Huu!

The forest

You have taken over twelve points of interest in the Trial area Jeaulo.

Two thirds of the forest known as Abraser has now been transferred under your control.

You have been granted the rank: Kelas.

Density of energy within Abraser has tripled.

You can now access elementary information about the inhabitants of your territory.

All difficulty has been raised to adjust for your new rank.

“And now for your real reward. You get to ask me anything you want.”

No. please, no. not this again.

“Yes, this again. I am under the impression that you do not fully comprehend just how valuable this opportunity is. Will it enlighten you to know that I am the closest thing to all-knowing in this and any other universe I’ve encountered?”

No! I feel more ignorant already. Fine, let's test this all knowing mind of yours, let’s see if you are more than just a figment of my imagination. Why do I have to pay gold and silver for buildings?

“That’s your question? This is what is on your mind? Not anything about how to succeed in this world, how I know everything you think? You pay with gold and silver because they are relatively rare. I could make you pay in leaves, if I said it cost one billion leaves, would you go collect leaves? It’s all pointless.”

Uhm. Eh, okay. Well, that doesn’t prove anything does it? How many skill-books are there? No, no. wait. What dropped from these three guardians? Oh! And what killed me the last time I died?

“Now you’re getting a bit smarter. There are as many skill-books as there are abilities, which are in the millions.

I’ll throw you something extra, abilities can and are created everyday by individuals, most learn from their predecessors but there are always new abilities being created by talented people.

Granted, most are inconsequential”

Hmm.

“As for what dropped from these guardians. There dropped a piece of jewelry that you would most likely overlook, as you have proven to do in the past.

There also dropped a book that teaches people to use the skills these insectoids used.

In a sense it is just the energy equivalent of a strong wind, a method no more elegant than directly punching the air into motion, mostly used by the lesser beings.”

I’ve overlooked items? Impossible, I’m extremely good at searching for things, and you pretend to be all-knowing? As for the things that dropped, that’s to be seen.

“It is remarkable how irritating you are. Let’s try this then.”

Dear goddess save your child!

“Remember this place? Here is where you almost got eaten by one of the arachnids. It is in fact one of the most unlikely escapes I’ve seen. In the top hundred thousand at least.”

Okay. You’ve proven you’ve got some major abilities there. Then I got a question, what exactly is your purpose here?

“I believe we went over this, no? I’ll give you a short answer. I have been forced to be the guide to billions upon billions of people. My goal is to find and train everyone with even the slightest bit of potential, train them so they can reach the absolute pinnacle so they can save my creator. Save might be a strong word, more like help.”

Eh? If the plan is to make me and others strong, why won’t you give me a step by step guide to becoming strong?

“Ah, it’s always the same questions. No, it's fine, I’ll indulge you as promised.

I have tried just about everything to motivate people to reach their potential and literally nothing has worked so far.

I’ve been doing this for longer than you can imagine and at some point I realized it doesn't matter what I do, I just try everything all the time.

And that includes creating worlds for you to struggle in, it includes me ignoring a majority of the participants, it includes me personally guiding a few selected individuals, it includes me giving you nonsensical missions, to make you forget your horribly upbringing, it includes allowing you to experience death.

I think I’ve made my point.”

I’m not going to lie, I’m somewhat at a loss. You know? What should I ask? Got any advice as to what I should do now? I can’t really think of anything else to ask.

“If I had any advice, I would have told you. Well there is one thing that has proven to be useful. Always make sure you can control the energy that is inside you. The external isn’t that important right now, but the internal can literally make you implode.”

What the actual shit, implode? Hey! How can you revive me every time I die?

“This will be the last answer you get this time around.

I destroy your body and a clone is created. The process is less than perfect, it is also the reason you can’t remember very specific things.

Oh, and the further you advance in your training, the harder it is to clone you with your memories and experiences intact so I suggest you stop dying.”

Last answer? Cloned? What an incredible ability, to be able to clone me, can you imagine it? The world isn’t ready.

Hello? You there? Sagely sage? No?

Ah! Damn it, I forgot to ask about crafting again.

Hey! You fucker, you left me in a whole different forest! Take me back you freak. I mean, would you please take me back, oh heavenly one.

Hello?

Eh. Nice. Surprisingly enough, being teleported isn’t disorienting.

I am a bit concerned about this newfound information. Somewhere out there is a collection of my corpses, our glorious previous selves.

Alright, let’s look for the skill-book and jewelry. Ah. They are suspiciously laid down on a small flat rock in front of the dead insectoid.

There is another book there as well, which looks different from the usual white cover books. The letter i is on the cover with a circle around it. The jewelry is a tiny ring, it looks pretty plain, it is green with a brown tint. I doubt I’d ever find that.

I’m going to head towards the tree of origin or tree of luck and read these, but before I do anything. I need to relieve myself and eat something, I am literally starving. I am also so tired that I have to fight with everything I have to keep my eyelids open.

Guess we are eating insects again. Not exactly food fit for royalty is it?

Alright, so the skill-book is the usual nonsense decryption process, at least it doesn’t give me a headache. It has been easy to digest the information.

The interesting thing is the other book. It is marginally smaller. It has pictures of three things, one on each page. There is a total of fifty pages, so it is pretty thin.

But do you realize what this is? I haven’t confirmed how to use it but we have to assume it is a form of inventory thing right? Why don’t these things come with instructions? Ah, that deity level sprite did mention something about it being his random decision right?

I wonder if it will pop up again if or when I clear the inner-layer.

Let’s meditate before moving towards our nearly abandoned town project. I really have been neglecting my subjects. Son doesn’t seem to want to come out either, I wonder what he is doing inside there. Son?

Whatever, don’t wake me up while I meditate.

Heya! How incredibly refreshing.

Let’s see. This ring doesn’t seem awe inspiring to be honest. I put it on before I went to meditate but I can’t see any benefit. You know what the system needs? An information section. Like an encyclopedia I could just look up.

Merely a dream within a dream.

I’m trying to put things into this book, nothing has worked so far. Deep breathe, don’t let it get to you.

Hoo. Of course. I just channeled some energy into it and I can finally force the things inside to materialize. It is pretty lackluster in my opinion. It happened so fast, there were no sparks of beautiful and mesmerizing effects, it just appeared in behind the book and started falling to the ground.

A bit inconvenient.

There are in total, three things on the ground in front of me. A leaf, a rock and a bit of wood carved into the shape of a blade. It all looks useless. Fuck, what is this. I’m leaving this on the ground.

Okay, this part is also important, how do we put things into the book? I’m currently trying to push a small stake into the book, it is strangely durable, I can’t even pierce a small into the thing looking paper.

I’m channeling energy into the book but nothing is happening. Mm.

Okay. Got it, we had to channel energy into the stake and the book at the same time and then mentally make them fuse together. I tried a few commands but apparently we are fusing things into the book. This isn’t as convenient as I thought it would be.

I’m at least halfway done with the skill-book. I don’t get the feeling I need to stop reading, from previous experiences I usually need a few readings but this looks like it’ll be done in one or two.

This was easy.

Energy wave

A wave of energy

That’s just lazy, right?

I’ve been reading up on the new information I can access. There is a terrifyingly large number of people that have started living within my territory. There is even a new area that has been colonized or something.

There is a rough map I can now access. From the looks of it, three out of four populated areas have been barricaded with something. Only Big Sim’s doesn’t have a wall. Why would they need walls?

Well let’s head over to Sera. She should be somewhere near the tree of luck. The training area between the origin and luck is the most populated but is also barricaded. Tiny red glows are all around the map, I think they represent people.

That makes it into five areas which are separated but things are living there. The new area is close to the middle-layer, in an apparently random location. If we connect the dots, it looks like a strange t or an umbrella on the map.

Over eight hundred thousand people. What in the name of the glorious goddess, how long have I been away? This is insane, how many greenhouses would I need to build? These people better have been accumulating some gold and silver.

I wonder if Big Sim got her group to start mining, which would be nice.

I’m about halfway towards the tree of luck, it shouldn't take too long. I’m almost flying forward, using Cen-platforms to step on. I can already see the Naturai tree in the far off distance. This is the only way to travel.

What should I do with so many people? I should make new areas in the middle-layer. Well the people who can handle the pressure can move there. Would anyone actually be able to handle it?

What, there are actually a few groups of people in the middle layer. Five groups, can’t quite make out their numbers though. I wonder what they are doing.