Chapter 2: Miasma Filter.


    With a strange sense of displacement the next thing Artrhur knew was that he was laying on his back in some soft grass, the temperature was cool.


    “Where am I?” Arthur was pleased to hear his own voice. He started to stand up When Spark popped into being flickering through several colors in no seeming pattern or sequence.


    “We are within the Demi plane attached to your soul. The kernel of dormant Aether that was embedded in your spirit was enough to create a small solar system, but it will take time to process it down into lower forms of energy. However at my core the system seed that resides there and will control this demi plane rules for more knowledge resources and other benefits for those who choose to aid in its progress. Through tasks like gathering necessary resources and slaying beasts that are formed from chaotic energy emissions. To be clear they are catalyzed by what you would call dna. The building blocks of life. And as we make enough progress, more complex life and more energy rich resources as well as arcane knowledge and other blueprints that will require higher forms of energy to function.”


    “Wow… That''s a lot…“ Arthur flopped back on his hands and took all of that in. “ok so im gonna start on a kinda pedantic note… but like I know what both a Genus Loci and a World spirit are, but you seem more like a dungeon core tbh… I mean you can read my mind right? So like look at all this juicy Dungeon core fantasy”


    Spark bobbed and dimmed before brightening again. “Yes… I suppose you are right. However when we get to a point we will be spawning dungeons, higher tier ones might eventually gain sentience and vie for regional dominance if they run unfettered, though I suppose in my function as the controller of this demi plane I am essentially an over dungeon.”


    “Alright now like, you are a super ancient Artificial intelligence that was created before this universe existed with access to knowledge so esoteric I can''t understand it… but what is this caretaker protocol?”


    Spark dimmed “Ah that, yes well I cannot function without the oversight of a sentient being capable of at least rudimentary spiritual power, you do pass that margin even if you are less capable than some single cell magic organisms.but


    I digress-”


    Arthur raised a hand and cut Spark off, “doesn''t everything have a soul?”


    “HAHAHAHA…..What? Pshhhh… nooo! In fact in the archives there are mentions of Whole universes where the spark of the spirit never took or evolved. It was a whole universe of primitive instinct driven creatures that only lived until they died, no genetic memory, no Akashic


    Records, eventually everything became space crabs sentient fungal spore clouds larger than your earth galaxy, and roaming brambles that were powered by entire star systems just photosynthesis and hunger,can''t forget the galaxy spanning empires of Space insects i mean multiple galaxies not star systems. They never developed souls but they did make a bio computer storage for consciousness and stored knowledge. It would be like having access to the internet without a written language ever being created. Anyway when we collapsed that universe to recycle its physical matter a few of the more resilient entities escaped into the void between universes. But that, is full of ancient horrors and sleeping elder gods. Anyhow we re absorbed the matter back into higher forms of energy until it became aether again, we just extracted all the data before it was stripped away. Now returning to what i was saying before


    I was ever so rudely interrupted. I need you to help shape and guide this Demi plane so that furthers this system seeds growth. You will be rewarded with power for this. You already have. Your abilities have been calculated and quantified.”


    “Wait wait wait… I have stats? Where are they..”


    The laugh that was Spark flickered a disdainful orange.”I didn''t bother, they aren''t special, median for your size for your species. Maybe a little stronger and smarter than you seem but nothing that would qualify you for this honor if there were better choices.”  Arthur ignored the shitty glo bug. “Yeah well maybe you did find the right guy because I have lots of ideas for systems!”


    “Well maybe that would be true if! You got a say in the system. What you can have a say in how certain aspects are approached. Well for now you have a quest.”


    Just then a window appeared in Arthurs vision.


    ****


    Slay the goblins and establish a safe zone.


    Don''t die.


    ****


    “ It says don''t Die, I thought you said i was functionally immortal,”


    The ball made a noise as if sucking air through its non-existent back teeth. “Yeah, at this juncture you shouldn''t die. Your spirit isn''t currently being held because I have so many processes fabricating all the matter and sub reality strata this pocket dimension will require to grow properly. Just kill the goblins and establish a safe zone obelisk that will free up the systems for reconstitution of your physical form. And retention of your spirit. Were you an aspirant of any of the greater entities in your universe?”


    “Wait, there are greater entities in my universe?! I thought you said it was an aether desert. Or some shit like that?”


    “Yes I did say that, but aren''t there creatures that live even in earth deserts? There are rudimentary and even some vaguely sophisticated spirit cycles, for a backwater universe that has had to discover everything for themselves. A mana desert more affects the upper end of what a universe can output. I don''t think this universe could ever produce an actual God. What these powers do is attract people into following them for protection or any number of other reasons, they grow in power and create domains that create currents or cycles of spirits; these spirits offer up slivers of their Aether through faith and or prayer for their whole lives and when they die and are reborn a new cycle of energy gathering and dispersal. They try to weed out spirits that would gain consciousness; by killing their hosts or ostracizing non believers to get them back into the cycle with a more permeable outlook.. And when a spirit''s Aether runs out it either disperses, or is taken to a demi plane to act as a repository for the faithful. They don''t want entities to grow and hoard their Aether, or seek out the Aether of others.”


    Just then 3 goblins stepped out of the brush to the north, they were only clad in crude dirty loin cloths with sharpened stone tipped spears. They were short but muscular like wiry green apes. Their skulls were lumpy and misshapen with uneven and disproportionate features like unevenly sized eyes, off centered and poorly formed noses and uneven ears.


    “Oh grand and multi dimensional fabricator you gonna equip me?”


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    “Sorry, hands are tied. You''ve got this, I''m sure.”


    Arthur blinked. “Are you serious? Even they get sticks and loincloths.”


    “You''re a big boy…” the ball dipped low almost to waist level, “well you are tall and strong, you can handle this.”


    “Hey! Screw you! I''m a grower!”


    Time was up. Spark winked out and the goblins began an awkward but steady gait as they began to pick up speed. Arthur focussed inward and realized his caloric battery was nearly empty, when it occurred to him that this body had never eaten before. He wasn''t feeling faint so he decided to give his new Talent a spin.


    He envisioned running wide around the approaching goblins then stopping in front of a berry bush to pick a couple handfuls and eating them, he also expended the calories to digest them, and then turn to face the goblins from his new position. His sense of his talent was a mental tightness that told him he was on the edge of what he could do with so little energy. He released the tension like releasing a rubber band the potential energy building and expending. Arthur stood facing away from the now empty berry bushes. Watching the goblins begin to skid to a stop. Everything that he envisioned happened in an instant between foot falls, he now stood feeling slightly ful at the enemies back, his caloric energy well not full; wasn''t running on fumes. He shifted his weight forward, something in his motion most have alerted the Goblins because of of then turned and threw his spear, for a moment the spear was coated in a hazy crimson energy that seemed to flash in the goblins eyes as well and the spear flew fast, way faster than it should have; But as has been the case for Arthur''s whole life his perception of time seemed to slow to a crawl. It was no complicated feat to imagine stepping forward and grabbing the spear from the air, and in a blink Arthue stood with the spear in hand as the 3 goblins charged him.


    Arthur was more of a sword and fist kinda guy but he understood the underlying purpose of a spear. Range, thrust or lever.


    The first goblin to reach him was one of the other spear wielders. It ran forward with part of the haft under one arm; its two hands gripping tightly. Arthur stepped in and used his reach and leverage to strike the top of the spear and drive it into the grass, with his foot he stomped on the shaft just beneath the spear head and drove the tip into the thing’s large misshapen eye. Just then the next spear wielder arrived. This one stabbed from what was above for it, arthur twisted out of the way, vanishing mid pivot, and


    re appearing behind the thing still mid pivot, but now driving his spear point into the other  spear goblin’s back.it punched into the back of its neck. But before Arthur could celebrate the third Goblin arrived leaping onto his thigh and sinking its jagged teeth into his soft inner thigh.


    “AHHHHHH!!! FUUUCCCKKK!!” He roared, gesturing at the goblin biting his thigh with both hands, before choking up on the spear and stabbing the creature repeatedly in the neck. The creature fell from his leg now dead. Arthur plopped onto his ass in the blood slicked grass, before the goblins and blood began to dissipate into motes of light, some of which gathered and flew towards Arthur, before a wave of euphoria enveloped him. The wound on his thigh healed visibly as he lay there. Gasps of pain become a sigh of contentment.


    “Spark? What the fuck man!?”


    The light did not appear but his voice rang out. “Two more groups of 3 and you are done.” a window appeared.


    *****


    Error: Progression halted until realm stone placed and secured.


    ****


    Where the 3 goblins once lay, 3 prismatic orbs hovered. Small motes of light broke away from them and vanished but they didn''t seem to get appreciably dimmer.


    “Spark, what are these?”


    “Loot, moron. Nothing worth energetically much given how crude these things are. Just reach out and touch one to extend your senses, and you will sense the potential in your mind. If it''s something you want then acknowledge it and the energy will fulfill its potential, if you don''t want it acknowledge that and it will dissipate back into the system. The loot is a reward incentive for helping filter the energy byproduct created when breaking Aether down into lower forms of energy; it''s a miasma that can corrode and corrupt life and consume the spirit, but it was discovered that if you seed the surroundings with motes of life energy it will attack and consume it assimilating and corrupting the code that will become genetics. It will then gather and collect the miasma into monsters, those were made from the code for what you''d call ‘hobbits’ which changes the energy into a form of matter that can be broken down into something more beneficial to the system.”


    Arthur absorbed all that information for a moment before he followed Sparks'' advice. He extended a hand to the spear chucker goblin, and pushed with his senses, in his mindseye a loin cloth with a hip pouch swam into view. Arthur mentally chose to accept; and in a pop of light a muddy brown loincloth of an unknown material lay across Arthurs palm. He sighed and when he went to put it on it sized to fit him even the pouch rested comfortably on his hip. The next one dropped 3 copper coins, and the third some animal tooth necklace. In the end he accepted all 3, adding the coins to his new pouch and wearing the necklace; before snatching up a fallen spear, and looking around for signs of the other goblins.


    “Hey, spark, can we like shift cosmetics? For loot orbs?”


    “What?! You got a problem with rainbows?”


    “That is not an issue where I''m concerned, I just meant that if we could have different colors based on spiritual density, like white, green, blue, purple, and orange in ascending order.”


    “You want to establish a rarity system? That is easy enough but past attempts at implementing such features show increased incidents of conflict where rarity is concerned”


    “Then create a roulette system where contributors can vie for ownership and then choose between participants with a little chibi icon on their face or something.  Or maybe you can… you said it''s all potential until you acknowledge it right? And it''s an attempt at a reward that gets recycled. What if you create a system of loot cards? And before you object. People fucking love to collect things, and! Cards are also way easier to store. So just have the system fabricate a card with an item on it with no description, maybe have an artificer or center for identifying items...”


    “There are both appraise and identify skills in many class paths both combat and non combat.-”


    “Classes there are classes? What''s mine? You gotta get better with the announcements pal!”


    “ You don’t have a Class yet, you have your starting talent. At level 3 you will receive a second talent that you can pick from a list. I have begun to sift through your culture from its subconscious impact on the astral plane around your planet. At level 7 you will receive a third talent then at lv 10 you will hit tier 1 and attain a class based on your talents and how you use them.


    Hmmm… your planet has a surprisingly built entertainment industry, with rich stories of myth lore, history and fiction. I will sift through my archive of patterns and seed this demi plane with creatures likely to be recognized. Though not all of your methods for dealing with these threats will be accurate depending on  the species.”


    “Ya know… we keep talking about other people, but this is in my soul and i have no way back… and I don''t know if I like the idea of this demi plane snatching souls to reincarnate them here, i mean this is my soul ya know, its kind of private. And i feel like if they landed here instead of heaven they''d be pissed”


    “Worry not caretaker, once you accomplish your goal it will solidify this realm and then you can create a rift back to where you started from, at which point you can enter, exit or pull things into or out of this place at your will. And Aether no! We will not be drawing in spirits for reincarnation. the entities in your universe would surely notice, if a portion of the spiritual rivers that flow through your universe If there was suddenly a stream syphoning them in here.


    You aren''t ready for that stage of existence. Since the realm is inside your spirit, it''s insulated; and no energy emissions will be detected from outside. Now once you hit Tier 10 you will need to start being cautious about what you do outside of here, because once you condense your mana into Either and form an ether core, that will surely get the attention of agents of the greater powers, we should avoid that as long as possible. because once that ball begins rolling you are going to need to tier up fast enough that you outpace the level of guardians that they are sending, because 98% of powers in an unregulated universe resist system implementation, because it gives potential to all, rather than concentrating it in a few.”