^^ Ken and Zoken ^^

— James —

The notification returned after a moment, almost sheepishly.

<Alright... Sub-Answer: skills will be reset, to declutter your Stats, and you'll be a First Generation Spirit Sphinx now, instead of an Ascended Elf that became a whole bunch of other stuff. You're a Sphinx now. Your children will be Sphinx's, instead of Elves.>

I blinked slowly. "Huh... anything else? Any special surprises you wanna drop on me? Am I going to become a Lesser God eventually, if I keep improving? What's the strongest Level someone can get to before Ascending the Mortal Plane?" I asked flippantly.

<No, you won't Become a Lesser God from Leveling Up or Evolving; if you survive for a long amount of time, (such as 100,000 years,) and impress the Gods, when you die, your spirit can possibly be reincarnated as a Deity, if people worship you enough. You've already got enough worshippers to be a Shinto Deity, and your own Shrine, so when you die, you probably will become a Lesser Shinto Deity, but of what, I don't know. It isn't up to me, you see.>

"Huh... Pass. And everything else?"

<PASS?!? You can't PASS?!?> the screen's edge was tinged with red, like his blood pressure was going up.

"Ehhhh, the life of a god sounds boring! I think I'll reincarnate as a human or an Elf, again, start from scratch like everyone else did, you know? Maybe one of my grandchildren will be born stillborn, and I'll reincarnate as him or her? That sounds like a decent deal." I nodded, making the decision final.

<You... YOU CAN'T CHOOSE HOW YOU REINCARNATE!!!> the entire screen was red, now.

"According to you, I'm going to be a god; therefore I'll do what I want, and reincarnate myself, if it comes to that. One way or another, I get my wish." I shrugged.

Silence for a few moments, and then the normal screen. <That... unfortunately makes a lot of sense. I suppose either way, you get reincarnated... and you want to be reincarnated into this world?>

"Well, there must be others, but I like this one so far, yes. Can I hear about the others?" I asked, leaning back and looking up at the stars.

<... Sure. There's 72 that we control, currently,->

—

"So, you've gathered us here, what for?" Sakura asked, looking around the table at the surrounding chiefs.

"Well, it isn't, really, it's more something that effects your clans, specifically... we should drink, first." I poured the alcohol from the small ceramic jug it'd been warming in, and held up a small saucer.

They hummed and sipped the small amount of alcohol, before coughing violently, even Ken, who had had some before while we were testing it.

I cleared my throat, after they'd all recovered, and poured another cup for each, even though they were already blushing, one and all. "So, all the Students have evolved, some more than once, and they are now all above Level 225, Zoken is a 7th Form Hero and a Goryō, Mika is a 5th Form Saint and a Mōryō, Jerrod is almost an 8th Form Sage and is a Black Dragon, and also currently the King of the Dead Wood, Maze is a 7th Form Elder Charred Dryad, and Hallox is a 4th Form, Level 285 Death Orc, close to evolving... I am also evolved, into a New Base Race, because I've evolved 13 times, and I'm now an Awakened Spirit Sphinx! Cheers?" I held up the saucer slowly, grinning awkwardly.

The Dragon Chief, Jerrod's Father, chuckled slowly, before bellowing with harsh brays of unsophisticated laughter, totally different from his regal form, and patted my shoulder happily, still giggling and snorting, apparently unable to help himself just yet. Just when I thought he'd recovered, he devolved into another fit of giggles, falling out of his seat and shifting into a smallish green dragon, about seven meters long. He began to snort up puffs of dust, or maybe smoke and Miasma, and I cleared it out of the shrine before someone breathed it in.

I sighed, and Ken, who had been shocked stiff, flinched. "Zoken evolved into a Goryō? But that's an Ultra-Rare Sixth Evolution, isn't it? And 7th Form, are you sure?" He asked, confused.

"Yes. He's currently the Weakest, at Level 225 or so, though, His 7th Form Ur Armor is pretty decent when he remembers to use it." I shrugged.

He sat down heavily on the ground next to the small table we'd been drinking around, and slowly lowered his head into his hands. "What... the hell? I've been neglecting my training..." he stood and walked out, towards his personal training clearing in the Gilded Wood.

I clapped once, loudly, and nodded as the others came to order. "Now, if that's all? I expect we need to prepare some housing on the mountain, for the coming spawn? Mika can handle that..." I hummed, thinking aloud about the plans I'd drawn up before this meeting.

"Spawn? Who, your children? You've managed to get a few of the women pregnant?" Sakura asked excitedly.

"Well, I imagine so, after the Legendary-Class Fertility Herb I ate just after I woke up, but I meant the children that will be born in your villages, seeing as I put that same herb in the water of the lake." I nodded.

Madame Lily gasped slightly. "Is that true?!? We must acquire some men before it loses potency!!! As good a plan as having you as a Stud was, with your new Evolution, your base Race is higher than a Dryad, so the point would be entirely lost!!!

"I... intend to? Was that not clear?" I said, confused, and showed them the plan I'd drawn up for a Village on the middle of the mountain; it was above the Gilded Wood, wrapped around the mountain in a thick band below the shrine and the Spirit Apple Groves. It was about the size of the Orc Village, funnily enough, and big enough for 1000 people, easily.

They paused, and then the dragon nodded slowly. "Then your plan is indeed interesting; segregation is not necessarily the best, though, so the Mates must be spread evenly amongst the villages, yes?"

"I more intended to go out and save monsters who are Enslaved, and bring them here; if they would like to oblige you or join in to your... odd, polygamous, orgy-filled lifestyle, then so be it, but if they'd just like to live in peace, I'll have a village for them." I shrugged.

Fellden nodded seriously. "Many Orc are Slaves and Gladiators, in the Far Lands. Freeing them from their Chains, and making the Monster Lands their homes once more, and especially our Lands, where most Humans dare not roam, that is agreeable."

"And you think to bring them all... here?" Madame Lily asked slowly. "I hate to be the Naysayer, especially on so noble a cause, but... we can't support that many people... we have excess, yes, but enough for a few hundred more, not the Millions that are enslaved!" She frowned. "If we made the entire Elysian Plain into a grove of fruit trees, perhaps we could feed them?"

"I suppose that's a possibility, but I'd prefer they fend for themselves, which is the purpose of my separate village, so they also don't stress the current balance of the villages. It'll be a transition point, before they're placed with another village we've also made. Once they're settled, they'll be on their own... The Fields are big enough, and sparsely populated enough, to handle the increase; from what I've been told, we have the highest amount of Game of all the Continents, and by far the fewest residents. They can make their own way easily, with a single Level 250 Warrior to each village, to protect it from various threats." I raised an eyebrow.

"That is true. We will begin preparations for various types of villages, tenuously... do you plan to steal these slaves? We support you, of course, and I don't mind going to war with Slavers." Chief Kylan asked.

"And start an actual war? No, as much as it bites at me, I'll be paying for them legally, and teleporting them here, if one of your wizards can manage that, a few people at a time?" I sighed.

"That is definitely possible. Jerrod should already be able to manage that. We will begin preparations." He nodded his green dragon head, and turned, waddling out on his stumpy little dragon legs, not really suited for walking on.

I rubbed my forehead slowly, and sighed. "Alright, that's done... on to another, related matter! tell me, what type of pregnancy times are we looking at, and what kind of maturation? When do your races become self-sufficient enough to be sent out into the world? Or, the various villages, more specifically." I asked the remaining people curiously.

"No idea for your children, really... but for Dryads, it's usually a sun or so, before you even know you're pregnant, and then it's about two suns more before you have the baby; it grows quickly, and by the time it's five suns old, it is grown into an adolescent form, and from there it begins its journey into adulthood, which is reached around 25 years of age... Maze is 22 suns old." Lily nodded.

<As for you, Sphinxes don't usually Breed, actually preferring people to reach them the way you did, through evolution. But, they grow at the same rate as Dryads and Dragons, except they actually have to Evolve to grow into their adult forms.>

"Hmm... alright. So we have a little while to create a proper town for the new additions to grow in, and a few places for them to go after they've reached Adolescence... they'll need to hunt and fend for themselves properly, so the village isn't bothered..." I hummed.

"If we stocked the lake with fish, you think your brats would enjoy that for food, you know, being cats and all?" Sakura asked sarcastically.

"Well... that might actually be interesting... but the Water Spirits live in the lake, so no... but I can make another lake, that's true..." I chuckled, taking her idea seriously, and looked out to the east, where the Ocean was so close by, only about ten leagues away. "Or a River." I grinned slowly, a plan forming.

—

My plan for the new River Village was relatively simple. I would create several fishing villages, along the banks of a deep and wide river, where people would go to fish and bring back food for their villages, and then at the end of the river, facing the ocean, there would be a fort, making sure nothing entered the river that wasn't supposed to, and also exchanging goods with ships that stopped there to trade or fill up on supplies.

I knew that the far end of a continent wasn't exactly prime placement for a port city, but considering that the other side of this was a massive ocean that spanned half the planet, I figured some sort of large fishing enterprise could be managed, and whatever wasn't used up feeding the Freed Slaves, the children, and their mothers, could be exported to the 'Holy City', or wherever else, I didn't really care.

With that and a few elixir sales a year, I had (hopefully) successfully re-balanced the Elysian Fields' economy, which I'd thrown for a loop with my arrival and now a possible population boom of other species'.

"Well, I suppose that's meeting adjourned, then... some more Wine?" I grinned, refilling the empty cups happily.

—

I placed the remains of the Apple of the Sage into the water of the Stream around my Silver Grove, which now ran on two sides of the mountain; one to the lake, and another to the River, once it was finished. In this way, the fish, the water elementals, the Dragons, Dryads, Ogres, and Orcs, they all received not only power, but the 'Magical Fertility Potion' that I and my students had eaten.

I found another seed, when I crushed the Apple, so I planted it in the branch of the streams, and then analyzed the water around it, after it made a sapling.

<Item: Spirit Sage's Mountain Water
Effect: Spirit-Level Healing Buff.
Effect: Spirit-Level Increased Muscle Growth.
Effect: Spirit-Level Increased Durability.
Effect: Spirit-Level Increased Virility/Fertility.
Effect: XP Gained x2
Effect: Inedible to <Lvl 50, .01% chance of death.
Per-Race Blessings; pick one.
—>Sphinx's Blessing: High-Grade Evolution Paths
—>Dragon's Blessing: Level Cap raised by 400
—>Orc's Blessing: Physical Stat Multi per Kill
—>Dryad's Blessing: Crops increase their Bounty
—>Ogre's Blessing: Immunity to Fire&Ice.>

I hummed. "Level Cap? What's that?"

<Each Race has a Level Cap on how high a level they can reach simply by existing. Every period of time, which is different for each, that a Race exists, they gain a level up to 100. For most monsters, it's once per year. At that point, they evolve, and the process changes to one of XP, instead. Of course, if XP is found or obtained before then, you can evolve faster. Removing that cap means the monsters who live for thousands of years can level up indefinitely. Right now, the level cap was raised, for the creatures in this Town and anything that drinks from that river, to 500. That is essentially your level, (509.)>

"But it says pick one?" I frowned.

<Yes, but considering the Racial Perks involved, the Villages all share lesser versions of the magical effects from your Tree that they normally wouldn't
Get, which is great for things like Curse Resistance or Fire resistance. That means those special buffs will be shared to the people directly in the Lake Villages, while everyone else who drinks it, along this river you're making, they'll just choose one, and it's a 1:50 chance they'll even get to choose any, as it'll be very diluted once it leaves the lake.>

"Huh... alright, but back up to this Level Cap things... So they'll jump up to that level if they've been alive that long, like Sakura and Ken, or slowly raise up again like normal?" I clarified.

<The process will continue as if it never stopped. Every winter, they'll gain a single level in every class they have, which, considering the number of classes one person can have, can be considered a decent power-up. Also, considering the XP boost, they'll gain two levels a piece, and also have higher-grade Evolution Paths, so almost all of them will be Ultra-Rare or Legendary, like yours.>

"Cool." I nodded, and drank some of the water, then gathered some more in thick earthenware cups and some apples, going to check on my students.

They were currently digging a riverbed, following behind Mika as she used her Earth Magic and Mountain Spirit combination to push the dirt out, packing it down and raising it up to create a high riverbank, which would help prevent flooding. Jerrod was at the back, using his legions of undead to dig deltas and tributaries off towards nearby rivers and such, though leaving some space so that they didn't get flooded with water just yet.

I called for a rest, seeing as it was noon, and gave them each a cup of the water and a few apples. "Drink that, it's spirit water; it should refresh you quite well."

Jerrod blinked slowly, glancing at the water as his eyes lit up. "Uhm... Master? These buffs look... dangerous."

"Good, that'll make you dangerous." I shrugged.

Hallox nodded and threw back the water, before sitting down and cracking his back as he glowed briefly. "Hey, Master? Can I ask why we're digging a river? I mean, isn't being a Sage all about being Respectful of Nature, and not screwing with it?" He asked disinterestedly.

"No, that's a Druid. But yes, we are being respectful of nature; new rivers are born all the time." I chuckled at the image he painted, and looked around. "But still, you've gotten quite a bit done in just a week... I may have to have you build a few more, just to train you up!" I laughed at the horrified expression on Maze, who seemed the most tired.

"It is very tiring, yes, but Sir Ken has been bringing us Apples and helping dig as well, to keep us fed and to train his own body. He's off with the Skeletons, I think." Jerrod nodded.

"Oh? I suppose he didn't want to be overtaken by his son and daughter in Level!" I laughed again, and jumped out of the dry riverbed. "Well, eat some apples and rest for a few minutes, then back to training!"

"Yes, Master!" They called, and began eating as I scouted their progress and the remaining distance.

"Hmm... You're about a league in already, so in about ten more weeks, we should be building houses, instead of digging a trench! That'll be much less brute labor and more intricate planning, Maze, don't worry, I'm not going to let your brains rot with endless monotonous tasks." I assured her, and then stepped away, allowing my body to change.

I grew to nearly three and a half meters tall, (only a little taller than the Ogres,) with my same features, except for a lion's tail and savage claws at the end of each finger and toe. A light dusting of lion's fur spread over my body, making me appear as if sculpted from gold. An altogether gaudy form, but I liked it, nonetheless.

This form was easier to move about in, as I could simply pass through certain objects, as a Spirit Being, and use my Ur to fly over others. The difference seemed to be that I could only pass through things without a Spirit, meaning inanimate objects and corpses.

I found that out when I accidentally possessed the body of a small cat, dead on the side of the riverbank near the digging site. I had been very confused, and was trapped in that body for about four hours, before I managed to wrestle myself free.

In this form, however, I had no way of containing or hiding my Chi, as I was essentially made of it, so most beings couldn't even get within fifty meters of me, which was the limits of my Aura.

Trotting happily at speeds that would have shocked even higher-level beings, I went to my Shrine, and simply sat in my original spot, meditating carefully.

I didn't want to take another 'jaunt' into the Spirit World, after all, not until I knew how to leave.

My life passed calmly for another six months, before chaos began.