'It seems my understanding of time has developed quite nicely…'
Although Akim could only accelerate time by about 1.2 times at first, and only in an area no larger than a palm, it was still better than nothing.
A small start was still a start...
Without hesitation, he focused and activated it around the soil patch where his fragile organisms squirmed.
Through his senses, he could faintly feel it...
Their movements quickened, their growth slightly faster than before!
[Your understanding of "Time" is being developed…]
[Your understanding of "Life" is being developed…]
[Your understanding of "Death" is being developed…]
…
Countless cycles passed.
Akim had lost track of how long.
Days? Weeks? He wasn't sure anymore.
But the results were undeniable.
What was once a patch no larger than his palm had expanded into a thriving area nearly two meters wide.
His small orb of light, once no bigger than a fingertip, had grown into the size of a human head, casting a warm glow that illuminated at least a hundred meters around him.
And now, for the first time, the organisms he created could be seen without needing to rely on his senses.
Small, faint blobs danced in the shallow water, moving rapidly as they clustered around the shimmering light above.
Akim's eyes glimmered.
'They're visible now… they've really changed.'
'I wonder if I should recreate humanity... or maybe other things...'
'Ah fuck it, I have all the time in the world! I'll make them all!
He leaned forward, his face reflecting the pale glow of the orb.
His creatures weren't just surviving anymore and were actually thriving.
But then a question struck him.
'How much time has really passed?'
He frowned.
His understanding of time had grown to the point that its natural flow felt… hazy.
Especially since he had been constantly accelerating the area...
Still, the gains were clear.
His time acceleration, once barely noticeable, had expanded its reach to cover the entire colony, and the multiplier had risen from 1.2… to 3.5 times!
Akim clenched his fist with excitement, then loosened it, sighing.
'But I still can't rewind time. Moving forward is simple compared to trying to reach into the past.'
He shook his head.
That would have to wait until his understanding of time deepened.
For now, he turned his focus back to the organisms.
His control over the concept of life had also grown sharper...
It wasn't much, but he could now "interfere" with their development.
Nudging them, shaping them, and guiding their instincts!
And so, he began shifting them toward a new path.
Slowly, carefully, he altered them so that they became more dependent on light rather than the amino acids he had to keep supplying.
It was easier, cleaner, and far less troublesome for him to simply provide light than to constantly feed them materials!
But Akim wasn't satisfied with only one environment.
'…The sun alone can't be the only way life grows.'
He stood up and walked about a few thousand meters away.
There, he shaped another pool of water into the ground, separate from the glow of his giant orb.
This time, however, instead of leaving it in the darkness, he raised his hand to the sky.
From his will, a new orb slowly took shape...
A pale, silvery sphere that did not shine on its own, but instead carried a faint glow.
A "moon."
Unlike the blazing sun-like orb that gave direct energy, this moon emitted a gentler, filtered kind of light.
Akim infused it with his power, altering it so that its glow wasn't just illumination...
And instead carried traces of condensed energy, tiny particles that the organisms could break down and consume, almost like nutrients floating through the water.
The moon was no longer just a reflection of the sun—
It had become an independent source of food.
Akim stared at it with fascination.
'A second path… not from heat and radiance, but from something softer.'
The pale moonlight spread across the water.
He had always loved the concept of the moon and the sun.
Even as a kid, such celestial bodies were something he dreamt of touching.
Once again, he placed his palm above the pool and activated [Spark of Life].
Tiny specks shimmered into existence, fragile and searching.
Unlike the sunlit colony, these creatures moved sluggishly at first, but when they drifted into the faint glow of the moon, they seemed to stabilize.
Their tiny forms pulsed faintly as if absorbing something invisible.
[Your understanding of "Environment" is being developed…]
Akim froze at the new message, then smiled.
Two colonies...
Two different ways to live.
One under the burning brilliance of the sun.
The other under the gentle, sustaining light of the moon.
...
Months slipped by. The tiny two-meter puddle was now a massive, sprawling pool a hundred meters across.
The ball of light hovering above it wasn't a orb anymore.
It was a brilliant, person-sized mini-sun that bathed over a kilometer of land in a warm, glowing light.
The most amazing change was in the water.
The water teemed with life!
Tiny, finger-sized fish darted through the clear, shallow areas.
Their silver scales glittered under the sun's rays.
A perfect little ecosystem had even sprung up!
Some of the fish loved to bask right at the surface, soaking up the light.
Others preferred the deeper, cooler parts of the pool, hiding in the shadows of simple rock formations Akim had made.
They mated in quick, frantic bursts, laying clusters of sticky eggs on the rocks.
They died, too.
Sometimes from age, their bodies slowing until they were eaten by the others.
Sometimes they were hunted... larger, quicker fish had evolved to prey on the smaller, slower ones.
It was life, in all its messy and beautiful cycles.
Akim called this place the Sunlit Garden.
A hundred meters away, at the edge of the light, was its opposite.
The Abyssal Pool.
Sustained only by the gentle geothermal heat Akim provided from below, this world was dark and strange.
The creatures here were pale, blind, and moved slowly through the warm, mineral-rich water.
They sensed their world through subtle water currents and taste.
They didn't hunt like the fish in the light; they mostly fed on the constant fall of nutrient-rich "moonlight" that drifted down from the water above.
It was a quieter, slower, but no less complex world.