Chapter 8: dungeon goblin

Looming at at the brutal battle. Zeno wondered if it was a good idea to make this mortals. If they grew more than they are now, they would be terrifying. Worse is, this was an inner battle. A battle between race of the same species. What about other creatures?

As though to answer this question, Zeno saw another group attacking a black raptor not far away. They jumped and weighed on the raptor and bit its throat and with their sharp teeth.

Even though the raptor had a strong jaw, there was so little it could bite at the same time.

"What the fuck did you make Xera?"

[This is necessary father. Making them like this has its advantages. I made them was like in order to let them accommodate one of the 14 mortal instruments, wrath. Their likelihood of becoming mortal in the future is increased this way. Plus, there is no telling if they will become mortals. If they were to fall to beenl enlightened, they could still be of use as strong monsters.]

Zeno looked at the now dead raptor and couldn't help twitching.

"Is that..."

[Yes father. They are creatures for project BlackDragon.]

"..."

"Even if their aren't fully dragons yet, those are dinosours!"

[That is only due to the raptors being solitary creatures. Because dragons are solitary creatures, i made them like this ahead of time. If they were true raptors from earth, they would not be so pitiful.]

"I get that but, won't they be extinct at this point?"

[No, i have interfered in their leg development and sensory response. Even though they are currently disadvantaged, they wont die.]

"That's good, after all, unlike the microbes back then, we can't make these multi cellular organisms as we like. Only if we have origin energy can we made them in batches. Make sure to take care of them."

[I understand father. Father, there is another matter i would like you to see.]

"What is it?"

[Look near the pond father.]

"Oh. I see... what a beautiful tree."

Besides the pond, stood a tree with a black trunk and blue leaves. It had vine like things that extended for the top of the tree to the water.

[This mutation was recently born. I believe it was due to the high concentration in mana level that steered its generation.]

"Oh. It looks nice. You should make more of these."

[That is the problem father. The gene is quite problematic. I have created copies of it before, but most of them just die out. This tree actually not the first generation of its kind. The first plant to generate this gene only managed to live for a day. But i was able to spot and copy it. I have already tried hundreds of times to create a stable organism with the gene, but the organisms keep dying. I was able to luckily make this one tree without it dying. I am still currently researching what actually make it different from the other one i have made before.]

"Is that so."

[Its beauty is not all there is to it father.]

"Hm? What else is there?"

[I believe it is better i show you instead.]

Suddenly, the whole did turned dark. The blue luminescent ball in the sky lost its bright luster and soon exuded smooth white light.

When Zeno saw it, he could not help but think of...

"The moon."

[After a long time of thinking, i concluded that having a day and night system could be beneficial to us. As such, after every 12 hours, i dim the brightness on my core. It was after this that this new gene generated.]

Zeno shifted his senses to the tree and saw it true beauty.

The tree lit up in blue. The vines and Leave a showed traces of a luminescent blue color. Not only it, even the water was slightly blue. Zeno focused his sense and noticed small sparks that seemed like fireflys But small floating ain the air. With the combination of the pale light from the 'moon,' its beauty was unparalleled.

"What is causing this?"

[The gene had given the tree the ability to absorb magic from the water. Although i occasionally cleanse the earth of mana crystals, i only remove a little bit from the water and air. Since the mana in the air and water is not condensed enough and does not hinder the creatures, i decided to let a small bit of it be.]

"Wow."

[Sadly, other than looking beautiful, it currently has no other use. If i can be able to mass produce the plant, i might be able to make it into a magic tree. A tree that bares magical fruits.]

"Yes, it does have a perculior and special ability."

In the universe, there are many races and an uncountable amount of species. But the amount that can actually control magic energy, only amount to less than 0.001%. Magic was not so easily used as in movies on earth.

"Actually, the movies aren't wrong. There are worlds with magic as their basic energy. And similar to the movies, the chance of actually getting the ability to control magic are low. In thses worlds, at least 10% of mortals use magic. But these worlds are rare. The even rarer ones are the ones that aren't made by a god."

So a magic genes appearing without influence is very lucky.

As of current, he has no magic creature or magic genes other than this new one. Everything that currently exist was more or less the product of science. Although he and Xera used magic to prop them to existance, they themselves don't have magic. They still fall under normal creatures.

Zeno sighed. He looked at the creatures below. Many creatures were confused as the day suddenly turned dark without a reason. But they still went back to their living place and slept. It was time to sleep.

But if course, where there is darkness, there will always be those who prowl in it. Many nocturnal creatures went out from their hiding places and went out to hunt.

Zeno saw a group of creatures that rested together.

"Elephants?"

[Project E0.2 to be exact father.]

These creatures looked almost exactly like elephants. The only difference was their small size and large tusks. The tasks were bigger than the usual elephants. Because of their smaller size, these creatures looked tougher than the large sized elephants. The creatures were only a little over a meter tall. When they slept, they formed a circle. The young ones were put in the middle while the older ones formed the outer layer of the circle.

This protecting the young and making a solid defence.

They looked harmonious.

But harmony can only be held by those with power. And these seemingly innocent creatures were stalked by a predator. A raptor appeared and watched them with cold eyes.

It eyed the blood of these creatures and wished to feast on them. The raptor like creature was naturally black in color. It's scales blended in the dark. And with its natural night vision, it was the perfect night stalker. Seeing these lumps of meat in front of it, it felt like getting a taste.

But it was weary, this was actually the first time the raptor has seen this type of creature. Because of the small environment, there is only this one group of creatures that exist. So most creatures barely see each other. Plus, black raptor are born like snakes. They are alone the moment they are born. So most of what they know is what they have seen themselves. They were never taught anything. So all it knew was what mother nature taught it. They only know to attack anything that was smaller than itself. And to fear anything bigger.

The raptor itself was not very big, but it was still bigger than the elephant like creatures. Plus, these creatures looked delicious, how could it back away just because there are more of them? It reckoned that they will ran the moment it attacks. After all, similar situations have happened to it before.

So, the raptor pounced and jumped on top of one of the creatures!

It did as normal and bit the place where the nose of the most creatures are.

A trumpet like sound escaped the trunk of the creature. It alerted the others of its kind. The whole heard was awoken. The raptor bit the neck of the creature and wished hoped to finish it off quickly.

The creature fell to the ground and writhed, the raptor had already seen its victory when...

Bam!

It was stabbed by two pairs of tusks. It looked at the creature that attacked it and was shocked.

Why did these herbivores not run?

It immediately got up and bared its teeth. It wanted to show its prowess to these creatures. Hoping that they will back away. It did not get any other chance than to do that. In its vision, it saw dozens of these creatures charging at it.

Boom!

Boom!

The raptor was hit, soon it had terrifying injuries on its body. In fact, if it wasn't for its tough black scales, it would have been poked into a sieve.

The raptor got to its feet and ran without looking back.

The creatures chased after the raptor. Making sure that it was far away and unable to threaten them anymore.

Zeno looked at the creatures below.

"Wow, these future dragons are really pitiful. Are you sure this is the right path?"

[They will be able to develop independence upon birth this way. Such that every dragon that exist would be a king on its own. They will only ever meet others of its kind when they battle or mate. Father, you must remember, although they look like raptors, these aren't velocieptors.]

"I know."

As the older ones chased after the raptor, only the young ones and a few to look after them were left. At this time, the few left older ones went to the injured one and tried to get it up. The creature was looking its blood directly from its neck. The wound was large and clearly not going to heal very soon. So without a doubt, it's fate was to die.

A young creature pushed through the other young ones and reached the injured creature. It went towards its head and nudged it to wake up. But it did not wake up. It could barely even make a last sound. It just breathed and watched the others surround it. It saw the young one trying to wake it up. It too wanted to get up, but was not able to.

Zeno watched this scene felt his emotions fluctuate. He let out a sigh.

Before the creature could die, a blue tentacle squirmed from the ground. The tentacle stabbed into the tough hide of the creature. In the tentacle, a blue liquid slowly rose and rushed inside the elephant.

Soon, the wound around the neck of the creature and it's nose started to heal. It healed so fast that process was visible to the naked eye. In no time, like it was never injured in the first place, the creature awoke and stood up. The creature returned to it's family. Where it was greeted with trumpet sounds for cheers.

Zeno watched this and felt a feeling deep within him awaken. He felt desire, he desired to know himself.

"Did i have a family in my past life?" He asked himself.

...