《To Rule a Planet》 Chapter 1 To make a good building you always need a plan, a design. The same can be said to live a good life. Ever since I was 8 I wanted to be an architect. I wanted to design the greatest building the world had ever seen. The first job I ever had was a construction worker. I took every opportunity to learn a new specialty of the trade. I went to a trade school right out of high school and at 22 years old I had my own company. It wasn''t big, about 100 guys, mostly good guys. A few of them had records but I didn''t care much. As long as they didn''t steal from me or cheat our clients, does it matter that they did drugs or got into drunk fights at bars. They showed up for work and got the job done to my degree of satisfaction. I did not demand perfection, not from a guy just trying to make a living, it was close to perfection though. My company gained a reputation for excellent work at a good price for the quality we gave. It was amazing. I wanted more. I loved my company and my guys, but it wasn''t enough. I had fame, relatively speaking, I had money. I could do more, be more. I wouldn''t compromise my company or the guys. I saw my chance, and an employee wanted to buy me out. He knew I wanted more. Hank was an older gentleman, short paratical hair and close cropped beard, more salt than pepper. He smoked like a broken chimney and drank as much as he smoked, healthy as a horse though, he was pushing 70, and wanted to retire from the field. He was one of the first people I hired. Him, his sons, and a few friends were my first crew. For an older guy in a hard physical labor job you would think he would be less capable then some of them in their prime. You would be out money if you bet on that. He never stopped working and making sure the job got done on time. He had saved up money most of his life to give himself and his family a nice cushion. He saw how I built the company up and how I was always learning and pushing what we could do. I gave him a good price despite him arguing to pay more for all the good I did for the crew. I couldn''t, not him. I took that money and found one of the best engineering colleges in the world. I grinded for 6 years to get that doctorate. Top of my class even. A good plan and design makes for a good life, you can say the same thing about buildings too. ¡°I didn''t plan that,¡± was my last thought as a horn blared and I saw saucer sized lights heading towards me. Then I blinked, at least I tried to blink. I couldn''t feel anything. I couldn''t breathe either or move. What''s going on I think as I start to panic. I couldn''t do anything, I was just floating around in some sort of geometric heaven. The clouds tumbled and changed into complex shapes, some my mind had a hard time comprehending. The stars and nebulas mixed in-between the clouds pulsing and moving in an unseen pattern. I thought I recognized a shape like the Arc de Triomphe de l''¨¦toile, but a cloud obscured it before I could confirm. I felt a shudder ripe through me. I''d have screamed if I had a mouth or lungs to do so. STABILIZE, the word imposed itself into my reality. My shapeless form reduced down to one resembling the Vitruvian Man. Why doesn''t this feel weird, I absently thought. It should feel weird to be like this. My former body displayed in a clinical manner like this. As I tried to notice more of the form my veins, organs, bones, everything started imposing itself on my form. They stayed separate from me, rotating and zooming in at random. Then I saw my soul, my memories, my essence. Without ever having seen them before I knew them. From deep inside all the parts that were my former body they came. Colors I had no name for coalesced into a ball in front of all the rest of myself that was imposed over my Vitruvian Man body. I felt HIM descend. That''s all I thought was HIM, a power I couldn''t comprehend. He studied everything that was me. Everything that I still was, I felt the separation now. I wasn''t human anymore, I am Formless. ¡°Smarter than your average human. Driven to obsessiveness. 1 on the aphantasia scale. Competitive. It will do. IMPRINT. ENHANCE. TIE.¡± The words ripped through me. Impressions of a mission. I was chosen. I and several other Formless will be given a task, make a species and civilization to stand the test of time and we will ascend. What I was crumbled into motes of light, shifting to form a band around my ball. My new form. I almost looked like Saturn, I thought laughing. I was just a ball of formless essence, twistings of light and space to most everything''s eyes. With a small band of light wrapping around me. I descended from the geometric heaven, and began to leave my old world behind. A great force held me for a moment before viciously ejecting me. I don''t know how long I sped through space. I think it''s space, stars and shapes fly by so fast in the darkness that surrounds me I can''t be sure. As I begin to slow a power sufuses me and a screen appears in front of me. [NAME - N/A STATE - FORMLESS (GENESIS) LEVEL - 1 TIER - 0 CREATIONS - 0 CIV ADVANCEMENTS - N/A CULTURE - N/A TECHNOLOGY - N/A. TITLES - N/A STATS: MANA - 5 (Determines the increase to ambient mana density, regeneration, and influences the type of magic in territory. As well as if your species can cast and use magic.) INFLUENCE - 3(Determines how powerful your commands are and if you are able to make someone do something against their being.) CONTROL - 3(Determines how precise you can manipulate the environment, flora, and fauna. As well as how fine your other manipulation abilities can be used.) PRESENCE - 2(Determines how much your people can feel you in their everyday lives and how much others can feel you when you descend.) OMNISENSE RADIUS - 6 (INFLUENCE ¡Á PRESENCE) (The distance you can clearly sense before Fog of War obscures you) (REDUCED TO 0 TILL QUEST FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS IS COMPLETED) MAGIC - 15 (MANA ¡Á CONTROL) (How powerful and/or plentiful magical flora, fauna,and materials can be found in your claimed area. The power and number of spells you can create/cast.) WILL - 10 (MANA ¡Á PRESENCE) (How much you can exert yourself before needing to rest. NOTE: outside influence may expend your WILL faster.) FAITH - 9 (INFLUENCE ¡Á CONTROL) (Ambient power gathered by your faithful. Can be used in a variety of ways to gain small buffs or debuffs depending on the situation.). ABILITIES: PERFECT RECALL (LIMITED) MINOR SHAPE OMNISENSE (CONCEPTUAL) CELLULAR CONTROL (TEMPORARY) SOUL CONTROL (TEMPORARY) MAGIC CONTROL (WILL BE REDUCED TO MANA MANIPULATION) MENTAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE (TEMPORARY, LIMITED USE: 4)] I was about to focus on what all these abilities meant but a pulse in the corner of my vision caught my attention and a new screen appeared automatically. [NOTIFICATION: YOU HAVE RECEIVED NEW QUESTS, YOU HAVE RECEIVED A BLESSING FROM YOUR HIGHER BEING] [QUEST: FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS - YOU HAVE BEEN TASKED BY A HIGHER BEING TO CREAT YOUR ULTIMATE LIFE FORM AND CREATE A CIVILIZATION THAT WILL TAKE OVER THE PLANET YOU HAVE BEEN TASKED WITH OVERSEEING. YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN ACCESS TO POWERS BEYOND YOUR ABILITY TO FACILITATE THE CREATION OF YOUR ULTIMATE LIFE FORM. THESE POWERS WILL BE TAKEN FROM YOU AFTER THE COMPLETION OF YOUR FIRST VIABLE LIFE FORM CAPABLE OF CIVILIZATION LEVEL ADVANCEMENTS. BEWARE AS THERE ARE FORMLESS WITH THE SAME MISSION AND ONLY ONE MAY CLAIM ASCENDANCE. QUEST AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED] [QUEST: PALE COLORED DOT - HALLELUJAH, YOU AND YOUR FELLOW FORMLESS HAVE BEEN GIVEN MODERATE CONTROL OF STARTING PLANET. A NEW SCREEN WILL BE TEMPORARILY ADDED WITH A LIST OF CHOICES THAT CAN BE MADE TO ALTER THE STARTING PLANET. NOTICE: EACH FORMLESS ONLY HAS 10 VOTES. QUEST AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED] [HALLELUJAH A HIGHER BEING HAS BLESSED YOU, PICK ONE FROM THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS: 10 ADDITIONAL VOTES IN PALE COLORED DOT QUEST, 1 CONTROLLED MUTATION OF LIFE FORM, POWER ADVANCEMENT (IF A TEMPORARY POWER IS CHOSEN THE LEAST FORM WILL BE GIVEN UPON COMPLETION OF FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS QUEST]Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! My mind is spinning. So much information, I don''t know what to do. The tranquility of the geometric heaven seems to be wearing off and I''m starting to freak out. I died. All my plans don''t matter. I just got my fucking doctorate and I die not even a day later, what the hell¡­STABILIZE, the words echo in my mind. It doesn''t matter, it never mattered. I have a great mission now. I was chosen. I need to make a new plan. One that won''t be ruined by death. I center myself and think. First, I need to see what all these abilities do. Second, I need to see the options I can vote for. Third, pick my blessing. It''s not a long plan or a detailed plan, but it''s a plan. I pull my sheet up and focus on my abilities. [PERFECT RECALL (LIMITED) - you can remember all information you have obtained consciously and subconsciously. Note: Just because you can remember the information does not mean you understand the information. Limited: You may only have perfect recall on subjects you have studied or put a significant amount of effort into learning. MINOR SHAPE - within range of your omnisense you have a minor amount of control over the environment, weather, and terrain. Beware accumulative and combined effects may lead to unexpected outcomes. Use of this ability will take time to have an effect. OMNISENSE (CONCEPTUAL) - within your omnisense radius you have complete observation of everything. Note: abilities and magical effects may obscure your omnisense. At the moment you may only sense your species and their makeup. CELLULAR CONTROL - You have the power to manipulate cells and their structure to your will, innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This ability is temporary, the power and knowledge of how to use the power will be taken from you. SOUL CONTROL - You have the power to create, shape, and manipulate souls at your will, innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This ability is temporary, the power and knowledge of how to use the power will be taken from you. MAGIC CONTROL - You have the power to create and manipulate mana. You have the ability to create and alter magical effects. You have the power to control how others in your omnisense can use and manipulate magic/mana. Innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This ability is temporary and will be taken from you, replaced with a lesser version of this ability. MENTAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE - You have the power to change how those of your species think and what they find important in their society. This does not change individuals, only changing what the species as a whole value and how their thought process works. Innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This power is temporary and limited in the number of uses. The ability and knowledge will be taken from you upon the fourth use of this ability.] ¡°Holy shit, I am a god!¡± ¡°No,¡± I immediately corrected, ¡°HE was a god. I''m just given these so I have the tools of a god. So that I can begin my mission of domination.¡± The knowledge required to use these powers flashes through me. So much information that if I had a brain still it would be overloaded and I would probably die of a hemorrhage. I''m not dumb, but the amount of information coursing through me makes me feel dumb. I know what I would need to do to create the entire structure of a strand of DNA. I know what a soul is made of and the esoteric methods needed to make them. It feels wrong with how simple a soul is really. Don''t get me wrong it is complex beyond what my mortal brain could originally understand. How a soul isn''t necessary for life but every living entity will have one. The very act of experiencing life generates them. I pull myself back, my being hurts as the power shoves into me. It''s too much. I fear for a moment that it will kill me. I spent a few moments collecting myself. ¡°How can I feel sore without muscles,¡± I wonder. ¡°Focus, I have a lot to do. Now that I''ve looked through my abilities and have some idea what I can do, let''s see what my options are for my new world.¡± I take a deep breath even without lungs. I pull up the world page. A hollow planet devoid of any features appears in the background. Lines of text appear pointing to places on the planet. [SIZE: MARS, EARTH, URANUS, OR JUPITER. TYPE: PANGEA, CONTINENTAL, ISLAND, OR CUSTOM(COST ONE VOTE PUT FORTH CUSTOM OPTION) RESOURCES: LOW SCATTERED, MID SCATTERED, DENSE SCATTERED, LOW POCKETS, MID POCKETS, OR DENSE POCKETS. AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: NONE, LOW, MID, OR HIGH. (WARNING: THE HIGHER THE AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL THE HIGHER CHANCE FOR RANDOM MAGICAL EFFECTS) CLIMATE: DRY ARID, DRY DESERT, DRY SAVANNA, FROZEN ALPINE, FROZEN ARCTIC, FROZEN TUNDRA, WET TROPIC, WET OCEANIC, WET TROPICAL. (NOTE: THESE EFFECT RELATIVE POSITION OF PLANET TO PRIMARY STAR. THESE AFFECT THE OVERALL WEATHER, PLANETS, AND LIFE FOUND ON THE PLANET. THE OPTION PICKED MAY CAUSE A CHANGE IN PLANET TYPE PICKED) STARTING LOCATION: RANDOM OR STRATEGIC. CUSTOM OPTION (ADD A OPTION TO BE VOTED ON. ONE VOTE USED TO CREATE OPTION)] I was a little disappointed in the options I could pick. They seemed limited in what was available and what they changed. I could add another option, like for specific flora and fauna or maybe even floating islands. Would I want to spend a vote to create those options though. 10 votes seems like a lot but I have 7 others that will vote and chances of all of them voting for what I want is low. A flash catches my eye. [ATTENTION: ALL FORMLESS HAVE VIEWED THE PLANETARY OPTIONS AND THE COUNTDOWN TO VOTE HAS BEGUN. TIME REMAINING: 1 HOUR] ¡°Shit, ok so not much time to choose. I need to decide if I want the extra votes or not. They would be good and with them I could swing any votes to my favor and maybe even add a few options. Do I care though? I can just make a species that survives in any of those conditions. The only 2 I really care about is the size and ambient magic level. My stats lean towards a higher magic level and the bigger the planet the better, right.¡± I ponder for a bit. I mean a larger planet would mean more space and resources in general or because there is a different option for it will the resources be completely separate from the planet size? Focusing on the options doesn''t give me any more information. I''m on my own for guesses. [ALERT A NEW PLANETARY OPTION HAS BEEN ADDED. NEW OPTION PLANET ALIGNMENT: LIFE OR DEATH. VOTES FOR DEATH ALIGNED PLANET: 7] ¡°What, someone made an option for that and it already has 7 votes¡± I scream into the void of space. What kind of creature would want the planet to be death aligned? Even if I don''t know exactly what that means I doubt it is good for most of us. With that number of votes either everyone wants it or one of them used most of their votes for it. I pull up the option again. [PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: LIFE (4 VOTES) DEATH (7 VOTES)] Okay so at least one other doesn''t want it either, but aren''t throwing in the votes to completely override it. That''s fair. I put 2 of my votes into it to bring the total for life up to 6. I don''t want to waste all my votes if someone else will put in a couple more to tip the balance. I leave it for now and focus on putting votes into the other options. I end up putting 4 votes into high ambient magic level, 2 into strategic starting location, and 1 into dense scattered for resources. I leave one back in case I need to tie the votes for life or death. [ALERT A NEW PLANETARY OPTION HAS BEEN ADDED. NEW OPTION: NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES OR NO. NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES 2 VOTES] It seems like the other Formless didn''t like the limited options either. It was getting closer to the end of voting. [VOTE TIME REMAINING 10 MINUTES] I didn''t want to change my votes but I looked over the options to see what others had voted. [SIZE: URANUS 6 VOTES, EARTH 3 VOTES, MARS 2 VOTES. TYPE: CONTINENTAL 3 VOTES, ISLAND 2 VOTES, PANGEA 1 VOTE. RESOURCES: DENSE SCATTERED 5 VOTES, MID POCKETS 4 VOTES, DENSE POCKETS 4 VOTES, LOW SCATTERED 1 VOTE. AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: MID 5 VOTES, HIGH 4 VOTES, LOW 2 VOTES. CLIMATE: WET TROPICAL 7 VOTES, DRY ARID 5 VOTES, FROZEN TUNDRA 5 VOTES, WET OCEANIC 1 VOTE. STARTING LOCATION: STRATEGIC 2 VOTES. ADDITIONAL OPTIONS: PLANET ALIGNMENT: DEATH 7 VOTES, LIFE 6 VOTES NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES 2 VOTES, NO 1 VOTE] I put my last vote into life alignment so that it would be even. I didn''t want to choose the add 10 votes blessing as I thought the other 2 options were the better choices. It is tempting at the moment as while I didn''t have hard opinions on most of the options for the planet I didn''t want native intelligences fighting for my resources and I wanted high magic. With the timer approaching zero I took a point from strategic starting and put it into high magic to make it even. Hoping ties wouldn''t cause too many problems. A notification forced itself in front of me. [VOTING HAS BEEN CLOSED. ANY REMAINING VOTES ARE LOST. TWO TIES HAVE BEEN DETECTED AND MUST BE RESOLVED BEFORE PLANETARY CHANGES CAN BE IMPLEMENTED. FIRST TIE AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: 5 VOTES MID, 5 VOTES HIGH. RESOLUTION: RANDOM CHOICE. RESULT: HIGH WINS. SECOND TIE PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: 7 VOTES DEATH, 7 VOTES LIFE. RESOLUTION: RANDOM CHOICE¡­ERROR¡­RESOLUTION OVERRIDEN. NEW RESOLUTION: COMBINED PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: MIXED LIFE AND DEATH. TIES HAVE BEEN RESOLVED. HALLELUJAH THE GODS HAVE ACCEPTED YOUR VOTES AND THE PLANET IS BEING REMADE. NEW PLANET SIZE: URANUS TYPE: CONTINENTAL RESOURCES: DENSE SCATTERED AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: HIGH CLIMATE: WET TROPICAL STARTING LOCATION: STRATEGIC PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: MIXED LIFE AND DEATH NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES] I watched as the planet below me morphed. It grew bigger and moved just a bit closer to the sun. Not much visually but what I could remember from my science classes even that much was tens of miles closer and would vastly change a planet normally. The water and land moved, giving the planet 5 continents not counting the poles and several archipelagos with a handful of small single islands. The poles were small, the ice restricted to roughly only a million square miles each. Dense jungle seemed to cover most of the planet. While I never went to space and I know earth wasn''t a perfect sphere, this planet seems much more oval shaped than earth. The sun is able to hit much more of the planet directly then a spherical planet could. 3 moons began to appear around it, 2 followed closer to each other and 1 almost on the other side of the planet. The oceans moved in time with them, clouds and great storms began covering the world. [ALERT: DUE TO HIGH AMBIENT MAGIC GREAT MAGICAL STORMS WILL RANDOMLY APPEAR AROUND THE PLANET. ALERT: DUE TO HIGH AMBIENT MAGIC THE GRAVITY OF THE PLANET HAS INCREASED.] Well I guess that might have been one of the reasons some of the others didn''t want high magic. I winced as I saw one of the magic storms turn an archipelago into a frozen hellscape. Before I could see more my vision turned black. Chapter 2 I started to panic, if I could cry I would. The beauty of space and watching the planet form ripped away from me to be replaced with an oppressive darkness. Black didn''t do it justice as it was darker than even Vantablack. As I began to despair a small light wiggled into view in front of me. It was weak. So fragile it seemed as if the darkness would swallow it. A notification blinked in the corner of my vision. [HALLELUJAH, PALE COLORED DOT HAS BEEN COMPLETED. AS THIS WAS A DIVINELY GIFTED QUEST THE REWARDS ARE AUGMENTED AND DO NOT REPRESENT NORMAL QUEST REWARDS. REWARD: CUSTOMIZED WORLD [ALERT OMNISENSE HAS NOW BEEN REDUCED TO CONCEPTUAL. COMPLETE FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS TO GAIN NORMAL OMNISENSE.] A small part of me is annoyed that we don''t get a reward, I mean sure we didn''t actually do anything other than the spiritual equivalent of clicking a few boxes. It was the principle of having a quest. The reward at the end is what drew people to complete a quest. With a huff I pushed away the notifications and focused more on the small thin light. ¡°I guess this is my species'' starting point.¡± I mused. ¡°I doubt this is what it actually looks like as my omnisense did say it was conceptual. Why I see it as this small fragile light is beyond me.¡± I suppose it reminds me of a blueprint in a way, the first line on a fresh new design. My smile fades as the thought hits me. ¡°Shit, I haven''t even thought of what kind of species to make.¡± I bash on myself. Some baby god I am, didn''t even think about it. I was so caught up in the voting and watching the planet form. ¡°Okay, focus! First with the planet being a mix of life and death I should pick if I want them to be living or undead, I guess would be the term. How do I decide that though.¡± I feel a pull on my soul manipulation power. I focus on the light and see it shift. One moment the light is a pale gold and green color, the next it shifts to a deep dark blue with gray specs. ¡°Okay so life and death, easy enough to see a difference.¡± What surprised me was how similar they felt¡­and¡­is that taste. Why does my soul power let me taste them too? I smacked my not real lips trying to not think too much on how I can have all these sensations when I no longer have the organs or body to experience them. I shook my body. I was getting distracted again. Refocusing on the power, life and death were exceedingly similar. The clear delimitation was obvious in my omnisense, but there, with a slight tug on the power the barrier between the two shifted. ¡°What if I tried combining the two.¡± The thought hits quickly, my grin returns. Fumbling for a moment I try to take direct control of my soul manipulation. A part of me is amazed at how intuitive these powers are. The light isn''t a soul I quickly realize. It''s more of a proto soul. A spark to begin the direction of which the soul will follow. I use my power to stop the blue and gray of undeath from taking over the gold and green of life. I hold them equal to each other in the light. The light begins to pulse and flicker. Pain starts to travel around my orb self. The light becomes violently bright before it shatters and dissipates. The backlash of it shattering sends my mind reeling for several minutes. ¡°Owww,¡± I groan, ¡°note to self, shattering the light hurts. A lot.¡± A new light wiggles into the darkness, it begins oscillating between the colors again. ¡°So can I not combine life and death or can I not combine them equally.¡± I suspect the latter is correct. A feeling from my soul control lets me know. I also suspect it will be hard to have them co-exist in the same soul in any amount. I could just go with one or the other, but I don''t like the idea of just leaving an entire way of life out. If I am supposed to make a species that can dominate the planet why would I neglect a part of the planet and because it was voted on by at least one of my fellow Formless. Maybe we can come up with a way to let the other Formless live and try again on another world. Only one of us will win, but that doesn''t mean I should seek to crush them all. Earth culture may have condemned the undead but there is no way to know in the wider cosmos if it is the norm for others as well. Unless one Formless used 8 of their votes to have that option then there should have been 2 or 3 that wanted a death aligned world. I shouldn''t dismiss it due to past prejudice. I''m not even human anymore so why should their sensibilities hold me back. If they can''t be equal then one has to dominate the other. I know more about living entities than I do undead ones, even with all this knowledge stuffed inside me. I refocus on the light. Slowly I inject death into life. Not a lot, barely any when compared to the whole of the light. Life eats the death I put inside and I feel more pain ripple through me. ¡°Fuck, that hurts. Each failure comes back on me it seems. I need to stop and think for a moment. Chances are if I fail too many times I actually die. It wasn''t stated but that pain doesn''t just feel like a slap on the hand for messing up. It feels more like a threat of what will happen. Okay so what is a soul, I have all this new knowledge I should use it.¡± The light didn''t shatter so it wasn''t a complete failure. I begin shifting through my information. Everything living, or undead as well I suppose, has a soul. A soul isn''t required to make life but naturally comes into being as the lifeforms grow in complexity. Most trees and plants don''t have them, they have proto souls like the one on working with. Same with simple insects and micro lifeforms. They can''t experience enough of reality for the proto soul to grow into a real soul. Babies when they are just formed only have proto souls as well. Their souls grow as they do in an egg or placenta. When they are born or hatch they have a fully formed soul. It''s small and mostly undefined with only the species prominent traits having any influence on it. The soul will grow more defined and in the case of more advanced entities, more unique. Another thought hits me. On earth there are many cultures that have ancestor worship or believe ancestors would help or guide their descendents. What if I took that concept and applied it to the soul. Treat undeath as the guide. I look at the light again, taking hold of my soul control. I put a tiny core of death inside of the majority life light. I hold back life from just eating it. Feeling a strain on my power as I do. I won''t let this idea go though. I imagine the light living its life. The gold and green shine brighter and redoubles its efforts to consume death. I keep the pressure off of my tiny spark of death. It seems even more fragile than the light first did before I started to mess with it. I let life continue, I imagine the different stages of my life. I never got to grow old, but I saw plenty growing old. My grandparents, my grandmother on my mom''s side dying of cancer, her husband crying as she slipped away and him not long after. My dad''s parents were healthy till they weren''t. My own parents, young adults when I was born. Then aging as I grew. My perfect recall lets me experience it all. The light of life dimmed on my proto soul. I no longer had to hold life back from death. Now I had to stop death from consuming the weakening life. Holding it in the center. The strain started to become painful and I knew it was close to collapsing again. I need to think quickly. This backlash wouldn''t kill me I don''t think, but it would hurt and I don''t know if I could do it again. What if I made death protect life. I take a little more death, I use my soul control to twist the little death I broke off. I force it to ignore the nugget of life and cocoon the fragile light. Just a sliver, barely even a shell. Make it a veil around the life to live. The strain lessen and I watch as the proto soul morphs. Brilliant life with a nugget of death. As life dims, death seeps into the cracks and encircles life. As life brightens a new death recedes back into the core. The cycle begins again. Over and over I watch it play out, giving small nudges with my power as deviations pop up. I spent what felt like years watching the cycle play out. Even without seeing them I felt their lives, all the ups and downs that come with being alive. Emotions played across the proto soul showing even a lifeform this simple is truly living. Finally it clicks into place. I feel all the pressure from my soul manipulation vanish and I know I did it. I made my life and death soul. Death is never more than 33.3% of the soul, life even when in its weakened state always being the majority but I did it. My species will be able to take in all the planet has to offer. My proto soul grows. I feel it leaving an embryonic state. I''m not done with it yet. I want the core of my people to be more. The soul is in a delicate state at the moment. I strained it by forcing this duality. I need more from them though. I want my people to be naturally inquisitive, to be resourceful, revere nature, and to inherently be able to use magic. I want so much but I can''t put it all in there. I feel a tug from a different power, my magic manipulation. That''s right I don''t have to do it all with just the natural power of the soul. I take hold of both powers and weave them together. My core lights up, the colors and patterns that represent the two powers swirl together. I stabilize with magic manipulation leaving openings for my soul manipulation to place my desired wants. I know by doing this I leave a glaring weakness in my people. They will never be able to be without magic. Low ambient magic will leave them weakened or sickly. While the complete lack of magic will kill them, destabilizing their very essence. I take the risk however. Maybe I can help alleviate it later and on this planet low magic should be rare. Right now though, I need this for them. I watch as my proto soul becomes an actual soul capable of supporting an advanced lifeform. It''s beauty mesmerizing me. The gold and green of life mixing with a heavy copper color I take to be the resourcefulness. The rotating colors of nature. Deep emerald becomes a harsh yellow and orange, going into muddled brown then giving way to a blue and black almost resembling death in a way, back to the deep emerald. These colors seem to pass through the soul at random intervals and I swear I can smell fresh rain, cut grass, rotting leaves, or feel the bite of snow when the colors appear. A brilliant rich purple weaves itself throughout the entirety of the soul. Seeming to hold it together and enhance parts of it. The soul itself seems to vibrate with want. I know what it wants. It wants a form to express itself. The soul isn''t content with just being. It wants to interact with reality. I almost see translucent tendrils wisping around as even now it seeks. If I still had a face I would be smiling like the Cheshire cat. In my old life I attempted to not let my pride cloud my vision, I failed at times as all humans do. This time though I let it fill me and shine. My biggest problem with other people, humans, was the lack of drive I saw in most others. Many humans, even the ones in college, were content with their life. They woke up, worked, played, and slept. Most never truly seek the mysteries of life and the wonder of the world around them. However my people won''t be like that. They will never be content with just living. They will be more. Sure in the long run it might cause problems, never being content with what they know will make them restless. They are supposed to be a conquering race after all. What will be so bad about it? I chuckle knowing it will come back to bite me in my nonexistent ass someday, hopefully a long time away someday. For now though, I needed to help my people by making them a vessel for which they will discover reality from. I doubt I''ll be able to make a perfect body. Even with all this knowledge inside me, but just like with my old company I''ll come to as close to perfection as I can.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Chapter 3 Humans have so many weaknesses I mused. The only reason they became the dominant species on earth was their endurance and reasoning capabilities. My species needs those and more. Not knowing about my fellow Formless makes me hesitant to focus on any one advantage. They are already heavily magic and I wonder if that means they will suffer for technology. Why invent the lightbulb when you can just conjure a ball of light. My hope is that giving them curiosity and drive will lead them to explore both. Sway too heavily into one and you may leave glaring weaknesses. I know I will end up leaning heavy on the magic side. It''s magic, who doesn''t want to turn invisible or shoot lighting out of their hand. I shimmy around the nothingness surrounding me. It doesn''t feel like I''m flying, more that I have no weight and can just propel myself around using willpower alone. My strangeness makes itself known again. ¡°I''m not freaking out,¡± I say to the blackness, I just need to try and come to terms with being just a soul. Though that isn''t entirely accurate. Most of what I am is a soul. That side can''t be seen though by most. My people wouldn''t be able to sense or see me if it was just a soul shell. Not unless they had soul magic or abilities. What is visible is where reality senses my shell and warps everything in the area to spatial debri and light. I try to change my shape pushing at my boundaries, but no matter how hard I strain my mental muscles it just feels like a solid steel prison. I resign myself to being stuck in the Saturnesc ball for now. Back to the task at hand. I need to make bodies, though I doubt it will be any easier than creating a soul. Even with the strain and pressure from creating the soul template gone I ached like the day after a rugby match. I wasn''t in danger, probably, just tired and wanted to rest. Not knowing if I was timed or if I would miss opportunities from waiting compelled me to push on. My first thought on a base design, and the one I really wanted to do was make dragons. If I''m going to be thrown into a magical fantasy world why not make dragons if given a choice. I didn''t want to just rip them off and plaster down a classic European dragon. I could go dragonborn like from tabletops. Call me biased but I think an upright form is better than quadrupled or hunched. Multiple limbs too if it isn''t too hard. First the frame. I feel for what power would help me, not surprising cellular control feels the strongest. Magic control also makes its presence known and I get the feeling I won''t be able to keep them stable without it. I begin pulling up images to reference in my mind. Dragons, dinosaurs (specifically the raptors from that one movie series where they kept thinking having an amusement park of dinosaurs was a good idea), spiders and monkeys pop into my thoughts too. The tropical environment for most of the planet I would imagine would mean many trees, rivers, and places where fast movement and climbing would give me a great advantage. I try to blend the images together, the mental image blurs for a bit before producing a monstrosity of flesh. The face and mouth resembled a spider and crab, mandibles skittering and violently moving together. A long neck prevented the stubbed face from being immobilized. Seven bat-like wing hands wrapped around the bulbus body of scales. I quickly attempted to erase the image from my mind. The clacking of its mouth parts and eight spider eyes on stocks twisting around sent a shudder through me. I''m not one to be hung up on looks, but that was one ugly motherfucker. It also wasn''t at all what I wanted them to look like. I didn''t know what I wanted them to look like beyond a vague image of the raptor dragons swinging from trees, their multiple limbs allowing them to cast as they chased down their prey. A ping from cellular control tells me that with all I want they would need to consume great amounts of food. Not a big problem but I wanted to see if I could lessen it with something else. I need a clearer ideal of what I want from them and the aspects I want to pull from other creatures. Well for obvious reasons I wanted dragons to be a big part of the design. Their physical and magical power are unparalleled in most media. Unbreakable scales, great wings, claws and teeth stronger than most any weapon. In some stories they just breathe fire or an associated element, in others magic comes to them as easily as blinking. Capable of casting complex magic with a wave of their claws. I knew I couldn''t even get my race to start with all that. I didn''t need them to though. No wings, if this world was going to be how I thought it would be then open skies wouldn''t be an issue. Keep the scales, it paired well with my thoughts of dinosaurs. Speaking of dinosaurs and specifically raptors, we speculate they were great runners and jumpers. I should keep their leg shape, knees bent forward and feet shaped to dig into the ground for traction, digitigrade legs I believe they are called. I knew cats and other felines had them too. It could lead to mobility problems in their elderly years, my pseudo medical knowledge informed me. With the right joints and ligaments that could be fixed and with magic to help the problems of aging on a natural body can be alleviated. As much as I like the idea of claws and my people ripping apart the enemy with their bare hands, weaving spells and other tasks that require dexterity would be difficult. The shape of a human hand provides all I need and having claws on them would again make certain tasks harder and unless they could retract I didn''t think it would help much. Retractable claws were rarely as sharp or strong as their counterparts. Besides I''m not sure if a certain rodent would be happy if I plagiarized them. Though I could improve the design by giving them extra knuckles and a thumb on both sides. To my mind it would help with their casting. I guess it would be due to my love of buildings and the games I played, but I always loved the idea of hermetic magic. The fact that precise shapes and gestures when done in the correct way would call forth whatever magical desire you had made my mind happy. I wanted their multiple limbs to be able to create the actual shapes, their hands twisting into complex patterns as they moved their arms into mystical geometric shapes. Another ping from cellular control tells me this plan has a lot of problems. Not just metabolic, but also injuries could affect their ability to cast. If they lost an arm, could the others make up for it? With the extra movement from more joints and knuckles hyper extension and muscle injuries become greater concerns. Even with magic enhancing them it leaves a glaring weakness my enemies could exploit if they had the same thought process as me. I didn''t want to give up on multiple limbs yet though. I could maybe go simple and have it be like a spider''s limbs. I scrap the idea quickly. The image I had built began to blur again and I was afraid of seeing another monstrosity like the spider crab again. With me not going with an exosuit type body I got the feeling mixing 3 different species aspects of that extreme would bring me into monster territory. That area felt wrong. I decided to focus on another part for now. Give my mind time to chew on it. I wanted to keep the tail most of my inspirational creatures had. What kind of tail was the question. Should I keep it thick and sturdy? Using it for balance and to quickly stabilize after a sudden change in direction. If I put enough muscles in it and ridges along the back I could use it as a secondary weapon. The thought of an enemy closing in on them, thinking they had the upper hand against spell casters and then my people doing a quick spin. Their great tail whips the enemy across the battlefield. Or should I go nimble? Using it again for balance but this time to help hold them on a branch or hand hold. Keeping all their hands free for fighting. With practice and assuming I made it right they could even use it as a simple hand. Manipulating rope knots when their hands are bound or catching a knife that fell. I really liked the spinning and just bitch slapping someone into a tree with your tail, but the thought of the utility of a prehensile tail would give them really called to me. Before flip flopping too much and getting bogged down in the what ifs I fixed the prehensile tail to the image in my mind. Wanting to keep the arms delima for last I instead focused on the head and neck. Immediately I dismissed a long neck even if the face would remain long. A long swiveling neck made me uneasy and think I was dipping too far into monster territory. Even incomplete I''m sure humans from earth would already consider my species monstrous. There was a difference though, I could feel with my new senses tell me. Some invisible line that if I crossed it in how my people looked, acted, or functioned it would cross that line into a territory outside of humanity. Or whatever the word for it would be when you weren''t capable of reason. Sentient? Sapient? Whatever that line was I couldn''t cross it or I would lose my species and have to start from scratch. I got the feeling that it could include losing access to the soul I made too. Anyways back to thinking about fantasy race building. Keep the neck human like, but add in a little extra mobility. If their face stays how I currently think of it or close then expressions and emoting with solely their face will lead to confusion for other races. Also with the added movement and stability that comes with it I can justify adding horns. I giggled a little at that. I mean come on if you''re going to have a dragon like race then you should have horns or antlers at the very least. No base design I decided for the horns. Let them be random. I did add a few parameters for health and sensibility. Didn''t need them growing to puncture their skin, stop them from moving if it curved around their necks, or be detrimental in combat and daily life. With them not having the dragon/dinosaur''s tail I didn''t want spikes or ridges on the spine either. So their horns and some feather-like hairs for plumage would suffice for some flare. On to the actual shapes of the face I was stuck. My past self and race grimaced at the idea of having an elongated face. Yet when i tried to imagine a human-like face opening their mouth in a roar and gouts of flame or arcs of lightning coming out of soft pink lips I couldn''t help but cringe a little. It looked silly, not badass. I realize trying to look badass makes you not badass, but you had to put a little effort into it or it got cringy. Fighting with myself I took a small distraction when I noticed slight pulsing in the corner of my vision. I focused on it and notifications appeared.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. [CONGRATULATIONS: DUE TO THE QUALITY AND CONTROL YOU SHOWED WHEN CREATING YOUR FIRST SOUL YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED +1 TO CONTROL. CONTINUE TO PUSH YOUR LIMITS FOR MORE STAT INCREASES. ALERT: DUE TO THE HIGH AMBIENT MAGIC ALL FAILURES DURING THE CREATION OF SOUL, BODY, AND PREDECESSORS WILL RESULT IN A MONSTER RACE BEING BORN FROM THE SCRAPS OF ALL FORMLESS ALERT: A FORMLESS HAS COMPLETED THEIR FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS QUEST AND HAS TAKEN THE FIRST STEP IN CREATING A CIVILIZATION. WELCOME THE O¡¯ULIN TO THE GRAND STAGE.] Well damn I was really hoping to be the first one as I suspected that starting early would grant an unstated advantage. It wouldn''t do good to dwell on that fact though. I couldn''t be the first, fine, I''ll be the best. With renewed fervor I went back to work. The notification gave me an idea and a clue. Yeah it sucked that every failure on any of our parts would lead to some sort of horrible monstrosity in the world to fuck up my plans, the wording is what gave me the idea. It said soul, body, and predecessor. What I''m creating right now is the end goal. What they will be when they hit the human equivalent of homosapien. I wondered briefly how far back they would have us go. Also with that thought how has the O''ulin already started. Wouldn''t it take hundreds of thousands of years to get to that point in evolution. ¡°Distractions and procrastination¡± I admonish myself. I just didn''t want to make the choice I knew I would about their face shape. Call me humanist but no matter how cool it looks I couldn''t get behind a long and wide snout. I was determined to come up with a more compact version. Besides looks, it also made your head which was already a weak spot for most creatures larger. I started to build the final image of the head. It will be mostly human shaped with the horns and feather-like hairs where a humans eyebrows and hair would be. Their eyes gleamed under the bridge of its sockets. The nose and mouth area elongated slightly, just 2 inches. I felt momentum building. My creation was taking shape. I felt a stirring from my 3 control powers as they began to synergies with the image. An idea for the extra limbs came to my mind. Knowing I need to be quick for this next part I take a nonexistent breath and coalesce the full image of my people. I take the soul I made for them and push it deep inside. For a moment I am memorized by the rapid acceptance of soul and body image. All at once and multiple times skeleton, nerves, muscles, scales, and soul strands flash. I focus, time was short and if I messed up it meant starting over again or continuing with a blueprint I didn''t like. I would rather start over and be the last to finish this quest. Just like I gave death an escape valve in my life''s soul and vice versa, I give the soul an escape valve for its body. It''s what I was missing, the entire form was only showing the life side of its soul. I needed to represent its death side. With a firm image of the arms and hands I grabbed the death side of the soul and pulled. With pain growing in my spirit I carved pathways for the spiritual tendrils to follow. Coming out in the middle of my creations back I made the spiritual exit. Before any instability that a leaking soul could lead to I placed the image I held to the openings. It was simple in theory. My body was essentially a solidified soul. Shaped by means I wasn''t sure but that wasn''t important. What was important was that a soul can still exist and interact with the world. Since during this entire process the system reacted based on image and desire, I figured I would power all my will into the image of multiple arms and hands. I could feel the drain on my Will. Death wanted to return to its source. To be consumed for its power and join in a great eternal cycle or return to me as its creator. My image was solid and while I didn''t have a comparison for how good my Will stat was I was hoping with it being my second highest it meant something. Moments ticked by and my gamble paid off. The image clicked into place, the ghost limbs moving and stretching in an ideal motion the creature had been doing since I started building it. The whole image shuddered and for a moment I was scared I had gone too monstrous and the image would fail. My fears began to be realized. The image began to blur. ¡°No,¡± I screamed into the void. I couldn''t explain it but I needed this to work. They wanted to exist. Even in their half finished state I felt the connection to them. The will to defy and never stop growing. With a start I knew what I could do. My blessing. Quickly I pulled it up from my notifications and selected the controlled mutation of the lifeform. Using the last of my Will I activated the blessing and focused on stabilizing the image. It stabilized with a great heaviness and a split. Another image appeared next to my design. They looked almost the same. The new image was faded and almost translucent. Its legs and tail were gone, a dense smoke flowed from the bottom of the torso. Several arms floated behind it in a macabre halo. While still similar to what i made for their living side, the draconian inspiration made itself more known on the death side by turning the face into a full on dragon head. Sighing I knew it was the best I could hope for. I wanted them to stick around for a bit after death anyways. I wish I had more control over the design but it was stable and solid. I could feel the mental probe of the system prodding me to accept the image or restart. I looked at my lifeform as a whole. They were tall, their stretched out digitigrade legs giving them extra height. Their feet greatly resemble raptors. The tail shifted from around 3 to 4 feet, sometimes it also wrapped around their waist. The torso looked the most human even with the scales covering most of the body. Its real arms were long and even though I didn''t remember adding more ligaments to them they seemed more dexterous than they should be. Their hands flexed in odd shapes because of the extra knuckles and thumb. I could just imagine the magic taking shape between the fingers. The death side kept them the same, the detached ones floating around and moving in complex shapes. On the living side the ghost limbs weren''t detached. They were invisible until mana started being pushed through them at which point they would appear, intangible and disappearing into the middle of their back. The face looked intimidating, the various horn and plumage shapes taking form. Their scales ranged vastly in color, but were dull and matte. The horns followed the matte color, less diverse in color, they were generally black or grayish. The feather-like plumage and eyes took the opposite route. Bright and vibrant with a rainbow of colors, their plumage mesmerized me as it rustled. Thankfully it seemed like they could lay it flat on their head to avoid the plumage from sticking out when sneaking. Lastly, their eyes glowed slightly with an arcane glow. Marking them as steeped in magic. You could easily tell the gender as while I hadn''t consciously picked it, it seemed my unconscious mind made them mammalian in reproduction and features. I shook my form and wondered if certain books or animated videos had any influence over that. I spent days making small tweaks and changes, most of them internal or genetic. Changing them into my perfect creation. After a few months I paused and looked at my creation, my perfect building. After having both forms move around some I gave a mental nod and accepted the form. Chapter 4 [CONGRATULATIONS: YOU HAVE MADE A VIABLE LIFEFORM TO COMPETE FOR CONTROL OF THIS PLANET. THE ABILITIES CELLULAR CONTROL AND SOUL CONTROL AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF THEM WILL NOW BE TAKEN. THE ABILITY MAGIC CONTROL WILL NOW BE REDUCED TO MANA MANIPULATION. OMNISENSE WILL BE RAISED TO HALF ITS VALUE FOR DURATION OF THE SECOND PART OF QUEST FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS. ALERT: YOUR CREATION WAS DEEMED A FAILURE. INTERVENTION OF A BLESSING FROM HIGHER BEING HAS PREVENTED THIS, REJOICE! DUE TO HIGH AMBIENT MAGIC A MONSTROSITY WILL STILL BE FORMED.] Rapidly power and knowledge are sucked out of me, I cried out in spiritual pain and sorrow at the loss of power. Even knowing they were only temporary, the knowledge leaving my mind still created a hollow mourning in me. Understanding that seemed trivial for me to know now escaped me. Pulling on what remained of my grand power, mana manipulation responded. Hermetic magic symbols and formulas flashed in my mind. They were exceedingly simple compared to what I could do moments ago. The basics were there though and I was confident I could still imprint the knowledge of hermetic magic on my people. When the sensation of loss finally abated I felt great. I was stunned. The pressure of all the power stuffed in my being had disappeared. I had grown accustomed to the pain but now I could see I was slowly dying from the overload. I doubt I was close to death but with closer inspection of myself I could feel the cracks in my being. What was a brilliant cascade of known and unknown colors, whirling around each other in an endless dance of eldritch knowledge. Now it was noticeably dimmer, the colors more recognizable, and the dance random with only hints of arcane meaning. I gave myself a moment to mourn. I was lesser now. The power was never mine and it would have killed me, but I had the power of creation in my metaphysical hands. Be it moments like I suspected or the millenniums it felt I had already lived in this new form the power was mine and then stripped from me with ease. A shudder ran through me at the reminder of HIM. I quickly shifted my thinking from that topic and focused more on the damage done to me. It felt like nothing was permanent and if I focused on the edges of the cracks I could see mending already taking place. I resolved to wait for it to heal. Even with it not being a great amount of damage I could still feel I would be slightly impaired from it. Before I resolved to just wait, a thought struck me. I have magic now and I know the way to use it. Shifting through the limited knowledge left to me from mana manipulation I cobbled together a simple healing spell to accelerate the natural healing of the target. Stunned again, I now knew the function of the ring around me. When I activated my spell the ring began to break apart and move into the spell shape. Simple geometric shapes overlaid into a pattern followed by arcane symbols in their own pattern. With it being a simple and low power spell the symbols and pattern were simple. A circle encompassing two triangles flipped and laid on top of each other. An arcane symbol, placed on the inside of the six points, each one with a slightly different meaning. Healing, self, isolation, and time were the meanings I felt from them. Even accelerated it took time and I felt the drain on what little reserves I had left. After I was healed the magical construction broke apart and reformed the ring floating around me. I was tired from the extended healing but I could feel my full strength had returned. Notifications pulled at my attention. [CONGRATULATIONS: DUE TO ATTENTION TO YOURSELF FROM THE AFTERMATHS OF POWER OVERLOAD AND THE ACTIONS TAKEN TO ALLEVIATE THE DAMAGE YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED +1 PRESENCE AND +1 MANA. CONTINUE TO PUSH YOUR LIMITS FOR MORE STAT INCREASES. CONGRATULATIONS: YOU HAVE CRAFTED YOUR FIRST SPELL. SIMPLE NATURAL HEALING - As long as the caster focuses on a wound and the target has natural healing capabilities then they will heal at an accelerated rate. COST: Small and slow drain of mana, miniscule drain on will. NOTICE: PLEASE NAME BASE SPECIES. NAME CAN NOT BE CHANGED LATER.] A new box appeared in front of me asking for their name. I had nothing. Zilch. Nada. It''s not like I didn''t see it coming. I was thinking about a name the entire time I was creating them. I still had nothing. Names are hard and seriously how do you come up with a name for a species. I didn''t want to keep taking time on it though. ¡°Fuck it,¡± I say to the void. Closing off my perception I summoned the image of a keyboard from earth and did the equivalent of slamming my hands on the keys at random. When I looked at what came up I knew there was no way that it was actually random. Z¨­in?. Trying not to ponder too hard on how mentally pressing random keys on an imagined keyboard gave me a four letter word, with accents on some letters, I quickly gave a mental nod for the system to accept the name. [BASE RACE ACCEPTED.NAME ACCEPTED. THE Z¨­IN? WILL NOW BE REGRESSED TO A PRIMEVAL FORM. YOU WILL WATCH AND GUIDE YOUR CREATION AT PIVOTAL MOMENTS. IF YOUR CREATION SURVIVES TO BASE RACE THEN YOU WILL HAVE COMPLETED QUEST FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS. NOTE: YOU ARE PLACED IN A TEMPORALLY ISOLATED DIMENSION DURING THIS TRIAL. WHEN YOU EXIT THE DIMENSION LITTLE TIME WILL HAVE PASSED. MORE INFORMATION UPON COMPLETION OF QUEST.] I watched as my Z¨­in? began to regress. A light over took them and beyond the first glimpse of the regression I couldn''t tell the changes they were going through. I was more interested in the shift to my perspective. The planet had returned. It looked slightly different, the island I saw being turned into an ice cap from the magic storms was back to being a tropical jungle. There was also a continent where I thought I had seen an island chain. My vision descended to a large crescent shaped Island hugging a large continent. It reminded me of a longer Madagascar if it was half again as wide, the tips of both ends twisted in and almost touched the mainland. A mountain hugged the outer coast at the zenith of the curve. A great jungle covered the island and miles inland on the continent. My vision finally finished its descent at the base of the mountain. Near a cave where a river of fresh water flowed out and into the vast jungle, the light that held my people settled at the entrance to the cave. Without the perspective of other objects, I didn''t notice how large the light had become. It covered the rather large and oddly smooth entrance. [ALERT: THERE ARE CURRENTLY FOUR OTHER FORMLESS IN THIS TEMPORAL DIMENSION. HARM TOWARDS ANOTHER FORMLESS IN THIS DIMENSION IS PROHIBITED. WARNING: YOU HAVE NOW BECOME AN OVERSEER FOR THE Z¨­IN?. YOU ARE BOUND TO THEM AND WILL ONLY GROW IN POWER AS THEY DO. ALL SYSTEM INTERACTION, ABILITIES/SKILLS, MAGIC, CLASSES, AND STATS WILL BE RELAYED THROUGH YOU TO THE Z¨­IN?. ACHIEVEMENTS WILL NOT. ALL DECISIONS ARE BASED OFF OF YOUR PREDILECTION, BIASES, UNDERSTANDING, AND ACTIVE CULTIVATION OF UNDERSTANDING THE GREATER TRUTHS. AS THE Z¨­IN? GROW IN POWER THEY WILL INFLUENCE THEIR SYSTEM IN THE SAME WAY TO A LESSER DEGREE. THIS DECISIONS CAN NOT BE UNDONE AND YOU WILL DIE WITHOUT DIVINE HELP IF THE Z¨­IN? CEASE TO EXIST. YOU ARE A CHILD, THEY WILL CALL YOU A GOD.] A chill ran through my core as the Warning promised power if I helped my people grow, but death to them and me if we failed. I couldn''t help but feel a little like the titan Atlas who held up the heavens. The weight of the responsibility I now had to the Z¨­in? fell on me. A new notification appeared as I was still trying to come to terms with it. [CONGRATULATIONS: OMNISENSE (CONCEPTUAL) HAS UPGRADED TO OMNISENSE (SENSES): You will be able to see through the senses of your species as well as the omnisense radius in distance from the core of your people''s lands. OMNISENSE RADIUS: 9.] The light fades from the entrance and my being is overcome with the senses of a thousand odd creatures. Smells assault me, feeling strange without a nose. Noises are equally as strange as I hear again. The overview of the planet and the nebulous omnisense (Conceptual) sight I had didn''t have these senses in the same way a normal person would. I could hear my people''s hearts in the metaphysical sense and physical. The same with their soul. I could even smell in a way if it invoked a feeling or meaning. Vision was even different in more subtle ways, though I suspected that most of that was due to my abilities then an inherent difference in how we viewed reality. Colors were definitely muted without a magical sense and only having eyeballs to see. I still had an overview of the area the system said was the core of my species. Most of it was the cave system that ran throughout the mountain. It followed the river for roughly 300 meters before the river disappeared into a low tunnel of jagged rocks. A bioluminescent fungus growing everywhere in the caves casts a variety of colors about its caverns and tunnels. The various tunnels extended far past my overview. Outside the mountain my overview only extended to the edge of the jungle in a small radius around the mouth of this entrance. Only about 100 meters. A part of my mind registers in the chaos of attempting to adjust to all my new senses, that a notification appears in front of my people.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. [SYSTEM ACTIVED. WELCOME TO THE MULTIVERSE. INTEGRATION IN PROCESS¡­] My awareness slips away as it all becomes too much. I spend the next couple of hours sorting out the perceptions of nearly a thousand creatures. I focus on the changes I can see my people went through. They were now slightly hunched over, about a forty degree angle. Their face elongated, still shorter then we believe raptors snouts were, but it is still at least half a foot now. The horns, feather hairs, and eyes still remind mostly the same. Slightly bent arms but again mostly the same. It was the tail that stood out. Resembling a more traditional raptor tail with the hand I made looking more like small protrusions than an extra hand and fingers. Observing them for a bit I figured out they used it mostly as a scoop. A few even used it as a way to mask their tracks by sweeping it along the ground. I could even see some small natural magic occurring and helping obscure the scent. I made a note to keep an eye out for the ones that used it that way. Coming fully back to myself my view had slightly changed. In one of the corners a saw a display that gave a breakdown of the Z¨­in?. Just over a third were adolescents and of those a large portion are just born. A couple hundred caught my attention as I became accustomed to seeing out of the Z¨­in? eyes and my overview. They weren''t part of my people. They were all old too, some still seemed to be at their prime or just after it, the majority of the couple hundred though I could see the signs of aging. Their eyes still glowed but it was now dull and reeking of the flavor of death. Most of the feather-like hairs were gone or bleached of color. Even with the supernatural grace I observe from the species as a whole, the old move noticeably slower and more carefully. I feel a connection to them but I know they aren''t mine. Yet? I see most of the creatures surrounding one of the oldest ones. A strange funeral takes place before my eyes. The one dying is sniffed and inspected by several members, many of the young are guided by older members of the species to the dying elder. Through the senses of the Z¨­in? I feel pain. She was the oldest of them, the last of those that never saw the overwater nor felt the heat of the great fire. When they finally found the exit and made it to the opening tunnel she was blind and couldn''t move. I see the memories of the ones that dragged her to the mouth of the cave. Just so she could die with the warmth of the sun, what they called the great fire. With a last gasp the eldest shuts her eyes and breathers her last. A wailing call grows from the throats of the closest, more take up the mournful call, soon all have joined. As the call grows, I see the memories of my people. They are thinking of moments with her. She was their leader, she knew there was a surface. She never explained how she knew, but she convinced them all to leave the underworld and follow her on a journey to the unknown. Well not all came, the oldest have memories of a large group refusing to leave and staying behind. I feel my own mourning. Those are the ones I failed, the ones that were made because of my failure. The cry ends just as suddenly as it started. A haunting echo and quiet descends. Then those closest to the elder begin to rip her apart. Each one taking a bite before moving on. The parts ripped off were given to the young and carried back to those too young to move far from a nest. To my horror this continued till all that was left were broken bones, the marrow sucked out by the stragglers. I felt everything they did and not one took a bite from hunger. It felt like a duty, the strength and wisdom passed to all the tribe. Only the old didn''t participate. Staying back with reverence. I felt a connection to me grow. The elders'' senses came to me and I could feel the dissipation of their soul. ¡°That wasn''t how I designed them!¡± I shouted in a panic. I knew they couldn''t hear me but the Z¨­in? looked up. [INTEGRATION COMPLETE. PLEASE CHOOSE A STARTING CLASS. HALLELUJAH: A HIGHER BEING HAS CHOSEN YOUR SPECIES TO WATCH OVER AND HELP GROW. CONGRATULATIONS: YOUR CONNECTION TO THIS HIGHER BEING HAS RESULTED IN A NEW RACIAL ABILITY, EARTH BOUND SPIRIT. EARTH BOUND SPIRIT: WHEN YOU DIE YOUR SPIRIT LINGERS IN THIS WORLD. FOR A DURATION OF YEARS (LEVEL UPON DEATH ¡Á 10) YOUR SOUL WILL GAIN A SPIRITUAL FORM IN WHICH YOU CAN USE TO INTERACT WITH THIS REALITY. ALL ABILITIES COMPATIBLE WITH NEW FORM ARE RETAINED AND ANY ABILITIES THAT RELYS ON A STAT THAT ISN''T PRESENT IN NEW FORM WILL BE CHANGED. YOUR CLASS WILL BE UPGRADED TO FIT SPIRIT FORM OR A NEW CLASS ALLOWED TO BE PICKED IF OLD CLASS CAN NOT BE UPGRADED. YOU MAY INCREASE THE YEARS ALLOWED TO REMAIN BY LEVELING IN NEW CLASS AND NORMAL CULTIVATION METHODS, OR BY HAVING MEMBERS OF YOUR SPECIES DONATE MANA TO YOU. THIS METHOD MAY ALSO COME WITH ADDITIONAL BENEFITS] The notification appeared in front of the tribe. I suspect even those I couldn''t share the sense of, as I felt the connections from them strengthen. Another notification appeared. [CHOOSE A STARTING CLASS] I''m amazed at all the information the system is able to feed my people with the primitive language they have. Equally amazed at the fact I can understand everything it is telling them as up until this point I hadn''t even realized I could speak and understand their language like I grew up with it. A quick glance at my own screens confirmed a suspicion I just had [SKILL: Z¨­IN? LANGUAGE - 100/100] it seemed like the system snuck that one in on me while I was out of it. I am pleased to see many pick a mage class or a magical class. This also made me realize I couldn''t see their soul arms. Not that it mattered but I was worried that the regression had taken them away and I would only get them back if I played it right. I didn''t think the system would do that to me. So far it acted as an impartial arbiter and regulator of everything. I was still worried and resolved to make a soul seeing spell soon. My worries were quickly swept away as I see some of the ones that chose a magic class begin pumping mana through them and the spirit hands form from the channeled power. I let out a little laugh as I see them trying to twist their fingers and arms into the shapes and symbols needed to cast. The unfamiliar movements cause many to make a misstep and the spell fizzles out. One unlucky person is able to make the correct movements but falters with their mana channeling and causes a spell backlash. It screeches in pain as the spell which looked like one designed to make him faster collapses and his leg muscles cramp from the messed up injection of mana. A few of those closest to the failed caster make a throaty sound that I recognize as laughter. My attention is drawn to my first spirit Z¨­in?. The elder reforms above her body into the spirit form I designed but with the changes made from regression. Those closest to her bow and the living elders present their necks in subservience. She looked up to me as if she could see me. She couldn''t of course. They didn''t have that kind of power and even if her class was good ¡­. ¡°Damn, a really good class.¡± I excitedly say as with a touch of effort her status screen appears before me. Her class First Ancestral Faithful. A bit of a mouthful but undeniably good for them and me. I was right and it didn''t give her a way to see me but it did give her a vague understanding of what I was focusing on or doing. I also noticed that some didn''t have a normal status page and didn''t pick a class. The ones that didn''t get to pick their class were those too young. With the screen displaying an individual''s age I could see the cut off was around 10 years old. With those above 10 all being able to pick classes while those 10 and lower told that their class options will appear upon puberty and be based off of an individuals aptitude, fostered skills, and achievements (both individual and those made by the tribe) The word in the Z¨­in? language was more akin to quickening then puberty and I made another note to pay attention the next time one of them aged up. On the subject of language I watched as the ghostly elder was using their limited speech, which consisted of chirps, growls, rumbles and throat sounds. Her head and neck twitched and angled as she spoke. The position or timing of a movement conveying meaning as much as the sounds did. I was amused and a little embarrassed as she told them of me. She told them of a giant orb like the great fire. Instead of exuding heat and light the orb''s lights twisted in on itself and colors appeared and disappeared at random. She likened it to the lights of the bioluminescent fungus in the cave. She told of a great band of magic encircling the orb. She talked of shapes and symbols flashing in the band. She even gave me credit for her new form and her return to lead them again. Now that is technically a lie. I never spoke to her. Feeling my disapproval and amusement I see her stutter over her words a bit. Through the shared sense I could tell she was embarrassed but wouldn''t correct it. With the influence of the system and increases from class she believes she is the smartest of her people. She wants to guide them to me. One glimpse of a god and she was a diehard convert. Not exactly sure if i should encourage this type of fervor I hide my apprehension as this would help me as long as I kept it in check. I didn''t want a race of fanatics. Shivering at the memories I had at what humans would do in the name of their religions. I gave a feeling of assent to her ideas. I pull up my full status screen for the first time since my rebirth. Status 1 NAME - N/A STATE - FORMLESS (GENESIS) LEVEL - 1 ¡·5 TIER - 0 CREATIONS - 0 ¡·2 (Life death cycle soul, soul limbs) CIV ADVANCEMENTS - CLAN CULTURE - PENDING TECHNOLOGY - PRE-STONE TITLES - N/A STATS: MANA - 5 ¡·6 (Determines how much you increase the ambient mana density, regeneration, and influences the type of magic in territory. As well as if your species can cast and use magic.) INFLUENCE - 3(Determines how powerful your commands are and if you are able to make someone do something against their being.) CONTROL - 3 ¡·4(Determines how precise you can manipulate the environment, flora, and fauna. As well as how fine your other manipulation abilities can be used.) PRESENCE - 2¡·3(Determines how much your people can feel you in their everyday lives and how much others can feel you when you descend.) OMNISENSE RADIUS - 6 ¡·9 (INFLUENCE ¡Á PRESENCE) (The distance you can clearly sense before Fog of War obscures you) MAGIC - 15 ¡·24 (MANA ¡Á CONTROL) (How powerful and/or plentiful magical flora, fauna, and materials that can be found in your claimed area. The power and number of spells you can create/cast.)Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. WILL - 10 ¡·15 (MANA ¡Á PRESENCE) (How much you can exert yourself before needing to rest. NOTE: outside influence may expend your WILL faster.) FAITH - 9 ¡·12 (INFLUENCE ¡Á CONTROL) (Ambient power gathered by your faithful. Can be used in a variety of ways to gain small buffs or debuffs depending on the situation.) MAGICAL LAW: HERMETIC - Through the use of geometric shapes, mystical symbols, and mathematical equations practitioners can manipulate mana to form spells and magical effects. ABILITIES: [PERFECT RECALL (LIMITED) - you can remember all information you have obtained consciously and subconsciously. Limited: You may only have perfect recall on subjects you have studied or put a significant amount of effort into learning. Note: Just because you can remember the information does not mean you understand the information. MINOR SHAPE - within range of your omnisense you have a minor amount of control over the environment, weather, and terrain. Beware accumulative and combined effects may lead to unexpected outcomes. Use of this ability will take time to have an effect. OMNISENSE (CONCEPTUAL ¡·SENSES) - You will be able to see through the sense of your species as well as the omnisense radius in distance from the ¡°core¡± of your people''s lands. OMNISENSE RADIUS: 9. MANA MANIPULATION - You have the ability to manipulate mana to a degree. The magical laws of an area''s mana determine how well you can manipulate the mana or if you even can if you do not understand the laws of that area. Within your omnisense radius you can boost magical effects and spells that follow your magical law. MENTAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE(TEMPORARY, LIMITED USE: 4)- You have the power to change how those of your species think and what they find important in their society. This does not change individuals, only changing what the species as a whole value and how their thought process works. Innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This power is temporary and limited in the number of uses. The ability and knowledge will be taken from you upon the fourth use of this ability. SKILLS: Z¨­IN? LANGUAGE - 100/100. MANA MANIPULATION - 0 ¡·4. SPELLS: SIMPLE NATURAL HEALING - As long as the caster focuses on a wound and the target has natural healing capabilities then they will heal at an accelerated rate. COST: Small and slow drain of mana, miniscule drain on will. ACHIEVEMENTS: PENDING] [1 NEW ABILITY TO PICK. ? ABILITIES SLOTS. 1 SPELL AVAILABLE TO GIFT TO Z¨­IN?. 0/24 SPELLS GIFTED. ? SKILL SLOTS] Chapter 4.5 In a bar made of constellations, where the interior is nebula chairs, lights are made of stars, and wafting gasses show the tapestry of existence. Great gods gather and watch a gargantuan rip in space. It shows a rotating planet, in the center, half showing it as it is now and the other as it was in the ancient past. Eight orbs with information scrolling next to them. Five of them were on the side of the ancient past. Three in the present, but two were dull and in the corner. Four smallerx rips on each side hugged the edges of the larger rip. Each screen showed a different species and land, aside from two which showed slowly morphing creatures and information scrolling to the sides of them. A humanoid in a bright and extravagant zoot suit walks on to the image from somewhere. Pristine white gloves cover its hands and hold an old earth humans 60s style studio mic. Its face a larger version of the mic it holds in its hands. {Goooooooood evening gods and goddesses of the multiverse and welcome to the opening of the newest session of To Rule A Planet.} It pauses for dramatic effect. Raising the mic in its hand, it draws out its next words. {IIIIIIIIII''m your host Mike the Mic, here to provide color commentary and context to what these wacky players are doing. For those new deities in the audience and those living under a rock golem let me give you a rundown of the game. Eight entities, picked at random from a pool of qualified candidates, plucked at the moment of their death are sponsored by an elder god and sent to a neutral trial planet. These Formless must create a race and religion to dominate the planet. The winner ascends to godhood, the losers stay Formless. This is a special season folks as the Formless are all from a baby universe and the winner will be the first deity in a new pantheon.} With a snap of its fingers Mike fades away as fireworks and a choir of alien creatures singing replace it, bright colors and fireworks go off in the background. After a few moments the image is again replaced with Mike strutting into view. {Now without further adieu, here are the eight Formless vying for godhood¡­} As Mike continues his spiel, an ever changing figure sits in a corner swirling around its drink. The stars and gasses near the figure change as he does ¡°Shaper, I''m surprised to see you here.¡± another figure says as they approach. Clad in flowing blue gown mini suns revolving around giving it a warm glow, the wearer looks like a sentient planet complete with flora and fauna and gives off a vastly different presence than the one they called Shaper. ¡°Growth,¡± Shaper acknowledges with a voice of grinding stone and metal bending, ¡°I am a sponsor this year and figured I should at least be seen at the grand opening of the games.¡± Growth takes a seat next to the reclusive god, a cocktail filled with a deep blue and vibrant green swirl materializes in their hands. ¡°I had heard that rumor. Any chance you''re willing to tell me who you are sponsoring, I wouldn''t want us to clash too early.¡± ¡°I have no desire to help you win whatever scheme you have cooking up.¡± Shaper says without even looking over. With a humph Growth gets up and walks away. Shaper never takes its ever changing face off of one location. One of the rifts where a group of interesting creatures roam, their soul magic and abilities while not new were rare enough to warrant a closer look.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Chapter 5 I was shocked by the growth I had made already. While I didn''t have a comparison to another person, my stats being mostly different from the Z¨­in?¡¯s, and time being rather subjective at the moment the levels seemed a little high. Five levels and from my understanding I hadn''t even made it past the tutorial, I worried about who I would face after if growth was this fast. Hopefully it''ll fall off at some point. It also seemed leveling didn''t do much beyond increasing my limit for certain attributes such as ability limit, I wouldn''t know for sure till level 10 but it also seemed to give me an ability choice every 5 levels. Excited to see what options I had available to me and not wanting to worry about it till I could compare, I moved on. I have a new ability I can pick and this one I can actually pick verses just being given it. I focus on picking a new ability and a screen appears. [NEW ABILITY: 1 AVAILABLE ABILITIES: SPELL COALESCENCE I - Drawing from knowledge of your previous life, this ability will form new spells. These spells are chosen on your ability to understand them. The number of spells that can be provided by this ability can not exceed your MANA stat. MINOR SHAPE ¡·MODERATE SHAPE - Your knowledge of engineering and your understanding of the natural world has given you greater control over the environment, weather, and terrain within your omnisense radius. This control now includes minerals and some flora growth. This ability uses your CONTROL stat to determine how far you can push the changes, how long it takes, and the precision you can exert. WARNING: this ability can have long and far reaching consequences, you have been warned. PROPHETIC IMPRESSIONS - you will now have the ability to influence your people more directly through; dreams, near death experience, moments of extreme clarity, or other similar times. The influence is subtle and will leave much to the interpretation of the one given the impression. This ability uses your INFLUENCE stat to determine the complexity and clarity of your impressions. This ability uses your PRESENCE stat to determine what situations can qualify for activation of PROPHETIC IMPRESSIONS. GIFT FROM THE HEAVENS - Bestow upon your people an artifact. It will serve as a direct link to you for whoever wields it and provide abilities depending on the form the artifact takes. This ability uses your MAGIC stat to determine the power and form your artifact can take. This ability uses your PRESENCE stat to determine strength of the link between you and the weirder. WARNING: Because of the nature of this ability, destruction or loss of control of the artifact will result in consequences. Severity is determined by the circumstance. OMNIPOTENCE (DANGER. LIMITED) - You become aware if certain actions you or your people take will be detrimental or lead to disaster. The ability in its current form is extremely limited. This ability uses your FAITH stat to determine when OMNIPOTENCE activates.] I had questions. Many questions. First, being why the system was suddenly vague about what exactly the abilities did? The second one being, why didn''t I see an upgrade to mana manipulation on the list? I guess it just didn''t qualify because of experience, knowledge, or level. Maybe a mix of all three? It didn''t matter too much at the moment, the choices I did get I liked. Even the one I thought was the weakest, SPELL COALESCENCE I, was pretty good. Giving me up to six spells based on what I knew. Being a nerd and geek, I liked my chances of understanding enough about a variety of subjects for good spells. The one in the description implies it can upgrade later too. The downside though was it was completely random and at this level I doubt it would lead to earth shattering spells. Some of the abilities relying on my not so great stats also worried me. They didn''t have to be low though. I already saw hard work and pushing my limits in certain areas will give me stat points. I shift back through my notifications logs to check a thought I had. I find it in between my leveling notifications. This also made me wonder why some pulled at my attention or a flash caught my eye but others didn''t give me any indication. I could dismiss it as I just didn''t notice the flash or ignored the pull. Hyper fixation being a bitch and all. It didn''t feel the same though. This felt deliberate, like some¡­sort¡­o¡­.of¡­.STABILIZE. Ehh, not worth my time, it was probably just hyper fixation or something. So I only get to pick an ability every five levels but I have a slot open every level. This might imply I can gain abilities besides leveling. With that in mind I should hold off on upgrading minor shape. That leaves PROPHETIC IMPRESSIONS or OMNIPOTENCE. I wouldn''t mind SPELL COALESCENCE or GIFT FROM THE HEAVENS, but they felt too soon. I wanted to wait, besides if my theory was right I might be able to gain GIFT FROM THE HEAVENS myself. I decided to go with PROPHETIC IMPRESSIONS. A danger sense sounded good but until I increased my stats more the iffyness of the ability triggering made it mostly useless in my eyes. [NEW ABILITY GAINED: PROPHETIC IMPRESSIONS - During moments extreme clarity such as near death experience, deep meditation, ¡®Runner''s High¡¯, or similar events. As well as during altered states such as dreams or when on certain drugs and shamanestic herbs. You may DECEND to the creature as long as they are of your faith and directly talk to, show images/impressions, or interact with in a desired fashion. INFLUENCE ¡Á Level = amount of words that can be said. Simple images or emotions count as 3 words. More complex images, emotions, or other such interactions vary in cost. The cost will be known before said action happens. PRESENCE = when ability activates. With current PRESENCE ability may only activate under extreme circumstances or while under shamanestic concoctions. WARNING: This ability is not mind control or similar power. All words, emotions, or other interaction is subject to targets understanding and biases. How the ability triggers may influence clarity and perception of target.]Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Well the activation condition wasn''t good but atleast I got a more defined description when I got the ability. I would also need to be very careful and precise when I used the ability. Couldn''t exactly talk about bacteria to someone that didn''t know the basics of germ theory and expect them to tell others with much accuracy about staying clean. Speaking of creatures with basic understanding I turn my attention back to my people. The priestess is wrapping up her religious speech when I tune back in. Whatever she said seemed to have convinced many of them to believe in me, as they looked at her with fervor. With a sigh I know exactly what I need to cement her rule and convince any of the remaining skeptics. I focused on my MAGIC and WILL and pushed my one spell through my connection to the Z¨­in? and a prompt appeared in front of them. [HALLELUJAH: YOUR HIGHER BEING HAS BESTOWED UPON YOU A SPELL: SIMPLE NATURAL HEALING - As long as the caster focuses on a wound and the target has natural healing capabilities then they will heal at an accelerated rate. COST: Small and slow drain of MANA, miniscule drain on WILL. DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS SPELL IT IS CONSIDERED A SPECIES SPELL AND ALL Z¨­IN? CAN CAST THIS SPELL IF THEY HAVE THE MINIMAL MANA COST AVAILABLE AND ACCESS TO THE WILL STAT.] Both species and godling are amazed at the contents of the message. The species because to them this great being that saved their most respected elder just gave them a way to heal themselves, as all had enough mana and will to cast the spell. The godling is amazed at the information that some spells he gifted them would be usable by the entirety of them. It also implied that some wouldn''t be. Maybe if they were more complex or swayed too heavily on a principle or school of magic. Probably couldn''t have everyone be able to cast lightning bolt. Still it gives me plenty of ideas for spells and I had 23 spells I can gift them. I could experiment and find out what classifies as a species spell and what doesn''t. As well as what other spells are classified as. Before I get too carried away I focus back on my people. I was shocked. The few minutes they had the spell and I was distracted they worked out how to cast the spell¡­and they were healing each other. Every single one of them. They were going through the oldest and sickest first. The ones healed then go on to heal when they have rested for a moment. My priestess was guiding them, but it was minimal. She more acted as the organizer and kept it from being just a bunch of random healing. I watched as the mana began circulating through them, following channels in their bodies. When it reaches their spirit hands the mana brings them to the visible spectrum. Their spiritual and real arms twist, the extra joints allowing them to make the major outline of the spell shape. They swing their hands back and forth, their extra knuckles on their fingers and the extra thumb quickly bending themselves into the correct symbols. Even the tail came into play slightly. It is used to hold them up and still as they use their legs to make the lower outline of the spell shape. The mana expanded out and completed the missing lines of the spell. I delighted in watching the selfless action. Making a decision based on emotion rather than logic I activated one of the limited uses of my last truly God ability. [MENTAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE(TEMPORARY, LIMITED USE: 4 ¡·3) INFLUENCE - THE WANT TO HELP EACH OTHER. THE DRIVE TO QUICKLY AND SUCCESSFULLY CAST A NEW SPELL. ARE INCRESSED IN THE Z¨­IN?. AS THIS IS ALIGNED WITH THE NATURE IT IS EASILY ACCEPTED BY THEM AND REINFORCES A EMPATHIC AND INQUISITIVE NATURE.] Nothing outwardly changed but I quickly saw the changes. After all had been healed of all they could be, the ones who picked a class that gave them access to spells began practicing once more after a rest. Many succeed after a few tries. Unfortunately some of the elderly and one young with boils and growths covering them couldn''t be healed. Without CELLULAR CONTROL I had no idea what was wrong with them though it didn''t surprise me. Humans had plenty of illnesses that couldn''t be healed by the body''s natural healing process. They didn''t explore into the jungle beyond a cursory check to ensure nothing is watching them at the edges. They set up a rudimentary camp and speak of wonders the surface world brings. I turn my attention upward. I keep a mental eye on them for any dangers, but it seemed their plan at the moment was to secure the tunnels that lead to the surface and make defenses in case of attack. Food was abundant for them at the moment as fish filled the river cutting through their cave. I figure that will keep them busy for a few days. Plenty of time to create a few spells and test them. I pulled my perception from the world only keeping a metaphorical eye on my priestess. It turns out I didn''t need to actually cast a spell for my ring to break apart and form shapes and symbols. They did nothing but I enjoyed the feeling and got to practice my spell forms. I spend a good amount of time just spinning and shaping the ring. After getting the hang of moving my ring around and half casting I got down to making new spells. The first one I had in mind was most likely going to be another species spell if I designed it right. I wanted myself and the Z¨­in? to have a soul sight spell. I should have thought of adding a natural soul sight during their creation but I was so caught up with the design and I could see the spirit arms during their creation. I didn''t even think about not being able to see them in reality. Nothing I could do about it now but make it right and do better. I begin pulling at my MANA MANIPULATION skill instead of the ability. There had to be a reason either the system or my psyche separated it into a skill and an ability. Initially it feels the same; an ever so light pull on my WILL as I focus, the knowledge associated with it coming to the forefront of my thoughts, the stats aligned with the power sharpening for use, and¡­this is different. Slightly anyways. With the ability I would also feel my spells, well spell. With the skill I felt the actual spell form. I also felt that there should be something else different about the two, but I could place it. Maybe it has to do with my people and the planet. That line of thought would have to wait. Now that I can tell the difference between the ability and skill for my purposes it was time to make spells. While the knowledge of how to create souls and what exactly they are was taken from me, I still know the souls of my people. I know my soul. Forced to see myself stripped down to its bases. It would suffice for a base I believe. My ring which had settled back into its neutral state came back to life. It breaks apart and begins circling me. I focus on myself, my entire form is a soul with a visual effect. The lights and swirls meant to invoke meanings of who and what I am. My people''s souls. The system calls it a life death cycle soul. I briefly wonder if that means they could return to life. I pushed the thought aside as it would distract me. I begin to form my soul sight spell.