Inside the Divine Space. The moment the demon king died, Cedric immediately received several notifications.
[Congratulations on killing the demon king in your world. You've gained 2 GP.]
[As the demon king has been defeated, most of the NE in your world have been purified. The rate of NE infection has greatly decreased. The chance of the demon king to appear in the future has been greatly decreased. Your world's resistance to Negative Energy has also slightly I creased.]
Cedric breathed in relief upon hearing the notification.
The situation might seem easy as Lacius has curb stomped the ant queen. But, it happened because Lacius has been storing faith energy for centuries, which he has mostly spent during the battle to strengthen his blessed power.
Furthermore, the ant queen hasn't been born for long and the amount of ants in the colony is still within control.
Even then, Lacius has almost failed to kill the demon king this time.
If not for the Wind Sword that Cedric sent, Lacius would've escaped from the cave, and it'll take god knows how long before the demon king can be truly annihilated.
After summarizing the situation, Cedric asked the System, "How much longer does my world need before it leveled up? Does the number change after half a city got killed?"
[The death of creatures in the city had indeed increased the time slightly. But the demon king's death has helped your world to grow. So, the amount of time before your world leveled up has been shortened to approximately 1 year and 1 months.]
"That doesn't seem long."
Cedric proceed to check the situation in the Crystal Cube world while waiting for the time to pass.
He first checked the ant nest and saw several eggs have hatched from the dead ant queen's corpse.
Those hatched eggs merely stay as a larva for a few minutes before turning into several giant ants.
Right now, they are fighting to the death against each other.
One of the slightly bigger ant is especially brutal as it has killed all the surrounding ants.
Soon, the battle royale ended with the slightly bigger ant as the ultimate winner.
The ant that has won walked towards the dead ant queen's corpse and swallowed some disgusting fluids that flow out of its mouth.
After drinking that unknown fluid, the recently born giant ant shed its carapace several times in the span of an hour.
During the time, another batch of eggs has hatched from the ant queen's body and turns into several larvae.
This time, they're much smaller than the first batch and soon transformed into several half meters long ant.
The surviving giant ant who has finished shedding its carapace walked towards the group of much smaller ants. Seeing the giant ant, the all the smaller ants gathered around it and they moved toward one of the surrounding tunnels and left the cave.
Cedric, who saw all that, decided to ask the System in concern, "Hey, can you explain what's happening?"
"That big ant seems to be the new ant queen. So, is it alright for them to leave just like that? Or should I remind Lacius to quickly kill it?"
[The ant is indeed the new queen, and it has just left with the recently born male ants. They should be ready to start a new colony. But don't worry, they're just a normal NE infected creature who can at most occasionally give birth to Lower Level 1 ant soldier.]
Just to make sure, Cedric activated his Divine Sight and checked the newly born ant queen's level.
[Level: Lower Level 2
Potential: Peak Level 1]
"Well, it's a Lower Level 2 queen ant."
After contemplation, Cedric decided to leave them be. Especially since he just thought of a new plan.
As an ant queen, it should be able to start a colony as long as there are some male ants.
Cedric plans to send the ant queen toward the dwarves' territory, and used it as the main attacker to pressure the dwarves.
The current dwarves should be strong enough to survive the attack from an ant colony headed by Lower Level 2 ant queen.
He has a gut feeling that this plan will bite him in the ass like usual. But Cedric is willing to take a bet.
After all, the battle between a race that instinctively knows how to dig, against a race that loves to dig should be incredible.
After that battle, the dwarf's tunneling technology should greatly increase.
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Once Cedric made a basic plan, he moved his mental power toward the dwarf territory in search of a suitable place to complete his plan. Soon, he found several suitable places, and noted their location.
The moment he has the chance to directly intervene, Cedric will move the ant queen and some male ants into one of the suitable location.
Finally, he checked on Lacius and found him inside a city.
Except for Lacius, there is also the survivor from the previous demon king attack, and the familiar duo of city lord Hendric and that pain in the ass old head priest.
From a brief glimpse, Cedric learned that Lacius has been gathering people from the temple's headquarter in the River Stone city to help him collect the corpse of the ant queen.
As the location of the ant queen's corpse is quite deep, Lacius has requested fifty earth elements blessed, with one Level 2 blessed among them.
Because the location of those blessed are spread throughout the human territory, coupled with the inconvenience caused by low leveled transportation and telecommunication equipment. It took slightly over a month before the blessed he requested arrived.
While waiting, Lacius has returned to the ant queen's cave and continued to study the corpse.
That's when he saw a few additional ant corpses that has been killed by the newly born ant queen and frowned.
After checking the surrounding and making sure there are no more living ants inside, Lacius walked towards the ant queen's body and saw nothing much has changed.
There are just a few additional empty ant egg shells around the ant queen's abdomen area.
Lacius circled around the ant queen's body several times before starting his study.
With the Wind Sword as his scalpel, Lacius occasionally cut a part of the ant queen, or imbued his energy into the ant and queen's corpse.
He continued his study until a month later.
Wiping the trace of mucus from his sword, Lacius muttered, "The blessed I requested should be ready by now."
He jumped through the hole and went towards the city he has chosen as a meeting place and brought them on the surface above the ant queens's nest
Lacius pointed at the ground, and without much nonsense, he immediately ask them to use their blessed power and dig a hole to retrieve the ant queen's body.
To make sure they can bring out the ant queen's body. Instead of digging vertically like what Lacius does, the blessed dug their tunnel diagonally. If seen with an x-ray, the tunnel they dug looks pretty similar to a metal spring.
While the blessed are busy living their lives as a humanoid excavator. Lacius has returned to the ant cave through the hole he has created.
He silently studied the ant queen's corpse for eight whole months.
Finally, the blessed he sent has successfully created a tunnel that can be used to retrieve the ant queen's corpse.
The moment those people saw the cave full of dead giant ants and the few especially massive ant guards and queen, their expression became full of fear and awe.
During their journey to dig the tunnel, they have met many giant ants whose power equalled blessed humans.
Those are the ants that have scattered throughout the ant nests once the ant queen has been killed.
They have even met the Level 2 ant guard that has escaped Lacius's slaughter.
If not for the Level 2 blessed who has joined them and got injured to kill the ant, the team would've been wiped out.
After hearing their story, Lacius sighed.
He indeed has thought of cleaning the whole ant nest. But the ant tunnel is too complicated, which made it almost impossible to kill all the ants in it even though be can faintly sense their movements through the earths.
After giving a few healing potions to the earth element blessed that has been injured. Lacius immediately ordered them to collect the ant queen's corpse and escort it back to the temple's headquarters in River Stone City.
He also ordered them to collect the corpse without further damaging it, as he still hasn't finished studying the ant queen.
It took close to two months and several horses' death from exhaustion before Lacius's group brought the ant queen's corpses to River Stone city.
To accommodate his research, Lacius even created a bigger secret room that can fit the ant queen's massive body.
While being accompanied by some ice element blessed who helps him to freeze the corpse and delay the decay, Lacius entered a focused state to study the corpse.
Meanwhile, in the Divine Space, Cedric has been looking at a screen in excitement.
On the screen, there is a countdown that the System has created especially for him.
[Countdown until the Crystal Cube world leveled up. 00:01:37]
He silently waited until the countdown finally reached 00:00:00.
Soon after the countdown ended, the System released several consecutive messages.
[Congratulations, your world has fulfilled the requirements to level up!]
[The process of leveling from Level 1 world will take approximately 7 days. During this time, your world's stability will be greatly increased and you may directly intervene in your world. Please note, the increase in stability isn't infinite and your world can still be destroyed upon excessive intervention.]
[The operation law and rules inside your world will slowly be strengthened and perfected.]
[The stability of your world will slowly increase.]
[The amount of annual GP gain will be increased.]
[The chance for your world to give birth to creatures with high potential has increased.]
[The maximum level of creature in your world has been increased to Level 4]
[Your world's resistance against NE has increased.]
[The speed of expelling NE has increased.]
[The …]
While Cedric listened to the System's spam like messages. Unbeknownst to him, in the void outside the Crystal Cube world, special energy began to gather toward the Crystal Cube world.
The fluctuation of that energy should've been enough to alarm creatures in the surroundings. But, before it could extend far away, the fluctuation turns into something virtual and ceases to exist all together.
Cedric, who didn't know about it, is still focusing on the spam messages the System sent.
[... has increased.]
[Warning! Your world's advancement has caused fluctuation in the surrounding void that might alarm surrounding creatures.]
[As you're still under the System's protective period, the System has removed the fluctuation released by your world and properly hid your world from outside interference.]
[The universe has awarded the gods for their hard work. You'll receive a small amount of extremely pure mysterious energy.]
[Once again, congratulations for your world's advancement.]
"Ah? It's finally done." Cedric muttered when he saw there were no more new messages appearing.
Just when he wanted to analyze the bombardment of precious info that the System has sent. Cedric suddenly felt his body and soul seem to sublimate into a higher state of existence.
The feeling is extremely good to the point he almost lets out a moan.
Actually, he might've unknowingly released a moan.
Luckily, there are no other creatures in the Divine Space, so even if he indeed has released a moan, no one should've heard it.
Except for that annoying system.
The extremely satisfying state last for a few minutes. By the time Cedric woke up from that state, he felt extremely relaxed.
When he reopened his eyes, Cedric somehow kinda understand what has just happened, as he immediately opened his status screen.
[Name: Cedric Hills
Level: Pseudo Lesser Divinity (Actual level: Peak Level 3)
Law: None.
World: Crystal Cube World
World Level: 2
World's Average Potential: Lower Level 0
GP: 12.077
Annual GP income: 6]
Cedric saw his level and the level of the Crystal cube world has risen. Furthermore, the annual GP income that has been stuck at 1 has finally grown.
The annual GP income kept on steadily rising until it began to slow down after reaching 6 GP.
He can still understand the reason for most change, but Cedric doesn't understand why his Life Level just increased out of nowhere.
Before he can question the System, it has already sent him a message.
[You have leveled up thanks to the excess energy from your world's advancement. Normally, that tiny bit of energy is useless for a god that has already reached Level 16 and turns into Lesser Divinity. That's also the reason why the System forgot to mention it to you. But who would've expected that small bit of energy actually pushed your life level to Level 3.]
"What is the energy you mentioned?"
[Do you wish to spend 1.000 GP for the answer?]
"No." Cedric quickly shook his head.
Then, he thought of something and asked the System, "Will this energy cause me any immediate harm?"
[Do you wish to spend 10 GP for the answer?]
"Yes."
[No.]
After the System's answer, Cedric decided to ignore the matter related to the mysterious energy that has forcefully increased his level. After all, there are many things he has gained and things he needs to do within a time limit.
First, he gathered the important information from those spam messages the System previously sent.
For example, the fact that there are some kind of secret requirements that need to be met before the world levels up.
Then, there is also the fact that there is actually a maximum level for the creatures in his world.
Seeing how it said the maximum Life Level in his world has increased to Level 4, and considering the fact that there are already Level 3 creatures in his world. That means the maximum Life Level for creatures in Level 1 world is Level 3, and the maximum for Level 2 world is Level 4.
After summarizing his gains, Cedric prepared to start his plan and intervene in his world. After all, there is actually a time limit of seven days, which is simply too short.
Just when he wanted to do a direct intervention that the System has been hyping up, the System actually sent him another message.
[Do you wish to spend 10 GP for the System to show the amount of stability and balance remaining in your world? This function will only last while the world is in the midst of upgrading.]
[Please note, it's extremely recommended for you to purchase this function.]
"Well, it's not too much, and the function sounds extremely important." Cedric said after he recalled one of the System's notifications that said his world can still be destroyed due to excessive intervention.
[Stability: 100%
Note: Please stop intervening when your world's stability has reached 5%, as it might cause lasting damage to your world that'll continue even after the upgrade process has been completed.]
'Darn, 10 GP just for that simple screen is pretty expensive!' Cedric grumbled and started getting to work.
Previously, he has asked the System about how to do this direct intervention thingy. But, Cedric still asked the System once more just to be sure.
[Can you stop asking this question? You've asked the same question hundreds of times.]
"Just answer it, dude."
[Direct intervention is when a creator god intervenes in their world without using the filter from Divine Items. It's usually only something a god with a high leveled world or a god whose world is in the process of advancement can do. During this time, you can use GP to create and manipulate things in your world. Just send your mental power to the world, and willed your GP to flow and turn into the things you intended.]
Cedric nodded. The System's answer hasn't changed in the slightest.
With confidence, he sent his mental power to check the situation in the Crystal Cube world and started his first direct intervention.
His first plan is to separate the elves and dwarves from the humans by temporarily separating the continent into two parts.
Of course, he doesn't want both sides to get completely cut off from each other. He just wants to delay the contact between the three races until the overall strength of the elf and dwarf has approximately equaled the humans.
Previously, Cedric had told the System about his plan and asked about the cost, which turn out to be relatively cheap.
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Shaking his head to remove those unnecessary thoughts, Cedric moved according to the plan he had concocted.
First, he moved his mental power to observe the Crystal Cube world from a higher point of view.
Then, according to the path he has planned. Cedric spent his GP to create a mountain range that will separate the southwest area, where humans gathered. From the northeast area, where dwarf and elf gathered.
He'll also add some extra moves to shock everyone in the world. After all, it's rare for him to get such a perfect chance to show off.
***
Inside the Crystal Cube world, head priestess Thania has just finished her daily prayer and left the branch temple to stroll the city.
The city she is in is called the Silver Hope City, the north most city that once has become the kingdom's focus in development until the temple's higher ups suddenly received a revelation and stopped the humans from expanding further north.
Although she has been sent to the northernmost city of the human race, which is basically an exile that grants her no chance to get promoted, Thania doesn't have any dissatisfaction. Especially when she recalled the intense competition in the temple headquarters.
As a core part of the kingdom's north expansion plan. Although the Silver Hope city has been abandoned for years, it still has the basic facilities comparable to most cities. So, her life is actually better compared to when she works as a senior priestess in the temple headquarters.
Furthermore, before she got exiled here, she has been promoted to a head priestess of the city, which means she has turned into one of the big shots in the area.
While in deep thought, Thania has completed her daily 'patrol' around the city market. On her hand, there are now a few bags filled with accessories she bought with the subsidy money gained from the temple headquarters.
Of course, she didn't use too much of the subsidy money. After all, she doesn't want to be demoted from her current comfortable position.
At most, she just took a tiny bit of money used to repair the temple without affecting the daily operation of the temple.
Thania soon arrived near the temple. But instead of entering it, she sat in the plaza in front of the temple, and grabbed a snack she just bought from a vendor while occasionally throwing some bread crumbs to the birds gathering in the plaza.
One of the few priests in the temple soon met her and said, "Head priestess, you're actually here! There is someone important who wishes to have a confession. Everyone has been waiting for you to return and lead the confession."
"Well, I am quite busy right now," Thania said while munching the snack she had brought," Anyway, Lily, you're already a senior priestess and have the right to lead a confession. So, I'll leave this matter to you."
"But, I am a new senior priest and haven't led a confession before." Lily said while her voice slightly trembled in nervousness.
"There is always a first for everything, and right now is your chance."
Lily heard Thania's words and reentered the temple while feeling nervous and excited.
When she saw Lily had entered the temple, Thania sighed, 'Now I can finally eat my snack in peace. I hope nothing else will come to bother me.'
Just when she took another bite of her snack, Thania felt the ground below her tremble, and the surrounding people turned noisy.
She looked at the person who screamed the loudest and saw him pointing at the sky in the north direction of the city.
She turned her head and saw a sight she'll never forget for the rest of her life.
In the clear sky, there is now a giant transparent hand that does a pinching movement on the flat ground before pulling it upwards.
Every time that hand pinches the ground and pulls it upwards, a mountain several thousands meters high suddenly appears and the ground trembled.
From sheer shock, Thania dropped the snack in her hand and scrambled toward the temple.
"There is… I dont know what the fuck it is, but just report it to the headquarter quickly! Someone or something is creating a lot of mountains north of Silver Hope city!"
The priest, priestess, temple knight, and believers who currently pray inside the temple stared in confusion at the panicked Thania. Some wanted to berate her from screaming in a sacred place. Luckily, they all recognized Thania's head priestess uniform and choose to remain silent.
Some of the people with more curiosity decided to exit the temple to check what Thania has been screaming about.
Just like Thania, the scene they saw become an unforgettable experience for everyone.
They all froze in shock before Thania, who had finished writing a report, pulled one of the dumbfounded temple knights and handed him her report. "You're the fastest runner here. Send this to the headquarters quickly!"
While everyone in the Silver Hope city is in panic, Cedric has been busy in the Divine Space.
He first created endless mountains in the place where humans don't reach. Then, he finally raised the mountains nearby human settlements.
But instead of just immediately creating the mountain like before, he created an illusory hand that seems to pull the ground and raised the mountains by pinching the ground.
He didn't do so just to cause panic and show off to the creatures there. Well, perhaps showing off is the main reason, but let's not dwell on this matter.
Cedric decided to show that illusory hand to warn the people there that he has the power to cause massive change to the world. Especially to Lacius, whom he fears will start tweaking sooner or later after gaining power far beyond other humans.
Even though he didn't directly say that the hand that has been creating mountains is his. Cedric trusted the humans and their imaginative brain. They should be able to connect the two dots together.
After creating the mountain range that span the entire continent diagonally, Cedric placed some ores and magic ores while also copied some vegetations, animals, magic plants, and magical animals in it.
He especially added a lot of strong magical animal in it to make sure the mountain range is almost impossible to traverse even by someone at Level 2.
Finally, Cedric checked his status screen to see 52 GP has decreased.
He also saw the stability that has been staying at 100% decreased to 98%
Looking at his masterpiece, Cedric nodded in satisfaction before immediately started another project he has planned.
This time, the project will cost him much more GP than before.
What he planned to do is to expand the space in his world.
It's not expanding the land by filling the ocean with land, but he plans to expand the space in the Crystal Cube world in its entirety.
The Crystal Cube world's surface is shaped like a square that span 4.000km x 4.000km. Among them, 8 million square meter consisted of land, while 8 million square meter is filled with waters.
This time, Cedric planned to add 1 million square kilometers of land and increased the size of the Crystal Cube world from 16 million square kilometers to 17 million square kilometers.
He has asked the System, and it said it'll cost approximately 1 GP to expand the land by 1.000 square kilometers.
The 1 GP cost already included the soil or water used to fill the space, a bit of basic animals and plants, and the cost of expanding the world's crystal wall.
That means he'll spend at least 1.000 GP in this project! This is definitely the most GP he has sent ever since his world is created.
But he just thought of it as an investment. After all, by expanding the living area of the creatures, they can give him more GP.
Right after Cedric started expanding the land.
In the Crystal Cube world, head priestess Thania remained in the Silver Hope City and walked above the northern city wall's watch tower to see the mountains clearly.
Next to her, many important people like the city lord and the guard captains stood.
All of them are busy discussing the hand and mountains that suddenly appeared before when everyone once again felt the ground under them tremble.
Thania and the others instinctively turned their heads to look at the mountains that had just recently risen from the ground. After all, the last time the ground trembled, those mountains were the culprit.
But this time, they didn't see another mountain rising from the ground. Instead, everyone saw the mountains moving away from them with incredible speed.
Thania is among the first ones to regain her wit and she immediately snatched a telescope from one of the nearby guards.
After the explosive sea-faring craze in the South. The Great Sun Kingdom, which is the force with alchemy technology second only to the temple, has invented the telescope to help the seafarers to observe things in the far distance and rake in a lot of money while at it.
Although the Silver Hope city didn't border the sea, they also purchased some telescopes and lent them to the guards in the watchtower to guard against any magical creatures or demons that might attack the city.
After adjusting the telescope, Thania saw that the mountain indeed wasn't running away. Instead, the land began to grow between the mountain and the city.
Thanks to this weird phenomenon, there is now a barren land appearing between the mountain and the city.
The barren land kept on expanding in the distance before it finally stopped once it had expanded by tens of kilometers.
Just when she thought everything had ended, the transparent hand that once pulled those mountains reappeared.
But it didn't pull any mountain from the ground. Instead, Thania saw a star-like light fall from the hand toward the ground.
Wherever that glittering star-like light fell, green vegetation grew.
When Thania saw that miraculous scene, she froze in shock and instantly made a gesture of worship.
"The creator… that hand is definitely the creator's! Oh the great creator, please forgive your ignorant belief as she failed to immediately recognize your greatness!" With tears streaming down her face, Thania began to chant the temple's prayers while looking in the distance.
Everyone around her has seen the hand reappear. But as the distance is too far away, they fail to see what that hand is doing.
The city lord, unable to stop his curiosity any longer, decided to take the telescope that Thania had placed on the ground.
Not long after adjusting the telescope and seeing the scene in the distance, the city lord's body began to tremble as he joined Thania in reciting the prayer.
Every person of high status borrowed the telescope out of curiosity, and they too joined Thania and the city lord in chanting the prayer.
***
Inside the Divine Space.
Cedric has finished adding the extra space next to the mountain range he has just created.
This way, the continent in the Crystal Cube world has turned into a 3000 km x 3000 km square with a mountain range that separates the world diagonally.
Cedric watched the result of his work and felt the land he created by spending 1.000 GP was pretty barren. So he spent another 50 GP to fill it with normal vegetation and animals.
As the animals and plants added are only those of normal variant, they took less GP to create compared to the magical variety he placed in the mountain range.
Once he was done adding animals and adjusting their habitat, Cedric moved his mental power and checked the southern part of the continent.
There, he used his mental power to check the oceans and spent 50 GP to create some islands that are filled with precious metals like gold or other magical ores, and herbs or magical plants.
This way, the humans will spend most of their attention on treasure hunting on those islands. This will decrease the attention the humans place on the other side of the continent.
After updating the world's landscape, Cedric finally reached the main menu.
He is going to add the dragons to the world.
First, he added approximately 20 dragons to the islands. He actually wanted to create them at Level 2, but Cedric somehow found himself unable to do so. No matter what he does, the dragon's level is stuck at Level 1.
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It seems the maximum level of creatures he can create is Level 1.
Cedric sighed as his plan to directly create an overpowered creature to annihilate all NE disasters has failed.
As they are immediately born at Peak Level 1, every dragon he creates costs him 0.5 GP each. But it isn't the end because the dragon he created is merely an empty shell.
Different from the animals and plants that have existed in the world where he can simply copy them with their soul included. The dragon he created requires a custom-made soul that can fit in the body and control it correctly.
Luckily, the System said it also provided the service to create custom souls.
[Do you wish to imbue soul into your creature?
Note 1: As the dragon's body contains a lot of special characteristics, the soul required to control the body is a bit complicated and may result in a cost increase.
Note 2: As the body has reached Peak Level 1, the soul required to control it has increased to Level 1, which will increase the costs.
Note 3: As the body has reached Peak Level 1, the soul's minimum potential is Peak Level 1, which will increase the cost.
Note 4: You may spend more GP to increase the maximum potential of the souls that are created. As you have reached world Level 2 and the maximum level of creatures in your world has reached Peak Level 4, you may grant potential up to Lower Level 2 to creatures you created.
Note 5: The exception for Note 4 is when you added the trait of hero to the creature, which will greatly raise the creature's potential, but also increase the cost at the same time. But as your world is unable to create a hero, you can just ignore this note. ]
After reading that long list of notes, Cedric asked, "How much do I need to spend to create a dragon soul with Peak Level 1 power and Lower Level 2 potential?"
[1.5 GP each]
"Then, what about Peak Level 1 dragon soul with Peak Level 1 potential?"
[1 GP each]
"What the hell? Why is it twice as expensive as creating a Peak Level 1 body?"
[There is a small extra fee. If you don't want to pay the fee, you better start learning how to create a soul. But the System doesn't recommend you to start experimenting with souls considering it can't be done inside the safety of your Divine Space and must either be done in the void, another high-level world that allows you to use your full power, or during the time your world leveled up. The first two places can kill you instantly, while the time your world advanced is too short for you to experiment on complicated knowledge like soul creation.]
"Alright then." Although Cedric feels the System's extra fee is definitely not small, he can only accept it. After all, as the System said, he doesn't have the means to experiment with souls yet.
After contemplation, Cedric gives all the dragons a Lower Level 2 potential. This means it costs him 2 GP for each Peak Level 1 dragon with Lower Level 2 potential.
In total, the 20 dragons have cost him 40 GP.
Compared to the 10.000 humans that cost 1.000 GP and the 10.000 Elves that cost 5.000 GP. It means 10.000 copies of dragons are going to cost him 20.000 GP.
Luckily, he created the dragon so that intermarriage to a certain degree won't cause negative effects. As long as it's not at the level of marrying siblings, or parents marrying their children, even relations between cousins won't cause much danger to the dragon's genes as long as they don't do that too often.
That means even with just 20 dragons, the dragon race can populate their race!
Nevertheless, 'isn't the difference between the dragon's cost and the cost of creating other races simply too much?'
[It's because the basic human, elves, and dwarves package you purchased consisted of Level 0 creatures with mostly Level 0 potential and only a few with Level 1 potential. Meanwhile, the dragon race you have just created consisted entirely of Peak Level 1 dragons with Lower Level 2 potentials. That's why their price greatly differs.]
"Ohhh.."
Cedric nodded and returned his sight to the mountains he had just created.
After seeing the mountains, Cedric decided to add dragons there too.
Before he created the dragon's body, Cedric asked the System, "How much will it cost me to create a soul for a Level 0 dragon with Lower Level 2 potential?"
[Depends on whether it's Lower Level 0 or Mid to Peak Level 0. If it's a Lower Level 0 soul with Lower Level 2 potential, that's gonna cost you 0.55 GP each. While Mid to Peak Level 0 with Lower Level 2 potential gonna cost you 0.75 GP each]
"Why is there such a massive difference between Lower Level 0 and the others, while there is no cost difference between Mid to Peak Level 0?"
[Lower Level 0 are mortals while Mid to Peak Level 0 already touched the supernatural. Regarding your dragon, Level 0 are basically those small dragons that can't use breaths, while any dragon with the ability to release breath must have at least Mid Level 0 soul, otherwise their soul won't be able to control their body.]
Cedric nodded in understanding before asking another question, "What if I created a supermassive dragon that's unable to use dragon breath. Can I fill that body with a Lower Level 0 soul?"
[If the size is too big, the soul strength required to control the body will also increase accordingly.]
"Is that so? Alright then."
Actually, Cedric can somehow feel what level the dragon's body that he just created is. And just like the System said, the bigger the dragon, the stronger their life level actually is.
What a pity, to create a massive dragon that's 100 meters long and can grow bigger accordingly would require a new design.
His current dragons usually start at 1 meter long and will quickly grow up to 3 meters long before slowly growing up to 5 meters long at Peak Level 0, 10 meters long at Level 1, and probably 20 meters long at Level 2.
Cedric proceeds to ask the System about the costs to create dragon souls of varying levels before he begins creating the dragons residing in the recently created mountain ranges.
The dragons consisted of 100 Peak Level 0 dragons, and 20 Peak Level 1 dragons.
Each Peak Level 0 dragon cost him 0.25 GP while each Peak Level 1 dragon cost him 0.5 GP.
In total, they cost 35 GP to create. Of course, that's just the cost for their body.
From his talk with the System, Cedric realized the cost for Mid Level 0 to Peak Level 0 actually didn't change. Same case with Lower Level 1 to Peak Level 1 whose cost also didn't change. So of course he's gonna give them Peak Level 0 and 1 souls respectively.
For the souls he purchased, the Level 0 dragons will all have the potential to reach Peak Level 1, while among the 20 Peak Level 1 dragons, ten of them have Peak Level 1 potential, while another ten have Lower Level 2 potential.
Each Level 0 dragon's soul with Peak Level 1 soul cost him 0.75 GP. While each Peak Level 1 dragon soul with Peak Level 1 potential costs him 1 GP each. As for Peak Level 1 dragon soul with Lower Level 2 potential, they cost him 1.5 GP each.
It means the cost of purchasing dragon souls totaled exactly 100 GP. Adding the 35 GP used to create the body, the total amount he spent to create 120 dragons in the mountain is 135 GP.
If it was before his world leveled up, Cedric might feel pained at such a massive expenditure and decrease the number of dragons he created.
But right now, his annual GP income has reached 6 GP per year. 135 GP can be regained in merely slightly more than 22 years!
'Is this how it felt to be rich and spending money without a care in the world?? What a pity, my gut feelings said my expenditure will greatly increase once everything is done.'' Cedric thought as he watched the dragons in the Crystal Cube open their eyes after their body and soul had merged completely.
As the island's dragons are the first batch being created, the first dragon to open its eyes in the Crystal Cube world is one of the dragons on the islands.
After opening its eyes, the dragon flew around the island in curiosity.
Its first instinct is to nibble on everything in its sight. From sands on the coast, to dirt, coconut trees, rocks, seawater, fishes, small animals growing on the island, or even its own poop. Luckily, at last, the island dragon finally decided on fish and small land animals as its main source of nutrients.
When Cedric saw how the dragon acted, he felt something was wrong.
After ruminating about it, he asked the System, "Hey, while creating their soul, did you also add some common sense to the dragons?"
[Yes, but only the most basic, instincts like common sense, like don't get injured, don't forget to breathe, and such.]
'No wonder the dragons are acting like they are a baby that's just born. Well, this is indeed correct though.'
'Anyway, I just hope they'll quickly choose their dragon king, level up to Lower Level 2, and grow up intellectually. Although their maximum intelligence is quite limited due to the limit of my ability while designing them.' Cedric sighed as he thought so.
Even after studying the brains of humans, elves, and dwarves, Cedric still failed to make the dragons to have a high intelligence. But at least, their intelligence is above common magical beasts.
In human terms, their intelligence can at most grow up to the level of a five year olds.
Now that he thinks about it, the process of selecting a dragon king is almost no different from a group of kindergarten kids that fought each other to select the leader of their playground and lead the other kids. It's just that groups of kids can fly and destroy a city if they fight hard enough.
After Cedric finished creating the dragons, he checked the remaining stability in his world.
[Stability: 57%
Note: Please stop intervening when your world's stability has reached 5%, as it might cause lasting damage to your world that'll continue even after the upgrade process has been completed.]
Cedric also checked the remaining times before his world completely advanced to Level 2.
When he saw there was still more than three days left, Cedric started his second plan.
It's a simple plan, which is to share one of the results from his hard work. To be more precise, he is going to share the training method he has created to the elves, humans, and dwarves.
He sent his mental power to the temple's headquarters in the Crystal Cube world. Upon seeing Lacius who was currently experimenting with the ant queen's body in his secret room while being surrounded by several ice elements blessed. Cedric sent a message to Lacius's [Basic System Screen].
[Here is a reward for killing the demon king.]
Lacius instantly paused his experiment upon seeing Cedric's message.
He seems to have something to talk about. But before he could say anything, Lacius saw several stone steles appear in an empty place near him.
On the stele, Lacius saw the familiar words he often saw on the screen. It's an unknown language that's unlike the human language, yet can be instantly understood.
With a casual glimpse, he realized all the stele contains training methods for various elements like earth, wind, water, fire, lightning, ice, etc.
Except for the training method for people with Divine Strength which has been stuck in the development stage since hundreds of years ago, the training method for every blessed power the humans has awakened has been added in the stele. Furthermore, all of them can be used to train until Peak Level 3.
The surrounding ice element blessed who is working to freeze and delay the ant queen's body from rooting, quickly panicked upon seeing several mysterious steles appear near them.
They all surrounded the stele while being tense and on guard. Occasionally, some of them would steal a glance at the stele.
When Lacius realized the ice element blessed had been surrounding the stele while being on guard, Lacius's mind quickly planned how he could use it for his profit.
'Right now, what I needed to decide first is whether to kill them and keep this reward as a secret or let them live' Lacius thought while glancing at the steles.
'Killing all of them would be a pity as ice element blessed are already quite rare, and those who could train until their level is even rarer. After all, the ice element training method requires the assistance of a cold place, which hasn't been found yet. Furthermore, killing them now will make it harder for me to seek assistance from other blessed during my research, at least until everyone forgets about it.'
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Lacius first thought of the aftermath from killing the ice element blessed to silence them, before guessing the benefit from letting them spread the news that he has obtained a reward from the creator.
'Once this group of ice element blessed exited this secret room. Most if not all of them will definitely spread the news about this stele containing training methods that can be used up to level 3. Those people seeking the path to a higher level will definitely try to get their hands on it. Luckily, I am strong enough to guard it. That means I can use this to my advantage.'
All this thought circulated inside Lacius's head within seconds. Finally, he finished calculating the advantages and disadvantages of both options.
With a gentle smile on his face, Lacius said to the surrounding blessed that was staring at the stele in curiosity. "It's a reward from the creator after I have killed the demon king. Those steles contain training methods for all blessed elements and can be used up to Level 3."
As the level division has been spread by Lacius a long time ago, all of the ice element blessed gasped in shock.
All of them who currently stood there is the strongest ice element blessed. Even so, the most powerful among them is merely at Upper Level 1. As for Level 2, those are the trump cards of every kingdom, and every kingdom holds the secret of the training method that allows them to reach Level 2 even tighter than a national secret. Those training methods are the result of the kingdom's endless resources with some secret help from the temple.
Furthermore, among the training methods that could reach Level 2, there is still no training method for ice elements.
As for Level 3, that is the level that has only been achieved by the legendary hero and founder of the great sun kingdom. Except for the legendary hero, only the gods have power surpassing Level 3.
Lacius ignored the ice element blessed's shock.
After he had explained the source of that stele, he immediately activated his blessed power and spent some of his faith energy to instantly create a hidden room below the current room. Then, he controlled his power to store all the steles except for the stele containing ice element training method into the newly constructed secret room.
For the ice element stele, he merely buried the part containing the training method to reach Level 3. Luckily, the training method for Level 3 is written in the lower part of the stele.
"All of you can observe this stele containing the training method for an ice element blessed to reach level 2. Count it as an additional reward for helping me with this task."
The surrounding blessed thanked Lacius with an excited face.
***
Inside the Divine Space, Cedric has long since moved his attention away from the temple.
Instead, he has moved his attention to the elf and dwarf's territory and left both of them with several steles just like the human's. But unlike the humans, only half of the stele contains training methods to reach Level 3, while the rest merely contains training methods to reach Level 2.
Although he has the training method to reach Level 3 for all training methods, Cedric wants the two races not to depend too much on the stele and learn to create their own advanced version of the training methods. Afterall, he couldn't help them create a training method forever.
For the dwarves, Cedric placed the stele right in front of the council's building.
When the dwarves who walked to and fro the building saw the stele appearing out of nowhere, all of them seemed shocked before staring at the stele in curiosity.
Meanwhile, the location for the elves required a bit of consideration, especially since there are a lot of places where many elves gathered.
Cedric spent a whole hour observing the elves before he decided to create the stele in a settlement where the current elf leader, a hundred years old female elf resides.
Unlike the dwarves who choose the member of their elder council from their forging ability, the elves selected their leader much more casually. For example, the current elf queen is selected from an art contest that's held after the previous elf king doesn't want to hold the title any longer.
Since the first elf king that Cedric has pulled to the Dream Space, the elves have elected four leaders, all of which have retired within decades.
Cedric controlled his mental power to hover around an open place in the middle of the elf queen's settlement, and moved his GP while willed it to turn into several steles containing inscriptions of training methods.
The elf who stayed around the open field saw the stele that suddenly appeared and surrounded it in curiosity.
Cedric saw one of the elves run toward the river where the current elf queen was busy sculpting a statue, probably to report the incident regarding the stele to her.
After sending all stele to the place he intended, Cedric saw his GP has only decreased by 1, while the stability in his world has decreased by 9%.
[Stability: 48%
Note: Please stop intervening when your world's stability has reached 5%, as it might cause lasting damage to your world that'll continue even after the upgrade process has been completed.]
While thinking of his next move, the System appeared and reminded him.
[Don't forget to increase the mana density of your world. It's extremely important as higher mana density allows the creatures inside to increase their level at higher efficiency.]
Cedric nodded, "How much mana should I send to the world?"
[Your world already contains 1.000 GP worth of mana, so you should be able to add another 1.000 GP worth of mana.]
Cedric recalled the time he sent mana to the world and asked the System, "Should I send 100 GP worth of mana every year for 10 years like before?"
[There is no need. The creatures in your world are already accustomed to mana. A simple double in density won't affect them by much.]
"Alright," Cedric replied while trying to recall the feeling of spreading mana to his world.
Once he remembered it, he immediately got into action and created 1.000 GP's worth of mana in the world.
Unlike the previous actions, spreading 1.000 GP of mana didn't decrease his stability at all. Or perhaps it indeed decreased, but the decrease is less than 1 percent which isn't shown in the stability panel.
Once the mana has spread inside his world, Cedric started another part of his plan, which is to send some demons to the elves and dwarves.
For the Dwarves, Cedric has prepared the ant queen and its colony as their adversary.
He sent his mental power to observe the newly hatched ant queen's new colony to search for the current ant queen.
'Wait a moment, how do I send the ant queen to the dwarves?'
Cedric paused while scratching his head, 'Should I herd it with meteors? Or summon earths that fill their tunnels and force them to dig a tunnel until the ant colony reaches the dwarf's territory? But all of that will require a lot of GP. Or perhaps I should send a clone to the world and herd the ant colony myself?'
[You can try to envelop the ant queen and some male ants with your mental power and will it to transform into telekinetic power to pick them up.]
"Okay, let me try it."
Cedric followed the System's guide and enveloped the newly born Level 2 ant queen and a few male ants with his mental power.
Next, Cedric spent some GP to add a telekinetic force with the intent of grabbing the ant queen and male ants.
Soon, he felt a sensation akin to grabbing something from his mental power. He also sensed the ant queen and male ants resisting the telekinetic force he created, but their resistance is futile.
With the ant queen and male ants entirely enveloped inside his telekinetic force, Cedric tried to grab them as lightly as he can. He is afraid they might be squished to death from the telekinetic force he created.
Instead, he separated a part of his mental power and created the same telekinetic force to open a tunnel that led to the surface.
That telekinetic force soon opened a straight vertical tunnel from the ant queen's cave, which Cedric used to transport the ant queen upwards.
Once the ant queen had been brought to the surface, Cedric's telekinetic force didn't stop and brought the ant queen and some male ants higher toward the sky.
Then, he moved the telekinetic force toward the place he had decided, a mountain located near a dwarf city.
While transferring the ant queen, Cedric also used the same telekinetic force to block the wind and make sure the ant queen doesn't die from wind pressure.
After sending the ants, Cedric also sent a few Level 1 and Level 2 demons near the elven forest.
Once he was done, Cedric saw his GP had decreased by 20 and the world's stability had decreased by 12 percent.
[Stability: 36%
Note: Please stop intervening when your world's stability has reached 5%, as it might cause lasting damage to your world that'll continue even after the upgrade process has been completed.]
After doing so many things, Cedric finally kinda gets the gist of how his world's stability decreased.
It's actually not affected by the amount of GP that he spent. Instead, it's more affected by why he spent his GP and what kind of effect it brings.
Things like spreading knowledge seem to greatly decrease the world's stability, as just a few steles with some training methods written on it is enough to cause massive decrease in stability.
Meanwhile, creating things and species for the sake of expanding the world also decrease the stability but not as much as spreading knoweldge.
He just doesn't understand how moving the ant queen with telekinesis costs that much stability.
Also, why does creating 1.000 GP of mana at once barely affect the world's stability.
'Is it because mana is the special energy in my world? Or is it because of other unknown factors?'
"What do you think of my analysis?" Suddenly, Cedric tried his luck and asked the System. After all, he has asked things about world stability before, but the System ignored his inquiry.
[Do you wish to spend 10 GP to verify your guess?]
'The System finally responded! Also, damn it, this thing is starting to ask for money to answer every little question. What a greedy capitalist.' Cedric grumbled while replying to the System, "Yes."
[Your guess is mostly correct.]
'Mostly correct…' Cedric rubbed his chin, "Which guess is the wrong one?"
[Do you wish to spend 1.000 GP for the answer?]
"No!" Cedric shook his head, "It's not like understanding how my world's stability works is important for now."
After that short talk, Cedric saw there are still around three days remaining before his world finished advancing. So, he does a brief check on everything he has created to make sure nothing goes wrong.
Once he is certain things has proceeded smoothly, Cedric finally started the last thing in his to do list, creating clone to experience the world directly.
It's the System's suggested way so he can create a bond with the creature in the Crystal Cube world and stop thinking of them as an actor in a drama or an NPC in a game.
Before creating his clone in the world, Cedric asked the System a few questions.
"How much of my world's stability and GP will be decreased when I create a clone?"
[A human, elf, or dwarf clone with Lower Level 0 power will cost you 1 GP to create. As long as you didn't talk nor transmit too much information through sign language, body language, and similar things. It will cost you approximately 1 percent stability per day to stay in the world. But, I doubt you can stop your body from accidentally revealing things, so you better think of the cost as 1.5% stability per day for every clone.]
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[By the way, you can control more than 1 clone at once and experience several lives at once in the world. The maximum amount of clones you can control at once depends on the number of creatures you can possess with your mental power. It's also the most time-efficient way to experience the world within a limited time.]
Cedric nodded, 'During my dragon crafting experiment, I found I can control hundreds of clones at once, so the limit isn't a problem.'
He also checked the time remaining before his world advanced, 'There's still slightly less than 3 days left. That means, every clone will cost me 4.5 percent stability. Actually, let's just round it up to 5 just in case.'
'I still have 36 percent stability. That means I can create 6 clones and still have 6 percent stability remaining.'
Cedric felt that 6 percent is too close to the dangerous bottom line which is 5 percent. So, he decided to just send 5 clones to the world.
As for the location, Cedric spent an hour to briefly glimpse through the situation in the world before deciding to send 1 clone to the human territory, and 2 two the elf and dwarf respectively.
Among the two clones that he sent to the dwarf and elf territory. One of them will be responsible for teaching the elf and dwarf how to use the training method engraved on the stele he sent. While the other clone will be in charge of experiencing life.
For that reason, Cedric decided to create the clone that's in charge of teaching directly next to the stele and also added some effect to their entrance. As for the clone in charge of experiencing life, it will be created in a deserted place inside or nearby the respective race's settlement.
***
Inside the Crystal Cube world.
The elven forest is still as calm as ever. But amidst the calm forest, two elves can be seen running toward a settlement filled with tree houses.
The elf queen who had just received the news about a weird stele appearing in the village, quickly ran with the messenger to check it herself.
Soon, she arrived in the village and saw the stele that's mentioned. Around it, many elves has been staring at the stele in amazements, curiosity, and confusion.
On the stele, many weird thing is engraved. But the weirdest thing is how the elf queen feels she can understand what's drawn on the stele.
"Level 2 water element training method." The elf queen muttered while staring at a slightly bigger engraving in confusion.
She checked the smaller engraving below it and realized she could understand them too.
Its mentioned things like energy, nodes, energy circulation path, and many complicated things the elf queen shouldn't even understand.
But thanks to the weird engraving, she can still understand what it means. For example, when she stare at the engraving that's called 'nodes', she understood that it means 'an important point'. Or when it say 'pass the energy from x node to y node', she got the gist about which part on her body is the x node and which part is the y node.'
Once the elf queen saw there is no danger from the stele, her curiosity is piqued and she joined the other elves that's staring or discussing about the stele.
Amidst the discussion, some elf suddenly shouted, which pulled the attention of the other elves.
When the elf queen saw the place where the elves are looking, she saw a vortex appears and sucks the surrounding air and fallen leaves. Inside the vortex, the vague figure of an elf is slowly formed.
Once the elf has been formed and everyone can occasionally catch a glimpse of his face amidst the floating leaves, the vortex subsided and that unknown male elf walked towards her.
"Greetings, current queen of elves."
"Greetings" The elf queen replied with courtesy. After all, it's the elven tradition to reply to those who greeted them.
After she finished her greeting, the elf queen immediately started her bombardment of questions. "Who are you? I've never seen you around before. Why did you suddenly come here? Did you suddenly appear from the vortex? Is that your power?"
Cedric listened to the elf queen's barrage of questions while feeling a bit speechless.
He already knew that the current elf queen was pretty chatty and active compared to the average elves, which is the exact opposite of the first elf king who preferred to sleep all day. But, he never knew she would immediately spam him with questions.
As it's been a long time since he converses face to face with other creatures, Cedric spent a moment to readapt before replying to the elf queen's questions.
"Most of those who know me call me the creator. I am the creator of this world and also everything inside, including the elves. I came here to explain several things about the stele I have just sent."
The elf queen felt dumbfounded and looked at Cedric's clone in confusion. She seemed to have many questions, but before she could ask any, Cedric spoke once more.
"Let's immediately get to the point. The time I have is pretty limited. I will answer any related question you have, but I apologize as I must ignore questions unrelated to the stele."
Once he saw all elves had gathered their attention on him, Cedric continued, "On this stele, something called training methods is written. The training method is a way for blessed to increase their power."
The elf queen woke up from her daze and asked, "What is a blessed?"
"Blessed is what some people call those with supernatural power. Meanwhile, those supernatural powers are often called blessings."
The elf queen nodded while still wearing a slightly confused look.
Cedric didn't have a mind-reading ability, so he ignored the elf queen's confused expression and simply continued to share the information he intended.
It's basically about what training methods are, how to use them, which training method to use based on their blessed power, and how to differentiate their levels.
Finally, Cedric recalled something and added, "The elven race's tribulation will soon arrive, and the training method written on this stele will be a key for the elf to survive. I hope you can spread it to the elves in other settlements and increase the power of your race. That way, once the demons arrive in your forest, no elf will be harmed."
Once he finished talking, Cedric saw several elves ask their questions.
"What does tribulation mean? Is it dangerous?"
"Are we in danger? Why do we need to learn the training method to survive?"
"What is a demon, and why would they harm us?"
Those questions are akin to a leak in a dam as more and more elves asked their own questions.
Cedric patiently answered most of the questions the elves asked, while ignoring a few unrelated questions or the questions that's a repeat from other questions.
***
Meanwhile, in the dwarf's territory.
Except for the fact that he clone is of the dwarven race and the fact that they often asked questions about metallurgy, which is unrelated to the topic. The situation is pretty much similar to the one happening in the elf's territory.
It's just that, unlike the elves who asked questions calmly and filled with grace. The clone that Cedric created next to the stele in front of the dwarf council building is currently having a headache.
Those dwarves asked their questions all at once. Which when coupled with their loud voices and spit that accompanied their speech, made Cedric slowly ran out of patience.
If he didn't know that it's just how the dwarf usually talked. Cedric would've sent a telekinetic nuke toward the surrounding dwarves and flattened them all into the ground that they loved very much.
While Cedric's clone explained the concept of training methods to the two races.
Inside the Divine Space, Cedric saw the world's stability decrease considerably.
When he saw that 6 percent had decreased within an hour, he knew this unplanned spending happened because the clones were giving explanations to the dwarf and elf.
Considering his plan and the sudden extra expenditure, Cedric decided to disperse the two clones to save his world's stability.
Of course he didn't turn the clones into some R rated sight filled with blood and flesh. Instead, he controlled the clone to bid their farewell, and literally dispersed them into mists that instantly dissipated into the air.
Without the two clones to distract him, Cedric closed his eyes and refocused his full attention on the three remaining clones.
The dwarf clone he created has been placed inside an empty alley in the dwarf's newly constructed city.
It's a city located on the foot of a mountain quite a distance from the dwarf's magic mountain where their capital city stood.
As a new city, many new dwarfs often arrived in it. That's why Cedric directly created the clone inside. An unknown new dwarf won't cause anyone to feel surprised in the city, as they'll just assume he is a dwarf that has just recently arrived.
Currently, he is drinking in a bar while chatting with the surrounding dwarf.
Honestly, Cedric is curious when the dwarf finds a winemaking technology, but he is too busy to check it.
Inside the bar, all of the dwarves mainly talked about who has found a new ore, what kind of metal has been crafted recently, or about some dwarf who has found an ore vein.
Being absorbed by the jolly mood, Cedric joined the dwarves next to him who talked about creating new explosives.
He even accidentally introduced the concept of cannon and guns.
When he saw the surrounding dwarf's eyes glisten and some of the patrons even left the bar, Cedric got a bad feeling.
'This… nothing will go wrong, right? It's just a gun and cannon. Furthermore, the new ant queen is preparing for its invasion. So, having canon and guns will help the dwarves. Probably?'
While Cedric felt a bit troubled due to the word he accidentally said to the dwarves. On the elf's territory, the Elf clone he created next to an elven settlement has finally arrived in the village.
His identity for this clone is an elf that likes to travel.
To make the disguise even more perfect, Cedric has also created a bag filled with unique clothing and a few clay pots filled with interesting things.
As for food, the elves never lacked it because there were simply too many edible plants in the elven forest. This is why, if an elf traveled with food reserves, it'll make them suspicious instead.
When Cedric arrived at the village, he found several elves calmly tending to their plants or baking pottery in the settlement's kiln.
They all saw Cedric entering the village, and one of them walked toward him, "Hello, my name is Vilina. May I ask who you are? I've never seen you around here."
Cedric looked at the golden-haired elf in front of him and smiled, "Hello miss Vilina, you may call me Cedric. I like to travel around and have just arrived in this area, which is why you have never seen me around before."
Although elves have androgynous appearance that made it quite difficult for others to differentiate their gender. But Cedric has seen the elves long enough and has even thoroughly studied the race. He needs but a glance to determine the elf in front of him is a female.
After some chat, which mostly consisted of Vilina talking and Cedric nodding or shaking his head. Cedric and Vilina became much closer and he started experiencing the life of the elves.
Just like what he saw through his mental power while in the Divine Space, most elf's daily life consisted of crafting, picking fruits, chatting, sleeping, and courting elves of the opposite gender.
Even so, the feeling of simply watching from the Divine Space is incomparable to directly experiencing the situation. Unlike when he looked down on the Crystal Cube world from Divine Space, Cedric can feel the Vilina standing next to him is truly alive and has her own emotions.
Cedric's elven clone spent the next three days mostly together with Vilina before bidding her his farewell.
When he said he was leaving, Vilina asked with a sad voice, "Are you leaving already?"
"Yeah. I usually don't stay in one place for too long."
Vilina fell silent before asking with some hesitation in her voice, "Can I follow you?"
Cedric immediately shook his head, "No."
Hearing his reply, Vilia dejectedly walked into her home.
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Cedric looked at the leaving Vilia and returned to his temporary house to prepare for his leave.
While he was preparing, Vilia arrived at his house with some clay pots in her hand. Cedric looked inside the pot and found it filled with fruit jam.
"This is my secret fruit jam that you liked. Remember to finish it within a week, otherwise it'll go bad."
Cedric looked at the pot filled with jam and fell silent before muttering, "Thank you."
Once he finished preparing, Cedric left the elf village where he stayed for close to three days.
Turning his head, Cedric can see Vilia waving her hand at him. "Don't forget to visit the village whenever you are close by!"
Cedric nodded at Vilina and walked away from the village.
Once he was far enough from the elf village, Cedric sighed, "I am sure I made this clone to have an average elven face. Who knows how I somehow charmed an elf within three days."
Leaving that word, Cedric's clone disappeared with his bag, and the pot filled with fruit jam.
Meanwhile, at the same time Cedric's elf clone is created, his human clone has also arrived inside an empty alley in Silver Hope City.
He decided on the city simply because he wanted to hear people talking about his greatness after he finished showing off.
Because of the city's size, the amount of people inside is quite considerable. Furthermore, there are villages in the surrounding areas that used the city as a trading hub to trade their harvest for daily necessities.
That means it's normal for the people in the city to find people with unfamiliar faces.
The human clone Cedric created has brown hair and dark colored iris which are the most common colors in the world.
He also created plenty of coins to purchase his necessities. The clothes he wore consisted of noble clothing that's currently trending in the Sacred Kingdom. This way, he can introduce himself as the descendant of a noble from the Sacred Kingdom.
Instead of his normal face, Cedric gave the clone an above-average face. The kind that can charm all the ladies and widows in a village.
This also mirrored the old noble family in the Sacred Kingdom who has taken beautiful mistress or whatever the male equivalent of mistress is, for generations.
This caused the old noble family from the Sacred Kingdom and Great Sun Kingdom to have face value above the average commoners.
Once Cedric placed his mental power inside his clone and possessed the body. He looked around the place and walked in the direction where some noises could be heard.
After taking three turns, Cedric finally saw a spacious road with stores and stalls filling both sides of the road.
In front of the stalls and stores, many pedestrians pass by the road that has recently been decorated with flowers, flags, statues, and other decorations.
Among those decorations, there are many copies of the creator's statues and flags with praises to the creator written on them.
Sometimes, people will pause and gather around a bard that sings praise to the creator god.
Cedric who had just taken all those sights opened his mouth agape, 'I know I am the one who tried to show off. But, isn't the people's reaction too great? I thought they'd at most discuss about the mountains or something.'
'By the scale of things, they're probably preparing a full-scale festival.' Cedric thought while observing some people wearing priest robes placing more decorations on the already heavily decorated road.
As he thought of the festival, Cedric recalled something and quickly ran while looking at the buildings around the street.
When he saw an inn, Cedric stopped and entered it.
The moment he entered, Cedric saw the staff inside were busy entertaining guests or doing some cleaning.
Seeing the inn's dining area is only half full, Cedric breathed a sigh of relief.
'This should mean the inn isn't full yet and I can purchase a room here. It'll be embarrassing if I need to sleep in the street on my first visit to my own world.'
A few minutes after Cedric sat down, one of the staff finally came toward him while apologizing, "We are sorry for the inconvenience. The other inn staff are busy repairing and cleaning the inn to prepare for the festival. So, we're extremely short-staffed."
"What kind of festival is it?" Cedric asked with curiosity plastered on his face.
"It's a month-long festival to praise the creator for the miracle they have just created near the city."
"A month-long festival?" Cedric asked while feeling a bit dumbfounded.
The staff smiled, "The head priestess of the Silver Hope City's temple branch, the city lord of Silver Hope City, and the other nobles have already spread the news of the creator's miracle to the capital city and the temple headquarters. Once the news has been spread, many people will visit the city to observe the creator's miracle. So, the festival is held for a month straight because many people are located far away from the city."
Cedric nodded, "I'll purchase your best room for three nights. Also, bring your best dishes and drink for me."
"Usually it'll only cost 1 gold coin per night for our best room. But as the festival draw nears, the innkeeper has doubled the price to 2 gold coins per night. Is it alright for you?" The staff said while smiling apologetically.
Cedric nodded.
"3-day stay and our best menu will cost 6 gold coins and 2 silver coins."
Cedric gave the staff several coins minted with the kingdom's current king's face.
The staff took the coins and bowed while asking, "Do you want me to bring the food to your room?"
Cedric shook his head, "I'd like to eat here."
The staff nodded before running toward the back area of the inn.
Soon, the staff returned with the dishes Cedric ordered.
While the inn staff served his meal, Cedric asked, "When will the first day of the festival begin?"
"It'll probably start when the nearest important guest from the capital city arrives. In total, around six days if the time to send the message is also included."
"What a pity" Cedric murmured.
He can only stay in the world for three days at most. That means he'll miss the chance to see the festival in person.
Cedric looked at the dishes in front of him which consisted of barbecued meat, a bowl of unknown soup, stir-fried vegetables, white bread, and an unknown juice created from mixing several fruits.
He took a bite from the beef and sighed.
'It's a bit too bland, there is only some salt, paper, and something like soy sauce in it. That soy sauce is probably the result of Yuma and other's hard work. Perhaps I need to create more spice plants next."
Then Cedric recalled some plants can be used as spices amongst the plants that the System initially created.
'It seems the people here simply haven't learned to process those plants into spices. Perhaps I'll need to kidna- transfer a chef the next time I summoned a hero for the humans.'
After tasting the barbecued meat, Cedric switched his target to the unknown soup.
Unlike the barbecue which feels a bit bland, the unknown soup contained a lot of ingredients to the point Cedric couldn't even guess what was placed inside from the taste alone.
While sipping the unknown soup, Cedric suddenly recalled how the people in the Crystal Cube world usually ate their soup.
He paused and tore a part of the white bread, dipped it inside the soup, and ate the bread while sipping the soup.
As for the stir-fried vegetable, it tasted like normal vegetables.
Finally, Cedric took a sip of the mixed fruit juice and nodded.
'This fruit tasted alright. It's a mix of sweet and sour. To be more specific, this mixed fruit juice kinda feels like a mix of strawberry, lychee, and dragon fruit.'
While eating his food, Cedric listened to the surrounding chatter. Most people talked about the festival that'll be held, while some are talking about random gossip.
Once he finished eating, Cedric entered his room under the guidance of the inn staff.