HELP!
In the middle of the great woods, stood the biggest hill in the world, on top of it, and in the Ledger village of the Eastern tribe, a couple of houses woke up to a scream reverberating through the quiet night.
“Is this Elizabeth giving birth?” Jacob wondered aloud, as he got off his bed.
“This is definitely Liz giving birth. Go get the doctor, I’ll go and help the midwife.” His wife, Emma, told him as she covered herself with the blanket. “And don’t forget to inform father as well, on your way back.” Added Emma as they got out of their house.
She rushed over to the house next door and barged in without a second thought, after all, it was her sister’s house. She ran straight to the master bedroom where she saw the midwife helping her sister to set. “Help me move her to the water tub, I have already heated it.” Said the midwife as she pointed to a small tub full of warm water in a corner of the room. Next to the tub was a table with some clean cloth on it, a pair of scissors, a couple of clean knives, and the happy old circumcision tools; just in case the newborn is a boy.
…
Bam-bam-bam.
Jacob bounded on a door while panting, he was tired after running all the way here. The door opened faster than normal, as it seemed that the residents were used to this kind of rude awakening in the middle of the night.
“Is it Aunt Elizabeth?” asked a young boy, as he saw Jacob.
“Yes, she is giving birth, please inform your grandmother. I’ll be on my way first.” Said Jacob as he bolted away, this time, towards the other end of the village, opposite to his house. After five minutes of running, he reached a small house on the outskirts of the village
BAM-BAM-BAM!
“OLD MAN, YOUR DAUGHTER IS GIVING BIRTH!” he shouted as he bounded onto the house’s window almost breaking it.
“Fuck, why don’t you go and tell the neighbors in their ears! Just you wait!” Shouted a middle-aged man as he tumbled out of his bed. His bed was just under the window, so he felt as if a hurricane hit him.
He sounded angry but as he got out of his house, he had a big grin plastered on his face. “You dare call me an old man again or bound on my window and I will-. “
“Yes yes, you will throw me to the wolves. Come on we better hurry up.” He was off running before he finished speaking. “This damn brat!”
A couple of minutes later, they could see the house with the neighbors gathered, the men were off to one side chatting, while the women and the little kids were going in and out seemingly busy. They could hear Elizabeth’s screams in the background.
When they finally reached the house, they chanced upon the doctor, who just arrived as well from another road. “Thank you for coming this late, Aunt Olivia.” Said the old man as he beckoned her to go in. “No problem.” Olivia nodded as she hurried in.
They waited outside for the good news, and after a quarter of an hour, the screams finally stopped. The place was dead silent for a second, then there were the screams of a baby and the cheers going off. After another half an hour, the midwife came out to deliver the good news.
“Congratulations, your daughter was gifted a son and a daughter. They’re both the healthiest I have ever seen.” She said as she carried each child in a bundle of cloth.
Murmurs resounded in the crowd as the old man took the newborns. As he saw their hair he was dumbfounded for a moment.
‘We don’t have anyone with white hair in the family, maybe it is that unlucky bustard’s family that had one. Anyway, I have to name them now. Well, I already have the names prepared for either a boy or a girl, so I’ll go with both.’
“From today onwards, your names are… Theodore and Olivia.” He said as he dramatically raised them upwards to the sky.
…
‘I want to go out so badly right now.’ He woke up from his self-induced coma about a day before his birth. After his evolution, he had complete control over his soul energy. If he will it, his soul can detach from his body and continue to live on its own.
‘But this is the kind of application that I won’t even think of using. What I can do though, is create some kind of clone using a tiny part of my soul. Next, my soul energy has increased to a ludicrous one hundred times, and it is still increasing without me doing anything.
This is the same degree of control I had with my normal energy before evolution, which makes me wonder what other properties are there in common between them? Most importantly, can I give it commands?
I’ll try: If mother has any experience with energy, show it to me.’ Just as he commanded, he was offered a ton of memories of his mother cultivating, sharing her experience with her family, and trying to use her energy in a practical application other than it just passively strengthening the body and senses, and memories of her finally succeeding not long ago, coating her fist in energy, she bunched through a tree trunk.
‘This is just awesome; with this ability, I can now resume my work on Project-S!... If I can call my previous control as my energy being under my well, now it is completely a part of my will.’
‘Now when it comes to my body and my energy, my body stopped being a normal “Super-Human” body a long while back. Now it is a certified slaughter machine. One that is completely under my control. Every organ of mine has evolved to do its job not just better, but also in a synchronized way that they lacked before my evolution. Which multiplies their efficiency by several hundred folds’
‘My brain is a fucking world server now. My speed difference with the normal is 1:365, which is 1 day for one year of this world, and if I use my energy to simulate my brain, I can more than double that for a time.’
‘Lastly my energy. It is so pure right now that I can say it is of a similar if not higher tier compared to the core energy of this world. Although I can’t compare when it comes to quantity, I may be able to use it to do my bidding. This can be a turning point in Project-S’ development. Now I am even more impatient to go out.’
After a while of thinking, he started a cultivation session to pass time till the date of his birth, while the sub-minds focused on calibrating the gains and figuring out the best ways to improve his cultivation technique to better suit his new body and soul.
When it was finally time to go out, he activated sub-mind #7, responsible for acting as a “normal baby,” (AKA: Crying 24/7). Although he has some information from his previous life’s memories, it wasn’t a lot by any means.
So he decided to follow a safe route of watching and learning from his little sister, and since he was going out first, he can just cry a bit till she was out and then start copying. What was special about #7 is that its speed was set to match a normal mind‘s so that it could 100% fit with the outside world.
‘Now that I’m experiencing a normal speed, I can appreciate how absurd my real speed is.’
After waiting for one final day, ‘It is finally time, here we go.’
He and his sister were born a lot faster than normal due to his slight intervention, but this only meant it was just a little bit less painful than normal labor. After they were born and taken care of by the doctor and the midwife, their mother held them in her hands for the first time, after a while, she gave them back to the midwife, “Hand them to father to announce their names.” Then she received congratulations from some of her neighbors with promises to help her if she ever needed anything.
“I’m so envious of you sister.” Said Emma as she helped the other women clean the room.
“What are you envious of? Aren’t you already pregnant in your fourth month? I should be the one envious of you two.” Said one of their old neighbors.
“Bah, shameless thing, you already have a slew of grandchildren over your slew of children, and you dare be envious?!” shouted one of the indignant unmarried women, as the room burst out with laughter and giggles. But they were cut short as they heard the old man’s voice booming in the sky, “Theodore and Olivia.”
“Okay girls, you should go out now, let Elizabeth get some rest for now. You should get some sleep too, there is still some time till sunrise, come back later today.” Said doctor Olivia as she showed the girls out.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Auntie, you are so biased after getting the baby named after you!”
“Of course I’m, now get your ass moving. Emma, stay and cater to your sister, and I’ll come back and visit her in the morning. Make sure she takes her medicine and sleeps for a bit.”
“Got it,” Emma reassured her with a smile.
After some time passed, their father came back in with the babies in his hands. As Emma saw them her eyes lit up for a second as she asked in enthusiasm, “Let me hold them for a while.” “No.” She was dumbfounded for a while because of the swift and cold rejection even though she expected it.
“But why tho?” <1>
“Yeah, you know exactly why.”
“But I won’t drop them this time, I promise!”
“Yeah, still a no. you can ask your sister yourself if she wants to risk it.”
“I’m so sad. Did I just lose my only chance to hold them?!”
“Well, you never had one, to begin with.”
Ughh, critical hit.
As Emma crouched down in a corner of the room, the old man laid the kids besides their mother with the utmost care, then he sat at the bedside as he burned this picture into his mind.
…
A year later, at the edge of the village, a chubby Theodore was sitting on the ground, with the open farming field in front of him. As he was looking into the distance with a profound look in his eyes, he heard a voice coming from his right side.
“Big Brother!” it was Olivia running towards him. “Hey slow down Oli, or you will hurt yourself.” Said Elizabeth with a worried expression on her face as she followed behind her, carrying a heavy-looking basket, and as if by divine edict, Emma fell face first into the dirt.
“Big sis, you just jinxed it didn’t you!” Said Emma with a mischievous smile as she carried her sleeping child of more than seven months, walking slightly behind Elizabeth.
Just as Elizabeth was running over to help Olivia, she jumped right back up and continued running toward her “Big Brother!” as if nothing has happened.
“Jeez, I keep forgetting that kids strengthened by energy are different.”
“Yeah, everyone entrusts me to hold their children now!” Emma said as she buffed her chest. “Piss off!”
On the other end, “Big brother, today I brought you a gift!”
“Hey Oli, you’re going to strip the flower field pare if you continue like this…”
“But I didn’t bring you a flower today! I brought you a ladybug~~.” She said as she stretched her hands to his face.
“…” Still stretched to his face.
Some misty eyes later, and he accepted it reluctantly. As he diverted her attention from the ladybug, he threw it behind his back. “Okay, see what gift I prepared for you.” He said as he fished out some study materials from who knows where.
“Waah, are those study materials?! Mom, look what Theo gave me.”
“Theo, are you scribbling on my animal skin again?” Emma Said as she scanned their so-called “Study Materials” feigning anger on her face.
“Auntie, it is not scribbles!” “What can it be if not scrib-“ Emma was about to argue about the validity of little Oli’s claims when Elizabeth cut her short.
“Okay Emma, stop arguing with little kids, I’ll give you some animal skins later. And Theo don’t use your aunt’s again.”
“But my animal skins are too small. Pout.”
As they were bickering with each other Everything started playing at slow speed till it was nearly still. ‘Number 2, you should go back to your work, don’t focus on the outside any more than this, or we will be behind schedule, again.’ said a small-looking Theodore with a shirt and pants on the number 1 on his front and back.
‘Seriously you should just let me heal my soul a little bit more.’ Grumbled No.2 as he came back from his 5 minutes Oli break.
"We just came up with the new month goals after No.0 came back from seclusion. We need to work hard to meet-.” ‘Aah, why am I giving a pep talk again! I need to stop doing this. Is this the feeling of being alone at the top? Well, that won’t last for long I hope. I just need to work hard for the next ten years… Am I giving myself a pep talk again? Damn it.’
Other than the mental side effects, he didn’t have any other problems. His time with his family was his only anchor. Although he wasn’t alone anymore, this only served to make things worse. He just kept feeling that he was no longer the same as the others. Although people in the surrounding tribes were making progress with their energy, it was nowhere near his level when he was just a fetus!
He knew that because his domain already covered the entirety of the great woods home to his tribe and three other ones, namely the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern tribes, with every one of them having from four to five settlements, surrounding their farming fields.
The worst part is that the gap between them is only getting wider and wider. Luckily for him, he had the perfect solution, Project-S!
‘In four years I can start the first phase, and depending on the results, and my progress on the planet’s core, I can start the second phase when I am ten years old… How did I last the past 366 years again?’
“Okay everyone it is time for daily reports."
As No.1 spoke out loud a great hall big enough to house thousands of people started manifesting around him, at the same time a luxurious conference table appeared in front of him with ten chairs around it, numbered from zero to nine.
Then he disappeared and reappeared on the chair numbered one at the head of the table. He then watched as figures identical to him but with different numbers started appearing around the table. After a while, all the chairs were occupied except for the one opposite him at the other end of the table, with the number zero on its back.
"I will be going first, In my study of the different souls in my domain, I have recently made another big leap in my control and my soul cultivation technique, I expect the next soul breakthrough to be at one and a half years of age. Next.”
Following was No.2, who had the motto, “If I wasn’t an engineer, I would’ve liked to be a doctor.”
“The next body breakthrough WILL be in three months; someone needs to give No.1 a hand to keep up guys. I can’t be waiting for him every time.”
“You know you can’t maximize your cultivation till I’m done with mine, right?” snapped No.1.
“You know you can’t interject when I’m reporting, right? Anyway, I was just saying that we need to allocate more resources to No.1 so that he can match my speed. Next is Project-Dragon, I already analyzed all the humans in the domain and I’m starting on the other species, what is taking me time is that every time I finish analyzing a new specimen, I need to cross-check with what I checked before. And EVERY time I discover new things to study. I don’t know if the soul studies are endless, but I’m 100% sure mine are. Next, Mr. peeper!’
“Okay, you can stop calling me that, it isn’t a crime to peep at people’s memories if no one is ever going to know about it. And I’m not Mr. peeper, WE ARE Mr. peeper! Ok, we already established that it is for the advancement of the people, and when they are advanced enough to establish a low against peeping at other’s souls, we can have this conversation again.”
“He really won’t stop giving the same lecture/excuse every single time.” Said No.1.
“I need to work on my shame tolerance.” Said No.4.
“Shut it, all of you. I already gathered all and any of the important information from the people, including the history of the great woods, and the surrounding lands. And I’ve also compiled the rest of the memories into two files, one filled with interesting gossip and stories, the other filled with toxic ones.
I’m done with creating a simple profile about every living human in the great woods, and some dead ones. This is already a sturdy foundation for a five hundred pages long book about psychology in tribal societies. Next on the agenda is going through the animals in the great woods, their daily lives, and hunting experiences, from both inside and outside perspectives. Next!”
“Well, my report is rather brief. As usual, the strengthening of all inside my domain is still going faster for the younger ones and slower for the older ones. With the new discoveries going on, the strengthening rates for adults have gone up, but young ones’ have become even faster.”
Well, what No.4 didn’t stress in his “brief” report is that his strengthening wasn’t for humans only, he was strengthening every species in his domain to better handle energy, and with humans having slower productive cycles, they would’ve fallen out of this race if not for their intelligence.
He believed that if there was no external enemy, then internal conflicts and wars will appear sooner rather than later. And if he only strengthened humans this would be him accelerating that. Although his reasons were highly questionable, he always had a convincing answer regarding this issue. “The Humans have ME.” And he had enough power to make it an absolute argument.
Plus, the endless possibilities stemming from animal evolution are enough to make him go through with it anyways.
“No.5 it is your turn. How is it going with the world’s energy.”
“As you all know, we already left a mark on the planet’s core energy when we first connected with it. Although this mark is already gone, following the “nothing can be deleted from the internet” principle, the traces left by the mark can’t be erased completely, and we just need to be strong enough to sense it and connect to it. Now I’m happy to announce that we can already sense it. Using this connection I was able to communicate with the world’s mana as well, and I’m using this to increase our cultivation rate by directing even more energy to converge in our direction, for ease of cultivation.”
“Are you done showing off?” asked No.2.
“Not yet. The connection is being strengthened by the day, as a result of me having more influence on the world, and according to my calculations, we will be early, for our schedule. NEXT!”
“Although we are late on our plant, birds, insects, and microorganisms’ studies because they have more differences with humans compared to animals, me and No.8 have made huge leaps in the last day compared to any other. Who could have known that having a whole ecosystem under your sight is much more beneficial? Would you like to add anything No.8?”
“Yes, you forgot to mention that we started contributing to Project-Dragon as of lately.”
“Yeah, I forgot to mention that, as did No.2! Even though our contributions weren’t less than his for the past day... Next please.” Said No.6 as he gave No.2 a sidelong glance.
No.9 coughed a little to hide the smile on his face as he started.
“Thanks to everyone’s hard work, and for the huge resources allocated to me, I’m making huge improvements in our fighting techniques. With droves of memories about martial arts from the previous life, and with the tribe’s people’s hunting experiences, add to that our expertise in energy control, and our self-created Magic Arts are coming out nicely.
As proposed by me and agreed upon by the majority after yesterday’s meeting, I dedicated most of my energy to researching the prospects of Alchemy and Formations. My conclusion is, in the short term they are useless to us but very useful to others. In the long-term, however, I believe they will prove to be invaluable tools.
I recommend assigning two new sub-minds each responsible for formations and alchemy respectively, after a month or so; by then we would have more than enough energy to support them.”
For Theodore, he didn’t need formations to control energy, for he had absolute control over it. He also didn’t need any alchemy for the time being. But all of this could change if he faced a new type of energy, which he has no affinity for. And he can’t see that happening on this planet, for it was already branded with his energy once, and soon enough he will even have control over this planet’s core, and all life on the planet is branded by it.
“Thank you all for participating. At last, I would like to mention that No.7 is doing a good job taking care of little sis, you can spy on him when, and only when you finish your daily quota, otherwise you won’t like the consequences from No.0 if we don't meet our quota... Meeting dismissed.” No.1 ended the meeting on a solemn note then disappeared from his chair.
(1.) An obscure reference: “Ozzy Man Reviews: Cats Being Dodgy #3”.