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Chapter 488: Evolution

Wait, them creating worlds like that is actually a thing? I thought to myself, having observed their little ritual to empower the Fairy Gates… no, I guess they should be called Fairy Rings now. Either way, I had watched out of curiosity, wanting to see what it would be like. When I saw Tubrock leading them to his back room and discussing his plan to create entire worlds…

It would be one thing if he just dropped those three worlds in as planets within an established universe. But, what he was talking about was creating an entirely new universe for them. Maybe even one for each of the three. Even with Ryone’s incredibly versatile domain, I felt like that would drain her considerably.

Moreover, they had talked about the idea of Ashley being able to modify the game system of my worlds with her new domain. That was… something I hadn’t taken into consideration. Looking back now, it should be fairly obvious, given that it was the game system, but still. Depending on how much influence she is able to exert, that could make her potentially the most powerful goddess in the entire pantheon at this point.

I shook my head to dismiss those thoughts. Regardless of what she was able to do now, it was a benefit for me. Even if she wasn’t able to do anything that would save me a single point, it would still help just for her to be able to do what she’s already done.

Either way, the next course of action was to simply let Aurivy replace all of the Fairy Gates with the new Fairy Rings, and then wait for the colonization efforts to bear fruit.

Across the eight realms, there was a brief stir. Travel through the Fairy Gates had been suspended, or rather rendered impossible. The gates themselves had all vanished at once. Wrapped in golden mists, they disappeared from the facilities housing them.

This news caused an uproar that spread throughout the realms. Trade had been cut off abruptly, no divine warning before the gates had been whisked away. But… all of this lasted for just a few minutes.

After those few minutes, the mist returned once again, leaving behind something new. The smooth stone platform had turned black. The concentric rings were gone, replaced by a single, large ring that stood upright within the center of the platform. This ring was a full ten meters in radius, offering ample room for groups to walk through side-by-side, or even to drive entire wagons through.

With a brief inspection, it was confirmed that each of these devices still had the same key that had originally been inserted into their previous gate. The only difference was in the location that the key was placed. Rather than atop the platform, it was now off to the side.

In order to test that this new structure worked, one of the guards of Deckan pressed his hand on the key as if it were a button. This was the same method to activate the previous version of the gates, and this time it showed similar results. Only, rather than the rings that rose up to surround travelers, a pitch black void appeared within the standing ring.

The difference here was clear. The new structure allowed the opening of a portal, which gave far more utility as a travel tool than a teleportation circle. This portal persisted until the guard pressed down on the key once again.

This presented new opportunities, but also new challenges. When a portal opened from a random world, would they be able to close it from this end? Would they have to go through to the other side to close it, sacrificing whoever was there? If they could close it from this end, if what came through was too powerful, would they have the chance to do so?

Not only this guard, the people who had been watching this event all had these thoughts. Immediately, they began to devise the implementation of items which could be attached to the gate. Items that could be used to remotely activate and deactivate these portals.

Within the realm of Spica, in a distant and barren world, a lone tree stood beneath the twin suns. At first, it had been beaten down by the terrible heat and chaotic energy, shrinking a little more each day. At that rate, it would have been no surprise for it to have withered away entirely within a year, especially given the lack of water beneath the surface.

However, those very same energy waves offered salvation. After three months of enduring the pain, suffering from the completely inhospitable environment, there was a change within the tree.

It started slow, just two leaves that sprouted at the top of the canopy. One blue and the other red, each of these leaves absorbed one type of energy, either ki or mana. This energy was then channeled through the tree and stored as power to aid in its growth.

The next day, ten more leaves of each color appeared, and the tree began to grow again. After one week, the tree had reached its original size. By that time, the leaves were an even split of green, blue, and red. Power began to circulate through the tree, far more than when it had first been planted.

With the gentle, guiding nature of the tree’s energy pathways, the ki and mana were allowed to merge into chakra. This chakra, in response to the unconscious needs of the tree, formed nutrients to feed it while also nurturing its future fruits.

One month after the tree had began to truly grow, it had reached a height of ten kilometers. Its branches spread out, and the buds of its fruit began to grow. By now, there was nothing that the hostile environment could do to stop this tree’s growth. Instead, the very thing that had once threatened it now became its fuel.

Another month passed, and the trees height reached a hundred kilometers, where it finally began to slow down. Now, finally, the first generation of fruits began to drop. When they crashed into the ground, they split open, revealing the same wide-eyed, naive sylvans that had first appeared on Sorii.

Moments later, the base of the tree split open, revealing a girl with golden skin. Bark and vines covered her, giving an appearance similar to that of armor. Although many of her features appeared similar to Cicily of Learning, she did not have the same innocent gentleness to her.

This golden sylvan struck the side of her fist against the tree, causing the vines growing along it to sprout the speech fruit. It was at that time that she communicated her name to the people she had been appointed to guide, though for the moment she could only do so through their telepathic connection, until they properly understood speech.

I am Gracia of Protection. All of you, aid in the spreading of the forest. We’ll need proper fortifications in case we are attacked.

Thanks to the knowledge that Cicily had obtained in her life, the advanced sylvans born of her true were far more capable than the tree which Cicily herself had come from. Although Gracia did not know that there would ever be a threat to them in this world, she knew her purpose. She knew the meaning of Protection, and what she had to do to achieve it.

“Mother, I feel different than your memories.” She spoke to herself only once the other sylvans had left the area, already working to spread the roots of the tree out in a growing circle. As the first true inheritor of Cicily’s memories, she knew that something was different about this generation.

Closing her eyes, she focused on these oddities, before letting out a gasp. There was an additional energy seed within her body that Cicily had not recorded. “I see… is it this environment, then?” Her eyes glanced upwards, looking at the twin stars.

She could feel two of the energies beating down heavily from the suns, while the third only trickled in slowly. “According to her memory, this should be chakra.”

Unfortunately, Cicily had never had reason to obtain the cultivation system of Lorek. It was entirely irrelevant knowledge to her, someone far more interested in brewing potions or studying the very nature of her existence. Had she more time before hearing the call of her instincts, she very well could have learned the method to cultivate. As it was, though, this generation of sylvans had no method by which to access that information.

“Attention, all passengers. We are preparing to exit our final warp. Will the Initial Landing Team please report to Hangar Two. I repeat, we are preparing to exit our final warp…”

The electronic voice echoed out across the colony ship, creating a buzz among the passengers. For six long months, they had waited on this ship for the chance to start a colony on a new world. Many of them were here for no reason other than bragging rights, or the awe of adventure itself. After all, once the portal was built within the new colony, they would be able to come and go far more freely.

Julia let out a relieved sigh as she listened to the announcement. Barring one crazy encounter she’d rather soon forget, the entire travel was largely uneventful. Pulling herself out of her bed, she quickly got dressed and began making her way to the observation deck alongside her familiar.

As she was not part of the landing team, it could be considered that her job within this voyage had come to an end. All that was left now was to sit back and wait for the portal to be constructed that could take her home.

When she arrived at the observation deck, it was just in time for the blue veil of warp energy to fall away from the ship. In the distance, she could see the marvelous green and blue planet that had been advertised to them. Finally, this was their new territory, the place where the people of Earth would be expanding to.

Though, in her honest opinion, it didn’t look that much different from Earth itself. The second moon was surely an exotic touch, but otherwise it just looked like another planet to her. After years traveling through space in Vision Expanse, she was able to calmly appraise the planet with a glance.

Two moons, they’ll need to keep an eye out for exotic marine life. Three large continents, probably a bunch of scattered small islands that we can’t see yet. Maybe another continent on the far side of the planet. The ice caps are… huh, looks like they’re pretty small. And the green is a bit darker. Tropical planet, then.

This’ll be a paradise for the ursa, maybe the lycans. I don’t see many mountain ranges on this side of the world, so the tectonic plates are unusually stable. That or the foliage is so dense that it can hide them at this distance. If we ever met a world like this in the game, there would almost always be a civilization inhabiting it, even if it were simply in its infant stages.

Julia gave a faint nod at her own assessment of the planet. It didn’t really matter to her how accurate it was, that was for other people to worry about. She was neither a soldier nor a politician, and had no intention of acting like one.

After a few minutes, she saw three smaller ships breaking off from the colony ship, each heading towards the planet at a different angle. These ships would run a closer scan, see what they could find, and identify a proper landing zone to establish the colony. With any luck, they would discover rare resources that this planet could offer. With an extreme amount of bad luck, they would be attacked by powerful monsters before they could return.

Julia silently wished them all luck on this final leg of the voyage.