When the world ended, Clayton Hunt was just another street survivor scavenging for scraps, fighting for breath in a crumbling society on the edge of ruin.

Then the sky cracked open, and the Genesis Protocols began.

Dragged into Echoterra, a nightmarish trial world where survival rewrites your very soul, Clayton awakens. Not as a man, but as a seed… a goddamn seed!

Stripped of his body, his memories locked behind suffocating layers, he must claw his way upward from the dirt, evolving into something far beyond human.

The first trial is brutal and simple. 

~----~
[Expand your territory to 100 square meters or die!]
~----~

Facing monstrous rivals, parasitic invaders, and the harsh reality of nature’s cruelty, Clayton battles not only to grow but to dominate; harnessing a feral, plantlike instinct he never knew lurked inside him.

Along the way, fragments of his past leak through, reminding him who he was… and hinting at the terrifying power he might yet awaken.

But survival isn’t enough. In a world where strength writes the law and weakness spells extinction, Clayton won’t just grow. He’ll thrive. 

And when he finally returns to the real world, it won’t be as a scavenger.

It will be as a conqueror.

Back in the Aether Core Reactor District.


The overpass gave him a vantage point, its crumbled edges cloaked in shadow. His Rootlash Dominion hummed beneath the surface, roots threading through the soil, mapping vibrations.


The city wasn't just alive, it was scheming.


And that figure on the tower? No Behemorph moved like that, he was sure of it. Too precise, too patient.


He closed his eyes, letting his Dual Consciousness slip sideways. Miles away, his Verdant Lord form stirred in its moss-bone temple. Its green-lit eyes scanned the clearing, sensing nothing but feral roots and distant Behemorph roars.


He'd need that titan soon, but not yet.


Distance drained him, and he wasn't ready to test Verdant Reign's full reach.


[Soul State: Germinal Bloom – Progress: 4%]


[Hostile intent detected. Soul Pressure increasing.]


Chapter 42 - Thorns in the shadows