NOVEL WEB I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 40
Angru began spreading the news of my appearance following my introduction.
Surprisingly, a decent amount of people took his words at face value, which I assumed was due to them already being introduced to rumors of my existence through stories passed down about Uunga.
Uunga became a sort of boogeyman on the plateau. Parents would tell their children that if they made a mess of the village streets, the 'man who shaped the village' would appear and throw a tree at them.
It was pretty hard not to laugh when I was told this by Angru, since I got to witness that event happen live.
I still can't get over how hilarious that was. It was one of the few times I've seen him lose his temper.
The incident itself took place near the start of his time on the plateau and came after months of random people moving their tipis into his carefully marked streets. Of course, he purposely missed the guy, but the warning seemed to be ingrained in the heads of the villagers.
With stories such as these being passed down, rumors of my existence followed suit as the one who gave him that power. Rumors were still just rumors, however, so there were still many who were still doubtful of the words of Priest Angru.
Such a possibility was something I had both expected and prepared for.
"Gather the non-believers, for I shall show them a miracle so grand they will have no choice but to acknowledge my existence!"
Angru followed my instructions and gathered the nearby humans into the village center. Lured by curiosity and the possibility of some rare entertainment, there was easily a crowd of a few thousand people.
Oh~ this is gonna be fun!
"Now then, get ready to see the power of your creator!"
With Angru relaying my words, I used the first bit of resource points from Uunga's Tier I prize to break off a large cherry tree branch and hover it above the humans.
"Raaaa!"
"Fuo branga!"
"Ungo branga!?"
Muahahaha! Bow down before my massive stick, humans!
I smiled in pleasant amusement as I watched all of my people pointing at the flying branch with expressions of awe.
"That's not all, folks! It's time for an encore!"
In the center of the humans, I positioned the branch to be completely vertical then created two basketball-sized rocks that I hovered underneath it.
"Raaaaa! Pena!"
"Pena fuo!"
"Pfft-"
I tried to keep a straight face as I wiggled the objects in the air.
"B-bow before my giant-"
"Squawk!"
"Ouch!"
My good time was interrupted by a sharp peck on my side.
"Fine, fine. I guess that's enough for now."
Still smiling from the human's reactions, I floated the stick and stones into the temple and layed them in front of my statue. In case any of the humans didn't get the message from seeing the flying objects, I was sure that the last part would convince them.
With that display out of the way, I was able to leave things in the hands of my priest and focus my attention on my next task.
There had been a side project of mine that I had been planning since I first made my realm, and now that I finally had some resource points, I could finally start working on it!
Oh baby, it's finally time!
The targets of my excitement layed in the southwest of my realm where three bare islands sat above the seas. To bypass the Academy's watchdogs, I had to have them form through volcanic activity over the course of the 360,000 years we had for development time. We weren't supposed to have any land not directly connected with the main continent, but apparently, their screening for such a thing ended long ago, as the islands had been laying dormant for quite some time with no notice from the Academy.
That might change if people start settling on them.
Given how nothing even close to boats had been invented yet, it would be a long time before there was even a chance of that happening, though.
I'll deal with that when the time comes. There's no way I'm putting such a golden opportunity to waste.
I had long planned for the islands to be a sort of hub for evolution similar to the Galapagos Islands back on Earth. There had already been a ton of new species and subspecies that had popped up from my original seven. Including the original seven, there were now four types of cherry trees and mushrooms, six types of chickens, two types of moss and earthworms, and an absurd amount of fishies.
Although that was a lot, now that all of the major niches were filled, I expected this growth to slow down considerably. Being able to start over on isolated islands would be an amazing opportunity for more species to be created.
It would have been ideal to have started such a project even a few heavenly days ago, but sadly I didn't have the resource points to move anything onto the islands.
Well, I don't want to waste even more time, so how about I just get started.
I had a solid plan for two out of three islands.
The first of these would take place on the most isolated of the three: the island southeast of where the massive river spilled into the ocean. I planned to bring over some fairy ring mushrooms and giant mushrooms to make this a sort of mushroom island.
Although I also wanted to introduce some chickens, I was worried that there would simply be a repeat of what happened in the mud flats of my realm. There was no real benefit if the island simply turned into a hub for poisonous mushrooms.
So, I just need to take away that stimulus until the mushrooms go down a different path.
It was simple: if the poison developed as an adaptation to defend against the chickens, I wouldn't need to worry about the poison until their introduction. This would be less of a concern once the mushrooms started to diversify a bit and poison would be harder to develop.
There was no telling how long it would take for this imaginary threshold to be met, but it was certain that my realm would need to endure more than a couple of battle phases in the meantime.
"I guess I should do a little prep work, huh?" I muttered as I glanced over the barren island.
My realm's islands were formed from underwater volcanoes, much like Hawaii. The rocky surface created by cooled lava flows were a bit tough for the mushrooms to grow on. Mushrooms were a pretty good pioneer species, but they would still need some help to get started.
There were two options I could go with; I could create a layer of topsoil like how I did for my main continent, or I could break down the rock myself to give the mushrooms some gaps to settle on.
"Hey, Mister Flippers."
"Squawk?"
"It's rock smashing time~"
The decision was a no-brainer. Moving or interacting with objects was incomparably cheaper than creating them. Sure, I received a decent amount of resource points from the Tier I prize, but it wasn't enough to waste on something like this. This was especially important considering I had no idea when I could get more of them.
Luckily, natural weathering broke down a large portion of the island which saved me a ton of resource points and work. Those sections just needed a tiny bit of preparation before I began to carry over some fairy ring and giant mushrooms from the main continent.
I turned my attention to the other two islands after the seeds of my mushroom island were put into place. These two were far from the main continent, yet relatively close to each other.
I don't think I can guarantee an isolated system on these two.
It wouldn't be too surprising if a cherry or a moss-covered rock from one of them floated over to the other. Unlike the mushroom island, however, I didn't really need the two of them isolated from one another; as long as they were separate from the main continent, it would be fine.
The reason for this was that I only really knew what to do for one of those islands. There were just not enough species available to make a notably different environment, so I planned to keep the other as a sanctuary. If one of my species looked to be struggling, I could place them on the island to prevent them from dying out.
As for the other island, I got ready to introduce four species: moss, earthworms, quasi-ducks, and coastal cherry trees. While the moss and earthworms were really only there to maintain the soil for the trees, I thought that these species had some interesting potential in an island environment. The coastal cherry trees were still only a sub-species found on the eastern gulf where storms frequented. When left to develop on a windy island, I was certain they would evolve much further.
The same could be said for the quasi-ducks. Despite being isolated on an island, they had an ocean's worth of fish to consume. I really wanted to see what changes they would undergo.
After breaking down the rock on the island closest to the continent and placing my lifeforms on it, I took a second to watch over my realm.
"Man... I never get tired of this."
A warm feeling filled my chest as I looked at my realm.
I still can't believe I made this world...
I had crafted a masterpiece in my eyes. The bright blue oceans and the lush green cherry tree forests brought me so much pride.
With the islands finally prepared, it finally felt like my original vision had come to fruition.
What was once a yellowish brown sphere was now covered in shades of blue, green, white, brown, and black.
Hold on a second... black?
I zoomed in on the screen toward what looked like black specks forming a razor-thin dotted line across my continent.
The heck could those- oh my god!
Their identity became obvious the instant I zoomed in enough to notice the renowned flame-shaped leaf canopy on the top of the black branches.
"Torch trees!"
"Squawk!?"
"You remember them? I can't believe it, but it makes so much sense!"
There was only one person who could have brought torch trees to my realm: Uunga. My fallen Oracle carried an ignited branch during his attempted journey back to the plateau. Given how the tree's seeds spread through the smoke, it would have been nearly impossible for none of them to germinate.
... Even after he's gone, that guy never stops amazing me.
My eyes became a bit glassy as I looked at the line of torch trees almost perfectly paving the path my Oracle once walked.
"...Squawk."
"I know. I miss him too," I replied to the penguin with a sigh.
Uunga had saved the realm, slayed an Oracle, earned a statue, gave me a ton of resource points, and brought back a new species as a trophy. He had done so much more for my realm in addition to all of that and it was nearly time for me to choose his successor.
I couldn't help but smile as I reflected on his legacy.
That's gonna be a tough bar to reach.
It was honestly unrealistic to expect my next Oracle to even manage half of what Uunga had accomplished. As long as he could stop Ferguson, I would consider it a resounding success.
Unlike Uunga, he won't need to fight alone either. I should probably tell Angru to-
Ding!
Huh?
I glanced over to the source of the sound and noticed an unusual display on one of my previously dark monitors.
"The Oracle chat?" I mumbled.
When I was fast forwarding time, Uunga's messages to me would be displayed on the monitor in a manner that resembled a chat log so that I could slow down time to talk if needed.
That layout was exactly what this monitor resembled, but it couldn't be the Oracle chat, since that took place on a different monitor.
"So what could-"
I leaned in closer and finally noticed the screen's header.
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[Prayer Log]
New Notification!
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Jacob's Current Evolution Sheet
Jacob's Realm
