Dimension System - Chapter 96

I returned to my spatial world after what had seemed like ages. All of the running around had kept me so busy. Even with two more of me, I still felt like there was a lot of things that we needed to take care of. There wasn’t quite as much expansion as last time but the world felt different somehow. I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it was though.

Walking over to the central research building and speaking with senior Lee cleared things up. Apparently the world had been undergoing a qualitative change. Rudimentary weather patterns had emerged, which added another layer of realism to the spatial world. Before, there had only been a light breeze that occasionally kicked up. He explained that the addition of an ocean had changed that over the last few days.

Small clouds had begun to form one afternoon, stretching and shaping to occupy the otherwise clear sky during the day. At night the clouds seemed to dissipate, revealing a night sky that was also no longer empty. A few small and distant looking stars had appeared, causing the previously synthetic looking black void to take on a softer, gentler, and more life-like appearance.

Shocked by the changes, the citizens started to work with the scientists and researchers to construct basic telescopic devices. Some people were captivated by the stars and took to studying and charting out the astronomical movements of our new celestial additions. Finally, one night saw the creation of a moon that simply phased into existence. It caused quite a reaction due to it’s impact on the ocean.

The previously still ocean had undulated with a great heave, as the newly formed moon created a tidal pattern. It was the final piece that tied together the gravity from the Undying Heart (which had formed into a sun) and the rotational force of the spatial planet itself. Further talks with senior Lee revealed that the new weather patterns were varied but lacked intensity.

Rain came but it was only occasional sprinkles and drizzles. Winds picked up and shifted but never enough to cause any serious damage. Even an earthquake had occurred but it was so minor that most people didn’t even feel it happening. I asked him to keep an eye of the weather patterns for any additional developments before turning the conversation to the citizen’s welfare.

He answered me that the people were happy and content, if somewhat bored as well. Even though the spatial world was idyllic some people had wanted to go out and travel the world. I assured him that we’d soon be creating an empire of our own in the real world. Somewhere where we’d construct an anchor portal allowing travel between the two. However, such a spot had to be chosen carefully and couldn’t be rushed.

Thanking senior Lee for keeping me updated, I moved on to visit my parents house. I wanted to make sure that they were doing alright. By the time I’d gotten close to the house I could already smell something delicious cooking. Pushing through the door, I entered just as the table was being set with a roast chicken dinner.

Eager to see me, my mom didn’t hesitate to serve me up a plate that was piled high with plenty of chicken and vegetables. She insisted that I eat the entire thing, while asking if I’d been getting enough to eat lately. I suppose that a mother will always worry about her child when she cares. I had no reason to decline, so I joined them for dinner and made sure everything was going alright for them.

My father had praised me for finally getting in some beautiful fish that were challenging to catch. I asked him about that and confirmed that he was referring to the ocean fish. Mom chimed in and told me that he’d gathered up some of the villagers for a fishing expedition recently. He was visibly embarrassed when she mentioned how excited he was to be elected captain of their small fishing crew.

I was glad to see that they were both doing alright inside the spatial world. I could sense that a great weight was lifted off of their consciences, even if they didn’t mention it to me. I’d figured that no longer having to be on the run had finally allowed them to actually relax for once. Someday, we’d return to ancestral family lands and right the wrongs that had been acted out against us. For now though, I was just happy that they were safe and sound.

After dinner we enjoyed a nice relaxing glass of beer for old times sake. My parents had a hearty laugh at my expense, lamenting that it seemed like only yesterday when I’d been unable to hold my alcohol. For a moment I saw sadness in their eyes, however, it was quickly replaced by enthusiasm as they told me how proud they were of me.

“Your sure that’s not the alcohol talking?”

Everyone had another rousing bit of laughter and I felt some of my recent loneliness melt away. Damn, it was nice to be back with my family, even if it was only for an evening meal. After a bit more teasing and laughing, they finally let me go to check on the rest of the spatial world. Wandering for a bit, I finally came upon the animal pens that housed our creatures.

Now that I’d stockpiled quite a few of the upgrade points, I wanted to experiment with some of their features. One of them had mentioned that I could upgrade creature’s levels, however, I had no idea what that did or what it implied. An upgrade couldn’t be bad, right? I decided to try it out on one of the more common animals that we used almost every day.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Big Horn cattle

Type: Bovine,Livestock

Rating: Level 3

Description: Big Horn cattle are gentle giants that have been domesticated on Norantal for generations. The eponymous large horns are used by the males for competition. They are able to provide both milk and wool, resulting in them being a staple on many farms and ranches. Rumored to have an ancient lineage from a mighty eight legged horse.]

The Big Horn cattle were one of the first creatures that I absorbed off the family farm. With the system’s help, we’d bred them into very large numbers. Beef could be used in many different recipes, not to mention that the milk could also be manipulated into several other products. I activated the system and upgraded the Big Horn cattle.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Big Horn cattle (Wagyu variant)

Type: Bovine,Livestock

Rating: Level 4

Description: Big Horn cattle of the Wagyu variant is prized for it’s extremely valuable meat. The meat is recognized for it’s flavor, tenderness, and fatty, well-marbled texture. The horns on these cattle are slightly smaller than usual due to it’s variant status. Another key difference is the extra set of front legs, believed to be caused by the resurgence of it’s vestigial ancestors DNA.]

It seemed that the upgrade points would awaken the latent ability of creatures when used to upgrade them. The system would bring them one step closer to a sort of primal proto-species. With enough upgrades it may even restore them back to the powerful ancestors that spawned them. When I attempted to upgrade the variant again, the system prompted me that the variant would need time to breed and stabilize it’s DNA.

Curious as to the effects on alcohol, I brought out a barrel of Sake brewed by the system. It was time to see how the upgrades would affect something without any DNA. Without anything primal to revert back to, which direction would it go? What would it do? Ah well, let’s take one last look at it before we experiment.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Sake

Type: Liquor

Rating: Level 3

Description: An alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting rice. The unique brewing process converts starch into sugars, instead of using sugars naturally present in fruit. The water used during production must be closely monitored, as chemicals contained within can drastically affect the quality of the product.]

Alright, let’s do it! For science!

[Material analyzed:

Name: Sake (Junmai Daiginj-shu)

Type: Liquor

Rating: Level 4

Description: This category of Sake is referred to as ‘Pure rice, Very Special brew’. Only the highest quality rice grains are used in it’s production. They are hand-selected and rigorously polished down in a very labor intensive manner. No fillers or distilled alcohol are used in the production, resulting in a premium product that stands proudly above others like it.]

Ah, it seemed that the upgrade points operated more simply for alcohol. It seemed that the system upgraded them premium or top-tier versions when an upgrade was applied. I surmised that it would upgrade whiskey into scotch, brandy into cognac, sparkling wine into champagne, and so forth. I could see that it was definitely going to be a lot more posh once we started getting more upgrades rolling in.

Next up was the random option. It said that the points could be used to obtain something random from across the universe. I shuddered at the thought of some alien poop-flavored crop or alcohol. Let’s try the creature category first and go from there. I cautiously selected it, hoping that I wasn’t about to spawn some kind of massive world-eating monstrosity.

What I got turned out to be a strange creature made of crystals and rock. The massive creature slowly unfurled it’s crystalline body, as it appeared to stretch itself out. It tried to communicate with me but the only thing that came out was a series of grinding noises that were incomprehensible to me. Hopefully, the system prompt would provide more information on what this thing was.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Kry’salthar

Type: Silicon-based life-form

Rating: Level 23

Description: Hailing from a distant star-system many thousands of light-years away, these crystalline life-forms grow to a size of around 33 feet (10 meters). Peaceful in nature, they’re known as staunch defenders of the crystal tree forests they reside in. Gathering energy through photosynthesis, they grow until maturity, before dividing themselves into two via a process similar to binary fission.]

Sensing the futility in attempting to communicate verbally with an alien life-form, the creature reached out one it’s large crystal claws and gently placed it onto my forehead. I could almost swear that the creature had emitted some kind of frustrated sigh at my inability to understand it’s language.

[The Kry’salthar is attempting to use it’s empath ability to share memories.]

[Allow the connection?]

[Y/N]

Confirming with the system that it was a one-way link, I allowed the strange alien to share it’s memory with me. The world around me faded to a blank white and was soon replaced with what could only be an alien laboratory. Instruments whizzed and whirred throughout and several of them were actually suspended in the air.

An alarm rang out, indicating some kind of an attack, while I simultaneously felt the creature’s frustration that erupted in waves. ‘How could they attack when I’m so close to a major breakthrough? If these heathens damage the machinery it will result in a total collapse of the dark matter contained within.’

Explosions rocked the entire room, as the thick crystal blocking the entrance was blown entirely to smithereens. Several creepy looking insectoid aliens had broken in and proceeded to start wildly firing off their laser guns, killing several guards in the process and bringing the heated battle directly into the top secret research room.

One of the laser blasts hit the central containment center, causing a breach in the delicate containment chamber. I could feel the complicated and mixed emotions of the creature as it resigned itself to fate. It threw it’s hands up in an incredulous manner, as if to say ‘I hope you’re happy now’

The containment chamber collapsed inward on itself, as a small pinhole of inky blackness instantly and indiscriminately sucked in all of the surrounding matter. A black hole had formed, destroying the laboratory, the entire planet, and even dragging in the attacking fleet that was invading. An eerie quietness settled over the now empty space, with anything inside the event horizon becoming trapped forever.

Eventually, the creature awoke from the darkness and saw a tiny carbon-based life-form standing before it. At that point the memory link broke away, returning me to my present position. Somehow, I’d have to find a way to communicate with these aliens. They were obviously quite technologically advanced, having long since mastered faster-than-light travel.

For now, the creature planted itself into the middle of nearby forest clearing, seemingly content to soak up the rays of the sun. I left the strange alien to it’s sun bathing, while I continued experimenting with the random option. It was time to see what a random crop would get me! Crossing my fingers, I made the selection.

What appeared before me seemed to be some kind of thin, flat, flower. A green stalk with two leaves went up into an orange flower bulb that was adorned with two eyes. It was extremely strange, as it appeared to only be visible from two directions. I circled around the flower and confirmed that it was totally flat on two sides.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Flamma Flos

Type: Plant

Rating: Level 3

Description: Flamma Flos is a flower that comes from the second dimension. This two dimensional flower is capable of granting a temporary ability to project flames. The ability is lost upon contact with another being. This flower is the national flower of the Fungi kingdom in the second dimension.]

Mama mia! No wonder this thing looked so familiar. This flower would probably be worth a fortune to any fire mages that I came across. It would probably help them comprehend the nature the nature of fires laws or some other kind of rubbish. Either way, I had to admit that it looked pretty cool!

These random draws were producing some very interesting items. I guess one more couldn’t hurt. Let’s try the alcohol for the final experiment today. Hopefully it wasn’t something gross like fermented ear wax. Bracing myself for the unknown, I activated the system and selected a random alcohol draw. A primitive looking cup was summoned forth.

It appeared to be made from the hollowed out skull of something that was vaguely humanoid, except that there were three sets of eye sockets and the teeth were definitely designed for eating meat. A thick purple liquid was contained inside and bubbles occasionally rose lazily to the surface before popping. I tried to get closer, hoping to inspect the contents, only to be assaulted by the foulest smell I’d ever come across.

Sulfuric and fiery, the stench smelled like a hundred rotten eggs mixed with an entire farm’s worth of manure. I absorbed the foul concoction immediately but the damage had already been done. My entire body retched in pure revulsion, causing me to vomit several times in quick succession, before dry heaving on the ground with tears streaming down my face. Several minutes later, I checked the system log for more information.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Kelthax wine

Type: Liquor

Rating: Level 10

Description: Kelthax wine is brewed by the S’zark tribe of the Gamma-Theta-337 star system. The wine is considered sacred to their culture and is consumed during their rite of passage ritual into adulthood. It’s brewed from a highly volatile mixture of poisonous and toxic plants. They purport that the wine provides a spiritual journey, however, it’s consumption actually causes intense hallucinations for twenty four hours.]

After the last experience, I decided to halt the experimentation for now. I don’t care how high that stuff gets you, I wasn’t touching it with a ten foot pole! Rinsing my mouth out with some spatial water allowed me to cleanse my palette. Once my nasal cavity stopped burning, I went to check out a few of the newer areas that had appeared.

The sand collected from the Rangers had been formed into a very small desert that I’d previously skipped over. It was tiny and barren the last time I’d visited but now there were a few people working the space. Taking initiative, several citizens had been grafting the Vampire Cacti with other fruits and vegetables. This would allow us to convert any desert space into additional farmland, albeit one that had to be tended manually.

Extra crops could be put into the production of secondary materials. For example, I could have the system extract the fructose into a sugar-like substitute. Any leftover waste could be fed directly to the animals, who would be happy to have an extra snack or two. It didn’t take too long to explore the desert, as the area was still quite small and didn’t have much else going on at the moment.

Moving on from there, I proceeded to the new ocean biome that had been recently added. A sizable amount of ocean water had filled the outermost areas, creating a ring around the entire central landmass. I guess that meant we were technically on a giant island now? Well, that would be assuming that anything around here actually stayed in the same place for any length of time.

Diving into the clear, salty water was refreshing. Several schools of fish had already begun to populate the surrounding water. I think I even saw a shark or two in there! A beautiful coral reef gave the ocean a tropical feel and scenic charm. There were even a few pieces of kelp in there, that I could almost swear were growing at a visible rate. I looked forward to the day they were ready for harvest!

Sushi was going to be added to the menu, it was only a matter of time now. Now that I’d settled a few things in the spatial world, it was time to head back to the spatial mages. I’d check back in again after a few days.