World Seed

by Justin Miller

  I couldn’t afford the internet upgrade, let alone my own personal computer. Though the idea was appealing, and if I felt like staying her for a few weeks I could easily afford one just by selling pills. Still, after examining one of the portable terminals in the enchanting store at Hascion, I knew they were heavily enchanted, so I wouldn’t be able to put it in my grove anyways at my level. “Alright… uh.. one more thing, though it’s not really about me buying something.”

  “A question? Go ahead, ask away.”

  “I’m a druid, trying to become a Xeno-Shifter. According to the information I’ve learned, I should meet the necessary skill requirements to change into a sentient race. Do you know anyone that might be willing to let me scan them to practice?” It was a bit awkward asking to scan someone, but it was something that needed to be done.

  “Take it you can’t do it with the little missy there, because you already have her wings, and her aura isn’t different enough? Well, it’s understandable. Head on over to the hospital, and tell them that you’re a Xeno-Shifter in training. Xeno-Shifters often take up jobs as cosmetic surgeons, since they can train to alter a patient’s body as well. It’s cheaper to pay a fee to a Xeno-Shifter to change your race than to pay the gods to have you reborn, even if you don’t get all of their innate traits.”

  I nodded my head, considering that. It was basically the same thing I had wanted to do to Tessa to fix her. I wasn’t surprised at all that other druids had made a business out of it. In fact, once I trained enough, I could even make a decent living doing it in the real world. I’m sure there are a bunch of people that would regret their race choices, or choose to change ‘certain aspects’ of their bodies...

  Chapter 15: A Tale of Two Birds

  Following the shopkeeper’s advice, I made my way to the hospital while talking with Yang. I knew I’d have to deal with Yin soon, or else she would get out of control, but first I needed to take care of my Xeno-Shifter class. “So, what do you want to do for your training?” I asked the winged demi beside me, who looked at me confused.

  A moment later, after it was clear she didn’t understand, a little holographic Celeste appeared above Yang’s wrist, startling her. “What he means is… what do you want to do now? Do you want to learn how to fight? How to heal?”

  Yang looked down in wonder at the tiny Celeste, thinking for a few seconds. “I… not want to fight. I want to help Master, but… not fight. It… feels wrong?”

  This time, a larger Celeste appeared to me in my vision. “Looks like her pacifist nature has taken root too deeply, so asking her to fight is no good. That basically rules out half the choices. And.. since she just evolved, her intelligence wouldn’t be enough for complex tasks like stealth or accounting.”

  “So… crafting or healing, then..?” I asked out loud, making Yang look up at me with a confused expression. It made sense, since she didn’t hear what Celeste had said to me.

  “Right. The best choices for her would be either a priest or a craftsman. However… I think we should rule out priest training, for now at least.” When she sensed my confusion, she answered by bringing up a holographic display on Yang’s wrist that once again surprised her.

  Name: Yang Hulett

  Class: N/A

  Level: 20

  Patron: Gaius

  “Ah… her patron is different… I wonder what they represent.” I was too used to being alone with Celeste, so had a hard time keeping my communication with her silent.

  “Gaius is the patron of evolving beasts, while Malthan… well…” Celeste looked a bit hesitant to answer. “He’s the god governing chaos and madness.”

  ….

  ….

  “So why is he my patron?”

  Celeste grinned wryly at me for a moment, but didn’t answer. “Har har, very funny… Wait, you’re serious? I managed to get the attention of the insanity god above any others? So not fair…”

  There was a slight giggle from Celeste as I said that. “Hey, there are worse patrons to have. There is one who is the god of broken hearts, or the god of fried fish, or even the god of Mondays.”

  “Monday has its own god? They must have a crowded pantheon.. Still, why didn’t I get something like the god of protagonists? Then I could at least get a massive increase in strength, or super lucky fated encounters.”

  “Sorry… my research into the pantheon showed that the ‘god of protagonists’ is also the ‘god of stories’. Rather than giving people a bunch of power, he just likes to watch writers and people who already had that kind of luck in the first place.”

  “Oh… well… still, the god of madness? Really?”

  At this point, Yang poked me on the shoulder, interrupting my apparently one sided conversation. “Umm… is Master alright?”

  “Huh? Ah… sorry, was just talking to someone.”

  Yang looked around, still confused. “There is nobody else here?”

  I sighed, shaking my head, reaching over to pat Yang’s hair. This seemed to placate the bird, who simply smiled wide and closed her eyes, leaning her head into my hand. “So, how would you like to make things for me? It wouldn’t need you to fight, and you’d still be able to help out quite a bit.”

  Yang’s eyes opened wide suddenly at that. “Really? You mean it, I can still help?”

  I nodded to her. “That’s right. I’ll need to have you trained first so that you understand how to do it, but you should be able to.”

  Her head bobbed up and down happily as she heard that. “Yang will do it!”

  Great, one bird taken care of… I smiled as we finally approached the hospital, which was a much smaller building than the one on Gallen 4. When I went inside, I mentioned that I was a druid training to be a Xeno-Shifter. A few people looked relieved, while someone went to get the local Xeno-Shifter. The training this time cost me twenty silver, twice as much as it cost to learn a new school of magic… And he only taught me one species of my choosing(I chose void elf, because reasons).

  Watching the druid morph from human to void elf was a bit surprising, but he did it so fluently that by the time he was done it was like I was looking at a different person entirely. After changing, he gave me a while to study his aura, and then attempt to perform the change myself. Even with Celeste’s help, studying the intricacies of a sentient being’s aura took nearly an hour before I was confident, and the actual shifting process was far slower than what he had done.

  When I changed, my hair and eyes both turned pitch black, my skin darkening slightly. Along my skin were a multitude of tiny white dots spaced seemingly at random. From my previous experience with void stuff, I could guess that they were meant to be stars. Aside from that, there were no visible differences between the void elf and my half-wood elf bodies. However, the Xeno-Shifter seemed satisfied with my transformation, and said we were done.

  New Spell Unlocked!

  Thousand Faces - Nature Magic - ★★★

  The specialty of the Xeno-Shifters, this spell enables you to mimic the aura of a sentient being you have studied, and gain both their form and inherited traits.

  Congratulations, you have met all the qualifications to advance to the Xeno-Shifter Advanced Class!

  As a Xeno-Shifter, your specialty will be taking the best aspects of other races and applying them to yourself. Whether they are animal, monster, or sentient beings, all racial abilities are yours for the taking!

  Do you wish to take this Advanced Class? Y/N

  Naturally, I accepted becoming a Xeno-Shifter immediately. It was what I had been working towards since becoming a druid, after all.

  You have chosen your Advanced Class, Xeno-Shifter.

  +20 Wisdom, +5 Intelligence, +5 Vitality, +5 Charisma

  The sudden increase in stats surprised me, but then again I had also gotten free stats when I chose my base class. After leaving the hospital, I first went back to my hotel room with Yang, who had been taking ‘common knowledge’ lessons from Celeste while I was studying. The innkeeper se
emed a bit surprised that I was bringing a woman in with me, but sent me an approving thumbs up when he saw Yang. It’s not like that, I swear… There was another set of giggling heard in my head from Celeste as we went up to our room.

  “Okay… Yang, do you think you can still communicate with Yin?” I wasn’t sure if she still spoke ‘bird talk’, but if she did that would make this far easier.

  “Uhm.. maybe? She hasn’t spoken to me yet…” Yang looked down at the floor sadly, shifting her feet.

  “Ah.. well, can you try? I need her to be able to understand what I’m going to say, or she’ll just stay mad at you.”

  Yang looked up at me again, hopeful. “Master can make Yin not mad at me anymore?”

  “Maybe.. if she can understand me.” I put an emphasis on that part, and she nodded her head quickly. Taking that as a sign of approval, I went into my grove and summoned Yin. As soon as she appeared, she glared at Yang and moved to dive at her. “Stop.” I looked at Yin, and she glanced back at me, slowly backing away to land on my shoulder, though she lowered her head and looked away, as if sulking. “Yang, can you try to speak to her? Tell her that there is a way for her to get a body like yours.”

  Yang nodded, and stared at Yin for a few moments. I had the impression from the animal companion bond that they were sharing a message over it, but it was difficult for me to decipher it. However, once it was done, the little bird on my shoulder bolted up, looking excitedly between Yang and I. “She wants to know how.”

  “She has to get stronger. You two took different paths for your growth, but in the end both of you can get bodies like that. Tell her, by the time she is in a body like yours, she will be far stronger than either of us.” After I spoke, Yang stared at me for a moment, as if figuring out how to translate my words, before she sent another series of messages to Yin.

  The little bird lowered herself in front of me, staring with determination. “She wants to know how she can get stronger. She says… she’ll fight if she has to.”

  I raised a surprised eyebrow at that. Now it seemed that Yin was the more violent one of the pair, willing to do get into battle to become stronger. “There are two ways. One is fast, but will require us to be apart while she gets stronger. The other is much slower, and may take weeks, or even months before she gets there.”

  After Yang translated my last message, Yin suddenly looked thoughtful, as if having a hard time deciding. Personally, I was hoping that she’d choose the quicker option, because it meant that she’d grow strong enough to easily overpower enemies that give me a hard time in emergencies. And of course, because that’s what I wanted… “She wants to stay with us, even if it means taking longer. But… she doesn’t want to live in the garden. She says… she wants to stay out like me.”

  “Fine… but we’ll need to get a tag for her, so that people don’t think she is wild.”

  Yang looked curiously at me. “What is a tag?”

  Celeste decided to help out with this one. “It is a tiny device, like your bracelet, that would fit on her leg and let people know that she is with your Master.”

  “Ohh..” Yang quickly translated, before looking back to me. “She likes that idea.”

  “Of course she does… now.. we need to go find someone to train you… Any ideas, Celeste?”

  So that everyone could hear her, she manifested as a hologram and spoke instead of doing so in my head. “There is not a local Natural Craftsman to teach her, but if she learns the basics of the crafting class, she should get the class herself. It would be best if you teach her how to cultivate some affinities after she does so. The Plant, Bone, and Scale Affinities are all good for a Natural Craftsman to have.”

  “Alright, then lead us to get a tag for Yin, and we’ll go get that class.” After I spoke, the three of us left again, leaving only Yo inside of the grove. Sorry, Yo, but there is a difference between bringing around a gorgeous alien and a bird, and a massive slime.

  It didn’t take long for us to go back to the general market to get the tags, or find a crafting trainer, and when we did I left Yang to do some training for a bit. She seemed reluctant to part, but Celeste ensured her that I would be nearby in case anything happened. And she was right, because I sat down just outside the building and decided to try something that I had been curious about.

  I can refine pills with fire, water, and the plants. But all of these things exist within my grove, in which I am the equivalent of a lesser god. So, why would I not be able to simply craft them there? I had not yet gathered nearly enough plant mana to fully restore my grove’s supplies, but there was more than enough for me to run a quick test.

  Sending my consciousness into the grove, I plucked out a blood weed and two petals of fireflowers, having them float through the air. Since this was in some ways a new method of pill crafting, I wanted to start with the most basic recipe. I willed the fire mana to form around the ingredients, doing both at once as I safeguarded their auras, occasionally mixing water mana in before both were ready to mix. After that, it was a simple matter of condensing the pills and letting them fall to the ground.

  With my brows furrowed, I decided to make a bowl to hold the pills I made in. Looking down into the grove, I saw that I had gained another type of ore. Now, rather than just copper and iron, I also had tin veins spreading out. But for this, I just needed some copper, pulling it from the vein and lifting it into the air. Using fire, I refined it to a pure state, removing the impurities as it melted and reformed repeatedly until I could sense nothing but a pure copper aura. Then, I melted it one more time, and formed it into the shape of a small cauldron, big enough to hold with both hands.

  Once it cooled, I had the pills fly into the air and deposit themselves in the cauldron, which sat on the ground. When I exited my grove, I found that there was a new window waiting for me.

  New Ability Unlocked!

  My Body is the Furnace - Druid - ★★

  An art unique to druids and those who have copied the druid's groves. This technique makes it possible to craft items inside the grove that the druid could create normally, but with an increased chance of success due to the greater degree of control.

  Chapter 16: A Lesson on Skills and Money Woes

  While I was waiting out in front of the crafting ‘school’(it was a wide building which actually taught many different skills, from crafting to combat, but there was a fee you had to pay for each subject. The basic crafting tutorial for Yang cost five silver), I started to think about what I wanted to do from now on. Now that I had my advanced class, I could start training to be able to transform other people. From the information that Celeste gathered, the skill benchmark for that would be Advanced Level 5 in Mana Manipulation, and Intermediate Level 1 in Nature Magic. That was still a good bit away yet.

  The first thing I would need to do would be to do some research. “Celeste, do you have any idea why monsters don’t spawn inside the cities here?” Obviously, they didn’t use the same void mana trick that I did, or nobody would be able to breathe.

  “Sorry… no, but I could look it up for you, if you want?” I looked over towards a nearby terminal, and thought about it.

  “How’s the lesson going with Yang?” I asked, while the other lovebird happily sat on my shoulder, apparently glad to be out of the grove more often now.

  Celeste giggled slightly when I brought that up. “He’s used the term bird brained five times already. Wait, make that six. She understands the concepts, but not the means to implement them. He brought a knife out to show her how to carve wood, and she jumped back thinking he would stab her. I’m doing my best to help her to understand, but it’ll be at least another two hours before she is finished. Unless she manages to improve a lot, you’ll be the one doing the enchanting on whatever items she makes.”

  I nodded my head at that. “That’s fine, I was expecting that part. And sure, since it seems we have time, go ahead and get the information. Not sure if anyone on the outside has it yet, but it wouldn’t hu
rt either way.”

  Celeste smiled, and I temporarily let her take over, my body standing up and walking over towards the terminal. She did the same high speed information transfer that she had done when I had her look up clothing sizes, making the whole thing last just a few seconds. Afterwards, my body went back and set down where I had left it. “Hmm… well, this will be a bit complicated.”

  “What’s wrong…?”

  “Well… according to what I just learned, cities are built in three stages. First stage, scouting, to make sure the land is suitable. The second stage, is to set up the barrier against monster spawns. It doesn’t keep them out, just prevents them from spawning inside. The method is similar to what you used in your house, but more advanced. I can teach you the spell formation for it real quick.” After she said that, I felt a brief rush of information. Since it was only a single formation, as well as the runes that went with it, I was able to absorb it quickly.