Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG)

<What the hell is that?> asked Sallia, as she stared at the massive tree root.

<It seems to be a root from the Universal Tree itself, if I’m not mistaken,> said Felix. <Or more accurately, the tip of a root. Otherwise, the size just doesn’t match up. I suspect it’s also the source of that strange ‘connection’ the four of us felt earlier. Do you remember that woman we fought in the Market, who said that the Market stole a branch of the universal tree in order to make a ship?>

I scratched my head and tried to remember what Felix was talking about. I did seem to recall a member of the scavenger party we fought back then making a statement like that.

<Assuming she wasn’t lying to us or exaggerating, and assuming she was talking about the Market, we can assume that the market itself was made from one of the branches of the universal tree. Eluxia, the founder and creator of the Market, probably stole or traded for one of the branches, then used it as the raw material for the market itself, right?>

I nodded. Felix’s words matched up with my own base assumptions about the history of the Market.

<With that in mind, I suspect that we’re looking at the same branch that the Market used to be made out of. After all, the Market is massive - it’s the size of an entire galaxy, if we use the same laws of physics from our third world. However, it’s a bit small for a multidimensional, dominant empire that could suppress the rest of the multiverse under its own power and strength. Perhaps, after the war that destroyed the Market, the majority of its mass was stripped away and returned to the Universal Tree? With good enough healing magic or other abilities, I could definitely see a faction from the Universal tree reattaching the branch and then going on more multiversal conquests afterwards.>

I froze. Felix’s words made a lot of assumptions, but they seemed to make sense, at least. If they were correct, that also meant that we were currently at war with the same Universal Tree faction that had destroyed the Market. In a strange way, I found it a bit amusing that we were facing the same faction that had left behind such a colossal mess for us to deal with in the nurseries of the Market.

At the same time, that knowledge only amplified my fear. We were fairly certain that the universal tree had a variety of different factions on it, and that also meant some would naturally be stronger or weaker. If we were facing one of the weaker factions of the universal tree, that would have been a relief. Instead, it turned out that we were facing one of the factions that headed the coalition that destroyed the Market in its prime.

<How the heck are we supposed to contend with that level of power right now? If these guys headed the coalition that destroyed the Market,they must be one of the strongest factions on the Universal tree, or at least in the upper ranks. During its golden age, the Market was incredibly powerful, and these guys still won,> I said.

<Don’t overestimate their strength too much,> said Felix. <Don’t forget, the universal tree seems to mostly focus on biological manipulation for their monster armies. The scavengers we fought in the Market last time don’t seem to have been from the Universal tree either, but they were still hostile to us. I’m guessing the Market didn’t collapse under the power of one faction - they were probably besieged by several powers working together to end their reign of terror. These guys were just one faction of many.>

I relaxed a bit at Felix’s words. It wasn’t quite a guarantee that we had a chance, but it was certainly a reminder that the enemy wasn’t omnipotent. Not to mention, the strength of a faction wasn’t absolute, either. It could go up or down as centuries went on. With any luck, the universal tree faction we were fighting might have weakened over the millennia since the fall of the Market.

I turned my attention back to the tree root itself. Even if the faction we were at war with might be weaker than my worst-case scenario estimates, that didn’t change the terror of what I could see. The giant, floating tree root was large enough to cover an entire island on its own. If the tree root were touching the ground, just climbing up it would probably take me days of climbing and hiking.

Regardless of how accurate or inaccurate our assumptions were, one thing was definitely true. This tree root was not good news. I had originally assumed that the universal tree was too busy dealing with the front lines to send more powerful reinforcements after us. I had assumed that, at most, we might face more powerful dimensional monsters that were magically engineered to counter our strengths. Instead, it looked like were almost directly connected to the universal tree. I didn’t know exactly what that branch signified, but I suspected that at the very least, if it touched our world, the universal tree would be free to send as many reinforcements as it wanted to this world, at any time it wanted. The moment it touched the ground, we would face an endless horde of powerful enemies. Our world would crumble like a pastry under that kind of pressure.

Furthermore, would the universal tree faction we were at war with really leave the root of the universal tree unguarded? I found the answer improbable. Perhaps the reason the universal tree’s response to our attacks were so lacklustre wasn’t beecause our enemies were unable to respond. Perhaps they simply saw no need to. If they had high-level combatants stationed near the root, and we faced the threat of uncountable enemy reinforcements the moment the root touched our world, they had no need to respond to us. If we charged forward, we would hit a brick wall and die. If we retreated, we would be overwhelmed by a tide of reinforcements and die.

<Are all of our actions useless?> I asked. <If the universal tree has a root nearly touching us, and it can potentially bring uncountable reinforcements, they must have powerful defenders. If we advance, we run into those defenders and die. If we retreat, they get endless reinforcements and die.>

<There’s always a way to win,> said Anise. <We just need to get more creative with our spellcasting - but I’m sure there must be something we can do.>

I hesitated, before I nodded. I wasn’t sure if Anise was just being optimistic or not - but I also didn’t want to just give up. Our situation might truly be hopeless - but even if it was, we should at least give the enemy a bloody nose on the way out.

A few minutes afterwards, other warriors of our tribe started to notice the slowly expanding tree root in the sky. This led to an almost immediate meeting called between the higher level decisions makers of the alliance. Since my scouting skills could offer more information, and since I had the dimensional anchoring ability, I was also pulled into the meeting, and by proxy, Sallia, Felix, and Anise also got to observe.

“A few minutes ago, we spotted a massive tree root where the original dimensional rift was supposed to be. Miria, your observation and scouting abilities are great at giving us information about hostile entities. Do you have any input on what that thing is or what it’s doing here?” asked the village leader, as a group of [Sound Mages] conveyed our conversation to and from the other leaders of the clan alliance.

I glanced at the universal tree’s roots again, and swapped to my soul sight for a moment to confirm what I had observed earlier.

“That tree root is alive. Not only that, it’s far more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen before,” I said. “If I were to put it in terms of the [Vitality] stat, I think that thing must have literally millions of points in the stat. That might even be on the lower end. I also suspect that it’s some kind of dimensional road, or other form of connection and transportation. If that thing touches our world, we will be physically connected to the plane these invaders come from - as far as I can tell.”

I saw the [Sound Mage] shudder, and I imagined that many of the other leaders of the clan alliance had similar expressions. Trying to deal with something that had millions of [Vitality] was practically impossible for us, even if every person in our alliance together tried to blast the root with our magic. We would probably die of old age before inflicting any real injuries on the tree root - and that was assuming it just sat there and let us attack it.

“Worse, there are probably defenders. The enemy is intelligent. They will definitely concentrate their most powerful warriors and mages around that area. We might even face real human foes - not just the monster cannon fodder we’ve fought so far. Though I’m just speculating about that point,” I said.

The face of our mayor, as well as the [Sound Mage], became grim.

“Any ideas how to deal with it?” asked our mayor.

“My best and only guess is to close the rift that giant tree root is coming out of while fighting off the ridiculously powerful defenders,” I said. “Otherwise, we’re dead.”

The mayor laughed. It was a bitter, hollow sound. “You make it sound so easy.”

I also laughed, although my laugh didn’t sound any happier than his. “If only it were.”

The leaders of the clan alliance continued to discuss what actions we should take for nearly an hour. Unfortunately, our solutions for the problem were practically nonexistent. All that we could do was keep marching forward, and hope for the best.

I just hoped that would be enough.