Volume 8, Chapter 28 – Second Nursery

“So, you’re saying you’re far apart from Milan, and only stayed connected through thought magic, which is why you never lost contact?”

Facing the three blue-eyed Chaos kneeling on one knee before her, Fia put her hands on her hips, looking exasperated.

Before forcibly separating the battlefield with [Blessing of the Mother Goddess], Fia had used [Blink] to reach a marker point she’d memorized beforehand—[Blink] wasn’t as convenient as teleportation; it could only take her to locations within her field of vision. Making the undead withdraw from the battlefield would have been difficult, but getting the Eye tribe members to return was simple enough.

And according to what the Chaos before her—whose golden eyes were tinged with half blue—had said, the sequence of events was simple if put simply, yet complex if examined closely.

Firstly, in order to cultivate Chaos as nourishment, the Eye tribe’s settlements weren’t limited to the single location where Fia had left her teleportation marker. To be precise, that place was called the ‘Hall of Reverent Light,’ a ceremonial site used to commemorate their Father God, to gaze upon the Father God’s visage. It also served the function of being prepared for the Father God’s arrival at any time. It was the most sacred place in the entire Eye tribe—which was why Fia had felt the architecture there lacked traces of daily life, resembling more a large commemorative complex than a city.

And to obtain more ordinary Chaos as nourishment and to propagate their race, the Eye tribe, centered around the Hall of Reverent Light, had excavated countless ant-like passages and cavities in all directions, much like ants building a nest. Each time they opened a new cavity, they would introduce Chaos to test whether the cavity could be used to cultivate Chaos. If the efficiency of Chaos production was adequate, the cavity would be utilized and named a ‘Nursery’ for cultivating Chaos. These places typically had abundant magical elements and elemental power, allowing for the most efficient propagation of Chaos.

Among all the Nurseries cultivated over the past ten thousand years, two had proven most effective. The first was beneath the Land of Eternal Night, which Fia had visited. Close to the Hall of Reverent Light, it was the first Nursery discovered by the Eye tribe upon arriving at the World Tree Continent. Even after ten thousand years of intensive use, the magical elements and elemental power there only showed slight signs of depletion. And the representation of Chaos being spread all over throughout that underground area was that the Land of Eternal Night never saw daylight.

As for the second highly effective Nursery, it was the Netherworld, inhabited by the undead.

It was worth mentioning that, initially, the Netherworld had been considered a wasteland by the Eye due to its lack of magical elements and elemental power. However, during an accidental drilling, the Eye tribe discovered a kind of ‘mineral deposit’ extremely rich in both elements and magical power. Capturing these deposits didn’t require much effort, and throwing them to the Chaos for digestion yielded a considerable amount of Chaos.

Furthermore, these deposits were extremely numerous. As long as they held a fixed position, the deposits would come to them willingly, saving time compared to delving deep into the earth searching for places rich in magical elements and elemental power. Therefore, the Eye tribe marked this place as the second Nursery. Its Chaos production supplied nearly half of the Eye tribe’s needs, enabling them to complete their primitive accumulation and grow from over ten thousand people to the hundred thousand they had today.

—Supplying half the Chaos while increasing the population tenfold sounded disproportionate, but it should be noted that with more population, the Eye tribe could develop more mineral deposits, then further expand the population, and then send people to search for other suitable Nurseries in other directions. It was a dynamic process.

But what left Fia speechless was precisely this second Nursery.

What the Eye referred to as ‘mineral deposits’ were actually the undead.

As long as the Eye held their position beneath the kingdom of the dead, successive Queens of Death would, without rest, organize the undead to form defensive lines and attempt to completely eradicate the Chaos. In this process, those undead defeated and devoured by Chaos would transform into nourishment for Chaos.

Admittedly, Chaos also suffered depletion in the war, but input and consumption had never been balanced. To give an inaccurate example: suppose the Eye deployed one ton of Chaos, they could often eliminate two Third-Tier skeletons. And those two Third-Tier skeletons would suffice to produce three tons of Chaos. No matter how you calculated it, it was more profitable than slowly cultivating Chaos.

Moreover, if Chaos defeated a Sixth or Seventh-Tier undead archmage or nightmare knight, the yield could reach staggering proportions.

What left Fia even more at a loss for words was that, according to the Antler Sage before her, in order to ensure sustained Chaos production, they never devoured the undead completely in one go. In their cognition, the undead were a group of mineral deposits that would flee and regularly grow back out of the ground. If they devoured them completely, they would lose their regenerative ability, and the second Nursery would cease to exist.

—This was the conclusion they had drawn after a certain large-scale offensive. After that offensive, they discovered that the minerals had become scarce, to the point where they later had nothing to cultivate Chaos with, causing a sharp decline in their population. But in Fia’s view, it was simply that the undead had suffered enough and were powerless to organize another large-scale offensive.

Based on the conclusion drawn from that offensive, the sages here would often direct Chaos to make some strategic advances and retreats, leaving room for the minerals to grow. The labyrinth Fia had traversed upon arrival, for instance, was a battlefield they had deliberately ceded. They worried that if they encroached upon the ore bed producing the minerals, these minerals would cease to grow.

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If comparing the living’s view of the undead to viewing them as insects, then the Eye’s thought process regarding the undead would absolutely infuriate the undead to the point of smoking from all seven orifices. Insects were at least living creatures. Being treated as ore—the contempt and disdain there were practically overflowing.

Finally, because the second Nursery was far from the Hall of Reverent Light, the Antler Chaos living here had never seen her. They had sensed her existence in what they called the mining zone, i.e., that underground cavity, and fearing she might be harmed by these minerals, they disregarding the risk of revealing their powerful strength to the minerals and potentially causing them to wither, had gathered together, attempting to smash through the ceiling of the mining zone to greet her. This was the reason Fia had felt the violent impact in the anthill, and why the undead had exclaimed in astonishment that the Chaos had actually fused.

She had thought meeting the Eye would simplify things, but instead, things were getting more and more complex.

Fia suppressed the urge to put a hand to her forehead in front of her believers, silently gazing at the three blue-eyed Chaos kneeling before her.

How was she supposed to explain this to Lucitine?

Before knowing the truth, Fia had thought telling Lucitine “I can control the Antler Chaos, they’re on our side” was a gamble. Now, knowing the origin, Fia only felt lucky she hadn’t said it. If Lucitine ever found out that the hatred she clung to wasn’t just unnoticed by the Eye, but was actually being exploited by them as a petri dish, it would be like slapping Lucitine across the face repeatedly. She’d be so angry her eyes would shoot fire.

Standing there silently wasn’t doing anything either. Fia feigned composure and swept her gaze across the interior of what was called the second Nursery.

This, too, was an underground cavity, its area no smaller than the Hall of Reverent Light, likely larger. The difference was that the Hall of Reverent Light had bright light and magnificent architecture, while the Nursery had nothing but Chaos, forming a deep lake of Chaos.

The vast space was pitch black. Apart from the area where Fia stood—cleared by the blue-eyed Chaos manipulating the ordinary Chaos, creating an open space like Moses parting the sea—everywhere else was filled with Chaos of unknown depth. Fia estimated it was at least a kilometer deep. According to the blue-eyed Chaos, cultivating Chaos had no complicated process; just let them eat. They wouldn’t get sick from eating, wouldn’t have difficult births, and there was no need for separate delivery rooms and cultivation chambers.

After a moment, one of the blue-eyed Chaos who had heard Fia’s words sent a thought transmission. Because only half of his eyes were blue, the intent he sent contained more “emotion” than “words”; his level of wisdom wasn’t as high as Milan’s.

“Yes, some time ago, the people in the Hall of Reverent Light… no, now we should call him Milan. Some time ago, Milan informed us that you, Father God, had descended upon the Hall of Reverent Light and were nearly attacked. Milan neglected his duty, yet you bestowed a name upon him. Please forgive my presumption, Father God, but I do not believe he deserves a name. It’s just a pity that I am not as complete as Milan and cannot take over his duties. This is my inadequacy.”

Just from the literal meaning, Fia would have interpreted this as the blue-eyed Chaos before her competing with Milan, a competitive relationship. However, because the thought transmission contained emotions, Fia could sense that the blue-eyed Chaos wasn’t seeking power. He was simply feeling anger, jealousy, and regret. The jealousy part was more like a child vying for a toy, envying her for giving Milan a name.

Just naming something, hardly a reward. But there were too many among the Antler Chaos. If she really had to name them all, starting from Milan Number One, Milan Number Two, counting slowly, at two seconds per name, it would take two hundred thousand seconds—too painful.

Fia pretended not to notice. To better fit the image of the Father God, she took the Moon Key from her waist and used it as a scepter, planting it on the ground.

“It’s fine. That disturbance was caused by me. Now that the Chaos down there have sensed my existence, it’s not strange for them to appear at any time. It’s dozens of kilometers from the Nursery to the mining zone. Has the Queen of Death never set foot here?”

“Queen of Death? What’s that?”

Uh.

She forgot that the Eye and the undead didn’t share a language.

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The Eye spoke halting ancient Elvish, while the undead used Human language and Elvish.

Fia rephrased.

“It’s the individual mineral with the strongest personal strength. Mm, the name ‘mineral’ doesn’t sound good. From now on, uniformly refer to them as undead or the undying.”

“Yes, I will immediately convey this to the others. If the undead you speak of are the individuals who blocked us with that triangular barrier earlier, in my memory, she has never delved deep into the second Nursery. Apart from us, the Eye, and you, Father God, no one has ever come here. The second Nursery is the foundation for the continuation of our race; outsiders are absolutely forbidden to set foot here. Moreover, our retreat from the anthill to the mining zone was only to leave space for the min… for the undead to thrive and multiply, not because we couldn’t defeat them. Whenever we wish, we could break that ridiculous stone city at any time.”

It’s a fortress, actually.

Come to think of it, it made sense the undead couldn’t set foot here. Without the Eye to guide her, even she would have taken a long time to figure out her way here. From the mining zone to this point was a dozens of kilometers-long labyrinth of intertwined, complex passages. Who knew which path led to the Nursery.

Seeing Fia silent, the blue-eyed Chaos began to guess her meaning.

“Could it be that you wish to immediately attack down into the Abyss and reclaim your land? Our current scale may be insufficient. Once I lead the people to swallow up all the undead, we should then have the strength for a battle.”

“No need. Now is not the time.”

Even if they devoured all the undead, Fia didn’t think the Eye could win. Having witnessed that endless sea of Chaos outlining a curved horizon, Fia didn’t believe the current Eye, even adding the undead, could clash head-on with it. Beneath that sea’s surface, there were definitely powerful individuals similar to the Eye, and in staggering numbers.

But what to do next was a headache.

She could order the Eye to leave the second Nursery, but that would weaken the Eye’s scale. Chaos was food to them; making them abandon the second Nursery would be starving them alive. Yet the food the Eye used to cultivate Chaos was precisely the undead. Keeping the second Nursery meant harming future allies in the joint fight against Chaos. Either way, it was an internal conflict.

No…

Since the root of the conflict between Eye and undead was the Eye’s need for undead to cultivate Chaos, then as long as she found a new food source for the Eye, they could abandon the second Nursery and establish a new home.

However, Chaos needed to devour the magical elements and elemental power of the earth to propagate, which would lead to depletion of the leylines, creating a disastrous environment without daylight like the Land of Eternal Night. Her [Rain of Serenity] could revive leylines, but that magic worked on the surface. Chaos lived deep underground; she couldn’t guarantee [Rain of Serenity] would be effective there. Ultimately, the leylines on the surface and the leylines deep underground were likely two different things. Otherwise, it was inexplicable why the great desert outside Baron Khesa’s territory, also suffering from leyline depletion, hadn’t become an eternal night.

Wait a minute—did Chaos necessarily have to be cultivated by devouring magical elements and elemental power?

A flash of inspiration struck Fia.

The Eye needed abundant magical elements and elemental power because they used them to cultivate Chaos. But if she delivered Chaos directly to them, they would lose the need to cultivate it themselves. Chaos was already crawling up from the Primordial Continent in the Second Abyss. Using that Chaos to replace the second Nursery would be just right.

Besides, Milan had also said their population was limited to a hundred thousand due to insufficient Chaos. The Second Abyss was now six or seven kilometers wide and over twenty kilometers long. With so much Chaos, even the extremely spacious second Nursery she was currently in definitely couldn’t compare to the Second Abyss’s “abundant reserves.” It was important to remember that behind the Second Abyss lay the immeasurable sea of Chaos of the Primordial Continent.

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This just happened to align with Milan’s request to migrate the tribe.

But moving an entire race on such a scale would be hard to keep from the undead above. She should treat this method as the primary option, formulate plans and backup plans, conduct preliminary surveys of the Second Abyss to confirm whether it could replace the second Nursery, and only enter the execution phase after adequate preparation.

However, Fia’s expression wasn’t entirely bright either. She was worried about something else. She knew the Eye would go to the Second Abyss and have no more entanglements with the undead. But for the undead, especially Lucitine, it wouldn’t be that simple. From Lucitine’s standpoint, the sudden disappearance of Chaos would be a hair-raising, sleepless-at-night matter. More importantly, the hatred between the two sides remained unresolved; they would eventually meet again in the future. Moving the Eye away merely postponed the conflict.

Really troublesome.

But, all things considered, postponing the conflict was better than letting it erupt now. For now, while diverting Lucitine’s attention away from the Chaos of the second Nursery and attempting to change her attitude toward Chaos, she could also quietly launch the exploration and evaluation of the Second Abyss, secretly migrating the Eye. It was safer to have two preparations. The undead obeyed Lucitine’s commands. Once Lucitine’s acceptance of the Eye was secured, everything would become much easier.

Fia couldn’t help but think positively. Analyzing the information Anastasia had provided about another world, it seemed the Queen of Death was a person who understood the greater good. If, at the right moment, she tactfully explained the hostile relationship between the Eye and Chaos—the enemy of my enemy is my friend—she might accept reality and temporarily set aside the conflict.

But speaking of which, was the Queen of Death Anastasia mentioned actually the same person as Lucitine? She already understood the rules for replacing the Queen of Death and had also noticed that Lucitine wasn’t particularly attached to this world…

No, the timing seemed off. The disaster in the other world originated last winter, while she had encountered Lucitine jumping off a cliff just a few weeks ago. Unless the two worlds deviated in this regard, the Queen of Death leading the undead in that other world was indeed Lucitine.

The saying “times produce their heroes”—perhaps Lucitine had accumulated much knowledge through the war, thus growing from an inexperienced young girl into the queen commanding the alliance of the World Tree Continent.

“…”

Fia fell silent for a moment.

Honestly, she couldn’t quite imagine it.

Better not fantasize about things that may or may not be.

Fia turned her attention to the lake of Chaos above, of unknown height. This Chaos had no self-awareness; if the Eye weren’t controlling it, it would have already attacked her.

“How long will the Chaos here last you? And how often do you transport Chaos to the Hall of Reverent Light?”

“If we completely stop mining, it can only sustain us for a month. Usually, people from the Hall of Reverent Light who need to replenish Chaos come over here. We don’t actively transport Chaos there; that’s too troublesome.”

“One month, huh.”

A muffled sound escaped Fia’s throat. Migrating an entire race in a month was unthinkable, no matter how you looked at it.

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They’d still have to rely on devouring undead to supplement.

Rubbing her chin in thought for a moment, Fia commanded expressionlessly.

“Reduce your devouring of the undead during this period, keep it to a minimum. As for the reason, you can ask Milan. I have already found a way to freely enter and exit the World Tree’s barrier. From now on, you won’t need to cultivate nourishment yourself.”

“—!”

Fia didn’t hear the blue-eyed Chaos before her speak, but a wave of intense ecstatic emotion emanated from him. Immediately after, the surrounding space echoed with a chaotic, distinctive tone, like announcing good news. After a full two seconds, the blue-eyed Chaos finally transmitted a response.

“Even if the ones below are savage nutrients, it’s still simpler than cultivating them ourselves. Thank you, Father God!”

“””Thank you!”””

For a moment, from all directions Fia couldn’t see, voices trembling with gratitude reached her simultaneously.

Just as expected. No need to worry about trouble on the Chaos side.

So, it was about time to go back. Staying too long here might worry Lucitine.

That said, Fia wasn’t too anxious. Having demonstrated magic like [Blessing of the Mother Goddess] and [Absolute Stillness], Lucitine should have realized she was stronger. Raising the earth for ten kilometers around up to the ceiling—a magic that permanently altered terrain like that—was basically something no one could replicate.

Once back, she could cheerfully tell Lucitine that she had repelled the Chaos and they didn’t need to worry about them for now. Then she could lure Lucitine to Blossom to experience the life of the living, get her addicted to the colorful world, and while she was doing that, she could transfer the Eye and Chaos from the second Nursery. Regardless, separating the two sides and stopping the infighting was certainly the right move.

Thinking this, Fia nodded slightly.

“I’m going back now. I’ll have Milan and the others contact you later. Act according to my orders, and don’t advance rashly.”

“Your will be done.”

The three blue-eyed Chaos sent their intent to Fia simultaneously. Fia lingered no longer. Relying on her photographic memory, she retraced her original path back.