Luckily, it appeared that the group did not travel far.
The halls followed a similar theme to the audience hall; a lavish red carpet covered the mahogany-wood floor upon which rested the elaborately garnished walls. Various stone statues of mysterious creatures were either carved into the halls' pillars or were used to hold up small ledges where blooming flowers in small pots made their home.
After a short bit of navigating this fancy environment, the creatures were spotted through an open door not far from where we began. We were greeted by a room heavily resembling a college lecture hall upon entering the area. The entryway was at the top of the room, which sloped downwards leading to where the instructor stood on the lower floor with a large blackboard behind her. Of course, numerous rows of seats were connected to each step of the staircase for the creatures to sit. As most of these seats were already filled in by the time the mysterious elf girl and I arrived, we were forced to sit on the top row, with our seats just to the left of the door. I volunteered to sit next to a familiar goo-like creature, so the elf got the chair that was directly next to the door. Mr. Flippers excitedly hopped back and forth across our laps while we waited for the instructor to begin her explanation.
"Now then, Seedlings, I am sure you are all waiting with both curiosity and anxiety to hear more about this situation. To ease your immediate concerns, I will go over the very basics of what you can expect going forward. As I explained earlier, we have 360 heavenly days to go into more depth.
Once again, you will all be fighting against one another. Though I say that, you will not be fighting directly; rather your lifeforms will be fighting in your place. These lifeforms will be made in the image of the ruler governing over them, so they will naturally be guided towards your own figures. In addition to them, every ruler can choose a total of 7 organisms from your home world to form the base of your domain's environment. Ah- I apologize I'm getting ahead of myself."
The sheep instructor continued on as I pulled out a spare notebook and pencil to write down what I considered to be most important. I was smart enough to bring a water-proof backpack on the voyage, so it appeared that the paper was dry despite the plunge. Ms. Elf-girl glanced over at me curiously when I began, but I paid it no mind.
If this competition is going to be as big as she's making it seem, every bit of information will come in handy. Anything she accidentally slips could give me a massive head start.
"Your first task will be to design your realm. Each one of you will be provided with a realm template of nearly equal materials that will have a radius of around 2,100 miles. Your first task will be to design and mold this realm into what you think will help your lifeforms succeed the most. The Flower Box will be providing a lot of Resource Points for this task, but everything not used within the next 3 heavenly days will be returned to them. Obviously, there will be some restrictions regarding this, which I will go over now"
The sheep instructor began listing the conditions required by this homework of which there were many. Most were obvious (not making the entire realm out of molten material for example) but others seemed to serve to ensure battles could be somewhat possible between the many different creatures present. As questions from the new Seedlings were asked and answered, the worn-out expressions in the crowd gradually became too numerous to ignore, so the sheep instructor finally dismissed us several hours after the lecture began.
"Oh don't forget! By saying the phrase "return to domain" you can instantly travel back to your domain. You will all be called back here at 7am heavenly time, but you can come back earlier by saying "transport to the academy"! "
I glanced at my notebook just before packing it back in my bag. Leaving out most of the specific regulations, the key information of this first lesson could be considered to be:
- We would each be utilizing "Resource Points" to design a planet that each ruler will be assigned. The assigned planets will be a bare mass of roughly the same materials and will be about 4,200mi in diameter
- The initial Resource Points given will be absolutely massive for this shaping, but any not spent within 3 heavenly days will be lost
- There are no restrictions on the designs we choose, but all landmasses must be connected to a reasonable degree to form one single continent
- Each planet must allocate a 500mi in diameter octagon of land somewhere on the domain in which gateways will be formed. Rulers will not be permitted to influence this area
- Both oxygen and carbon dioxide levels must be kept between 20-40%. Modifications to lifeforms will be automatically performed to limit harmful reactions caused by these compounds.
- One heavenly day was about equivilent to 1,000 normal years, but for the sake of monitoring our progress, heveanly time will match mortal time during these next three days
- We needed to choose some organisms from our home planets to bring into our realms at some point, so I needed to think of some.
"So, can these domains be considered to be our own rooms?" the elf girl asked me as we exited the lecture hall.
"Uhh, I guess? It sounded a bit more complicated than that. Half the lecture sounded like she was reading a freaking housing ordinance with all those rules, but she just glanced over the whole domain thing. Speaking of which, do you think that chant can really teleport us there?" I questioned while carrying Mr. Flippers in my arms.
"I wouldn't be too surprised. Teleportation magic was extremely rare where I came from, but I wouldn't doubt it for a second that a place like this has that feature. That being said, it is odd how we don't need any kind of rune..." she said trailing off.
So magic is officially a thing too! Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised considering an elf exists here.
Wait- if everyone here can use magic except for me, wouldn't I get obliterated once the fighting starts!? Dangit, I might have to ask the instructor about this tomorrow. Maybe magic exists but it's not easy to use it?
"So, I'm guessing you're pretty good at magic then, Elfy?" I tested.
"I told you to stop calling me that!" she pouted before continuing, "But yes, I had already mastered most intermediate spells, though I only know the basics of some expert-level ones. What about you? No offense, but you don't really seem to be much of a mage."
"You have good eyes; magic is not really my strong suit. Anyway, I was thinking that we should really come up with names for ourselves since we basically lost ours, unless you want me to keep calling you Elfy," I said to change the subject.
"Oh yeah-"
The elf girl stopped walking and put her hand on her chin to make a thinking pose. She thought for a while but ultimately gave up with a sigh, claiming that she couldn't think of anything.
"How about we come up with names for each other then? It might be better than coming up with it on our own" I suggested.
"Hmm... okay! I'll super seriously punch you if you come up with anything weird though!"
Despite the risk of getting a super-serious punch, I was really tempted to mess with her; however, after a bit of thinking, I decided to be nice and actually try to come up with a good name for her. She did rescue Mr. Flippers earlier, after all.
She really is beautiful. If she was wearing a dress, I don't think there would be anyone on Earth who wouldn't think she was some sort of princess.
I began thinking of various princess names inspired by that thought, but as my apparent lack of knowledge in that area left me with nothing, I switched to characters in fairy tales and fiction. Eventually, I thought of Juliet from the famous Shakespeare play.
Obviously, she won't know what that name comes from, but I still would find it a bit cringe-worthy to call her Juliet. Maybe Julia works?
"Okay, how does Julia sound?" I hesitantly announced.
"Wow! I thought for sure you would come up with something stupid! I was warming up my fists and everything," she commented with a contradicting expression of both disappointment and sparkly eyes, "Julia does sound like a good name though."
"Then it's settled- your name will officially be Julia! I'm glad to be spared from your super-serious punches," I teased, "So, did you come up with a name for me?"
"Ugh, no not yet. I'm sorry, I'm terrible at thinking of names," she apologized with a sullen expression.
"Just think of the hottest name you can think of. Something that makes everyone know how cool I am from a single word!"
"... Even if I could think of one like that, it definitely wouldn't fit you," she said with a sharp glare.
"Fine, then pick a name that starts with a 'J' then so we can kind of match," I suggested, completely ignoring her comment.
"Uhh Jimmy? No never mind, that feels a bit too common..." she thought aloud, "Maybe Jacob?"
"Sure, I'll go with Jacob then."
"Ah- are you sure? I was just throwing names out there," she checked with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Yeah sure, it works for me. But you could always just call me Da-"
A heavy impact on my side interrupted my comment.
"Jacob it is then!"
🤩
Virtual hug for u
thanks for the support!
Juliet.. didn't she have a miserable end?