There are so many types. And so much of it… I have access to all of it, I can control all of it.

I float there in shock, trying to comprehend this.

When I created my world, I never thought that it would be possible to have so many different imprints of Gray katra, and I could feel more being created and then used to create more things.

It was a balanced cycle between destruction and creation. Every time something was made, it would use up some of its representative Gray katra, and when something was destroyed, it would release it’s Gray katra.

With this… I might as well have an infinite amount of katra imprints to use.

From what I could see, though, I did not have infinite amount of just plain Gray katra. None of it was being made, only different types of imprints.

So I can use all of these imprints, but I don’t think they will work particularly well with my general katra. They were all specialized types, not meant to be used like I would my normal Gray katra. If I had to venture a guess, I wouldn’t be able to use these to power my Versatile Adaptation trait as it would require straight normal Gray katra.

But maybe I could use it with my Artificer ability? That might be why I wasn’t able to make the spear. I needed specialized types of katra like normally used to craft an item.

Does this mean if I had never created my world, I wouldn’t be able to use the ability?

Or maybe that variable that the system detected was my world, and it gave me the “[System Classification]” Artificer.

Either way, I lucked out. If I had never created my world, or waited to do it, I doubt I would have full access to my Artificer class.

Maybe that’s why 303 was still relatively near my rank in strength; he didn’t have full access to these abilities.

That wasn’t to say I didn’t either. I have yet to figure out the limitations of my abilities, with only knowing the general idea of my katra’s purpose is “to build things”.

Dismissing these thoughts for now, I decide I don’t need to work myself up over them. I would figure it out eventually and right now I had enough pressing concerns.

Taking a deep breath, I recollect my thoughts and look at my world.

Here, on the edge of the atmosphere, I can see how truly massive it is. It curves slowly, the landmass spreading out bellow me.

I wonder if the real world would look like thi, if you were high enough.

Deciding to check in on the humans who were just starting to leave the comforts of their valley when I had last gazed upon them, I fly down from the atmosphere.

A grin spreads across my face as I fly through the clouds, tiny droplets of water hitting my astral face with some resistance, then flying through my body.

I movelower, down to the thick tree cover. Even here, I can sense a few of the saplings connected to the original tree. Their roots run deep, deeper than any of the other trees or plants, connected in a vast network over the surface of my world.

I brush the tops of the trees with my hands, laughing as I shoot over the treetops, leaves rustling behind me.

This power is invigorating, knowing I can go anywhere, see anything. I wish I could do this in the real world.

Maybe one day, if I ever reach Diamond, I would find a flying Sacred Beast’s core to bond with. But where would I find a beast that has the same aspect as me? Much less be able to kill it?

I come to the edge of the valley of the people, slowing until I am hovering at its edge. I look down at it’s thickly covered edges.

When I gaze at the landscape, I can still spot a few minor protrusions where the great jagged rocks used to be. When there was no earth on my world, or anything else.

Now those behemoths of rock are covered by many layers of earth, but a few were tall enough to stick out even here. They appear as strangely shiny, gray rocks. There are still remnants of what my world used to be.

I find some happiness and humbleness at the sight of one of these stones near the center of the valley. It reminds me of what my core used to look like and how far it has come since then.

Around that shiny gray pillar of rock is a clearing. And inside that clearing is a grouping of large tents. A village.

These people don’t seem as advanced as the people in the real world. At least several thousand years behind us. Was our humble beginning something like this? Small tribes and tents, hunters and gatherers that lived off their land completely.

It is an interesting thought, and one I could not answer. Even the oldest history books don’t stretch back more than 1,000 years when the Traezar Empire conquered the whole of Auren.

I gaze down at the grouping of tents for a while, watching as people go about their business. Some bring clothes to a nearby stream to wash, others chopping wood for fires and children running around and playing.

It is peaceful, and I can’t help but be reminded of my own village.

I reminiscence for a while on my life in the village, circumventing the thoughts of its destruction. I didn’t want this idyllic moment to be ruined.

Then the peaceful spell is broken. My gaze catches on a lone child.

She is a small thing, maybe about 9 or 10. She slowly walks into the forest with her head down, leaving the safety of the village. Her face is stained in tears, her eyes puffy and red.

Curious, I flick my will and glide down into the forest, landing into its thick underbrush. My body, incorporeal as always, passes through the plants.

I move swiftly through the woods, not even the trees hindering me. My body passes through everything, like it is not even there.

This is weird, but kind of fun.

I pass through a tree, tingling shooting throughout my body, up from my toes to the crown of my head.

I eventually stop, realizing that I had lost track of the girl while exploring my new found powers.

With a thought, I launch upward, through the canopy of trees.

Scanning the horizon, I am unable to see anything. So I close my eyes, and use my sense of katra to feel out the surrounding landscape. I can feel that everything is saturated in Gray Life katra, and if I wanted to, I could manipulate it to do whatever I wanted.

But that’s not what I am looking for.

I quickly find a blob of Gray katra. It is mix of various types that would usually go along with the body, in the shape of a small humanoid. And it is still, unmoving.

Quickly, I make my way to the blob of Gray katra. I rush over a steep, rocky cliff, surfing down it.

I enjoy the rush of power as the earth responds to my command, clamping onto my feet and propelling me forward. I surf around large rocks, laughing a little at the feeling of so much control.

I can’t let it get to my head, though.

Sliding down the cliff face, I slow my descent as I reach the bottom. Following the curve of the earth, I slowly come to a stop.

The earth releases my feet, and I take a few steps.

The sun, high above in the blue, cloudy sky shines down, baking the exposed rocks. A small river flows a few feet away from the edge of the cliff, flowing deeper into the valley. Trees grow on the other side of the bank of the small river, and up at the top of the cliff. A few scraggly trees and bushes clinging to the side of the rocky cliff. The wind rushes through, brushing the tall, wild grass.

I turn in the direction of the small girl, a feeling of sorrow hitting me at what I see. My smile slowly fades.

She is splayed out at the bottom of the cliff, her limbs twisted and bloody. She lays face down, her dark brown hair matted with blood. The furs she ware’s are matted and stained in blood, a growing puddle of crimson dripping off the rock her body lays on and onto the rocky and grassy ground.

I walk toward her, the grass around me popping back into the ground. I can’t find any amusement in the fact that my brand of grass has become the dominant type on this world.

Falling to my knees before the corpse of the little girl, I feel tears streaming down my face. How could this have happened?

I look up at the tall, steep cliff. She fell, probably too upset to notice.

Then a thought strikes me. Or she killed herself.

I suddenly know why I was crying after I had finished creating my world. Even here, in my own personal world, death was prevalent. I had created life, but I had also created death for that life.

I realize something about that cycle of katra that makes up my world. Things have to die or be destroyed to release the katra they used to be created.

With this realization, I sob. All elation and happiness I had previously felt gone. Tears stream down my face, falling into the puddle of blood around the crimson stained rock.

With the realization that I had played god, that I had created both life and death, was something more. I knew there wasn’t really anything I could do, it was far too late to influence my world so fundamentally, and I know I could spend my entire life trying to save as many of the lives as I had created but would get nowhere.

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I weep, the sun setting and coloring the side of the cliff orange and pink, a dark shadow over the area. I don’t know how long I spend weeping, but it is enough for night to claim the sky, only two slivers of the moons illuminated by the sun in the sky of sparkling runes.

Looking up at the night sky, my eyes wander to the many colored runes that make it up. I let out a choked laugh, They look like stars, constellations.

Crickets, cicadas and other insects fill the night air with a quiet symphony of sound. The grass rustles quietly in the breeze, the world turning onward, oblivious to the death of this little girl.

It is at this point I realize that I am holding her in my arms, her blood no longer flowing. Her soft skin is as pale as the dead, her dark brown hair obscuring her face.

Her hair is the same color mine used to be. It is a stray thought, but I clutch onto it and hold it close to my chest. There has to be something I can do.

I feel a tingling at the base of my skull, crawling along my spin. I can hear a quiet murmur in my ears, comforting me in my sorrow.

I am the ruler here. I should be able to do something! Despite having cried for so long, desperate tears start streaming down my cheeks.

Closing my watering eyes, I use my sense. Maybe I can heal her.

I can feel the katra that makes up her body, and where it is broken. Where the blood no longer flows, where oxygen no longer circulates through her veins. I can feel the lack of a heart beat, and how her bones are shattered and many of her organs ruptured. I can feel how her spine is broken in several places, how her muscles are torn and the blood congealed around the tears in her skin.

I have to save her. Only if it’s just one little girl, I have to save this life.

Digging deeper, I find a empty hollow. It is something not really there, like my core and channels, something on the spiritual level.

This is where her soul was.

I sense around, trying to see if it still lingers near.

It takes what feels like an eternity, but I find it. It is hidden in the folds of reality, behind many layers of katra. It is a small, fragile flame, it’s colors shifting. As time passes, I watch as those colors slowly grow darker, the flame returning to Gray Life katra. I have to hurry.

I cup the flame in mental hands, holding it close to my chest, protecting it from dissolving.

Turning back to the girl’s body, I look at its broken form. How do I fix her?

I dig deeply, looking into her very being. I can see all the separate little beings of katra that make her, that work together to make the body work.

Diving even deeper, I peer into those tiny beings. The name for them comes with a tingle from the base of my skull. Cells, these are cells.

Inside those cells are many things, but I dig past them, to its very center. I find it, coiling up in a sphere, splitting itself apart and restricting itself together. This is DNA, the instructions of the body.

With a push of my will, I use Gray Life katra to create an imprint of this DNA, copying it in its whole.

Moving back, I open my eyes. With this, I know how to fix her.

I start to work, following the instructions of how the body is meant to be made to repair all the damage dealt to the girl’s form.

During the process, I can feel that I am too slow. Her soul is quickly returning back into the cycle of katra.

No, you can’t die here. I push my Gray katra into the weakly flickering soul, stoking its flame. It seems to perk up, its colors growing marginally brighter. I continue to feed it katra as I work on the girl’s body, slowly and painstakingly fixing it down to every detail.

During the process, I can sense many things; that she will have dental problems, or that she has a predisposition to mutations in her cells. I correct these genetic mistakes, making sure she will live a long life.

It is something that will help me feel better about what I have done. To give one girl a long, and hopefully full and happy, life.

Hours later, I am finished.

Her clothes are still stained with blood, but now her limbs are straight, and her organs fixed. Her face is still obscured by her dark hair, but I know every inch and that it has been fixed.

But she is still pale, her heart cold.

Now, the soul.

I look to the soul, which I have kept cupped to my chest. It has been soaked in my katra, and now it glows and shifts in vibrant colors, dancing happily. Little specks of Gray katra flutter inside it, vanishing in the swirl of colors.

There is that tingling on my spine again, a thought surfacing from my mind. The body is the cradle of the soul, it is the armor and also limiter. It provides freedom, but also jails the soul.

I hesitate at this thought. Am I really doing the right thing? Trapping the soul again?

I shake my head, dispelling this line of thought. I will save her.

Holding the soul in both my hands, cupping it and protecting it, I hold it over the girl’s body. I put my lips close to it, whispering, “It’s okay, and now it is time to return to your body. Alright?”

I lay my hands down on the girl’s chest, opening them and letting the soul free.

Shifting back a bit, I let go of the soul.

It rests on the girl’s chest, seemingly trying to decide something. For a tense minute, it does nothing but flicker slightly in the wind.

It moves, bobbing over to the girl’s head. It glows brightly, then starts sinking into her forehead, vanishing with one last flicker of its ghostly tipped flame.

There is a second of silence, the insects and rustle of grass stopping, as if the entire world is holding its breath.

Then the world lets out a sigh, the girl gasping awake. She sucks in big gulps of air, trying to inhale as much as her oxygen deprived system can get.

He eyes open wide as she sits bolt upright, her chest heaving. Her head whips around, her eyes wild.

The girl’s gaze settles on me, her eyes wide.

I put my ghostly hands up in the air, showing I mean no harm. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Color starts returning to her skin, her cheeks coloring a rosey pink. She seems to calm when she looks at me, her heavy breathing returning to normal, her lips pursing.

My eyes are drawn to her eyes, which are a light brown color.

I watch as her iris starts to change color, Gray spiraling quickly around them till no brown is left. They pulse with Gray katra, just like my eyes.

A thought I had so long ago, when my eyes had turned Gray, surfaces from the back of my mind, The eyes are the window to the soul, huh?

Then the girl’s eyes roll into the back of her skull, her eyelids snapping shut. She starts falling backwards.

I quickly react, my arm shooting out and catching her before she can fall off the rock.

I cradle her small, sleeping body in my arms. I check to make sure she is alright, using my my katra to check if she is okay. Everything seems fine, only now that empty hallow that was in her body before is filled with a brightly flickering, rainbow and Gray speckled flame.

Something else also seems different with her. I look closely into her and find what it is.

Her blood now runs with specks of Gray katra, not the imprinted kind that makes up her being, but my Gray katra. It flows throughout her body, slowly soaking into her very being.

I find it’s source, the soul flame. Tiny embers of Gray katra shoot off it, and mix in with her bloodstream, being carried all throughout her body.

This, I can tell, will have far reaching consequences. This girl will be fundamentally changed, and if I had to venture a guess, she may be able to use Gray katra to an extent. I didn’t see a core forming, or anything close to a space in her soul for it, so I do not know exactly what this might do to her.

Either way, she is alive.

I lay her down on the grass next to the river, making sure her head rests gently on the ground. The grass pops into the ground, hiding till there is no more danger.

I can’t leave her here. I should bring her back to the village.

Looking down at the sleeping form of the child, I can feel relief flood through me. I had saved her, though I may have just changed her life forever. Time would tell if it was for the better or for the worse.

I bring up my right hand, it is translucent and incorporeal, but the black bandages are still wrapped around it. I can’t go to the village like this.

I need a body here, not just this phantom form.

303 made a body and stuck me into it, so why can’t I make myself a body?

I gather my katra, condensing it. I start making myself a body, that strange tingling in my neck ever present during the process.

***

I cradle the little girl in my arms, looking at her peaceful face in sleep.

I am now in a flesh and blood body, or a construct of katra. I’m not sure how to distinct them, because if this is a construct, then technically everything else on my world is a construct, and I can’t think of them as that.

How strange, I never thought about everything here being anything but alive.

I push myself through some bushes, my beige and baggy clothes snagging on some twigs. Pulling my clothes out of the grasp of the bush, I walk into the humans’ clearing.

The sun is just starting to come over the horizon, coloring the sky orange and the clouds pink over the treetops.

I suck in a deep breath of cool air, enjoying the breeze that ruffles my hair. This body is a exact copy of mine in the real world, right down to my scars and clothes.

I walk into the village past the tents and into the light of a bonfire that burns near the center of the tent village.

Stepping from the shadows of night, into the dawning light of day, I look at the warriors gathered around the fire.

Their heads turn to me, their hands going for their primitive, stone tipped spears and knives. They are dressed in thick, armor-like pelts. They all have the look of violence on their faces.

There are 5 of them, animal bones rattling on leather cords around their necks.

They probably think I am from an enemy tribe. I know that in the valley, several tribes of humans existed, and many of them were not on good terms with each other.

It saddened my heart to see, even here, that humanity is at each other's throats. Conflict seems to be a part of our nature.

I move slowly, kneeling.

The tribal warriors circle around me, like they would a animal they are hunting.

I cradle the little girl in my arms, rocking her sleeping form back and forth slightly. I look at her sleeping face, amazed at the fact that such a thing could exist on my world.

Then I lay her gently down on the hard packed earth, cradling her head for one last second. Letting go of her, I slowly step back.

Raising my hands in the air, I look at the warrior directly across from me. He is adorned in the most bones, and is larger and more muscled. He looks better fed than the others. The chief probably.

He looks at the girl on the ground, his hand jerking out, reaching for her. But he stops, looking at me with wary eyes.

The man speaks, his voice gruff and in a language different from my own. Yet, I can understand his words. “Who are you? What happened to my child?”

So she’s his child.

I smile sadly, knowing I won't be able to speak his language without practice. It looks like I will have to study how they speak.

Lowering my hands to my sides, I turn around. There are two warriors behind me, their spears raised. Yet they look confused and wary.

I walk towards them, and they bristle their weapons.

It’s not like I am actually here, they can’t hurt me.

I walk straight up to them, bringing my hands up. I gently push their spears to the side and down, and walk through the gap between them.

They part warily, allowing me passage,, surprise written on both their faces at the fact they let me through.

I pass by them, and walk back into the quickly shrinking shadows of night, exiting the village and entering the forest.

From behind me, I can hear a shout of relief and happiness. “Thana! Are you alright, my child?”

I smile a little, then I am out of earshot and am in the thick of the forest.

As I walk, I degrade my body till it turns to dust, then that dust to nothing. I am left in my incorporeal form.

I gaze up at the quickly dawning day through the leaves of the swaying treetops.

I think it’s time to wake up now. In my mind I pluck the thin, newly formed connection with the little girl.

Closing my eyes, I let my mind drift back into my body in the real world.