The night rolled on quite peacefully afterward, it seems the death of hundreds of creatures and a mighty cyclops has given a clear warning to the neighborhood. I sat and decided to mess around with my skills as time went on towards the next day. It is quite nice not having to be able to sleep, eat, or shit. Of course, if I wanted to I can eat just like the crab that I have been snacking on, haven’t tried sleeping yet but been to busy to test it out. I guess it will be more like a meditative state than actually sleeping. Also anytime I eat or consume lifeforce, my body uses every last bit as energy. I am literally a walking black hole, devouring anything to grow myself.

I still haven’t tested out a few skills though in which I should get familiar with before I move onto testing and creating new ones. Curse of Death, Phaselock, and Godly Majestic Presence are the abilities yet to be used. I can feel familiarity when thinking about the abilities so it’s not too hard to guess what their functions are. Also as a reincarnated gamer, mercenary, and god, I have some background information to work with. First, the Curse of Death seems similar to like half-life decay. I can sense dark mana swirling around me when I summon it and it flows to my hand. As my hands have black leather gloves on them it made the black have a glow effect. I touched a twig that was lying nearby my stump.

Nothing happened at first, then slowly the thin twig began to rot, however, it wasn’t a rotting with germs. It was just straight decay through time. As if the dark mana that I fed into the branch began to consume it, taking place of germs and probably consuming them too. As time went on the decay got faster and faster. It ended up consuming the twig in it’s entirely within ten minutes. The twig wasn’t anything special, it was the perfect size to poke firewood with in order to get it into the right position, but having seen the time it took to consume it in its entirety, I now understand why the mana cost is so low. For something that could potentially kill even the strongest of beings with only 75 mana, you would think it is crazy. However, the 75 mana is just the starter. The mana consumes other lifeforce and manas to fuel itself increasing its danger to whatever target is has been put upon. Quite Interesting, I thought.

Next, I looked at Alpha that was guarding the campfire and me with a steadfast pose. He looked like a heroic knight, just with a little cold and evil vibe. His sword was plunged into the ground and his hands rested upon each other on top of the pommel of his sword. I thought, Maybe I should test phaselock on him… Nah he has been too good to me. I turned to the raging fire in front of me, it was a mix of orange, red, and dark blue at the center. The dark oak trees nearby work wonders for firewood. I began to pull my mana towards my hand, it transformed into a translucent ball, almost like a light blue bubble. I began to turn the outer edge of the ball of mana clockwise, then turned the core of the ball of mana counter-clockwise. It seemed to become a phantom-like ball, shimmering between reality, I aimed it at the fire and threw it at the fire like one throws a stone at a target.

The ball enlarged into a dome and stopped time, the fire seemed to be crystallized in a light blue, the outer edge of the dome had a slight silver tint to it. The fire stopped, what beautiful, the orange, red, and blue all seemed to be separated and didn’t mingle together. As if someone made a 3d picture, I walked around the dome mesmerized by the no longer crackling fire. After a minute, the dome receeded inwards similar to how a nova returns to its origins after the shockwave. The fire came back alive as if nothing happened, but I could feel as if space was lightened, no so much unraveled but just less dense. It made sense, as space and time are intertwined. It began to gain its “weight” again and felt more blended together after a few seconds. “Beautiful” I murmured to myself.

I decided that I would need subjects to test Godly Majestic Presence, I will save it for a rainy day. I could understand though what the basis behind the skill would be. As a god before, I had a natural aura that made anyone I come in contact besides other gods, want to kneel before me in worship. It was a hassle as I couldn’t receed the aura and anytime I needed something everyone I would ask to get it from would kneel in worship. Quite annoying as I was never one to ask for religious worship, I just happened to receive some.

…

Dawn started to pop out its head as the night faded away. I decided that I will first walk along the outer forest and see what I can discover in terms of the shadow elf forest becoming regular green forestry again. I wondered what the difference is and wanted to see if there were any creatures that adapted to both. I knew that creatures who adapted to multiple areas tend to be able to give more of a fight, so I was excited. The cyclops would be one example of a creature that has adapted to both regular forests and the shadow forest.

Alpha and I began to walk out of our encampment and wondered towards the west, apparently, the terrain is supposed to become softer… more swamp-like. It makes sense as there is a splitting river that connects to the ocean, this particular river runs through the entire continent and is supposed to be massive. At least from what I heard from the shadow elves. It also connects to another portion of the continent that is considered off-limits due to the dangers of the wildlife. Sounds perfect to me. I figured I could run through it then head back to the shadow elves. Once there I will head off to the north, then fight the wildlife there and then go to fight the lizardmen. Just thinking of the potential bloodshed gets my heart pumping. Yeah… I’m what they call a battle junkie.

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…

On the path towards the marshlands, I saw many mountain peaks, these mountains were very far off but the massive size of them still allowed me to see them even from the coastline. I came across many animals along the way too, such as black and white foxes, they were quite interesting as they hunted small prey only during the dawn and dusk. I also met a few ravens that had white-tipped feathers. They weren’t as smart as the crows that I know from my past life, mostly surviving on instinct rather than using intelligence. Not having birds mock animals and people really tamed the forest, some might at first think that the dark forest had a spooky vibe, however, once you really got to realize the very few differences between the forests then it became nothing more than the same forest but different colors.

The dark forest on my right had beings that used dark mana entwined with nature mana, whereas beings in the green forests used light mana and nature mana. Continuing, the predators in the dark forest are more assassin and sneaking in nature, whereas the other forest’s animals are openly aggressive but bigger. It seems as though anything in the dark forest takes on the darkness attributes besides the “evil” part of the darkness. Furthermore, anything that has evolved in both areas are very balanced in natural defenses and attack proficiencies. The best of the possible examples along the way that I saw is the pangolin.

It’s breeding grounds which I discovered on the way were near the tree stumps on the edges of both forests, had mixed varieties. One type of pangolin had long claws and dark shells, another was smaller and more agile than others, one even had spikes along its back and an extra-long tail. These pangolins were herbivores and were the size of dogs, cute but deadly. I could almost imagine them turning into an intelligent species if given enough time. There were obvious clans among the pangolin and alongside those clans were roles of each pangolin. Hunters, defenders, scouts, gatherers, many different types of roles in which were even better than what the shadow elves had in terms of management. It just shows how far the shadow elves have fallen.

This balance of light and darkness it improves adaptability, through struggling against enemies of many different techniques, you adapt to face many techniques. Nature is truly brilliant. Covering your weaknesses through adapting to your enemies, to your environment, and to your family. In the future of my conquest, I need to recognize the strength of this continent’s inhabitants. Play them off of each other and cover each other’s weaknesses. Furthermore, if I can create some sort of challenge or even a goal for all of them to work with, I can create something grand and beautiful.

I was oblivious to my surroundings as I was deep in thought, however, that little instance of letting my guard down caused me some troubles.

*THUNK*, * THUNK...THUNK...THUNK*, all at once tens of wooden spears flew towards my direction, I was confused and turned to see what is causing all of this ruckus, and then I saw it. A dozen children-sized lizards were throwing makeshift wooden spears at me and alpha. They were darkish-brown in color and looked more like walking alligators than lizards that I assumed they might be. Must be the locals, how nice… I mentally suggested Alpha to take a passive stance, he backed off. I grinned, ready to try my ability.

An aura of the gods descended down upon the kobolds, it made them freeze up and then crash down in kneeling. Even after kneeling they further positioned themselves to kowtow before me. Heads smacking the ground hard enough to probably cause a concussion. The aura of a mighty god was neither evil nor good, it was balanced between the two. Not scary, not purifying but definitely pressuring. Instead of just a harsh pressure, it was so pressurizing that the surroundings were suffocating, nothing dared to move before my presence.

I stopped my ability, and the kobolds were fear-stricken, what would you do if your beliefs in a higher power were disproven within the front of you. Not of a higher power, but who held the higher power. What if whatever you had sacrificed not only some of your weaker children but even your brothers and sisters were nothing but a joke in front of you.

I could see the mental struggle in the kobolds. Rather than just see, I could feel there mentality at risk, between fear, awe, and regret. The dozen kobolds were only 10 meters away from me but were scared stiff, not thinking of running but more inclined to how to survive. I started to walk towards them. If cold-blooded creatures could sweat, then I bet they would be drenched currently. However, they still refused to move.

I walked up to the nearest one, and put my hand on its shoulder. I have been caught between the downs of life and death. I know that what I have believed in most was nothing more than a slightly bigger fish in the sea. I know what regret feels like, tastes like, and the sorrow in which follows is heart-braking. I knew something was going in this tribe of kobolds. What creature which was sensitive to strength would forget all precautions and rush to basically suicide. I have read, watched, and even been in enough situations to tell that they are not doing this willingly, even without having a strong soul-affinity I could probably guess the strife that these kobolds are going through.

There are scars on the kobolds, deep and humiliating. As if they were nothing but toys to some other being, not only that, the practice of kowtowing came familiar to these little guys. Who in the right mind would crush the spirits of such wild creatures? A thought… no vision flashed past my head, it was somehow connected to the kobold I had my hand on. A panther, massive in size was munching on a young kobold. I could see a community of at least a hundred kobolds and I could see the fear, the regret, and sorrow in their faces.

Something needs to die, and I think I found just what that something is.