World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  I thought about it, and there was really no harm in letting someone on this side know what we were doing. “We’re building a ship, one of the older models to save money.”

  “Oh, that so? Well, I don’t know much about that, but if it’s just a synthetic polymer for construction purposes, I can suggest a few places that sell them cheap.” With that, he sent us off to what seemed like a small town Home Depot. There were several things that I was sure were cutting edge construction tools… but I had no idea what they were for. As such, I let Celeste handle the purchases, since she knew how much was needed.

  In the end, it cost fifty silver, over half of our remaining funds to buy the rest of what we needed. Still, if that was all that we had to pay to get our own ship, it’d be a good deal. “Too bad you can’t just have one of your pets be a ship…”

  Celeste chuckled slightly at that comment as we were heading back. “Well, I could if I keep upgrading my mana capacity for about the next fifty levels, but at that point I’d still only be able to summon one pet big enough to be a ship. It’d be well armed, maneuverable, basically the perfect small ship for a light crew, but it takes a lot of investment to get.”

  “Ah… well, that would be a problem. How big is your ‘big summon’?”

  “About two meters tall, with my medium sized summons being half that, and my small ones being further reduced to half a meter tall. If I increase my mana capacity to a thousand points, I’ll be able to unlock the next grade of summon, which is about four meters. For the most part, though, there isn’t a difference in their ability. The larger summons have stronger attacks, and can take more damage, while having access to a few more powerful upgrades.”

  Thinking about it, I furrowed my brows together while realizing something. “With just four drones of that size, you can’t really do any of the lifting you need to do for the ship, can you?”

  “Ah, that’s where I come in! I made sure to get a few strength upgrades when I was synchronizing my aura, so I can lift most of the pieces needed while they do the work. Still, though.. if I can get another level or two, I will be able to get more mana so that I can summon more drones.”

  “So… we’re going hunting again soon, then?” I glanced over to her and asked as we arrived in front of the hotel, and she nodded her head.

  “It would be a good idea. Since we have more people now, we can conduct a bigger hunting operation than before. If we form a party, the experience will be evenly shared between us. I’ll level more slowly, since I am technically a higher level, but it will help you and Sharon as well.”

  “How many levels would you need to get enough pets for the construction?”

  She seemed to do a few quick calculations in her head. “Well, I can technically do it with what I have, but it will take quite a while. If I get ten more levels, I can get enough mana upgrades to summon a small army of construction drones. It would even be possible for me to assign a few of my pets as turrets for the ship.”

  I honestly didn’t want to go hunting again. I wanted to hurry up the construction process and get out of Earth as soon as I could. However, doing so would now seem to require leveling up first. “Alright, let’s go tell Sharon the plan, then. I haven’t actually seen what her animal army’s like since we met up.”

  When we got back to the room(yes, I’m too cheap to buy a room for Sharon, too. No, sleeping on the couch is not comfortable), we told her about our plan, and she was only too happy to go along with it. After all, leveling up her pets would allow them to evolve. When we asked her what kind of animals she had now, we were in for a bit of a surprise.

  Along with the birds, wolves, horned rabbits, snakes, and deer, she now had armored bears, giant armadillos, apes, and a pony. Not multiple ponies, just one. Apparently, she keeps it in its own separate part of the grove.

  “But… how does your grove fit that many animals?” I had absorbed a massive amount of elemental mana from Legion to make my grove larger, and I still wouldn’t be able to support a population of all of those. At least, not without them being so cramped that they wipe each other out in a week.

  “Oh, they helped me build it!” Sharon smiled widely as she explained. “After the wolves and bunnies started to learn how to cultivate, we found out that as long as they didn’t make their own groves, they could transfer the mana that they take in to me. So, whenever I need more space for my grove, I have everyone come out and cultivate for a while.”

  Celeste and I both just stared dumbly at her for a while, before the robot girl amassed the courage to ask, “And… how many of your animals do you have cultivate at once…?”

  “Hmm… There’s about forty of the bunnies, twelve wolves, three of the birds, and one of the apes that have managed to do it so far. So a bit over fifty?”

  She… she cultivates mana fifty times as fast as normal… But, at least doing it that way shouldn’t help her affinities much. “Celeste… how is it that her animals haven’t evolved yet?”

  “I… don’t know? Maybe they kill each other faster than they grow? Otherwise, she should definitely have some evolved creatures if that many know how to cultivate.”

  I sighed, shaking my head and finding this girl harder and harder to understand. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume she was the dense heroine of a novel, figuring out impossible stunts as if they were nothing. “Well, let’s go with your wolves when we go hunting. What elements can they use?”

  “Ah, just the basic seven. I haven’t been able to teach them how to cultivate metal yet, sorry…” I had been expecting each one to just have one or two elements, and this girl is apologizing because they each had the basic seven…

  “Well, can you take us into your grove? Need Celeste to have a look at them and find out which ones are closest to evolving.”

  Sharon nodded her head happily, placing a hand on my chest, and another on Celeste’s. I didn’t have her take Yin and Yang in, because I wasn’t sure if the animals would be friendly with them. And naturally, this was my first time being brought into a grove, so it felt a bit weird having my body break down into mana and be transported. Honestly, it felt very similar to the summoning ritual that had pulled me out of the jungle planet.

  When I found myself whole again, I was standing in the middle of a pack of wolves who were staring at me. Celeste appeared next to me a few moments later, formed from various strands of light weaving themselves together. However, the wolves did not attack like we expected, but just looked indifferently at us. “Celeste… you have a way to measure them, right?” I wasn’t sure if she had an upgraded version of the Identify software on her Deus Ex body, but even without it we could get vague basic information.

  “Yeah, I made sure to use one of my upgrades to get a scanner.” The pink haired girl said cheerfully, taking a look at the wolves while I looked around at the scenery. This was a much bigger grove than my own, and I could even see that there were others in the sky that had movement as well. Most likely, she had far more than fifty druid animals helping her at one point, and they had died off during the regular hunts for food with the other races.

  “Okay.. we’ve got three wolves at level twenty five. Unlike the birds, they don’t break through until thirty because they are a low level combat species. However, I think each of them should get a fairly powerful evolution, given that they have decent elemental affinities with all seven basic elements.” Celeste pointed to the three wolves in question. “The rest are a bit lower level, but should be able to evolve just fine over time.”

  “Alright, then.. Guess we know who we’re bringing with us for the hunt.” After saying that, I felt that weird sensation again, and found myself back out of the grove with Celeste. Sharon was giving us that same cute smile that she always had, and I couldn’t help but feel like she was one of the scariest existences I’ve ever met.

  “So, where are we going? Also, do you know what they’ll turn into?”

  Celeste chuckled lightly, shaking her head. “We’ll be headin
g to the mountains to hunt cliff tigers again. As for what they will become… I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty, since I can’t read their skills, but if they evolve towards their affinities, they should become worldwolves. It’s a rare breed of magical wolves that can control all of the elements. Though, their control is still fairly weak compared to specialized creatures. If they continue down that path, they might turn into something called a genesis wolf, which is basically a druid in a wolf’s body.”

  Sharon thought about that for a little while, and then pouted slightly. “Is there any way to get one to evolve into a lesser orthrus? That thing was so cute…”

  My mind was still mostly blank as I listened to all of this, thinking about how she had apparently advanced so far down her path as a colony druid while I was still struggling as a Xeno-Shifter. Celeste, however, laughed as she heard that. “Well, if you train a single wolf to only cultivate water and fire, they will turn into an orthrus. They look like their lesser version, just bigger…” The next part, I felt like she added with emphasis specifically for Sharon. “And fluffier.”

  Sharon’s eyes went wide, and she nodded her head rapidly before Celeste continued. “Going along that path, if the orthrus trains in wind or lightning, they can further evolve into a cerberus.”

  “Ooh…. a three headed fluffy…” I could see a bit of drool running down her cheek as she imagined having a giant three headed wolf to cuddle. Though, doesn’t cerberus have a snake tail as well? As I thought that, I looked over to Celeste, and caught her sending me a playful wink. That’s just wrong...

  Chapter 3 - Where Did the Innocence Go?

  Now that we knew who we were bringing along for our little adventure, Sharon and I headed out of the hotel. Since we weren’t really going to be needing our money much after we left, we weren’t worried about the funds for teleporting to the closer city. Though, we did store all of our companions and such inside the groves so that we could afford the transfer.

  For now, I didn’t bring out Yin or Yang, because they didn’t need to participate in these fights. Yin needed to train her affinities before leveling, and Yang wasn’t able to level up through fighting anyways. Though, I did leave her with one of the diamondback wolf skeletons and ask her to train her Nature Craftsmen skills to make armor or weapons out of it.

  When we arrived at the next city, I summoned Yo and Celeste, while Sharon summoned her three wolf cultivators. Since she was unable to shapeshift, I was going to refrain from doing so as well. However, she climbed up onto the back of the largest of the three wolves, patting his side gently. “Alright, let’s go~.” She smiled, and the wolves took off towards the mountain, leaving us behind.

  Celeste merely laughed, summoning her wings and flying low after Sharon, while Yo turned into his cliff tiger form and chased them as well. Shaking my head, I went ahead and invited Celeste and Sharon to a party before changing into a cliff tiger myself to chase after them. So, are we just hunting the tigers for now? If so, won’t it take a lot for us to get the levels we need?

  Celeste smiled back to me as I caught up with her and explained the plan. “Once we get there, we can climb the mountain and start hunting the stronger creatures. If the three of us team up, we should be able to even hunt stone wyverns.”

  I nodded my head at that. If it was just me alone, I might have problems with them. But still, with my plasma attacks it should be possible. Add in Celeste, Sharon, and their pets, and it becomes easier.

  “Ah, no, I won’t be using my pets for this. I left my construction drones summoned in your grove so that they could start working on the ship. Right now, they’re working on setting up a proper work station that I’ll have you move to the void area of your grove when it’s done.” Celeste continued smiling, turning her head back to look forward as we all ran. “Don’t worry, I made sure I can contribute on my own as well.”

  After speaking, she extended her right hand, and summoned something else from her upgrade inventory. It appeared to be a long spear, though the tip was missing any form of blade. “It’s a plasma spear. If I upgrade it a few more times, it will become a light spear, but for today I’m focusing on mana upgrades.”

  I still wanted to study her aura to try and turn into a Deus Ex myself. If I couldn’t do it with my Nature Magic, I should be able to with Technomancy. Either way, it would be interesting to add it to my list of races.

  After running for a while longer, we eventually arrived at the base of the mountain where I had fought the cliff tigers. When we got there, I turned back into my half-elf body, but activated my combat Aspects to get ready. Yo apparently decided to remain in his current form while Sharon hopped off of her wolf. “Okay~! How does this work? Do my wolves count as part of the party?”

  Celeste shook her head as she landed, dismissing her wings. “No, but as long as they participate in the fight, they will get a share of the experience.”

  The druidess nodded her head, and we proceeded to hike up the mountain. She seemed a bit different than the last time we had met. She no longer was so reserved when it came to killing animals, even though she obviously cared very deeply for her own. Or maybe she just cared that they were really fluffy and made for good hug pillows. Either way, it was clear that she had gotten over her previous mindset that all animals should be protected. Especially when it meant she could get a new type of wolf to play with.

  Anyways, our climb went pretty smoothly for a while. That’s not to say that we did not encounter any resistance, but that we were able to overcome it easily. Sharon’s wolves would use fire and ice to blast the cliff tigers as they appeared, while Celeste would dance around with her plasma spear. As she did so, a long energy blade would form atop the end of the spear, allowing her to tear through the relatively defenseless tigers.

  As for myself… well, I felt pretty useless just sitting there, so I would use my pistols to fire at whoever the other two missed. After sending our first prey to Yin so that she could have some meat, the rest of the bodies were devoured by Yo, and each time he did so, his cliff tiger form became more solid. It was as if he was studying the aura as he ate it in order to master it.

  Every now and then, I would be needed to heal one of the wolves if it got ambushed by a tiger pouncing up from below, or Sharon if she was caught off guard. When Celeste received an injury, I wanted to heal it, but since she was a Deus Ex the spell did not work. At the time, she just smiled to me and said that she would heal later. For a Deus Ex to heal, they had to process metal within their body.

  For only the second time since I joined NeoLife, I saw just how different it was to be in a team. And the first time, it was a team of two level one characters, who were barely able to do anything alone. Now, we were three level twenty five and above characters who had gained a bit of skill. Before, killing ten or so of these animals would level me up, but now, I had yet to do so even after we killed thirty of them while climbing up. I was close, but it wasn’t enough yet.

  Every now and then, I would pause for a bit to recharge my pistols after repeated firing, but I had perhaps the easiest job in the group… Sit back and shoot stuff that gets away. Sharon was able to easily command her three wolves to do battle in an effective manner that showed how well they had trained. One wolf would act as bait, and when the cliff tiger dove into the ground, it would move back so that the other two could blast it as it came out. Then, if the tigers went after the two wolves, the third would ambush them.

  “She probably has her companion tracking the battle so that she can send out the commands.” Celeste spoke up in my mind as I watched, only having to occasionally shoot one of my pistols at a fleeing tiger.

  I nodded my head, thinking that it was likely the answer, and a pretty smart idea. If she were to summon all of the animals in her grove, this entire mountain might be overrun within a couple days. Though… there was honestly something about her that was even more scary than how she had grown so strong so quickly. Every time we fought a group of cliff tigers, she
would always leave a single male and female alive, and try to convince them to be her animal companions.

  Naturally… they weren’t very happy with that, and would often attack her. However, their attacks didn’t get far before the wolves descended on them. There was actually one cliff tiger that agreed to the deal, and was sent to her grove. From then on, she would only spare one tiger per group before trying to recruit it again.

  So that’s how she has so many companions… where did the innocent girl from before go?! I wanted to scream out that this was just wrong. In the end, I could only cough awkwardly as Yo was digesting one of the corpses. “Isn’t that uh… kind of cruel? Recruiting them that way?”

  She gave me that same innocent smile she always used. “It’s fine, right? If they want to come with us, they can, but otherwise we need to level up. So, I’ll give them the choice until I have a pair, and set them up a small area in my grove. It’s probably a much nicer treatment than they get here, right?”

  I know it is logical.. it makes perfect sense, but it still sent a shiver down my spine. “Uh… sure…” I was inwardly glad that I never decided to become a Colony Druid, because that kind of logic was messed up.