Lay-lins

After finishing the formation for the life engine, Eric realized that there was much more he could add to his 'world'. Once life formed there it would need the energy of its own to survive. So he planned to add 'lay-lines', which would just be a worldwide hyper-complex series of formations, including the life engine, that would sustain the planet. These formations would be 'sentient' and would grow alongside the planet, so as he reached foundation building stage two or more islands were formed he wouldn't have to manually expand the formation to each island.

It would also 'upgrade' itself as time went on by optimizing and refining itself by using the knowledge stored in Eric's mind vault. Along with this, he planned to add the Tree of Flesh and Soul Fire to the world. His world had no sun so he planned to use the soul fire for that and the 'lay lines' would need a moderator for it to work the way he wanted. So the tree of Flesh would become his foundation's 'world tree' and his soul fire would become a 'soul star' and the sun of his foundation.

For now, they would be much smaller versions as his foundation was still just an island. Beginning the integration he started with the Tree of Flesh, placing its 'seed' in the center of the life engine he started the engine by giving it a small amount of energy to start it up. As the formation started a verdant green glow spread out across the entire island as small sprouts of grass and trees began to grow, slowly as the engine reached full power the island went from a barren dead land to a paradise for life. There was only simple plant life for now but as time went on more complex life such as animals would come.

An unexpected effect of using the tree of flesh as the core of the formation was that small excess amounts of vital energy flowed into it, helping it grow, and in turn helping Eric. Next, he started integrating the soul fire. Using some energy to form a 'sky' above the island he started to form a new formation. As things with souls began to form on his foundation they would eventually die, when that happened their souls would be fed to the soul fire which would refine the energy and give it to Eric. The energy that couldn't be given to him would be used as food for the soul fire and everything else would be used in a formation similar to the life engine but for souls called the soul engine which would also be part of a set of lay-lines that would be managed by the soul fire.

As the 'sun' began to form at the core of the soul engine Eric fed it a small number of souls to start it up as complex life started to form in the world, this was because of the time difference between him and the world as about 5,000 to 1, the reason it wasn't more was that this was the most he could handle at his current level, the as his intelligent and constitution grew so would the time difference as it was just those two things added to each other.

As things lived their vitality would be fed to the life engine and as things died their souls would be fed to the soul engine. The life engine would make new life and the soul engine would make new souls. Their body would be fed to the tree of flesh and their minds would be fed to the soul fire to help it. Every single part of everything was being used with zero waste. An unexpected bonus was that as these cycles continued a faint energy that Eric couldn't identify was formed. This energy would fuse with his foundation and speed up its formation. Sadly there wasn't enough for him to 'adapt' to yet or he would be able to convert mana and demonic energy to make it on himself. But he would just have to wait for that.

For now, he was out of things it do. Hearing the door open he looked over and saw Nyx. "sup, wanna go out for a hunt?" looking up at Eric Nyx said "Sure, Why though?" standing up and walking out of the training room he said "Well I'm bored so I thought, 'why no go kill some things?' and then you came in as I was about to go and do just that." following Eric out of the training room Nyx said, "by bored do you mean you ran out of things to do that would make any normal person question there very existence?"

To which Eric replied, "If by ran out of things to do that would make any normal person question their very existence, you mean, creating an infinite and self-sustaining source of vital and soul energy to maintain and create life on my foundation, which is a planet, and create a pair self-expanding, self-improving planet-wide formations, the cores of which are a flame made out of pure souls that are now said planets sun and a tree made of countless body that is now said planets world tree, then yes."

Nyx just looked at Eric with her lips pursed before saying "If I wasn't an active inhabitant of hell I would swear to the big guy above. Other than that, could you help me with my foundation when I get there? I just reached energy gathering 8 so it shouldn't take too long." "Sure, when you reach foundation forming I'll even give you a gift."

It was late at night when they left the hours to go hunting so it only took a couple of minutes to reach the gate to the local 'wild land', which is what uncolonized areas of hell were called, the wildland next to the academe was a large forest. Walking through the forest Eric was holding a large twin blade while Nyx was using the scythe he gave her at the entrance exam. "I've been needing to stock up on some flesh and souls recently but I've been too busy with changing my body and building my foundation so this is perfect." "I need some souls too so leave some for me ok?" "Sure"