Chapter 2: Creation

As I spent more time mulling over my existence more and more concepts and ideas flooded my mind. It was a little disconcerting, to think my thoughts were not entirely my own. But new ones came to mind, concepts such as time and cycles. The Circle of life. I had been born only recently and yet have grown so much, in terms of intelligence I would probably rival one of those very young mages that often come to mind. My own thoughts are meandering and often unfruitful, yet I can absorb information with great speed.

So as for my birth? Obviously it was a natural collection of one type of mana at a single point, this created me a dungeon core. it can also be done artificially by wizards to create gemstones. Both of these are types of Magic catalysts. They are capable of making the use of mana more efficient and allow for the storage of excess mana, gemstones however do not have minds like dungeon cores. Dungeon cores are alive, gemstones are not.

All life needs to grow, and now that I know I'm alive I've been thinking about how. I grew my awareness by expanding the sea foam, so I imagine expanding the mist within me will allow me to grow stronger, and expanding my core might do something even more impressive than expanding the sea foam.

The paths for growth are obvious, the only question is how? No matter how much steam I fill this room with my capacity doesn't change at all. The ambient mana keeps refilling my meager supply near instantly and I dont grow. The fog has already become so dense that everything has become pitch black and I can even feel a soft drizzle falling from this thick cloud I've created.

I really need to figure out someway to make light in here. And so I turned to the memories, It was mostly useless information like always but eventually I found out that water users could create a type of luminescent algae filling a bubble of water to create a floating lantern. As such I copied the flow of mana the memory showed me and nothing happened. I tried again and still nothing, my mana wasn't even spent. So I tried to something a bit more basic by controlling the fog, nothing.

I tried over and over to make different things happen but all that I could do was make mist and water. I tried shaping the water, no luck. I tried to shape the mist, no luck. I tried to make the mist turn to rain, no luck. I tried to control the flow of the water, no luck. All that I could do was summon mist and water!

My mana had started growing tumultuous at this road block. I couldn't figure out what to do next! How did these mages manage to do so many different things with their magic? My gem starts to shake as my energy rips back and forth. Even the novices could do so many amazing things with water control alone, and here I was unable to do anything. As I grew more and more angry the visions of the water mages taunted me.

As more and more visions flood into my mind they start to focus on the summoning of creatures. This sets something off in me and my mind goes red. As If I can't make a mere creature! I begin to shake even more, I don't think about how to do it, I just focus on my desire to make something. Anything. The Mana within picks up a flow and starts to rush throughout me, and within an instant its gone. Next my vision starts to rip as my membrane of sea foam starts to be ripped from the surface of my gem, and finally I feel a great pressure on my mind as it starts to bend. It almost felt like a portion of my very being ripped away from me. After all of the pain had faded I was left within myself, senseless, perceptionless, thoughtless. Just like before.

Zircon

Zircon marveled at his glorious creation, "This is it! This bastard may be able to put out my flames but lets see his tide try to pull in this magnificent creature!" it was a tiny red skinned turtle with a rocky shell slowly waddling across the floor of his chamber. It was stumpy and cute, even smaller than the already tiny gem that resided within the room. This did not seem bother the reddened gem as he had already entered into the turtles mind to bellow his command, "Go Flamyrtle, bring me the shards of that disgusting blue gem!"

The turtle immediately responded to the orders of its master and it begun to slowly move towards the door with a sense of duty as Zircon cackled in its mind, "mwahahahahahaha mwahahahaha!"

The turtle turned to Zircon once again, curious as to how it was supposed to pass through the closed door, "Oh" Zircon said, he had simply passed through the door and expected his glorious creation could easily do the same. Sensing Zircon's disappointment the turtle cast its head down and began to sulk, "Wait no Flamyrtle your fine. It was my fault!" Zircon pleaded with the magma turtle, but its dejection at its failure continued, "I'll find a way to open the door for you." Zircon promised as he rashly began to gather a fireball within.

Aquamarine

It was only when thought finally returns to me in my absence of sensation that I realized how unreasonable I had been. I have spent about half of my current lifetime thinking about how to move forward, of course I was angry. However, the mages I'm looking at have been learning since far earlier than I ever had. I was letting the first real roadblock I had found completely shut me down, and did something reckless. Once my sight returns again I should practice my mana more patiently, and expect to take a while. I learned the hard way the amount of time learning takes is never shown in those tiny snippets of information.

As I come too I decide to investigate the products of my spell, sadly the visibility in my room is terrible so I have to leave my gem to gaze upon the masterpiece I had given my all to create. The surprising thing is that I actually did create something. Beautifully scaled and of considerable size the fish laid on the ground before me, dead. Well that was a waste of time.

I couldn't really blame myself though, I created off of instinct rather than rationally thinking things through. In hindsight it makes so much sense that my creation would actually have to live in this environment. It was better to find that out sooner than later. I decide to conjure up another creature less reliant on water. It takes some time but eventually I settle on the amphibious salamanders, this time also taking into account the versatility of the unique human hands I graft the two images together. A salamander that stands on its hind legs with human arms. strong enough to open the door in front of me and of course, able to breathe on land. With this image in mind I make a repeat of my last summoning, prepared to give everything I had.

This time I don't try to force anything, I just focus on the image with my mind. I focus on the rippling waves in my membrane and their rhythmic rise and fall. I raise them up... and crash them down. As I do the mana with starts to flow in a much smoother manner, a current forming rather than an erratic spray. The mana starts to take the shape of the image within and my mana is drawn out of me. Next my vision is stripped of me as my membrane is consumed once again, and I feel my mind turn to liquid and get wrapped up in the current, all though this time it's almost pleasant.

As I wake once again I find a creature that is barely able to make it up to the top of my pedestal. Its arms hoist it up as it stares over the edge at me. Its expression changing as I come too. Ignoring it I use my ability from before and leave my crystal. its eyes seeming to follow me as I drift towards it, and I try something I was curious about since I started questioning what life was. I force my consciousness into its body and supersede its will. Sensations of a whole different order enter into me. Smell and touch are two completely new sensations, my hearing is more focused, rather than just a rough outline of how loud and how far away something was I could also instinctively tell what direction it came from. Emotions like fear and curiosity flooded through me but did not originate from my mind. This creature must be like feeling like I did when I awoke, unaware and wanting to know its purpose. Judging by the lack of a single conscious thought, I figured I should explain it rather than leave him to figure out.

"Welcome to the world Humamander, I am your creator. Your purpose in life is to explore and grow, while helping me to do the same. I will allow you control over your body again, but allow me to see things through your eyes." I speak in a calm and even tone as I explain to the salamander. The fear turns to excitement and I can practically feel him rip the controls away from me. As he gains his bearings, struggling to walk at first, I patiently wait as I have no advice to offer. Once he seems more comfortable I guide him to the doors and order him to open them. He pushes against them, struggling against the weight of them, but finally manages to part them.

Steam shrouds all around the masterfully crafted creation, brushing against his back as it flows out of my domain. Hesitation creeps in once again, a fear of leaving his glass walls. I don't understand, but I tell him I can use the steam to protect him. I don't know how well he can understand me but hearing my voice seems to soothe the beast. And so he begins to bring his hands forward. Hands on the ground and feet raised the beast enters an awkward gait. It is clearly trying to stay as low to the ground as possible, scurrying around on all fours, but the human upper body really hampers its movements. I suggest running on its hind legs and its a little faster but the fear in my creation begins to heighten. I didn't exactly have the mana to give it my level of intelligence, so here's to hoping I can give it more to change that.

We make it away from the steep stony cliffs and I can feel the patches of dirt under the Humamander's feet. The grass bristling the soles of my feet is unexpectedly uncomfortable but I dare not interrupt as my creation finally hits its stride. It starts sniffing its nose and exploring the outskirts of the forest. It rushes between the brush as if it's done this its whole life, Well I guess that's technically true but I meant as if it was alive longer. I then stopped in one bush, there wasn't much different about this one than any other but the Humamander didn't think so. It started grabbing these strange black orbs from the bush and shoving them into its mouth.

The taste hit me out of nowhere, why did this beast have any need for this sense, it didn't offer any sort of assistance in navigating the world so what was the point of it? My thoughts where put to rest at the wave of happiness that tickled my mind after each bite. Purely for the enjoyment of it huh? Well maybe one day I'll have my own sense of taste. I have no idea how long this pattern continued, but as time passed the humamander grew ever slower. After I while he headed to a dense patch of the bushes he had been avoiding this entire time. Pain shot out and brought a great agony to my mind and yet still the Humamander continued. Once it had entered the deepest part of the bush it curled up and started to rest, but I spoke to it once more, "Gather an armful of these berries and bring them back, you may rest at home."