Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4108: The First Folds! IV

Noah stood amidst the frozen devastation, both bodies radiating power that made the air itself nervous.

The level of a Duke....that impossible height that had seemed unreachable just days ago...no longer felt distant.

He could sense it approaching, like seeing a mountain’s peak through thinning clouds.

Would it be close towards 10 Trillion Complexity? Above it?

”Duke level isn’t too far from me now,” he said aloud, testing how the words felt with a smile.

”Duke? Don’t focus on some unknown paltry classifications, Outsider” Khor said, her voice carrying amusement. ”What matters is your Age. As an Early Creature, you can barely even be considered young. Your usage of authority was decent enough...brute force applied with some intelligence. But when you fully grasp a Principle or master the manipulation of Everything? That’s when you’ll become truly extraordinary.”

...!

So she said.

And Noahs eyes flashed sharply as when he looked at his Existence, his Age as an Early Creature was no longer a thosuandth(1/1,000), and it was now closer to a hundredth(1/100)!

He...was going far.

And he would simply continue!

Noah and Ozymandias began moving away from the glacial battlefield, their synchronized steps leaving impressions in frozen ground that would take eons to thaw.

The noise of their battle would certainly draw attention...predators, scavengers, or worse, things looking to eat whatever had proven strong enough to defeat the Allosaurus.

And if they came across an enemy they could not defeat...this entire trip would have to be ended early!

They moved with increasing speed through the impossibly vast forest. Noah’s enhanced body pushed itself, testing new limits, while Ozymandias’s tentacle-form flowed through space with hunger-driven efficiency, swallowing everything it could.

|Continuous Movement Effort Recognized|

|Traversing Primordial Forest/First Forest at high speed|

|Complexity gained: +500,000,000|

|Purity gained: +500,000,000|

The trees gradually changed as they traveled.

What had been chaotic growth became slightly more organized, as if they were approaching something that had imposed order on wildness.

The ground showed signs of passage...not paths exactly, but suggestions that things moved through here regularly.

Hours passed in minutes of subjective time.

The forest that should have taken years to cross compressed itself before their determined advance. And then, shocking in its suddenness, they saw the forest’s edge after a few minutes.

Noah’s eyes pulsed as both bodies stopped simultaneously.

Beyond the tree line stretched something that shouldn’t exist in a place called the Breeding Grounds...a village.

But not just any village. The structures were massive, scaled for beings that made mountains seem modest. Stone buildings carved from single boulders the size of cities.

Wooden constructs using those thousand-mile trees as mere lumber.

And moving through this impossible settlement were the builders...Early Creatures in humanoid form!

They stood hundreds of feet tall at minimum, some hundreds of miles large, some reaching higher.

Their bodies were perfection given form, but perfection that predated modern concepts of beauty. They wore clothing that seemed primitive...furs and hides and woven plant matter, but the materials glowed with authorities that modern existence had forgotten.

”A tribal settlement,” Khor’s voice carried deep nostalgia. ”This is how Early Creatures first learned to live together, before they discovered they could live apart.”

Noah watched a group of these beings working together to construct what looked like a temple. Each one radiated power that would make Honored Living Existences flee, yet they cooperated with easy familiarity, laughing at jokes told in languages that predated words.

”See how they move?” Khor continued. ”No wasted motion, no excessive authority. They’ve learned that in groups, efficiency matters more than individual power. This is civilization in its purest form...beings choosing cooperation over constant conflict.”

...!

A child...if something fifty feet tall could be called that, ran past their hiding spot, chasing what appeared to be a pet that was only mostly corporeal. The casual display of power in that playful sprint would have shattered Wheels in Noah’s era!

And this child, this Early Creature...its aura was dreadfully that of a Duke!

It likely missed their hiding spot not because it could not sense them...but maybe they were akin to animals and flies in its eyes.

”These villages were scattered throughout the First Folds,” Khor explained. ”Each one an experiment in how powerful beings could coexist. Some succeeded and became the seeds of later civilizations. Others failed spectacularly and became cautionary craters.”

...!

The architecture was primitive yet profound. Stone age tools and techniques applied by beings who could reshape reality with their thoughts.

A forge where hammers that could shatter concepts shaped metal that didn’t exist yet.

Gardens where plants that would become fundamental forces were being casually cultivated.

”If you went forward,” Khor suggested with calculating tone, ”and presented yourself as an extremely weak Early Creature...which you are, by their standards, they might take you in. Adopt you as they would any foundling.”

Noah considered this, watching the village dynamics. There was clear hierarchy but not oppression. The stronger beings helped the weaker, teaching rather than dominating. Children were instructed in authorities that modern existence considered lost arts.

”Early Creatures were social before they learned to be solitary,” Khor continued. ”These villages were where they developed language, culture, the very concept of civilization. You could learn things here that no being in your era remembers exist.”

A hunting party returned as they watched, dragging something that made the Allosaurus look small. The entire village celebrated their return, sharing in the kill with equity that suggested advanced social structure despite primitive appearance.

”Of course,” Khor added with dark amusement, ”they might also decide you’re too weak to bother with and eat you. Or make you their pet. Early Creatures in this era were... unpredictable in their hospitality.”

...!

Noah observed for long minutes, both bodies processing what they were seeing.

This village was a glimpse into how existence had organized itself before organization had rules. These beings were writing the first draft of civilization, making mistakes and discoveries that would echo through eons!

The question was whether he dared to enter, to risk exposure to beings whose casual strength exceeded anything he had faced, for the chance to learn what they knew!