World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  While she engaged with the Hundred Hands, the Large Foot dropped down from the sealing, crushing one of the crew. Several others then drew their swords and charged towards it, while the Vice-Captain quickly summoned a large turret, which blasted towards the Needle Hair with a ball of metal. Afterwards, she turned her attention to the Demon Child, which cut off the legs of one of the crew when it arrived.

  The Large Foot was easy to fend off, with the crew members occupying is blade limbs. The Hundred Hands was being distracted by Bradbury using several spinning swords the flew through the air. The Needle Hair was quickly dealt with by the Captain using a similar flying sword. However, the Demon Child was too fast to be hit by the Vice-Captain, and was quickly killing several of the crew.

  It wasn’t until the Captain used some strange method to control one of the flying swords to defeat the Hundred Hands that the situation turned in our favor. Although it caused him to collapse, while bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth, it freed up Bradbury to help against the Demon Child. With her more nimble control of the two dozen swords, the Demon Child had no chance to evade, and was quickly pierced through while the Large Foot was destroyed by the Vice-Captain’s turret.

  With those four taken care of, the Vice-Captain reported that the original groups of animals that had been watching the statue-type enemies had already died, and another group had taken their place. In order to avoid wasting more valuable resources, we immediately headed out to take care of them. These statue types posed no real threat to us, so long as we had enough eyes on them to ensure that they could not move, so we dealt with them using the large hammers that the Vice-Captain had provided.

  After the four statues had been dealt with, we did a final sweep to confirm that there were no more enemies present on the ship, and gathered our dead. Thanks to the warning from the Vice-Captain, and the information she had given us beforehand to allow us to devise a plan to attack, we were capable of overcoming this situation with only sixteen crew deaths. While we had also lost nearly a hundred of the horned rabbits, Bradbury did not seem disturbed by this fact. It is possible that she has an even greater reserve within her inner space. I would like to formally nominate Bradbury as the primary leader when forming away teams. With her abilities, I believe she is well suited for the task.

  End of report.

  …

  “He gives really good reports…” I said musingly after finishing reading Ackbar’s recap of the incident. Even if I did feel a bit upset at the parts where I was described essentially as an incompetent leader, I couldn’t really deny that he was right.

  “Hmm?” Sharon next to me slowly woke up, and finally saw that I was awake. “Ah! John, you’re alright! I mean, well, we knew you’d be alright, but you’re finally up!”

  “Yeah, I should be okay now. Not so much as a headache.” It would have been strange if I still had one after resting for two full days. “And I read up on what happened. You did a good job?”

  Sharon had a silly smile as she heard that. “I did, huh?”

  “Yup. Ackbar even recommended you to be the leader of away teams, thanks to the ability you showed.”

  She giggled lightly. “Well, he ended up asking me for an animal, so I gave him one of my younger wolves. He seems to be quite active when it comes to training.”

  I nodded my head, and a blue screen appeared in front of me.

  Quest Completed

  Creatures of the Abstract

  Rank ★★★ Ship Defense

  Thanks to your foreknowledge, the abstract creatures were repelled with only a minimal loss of life. Your ship is safe, for now at least.

  As a Quest Reward, you have been granted one Small Favor from your patron deity. Patron Favors are ranked as Small, Medium, and Large, and can be redeemed for the following effects.

  Small: One item of equivalent level, one new skill

  Medium: One item of superior level, two new skills, one free resurrection

  Large: One intelligent item, three new skills, two free resurrections.

  You may redeem your favor at any time by praying to your patron deity. Additional favors may be earned by completing quests assigned by your patron deity, or performing actions that they approve of.

  I looked at the rewards list, and couldn’t help but stare dumbly. A new skill, am I able to choose what kind of skill it is? Or is it chosen for me? Same with the item.. would I even get to pick whether it is a weapon or armor?

  “What’s wrong, John?” I heard Sharon asking from next to me, but I knew it wasn’t just me that was confused by this. I could almost feel Celeste in my head, trying to process this.

  “Uhm… well… apparently the god of madness and chaos liked what we did, so he is letting me get a free skill or item…”

  “Wait, what? You can actually talk to your patron?” She looked at me confused, and I nodded. Though really, I didn’t know either until just recently. I thought that you had to be at a temple to do so.

  “Well… here goes.” Calling Malthan, do you read me oh god of chaos and madness?

  Huh? Oh! Hi, I'm here. Sorry, was playing strip poker with the goddess of beauty. What's up?

  “This is a very casual god, apparently….”

  What's the point of divinity if you don't enjoy it? Now try to hurry up, I sense a royal flush coming up, and I want to get that shirt off.

  Ah… it’s about this favor....

  Oh, for the abstracts? Yeah, that was a good show. So, what are you wanting?

  Chapter 26 - A Prayer and a Promise

  Well... I thought, towards the god of madness and chaos. Could I get a boost to a current skill, rather than a new one or an item?

  Yes! Royal flush! Called it! Now come on, baby... Whoops! Sorry, got my channels crossed. Uhm, sure. I can have you get either an item that gives a considerable boost to a single skill, or directly give you a smaller boost to it.

  My eye twitched slightly as I read that. My patron is a shameless perv! Ah, well I’d like to have something that would assist with my Toybox power, to let me create identical portals so that they would be safe for travel.

  Hmm... Alright, let me see if I can't patch you through to someone to help you with that. Please hold while I redirect your favor and stare at the most glorious breasts in all creation.

  I thought he was joking at first, but then I actually started to hear an annoying jingle in my head, as if he had actually put me on hold! Looking over at Sharon, I saw her closing her eyes and focusing, likely trying to get through to her own patron, or having a conversation already. I wasn’t sure which.

  This annoying jingle lasted for several minutes before my mind was suddenly assaulted by a barrage of information. It felt similar to the time I had absorbed the Soul Arts skill from Legion, except that there were no memories contained within this knowledge. It felt as if it was becoming something I had known all along, but never understood.

  New Skill Unlocked!

  Spatial Comprehension - Beginner Level 5

  Exp: 0%

  Sorry, man, wasn't able to get them to buff your psychic skill. However, instead they came up with this handy skill for you, that should allow the same effects! With this skill, you can understand the size, shape, and density of a thing merely by looking at it with your Aura Sight. It may take a bit of practice, but this should be a good starting point for you! Once you level it up some, you won't even need the Aura Sight, and will naturally understand these things. So... good luck! And now, time to deal another hand!

  Well… thanks anyways, I guess. I was left holding my head in both pain and annoyance as the information swept through me. I wasn’t sure how Aura Sight was supposed to serve as a medium for this skill, but out of curiosity I tried it. Once the world filled with those usual colorful strands of light, I felt that I was able to sort through them, and ignore the ones I didn’t want to look at. Turning to look at Sharon again, I saw… everything. Without the lights of the auras in the way, my eyesight was amplified by several times
. I could see the angle of her nose, the tension in her forehead, and could tell how much her shirt was being strained by her chest.

  Okay, that last one wasn’t important, but I couldn’t really block it out either! This literally made me see everything in complete detail at the same time. Focusing, I tried to slowly tune my sight to bring back the auras around the areas I did not want to focus on. I found that this was considerably more difficult than just omitting them completely.

  “Wow, this is a handy skill for an organic to have.” I heard Celeste’s voice ring out in my head as I looked around, taking in the information of the room. Already, I was able to spot a few structural weaknesses in this small medbay, where the wall appeared weaker than in other places. “Typically, only a computer will be able to process the visual information like that. Otherwise… wait for it…”

  Sure enough, I began to feel a nagging headache building as I looked around some more. Taking the hint, I cancelled the Aura Sight. Too much information being processed at once causes a meltdown, right?

  “Exactly. Before you start training that new skill full time, you should hop into your clone body and practice your Technomancy to give yourself better processing abilities. That, or I can give you an actual implant for it.”

  ...I wanted to go with the actual implant, but that meant real brain surgery… opening up my skull and digging around to put it in…

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. The implants I looked up weren’t that messy. Though I would still need to cut into your head to put it in.”

  I’ll go with the Technomancy solution, please. That was not a very difficult choice for me. Can you prepare a computer for me to study, or do we not have the parts necessary?

  “Hmm, we’ve been mining asteroids for a couple days now, so we have plenty of metals, and I can even create small diamond processors. Give me a few hours, and I can have a working computer for you. I’ve almost got the last airlock fixed.”

  I nodded my head, and turned over to see Sharon, who had just ‘snapped out’ of her praying or whatever she was doing. “So, make any contact?”

  She nodded her head slightly. “Yeah… My patron is a bit strange. She actually went ahead and gave me a quest, but I’m not sure how to go about it.”

  “Oh? What’s the quest?” I was rather curious, since Malthan hadn’t mentioned giving me a quest or anything like that. Though, he may have been too busy ogling breasts to think about it.

  “I have to populate three different worlds with at least four species from my grove, each. There’s no time limit, but if I do it, I’ll be granted a ‘Medium Favor’.”

  ...Fighting off the abstracts earned me a small favor, but just visiting three planets along our way and dropping off some animals would earn Sharon a medium favor? Where was the justice?! “So… who is your patron, by the way?”

  “Ah?” She looked at me, realizing she hadn’t told me that yet. “Krisa, goddess of wild beasts. What about you..?”

  “....Malthan… god of madness…” I hung my head in shame as I admitted that. Sharon got an interesting patron, and I could even see how it connected with her personality, since she keeps grabbing wild beasts for her grove.

  After I admitted my patron, Sharon brought a hand up to her mouth and giggled. “Really, now?”

  I nodded my head, and decided that it was time to bring the other three out of my grove. The battle was over now, and we weren’t in any danger, so there wouldn’t be a problem with it. With a thought, I sent my mind into my grove, and pulled the three women out of it.

  “John.”

  “Master!”

  “Papa!”

  The three girls all quickly hugged me, calling out to me as they usually would. Perhaps because I had not called them out for a while, they were worried that something had happened to me. Yin smiled, and patted me on the head while the other two clung to my sides. “You’re alright… Good.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” I smiled back to her, and slowly sat up. I had to push away Yang and Yo, but I managed to get to my feet. “Oh, right, the upgrade for the ship should be just about done…” I checked the Ship Management window, and found that there were still two days left before it was complete.

  Yin looked to Yang, who was growing increasingly uncomfortable in the medbay, and spoke with a soft smile. “Come, Yang.. forest…” She grabbed the demi’s hands, which seemed to make her relax slightly, and pulled her along out of the medbay. “Will be back… later.”

  I nodded to her, and turned towards Sharon. “So, guessing you’ll be trying to populate a few planets along our way with your critters?”

  “Yeah, though I’m not really sure what these favors are supposed to be good for.” I took a moment to explain just that, and her outlook quickly changed. “Wow.. Okay. Yeah, that would definitely be good. I wonder if I could get a cool combat skill.”

  “Probably… I asked for something to help with my psychic power, and they gave me the ability to comprehend space.” Now I just needed to train it to the point where my portals were actually usable without making me black out for two days at a time. But first, I had a magic surgery to perform!

  Sharon and I continued chatting for a while, until Celeste had finished with her work and came by the medbay with a small, handheld computer. “This will be a good model for you to work with. The processing speed is about the same as computers from Earth, which is still dozens of times faster than most organic races.”

  I nodded my head, and pulled up my companion bracelet. If I was going to increase the speed at which I could process information, then essentially my perception of time would slow down. Naturally, my body wouldn’t be able to keep up, so I had to write a program that would limit the enhanced processing speed. This took about another hour, with more help from Celeste to correct some variables. After that was done, the program was stored in the companion implant, and I moved to the chair to put on my clone controller headset. It was time to take my cyber brain to the next level!

  Once inside the clone body, I grabbed the handheld computer from Celeste, thanking her for her work. Then, I began studying the computer with my mana sense, identifying the parts I had already applied to my brain and focusing on the rest. Thankfully, there weren’t many other pieces in this particular computer, so I was able to quickly find the part that handled information processing.

  From there, it was just a matter of identifying that section of my own brain. For this, I had Sharon help me out. I gave her a small list of math problems, and asked her to go through and solve them. While she did so, I analyzed her own brain to find the parts that lit up when she thought about the questions. To be safe, I confirmed the location by having her do two more tests. One was a sensory deprivation test where we covered her eyes, ears, and nose, while the other had her simply looking around the room and analyzing it.

  With her help, I was able to identify the parts of the brain that I would need to alter for this surgery. So, I lied down on the medbay bed, and got to work. I had already done a few of these magical surgeries on myself, so I was not surprised when the pain started. I forced myself to think past the pain and continue to work, for several minutes until I was fully finished with the procedure. In the end, I felt my thoughts slowing down, and it gradually became harder and harder to focus. Finally, just as I completed the process, I blacked out entirely.

  You have died.

  Immediately, I woke up in my original body, but I couldn’t move. Wait… I could move, everything was just going so slow. Damn, did I kill my clone by finishing the procedure? Celeste, upload the program!

  I had to wait for what felt like an hour as I slowly reached up to grab the headset. Then, suddenly, everything came together all at once, and Sharon was rushing over to me. “What happened? Did it work?”

  New Spell Unlocked

  Cybernetic Adaptation: Processor - Technomancy - ★★★

  Ever had trouble paying attention? Well no more! From now on, you can see and hear everything at once!
Your processing speed is now similar to that of a computer!

  New Software Installed!

  Limiter X

  Due to the heightened information processing brought about by Cybernetic Adaptation: Processor, you see and hear things at a far faster rate than normal. To counteract this, this program allows you to adjust the speed at which your mind can take in information.

  I smiled slightly at the two windows that appeared. “I’m fine, it worked.” I looked over to the clone body, which was now lying dead on the medbay bed. Walking over to it, I infused a portion of my soul into it, approximately one level from my buffer area. If I was right…

  New Ability Unlocked