At the foot of the tree behind the base, Adam placed his hand against its trunk. He had an idea he had wanted to try for a while. After several tests, he knew that adding more earth element to an earth object increased the quality of the earth in the object, and similarly for grass, the life element increased its strength and elasticity.
So his idea was to see what would happen if a large amount of life element was injected into a single object to increase its quality to saturation. The test subject they had chosen was a tree that he thought could accept a very large amount of energy, allowing for more significant changes.
"Come on, little tree, it's time for your meal." Concentrating slowly, Adam began to inject the life element into the tree, triggering a light show around him and the tree.
At the back of the base, the minutes passed and changes were visible. The tree had already doubled in size, its canopy extending further and further.
...
One hour later...
Adam was almost out of energy, and the tree had stopped growing for a good quarter of an hour.
Injecting the last of his remaining energy, he stepped back to admire his work: a huge tree 30 meters high, its canopy just as large, covering the entire base, lush with life.
Just as he thought the changes were complete, a wave of green life energy exploded from the tree, spreading far and wide, and runes were engraved on the tree trunk, glowing slightly with life energy.
Bursting out laughing, Adam walked around the tree. "HAHAHAHA!!! Yes, exactly, that's a successful experiment, a giant tree covered in runes. Yeah, I don't know what you're capable of, beauty, but I already love you."
Walking around the tree several times, running his hand over the runes several times, the result was clear. "I have no idea what you're for or what you're capable of. I guess time will give me the answers, but if you ever feel like doing something, go ahead, don't be shy."
After long minutes of observation, Adam walked away without any results, faced with the silence of the tree. "Well, back to simpler activities, I have fields to tend to."
...
Several hours later...
In the soft light of the setting sun, Adam looked with pride at the interior of the base, which had progressed well: four fields had taken shape at the entrance to base 2 on either side of the apple tree, forming an alley leading to the hut at the back, leaning against the now runic tree.
Sitting on the roof of the hut with his back against the tree trunk, he contemplated the night falling, his heart strangely at ease and soothed by the presence of the tree as night approached.
Night fell, the grass in the distance died, and the changes rapidly approached the base, ready to set the stage for the attacks of the undead. Just as the transformation was about to reach the base, about fifty meters away, all change stopped abruptly. The grass at the border between life and death glowed with the green of life. The runes of the tree began to shine brightly, a spectacle of elemental life energy taking shape within a 50-meter radius around the tree. Particles of life energy flew, The grass at the border of this domain visibly struggled against the aura of death attempting to approach.
The realm of the dead had now completely fallen upon the plains, but one tree resisted, creating a domain where life persisted, pulsing actively with life, preventing death from reaching its domain.
"Ooooh, that's cool, even if everything returns to normal during the day, I imagine that joining the dead, even temporarily, can't be a great thing." Proud of his creation, he added, "We're ready to expand the base. You'll serve as a measure to know where to put the walls so we know the size of the base, like its double rampart, a physical one to stop the ugly bad guys and an energetic one to stop the ugly bad energy."
The howls and growls in the distance announced that the undead had awakened and were about to begin a new round of attacks. Adam wasn't really worried. The moat was finished, and the walls behind it formed a 5-meter obstacle to cross, leaving only a 2-meter-wide entrance where Primo was stationed, blocking the final access to the base.
Seeing the horde of undead approaching, he still swallowed hard. "Oh, damn, yes, I have ramparts and a super magic tree, but let's not exaggerate. It's a Tower Defense mode that gets more and more complicated every night. How many are there, 1, 2, 3... Damn, 70 undead, and that guy over there is on horseback, wolves, humans, and a perfect knight raid boss."
Given the situation, Adam realized that tonight was going to be a full-scale raid and not a simple lightning attack, a battle of endurance between golems and undead, two engines of endless stamina.
...
Three hours was how long the battle lasted.
The amount of damage each undead could sustain had at least doubled, even though the quality of the attacking undead had greatly increased. Their large numbers made the battle extremely long, as the undead always came back until they were killed.
Primo and Titan had held the entrance without any problems, preventing anyone from passing, while Iron and Eagle fought in the base, killing any undead that managed to climb the wall from time to time. Skar, meanwhile, had remained outside, running left and right, mowing down as many undead as possible.
The damage was quite significant, but nothing serious. Skar's weapons were dead, Eagle had no arrows left, and Iron's spear was broken at the shaft. Nothing irreparable, just a little time and energy, and everyone's weapons were back. Part of the wall had collapsed, but it was just a pile of dirt along the base, nothing very solid.
"Bob, Bab, no need to repair anything for now. Get some rest tonight, guys. Tomorrow we'll have a lot to do. Primo, Titan, Iron, Eagle, Skar, good luck for the rest of the night, guys. The weak and tired humans are going to sleep." Yawning, Adam climbed down from the roof of the hut and went inside to bed.