The moment I closed the window, a dimensional gate opened and the fragment of a god was delivered.
The fragment looked like dried human tissue. At the same time, it also looked like a cut section of geological strata, or layers of dead, withered wood stacked one atop another.
I examined it closely through divine power.
「Fragment of an Old God: A fragment of an old god imbued with powerful <Mysticism>. It can be used to create a <Legendary Creation>. To create a <Legendary Creation>, at least 1,556 points of <Life>, <Mysticism>, and <Faith> are required. You may create a <Legendary Creation> as strong as the points you spend.
Authority held by the fragment of a god: 『Archmaster of Magic』」
『Archmaster of Magic: Exceptionally capable in using and developing magic-type mysticism. Can unlock entirely new schools of magic without any prerequisites.』
So it was a mage type. That was why I had wanted to name it [Yogur-tosoth]. If it had been a physical type, I would have called it [Shuc-rimmurath].
“There’s no inventory system or anything, right?”
“No. You have to place it in the world.”
Then I would put it on the plain between Teimong River and Nectar Oasis.
That plain had originally been desert, but with the lake’s organic-rich water constantly flowing into it and flooding over it, it had become rich land where life could grow easily.
“‘Rich land’ is an expression used for soil suitable for farming. And farming is a symbol of civilization.”
Some ants farm too.
And draining wetlands just to farm them is ecological insanity. The more wetlands there are, the better.
There is no place with greater ecosystem diversity than a wetland.
I deliberately edited the world’s terrain to create an “island” encircled by river and lake like a ring, and released onto it the water plants and mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and enormous variety of insects I had purchased from other players.
That meant my ecosystem now had, broadly speaking, three major terrains.
The Teimong Wetland and river, where ordinary life-forms lived. The remains of Teimong’s civilization were there too.
A freshwater lake fed by diluted nectar and the pure water of the 《Aquifer》. It was still connected now, but someday it would merge completely with Nectar Oasis.
And Nectar Oasis itself, where Abhojuth lived.
Of those, Nectar Oasis was the central axis of my unique ecosystem. The Teimong Wetland was the terrain for building a more “universal” ecosystem. And the freshwater lake, where both the Dessert Legion and universal life-forms adapted to it existed together, was the transitional terrain between the two.
My ultimate goal was to turn every life-form in my ecosystem into a member of the Dessert Legion.
“Wouldn’t it be pretty difficult to evolve all of them enough to bring them into the Dessert Legion?”
“It would. That’s why I’m causing as many mutations as possible and focusing evolution on the ones that cross from the wetland into the freshwater lake. And it’s fine to build a separate ecosystem that doesn’t interact with the Dessert Legion at all.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Of course. As things stand now, the Dessert Legion can’t even survive anywhere except deserts with abundant sunlight and the area around Nectar Oasis. Defensively, they’re excellent, but offensively, they’re extremely fragile life-forms. In this next World Collision, the opponent might be able to deal with the invading jellies without even preparing for them.”
“Hm.”
“That’s why it’s important to absorb those ‘natural’ life-forms into the Dessert Legion and strengthen them. New life-forms that eat ordinary flesh and grass, but are themselves members of the Dessert Legion.”
“What exactly is the definition of the Dessert Legion, then? Jelly life-forms?”
No. [Jelly-Eating Fish] and [Jelly-Eating Frog], which had already evolved from ordinary fish and frogs, were also part of the Dessert Legion.
Since even those ordinary organic organisms had become part of it, the Dessert Legion needed a better definition than “jelly life-forms.”
The first and most important condition of the Dessert Legion was that it possessed a mineralized body.
“But [Nectar Jelly] doesn’t seem to have a mineralized body.”
That was a primitive Dessert Legion species. The word primitive makes everything an exception. And there were [Nectar Jelly] variants with mineral structures too.
In any case, to be called a member of the Dessert Legion, a creature had to possess a mineralized bodily structure.
The jellies and puddings already had glassy or quartz-like shells, teeth, spines, and scales made by using sand, and [Jelly-Eating Fish] and [Jelly-Eating Frog], by eating jellies, also covered their skin, teeth, and the like with hardened mineral-organic composites.
Once it possessed a mineralized body, a member of the Dessert Legion gained a horrifying asymmetrical advantage: it could consume other organisms normally, while other organisms could not consume it.
“So in the end, you’re going to cover all the life-forms you bought from the other players in mineralized bodies too?”
Yes. An invading Dessert Legion of tissues combining protein and mineral matter would be extraordinarily difficult to deal with.
For instance, among the creatures I had just brought in was a large reptile similar to a crocodile. If its scales alone became mineralized, glasslike structures, it would become nightmarishly hard to kill.
“It’s a cool idea, but can life-forms actually maintain that kind of body structure?”
“Impossible on Earth. Possible in a fantasy world. There’s magic here.”
“I told you, not magic. Mysticism. Magic is only one part of mysticism.”
Magic.
Anything that couldn’t be explained scientifically was magic to me.
In any case, with energies like mana and divine power, these biologically absurd life-forms somehow worked…
Of course, even at a glance, the life-forms remodeled into members of the Dessert Legion had terrifying natural mana consumption on top of their monstrous energy demands.
In other words, they had bodily structures poorly suited to functioning as natural organisms.
“It’s headed in a somewhat different direction, but it sounds similar to the ‘artificial life-forms’ you can research once <Technology> and <Mysticism> levels rise. Though that usually isn’t possible until after Level 15.”
“My <Life> is Level 5. It’ll be over 6 soon enough.”
“Come to think of it, could you please choose the Trait cards you’ve been putting off? Your levels have gone up quite a bit while you were browsing the community.”
<My Military>, <Industry>, <Mysticism>, and <Faith> had each gone up by two levels. Excluding Faith, that meant I had six Traits to choose.
For <Military>, I chose 『Close-Combat Specialist』 and 『Mystic Organ Utilization』. Traits that strengthened combat techniques using the body and strengthened the magic a life-form possessed intrinsically.
For <Industry>, I chose 『Comfortable Living Spaces』 and 『Durable Structures』. A Trait that made homes better to live in, and one that made structures sturdier.
For <Mysticism>, I simply chose 『Light Mysticism Specialization』 and 『Fire Mysticism Specialization』. They would improve the efficiency of nectar synthesis.
“But even after purchasing the material for a Legendary Creation, you haven’t actually used it.”
“There are two reasons. First, the World Collision is about to begin, and I don’t want to cut my <Life> score too much.
“Second, I want to raise my level first and then choose.”
「Your world’s <Life> score has exceeded 4,085, and it has risen to Level 6. You may now select a new Trait.」
I had only gone through two World Collisions, yet the entire world was already swarming with life and had reached Level 6.
Military strength had also reached Level 3 purely through weight of numbers alone, 441 or higher. I had powerful mysticism, and through evolution, the imported crocodiles, giant catfish, giant frogs, and the like had all transformed into formidable predators.
Barring something extreme, I would probably win.
But there was one more thing I wanted to add. Something so overwhelming that I could crush the opponent even if they had developed civilization like a complete lunatic.
A Level 6 Trait might very well become that.
So I gave the Angel a pointed look, asking for the Trait cards. Past Level 5, the available Traits would no longer be ordinary grade. Superior-grade Traits should appear now.
“…”
But there was no response. What was this idiot doing?
“Hurry up and show me the Trait cards. What are you waiting for?”
Yet when I pressed again, the expression on the Angel’s face looked less like annoyance and more like bewilderment.
And not the sort of bewilderment brought on by the fact that my world had succeeded so spectacularly without civilization, or that my <Life> had already reached Level 6. It was bewilderment of a somewhat different kind.
“I apologize, Player Nonhuman.”
“?”
“It’s just that… I reported the matter to upper management, and at present, there are no Traits we can recommend to you.”
“What kind of nonsense is that? In the game, you recommended Traits just fine. Why is it suddenly impossible now that this has become reality?”
The Angel said something unexpected.
“It’s different. The angels and the game organizers cannot give players Traits that would harm them or be unhelpful, but we also cannot show special favoritism to any player.”
“You keep recommending civilization Traits to me.”
“That’s because the basic rule of the game is to create civilization. Even if that isn’t the direction the player wants, it still adds elements the player’s world is lacking.”
That, admittedly, made sense.
“But the case of <Life> is a little different. Originally, the <Life Score> measured a world based on the diversity of life-forms within it, the sturdiness of its ecosystem, the excellence of each life-form, and their scale.”
“I know that.”
“Yes, yes. But when it was still just a game, there were limits to the kinds of life-forms that could be created. So the Traits that could be proposed to players were limited as well, and based on the level you had reached, we could recommend suitable Traits. Even when there was no Trait worth recommending, the list itself couldn’t suddenly be expanded, so the system was simply programmed to recommend even ‘dud Traits.’”
Ah. I had run into that a few times. When I went for an extreme <Life> build, completely useless things sometimes showed up in the middle stages.
“But in your case, Nonhuman, you have exercised the authority of a god to its fullest and created life-forms that never existed anywhere in the universe and, in truth, could not exist. Your ecosystem is composed entirely of such life-forms. We organizers have absolutely no idea what Trait we should recommend to give a beneficial effect to your ecosystem equivalent to a Level 6 Trait.”
So it wasn’t that they didn’t want to give me one. It was that they had no idea what to give me?
“Yes. Exactly. Of course it is impossible to create perfectly balanced, totally equal competition between players, but it must at least be fair.
“Quite apart from the fact that your playstyle has diverged completely from the intentions of the organizers, we consider it an extremely interesting and noteworthy build.
“But we believe that if we interfere with this build, we might ruin it instead, or damage fair competition with the other players.”
“That doesn’t mean you can simply refuse to give me a Trait.”
“Yes…”
I thought for a moment in the face of this unprecedented situation.
“Can’t you revise the game rules?”
“Revising them solely for you, Nonhuman, would be difficult…”
“No, I mean for all players. Since a defect has appeared, think of it as writing patch notes.”
In other words, I was currently being denied the benefit I should have received, so they could compensate me.
The compensation I wanted was simple: I wanted to decide, just this once, what Trait I would receive.
And naturally, there was only one Trait I wanted right now.
The power to create a Legendary Creation through the force of a Trait.
“As I remember it, <Life Score> could previously strengthen only the base specs of existing life-forms. Even if it was technically a life-form, it couldn’t strengthen Legendary Creations, fairies, powerful heroes, or any other special individuals. But from now on, couldn’t you make that possible?
“In other words, from now on, whenever my <Life> level rises, I’ll strengthen my [Abhojuth], or strengthen or create life-forms of a similar class. Let that be the Trait I receive this time.”
“…”
“But let the other players do it too. I’m not asking for special privilege. I’m just offering a solution and taking the compensation I ought to receive. Can’t you do that?”
“I will consult upper management.”
The Angel vanished from in front of me for a moment.
Then suddenly, a message appeared.
「Announcement to all players. Due to an operational defect in this game, the scheduled time until World Collision will be extended. During that period, you may continue manipulating your world.」
「As compensation to all players for this unscheduled announcement, 210 points of <Faith> will be granted.」
This game company really knew how to run things. Handing out compensation like candy.
Using my increased Faith, I leisurely went about manipulating my life-forms. A short while later, the Angel returned from speaking with upper management and answered me.
“Both proposals made by Player Nonhuman have been approved. The rule change through patch notes, and the ability to permanently improve the stats of unique individuals, including Legendary Creations, or acquire new ones through raising <Life> level.”
“Oh.”
“However, as compensation to all other players for the sudden rule change, we plan to grant each of them a one-time right to create a <Unique Creation> in proportion to their <Life> level. Do you object?”
That made no difference to me.
Because the thing I was about to create would obviously be several times stronger than theirs.
The Angel handed me a gleaming superior-grade Trait card. I boldly accepted 『One-Time Effect: +3,268 points when creating a Legendary Creation』.
And then I crammed my divine power, the mana existing throughout my ecosystem, and my life-forms into the fragment of the god like a madman.
Twitch—
Rise.
O Archmaster of Magic dwelling within the fragment of an old god, answer my call.
Twitch—! Twitch—! Twitch—!
Now is the time for you to write your legend!
Appear!
[Yogur-tosoth]!
First Legion Commander of the Dessert Legion!
Reveal yourself now!!!
“You’re obviously summoning some insanely powerful creation, and I know you’re completely absorbed in the moment so it feels awkward to interrupt, but with a name like that, it has absolutely no intimidation factor at all…”