Chapter 143. First Failed Species Design.
While Elisa’s subordinates are busy advancing shipbuilding techniques, and Catherina is trying to tempt more dragons to migrate to the continent and join her forces, inside the Divine Space, Cedric has been focusing his attention for the last three centuries on the fairy island located northeast of the continent.
After more than four centuries since they appeared in the Crysta Cube world, Cedric watched as the last fairy died from loneliness, and the fairies in his world are now officially extinct.
The fairy island remains as beautiful as when it was first created. But these days, the joyful laughter of the fairies can no longer be heard. Instead, if someone explores the island, they will easily find the skeletons of small fairies buried in tree holes or nestled between tree roots.
Messaging his aching temple, Cedric sighed, “To think the first failed species I created will be the fairies.” Although he has slowly become accustomed to being a god and feels the transient nature of life, the sight of a species’s extinction still gives Cedric a feeling that’s difficult to express.
Especially since he created said species and is the main reason they went extinct.
It took him a few hours to slowly calm himself and recall the past to analyze the reason for the fairies’ extinction.
“The main reason for the fairies' extinction is definitely my carelessness." This wasn't Cedric's attempt to blame himself, but the fairies' extinction truly was entirely caused by his carelessness.
When he created and tested the fairies, their DNA and other factors were perfectly fine.
Apart from a slightly smaller brain size that makes them slightly silly, and their very tough shoulder muscles used for flapping their wings, there is nothing wrong with the fairies’ physical design.
Yet, Cedric didn’t expect one extremely important thing: The fairies’ mental state.
Because of their small brains, fairies' intelligence is often limited to that of a child, with only a few extremely rare exceptions demonstrating greater wisdom and intelligence.
That’s exactly the root of the problem.
Fairies are created using elves as a base, and the elves in the Crystal Cube world reproduce through intercourse. After this intercourse, the female becomes pregnant and gives birth to babies.
The fairies, with their childlike mentality, aren’t capable of understanding the concept of intercourse.
Except for a few mature fairies, most of them usually just play around until they grow old and die. But the chance of a mature fairy being born is extremely low. Basically, less than 1% of fairies will have enough intelligence to become mature.
Occasionally, some normal fairies become curious, but after witnessing the pain experienced by the fairy that gave birth, they decide against doing the same.
Cedric has assisted them by sending Divine Intervention: Urge and items like the Species Fertility blessing, which can increase a species' fertility. However, after using 5 Divine Intervention: Urge and 3 Species Fertility Blessings, the fairies eventually went extinct. The most his effort can achieve is delaying their extinction by a century or two.
After analyzing the reason for the fairies’ extinction, Cedric began planning how to fix it, but he’s been stuck. “With small bodies and brains, fairies’ mentality is mostly at a child's level. Yet, if I increase their body size, can they still be called fairies? Or would they just be winged elves?”
“How can I handle this? Enlarging their brains straightforwardly will distort their heads and bodies because they’ll need larger wings to fly. The result might be a giant head with wings, a cursed appearance I’d prefer not to create in the first place.”
While Cedric wondered whether he should give up on creating new fairies for when his world levels up in the future, the System suddenly appeared to promote its product.
[How about purchasing some race templates in the store?]
Cedric followed the System’s advice to take a look at the race section he hadn’t opened for a long time.
[Race (as the world level increases, the average ability of the race will also increase):
Custom: ? points
Basic Human package: 1.000 GP
Basic Elves package: 5.000 GP
Basic Dwarf package: 5.000 GP
Basic Orc package: 3.000 GP
Basic Centaur package: 3.000 GP
Basic Cat beastman package: 2.000 GP
Basic Lion beastman package: 2.000 GP
…
Basic creatures package: 5.000 GP
Basic fantasy creature package (Mana): 10.000 GP
…
Basic Naga package: 10.000 GP
Basic Snow Yeti package: 12.000 GP
Basic Dryad package: 20.000 GP
Basic Sentient Slime package: 25.000]
Cedric scrolled through the lists and discovered several new race templates now available for sale in the system.
“Why are there new races here? I’m sure the Naga, Dryad, and a few others weren’t on the lists when I first tried to buy races for the Crystal Cube World," Cedric wondered.
[As your world levels up, you gain access to more System features. For example, these new basic races were added once you reached world Level 3.]
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Cedric asked suspiciously.
[Isn't it weirder that you never opened the race section even once these past four hundred years?]
“I’ve been busy preventing the extinction of fairy races. Of course, I don’t have time to scroll through your shop.”
[Fair enough.]
“Are there other new functions that got unlocked after I reached world level 3?” Cedric asked.
[Except for the new races, there are only some Divine Items, most of which are useless though, with the few useful ones being only beneficial on specific occasions.]
Cedric nodded before asking another question he’s curious about. “Why didn’t new functions get unlocked when I reached world level 2?"
[There are many considerations. The main one is the need for new gods to get used to managing and studying the basic races with the greatest potential. After all, compared to the races unlocked since the beginning, the races unlocked at world level 3 are indeed a bit stronger but also equally demanding and more specialized.]
[Take that snow Yeti, for example. If a noob bought the Yeti, there’s a chance they’ll create a world filled with ice and snow, which will limit the types of species they can add to that world. Such a specialized world is too unstable. They might end up getting destroyed instantly when something like a heat-based demon king is born or a disaster causes the world’s temperature to rise. For the System, all customers are important, so the System always hopes for all gods to survive and become stronger.]
[Besides, levels 1 and 2 worlds have too low income. They will simply become overwhelmed by items they cannot afford if the System displays all available divine items and basic races. Showing those items just wastes the System’s computation resources unnecessarily.
Cedric feels the last one is the main reason. But he decided not to antagonize the System and simply nod in response.
From reading the explanation, Cedric began to feel that the System is definitely not simple. It might be a much stronger existence than he initially expected.
After thinking so, Cedric quickly buried his thought away in case the System read it.
Cedric decided to change the topic back, saying, “I don’t see any fairies being sold in the store. So, should I check other races and look for one that’ll be suitable to be the core design for my new fairies?”
While asking the system, Cedric scrolled through the race lists before returning to the top one. Seeing the [Custom] button, Cedric decided to open it.
After he clicked the [Custom] button, a new screen appeared in front of him.
[Custom race creation allows the user to request races with specific abilities as long as it is possible to create these races by combining the existing races available in the store. The more complex the request, the higher the cost. The maximum GP price is 100.000, including additional costs for custom race creation. Species requests exceeding 100.000 GP will not be processed.]
Below that screen, there’s a section where he can request the types of abilities he wants and see their estimated costs.
Cedric curiously tries to input the fairies he desires, “First, the height should be approximately ten to twenty centimeters. Next, it should have insect wings, such as those of a butterfly or a dragonfly. Finally, their intelligence must be sufficiently developed, at least having the instinct to reproduce.”
After inputting all of his requests, Cedric watched as the system calculated the cost.
When the final cost appeared, Cedric held back his urge to curse.
“45.000 GP?! Why don’t you just rob a bank?!”
Cedric opened his status panel and checked the amount of GP he had.
[Name: Cedric Hills
Level: Pseudo Lesser Divinity (Actual level: Peak Level 6)
Law: None.
World: Crystal Cube World
World Level: 3
World’s Average Potential: Peak Level 0
GP: 7040
Annual GP income: 31]
Right now, he already has an annual income of 31 GP. That means if his annual GP doesn’t increase, Cedric needs to save for 1.450 years to collect 45.000 GP!
Thankfully, only slightly less than 2.000 years have passed since Cedric became a god out of nowhere, and the system’s 10.000 years protection period and the debt’s due date haven’t even reached halfway.
“With 31 annual GP, I’ll be able to collect more than 200.000 GP before the due date for the 100.000 GP debt arrives. That doesn’t even include the fact that my annual GP income is steadily increasing since I added more mana to my world. So, I should be able to buy the fairy race and repay the 100.000 GP debt with plenty of spare GP to prepare for my world’s advancement or emergency expenses.”
“Still, 45.000 GP for a single race is daylight robbery.”
Reluctant to spend such a large amount of GP, Cedric scrolls through the race details listed by the System to look for something useful.
There are quite a few races to review, so it takes him three days to finish reading all the listings. "Among these races, I believe these two could be crucial for my breakthrough," he thinks. Cedric then opens the two races that caught his interest, starting with the Basic Dryad.
[Basic Dryad Package. Cost: 20.000 GP
The Dryads are plant-like humanoid species that originate from specific trees called Dryad Trees. Each Dryad Tree has a 0.1% chance of producing a Dryad after 100 years. As the tree ages, the likelihood of producing a Dryad increases until reaching a maximum of 2%. A Dryad and its Dryad Tree are connected; when either one dies, the other is affected and will die shortly afterward.
Include 1.000 dryad with an average of 600 years maximum lifespan, a forest with 100.000 Dryad trees, basic language knowledge, intermediate agriculture and husbandry knowledge, basic intelligence, basic wisdom, nature affinity…]
The basic dryad is a humanoid creature that should have intelligence.
From his understanding, the System’s dryad is born from a tree called the dryad tree. The dryad itself actually doesn’t reproduce with each other. Instead, the dryad trees are the ones handling their reproduction.
Except for the dryad, the second species that caught Cedric’s interest is called the dream flower butterfly.
[Basic Dream Flower Butterfly. Cost: 9.000 GP
A butterfly born from a flower called the dream flower. When they first bloom, the dream flowers will produce dream flower butterflies. Except for some especially talented individuals, most dream flower butterflies lack any intelligence.
Include 10.000 normal dream flower butterflies and 100 talented dream flower butterflies with an average of 5 years maximum lifespan, garden with 10.100 Dream Flower…]
The dream flower butterfly got Cedric’s interest because, just like the dryad, they’re actually born out of plants.
Another thing that caught his interest is the shape of their wings.
The instant Cedric saw a sample picture of them, a thought immediately appeared in his mind, ‘I want these butterflies’ wings for my fairies. They look so similar to the fairy wings from T*nker B*ll.’