World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  After that came Sharon, who had her three wolves begin attacking. The wolf with the lightning snake shot its favored attack out at the same time as the other wolf began making water clones. The final wolf simply dived into the wyvern’s shadow, vanishing from sight. Unfortunately, I was the last to react, and was knocked forward by the wyvern’s initial strike. When I tumbled back to my feet(with some difficulty, I might add), I immediately pulled out my beam saber, charging up for a big attack.

  The hits from the others all impacted at nearly the same time, causing the stone wyvern to roar out as it was knocked back, before it flew around to come in for another strike. It was surprisingly agile in the air, given what it was made of, and was able to easily dodge the blasts shot out by Sharon’s wolves, and the plasma shots that emerged from the mouths of Celeste’s cats. However, Celeste herself took to the air to chase the wyvern, striking at it with her lance whenever she had the chance. Unlike the cats, each of her strikes were able to cut deep into the wyvern, making it cry out in pain. Unfortunately, this left Celeste alone in the skies for it to counter attack. After she finished delivering her strike, it had brought one of its hind claws back and slammed it into her, causing her to plummet into the ground.

  By now, my attack was ready, and I slashed my sword at the wyvern that was much too far away to hit. However, using the mana I had saved up, I rapidly extended the magnetic field released by my beam saber, lengthening the blade and supplying a bit of plasma to supplement it so that I did not drain the battery with this attack.

  The end result was that I suddenly slashed out with a blade dozens of meters long, and cut off one of the wyvern’s wings. Without the balanced support of both wings, it fell to the ground a short distance away while releasing cries of pain. Looking over to Sharon, I expected her to ask us to spare it so that she could try recruiting. However, she instead had her wolves finish it off. The one that had previously hidden in the wyvern’s shadow suddenly appeared next to it, sending out wind blades one after another until the neck of the beast had been cut through.

  “I don’t need anything this big yet… Maybe if I have everyone cultivate I can make a home for them.” Sharon said with a shrug. Meanwhile, I looked around for Yo, who had been knocked away even further than myself from the wyvern’s first attack, and called him back. First, I could learn the wyvern’s aura, than Yo could. Slime wyvern sounds like an awesome pet.

  Chapter 5 - Why, God, Why!?

  After going towards the wyvern, I spent roughly fifteen minutes to thoroughly examine its body. By Celeste’s calculations, I don’t quite have enough mana yet to take on this form. I wasn’t really surprised, given how large and powerful the wyvern was. However, I had already committed the aura to memory, and then had Yo absorb the body.

  I have to admit, it was amusing to watch as the mimic slime absorbed the wyvern’s body, and then turned itself into a wyvern. It was even more amusing to watch as the giant slime wyvern’s body suddenly shrunk to the size of a quarterstaff. Behold my new power, projectile wyverns!

  Alright, back to the seriousness. I had Yo change into his staff form because I wanted to test how far along it was coming with its mimic powers. The formerly flimsy, slippery staff was now much more firm, and almost none of the ooze escaped it. By my rough guess, Yo should be ready to evolve again by the time we leave this mountain.

  Celeste, hearing my thoughts, nodded her head. “Yo should be able to evolve pretty soon, since his ability to mimic other things has improved to this point. Once he is able to perfectly mimic something, the evolution will trigger.”

  “Alright, then let’s continue hunting!” I said with a smile, and Celeste smirked to me before we continued ascending the mountain. We were roughly three quarters of the way to the top now, so the only threats left on the mountain were the wyverns. Now that we had our very own wyvern, and a Deus Ex who was happy to play dragonrider by riding on it with her spear out, solo wyverns weren’t much of a threat anymore. It was only when they came in groups of two or three that we had some difficulties.

  The first time we had to fight a pair of stone wyverns, Celeste and Yo took on one of them while I used my plasma attacks to fight the other with Sharon’s pets. When we had to fight three of them at once, Celeste dismissed her medium sized minions and summoned her big one as a distraction. Well, I say big, but it was the same size as a normal person. This was a humanoid minion that looked identical to Celeste’s early robot form. However, when it came time to fight, it began wielding a large plasma cannon that tore through the wyvern’s wing in one shot.

  After the fight, Celeste told me that this minion was specialized exclusively for ranged combat with a heavy weapon, since we had been lacking that. If anything got into close range, it would break apart quickly, but between its cannon and a sniper rifle it was pretty good for ranged attacks.

  “By the way… wouldn’t it be easy to have one of your minions get a weapon upgrade, then take it for a free weapon?” I asked after one of our fights while Yo was ‘eating’.

  “Well, you could, except that the weapon is bound to the minion and won’t work for anyone else. Even I can’t use one of their weapons, because my mana signature does not match what the weapon is set for. If you had a good ability to hack, it might be possible, but otherwise the weapon is just a useless club.”

  That made sense, sort of. Though, I was more focused on keeping an eye out for possible ambushes from the sky. Celeste only needed two more levels before she was ready to commit to the construction project. I wasn’t sure what her mana was like, but I wanted to try to study her aura once we left. For that matter, I wanted to study Sharon’s too, so that I could turn into a full wood elf instead of a half elf. There may not be much difference, but still…

  While we were climbing higher and higher, more and more wyverns began appearing. The most that we could take on at one point was four without suffering heavy injuries. Once a fifth came in, we were quickly overwhelmed due to not having enough long ranged support. Celeste’s minion was destroyed, and Sharon had to recall her wolves to her grove to protect them while the five wyverns circled overhead.

  For some reason, I heard Celeste apologizing to me before she played her ultimate trump card, spider illusion! Insert blackout here, awaken to dead wyverns. Glaring to Celeste, I couldn’t help but scold her. It’s just wrong to take advantage of someone’s phobias, you know? Though, apparently that brought us much closer to the level we needed to leave the mountain. This time, I was not very interested in reviewing what had happened.

  Anyways, now that the wyverns were starting to attack in greater numbers than we could handle, we decided to heal up and head back down the mountain. It’s not like there would be absolutely no encounters on the way back just because we killed stuff on the way up, after all! On our way back down the mountain, we encountered a few more wyverns before Yo had his moment of glory.

  And by that, I mean he evolved, and changed shape into something he had obviously never eaten before. After absorbing his final wyvern, Yo’s body began convulsing, reverting back to its original green blob shape and jiggling around wildly. Part of me wanted to poke him with a stick, but another part wanted to slap the first part for making bad jokes.

  Slowly, Yo’s body began to take shape. A vague form appeared as the slime spread out in the ground, looking similar to an adult human(made of green slime). The waist was surprisingly narrow, the hair a bit long, but he--.... wait… breasts…. dammit! Why did my slime turn into a girl!? Celeste smirked next to me, as if she had expected it all along. “Well, how many men has she been around compared to women? Isn’t it only natural that she went with the more common gender?”

  “But… but…” I had wanted a comrade in arms to fight off the harem, not another potential member!

  “Don’t worry, I don’t ship John and Yo… yet.” She giggled lightly before flying ahead, while Yo continued to solidify her body. Perhaps because she had extra slime to spare, she gave herself a large bust an
d hips, with long legs. If not for the fact that she was just formed, I’d seriously consider tapping that. At least, until she looked at me with her big eyes and said her next words.

  “Papa, I’m awake!” Papa?! Who’s your papa?! As I was left confused, she sat up and wrapped her arms around my legs, hugging them happily. “Yo is awake, papa!”

  In the distance, I could hear Celeste laughing loudly, while Sharon just looked at me, blushing a bit. I did have a naked slime girl, a hot one at that, hugging my legs and calling me papa. “Celeste…. explain. For the love of all that is cute and holy, explain.”

  The AI flew back, still laughing lightly as she landed. “Well, she has your blood flowing through her body, or a drop of it at least. You created her with it, remember?” Celeste’s mouth was stuck in a wide grin, as if she had fully expected this. “In that case, aren’t you her father?”

  “But… but…” I tried to find some way to deny this… but the logic was there… I created Yo with my blood and mana.

  Yo looked up at me, and I could see her face taking on a childlike pout, her eyes going wide and lips turning down. “Is papa sad?”

  “No… no… I’m not sad..” I can’t help it… even though she looks like an adult woman, maybe even a porn star’s body, with that face… I can’t stay upset. Curse you cuteness(and sexyness)!

  “Yay!” Again, Yo began hugging my legs tightly, nuzzling her head against my thigh. Even though she addresses me how she does… she is still an incredibly hot slime girl, so that causes quite a reaction in me.

  “That’s… that’s enough, Yo. Come on, stand up.” I leaned down to help Yo up before she notices this and gets curious. I do not want this kind of scene here! Thankfully, the slime girl nods, happily accepting my help to stand. “Uh… can you… make yourself some clothes or something?” I think I might faint if I have to walk back to town with her naked like this…

  Yo looks down at her body, confused for a moment. “Hmm?” Before she could do any more damage, Sharon came to my rescue, and threw some spare clothes at the slime. Unfortunately… fate is not kind. No matter what, this could only end badly. Either she puts the clothes on, and we get the epitome of a wet t-shirt view, or-yup, she ate them.

  Putting the clothes on her body, they were quickly ‘digested’, after which another thin layer of slime formed over her body, giving it the appearance of being clothed. Though, these clothes were still made of slime, so it was not at all difficult to see what they should have been hiding. Clothes are meant to cover things, this is just cruel teasing!

  “So… Celeste… rundown of slime people, please…?” I need a distraction, pronto. Don’t make me keep looking at that body. For the love of god, please!

  Celeste giggled cutely, smiling at me. “Well, like mimic slimes, they have the ability to change into anything they absorb. However, they can’t always maintain the rigidity of their bodies, so they can typically only use equipment that they have consumed and learned how to mimic. This includes armor and weapons.”

  “They also have this ability in regards to creatures, and can reserve up to five memorized slime forms. They have the full power of the creature that they turn into had at the moment of its death. So, while she can turn into a stone wyvern, that stone wyvern form will never level up beyond its current point. She can only make it stronger by assimilating a stronger version.”

  “Finally, they can do change their body into any shape they can imagine. However, unless it is in the shape of something they’ve absorbed, it does not gain any special properties. So, if she tried to turn her arm into a sword right now, it’d still be flimsy and lack a cutting edge, because she has not absorbed anything like it.”

  I nodded, closing my eyes as I thought. This was mostly to avoid looking at the heavenly peaks in front of me, but still. “Do they have the same restriction of being unable to copy technology?”

  “Not so much. The complexity of their forms depend on their intelligence. Yo, try opening up your status, and tell us what your intelligence is listed as.” Celeste smiled gently as she instructed Yo.

  “Muuu…. Yo is smart, just watch!” I could see Yo making a gesture as if to open her status window, and then beamed with pride. “Twenty-eight! Yo is a genius!”

  ….Well, I have to admit, since she is acting like an eight year old, having a 28 intelligence would be pretty impressive. Celeste, however, just smiled warmly. “Okay, she can copy simple technology, but not energy weapons yet. It’d be best to have her use gear made by Yang. Once she has an intelligence over a hundred, she’ll be able to do basic energy weapons.”

  After Celeste spoke, Yo formed a staff in her hands, and it appeared to be the same staff that she had previously been able to change herself into. “See, I can do it!” She waved her staff around proudly. “I can help fight!”

  With a sigh, I brought my hand up and flicked her forehead, causing ripples along the skin. She quickly dissolved the staff and brought her hands up to rub her forehead while pouting. “For now, you can fight as the wyvern. You haven’t trained with a staff to be able to use it to fight yet.”

  “Okay… fine… but only if papa rides me when we go back!” I swear, I fell face first into the rock when she said that. “It feels good to be ridden like that…” The slime girl was smiling innocently, and Celeste was laughing her ass off.

  “You mean… ohh, right.” I slapped myself on the forehead. Bad brain, bad! Not that kind of ride!

  Sharon, meanwhile, was completely red in the face as she followed along, summoning her wolves again as we made our way down the mountain. Now that she had evolved again, Yo was more playful when fighting, to the point where she would fly around a wyvern to tease them while Celeste attacked from her back. When not fighting, she would attach herself to my arm like a certain bird girl. Unlike Yang, though, my arm would almost instantly slip through the thin film that had been constructed to act as a shirt, and be directly embraced by those squishy mounds.

  I admit, I like the feeling, I love it even! If not for her acting like a little girl and calling me papa all the time, I’d probably push her down at the first chance I got. Sadly, she does, and it’s just too cute. Even if it gets insanely awkward with how much she enjoys skinship.

  By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain, we had leveled up again. Celeste also got the last level she needed for the mana upgrades, and was now able to summon up to sixteen construction bots at once, eight medium sized minions, four ‘normal’ sized ones, two large ones, and one really big summon. I really wanted to see what the big summon would look like.

  After we got down to the base of the mountain, Yo got down on her hands and knees and smiled back to me. “ Ride me , papa!”

  Just as I was beginning to feel myself growing faint, her body expanded rapidly, turning into the giant stone wyvern who was kneeling in the same position, waiting for us to get on.

  Chapter 6 - I Can Plan Things When I Want To!

  Sharon, Celeste and I all climbed up on Yo’s back so that she could fly us to the capital of this planet. Since we had all the materials we needed, as well as the ‘workers’ to build the ship, all that’s left now is gathering the information we need while we wait. Celeste’s job was basically to sit in front of a TV and get as much relevant information as she could, starting with star charts and other navigation information.

  The flight back to the city went by fairly quick with everyone riding on Yo’s back, so teleporting between cities would have been a waste. And once we got there, I called the slime back into my grove, while Celeste ran off towards the hotel, leaving Sharon and myself alone. Though, the druidess didn’t particularly seem to mind, and smiled at me. “So, what do you want to do now?”

  I chuckled lightly as we started walking down the street. “Honestly? Not sure. Kind of figuring this plan out as we go along.”

  Sharon frowned at the words, “You know where you want to go after we leave, right? We won’t just wander aimlessly?”

  I shook
my head at that. “No, I know where we’re going. That’s one of the things that I want Celeste to find first in the star charts. The mana erupted from Earth, which is what caused it to become a dungeon planet, the Cradle of Life. Since there is only one planet like that, then it means that other worlds didn’t get the Seeds.”

  I could see her raising an eyebrow curiously at me. “And?”

  “It means that other races, other worlds were caught completely unprepared. They didn’t have the advantage of being able to train in the future, or bring back magic and technology. My guess is most of the races still don’t know how to use magic at all yet. However, monsters are still spawning on their worlds. Imagine how it was for Earth before the moon left, but with nobody having the ability to train and fight back, if all of us were just your run of the mill humans.”