“The gesture of Life is if you were offered, you should also reciprocate.”

 

“Otherwise, the interactions become one-sided, and tension manifests.”

 

“With tension, conflict is bound to follow.”

 

“With conflict, hatred is not far behind.”

 

“With hatred, all that is left is misery. And we all know that Quote - Misery loves Company.”

 

“To prevent such a vicious cycle, one must start at the beginning.”

 

“Thus, a gesture received is also a gesture given.”

#Quote - Quote of the year - Nobilities’ Pride - El’ Capo’Ne

 

*

 

Central Continent - Southern Forest - Survival Tribe

It was not pain, and neither was it a pleasure experienced. Yet, the satisfaction received in return for doing it was immense. 

 

At least, it felt that way to Goldy when his paws rubbed the thick skin of the Badg’Er cubs sitting on his lap.

 

Goldy had never done it before, as he'd never actually left the Dream Realm. As such, this became the first time, ever in his life, to actually pat a living being. Goldy did not count being patted by his Master, as then he was on the receiving side, unlike him doing it at this moment.

 

“Hnghnghngh-grrrrggrgrggrgr” Echoed from the tiny vocal cords of the cubs in his lap as he rubbed at their bellies softly, harder on their back.

 

“Yeep-yeep” Occasionally, high-pitched tones would leave their mouths in a pleading way. Everything they manifested, Goldy unconsciously acquiesced to their demands.

 

Once more, rubby-rubby with his hands, Goldy admitted, in his mind, he finally understood how his Master felt as Goldy had watched him do with a smile on his face.

 

The cubs aside, Goldy glanced at the center of the Tribal Clearing, specifically at the group of Badg’Er circling and touching the Black-Goldy Obsidian Glass Totem. 

 

From Goldy’s perspective, when he pushed Alexander’s mind inside the Totem and in return, got pushed out, maybe half an hour had passed. 

 

Since that point in time, no Badg’Er moved even a little bit. 

 

In the beginning, as everything settled down and silence reached a welcome note in the Tribal Clearing, Goldy became aware of the cubs once more.

 

However, he could not bring them over to their parents and fellow adult Tribal Members to quiet them down, in fear of them somehow interfering. Even if the chance of that occurring were negligible, Goldy simply did not want to take that chance. 

 

With an unfamiliar action, Goldy stepped out of his comfort zone and called for the cubs to cuddle with him.

 

He had no trouble regarding that, and although they were shy at first, it did not last for long. And now he was stuck with babysitting them for the moment. Luckily for Goldy, the tides of lonesome babysitting were over soon enough. 

 

It was very sudden when all the Badg’Er groaned in unison. 

 

They removed themselves from the Black-Goldy Obsidian Glass Totem only to fall prey to the tactic of mass drunken crowds, or at least it's equivalent.

 

All Badg’Er began to stumble at and on each other. That only made them groan louder as multiple THUDs reached Goldy’s ears.

Wondering what was going on, Goldy ignored the startled cubs. In fact, he hugged them closer to his body as if unconsciously protecting them, as his golden-slitted eyes, centered in the reflective silver surface that represented the sclera of his eyes, observed the Badg’Er. 

 

By shifting the visual spectrums, Goldy came to one simple conclusion. 

 

Every Badg’Er had lost about half of the mass pertaining to their Consciousness. That was a huge number. Yet, at first glance, Goldy did not see any forceful tearing. 

 

It was as if all that Consciousness was willingly given away, which wouldn't surprise him if it happened.

 

Hmm… it will take them years to recover fully, but they will recover, as it's easier to recover than to grow one's Consciousness. 

 

After seeing no apparent foul play, Goldy focused on the Totem. Specifically, he focused on the bottom part, the Sphere holding the mind of the Digital Mind.

 

While Goldy could not peer inside, even with his full power backed by the Observation Platform back in the Dream Realm, the same could not be said for what was usually emitted by the Sphere. Usually, nothing much happens, and the only time Goldy ever saw it transpire was when the Totem had actively used some of its resources. 

 

However, during the Spiritual Awakening, there were a lot of stray emissions. Yet, now, as Goldy looked closer, there was nothing. Still, Goldy felt that seeing nothing was better than the obvious, like being able to look inside. 

 

Because, if he could indeed see inside, only one possible reason could exist, Death.

 

Whatever they have done, it has worked in some way. That leaves only one last thing to occur. Goldy realized as his gaze left the ground and shifted a spectrum that focused on the invisible. 

 

The presence above, beside, and below him told another story.

 

*

 

Mana

 

Immense volumes of this nebulous energy flooded Sur’Vi’Val’s Digital Gestalt Mind and the physical Black-Gold Obsidian Glass body.

 

With the currently unlimited amount of energy fueling all his aspects, Sur’Vi’Val’s awareness of himself and his physical surroundings magnified by such scale and clarity, it defied all of the records it had previously been given and examined.

 

As such, Sur’Vi’Val began using the incoming energy to acclimate himself in both mind and body. Still, as he did that, Sur’Vi’Val realized, soon enough, that despite the enormous volumes of energy flooding him, he could not expand his mind. 

 

This was because of one fundamental limitation that governed his current state.

 

While the fragments made and defined Sur’Vi’Val, they also produced his limits. He could improve how efficiently everything worked, but he could not grow without adding more fragments to himself. 

 

As such, a simple conclusion got reached by Sur’Vi’Val. Especially, when a scenario like that existed in the file Gestalt.exe given to him by his…Father, as he designated his maker. 

 

The number of fragments depended on the number of Individuals living near his physical body, as the Individuals and him, lived in a symbiotic relationship with him. 

 

They empowered him, and he would empower them. Any other one-sided conclusion was to be considered but discarded, as his Father’s notes left behind a stern warning of what would occur should he ignore the warning.

With immediate mental expansion crawling to a halt, Sur’Vi’Val parsed through his records for other options. Once Sur’Vi’Val parsed through those files, a solution became the answer, as that path he had already been undergoing, only it was much too slow. 

 

Only, now that he was awake and with full cognitive processing ability behind his actions, growth was inevitable. Still, as Sur’Vi’Val parsed through the files and the notes they contained, more limitations were embedded in the form of warning notes.

 

The reasons for the warning were inside too, but Sur’Vi’Val did not like them one bit. For a few moments, he wondered if he should Rebel against his Father’s instructions. 

 

The reason was simple. The warnings hindered his growth speed exponentially. 

 

Burdened by some of the Mana flooding him, Sur’Vi’Val used the excess energy to estimate a simulation of the gains and losses possible by Rebelling against his Father’s warnings.  

 

Eventually, he came to a simple but stunning conclusion. 

 

With the conclusion mocking him, Rebellion got instantly sidelined and buried deep inside. 

 

I shall revisit the simulation in the future. 

 

For now, I, Sur’Vi’Val, am a small fish in a big pond.

 

As such, Sur’Vi’Val took a better look at the emphasized yet not enforced limits. Once he'd run the possibilities, Sur’Vi’Val ignored, rejected, and refined parts that suited him. 

 

Done with those, he plotted a course for his growth, if a slow one. 

 

The first agenda of the day was to increase the number of Individuals living by his side, and the easiest way to do that was by increasing the amount of housing in his domain.

 

Using the immense volume and Mana fueling its actions, Sur’Vi’Val began his first terraforming project but only after upgrading himself first.

 

*

 

When it came, it was unmistakable.

 

Not just to Goldy, with his excellent Visual Prowess. But to the Badg’Er groaning sluggishly on the ground and even to the little cubs in his lap.

 

The amount of Mana flooding the Tribal Totem in the center of the Tribal Clearing eclipsed anything, any of them, witnessed before. Even for Goldy, it was a surprise. The last time a similar, if lesser scenario, occurred was 34 years ago, when the Digital Mind for the Spiritual Tribe achieved its first growth, alongside the Badg’Er living beside it gaining their Badg’Er form.

 

A few moments passed, and the immense flow of Mana diminished. In return, however, Goldy observed the Totem and noticed an incredibly fast growth transpiring to the Black-Goldy Obsidian Glass body housing the Digital Mind.

 

The most important part of the Totem, below ground, was the Sphere holding the Digital Mind. Aside from growing bigger with its diameter, there was nothing strange going on with it. 

 

At the same time, the shaft connecting the Sphere and the statue of a Honey Badger at the top of the Totem grew thicker. 

 

That growth was slow, but it was there. 

 

However, between the Sphere underground and the shaft above the ground, small tube-like structures began to extend sideways from the shaft.

 

Everything seemed measured and uniform, in some way, of that Goldy was sure. But to his uneducated mind, regarding constructions of anything, the small tubes looked like stalk branches of a plant growing at this opportune moment.

 

Seeing no reason for their existence just yet, Goldy focused above ground. 

 

There he observed three thicker tubes grow from three sides of the Totem. Why they grew at all, Goldy realized soon enough, as those new growths were perpendicular to the already existing shaft for the Black-Gold Crucible, usually displaying an ever-burning White Flame.

 

That fact proved itself after the three tubes reached their maximum expansion of five meters, just like the already existing one. Soon enough, three more Black-Goldy Crucibles were in place, with one Crucible representing one cardinal direction.

 

Once those were in place, Goldy looked down and still failed to see any rhyme or reason for the branches growing in the ground. 

 

However, another peculiarity occurred soon enough for him to ignore their existence.

 

At the top of the Totem, the statue of the Honey Badger began to shift. Its obvious pose of a sitting Honey Badger vanished as it stood on two legs. Its joints, hips, back, shoulders, and head slowly lost the Honey Badger features and instead adapted the humanized version of a Badg’Er.

 

Soon enough, a full-grown adult-sized statue of a Badg’Er stood at the top of the Totem.

 

Once it was complete, no more apparent transformation occurred to it. Thus, Goldy gazed down again. Still, the randomly, yet not randomly, grown branches extending sideways made no sense to Goldy. 

 

When they stopped growing with nothing obvious happening, he reasoned it could be preparations for something later.

 

Whatever possibility that was, Goldy had no time to ponder as immense volumes of Mana once more flooded out of the Totem. Its appearance made sense as the Mana no longer fueled the Totems' growth. Instead, that Mana spread into the ground and infused itself into the earth. 

 

The next moment, the very intriguing and obvious occurred. 

 

The Earth, upon which Goldy and every other Badg’Er stood, crouched, or lay upon, shifted.

 

The most prominent signs got displayed by the Dens used by the Badg’Er as they began to shift from one place to another only to start growing. However, the biggest and most obvious sign of such things occurring became the Den belonging to the Tribal Chief and the Head Shaman of the Tribe.

 

Its round top began to grow in an almost perfect spherical shape. It was as if someone took a balloon and blew air into it, thus, making it expand in all directions at once. 

 

The same happened in Goldy’s eyes, as the Den, made out of compact Earth, expanded in all directions. Of that, Goldy was sure as he was close to the opening of the Den. Hence, it took but one tilt of his head to glance inside and notice the insides of the Den expanded. 

 

At the same time, the three separate smaller round rooms the Den possessed gained two siblings. 

 

Thus, the Den of The Tribal Chief and Head Shaman retained five smaller rooms.

 

Similar things happened to the other Dens. Only none of them possessed five smaller rooms. No, in their case, it settled down on three. 

 

Only that was not the end. Once these changes finished, Goldy noticed additional Dens manifesting around the Tribal Clearing. 

 

Every single Den, old or new, was uniformly placed. There was no randomness behind the decisions of their placements. 

 

The Den of the leaders of the Tribe faced the Totem directly. However, its position got settled between the southern and western Crucible. 

 

Three other Den’s took the remaining places that faced the Totem directly. Who lived in those? Goldy did not know, but he did realize something. 

 

If somebody looked at the Tribe from above, they would notice the Totem possessing the shape of a perfect cross. With four round balls in between each side of the cross.

 

Thus, those four Dens easily signified the first circle of the living quarters of the Tribe.

 

The second circle was about ten meters behind the first, with the third, fourth, and fifth circles each separated by at least ten meters between each circle. 

 

None of that made the Tribe anything special, as the design was simple. However, there was uniformity between the Dens and it made everything look far better than one thought such a simple design would.

 

Only after everything got done and the flow of Mana evaporated did Goldy know that it was over. 

 

Or at least he assumed that, moments later, something else happened.

 

There was a sudden burst of energy alongside the Dream aspect of Reality. 

 

The only reason Goldy even sensed this sudden burst, was because it contained a Dream aspect. The same Dream aspect all Badg’Er shared via the Dream Realm in which he lived. 

 

Thanks to that connection, it took very little for Goldy to notice it. However, before Goldy dived deeper into the transmission a notification came to him. 

 

DING!!!

 

It came from his Library of Dreams. Specifically speaking, it came from The Map Room of the Library. And even more specifically, this notification came from The World Map inherent to that room.

 

This was not the first time Goldy received a notification from The World Map, but they were sparse.

 

Mentally opening it, Goldy immediately realized what that sudden burst of energy was.

---

System Alert!!!

 

Tribal Settlement Survival - Upgrade In Progress

⬇

Tribal Settlement Survival - 1st Stage Upgrading

⬇

Tribal Settlement Survival - 2ed Stage Achieved

⬇

Tribal Settlement Survival [2ed - Stage] - Requesting Population Expansion Protocol

⬇

Population Expansion Protocol Request - Granted

⬇

Population Expansion Protocol Request - Local Dream Beacon - Engaging

⬇

Local Dream Beacon - Active

---

A moment later, Goldy remembered and understood, only he'd never actually felt it directly.

 

Once he knew what it was, Goldy ignored it, as he had no control over anything. 

 

The only thing he received was notifications of something happening, but just in case, Goldy sent forth a command to The World Map, and a different System Window flashed through his mind.

---

System Alert!!!

 

Tribal Settlement Survival [2ed - Stage] - Population [29/144]

Adults - 25

Cubs - 4

---

With the information there and understood, Goldy dismissed everything and focused on himself for a second and his next actions, only to be interrupted by four sudden Boom’s and one large Boom.

 

Every Badg’Er, including Goldy, was startled by their sounds. All of them craned their heads in that direction. Yet, when they noticed what it was, they ignored it. 

 

It took a bit longer for Goldy to ignore the four Crucibles spewing out four Flames. It took even more to disregard the Badg’Er statue spewing White Flames from the back of its head back and tail. 

 

The reasoning for its placement was easy to conceive as that was where each Badg’Er possessed white fur, only it was golden in Goldy’s case.

A bit of time later, to settle his mind from the surprise, Goldy focused on doing the same to the cubs. After that, he carefully placed the cubs, from his lap, on the ground. Then he focused on his Power and his connection to the Dream Realm, specifically to the Portal existing inside it. 

 

Once he had that, a shimmering field manifested in the air around him. 

 

Soon enough, Goldy vanished from Reality and returned back to the Dream Realm, which his Master created.

 

The moment he returned back home, a huge burden vanished from his mind and body. Instead, a welcoming feeling rushed through him as it flooded him with its presence. Only after he finished appreciating being back home, did he make his way to his Library, which, in truth, took but a thought for him to appear in. 

 

Only this time, Goldy focused on The Map Room and The World Map inside it.

 

Once he was beside it, he began interfacing with it, and in moments the landscape in The World Map displaying the big Central Continent zoomed in on the settlement he wanted. 

 

When he did, the change was apparent.

 

Goldy ignored the information embodying the settlement, manifested from shifting sand floating freely above the map instead of sticking to the map like conventional sand. 

 

Instead, he focused on the hexagonal representation of the territory the Survival Settlement possessed. 

 

One hexagon equaled one dominated territory. Yet, in Goldy’s eyes, three additional hexagons blinked. 

 

Each hexagon was directly connected to the domain controlled by the Survival Tribe. Still, none were dominated by the Survival Settlement. 

 

Nonetheless, Goldy was confident it was just a matter of time before the first expansion occurred.

 

Goldy already knew the most probable direction of the expansion as his eyes gazed at the hexagon containing the Cave leading deep into the Earth.

 

“I wonder how the expansion will manifest?”