Chapter 30: Upside Down

  I stared at the notification for a long while.

  The elves and dwarves went about their business… building, shaping, and spreading their civilizations… while I simply sat there in quiet befuddlement. Even so, it was probably only a few years of their time before I finally waved the notification away and brought up my interface to see what had changed.

  Sure enough, there was a new tab.

  Belief Management.

  I’d already done a little tinkering with belief when I designed the css system, but this was different. A quick perusal of the tab crified things: since a rge percentage of the popution now believed in something – a god, a spirit, a force – I could actually construct such a thing and delegate responsibilities to it.

  Orpheus had once warned me about attaching any decision making from the world directly into my interface, so I was puzzled at first why this was even offered to me, but after a few minutes of poking around, it became clear. These constructs – these deities – would be designed by me, based on the popution’s beliefs. They would act out their functions automatically, without true free will.

  That was… interesting. I’d wanted an artificial intelligence earlier. Perhaps if I’d waited, I could have made a god of the system instead.

  I closed the interface and took a deep breath.

  The dwarves, of course, were busy establishing their underground kingdoms and learning to forge metal. The elves were more varied, but the highly magical ones seemed to be rapidly constructing a vilge… actual structures and all. I saw no sign of agriculture yet, so perhaps it was still a bit early to call it civilization.

  I decided to give them a bit longer to cook.

  For now, I needed just one more species on Upside.

  I’d considered adding humans as well, but I decided that if I ever did, it should be ter, after the elves and dwarves were well established. If things ever became too slow or stagnant, humans could spice things up and boost energy generation.

  But for now, I wanted something else. Something that would bridge the gap between Upside and Downside. I wasn’t sure it even counted as a species, given the idea I had in mind… but close enough.

  With the dwarves living in that massive mountain range that split the world in two, it was possible they might someday tunnel high enough to encounter the fibrous roots of my darkness-generating mushrooms. I’d rather that not happen.

  Instead of simply blocking it off, I created a symbiotic organism, woven into the base of the towering fungi. Another fungus, one that would cleanse non-Umbral mana from the upper reaches and carry it downward, sinking it into the surrounding stone and seams. I’d already made minerals that relied on certain kinds of mana, so in effect, this process would, over centuries, begin generating more of those magical ores.

  Infused stone. Living veins of mana. That hadn’t been part of the pn. It was just a happy coincidence that I realized I could do it.

  And I liked that.

  Because if something cropped up naturally like this, it probably meant there was far less chance of it going wrong.

  But there was the trick.

  I’d taken this idea and run with it to create something that I thought was pretty cool. It was cobbled together from a jumble of bits and pieces of knowledge floating somewhere in the back of my mind… but I wasn’t sure where they’d come from. It didn’t really matter, so long as it worked.

  When this fungal mass reached a certain critical size, it began to form its own mana core and mana-control structures… but these were slightly different from the norm. It was a thinking being at that point, one that grew more powerful the rger it became.

  Fortunately, I’d made sure it couldn’t survive too close to the surface. It was confined to the high altitudes, nestled among the tallest mountains, just shy of the upper atmosphere.

  Once it reached sufficient mass, it could also utilize another, more mundane fungus that grew in the tunnels below. That one could spread almost anywhere, and I wasn’t concerned about it. With the addition of the main mass, though, it could be molded into a sort of automaton.

  I was, essentially, creating a hive mind.

  The various drones could be given csses and infused with experience collectively, allowing them to utilize those csses independently. They wouldn’t have full free will or independent personalities – more like programmed constructs going through the motions.

  To an outside observer, unaware that they were designed, they might look like actual people. Large, fungal people who shuffled around and carried out tasks at the behest of the massive overmind living above them.

  The fungal mass itself wouldn’t have a css. It simply was… much like the dragons. It existed somewhat outside the system, but while the dragons were stewards of the system and an important part of how it operated, this being would use the system without truly being part of it… at least not by itself.

  Even if it couldn’t directly see the interface, it could create a control core for the fungal people it produced. This core could interact with the system, and until it detached – allowing the newly born creature to go about its business – the overmind could view the options that the system offered it.

  It would choose a css for its mushroom servant, flood it with whatever mana was needed to bring its abilities up to functional levels, and then program its orders. Once detached, the creature would shuffle about, performing whatever tasks were required. When finished, the main mass would reabsorb the core, review the css’s earned experience, and learn to use those new abilities itself through that connection.

  It was dangerous, I knew that. Dangerous to any who came into its domain unprepared. But I was all right with that. It was supposed to be a vast, unknowable consciousness… something explorers would have to deal with if they wanted to reach the all-important Umbral Mushrooms.

  And, just because I thought it would be more interesting, I added one final detail: there was a very slight chance that if one of these mushroom creatures were stimuted in the proper way, it could gain a spark of independence and become a thinking creature of its own. They had no way to reproduce without the overmind, of course… but this independence was likely the only way any of them would ever stray far from the main mass.

  I could already see how this dynamic might change things… and I was fine with that. I was starting to realize that if I tried to control everything, to micromanage every variable, I’d always forget something… and then it would all come crashing down.

  I needed to leave room for things to change. For the unexpected. If that led to a global catastrophe, well… I’d deal with it when it came.

  As long as I was generating Reality Points while it happened, I wasn’t overly worried about the cost of fixing it ter. I just needed to keep enough points in reserve to create a new species if everything went south and the ecosystem colpsed. Besides, the crossover between Upside and Downside was minimal. I doubted it would ever be possible for both ecosystems to colpse at once.

  I threaded the fungal mass through the ring of mountain tops, splitting it into several rge colonies. Not because I feared what might happen if they merged into one massive, unified overmind… but because I was curious. Would they seek to merge for greater power? Or develop distinct personalities?

  It was a little outside my experience, and one of the first times I’d seen the interface actually struggle to represent what I was looking at. Even so, I could still set some of the details.

  Naturally, with their symbiosis to the great mushrooms, I made them protective of them… not a direct order, but an instinctive awareness that their survival depended on the fungi.

  I was proud of myself.

  As I stepped back and made a show of dusting off my hands – though they weren’t dirty in the slightest – I nodded.

  This should make a good demonstration of the First Age of Upside.

  Unique, yet familiar enough that I could follow its development.

  And a good prelude to my real field of experimentation.

  It was time for Downside.