The First Commander Rises: Yogur-tosoth

As soon as I closed the window, the dimensional gate opened and the god fragment was delivered.

The fragment looked like human tissue that had dried into a brittle husk—layers of earth’s crust sliced clean, or perhaps ancient deadwood stacked in dense, overlapping sheets.

I examined it closely through my divine power.

A mage type. No wonder they wanted to name it Yogur-tosoth. If it had been a physical fighter, I would have gone with Shuc-rimmurath.

“There’s no inventory or anything, right?”

“Correct. It must be placed within the world.”

In that case, I’d set it down in the plains between the Teimong River and the Nectar Oasis for now.

That plain would originally have been desert, but the lake overflowing with organic matter kept feeding it water and nutrients until it had become rich, fertile soil where life could explode.

“Octo is a term for land that’s good for farming. And farming is a symbol of civilization, you know.”

Some ants farm too.

Besides, draining wetlands to plant crops is ecologically insane. The more wetlands, the better. There is no environment richer in biodiversity.

I deliberately edited the world’s terrain to create an “island” ringed by river and lake, then released the water plants, mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and an absurd number of insect species I had bought from other players.

That gave my ecosystem three major terrains at a glance.

The Teimong Wetland and river where ordinary creatures lived—remnants of Teimong’s civilization still dotted the area.

The freshwater lake fed by diluted Nectar and pure aquifer water. (It was still connected for now, but it would eventually merge completely with the Nectar Oasis.)

And the Nectar Oasis where Abhojuth resided.

The Nectar Oasis served as the core axis of my unique ecosystem. The Teimong Wetland built ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a more “universal” ecology. The freshwater lake, where both the Dessert Legion and ordinary life adapted to it coexisted, acted as the transitional zone between them.

My ultimate goal was to turn every single life form in my world into a member of the Dessert Legion.

“Won’t it be quite difficult to evolve them all enough to join the Dessert Legion?”

“It is. That’s why I’m triggering as many mutations as possible and focusing evolution on the creatures migrating from wetland to lake. It’s also perfectly fine to maintain a completely separate ecosystem that doesn’t interact with the Dessert Legion at all.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Of course. Looking at the current situation, the Dessert Legion can’t even survive outside the light-rich desert and the immediate vicinity of the Nectar Oasis. They’re excellent at defense but extremely vulnerable on offense. The opponent might be able to handle the invading jellies this world collision without any preparation whatsoever.”

“Hmm.”

“Which is exactly why it’s important to incorporate and strengthen those ‘natural’ life forms into the Dessert Legion. New creatures that eat ordinary meat and grass while still counting as members of the legion.”

“What exactly is the definition of this ‘Dessert Legion’? Jelly-based life forms?”

No. The jellyfish and jellyfrogs that evolved from ordinary fish and frogs are already part of the Dessert Legion.

Since even those ordinary organic beings had become part of it, the legion needed a better definition than simply “jelly life forms.”

The top priority condition would be possessing a “mineral body.”

“But Nectar Jelly doesn’t seem to have a mineral body?”

Those guys are primitive members of the Dessert Legion. Anything labeled “primitive” becomes an exception by default. Besides, there are Nectar Jellies that do possess mineral structures.

Anyway, to be called a member of the Dessert Legion, a creature must have a mineral body structure.

The jellies and puddings already used sand to create glassy or quartz-like shells, teeth, spines, and scales. The jellyfish and jellyfrogs, by consuming jellies, covered their skin, teeth, and other parts with mineral-organic composites that made them rock-hard.

Once they possessed mineral bodies, the Dessert Legion gained a horrifying asymmetric advantage: they could eat other organisms normally, but other organisms could not eat them.

“So you’re ultimately going to cover every life form you bought from the other players with mineral bodies?”

Exactly. An invasion by the Dessert Legion—whose tissues combine protein and minerals—will be extremely difficult to counter.

In short, among the creatures I imported were large reptiles similar to crocodiles. Simply turning their scales into mineral or glassy material would make them horrifically difficult to deal with.

“It’s a brilliant idea, but can living creatures even sustain such body structures?”

“Impossible on Earth. But this is a fantasy world, so it works. There’s magic here, after all.”

“It’s not magic. It’s mystery. Magic is only a small part of mystery.”

Mag. Ic.

To me, anything that cannot be explained scientifically is magic.

Anyway, with energies like mana and divine power, these biologically impossible creatures somehow functioned…

Of course, the life forms remade into the Dessert Legion clearly possessed insane energy consumption rates and terrifying natural mana drain on top of that.

It meant their body structures made normal activity as living creatures difficult.

“The direction is different, but it’s similar to the ‘artificial life’ that becomes researchable once Technology and Mystery levels rise. Though in truth that requires passing level 15.”

“My Life level is 5. It’ll cross 6 any moment now.”

“Now that I think about it, will you please select the trait cards you’ve been postponing? Quite a few levels have accumulated while you were browsing the community.”

Military, Industry, Mystery, and Faith had each risen by two. Excluding Faith, that gave me six traits to choose.

For Military I selected Melee Specialist and Mystery Organ Utilization. They strengthened bodily combat techniques and the magic the body itself could wield.

For Industry I chose Comfortable Living Spaces and Sturdy Structures. One made homes more livable, the other made buildings tougher.

For Mystery I simply picked Light Mystery Specialization and Fire Mystery Specialization. They would raise the efficiency of Nectar synthesis.

“By the way, you bought a legendary creation but still haven’t used it?”

“Two reasons. First, the world collision is about to begin. I don’t want to burn too many life points right before it.

Second, I want to raise my level first and then choose.”

After only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠two world collisions, the entire world was already teeming with life and had reached level 6.

Military strength was also purely from sheer numbers, sitting at level 3 (above 441). With powerful mystery backing it, the imported crocodiles, giant catfish, giant frogs, and others had transformed into formidable predators through evolution.

I would probably win under normal conditions, but I wanted one more factor here—something that would let me crush the opponent even if they had developed civilization like a lunatic.

The level 6 trait could become exactly that.

I gave the angel a meaningful look, asking for the trait cards. Since I had passed level 5, “Excellent” grade traits should appear instead of the normal ones.

“......”

But there was no response. What was this guy doing?

“Hurry up and show me the trait cards. What are you waiting for?”

When I pressed again, the angel’s expression was closer to bewilderment than annoyance.

And the bewilderment seemed to come from a direction slightly different from my world succeeding spectacularly without civilization, or my life level already reaching 6.

“I apologize, Player Biin.”

“?”

“Well… I reported the situation to upper management, but there are currently no traits I can recommend to you.”

“What kind of nonsense is that? The game recommended traits just fine. Why can’t you do it now that it’s become reality?”

The angel then said something unexpected.

“It’s different. Angels and the game organizers cannot give players traits that would harm them or provide no help, nor can we show any particular favoritism toward a player.”

“But you keep recommending civilization traits to me.”

“That is because the fundamental rule of the game is to create civilization. Even if it is not the direction the player desires, it still supplies elements the player’s world lacks.”

When you thought about it, that made sense.

“However, the current Life issue is somewhat different. Originally, Life points were calculated based on the diversity of life forms, the robustness of the ecosystem, the excellence of each creature, and the overall scale.”

“I’m aware.”

“Yes, yes. But back when it was purely a game, there were limits to the creatures that could be created. Therefore the traits we could suggest were also limited, and we could recommend appropriate ones according to the levels you raised. Even if there were no suitable traits, the system was programmed to recommend even ‘dud traits’ because we could not suddenly add new entries to the list.”

Ah. There had been a few cases like that. When pushing an extreme Life build, completely useless traits would sometimes appear in the mid-game.

“But in your case, Player Biin, you have maximized divine authority to create life forms that never existed in any universe—life forms that, in fact, could not exist—and your ecosystem is composed solely of such beings. We, the organizers, have no idea what kind of trait could possibly grant your ecosystem a beneficial effect worth level 6.”

In short, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to give one. They literally could not imagine what to give.

“Yes, that is correct. Of course, perfectly balanced and fair competition between players is impossible, but we must at least strive for fairness.

Separate from the fact that your playstyle has completely deviated from the organizers’ intentions, we consider it a highly interesting and noteworthy build.

However, we believe that our interference with this build would instead ruin it or damage fair competition with the other players.”

“But you can’t just not give a trait.”

“Yes…”

I pondered this unprecedented situation for a moment.

“Can’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you modify the game rules?”

“Modifying them solely for you would be difficult…”

“So, can’t you modify them for all players? Since a flaw has appeared, it’s like writing a patch note.”

In other words, since I wasn’t receiving the benefit I should be getting, they could give me so-called “compensation.”

The compensation I wanted was the right to decide my next trait exactly as I wished, just this once. And there was only one trait I wanted right now.

The ability to create legendary creations using the power of a trait.

“From what I remember, Life points could only strengthen the base specs of existing creatures. Even if they were living beings, you couldn’t strengthen special entities like legendary creations, fairies, powerful heroes, or anything of that sort. But couldn’t you make that possible from now on?

In other words, from now on, every time my Life level rises, I will strengthen my Abhojuth or create and strengthen life forms equivalent to it. I want that to be the trait I receive this time.”

“......”

“But allow the other players to do the same. I’m not asking for special privileges. I’m simply presenting a solution and claiming the compensation I rightly deserve. Is that not possible?”

“I will communicate with upper management and return.”

The angel vanished from before my eyes.

And suddenly a message appeared.

The game company was handling this well. Handing out free food like that.

Thanks to the increased faith points, I leisurely manipulated the creatures. A short while later the angel, having finished communicating with upper management, returned with an answer.

“Both of Player Biin’s proposals have passed. The rule change via patch note, and the ability to permanently enhance the stats of unique entities—including legendary creations—or newly acquire them by raising the Life level. Both have been approved.”

“Oh.”

“In return, we plan to grant every other player the right to create one Unique Creation scaled to their Life level as compensation for the sudden rule change. Does that not trouble you?”

It didn’t trouble me at all.

Because the one I would create would clearly be several times stronger.

The angel handed over a sparkling “Excellent” grade trait card. I confidently accepted (One-time) Additional 3,268 Points When Creating Legendary Creation.

Then I poured my divine power, the mana existing throughout the ecosystem, and the life forms themselves into the god fragment like a madman.

Twitch—!

Awaken. Sovereign of Magic dwelling within the ancient god fragment. Answer my call.

Twitch—! Twitch—! Twitch—!

Now is the time to write your legend! Appear! Yogur-tosoth! First Legion Commander of the Dessert Legion! Reveal your form this instant!!!

“It’s clearly the summoning of an incredibly powerful creation, and you’re so immersed in it that it feels wrong to interrupt… but the name is the name, so it completely lacks any sense of intimidation…”