Chapter 848. Carter’s Considerations and S Rank World Tree Calling.

Carter stood at the top of a building looking up at the sky. The city was currently bustling, with countless people waving flags and shooting fireworks outside. In the sky, several starships rose and went beyond the clouds, creating a truly spectacular scene.

“It’s time.”

He was the Grand Commander of the entire army. So, while his strength was high, it wouldn’t really do much on the real battlefield. He was going to mount a World-Type Mothership and go to the battlefield, though. After all, communication could only be perfect if he were close by.

In recent years, they have tried to take samples from Liu Shu’s roots. Sadly, the only thing they got was burnt remains. The charcoal they managed to get was valuable. It would help cover the costs of energy for several years in many worlds. Nevertheless, compared to the money they spent, the army was in a deficit. A big one at that.

He was honestly somewhat worried. No matter how much the army usually operated at a cost and was not really deployed for profit, reckless expenditure would strain the Abyssal Void Nexus’s finances.

Maintaining a several-hundred-star-system-wide empire was not cheap!

“Once the real war starts, we will be able to tell if she truly has a self-combustion talent or if she was purposely avoiding us.”

By his side, a female commander spoke with a frown. “World Trees don’t usually care, right?”

Carter answered back. “World Trees don’t, but the Heavenly Willow is far from a normal World Tree. How many of our spy vessels have disappeared without a trace? She is incredibly attentive to their domain, and her sensory abilities are top-notch.”

The female commander nodded. “That is true…”

Carter turned around and flew toward the only starship that had yet to set off. All those around him followed him, and soon, they arrived at the control room. By the time he did, the starship was halfway to flying out of the atmosphere.

He walked with steady steps toward his seat.

“Welcome, Lord Carter.”

“We will be under your care, Lord Carter.”

“The tactics and communication networks are set up, Lord Carter.”

“We’ve already included the detailed starmap of the nearby zone with 95% accuracy.”

“Signs of life are faint in this area, Lord Carter. We should advance the army through this set of asteroid and structure belts.”

Information reached him from several dozen information-related workers. Carter absorbed everything with ease, his mind quickly constructing the entire battlefield and what paths they should take.

As he sat and opened the hologram starmap in front of him, his fingers began moving. The hologram he had was shared with all World-Type motherships, and he could receive feedback and suggestions through it. Still, what the others saw was only what Carter had written.

With a Level 290 body and mind, processing information quickly was not hard. So, his fingers moved quickly, blurring as he traced several paths for the different army wings. Their numbers were truly large, so he needed to coordinate things with care.

‘First, I need to cause some trouble for the World Tree. We must make sure her attention is in one zone, while we gather our main army on another front. Her numbers are limited, and while she is personally strong, a World Tree’s energy is finite.’

Carter knew that this would not be easy. Even with superior numerical advantage, he had already dealt with Liu Shu a few times, and the occasional Aether Mana attack she unleashed would cause several fatalities and damage to the starships. Any starships below Level 200 involved in those attacks would, 90% of the time, be destroyed, while the remaining 10% would, at best, lose all functions.

As for Level 200 starships, one attack was enough to cause their shields to either deplete or scream with effort. ‘Her offensive abilities are monstrous.’

Carter also took into account that Liu Shu might be holding back because she knew the main fight had not yet started. So, he had informed every single important leader to create shared damage formations and also keep the army sparse.

Extending the map, Carter glanced at the side from the Covenant. ‘Deadly Petal should be arriving in two to six years. We could’ve waited until she did. However, there is a risk that Deadly Petal’s arrival is not to attack, but to support.’

Even when Carter had seen the Covenant destroy World Trees in the past when they went against their beliefs, they had also used those cases to lure the Nexus army. These inconsistencies caused the Nexus to never be 100% sure if two World Trees approaching the same battlefield was due to conflict or support. ‘It’s an annoyingly clever tactic.’

No matter how much information you have, you can never be too sure. So, the Nexus always acted carefully when two World Trees joined in a single battlefield.

As he drew paths for the motherships leading the rest of the army to follow, Carter’s eyes landed on the Solar Systems under Liu Shu’s influence. ‘These are also annoying.’

From the information they got, these Solar Systems are primitive Solar Systems. Primitive with the meaning of not having any <Ascended> powerhouses. So, attacking them would be like attacking villages when your target is the main capital of an empire.

How effective could that be in weakening the enemy? The only thing you do by attacking those “villages” is tire out the resources and stamina of your own troops.

Therefore, Carter had been unsure whether to attack or not. In the end, though, he decided to at least send 5% of the army to each of the five Solar Systems. Meanwhile, the remaining 75% would focus on attacking the Ceperet Solar System.

“There is no rush. Fighting a World Tree needs to be gradual. Their innate domain over their surroundings is too dangerous to tackle without making proper preparations.”

Only when your army is many times stronger than the opposing World Tree could you barrel straight into the core of a True World Tree’s domain.

“Moreover, the Heavenly Willow’s domain is… thick. The proportion of space to root is several times that of other True World Trees.”

If an average World Tree’s roots were as sparse as trees in a savanna, Liu Shu’s roots were comparable to a lush tropical forest. This was both lucky and unlucky for those attacking her.

Lucky because the number of resources gained when attacking Liu Shu was several times that of others; unlucky because the effort needed would scale together with it. In short, it was a high-reward, high-effort endeavor.

As he set up trajectories, received feedback, and constantly kept the distance to Liu Shu’s domain edge into account, Carter received information.

“The Star Shadow starship has managed to infiltrate slightly, Lord.”

Carter’s eyes widened with surprise before he calmed down. “They have? I really thought that none of our spy starships could pierce her detection.”

The man who spoke nodded and opened a few images in front of Carter. “The Star Shadow is a starcraft fleet gifted to the Lord by the <Shattered Ring> Globular Star Cluster superpower. They are Level 290 spy starships with S+ Tier performance. We only have five of them in our army, but they are enough to go to the primitive Solar systems.”

Carter sighed. “It’s lucky that we have five of them and unlucky at the same time. The Ceperet Star System will be an obscured fortress we can’t pierce for a while… If we had one more, it would’ve been perfect.”

The man nodded and then refocused on the information. Bluish screens appeared in front of Carter as the man manipulated the information. “The Star Shadow starships have been active for three years, and we’ve noticed a distinct lack of movement within the primitive Solar Systems.”

Carter checked the information, his fingers moving across the screens as she observed the shared screens and data. “Why did I fail to receive this information before we set of?”

The man answered calmly. “The starships had been in absolute stealth until recently. We only compiled the information around a week ago. Lord Carter told us not to add any information we gained two weeks before departure, so we waited until now.”

“Good.”

Unless it was essential, Carter disliked receiving small last-moment reports before departure. It would cause him to overthink strategies and delay the army unnecessarily. So, those small reports were compiled during the last two weeks and then presented to him during the departure.

With the original complete strategy, feedback from other World-Types, and these small reports, he could adjust tactics in real time and maintain flow. As he read through the several files, Carter’s finger slowly adjusted paths and tactics, constantly asking his near secretaries to communicate with generals and leaders under him.

Looking at his actions, his subordinates couldn’t help but admire him. He was an incredible commander who moved the army with near-perfect coordination. Moreover, just because there were disruptions, his guidance didn’t falter. On the contrary, the more changes on the battlefield, the more he would focus and the better he would perform.

During active wars, the Nexus had used Carter as an emergency commander often.

Meanwhile, Liu Shu’s sight was focused on them. With her <Divine Tree Eye>, Liu Shu was able to perfectly see their trajectories and paths. She noticed the moves of those five smaller groups, and she hummed. ‘So, even when I showed that there is no value, they have decided to target my other Solar Systems.’

That was somewhat of a problem. Unlike Ceperet, which had begun giving birth to space stations and space fortresses to defend, both <Ascended> from the <Moon Soul Lignified Tree>, the other Solar Systems were bare.

Each Solar System had a small part of Liu Shu’s army to keep control of the development of local powers and the envoys she sent. But those numbers were too pitiful compared to the comparatively small groups that detached from the main army.

“Troublesome… If I just destroy them myself, it will cause Carter to reconsider his attack.”

To make it clear, Liu Shu was not being overconfident. She had tested her powers, she had even sparred against her lovers, and she analyzed many Nexus individuals during the fights with her <World Tree Wisdom> skill.

He noticed that her current prowess was… absurd. Not only hers, but her Arboreal Winged Serpents, who would receive all her buffs, were equally absurd. The elites she summoned were strong enough to even fight her lovers for a while.

Plus, after World Tree calling reached S- Rank, the talent had gained a new ability.

***

<World Tree Calling (A+ Rank → S- Rank)>:

• Summons Arboreal Winged Serpents.
• Max Tier: A+ → S-.
• Max Level: Your Level.
• Maximum Summons: 360 → 500.
• You can use extra energy to summon a special summon. It takes 20 → 15 slots. (Your Level +30 → +20, Your Tier +1).
• *NEW* You can use extra energy to summon an elite summon. It takes 100 slots. (Your Level +30, Your Tier +1, temporarily gains <Title: Elite Summon>).

<Title: Elite Summon>: You’ve become an <Elite Summon>. Your stats +10%, your <Aether>, <Phoer>, and <Anima> regeneration +1,000%. Your <Defense>, <Soul Defense>, and <Damage> +10%. You can disperse 10% of the final damage to nearby <Special> summons.

***

“Even though Special Summons have become slightly weaker, their numbers can be 25% higher, so it is an overall strengthening…”

Liu Shu then looked at the new type.

“Elite Summons…” Liu Shu couldn’t help but feel her core shudder. “Those individuals are truly absurd. Each of them can probably fight one of my lovers to a standstill after their Sylvan Transformation.”