Actually, creating this plant monster had been easier than I had expected. Combining my Animal and Plant Manipulation abilities, I was able to merge the auras of plants and beasts together. From there, I just had to select an appropriate monster to use as the base, and begin altering the aura. Unfortunately, I was limited by the level of the base creature, which resulted in the plant dragon having less power than the original. Otherwise, though, I felt it was a good recreation. The system even named it ‘Immature Nature Wyrm’, which I took to mean that I had gotten pretty close.
Anyways, I wanted to move the Nature Wyrm, as well as the other plants I had gathered and created, over to other groves so that they would not be lost in the black hole. No matter how great my abilities would rise after I entered the final stage, I imagined that it would still take considerable work to recreate those plants. As for the animals, I had long since distributed a few of them among the groves from the crew.
Now, with that out of the way, we arrived at Hydra with few problems. Naturally, we continued scanning for any New Human Empire signals, but like before they were simply decreasing in number. We could only use the locations we had previously triangulated with Ackbar’s help.
As for Hydra itself… well, that part surprised me when we arrived in orbit. The world had changed, in a visible way. The oceans and mountains were masked by a layer of green that swept across the entire planet, with the only exception being a single location. That one spot was pitch black, as if it was a giant green eye. Okay, maybe that was a bad comparison, because it sent shivers down my spine to think about.
“What’s going on here? Run a scan on the planet.” I said, with mild worry. I was really hoping that black spot was not the location of my previous lab.
“Understood, sir!” The scanning officer nodded to me, turning to his console and hitting a few commands. A short while later, he brought up two maps of the planet, one looking like how I remembered it and the other as it was now. “Notable locations have been highlighted on the maps.”
As he spoke, the two maps overlapped, and we could clearly see the changes. “The majority of the planet seems to have been covered in dense jungle. However, the area immediately surrounding the demon dungeon has undergone a different change. Aside from the demon and plant dungeons, all other dungeon mana signatures have disappeared.”
Okay… I’m not sure if that is better or worse… “Which territory is my previous lab in?” When I asked that, he hit a few more buttons, and the map highlighted one of the icons, which was deeply within the plant territory.
“Location found. Multiple monster signatures detected within. Your orders, captain?” He turned to look at me, curiously.
We couldn’t stay here for too long, so there was only one thing that could be done. “I’ll head on down and clean the area. Can’t leave it alone any longer than it has been.” As I spoke, I got up and moved towards the medbay, in order to retrieve a clone. No matter how strong I was, I didn’t want to take a chance with this planet, it had left too deep of an impression on me.
“Captain Hulett.” A monotone voice entered my ear from the comms as I walked. “Would it not be easier to simply bombard the planet to eliminate any potential threats? Scanners indicate no sapient lifeforms outside of the ‘dungeon monsters’ on the planet.”
I thought about that for a brief second, before shaking my head. “No, let’s not do that. The situation should be remedied fairly easily, and does not require an orbital strike.” Honestly, all I would have to do is destroy the monster spawning formation, and retrieve the elemental seeds. With that out of the way, there will be nothing to perpetually feed the monsters.
“...Understood. We shall leave this situation to your discretion, then.” The voice entered my ear one more time before I arrived in the medbay, and put on the clone controller headset. Once inside my clone body, I stood up and looked around.
“Alright, send me down as close to the lab as you can.” I spoke into the comms, running towards the teleport bay. From there, a warm light enveloped me, and I found myself in the middle of a dense jungle.
All around me were tightly packed trees, some with shifting vines while others remained motionless. I could feel the ground shaking lightly beneath my feet, and instinctively brought a hand up to my comm. “How far am I from the compound?”
“Sir, according to our scans, you should be directly on top of it.” Oh, well that is helpful. Taking another look around, I could see bits of broken stone hanging from tree branches, so there is a good chance that these trees grew up from beneath my lab. Well, that might mean that the diagrams were already broken…
With that thought in mind, I extended my mana sense, observing my surroundings. What I found… was a very familiar type of aura. Plant monsters, simply waiting to strike. When I had first been to this world, they were a constant danger. I had only hidden from them by cultivating the Plant Affinity, masking myself as one of their own. Currently, my affinity should be high enough to make that unnecessary.
Either way, I soon found what I was looking for, a supernova of mana beneath my feet. Tightly packed mana seeds, likely filling the entire basement until there was no room to spawn anymore. Well… I had a way to take care of that now.
Closing my eyes, I focused on my grove. This was an ability that I had never tested before, because of fear that it would damage my surroundings. But now, that was exactly what I wanted. I connected to the black hole at the very center of my grove, and pulled at it as I would pull at anything else I wanted to summon.
Around my body, the light seemed to warp and twist. Groans could be heard as the thinner branches snapped off of nearby trees and flew at me. Even the ground beneath my feet began cracking and shifting. This was the ability I had gained by advancing my grove to the Galactic stage, the ability to channel the black hole.
I wasn’t sure what the area of effect would be for this, but cleaning up the basement beneath me should be easy. My concern right now was not killing myself in the process. With the branches flying at me like spears, I could only raise my arms to shield myself, watching as they broke apart into nothing when they entered my vicinity. I could feel them changing into raw plant mana, spiraling around my body and entering it without my control.
The ground beneath my feet was likewise deteriorating, changing into earth mana that I unconsciously absorbed. But.. no matter how much plant mana I emit, there was no way for the tree monsters around me to think of this as anything other than a blatant attack. As such, I watched as three thick vines launched themselves at me, followed by thick roots with sharp points.
Each attack was broken apart and absorbed by the force I was emitting, and I could see the trees shaking, either from pain or fear. While they hesitated, I began sinking lower into the ground, the earth below me giving way. Sorry guys, but I’ll make this as quick as I can. I thought to myself, before the vortex of mana broke through to the basement below.
Beneath myself, I saw a prismatic array of tiny spheres, the collected seeds of elemental mana. However, upon my arrival, they seemed to explode into clouds of mist, which condensed into their various elements. Torrents of fire, water, darkness and light, all swirled around my body. When these elements collided with the plants around me, a pained shriek ran through the jungle.
There had to be thousands of elemental seeds stored here, each one a densely packed container for a single, pure element. At times, my body seemed to be shrouded in stone, lava, or powerful winds. All of it broke apart as it neared me, almost faster than I could absorb.
I felt something inside of me, from within my grove, seem to grow with this intake of mana. The pull around me became more powerful, the area expanding. Now, even the nearest trees began to buckle under the pressure. Splintered fragments shot everywhere, before eventually arcing and flying at my body.
Despite the damage caused to the surroundings, and the waves of mana crashing into me, I had yet to completely absorb even half of the seeds below. But, I had to hu
rry this up. If the pattern persisted like last time, this much attention would soon draw a boss monster to my location. And, I wasn’t entirely sure that this black hole field could defend against a true boss monster.
As such, I did the only thing I could think of. Leaning forward, I urged my aura to change, growing four large wings from my back. Next, I channeled my black hole through these as well, increasing the suction power and area I was influencing, but at a cost.
With the increase in power, I was no longer able to completely absorb everything before it came in contact with me. This meant that I felt my skin burning, freezing, ripping and tearing all at once. Damage prompts began appearing in front of me, though the numbers were fairly low. The problem was their speed, as I would receive over a dozen prompts a second.
In under a minute, I was forced to activate my instant regeneration for the first time, healing my accumulated wounds. Then, a few moments later, I activated it again. My flesh was destroyed as quickly as it could repair itself, pain wracking my body and making it hard to concentrate. By the time that I had absorbed the last seed, as well as everything within fifty meters of me former base, I had healed myself fully five times.
Once I was done, I quickly cut off the connection to the black hole. Panting heavily, I dropped down to my knees and tried to catch my breath, one hand clutching my chest. That… was definitely one of the most painful moments of my life so far. Then again, until that point, I can’t say I had suffered any serious pains normal people wouldn’t go through. It had felt like someone was carving away at me, only to slap it back on and start over.
“Take… take me… back.” I said between rough breaths, feeling the rumbling beneath my feet growing more intense. That same warm light enveloped me, calling me back to the ship as a window appeared in front of me.
Large quantities of mana absorbed. Black hole growth accelerated.
Time to completion updated. 04:01:23:40:12.28
Chapter 17: I’ve Been Busy, Okay?
After having returned to the ship, I immediately disconnected the link between myself and my clone body. Sitting up sharply, I let out a rough gasp, the pain from the previous experience still running wild across my skin. Although I was no longer having my skin reconstructed over and over, the memory of the pain was much harder to get over.
“You okay? John?” I heard a familiar voice calling into my mind, and only gave a shaky nod in response. “You rest for a little bit. We got what we need here, so I’ll take over to send us to the next place.” Again, I could only give another nod to Celeste’s words.
Soon, the door to the medbay opened, and both Sharon and Yin ran in with worried faces. “What happened down there, John? We just saw your clone in the teleport bay.” Sharon asked, causing some confusion. Most of the injuries should have healed by the time that anyone saw the body. Or, did they notice that almost all of the ‘extra life’ scales on the clone’s forehead were gone?
“Just… Got in a bit over my head with a new power.” I said, giving a bitter smile, one of my hands still trembling slightly. Yin gave me a stern look, moving to my side and placing her hand atop my own. Thankfully, that seemed to stop the shaking.
“Be careful next time.” She said in a serious voice. I chuckled dryly, nodding my head in agreement. Although I doubted that I would ever find another mana source that large and dense, I had no intention to repeat that event.
A few moments later, the ship seemed to rock slightly, the telltale sign that we had entered subspace. Although I did not know where we were going exactly, I had a few guesses. After all, I had seen the map we made of Ackbar’s signals as well. Though, focusing on that was a bit difficult at the moment.
Deep breaths, John… This was an entirely different kind of trauma than being trapped in that time bubble, so naturally I had to deal with it the hard way. Thankfully, Yin and Sharon were here to make things more bearable.
We stayed in the medbay for roughly half an hour, before my body had stopped shaking enough for me to get up and move. At that point, with Sharon and Yin’s help, we made our way to the bridge. Bed would be preferable, but the captain’s chair is still pretty comfortable.
“Status report.” I called out as I walked into the bridge, not giving time for the usual game of ‘salute the captain’. I could see that half of the officers were already halfway to standing up by the time I opened my mouth.
Celeste, standing by my chair, turned and gave me a nod. “We’re heading to the first location now. There aren’t any records of civilizations starting from this area from the information I gained in NeoLife, but as we learned from the Qu’Lopti, that does not prove anything.”
I nodded my head slightly, moving over with only slight difficulty to sit in the most comfortable chair in all of creation. At least, that’s how it felt right now. “Make a note that we need to come back to Hydra some time in the future, to see how the planet is doing. It should stop spiralling out of control for a while, at least.”
Celeste smiled, nodding. “Will do, Captain. Now, the Deus Ex asked me to convey a message while you were incapacitated. They saw your display of power below, and inquired how it was you managed to do that, as it did not seem a biological trait.” Oh right, we never gave them the detailed class information the first time we made contact, did we..? And that’s not exactly something that they would know to ask the other allied races.
“Ah… what did you tell them?”
“I gave them the list of basic classes, and a few known advanced classes, as well as the means to acquire them. Since your case is a bit special, I left out the information regarding the evolution of groves. Given their personalities, if they knew what it took, I imagine that many of the Deus Ex would willingly grow their groves to the Universe stage as quickly as possible.”
Hearing her answer, I was somewhat relieved. Honestly, just one person having that type of power is already bad enough. If more and more people appeared like me, more importantly people that knew how to really use this kind of power, that would cause chaos.
“Is there anything else?”
Celeste shook her head, signalling that that was all. Well, I could only expect so much to happen during the time that I was down on the planet, and then recovering in the medbay. Right now, we should be quite a distance away from Hydra, so even if something were to happen as a result of what I did, we would have no way to tell.
““Envoy!”” Eleven voices rang out all at once in the fleet chat, the leaders of the Qu’Lopti flights calling together.
“Uhm… what?” I had a bad feeling about this…
“That was amazing!” Said the first one, one of the leaders of the Judgement flights. Oh god… they had been watching.
“Show us how to do that, too!” Said another one.
“Celeste…” I called out weakly to her, and she simply chuckled. Now, to deal with this how I have dealt with over enthusiastic Qu’Lopti for the last several years. By ending the call and ignoring their existence. Must not fall for the chuuni virus.
Sharon grinned wryly from next to me, shaking her head. Looking over at Celeste, she asked a question. “How long until we reach the next area?”
Celeste thought about it for only a second before answering. “Assuming that we don’t run into any distractions, it should take us five days.”
Sharon gave a nod at that, and then reached down to help me out of the chair. “Then, if you don’t mind, we are relieving the captain of duty for a little while. If you need him, you know where to find him.” She smiled towards Yin, who nodded her head. Hey, don’t I get a say in this?!
It appeared that I did not, because I was led away with the two girls holding my arms to support me. On the way, I ran into Yo and Yang… did Yo just kiss her? I felt as if my mind blanked for a bit there, and by the time I noticed what was going on, I was almost to my room.
“Yo and Yang are a thing?” I asked, in a slightly dazed tone. What about Kismet?
Yin raised a curious eyebrow, w
hile Sharon’s eyes went wide. “Eh? You never noticed?”
“Been a bit busy, if you forgot…” I glanced around at the ship to emphasize my point. Sharon chuckled at that, nodding her head in acceptance.
“Some dad you are. Didn’t even notice his ‘daughter’ growing a harem.” Sharon gave me a mischievous grin, saying something completely outrageous. A harem? I haven’t been that busy, have I?
“Uhm… harem… huh… who else?” Words, please form into proper sentences, I seriously know what I wanted to ask, I swear.
“Hmm?” Sharon looked at me thoughtfully. “Well, there’s Priscilla and Aelsgwynn, too, right?” She looks at Yin for confirmation.
“Celeste.” Yin says calmly.
“Oh, right! Though, Celeste isn’t really like the rest.” Sharon explained, and I could hear a roaring laughter in my mind. “She hasn’t really ‘fallen’ for Yo, as far as I know. Uhm… I think that’s it?”
Yin nodded her head, agreeing. I couldn’t help but look between the two of them. “And… Kismet is fine with that?”
“Yup!” Sharon said with a smile. “He just wants Yo to be happy, and every now and then I think he joins the fun.”
Please, don’t make me imagine the ‘fun’. Regardless of racial differences, I still spent the last several years in a pseudo-parental relationship with Yo. “And… I was the only one that didn’t know?” I mean, some of it really couldn’t be helped. I hadn’t actually spoken to Aelsgwynn much at all. Priscilla mostly talks about alchemy and magic research when she’s around me. And I would never even think of Yo and Yang being together.
“Basically.” This time it was Yin who spoke up, with Sharon following with a better explanation.
“Well, you really could blame Priscilla. She kind of got Yo started on her path of conquest when she wanted to use her for some alchemy research. Since we were still on the Qu’Lopti world at the time… it didn’t take long for her to learn about harems. But, like you said, you’ve been busy.” Sharon patted my back reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we’ve been making sure that Yo doesn’t touch anyone that’s off limits. She is still just a good big sister to Tokemi.”
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