Before long, there were quite a lot of people that began using the streaming system, though the initial surge in popularity was likely due to them believing that there would be some way to take powers or items gained within a stream out into the real world. They tried directly leaving with the item, or even having viewers donate to get them a Digital Conversion scanner. No matter what method they tried, nothing from the stream could be taken out, with the exception of the donations that they earned from the act of streaming itself.
Upon realizing that this was not another avenue of power like the various games that had been released by the Keeper, most people began to back out of the platform. Those that remained were the actual content creators that the platform was designed for, as well as the teachers or researchers that could make use of educational streams.
Naturally, James was one such researcher, and he would regularly host educational streams for the benefit of his research team. There were a few… ethical complaints when the topic came to creating entire universes potentially full of life, just to experiment on merging them and leading to a universe ending event.
Chelsea sat at her desk, rapidly typing as the middle-aged NPC that had been purchased for the stream began to write down calculations on a whiteboard. Personally, she didn’t have a problem with her old method of doing experiments, so long as they maintained their null zone properly. Though, it was a bit annoying having to remain in that zone for weeks at a time in order to ensure that there was no lingering karma.
“When creating a game system for a new world, you want to place the main body of the code within the natural energy core.” The man said, answering the question of one of the other researchers as James was hard at work taking notes, just like Chelsea. “This is because the mana core is too prone to contamination from various entities, and the magic system can create conflicts.”
“Thus, the natural energy core, which influences the entirety of the universe, is the ideal choice to house the main framework of your game system. The other cores should primarily contain references to system aspects directly related to their respective energies. For instance, if you create a specialized enchanting system, you would create links to it within the mana core.”
Chelsea was surprised when she listened to this, as their custom world experiments had always involved placing the game system within the mana core. Maybe this was why their attempts to create their own worlds had failed, aside from directly copying existing universes? However, on second thought, she realized that this must have been why World Spirits were chosen to be the moderators of various online games, because they had a direct connection to the source of the world’s system.
I see… She thought to herself, before typing out a question. If the framework of the system is integrated with the natural energy core, does that mean that World Spirits have the ability to exploit the system?
The researcher paused, seeming to read the question. “NineTailedLocks, the reason that a World Spirit does not have this ability is because they are a surface-level conceptual being. They control the natural energy within the world, but they cannot alter how it functions. Unless there are openings within the game system itself that are left for the spirit to exploit, it will have no way to breach the system.”
Chelsea nodded her head at that, writing down the notes. They were being careful about how they used this NPC, not wanting to have it directly give them the necessary tools for world creation. Instead, they asked questions about the subject so that they could arrive at the answers themselves, and then check their answers with the NPC.
Tsubaki’s new Trial of Blood did not go quite the way she expected, due to the actions of Keliope and Bihena. When these two learned what she was doing with the new educational streams, they made their way back to Olympus to ‘help’ her with her training.
The first one to influence the stream was Bihena, who donated to the stream to create a tournament. In this tournament, Tsubaki would be pitted against powerful enemies with various abilities in battles to the death.
Tsubaki was perfectly fine with this method, as it would allow her to encounter strong enemies and test herself against them. She even thanked Bihena for the change. And then… Keliope got involved.
Keliope believed that the only way Tsubaki could truly grow was if she overcame herself, so she donated to make every enemy in the tournament an exact copy of Tsubaki herself. In her opinion, this would allow Tsubaki to break past her limits.
Once again, Tsubaki was happy with this idea… at first. On paper, it sounded like an excellent way to see your own fighting style, and then identify and overcome your weaknesses. The problem was that the opponents were exact copies of Tsubaki. This meant that those copies also had the same ability to analyze and overcome when fighting her. With the same mentality, and the same capabilities, it became a game of chance as to whether or not Tsubaki would win a battle.
This did not exactly align with Tsubaki’s goal, but she still tried it nonetheless. However, it soon became clear that this wasn’t what she wanted. She was sure that it was helping her grow stronger, of course, and could feel her overcoming her past self. The problem was that the whole point of a Trial of Blood was that she set a goal for herself. When the goal became simple chance, that was no longer the trial that she wanted.
Thus, she asked for those of the Greater Pantheon to step in and assist her. Thankfully, the person to answer her call was Accalia, who completely redesigned her trial from the ground up. Instead of a tournament, her trial now took the form of a defensive battle. Accalia designed waves of progressively harder enemies to send against Tsubaki.
Perhaps due to Keliope pleading with her, she kept the concept of Tsubaki herself as the final boss. However, it was the Tsubaki from the start of the first wave. This gave Tsubaki a clear goal, to grow stronger with each wave, while conserving her energy as much as she could. It was not an easy goal by any means, as the final boss that she had to challenge was her past self at peak strength, but this only made it more enjoyable for Tsubaki.
Tryval let out a long sigh as he stepped onto the grassy plains of Sher Dien, his daughter at his side. The solar system had been successfully moved to the Metong universe. However, this had created new problems for the people of Sher Dien. Problems that they would need to quickly overcome.
First of all, the Fairy Ring would no longer operate on Sher Dien, due to one existing on the Metong homeworld. As Fairy Rings were unique items for each universe, a second one being introduced would become inoperable. This was simply how they were designed from the very beginning, as a way to lessen the number of random activations from unknown worlds.
Secondly, the new Metong universe was a direct copy of the Deckan universe, meaning that every planet innately had rich veins of dimensium. Enough so that the background energy permeated the entire universe. Sher Dien, however, did not have this material.
This itself did not seem like a major problem at first, until the effects of the background energy began to slowly reveal themselves. Defeated monsters or items would randomly transform into a card as the energy merged with their forms, forcibly adapting them to the new ‘universal standard’.
“I apologize, father.” Alme said in a sad tone. “I was not able to prepare our people for the dangers that they faced this time, so they were forced to leave their homes like this…”
Tryval, however, shook his head. “This cannot be considered a failure on your part, Alme. Had that beast appeared in any other universe, it is likely that they would have suffered the same fate. Such were the words of Terra when I consulted her on this beast’s power.”
Of course, that wasn’t entirely true. If the beast had appeared in the new Metong homeworld, there would be no memetic monsters that could have caused its destruction in the first place. Instead, it would have undoubtedly been able to finish its void weapon and wreak untold havoc. Meanwhile, had it appeared in either Lorek or Spica, the civilization in its brain would have likely been incinerated, leaving the monster as a rampaging beast without its enhanced intellect. Neither of these were particularly good results, and could have led to the destruction of more than just one universe when given enough time.
Alme nodded her head, though still kept it lowered. “What are we to do about the issue of transportation?” She asked in concern. Centaurs were, unfortunately, highly prone to motion sickness when riding on vessels such as boats or spaceships. And due to their biology, this motion sickness would bring them intense pain.
This was why centaurs had largely kept to themselves for so long, and developed a more isolated society, due to the fact that they had historically been unable to travel as much as the other races. Now that they didn’t have the Fairy Ring to provide an easy method of travel to and from other worlds, this would only further isolate them.
Tryval lowered his head in thought, having considered this question ever since the relocation of Sher Dien was decided. “Our people have long studied methods of traversing universes. It may take some time, but I believe that they will be able to create connections with the other universes again. Until then, they have the Metong to support them with necessary research materials.”
Alme nodded slightly at that. She knew that centaurs were a proud race, so they were unlikely to ask for help right away. After governing them for generations, she had always tried to correct this flaw in their mentality, but it always resurfaced. “We will need to guide them again, won’t we?” She asked, to which Tryval agreed.
“We will. But not as the Eternal Queen this time. We are ourselves, nothing more, and nothing less. We will act as advisors from the Greater Pantheon, but we will not rule them directly. I have no interest in taking Udona’s example and becoming the God-King of Sher Dien.”
Alme couldn’t help but snicker slightly, having teased him about that title in the past. “Such a shame.” She said, a small smile on her lips.
Giles stood with Sprigga, the two staring up into the sky. Sprigga’s eyes were damp, her shoulders trembling. Of the worlds that had been destroyed in this invasion, most of them were inhabited by their children. It was only natural, as those planets had less ability to defend themselves from outside threats.
The Greater Pantheon had, of course, devoted deities to the defense of these worlds, but that was clearly not enough to protect them. Giles closed his eyes, his fist clenching as he held Sprigga close. There was nothing that they could do for those that had already passed.
“Giles, Sprigga, hello.” A voice spoke up from behind them, and they turned to see another golden Sylvan, one that they were distinctly familiar with. It was the first Sylvan to reach godhood, Philia.
“Now’s not exactly a good time, Philia…” Giles said in as understanding of a tone as he could manage, and Philia nodded her head.
“Perhaps. However, I have a proposal for the two of you. One that I believe could prevent future catastrophes such as this.” When Philia said that, Sprigga looked up at her in confusion. “You might not know this, but I was a consultant for the World Seed game created by the Keeper. I have been an active participant in that game since its conception, hoping to expand my knowledge on what our people were capable of.”
“What does that have to do with…” Giles said, before Philia held a small token out to them.
“This is a seed that I created after numerous generations. You could consider it one of my primary goals in playing the game. However, it is not complete. In order for it to reach its full power, it needs to be activated by one that has a domain capable of connecting others, such as your Unity domain.”
Giles took the token from Philia curiously, before looking at her. “What… what is this?”
“This is a seed to grow a tree capable of surviving on the surface of a star.” Philia said, causing the eyes of the two to widen. “Naturally, the Sylvans produced by this tree will all share this ability to survive in such an environment, and I took great pains to ensure that the environment surrounding the tree itself would be inhabitable by normal races, blocking the intense heat and radiation. However, that is only the first stage of the creation process.”
“After I created the ‘solar tree’, I began work on integrating it with the Hyperlane Network. In its current state, the tree itself acts as the network node, and will cover the surrounding solar system as it grows. Furthermore, if it is blessed with an ability related to travel or connections, it can create pathways to other nodes through its roots and branches, and more pathways to connect planets locked in orbit around it.”
“In other words, Giles… if the two of you plant these seeds around various stars, you can create a travel network that does not rely on any fleets of ships or void portals. If you connect your Unity domain with the existing groves, as well, then even the current groves will be able to connect with this transportation network, so long as a solar tree is planted in that system’s star.”
Giles took a deep breath, looking down at the token in his hand. “How did you test all of this, without already having someone with the proper domain to use it?”
Philia closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh. “The god that I had hired to help me in this research was among those slain in this recent battle. There are still more things I would like to produce within World Seed, but when I heard about what happened to your daughters, I thought it best to present you with this seed.”
“In order to use it, simply give it to either a golden child preparing to become a mother tree, or a divine sylvan like your wife. If you and the chosen sylvan activate that token together, it should produce the desired results.”
After saying that, Philia offered a polite bow to the two of them, before making her departure. Sprigga and Giles were left to stare at this token, wondering just how this was going to change things.
