Traveling to the closest planet didn’t take long. Skypiercer wasn’t stopped by any other spaceships, either, which made it even easier to enter the planet’s stratosphere and descend slowly. Daniel and Rebecca considered activating Skypiercer’s camouflage, but they decided against it when nobody stopped them.
Instead, they opened their radio for everyone. Their frequency could be accessed, allowing easy communication. However, nobody reached out to them. The unlike pair landed not long after but didn’t bother to descend right in front of the foreign intelligent lifeforms. There was no need to scare them like that.
They landed and stored Skypiercer in the War Rune storage.
"What now?" Daniel asked Rebecca, who’d already conjured the holographic notepad, to make some notes.
"Now we will research the plant life, atmosphere, and monsters. We will do the work you love so much," Rebecca winked in his direction before teasingly, "Or are you not excited anymore?"
"Oh, yeah. So…can I do the practical examination while you do the smartass part?"
"You only want to fight unknown monsters, don’t you?"
Danny shrugged, but the smile on his lips spoke more than a thousand words.
"Don’t rush into fighting Divine Beasts or the like. Who knows what will happen if the intelligent lifeforms of this planet worship these Divine Beasts? We don’t want to enrage the natives by accident."
"Our mission is to explore, not to conquer and enrage. I know that much," Daniel grumbled silently, but Rebecca glared at him again.
"Yeah, okay. I will stay here with you. If some monsters attack me, I will only defend us. Breaking a few bones is okay, but more than that is unacceptable."
"You’re a good boy~" Rebecca teased before returning her focus to work.
Daniel snickered but did the same. He inspected the trees and plant life in the surroundings and used origin energy to sense their energy systems.
"Almost all plants have one energy system, some have multiple ones," Daniel noted, "The magical energy system changes the properties of the plants, enhancing their magical nature. They evolve in a way that allows them to do ’unique’ things. That’s interesting."
"The physical energy system enhances the plants’ toughness, growth speed, and so forth. That’s not too bad either. Some plants that have both systems attain unique coping mechanisms to defend against natural predators. They’re stronger than the norm but also have unique magical abilities. Some are strong defenders, while others hide. But there are also carnivorous plants with strong abilities to attack. Following their coping mechanism, they use their attacks to intimidate enemies – or eat them right away – intimidating those around them."
"This is truly a different universe, isn’t it? Everything feels so different from the Origin Universe and the Origin Expanse," Daniel muttered, his attention pulling to a few plants with the spiritual energy system. There were only a handful of them and even fewer with multiple energy systems that contained spiritual energy. However, they felt the most unique to Daniel. It was almost like these plants were scared of him because they could sense his power and realize what it meant to be around someone powerful.
It was…like they were sentient.
"Are those…" Daniel asked, pointing at one particular flower, which seemed to writhe in agony and fear.
"Yes, it is a sentient plant. It’s incredibly rare to see something like that among low-ranked plants. In fact, I think I have never seen a sentient planet below the 4th Tier, except for Michael’s Nature Spirit. But even that was a unique find among Summons, mostly due to its connection to the Untamed Jungle’s Primordial Tree Spirit."
"This one doesn’t contain enough energy to be at the 1st Tier. Even as a Tierless plant, it would be considered rather weak," Daniel mumbled.
"Yup. That’s very interesting, isn’t it? The spiritual energy seemed to grant plants sentience and monsters more intelligence. It helps all lifeforms to develop their mind and soul much faster than the norm. The plants are still rather young but are smart enough to know how to behave around more powerful creatures. That is fascinating."
They continued testing for a while and encountered a bunch of monsters. It didn’t seem like a long time, but a day passed before they stopped their initial experiments.
"This is amazing! The energies restrain the variety of plants and monsters’ growth but allow rapid growth in specific paths. Spiritual energy allows the evolution and growth of the mind and spiritual powers, whereas physical energies do the same for the body. Physical mutations and evolutions aren’t rare. I wonder how many monsters are born and cease to exist in the following generations. This is a true treasure!"
"It’s quite interesting," Daniel agreed. They had seen many similar types of monsters, but some evolved by adapting to other energy systems. They mutated, surrendered their old energy systems, and accepted to survive. Some died, but others overcame all ordeals and procreated, creating numerous monsters from the same ancestry. The same happens to the plant life here."
"Nature here is rich in everything. This is a true heaven," Rebecca sighed. This place was extraordinary. Unfortunately, origin energy wouldn’t do this place any good. If anything, it would prevent the growth of an ecosystem with a rich variety of plants and monsters.
Origin energy was great for growing in all possible aspects, but it was much slower and didn’t allow unique mutations like the other energy systems. It was still possible to mutate in unique ways, yet the probability was much lower.
"I wonder if the unknown domain will cease to exist when the weave expands and claims this place," Daniel murmured, a tinge of sadness in his voice. Explore more stories at empire
"IF the weave manages to claim this place," Rebecca added, but Daniel could only look at her silently.
There was no ’If’. Except maybe for the weave, which did not wish to conquer the unknown domain.
"Maybe Michael can convince the weave to stay away from the unknown domain,"
"You think he will do that?"
Danny shrugged, "If the unknown domain is of no danger to the weave, he won’t do anything. The Guardians wouldn’t do anything either."
Rebecca nodded seriously.
"That means our mission is more important than expected. We have to find out whether the unknown domain is dangerous and has to be conquered or if there is no need to intercept."
"Let’s search for the natives then!"