"If you do not understand the message of the system and its raging emotions, then meet me on the fifteenth step. I'll be waiting for you there," The world snake announced before glowing a bright green light, instantly disappearing from my sight just as I could barely see my surroundings.
Determined to figure out more, I stayed patient and meditated on each step, slowly growing my strength. Occasionally, I would descend the steps to recover my energy, but for what seemed to be a year straight, I meditated and meditated and meditated until, finally, I stepped onto the fifteenth step.
Pressure as heavy as an entire fucking planet weighed on my shoulders and back. It felt as if my knees were going to crumble as I clawed my way onto this single step. Everything before it was tough, but steps twelve, thirteen, and fourteen were relatively the same level. Don't get me wrong, they were tough, but compared to the fifteenth, it was as if everything had tripled.
The density, the weight, the thickness… everything made it seem like I was fused with the ground and I was inhaling sludge with each breath. So, in order to stabilize everything, I took in a deep breath and once again activated [Breath of the Snowy Underworld]. This made everything slow down, including my heartbeat and blood flow, all the way until I entered a trance-like state where my body seemingly acted half dead, half alive.
Thump… thump… thump… thump…
My heartbeat slowly echoed in my head, the darkness surrounding me throbbing with each beat. Slowly, it twisted and turned in my closed vision until a bright green light revealed itself in the far distance. It was but a speck in my vision, but I still couldn't help myself from focusing on it as it was the only thing present.
Throughout my entire body, I hyperfocused on that green dot until it began to draw me in. The pressure on my body was lifted up, seemingly pulling my entire body into the air, sucking me toward that green light.
It grew bigger and larger, eventually fully taking me into its bright body, engulfing my entire mind in a slight fogginess. As it permeated through each fold in my brain, it shifted and moved until a brand new world entered as the fogginess took its exit.
A dark cave folded around me, its jagged and sharp stalactites making it almost impossible to move around. They hindered each and every movement I tried to make as I walked further into the cave, the darkness only expanding the more my legs moved. But it wasn't long before I found a large stone slab with a single small snake on it.
Curled up into a ball, it looked almost harmless. But as its slivered dark pupil touched me, I felt a gust of wind blow my hair back and send a wave of goosebumps to erupt from my skin. This snake was something else. It was him. It was definitely him.
…
(??? POV)
I came from nothing. I was nothing, but then I became something. I felt every individual atom create my body from the ground up. At first, I was a speck of molecules, invisible to the existence floating around me. But slowly and surely, I built my way up.
No longer was I given the incredible benefit of an automatic creation, so with my feeble consciousness, barely even a brain cell large, I formed my own body. I took in the floating energy around me. It was a dark blue that nearly swallowed me whole every time I nudged myself toward it.
An indescribable pain would radiate through my very being as this blue light touched me. Yet, I had no other choice but to continue. It felt as if my mind was going to shatter with each speck of light. Every molecule, every atom, every speck of subatomic particles that made up my very being would throb with pain. It was as if each and every single one of them was being dipped in lava, slowly burning whilst asphyxiating.
Second by second. Minute by minute. Hour by hour. Week by week. Month by month. Year by year. Century after century. Millennia after millennia. Decade after decade. Epoch after Epoch.
Sssssss
And then, finally, I finished. With a final touch of this piece of light, I instinctively deemed mana, a breath of life entered my body. I existed. I was real. I was alive. I could feel everything like a gentle breeze on my stiff body. A rough beam of light warmed my head. Thick piles of earth cushioned me from beneath.
Ssssssss
My tongue flickered out, giving me a taste of the green world around me. Grass. It was grass. I instinctively knew it as grass… what a pretty color. I wanted it. I wanted it for myself. So as a passing piece of mana entered my vision, I stretched my tongue out once more and grabbed it, using it to reform my entire body.
The rough pentagon texture that was deemed as my skin flushed a grass green. It was mine now. It was all mine, and I loved to have it. But at the same time, I didn't just want it, but I wanted to take care of it. I wanted it to flourish. I wanted it to spread. This pretty green, oh, how much I wanted it to spread.
So, just as another piece of mana drifted past me, I used my tongue to grab it and formed it once again—a single cell. With another piece of mana, now that I was slightly used to it, I formed a few molecules. It squirmed in my vision, automatically zooming into its microscopic presence. It was beautiful. It was so green and beautiful.
And then, just as I was absorbed into this practice of creating new life, something echoed in my mind. Like the words that had been instinctively engraved into my consciousness, I could understand the words now infiltrating from the outside world.
[Welcome Beta Tester]
