Balor remained in slumber in the forest of the serpents, waking up once every few decades to check Veilthorn’s crust for cracks where the corrupted Seedmaker’s bloodstone could seep out.

  He found none, and he eventually reached the fifth phase of the world seed where primates started to evolve. This step needed more meddling to sustain, as this new terrain configuration was different from the one before. This time, there was more genetic variety of primates based on the biomes they evolved in.

  The surface ones were more or less similar to the last experiment, but the ones that evolved in lower strata were nothing like them. Some of them evolved to dig their dwellings into stone walls, some evolved to see in the dark, and some others in the third stratum kept all their fur to stay warm in the cold ocean winds that swept across the dark ocean.

  Their diets varied drastically as well, and there were too many to pay attention to all at once. Interestingly, it was a fairly isolated group in the second stratum that first harnessed fire. The world seed had evolved an acidic plant in the semi-dark climate of the second stratum. The hominids there learned to use it with kindling to create flames whenever they wanted.

  They were fairly adventurous, and with the advent of fire, they spread far and wide, dominating others nearby. They worshipped the light filtering through the strata ceiling above them, and in particular, one very perfectly circular hole.

  It was the life goal of many of them to climb up through it, and a young hominid managed to make that journey after four hundred years of trying. They scaled the rocky pillars that held the strata above with their hands and feet. Then they devised rudimentary harnesses and sharp hooks to keep climbing upside down through the ceiling. Balor estimated at least thirteen thousand climbing-related deaths over four hundred years.

  The young hominid that climbed took the knowledge of fire upwards, but he met a settlement that had already discovered a new way to light fires in the first stratum with bashing rocks together, which was arguably less efficient than the flammable acid plant.

  Interactions like these happened all over Veilthorn at the same time, some constructive, some destructive, and yet others straight up genocidal. He shoved the last survivors of such incidents into isolated areas that he already created. He brought a fair few of them into his forest just to keep their bloodlines going.

  In reality, he was just releasing them into a forest with serpentine leviathans, in a sort of unintentional game of survival that pitted serpent genetics against primate ones. It didn’t feel entirely good, but he’d rather give the dead ends a second chance in a tougher environment than seeing them fizzle out to the void.

  The surface dwellers were the first to discover magics the way he intended. It happened so much earlier than the last experiment. On the surface, magics were as fundamental as independently discovered fire.

  The surface dwellers started mining the colossal crystal that was stabbed into the surface. They found it fairly easy to do, because crystallized soul matter was more malleable than rock.

  The discovery of magics came with the first hominid stupid enough to try to eat the rock, which, hilariously, didn’t take that long.

  The world seed had already evolved these primates with a special organ to interface with soul matter, just as he found out in the last experiment by dissecting dead ones. Ingestion of soul matter crystal overloaded that part of their brain stem and mixed the energy into their bloodstream.

  They bumbled around with it for a long fifty thousand years before they figured out how to channel it. One particularly clever hominid that Balor named ‘Carther’ discovered how to affect physical phenomena like the flow of water, or the movement of rocks, and the intensity and shape of fire. This knowledge took another tens of thousands of years to ripple through the rest of the hominids, and eventually, they all developed an instinctual liking to the crystals that made their lives easier.

  Proto-settlements rose and fell during this time, as hominids tried to structure their lives, which were improved with magics. Most of them had violent ends, and for a moment, Balor worried if they’d ever find a way to tolerate each other.

  Magics were meant to be unequal, and it always concentrated themselves in individuals who had the initiative to act on their impulses. This gave them drive, but that wasn’t always productive before they could develop much higher brain functions.

  Hominids made it through that phase into the first civilization, taking a bit longer than the last experiment this time around. There were more than three kingdoms this time. It was a network of seventeen, spread across strata from the surface to the third.

  Balor watched as they quickly learned to share resources through trade, and growth accelerated at an unprecedented rate. Deep-sea resources made it to the surface and vice versa, because the hominids started treating these resource-delivering proto-traders like walking deities.

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  This fostered adventure and expedition among many of them, and the first civilization’s primary goal was mapping the world before they even invented a written language that was elaborate enough to express all their ideas.

  Young hominids from seventeen kingdoms ventured into the fray with almost suicidal curiosity. The survivors brought back stories that were passed down in various forms, from tales around fires to stone and clay tablets.

  The study of the world was almost too intimidating to start as a lowly hominid, and they came up with the concept of teaching from a very early stage.

  The surface kingdoms grew more than others, extracting resources and conquering more territories and settlements. Balor didn’t interfere with them until they were ripe for conflict with each other.

  When it was time, he had a fleet of dark lords ready to throw at them from every angle, because he’d been fostering them in his forest. He directly bestowed soul matter to the most promising hominids that he’d rescued over time. Unlike the outside world, these evolved in a more merciless world, and they had ideals that reflected it.

  He didn’t need to play a role; he had characters that defined the roles for themselves. For the purpose of structure, he released seventeen of them in the third stratum, one for each kingdom. He gave them a limited number of serpents and leviathans and let things play out.

  The first civilization still had too many holes that needed to be filled, and he was willing to throw everything at it to select the descendants.

  Three kingdoms collapsed within ten years, three dark lords taking over them with their ruthless conquest. They ravaged through all resources, having been released into a world of plenty.

  The surface kingdoms fought amongst themselves until the problem spread to the second stratum, completely cutting them off from resources from the deep sea and the third stratum.

  They united once they realized what they lost, but by that time, nine dark lords had conquered their corresponding kingdoms and had selected a supreme leader to follow.

  In Balor’s eyes, it was a test for all. He wanted to select the best dark lord as well. The ones that settled in the third stratum grew weak and indulgent. Eventually losing their kingdoms to armed riots or takeovers from other dark lords who had no kingdoms.

  Finally, the surface kingdoms put a hundredfold more effort into developing magics that could beat the dark lords. Balor slumbered among them during this time, making sure they were making all the right discoveries. Research and development were risky. He didn’t want someone to sneak a suspicious red stone into the mix.

  The first elemental heroes arose from this exercise, with powers to rival the dark lords. It took two hundred and twenty years for the first one to defeat a particularly lazy dark lord. Similar events happened in the next hundred years with increasing frequency, a game of push and pull between surface kingdoms, lower strata settlements, and the captured kingdoms.

  At the end, only three dark lords remained, but they were the best. Each of them had developed their own magics to counter heroes, and each one of them was as powerful as all the dead ones combined.

  Balor intervened when the heroes came to a stagnant plateau. They didn’t seem to develop ideas beyond forging weapons with magics. Very few schools survived the dark age with ideas versatile enough to work in the future. The three dark lords were also choking the rest of the experiment out.

  He brought them back to the forest and let the remaining hominid kingdoms battle among themselves for the next few centuries. In the absence of a common enemy, the kingdoms fell apart and collapsed faster than dark lords could have done.

  Balor ensured all the advancements and discoveries made were preserved for future civilizations, and he personally oversaw the system of knowledge transfer in the guise of an exiled king.

  The first civilization ended in a four-hundred-year-long whimper, hominids trying to claw their way back to a prosperity that they only heard about in stories.

  During this time, Balor used the three dark lords. He made them mortal with mortal lifespans. He changed their appearances and then released them back into a world that would never know who they were. As powerful individuals, they roamed the land as undefeated adventurers. They inspired others to follow their adventures.

  Most importantly, the three dark lords mixed with the surviving bloodlines. In their adventures, they had plenty of opportunities to spread their genetics, and they did that extensively.

  By their natural mortal deaths, they had each divided into a branching tree, every future bloodline inheriting a piece of them down the line.

  His direct meddling in bloodline manipulation, combined with the efficient passing of knowledge from the first civilization, gave rise to a much better second civilization five hundred years after an era of stagnation.

  There were many attempts and near misses during that time, but not even Balor expected the momentum and equilibrium that the second civilization emerged with. They were masters of magics, with an infinite appetite for adventure.

  One kingdom arose, built around the colossal crystal which still had four-fifths of itself left after the mining efforts of the first civilization. This kingdom was an amalgamation of several strong bloodlines that naturally drifted towards the source of power in Veilthorn.

  They approached the crystal not as a resource, but as a tool. One particular individual who developed their magics for a lifetime, named Karvok. In his final days, he managed to harness the power from the entire crystal for a split second. He used that power to break it apart into smaller shards.

  This was a highly impressive feat and a declaration of a direction for the whole civilization. Karvok the great left a shattered crystal that could be mined more efficiently by future generations. In the wake of this monumental stage of Veilthorn, populations shifted towards the dominant kingdom.

  They eventually named themselves with a word that Balor planted in their language long ago. They called themselves ‘Petrah,’ the civilization that Balor didn’t get to experience during the last experiment.

  They were more promising than any he’d seen so far, and for the first time in this new Veilthorn, Balor wanted to assimilate with one of them.