During this skip, I had allowed a total of ten years to pass. In that time, I had to say that I was not disappointed in the progress that my worlds had made. Each one had expanded beautifully, choosing a new world and setting their sights to it.
First of all, let’s start with my original world, Earth. Over the course of ten years, they had created a network of cities spanning the new world of Harvus. Although they did not have a Fairy Ring, they possessed transdimensional portals that would allow them to casually move to and from Earth, so long as sufficient mana was supplied.
Desbar had similarly followed a path like Earth’s, though they were a step slower as they also had to take care of their minor worlds. After roughly six years had passed, they finished their first interstellar colonization. The world that they found was one ripe with precious metals and gems, as well as fluctuating gravity pockets that sprang up now and then. This provided them both wealth and a research focus.
Deckan… wow, where should I even start. The mechs that Udona designed quickly became the standard military vehicle of that world due to both their power and convenience. Once Deckan finished their initial colonization, their exploration ship simply moved on again. It didn’t back down from fighting giant space monsters, and sought out yet more planets that they could explore.
Fyor expanded into the twenty-fourth floor, but I was not particularly worried about them. Fyor was very much a special case when it came to colonization, after all. My reason for wanting the other worlds to spread out was in an effort to combat effects that could destroy entire planets. With Fyor… each layer was separated by a truly impenetrable defense. To such a degree that even Terra called it unbreakable. If someone were to destroy Fyor, that would mean they had the power to collapse an entire universe. I hoped that wasn’t within the limits of a rank two Keeper.
Now… Lorek and Spica. Spica, I have to say that I was happy with. First of all, the second sylvan tree gave that world an anchor beyond their own planet. But also, Spica itself had already begun experimenting with space travel even before joining the others. Now that a working warp drive had been designed, they truly took off. Unlike the other realms, they colonized two extra planets within the ten year duration.
Lorek, on the other hand… they had yet to finish exploring their own world. The population of Lorek itself was low due to the high dangers present within that world. However, that world was massive beyond any other currently within my territory. It would stand to reason that it would take more power to destroy that world than one of my others.
There was something else of note to happen on Lorek during these ten years, however… the ascension of my avatar. Using the vast energy at its disposal, as well as my understanding of the laws, it had only taken ten years for it to pass through the last few stages of the Profound Star Laws. It was now in the realm of ‘Universe Born’, which meant that its internal sky had been upgraded to a true universe.
And I do mean a true universe… Something that I had suspected when I read the description that the information globe offered. Anyone who reaches the final level of this cultivation system will establish their own world. With this, in a sense, Lorek had expanded. It was, at the very least, preserved if anything were to happen.
Kione… to my surprise, this world took a different path. The scholars of Kione worked together with Sher Dien in order to pioneer the path of planar exploration. Both of these worlds, when cooperating, were able to make great strides with their research, which put my mind at ease.
Finally, Aurivy’s game proved to be a major success, even drawing away a number of hardcore fans from Vision Expanse. Thanks to this, I immediately put both the elemental seed system and the game itself on the market. And boy… did I expect some income from that…
The elemental seed system itself wasn’t that expensive, relatively speaking. Yes, it was five hundred points, but that isn’t very bad at this level. The game, Natural Seed, on the other hand, was listed on the market for thirteen thousand points. Just what did Aurivy put in this world that made it so expensive?!
On the bright side, I’d be able to pay back that loan Sarah gave me to get Vision Expanse after only a few people got my game world. It was just a touch bit on the ridiculous side, is all.
“How are you coming on the divine inversion formula?” Tsubaki called out from another room, while Dana hovered in the air, holding a carving knife in one hand and a book in the other. The room was shaped… oddly. The walls seemed to randomly jut outwards as spikes or curve inwards, and it was impossible to navigate properly without flying as Dana was.
“I’m close, I think!” Dana called back, gently scraping the knife along the stone wall before her to copy the pattern she was reading in the book.
Their first attempt at creating a fourth tier enchantment had… failed. Spectacularly so. Enough that Tsubaki had to call Tubrock in with tears to fix the left wing of the Sky Citadel after it collapsed. She was so afraid that Dale would show up and be disappointed with her that she was on edge for weeks after that. Thankfully, Tubrock had been able to repair the citadel with ease.
Ever since then, Dana and Tsubaki had decided to carve out their own enchantment rooms within large mountains, where nothing was close enough to be destroyed if things went wrong. And they did… repeatedly. Dana was currently working on her sixth iteration of the enchantment formula, while Tsubaki worked on her fifth. Each of them decided to take different approaches to try to get it to work, as a sort of game to see who could reach the end goal first.
“Okay! I’m going to start up my enchantment room, then!” Tsubaki called out, or rather her avatar did. Hearing that, Dana immediately retreated from the wall, storing her combat knife and holding her hands up. Tsubaki and Dana were working within different mountains, but they were close enough that the trembles of an explosion could be felt between them if something went wrong.
“It’s working…” Tsubaki’s avatar exclaimed in excitement. “Mana is condensing, following the proper paths, forming the sto–” The avatar’s words halted abruptly, and Dana began counting down in her head.
Four, three, two, one… As she hit zero, a deep rumble spread throughout her enchantment room. “The stone overloaded, and the mana went wild again, right?” She asked as she pulled out her carving knife again, moving towards the wall she had been working on.
“Yeah… I thought I had it this time when I flipped the isolation matrix, but it’s still conflicting with something.” The avatar let out a small, reluctant sigh. Fourth tier magic was so difficult primarily because there were so many overlapping shapes, each engraved with their own series of markings. If at any point two or more of these markings overlapped in the wrong way, it would cause the entire spell to break down.
“Well, we’re both on six now.” Dana said with a small smirk, once again carving at her wall. When she reached the abrupt edge, her knife simply kept going, as if it were carving the air. Behind the knife, a thin trail of light was left behind to mark her engravings. Once finished with this piece, she stored her knife again, and made a swiping motion at the air in front of her.
Countless lines sprang up from the oddly shaped walls, overlapping and forming unusual shapes within themselves. Dana nodded her head, studying each individual line, and how it connected to others that it passed. “Inversion is finished, I think! All that’s left is… wait…” Dana guided herself to float forward, noticing a peculiar interaction between the various shapes that she had created.
This interaction had gone almost unnoticed, mostly because of just how perfect it was. Every line from these forms connected perfectly, forming their own additional shape within the overall diagram. “This is…” Dana shook her head, flipping open the book again and searching through it. “General shape matches with a function insert, and the function is…”
Dana’s eyes went wide as she cross-referenced the figures within this additional shape with the ones in the book. Suddenly, her hand swiped out to the left, and caused the rest of her ‘carved air’ patterns to appear. Her body seemed to swivel, turning to a different point in the formula and noticing a similar interaction, and then finally a third. “So that’s why we kept failing. Somehow, we actually made it even more complicated than it had to be.”
“Tsuba! I’m going to start up my enchantment room!” Dana called out confidently, catching Tsubaki by surprise.
“Dana, I know I just did mine, but you don’t have to be in a hurry. You haven’t gotten started on the sealing aspect yet.”
“Don’t need to!” Dana felt a grin tugging on her lips. “Check the three prime intersections of the divine inversion, storage, and identification arrays!”
There was a pause as Tsubaki began to follow Dana’s instructions, but the younger girl was already in motion, having triggered her own enchantment room and quickly vacated the area. The last thing she wanted was for her own body to get caught up in the process.
“…Well, I suppose that does simplify things.” Tsubaki’s avatar said, before noticing Dana standing next to her.
“Yeah, we just had to spot it. Which, if this was a first tier spell, would be easy. But how are you going to look for an invisible answer you carved in the air without realizing.” Dana complained, feeling the flow of energy in the adjacent room. She was preparing her defensive spells to protect herself if anything were to go wrong, but at the same time so full of hope.
Twenty seconds passed, and then thirty. Two minutes, then five. The mana continued to pour into the mountain, forming a blue mist that filled the room. After the ten minute mark, this mist began to fade. “No boom? No mountain-shattering blast?” Dana asked with hope in her tone, flying back into the room.
Her eyes quickly scanned for any damage, anything that seemed out of place. What she found, however, was a small blue stone, barely the size of her thumb. It was resting at the very bottom of the room, having certainly not been there before her activation. “Tsuba! I made the wardstone!”
Tsubaki flashed into the room as soon as Dana’s words ended. Not her avatar, the Goddess of Light herself had shifted locations to verify Dana’s accomplishment. This was the first successful enchantment of the fourth tier to be applied in the entire history of the world. “You did it, Dana.” The kitsune said in a proud tone, reaching down to pick up the wardstone. Now that they had a functioning enchantment room, they could make more of these as soon as there was sufficient mana available.
Once they had enough wardstones, Tsubaki would be able to begin implementing the planetary defense plan that they had drafted up together long ago. Of course, for such a large spell, it required no small amount of mana. Tsubaki could feel that the ambient mana within a hundred kilometer radius had been sucked dry. If she or Dana were to use their own reserves to fuel an enchantment like that, it was hard to say if they would even have the energy to do so.
“We’ll need to set up our mana refinement station before we can begin mass production.” She said with a shake of her head. Now that they had fixed one problem, it was only natural for another to emerge.
