World Seed

by Justin Miller

  Although I hadn’t gained a level from working, I had gained other things. Most notably was the money, which I got from both working the job and harvesting the metal from my grove. Altogether, I gained roughly half a gold, which I considered to be a pretty good deal for just that amount of work. If I kept at it, I could easily earn enough to get a full gold within the shortest amount of time.

  Finally, it has been about four days in the real world, and the Adventurer’s Guild already had tens of thousands of members. Practically every city had an ‘adventurer’, or had one living nearby that could rush over in case of an emergency. After talking with her, I was surprised to find out that Sharon had not become a member. Then again, with her personality she wouldn’t really want to fight the monsters. She had long since surpassed me in levels, likely from training her skills, so the only times that we were able to chat was thanks to the friends list. I was a bit disappointed to learn that she lived in Europe in the real world, so we would probably never meet outside of the game. That thought made me laugh a bit, since I found it easier to meet her when we were on different planets than just different continents.

  Today, I was planning to take the shuttle to Gallen 3, the neighboring world in this system which would have a better hunting ground for me. Thanks to my two weeks of work, I had earned a ten percent discount on the faire, but still needed to pay thirteen and a half silver. Compared to the cost of going to another system, it was extremely cheap, but it still made a hefty dent in my wallet.

  Once on the shuttle, I let myself relax, focusing on my inner grove and investigating my ‘animal’ companions. I wasn’t sure why, but Yang had yet to get the last two levels needed for her to evolve. Yin, naturally had yet to do so as well. As for Yo, I had to scold him before to not drain all the water mana from my grove, because he had started to make it shrink. However, his current body was roughly four meters wide, so he was far more imposing than that little goo ball I had first created.

  I had considered creating slimes with the dark and plant seeds I had refined, but really the memory of acid and my time fighting the dark and water slime(Celeste later identified it as a Mire slime) stopped me. I could do so later at any time, but first I wanted to finish training Yo so that I knew what to expect.

  “Thank you for choosing to fly with Gallen Starliner, taking you anywhere and everywhere in the Gallen system.” A hostess’s voice came in over the intercom as I strapped myself in. The flight time was estimated to be around three hours, since the two planets were currently at opposing points of their orbit. With a deep sigh, I pulled up my character and skill information windows, wanting to check out my total earnings from my training period.

  Name

  Falenel Hulett

  Race

  Half-Elf(Woodland)

  Titles

  Vengeful Heart, Amateur Brain Surgeon

  Fame

  0

  Level 21

  12%

  Class

  Druid

  Sub-Class

  Wild Shaper

  Deity

  Malthan

  Health

  160/160

  Health Regen

  0.25

  Mana

  850/850

  Mana Regen

  0.72

  Strength

  15

  Wisdom

  85

  Agility

  21

  Intelligence

  86

  Dexterity

  22

  Charisma

  10

  Vitality

  16

  Luck

  20

  Points Remaining

  0

  Earth 11%

  Fire 10%

  Wind 10%

  Water 10%

  Lightning 10%

  Light 11%

  Dark 11%

  Plant 11%

  Void 10%

  Metal 10%

  Skills

  Mana Manipulation - Novice Level 8: 5%

  Nature Magic - Basic Level 5: 0%

  Wind Magic - Beginner Level 7: 5%

  Archery - Beginner Level 3: 1%

  Dagger Mastery - Beginner Level 5: 11%

  Wild Luck - Basic Level 7: 0%

  Sketching - Basic Level 6: 60%

  Herbology - Basic Level 5: 12%

  Gathering - Beginner Level 6: 6%

  Alchemy - Basic Level 5: 3%

  Mana Signatures - Intermediate Level 1: 9%

  Cooking - Basic Level 3: 55%

  Flight - Basic Level 1: 0%

  Aura Sight - Intermediate Level 2: 12%

  Technomancy - Intermediate Level 3: 21%

  Programming - Intermediate Level 4: 5%

  Runic Language - Intermediate Level 8: 50%

  Enchanting - Basic Level 2: 30%

  Engineering - Novice Level 1: 16%

  Maintenance - Basic Level 9: 13%

  Dodge - Beginner Level 1: 20%

  Swordsmanship - Beginner Level 3: 20%

  Marksmanship - Beginner Level 9: 13%

  Energy Weapons - Beginner Level 5: 3%

  “Finally, time to go and train with actual combat!” Celeste appeared, ‘sitting’ in my lap, smiling at me. She was the biggest reason for most of my skills improving as much as they had, since she fed me some of the information that she had downloaded. Stuff like new alchemy recipes for the herbs that I had found on the jungle planet and the ones from Hascion, or teaching me several thousand new runes. Although she didn’t teach me everything on the subject, she assured me that it should be enough for the foreseeable future, and she didn’t want to overload me too soon.

  I could only chuckle at her antics. Although her personality was still fully formed, and she would display the occasional bit of adult wisdom, she still enjoyed acting like a kid a lot. Of course, every time I thought about that, she began pouting. It was still cute, and made me want to pat her on the head.

  The flight to Gallen 3 was largely uneventful, since the security in this system was high enough to prevent pirates . There were no freak meteors, no sudden explosions, no Klax invasions(it surprised me how quiet that race had been lately). We just flew through the system for three hours from one planet to the other. Though really, the view was amazing. We got to see passing planets like one would see a city from an airplane. We even got to see the star up close, thanks to the shuttle’s shielding. Unlike Earth, the Gallen star was a blue dwarf, which itself was quite a sight to behold.

  As we approached the planet, I could see that it looked quite similar to Earth, with the majority covered by blue water, and the rest being green continents. Well, that’s what I thought at first. Then I learned that the blue was really the land, and the green was the water. There was some mineral mixed into the water that turned it green, and so it had to be filtered before it was drinkable, according to Celeste.

  Still, roughly three hours after launch, we had entered the atmosphere of a new planet, and were finally going to be able to begin training. “Thank you for flying with Gallen Starliner, and have a safe stay. If you require special services, please see a terminal upon exiting the shuttle.” The hostess’s voice rang out again as everyone began to get up and move out. Now I could finally train my Plasma and Magnetism Affinities, while my animal companions trained to evolve.

  Chapter 11: Tag Team Lovebirds

  As I exited the shuttle, I was able to look around and see the city. From the air, it looked rather wide, but the fact that all of the buildings were short gave it the appearance of a small town. Since Celeste had already downloaded the relevant information about this planet, I had a fully formed minimap displaying in the top corner of my vision.

  With my grove, I didn’t have to worry about food, and thanks to my magic I didn’t need potions. Instead, I began walking directly towards the exit to the hunting grounds while summoning Yin and Yang. It would be far easier to deal with either bird if I brought them both out together, since that way they wouldn’t get jealous
of each other. If Yo was still his former size, I would have summoned him as well, but he would take up the entirety of the street as it was.

  I looked over to the two birds and spoke slowly, expecting them to at least partially understand what I was saying, even if only through my thoughts. “I’m going to take you both out hunting today, and you can practice the magic that you’ve been training. If you get stronger, you can evolve into more powerful forms.”

  I wasn’t really sure if it was because I was actually talking to them or because they might have understood me a bit, but they were both excited and immediately began rubbing up against me. I could only let out a helpless sigh and accept it until we walked out of the small city. The entire time, Celeste had been focusing on transferring some information to me regarding this planet. Unlike Hascion, this world was already habitable when the wood elves arrived, so there wasn’t a need for druids to spread out and make a bunch of forests.

  At the same time, that meant that the planet had evolved its own set of wild beasts and medicinal herbs. She was slowly ‘teaching’ me about the various herbs that might be found in the hunting ground nearby, and how they might interact with the herbs I already had. Thanks to her lessons, I already understood that I had nearly all of the ingredients to make more powerful potions, and even different types of results than potions themselves. For instance, she taught me a way she learned from a druid guide to use my affinities and create magic pills that had similar effects to potions.

  While an alchemic pill might not necessarily have a stronger effect than a potion, it would be longer lasting and required more fine control in order to make. It was like this that she suggested I practice my mana control, but I had yet to try it out. The basic requirements to perform alchemic pill refinement were being able to control fire, water, and plant energies. Since I had been staying in a hotel lately, I couldn’t exactly experiment with fire.

  About fifteen minutes later, I had finally gotten out of the city, and also learned the necessary information about the nearby plants. One in particular caught my attention, but I would come back to that if I saw it. Now that we were outside of the city, I raised my hand and summoned Yo. Thankfully, pulling him out of my grove costed nearly no mana, unlike taking him in. Each time I called him back, I had to have him shave off some size so that I could wrap my mana around him. With the giant blue blob appearing beside me, we walked off towards the north, towards the direction Celeste had recommended we hunt.

  The hunting ground was about a mile away from the city, but that distance wasn’t very much. It was just a small buffer zone that the guards used to repel monsters. Thankfully, according to Celeste there were no existences like the land wyrm here, or anything that would directly kill me from underground, so I could walk in peace.

  After roughly ten minutes of walking , we began to see the first signs of enemies. “These are called diamondback wolves. They don’t typically possess any magical abilities, but their strong skeleton makes them a difficult opponent.” Celeste informed me of the enemy, and even created small viewing windows with different details. Along the back of the wolf was a diamond-like protrusion, which seemed to be what its bones were made out of. This was further confirmed by the same material appearing as their claws and fangs. “This enemy would be a good one for you to study once you take it down. Its only powerful quality is its diamond skeleton, but even that is quite powerful.”

  I nodded with a sigh, waving a hand. “Yin, Yang, Yo, let’s see how you guys can do.” These five diamondback wolves didn’t possess any magic, so it shouldn’t be an issue for a slime to fight them. In this sense, Yin and Yang would be acting as support in this fight. “Celeste, what are their estimated levels?”

  “Given their size, they should be just below level twenty. You can measure the age of a diamondback wolf based on the size of the protrusions from their back.” Celeste spoke as the two birds took flight, and Yo did something rather unexpected. Rather than rolling along like I had seen slimes doing before, it lowered its body until it was nearly flat, and then lunged up into the air like an arcing stream of blue goo. In one quick jump, it had travelled twenty meters and landed directly between the five beasts. “Be careful. Although their intelligence is no greater than a typical wolf, they claws can still be compared to diamonds. If they get a lucky hit, they might shatter Yo’s core.”

  Although she said that, and the five wolves immediately turned to lunge at Yo, I didn’t feel it would be too much of an issue. If Yo kept his core in the very center of his body, they would still have to dive entirely inside of him to reach it. At that point, they’d basically just be offering themselves up as food. However, they simply bit and clawed at his outer layer, causing a bit of scooped up slime to go flying.

  At that time, the two birds also arrived, and began acting on their own. First was Yin, who would open her mouth and let out a powerful gust of wind to knock one of the wolves over. After which, Yang flew over the fallen wolf, and it stopped moving. I could tell with me Aura Sight that it wasn’t dead, but simply paralyzed. Yang must have discovered the properties of that black mushroom and copied it. Though, it was a bit concerning that neither of them were going for lethal attacks. However, Yo did not have that issue, and simply rolled its body over the fallen wolf, quickly causing it to dry up into a withered husk.

  If it weren’t for the fact that what I wanted from these wolves was their bone composition, I might be a little annoyed that they were so thoroughly damaging the bodies. “Celeste, is the skeleton of a diamondback wolf a good component for armor?”

  She thought about it for a moment. “Hmm… they’re a common enemy on this planet, so you won’t be able to get much for it here. But at the same time, that means you can have one converted into armor for a cheaper price. If you plan to sell it, I would suggest waiting until we go to another planet. There are others nearby where armored creatures aren’t so common, so armor materials are in high demand.”

  I nodded to her suggestion. If possible, I would like to mold it into armor myself. And, I knew it was possible, because one of the guides that Celeste had told me about was a druid forging guide. However, even if I knew the theory behind it, I had no practical experience creating armor. Even in other VR games, I would be more likely to take a weapon crafting job than armor crafting.

  While I was talking to Celeste, Yin and Yang had knocked over and paralyzed another wolf for Yo to devour. The slime itself had also taken the initiative to wrap its body around one of the beasts that had been incessantly attacking it. The two wolves were turned into dry husks just like their companion, and the last two wolves seemed to understand they were outmatched at this point. Turning around, they attempted to run away, only for one to be stopped by the Yin and Yang combo. Unfortunately, that meant that the last wolf had escaped.

  Looking to the two birds, I sighed slightly. “Didn’t really expect them to stop being pacifists so soon, but still.”

  Celeste smiled next to me, nodding. “They have good coordination, though. As long as they’re fighting with Yo, dealing the finishing blow can be taken care of. Speaking of, there seems to be a slight change in his aura. He probably gained quite a bit of experience from this.”

  I chuckled, nodding my head. Although Celeste could perceive a change in aura and attribute it to his level thanks to the Identify software, she couldn’t read exactly how high his level was, only a close approximation. Looking over to the birds, I noted that Yang did not show signs of evolution yet. Knowing my expectation, Celeste smirked. “It’ll be pretty obvious when it happens. Evolutions gained through training occur within moments, rather than a prolonged change. Since she was level eighteen when you saw the trainer, my guess is she should be in the upper levels of nineteen now. One more fight like this should do it.”

  “Alright then, let’s go find something else to fight.. but first.” I walked over to one of the dead wolves, while Yo was slowly absorbing the ‘nutrients’ from the one that failed to run. I even called Yan
g over to see if she could do this as well while I studied the bones. However, I did not feel the presence of her mana scanning it with mine, so she likely did not understand. After she evolved, I would need to get her to analyze the creatures with me to train her. Maybe she could even become a druid too.

  While I studied the bones and considered this, Celeste spoke up in my ear, careful so as not to distract me. “Races that naturally start out sentient at a higher level, such as elementals, or creatures that evolved into sentience, will gain an advanced class after honing their skills a little while. I can’t say for sure what Yang would turn into, but it will heavily depend on what kind of training she does immediately after evolving.”

  I nodded my head, listening to her as I focused. Now that she was able to feel things through my magic and directly imprint the information into my head, I only had to really make one detailed sweep of its bones to learn what I needed. Perhaps with a more complicated aura, such as with a sentient creature, the process would be more difficult.