest carefully or peeked on Dahlia when she’s ‘alone’, you would notice one interesting peculiarity. The trees in this core forest are all male species except the Gardens. In the Gardens, however, they were on the contrary all female species.”

“I don’t get it. Male and female trees?” Asked Noah.

“Oh. I see you need that deep down in the story when you said to start from the beginning. OK. See, there are pistils and stamens. Bees fly from flower to flower…”

“Oh shut up. I know what pollination is, you bastard.” Said Noah in annoyance at Ugy’s trolling.

“Alright. If we skip the basics, then…Dryads are inborn sluts.” Said Ugy with a straight face.

“I am gonna punch you, bastard.” Said Noah with a scowl making a step toward him.

“No, No. Listen to me. I am merely stating a fact. Dryads are born only with one gender. It may not tell you much right now because you did not reach a high enough level in using spiritual power or understanding of divine energy, but if you had any knowledge you would understand such things as female and male energies.

In some civilizations, it was called as Yin and Yang. Basically, it’s a theory of the balance of energies in the world. Every energy should have an opposite that would counter it and balance it.

Look at it this way. All humans, animals, or even monsters possess the energy of life. Vitality. In perfection, Vitality is balanced energy possessing equal amounts of Yin and Yang within itself. However, Vitality within every being that has genders consists of two pairs of Vitality combined with each other. One comes from a male parent and one from a female parent. Let’s call them X and Y energies. Now male beings have Vitality heavily imbued with Y energy. Y is higher than X. Females, on the contrary, have Vitality with X energy predominating over Y energy.

But no matter whether their child is born as female or male in the end, they will always have both of these energies inside them.

Two counter energies strive to suppress each other and in ideal situations reach a total balance of power. However, if initial parent Vitality energies passed to the child had too much of a difference in their potential, one of them may predominate.

When X predominates, the female is born. And have Vitality with abundant X energy. We call it Yin Vitality

When Y predominates, a male is born. And have Vitality with an abundant Y energy. It is called Yang Vitality.

In reality, there is no such ideal situation when both energies are equal. One of them is always a bit stronger and this gives living beings a sort of discomfort that they don’t really understand where it’s coming from. As a result, an unconscious crave to balance these energies occurs. In this case, beings would have a desire to take in the missing amount of energy from outside sources or share their abundant energy to make it weaken.

In other words,...” Said Ugy forming an ‘O’ with his one hand. “They either let out the excess energy.” Explained Ugy showing a visual example by stroking that ‘O’ up and down as if masturbating. “Or…” he said, lifting his other hand and sticking it through the ‘O’ in pistoning motions. “They connect with those who are in the opposite situation to theirs and need to balance the opposite energy, to exchange abundant energies between each other.” He said getting a smack on the head from Yuko for his obscene gestures.

“Khem…In other words, they crave to mate. This is the base that nature uses to power the mechanism of procreational instinct in the living organisms.” Said Ugy finishing his lecture on mating.

“Now if you know there are beings that have stronger desires and perform this mating ritual a lot more than others. Their desires, their lust, their horny, whatever you call it, is a lot higher. People would call such beings sluts, would they not? Slut man or slut woman, that's a derogatory word you humans use without understanding the causes. If I have to simplify all that was said, Dryads are inborn…”

“I see.” Said Noah, interrupting him. “You are saying Dryads have an over-excess Yin energy in their Vitality. Far more than a normal human.”

“Oh, not just excess.” Said Ugy. “See, in the case of creatures that occur from some sort of powerful spirit progenitor, like this branch created by Doonpine or Dryads, the situation is a lot more severe.

“Their progenitor as a being purely born as spirit may have been born genderless and chose gender randomly with which it better associated itself or it might have been a being entirely made of only one X or Y energy. By the time it reached sentience, it had full control over its body and instincts.

In this case, when they try to materialize and create their first offspring into the material world, they don't really understand the importance of balance. After all, they lived this way their whole life. They controlled their urges and principles with sentience. But for their offspring that are born with almost nil sapience as all younglings, controlling the principles behind those energies is simply impossible. And the imbalance of energy creates the crave for counter energy that they are unable to resist while immature. The stronger the imbalance the stronger the crave. By the time they reach something akin to human puberty, the crave is uncontrollable.”

“What I want to explain is that Dryads are strongly imbued with Yin Vitality and have no inborn Yang Vitality at all. In other words, they have a strong deficit of male or Yang energy. This gives them not just a small desire to absorb it from the outside, but a full-on unsatisfiable, maddening crave for it.

The mechanism of course is a lot more complicated. And there are other things that influence it. But the main idea is that they need fucking to stay alive and sane. Lots of it. In fact, they need it so much, that there is no one who could satisfy that crave unless their mate has the same problem or possesses levels upon levels of power above them providing them with more potent or Highly concentrated Yang Vitality. Finding such mates for every Dryad is simply impossible, which makes them search for that energy from multiple mates. In other words, they are inborn sluts.

In fact, they are so much sluts, they can’t help fucking you to the death once they start mating. Literally. Dryads use some kind of illusory magic to hypnotize their prey. In the illusory world, they make all your dreams come true. Peace, wealth, power, respect. You can be a king, have sex anytime you want, with whoever you want. And you will want it all the time with their magic simulating your mind. But in dreams. Where time flows differently. In dreams, you would live decades, while in the real world, it would be mere weeks or months.

Months of being pumped of all your vitality over and over and over again, without a pause for even a minute. A dreamlike death but death nonetheless. Vitality in its turn, no matter Yin or Yang, is generated from your spirit energy. In other words. When they make you pump your vitality without letting you regenerate it, your spirit tries to compensate for it more and more. Pumps more and more vitality into the body. Until at some point you will finally break and die. Then they find another prey. Or that’s how it was before the Labyrinth.”

“Because of that until recently Dryads were considered monsters. Only after the need for the above-ground Labyrinth rose, did the humans overlook their status.”

“Wait what? How could this be? They are Spirit Beings? Aren’t they?” Asked Noah, surprised.

“Well if they fed on humans and humans died of it, what does it matter whether they are really monsters or not? Although they hunted anything that was male, simply humans included, when a human saw them kill another human, would he care for anything else they killed? No. They were instantly labeled as monsters and hunted. At that point, no one cared whether they were Spirit beasts or Monsters. They were enemy of humanity.”

“But they don’t do it anymore, right? I never heard of it before.” Said Noah in shock. “Well, not in that context at least.”

“Exactly. When the need for the above-ground Labyrinth arose, their status was reassessed and it turned out they were spirit creatures. They can be reasoned with and an agreement with them can be reached. But the biggest change happened here when they stopped killing their prey after coming to the Labyrinth. Sure giving some good fuckin to some lucky adventurer in the Labyrinth is not above them, but they don’t suck anyone dry until they die anymore. How can they keep themselves in control? What changed when they received the position of Labyrinth Lords?”

“Hold the fuck up.” Said Noah holding up his hand “I need to digest it all a bit.” He added, taking a deep breath.

“Trees…?” Said Noah, his eyes going wide.

“Trees.” Said Ugy with a smirk. “Just like they pumped vitality out of their prey in the past, they now do the same with these trees and for that, the trees have to be males. Because Dryads feed on male vitality. Yang vitality.”

“So when Dahlia or any of her sisters go into the private room inside the tree…” Said Noah.

A gloating smirk rose on Ugy’s lips as he formed an ‘O’ and started sticking it with his hand again. “They connect with the trees.” Said Ugy lustfully and got himself another smack from Yuko.

“Alright, I get what it has to do with trees but what benefits we might offer? They seem to have it covered.” Said Noah rubbing his eyes.

“You don’t listen attentively, User. They got it covered once they had the Labyrinth. Why not earlier? Why couldn’t they do it in any forest with any tree? Why did they hunt everything to the degree of being labeled as monsters?”

“These are some special trees?” Asked Noah.

“Trees? As in plural?” Asked Ugy. “Are you sure there are many?”

“What? There’s a fucking forest here. Every Dryad has its own tree to live in and…connect.”

“Alright, User. Where are we? What is this place?”

Noah opened his mouth to answer but then closed it back. That was a good question. This was a dream. But he and the beast women were here with their real bodies.

“It’s a separate space made by the Dryad Queen with its own laws. It is a world that is both real and corporeal. It is both material and immaterial. It exists and doesn’t exist at the same time. It’s weird to comprehend.” Said Noah.

“It’s nothing that complicated actually. Say, can you be both real and unreal at the same time? Be material and immaterial?”  Said Ugy

“No. That's nonsense.” Said Noah.

“Right. So you can be here either with your real body as if you went to another place or with your mind as if you see a dream. You can't do both. In this case, this world can be seen as a separate world that really exists. But illusions in this world can be touched. Just like your mind realm. These walls. This house. All of it is immaterial. But you can sit on the couch with your real body. The core forest is the same. This is a world of realistic illusions but normal people can’t travel through dreams like You or Dryads. They would have to enter it with their real body. Like you drag anyone with their real body into your mind realm when you let someone in.”

“But only for those who can enter someone else's dream this place can be a dream too. You, that Seer girl, Saintess with her divine magic and Dryads can come here with just your minds. In this case, you all will be part of a realistic illusion. You would gain an illusional avatar here. You would not be here but people would be able to touch you as all illusions can be touched here.” Explained Ugy.

“Alright. So?”

“So the next question is: do Dryads exist here for real, with their material bodies or are they here with their dream skill and their bodies here are just illusional avatars?”

“Hmm.” Voiced Noah thoughtfully. “I don’t know.”

“The answer is quite easy actually. Remember your very first conversation with the Dryad Queen? When you tried to fight back against Dahlia, Aster, and Zinnia’s attack, but transferred directly to the Palace Tree right in front of the Dryad Queen. What did she say back then?”

“It was quite a long time ago…” Muttered Noah.

“Here words were…” Said Ugy before his eyes went soulless and Dryad Queen's voice streamed out of his mouth in exact repetition of the words she once told Noah.

“It seems you have the power of dreams, child. All Dryads live in the realms of dreams. My realm of dreams. The forest is me and I am the forest. My daughters are born of my forest as well as part of my own dream world. Traveling to their dream you entered my domain." Once Dryad Queen's voice went silent, Ugy’s eyes returned to normal.

“This is a recording of her words. Now think carefully on the situation we were in back then. You were dreaming so you were in the dream world with your mind while your body stayed in the real world. Then you tried to enter their dream world. But instead turned up in the middle of the Palace Tree in front of the Dryad Queen.”

“If you analyze her words, the answer is on the surface. They live inside the Dryad Queen's dream and when you entered their dream you appeared inside the Palace tree in front of the Dryad Queen.

How can they be inside the Core forest and be in labyrinths at the same time to put you to sleep, then enter your mind? How can entering the mind of the existence that was with you in the labyrinth throw you into the core forest?”

“Sorry, I still don’t get it. If that was a normal human explanation, then explain it in a dumb human way, ok?" said Noah.

“Dryads are using Labyrinth power in combination with their dream magic to reverse their existence.” Said Ugy.

““Oooooh”” Said Noah and Yuko at the same time.

“Riiight. Reverse existence.” Said Noah looking at Yuko

“Yeeeah that’s what I thought. It was so obvious.” Said Yuko nodding.

“Okay. I see. You both don’t get it.” Sighed Ugy. “Normal beings live in the real world and travel to dream with their mind, but Dryads live with their real bodies in the dreams and travel with their mind to the real world when they dream. So when you met them in Labyrinth, for them it was a dream. And when you tried to enter their dream you made a reverse action. You traveled from their dream to where their true bodies exist.”

“Into the Core Forest.” Said Noah, nodding in understanding. “So that answers your question. They exist within the Core Forest with their real bodies. Whenever they need to go out of Core Forest They go to sleep and use their avatars when they are in the Labyrinth. Damn, that’s crazy. They are basically immortal enemies inside the Labyrinth. You can fight them but you can’t kill them because that’s not even their real body.”

“Exactly. Now you get it. And just to prove my point. Remember how after Dryad Queen let you go back then, you woke up covered in vines although Dryads were gone? The vines were just plants manipulated with magic. If the Dryads were really in the Labyrinth with their bodies back then, they would have used their own bodies to capture you. But they couldn’t because they had no bodies back then. So they used plant manipulation magic while inside the Labyrinth to make it seem that they are real.”

“I see now this all makes a lot more sense.” Said Noah, nodding thoughtfully.

“So now that you get this, tell me. What the fuck are these trees growing all over the Core Forest that Dryads connect to feed themselves?”

“Huh? I don’t get the question. They are trees. What else can they be?” Asked Noah bewildered.

“Huuuh.” Voiced Ugy with a sigh. “Fuck dumb comprehensive lesson. I will explain in all-out dimwit language.” Said Ugy making Yuko’s and Noah’s eyes twitch.

“We learned several things.” Started to explain, Ugy.

“First. We just concluded that any being can only exist in one state while inside this Dream. Either real or not real. You can’t be both.” Said Ugy raising his plush palm from under the spider web that bound his whole body letting out just a little bit of hands and legs.

“Second. Dryads connect with prey with their real bodies. So to connect with trees they use a real, material body.” He said raising his second plush palm.

“Third. Dryads are here inside the Core forest with their real bodies.” He said trying to raise his leg to show number three now.

“Fourth. Dryads connect with trees.” Said Ugy raising the second leg.

“And Fifth. Everything here is either just an illusion or a real material thing.” Said Ugy struggling for a bit before gazing at Noah. “You may not see it but I raised my plush dick to show number five.” He whispered and Yuko smacked him once again.

“Anyways. These five points raise one main question. What the fuck are these trees? If Dryads connect to them with real bodies, then they exist as real things here, right? But then where do they get nutrients, because the ground here is just an illusion. It can’t provide anything except a floor to stand on. Then, do they get nutrients from the outside world? But in that case, do they exist in this world and the outside world at the same time? They are in both the real world and the dream world at the same time? They are both real and unreal? But that is impossible, we just pointed that out. How is it possible for these trees to feed Dryads and live in this world made of illusions? What the fuck are these trees?”

“Holy crap. I never thought about it. And I was living on the fruits and vegetables grown here. How the hell are they growing in this dream world? Wait! How does the Dryad Queen sustain all the beastwomen here?” Said Noah aloud.

“Oh for God’s sake would you both stop stretching this story so fucking long?” Said Yuko. “We all know plush bastard already has an answer, so let’s quickly get this over with and go burn the fucking abomination and the branch all together. I still haven't heard any sane reason not to do that.”

“You heard the Lady, Ugy. If you got the answer, get to the point already.”

“Commoners. Never interested in science behind the scenes, all you need is the end result.” Muttered Ugy. “Why am I even trying to enlighten you barbarians? Alright, the point is that the forest can’t be real. All these trees can’t exist here. They would die without nutrients in the ground to feed them. But they all can be one and the same tree. All the trees here are just a copy or an instance of one single tree. There is no forest. Just one single tree.” Said Ugy.

“How is this possible?” Asked Noah.

“This is a dream world, right? But for this dream to exist someone has to dream it. In other words, someone’s body has to be outside this dream world and dream of it.”

“You mean Dryad Queen? She said it's her dream and everyone lives inside her dream. She is staying in the real world to keep this dream world going? So the Dryad Queen that exists in Core Forest is just an avatar?” Asked Noah.

“No. You did not listen carefully.” Said Ugy. “If you listen to her words then she said ‘This is my dream realm’. She doesn’t say just my dream. What she means is that she created this realm as I created yours. I created it for you and she created it for someone. Dryads use their dream magic on others, right? They make their prey dream so that they could drain them of their vitality without trouble. But she is a Labyrinth Lord. Who does she use that ability on?”

“Dungeon Core?” Asked Noah, his eyes going wide. “How can this be? Is it some kind of being?”

“Now we know dungeon core in an underground dungeon is integrated with the ground and imbues it with magic so much, that the ground around it becomes indestructible creating a dungeon. But where can the dungeon core be in above ground dungeon.”

“Inside a Tree trunk.” Said Noah as realization dawned on him. “Palace Tree. Somewhere in the real world, it is the host of dungeon core. Dryad Queen uses magic on it to make a dream for that tree. And that Dream is Core Forest space.”

“Exactly. Dryads can make dreams even for beings that don’t sleep, like monsters. So why not a tree? Now here’s a trick. As I said this is exactly the same thing as your mind realm, User. While in the mind realm, you can interact with both material and immaterial things equally. Like you can hold Tessa’s hand when she enters this world with her real body or you can sit on the couch, hit me, and touch Yuko. Everything inside this mind realm is equally on the same level for you. All part of your imagination. Only when material things leave this world do they once again become parts of the material world, while imaginable things can’t.”

“I see. And the same happens for the Palace Tree. It can interact with everything that is inside its dream realm. Everything that is inside Core Forest, whether material or not has the same laws for that Tree.” Said Noah.

“Yes. But this tree exists somewhere in the real world but here it is only with its mind. It does not wield any nutrients that can feed a material body of Dryad. So where do the nutrients come from?” Asked Ugy.

“Someone is bringing them when he enters this world.” Said Noah, nodding his head thoughtfully.

“Bingo. While all Dryads are feeding from trees, the Dryad Queen in reverse comes here bringing nutrients within herself and pumps this world with nutrients and spirit energy. How? By connecting with Palace Tree. She connects with the Palace Tree in the core forest and gives it everything that this world needs to sustain living material beings, and everyone else connects with it to feed.” Explained Ugy once again forming an ‘O’ and trying to stick it but was immediately smacked by Yuko.

“But where does the Dryad Queen get all those nutrients?” Asked Noah.

“From the Labyrinth of course. The labyrinth is made around some real forest. Its invisible walls envelop the whole forest. Including the ground. And Dryad Queen is the Lord, Ruler, Owner, and Creator of this Labyrinth. Through these walls she connects herself with ground and trees inside the Labyrinth and feeds on the whole forest, pumping out the nutrients and Vital energy of all sorts from all the plants growing in it. Then sends it into the Palace Tree inside the Core Forest where she creates several instances of that tree only in different forms that her Daughter can connect to.”

“Several instances with different forms? Why?” Asked Noah.

“Imagine it like some sort of restricted access point. It is similar to You and Me. You have the administrator rights of your system and mind realm, while I, Yuko, and other nightmares living here, merely have user rights. So everyone besides Dryad Queen has restricted user access to the Palace tree. That’s why the Palace Tree and the trees in the forest have different looks. They are not real trees. They are representations of different types of access to the same thing.”

“I see. They have only access to what Dryad Queen allows them to. And in the dream world where fantasy and reality combine this looks like a different tree.”

“Yes. There’s a catch though. As I explained before, Vital has both energies. Yin and Yang energy. Even if one is predominating. In other words, when you divide Vital energy and eat Yang energy you have a leftover part of Yin energy that you have to find a use for. When Dryads feed from prey they use that Yin energy part to become stronger. Saturate themselves.”

“In this case, the Male tree represents the access point through which Dryads can access the nutrients and Yang energy. While female trees in the Gardens are access points that allow them to get nutrients and Yin energy. With male trees, Dryad Queen gives Yang energy to daughters and then has leftover Yin energy.

“Now here is where she gets a dilemma. Does she use Yin energy to saturate her daughters to make them stronger, which needs a colossal amount of Yin energy and that amount grows exponentially the stronger they would get? Or she uses that Yin energy to nurture young spirit creatures grown in the Gardens.

“Another problem is waiting here as well. How many new Dryads she can make? She needs a definite amount to look after the Labyrinth but the more grown-up Daughters she feeds on Yang energy the more Yin energy has to be spent. But if she creates new Dryads then after they grow up the amount of Yang energy she has to provide to the whole family grows again. To solve that she can use over-abundant Yin energy to advance one of her daughters, but then the need for Vital energy grows. In this case, she needs to gather more Vital energy.”

“How does she do it? She already gathers everything she can.” Said Noah with a questioning expression.

“She gradually upgrades the forest inside Labyrinth, making it produce more Vitality. As I explained before, Dryads are the Royal Family of Treants, because they can make any kind of Treant. So for her purposes, Dryad Queen grows other types of Treants. Special kind of treants created by her specifically for feeding on dark corrupt energy exuded by the Dungeon Core.

When these Treants feed on dark energy they can filter it into spirit energy, growing into spiritual beings. And as I explained, spirit energy can produce vitality in living beings such as animals and plants. So these Treants feed the forest with this spiritual energy. Forest grows abundantly in Vitality and this vitality is drained by the Dryad Queen through her connection with the Labyrinth. In the end, she pumps gathered Vitality into the Place tree and the cycle is closed.

“That’s a perfect food cycle of the Labyrinth. That’s how they filter all the Dark energy, not letting it seep out into the outside world. But to sustain this ecosystem Dryad Queen has to manage the Labyrinth resources rationally.”

“It seems to me that you have thoroughly analyzed the concept of this Labyrinth.” Said Noah squinting his eyes.

“Of course! That’s our main goal after all! If I gather enough code for the skill, User, we should build our own Dungeon. This will give us immeasurable power. Equal or greater than the Dryad Queen.”

“You can make a skill to build a Dungeon or Labyrinth?” Asked Noah bewildered.

“I have made several inquiries to the system capabilities and the answer is ...No. That kind of skill is outside your system capability.”

“What’s the point of this…” Started to say, Noah.

“BUT!” Said Ugy interrupting him. “Remember that your view change mode skill was also outside my system capability, however after some tweaks here and there, I have found a way to acquire it. So Lo and behold user. If we make this dungeon comply with several minor conditions like: rape tentacle pit, Sperm slime lake, Sex coliseum, Goblin offspring incubator chamber, and some other inconsequential minor things, then we would comply with system capability and acquire the skill.

“Sorry…Did you just say ‘Rape tentacle pit’ and “Sperm Slime’. Ugy, what the hell kind of dungeon this is supposed to be?”

“Non-Traditional Recuperative dungeon,” Said Ugy.

“Why do I have a feeling you used random words to gather NTR dungeon as its abbreviation.”

“It may be just your imagination, User.” Said Ugy, looking sideways.

“We will talk of this matter later. Right now I am waiting for you to explain the benefits we can give the Dryad Queen that would incline her to stick this…’branch’ into her loaded with nutritions and spirit energy cunt.” Said Noah crossing his hands.

“Yes. Yes. I am getting to it. You see in all this perfect food cycle of Labyrinth there is one problem. The quality of ingredients is so to say. Right now she gets the Concatenation of Vitality that she gathers from the trees. With time these trees would evolve after being spiritually imbued by her custom-made Treants. But the process is slow. So she can’t spend much of this vitality on herself or advance one of her daughters into the new Dryad Queen, which would allow humanity to capture a new above-ground dungeon and advance humanity's struggle to recapture land from the hands of monsters and demons. It would take her decades upon decades to evolve this forest until it can give enough Vitality to advance her daughter into the Second Dryad Queen capable of ruling the new Labyrinth.

“In other words. If humanity finds a new spirit being that can produce new Above-ground Labyrinth Lords more efficiently. They would have no need of her and Dryads anymore. It would be better to exchange her with the new spirit beast.” Said Ugy.

“But there is a solution. Or there was one at least in the past. If she finds a way to constantly get additional doses of Highly concentrated Vital energy from somewhere else. She can advance her Daughters a lot more faster. And there was such a source until recently. The so-called World Tree of Fairy Forest. It had overabundant Vital energy and had it been still available it would be possible to let Dryad Queen to feed on it.”

“In fact the very idea of using Dryad Queen as the Labyrinth Lord came from Fairy Queen. Fairies had the ability to gather Vital energy from one being and transfer it to another being. That way they wanted to quickly create many Dryad Queens and quickly capture above-ground Labyrinths. But something happened. And Fairies and their World Tree have perished right when this plan has only begun to be implemented. Now what humanity has is hope for Dryad Queens in different countries to slowly advance their forests and Produce new Dryad Queens somewhere within the next several hundred years.”

“You are saying that you found a way to give her that dose of Highly concentrated Vital energy?” Said Noah finally understanding what Ugy’s plan was.

“Bingo!” Said Ugy.

At that moment something downed on Noah. Something that Dahlia mentioned just recently. That Noah felt more tired and less horny.

“Hold on. Where are you getting this Vital energy?”

“Why from you of course. As I said Parasite Tree is a parasitic organism so it can steal from others, but can have symbiotic relationships too. So it parasites from you and has a symbiotic relationship with the branch.”

“It does WHAT?” Exclaimed Noah.

“Feed on your Vital energy and pumps that into the Branch of Doonpine.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? You're feeding me to that monster?” Said Noah jumping up.

“Alright!” Said Yuko. “Noah, let's burn that thing and that ruined branch.”

“As I said this will kill him in a gruesome way. Listen, User. There is nothing life-threatening for now. Vital energy is what gives your body strength but also virility. And as you noticed you are a LOT more virile than any man known to you. You can satisfy three horny monsters for God’s sake. That’s how much virility you have. But where does it all come from? The answer is you are evolving in Vitality way.”

“Vitality way?” Asked Noah. “What does that mean?” He asked with clenched teeth seething with renewed fury as he gazed at Ugy.

Ugy made the status screen of the system open which showed Noah’s strengths and skills.

“Look here, User. Whenever a Human levels up, his body evolves a bit. It becomes stronger. And this growth is represented by systems in a numerical way. However, for different humans and systems, evolution is individual. They evolve differently from each other, so they have differences in stats. That means that some people evolve some stats more than others.

For example, warriors evolve in body strength more than anyone else. So they have a strength-type way of evolution. Mages often get mind and magic power amount stats a lot higher than other people. People connected with production are better with dexterity, body control, and so on. Researchers usually advance greatly in intelligence and wisdom stats.

However, look at your own stats, User. What stat is the highest?

“Vitality.” Said Noah raising his eyebrow.

“Vitality gives people better regeneration, better stamina, better virility. That’s where your ability to have so much sex comes from. But there is a problem here as well. You are not just CAN have more sex, you WANT to have more sex. You are hornier the higher this stat is. Now when you were in Threadweaver Mansion you had sex every day, several times a day to satisfy that crave. However, after coming here you had no time for it. You trained for weeks without having sex. Where did all that crave go?”

“Feeding that Parasite my over-abundant Vitality you lowered my virility and made me less horny?” Said Noah, gazing at Ugy with his arms crossed.

“Right. But if you watched that story well, User, what type of energy does the Parasite Tree need for itself?”

“It feeds on women so it has over-abundant Yang energy so it sucks Yin energy from women.” Said Noah.

“And what kind of inclination does your Vital energy have?”

“I am also male, so I also have an over-abundant Yang energy.”

“So why would a Parasite Tree need something it already has in abundance?”

“I see. It does not take it for itself. It pumps it into the Branch through the symbiotic connection.” Said Noah.

“To be exact it keeps that energy inside the branch. Accumulates it there. Now if you try to destroy the branch and break my deal with the Nightmare. What would it do with that Vitality heavily imbued with Yang Energy accumulated for two weeks?”

“It will send it back to me.” Said Noah understanding the threat he was facing.

“And what will happen? Once that energy hits you?” Beckoned Ugy.

“I will…I will go berserk. That’s how my berseggs skill works, right?” Said Noah.

“Yes. Now remember that you swore to Dryad Queen to NEVER use your corrupted aura skill or desecrate her forest ever again? What would your mindless berserk mode do when faced with so much pussy to fuck within the core forest?”

“Oh fuck. It will try to gather more vitality to fuck them all. And for that, it will send a wave of corrupt aura to seep vitality from surroundings.” Said Noah as his rage left him. He fell back on the couch as if deflated.

“Fuck. You checkmated me, you plush son of a bitch.” Said Noah leaning his head into his palms.

“How much is it going to gather?” Asked Noah.

“Oh, this can be negotiated of course. It is a sentient being. But there is a condition.”

“Spill it.”

“It is in a cooperative relationship with us. We give it as much as it gives us. In other words, we get it what it needs and it gives us what we need.”

“What does that supposed to mean?”

“Parasite Tree feed of juicy pussy. Right? But it is only a Dream creature now. It is not a real being in our world yet it has the same crave. So what does it need?”

“Yin energy.” Said Noah.

“Yes. However, it can’t feed from anyone else other than you. So getting that Yin energy is up to you.”

“How? I am a male I have an abundance of Yang energy.”

“But you have the skill to gather vitality. Corrupt touch and corruption aura. It takes in vitality from other beings and objects.”

“And when I use Beseggs skill you divide that vitality into Yang and Yin. But where does the Yin go?” Said Noah getting a hand on his skills principles.

“You have a wonderful complementing skill that can raise women's desire, right?”

“Lust aura.” Said Noah.

“That’s right. With that skill aura that can seep into other beings to steal vitality is used in reverse, spreading Yin energy divided from Vitality around you and slowly seeping into women. Which heightens their crave for Yang energy.”

“You are saying I need to use My Corruption skill a lot to gather a lot of Vitality to feed the Corrupt Tree.”

“Yes. You steal Vitality from surroundings, Parasite steals Vitality from you and gets some Yin energy for itself. Then passes Yang Vitality to the branch. Branch ejects it all into Dryad Queen when she connects with it. And Branch feeds on nutritious spiritually imbued cunt juices instead of Place Tree. A perfect fuck cycle.”

“Food cycle! You mean the food cycle, right?” Exclaimed Noah.

“Is there a difference?” Said Ugy. “Depends on the view perspective. As you are at the bottom of the food chain, as long as you have enough to provide you can call it food chain. But if not you get fucked.” Said Ugy, shrugging.

“What do you mean by that?” Exclaimed Noah

“If you don’t provide enough to not be sucked dry you will one day become an impotent or die.” Said Ugy.

“THE WHAT?” Exclaimed Noah.

“What do you think? That the measly amount you can produce now is satisfying for Dryad Queen? Yes, your Vitality is a more concentrated, high-quality product than what she can get from Labyrinth, but your level is still low and the amount is measly. That’s why sucking you dry for two weeks barely amounts to giving her a barely satisfying dose. And to tell you the truth you barely have any left. If you don’t recharge it soon you will break like every Dryad's prey sucked dry of all its vitality. You will either die or get real Erectile Dysfunction.”

“Fuck that!” Screamed Noah grabbing a chair and sending it flying into the window. Shattering the window, the chair slammed on the ground breaking apart. “Change it! You bastard! It can seep less! You just said it can be negotiated!”

“Ok, once a month is possible.”

“Once a day you fucker! What kind of man would I be if I can’t get it up at least once a day?!”

“In this case, the time to recharge the Branch gets a lot longer.”

“I am OK with that! Make it longer!”

“But we get fewer benefits from Dryad Queen then!” Whined Ugy.

“Hold it. Hold it, Noah! You are seriously going to let this happen? You will let that abomination live here?” Exclaimed Yuko.

“You heard him. What choice do I have?”

“Fuck you both! I don’t want to live anywhere near that shit! It hunts women! I am a woman!”

“Just don’t go to the forest near the Mountain.'' Said Ugy.

Yuko glanced at him with anger, then looked at Noah and saw a placating expression on his face.

“Aaaaagh!” Screamed Yuko with frustration stomping out of the room walking back to her basement and slamming the door shut behind her.

“Fuck.” Said Noah standing up from the couch and walking out of the house.