"Yippie!" I threw my hands into the air. "One week! This volcano cost me a whole week!"
I took a deep breath and looked at the eternally smoking mountain. It spew endless streams of ammonia and black ash, which the winds carried across the stone plate—slowly forming dunes here and there.
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Obsidian ChronAsh
Description: A deep black ash that heats extremely fast but cools quickly as well. It has a porous structure, allowing it to store vast amounts of water, nutrients, and more. It also preserves whatever it holds, preventing spoilage.
⸻
From afar, the scene looked mystic: a desert of black stone under pale, cold light, with the godlike tower of stone rising in the distance, wreathed in black mist and dark smoke.
I swallowed hard. "This looks exciting… but deadly. Spending too long near it could be fatal."
Now that the heartpiece of the whole concept was ready, I could begin creating the mechanisms to support it. The next step: the exact and unique weather system for this first continent - before connecting all together.
I browsed through the massive shop interface, finding countless fascinating options.
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[Cart:]
1. Echo Storms
• Thunder and wind repeat themselves as if moments are replayed.
2. Accelerain
• A rain that accelerate growing processes of plants.
3. Mirror Winds
• Winds create mirages and doubled landscapes; some illusions are real space rifts.
4. Wandering Fog
• A dense fog that shifts location. Enter it, and you might exit miles away. Entire caravans vanish this way.
[More…]
[Cost: 1247 EC]
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Of course, these were only the extraordinary phenomena. I also purchased the standard, logical weather cycles and seasonal changes. With the new planetary weather control icon, I could assign effects to specific regions, seasons, and more.
And so, on the Black Continent, I configured it so that rain would fall only once every ten years. And when, like the sky would fall down.
"Hehe…" I chuckled, and then, over the course of another month, I created the mechanism of green ravines, canyons, and similar formations. The stone of the continent condensed moisture on its walls, forming tropical pockets deep within.
I scattered these oases across the black desert, where daytime temperatures soared into triple digits and nights plunged below freezing.
Day by day, I added more. Along the coastlines, I allowed the ocean waters to green the land, forming gigantic coral reefs and more.
With whatever [EC] I had left each day, I created plankton and microscopic life in the sea, while scattering millions of plant seeds across the black desert—species hardy enough to survive with the tiniest bit of water.
I even designed winds that, once per year, carried millions of tons of Obsidian Ash into the ocean, enriching its waters with fertility.
If everything worked as planned, the cycle would look like this: once every ten years, rain would fall, and the deadly Black Desert would transform into a green oasis.
The seeds planted in the whole dessert would just wait for this moment, and when the rains brings the water it creates a super fertilizer with the ammonia in the air.
Birds, butterflies, and more would migrate through, repopulating the region in great waves of biodiversity.
"Haaaa…" I closed my eyes. "I can already imagine it—the sky darkened by millions of colorful butterflies, and the birds hunting them!"
The thought made my chest tighten with anticipation. But for this miracle to work, I still needed to complete the other landmarks.
I sighed and returned to the Control Room, [EC] completely drained.
When I stepped outside into the garden, I called, "I'm back, Gaia!"
She was tending to the small tree behind the house, which had already grown and would soon be taller than me. She was so focused she didn't hear me. Smiling faintly, I dropped into the rocking chair and let the late autumn sun warm my face.
⸻
[Status]
Name: —
Age: 0 years, 9 months, 0 weeks, 1 day, 4 hours
Species: World Dungeon Core
Level: 2/6
Experience Points: 14,306 / 150,000
EC: 0 / 1,500
—> 2 EC regenerates per hour
—-> Intruders: 0,02 EC/h
Characteristics:
• Space (unique)
• Time (unique)
• Consciousness
Floors:
• Control Room
• First Floor (Tempora) —> 1.3 EC per hour
• Second Floor (N/A) —> 0.04 EC per hour
[More]
⸻
I could hear a sheep grazing nearby, making contented noises as it splashed in the water. Beside me, on the right and on the left, two green little hills rested on the veranda, drinking from a hollowed tree stump filled with specialized water.
It shimmered with space-time effects: more water than it appeared to hold, and capable of accelerating all kinds of reactions within the body.
I stretched out my hand, brushing the sun-warmed shell. With a sleepy sigh, one looked up and lowered its head again, onto the ground and drifted off like before.
"They are already so big…" I murmured, gazing at Schildegard and her male partner. Half the veranda was already taken up just by her broad, flat body as she lay stretched out.
I rubbed her chin gently and chuckled. Just then, footsteps sounded behind me. I turned and saw Gaia walking over, wiping her hands with a broad leaf. A streak of dirt smudged her left cheek, but her smile shone brightly.
"You're back!" she said, pulling a chair beside me and scratching Schildegard behind the ear hole.
I nodded, letting myself fall back into the chair with another sigh.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing… I'm just a little frustrated. No, not frustrated—surprised again by how long all of this takes."
"How long have you been working on this one?"
"Hmm? Altogether? I started the second floor about two months ago… maybe I—" I shook my head. "It's hard to say. Those two months multiplied by eighty… that's about thirteen years of second-floor time."
I paused to think, but Gaia beat me to it. "From that time, you weren't always there. But still…"
"Yeah… when I did work on it, it took time as well. So maybe five years of actual, effective work on the second floor?"
We shrugged at the same time and let our gazes drift across the garden.
After a while, dozing in the sun, I stood up again and slipped back into my daily routine—the same as always in recent days.
Sleeping, training, training with Gaia, gardening, planning, creating, relaxing.