World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  However, at that moment, I felt a sudden rush of time mana. At the same time, I heard a scream, both verbal and through time mana. When I looked down, she had completely changed her position, but was now clinging to Yin’s hand. “Don’t… don’t go.” She pleaded desperately.

  Yin seemed surprised, and almost pulled her hand back on reflex, but forced herself to calm down. “We’re not going anywhere…” She continued to speak calmly, apparently not sure what was going on herself. She cast me a look, but I just shook my head. Did she have a panic attack triggered by her sudden birth, or something?

  “Can you tell us your name?” I tried asking, and she looked over to me confused.

  “Name…? I...do I have one?” After I explained to her about the status window, in the hopes that she would have a name assigned to her like Kismet did, she furrowed her brows. “Stats… status… it’s… not working… d-did I do it wrong?” Her eyes had gone wide, and she seemed on the verge of panic again when Yin resumed petting her head to calm her down. Thankfully, she seemed particularly weak to petting.

  You’ve got to give her a name, man! How can the system recognize something that has never existed before if you don’t at least give it a name?

  I furrowed my brows, and tried to think of a name. I admit… I suck at naming. Just look at Yin, Yang, and Yo. “No, John. No more ‘Y’ names! Not allowed!” Celeste called out from my mind, but soon she also appeared in the lab.

  “Fine… well…” I began trying to think of a name-- “I’ll call you Tokemi!” And suddenly the scared fox girl was embraced by the Deus Ex, trying to squirm her way out of Celeste’s grip while sending desperate expressions towards us.

  However, a moment later her eyes went wide. “It… worked. Tokemi…” She gave a small smile, relaxing in Celeste’s grip as she seemed to read over the status window that suddenly appeared.

  “What does it say for your race?” I tried asking, sending a small glare to Celeste, who just stuck her tongue out in response.

  “It says… ‘Baishiro’... what does that mean?” She looked around, confused. Honestly, none of us knew either, even Celeste, apparently. I mean, it ‘sounded’ Japanese, but I wasn’t fluent in the language by any means, so I couldn’t be sure.

  However, Tokemi just kept looking at us, as if waiting for an answer. “It means adorable.” Yin spoke with a smile, which caused the newborn monster girl to light up in a wide grin. However, another rush of time mana came surging in, and suddenly she was out of Celeste’s arms, clinging to Yin’s leg while trembling.

  “That… is a problem…” I shivered as I realized exactly what was happening. For some reason, Tokemi was randomly pulling in large amounts of time mana into her body. This caused a time stop effect for her… and I knew all too well what that could do to a person. What made it worse was that I had no idea just how much she was stuck in time for at any given period.

  “Celeste…” I looked over to the Deus Ex, and she nodded. If this girl was experiencing random time freezes, that was a problem that needed to be handled. Of course… we also needed to handle the issue of the baishiro loli being naked. Celeste, can you start a program to set me to start gathering time mana when it condenses like that? At the very least… she won’t be alone, and I might be able to pull her out.

  Celeste nodded to me, but spoke into my head instead of verbally. “I need you to gather time mana on your own for a little bit so I can identify the variables.”

  Following her instructions, I focused all of my effort on pulling in time mana, waiting for Celeste to give me the okay to stop. I waited for nearly ten minutes in my own little bubble, though time still seemed to be moving on the outside, at a fairly slow pace.

  “That’s enough.” She told me mentally, and I stopped gathering the mana. Though, at the same time, I noticed that Tokemi was suddenly looking at me with wide eyes. Did she notice me pulling in the time mana? I asked myself, smiling to the girl and nodding. In response, she hid herself behind Yin’s legs shyly, barely peeking out to the side to watch me. Yin, having misunderstood the reaction, laughed lightly.

  Ahem… now, as sweet as this moment is, you never did give me an answer! Do you want to register the cute loli as your final submission or not?

  Huh? Ah… right, forgot about that. Looking down to Tokemi, and seeing that pleading look in her eyes, I can’t help but accept. Why would I want to keep making more monsters now? Now, I’m not a lolicon or anything, but we need to help her get adjusted to the world! Plus, since I’m the only one of us that can do time stuff, I’ve got to stick near her in case she gets one of her episodes.

  Yeah yeah. Anyways…

  You have completed your Quest!

  The Miracle of Life

  Rank ★★★★★★ Creation

  You did it! You created a completely unique monster, which has never appeared before in all of time and space! Now, originally the reward was based on the size of the monster... and a loli is pretty small. However, you created a sapient creature! The impact of that is much larger, so you get the maximum reward! Yay, you!

  Reward: Title, Large Favor with Malthan

  New Title Acquired!

  Creator of Baishiro

  Increased relationship with Baishiro race.

  You have created a new sapient species. As such, that species will always retain loyalty to you, even if others manage to create the same species.

  I looked at the windows, and almost dismissed them. However, then I looked at Tokemi, and frowned. I should get something to help make her more comfortable around me, at least.

  Malthan, about that favor… I think I’ve got an idea.

  Yeah? Speak up. Or, think up. One or the other..

  Can I get something that helps me absorb elemental mana types more easily?

  Hmm… I think I can swing something like that. Let me talk to a few gods I know and get back to you. It’s okay if the item isn’t a chatterbox, right?

  Huh? Yeah… I wouldn’t really want a talkative item. Already got one voice in my head that’s not mine.

  Sweet, hold please.

  I swear, I wasn’t annoyed until the elevator music began playing in my head. Thankfully, it only lasted about ten seconds before it was over.

  Alright! So, I worked out a deal with the others. However, due to the scope of the item, we’re not giving it intelligence, nor will this item ever be able to obtain intelligence, so get that idea out of your head right now! Now, I present to you the Staff of the Minor World. Cue fanfare.

  I did not need actual confetti to suddenly appear around me and fly into the air, shocking everyone in the room. That was totally unhelpful. However, the confetti then all froze in midair and swirled together in my hands to form a two meter long silver staff, with a jewel at the tip the size of my fist. This jewel seemed to radiate every color at once, and I could feel mana overflowing from within it. Not just one or two types, either… every element I could sense seemed to be coming from the gem.

  Staff of the Minor World

  This object was created as a collaborated effort by all of the elemental gods. If you melt it down for scrap, you will have their wrath to deal with. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

  Special effect: Elemental mana source(All)

  Celeste suddenly turned to look at me, her jaw dropping slightly as she saw the information of the staff through my eyes. “You cheat character!” She called out in mock rage, while Yin and Tokemi looked on in confusion.

  Chapter 70 - The Fluffiest Fluff

  I glanced at the staff, getting a feel for the amount of mana it generated. As expected, it was pretty sweet, but I’d worry more about it later. For now, I put it in my inventory and reached down for Tokemi. “Let’s get back to the ship, alright? Then we can work on helping you.”

  The loli looked at me, and at my offered hand, before slowly removing herself from Yin and moving towards me. Once she was next to me, she grabbed onto my hand and seemed to refuse to ever let go. I could only smile at
that and shake my head, before tapping my comm with my other hand. “Ariadne, this is John. Beam up all lifeforms at my location.” I made sure to specify, since Tokemi hadn’t been recognized as part of the crew by the others yet, and I didn’t want to have her left down here.

  Celeste, as soon as you get that program done, I want it on a soft stick. No time to waste here. The Deus Ex nodded as bright lights surrounded us. The engineer on duty in the teleport bay, a very feminine looking male elf, nodded to us as we appeared, but made a surprised expression when his eyes fell on Tokemi beside me.

  “Captain, that is?” He asked curiously, likely not understanding where the girl could have come from.

  “I’ll explain later.” I shook my head, since there were more important things. Again I tapped my comms. “Sharon, meet me in our room as soon as possible. We’ve got an issue.” As I spoke, we left the teleport bay, and each went our separate ways. Celeste went back towards her room so that she could work on the program, and Yin moved towards the cargo bay, likely to resume watching over Yang.

  After that, we headed towards the medbay, so that I could get out of my clone and into my real body. Naturally, I removed my new staff from my inventory first, and placed it on the lap of my real body. Tokemi seemed confused how there were two of me, but after I gathered time mana in my hand, she believed that it was still me and seemed to relax. Well, until Tessa’s mom suddenly sat up with a gasp not far from me. Likely, she had just been killed in a dungeon.

  Surprised by the reaction, Tokemi shivered, and seemed to teleport behind me. Time mana surged in the area briefly, and as she appeared behind me I noticed that the rest of the room had slowed down to a great degree. However, that lasted for only a moment before time began flowing like normal again.

  Looking over at me, Beth chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry about that. Hey, who’s that..?” She asked as she looked at the baishiro girl behind me.

  With a sigh, I repeated the same answer I had given the engineer before, and hurried off to my room. With the staff in one hand, and Tokemi in the other, we quickly arrived to find Sharon nervously waiting just inside the door.

  “John, what happened, did something go wrong, is Yin okay? Wait, why is there a naked fluffy loli hiding behind you?” Sharon’s worried questions slowly faded off as she also noticed Tokemi’s existence. Though, her energetic personality seemed to have startled the girl into hiding behind me again. “It’s okay, I’m the cool mom.” Sharon smiled widely to Tokemi before I had the chance to answer her, kneeling down to look at the little girl.

  “She’s… the result of my quest. Tokemi… say hello.” I tried to nudge her forward, but she shook her head desperately, clinging to the leg of my pants.

  Naturally, this caused Sharon to pout. However, she quickly thought of something. “Well, why are you letting this little cutie walk around naked, John? Come on, come on, let me show you some magic~.” She waved us in, though the white fox girl still clung to me for safety.

  Once we were inside, I got to see Sharon’s tailoring skills in action for the first time. “Let’s see.. I’ve got just the thing for you.” She waved her hands forward, and a white light shined from her chest. The light formed into a thin thread, which stretched out and danced in the air. Under Sharon’s control, the thread turned in on itself and began weaving a pattern. Then, a second white thread joined in, and a third.

  Tokemi watched, her fearful gaze slowly turning into one of awe as she watched the threads dance and spin in the air. Even if she did not understand what was happening, she could appreciate how nice it looked. But slowly, the strands of white came together to form a full shape, that of a short dress, sized specifically for the baishiro girl.

  Although it was not very extravagant, it was enough to impress her. So, when Sharon grabbed the dress from the air and offered it up to Tokemi, the girl was only too happy to accept it. Though… she didn’t seem to know what to do next and just hugged the dress to her chest. “So soft…”

  Sharon giggled, reaching down and petting Tokemi’s silver hair. “It’s called a dress. You’re supposed to wear it. Would you like some help putting it on?” Tokemi looked up as Sharon spoke, relaxing into her hand. After a minute, she nodded her head slightly.

  Sharon smiled, helping Tokemi into the dress. There was even a convenient hole in the back just big enough for her to fit her tail through. When they were done, Tokemi hugged her chest with her hands and made a soft sigh. “Thanks… mom?”

  The other girl seemed to freeze up slightly at that, before a goofy grin spread on her face. “Oh, you’re so cute!” She said, reaching down and wrapping her arms around Tokemi. However, this sudden action startled Tokemi again, and she vanished as a rush of time mana flooded into the room. The next thing I knew, she was trembling on the floor, crying into my pants leg. Sharon, surprised by the action, turned and leveled a hard glare at me. “Explain, now.”

  I couldn’t help but gulp slightly, not having expected Sharon to have such a strong reaction to Tokemi. “Like I said… she’s the result of my quest. Her race is known as Baishiro, and from what I can tell… she gathers time mana like a vacuum. You… know what that means.”

  Sharon nodded slowly, though kept her glare on me. “You better have a way to fix this.”

  As if waiting for that moment, there was a knock on the door. “It’s me.” Celeste called out from the other side. “Is now a good time?”

  I called her in, gently picking Tokemi up and holding her to my chest. Although she was reluctant to let go of my leg, she latched on to my chest as soon as I was holding her.

  “Celeste, what’s going on?” Sharon looked at the Deus Ex, having none of her usual playfulness.

  “John wanted me to write a program for him, so that he could help Tokemi with her ‘issue’.” As she answered, she walked over towards me and handed me one of the familiar soft sticks. I wasted no time in downloading the program and applying it to myself with my Technomancy.

  New Program Installed

  Time Sync

  This program is constantly active, and cannot be turned off without entirely deleting it. At any point, if time mana levels spike in the vicinity of the owner of this program, they will begin actively drawing that mana in at their greatest speed, or until the flow of time mana ceases to exceed normal limits. When time mana becomes more scarce, they will stop absorbing time mana.

  I nodded as I read the window describing the program, handing the soft stick back to her, instead using my hand to gently pet Tokemi’s back. She seemed to relax slightly at the touch. Sharon, seeing this, just let out a sigh. “Okay, let’s try this again. To make sure I understand, the ‘new species’ you created for your quest became a fox loli with time hiccups and unbelievably soft hair. I got it right so far?”

  When I nodded my head to her, she continued. “And to top it off, these time hiccups happen any time she is even remotely surprised. I’m guessing you don’t know how long they last, either. For her, I mean. Dammit, John, she could have spent a week latched to your leg just now… Now I feel terrible.” She sat down on the bed next to me with another sigh.

  To my surprise, one of the hands that were latched onto my shirt let go, and instead slowly reached over to grab Sharon’s. Evidently, I wasn’t the only one surprised by that, as Sharon herself turned towards Tokemi. A small smile appeared on her face and she reached over to hold Tokemi’s hand. “Don’t worry, munchkin, I’m not upset at you. Mom was just being a big idiot.”

  Tokemi sniffled slightly, but nodded her head. “Sorry…”

  “Ohh… you’ve got nothing to be sorry for.” Sharon’s smile became a bit wider as she talked with the little fox girl. “You’re the most adorable thing on this whole ship, and I’m happy to have you here.” She reached over to give Tokemi a hug, though more slowly this time. Unlike before, the loli did not shy away from it, and even used the arm that wasn’t holding me to return Sharon’s embrace. “Hey, you like soft things too, right?” She asked Tokemi, whos
e eyes widened while she nodded her head.

  “Yeah…”

  “Alright, then watch this.” Sharon winked, moving away to get out of the hug and stepped up off the bed. Soon, her body began glowing white, before her body was covered in white fur. Rabbit ears appeared at the top of her head, and a bushy tail appeared behind her. “Now I’m super soft~.”

  Tokemi, watching this, had her eyes opened wide, practically sparkling as she saw Sharon turn into an anthropomorphic rabbit girl. Her other hand let go of my back, and she slowly climbed down to the floor, before walking over towards Sharon. Hesitantly, she reached out and stroked a hand along one of Sharon’s offered arms. “Waa…. so soft….” Soon, she was latched onto that arm, rubbing her cheek against it with a content smile.