She turned her head, looking at her own body in confusion.
"What happened?"
I raised an eyebrow. She flew closer to my face, staring at her wings.
"Why am I smaller again?"
"You’re back to your original size," I pointed out.
"That’s exactly the problem!"
She spun around herself several times, examining every part of her body.
"This is not right!"
Her wings flapped angrily.
"I ate the whole world core!"
"You did." I nodded.
"Then why didn’t I grow bigger?"
She hovered in front of me with a very offended expression.
"Did I eat bad food?"
I blinked.
"Bad... food?"
"Yes!"
She pointed one tiny wing downward.
"Was that core defective?"
I couldn’t help laughing.
"A defective world core?"
"Yes!"
Her wings flared irritably.
"That has to be it."
She circled me rapidly.
"I swallowed the entire thing and this is all I get? I’m smaller than before!"
I folded my arms, still smiling.
"Maybe your growth doesn’t work the way you think it does."
She froze mid-air.
"...What does that mean?"
"It might take more than two worlds."
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"So you’re saying the food was good."
"Yes."
"And I just didn’t eat enough."
"Probably."
She went silent for a moment.
Then her wings spread with renewed determination.
"Fine."
She turned toward the sky above the pocket space.
"Then we need more world cores."
I chuckled.
"Greedy already?"
She looked back at me with complete seriousness.
"I’m trying to grow stronger."
"Sure you are," I replied with a small smile. "But Vivi, didn’t you say a lot of things would change on Vaythos once you devoured other world cores? I can already feel that you’ve grown stronger, so now show me the changes you said would happen."
Vivi blinked once.
"Ohh... that."
She paused for a moment, then suddenly her wings flapped excitedly.
"Yes! I completely forgot about that."
Before I could say anything else she spun in the air.
"Let’s go! Let’s go back to Vaythos."
Space folded instantly. One moment we were inside Sukra’s world-core chamber. The next moment we were standing back in her garden beside the calm lake and the enormous ancient tree.
I looked around and raised an eyebrow.
"Wow. That was fast."
Vivi puffed her chest proudly as she hovered in front of me.
"Of course it was fast," she said. "Now that I have access to three worlds, moving between them is very easy."
That... actually made sense.
"Come," she said suddenly.
Before I could ask where we were going, she grabbed hold of the space around us again.
The world blurred. The next moment we were floating high above a vast ocean. Endless blue water stretched across the horizon in every direction. The wind moved steadily across the surface below us while sunlight reflected off the waves.
Vivi hovered beside me, looking down thoughtfully.
Then she suddenly said,
"How about we add a new continent?"
I blinked and turned toward her.
"A new continent?"
"Yes."
I looked down at the ocean again.
"And what exactly would we use that for?"
Her eyes brightened immediately.
"Oh, I already have ideas. I’ll make it special," she continued excitedly.
"How?"
She spun in the air, clearly enjoying the thought.
"We’ll create an island with different elemental zones."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Elemental zones?"
"Yes," she said eagerly. "Fire, water, air, earth, lightning... all the main elemental specializations."
She began waving her wings while describing it.
"We can make different regions where each element is naturally stronger than anywhere else on the planet. And we’ll increase the intensity gradually."
I crossed my arms. Her voice was full of excitement now.
"So mortals can train there... then masters... and even grandmasters."
She gestured toward the ocean beneath us.
"It will be a natural training ground where people can grow stronger by adapting to the environment itself."
I had to admit... That was actually a very good idea.
"And we won’t just stop there," she continued happily.
"We can shape the land however we want."
"Oh?"
"Yes," she said, spinning again. "Mountains here, rivers flowing down from them, forests growing along the edges..."
She paused briefly.
"And maybe a giant lightning storm region somewhere in the middle."
I chuckled quietly.
"You’ve thought about this a lot."
She nodded proudly.
"This will be so fun."
"That’s a good idea," I said after thinking about it for a moment. "But there’s something more important."
Vivi tilted her head.
"What?"
"I want our people to grow stronger," I said seriously. "Right now most of them can reach Grandmaster if they train hard enough. But none cross into Transcendent."
I looked out across the endless ocean beneath us.
"That has to change. More and more people should be able to reach that level."
Vivi stopped spinning in the air and floated down, landing lightly on my shoulder.
"If that is the goal," she said thoughtfully, "then we will need two things."
"What?"
"Essence," she replied immediately. "And a lot of it."
She tapped her beak lightly against my shoulder as if thinking.
"And we also need good training methods. Techniques that allow people to progress without spending hundreds of years practicing."
"That’s where the System quests come in," I said.
She nodded.
"Yes. The System helps people grow, but only if the environment supports that growth."
I crossed my arms.
"So how do we increase the amount of essence on Vaythos?"
"It is already increasing," she said calmly.
I glanced at her.
"You noticed?"
"Yes," she replied. "After I devoured the world cores, the natural essence density on Vaythos began rising slowly."
"I felt that too," I admitted. "But the increase is small."
She nodded.
"Yes. It is not enough to cause large-scale changes."
"So we need more."
"Yes."
I looked at her.
"And where exactly do we get that from?"
Vivi lifted from my shoulder and hovered directly in front of my face.
"From you."
I blinked.
"From me?"
She nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes."
She circled me once as she explained.
"Your essence is extremely dense and pure. If you release it into the planet, I can use it as a catalyst."
"A catalyst?"
"Yes," she said. "Your essence can attract natural essence from the surrounding space."
She gestured toward the sky.
"The universe is full of raw essence currents. Most planets cannot pull them in effectively."
"But you can," I said.
She nodded proudly.
"And if you give me enough of your essence, I can amplify the effect."
"How?"
"I will create essence funnels," she explained. "Natural flows in the atmosphere that constantly draw energy toward Vaythos."
That idea made me pause.
"That would slowly increase the planet’s overall essence density."
"Yes," she said happily.
Then she pointed down toward the ocean again.
"And we can concentrate the essence in specific places. Such as the new continent."
Her wings fluttered excitedly.
"We can create zones of extremely dense essence there."
I raised an eyebrow.
She began listing them quickly.
"A fire zone where the ground itself burns with controlled volcanic essence."
"A storm zone where lightning constantly fills the sky."
"A deep ocean pressure zone where water essence becomes incredibly heavy."
"A wind canyon where air currents sharpen and accelerate."
She paused briefly before continuing.
"And in the center..."
"What?" I asked.
"We create an essence well. A place where essence density is ten or even twenty times higher than normal."
I stared at her.
"That would allow people to train much faster," she added.
She spun happily in the air.
"Mortals could train in the outer regions. Masters could move deeper inside. Grandmasters could enter the center."
"And eventually produce Transcendents."
I looked down at the ocean again, imagining the massive continent she wanted to build.
Mountains.
Elemental regions.
Essence storms.
And a core training ground where the strongest warriors of Vaythos could push themselves beyond their limits.
I smiled faintly.
"Alright."
Vivi’s eyes lit up.
"You agree?"
"Yes."
I extended my hand.
"Let’s build your continent."