World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  “...Okay, okay...fine…” The next one she sent was an engine which only increased our speed by a small margin.

  Vice-Captain Celeste has submitted the plans to upgrade the ship to a Binary Ion Drive with secondary Pulse Thrusters.

  This will increase the upgrade time from 7 days to 20.

  Do you wish to accept this upgrade?

  “Great.. yes… sure.” I said while holding my head to recover from the three rapid schematic downloads.

  Captain John of the Ariadne has chosen an upgrade model for the ship engines.

  The upgrade time remaining has increased to 19:23:59:21

  “Finally.. I hope we don’t have to go through that with every upgrade…” I grumbled under my breath, lying back in the bed. “When are we going to subspace?”

  “Huh? Oh, we’re already in subspace. We took care of that while you were napping earlier. Don’t worry, the inertial dampeners on this are well beyond what the Seraglio had.” The AI replied in my head again.

  “Oh… how long was I out?”

  “About twenty minutes.”

  “Oh….” Well, that was much longer than I thought. “This bed is very comfortable.”

  “I know.” Celeste giggled in my head, and I grudgingly sat up to do my training. “Don’t forget to take time to meet the crew over the next few days. You can’t be the hidden captain forever.”

  “Watch me…”

  Chapter 23 - Creatures of the Abstract

  After taking a few hours to train myself, I reluctantly went out and introduced myself to the various elves on board the ship. Because I’m too lazy to list out all two hundred and fifty of them, I’ll just say that there was actually someone named Demuril Ackbar. And he was the tactical officer… I feel like this adventure just got more fun.

  As for the other major positions, just like the queens had promised they were all taken. We even had a pair of chefs. One of them was actually assigned specifically for me and my ‘core party’, but I overruled that because we needed both of them for the regular crew. As I have said before, synthesized food just doesn’t taste the same.

  Though, I can see there being obvious political advantages here for the elves, now that I’ve had time to think it over. First of all, all of the core crew positions are held by elves, and will be until one of the positions are vacated and a non-elf takes over. But at the same time, there’s nothing we can really do about that. We can’t exactly leave those positions empty until we find someone of another race that can do the job.

  After introducing myself to the crew, and making sure that I at least knew their names, I hastily went back to resume my training. It’s not that I’m antisocial, it’s just that I don’t really do well with large groups of people. Wait, that’s the same thing, isn’t it? Well, don’t sweat the details!

  Over the next few days, I began to notice a pattern in behavior with Yin and Sharon. Any time one of them came and chatted with me, the other would not be far behind. Now, I pride myself on not being a dense harem protagonist, so when two girls show this much interest in me, and seem to be competing for attention(no really, sometimes I’ll hear one of them say ‘I win’ before knocking), I know that they like me. I’m not going to pretend that they don’t, I’m not going to try to delude myself into thinking that I shall forever remain single. I will, however, resist!

  I don’t particularly want to have a harem! I never have, and have been trying all this time to fight that idea with my very being. On the other hand, if I accept the affections of just one of them, then that would hurt the other… Oh great gods above, I wish for relationship advice!

  Wait, really?

  I’ve changed my mind, I’ll handle it myself! I don’t know which of them wrote that, but it is most likely either my own patron, the god of insanity, or Aria… I don’t think either of them would be a good idea to get advice from about relationships.

  Well, if you're sure. See you next prayer!

  Okay, just ignore this matter for now. I’ll think about it later. To be honest, I don’t even know how I feel about them. I mean, they’re both hot, and I find them physically attractive, but Sharon is a good friend, and Yin was my animal companion. That does sort of tip the scales in her favor. Bah, clear my mind! Training time!

  This pattern lasted for the first couple weeks. Neither of the girls made any overt advances, just coming to talk to me now and then, or sitting near me during meals. I was thankful for that. However, after just over two weeks had passed, I got a rather unsettling call from Celeste.

  “John, something’s happened. We’re probably going to run into trouble once we drop out of FTL…”

  At the time, I was quietly training my Metal Affinity, having almost reached 20% in it. Opening my eyes, I quickly looked around to make sure that nothing was exploding. “Why, what’s wrong?”

  “Monsters. Some of the crew members have reported seeing strange faces outside the windows, clinging to the ship.”

  “Celeste… we’re in subspace.. I thought there weren’t supposed to be many monsters here?”

  I heard a sigh from the AI as she agreed with me. “They’re rare, and only come in two varieties. We’ve got at least one of them latched onto the ship right now.”

  Grumbling under my breath, I got up and stretched my arms. When I looked out the window, I jumped back for a moment. Outside the window, in the midst of subspace, there was an empty face looking back at me. Instead of eyes or a mouth, it had deep black holes. Its pale skin was peeling off like old paint, and its hair seemed to be splashed with blood while sticking to her features.

  “They’re called Abstracts.” Celeste said as I watched the face. As soon as I blinked, it was gone, and all that could be seen out the window was the gently passing lights. “They come in two varieties. The first can’t move unless it is unseen, while the second can’t interact with the world unless it is being observed. Anything with a soul can trigger these reactions. The main difference between the two is whether or not one possesses its own soul.”

  “The variant that is frozen when looked at has a soul, while the other does not. They both gradually absorb soul energy from those that are watching them, which trigger those effects. In one, the excess energy forcefully freezes them in position, while the other gets just enough to solidify itself. In a way, they are the same monster, with one merely being the ‘finished’ version.”

  “Okay.. how do we kill it?” That was pretty much all I wanted to know at this point. Everything else could wait until after that.

  “Let me finish explaining, and I’ll tell you.” I could practically hear the smile in Celeste’s voice. “Although these creatures are born of exotic mana, they don’t have all of the same properties. Specifically, they can’t simply destroy everything in their path, now that they are confined to a body. However, it is also difficult to destroy them. Doing so with magic is all but impossible, since they invalidate magic by touching it.”

  “For the same reason, you can’t let them get to the FTL drive or the teleport bay, or they will destroy it. For the time being, they can’t get inside of the ship thanks to the shields keeping out the same stuff they are made of. But, once we drop out of subspace, they’ll have a chance to get in.”

  “In order to kill them, you have to hit them with a strong physical impact while they are solid. Thankfully, our electrical system hasn’t been upgraded to use mana wiring, or else they could play with the lights and control when we can and can’t see them. But don’t let your guard down, because the ‘statues’ are ridiculously fast. With the scans I’m seeing, they are able to cross the entire ship’s length in a matter of seconds.”

  “Scans, this is good. You can detect them on scans, then.” Hey, if that was the case, then we still had a pretty good chance.

  “Only when they solidify. Otherwise, they blend in with the surroundings too much to pick up.”

  “So what you’re saying is, we are now in a horror movie. That’s what you’re saying, right?”
>
  “Yup!” She responded as if this was good news. “But don’t worry, we know the rules of horror movies, and we know in advance that we’re in one! This increases our chances of survival drastically.”

  “I’m not feeling that relieved here.” My eye twitched, because I saw a black wisp, like a giant mass of hair fly past my window, with black claws trailing behind it. “I am definitely not feeling relieved. How many of them are out there?”

  “I don’t have an accurate reading, but there have not been any more than five appear on the scans at any one time, so let’s say seven. I like seven, it’s a good number.”

  “How long is it until we drop out of FTL?”

  There was a pause before she answered this time, likely to get information from someone. “There are a couple of nearby systems, within a day’s travel. I don’t want to come out in between systems, just in case we lose the FTL. One of them is heavy in asteroids, so I’ll set that as the destination. In about sixteen hours, we’ll drop out. At that time, it’d be best to have everyone gather together, to minimize risk.”

  I nodded my head, trying to think about this rationally, rather than like a protagonist in a horror movie. “Alright… we can have Sharon’s rabbit army scout the ship. They will spread out farther and faster than any of us. And knowing those rabbits, they might even be able to take one or two of the abstracts down..”

  There was a light giggle from Celeste at that. “True, and it’s a good idea. In the meantime, I need to send a few construction drones into your grove, so that we can get some hammers. We have swords to deal with the ‘early stage’ abstracts, but it takes blunt force to kill the finished ones.”

  I was still not liking this at all. Could I go back to my biggest concern being whether or not I should date the friend or the evolved bird? I would really like to go back to that right now. Just as I turned around to head back out, I saw another empty face flash in front of my window again, but as soon as I turned to look it was gone. I really want to go back a few hours and have none of this happen.

  Quest Accepted!

  Deep in the darkest reaches of subspace, the abstracts have begun to emerge. Your ship caught the attention of some of them, and now it will pay the price. Will you be able to repel the creatures of nightmares, or will you lose, and have your body float along forever in this ghost ship?

  Time Limit: None

  Rewards: Live to die another day, One Favor(Small)

  Failure: The loss of your ship and crew

  Okay… looks like we’ve got another quest… last time I had that happen was Legion, which does not inspire me with courage. Though, the rewards on this are a bit odd. A favor, from who? Do I get to personally ask the gods for something if I repel the abstracts? That would be a bit absurd.. maybe the favor is limited to information, or a level-appropriate item.

  Anyways, I quickly made my way to the bridge to meet Celeste, so that she could get started on building sledgehammers in my grove. Along the way, I found Yin, who looked like she was heading to my room. “Situation, heading to the bridge.”

  The woman stopped, tilting her head, but gave a quick nod and turned around to follow me. “What happened…?”

  I began telling her what Celeste had told me, in regards to these strange creatures and what we needed to do. When I mentioned that they were all but immune to magic, she furrowed her brows. Most likely, she had obtained a class that was directly related to magic. Having that thought, I asked her if she had gotten one yet.

  Yin blinked in confusion for a moment, before quickly giving me another nod. “Yes… Storm Queen.”

  “Uhm… base class?”

  “Ah… mage.”

  Okay, so she got a weather controlling mage class. This is officially unhelpful on a ship in the middle of nowhere(literally) fighting monsters immune to magic. “I want to take Yang into my grove with you and Yo. Would you mind watching them until this is over?”

  “Want to help… but okay. Will take care of them.” I gave a relieved sigh as she said that. I considered putting the entire crew into either mine or Sharon’s groves, but we need more eyes out here to give us a better chance against these monsters. Preferential treatment, you say? Hell yes I give preferential treatment to people I’ve been with since the start of my adventure!

  After getting to the bridge, Celeste summoned eight of her construction drones and had me send them into the grove. Following that, I went and rounded up Yang from the hydroponics room, and Yo from the sauna. We don’t even have anyone staffing the sauna, did she ask Celeste to run it for her? More questions!

  Anyways, time went by slowly, and for some reason I found it hard to sleep when random terrifying faces would peek in on me through the window. Who knew? So instead, I used my Mana Leech aspect to substitute sleep, so that I wasn’t going to try to fight these monsters when I was dead tired.

  Roughly sixteen hours later, we pulled out of FTL. At almost the same time, alarms started sounding out. We were all gathered in the mess hall, the one room able to hold everyone with room to spare. Sharon’s animals were already spread out, watching. Celeste, using her connection with the ship to get the information, gave a brief report. “Two airlocks were just pried open. I’ve sealed the area to prevent the atmosphere from leaking out, but they may have already gotten through. Those should be the finished abstracts.. the rest can just phase through the walls.”

  Oh… this was not going to be a fun time.

  Chapter 24 - Fighting the Abstracts

  With everyone here, and Sharon’s rabbits roaming the halls, I knew that we wouldn’t have to worry about the statue type abstracts. Even if there were more of them, putting five sets of eyes on them at once would almost guarantee that it would not be able to move before we had the chance to kill it. The problem was the other type, the ones that could phase through walls.

  “I’ve got three statue types on the sensors. The rabbits have them locked down just a few corridors down from the airlocks. As for the others, I’m getting intermittent readings, but I think they are hiding in the life support vents to avoid detection. Wait, no, one of the rabbits was just killed. They’re hiding in the floors and ceilings!” Celeste gave a detailed report as she kept an eye on the situation with the ship’s sensors and internal cameras.

  “Come on, give me some good news, Celeste…”

  “Working on it… more of the rabbits are dying, all over the ship. The good news is that they aren’t going for the ones watching the statue types, so those won’t get free. However, they seem to be gradually making their way in this direction. These readings… there should be six loose abstracts heading this way.”

  I closed my eyes, and quickly turned on my combat Aspect spells. If swords work against the ‘loose’ abstracts, then razor sharp claws should work just as well. “Any final advice?”

  “Don’t stare at them too long. They absorb soul energy through eye contact, it’s what triggers their solidifying ability and feeds them. You could end up losing levels, or completely dying if you take too long.”

  Suddenly, Sharon spoke up next to us. “Is this going to be a problem for the rabbits?”

  “Probably… The ones watching the statues might not last until we defeat the loose abstracts. Ah! One of the loose abstracts just ate too many souls from the rabbits, and has turned into a statue type. The nearby rabbits managed to lock it down, so now there are only five heading our way. Make it four, the rabbits got a kill in!” Finally, we had some good news! “Alright, they’ll be here any time. Get ready, and make sure you watch everything.”

  Nodding, I spread out my mana sense, feeling for anything out of place. If they came from the floors, I wanted to be ready. However, the first one burst directly through the door. Or rather, it phased through the door. Do only the parts of them that we see become solid, or can they still walk through walls whenever they want?! Make up your mind on how you work, or at least let us have more details!

  The one that ran into the room was a giant mass of
long bloody hair, with four thin arms protruding out from the sides and two stubby legs. At the end of each arm were three long and deadly looking claws, while the feet appeared to be mismatched. One was the foot of a large feline, while the other looked like a smaller elephant’s foot. There were no discernable features underneath the thick hair, as it covered too much of its body. When it ran towards us, there was a trail of black blood left in its wake.

  “First one, incoming!” I said as I dove towards it, with three of the other elven officers. If I was able to use my magic, I would choose to simply burn this thing, and had to actively resist doing so. I wasn’t even sure whether energy attacks like my beam saber would work, or if that would be invalidated as well. Hence, I decided to just rip it to pieces with my claws.

  Just as I was getting near the violent mass of hair, I felt something was off with my Mana Sense. As such, I jumped into the air at the last second, and a moment later heard two crashes near where I had been, from the elves that had been running alongside me. I heard the voice of our tactical officer from within the group of armed elves yelling out. “It’s a trick!” Damn, so close!