I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 22

I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 22

There were only 18 days left until the battle. I sat looking at my domain displayed on the screen.

My realm had developed considerably over the last three hundred and forty-two thousand mortal years. It was to the point where my realm was nearly unrecognizable compared to how it looked on my last in-depth examination.

To start with, the continent itself had undergone some major changes.

The most obvious of these had to do with the massive river that separated the two halves of the continent. Instead of being practically a straight split to the ocean, it now took a much more curved path through the western section. A small delta formed where the river met the sea and the frequent overflows from the river created a mudflat in the southwest of the continent. The river also split not far from the mountain range taking a horizontal path to the eastern gulf.

While this was not anything too crazy, it would have a major impact on how my early humans would be able to travel. With the west and north sections of the continent blocked off by rivers, their expansion would be drastically slowed.

Surprisingly, my small experiment of forming islands through volcanic activity had actually come to fruition! Of course, the fact that these islands existed was a major risk, as one of the requirements when we first made our realms was for there to only be one connected land mass. The islands had been slowly emerging from the sea over the course of the year, but I had not heard anything from the sheep instructor nor Tatton, so either I made it through their screening phase or they were not alerted to it yet.

Maybe it might become a problem if my humans settle on them, but there's nothing I can really do about it now.

This was a gamble I made when I was first building my realm and before I knew about the severity of the academy's punishments. Even if I wanted to cancel on it, I had no resource points to destory the islands.

The volcanic activity formed three islands off the southern coast, but none had yet to become inhabited by any creatures probably due to their remoteness. This included even the basic lifeforms such as moss.

Speaking of moss, even after all of this time, the moss that covered the continent was unable to spread past the northern mountain range due to the cold conditions. Since the last time examination, the moss had actually lost land due to the desert expanding in the southeast.

I was honestly a bit disappointed in the lack of drive for what should have been my pioneering creatures... or I was until I noticed that a subspecies had managed to begin spreading in shallow waters. It seemed that the small fish would have a new source of nutrition other than phytoplankton to munch on.

Putting this aside, the cherry trees were a bit more daring in their growth which now leveled off roughly seventy feet in height throughout most of the continent. There were two exceptions to this, however: those in the mudflat and those in the north.

The trees in these two areas seemed to split into distinct species. For the ones inhabiting the mudflats, they sported much deeper roots, wider trunks, and lower heights. They closely resembled mangrove trees from Earth, except with the signature cherries that one would expect from their lineage.

It seemed that the trees in the cold north quickly became a bit different than the ones further south. Their cherries were extremely small, their bark was extremely thick, and after observing a fallen tree, it seemed that there was a decent amount of sap inside. These were all adaptations that one would expect from a tree in a cold environment.

Unlike the mountain chickens which evolved both socially and physically, the fish only seemed to do the latter. A variety of species dotted the lakes, rivers, and oceans, with an extremely healthy and thriving ecosystem being established. A few types of giant fish acted at the top of the food chain- the most notable of which resembled a porbeagle shark in terms of both appearance and niche. These were only present in the warm ocean to the south and rarely got close to the shore, however.

The oceans seemed to thrive the most near the shallow reefs that I constructed to reduce the warm water flowing north. These reefs, now covered in underwater moss, acted as perfect places for millions of tiny fish to scatter their eggs. The large amount of reef area that covered a decent portion of the ocean allowed for fish cities to blossom.

If only I could move some of those fish to other parts of the realm...

I was referring to the lakes.

Some lakes had popped up randomly throughout the continent. Although I tried to make my own watersheds, the uneven terrain caused by the massive destruction when I first added mass to the realm pretty much ruined my efforts and caused these anomalies. Sadly, since they gradually developed after thousands of years of rainfall, they were not noticeable until well after I finished adding phytoplankton and fish. They were essentially giant empty puddles with no life inside.

Not all of the new lakes were empty though. Those that formed as a result of the river shifting or overflowing naturally exchanged life during the process and boasted plenty of fish in their waters.

I was honestly thankful for these lakes- they brought a valuable source of food to areas that might never have had access to it.

A smile slowly appeared on my face as I looked over my realm.

It really has developed well, hasn't it?

It was beautiful; from towering mountains to deep blue seas. Chickens pranced through the cherry tree forests, fish swam peacefully in the calm seas, and mushrooms spread their spoors across the green moss-covered landscape. It was a massive and thriving realm built by my hands.

I made this... I really freaking made something this gorgeous.

I could not suppress the feeling of pride and accomplishment that washed over me whenever I gazed upon my realm.

... Hopefully my future humans will treat it well.

*Updated map!