Chapter 552: Creation Myth.
The boy left, leaving Arthur with a memory crystal containing information about the world of Ethera, a memory crystal containing the production process of the teleportation talisman, a key to his new floating island, and finally a mission that will be executed in three months.
Arthur reviewed all of these and said with some emotion, "What a ride."
Then he flew back to his apartment to pack his things. On the way there, he dipped his divine sense into the memory crystal containing information about the world of Ethera and began to review it.
When he was little, he was told that in the beginning of the world, everywhere was a barren desert without life of any kind or rain. Those conditions only changed when a golden seed arrived and fell to the earth.
After the golden seed fell to the earth, it began to grow. Even without the conditions needed for life to grow, the golden seed was able to germinate and grow. It was said that this was because that golden seed was an infinite wellspring of energy and life, so it didn't need external help to grow.
When the golden seed grew, it exhaled and breathed life into the world. The energy within it was ejected into the world as it breathed. This energy saturated the environment and caused rain clouds to form.
The rain clouds formed and led to the first rainfall in the history of the world. This rainfall soaked the earth with energy and life, so plants and other animals were able to grow out of the barren soil.
This was the creation myth that he was taught as a child. He was also told that the Ethera tree is the center of the world, and the world is infinite in size around the golden Ethera tree.
The information within the memory crystal didn't refute the creation myth, but it did have a lot to say about the current situation of the world.
Arthur learned from it that the Ethera tree is indeed the center of the world. But the memory crystal claimed that this world isn't infinite.
According to the memory crystal, reality is a large canvas or ocean of energy that might be infinite or not. But the world of Etherq is a finite piece of flat land that floats in this ocean of energy.
The memory crystal also claimed that the world of Ethera isn't the only world in the universe. Apparently. There were many worlds in existence with many different kinds of races inhabiting them.
As Arthur continued to digest the information within the memory crystal. He confirmed that the Ethera tree is the source of all energy and life. This is an undisputed fact and is accepted as common sense.
It was stated that not all worlds with life possessed a being of infinite energy and life like Ethera. But worlds that lacked beings like the Ethera lacked mana and found it difficult to grow stronger.
It was also stated that worlds without beings like Ethera couldn't grow and expand like the world of Ethera could. This information served as an introduction into the geography of the world.
The world of Ethera is flat and circular. Roots from the golden Ethera tree spread through the fabric of the world and serve as the backbone of the world.
The space within the roots is called secret realms and used by the beings of the world to get closer to the Ethera tree and suckle better on her energy. But the true purpose of the roots is to expand the world and make it larger the older the Ethera tree gets.
It was said that the growth of the world isn't gradual. Apparently, the world stays the same for a number of years. But once the growth of the Ethera tree reaches a saturation point, the world must expand, and it does so over a short period of time.
This short period of time is called a mana tide. It is called a mana tide because mana floods the world and causes the world to forcefully expand and grow in size.
This growth of the world usually leads to the creation of new secret realms at the edge of the world and leads to the upgrade of older secret realms. Then the concentration of mana in the world settles down into a new balance.
It was said that the last mana tide was a thousand years ago. It didn't cause any major changes to this part of the world apart from the increase to the concentration of mana in the secret realms.
After he was given all of this information, he was then provided with a map of the world of Ethera. In this map, the Ethera tree was at the center, while concentric rings of land appeared around it.
The Five Veins Region was a part of a ring somewhere between the Ethera tree and the far edge of the world. The people who drew the map didn't know exactly where the Five Veins Region was or how close it was to the center of the world or how far it was from the edge of the world.
In fact, the memory crystal didn't provide information about how large the world was because it was too large, is constantly growing, and possesses some places too dangerous to explore in order to acquire the information needed to create a more accurate map.
However, the map contained information about their neighboring region. The map showed four regions around the Five Veins Region.
These four regions were in the north, south, east, and west of the Five Veins Region. In the center is the Five Veins Region, which are five grade four secret realms and the 30 grade three secret realms that formed offshoots from them.
In the North was a large region with six grade six roots. So the northern region is a six-veined region with six grade six secret realms and many offshoots that are grade five secret realms.