World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  “Well, maybe? Not all monsters can be counted as dungeons, but all dungeons can be counted as monsters of one kind or another. For instance, Yin. She’s technically a monster now, but she’s not a dungeon. Or Yo, she is most definitely a monster, but nothing’s spawned inside of her.”

  I couldn’t help but nod at that. If monsters had begun spawning inside of Yo, we would have noticed. I mean, we can see right through her, it would be hard not to notice if something was swimming around inside. “Okay… so how do we make dungeons? Do they have a special formula, or what?”

  Celeste shrugged her shoulders at that. “Not really? A runic spell circle could do the trick, you’d just have to define the area ahead of time, or else it could turn into a giant monster instead of a dungeon. In the future, establishing a dungeon was banned on inhabited worlds for that very reason. Doing it wrong could make a boss-class monster.”

  “That.. could be bad.” I nodded my head a bit. “So, set up a few different dungeons on a suitable planet, and then send down teams to run through them?”

  Celeste nodded. “As long as we don’t destroy the dungeon heart, the monsters will just keep respawning. However, if we completely clear it out, then depending on the size of the dungeon it could take up to a week for the monsters to spawn again. If you are sure about doing this, then it will be a long-term project.”

  I furrowed my brows at the thought. “How long term?”

  “In order to get everyone up to a reasonable level, I’d say around three months. But on the bright side, we can leave the dungeons established, and just come back when we get more crew members to use it as a training ground. You could also put your monster lab on the same planet.”

  I thought about that, and nodded my head. “Alright. Follow our present course, but continue scanning for a suitable world. In the meantime, I need you to select five crew members that will lead the other teams. Those five, along with myself, Sharon, Yin, Yang, Yo, and you will all be going over how to properly lead a dungeon team.”

  Celeste nodded, smiling slightly at that. “Alright, captain. Anything special that you’re looking for in the planet?”

  “It’d be best if it was somewhere easily survivable. Since we’re going to be there for a while, we’ll need a steady supply of food and water, though we could get that from the ship if it is absolutely necessary. Since I’ll be having the monster lab there, we need somewhere with a calm climate. Raging storms and blizzards would probably make things go poorly for that. Finally, it’d be best if there were not a lot of monsters already present on the planet, that way the lab could be left alone.”

  Every now and then, Celeste would give another nod, as if taking notes. “Alright, I’ve inputted the scanning parameters into the database. If we pass near a system that shows a planet that matches a few of the conditions, we can drop in to take a look.”

  “Thanks. Now, next order of business…” I gave a tired sigh as I sat down in my chair, and pulled up my friend’s list, choosing to call Talia.

  “Good afternoon, Captain.” Talia quickly answered the call from her end, and I couldn’t help but groan at the time differences.

  “Good morning, Queen Talia.”

  “We assume this call is for a regular report?” Judging from how formally she was talking, she wasn’t alone. She had a tendency to drop the formalities every now and then when she was.

  “Right.” I began filling her in on the plan, to have the people she sent trained in dungeons. This of course, led to detailed explanations on what exactly dungeons were.

  “Oh, we had one of those appear on the homeworld a few months ago. We thought it might be a threat, so a group was assembled to clear it out and destroy the source of its energy. Had we known what it was, maybe the local queens would have chosen to preserve it as a similar training ground.”

  I nodded my head slightly, not surprised that a dungeon would appear there eventually. The elves were still relatively close to Earth, so for now I expect big things to spawn there more frequently than other areas. Obviously, this wasn’t the case in the future… Though, the land wyrms on Hascion could almost qualify as boss monsters on their own, so maybe it didn’t change that much? I wasn’t really that sure.

  “There’s also the chance that other people will begin arriving in the Gerin system soon.” Since there was already someone that had beaten us to the robots, there were sure to be people that would stop by the elven worlds.

  “Yes… a few weeks ago, a strange craft appeared. However, they made no attempts to communicate, and simply left after a couple of hours. This was deemed as an unimportant matter since no actions were taken by either side, so you were not informed of it earlier.”

  Well, is there any chance that I can warn people about stuff BEFORE it happens for a change? We talked like that for a few more minutes, but there was really nothing else to report, and she was busy entertaining the elven nobility or something like that. After the call ended, I took a moment to glance looking through my status and skills list before going about my daily psionic training.

  Name

  John Hulett

  Race

  Wood Elf

  Titles

  Vengeful Heart, Amateur Brain Surgeon, Spider Slaughterer, Starship Captain

  Fame

  20,000

  Level 50

  45%

  Class

  Druid

  Advanced Class

  Xeno-Shifter

  Deity

  Malthan

  Health

  310/310

  Health Regen

  0.52

  Mana

  1300/1300

  Mana Regen

  6.93

  Strength

  15

  Wisdom

  200

  Agility

  26

  Intelligence

  130

  Dexterity

  33

  Charisma

  35

  Vitality

  31

  Luck

  20

  Points Remaining

  Earth 20%

  Fire 20%

  Wind 20%

  Water 20%

  Lightning 20%

  Light 20%

  Dark 20%

  Plant 20%

  Void 20%

  Metal 20%

  Magnetism 20%

  Plasma 20%

  Skills

  Mana Manipulation - Advanced Level 5: 1%

  Nature Magic - Intermediate Level 9: 49%

  Wild Luck - Basic Level 8: 33%

  Sketching - Basic Level 6: 60%

  Herbology - Novice Level 2: 1%

  Gathering - Beginner Level 9: 6%

  Alchemy - Novice Level 6: 13%

  Mana Signatures - Advanced Level 5: 12%

  Cooking - Basic Level 4: 10%

  Flight - Basic Level 1: 0%

  Aura Sight - Intermediate Level 3: 1%

  Technomancy - Intermediate Level 5: 89%

  Programming - Intermediate Level 4: 5%

  Enchanting - Basic Level 6: 30%

  Engineering - Novice Level 2: 18%

  Maintenance - Basic Level 9: 24%

  Dodge - Beginner Level 5: 24%

  Swordsmanship - Beginner Level 5: 29%

  Marksmanship - Basic Level 3: 59%

  Energy Weapons - Beginner Level 9: 42%

  Soul Arts - Basic Level 8: 34%

  Psychic Power: Toybox - Basic Level 8: 31%

  Piloting - Beginner Level 5: 3%

  Navigation - Beginner Level 2: 12%

  Weapons Systems - Basic Level 1: 13%

  Shield Systems - Basic Level 1: 0%

  Spatial Comprehension - Beginner Level 9: 12%

  Barrier Magic - Beginner Level 1: 10%

  Divination - Beginner Level 1: 15%

  Looks like it’s about time to start training a new affinity. I wonder if I can set up an elemental seed factory in the monster lab? If I could do that with runic circles, then I wouldn
’t have to worry so much about the increased difficulty in training. I decided that I’d look into that once we got settled onto this new planet.

  Chapter 33 - The Other Side

  After setting our mind on the new plan of action, I once again began practicing my Toybox power. There were still so many possibilities for this power, which I had never explored. By now, I was able to make a small portal that led to the Toy Chest that could fit my arm inside, without causing a headache. Of course, if I tried to do it too frequently, like make two of those portals in a row, I still get a mild pain.

  For my next trick, I wanted to see if there was another layer passed the Toy Chest. If forcing a portal open without an exit opened the Toy Chest, then what would happen if I did it again, inside the Toy Chest? As I was contemplating this, Celeste shot me a rather evil glare. “John, no more dangerous psychic tests unless you’re in a clone body.”

  … Okay, so she had a point. Discovering the Toy Hand power had knocked me out for a couple of days. Opening portals that led to fixed dimensions like the Toy Chest could potentially cause even more problems. “Noted… And I agree.” I gave a sigh as I got up and went to the medbay to sign into my clone.

  Let’s try this again! Another safety precaution, after getting into my clone, I sent my consciousness into my grove, and gathered a few ingredients. Using my handy dandy pill refining method, I created a batch of pills from the psychic stress relief formula. This would be much easier to use than a spell, if my head started to feel like it was about to explode.

  Now, with my batch of pills in my hand, and my clone body active, I started work on my experiments again. I opened a portal to the Toy Chest about two feet wide, and immediately tossed one of the pills into my mouth as I felt the headache starting to form. Immediately, it halted, and even began to settle down since I was not passing anything into the portal yet.

  For this, I actually wanted to do two experiments. The first, to see if mana would cause any strain when passing through the portals, and second to establish the second portal. Using my Mana Manipulation, without giving it any elements or spells, I sent my mana directly into the portal. To my surprise, there was not the typical pain of something passing through, at least not to the extent I had expected. It felt more like a warm breeze were passing through the portal.

  And, to be sure, I even ignited my mana on the other side by gathering the fire mana in the air and lighting it up. Sure enough, as long as the flames did not directly pass through the portals, I did not get a great shock. However, if I sent the command through my mana to create a spell effect like a barrier, then I felt a surge of pain that was barely suppressed by the pill I had previously taken.

  This should be an advantage for druids, since we can make use of the mana on the other side of the portal to attack. Most likely, the mana was treated as a formless, weak energy until commands were sent through that would let it do something. Then, those commands gave it substance, which triggered the headache.

  All in all, that was a pretty good success for the first experiment. Now, for the second one. Sitting down in front of the portal, I closed my eyes and rested until the last remnants of the headache from before were gone. I did not want to go into this at anything less than my best condition.

  Once my headache was gone, I opened my eyes, and focused on the portal. Gradually, it began to widen at a slow, but steady pace. I hadn’t truly taken a look inside the Toy Chest yet, and wanted to do so now that I was dedicating some time purely for my psionics training. For that matter, I had never actually stepped through one of my portals before, either… Though, thankfully this is only one portal, not a linked pair, or there would still be a considerable risk of danger.

  I had to stop twice while expanding the portal, to allow my head to recover before continuing on. But, after about ten minutes of slow, methodical work, I had a two meter portal into a nearly pitch black world sitting in front of me. “Come on… like pulling off a bandaid… but the injury is my brain, and the bandaid is my skull.” I hesitated a bit, before going for it.

  Eventually, I stepped inside the portal, feeling a much sharper pain, more like when I had forcefully used the Toy Hands power. I immediately popped another pill into my mouth, but the pain didn’t fade much at all. At this point, I was halfway through the portal, with one foot on either side. I had three options, and none of them were fun. I could either finish going through the portal, and let my headache intensify to the point of bleeding eyes. I could go back and have the same thing happen, or I could sit down on the portal itself and wait to take that last step.

  I chose option three. Having no desire to black out for a while again, I obediently planted my butt down on that portal and rested there. Every couple of minutes I would toss back another pill, until I was completely out nearly an hour later. By that point, the majority of the headache had passed, and I just took that last step into the Toy Chest. And then proceeded to lay flat on the floor while clutching my head and wishing I had made another batch of pills before taking that last step.

  Without the pills, the recovery took considerably longer, a total of three hours. When I was finally confident enough to open my eyes without wanting to gouge them out, I looked back and saw Yin, Sharon, and Celeste standing on the other side. The latter was explaining some things to Yin and Sharon, though I still couldn’t make out what yet. Most likely, how either of them coming in to ‘save’ me would just get me killed from the pressure. Well, at most I’d lose a level when I loaded up a new clone, but still it’d hurt like hell.

  About fifteen minutes later, I was able to process sound without my ears feeling like they were splitting open. “Alright, looks like he can chat now.” The Deus Ex dutifully reported to the two women, who each let out a sigh of relief.

  “John… You do realize that this is probably the most suicidal thing you’ve done so far, right?” Sharon glared at me and spoke, logically irritated by my going where no man had gone before, and collapsing into a mess of psychic pain in the process.

  However, I could only let out a weak laugh. “You weren’t there when I jumped into a giant snake’s mouth… or headbutted a bear to death…” The more I thought about it, the more I realized… I do accidentally suicidal decisions a lot!

  “It’s true… he did.” Yin said regrettably, shaking her head from side to side.

  “...Okay, let me try this again. Do you have a shred of self-preservation instinct?” Sharon asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Well.. I’m in a clone. That counts, right…?”

  “Barely.” She buried her face in her hand, shaking her head. Alright, I totally earned that facepalm. “But next time, try to realize you’re in over your head before Yin comes running for me to tell me that you are in trouble? If Celeste hadn’t beaten us here, we would have dived in after you to try to pull you out. And, according to her, that would have been a very bad decision.”

  Celeste nodded her head slightly. “Unless you want to risk the portal closing behind you and trapping you in an unknown dimension, possibly with unknown monsters.”

  I really hope there weren’t monsters in here. That would just be cruel. Then again, it would also make sense that this place wasn’t immune to monsters. “Had not thought about the monsters. I kinda don’t want to be in here alone anymore…”

  Sharon laughed wryly at that, smiling at me. “Well, let’s see if we can fix it. Once your head finishes clearing up, bring us into your grove. You should be able to do that just by sticking your hand through, right? No need to fully come out.”

  That… is a perfectly reasonable idea that I wish I had thought of first. There is no increase in mana from me if I have people in my grove. It was specifically stated that even three thousand years in the future, no technology existed that could see through a druid’s grove. Therefor, this ability should also not be able to tell if I had people in my grove.

  A short while later, after Sharon and Yin got in their own clones and my headache cleared up, I stuck my hand
outside the Toy Chest. The three girls all grabbed my hand, and I quickly wrapped my mana around them, bringing them into my grove. Although there was a considerable headache brewing from the surge of mana passing through the portal, it was nowhere near the level of when I personally stepped through.

  Before bringing them out of my grove, I went ahead and brewed another batch of psychic meds. Unfortunately, the headache proved to be rather distracting, and I failed to properly refine the first batch. The second one came out fairly well, though, and I popped one into my mouth when I retrieved them. Afterwards, I brought the girls out as well.

  Finally, I took a chance to look at my surroundings. This place was… empty was the only word I could come up with. There was no sky that I could see, no horizon. The only light was what flooded through the portal leading back to the ship. The ground, from what I could tell, was not even made of dirt. It was not metal, nor stone, nor any element I was familiar with.