Chapter 55: Butterfly effect
"NEGRROO! NEGRROO!!"
(RUN! RUN!!)
A frenzied cry echoed throughout the settlement, accompanied by the deafening roars and guttural growls of numerous mid and high-tier predators as they tore through the crude huts, ripping apart every Magnari unfortunate enough to remain within their reach. Panic spread like wildfire. Desperate screams filled the air as the surviving Magnari abandoned every other thought, their instincts converging upon a single objective of survival.
"ITTEE OTARO! GRE NO TO FA KEROO!!"
(Throw away those useless eggs! They’re slowing you down!)
The desperate cry of a male Magnari rang out from behind. Terror had completely consumed him. Every instinct within his body screamed at him to flee, and when he saw his partner still clutching several eggs tightly against her chest, he no longer saw them as offspring waiting to be born.
They were nothing but useless baggages, weighing his partner down.
And tthe eggs themselves became a tgun difference between life and death.
The mother Magnari hesitated.
Her arms instinctively tightened around the eggs as two instincts collided within her. One urged her to protect the fragile lives she carried, refusing to abandon them despite the overwhelming danger. The other was fear and trapidation. It was the instinct that had allowed countless generations to survive long before language, civilization, or even family had ever existed.
The Magnari of this era had not yet learned what it truly meant to love their children. They reproduced. They protected their offspring whenever circumstances allowed. Yet the deep emotional bond that would one day compel a parent to willingly sacrifice their own life for their child had yet to take root within their race.
Faced with certain death...their own survival prevailed.
Soon,her trembling fingers slowly loosened.
One by one, the eggs slipped from her embrace and shattered upon the blood-soaked earth. She never looked back, forcing herself to continue running beside her partner as the distant cries behind her were swallowed by the deafening roars of the pursuing predators.
The same scene unfolded throughout the settlement.
Families scattered.
Partners became separated.
Magnari fled in every direction with little regard for those around them. Some escaped alone. Others ran beside complete strangers who happened to choose the same path through the forest. Within only a few minutes, the settlement Volcano himself had selected as the birthplace of his civilization had become little more than a river of blood. Crude huts lay crushed beneath enormous claws, abandoned eggs littered the crimson earth, and the only sounds that remained were the satisfied growls of predators feeding upon the dead.
"How..."
"...How did this happen?"
Volcano stared at the massacre unfolding beneath him, unable to hide the horror spreading across his face.
"Where’s the notification...?Shouldn’t something like this count as a Misfortune?"
He understood the Misfortune system better than most newcomers,after all, he had faced two at the same time before.
Events capable of threatening the continuation of an entire species were normally recognized by the game as misfortune, rewarding those who managed to overcome them. Yet despite the devastation before his eyes, not a single notification appeared.
"...Why?"
His gaze swept across the settlement before another thought surfaced.
That wasn’t the only thing that didn’t make sense.
He had deliberately chosen this location because powerful predators rarely wandered anywhere near it. According to the terrain analysis, creatures of this level seldom crossed hundreds of kilometers into this region.
Godcraft Genesis wasn’t the sort of game where monsters simply spawned out of nowhere.
There had to be a reason.
Focusing his consciousness, Volcano began tracing the movement of every predator involved in the attack. Invisible trails gradually unfolded before him until they all converged upon a single direction.
"Gre Ka Go’s settlement."
His expression slowly stiffened.
The answer became obvious almost immediately.
Gre Ka Go’s relentless expansion had dramatically reduced the number of predators throughout their own surrounding territory. Hunting parties had wiped out entire packs, driven others away, and steadily claimed more land for the tribe. The resulting imbalance had forced neighboring predators to migrate in search of new hunting grounds.
And those hunting grounds had become Volcano’s settlement.
"So that’s it..It wasn’t a random disaster.It was a chain reaction?"
A consequence brought about by the rapid rise of another civilization.
"What’s with this fucked up realism?"
Volcano slowly clenched his fists, but only for a brief moment before forcibly calming himself.
"No!..None of that matters right now."
His divine consciousness expanded across Volcan once more. Countless frightened Magnari were scattered throughout the forest, fleeing aimlessly with neither destination nor plan. Unlike Gre Ka Go’s tribe, these survivors had never developed proper weapons, organized hunting parties, or even the language necessary to coordinate with one another. They possessed neither tracking skills nor the emotional maturity to regroup after such a catastrophe.
If they continued scattering like this...most of them would never survive the coming days.
Volcano gritted his teeth.
He had already made one irreversible mistake.
He refused to stand by and watch the civilization that was a result of his own decisions perish also because of his own inaction.
His thoughts immediately returned to the very first miracle he had ever performed.
The day he had descended to save them from the High-Tier Predator.
Without another moment’s hesitation, he selected the familiar Unicorn Avatar and pressed Descent.
[Ding!]
[Avatar Descent is currently on Cooldown.]
[Remaining Cooldown: 7 God Days.]
Volcano’s expression darkened to a mortifying one.
"...Damn it."
His divine consciousness continued sweeping across Volcan, silently observing the scattered Magnari desperately fleeing through the forest. Some had already lost their partners. Others wandered aimlessly, unable to distinguish one direction from another as fear completely overwhelmed their judgment. A few had even begun circling the same stretch of forest without realizing it, their panicked instincts slowly leading them deeper into territories occupied by even stronger predators.
The more he watched...the heavier his heart became.
He wanted to intervene .
He wanted to descend beside them just as he had done before, to point toward safety, to drive away the predators with his mere presence and remind them that they weren’t abandoned.
Yet the crimson notification lingering before his eyes remained utterly indifferent forcing him to watch.
[Avatar Descent is currently on Cooldown.]
[Remaining Duration: 7 God Days.]
"..."
Volcano clenched his fists again.
Seven god days...
By the time that cooldown ended, there wouldn’t be anyone left to save.
His gaze unconsciously drifted toward the countless interfaces surrounding him before suddenly stopping upon one he had been oddly familiar with.
[System Store]
"..."
"I’ve never actually looked through this properly..."
The first time he had relied upon this store is when he wanted to descend as an Unicorn avatar and the times after that, he had opened the store, he had searched only for resources capable of accelerating Volcan’s development. Crops, minerals, insects, saplings... his attention had always been fixed upon tangible growth.
This time...he searched for something else.
Something that could influence the world without requiring his direct descent.
Volcano’s fingers immediately began moving across the System Store, his eyes darting across countless categories as the translucent interface unfolded before him.
Divine Authorities.
Miracles.
Blessings.
Natural Phenomena.
His heartbeat refused to slow as he opened the search bar and started typing his needs.
"Guidance..."
No result.
The search returned empty.
He frowned before trying another word.
"Direction."
There was no results again.
"Instinct."
This time several results finally appeared.
His eyes brightened for a brief moment before immediately dimming again.
Predatory Instinct Enhancement — 8,500 Faith Points.
Divine Migration — 12,000 Faith Points.
Beast Shepherd’s Authority — 31,000 Faith Points.
"..."
Volcano stared at the price for a long time,his mouth wide open before he quietly closed the window.
"This shit is trying to rob me.... Isn’t it?"
Every single one of the needed item were far too expensive for a god of his caliber.
He rubbed his forehead before searching again.
"Luck."
Dozens of abilities appeared.
Most of them belonged to the Rare or Epic grade.
Without even opening their descriptions, Volcano skipped past them.
"Herd."
Nothing.
"Migration."
Another list appeared.
Once again...thousands of Faith Points were required.
One after another, Divine Authorities, Blessings, Environmental Miracles, and World Phenomena appeared before him, only to disappear again as he silently closed each description after seeing prices far beyond what he could possibly afford.
His remaining Faith Points...were only 1,614.
He felt like a fool reminiscing the joy he had felt when he first laid upon such a number.
"F-Fuck it!!"
His fingers paused above the interface.
For a brief moment, he simply stared at the endless catalogue.
There were thousands.
No..millions of Divine Authorities.
Abilities capable of moving mountains...
Summoning oceans...
Commanding storms...
Even manipulating life itself.
And yet...
He couldn’t afford even a fraction of them.
An overwhelming sense of helplessness quietly settled over him.
The idea of searching for power or immediate migration had disappeared from his mind.
Now, he simply wanted something.
Anything that could slightly improve the chances of the Magnari wandering aimlessly through the forest.
"Please...just give me something."
Almost absentmindedly, he scrolled a little farther down.
The expensive abilities gradually disappeared.
Epic became Rare.
Rare became Uncommon.
Eventually...
Only Common-grade Authorities remained.
Most of them sounded almost ridiculous.
Gentle Rainfall.
Morning Dew.
Pleasant Breeze.
Bloom Acceleration.
Volcano skipped past them without much interest.
Then...his finger suddenly stopped.
Nestled quietly among dozens of insignificant Common Authorities was a name that immediately caught his attention.
[Butterfly Effect]
[Grade: Common]
"...Butterfly Effect?"
He absemtmentaly pressed the description.
Immediately, a translucent window replaced the previous ones.
[Butterfly Effect]
[Grade: Common]
[Description:A Lesser Divine Authority capable of creating minute, almost imperceptible disturbances within the natural order.
This Authority cannot directly alter fate, interfere with intelligent beings, or produce supernatural phenomena.Instead..It permits the user to gently manipulate nature slightly influencing the occurring events whose outcomes remain undecided.]
[Price:1500 faith points]