Spiritual Realm 2
There were three things that surprised me after crossing over to Sesaisa’s world.
The first was the beach ecosystem, which had been ravaged so thoroughly that I could only stare in disbelief. The land itself was excellent quality, yet he had insisted on reclaiming it to plant an oak forest. Restoring the original ecology would have to come first.
That much was surprising, but still within the bounds of imagination.
The other two, however, completely shattered those bounds.
Biin, it is a pleasure to meet you once again after overcoming another collision. It is truly an honor that you have deigned to visit our humble world. Since I happen to be present, why don’t you observe firsthand how I manage the meats.
A colossal, soul-elephant humanoid was floating in the air. The way it spoke told me everything I needed to know.
“Just to confirm. Sesaisa?”
Oh. Of course it is I, ever wondrous. Now that we can meet in spiritual form rather than through messages, you may speak more comfortably. In any case, it seems we two are fated to continue cooperating.
This guy… On the net he had zero manners, but in person he suddenly became polite. Or rather, he became oddly refined.
I dismissed the message interface, summoned the avatar I had used in the game, and answered with my actual voice.
“Fine. Sesaisa. I’ll speak comfortably.”
My gratitude for the courtesy! It appears you have chosen a similar trait. I see another version of you conversing with my main body in the other world.
“Same to you. Did you pick Avatar?”
He had literally obtained an avatar.
As you have discerned. While a god’s mind is useful, I believed I could only truly understand them by experiencing the flesh and spirit of the meats myself.
It was a mythic-grade trait that created a clone inside the world with the same world stats and abilities as the player.
Objectively it wasn’t as powerful as the mythic-grade trait Divine Beast, so it was considered a lesser version. But now that the game had become reality, it seemed the trait allowed separate consciousnesses to control both the outside and inside of the game simultaneously.
This ability suited him better. My own world had no intelligent beings, so I had to manage the ecosystem with nothing but my own power. Sesaisa, on the other hand, had creations that could act as subordinates.
Yet what truly shocked me wasn’t that he had obtained a mythic-grade trait and could now multitask without a subordinate god. It was something else.
“By the way, seeing it in person… it really is incredible.”
You saw it last time, did you not?
“I didn’t realize you had layered the entire spiritual-flow realm.”
Lament! You truly didn’t know? You had no idea just how wondrous a feat this Sesaisa has accomplished?
Sesaisa’s world, as expected, was covered from end to end with the same kind of spiritual structures I had seen in my own world.
The scale was on a completely different level from Elkaider’s, the one who had handed over his spiritual realm along with knowledge of Yeong-rip-hak.
No… to be precise, Elkaider’s spiritual structures felt more “solid,” while Sesaisa’s felt like they were “flowing.” I didn’t even fully understand what it meant for a structure to flow, yet that was the only way to describe it.
The entire world rotated from above, once from below, and once from underground. It circulated every fragment of divinity, gathering enough mana and holy power to forge them into a single spell.
Only now did I understand that Sesaisa had razed his world’s forests precisely to perform this task.
Even so, the reason I could accomplish a task of this magnitude is thanks to you. By directly linking the flow to the divine fragments, life has flourished even more and I can harvest far more acorns. The only problem is that acorns do not grow on the beach.
“Just grow palm trees on the beach. They’re better than oaks.”
The yield cannot even be compared?
“No, that’s… Reclaiming the land to plant oaks would be completely useless. Just plant palm trees. I’ll explain the details later. For now, let me fix your ecosystem first.”
My other self back in my own world was learning diligently from Sesaisa as well. Sesaisa, apparently thinking he would have to maintain the ecosystem even if I disappeared, listened carefully and asked questions about every single part of my work.
As a result, Sesaisa’s world improved dramatically.
Compared to the last time I had seen it, the world itself was four times larger. Naturally, he had tried to plant oaks across all four times the land without considering soil quality or climate, which had nearly destroyed the ecosystem.
After I somehow restored it, my contribution points skyrocketed. There was just one problem.
Sir Biin must award Sir Sesaisa 20,888 points.
My contribution was apparently much smaller. Even though it seemed like Sesaisa hadn’t done much, the knowledge itself was secretive and practical, so the contribution calculation came out this way.
And twenty thousand points was honestly painful. Considering my own ecosystem had been completely wrecked and my total points barely exceeded fifty thousand, it hurt even more.
“Looks like you faced an easy opponent from the start. Aside from what you ruined yourself, there was almost nothing that needed fixing.”
It was a pathetically weak foe. I only sent a few of my meats and they all melted away as if swept by a tidal wave.
Sesaisa’s elephant troops were powerful enough to hunt Yogur-tosoth, so it probably wasn’t an exaggeration.
At the dimensional gate stage, even one or two creatures crossing over would be a catastrophic descent. Especially now that several hero-class individuals had appeared, almost no one would be able to handle them.
However, the next opponent might be stronger. If the points pain you, you may hand over knowledge instead.
Still, handing over every scrap of game knowledge, thesis papers I had looked up myself, and the ecology I had learned in university was out of the question.
But the points really were painful, so when he asked for knowledge I converted what I was least familiar with—Elkaider’s Yeong-rip-hak—into book form and gave it to him.
“How about this? I happened to obtain some knowledge on Yeong-rip-hak.”
Yeong-rip-hak? It is not my primary field, but it is a precious discipline. Let me see.
It really was knowledge from Elkaider that I barely understood. Sesaisa flipped through the book containing information on Yeong-rip-hak and the spiritual flow realm, then answered immediately, visibly startled.
I will purchase this at once.
The angel answered immediately.
“In that case, Sir Sesaisa should actually be giving points to Sir Biin.”
Praise it! Then let us make up for the insufficient portion with an explanation of Yeong-rip-hak and the spiritual flow realm. How does that sound?
“Since I’m so ignorant I don’t even know the difference between magic and mystery, I can’t exactly refuse. Not if my goal is to win.”
And so began the magic lessons from the self-proclaimed greatest expert on general mystery theory, Marquis Sesaisa (he had asked to be called that), taught in a way even an idiot could understand.
For a scholar, he was surprisingly good at teaching. The explanations were extremely easy to follow. Though, I had to admit, he taught like a racist.
The place where meats like yourself take root and live is the material realm. However, in a domain most meats cannot perceive exists a world called the spiritual flow realm.
“Is it different from the spiritual realm I received from Elkaider?”
It is different. The material realm refers to all domains where matter has coalesced, while your world quite literally means only your own world, does it not? The spiritual flow realm likewise refers to all domains where spiritual flow moves, whereas the spiritual realm is simply your own spiritual realm.
“Hmm.”
I see. It might be a translation issue. After all, he probably wasn’t speaking Korean.
Even back when I played Panwol there had been something similar to spiritual realms and spiritual flow realms, but the expansion pack that added those mechanics had been terribly half-baked.
Thinking about it now, they had probably tried to implement the reality of another world and either failed, or succeeded so well that the humans of the material realm could no longer comprehend it.
Since you know nothing, I shall begin by explaining what spiritual flow is. This is like trying to explain what “matter” is to someone who lives within it; those who naturally reside in that domain find it difficult to explain.
Consider what constitutes the material realm. When you examine it closely, it separates into “matter” and “force.” That which possesses mass is matter. The formless flow that moves and acts upon matter is force.
“Ah, I see. So it’s the domain of chemistry and physics. I get the general idea.”
Correct. Spiritual flow is the same. It is composed of “flow” and “spirit.” The important point is that it is the opposite of matter. In the material realm, there is an endless amount of matter, yet the types of force are surprisingly few.
“Four, if our world’s physics is correct.”
Indeed. But the spiritual flow realm is the reverse. The types of flow are practically infinite. However, the “spirit” upon which those flows act? Well, I personally support the theory that there are three.
“You can’t say for certain?”
It has not yet been proven. In any case, “flow” that moves “spirit,” when its influence escapes the spiritual domain and manifests in the material realm, becomes “mystery.” What you simply call magic.
“……Right. So? What exactly does Yeong-rip-hak do?”
To be honest, it felt like I was listening to someone read aloud from a fantasy setting compendium. It really was pure fantasy world-building.
Yeong-rip-hak is, as the name suggests, the study of how to make spirits that react to flow resist that flow and remain fixed in place. Building structures in the material realm is extremely easy. Simply stacking things is enough to create form.
The problem is in the spiritual flow realm. Everything is flow, and constructing structures from spirits that either repel or conform to that flow is extremely—truly extremely—difficult. The player who gave you the knowledge seemed to possess practical techniques even if his theoretical understanding of Yeong-rip-hak was shallow, which allowed him to build a spiritual realm.
So, cutting out all the fluff, it was the study of building magical structures.
“All right. I understand up to that point. Then what exactly does a ‘spiritual realm’ do?”
Simply put, it is a space that can direct flows that cause uncontrollable change in a desired direction, filter them, change the type of flow, or accumulate them in the form of spirit. You are about to ask what one can do with that, so I shall let the version of you over there explain it directly.
∞
The me who had entered Sesaisa’s world now understood the situation after hearing the explanation. Meanwhile, the Sesaisa who had crossed into my world was explaining the method of constructing a spiritual realm to my main body. I naturally took over the explanation.
“Here is a crude temporary spiritual realm. To my eyes it looks like garbage made with high technology, but fortunately we have the blueprints, so improving it is relatively easy. The primary function of this spiritual realm is, simply put, to condense ‘spirit’ by using flow. The condensed spirit is called mana when it dwells within meats, divinity when it exists within beings composed of flow like ourselves, and the power by which meats condense divinity from flow is called faith.”
“Ah, wait. So it’s like a device that produces holy power?”
That was why my faith stat had risen after installing the spiritual realm.
“Correct. However, in my view it is a truly crude method. This is the foundation of the foundation. Both divinity and mana are nothing more than unprocessed raw forms. They must be processed once to become mystery with specific functions.
It does possess the basic function of gathering the world’s surplus and unnecessary flows to create divinity, but that alone is insufficient.
I have already passed the detailed knowledge to Yogur-tosoth. I originally planned to attach a spiritual realm myself later, but since there is already this well-made piece of garbage here, I shall remodel it.”
With that, Sesaisa began dismantling and reconstructing the spiritual realm he had received from Elkaider using his own divinity.
It looked exactly like the manifestation of divinity that creates and evolves life. Perhaps there truly wasn’t much difference. The workings of life and the workings of mystery.
“It is ready. Let us activate it. It shall grant what you desired.”
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!
An absurdly mundane sound, like a vacuum cleaner or washing machine, rang out.
The spiritual realm that circulated throughout my entire world. It greedily sucked in the mana flowing through my world, the flows created from that mana, the divinity, the life force emitted by the Nectar, and every other unnatural power, all to operate this single device called a spiritual realm.
A moment later, the spiritual realm spat something out like a machine dispensing melted ice cream. It was a somewhat squishy yet inelastic substance.
◈ A substance that mimics pure life material, Nectar.
◈ Can be used as an energy source by beings collectively designated as the Dessert Legion.
◈ Condenses not only Life mana but also some Earth attribute mana, allowing consumption of mineral components as well.
My eyes flew open.
This spiritual realm could, in a limited capacity, serve as an external supply base for the Nectar Well.
Right now it had been shaped to squeeze cream from the sky for Yogur-tosoth’s supply, but according to Sesaisa, spiritual realms could also be installed on the ground and would function even better there.
“By slightly altering the form of the spiritual realm, we can add various properties. Hmm. Doing this means the points I receive will once again be insufficient? I suppose I will have to take some Nectar.”
Take as much as you want. This achievement is worth that much.
From now on, this spiritual realm needed a name.
Creamland. The land that produces this “cream” to supply energy to my creatures from the spiritual domain should naturally be called this.
“It somehow resembles the name of an otherworldly realm that one wouldn’t dare approach.”
Much more excellent. It’s only natural that C ranks higher and more supreme than D, isn’t it?