World Seed

by Justin Miller

  For some reason, the idea of having a female AI, or any AI, or any female for that matter inside my brain and able to essentially take full control of my body whenever she wanted still disturbed me a bit. Sensing this thought, Celeste simply turned to me and grinned mischievously. “Oh, it’ll be fine. But don’t think I don’t know you wanted to use your X-Ray vision to peep on women. I may not be able to stop that, but I can certainly censor it.”

  Alas, another dream crushed before it could be realized.

  Chapter 9: Discoveries and a Plan

  The rest of the day passed fairly quickly. Well, that was mostly because I was focusing on one thing for the entire day, but Celeste was kind enough to not disturb me while training my Water Affinity. I think she knows that, even though she could try to take over my body, since she doesn’t have any control over my magic, I could still get rid of the implant if I wanted. Doing so would, at the very least force her back into the bracelet, or possibly delete her altogether. Neither of us know for sure, and we would both like to avoid that happening. So now, I am basically seeing hallucinations of a helpful AI that can help me with a few tasks.

  Though, after raising my Water Affinity to 9%, it was time to sleep. I swear, Celeste being in my head is just weird. I had a dream of just sitting up and watching the TV for hours as it flashed through a rapid series of images. Of course, after I woke up, I found out that hadn’t been a dream, and Celeste had taken the time while I was asleep to essentially ‘download’ a torrent of information. With a sigh, I could only ask her, “So, what all did you get?” The idea of her taking over my body while I slept was a bit disconcerting, but so long as she only used it for the right things it’d be okay.

  “Well, first I looked up whether or not it was possible to infect an AI like myself with a virus, because if it is, I’d need to take countermeasures.” Naturally, this alarmed me. “Turns out, it is possible for someone using Technomancy to embed a virus spell into a program, but it has to be passed on through direct contact. Organic optics filter out any possibility for a virus to be transmitted by simply being read. As long as my main consciousness is in the implant, and you are confident in any software you apply to yourself, it should be safe.”

  I nodded, a bit relieved that Celeste wouldn’t suddenly get infected with a homicidal virus or something like that. “Alright, what else?”

  This time, she grinned proudly, pushing out her imaginary chest. “I heard that. But anyways, after that, I started looking up some useful information. Stuff like lovebird evolutionary paths, slime abilities, and so on. Also went through and learned about all of the nearby worlds, their native monsters, and recommended levels. I think, if I keep doing this, I might be able to serve as a good information source for you when we’re travelling. I’ve already been able to store a lot of information for the Identify software.”

  One particular part of that stuck out to me, so I went ahead and asked. “So? What did you learn about Yin’s evolution path?”

  Nodding her head, Celeste began speaking in a lecturing tone. “After turning into a gustwing, the most common evolutionary forms are taken when the gustwing reaches 20% in a second affinity, aside from wind. This has varying outcomes based on what the element is, but the most powerful would be if the second element is lightning. If that is the case, it is capable of evolving into a thunderbird, a high ranking monster able to control the weather in a localized area and release powerful lightning attacks. Before you ask, the phoenix path is totally unavailable to her now, because she would have to take her first evolution from having 30% Fire Affinity. What I did learn was that, at the end of every evolution chain is a chance for a creature to take on a humanoid appearance.

  “For some, this is in the form of a demi, like Yang will become. Others, like Yo, simply evolve into it if they are intelligent enough. But for most, the ones that advanced down the path of magical beasts and monsters, their final evolution grants them a form of sentience. With it, they are able to change their body between two forms. The first is naturally their default form that they were ‘born’ with, while the second would be the form of either a human, demi, or other sentient creature that they choose to become.”

  I gave out a soft sigh, shaking my head. “So no matter what, I’m going to end up with two bird girls on my hands.”

  Celeste giggled slightly at that. “Yup, that’s right. What’s more, I discovered that slimes are gender neutral, so there is still the possibility for Yo to take a female form when he becomes a sentient. I’d be careful if I were you, or they may just start teaming up against you.”

  “Don’t encourage them… Did you manage to get anything else, though?”

  Celeste shook her head. “Nope, but I know most of the planets within fifty parsecs of here now, and what they have. I thought about looking up an alchemy guide, but when I felt you starting to wake up I figured it was time to stop studying.”

  I smirked slightly when she said that. “Well, thanks for that. Would have been weird to wake up to be staring at the TV.”

  She nodded her head at that. “By the way, if we save up a bit of money, one of the other planets in this system would be a good hunting ground for you. It’s suggested level is approximately twenty, and would give you a chance to train yourself and your animal companions. And since it’s in the same system, the usual fees for a larger flight from the station are reduced.”

  As she spoke, I began focusing on cultivating water mana again, determined to hit 10% today. “Maybe, but first I need to finish these up. Did you find out what the recommended skill level is for someone at my level?”

  Suddenly, Celeste had a bit of an embarrassed look. “Ah, yes… about that… Well, normally 25% in an element would be the standard for a druid at level 20 focusing on the elements. But! But, for each doubling of the number of elements, that number is reduced by 5%. So, with you training nine elements, it’s roughly 10% for each one. I also found a guide to Xeno-Shifters, but I didn’t have time to read through it.”

  “Well… at least I’m not too far behind the curve. But we’re definitely staying here another night. A guide to shifting is something I need rather desperately. It’s my class focus, and I’ve been neglecting it quite a bit.”

  Celeste nodded her head. “I’ll look at as much as I can about the subject tonight.”

  I thanked her, and then focused more on my cultivation. Since I was using the Seed of Water to cycle water mana, I was also slowly refining it as well. At some point, I would need to figure out how to increase the purity of the ambient mana when I make the seeds so that I can make them directly into a higher grade.

  My cultivation this time lasted roughly four hours, stopping only long enough to grab a breakfast from the hotel, before I got to 10% Water Affinity. However, shortly afterwards, I received a notification from the house AI that I had a call from the police. Looks like it’s time to ‘train’.

  Quickly putting away my ‘staff of the elements’(the name was suggested by Celeste, but it was appropriate enough), I quickly logged out. Afterwards, I dispelled the void field in my room and took the call. As expected, it was Officer Faraday again.The time outside of the game was sometime in the evening now, and I could see the desire to go home and relax on his face even with a low quality hologram.

  “Let me guess, another situation?”

  He let out a sigh, shaking his head. “Not quite. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about it, but there is a petition to establish an Adventurer’s Guild.”

  I nodded my head. “I’ve heard of it. Figured it’d be another week or so before any progress was made, at least.”

  Faraday chuckled at that. “Well, it came a week early, then. Due to the situation worldwide, pretty much every government I know of is rushing for this. They don’t have buildings set up yet, but that’s only a matter of time. This call is to let you know, and ask you to be a liaison between the Oakland PD and the local Guild branch. Aside from your adventurer responsibilities, you’d be in charge of
coordinating with the police in the event of ‘enhanced’ crime.”

  I raised an eyebrow at this news. “You mean like mages robbing banks?”

  “Exactly. They may not have standard human limits anymore, and some of them may not even be human, but they are still bound by the law. We’ve already got people in the ‘game’ looking into ways to enhance the security of prisons and such to contain these people if necessary. It’s just lucky that the Seeds didn’t appear in prisons too.”

  I couldn’t help but wince at the idea of all the jails suddenly having mages or dragons popping out of them, letting every criminal out with new and improved abilities. That was definitely not something that the world needed to happen.

  “Alright, I can do that.” I thought about it, and nodded. With the establishing of an Adventurer’s Guild, the need for me to respond in the real world would decrease drastically. It would also let me take jobs more regularly if I wanted to, getting me more money.

  “Thanks. With this, a lot of the pressure is being lifted from us, but at the same time, standard police are becoming outdated. Thankfully, we’re still being kept around for now.” I had no idea why he was telling me this. We weren’t exactly friends, were we? “Anyways, I’ll let you know when the building is up. For now, they are using a website to gather and spread information, which I sent to your AI.”

  “I didn’t get anything.” Celeste spoke up in my head, before making an ahh sound. “You meant the house AI. Carry on!”

  “Alright. I’ll take a look at it later.” I nodded my head to the officer, and the call ended. Shrugging, I decided to check the news. More strange weather, more strange tide, more big monsters. “Maybe it’s an ocean slime that’s messing with the tide?”

  “Hope not.” Celeste spoke up, sitting on a chair that I knew didn’t exist beside me. “I looked it up as part of my research into the evolutionary paths. Ocean slimes are almost impossible to fully kill, especially when they are in a large body of water. Their core blends in, or they hide it under the sand at the bottom. And the only way to kill them when they are in the water is to remove the core and cut the link, or destroy the core itself. So… unless you plan to have people search every cubic inch of the ocean for an object the size of your fist, you’re out of luck…”

  “Yeah… that would definitely not be good. That would pretty much be the worst possible outcome.” I nodded, looking at the website that Faraday had sent me. It was structured pretty plainly, where people could enter in their zip code and it would have a map of monster activity. I couldn’t confirm how current it was, but the page said it was updated in real time by an AI. That meant it was probably someone that had access to city cameras and was linking the sudden appearance of creatures to monster activity. Though, I wasn’t sure how it would account for the nonhuman people walking around in broad daylight.

  Either way, there were also listings on the site about known monsters and their weaknesses. The site right now had goblins, minotaurs, a dozen types of slimes, and a monster I hadn’t seen yet. It was listed as a stone spider, and appeared to be exactly that, a spider covered entirely in stone. According to the website, it was weak against blunt force, but spawned in swarms and began consuming any rock near them, such as gravel, cement, or concrete. I really did not want to fight them. My only blunt force attack was their food!

  After that, I saw no real reason to stay logged out for now, and went back in so that I could resume cultivating, this time doing so with Wind Affinity. Since Celeste had found out that I actually wasn’t very far behind the curve, I could train my affinities normally and catch up, while she finds out what I need to do to finally get my racial shapeshifting. Then I’ll just need to study a few more auras, and I’ll be able to look however I want and gain all sorts of powers.

  The rest of the day passed in relative peace, and I was easily able to get 9% Wind Affinity before going to bed. A few more days like this, and I’ll need to start getting a local job to pay for the hotel.

  Chapter 10: Training Montage, and a Solar Flight

  The next few days passed relatively quietly, since I no longer had as many jobs to work for the police. There was another elemental, a fire one this time, but it turned out to just be a salaryman who didn’t realize that becoming a fire elemental would mean losing his ability to communicate. I did check in with Tessa, and was relieved to find that her mom had taken money out of their savings to have her take a race change. I can’t imagine how she found an altar of the gods, because I hadn’t seen one yet.

  Of course, after thinking that, Celeste told me that there had been a small church in nearly every town I had visited so far, I just never paid attention. Still, it was good to see that Tessa had turned back into a human. When I asked, she said that her mommy had told her that she could pick any human type she wanted, so long as she did pick one. So now, Tessa is a human psychic like my father was. I didn’t really understand what the psychic powers she possessed would be like. but the important thing was that she wasn’t an elemental anymore.

  Tessa’s mother had tried to thank me, by paying me or giving back the bracelet I had enchanted for her. Although I had a money issue myself, I couldn’t justify taking money for returning a little girl to her mother. As for the bracelet, I really didn’t have any use for it, so I insisted she keep it. At the very least, it would let her raise her own Wind Affinity to the point where mine was at when I enchanted it.

  On the subject of affinities, it took nearly a full week for me to get 10% in all of my elements, but I did eventually manage it. I also felt like my older affinities, like earth and dark, were getting closer to breaking through to 11%. The fact that they hadn’t done so after all this time reminded me just how slow passively cultivating would be.

  Now, you might be wondering, but Celeste did her own learning during this time as well. For the first couple nights after I did the implant surgery, she stayed up and constantly recording information from the tv. On the second night, she learned a lot of information regarding druids, and more specifically regarding Xeno-Shifters. My line of thinking had been off from the very start.

  Although I needed a bit more mana to become a magical beast or a monster, really I could substitute my affinities for the extra mana, and focus all of my efforts on my Mana Manipulation skill. Celeste even found a handy calculator to determine the mana cost to shift forms based on their complexity, mana density, and my skills. From what she figured out, my wolf form would only cost half as much mana now as it did back when I first learned to use it. If I relied on my affinities, I could even easily change into a lesser orthrus.

  Naturally, she couldn’t get any auras from the internet, since I had to study those myself. But with this, I had a benchmark for when I’d be able to do a full race conversion. Mana Manipulation at at least Intermediate level would be needed with my current mana pool. With how I was right now, turning into a monster wouldn’t be hard, as long as it was a monster attuned with one of my elements. This also meant that my dragon form could be done more simply if I supplemented my mana with elemental mana. Though, after the second night, I restricted her to only studying every other night, because my eyes had started to hurt.

  Anyways, I had gradually been running out of funds, since I had been staying in this hotel for roughly a week now. As such, I had to once again get a job. With my skills in engineering and technomancy, I was able to get a job at the starport again, however this time I didn’t have a handy partner to help. I did, however have Celeste, who was more than happy to flaunt her downloaded knowledge.

  When I asked why she hadn’t simply given me the information, she said that it wouldn’t be very fun that way. Also, the time it would take to give me the information would require my entire concentration for several hours. She was able to process it much faster than I was, so information that took her a minute to ‘download’ would require an hour for me to do so safely.

  Now, I had spent a full two weeks working as a mechanic at the starport, and during
this time I had managed to train another affinity to help me out. The affinity this time was metal, which allowed me to control metal with my mana. It wouldn’t let me turn silver to gold(yet, I was hopeful that it could eventually), but it would let me fix broken components and remove rust. I did the same thing to my three weapons as well, finally restoring them to their peak efficiency.

  Onto my grove, that had shown a considerable increase lately, with all of the mana I passively take in. Over the last three weeks, the grove had grown to a startling 35 meter radius. The secondary grove I had set up had also grown, until it had a radius of 10 meters. With the addition of metal mana, there were even tiny veins of iron and copper that would appear in the center of the grove after I absorbed mana.

  Before you ask, I naturally made a Seed of Metal and put it in my staff of the elements. I even had to replace my plant and dark seeds, because they had been refined to medium grade. Although Celeste had discovered the method to do so, I had yet to refine a medium grade seed of my own. From her information, it would take the equivalent of twenty five thousand mana at my current level of skill. With that, I would have to focus for nearly seven hours just to create a single one. I’d rather wait until I could do so more quickly.