Who shall be the primary inhabitants of my universe?

Humans seem like the optimal choice, with great intelligence, short lifespans, and fast reproduction. Intelligence in naturally important, short lifespans can make humans competitive, and fast reproduction allows humans to quickly recover their population. Though most humans may not be talented, their numbers should make up for it.

While elves, dragons, and other intelligent creatures aren’t bad choices, they have longer lifespans, meaning that the environment will be less competitive. They may live happier lives than humans, but my job to strengthen the universe, not to make its inhabitants happier. Competition breeds progress, after all.

Of course, the other races will still exist. The mortal realm is made of millions of mortal planes, and while humans will take up half, elves will occupy a quarter, while magical beasts such as dragons will take up the remainder. Since mortal planes are mostly isolated, this would make it difficult for races to wipe each other out.

Now that everything is planned out, I will start by creating the humans. Humans are the simplest to create, with no innate attributes, and can be created just by shoving any random soul into a body. Thus, the first generation of humans are born.

The elves are harder to create. Their bodies take a bit more effort, but the overall process is still similar. However, there should be different types of elves, which would be difficult to create. I’ll just make them evolve quickly by throwing them into different environments.

The real problem is the magic beasts. There are countless types of magic beasts, and each beast has different traits. Throwing elves into different environments and waiting for them to evolve was fine, as all elves were pretty similar, but magic beasts are different. It would take them far too long to evolve.

This is what I’ll do. I will create strong magic beasts like dragons, phoenixes, and sea serpents, which will all be born with intelligence, and ignore the weaker beasts entirely. The strong beasts can just eat each other.

As for plants, I’ll just throw a bunch of grass, trees, and fungi, letting them evolve on their own. Of course, there will also be animals such as cows, birds, and fish. Maybe if they are talented enough, they can form a true spirit and cultivate.

Another issue to deal with is the afterlife. Right now, souls will dissipate after death, turning into energy, while their true spirits search for another soul, waiting to reincarnate. Though this is fine, it might encourage people to kill each other, then devour their souls for energy.

The energy should be redirected somewhere. I could use it to strengthen my soul, but it doesn’t seem right to get stronger by absorbing the souls of others.

Whatever, there isn’t much of a difference between being absorbed by me or dissipating anyways. Might as well make myself stronger.

Now that the issue of the afterlife is solved, it’s time for my creations to evolve.

My creations should rely on themselves, and I shouldn’t interfere too much. I’ll just hide myself and watch. If I do interfere, I won’t show myself, and just subtly influence things under the guise of Heaven’s Will.

I created a hidden space within my universe, and began to familiarize myself with my newfound powers.

First, the domain of space. It’s pretty useful, and can be used for teleportation, combat, or creating pocket dimensions. However, the combat aspect of space isn’t particularly strong, as it’s harder to manipulate space around high energy objects. For example, I can easily cut a rock in half with space, but if I met an opponent as strong as myself, it would be incredibly difficult to kill them with spatial powers, and I would have no choice but to flee.

Then, there’s the domain of time. Honestly speaking, it’s slightly useless. While it can be used in combat, it takes a lot of energy to use, and can’t be used for long. Just like space, its effect is weakened around high energy objects. At least it’s still good for running away, as it can slow down the opponent. Out of combat, I can use it to peek into the future, but the images are vague and hard to understand. However, the main problem with the time domain is that it uses temporal energy, and temporal energy is gathered by the passing of time. This means that time magic takes a long time to recharge, and there are long intervals between every use.

Looking at these two abilities, I can conclude that if I were to fight someone of similar strength, I would get steamrolled. There’s simply no way for me to harm them. The next domain I will comprehend should be fate. It’s somewhat related to time, and understanding fate would let me exert more control over my universe.

Comprehension cannot be rushed, and comprehending fate will require me to observe my universe.

There are too many things to manage in a universe, and I’ll need more clones to work for me. Looking at my true spirit, I rip off three small pieces, and shove them into the bodies of a human, elf, and dragon. Immediately after, I fell asleep.

Meanwhile, outside the universe my clone has finished creating its own physical body, shaping it into the form of a human.

Time flows much faster inside the universe. In the universe, my true body has already created life, while my clone has only created its body.

Taking one more look back at my universe, the clone sets off into the void.

As I set off into the void, I can feel my connection to the universe weakening. Right now, I can’t even borrow power from the universe, meaning that I’m truly alone.

After travelling for an indeterminable amount of time, I still can’t find anything. However, wandering in the void has given me insight on the laws of both time and space, deepening my comprehension on both.

As I contemplate the mysteries of space, I feel a searing pain on my left arm. Looking around, I see a massive cut on my arm, and a hideous beast nearby.

The beast bears similarities to a wild boar, but has white tusks emerging from every part of its body.

I never expected that there would be creatures living in the void. With the harsh conditions of the void survival is quite an accomplishment. However, the beast doesn’t seem to possess any intelligence. It’s soul is an abomination, created by mashing a bunch of souls together. Due to this, the beast does not have a true spirit, and cannot be considered an intelligent being.

After so long, I finally found a living creature. If I study the body, it could improve my understanding of space.

If the beast realizes its severely wounded, it would run away, preventing me from studying its body. I seal the space around the beast before cutting it in half with a skill I created earlier, Spatial Rend. It’s a simple skill that destroys space in a line, cutting everything in half.

Surprisingly, it seems unharmed. The power of the Spatial Rend harmlessly dissipates against its skin, and only serves to enrage the beast. It effortlessly breaks out of my spatial seal, and charges at me.

I react by closing my eyes and blindly throwing a punch. As the void beast nears me, I ask myself, is this what death feels like?

After a while, I notice that I’m still fine. Opening my eyes, I see the void beast lying lifelessly, with its body shattered.

It appears that while void beasts are immune to magic, their physical bodies are rather weak.

I snap off one of its tusks and use it to skin the beast. After trying for a while, I managed to get most of the off. If the skin is made into armour, it might help block magic attacks. If the bones are made into weapons, they might be able to tear through magical barriers.

Thinking back about this fight, I realized that my fighting experience is too poor. I could have just teleported away when the beast attacked me, but couldn’t keep calm and reacted poorly.

Looks like I need to fight more. Time to kill more void beasts.