It once again began within a void; mountains of material, rocks, metals, minerals, and so on, began to manifest out of thin air. They collided with one another, merging into a massive mass that continued to grow and grow until it became a sphere with a surface area measuring in the millions of kilometres. It wasn't a perfect sphere, mind you; the landscape was carved and segmented into continents and islands. There was no water between them yet.
Next came dirt, sand, sediment, and trillions of microscopic life forms, which blanketed the rapidly forming planet's surface. Additional channels were carved through the newly created material, creating barren rivers and lakes that snaked across the land. What should have taken millions of years was happening within the span of a few hours, and things only continued to progress.
Soon storm clouds the size of continents began to appear all across the planet; this was followed by the crackling of lightning and a truly biblical downpour. Those barren rivers and streams were quickly filled, but the waters didn't stop. They flowed outward, filling the gaps and deep trenches between the landmasses and creating vast blue oceans that covered sixty-eight percent of the planet's surface.
Additionally, the waters seeped into the earth, creating deep underground chasms and tunnel networks that expanded for miles in some areas. These underground networks were nothing like what had been seen on Earth; they were vast open caves beyond belief, some with ceilings several miles high and reaching down tens of thousands of metres.
(This is really fun.) I thought to myself.
"It takes a while for everything to start to come together, but that just makes it more satisfying when I do," I mused as I looked over my work so far.
"There's still a lot to get done, though; however, that's fine," I said with a chuckle. "Honestly, I enjoy the grind."
(You know, that makes me curious about everyone else's Sanctuaries look like.) I thought.
Thinking on that, an idea popped into my head. "Maybe we can get together at some point and show off our work? Though that depends on whether or not they have even been bothering much with their Sanctuaries."
Honestly, now that I was really contemplating it, I was curious about that. I wasn't just interested in my fellow apprentices and their Sanctuaries; no, I was far more curious about what the Sanctuaries of the mentors would look like. Unfortunately, I doubted I'd be able to persuade most of them to show me, maybe Anna would, but I didn't know about the others.
Anyway, as I thought, the lands continued to shift: mountains rose in mere moments and cavernous valleys opened in the earth. Even with all my knowledge of the natural biomes of the world, it would have taken months of none stop work to get all of this done normally without the system's assistance, and even then it definitely wouldn't have looked very natural overall.
(Well, whatever, thoughts for later I guess.) I hummed internally. (I'll ask them about it the next time I see them.)
(For now, though, it's time to get back to it.) I thought with a yawn. As I returned my focus to my work, I began thinking back to a few hours earlier.
_ _ _ _Flashback_ _ _ _
"Well, you see..." I said as I tapped my claws against my desk. "On my little trip I made a new friend, so to speak, one I was hoping to introduce to you."
"A new friend?" She asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.
"That's right. Here, let me show you." I said as I opened a rift into my system storage; a second later I gently pulled something out with both hands.
Held in my hands was a bee of sorts, a bee the size of a medium-sized dog. It was yellow with brownish stripes, with two legs and four arms, two of said arms each ended in a single blade-like spike, while the smaller pair had two pincers. Also of note were the creature five green eyes: three small ones in the centre of its head and two much larger ones. Additionally, between those eyes were two large blue antennae growing out a bit from its head.
"W-where... where am I?" a young-sounding male voice echoed in panic, and the creature's mandible-like mouthparts clacked together.
"Hey, it's okay. You're in a safe place now; there's no need to panic." I said soothingly to calm them, which worked somewhat.
It took a second for them to recognise me. "Oh, it's you," he said in a cute male voice as he began to slowly calm down. "The nice lady from before."
(This little guy cost me almost all my remaining Fragments, but when I saw him sitting in a tiny enclosure, scared and all alone, I couldn't bring myself to leave him behind.) I sighed softly.
(I really do have a weakness for cute things, don't I...?) I chuckled to myself as a warm feeling filled my chest. (I guess I haven't lost all my humanity just yet.)
I was brought out of my thoughts when I noticed that the bee creature and Mel were looking at me strangely. "M-miss? Are... are you okay?"
"Big sister became happy all of a sudden… that's good."
"S-sorry about that." I coughed awkwardly.
(I still haven't figured out how to stop myself from sharing my emotions through the hive mind.) I thought with some embarrassment.
"Anyway, this was the one I was talking about." I muttered, trying to change the subject.
"Hello, what's your name?" Mel asked cutely and the answer she got came as a shy, somewhat timid response.
"I'm Funbeemon... um... nice to meet you..."
Yes, Funbeemon, as in the Digimon. He was the last creature I had bought from the breeder, and I had barely enough Fragments left after all the things I bought on that little field trip. I had also already added him to the hive mind, with his permission, of course.
"Oh... that's a pretty name," Mel said with a smile. "I'm Mel; nice to meet you too."
"Hello... your name... it's nice as well..." Funbeemon said, sounding rather flustered.
(So cute!) I thought to myself.
"I was hoping you could show this little fella around for me," I said after a moment of freaking out over the cuteness I was witnessing. "They're really far from home, and I think it would do them some good to have a friend."
"Is that true?" Mel asked, and Funbeemon nodded sadly.
A look of determination crossed Mel's face at that; she nodded to herself before speaking up again. "It's okay, we can be friends and I can introduce you to my other friend like Ralph, he's a good puppy."
(This was a good decision,) I thought as the two started chatting.
_ _ _ _Flashback Over_ _ _ _
(I hope that they're getting along...) I thought as I hovered in the Sanctuary Command Space or whatever it was called.
(I'm sure they're fine, but I'll check up on them once I'm finished here.) I hummed as I stretched.
Taking a moment, I sat back and looked over my work. "I'm almost finished with this part anyway."
The planet was similar to Earth in climate, of course without any of the global warming or shit like that. However, it was slightly bigger than Earth but not by much, but it was noticeable. Anyway, the planet itself, which I had nicknamed Syresh for no particular reason other than it was the first thing that popped into my head, was split into eight continents along with who knows how many islands, as well as the North and South polar regions.
Additionally, Syresh already had life, as I had also just finished covering the whole thing in plants as well as manifesting small, basic animals all over the place using the system, just like I had done previously. As for the tens of thousands of animals and plants I had obtained from the world of Rampage, well, I'd need to take my time adding them in to allow them time to reproduce without the possibility of some of them going extinct by accident.
As for the piece of land where my followers were, well, I teleported the whole thing into a perfectly cut-out area in the middle of the largest continent, a few dozen miles from the ocean. I also made sure to connect the underground hive network to some of the large underground caverns so that my xenos had more space to spread out into. The people on it didn't even notice as it shifted into place, thanks to the massive wall of fog that surrounded the whole place. Of course, I also made it so that the fog would now slowly dissipate overtime, now that it had no purpose after all i might as well just remove it.
"And with this, the first part of my expansion is done," I said to myself as I quickly did a once-over on my work.
"Now then, I've gotten all that done, but I'm not finished just yet; there are still a few things I need to do." I yawned, feeling both energetic and fatigued at the same time.
(I have no idea if this will actually work; however, if it does, it's going to be awesome.) I mused as I cracked my wrist.
"Time to make some floating islands, I guess."