Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4109: The First Folds! V

Noah paused at the forest’s edge, both bodies perfectly still as he took inventory of what he had become.

The numbers that defined his existence now would have been incomprehensible just days ago!

|Current Status Assessment|

|Noah Osmont - Primary Body:|

|Total Complexity: 687,293,847,291|

|Total Purity: 687,293,847,291|

|Ozymandias - The Purest Hunger:|

|Total Purity: 1,823,938,572,910|

|Complexity: 0 (Converted to Purity)|

The disparity between his bodies was intentional...Ozymandias embodied purity of purpose while Noah maintained the complexity needed for diverse action.

Together, they represented over 2.5 trillion in combined values, numbers that placed him far beyond what he had been when first entering the Earliest Folds.

Yet looking at the village before him, at Early Creatures whose casual movements suggested power that made his accumulation seem like a child’s collection of pebbles beside a mountain, he understood how relative strength truly was.

A being near the village entrance...perhaps a guard, though it seemed more interested in carving patterns into a stone than watching for threats...radiated complexity that Noah couldn’t properly calculate.

His senses suggested numbers in the hundreds of trillions, perhaps approaching quadrillions.

”Haa...”

He sighed at the disparity.

And that was just one village member, apparently considered unremarkable enough to be given guard duty.

The gap between his current 687 billion complexity and true suddenly smaller.

Smaller because he had already traveled so far from where he started.

Ozymandias’s pure existence of 1.8 trillion Purity gave him devastating offensive capability, but against beings whose very presence warped reality around them, even inevitable hunger might simply be ignored!

Twenty-three hours remained to change these numbers, to push closer to levels that might let him stand among such beings without immediately being recognized as dust that had learned to walk.

Noah stood contemplating the pivotal moment about to unfold.

The stories he had heard of Early Creatures painted them in contradictory lights...some benevolent teachers who had guided existence toward consciousness, others cruel tyrants who had used their power without restraint.

He had experienced the terror of the Mad Early Creature’s destructive rampage that had obliterated an entire domain, and also heard of an Early Creature who built a Sanctuary.

Which would these Early Creatures be?

He stepped forward with Ozymandias beside him, abandoning concealment for open approach.

The guard at the village entrance continued carving patterns into stone that looked suspiciously like fundamental equations of reality, each chisel strike adjusting how space worked locally.

Up close, the Early Creature’s presence was overwhelming.

His skin glistened with vibrant light as if crafted from living crystal, each facet catching and refracting authorities that shouldn’t coexist.

Across his massive form, tens of thousands of Kleos Early Living Existential Glyphs blazed with casual glory...not displayed for intimidation but simply existing as naturally as freckles on lesser beings!

The air around him felt denser than any Duke Noah had encountered in his era, multiplied by factors that made comparison meaningless.

This was power that had fermented, aged, become something richer through sheer duration of existence!

The Early Creature turned slightly, eyes the size of houses focusing on them with interest.

”Have you peeked at us enough, Little Things?” His voice boomed with good-natured awareness. ”You do know that when you gaze at others, they can feel it, right? Come forward.”

...!

The words were calm, almost friendly, but carried weight that suggested refusing wasn’t really an option.

Noah and Ozymandias walked forward, both bodies deliberately allowing the Early Creature nature to leak into the surrounding space.

It was a declaration...we belong here, even if we’re small!

Noah had his aura of an Early Creature burning with his blood also permeate from Ozymandias even thouch he was an Inevitability!

The guard stopped carving entirely, his massive form shifting to observe them properly. His gaze lingered particularly on Ozymandias, head tilting with curiosity.

”Both of you carry our scent, but aren’t you a bit too different?” He seemed more intrigued than concerned. ”Oh well, come closer and let me look at you.”

They approached until they stood directly before eyes that could have swallowed them whole without effort. The Early Creature frowned, an expression that rearranged local weather patterns.

”You truly are extremely weak,” he said without malice, just stating fact. ”But since you carry the scent, you should be one of us. It seems we come in all forms and complexity... okay.”

The analysis was complete, his expression shifted to a smile that made nearby reality relax.

”Okay, come with me. I am Vex’thul the Pattern Keeper, guardian of this entrance for the past three epochs.” He gestured with a hand that could have crushed mountains. ”What are you called?”

”Osmont,” Noah replied calmly.

”Ozymandias,” his other body added, the voice gruffer through tentacle-formed vocal cords.

Vex’thul’s smile widened. ”Os and Ozy, okay.”

Noah’s eyes shone at the casual nicknames as Vex’thul began leading them into the village proper.

The path was sized for beings of Vex’thul’s scale, making Noah and Ozymandias look like insects following a giant.

”To be part of our tribe,” Vex’thul explained as they walked, ”you have to drink this Drop of Everything to ensure you won’t harm those here... well, even though you’re weaker than even the livestock we rear. Haha! Here you go.”

The Early Creature tapped the air, and reality responded by producing two perfectly circular drops of multicolored glory.

They hung in space before Noah and Ozymandias, each one containing spectrums that shouldn’t exist in the same dimension.

Noah’s existence trembled at their proximity.

|Utterly unfathomable loot observed|

|What an effort to even perceive this!|

|What a harvest awaits!|

|Item: Drop of Everything - Verdant Eternia Tribe|

|Description: Concentrated Everything from the Verdant Eternia Tribe|

|One of the oldest Early Creature settlements in the First Folds|

|Effect upon consumption:|

|- Binds consumer to Verdant Eternia non-aggression pact

|- Prevents harm against other tribe members

|- Grants tribal marking and recognition

|- Immediate gain: +1,000,000,000,000 Complexity

|- Immediate gain: +1,000,000,000,000 Purity

|Warning: Binding is existentially permanent|

|Note: This is how Early Creatures traded power itself|

Oh!

Was that a trillion? Was it truly?!

Oh!!!

Khor’s voice rang in his mind with fondness and memory.

”Drops of Everything. The currency between Early Creatures that all others sought but could never replicate. They were so powerful that they cultivated and traded... Everythings themselves.”

Her consciousness fragment pulsed with memory.

”Early Creatures learned to extract, condense, and crystallize Everythings into tradeable form. A Drop might contain someone’s Everything of Joy, another’s Everything of Strength. They would cultivate rare Everythings specifically to trade...growing them outwardly or within themselves like internal gardens, harvesting them when ripe, condensing them into Drops that could be consumed by others.”

...!