Chapter 23: Creatures Who Knew They Had to Eat, But Didn't Know What Food Was...
Once the atmosphere stabilized and the planet achieved complete safety, Primer embarked on an extensive act of creation. The simple and lifeless world, like a blank canvas, was imbued with soul and vitality by his brush and colors.
Meadows bloomed here, gardens and groves appeared there. In the slumbering sea, a rich and diverse life arose: silver-scaled and golden-armored fish swam beside dagger-toothed, steel-skinned sharks. Green, rock-plated turtles paddled among beautiful, playful dolphins. From tiny shrimp and crabs to colossal and fearsome whales.
Distant, isolated lands merged under the will of their divine creator, forming one vast and unified continent, a cradle for terrestrial and amphibious beings.
In this magical world, there were no ordinary creatures. Each one was beautiful and filled with wonder, stranger than the last. Primer included familiar lifeforms from his previous world, but didn't stop there. He birthed beings of legend: mythical fish, unicorns and pegasi, demonic black serpents and divine colossal bulls, rainbow roosters and silver spiders, enchanting canaries and towering goats, fire-worshipping ants and heavenly white rhinos, treacherous golden scorpions and shadow-leaping leopards, golden-egg geese and proud dazzling peacocks, moonlit wolves and eloquent parrots, mimicking chameleons, and more…
So engrossed was he in creation that after twenty thousand years, the number of species on this planet surpassed one million.
Primer did not build an ordinary world—he built a world interwoven with myth and magic.
Then came the next stage of his plan: the creation of intelligent beings capable of growth and evolution.
He took six spherical gems filled with magic and, using his boundless authority over it, refined them to function as core analogs to his own inner essence. While these artificial cores were mere replicas and thus far less potent, they were based on knowledge gifted to him by Isis and not of his own invention. These replicas were limited—capped at level 10 and incapable of producing magic—but they could absorb and store it from their surroundings.
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This allowed their hosts to use magic directly, not just draw upon it passively for sustenance as before. With these cores, living beings could wield magic like the Creator himself.
Primer then fused six demonic horned black serpents with six elemental winged lizards, embedding a core into each of their chests. He merged their traits, altered their genomes, ensured desired phenotypes would dominate, and tuned their biology to synchronize with the cores.
At his command, the elegant strands of life blossomed, and the first sapient beings of this world opened their eyes to Primer. He appeared before them clad in a white robe, emanating an aura of sanctity and antiquity—meant to protect their minds and bodies from collapse, as had once happened to that man...
Six massive, fully grown dragons—each the size of two whales—stood with sharpened claws and dreadful jaws. Their horns twisted like those of goats and rams. Their bone-white skin was armoured in black scales that glimmered like midnight steel. Their eyes burned like molten iron, their pupils narrow and black like vertical thorns.
In those terrifying eyes shimmered a hidden intelligence… and innocence.
The dragons looked at one another, then returned their gaze to Primer. Their minds were blank, for despite being born as mature members of their kind, they had no experience or understanding. They instinctively knew hunger… but not what food was.
Ignoring their curious stares, Primer gently raised his hand and cast a spell.
From his palm emerged six beams of turquoise light, like comet trails, shooting into the heads of the young dragons. Each absorbed one beam of pure knowledge, which then vanished without a trace.
At that moment, their bodies trembled. Tears welled in their demonic eyes as they collapsed and roared in agony.
They were like ignorant folk who had never left the darkness of their homes and were suddenly blinded by the piercing light of wisdom. Their bodies convulsed as their awareness turned inside out—they now knew something they had never imagined, something imposed upon them with no say in acceptance or denial.
Primer taught them the magical language of Ilhari and etched the knowledge of magic deep into their being. Then, he lulled them into a peaceful sleep and let their minds rest.
As the dragons slept like children, Primer stood beside them and stroked their heads with his marble-colored hand.
The corners of his eyes softened with emotion. He smiled inwardly and chuckled in silence.
"I wish you sweet dreams, my dear children..."
In that moment, Primer felt something new within his heart—something he never expected: attachment, and affection.
