24 Chapter 24

People say that real world-building starts when you reach Rank 1.

While Rank 0 lets you modify your world to a certain extent, most of the functions are unlocked at Rank 1.

Not only does your core grow to allow you to store more energy and have an extra add-on, but it also lets you interact with other worlds in a much more direct way.

When two rank-one world owners meet, they only need to exchange glances to start an all-out war between their worlds. If either of them manages to overcome the other, he will be able to steal some of their energy, and if the defeat is too big, even add-ons could be stolen.

While this is possible, and it has happened a lot in the early days of world-building, The Creator's Guild has condemned this behavior multiple times, and it has expulsed tons of people from their organization for doing this.

Those expelled from the guild are not protected by it or its rules, so they soon become prey to the other creators that hunt them to achieve justice, or simply to make an easy profit while not breaking the rules.

Also, those expelled aren't allowed to use the official market of the guild or the different services that they offer, such as private mentors or participating in official tournaments.

Thanks to that, after a few months after the implementation of the rules, there is almost no one who would assault another person's world without asking for a friendly match first.

—Extract from the Builder's Magazine #8, "Rank 1 and its responsibilities".

On the night of the day when Axel installed his new add-ons, he was sleeping peacefully when a voice was suddenly heard in his room.

"Master, it's done...", said the mysterious voice.

Suddenly, Axel woke up instantly and began to look all over the room, trying to find the source of the voice.

" What the hell was that? Is there a ghost in this house? I'm going to die? " Axel asked while looking around his room, scared.

"It's me, Heaven", said the voice from inside his head.

" Oh, it's you. I was already thinking about bringing an exorcist", Axel thought. "Wait, can you read my thoughts?

"As long as you let me, I can. Is there any problem with that? " Heaven asked

"Well, I guess no," Axel thought. "And why did you wake me up? "

" The three tribes just met a few minutes ago and have allied their respective villages thanks to the leadership of the few chosen. As you instructed me before, I paused the world and notified you as soon as these events happened. " Heaven said.

"Next time, wait until I'm not sleeping anymore before telling me about it... Wait a moment, what are you saying about chosen?" Axel asked, confused.

"You said that you wanted the three tribes to meet each other and begin a friendly relationship. For it to happen, I decided to grant the title of chosen to a few promised cultivators with compatible personalities so they would lead their village and become friends with each other. If the best cultivators of each village knew each other, they would do their best to maintain peace for them. With this, we have a stronger social bond between the three factions, and it would be easier to use the full potential of their armies when needed. " Heaven explained little by little what she did. "Also, I made the chosen go on ritual hunting and sent them a magical best, so they would need to work together to hunt it. I thought that would help them strengthen their bonds faster and it would be a nice tale to pass on to their descendants."

"Wow, I have to admit that you did a pretty good job. I didn't expect you to have so much flexibility. I mean, you even made sure that the three tribes had a strong friendship since the beginning." Axel said, half asleep and half amazed. " The only thing that I would change is next time to wait until I woke up to tell me the news."

"As you wish, Master," Heaven replied. "What are my next orders?"

After that, Axel lay down again and closed his eyes as soon as his head touched the pillow.

"For now, resume the world and let it advance naturally. I give you free rein to manage the world, as long as you think it will be beneficial to it. Also, if anything big happens, don't doubt let me know or pause the world again. I don't want to wake up one day and find out that everything is destroyed.

"I will follow your instructions, Master." Heaven replied.

After that, Axel stopped talking with Heaven and fell asleep again. As for Heaven, she resumed the world and continued watching over the human race.

She continued doing her work for the rest of the night while Axel was sleeping. Most of the time, she would be a mere spectator, but from time to time, she would send a few messages around to help certain individuals and guide each of the tribes on their path.

In exceptional cases, she felt that some people had so much potential that just letting them dissipate into the world when they died was a waste, so from time to time, she began to reintroduce fallen souls into newborn bodies. While these souls were stripped of all their memories of their previous lives, they were a bit stronger than newly created souls, so in their new lives, they performed extremely well.

Not only that, but it takes less energy for the world to reuse a soul than it does to create a new one each time.

Seeing the success of her experiment, Heaven decided to expand her process. Soon, tens of souls will enter this cycle of reincarnation. Those tens quickly became hundreds, and those hundreds turned into thousands soon after.

Before dawn, every single soul in Axel's world had fallen into Heaven's reincarnation process, making the average quality of the souls rise and the energy consumption of the world fall.

At the same time, without anyone noticing it, the Heaven's Will add-on was shining with great intensity in the world's core. New lines were appearing all around the rune, and after a few minutes, those lines began to fracture themselves, and a new add-on appeared in the blank space of the core.