Kaan wasn’t minding these changes much but after seeing the animals adopting and now mushrooms were out for a hunt, he thought about how exactly was the system affecting the environment of the earth. In his visions, he saw many different species of animals and plants but they were not going on changes like this.

In his visions, they were just different species that weren’t present on the earth but also there were many similarities you could find. Now it seemed that the species in Kaan’s world were also going through a series of changes or maybe direct evolution. All for to be something more adapted to the changing world, to survive. Was it a big problem? Probably not. In his visions, he saw many dangerous beings which were classified as plants and animals rarely became a threat on their own.

From what he knew, they followed a ‘great design’ in the other worlds, simply the same case of animals.

From the words of [Druid] who specialised in nurturing and changing plants to fight with them, ‘There was only so many paths one plant can follow, I could only make some tweaks and adjustments as I inflict my power on in it but in the end it would never be too far away from what it had been once, just a bit more deadly and useful for me. You shall never walk out of the design, especially if you are not sure what you are doing. There is a reason why there are limits and paths. Not that one could easily do it nor others would let one fool play with the balance of nature because he has power ’

In the end, it meant that they were bound by the laws of the system and they were given paths to follow for their species. They did not level, did not possess any classes as they did not possess a will like the sentient species which was thought one of the most important reasons for them to gain a class and level up. It was a very argumentative topic between the scholars, who get to the level and who did not.

It was like a sort of exchange, they did not or gained classes but they had paths decided by the system itself which give them a high chance of survivability. They gained a base strength from the beginning without a need to level and this came with a great limit on their path of growth. And the great design was the limit of the changes the classes could inflict on the plant.

Of course, this was only one of the many explanations. From this explanation, you could think that it was hard to change a plant into something new. There were three common changes made by classes on the living forms. The first one was attribute implementation, it was the easiest one. The second was creating cross-species and the third one was direct species changes.

They were commonly made by powerful individuals for various reasons but there was no record of something being created out of the limits of the system, which was very unbelievable considering the vast range of classes and the influences of higher entities worlds Kaan had visions.

All in all, the classes played by the rules of the system even though some of them found or created a few loopholes, not many of the people outrightly found the limits as a bad thing because most of them never really saw the limits. It was a [Botanist], who probably had more of an advanced class but still stuck into hiding it, who was focused on this topic to make, to create a greater and new life form and to accomplish this she thought she had to break the limit.

Kaan remembered that vision very clearly as it was a very interesting one. Actually, he remembered everything very clearly as after he began to have these visions he never really forgot anything.

She was someone who believed there could have been a better future for them if there wasn’t even a limit in the system. She thought that they were confined by this stupid limit and their classes were bound by it, how could they accept it? She was one of the people who opposed the ‘Great Design’ with her whole heart and she was the one who foolishly thought succeeded it and then regret it.

Kaan remembered a woman named Irem sitting on her chair in front of a metallic table in a white room. There were many documents about the theory of evolution and the cases of newfound paths in ‘Great Design’. She had a pen in her hand as she began to write on the white paper on the table and mutter at the same time.

“I was unable to understand how they were so against it. It wasn’t a problem when they created sage’s grass or Zian, the flower of faith. I know the research caused some disasters in the past but they act like disasters only happens when we research further into this issue. How fast they have forgotten the incident of Liream.”

She began to tap her pen in frustration.

“And because of this we are not getting funded enough, they are not trusting us. Sometimes it feels like they deliberately stop people from researching further into the limits of the Great Desing. I would understand to hear what I want to do is wrong from the believers of the church and from the,”

She stopped for a second and cleared her throat to mimic.

“‘Balance must be preserved and nature must be defended’ lot but even from my own master? Doesn’t he see what I see? Don’t they understand if we could decipher this limit and ‘System’ we long followed like its the absolute, we could create a remedy for many? It’s good to know there are people who still yearn for advancement and know it could open a good door to the future if done right.”

She sighed with discontent over the situation, at least the global society still accepted this kind of research as valuable in the case it succeeded.

‘I’ve been examining the other studies on the tries to exceed the limits of the system, and most of them are gone or damaged badly as they turned out to be disasters. But what’s left from these studies is really helpful. Even though there is no chance for me to create a replica of them they gave me really good insights about the way I should follow and not to pursue.”

Then for a month, it was all research and testing with her two assistants. They were the only ones who were capable enough in her eyes and also wanted to work in this field. The process was not hard, they had samples of one of the most easy plants to work on. They would inflict their power and try to see how far they could go on the paths and then they would try to tear off the connection with the path to move further towards the limit.

Most of their samples were failures. There were no problems until they tried to derive from the paths. Most of the plants collapsed in the process or simply died after the process in various ways as neither they nor the plant itself was able to adjust to its new way of existence. It was to be expected, as they were trying to do something which was deemed impossible, which she wholeheartedly denied hence they were here, by some.

They were just trying to find a way without any clear instructions but at the end of the month, they only had ten samples which were able to survive after the process. They were not even close to what they were trying to do and they had a very big defect. Moreover, they had used just too many resources and they had to continue to use mana crystals to keep these new samples alive.

Irem was once again in front of her desk with an exhausted and down-spirited look on her face. Her head was in pain and she was. She had to observe and tend to them constantly the new samples constantly as they were in a very frail and chaotic state. The assistant help was good but they were not too well informed in this area, at least they had knowledge and experience in tending frail species which came very handy.

“I’ve been trying to test the limits of how far a plant goes without a path before it broke down and I got very useful data. One of the downsides was that it seemed my knowledge and expectantly of the vastness of the limit and hardness to derive a plant from a path fully was very ludicrous. For thorough this month I was only able to disconnect the plant from its path, partly. As for the limit, I am not even sure I really understand what exactly it is and I must say I am fascinated by the order and power of the great design.”

She closed her eyes for a second and try the remember that ‘feeling’.

“Whenever I thought I reached the limit, it was never like the things they told me it would feel like. It was not like a great wall which pushed you away but rather… hmm, it’s hard to explain but it tried to pull you closer to it, it want to make you see it but your own power even warped and deteriorate as you got close to it, yes, something like that.”

Irem could add a few more about how it felt and they wouldn’t be good additions. She felt she was not good at exactly explaining what she felt in the process but she was not even sure what it was exactly. Strangely she only came across these in her last two samples which were in a better condition than the others.

“I am certainly sure that it was not the limit which I found out but if what I found was not the limit then what it was…? I found no information about why it turned out like this so I decided to return to this problem later as it could be crucial information for our research. From samples we created, we understood that when you created a creation out of its path and near to this ‘limit’ we stumbled upon, which might be a new path, things do not turn out well.”

She grabbed one of the samples she kept in her room, a succeeded and a failed subject at the same time.

“Something in them makes them disconnected when they are out of… ‘Great design’, ‘Gods’ design’, ‘Path of Creation’, ‘Will of System’... something. When I inflict my power I know how far they could stretch and be different but after passing that point something in them refuses their own existence, recalling it to their paths. They stop their bodily functions and only could live with utmost care. It took lots of energy to create these prototypes.”

She sighed in defeat when she left the dying plant on the table and began to feed it with her energy.

“Sadly we were not able to understand the cause of it but I was not expecting an easy success to begin with. I’ll look into the fix this issue but it doesn’t seem it’ll be easy. But we need to create a good prototype before joining the so we can get funded or even provided with further equipment and workforce.”

While she didn’t think very highly of druids. She had to admit they were more knowledgeable about the ‘Great Design’ and more… experienced in their power to affect nature altogether. In the end, she couldn’t stop herself from being fascinated by how easy it come to them bend the green and enforce, she knew it was not enforcing but using this word made her feel better as she thought it degraded their lifestyle, their will on animals even sometimes in monster.

While their classes were someway closer it was also very far from each other. She despised them and hated it when people thought they were the same thing. It bugged her too much for them to not use this power to a greater extent because of their stupid rules and beliefs. In the end, she was envying them and how they could be intervened with nature very dearly, which she always wished she could, but she was never going to admit it.

After finishing getting information and advice for her research from them, which she really didn’t want to but they, sadly, had more knowledge in this area, and she was once again reminded why she despised [Druid]s. Thanks to gods, she was once again in her laboratory to a few associates on her field to hear their thoughts but in the end, the only valuable knowledge she got was from the druids. and she was not happy about it.

A few weeks passed like that as she inquired people for information and also looked for funds. She also looked for information about the thing she felt in the library and actually found some valuable information.

They were called Warps of Opposition or Xethbal’s Warp. They had no apparent pattern of occurrence yet as long as one followed the will of the great design there was no way for them to encounter with a Xethbal’s Warp. While the reason why these warps were appearing in great design couldn’t be solved, it was warned that they were very dangerous and shouldn’t be pursued.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

While some warps lead some people to evolve creatures in a way which was never seen before, one of the people who used a warp to evolve her earth-skin ram made it turn into a carnivorous being which first killed its owner and then the whole village hence it gave them their name, anomalies. And after that incident, two more massacres caused by anomalies were recorded and proved. After that, there were many unproven incidents which were repeatedly reported as they were associated with unsolved massacres and deaths.

The scariest thing about the anomalies was they had strangely a purpose and some characteristic of their owner after their evolving process. Some believed the anomalies were created by the system to punish those who didn’t listen and follow the great design but there was no scientific explanation for the occurrence of this phenomenon other than a few theories.

“How could I not know anything about this?”

She sighed and thought about the reliability of their education system. But after considering the number of people who followed the great system without ever stepping out of the paths and the low number of incidents, it wasn’t too surprising that it wasn’t spoken about too much.

She felt excited and also kind of scared by her new discovery and looked into more book containing but there was no other reliable resource in the library and in reliable resources it was never a main topic, only a few words about it were contained in other books she could find.

She was in her room as they got ready to experiment. She got a paper in front of her as he review the information they got in his hand.

‘After inquiring with a few people, the best explanation I got was that the ‘building blocks’ of the plant were getting so worn out in the transformation that they were not able to function properly without the need of a constant energy source to support them. If they were put in a ‘path’ after the transformation it could be valuable but as we are trying to get away from the limits it is impossible. Even if I somewhat agree with them, I am not too sure to call it getting worn out but rather it is like the plant is not able to understand its own existence fully as it was not meant to be the thing that it had become.”

She gave a glance at the sample standing in her room before she continued her writing.

“It doesn’t do what it needs to survive, sometimes it does weird shit and sometimes overgrows uncontrollably until its systems couldn’t bare anymore and fail. I need more samples and more people with the needed skills to identify the problem and create a solution but I know that won’t happen. They warned me to not continue on this path. They told me not to play with the limit of nature especially deemed my understanding of the Great Design was flawed and limited. They told me that it would only lead me to a bad path. Are they looking down on me because I am not a fucking druid now? I’ll make the advance this world needs.’

And the time finally came for them to take the next big step in their research. They used the last ten samples they were nurturing for a while and once again began to bend them to their will to create a new life form. The nine of the samples died without any further, they were by no means able to reach any limit in the great design.

But in the tenth one, she once again felt the anomaly as they derived the plant from its path. She was reminded of the thing she read in the book, she was reminded by her concise that it was a bad thing and it wasn’t even what exactly she was trying to do. But she was desperate, she spent too much time finding funding for this project and told many people she was finally proving herself.

It took only one rash and foolish decision took for one to bring the disaster on itself. Deep down she knew all of her reasoning was nothing more than petty excuses but she didn’t want to lose again, didn’t want to be ridiculed again and mocked because of her thoughts!

She knew it was not what she was trying to achieve but what she desired, or at least it was she thought as her emotions run wild. She guided her power into the plant and reached the anomaly in the great design which was calling her from the beginning. When she touched it, the plant was covered with a dark-purple aura, which she only describe as sinister, and began to change drastically and quickly.

When she realized what she had done, it was too late for everything. Once she began to guide its power towards this anomaly she was not able to stop. She felt unbearable pain spreading towards her body from her hands but her body did not listen to her when she tried to stop the process.

She heard some whispers in her and her brain was contaminated by something twisted. It sucked her mana dry until she collapsed. Before she lost her conscience, she saw a one-meter plant and lots of tendrils sticking out from its body. It was a beautiful flower with purple petals and yellow nectar.

A sweet aroma reached her nose and she could swear she could see the purple aura surrounding its body but without further her eyes were closed. They finally saw the fruit of their hard work. They were able to create one of its kind yet still bounded by the system, what a joke. It succeeded but they were not the ones who did it.

When she opened her eyes she was on her bed. She quickly got and when she looked at her hands she saw dark purple traces which looked like a root system sprouting from her hand to her arms, nearly reaching her shoulders. She cursed herself and quickly wore gloves and put on a long-sleeved white coat to hide the marks on her arms.

She first quickly rushed to the lab to check on the plant but Ophen and Layla took care of it neatly when she was asleep and were still tending the plant in her absence. There was nothing wrong, at least for now. When they see her coming through the door they quickly gathered around her with the happiness of finally seeing the fruits of their hard work.

The group went to a bar too and Irem was not able to refuse this after seeing how high-spirited they were. Both of them were wasted and dancing like there was no tomorrow with a happy expression on their faces while she sipped on her drink slowly. She smiled seeing them as if they deserved it. They worked hard if only they know they actually created something that shouldn’t be created.

Irem couldn’t bear the loud atmosphere and after letting them know she was going early, she quickly rushed. The darkness didn’t feel safe anymore as she felt like she was seeing silhouettes in the shadows and hearing unintelligible words coming not from too far, she quickly rushed to her home.

Everything went well for a month, the plant was showing extraordinary powers and they were amazing. It was able to create a good amount of mana and was able to share it with plants near it. It was even able to drag mana from the plants which produced too much of it and then shared it with other plants who needed it and helped them flourish. Also, it helped the plants use their resources effectively, it was like it was creating a plant hive mind under its control.

Ophen and Layla were fascinated by this new plant and its properties. After one point even Irem began to think what she had done might not be something bad yet the feeling never left her heart. Something was wrong, she needed to get rid of this plant right there when she first woke up and see it, but she didn’t.

She wanted to believe it wasn’t going to turn out like in the book, it would finally make others see her in a good light, and see her ideas were not something to be laughed off. She read a few good anomalies yet they were not proven yet it made her feel better and she turned a blind eye, believing everything would turn out well.

Until one faithful day, her world crashed down.

‘We ignored this problem and it was the beginning of the end. We’ve, no, I’ve done something that shouldn’t have been done. It took me everything to stop there and not listen to its words and not continue but I still have continues to understand where I should stop. This process shouldn’t be known, no one should know and be encouraged by our madness to create something nefarious.”

Irem shook in the wooden chair she was sitting on as she remembered the scene she had to face when she walked into the lab yesterday…

“It’s extremely dangerous and horrendous, it is ready to do anything for its survival. I created a monster and the worst thing is I don’t even know how exactly I did it or what causes it to act like that. I wonder if I was not able to stop it what would it cause? I wonder how many wicked creatures of fallen folk like this one is out there in the world. Ready to kill innocent lives in their wicked play.”

It was then she was in a dark room which was by illuminated only a candle that burned bright. She was looking at the window with worried eyes as she sat down on the wooden chair. She was holding the pen in her shaking hand, there were

“Its words are still reverberating in my mind, ‘We’re here Mother, we are more than the limits you drakes have always possessed. We’re more than one, we’re together, we’re connected. Come mother, come Irem. I see, we see, the future and it’s bright, just as you desired it to be. Just walk in the path of us and you'll have the things you desired the most, you'll take them.’ Oh god, how can I be this blind not to see that it would turn out like this? How long I was manipulated by the anomaly or was all of this happened because I became the slave to my ambitions like a fool? At least I’ll write the things that happened to us so there would be a document which really warned others, would they even care about it I wonder?”

She was still shaken seeing Ophen’s body infected by the plant, how tendrils of the plant came out of its body as the plant began to unite with his body. How half of its face looked like a piled-up mass, tightened stems with deformed flesh sticking out. She remembered how his eye glowed in a yellow hue, in the same colour its Nectar.

She remembered Layla stuck into the wall. The lower half of her body was torn apart by the plants and was already consumed. From her waist tendrils stuck out and from her upper body new flowers were slowly born, feeding on her flesh, a good resource of nutrition. The worst thing was she was still alive in this process, it was keeping her alive. Layla’s body jerked as bloody tears ran down her cheeks, falling down on the purple petals of the flower growing on her body…

Irem was frozen by what she was seeing. The whole room was covered by the sweet aroma too. An existence that shouldn’t have been alive was going rampage in there, and she was the one responsible for bringing it to this world.

After listening to its words, for a while she wanted to believe in them. She saw a bright future that everyone cherished and was happy with their lives. When she felt a sharp pain her hands was when she got out. The marks were shining in white light, warning her to take action or she was going to end just like them. ‘How long?’ she wondered, for how long it manipulated their minds.

She didn’t think of a second and quickly used her powers to hold the plant back. She got out of the room and locked the door on them but quickly tendrils sprouted all over the door and persuade her. She was able to hold it back by inflicting it with her powers but she needed a way to deal with it as couldn’t hold like this it forever. She tried to think of a way to get rid of this, she had to. It had to be killed here and right, it couldn’t get outside.

As she the pain in her arms got as the marks shined in a blinding light right now as if they were trying to tell her something. Just giving a look she know what she had to do. A white flame began to burn in her hands, it called to her. It wanted too much of her but in return, it promised to fix her mistake. She accepted it sincerely and submitted to the will of the fire. She was already lost everything at least she could do something good for this world before she was gone.

As the Ophen continued to pursue her with the tendril sticking out of his body, she turned around and looked right through him. A smile appeared as it enjoyed her submission to it but then white flames exploded from her body. The flames filled everywhere, burning the corridor, then the room. She heard the screams of Layla and Ophen, she heard the scream of the monster which was dying.

When she looked at Ophen’s burning body, she was not sure if he was permanently gone or if they were sharing one body together. She wanted to believe he was gone when she… she killed him. One thing she knew was that the Ophen she knew was already gone, he had to be already gone.

She smiled bitterly as she began to write everything quickly and It was her last words Kaan could see. here before she gathered all notes of their research of creating a greater life form and destroyed the faculty they were performing, erasing everything that happened here.

Her last words were, ‘My path is sealed by the flames for the sin I’ve committed, now I shall find the anomalies as I am the light burning to purify these faulty creatures of Devourers. The flames need to be sure that those monsters are gone, be sure the fools like me are held back for the good of this world. Her light burns through me and if you still insist to commit the same sin I’ve committed after reading this, it’ll burn you to the ashes.’

Kaan was not entirely sure what happened to her at the end of his vision. The flames carried the divine aura in them and from her words he could see that she was saved or chosen to be. But the thing that interested him the most was the anomalies and warps in this vision cause it helped him understand something he saw in another vision. He wasn’t exactly sure what was the great design, he came across it too many times in his visions. Though he understood what it was, it was still a very abstract term to him.

So as long as no one meddled with great design without enough knowledge there wouldn’t be a problem. One had to consider these researchers were not people who really fought with monsters so when they were attacked by their product it was understandable for them to overreact and exaggerated the monster’s feats in their words. Kaan saw it very clearly it just had some extended mind control and it was not something new, just another parasitising being.

From what Kaan saw it would be categorised as a medium-level monster. They had lots of them out there and from what he had seen in the visions, what they created wasn’t even that, so it was not extremely dangerous in any way. But it was interesting and it had the potential to be something more, not anymore though.

There was much to think about. Devourers, the white flames of the purifier, the anomalies and the warps in the great design… But not know, he knew these terms and he knew they were going to encounter them in time just not for now, it was not time yet.

It was time to finally leave this collapsed city and move into the forest. God knew what kind of trouble waited for them in there.