World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  Following Celeste’s instructions, I woke up… inside my Seed. Apparently, focusing on logging out meant logging entirely out. Well, when I logged back in, I was back inside my NeoLife body. But with that, we determined that we would need to pick up Sharon’s real body before we left. “Now, keep in mind that there are only two ways to log out of your new clone bodies. The first, and easiest, is to use the bracelets. The second, is death. If you lose the bracelets, or they are broken, you need to try to find some way back to the ship so that I can give you a replacement.”

  I nodded my head at that, and sent both the sleeping clone body and the controlling device into my grove so that we could take them out later on Earth. Afterwards, I went back to cultivating, focusing on my Plasma Affinity this time until the ship was ready. Sharon, however, was entirely unconcerned as she continued playing with Chrome and Jasmine, even hugging them in her sleep.

  The days passed slowly, my time spent focusing on cultivation while Sharon had fun with the animals. Eventually, the ship was ready, and we could make our final preparations to leave. Making sure I had everyone inside my grove, I logged out of NeoLife and left my house for the last time. I needed somewhere with a wide space to summon the ship, so naturally I went to the Anthony Chabot Regional Park. It was still inside Oakland’s anti-spawn barrier, so I wasn’t worried about many monsters appearing to interrupt me.

  Once I got there, I summoned Celeste, Yin, Yang, Yo, Chrome, and Jasmine. Celeste was busy preparing a data packet to send out once she connected to the ship,while the others were content clinging onto me in some fashion. Even Yin nestled her head against my side while standing next to me.

  The summoning process of the ship was the longest I’ve ever done. It wasn’t difficult to summon, just big. Big enough that I’d likely never be able to put it back in my grove without first breaking it into a hundred pieces. Thankfully, my cultivation practice had allowed me to build nearly endless reserves of one thing, and that was patience.

  Over half an hour of constant focus later, the ship was finally summoned fully outside onto the wide field in front of me. The ship itself was eighty meters wide, over two hundred and fifty long, and thirty meters tall. It had three large engines on the back, and at the front it narrowed to form a long V shape. I could see the two turrets on the front of the ship, and was reminded again how pitifully underpowered it would be if we ever got in a fight. Celeste alone likely has more firepower than this ship.

  On the side of the ship, near one of its four airlocks, was the name ‘S.S. Seraglio’ written in large silver letters. After snapping her fingers, entirely for dramatic purposes, the airlock opened up and a small ramp descended to let us in. Yo and Yang stared up in awe at the ship, and rushed inside as soon as the ramp touched the ground. Yin was considerably more calm, and walked in after them, while the two pets were just happy dancing around my feet until I went in.

  Inside, the ship was lit up with evenly spaced lights in a narrow corridor. Celeste led everyone to the bridge, which had just enough seats for everyone to sit down, and one spare for when we picked up Sharon, with another for when Yin evolved. Celeste and I helped strap everyone in, and I sent those that weren’t able to take a seat into my grove to wait for now, since this was the ship’s first test run.

  “All systems green, awaiting your orders, captain!” Celeste spoke up from her seat with a wide smile, clearly enjoying this.

  “Let’s go get her.” The ship slowly rose into the air, then turned and flew off at a high speed. Though, those of us inside barely felt anything. The inertial dampeners were doing their jobs well. “How long till we get to her house?” Sharon had already given us an address to pick her up at, so we at least knew where we were going.

  “About an hour, sir. We’re currently moving at the fastest safe speed within an atmosphere. Once we pick her up, we can leave and move at full speed. It’ll take us about three days to get to the asteroid belt, and then we can enter FTL and start our journey.”

  I nodded, and sent Sharon a call via the friends list. “We’re on our way. Got everything you’ll need?”

  I could hear her happy voice responding back over the connection. “Yup, all ready to go!”

  “Alright, we’ll be there in an hour.” I smiled slightly, and cut the connection. “Celeste, ready to send the data packet?”

  “Ready and waiting.” She chuckled lightly, and I could see that she had the connection already established and was just waiting to be told to send it.

  “Go ahead, then.” I shook my head and sat back in my comfortable captain’s chair. I had all the fancy buttons, which I was not sure if they served any real purpose or not. Yo was wildly pushing buttons at her console, but they did not seem to do anything more than entertain her with an old arcade style game.

  Celeste nodded, and pressed a button on her console, sending the data packet to every major government on Earth. I wasn’t sure what reactions they would have, or even if they would read it. My goal was simply to make the information available to them before we left.

  Roughly an hour after we left Oakland, we arrived above Manchester, where Sharon lived. Having the ship hover in place, Celeste left through the airlock to go retrieve our final party member. She told me that once we had the material from the asteroids, we’d be able to make a teleport bay on the ship. The bay itself was already built, but without the needed materials it was just a useless room. So, the only way to retrieve Sharon was to do so manually.

  Roughly five minutes passed before they were on board, and Sharon happily took her seat in the bridge. “Officer Sharon Bradbury, at your service sir.” She smirked as she did a mock salute.

  Celeste took her own seat as well, while Yang looked over to me. “Master… we’re leaving now, right…?” She seemed a bit apprehensive to go into space, but I nodded my head. “Okay…” As the ship rumbled slightly from suddenly accelerating upwards, Yang quickly hugged her own body.

  Sharon, seeing that, reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay. Just a bit of turbulence.” Yang shakily nodded her head, and sure enough, within ten minutes the shaking had subsided completely, and we were well beyond the clouds.

  “Incoming transmission from the Prime Minister.” Celeste giggled as she read it out. “He says thanks for the information, and he won’t try to detain us. Apparently, we’re the third ship to leave Earth this week. But, we’re the first to actually leave useful information behind.”

  “I take it we can expect to find other people along our way, then.” I sighed, shaking my head.

  “Maybe. The asteroid belt is a big place, and they might not pick the same world to go to as we did.” Celeste shrugged her shoulders, and soon we were accelerating to our maximum speed. “But just as a precaution, I’m setting our destination away from Mars. I imagine that people would likely want to take advantage of it as a rest stop and orbit point near the asteroid field.”

  “Alright. Wouldn’t be exactly safe to encounter another ship out here when we can barely defend ourselves as it is.”

  And with that, we were off to see the asteroids, with Earth becoming a gradually shrinking blue dot behind us. Celeste’s voice rang out over the intercom. “Stardate zero three point twelve point zero. Our journey has officially begun, and we are off to see the universe! Or at least the galaxy, or a small part of it. Going boldly where no gamer has gone before!”

  Chapter 9 - A Lesson on Psions

  While we were flying towards the asteroid belt, I decided to go ahead and specialize my Deus Ex body. Since this craft didn’t have any mining lasers or drills, I would turn my Deus Ex form into a mining body. After shifting over, I took a few moments to get over the disorientation of turning into a robot before I began buying upgrades. When I consulted with Celeste, she told me how to find the upgrade packages, which would often give free bonuses if you purchased the entire package.

  Looking through, I found that there were five tiers of mining packages. They ranged from mining aste
roids at the first tier, to mining entire moons or planets later on. Of course, they gradually became more expensive as well. The final mining package costed over a hundred upgrade points after buying the fourth one. The first package contained a basic mining laser and special inventory, which would automatically deposit any minerals I mine into it. The ‘free bonus’ from this package was getting a scanner to detect the location of ore veins.

  Curious, I spent an extra ten upgrade points to unlock the second tier, which increased the power of the mining laser, the size of the ore inventory, the accuracy of the scanner, and also gave me an upgrade to my mana and mana regeneration. For this one, the ‘free bonus’ was a small upgrade inventory that I could store my laser in. The third tier of the mining package costed another twenty upgrade points. While I could afford it, I wanted to wait until I actually needed it. With the first two tiers, I should already be easily able to mine asteroids.

  With that taken care of, I decided that it was time for a lesson with Celeste on a different matter, so reverted to my elf form and went to find her. To my surprise, she was not on the bridge, but in one of the bedrooms laying down and reading a holographic book. When she saw me enter, she gave a brief shout of surprise and the book vanished. Didn’t she already see me coming through the link?

  She smiled slightly at that. “I wasn’t really paying attention to the links, sorry. Got distracted… So, what’s up?”

  “I was hoping that you could help me understand my psychic power. I recently gave myself one after studying the auras of psychic humans.”

  She nodded her head, sitting up on the bed. “Alright, but for this you should switch to a human body. While any race ‘can’ possess psychic talent, elves aren’t as strong with it as humans.” After she spoke, I quickly changed my body to that of a psychic human. “Okay, now, there are several different kinds of psionic abilities. Most of them aren’t as simple as telepathy, telekinesis, and the like. While they do have those abilities as aspects, they are… broader, you could say.”

  “For instance, after I saw that you learned the psychic aura, I added information about it to my research list. One of the most common psychic powers among humans would be called ‘Manifestation’. While on the surface, this seems to resemble basic telepathy, it allows the user to manifest objects with their will.”

  “Now, although psychic powers do not use mana, they have their own cost that must be paid. At first, you will feel a mild headache, which becomes a terrifying migraine if you continue exerting your power. If you stubbornly refuse to stop even at that point, blood vessels in your head begin to rupture, causing you to bleed from every orifice on your head. Naturally, the cost that comes after that, for those who refuse to stop, is a painful death.”

  I winced slightly as she described these. Most likely, I’d have to go through many headaches before I trained it to the point where I could use the basic version of whatever ability I had freely. “Is there any way to tell what my psychic power is?”

  “Well, if we had the equipment. I can make a basic scanner for your psychic power with some of the leftover metal in your grove. Since there were too many types of powers, with new ones being born regularly, I won’t be able to tell you exactly what it is. I will be able to tell you the general type, however. Following that, when you first practice it, you will unlock it as a skill that names and defines your power.”

  I nodded my head. “How long will you need to build the scanner?”

  “Just a few hours. I already have the plans for it saved, and the workstation doesn’t have anything else it’s working on right now. Until then, don’t try to force it to activate. If you do, you might try something well beyond your ability, and get the heaviest price.”

  After saying that, Celeste had me absorb her into my grove so that she could get started on the scanner. Meanwhile, I began cultivating another of my basic affinities, focusing on Void Affinity this time. Though I was unable to make any real progress before Celeste let me know she was done, every little bit helps.

  When Celeste appeared in front of me, she was holding a small metal object, like a handheld metal detector. “Okay. With this, I should be able to see what type of power you have.” She held the scanner up to my head and pressed a button. There were several beeps for a while before it settled down. “Hmm… spatial distortion type. So it should be some kind of power based on teleportation. That’s one of the hardest to train, really. But it doesn’t include any clairsentience, so it isn’t meant for long range teleporting. Alright, I think I have just the thing! Pull a rock out of your grove, just a small one. We need to measure your power.”

  I shrugged, and did as she asked, pulling a pebble out of my grove and holding it in my right hand before she continued. “Next, try to channel energy from your brain into the pebble. It will feel different than mana, but similar. Both driven by thought and focus, but this is fueled by the mind instead of the soul.”

  I nodded, and did my best to follow what she said. I could already feel a small headache forming as I focused all of my attention on the rock. Soon, it was as if I felt a transparent bubble around the rock. Out of curiosity, I tried moving it, and found that the rock did not move with it. So, instead I created another one in my other hand. With this, my headache was starting to get a bit worse, but as soon as I thought about it, the two orbs linked, and the rock appeared in my left hand. However, at that time, the headache I had been feeling rose dramatically, to the point where the ambient lights in Celeste’s room hurt.

  “Eeks… looks like your power is really draining.” Celeste spoke softly as she dimmed the lights. I tried to use my healing spell on myself, but found that it wouldn’t work. “I’ll teach you a formula to relieve psychic stress later.” After that, she went quiet for roughly a half hour until my headache subsided. When it did so, I found that there was a floating blue window in front of me.

  New Skill Unlocked!

  Psychic Power: Toybox - Beginner Level 1

  Exp: 0.4%

  A rare and undervalued psychic power, this ability functions by linking two separate spaces, and transferring any phenomena within one to the other. Difficulty is determined by the size of the linked spaces, the distance they are apart, and the amount of matter or energy travelling between them.

  “Got any information on this one…?” I looked to the Deus Ex, who shook her head.

  “No. I didn’t bother looking up the more rare powers, because like I said there were too many. I was hoping you’d end up with a common variant, like Blink or Translocation, even Reverse Summon.”

  I sighed, slowly standing up. “Well, so far, moving a rock from one hand to the other is enough to give me a massive migraine for half an hour.”

  “Actually, I think you might be able to do quite a bit more with it, now that we know what it is. From the description of the skill, it is meant to function as a two dimensional portal, rather than enclosing an object. Try again, but this time only create two small discs and link them before dropping the rock through.”

  I was a bit hesitant on this, but it was a new power, and I wanted to test it out too. So, I did as she asked. When I linked the two portals, I felt a slight headache, but not as bad as it had been before. Celeste leaned down and picked up the rock, dropping it where the first portal was. Immediately, the headache flared up, but still not as bad as before. At least at first. Apparently, the sides of the portals were linked wrong, so down became up for the falling rock, which then fell back through the portal and into Celeste’s hand above the first. While one pass might not have hurt much, two did.

  Thankfully, she gave me plenty of time for my headache to subside before she spoke up. “Thankfully, you already have most of the materials you need for the psychic stress relief formula. The last material is a fairly common flower found on desert planets. I’ll see if I can find any on the scanner while we’re heading to Gerin. Until then, don’t practice with anything bigger than that rock, not until you are able to create the portals and pass
it through with nothing more than a minor headache. And whatever you do, don’t change forms until you have fully recovered from the strain. The slight differences in brain chemistry could cause irreversible damage.”

  “...You know, just once I’d like to get an awesome power that has almost no drawbacks… Wouldn’t that be fun?” I shook my head with a sigh, thanking her and walking out so that she could read her book again. Meanwhile, I went off to find Yang and Yo. Sharon would be able to take care of herself for a while, but those two… I wasn’t really sure.

  I didn’t have to look long to find Yo, who was still fully engrossed in playing a game of asteroids on the bridge console. Thankfully, Celeste didn’t seem to be letting her do anything that would damage the ship, just play games. As for Yang… I found her huddled up in one of the rooms, sitting on a bed while curled into a ball. Her wings wrapped around the front of her body, and I could tell that she was not comfortable flying like this.

  “You alright?” I asked her as I moved to sit next to her, making Yang jump slightly.

  She quickly shook her head back and forth. “No… I don’t like this….”