“The dangers of a community are multiple.”

“They range from Territory contests to Resource shortages to Existential events.”

“Territorial avenues often intermixed with Resource avenues. So sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two.”

“However, Existential events are random events that come from time to time. Or at least they appear to be random. Never underestimate the sneakiness of Malice.”

“Some are more common, but the rarest of them always hit a community from their blind spot.”

“Thus, Existential events are the true tests a Species has to pass in order to progress to the next level.”

“If the community survives, good. If it does not, then too bad for them.”

“At the end of the day, the Winners are the Survivors, and they write the History.”

#Quote 23 - Book of Races and Species.

*

Dream Realm - Ho’Ney

“Hngh” Was all that echoed from my frustration.

Unveiling it. Embracing it. Understanding it, and moments pass before I actually let it go.

My frustrations and all my pent-up emotions flow away from me, and the calm before the storm returns.

Once everything was gone, once again, my eyes gazed at the small light shining in my hand.

The small shining light was my prototype of a Soul or at least a version of it. Yet, despite all the work and the emotions put into envisioning and creating a workable Soul variant, only now, after quite a few failures, do I recognize that creating a Soul variant was actually really, realllyyy, hard.

Having already sensed two Real Souls, I was mining my way, so to speak, in one direction. It was a feel-based search, where I knew nothing about the texture, the size, or the workings, and tried my best to replicate it.

Well, to say I created nothing would be a disservice to everything I had already done so far, but I definitely am not where I need to be regarding Souls.

The easiest part was on how to connect Cirsy and these remote scanners. That one took little to implement, for the most part, as there was a lot more to figure out.

After that came the idea of Reward transference. It was relatively straightforward, once I realized I needed a jump connection between the Honey Badger, the Dream Realm, and Cirsy.

The Arching Bridge could function as that jump point, but it would be far more efficient if I implemented a slightly different system. I already had the idea for it, but I shelved it for later.

Once I had the simple system of Inputs and Outputs figured out came the main theme crunching time, and so far, it failed spectacularly.

Either I wait for a Honey Badger to gain a Soul, or I go fishing for one.

Once more, I sighed in my mind before reconsidering my current approach and deciding it was time for a break.

Vanishing from the Administrating Center, I appear back on the Observation Platform, right beside Goldy.

Instantly Goldy’s Rear Eye, as I have begun to call it, shifted on me.

Maybe he saw something. Or maybe, he figured out how to read me after his second bath in the Nebulous Clouds and shortly after made the livid declaration that he be addressed, from that point on, as a HE.

A mental shake of my thoughts, I ignored the fact that now he could change his gender whenever he wanted.

Either way. The projection instantly shifted from some distant Honey Badger to Magi, Maximus, and their Cubs.

The Cubs were fine, to be honest. But I've taken a relaxing attitude immediately after seeing them.

Having become a relaxing sight for me, every time I become slightly frustrated, I come and spend some time just observing them.

It is almost like watching a Nature Documentary. The only thing missing is that old man's voice. What was his name again, Attenborough? David Attenborough.

Sometimes I laughed at all the things they did. Although it was nothing special. Just some rough play here and there, or the occasional yeeps as the lessons underwent.

Whatever they did, it was therapeutic for me. So I indulged in the practice.

One time, I had done some introspection to see and understand why this was so.

The solution was extremely simple.

I was in dire need of some social contact.

I've had the problem since the beginning. Nevertheless, at that time, I had no physical body to amplify those feelings. The only reason my problem isn't higher on the emotional scale right now was the busy work schedule I created for myself.

That and the Remembrance of the Void.

Back to the Cubs.

Soon, they would be reaching half a year into their life, and already, it was easy to spot the difference between these Cubs and the Cubs of the normal Honey Badgers.

The size difference between them wasn't extremely big. But it was substantial.

However, the biggest difference lay in the intellect they were developing.

It wasn't easy to spot, especially since I wasn't that familiar with the behavior of Honey Badger Cubs. I noticed that they were especially good at picking up stuff from Magi.

After Goldy found a few normal Honey Badger Cubs, and when he showed me its brain scans, it was easy to notice that there were slight brain structure changes.

They were tiny, but they were there.

Now, I wasn't a neuroscientist, but when every brain cell in my body contained a part of my Consciousness, it wasn't hard to figure out what did what.

Although, just because I knew the individual parts, understanding the whole was taking its time. Especially, since I was not, actually, putting in the time to research it.

Anyway, the cubs were growing quite fast. Their development was going nicely mentally as well. But despite my intervention on the size ratios of the Honey Badger Cubs, the main reason their mental faculties were developing faster and stronger had to do with Magi lighting a few dead creatures on fire.

It had taken her a few examples of plunging her head into the White Flame, plus growling and nudging, for the Cubs to find the courage to do the same.

They were lucky the White Flame had such special characteristics. So they had taken a slight liking to it. Maybe it was their instincts telling them it was good for them, but on quite a few occasions, I saw them beg Magi for it.

Time passed as I relaxed for some time before I noticed that Goldy’s golden-slitted eye gained clarity of purpose.

“What is it, Goldy?” I ask him.

“One moment, Master.”

A moment later, the Cubs vanished as a new projection began to display itself.

In their place, a typical female Honey Badger appeared. Soon she wouldn't be typical. As I poured Auril into Goldy different projections appear one by one.

It was clear that this female was undergoing the Ascension process.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

And once again, in the middle of the Ascension, that enormous and eclipsing presence saw and felt me.

It saw and felt my Realm as if no boundary existed between us at all.

After one good pause of wondering the last time I felt it, it was easy to guess who or what it was.

It was either Reality or a World Spirit. Or World Aspect, as Original Mir called it.

Both could do the same, yet somehow I doubted it was Reality, as the Ascension process was for tiny creatures on the grand scale of things.

I doubt even I, in my current state, would come to its attention. Maybe, if I did something extraordinary to draw its attention.

Too bad I cheated during Realm Creation, technically, making me slip under its radar.

Now a World Spirit was a different thing.

World Spirits were the middle ground between the tiny creatures living on it and the wider Cosmos.

However, if I took Original Mir’s words into account. Then a World Spirit is the amalgamation of the Psychic Weight of every Consciousness that had ever lived, that lived currently, and would ever live on that World.

Because of that, no matter how big or small a World is, if there is no Life on it, no World Spirit would spawn as a result.

At least, that was the theory given to me.

Anyway

A World Spirit would never interfere with Mortal creatures living upon it.

Heck. They were basically invisible to it. Just like tiny bugs eating the dead skin of living creatures.

Yet, for the Ascension to happen, there had to be Real Intervention by Divinities of the Highest Grade. Only they had enough Administrative Rights to infringe Rules and Laws upon World Spirits.

Well, them and those like me, but I still had a long time before I could even consider enacting changes upon such scales.

Watching, observing every single detail, and recording everything happening, I saw the female grow big, a bit smaller than Magi.

Maybe that meant something, maybe not, but the fact got noted down.

With her Ascension being over, I observed her disorientation. Having one's Life change so dramatically, and fast at that, the disorientation was a small problem.

At the same time, one part of me got notified that something transpired in my Realm. Even without looking for the cause, I knew that it was.

With everything still in manual mode, I gathered enough PC, and threw it at the female. With one slight nudge, she began trekking in a specific direction.

However, only after my observations lasted enough did Goldy bring forth a discovery of his own.

Too bad he couldn't actually sense the instructions I put into the PC Reward.

Since I already knew what he discovered, my answer came instantly.

“Master. This new female is very determined to travel to the South Eastern GrassLands.”

“I know, Goldy. I nudged her that way.” I replied.

“Master?”

“Goldy, in my memories, there is a saying. Never put your eggs in the same basket.” Instantly, I sensed his slight confusion. “If I want the Honey Badgers to proliferate as best as possible, with as much security as possible, then I need to diversify their everything. From their geographic position to their cultures and their ethics.”

“I… understand, Master. Thank you for clarifying it for me.”

“Don't bother yourself with it.” I said. “Time will tell if this is a good or bad approach. Right now, I will delegate every male and female into approaching each other. With a few more nudges, I will have them stick with each other, if possible. If not, then it's fine. Either way, what I need right now is for more Honey Badgers to descend from those lines. However.”

There, I stopped for a moment and brought forth data regarding the Chakra Auras of the female in question. “Just culture and geography are not enough. I need to diversify the way their Powers work.”

“Master, how do you plan on doing that?” Goldy asked me.

It was a fair question.

I too had trouble figuring out that part.

However, I had plenty of inspiration from my past life memories. I just had to figure them out to fit Honey Badgers.

As far as I knew, the Chakra system had a few inconsistencies as there were multiple systems in my memories. There was one with seven main Chakras, so seven auras, so to speak.

Then came the variants where things shift between seven to thirteen. Although from my memory, those extras usually extended past the physical body and the seven main Chakras.

Another thing with the chakra system is that it came from India and that was connected to Pranna. And from my extrapolation, Prana was a mix of Mana and Life Essence.

What kind of mix I was not sure about as there were several. In truth, it was all about the ratios between the two, where the sum of the parts creates something new.

Anyway, Original Mir told me of five general types of Powers.

Life Essence - The Power with the most prominent connection with one's Consciousness. It's the weakest in terms of direct strength. It's the weakest because your Will directly pushes away Reality, and its Rules and Laws, in favor of establishing your own.

Life Essence has the greatest flexibility out of all the Powers, and Auril is an advanced type that fixes its biggest drawback, energy generation. Along with a few other things.

Psychic - This Power type is heavily connected to the Psychic and Mental waves of the user. It is created when you take Life Essence to the peak, in some way, and dip into Mana for continued progress.

Still, with Life Essence being the main ingredient, Psychic powers also heavily rely on the Will of the Individual. However, with Mana mixed into it, they can influence Reality without Reality pushing back on them.

Qi - Qi, or Balance as Original Mir called it, presents the perfect harmony of Thought and Reality. Mana and Life Essence. It has the best of both worlds, meaning, potency and flexibility, while none of its extremes.

Going to the extremes was extremely detrimental to them because of the intricate connection between Qi and the Body.

Magic users - This category had the greatest variety. In this category, all kinds of Wizardry/Witchcraft/Sorcery and all that kind of crap existed. Because of the direct access to Mana, they were prone to overflows and uncontrolled Magic manifesting. It's why they usually create a Hard Power System to limit their Powers by intricate systems of formations of Magic and whatnot.

Because of those facts, I believe Prana is Magic based, and if not, then a different kind of Qi system instead of the Qi Pathways.

Divine - The Power that manifests when Magic users reach their peak, and instead of looking for ways to overcome that peak, they dip their fingers into Faith. Through Faith, they transform themselves into Divine Beings with Administrator Access Privileges to the Rules and Laws of Reality.

They are the strongest in terms of raw strength. However, their weakness is the believers that support their existence.

Without the believers, Divine pepper out of existence or revert back to Mortal confines.

Out of these five, my Dream Realm probably blocks the Path of Divinity. That leaves me with three options, as Magic is already being pursued if my thoughts about Ascendence are correct.

Qi relied heavily on the perception of an Individual. Outside of guiding some individuals through the system, there was no way I could manifest it.

Psychic powers, on the other hand, were very close to me. So it wouldn't be hard for me to guide somebody. Especially if I can take advantage of the Ascendance system.

However, it still relies heavily on the Individual in question.

Life Essence is the easiest of all, but the problem becomes that you usually need a strong Consciousness, or Will, to use it correctly. Otherwise, you'd spend it instantly for nothing.

Nonetheless. In this case, Ascendence is a hindrance, as the moment a Honey Badger achieves the humanoid form, the Mana they gain will hinder their progress.

“I am still working on it, Goldy.” I finally answered after my introspection. “For now, I need different settlements for the Honey Badgers. So that they won't be snuffed out by some random event happening. And therefore making me lose all current progress. Although-”

Instantly a theory of mine regarding Variant Souls comes to me. “When some of the Honey Badgers achieve the Humanoid form and have kids, if I can make the cubs retain the humanoid form, I will be able to diversify them.”

With that said, I ignored Goldy’s reply and focused on the various fields this female Honey Badgers exhibited.

In the past, I've tried my best to make sense of these fields.

Some represented bone and muscle structure.

Some represented the Chemical reactions occurring inside the physical body.

And some represent the interactions between the nervous system and the body.

Ultimately, it all boiled down to three energies, a biological body had access to.

The Kinetic energy[physical forces - Earth]

Chemical energy[transformation and release - Water and Fire]

Electrical energy[release and generation - Fire and Air]

All those forces intertwined in the whole body, so I couldn't just separate them and think they would work just like that.

Maybe they would, but that was a stupid way of thinking when Magic was involved because everything needed to be regulated and free-flowing.

So design a system with Life Essence.

Give it names[Definitions and Purposes].

Use the Ascendance system to transform that system into a Soul Variant of the Chakra Aural Cores System.

Wait, can I use the same procedure to create the Qi pathways?

Umm, in theory, it should be possible. However, I can't predict the behavior of the World Spirit.

“Goldy, give me an estimate for the next Ascension of a Honey Badger.” I demanded from him.

All he said was a confirmation of receiving an order, and he began to scry for the answer. Maybe it was my demanding tone, but he did not reply for quite some time.

“The closest estimate I can make is somewhere between half a year and two years.” Came the reply.

“Alright.” I replied absently as my mind began to extrapolate a thing or two.

When I was done, my mind came up with one simple solution.

“Goldy. It looks like it's time for me to make a phone call. A business deal with The World Spirit awaits us, well… awaits Me.”

“Phone Call? World Spirit?” Goldy repeated, but I ignored him.

My mind was already in the clouds going over ideas and propositions.