"Moreover, Niv can choose whether to retain the memories within her soul, and what kind of memories to implant.
However, Niv can only use the mother tree to modify elves that were originally born from it — which means the current hybrid goblins."
"Is that so? Then, using the elf mother tree, what's the most powerful elf you could possibly create?"
Hel's eyes lit up at the question. This function was similar to the Death Rune, perhaps even stronger.
After all, the undead created by the Death Rune come with side effects, but the elf mother tree has none.
Perhaps her chance to achieve Saint-tier freedom lay in these elf mother trees.
But Niv quickly shattered her fantasy with cold reality.
"That depends on the nutrients the mother tree can acquire, and the time allowed for gestation.
If the nutrients are sufficient and it takes several thousand years, it's possible for her to nurture a Saint-tier elf."
"Several thousand years?"
Hel gritted her teeth at the duration.
"Honestly, after a few thousand years, I would have long reached demigod level. By then, I wouldn't even need Saint-tier allies."
"Master, transforming elves and nurturing elves are two different concepts," Niv reminded her.
"Transformation modifies an existing elf, giving one born from the mother tree a bloodline evolution.
That process doesn't take much time.
But nurturing an elf from scratch — creating a completely new life — naturally takes far longer."
"Wait… are you saying that if there's already a suitable body, the speed of elf birth could be greatly accelerated?"
A light bulb went off in Hel's mind. She seemed to have discovered a small loophole in the elf mother tree's gestation process.
"If I provide you with a sufficiently powerful body, could you use the mother tree to merge a soul capable of controlling it?"
Niv pondered for a moment, sending and receiving information with the mother tree at a furious pace.
Using all six of her external brains, she calculated the feasibility of Hel's plan based on the mother tree's full data.
After a short while, she reached a conclusion.
"Niv just simulated the creation of a brand-new elf using the mother tree. She ranked the essential elements needed for elf creation according to difficulty.
To birth a mechanical elf, the longest time is required to create the mechanical structure, followed by flesh and organs.
Then comes the soul and elemental crystals, which are the easiest to synthesize.
Even the strongest elf the mother tree can produce will only reach demigod strength.
Saint-tier psychic realms are beyond the mass-production capability of the mother tree."
"That matches my expectations," Hel nodded.
After all, over the past hundred thousand years, only a handful of humans on the continent had achieved Saint-tier.
There was no way she could mass-produce them just by using a mother tree.
"What I truly care about is whether the mother tree can synthesize a normal soul with Saint-tier potential."
Hel's concern reflected the main reason she couldn't create Saint-tier beings herself.
Souls created using the Death Rune are chaotic — essentially a pile of messy code. Even she, the death witch who knew souls best, wouldn't want to refine them lightly.
Or even if she tried to reorganize a chaotic seventh-tier soul into a normal one, it would take considerable time.
At her peak fifth-tier power, it might take decades; at peak sixth-tier, only a dozen years.
"Even naturally born souls take hundreds of years. But if Master invests enough soul energy, the process can be greatly accelerated — maybe to a decade or even a few years."
"A decade? That's barely acceptable," Hel said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. She could wait that long.
"Alright. First, I'll use the Death Rune to strengthen their bodies."
She pointed at the nearby hybrid goblins.
"For the base souls, you can use the 500+ hybrid goblins in the B5 Research Institute. As my old subordinates, they're fairly obedient.
Those unwilling to submit can be returned to the mother tree for rebirth."
"Understood, Master."
Hel then transformed the hybrid goblins into basic undead.
Before doing so, she replaced their internal elemental crystals with death-element crystals, while the original crystals were absorbed by the mother tree to create higher-tier crystals.
Once the undead were strengthened via the Death Rune, Hel released them, restoring them to their corpse state.
She then used life-based magic to reactivate their bodily vitality.
Thus, a batch of stronger flesh-and-blood bodies was created.
Next, Hel and Niv manufactured mechanical components to serve as the material for the mechanical structure of the elves, feeding them to the mother tree.
Now, the only remaining requirement to build a mechanical elf was the soul.
"The soul…" Hel sighed, tossing the hybrid goblin queen's soul to Niv.
"Let's start with her soul for a sixth-tier mechanical elf. The remaining fifth-tier souls I can mass-produce. However, there are only 30 fifth-tier bodies, so in the end, we can only create 31 mechanical elves."
Hel spoke casually, unaware that among the 31 elves, 30 would reach fifth-tier, and the last one would even reach sixth-tier.
This scale of power would make them a notable force even within the empire.
"Later, we can visit other cities to recruit more hybrid goblins. Or once I reach sixth-tier and can mass-produce sixth-tier souls, I'll utilize the bodies of those hybrid goblin queens."
While Hel discussed future plans with Niv, the 31 elf fruits on the Mechanical Elf Mother Tree slowly grew.
Time passed, and when Hel next looked at them, the once-peach-sized fruits had expanded to half a meter in diameter.