Calamity Section - The First - 5
The Gamchi had always practiced live birth. As creatures that blended the traits of birds, bats, and pterosaurs, they were surprisingly devoted parents. They possessed all sorts of bodily ornaments, songs, and dances meant to attract the opposite sex.
And now, it seemed one more item had been added to that list.
Homes.
"Interesting. Are they using nests as a kind of dowry to seduce potential mates?"
The materials they used to decorate their nests were, naturally, tentacles and shells from jelly-type organisms, the husks of gummy coral, thorns, and the like.
When I thought about the traits I had chosen so far, the list was quite telling: Expanded Architecture, Comfortable Living Space, Sturdy Structures, Coral Industry, Shell Industry, Architectural Art… It really did feel like I had been blatantly pushing them toward building houses out of coral and seashells.
As a result, the Gamchi constructed nests that were enormously large, comfortable, sturdy, and beautifully decorated with coral and shells.
"That alone must be generating quite a lot of culture points, right?"
It certainly seemed that way. In my ecosystem, larger and more powerful creatures usually possessed more ornate and imposing structures. Simply building a large, sturdy nest out of shells appeared to serve as proof of strength and capability.
It was a kind of display of combat prowess, in a way.
At some point, the Gamchi had become absolute masters of house-building.
To what extent? Their own bodies had become relatively clean and functional in design, while their nests had grown extravagantly ornate. Some individuals still created bodily ornaments or sang songs, but even they built magnificent homes.
"So in the end, you need a house to get married?"
It didn’t seem to be solely for attracting mates. There were also cases where couples worked together to build sturdy homes where they could safely raise their offspring.
The flock Gamchi still didn’t build nests and continued their nomadic, migratory lifestyle, wandering in large groups.
Overall, however, “house-building” had become the biggest trend among the Gamchi.
They hunted jelly-type creatures near the Nectar Well and built homes in the desert, cactus forests, the freshwater lakes beyond them, or even farther away in the grasslands and mountains.
It was actually quite insane when you thought about it. Some individuals traveled several kilometers back and forth just to construct their nests.
The Bisyakheet, in particular, would tear coral reefs apart solely to build large, solid nests in the surface Nectar forests. I suppose they were showing off just how powerful they were?
Every time they built a house, my culture score shot upward. There might be no civilization, but at least we had real estate…
Of course, there were also trash who demolished other creatures’ homes to steal building materials, bastards who ignored building their own nests in favor of raiding others’, and jelly-type organisms that simply devoured entire houses. Thanks to them, the world wasn’t completely overrun with shells and coral.
"It’s a fascinating and impressive change. The disaster’s influence on Culture and Charm probably played a role in making living creatures so obsessed with building homes."
Although it wasn’t a high priority, it was possible that quite a few Hero entities might be born from this. For me, raising Politics would have been preferable, but raising Culture right now wasn’t bad either.
"Is Culture not very important in an anti-intellectualism build?"
“It’s low priority. Social creatures centered around Politics can be used quite effectively. But the true flower of a Culture build is religion, shamanism, and citizen happiness… and I’m terrible at using either religion or shamanism, aren’t I? Natural lifeforms have a hard time learning magic, and religion is only for intelligent beings.”
"That’s true."
So… I decided I would be satisfied if the cultural functions occasionally produced Hero entities. Or perhaps unique structures like coral reefs might appear. That would be good too.
The cultural development of the Gamchi was quite positive.
However, the problem with the Gamchi was parasites.
To be precise, it was only a problem for the Gamchi. In truth, parasites had never been a major issue across my ecosystem as a whole.
The reason was simple. There had been organisms that parasitized jellies, but they had simply lost out in the struggle for survival.
"You lost. To a Level 5 disaster."
Yeah. Of course I never thought my Dessert Legion would lose, but the defeat still felt rather hollow. The formation of an immune system through Syrup had been especially unique.
"Huh?"
“You know how Gel plus Topping equals Syrup, right? Right now I’m using Syrup to connect Creamland and the Nectar Lake, create the spiritual realm, make dough and yogurt, and do all sorts of things. Apparently those Syrups started parasitizing jelly-type organisms on their own.”
"Hmm."
Yogurt jelly was the most obvious example, but even beyond them, there were far too many jellies, puddings, gummies, and candies that contained Syrup within their bodies.
However, these Syrups hadn’t evolved into parasites. Instead, they had fused with the host’s biological structure and become a kind of organ.
They circulated through the bodies of simple-structured jellies in place of an immune system, devouring any parasites that entered. If further improved, they would probably be able to defeat bacterial diseases as well.
"That’s interesting. Though it’s common for a disaster to end up being too easy for the world it targets."
Unfortunately, this compatibility seemed poor with the Gamchi. The Syrup was instead threatening their survival. It appeared their natural immune systems struggled to resist both the Syrup and the parasites at the same time.
"So what will you do?"
Hmm. After thinking it over, I decided to evolve the parasites.
"Eh?"
“It’s possible, isn’t it? They’re clearly living creatures that entered my ecosystem as part of the disaster.”
"That’s… true. Now that I think about it, there aren’t an overwhelming number of Gamchi, and since your divine power is practically infinite, you should be able to handle it without issue."
Exactly. I was aiming for a kind of co-evolution between the parasites and the Gamchi.
Parasites could never have a high lethality rate to begin with. If they became too strong, they would kill their host and lose the ability to reproduce.
So I planned to guide the parasites’ evolution in two directions.
First, symbiosis with Syrup. While Gamchi and Syrup were incompatible, I would create a Gamchi + (Parasite + Syrup) form. The parasites would coexist with the Syrup, accepting its flow, extracting energy from the host more efficiently, and simultaneously performing a kind of immune system function.
"They’ve already entered the body as parasites. What exactly are they supposed to provide immunity against?"
“Magic. Because the Syrups naturally contain flows, when they circulate inside the body they seem to increase magic resistance. Since both Gamchi and jelly-types already have trash-tier magic resistance, I figured I might as well boost it with Syrup.”
"Oh… As always, your game-like way of thinking is impressively sharp."
The second direction was that if energy supply was sufficient, the parasites would not overly stimulate the host. Since my ecosystem had the cheat-like substance called Nectar, food supply was truly outstanding.
However, when energy supply became insufficient, the parasites would begin to rampage.
"Do they attack the host?"
“Of course not. It’s the opposite.”
The Syrup fused with the parasite would begin releasing magical power because it couldn’t consume energy. That magical discharge and its flow would violently stimulate the mind of the parasitized Gamchi.
As a result, any Gamchi that sensed insufficient energy supply would become extremely ferocious. Not only that, the magical power emitted by the parasite would dramatically increase their physical abilities and dull their sense of pain.
I infected the Bisyakheet with this.
"Whoa…"
The Bisyakheet had always lived obsessed with Nectar. Now, the moment they failed to consume proper amounts of it, they would go berserk and desperately try to shove that pure essence of life into their mouths.
And if I unleashed these Bisyakheet into an opposing world that had no Nectar at all?
"It would be unimaginably horrifying."
Exactly. The Bisyakheet would shove anything they could fit into their mouths, and still go into convulsions from starvation. We would see during the next collision whether anything could stop these frenzied apex predators.
Additional disaster resolved.
The parasites have now evolved to coexist with the lifeforms of the Dessert Desert. Instead of attacking their hosts, they live in symbiosis and spread even further across the ecosystem.
With that, I had resolved two disasters. Now all that remained was to raise Culture to Level 6 and everything would be settled.
∞
Even I, who still retained some of my human senses, found it confusing. Right now I was controlling multiple split bodies simultaneously.
I understood that it was “simultaneous” in terms of time, but somehow it felt like there was a set “order.” Even if events happened at the exact same moment, when watching a movie or reading text, you could only experience them in sequence.
So even though I was clearly observing the Nectar Well, resolving the parasite issue with the Gamchi, and checking on Yogur-tosoth all at the same time… subjectively, it felt like these things happened in order.
In other words, it seemed like my consciousness arranged them according to priority.
Anyway, I went to see Yogur-tosoth.
“Yogur-tosoth. The disaster has been resolved. The coral reef has satisfied the condition of Beauty.”
I could feel his shock. He probably hadn’t even properly researched magic yet.
Well, that was obvious. I had the angel’s help to pick traits and could work on multiple bodies at once, while he had to do everything alone with his own power.
So it was inevitable that he would lose. But the important thing was making sure he didn’t get stressed out by defeat.
“However, that was only in terms of ‘speed.’ I simply reached the minimum condition of overcoming the disaster first. From now on, we must focus on raising the perfection and quality befitting a true god.”
“I raised Culture by making the coral reef Beautiful. But I cannot stop there. If you produce results that match or far surpass the coral reef, I will reward you accordingly. Of course, it will be far less than what I received for succeeding where you failed, but I could even grant you an entire territory.”
“There is no longer any need to obsess over Beauty. As long as it raises Culture, any kind of magic is acceptable. Research whatever you wish.”
Yeah. This should be enough. I didn’t want Yogur-tosoth to become disappointed and give up on research, or suffer a blow to his pride.
Since I was also working hard to develop the coral reef, I simply hoped he would do at least this much.
“If you need any help, just say so. In the end, this is all for the prosperity of the Dessert Desert… You are qualified to receive even more support.”
“Do as you wish.”
Having received the authority, Yogur-tosoth spent a long time researching magic before finally reaching a point of satisfaction.
“Good. Show me.”
The moment Yogur-tosoth cast his magic, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of enormous bubbles burst forth from his tentacles and bubble-like body.
Each one carried a strange hue and emitted light. The dance of the glowing bubbles looked like a performance, yet also resembled architecture built from the flows of the spiritual realm.
Yogur-tosoth had clearly tried to maximize the bonuses from the traits I had chosen. His magic spread across a vast domain that filled the entire sky and the spiritual realm.
The emotion created by those colors and lights was a mixture of Beauty and Oppression.
It was called Awe. He spread that sense of awe everywhere, driving an entire corner of the ecosystem to worship him.
Quite the performance.
"It’s truly incredible. It’s a spell that temporarily creates a spiritual realm and shakes the very minds of those who witness it."
If modified, it could probably be used offensively, but even as it was, it seemed to have an enormously positive effect on the entire world. The Culture score was skyrocketing right now.
And finally, it arrived.
The world’s Culture score has surpassed 4,085 points, raising it to Level 6. You may now select a new Culture trait.
Additional disaster resolved.
The inspiration from beyond the stars has intensely stimulated the creations of the Dessert Desert. They now seem sufficiently satisfied with their own appearances and have realized they possess a powerful weapon against others.
Success Bonus — 『Monster: Entities become increasingly Grotesque in proportion to their Charm, plunging opponents into emotions of Fear and Oppression.』
Wait a second. If I took this trait…
“Kieeeeeeeeeeeek!”
“Kaaaaaahhhhhh!”
Yogur-tosoth, who possessed the highest Charm in my ecosystem—his score now approaching five thousand points and nearly surpassing even the Shikadoz—was simply by existing terrifying the surface lifeforms and driving an entire section of the ecosystem into madness.
My other creatures had some resistance to ordinary grotesqueness, but they seemed unable to withstand Yogur-tosoth’s overwhelming Charm.
“Yogur-tosoth. Excellent. Your achievement is truly magnificent. As a reward, I grant you the Space-Time Boundary as your territory.”
And so it was a happy ending. But the angel was looking at me with a strange expression.
"Um… wasn’t the Space-Time Boundary already under Yogur-tosoth’s jurisdiction anyway?"
Is that really important right now?
‘You have done splendidly. Thanks to you, we have overcome the disaster. As a reward, I grant you the Space-Time Boundary as your territory.’
‘It falls short of expectations, but your effort is commendable. As a reward, I grant you the Space-Time Boundary as your territory.’
‘Truly pathetic. You deserve no territory, so as punishment I charge you with managing the Space-Time Boundary.’
No matter what he achieved, I was going to give him the same thing. If the recipient didn’t know that, it would simply feel like a reward. That’s pretty much how TRPG mastering works.
"Whoa…"
All disasters have been resolved. All remaining calamity sections have been converted into protection periods.
I had overcome every disaster. Well, there were four Level 5 disasters, but my score had actually been 210,000 at Level 8. It would have been strange if I couldn’t clear them easily.
"The next opponent is going to be truly pitiful. How on earth are they supposed to deal with this…"
Not my problem. Let them adapt to the disasters I give them.
Hmm… Since the remaining secondary protection period is quite long, I should reorganize my ecosystem a bit more. Complacency is the first step toward defeat, after all.
That’s right. Come to think of it, the [Bread] and [Yogurt] I worked so hard to create before the disaster hit seem to be doing very little right now… Should I go check on them?