Bloom

Air is a singular concept that encompasses a variety of things.

Air is a Dao.

Although I have not finished mastering the Dao of Air, I am quite learned in it.

To the point where a request to those aligned with the Dao, creatures such as Slyphs, and others, will take time to assist me.

The only request I have made to them so far, is to bring word of those who might wish me harm.

The rumors these flighty creatures bring me are vague, being that those who I have learned Martial Arts from are unable to speak of me.

However, people talk, and word always gets out eventually.

They say stuff such as, the biomes are a hive mind.

Or stuff like, there is a single consciousness guiding everything, and it isn’t friendly.

Even, the monsters learn, and grow stronger came up in conversation.

The best one was, the hills have eyes!

Ok, I admit that last one was spread by me for kicks. One cannot appreciate how disturbing the hills having eyes can be till they see the results in action. I have never seen so many people of so many different races blow up so many hills in my entire existence! I might have kept regenerating the hills just to see the twitching faces of terrified people.

Such rumors gain a life of their own, and of course, such a life is never boring!

For some reason though, lately, there are idiots who think I should simply give away all my treasures. As if they have any right to them simply by existing.

My multi-tasking mind is boggled at how someone thinks they have a right to my things simply by existing. This convoluted logic makes absolutely no sense in any way shape or form.

Even worse, people of this thinking type are starting to become more prevalent.

Steps will need to be taken, I daresay!

It is time to upgrade the facilities.

It is time to use Runes to grow my bestiary of creatures!

When I first made the Thousand Minor Window Worlds spinning them from the Maelstrom of sand and storm it was a work of fun.

Now however, two and a half centuries later, I have planned a more in-depth upgrade.

“Number One!” I shout loudly.

“Beep!” Number One says. Recently she’s been speaking in code. At least its coherent code, the last time she was speaking a rare cryptographic double binary solution set. That took weeks for me to decipher, and I’m still unsure if I understood it correctly.

I swear, this is the last time I let her watch a movie with an astromech droid that apparently has a telepathic connection to the main characters!

“Activate the upgrade!” I declared loudly.

“BEEP!” Number One said, before glowing outer circuits on the outer shell of her form started emitting light in twisted patterns.

I stretched out my senses encompassing my entire domain the better to target effects, or speed alterations.

Energy ripples out from underneath each of the Thousand Minor Window Worlds pulsing in specific patterns. Previously I created biomes of all different types. Now however, I am separating the many different, into the few and elite.

Flame, Air, Water, Earth, Ice, Metal, Crystal, and Wood. Not exactly the elements, just close enough for government work!

Flame domain will take up around thirty percent of the total available space. Air will take up another twenty percent. From there it becomes a ten percent split among the remaining Earth, Ice, Metal, Crystal, and Wood.

Flame domain is populated from creatures straight out of my Fire Leaf. The snake inside has grown to even larger proportions, and allowed lesser creatures from the Fire Elemental Plane to eventually enter the Leaf. Picking and choosing among those available I place them into the Flame domain section with care.

Air is a mishmash of creatures who agreed under contract to work there. Slyphs, lesser air elementals, and assortment of wind faeries and so on. At first it was hard to get any of them interested until I explained they would have free reign to torment others, I mean entertain others in their domain.

Earth is filled with mud, mountains, and baked clay. The entire place is mostly filled with a few titanic elmentals underneath, golems, mudmen, and so on.

For Ice, Metal, and Crystal I let Number One handle those. I truly pity any adventuring types that try to enter those without an extremely high level.

Wood is my favorite. Even though only ten percent is allocated to the Wood section, I am taking liberal use of it! Like the woods back on Durant that Dryad used to defend, mine are alive. The entire forest is controlled by a singular heart that moves about to prevent being located effectively. The forest itself hosts many growth type creatures that will only become stronger over time.

In a burst of inspiration I provide a sliver of Chaos to the Forest’s Heart allowing it to access the System. Now all the creatures within its domain will slowly gain the System as well creating even more mayhem.

Going back through the other sections, I provide a sliver to the ‘leader’ of each area.

When the Chaos System fully spreads throughout these places then they will grow even further!

Humans, dwarves, lizardkin and so forth feed on the beasts of this world to grow stronger with the System. I figure turnabout is fair play, now they can fear the very creatures they hunt.

Along with the arrangement of new domains, and creatures, I place treasures down. While I would like to claim my traps, and creatures claim the most adventurers that is sadly untrue.

The creatures that claim the most humanoid lives are…other adventurers!

That’s right, good old greed has killed more people than I ever have.

The first thing that happens when one of my Copper Chaos treasures is unearthed is a blood bath of epic proportions.

The delight in watching sapient creatures murder over a mere trinket of minor effort never seems to grow old.

When I finished re-arranging the Thousand Minor Window Worlds into the new Eight I take a break.

The towns and cities that humanoids had created along my borders, and within my domains have been utterly wrecked in a variety of ways. I’m not too concerned, humans, if not any others, are like ants. They’ll eventually reconstruct everything even if the other races can’t be bothered or don’t want to.

“Number One!” I say.

“Beep!” she replies floating over to me. I’m not really sure why the Crystal domain needed so many shiny, pretty, traps, but I refuse to question the logic of a superior machinist.

“Yes, yes. Please do.” I say responding politely.

It’s time to read my mail!

Hah, it’s been a little over two and a half centuries! I can’t wait to see what the others have been up too…