Game Start
Author: Justin Miller
Date: 2016-08-03 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Science Fiction; Magic; Role Playing Games
Description: The year is 2245, and the world has undergone explosive growth in multiple industries. The age of Virtual Reality came long ago, opening up new fields for people to enjoy and seek employment. There were even those that chose to sacrifice their physical bodies, becoming digital existences that lived within internet communities. But with the age of VR, everyone still dreamed of that next step, the next level of adventure. And after a hundred years, it has finally arrived. The first consoles, known as Seeds, mass distributed among the people, with such realism that they no longer qualified as a V

World Seed

By Justin Miller

Copyright Justin Miller

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 22

Chapter 1

Chapter 23

Chapter 2

Chapter 24

Chapter 3

Chapter 25

Chapter 4

Chapter 26

Chapter 5

Chapter 27

Chapter 6

Chapter 28

Chapter 7

Chapter 29

Chapter 8

Chapter 30

Chapter 9

Chapter 31

Chapter 10

Chapter 32

Chapter 11

Chapter 33

Chapter 12

Chapter 34

Chapter 13

Chapter 35

Chapter 14

Chapter 36

Chapter 15

Chapter 37

Chapter 16

Chapter 38

Chapter 17

Chapter 39

Chapter 18

Chapter 40

Chapter 19

Chapter 41

Chapter 20

Chapter 42

Chapter 21

Chapter 43

Chapter 0: Prologue

So, where do I begin? I guess I can start with who I am, that’s always a nice way to begin things. My name is John Hulett, just turned twenty and am what many have decided to refer to as a NEET. Unfortunately, this does not mean that I am an excessively clean person, but rather that I am unemployed. A few years back, my parents decided to virtualize themselves, opting out of their physical lives to join the net communities. Legally, that leaves all of their assets to me as their next of kin. I mean, you can’t drive a car if you don’t have a body anymore, right?

Oh, some of you may be wondering what I mean by virtualizing? Well, lately it’s become quite a trend, though the technology for it has existed for decades. Originally, it began during the onset of the VR age, when someone discovered that they were trapped in one of their video games. That discovery seemed to fuel scientific curiosity, until they discovered how to replicate and control such effects. Once it was completed, people were allowed to transfer their minds into an online world similar to a life simulator game.

But just having that was boring, so people began making connections to allow the online communities to connect to others, or even connect to popular games. For a while, there was talk of forcing people to work in games to pay the server maintenance for their communities, but eventually it was just decided to apply a special tax that slightly limited what they received compared to others. After all, they are essentially immortal now.

At first, everyone was scared of this technology, because they saw it more as a death sentence than eternal life. So, it was offered to terminally ill patients as a means to ‘beta test’ it, with overwhelmingly positive results. Soon, the families and friends of the initial testers were all signing up, and it just shot off from there. Nowadays, it is suspected that there are more people in the online communities than in the real world, but nobody has bothered to conduct an exact test.

But I got sidetracked. After my parents virtualized themselves, I was left with all of their worldly goods. And, I won’t be humble, they were pretty well off. While they still have access to their bank accounts, everything from their home to cars was transferred to me. Normally, this still wouldn’t be enough for me to live a carefree life thanks to expenses such as bills and groceries. After all, why should I expect them to pay for services they don’t even need anymore?

As such, I turned my attention to the fastest rising industry around, online gaming. Yup, it was actually a common job for people to play online and sell various items to earn a living. After all, what would the online communities need, since they don’t require food, water, or electricity? They simply need people that will share the items that they have trouble getting on their own.

That plan worked for quite a while, actually. I was able to pay my bills and support myself, but recently that hasn’t been enough. With more and more people going for the same job, the demand has diminished, and so has my pay. Right now, I’ve probably got enough saved up for maybe six months before I have to look into other ways to earn money. Which brings me to what I’m doing now, watching people unload a giant silver casket in my bedroom and plug it in.

Yes… a giant silver casket. The first VR devices actually looked quite similar to this, but nowadays they have been simplified to a small helmet you can wear while you lay down. This device is one of the beta versions of the next generation of hardware, known as Seeds. According to Manifest Industries, one of the leading developers for online games, the Seeds go above and beyond the limitations of Virtual Reality, augmenting the experience to include 100% realism. If their advertisements hold true, these devices(and the initial game released for them) will function so well that it will even simulate the results of your activities on your physical body.

Of course, this isn’t always the case, or else players would die the first time they died in a game, but it does allow them to exercise in the game by playing normally. The main point for me, however, is that this is a new realm for video games, and thus a new market. After spending roughly half my savings, three month’s worth of expenses, I was able to reserve one of the first Seeds.

This is my gamble, my hope to earn enough to keep the lights on. If all else fails, I’ll just virtualize like my parents. They’ve already assured me that they would cover the costs to do so if I ever wanted to join them.

“Alright, Mr. Hulett.” The technician walked up to me with his electronic clipboard. “Everything is hooked up and ready to go. If I can just get your signature here.”

I nodded to the man, taking the clipboard from him and signing it before handing it back. “Thanks… And it comes with the game pre-installed, right?” I had to ask, since it would suck royally if I had to go and buy the game separately.

“That’s right, sir. After ten o’clock tonight, the servers should open up to the net community, and those with a Seed like yours.” After he said that, I glanced to the clock, and saw that I still had about four hours left until then.

“Alright, guess I’ve got a bit to get ready.” I thanked him again and let him out, before going about my nightly routine to take care of my physical needs. The Seeds promised to be capable of feeding the user, and even disposing of waste, but that doesn’t mean I felt comfortable trusting it with such yet. This was a new technology, after all, and still only in the beta stages.

So, an hour and a half later I was back in front of the Seed, staring at the device which looked all too much like a coffin. With a sigh of resignation, I opened it up and laid down inside. The interior was actually fairly comfortable, designed to have the user lay down on a padding that felt almost like a bed. The only unusual part was the mask I had to wear over my mouth, but even that was easy to adapt to. With a thought, the Seed activated itself, triggered by my brainwaves.

Welcome to the Seed. As you are a new user, do you wish to be registered as the owner of this device?

Yes.

No.

Yes. I thought to the machine, which began emitting a high pitched noise for a moment in response to my answer.

User registered: John Verity Hulett

Yes… my middle name is Verity, get over it…

The servers for Neo Life are not yet online. Do you wish to go through the character creation process?

Yes.

No.

Yes.. I thought again with a sigh, and that’s when the world seemed to turn upside down. First, there was a bright flash of light, and then I was no longer lying down in my Seed, but rather standing in an empty world. It took me a moment to realize that I had been logged in already, but that thought was drowned out the moment I heard a giggling from somewhere behind me.

Whipping my head around, I saw a woman not far away, wearing a flowing blue robe, with similarly colored hair and eyes. Her proportions were a near perfect hourglass, and she was smirking mischievously at me. It took several long moments before I realized why I was getting that look, as my eyes slowly moved down to look at my own body. Given how it was advertised, I naturally thought it was expected to go into the capsule naked. However, I was now regretting my decision as my attire(or lack thereof), was transferred to this empty world.

“Can we just agree to pretend that this part never happened?” I asked in a somewhat hopeful voice, to which she smirked wider, shaking her head. These days, self aware NPCs like this were fairly common, and in all rights were treated as any other member of the online communities. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when this one displayed such a behavior. “Okay… then can I please get something to wear, miss? There’s a bit of a draft.”

She held her stomach, laughing at that, while at the same time a simple outfit formed around me. A thin white shirt, brown cloth pants, and a rope belt holding it in place. No doubt the starter outfit for Neo Life, depending on the chosen race. “Sorry… Just can’t believe so many people went and did that.”

Well, at least it wasn’t just me, then… .

“Okay… so… character creation?” I asked hopefully, wanting to immediately change the topic away from my previous nudity.

The AI immediately assumed a business-like pose, nodding her head seriously. “Right. So, welcome to the character creation servers of Neo Life. The first Artificial Reality gaming experience. My name is Aria, one of the AIs in charge of the game, and a local deity. I’ll be assisting you throughout your tutorial. If you choose to follow my teachings once present in the game world, I will continue to assist you as possible. Otherwise, it will be the task of one of the other local deities to do so.”

“Right… let me guess, a ton of different gods and goddesses, one for each aspect of the game?” I asked, and she nodded her head with a smile. “And guessing you don’t really choose us, we just ‘choose’ you based on what kind of character we develop?” Another question, another smiling nod. “Alright, then I’ll just worry about that stuff later. Mind helping me out with races for now?”

“As you wish. Are there any special requirements you have for your desired race, or shall I list all available options?”

“Hmm… well, let’s keep it humanoid. Since I’m not virtualized, I don’t want to have to keep switching between two and four legs.” I answered with a nod. “Also, eliminate any races incapable of using magic. This is a fantasy game, after all. It would suck if I didn’t have access to magic.”

As my first prerequisite was listed, a list of several dozen races appeared in front of me. With my second requirement, that list was further narrowed as races such as Clockwork, Android, and other artificial life forms were removed. Right, I said that this was a fantasy game, but really it’s fantasy-scifi. Imagine it as one of those old fantasy games, but fast forward it enough that they have space ships, beam sabers, and teleport pods. Of course, most of these things run on mana, but it is still a vast game.

Looking through the remaining list, I instantly dismissed Human. I spent enough time as a human already, I wanted something new. Though, not THAT new, since I wasn’t going to play a dwarf. In the end, I eliminated all but the various elven races. Even here, there were seven different elf races to choose from. Highlighting them, I asked Aria for a comparison between their differences.

Woodland Elf

These elves have long since grown attached to their woods. Even those among this race that take to the stars will always prefer to remain in an environment similar to that which they were raised.

+10% All stats when in a ‘Forest’ environment.

+20% Growth rate with Nature Magic skills and Huntsman class skills.

High Elf

Elves which have grown in the presence of others, perhaps these are the closest to humans, aside from the half-blooded kin. Whether they have taken to the stars, or remained on the planet below, they always seek to mingle with others.

+10% All stats when in an ‘Urban’ environment.

+10% Growth rate with Diplomatic skills or Mage class skills.

Dark Elf

Elves which have grown in the underground, at first they were believed to be an evil existence, but that prejudice has long since passed. Although they are not often seen among the other races, they are as willing to play their part as any others.

+5% All stats when in a dark environment.

Racial Darkvision

+10% Growth rate with Shadow Magic skills and Thief class skills.

Stellar Elf

While many races of elves evolved on inhabited worlds, the Stellar elves are those who have spent so much time among the stars that they have evolved to be more suited to living in space ships and stations, or even asteroid colonies.

+20% Growth rate in all space-related skills.

Void Elf

Further evolved from the Stellar elves, these creatures have again evolved in order to survive in the vaccuum of space. Some Void Elves are even capable of harnessing the natural energies present in the vaccuum of space to aid them in their endeavors.

Ability to breathe and fly in outer space without the need of external devices.

+15% Growth rate in Stellar Magic.

Core Elf

While others sought the stars, these elves chose to remain behind, fully adapting to planetary life. It is rare indeed to see a Core Elf leaving their planet, and many who do find additional hardships await them.

+10% All stats on home planet.

-10% All stats away from home planet.

+10% Growth rate in all homeworld skills.

Half-Elf

It is not at all uncommon for love to blossom between people of different races, especially given the genetic adaptability of humans which enables them to couple with most any race. As such, this race is the result of a joining between an Elf and a Human. After selecting this race, it is necessary to choose the race of elf which sired the user.

Half of elf racial bonuses/penalties for selected elf race.

+5% Growth rate with new skills.

I spent a good ten minutes looking over the seven listed races, much to the dismay of the AI goddess in front of me. In the end, I selected the Half-Elf race, with a Woodland Elf heritage. After selecting that, I could feel my body shifting. “Finally, now, onto the next step. Your starting stats will be built on your existing body, and can be increased through the tutorial.”

Looking down to myself, I saw that not much had really changed, aside from my body becoming more streamlined. My hair grew out several inches, turning a light brown color, and although I couldn’t see my eyes, I knew they had changed into a dark green. I still kept the little bit of a belly I had previously acquired from my extended career of playing video games, but with any luck I could work that off fairly easily.

“Now, would you like to begin the tutorial?” Aria asked me with an innocent smile. How can you not trust that smile?!

Chapter 1: The Trials

“Alright, let’s get started on the tutorial.” I said, nodding my head to the AI. In response, the world once more shifted drastically.

Assessing base stats…

Base stats established. Beginning Trial of Strength.

As the second window faded away, I was left standing in what looked like a modern gym. There were various weightlifting devices nearby, and just as I was deciding what to do, I heard Aria speaking up, despite her not being visibly present in this instanced area.

“You may test and train your starting Strength stat in this enclosure. The harder you push yourself, the more you will be rewarded. While in the tutorial, you will be able to train your stats faster than in the game itself. However, the longer you spend in the tutorial, the further ahead everyone will be once you begin. Presently, there are 11.5 hours remaining, due to the time compression, before the game servers open.”

I gulp a bit hearing that number. That should be a 5:1 ratio, if I’m not mistaken. Curious, I decided to ask while I had her attention(not knowing whether she was going to keep watching the entire time), “How many trials are there?”

“There are trials for Strength, Agility, Wisdom, Magic, and Combat. You may spend as long as you want in each trial.”

I nodded my head, and got to work. The character I wanted to build didn’t need to be too heavily focused on strength, but it needed enough to be able to hold its own. As such, I did something I haven’t done seriously in many years. I worked out. In one corner of the room, there was a thin metallic bar leaning against the wall. Recognizing it, I went over and picked it up, choosing to use this as my workout tool.

This is a Grav-Bar, a device capable of altering its own weight by manipulating how gravity impacts it. Using it, I gradually increased the weight until I had trouble lifting it, and then began my workout. Last time I bothered to check, I could bench press eighty pounds. I’ve never really had that much strength in my arms, honestly. But now, I needed at least basic strength, seeing as I’d be fighting in a fantasy-like world.

Gradually, I felt as my virtual body grew stronger and stronger, having to increase the weight on the Grav-Bar several times. At the end of the first hour, I was able to repeatedly bench press 100 pounds. Thankfully, it seemed as though I wouldn’t get exhausted in these trials, because I didn’t have to take any breaks before I finished. “Okay, Aria, I’m ready for the next trial.”

Final Strength evaluated at 10.

Really… that just doesn’t inspire confidence. I shook my head at the prompt, before I found myself standing on a wide log, with a series of other logs propped up on their end around me.

Welcome to the Trial of Agility.

“So… this time I’m supposed to jump around like a monkey, and not fall off?” I asked the disembodied AI voice, who responded back with a simple yes. Having my answer, I shrug, and begin casually walking between the logs close enough to walk between. That lasts for about five logs, before they start gradually growing further and further apart as I move away from the starting area. Soon, I’m forced to make small jumps to get to the next log, and have to be careful.

On my twentieth or so log, I completely miss the jump, slamming face first into the side of the log I was aiming for, slowly sliding down it while I feel the bark scratching up my face. I’ll tell you now, it did not feel pleasant. And as soon as I had hit the bottom, I found myself standing back on that first log in the center of the field.

With a sigh, I once more began to walk and hop through the logs, noticing that it was just a bit easier this time. Unlike strength, the build I wanted focused heavily on agility, so I had to stay here quite a while until I was able to reliably do these. As such, it wasn’t until three hours later when I finished this trial, satisfied with being able to casually leap between logs just over two meters apart, and cover some a bit further with difficulty. By this time, however, my fave was feeling very sore from all the failures.

Final Agility evaluated at 12.

Really? That’s only a 12? I was hoping for at least a 15… I shook my head again at that message before waiting for the scene to shift again. This time, when I arrived at my next trial, I found myself sitting down at a small table in a well lit room. In front of me was an eight by eight chess board, though nobody was sitting at the opposite side.

“Don’t worry, still here.” Aria spoke up as the first pawn moved on the other side of the table. “We’re just going to do this for a while, until I beat you enough that you’re satisfied.” There was an obviously mischievous grin in her voice as she said that, and it only made me more determined to win!

… Two hours later, and fifty seven losses, with no wins… I was hanging my head in shame while the AI kept laughing merrily. “Just… just get on with it…” I said, knowing I truly would never be able to beat this AI. It was like playing against a dozen different grandmasters all discussing strategy behind your back.

Final Wisdom evaluated at 11.

Welcome to the Trial of Magic.

I didn’t even have the presence of mind to pay attention to this latest window, still reeling from my defeat. By the time I noticed what was going on, I was standing in a wide room, surrounded on all sides by a circle of pedestals. Atop each pedestal was a single book, though there was also one inside the circle with me. Looking at the closest book, I found it to be a book detailing the basics of mana control. “You can learn from any two of these books, not counting the Mana Manipulation book before you. After you have acquired the skills, you may spend as long as you like practicing them.”

I let out a final sigh, and opened the book, reading through it. There was a strange sense of energy around my, like static over a television, and it only grew stronger as I got further along in the book. Around halfway done, I was able to identify this new feeling as mana, the key component to any and all magic in the world. The book also taught me how to pull the mana into my body, which I began doing slowly.

New Skill Acquired!

Mana Manipulation – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0.0%

This skill enables the user to sense the mana around him, and draw it into his body. Higher levels will allow for more complex manipulations.

Seeing that I had properly learned the first skill, I set it down on its pedestal, and walked around to take a look at the books around me. Each one seemed to cover a different field of magic, from nature, ice, fire, water, shadow, even more sci-fi ones like technomancy or stellar magic. Knowing that I could only choose two of them, I grabbed the one I thought most helpful to me, given my race, Nature Magic.

Opening the book, I was relieved to find that Nature Magic encompassed both plants and animals, as I was afraid I’d need to hunt through more books to find the latter. Quickly reading through the book, I memorized the basic spell taught within it, Nature’s Grasp. Strangely, I did not receive any prompts after finishing the book, so I set it down and began practicing.

Placing both hands in front of me, I gathered my mana between them. Since I was by every definition a beginner, I opted to use the chant provided for the spell. According to the books, once I gained enough skill that would no longer be necessary, but for now it was a price I had to pay. “Mother of all things, that which rules the land, come forth to my call and seal their movements.”

With each word, I caused the mana between my hands to spiral and contract, absorbing my intention before I slammed it into the ground. A moment later, a few thin vines began rising up from the ground around me, though they did not seem very energetic about it.

New Skill Acquired!

Nature Magic – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0.0%

This skill enables one to match their mana with that of the world around them, granting them power of plant and beast alike.

Current Spells Known

Nature’s Grasp

My smile grew three shades brighter that day, as I had managed to cast my first spell! Next, I began looking around for the other schools of magic, and ultimately decided on Wind Magic, because I felt it was a good match for my build. Reading through the book, I then practiced the spell, which was a simple gust of wind. No doubt the GMs did not want people to have strong combat spells at the beginning of the game that could make them overpowered.

New Skill Acquired!

Wind Magic – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0.0%

This skill enables the user to match their mana to that of the winds, controlling them with their magic.

Current Spells Known

Gust

With this, there was simply one trial left, but I had plenty of time, so I stayed in the Trial of Magic while practicing all three of my new skills until they hit Beginner Level 2. Not that there was any noticeable change between them, but I felt like I should do it.

“Alright Aria, time for the last trial..”

“That’s right, John! One more stop, then we can get you into the world of Neo Life.” She seemed a bit more energetic than before as she said this, likely looking forward to being rid of me after spending half a day together.

Welcome to the Trial of Combat.

Looking around, I saw a weapons rack with various weapons to choose from. There were bows, swords, even a few rifles alongside the daggers and shields. “Choose wisely, young adventurer.”

I looked at the various options, but ultimately I grabbed a bow, a single quiver of arrows, and a dagger. I’d have to come up with some way to overcome the ammunition cost of the bow, but that was for the future. Once I had selected my weapons, I was brought to a shooting range. “Can’t exactly ask you to fight a monster before you even know how to fire your bow, can I?” She asked with a slight snicker.

I’ll show you! I thought in my mind as I nocked an arrow, pulling the bow back to full length, and letting it fly straight for the target!

Yeah, if only life was so nice… The arrow barely made it halfway before swerving off course and falling to the ground. I grimaced, grabbing a second arrow and shooting again… and again… finally, on my tenth arrow, I managed to hit the outer edge of the target twenty meters away.

New Skill Acquired!

Archery – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0.0%

This skill enables the user to display their mastery(or lack thereof) of the bow, striking down enemies from afar(or not so far)!

With a slight grumble, I continued firing the bow again and again, until I was consistently able to hit the target. I only hit the bullseye once, but it was enough to level up my Archery to level 2. And with my acceptance of the skill, I was brought to yet another area. This one looked like an old roman arena, a wide patch of sand with stone walls atop which a cheering audience sits. And in the seat of Caesar, was everyone’s favorite blue-haired goddess, Aria.

I knew by the mischievous grin that she was going to thoroughly humiliate me. “Ladies and gentlefolks, I bring to you our newest competitor, Anonymous784! And his opponent… the three time undefeated champion…” As she spoke, I facepalmed at her generic name for me, while at the same time the massive gates on the other end gradually opened up, and a loud roar was emitted from within.

“Common rat mob!” Wait what?

As she called for it, the small rat walked out of the oversized gate, looking up to me and twitching its nose almost cutely. “Let the games begin!”

Chapter 2: A rose by any other name

Suddenly, as if her words had triggered some kind of rage mode, the small rat lunged at me, its eyes glowing red. Unable to react in time, I barely got half a step back before it was on my leg, and had managed to tear off a chunk of flesh.

You have successfully become dinner

-20 HP

With that one bite, I watched as roughly a quarter of my health bar vanished, causing me to panic. Grabbing my dagger, I attempted to slash wildly at the rat, only to have it jump off before I could connect.

That was not the rat.

-10 HP

Fuck that hurts! I actually managed to stab myself by accident?! At this point, a third of my life was already gone, so I just began swinging wildly. Best case scenario, I’ll hit the rat. Worst case… well, at this rate I’m going to die anyways. Seriously, why the hell is a rat so strong?!

You missed– wait, what? How did you do that?!

30 Damage Dealt

I blinked at the notification, looking over where I had blindly swung my dagger, only to see it covered in blood, the throat of the creature having been cut. Naturally, that didn’t mean I won just yet, but I definitely pissed it off! With its throat cut, it was taking constant bleed damage, as well as moving much slower than before. Seeing this as my chance, I charged at the rodent and resumed my wild swinging!

Now you’re just showing off.

20 Damage Dealt. Common Rat Mob died.

Almost refusing to believe that I had actually managed to do that, I took a look and did indeed see that formerly vicious rat lying dead on the ground, before its body shattered into blue light, fading away from view.

New Skill Acquired!

Dagger Mastery – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%

This skill marks your ability to wield a dagger, and actually hit what you aim at. Good luck with that.

New Skill Acquired!

Wild Luck – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%

For those that can’t depend on skill to hit the target, they can always count on their luck!

You have completed the Trial of Combat, against all odds.

Level +1, Strength +2, Agility +1, Luck +4

Looking over, I caught a glimpse of Aria, who seemed to be pouting over the loss of the rat. Or over my victory. I’m not really sure. Either way, it didn’t take long before she stood up with a wicked grin, looking towards the false crowd. “Well, there you have it folks, a new champion! Now, shall we move on to his next challenger?!” There were cheers from all around the stands while I inwardly pleaded for this to stop.

“Next up, from the home team, the biggest bad that ever graced our halls, the bull of Cernea!” As she spoke, the gate opened yet again, and this time the loud footsteps could not be mistaken for anything else. The giant frame of the gate barely even allowed the figure to get through, and when it did I wished to anything that I could surrender.

What stood before me could only be described as a minotaur. Half man, half bull, standing over four meters tall with an overly muscular build, wearing naught but a loincloth, and carrying a massive axe that no smaller creature would dare to wield.

Welcome to the Trial of Combat, Second Stage.

I’ll admit, I cried there for a moment, before that massive axe brought itself down onto me, slicing me in half before I even got the chance to feel anything.

You have died.

Exp -25% to level, dropped below requirements for Level 2. Level reduced to 1.

How was that fair?! Going from a bloodthirsty rat to a minotaur?! I began cursing my own luck before the next window appeared.

You have failed the Trial of Strength, Second Stage. No rewards will be given.

I wanted to rage at Aria for so obviously rigging the match against me, but my whole virtual body suddenly froze.

Time until servers open: 1 hr, 20 min, 23 sec.

Don’t tell me I have to wait here for over an hour like this… I started to complain again, even if only in my own thoughts, before the clock suddenly fast forwarded.

Time until servers open: 0 hr, 40 min, 52 sec.

Time until servers open: 0 hr, 15 min, 0 sec.

Time until servers open: 0 hr, 0 min, 3 sec.

Servers are now open!

With that last window appearing, I suddenly found myself standing in a forest, and around me were various wooden buildings, which seemed to be naturally shaped from the trees themselves. Even the fountain behind me was seemingly carved out of a single solid stone. Naturally, the first thing I did when I landed in the game was what I do in every game.

Character Information.

Name

N/A

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

N/A

Fame

0

Level 1

75.00%

Class

Novice

Health

90/90

Health Regen

0.15

Mana

130/130

Mana Regen

0.03

Strength

12

Wisdom

11

Agility

13

Intelligence

13

Dexterity

14

Charisma

9

Vitality

9

Luck

14

No name? Do I have to choose that later? Or is it assigned to me… I shook my head in confusion, but my question was soon answered as an elderly man approached me. And when I say elderly, that’s by elven standards. He was pretty much the only person in the entire area that showed signs of aging past twenty!

“Greetings, traveler. I am elder Bamu Silverleaf, and I welcome you to our tribe.” He offers a polite bow after speaking. His robes appear as a natural shade of green, while he carries a gnarled wood staff at his side. “May I ask the name of this traveler?”

There we go… I nodded in response to him. “My name is… Falenel Swiftfoot.”

“Then, welcome again, Falenel, to the village of Greenbrooke. May you find what your heart yearns for.” After giving the simple introduction, he turns and walks off, apparently being here merely to greet new players and ask their name. Why they couldn’t do that in the character creation, I’ve not a clue.

Name has been registered as Falenel. Note, house names are not available until Level 15.

And that explains why he only responded to my first name. Now… quests, quests, quests. Aha! Quests! Nearby, I saw what appeared to be a large wooden wall, with various overgrown leaves stuck to its side. On each leaf is a quest, from slaying mobs, to carting items, or even advertising for the local guilds. Thinking it over, and remembering my horrendous experience with the rat during the tutorial, I decided to first visit the Hunter’s Guild, in hopes of learning how to better use my weapons and not get eaten.

Studying the directions given on the leaflet, I suddenly had a sense of knowing where I was going. Yay mentally suggestive mini-maps! Now it’d still be better if I had a visual map to go by, but beggars can’t be choosers. So, making my way through the city, it takes me only a few moments to come across my destination. Like everywhere else in this city, the building is made entirely from twisted trees. Though in this case there is also a large archery field next to it.

Walking up to the instructor, I took note of her appearance, because damn she was a looker. Please don’t be a sadistic teacher, please don’t be a sadistic teacher…. With long silver hair, wearing a light green shirt and pants that hugged her exquisite curves, it was hard to tell if she was trying to hunt down beasts or men.

When she looked at me, I kept my vain hopes that she would be a nice teacher… and train me without unnecessary pain… And then she opened her mouth. “What are you looking at, balls for brains?”

Seeing her rather obvious sneer, I cleared my throat. “My apologies. My name is Falenel, and I was hoping that you could teach me how to make use of my bow?” I asked, holding up the bow I had kept from the tutorial to demonstrate.

She seemed entirely unimpressed by the weapon, giving a low ‘hmph’ and turning her nose up. “Very well, I can show you how to make sure that you can at least hit a stationary target. Though, from the looks of you, doubt you’ll ever manage to hit one that doesn’t throw itself at your arrows.”

Giving a helpless sigh, I nodded my head. “That’s probably the best I could ask for right now.”

“Alright then, come on up here, let’s at least see what you can do.” She instructed, still refusing to even give me a second look. Standing up next to her, I looked at the target and cringed inwardly. The target I had trained against in the tutorial was twenty meters away, and I could barely hit that repeatedly. This one was double that distance!

Nocking an arrow, I tried my best to hit the target, I really did. And I at least made the arrow travel far enough, but it overshot the target and landed somewhere behind it. Seeing that, there was a derisive snort from beside me. “Pathetic. Couldn’t even hit a standing target? Try again!” She ordered, giving me small corrections to my stance with each failed attempt, until I finally managed to hit the outer edge of the target, only for the arrow to bounce off because it didn’t have enough force.

Not willing to let that stop me, I continued shooting again and again, ignoring the skill prompts that had appeared until I was out of arrows in my quiver. Then, I went forward and collected the ones that I had previously shot, only to repeat the process again. By the time I finished my quiver the second time, I had finally managed to land two arrows in the center of the target, and through either luck or skill they both stuck.

“Barely passable.” That was probably the nicest thing she’s ever said to me… or anyone.

Chapter 3: I want a redo!

After I had started managing to hit the target repeatedly, I took a bit of a break, thanking the instructor. Given my encounter with the rat in the Trial of Strength, assuming that is how strong actual rats are, I’m doomed if I actually get up close with anything at my current level of skill. Sadly, though, it’s not that easy to learn how to properly wield a dagger. As such, I first needed to improve my magic skills, and maybe learn a few new spells.

With what I have right now, there’s no way I’ll be useful if I ever do get out into space, but that is a distant goal. First, I need to make sure that I’m able to deal with the threats down here. After all, I’d rather have time to build up and learn more magic before leaving, then have chosen something else like stellar magic as a planet-based race. Not sure if space magic would even work in an atmosphere the same.

But, I got sidetracked. Making my way back to the starting area, I saw that a few other elves had spawned in. My guess would be that most of them are from the online communities, since there were only a few thousand Seeds released this week. Won’t be until another two weeks, real time, before they are mass distributed. And most of the people that have one are probably more concerned with being a good old space captain.

Taking a look at the ‘quest board’ as I like to call it, I found the directions to the local magister, and set off. There were a few others heading in the same direction as myself, so I decided to introduce myself to the closest one. No point in being a loner for all my gaming life, right? And looking at him, he was a fit elf, full blooded by his features.

His eyes kept flashing back and forth everywhere with a wild grin, as if taking the world in for the first time. Like me, he was dressed in a simple white cloth shirt and brown cloth pants, but his weapon of choice was a staff instead of a bow. “Enjoying the game so far?” I asked with mild curiosity.

He seemed a bit surprised by the sudden question, but then looked over to me and nodded. “Right, been ages since we had anything so real. Well, it all seems real, but it’s just different, you know?”

I tilted my head and thought over what he had said, before nodding. “Yeah. I’m Falenel–” Wait, what? Let’s try that again. “My name is Falenel… Seriously?” He seemed confused by my increasingly frustrated expression. “Looks like we can’t introduce ourselves with real names.”

That would have been good to know before I picked a name that sounded so weird! I shook my head with a sigh, thinking to myself.

The man smirked beside me before introducing himself as well. “Jacobs. Never really got into the whole fantasy naming sense.” He then looked at my features, “You’re a half, right? Didn’t think there’d be that many people playing normal races like that. Hell, my sister actually started as a golem. She’s hoping that she’ll be able to evolve if she absorbs an asteroid or something.”

I stared blankly at him for a bit at that. “Seriously, they can evolve? Redo! I want a redo!” I called out to the sky, to no avail, which caused Jacobs to laugh loudly next to me.

“Yeah, not even sure if we started on the same planet, or the same star system for that matter. I heard that some people started as drakes, and there was one guy that said he started as a navigation AI for a ship.”

“Wait, seriously? You could even play as a ship AI? Also, how the heck do you know all of this? The game has been running for what, two hours? And that’s not even real time!” I called him out on the obvious fabrications. I knew I didn’t spend that long practicing archery!

He just chuckled again in response before answering. “You must be one of the fleshies.” Yes, the online communities typically call those of us that retain our bodies as fleshies… it gets annoying sometimes. “We can link up with people on our contacts list and chat, even from the tutorial.”

“Well… that’s got to be convenient. Still, really wishing there was a reset button or something. Even if I stay as a humanoid for the loot, I could at least pick a cool evolving race.” Though I spoke out loud, the complaint was mostly to myself. My plan had been to make a good foundation hunting for good loot planetside while I prepared myself to be ready for space, and then head out among the stars! Given that, a half-elf seemed perfect, since they gained a small boost to learning new skills, and easily learn the Huntsman class skills.

“I asked Devron, the deity that I had in my creation, and he said it’s possible to restart your character, actually.” Hearing Jacobs say that made my head whip towards him with a hopeful expression, which was cast down quickly as he finished. “However, you have to pay a fee to do so, and can’t log back in for a few days.”

“Seriously, man?” I groaned with my head held low. “If I had the money, sure, I’d be all over that. But I’m here to earn the cash, and by the time I get enough money to be able to afford that, I’d probably be too familiar with this guy. Don’t suppose it’s possible to roll up an alt?” There was still that last flicker of hope in my voice, looking for a way to have a more interesting race.

Jacobs simply smirked and shook his head. “One character per account, one account per customer. If I were you, I’d suggest looking into gene therapy once you get higher level. Not sure if this game has it or not, but with how advanced the setting is, and the number of races I’d be surprised if they didn’t. If they go like other sci-fi VR’s, then gene therapy should be a valid means to evolve.”

I nodded my head, resigning myself to this fate. Like he said, gene therapy was a pretty common thing in most sci-fi games, especially for humans. Was a way to get additional traits and powers from alien races. Of course, the more you alter yourself, the less human you become. And the less human you become, the less effect future therapies had unless they were custom designed, and those are expensive. “So, what magics did you learn in the tutorial?”

“Hmm? I got gravity magic. Seemed like a good mix between planet usage and space. Though I wish I had gotten something with a heal in it now. I’ve only got two other friends that chose to play elf, and they both went for the high variant.”

Once more, I looked at him with a bit of hope. “I think my magic should get a heal eventually. But did the net community only get one magic? I was able to choose two when I got to that part.” He nodded his head in answer. “Huh. Well, maybe we can share? I mean, it’s not like those basic spells took ages to learn, right?”

He thought about it, but shook his head. “Not sure that’d work. Devron said that training was accelerated in the tutorial, so it may have just been easier for us to pick them up. Just imagine if a bunch of people all got together and learned all of the basic spells, then shared them like that? Would make a small group of really versatile casters. There are probably other factors involved with being able to teach skills.”

By this time, we were finally coming up on the destination, a large collection of trees that had twisted together to form a spiraling tower overlooking the forest. Well, they sure know how to make an impression.

Once we got inside, we were separated into various groups based on the types of magic we had learned. Since we were getting split up, Jacobs and I decided to add each other to our friends lists. To my surprise, I found that I already had two names on the list, and decided that I would contact them later. Unless there was some glitch that made it so random people appeared on the friends list, that should mean that those two are my immediate family, my parents.

Anyways, back to the tower, I was in a group of people that had been brought up to the third floor. My group was focused on elemental magic, such as my wind. I’m not really sure if Nature Magic qualifies as an element, but it was the first relevant group that was called for me. Our teacher this time was, of course, another elf. This one wore red robes, and his gnarled staff gripped a ruby at its tip, as if it was naturally grown with the gem in place.

“Alright, now all of you should be here for roughly the same purpose. You’re all Travelers that have just entered our world, and the gods have blessed you with the very basics of magic. However, it is up to us to educate you on your future paths.” The man spoke slowly, as if talking to a group of children.

“There are three types of casting in this realm, of which we will discuss two. Runic, and Arcane. The magic bestowed upon you all when you were born was of the latter category, which we will cover first. Arcane magic is a practice which allows you to control your mana with your will, and send it out to alter the world. This kind of casting has a higher cost, but it is easier to achieve a desired result, as you must simply practice with it.”

After taking a deep breath, he continued, his eyes sweeping over the few of us present. “Now, Runic magic is the opposite, being a sort of programming language for the world. As long as you learn the rune for a given command, you can incorporate it into any spell you wish. For instance, the runes for Blast and Fire will make your typical fireball. Now, in the past, these runes were kept secret, hidden in various dungeons. Of course, that eventually came to an end when the Guilds came together to compile a list of runes.”

“Many of these runes are used today to ‘program’ magical devices, and are available to the public. Rather than relying on luck to receive a rune you want after crawling through a perilous dungeon, only to receive one you already knew, it is now merely based on the intelligence of the user. Likewise, Runic magic is much cheaper to use in terms of mana than Arcane, but will only perform the actions programmed into it.”

Seeing that he was finally nearing the end of his speech, I let out a relieved sigh. “Not many choose to practice both Arcane and Runic magic, as they are based in two different areas of focus. Arcane magic requires greater control over your mana, while Runic merely requires intelligence great enough to remember the language of magic. For either path, you may either seek guidance for creating a spell, or may attempt to do so yourself. Be warned, attempting to cast a spell far too powerful for your skill and capacity may have permanent effects on your body.”

You have listened to Rukh’s lecture on the Basics of Magic

+2 Wisdom, +2 Intelligence

Several people looked like they were just about ready to leave before he started talking, yet again. There were more than a few groans, which he ignored. “Now, as all of you have chosen to focus on an elemental branch of magic, there are things you should be aware of. Your elements are part of the world around you, granting an increased versatility compared to other casters. However, with every boon comes a curse.”

“Once you leave this world, and explore the stars, you may find your magic greatly impaired. As you become familiar with manipulating the soil of this world, another may have a completely different composition, making it more difficult. The same is true for wind, and even water. The atmosphere may even cause fire to weaken in some planets. As such, I advise all of you to either practice diligently to overcome these obstacles, or seek to branch out into other fields which can cover it.”

And this time we were really dismissed, causing me to sigh in relief once again. Of course, I made for the door as quickly as I could before he had the chance to change his mind and start another lecture.

Outside, I found that the other classes were also letting people leave now, and I began wondering why we were even split up in the first place. Three quarters of that lecture had nothing to do with our specialty, so they could have just as easily told it to everyone at once. Maybe they were just starting a routine, expecting more players to show up later? Still, this makes me hopeful for learning new types of magic, since all it should take, according to the instructor, was practice. That isn’t to say I’ll be good at it, or even get what I want, but I can still be hopeful.

Taking a look at my character information, I was still fairly disappointed with myself. Normally, by now, there would be some overpowered way to quickly train up my stats to surpass my level. However, that did not seem to be the case with me. And what is with that pitifully low mana regen?

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

N/A

Fame

0

Level 1

75.00%

Class

Novice

Health

90/90

Health Regen

0.15

Mana

150/150

Mana Regen

0.03

Strength

12

Wisdom

13

Agility

13

Intelligence

15

Dexterity

14

Charisma

9

Vitality

9

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

Chapter 4: Practice makes Perfect… Eventually

Now that I was out of the magic class, if you could really call it that, I spoke a bit more with Jacobs before he went to go practice. Watching him walk away, I pulled up my contact list and went to the two names I didn’t personally add. “Damn fantasy names… can’t tell which of you is which… Oh well, just do a group chat then.”

With that in mind, I set up a group chat between myself and them. “You guys enjoying the game so far?” I asked curiously, waiting for their response.

A few moments later, the first to reply was Dravin, apparently my father. “Ah, there you are. Was wondering if you had gotten into the game yet, kiddo!” His voice sounded fairly normal, so it was likely that he either held a humanoid race or had one that possessed telepathy.

And of course, after him came my mother, whose voice was a bit off. “John! It’s good to hear from you.” Her voice sounded a bit phantasmal, as if a ghost was speaking.

“Yeah… it’s Falenel here, apparently. Can’t introduce myself otherwise.”

It took a moment before they responded to that, making me think that they hadn’t interacted with anyone else yet like I had. While we talked for a while, I managed to learn a few more things about the game. First of all, despite my surroundings there was still a heavy technology setting in the game. Likely, this was just a traditional starting area. For instance, my father chose to play as a mutant human with psychic abilities, while my mother chose to play a Shade, some sort of darkness elemental. Where my father started sounded like a large modern city, complete with hover cars and holograms. However, my mother was spawned in the middle of nowhere, some dark cave.

Strangely, it wasn’t all bad, as my mother didn’t spawn at level 1, but 20. She also had quite a few racial skills that let her survive despite spawning in a secluded area. According to her, Shades are a race not born from breeding, but from natural magic giving life to shadows. So, even though she may find other Shades eventually, they never really spawn together. I started wondering if that was true for all elementals. But really, my focus wasn’t as much on them, since I was here to level up and farm loot to sell. Since elementals don’t have a standard body type, and in most cases aren’t even corporeal, I didn’t need to concern myself too much with the details.

Now, I knew how to make spells, so I had to focus on that. My performance so far has told me that I am terrible at wielding weapons, so my only option is to make an attack spell or two. Right now, I just had the basic Gust and Nature’s Grasp spells, giving me a knockback and a hold. Since I wouldn’t be able to get a class until level 10, I had to focus on what I could do on my own.

Slowly, I made my way to the edge of the village, where I wouldn’t be disturbed while practicing. There were several different possibilities for attack spells in either of the fields of magic I already knew, but the trick was making one that wouldn’t be too much to handle at my level of skill. Wind blades took far more control than I had right now, same with poison darts or root spears. However, I could come up with simplified ways to get attack spells.

First, I decided to focus on wind. Since a wind blade wasn’t possible, I’d try for a wind bullet instead. Closing my eyes, I brought my hands out in front of me in the same motion as when I had first practiced my two current spells, allowing the mana to travel between my hands and circulate. Then, like before, I started attuning my mana to the wind, causing a small breeze to build between my hands.

Focusing my control, I condensed the breeze as tight as I could while making it spin, before I shot it off in front of me. When I opened my eyes, the barely visible ball of wind impacted a nearby tree, making barely an impact. However, it seemed to be enough to satisfy the system.

New Spell Developed!

Wind Bullet – Wind Magic Spell – ★

Create a spinning ball of wind to strike against a target, causing minor impact damage.

Mana Cost: 15

A star? Guessing that’s how they rank spells here? I’m going to assume that one star is terrible. I glanced helplessly at the window that appeared, before realizing something. Both of the spells I learned in the tutorial came with a chant that made the spell easier to cast. However, there was no such thing when I cast the spell this time? Making my way quickly back to the mage’s tower.

Looking around, I quickly found my way to Rukh, the elf that had instructed me previously. “Uhm, sir, do you have a moment to answer a question for me?” Seeing that he wasn’t busy dealing with another student, I unhesitantly grabbed his attention.

Looking over at me, he seemed to recognize me from the previous lesson. “Ah, yes, what can I do for you?” I went on to explain how the spell ‘bestowed’ upon us by the gods included a chant to help activate it, and wondered if he would mind explaining more about them. After a few moments of thought, he nodded his head. “It’s a typical novice trick to memorize a spell by associating it with a phrase. Most experienced mages don’t bother with that anymore, but it can still prove helpful as a focus tool.”

I deflated a bit hearing that. “So there’s no actual power to the chant, or anything like that?”

“No, no, of course not. Even in larger rituals, the chants are used as a guide for timing the fluctuations in magic, and making sure that everyone coordinates.”

Hearing his answer caused me to let out yet another defeated sigh. I really should have chosen a more specialized race, but there’s no going back now. “Sir, I’m trying to make a basic attack spell for either my Wind Magic or Nature Magic schools. So far, I’ve come up with a Wind Bullet, but it seems like it is far too weak to be of use. I hope that you could offer some guidance in this matter.”

He seemed to have been caught off guard by the sudden polite approach, but smirked slightly before answering. “Alright, I can help you with that. Honestly, you’re on the right track if you made the Wind Bullet already, but like you said, it doesn’t have enough power to do any damage to the enemy. As for Nature Magic, you’d have to speak to the shaman instructor for help with that.”

I nodded my head, waiting for him to continue. “Wind is a rather versatile element, but takes far more control to achieve specific results than the others. For instance, practically any fire spell can be an attack, but for wind you need to focus in order to get more than a slight breeze. At the same time, greater mastery of wind will allow you to do things such as flying within an atmosphere. If you really grow powerful enough with wind, it’s actually possible to carry a bit of wind with you in outer space, holding it together with your magic and preventing the vacuum from sucking it away.”

“For a beginner, though, you should focus on building a foundation. There are two common variants of the Wind Bullet spell which may be of help to you, and both require extra time charging it to store additional mana. The first is an explosive bullet, where you use that extra mana to further compress the captured wind, making it create a small shockwave when it hits. The second is a speed bullet, where you use the additional mana to make the spell launch faster than normal. Once you train a bit, you’ll be able to perform both of those spells quite easily, maybe even do them at the same time.”

I nodded my head again, thanking him for the explanation. In the corner of my view, I was watching my mana recover slowly. Although the Wind Bullet only took fifteen mana to launch, I still hadn’t fully regained that amount back yet. It took over half a minute for me to recover just a single point of mana.

After I left Rukh, I went to find the shaman instructor, who apparently handled schools of magic similar to my Nature Magic. This one was a young woman, another half-elf like myself, but seemed exceptionally young for her position. I have encountered the fabled elf loli…

Speaking to her for a while, I learned that I wouldn’t be able to easily do any poisons or anything like that with my magic, until I first learned how the poisons were made. Sera, the loli elf, suggested I learn alchemy to assist my Nature Magic. According to her, the potential for this school of magic laid in the fact that it could produce the effects of practically any potion, so long as the caster was familiar with the process of making it.

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but imagine me using my magic to eventually pump out potions one after another and selling them for easy profit. Though, going by my current recovery speed, I’d be lucky to do two or three potions an hour. Still, I got what I came for, and was even awarded another point of intelligence for listening to their explanations, and a point of wisdom for asking their advice.

Moving back to my previous practice spot, I decided to try something different. What Rukh had said before inspired me to make a new spell, which might actually let my bow be something other than completely useless. Thankfully, by now my mana had finished recovering. Pulling out an arrow, I nocked it and focused. Extending one finger from my left hand, I used it as a guide in the same way I had when I circulated mana between my hands earlier. This time, I was circulating the mana along the path of the arrow.

At first, the mana kept floating away before it could reach the other hand, but once it had managed to bridge the gap it flowed more easily. Still… that was another ten mana I had lost just like that, so I needed to focus. Now that I had the mana circulating, I once more began attuning it to the wind, causing it to spiral around the length of the arrow and focusing on the tip. I kept pouring mana into it until I could faintly see the wind being distorted by the spell. Then, finally, I let the arrow fly to the nearby tree.

As soon as I launched the arrow, I noticed how it spun far more than it did when I fired it normally. And even though the tree I targeted was barely five meters away, I still hit far from the center. It seemed that adding the spin into the arrow reduced accuracy, but increased speed and penetrating power, since the arrow actually dug in several inches.

New Spell Developed!

Lesser Spiral Arrow – Wind Magic Spell – ★

Create a spinning current of wind around an arrow before letting it fly, granting it additional power at the cost of accuracy.

Mana Cost: 30

I couldn’t help but curse at the high cost, and that wasn’t even taking into consideration the mana that escaped initially. Rather than waiting twenty minutes for my mana to recover, I went ahead and moved on to the next test I wanted to do, which was to create a guided arrow. Since I still had over a hundred mana left, there was really no point in waiting.

Retrieving my arrow from the tree was a splendid failure, as it was buried too deep. As soon as I tried to pull it out, the shaft snapped in half. So, one arrow lost forever… I continued cursing silently as I went back to my previous firing spot and nocked another arrow. Using the same method as before, I established a mana circuit between my hands that traveled along the arrow. However, this time instead of a spiraling force, I tried to compress it a bit more, and had the wind moving forward in the direction of a tree roughly twenty meters away.

When the arrow launched this time, I tried to keep control over the mana I had locked in around it so that I could guide the arrow to its target. However, that proved to be more than I could hope for, and I lost the connection to the mana almost instantly. Almost, meaning that I was able to hold onto it for a few feet after it left my control. Sadly, since the spell failed, it wasn’t enough to trigger the system granting me a new spell. But I wasn’t too discouraged, and knew that this spell should eventually be possible, since it wasn’t a matter of lacking the mana, but lacking the control that stopped it from working.

A noise distracted me from my thoughts, and I noticed that my stomach appeared to be demanding attention, since I had yet to eat since I arrived in the game. Looking at my inventory, I was thankful to see that I had a few pieces of bread that would ease my hunger. Though strangely, I only had four slots for my inventory right now. Likely, either getting bags or leveling up would increase the size of the inventory.

After eating the rather bland bread, I decided that I would next head to the alchemy instructor, before finally going out to hunt. The sooner I get out there, the sooner I can level up and get the loot I’ve been waiting for. Though, I couldn’t help but let out a groan when I looked at my contact list, and saw that both my dad and Jacobs had already leveled up at least once each. I’m not procrastinating… I’m just making sure I’m ready…

Chapter 5: Rascally Rabbits

Once again making my way through the town, I eventually stopped to ask for directions to someone able to teach me alchemy. The answer I got nearly made me fall flat on my face from embarrassment, since apparently the alchemy shop was right next door(tree? Next tree? No, I’ll go with door) to the giant tower of magic.

Calm down Falenel… It’s not your fault.. it’s a genetic trait of men to be unable to ask for directions… I tried to make excuses for myself while saying and making my way back. At least this way, I was gaining a bit more time to wait for my magic to recover. Need to add a technique to recover faster, or learning how recovery works to my to-do list…

Once I reached the fabled alchemy station, I was rather surprised to find that no other players were lining up to learn the trade. I mean, who doesn’t want to be able to concoct their own healing potions, if there isn’t a limit to the amount of trade skills you can learn?

My question was further relevant when I got inside and noticed the busty, silver eyed elf manning the counter. Or, was she a half-elf? Her ears didn’t seem quite as pointed as the other elves, and her chest was a bit larger than normal for the race. As she saw me come in, she directed a kind smile at me. “Welcome, how may I help you?”

Her voice caused me to snap out of my mild delusions and get back to what I wanted to do. “Right, sorry. Yes, I’m interested in learning about alchemy. Would that be alright?”

She thought about it for a few moments, and then nodded her head. “Yes, that would be fine. But I need to ask a payment, first. The basic alchemy set costs 70 copper, and I’ll need you to either provide the herbs you use to practice, or pay for their cost.”

I likewise nodded, seeing that this was entirely reasonable. However, I decided to ask something else that had been on my mind. “What all does alchemy cover? Just curious.”

She smiled a bit more at my question. It seemed not many actually cared to ask for the details. “Well, as I’m sure you know, the basic levels of alchemy involve mixing together different types of potions. However, as you become more skilled, you also are able to do more. For instance, a master alchemist could make a potion, but they could also develop ways for more permanent effects. They could also make poisons, bombs, or even play with a creature’s genetic make-up.”

I blinked, a bit surprised hearing that. Obviously, I figured they could do poisons, and maybe even bombs, but this sounded like the answer to one of my earlier problems. “You mean gene therapies? I’ve heard about those, but didn’t know what kind of skill was needed to create them.”

She kept that same smile as she nodded her head again. “In order to master alchemy, it’s necessary to learn various other disciplines, such as chemistry and biology. For gene therapies, you just mix in a touch of genetics, and can get a pretty good result. The only other profession that covers all of the needed skills to make them are doctors, and they are similarly at a high degree of mastery.”

Well, that suddenly made alchemy far more appealing to me! “Thank you very much, miss.” I was just about to turn around and leave to go hunting for the resources I would need to learn alchemy when something occurred to me. “This may sound like a silly question, but are there any devices or techniques that will accelerate learning in a given field?”

I asked this because of how long I could imagine it taking someone to learn everything needed to become a proper alchemist. It could take years for someone to build up to the master level, decades even, if there wasn’t some kind of assistance. And given what I’ve learned from my fighting and magic practice, the system did not tend to help much in terms of learning. I actually wasn’t sure what the levels in skills gave at all, aside maybe a very slight bonus to success.

It took her a moment to think again before she nodded. “You must be asking about Skill Shards. Their use isn’t that widespread, and many frown upon it, but certain professions are able to create gems which hold the knowledge of a skill. This information has to come from someone that actually has the skill, and only contains that person’s knowledge on it. Say for example, I assisted in creating a Skill Shard for alchemy. Whoever used it would know everything I chose to put in the shard, and nothing else. They wouldn’t get any personal recipes, secret tricks, or anything that one typically develops when they learn the skill themselves. They also would not know anything I didn’t know about it. So… there might be a plant considered extremely common in other areas, but if I’ve never seen it, the shard I helped create would not grant them any knowledge about it.”

“I see…” It took me a moment to piece together this information. I’d probably need to go to a big city to find these Skill Shards, but I would definitely find one. Maybe there is one that I could use to make me better with the bow or something. “Doesn’t that mean that if someone made a Skill Shard for a type of magic, whoever activated that would learn all of the different spells that person chose to record?”

Her head nodded again as she looked at me. “That’s right. However, most people don’t want to take that gamble. There are only two pieces of information that can be understood from a Skill Shard without activating it if you have it scanned. The first is the type of skill put in, and the second is the level of mastery the information qualifies as. Since a single shard can only hold one type of skill, it’s impossible to sneak more in, at the same time, the scan will cross reference the amount of information stored with what is currently known on the networks to determine how high it is. When making one with a magic school, you could easily just put in your knowledge of how that school of magic works, and a few advanced tricks to make it more effective without actually putting a single spell in.”

You have learned and understood the nature of Skill Shards

+2 Intelligence

I was slightly surprised by that, but decided to thank her again and leave. In my inventory was only thirty copper coins, not nearly enough for the lessons. Before leaving, I made sure to ask what kind of herbs she was looking for for the training. Then, after realizing that I had no idea what a common fireflower or blood weed looked like, I had her show me a picture, which I quickly sketched in order to remember them. Surprisingly, my little sketch actually gave me a new skill as well.

New Sub-Skill Acquired!

Sketching – Basic Level 6

Exp: 50%

Used for various different skills, this ability allows you to create decent sketches quickly, capturing the image of an object or expressing an idea.

Current applicable skills: None

I wasn’t really that surprised by the skill itself. I played several artistic characters in other games, and had managed to pick up a few skills that transferred over to real life, such as drawing. What I was surprised about was the skill’s level. Rather than Beginner Level 1, like every other skill I had started as, this was Basic Level 6. Did that mean that my real life skill had managed to transfer over to the game, and that was the level it deemed I was at?

If so, this would be fairly interesting. I decided later to test out a few other skills I had picked up from games, but wanted to wait for a bit since none of them were immediately useful. In most VR games, the system would help correct mistakes when you used an attack, and only help you better visualize what it was you wanted to create for more artistic skills. So, the only skills that I managed to actually remember from my time in other games were drawing, mechanics, and hacking.

Thinking about that last one brought a small grin to my face. One of the less successful VR games was shut down just a year after its launch because its skills were too realistic, and the skills it taught included criminal ones like hacking. After the game was shut down, I actually tested what I had learned, not really thinking that it would help me at all. I was a bit paranoid, to be honest, because what I hacked was the police database, to set up a link that would warn me if they listed me as a suspect in an ongoing investigation. A few weeks later, I realized how dumb that was, and went back in to remove it. Thankfully, the cops never came busting down my door. Of course, I wasn’t really sure if hacking would work the same here, since a lot of the more advanced technology is infused with magic. Maybe advanced hacking would include magical hacks?

Back to the present, I decided to test my luck and head out of town, stopping by the quest board and picking up a horned rabbit extermination quest. Unlike the ones offering directions, the actual quests had instructions to remove the quest leaf when you accepted it.

Quest Accepted!

Culling the Herd

Rank ☆ Extermination

The local horned rabbit population has started growing out of control. Hunt down at least 10 Horned Rabbits to complete this quest.

Time Limit: None

Rewards: The rabbit corpses may be sold to the town guard for a reward. Reward depends on quality and amount of rabbits.

Failure: None

I noticed the star on the quest, just like the ones that appeared for spells. However, this was an empty star, so maybe it only counted as half value? If that was the case, then this should be a very easy quest to finish.

On my way out of town, I saw other players heading in the same direction. A few of them were also holding leafs like mine, which I guessed meant that the quest was reposted for others to take. Looking through the few players, I made my way over to Jacobs. “Hey, you on the rabbit extermination?”

He looked over to me and nodded. “Yeah, and I need to find a few smaller trees. Going to try to get carpentry. Take it you’re on the same mission.”

I chuckled, nodding my head back to him. “Pretty much, but I’m looking for herbs instead of trees. I’m grabbing alchemy.”

“Feel like teaming up for a bit, then?”

Jacobs has invited you to join a party!

Accept? Y/N

I smiled, and accepted his invitation. Looking at the party window, I saw that he was already level three, which irked me a little. Likely he went out and hunted a bit before grabbing a quest. “So, since it looks like you know your way around better, any idea where the horned rabbits hang out?”

“Yeah, they usually wander around in small groups a bit to the west of town. I came across a few of them earlier when I was practicing a new spell, but I didn’t know I could have turned over their corpses for a reward. Was a bit disappointed when they didn’t drop any loot.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Remember, this is supposed to be ‘completely realistic’, so it’s not like a little bunny is going to swallow a pair of boots to hand out to whoever kills it.”

He smiled wryly at the comment, but nonetheless nodded his head. It wasn’t long before we were out of the city. “So, what kinds of spells do you have? I saw you walked off with the elemental class earlier.”

“Yeah, so far it’s just a Wind Bullet, Gust, and a hold spell. I’d say I could shoot them with my bow but… I can barely hit a target when it’s not moving, and rabbits are known to be fast. You?”

“I’ve got a repulsion spell, and a slow with damage over time.”

I tilted my head at the description. “Gravity crush?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Couldn’t you use that spell to do weight training? Well, once you have the mana to keep it active, anyways.” I idly thought, and heard a chuckle from next to me.

“Maybe if I was aiming to be a muscular mage. I’d rather work on combat spells for now.”

After saying that, we heard a ruffling of leaves and stopped. Off in the distance, were cute little fluffy bunnies, with a long horn on their heads that was half the size of their body. In this particular group there seemed to be four of them, so we looked to each other and nodded. Neither of us were new to games, so it wasn’t that hard to know a basic plan. I’d fire my hold spell while he launched his damage over time, and he’d keep that up while I fired my attack spells.

And, for the most part, that’s actually how it went down. I felt silly thinking about the chant I had recited over and over in the tutorial, and this time merely focused on the feeling of mana I had while casting the spell. Once I had the mana ready, I shot it down into the ground, and focused on the four fluffy sacrifices. My mana sought out nearby roots and launched them from the ground, making the rabbits try to flee.

At the same time, Jacobs was focusing his own spell, and the rabbits suddenly fell to the ground, finding it hard to stand properly. My roots weren’t as badly affected, and managed to securely wrap around three of the four rabbits. The fourth managed to escape the area of his spell before it could be caught, and vanished into a bush. Still, three out of four isn’t bad right? Now that they were held, and apparently unable to break free, I fired a single Wind Bullet at each of them, which seemed to do the trick. There was a sickening crunch from the combination of pressure from the two spells before each rabbit was dead. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the last rabbit before it charged out of the bushes, its eyes glowing red. Before I could even react, it had speared my leg with its horn. The same leg that the rat had gone for in the tutorial. The same SPOT on the leg. What is it with these monsters?!

Leg Vs. Rabbit

-20 HP

Biting back the pain, I swung my dagger down at the rabbit which was thankfully stuck trying to pull itself out of my leg. Stop twitching! God, that hurts! I was able to feel every tiny movement of its horn as my dagger seemed to fall down unnaturally slow. Why does pain always make things seem to take longer? After what felt like an agonizing minute, the dagger finally finished its descent, completely severing the rabbit’s head from its neck. “God, oww, fuck that hurts.”

Jacobs, just now becoming aware of what had happened over here, looks down and goes wide eyed at the rabbit head now stuck to my leg. “Fuck, they can be vicious. Remind me to practice that repulsion spell me…”

“Yes, yes, later. Can you help me get the fucking horn out of my leg first?!” I almost growled out. In my opinion, I was handling this fairly well. I was stabbed through the leg, with the full sensation of pain, and not screaming bloody murder. What did I get myself into? Even deaths in other games had never hurt this much!

After pulling out the rabbit’s horn, I paled because another window also appeared.

There is a hole in your leg.

-5 Bleed

That hole doesn’t look too good..

-5 Bleed

Hey numbskull, you’re bleeding!

-5 Bleed

I was at a loss for what to do, neither of us had any healing spells. And this was taking away five health a second! Another eleven seconds, and I die just from bleeding out. Did that thing spear an artery or something?

That thing speared an artery or something.

-5 Bleed

Fuck you game! I did the only thing I could honestly think of, and cast my Nature’s Grasp spell again, this time on my own leg. It always works in movies, right? Cut off circulation to the injured area, and you won’t bleed out!

Thankfully, this seemed to work, because the bleeding messages stopped appearing and my natural health regeneration took over. Altogether, I had lost 40 points of health, which took four minutes of sitting on the ground to get back. I wasn’t just doing nothing though, because I was happy to receive another window when the bleeding had stopped.

You have leveled up!

I quickly opened up my character information to see what rewards I had received from leveling, before the game had a chance to find some excuse to rob me of it again. A new section had been created at the bottom telling me I had five points to spend. After debating on it for a few seconds, I dumped three points into my agility, and the last two into my wisdom, giving me…

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

N/A

Fame

0

Level 2

90.00%

Class

Novice

Health

90/90

Health Regen

0.15

Mana

180/180

Mana Regen

0.05

Strength

12

Wisdom

16

Agility

16

Intelligence

18

Dexterity

14

Charisma

9

Vitality

9

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

Chapter 6: Fluffy Income

After waiting for my health to recover, I discovered something that had left me a bit speechless. Rather than the normal scenario where my wound would fully recover as my health rose, the wound didn’t fully heal after closing. Likewise, my health had stopped recovering at 87, meaning that I would probably need actual healing to recover the last bit of damage. It would probably also mean I could be more easily damaged if I aggravated the injury.

“Really need to find those herbs…” I groaned to myself, knowing that I couldn’t use any healing spells until I first learned how to brew the potion. Scanning around, I noticed some of the familiar red weed in small bundles growing nearby. A few of the stalks were damaged, likely from the rabbits eating them.

I used my dagger to cut off the root that was holding my leg, leaving the body of the root wrapped around it for now. If nothing else, it’d make me feel better knowing that I wouldn’t randomly start bleeding out. When I finally stood up, I let out a hiss of pain, being forced to acknowledge that the wound really hadn’t fully healed.

Walking over, I carefully retrieved the weeds, digging the roots out with my dagger. While I wasn’t notably skilled at herbalism, I had dabbled with it in other games enough to know how not to damage most plants.

New Skill Acquired!

Herbology – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 2%

This skill measures your knowledge regarding the various plants throughout the universe, and their possible effects.

New Sub-Skill Acquired!

Gathering – Beginner Level 5

Exp: 20%

This is the basic skill that allows you to gather various ingredients from nature.

Current applicable skills: Herbology

Two skills, huh? Guess Herbology must be because I know that blood weed was used in healing potions. Still, 2%? Why do I feel like it’s just teasing me… I shook my head and dismissed the windows while gathering the rest of the blood weed in the area. Thankfully they all stacked in my inventory, so that wasn’t an issue. When I got back to Jacobs, he told me that I could have this set of rabbits, since I was the only one actually injured by them.

After thanking him, we again set out to find more rabbits. Our mana had recovered enough that we were confident taking on another group of the same size, but this time we knew to be more careful of them. The next group we came across was likewise another set of four, which were nibbling away at more blood weed. They really like that stuff, huh?

I entertained a brief notion of trying to tame one of the rabbits with the aid of the herb, but the pain in my leg seemed to demand vengeance against the fluffy race. This time, I decided to use my bow to try and shoot one, with my dagger kept strapped to my waist. Going through the motions, I shot out a Lesser Spiral Arrow. Thanks to my complete inability to hit what I aimed for, I purposely aimed for the spot between the four rabbits, hoping it would go off course enough to hit one of them.

Lucky Shot

Fatal Blow dealt, Wild Luck skill increased.

The body of the rabbit practically exploded as the arrow tore through it, making me wince at the loss of profit. It was bad enough that we couldn’t shove all the rabbit corpses into our inventory due to a lack of spaces available, but now I had utterly destroyed one of the bodies.

Jacobs didn’t miss this fact either, and let out a tired sigh while quickly activating his gravity spell. This time, he had aimed it a bit more carefully, so none of the remaining three rabbits had a chance to escape the field before it was set. Again, I finished the battle with a series of Wind Bullets. This time, we would really have to take a break for a while to recover mana, so we decided to head back to town after gathering the dead rabbits. The three in tact bodies were added to Jacobs’ catch, while the head of the fourth was mine, as it was all we could recover of it…

You have leveled up!

I quickly added another three points to agility, and two to wisdom. After we had the bodies, and I went around gathering more of the blood weed, we decided to head back to town for a little while. Staying out in the open while smelling of blood, without the means to defend ourselves was just asking for a wolf or something to attack.

Once we got back, we found a guard to sell our seven(and a third) corpses to. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the bodies of the fluffy race, and paid a price of ten copper for each full body, only managing to earn three for the lone head. With this, if I could manage to find some fireflower, I would already meet the requirements to learn alchemy!

“So… how long will you have to wait for your mana to get back?” Jacobs asked after we left the guard.

I looked at my mana, and saw that it was missing around seventy points. Doing a quick bit of math in my head I came to a conclusion. “Almost fifteen minutes. You?”

He smirked a bit, seemingly proud of himself. “Only ten for me. But I’m building a full caster build.”

I let out a sigh, not at all wanting to spend the next fifteen minutes just walking around. “I’m going to log out for a few minutes, check on the house.”

He nodded to me, and I looked through the menu for the logout button. It.. .wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Typically, the logout button was at the very bottom of the menu, and I almost panicked when I didn’t find it. It’d been ages since an accidental virtualization happened, but it was always that distant possibility. Then, I noticed that the option was just hidden a few slots higher, and grumbled under my breath.

Soon, my world turned black. I was no longer Falenel, the failure half-elf, but John Hulett, the NEET human. With a thought, the Seed opened up, allowing me to exit, and light to pour in. I pulled off the mask and stood up, giving a light stretch. There was still a pain in my leg from where the rabbit had speared me, but I chalked it up to phantom pains. After all, there wasn’t a visible wound over the spot, just a feeling of deep soreness.

The next thing I noticed was an ever-so-slight reduction in my gamer gut. If nothing else, that made me happy, since it meant that the Seed really was worth the money spent on it. Walking to the nearby door, I got a rather annoying jolt of static when I gripped the handle, but was otherwise unimpeded as I put on some clothes and went downstairs. I wasn’t very hungry, but decided it would be best to grab a small snack and a drink before heading back.

On my way back to my room, I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror, and for a moment I thought something was off. I just couldn’t quite place it, so I just attributed it to losing a bit of weight. I only needed to spend three minutes out of the game, thanks to the time differences, so I quickly made my way back to the Seed, and logged in once I had satisfied my stomach.

To my surprise, this satisfaction actually carried over to the game, and I didn’t feel the need to stuff my face with stale bread anymore. I was, however, lying sprawled out on the ground, with a rather annoyed looking Jacobs standing next to my body.

“Note for the future, logging out does not make the character disappear.” He explained simply, making me understand what had happened. I must have fallen to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Then, to make sure I wasn’t robbed or killed, Jacobs had to stand watch over me while I was gone.

“Sorry about that. Good news is, it seems like eating in the real world will also help here.” He raised an eyebrow at that curiously. People who had been virtualized never really felt the need to eat unless it was simulated in the game they played, so that wasn’t likely too big of a deal for him.

By now, both of our mana pools had recovered, so we once again headed back out to hunt. Since we knew the general area where the rabbits lived, it didn’t take long for us to find them. We would hunt two groups between each break, gathering the blood weed and bodies after each fight. Jacobs and I both hit level 4 by the time we were ready for our second break, and he hit level 5 just after we got hunting again.

Thankfully for me, I managed to find some fireflower during our second excursion, though it was still massively outmatched by the amount of blood weed I had collected. I could only hope that the alchemy instructor would either buy the excess blood weed from me, or the recipes would make use of it. I didn’t want to carry around tons of the herb forever.

Another thing of note was that after hitting level 5, Jacobs said his inventory grew, from a 2 x 2 grid to 3 x 3. We were thankful for the extra five slots, since it meant we could carry over twice as much. On our third trip, we finally hit our goal of ten rabbits each, finishing the quest that we had taken. Thanks to our caution after the first hunt, we didn’t take any additional injuries, give or take a couple small scratches.

You have completed the quest Culling the Herd

You have leveled up!

You have reached level 5! Inventory size increased.

I had saved up my points from the last few hunts, and decided to accurately check the meaning and effects behind a few of the stats. So far, I had been spending mostly based on intuition, but that wouldn’t be good for the long run.

Strength

This stat measures the character’s ability to exert physical force. A higher strength increases melee damage with physical weapons, the amount a character can lift, and grants bragging rights among other males.

Agility

This stat measures the character’s ability to quickly and accurately move their body. A higher agility increases run speed and jump height.

Dexterity

This stat measures the character’s ability to perform small, detailed actions. A higher dexterity increases ranged accuracy, and the success rate for certain skills.

Vitality

This stat measures the strength of the character’s life force. A higher vitality grants increased health and natural resistance to certain status effects.

Wisdom

This stat measures the character’s mental processing ability. A higher wisdom allows greater mana regeneration, as you are more accurately able to pull in the mana around you.

Intelligence

This stat measures the character’s intellect and memorization skills. A higher intelligence provides an increased mana pool, and can grant helpful hints based on previous knowledge.

Charisma

This stat measures the attractiveness of a character, through either words or appearance. A higher charisma causes the character to be more appealing, and makes others listen to their opinion more easily.

Luck

This stat measures pure chance. A higher luck stat will cause things to go your way more often, to a certain degree. This stat can only do so much, so do not expect any miracles.

Looking through the stat descriptions, I nodded my head slightly. Wisdom and intelligence were as I expected, but I had been placing a higher importance on agility when I should have focused on dexterity. Using the points I had saved up, I did my best to fix this snafu, before heading to the alchemy instructor with my shiny new silver coin, and inventory full of herbs. On the way, I took another look at my status and skills, somewhat pleased with myself for not being a total weakling now.

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

N/A

Fame

0

Level 5

5.23%

Class

Novice

Health

97/100

Health Regen

0.17

Mana

210/210

Mana Regen

0.07

Strength

12

Wisdom

20

Agility

20

Intelligence

21

Dexterity

17

Charisma

9

Vitality

10

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

Skills

Mana Manipulation – Beginner Level 4: 10.3%

Nature Magic – Beginner Level 3: 41.6%

Wind Magic – Beginner Level 4: 1.5%

Archery – Beginner Level 3: 25.9%

Dagger Mastery – Beginner Level 2: 4.1%

Wild Luck – Beginner Level 5: 20%

Sketching – Basic Level 6: 50%

Herbology – Beginner Level 1: 2%

Gathering – Beginner Level 6: 6%

Chapter 7: The Brew That’s True

A few minutes after separating with Jacobs, I reached the alchemy store once again. Since we hadn’t gone out far enough to find any trees small enough for him to cut down, it couldn’t be helped that he still had to go back to look for some. As for me, I needed to get busy learning how to brew potions! My leg is killing me and I want nothing more than to finally be able to finish healing that wound.

“Welcome, sir– oh, hello again.” I was greeted by the beautiful half-elf once again as she recognized me.

“Hello, miss.” I smiled to her, limping my way forward. “I managed to find some of the herbs, and got the money for the training.” I pulled out a bundle of the blood weed, a few fireflowers, and the silver coin. Seeing these, she seemed a bit surprised, but nodded her head, taking the silver coin and giving me back three large copper coins.

So… the guards just purposely gave me regular sized coins in bulk, then? Guess that explains why they weren’t so eager to exchange all one hundred of them for a single silver coin. Must have been like someone asking to give you a hundred pennies for a dollar. Too much small change! I thanked her for the change, and put it in my inventory. At the same time, she produced a small box containing various items, including a mortar and pestle, a few thin glass vials, and what looked like a dropper.

“This is the most basic starting kit for alchemy. As your skill grows, you’ll need more and more kinds of tools, and will eventually need to establish your own lab in order to brew everything. For now, though, this will be all you need. And, of course, a journal.” She pulled out a thin book and set it next to the box. “Once you grow a bit more, you’ll be given a device to properly record all of your notes on.”

I nodded, opening up the journal, not surprised to find that it was blank. Taking out the two sketches I made earlier, I put them in the front of the journal, as my notes about the two herbs. “Okay, so when can we begin?” I looked up at her and asked curiously. I really wanted to get my leg fixed.

“We can start now, of course. It shouldn’t take too long to teach you how to brew the basic health potion. However, any recipes after that will cost you, or require you to experiment to discover.” She smiled, pulling the various items out of the box. Only now did I notice that the glass bottle I saw earlier was a rounded beaker, with a small burner with it in the container. “First, fill the beaker half full with water, and turn the burner on by supplying it with a small mana supply.”

I nodded my head, putting the beaker onto the rack of the burner. When I was looking around for the water, my faithful teacher produced a small flask to pour in. I then tried to pour just a small amount of mana, maybe two or three points. Unfortunately, that was barely enough to even get a spark, so I put in ten and it activated. “Good, now, you’ll need to refresh the supply once a minute, or get a mana crystal to power it. Next, while waiting for that to boil, crush together two stalks of blood weed, and three petals from the fireflower.”

Once again, I followed her instructions, putting two blood weeds into the mortar, and plucking three of the seven petals of the fireflower to put in as well. Afterwards, I took the pestle and began crushing them thoroughly, doing my best to reduce the plants into a fine powder. Once a minute I would put in another ten mana to the burner, which I had to do a total of twice before the water began to boil. By that time, the plants were fairly well ground, and she seemed to be satisfied with it. “Okay, now pour the mixture into the water.”

After I followed her instructions, the red powder was poured into the water, making it look vaguely blood-colored. “This is the tricky part, as it requires a bit of timing and experimentation.” As she spoke, the water was shifting shades, from lighter to darker red then back again. “Depending on when you infuse mana into this concoction to finish the brewing process, the effectiveness will vary. This is a typical step found in most recipes that serves to stabilize the different compounds by binding them together with mana.”

Watching the liquid, I wasn’t sure at all what would be the best result. So, as it started going darker again, I went ahead and infused mana into it, steadily increasing the amount until its color settled. Of course, by that time, it had already shifted halfway back to light red. By now, the burner had again turned off, so the potion gradually stopped boiling, now settled on a rather neutral red color.

New Skill Acquired!

Alchemy – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%

This skill allows the brewing of potions through herbs or various miscellaneous materials. Higher levels will present additional options.

The half-elf whose name I still haven’t found out nodded satisfied at the result. “A bit above average for a first try, I think. Just let it cool off for a moment and it will be ready.”

I smiled faintly. Finally, I’ll have a healing spell. Though, my healing spell will likely get stronger as I perfect the recipe.. I then turned to look at her. “Thank you very much. Though, I don’t think I ever got your name yet? I’m Falenel, by the way.”

“Lisara, pleasure to meet you.” She giggled slightly, realizing it took me this long to ask her name.

“So… out of curiosity, does it take this whole thing to form a single potion?” I looked at the beaker, which seemed far too large for normal adventurers to carry around in bulk.

Lisara tilted her head curiously, and then widened her eyes as if she had forgotten something. “Ah! No, sorry. Actually, beginner potions only take ten drops to be considered a full potion. A beaker this size will produce twenty potions in a batch.” She explained, handing the dropped to me from the box.

“And… I suppose you would be willing to sell me some potion vials?” I asked curiously, seeing as there were none in the beginner box. She nodded her head again, going back and retrieving a small box of vials. These were far smaller than the beaker, but the glass was thicker. No doubt that was to make them less fragile for adventurers.

“Two coppers per vial. But, if you want to trade for the potion you brewed, I could take half of the potion, and given you the other ten vials for free.” She smiled to me. I had a feeling I was either getting a really good deal here, or being ripped off. The former because these were potions brewed by a beginner, and likely not worthy to be sold in a specialized shop. The latter because they were health potions, and that was basically me selling her a potion for just the price of the vial. Since I hadn’t looked at her wares, I wasn’t sure her typical price. Speaking of, I could probably look at the potions she sells and figure out the optimal shade to imbue mana for the last step.

“Deal.” I smiled to her, and she grabbed her own dropper, measuring out ten of the potions before storing them behind her shelf, giving me another ten vials. Doing the same thing as her, I carefully measured out ten drops for each vial, before putting them in my inventory. I wanted to be very certain of how much I put in each vial, because I knew the risks of overdosing on medicine. I wasn’t sure if it was possible with potions, but the idea of tissue over-regenerating to either cause a cancerous growth or a mutation did not appeal to me.

After thanking her, I gathered the alchemy kit, and went out to the mage’s tower. Once more, I found the loli teacher and asked her about nature magic.

“Hmm? didn’t I already explain it to you?” She asked with a rather cute tilt of her head.

“Ah, yes. You told me it’d be best to learn alchemy so that I could replicate the effects with my magic. Well, I have alchemy now, and now how to make a potion, so I was hoping you would instruct me on how to use the magic to mimic it.”

She smiled at that, happy to see that I had followed her instructions. “Alright, then! It’s actually pretty easy once you know it. Nature Magic is a school of magic governing plants and beasts. If you attune to the magic of the world around you, you will find that everything in nature has its own mana signature. Whether it’s oxygen, water, or different kinds of plants. If you mimic the mana signature of the plants in your alchemy potion, and then mix them in the same ratio you would do so for the potion, you will achieve alchemy through magic!”

Thinking over her words, I silently nodded, trying my best to understand. “So I have to memorize the particular mana signature of the herbs first? Well, at least it’ll give me something to do for a while.” I smiled dryly, thanking her again.

My next stop was at an inn, where I spent ten coppers to rent a room for 24 hours. It was rather interesting climbing up the branch steps to a small room inside the tree. Inside I found a wide and thick leaf which seemed to serve as the bed, and sat down on it. Finally off my leg… I reached down and untied the root from around my leg, finally getting rid of it. Though, I still had a decent sized hole in my pants showing off the scabbed wound. If I didn’t figure out this healing trick soon, I could drink one of my potions or gain a new scar.

Quietly, I pulled out a blood weed and the same fireflower I had started using earlier. Closing my eyes, I focused first on the blood weed, sending a trickle of mana into it to understand how it feels. It was strange, like rubbing my finger along a wet rose, but with infinitely more detail. Rather than just a surface texture, my mana had penetrated through to the core, allowing me to feel the entire substance inside and out.

Opening my eyes, I smiled slightly, before trying to replicate the sensation with my own mana. I used the same circuit method I had performed with my spells to make sure that I wouldn’t waste any excess mana, while trying to shift it into what I had felt. This was the difficult part, I found. Attuning myself to a school of magic was one thing, but mimicking the magical aura of something felt entirely different. In the end, I drank one of the potions anyways after ten minutes. Immediately, the scab fell off and my wound faded away, with my health finally rising to maximum.

Another hour of practice, and I felt like I had managed to mimic the feeling of the blood weed. It was just for a moment, but in that moment it felt like I was holding the herb in my mana again between my hands. The realization of that surprised me so much that I lost the feeling right away.

New Skill Acquired!

Mana Signatures – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%

This skill allows the user to alter their mana signature to match a studied object. Higher levels may allow the user to conceal their aura entirely, or blend it with their surroundings.

The presence of the skill caused another burst of excitement, and I foolishly thought that possessing the skill would automatically enable me to repeat the action. Have I learned nothing yet? It took another ten minutes to regain the sensation of mimicking blood weed, but I was slowly growing better.

Wisdom +1

Messages like that appeared every now and then while I was practicing, probably showing that I was learning how to control my mana better. The third time, it took me three minutes to get the feeling of blood weed, the fourth only one minute, and after that I was able to produce the feeling after only a few seconds.

The next thing I needed to practice was the fireflower petals. Only the petal, because I didn’t use the rest of the plant in the recipe, and was unsure of what the result would be. So, plucking another petal, I put it between my hands to focus. Again, I was able to get the feeling of it after a little while, and started to try to reproduce it.

Thankfully, I at least knew how to shift my aura this time, so it didn’t take too long to match the aura to the herb. But like before, I kept repeating the process until I was able to do so in a matter of seconds. Of course, my mana supply wasn’t unlimited, so I had to take a break for a half hour while I ate some more stale bread. But after that was done, I got back to it, and finally managed to replicate the aura.

The next step was likely going to be the hardest. Three petals of fireflower and two stalks of blood weed made twenty potions. So, first I needed to test how much mana it took to replicate a single blood weed or flower petal, then divide it by the appropriate amount. For instance, I’d need only a tenth of a blood weed, and just over a tenth of a petal.

This process easily took me another hour before I got the individual components correct, and by now I had earned a total of 8 wisdom through all of this. But now I was finally able to produce the feeling of blood weed in one hand, and fireflower petals in the other, then mix them together. Once the two sensations mixed, I was presented with a whole new healing, a warmer and gentler one. And now that I knew how to do this, I’d be able to do so in the future much more easily.

New Spell Developed!

Alchemic Heal – Nature Magic Spell – ★☆

This spell allows the user to replicate the effect of healing potions through their magic.

Mana Cost: 10

I smiled as I saw that this spell registered as half a star higher than my others, but afterwards I laid back on the giant leaf and let myself fall asleep. It had been a long day, and the sky was already dark after I finished practice.

Chapter 8: Vengeance Rides Upon the Wind

A few hours later, I awoke with a start, my body drenched in a cold sweat. Fucking bunnies…

The experience the day before had actually left me with a nightmare, where I was being chased through the woods by a pack of horned rabbits with blood red eyes. Of course, I was the one rabbit sized, and they were giants. The dream ended with them picking me up and slowly eating my body, one adorable nibble at a time.

Looking outside, I saw that the sun was just starting to rise, so I decided to head on out for training. They might plague my dreams, but I can at least get revenge on them now that I’m awake! On my way, I decided to go ahead and sell off the last of my potions to Lisara, who bought them for five copper each. At the same time, I took note of the exact shade her potions had. If nothing else, that would help me make a better one in the future.

With my new 45 copper, I decided to buy a basic guide to the nearby herbs from Lisara as well. While it didn’t tell me any recipes, it did list all of the medicinal and poisonous plants in the area, and roughly said what their use was. For instance, I found out that one of the black mushrooms I saw on our hunts the day before was actually a rare herb that could paralyze anyone that tried to eat it.

Once I was done with that, I checked my contacts list to see if I could team up with Jacobs. Unfortunately he was still asleep, so that wasn’t an option. He had apparently gained another two levels after splitting up yesterday, so I needed to catch up. Next few levels, need to work more on my mana… If I suck this bad at fighting with weapons, then I need to make sure I won’t run out of spells as easily.

Outside of town, I made my way back to the area where we had seen the fluffy hordes. Specifically, I wanted to see if I could find that black mushroom again. If I could copy that, then I’d have a good stun spell for my arsenal. And similarly, I was collecting any plants along the way that were listed in the book I bought, whether they were for poisons or for medicine. I found that after reading through the book and learning its contents, my Herbology skill jumped up from Beginner Level 1 to Beginner Level 7 in one go.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, hunting the horned rabbits. It took me about five minutes to find the first group of them, but what I found surprised me. Rather than the groups of four or five I had seen yesterday, this was a group of at least twenty! My need for revenge wasn’t strong enough to commit suicide against that many people, so I moved on to the next group…. Which was just as large. All of the areas that we had hunted the small groups of rabbits the day before now had much larger groups today.

They knew… I don’t know how, but they knew I was coming for them! I groaned, shaking my head and resigning myself to return to town. Logically speaking, there was no way that those rabbits should suddenly have that many at all the spots we hunted before, so I could only ask a guard.

“Hmm? Oh, you tried to go out and hunt?” The guard showed me a knowing smile, as if guessing what the issue was.

“Yeah… but…”

“But there were suddenly a lot more of them, right? That’s a pretty common thing around here. It’s the reason we’re willing to pay people every day to exterminate them. They reproduce so fast that they can completely refill their population overnight. Most likely you found them before later on, after their numbers were thinned out for a bit. If we were to leave them alone for a full week, they’d be everywhere.”

So that’s why…I guess that means morning hunts are the worst. I sighed, shaking my head at the news. “Thanks. I take it adventurer’s tend to team up to start taking them out every day?”

“Hmm? No, the wolves tend to bring down their population by about half. That usually takes till around noon, and then the adventurer’s go in and clear the rest. We just stay out of their way until the wolves are done with their part.”

“Well… there goes my idea to get revenge. Or does it…” I suddenly had a thought occur to me, and a wicked grin spread across my face, before I raced back to the edge of town, leaving a guard standing there with a confused expression.

Wolves, I’ll be borrowing your experience for a bit! I thought to myself with a sadistic grin. As soon as I was out of town, I sat down and pulled a couple of plants out of my inventory. These were two other poisonous plants I had found while walking, though neither were as powerful as that black mushroom. One, an orange wead similar to blood weed, included a weak paralytic, while the other, a green flower with tiny yellow spots, caused slight internal injuries.

Using the steps I had so diligently practiced the day before, I started matching my mana to the two herbs. It was fairly easy to find out which parts of the plant caused the negative reactions, thanks to the aura itself. Basically, whenever I felt the aura for the poison, it suddenly felt like my mana was moving through tar. This was far different from the warm and gentle feeling I received from the two healing herbs.

This also made it harder to replicate the effects, making me feel like I was starting from scratch. All in all, I had to wait for an hour and a half before I had the two mana signatures copied to a sufficient degree. Then, I spent about another ten minutes mixing them at different ratios to determine the most volatile mix. What I came up with was a 4:7 ratio, with the flower holding the majority.

I felt that this alone would already be a fairly potent spell, but I wasn’t done yet! No, no, far from done. The next step would be what really made this dangerous. Now that I had the spell ready, I set aside a bit of my mana surrounding it to attune to Wind Magic, and then integrated the two together slowly. What I got as a result made me giggle hysterically.

New Spell Developed!

Alchemic Poison – Nature Magic Spell – ★☆

This spell allows the user to replicate the effects of poisons through their magic.

Mana Cost: 15

Combination Spell Developed!

Alchemic Poison + Wind Magic = Poison Spores – ★★

By infusing the poison with the power of the wind, you are able to spread it over a wide distance and effect numerous targets at once.

Mana Cost: 25

Yes, yes… soon, they will pay. 25 mana is a small price. I kept my evil grin up as I stored the two herbs and made my way back to the area where I had seen the rabbits. Keeping low to the ground, I took full advantage of my dexterity to try and make as little noise as possible. Soon, I was back where I had found them, and the fight had already begun. There were only four wolves, all of them looking fairly young, fighting this horde of rabbits. Three of the fluffy white menaces were already lying dead on the ground, and one of the wolves was limping.

I felt a brief moment of regret, since I was also catching the wolves in my trap as well, before I cast the spell. Once it was gathered in my hands, I simply blew it out towards the fighting groups, carefully hiding in the bushes. Thankfully, they were too distracted with each other at this time to notice me, or I would have been a dead man for sure.

With the barely perceptible spores gently gliding over the area, there was an almost immediate effect. Both the wolves and the rabbits started to gradually slow down, which made the job easier for the wolves that no longer had to content with their super speed. I kept watch, not sure how long the poison would last, and ready to recast it if I saw them speeding up again.

About five minutes later, and two of the wolves had fallen, through a mix of the rabbits and my poison. Apparently this spell only lasted for five minutes, as I had to recast it once I noticed the rabbits starting to speed up. Once the spell was cast again, they looked even worse than before. A few had thin lines of blood leaking from their mouths, or gave cute little coughs after a deadly lunge. However, there were only five rabbits left, so the two remaining wolves gathered some of their prey and darted back while they still could.

I waited for another minute before acting, making sure there was plenty of time for the wolves to get away and the rabbits to take some more damage, before I leapt out of the bush with my dagger in hand. Thankfully, it seemed like my spell wasn’t affecting me if I didn’t want it to, so I was able to quickly slaughter the slowed, injured rabbits. And once the last one had fallen, I was bombarded with a series of messages that had apparently been waiting for combat to end.

You have gained a title!

Vengeful Heart

+10% damage against creatures you hold a strong grudge towards.

You have developed a poison, and spread it among a large group, causing collateral damage, purely because a rabbit poked your leg. You truly are a vengeful soul.

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Your actions have caused animals to bring poisoned food back to their pack.

10% Exp for kills caused by this poison will be awarded.

Four levels, plus possible future experience from the wolves eating the poisoned rabbits… I think I just found my favorite hunting method! I was laughing hysterically, and then gathered up all of the remaining rabbits, as well as the two wolf bodies. I had to cut down a few vines to tie them up, but afterwards I was happily dragging a trail of bodies back to town, humming a tune as I did so.

Once I arrived at town, the nearby guard was surprised by my catch, and when he asked I answered honestly that I had used a spell to poison them. Hearing that made him cringe a bit, and he was only able to offer half the usual price for the bodies. I wasn’t surprised, they wouldn’t really be paying for poisoned meat, after all, just the other parts. Still, that was seventy copper in my inventory again, which made me happy.

Another thing that made me happy was what I got when I split my 20 free stat points between wisdom and intelligence.

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 9

37.4%

Class

Novice

Health

100/100

Health Regen

0.17

Mana

310/310

Mana Regen

0.21

Strength

12

Wisdom

40

Agility

20

Intelligence

31

Dexterity

17

Charisma

9

Vitality

10

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

The part that made me happiest was that my mana regen had tripled. Even though it took 25 mana to cast my poison spell, I’d easily earn that back by the time it was needed to refresh it. I was still a long ways from being able to not worry about my mana when it came to attack spells, but at least I was doing better than before.

If I could figure out the exact formula behind the mana regen, I could work on min/maxing myself. But for now, it was enough just to spread it evenly between intelligence and wisdom. Once I was earning one mana every other second or so, then I’d start working on my agility and dexterity again.

A few of my skills even got a rather nice boost from my rabbit hunting spree, and I was tempted to go for another group. However, by now the other rabbit and wolf groups would be finishing up with their daily brawls, so I would need to wait until tomorrow. Though, I did feel much better about myself now that I had vented my anger on a few not-so-harmless bunnies.

Chapter 9: Decisions Decisions

Since there wasn’t as much point in hunting the fluffy menaces right now, I decided to head back to my usual training spot and practice magical alchemy! I still had a fair amount of other herbs saved in my inventory, six different varieties. I knew that blood weed and fireflower petals make healing potions, and that maple bloom mixed with heart grass made my slow damage over time poison. That still left two other plants I haven’t touched, as well as god knows how many combinations.

The first thing I did was to memorize and replicate the mana signatures for the last two herbs, which didn’t take as long as my previous attempts had. From what my handy book of plants had told me, one of the herbs, a leafy plant which had leaves in the shape of six pointed stars, was able to numb the skin on contact. He could vouch for that one personally, as I had brushed my hand against one of the leaves while trying to get a clipping. The other, a small red mushroom with a series of web-like cracks on the cap, was said to increase metabolism. There was a small note in that section saying that it was a common ingredient in beginner mana potions, but I wasn’t sure how that worked.

Now that I had finished that, I started the process of testing combinations. First, I tried combining the two new herbs, stillleaf and spider cap, together in various ratios to try to get a result. None of the combinations seemed to feel right to me, like it did with the poison or the healing spell. It was always too unnatural. Kind of a square peg and round hole deal.

So, next I tried mixing spider cap with the other herbs, one by one. I actually got two combinations to work, one from mixing it with blood weed, and the other from mixing it with maple bloom. Strangely, when I found the most potent combinations of each, I was awarded with the following message twice.

New Spell Developed!

??? – Nature Magic Spell – ???

???

Mana Cost: 15

Is it because I don’t actually know what effect the combinations would have? I wasn’t really all that keen on being a test subject for a potentially poisonous spell, but I had to try something. After giving it some thought, I cast the first variant on myself, and waited. Keeping an eye on my status, my health was not dropping, my hands were not slowed, and my mana was not recovering faster. I even opened up my character window to check my stats, and my health and mana regen were not increased. Well, I know it’s something…

There was only one other thing that I figured it could be, given the nature of the two herbs, but I was not going to like testing it. Casting Alchemic Poison on myself, using the paralytic poison from the Heart Grass, I felt my body tense up, refusing to follow my commands as it should. Then, I quickly channeled my mana to cast the newest spell on myself, and that feeling faded away. At the same time, details for the spell appeared in the windwo.

New Spell Developed!

Alchemic Antidote – Nature Magic Spell – ★☆

This spell mixes the mana signatures of different herbs to create an effect that will dispel poisons. The dispelling effect will only work on poisons equal or weaker to the strength of the antidote mixture used.

Mana Cost: 15

I smiled slightly, seeing that I now had an antidote spell in case something went wrong. Though, I was hoping that would have been the combination for a mana potion. Looks like I still need to find the last ingredient for that. Anyways, I sat down and waited a couple of minutes for my mana to recover, before I tried the second spell.

This time, the information window changed, no longer displaying this as a new spell. But at the same time, I coughed up a mouthful of blood. To no surprise, this combination had created an accelerated poison, which if my insides are being honest caused rapid internal bleeding. Never again!

I quickly cast my Alchemic Antidote and Alchemic Heal spells on myself, coughing up another mouthful of blood after I recovered. Okay, next time one of the spells includes a poison substance, I am going to go find a rabbit or something to test it on!

Next, I started from the beginning, going through the combinations with blood weed to see if there were any other spell effects. To my surprise, there actually was not. After that was the fireflower petals. I was tempted to just search the mana signature of the entire plant, but the herbology guide said that only the petals were useful. And once I mixed together fireflower with stillleaf, I ended up with another unknown combination. Trying it out on myself was probably not a smart idea, but I didn’t consider stillleaf’s numbing effect to be a toxic enough effect to warrant an external test. I probably should have.

A while later, I woke up at the same spot I had been sitting, unsure of how much time had passed. Looking around, I saw I had a message from Jacobs, asking how I managed to level so fast. Of course, what caught my attention was the other window that had appeared.

New Spell Developed!

Alchemic Sleep – Nature Magic Spell – ★

This spell mixes the mana signatures of different herbs to cause the target creature to fall asleep.

Mana Cost: 10

Great… now I have a sleep spell, too.. Shaking my head, I dismissed the notification and opened the chat with Jacobs. “Hey, sorry I didn’t get your message before, had a bit of a mix up with a new spell.”

It wasn’t long later when he replied. “No worries, I just sent it a minute ago. But seriously, man, how’d you jump four levels already? I was grinding like crazy last night because the guards said that the morning was the most dangerous time to hunt.”

I chuckled, doing my best to contain my joy as I spoke. “Oh, nothing much, just poisoned a big group and a few wolves while they were fighting each other.”

“….That’s totally cheating. You know that, right?”

“Yup. But don’t worry, it’s not like I’ll be able to keep that up forever. I mean, how useful is it going to be once we get to the level where everyone is carrying around health potions or antidotes, and wielding the more high-tech weapons? Alchemy is only going to take me so far for now, unless I stumble on a really good recipe. On the other hand, your Gravity Magic will probably be a useful spell school no matter where you are.”

He chuckled at that, and I could almost hear him nodding his head as he replied. “True, true. Going to be working on learning Enchanting today. Got the feeling it’ll be pretty useful later.”

“Probably a good idea.” I nodded, and there was a distant ding in my mind as I thought about how all of the current tech in the game was fueled by mana. Since they wanted this to be realistic, then obviously any tech developed here would work the same as in real life. But since we had yet to leave our own solar system in real life, that meant that they had to fill in the gaps with magic, like a mana-powered FTL drive, or a portal gate between worlds. “Don’t know if I’ll be picking up another skill yet, or wait until I get to a bigger town. I can’t really get anything tech-related here.”

“True, again. I figure I’ll keep carpentry mostly for crafting furniture, get myself ready for if I can get my own house. Enchanting, however, is my go-to skill for making magical items. Maybe there’ll even be a branch of it to cover Magitech crafting.”

“No idea. I don’t know anyone that would be high enough level to ask.” I confirmed with my contacts list, and aside from my mom, who may not have even met a colony yet, I didn’t know anyone else with a level in the double digits.

“Well, going to go and find out eventually. Wish me luck!” He laughed into the connection, and then dropped it, likely going to learn his new skill. With the call dropped, a message appeared in front of me.

Your actions have indirectly caused the death of a wolf pack.

The poisoned rabbits you let the wolves take were shared among the pack, weakening them enough that when a stronger predator attacked they were unable to put up much of a fight and were wiped out. I hope you feel proud of yourself.

You have leveled up!

You have reached level 10! Inventory size increased. You may now choose a class.

I blinked slightly. Okay, sure, I might have actually been proud of myself for inadvertently causing the death of an entire wolf pack. I definitely felt proud of myself for reaching level 10, and the option to choose a class felt very nice.

Opening up my character sheet, I saw there was now the option to change my class away from Novice. Clicking it, I was shown a wide list of possible choices. They seemed to be listed in the order of relevance to my current skills.

Druid

Known as the guardians of nature, the druids are a fairly secretive people, borrowing the power of the natural world in order to fuel their abilities. Advanced Class example: Xeno-shifter, able to mimic the appearance and aspects of alien races.

Huntsman

Existing within nature, and knowing how to live alone, the huntsmen are a proud archetype. Whether in the city or the jungle, even in the outer reaches of space, they are able to find the means to survive. Advanced Class example: Bounty Hunter, a mercenary which takes on the job of hunting people for profit.

Mage

The arcane masters of the realm, mages are the intellectuals, the ones who gave the various worlds most of their power they have to this day. Advanced Class example: Tech-Mage, a mage specializing in manipulating or creating Magitech.

Rogue

Living in the shadows, stealing life and coin with but a thought, the rogues are powerful allies and deadly foes. Through poison, stealth, and cunning, they can defeat any challenge. Advanced Class example: Assassin, refining the art of killing to the utmost.

Fighter

For those uninterested in stealth, uncaring for the arcane practices, and not bowing their knee to pray to a god, there can only be the path of the fighter. Wielding any variety of weapons, they can tear through an enemy with a giant’s strength. Advanced Class example: Soldier, specializing in advanced weapons.

Priest

Those loyal to a god may draw their powers from realms beyond, causing harm or aid to befall their targets. While you will be restricted to the path of your chosen deity, you will gain powers more easily as you seek their guidance. Advanced Class example: Apostle, an embodiment of the chosen deity.

Knight

Holy warriors, those who show the wrath of the gods while protecting those who cannot protect themselves. They honor the edicts of their deities, and show those who oppose them the power of the heavens. Advanced Class example: Crusader, spreading the word and wrath to worlds beyond.

Craftsman

Every fighter needs his weapon. Every captain needs his ship. The Craftsman are those that specialize in production, often joining hands to create grand projects. Unlike other classes, they gain experience through crafting. Advanced Class example: Starlight Sculptor, able to sculpt the light of the stars into beautiful works.

Merchant

Without economy, the world would be in chaos. Without merchants, there would be no economy. A merchant may gain experience through trading, often going vast distances, maybe even to entirely new planets, to turn a profit. Advanced Class example: Smuggler, a dealer of illicit goods specializing in discretely transporting them across borders undetected.

I looked through the classes, a bit surprised. Not surprised that there were so many options, but that there were so few. Though, each class had an Advanced Class example listed, so they could likely evolve over time. I glanced at the list of nine classes several times before I decided to narrow my choices to the top three. Anything below that I was truly not qualified for. After all, the fourth option was for Rogue, and the only rogue-like skills I have are poison and Mana Signature, which suggests it may eventually be a suitable stealth skill. Anything below that I have absolutely nothing for.

So… Druid, Hunstman, or Mage. Thinking over it for a while, I weighed the pros and cons of each, before ultimately making my choice. For better or worse, the class I picked was….

Chapter 10: The AI, the Witch, and my god, that wardrobe.

You have selected the base class ‘Druid’.

+10 Wisdom, +5 Intelligence.

You have received a class quest

The Ways of the World

Rank ★ Druid Class Quest

Look for someone to teach you the ways of the druids.

Time Limit: None

Reward: Druid Class Skills

Failure: None

Having made my choice, I noticed that choosing the class gave a set of stat points, which seemed to indicate wisdom being the most important stat to a druid. As such, I poured my five points from leveling up into the stat as well. Simply selecting a class was equivalent to gaining three levels, so I was rather happy with it.

Looking up, the sun had yet to go down, so my sleep effect likely hadn’t lasted for very long. Picking myself up, I dusted off my clothes and made my way back towards the mage’s tower. While she wasn’t exactly a druid, the shaman instructor should be able to show me to someone who was.

Once I arrived there, I made my way over to see her. “Excuse me, may I have a moment?” It looked like she had just gotten out of a ‘class’ with another group of players, so I tried my best to be polite.

After she looked over to me, she suddenly smiled for some reason. “Oh, sure. You seem to have grown quite a bit since last time.”

We walked a fair distance away from the others before I decided to ask. “Do you know where I can find a druid?”

She smirked knowingly at my comment. “Chose your class, did you?” I blinked, having not expected her to know about how players choose classes, before she continued. “Everyone gets one chance to decide which of the nine paths in life they face once they reach a certain level of strength. For those of this world, we go to a temple and pray to the god or goddess of our chosen path, but we were told that you travelers would not need to do so thanks to your connections to the gods.”’

“I see. But yes, I decided to follow the path of a druid, and need to find someone that will be able to teach me.” I tried my best to remain calm. The NPCs in this game were a lot more realistic and knowledgeable about players than most games allowed.

“Well, that won’t be too hard. He’s a bit outside of town, in order to not be disturbed, but I can take you to him. First, though, we need to get you your companion AI.” She raised the sleeve of her robe to reveal a metallic wristband with a blue display screen. Now that I think about it, don’t all of the NPCs have their wrists covered?

I hadn’t given much thought to it before, as it was just local fashion, but this made me piece it together. “So, what is it?” I could guess a bit from what she had called it, but I didn’t know what all it was for.

“The companion AI is a device to help anyone that seeks to gain strength and travel the worlds. Alliance policy is to wait to hand them out to people until they have chosen their class with the gods, to stop them from charging off without the ability to survive.” As she spoke, she signalled to someone else that she was going to be leaving for a while, and escorted me out of the building. “They are simple devices that help display information for you, and record your adventures. For instance, if you had chosen to be a mage, you could download a rune database into your companion, and save a list of customized spells. Since you learned alchemy, you can also save your notes on that into it.”

I nodded my head slightly at her explanation. “So that’s what Lisara meant when she said I’d be getting a device to replace my journal soon.”

“Right. But one of the most important things about the companion AI is that it can evolve. Not in the physical sense, but it will develop a personality over time, and certain items will be able to grant it upgrades. Since it accompanies you everywhere in your adventure, and automatically records any new information, you can ask it questions about things you don’t understand or have forgotten. Since this is your first companion, it’ll be free. But if it gets broken you’ll need to pay to repair it or get a new one.” With that done, we arrived in front of a building. From the sign, it seemed to be the general store for this village, which I had for some reason never thought to visit.

…Seriously, why was I still wearing level 1 clothes? And damaged ones, at that! I let out a small sigh as I realized I probably could have been wearing actual armor by now, or at least robes enchanted with a bit of defense. As we entered the store, there was an elven man with long black hair wiping down the counter. “Greetings, Her Tinyness.” The man smirked to the loli teacher, who started to clench her fists and gave off a rather terrifying aura. “Sorry, sorry, you know your company is always appreciated, Rita.”

I really need to start asking for people’s names… I shook my head at how forgetful I was about it, and was going to remedy it immediately when Rita spoke up. “Yeah, can it, Harlan. This guy is just ready for his first companion.” She pointed a thumb at me, causing him to raise a curious eyebrow.

“Really? He managed to get the gods’ approval wearing just that?” He looked questioningly at me.

“Yeah… don’t remind me… Forgot to get new equipment.” I sighed helplessly, making him chuckle a bit.

“Well, no matter. As they say, the gods work in mysterious ways.” He then reached into a hidden compartment behind the counter and pulled out a wristband similar to the one that Rita was wearing. “Here you go, your first companion. Do you want to purchase any additional software for it?”

I tilted my head, considering it. “Is there an alchemy guide that I could get?” To which he nodded, getting my hopes up. I should know better by now, really.

“The Basic Alchemy Handbook, complete with listings of all lesser herbs and their known effects, as well as several recipes, is available for thirty silver.” He smiled as if that was already a discount, shattering what little hopes I had left. My mere one silver couldn’t afford anything…

“I’ll… I’ll pass, thanks…” I tried not to sound as if I had been run over by a truck, I really did. The giggle that sounded up next to me made me realize I failed miserably.

“Alright then, just strap this on, and choose the basic settings.” I stepped forward at his invitation, accepting the wristband, and put it on. A moment later, a message appeared on the screen of the device.

New user detected. Retrieving mana sample…

Mana sample acquired. Insert user name.

A holographic keyboard appeared above the wristband, which I used to type out my name. Without realizing it, I had typed out my character name, rather than my player name. That’s really going to get annoying..

Falenel registered as owner. Please assign companion gender designation.

I blinked at that, looking up to Rita. She grinned wryly, nodding her head. “After it develops a bit, it’ll have its own electronic voice. The gender assignment helps you determine the path the personality and voice will take. Though, most of the personality is based on how you act and speak with it.”

I nodded back to her, and immediately chose female. If I’m going to have someone to talk to whenever I play the game, I’d rather it at least sound like a beautiful woman, rather than a gruff man.

This unit registered as female. Do you wish to assign a name to this companion?

This option didn’t surprise me as much as the last one. I could see some people viewing the AI as merely a tool to use, and not bother naming it. However, I quickly typed in a name I was rather fond of, someone I had dated for a time in the real world.

This unit shall now identify as Celeste.

“So, what is a basic AI able to do?” I asked out loud, curiously. Before Rita had a chance to explain, my wristband displayed another screen with text on it.

A first level companion AI is capable of observing, recording, and reviewing. I may notice aspects of your environment that you fail to, or more quickly make a connection between a situation and relevant information. As I have tapped into your mana flow, I can see whatever you see, though I do not have the power to alter your perceptions or change the flow of mana in any way without prior upgrades.

After reading the message, I glanced over to Rita with a curious expression. She smiled and explained. “I said before that they could be upgraded. Some upgrades improve mana efficiency or increase recovery. Some allow them to modify your field of vision to form a sort of heads up display. I’ve even heard that there was an upgrade that allowed you to have full 360 degree vision for a short while.”

“Ahh… I would probably like the display one, since it would be more handy than reading from a display screen.”

This time it was the shopkeeper who explained. “Just give it a little bit until she can form her own voice. I’ve never seen it take more than a day for an AI to be able to start speaking verbally to its owner. And for that time, I’d suggest against fighting monsters. Remember, it records all of your experiences to establish its base personality. If its first day is filled with violence, it will in turn have a violent personality.”

Okay… so no more mass murdering bunnies until it is able to talk, gotcha. I nodded my head slightly at that. For the most part, I had already gotten rid of my grudge against the horned rabbits, so that wasn’t too much of a problem. Looking over to Rita, I figured I was done here. “You were going to take me to see the druid instructor?”

Rita nodded her head for a moment, and then opened her eyes as if suddenly remembering. “Oh, right! Sorry, forgot about it. First time helping someone with their companion. Later, Harlan!” She turned around and quickly left the store. Following behind her, I decided to pull out my book of plants to quickly flip through it while we walked. If Celeste records everything I see, then I shouldn’t need to spend more than a few seconds on each page for her to acquire all the information on it. And this way, she should be able to help identify plants that I overlook. It didn’t take more than a couple minutes to finish the book and put it away again, and by that time we were just leaving the village..

…

I forgot to get armor again!

Our walk through the woods was actually fairly easy, with not a single animal attacking us. Although the rabbits we passed sent me mean glares(which didn’t look so mean with their adorable faces), none of them acted while I was with Rita. Even the wolves backed away as we walked by.

“Are you using magic to stop them..?” I asked as we passed by a mother wolf who was using her body to shield her pups from view.

“Hmm? No, I’ve just been out here a few times, so they know better. Animals are more sensitive to energies, so they can feel your aura to determine your strength.”

Ahh… so it’s a matter of level, then. I nodded my head in understanding, and my wrist vibrated slightly. Well, Celeste vibrated, and I had to look down to her. On her holographic display was a blue arrow, and when I followed it I saw the black mushroom I had been looking for previously. Thank you, Celeste!

I grinned happily, nodding my thanks, and quickly retrieved the mushroom before continuing on. It took us about twenty minutes of walking before we found a small lake in the forest. At the edge of the lake was a young man, sitting there with a gnarled staff in one hand, and petting a wolf with the other. His robes were long and green, such that if he stood up I might have trouble figuring out where the grass ended and he began. “Jarl, we have a student for you.” Rita spoke up with a smile as we drew closer.

The man’s head lifted up and he looked at me, slowly a smile spread across his lips. “Ah, looks like things are about to get exciting again.”

You have completed a class quest!

The Ways of the World

Rank ★ Druid Class Quest

Look for someone to teach you the ways of the druids.

Time Limit: None

Reward: Druid Class Skills

Failure: None

Chapter 11: I Can be a Cultivation Expert Too?

After introducing me to Jarl, Rita went back to town. I may have been a bit scared now that she was gone, I’ll admit. Getting here was easy with her, but getting back… well, I guess dying counts as easy, right? Well, I haven’t really taken a good look at my character info since I got my class, and I guess I should take care of that.

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 10

20.0%

Class

Druid

Sub-Class

None

Deity

Malthan

Health

100/100

Health Regen

0.17

Mana

360/360

Mana Regen

0.33

Strength

12

Wisdom

55

Agility

20

Intelligence

36

Dexterity

17

Charisma

9

Vitality

10

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

So, I’m now getting back a mana point every three seconds, which is nice. And there is a new entry, for Sub-Classes… not really sure what that’s for. Maybe that’s like what it listed before, with the Xeno-Shifter? But that was called an Advanced Class.

“So, you already know my name, but what is yours?” It took me a moment to realize that Jarl had spoken, but soon I looked up and saw him waiting for my answer.

“Ah, sorry. My name is Falenel.” I had long since given up trying to introduce myself with my real name, and by now was just going with the flow.

“I see, and you were accepted as a druid, then? Well, I guess that means I should teach you our most fundamental skill.” Jarl chuckled slightly, slowly rising to his feet. The wolf next to him looked up sadly at the loss of his hand on its head. “Keep in mind, just because you chose to represent the druids does not mean you are the only one able to learn the skills. Anyone is able to learn any type of skills, if they put in the effort. The trick is what you specialize in.”

I nodded my head, indicating I understood as he continued. “The first, and most important skill in a druid’s arsenal, is known as World Casting. Think of it as a mix between divine and arcane magic. While we are not beseeching any god to grant us power, we are borrowing power from the world itself. This grants us a number of different abilities, such as increased mana and health regeneration, and more flexible control over the elements. However, this only lasts while we are in the presence of elements we have familiarized ourselves with. This process is known as ‘gaining an affinity’.”

“Every creature born capable of manipulating mana is also born with a natural affinity. Though, they don’t tend to exceed a very small amount except for in the cases of beasts naturally able to control an element. In the old days, it was a matter of trial and error to figure out someone’s affinities, but thankfully we have tech that can tell us.” He digs around in his pockets for a few moments, until he pulls out a thin metal strip.

“This will be the first real upgrade for your companion, assuming you weren’t rich enough to buy something already.” He gave me a knowing smile. I guess it’s not an uncommon thing to hope for addons to the companion early on. “It gives your companion the ability to read how your aura interacts with the elements, in order to determine how high your affinity is with them.” After he hands me the metal strip, I look at it confused for a moment, not sure how I am supposed to upgrade Celeste. “Just hold it over the display, and your companion will scan the data.”

I nodded, doing as he said, and there was a brief light from Celeste, before she displayed another holographic screen. This one floated several inches above her display, and looked like a three dimensional chart. On the chart were hundreds of tiny bumps of various colors, which I was completely unable to make out at all. “That’s a lot of elements…”

Jarl raised an eyebrow, and then looked at the display, before chuckling. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, we call them elements, but really there are affinities for anything. Sound, light, dark, even emotions have an affinity. Tell your companion to only list the ‘big seven’, and your three strongest lesser affinities.”

I looked down to my wristband. “Uh… do… whatever he just said.”

There was a slight beep, before almost all of the little bumps on the chart disappeared, leaving only ten remaining. Now that there was more space for the ten there, more information about each was displayed. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Lightning… those are all pretty much expected… Light and Dark, not uncommon.. Then my eyes looked at the three ‘lesser affinities’. Plants, understandable. I’ve done most of my training in game with plants… Luck… well… okay, I’m not that surprised. I did get a Wild Luck skill, after all. And the third is…Madness. Why do I feel like I’m being trolled right now?

Sadly, each of these affinities were just one or two percent, with Plant Affinity being the highest at three. As if having expected that, Jarl nodded his head. “Like I said, the affinities will be naturally low to start with. The fact that you have one at 3% already shows that you are either really lucky, or have been accidentally training in the right way. Once you reach 5% in any affinity, you will start to be able to control that element with your magic. This will in most ways act the same as an arcane magic caster, but you will not need nearly as much mana, since you are just influencing what is already there.

“The downside is the amount of time it takes to train an affinity, as well as the requirement that it needs to be present in your surroundings. For example, if you’re on a spaceship, the Plant Affinity will not do you much good. That’s the difference between World Casting and Arcane Casting. One controls, and the other creates. Once I go over the other skills a druid needs, I’ll teach you how to cultivate your affinities.”

I couldn’t help but groan slightly as he said cultivate. I played a Xianxia style VR once, and cultivation took ages. If they didn’t have a fast forward option, I would never have been able to do it. “Oh, don’t give me that. Once you practice for a little while, you’ll be able to do it as easy as breathing. Now, the other big skills of a druid would naturally be their control over nature.”

I nodded my head, trying to keep my voice even. I really didn’t want to learn how to cultivate like that again. “Yeah, I learned Nature Magic, or at least started to.”

He smiled at that. “Good, good. That’ll make this easier. No matter which path you want to take as a druid, you will need to practice that. You can have an army of animal companions, or turn into animals yourself, or even cause plants to poison enemies. It’d be a good idea to think about what kind of druid you want to be early on, so that you can start developing towards that path.”

My mind naturally went towards the Xeno-Shifter. It couldn’t be as easy as choosing an Advanced Class right away, could it? “I want to be able to take on the properties of other creatures, maybe learn more about the alien races.”

Again, Jarl chuckled knowingly. “I take it you were shown information on the Xeno-Shifters. Yes, most who see that information tend to want to pursue it. And, if that is your decision, I would suggest focusing on the bestial portions of Nature Magic, and maybe some more alchemy. Rita brought you here, so if you have Nature Magic, she likely made you learn that too. Knowing alchemy will help, once you learn how things react together. For instance, if you learn how to combine twenty different plants to form a single spell, you’ll have enough mastery over your mana to start mimicking the special abilities of alien races.”

I blinked a bit at his requirement. Twenty plants? Here I thought I was doing good to have so many spells for sets of two plants. Nevertheless, I nodded to him. “Alright. How exactly do I train the beast magic? I can’t exactly study the animals like I would plants… they seem to be more interested in eating me than anything else.”

Jarl smirked slightly. “Well, you could try studying a dead one, but sitting in front of a rotting corpse and having to focus on it for long periods just doesn’t sit well with most. The other option is to try to make nice with an animal. This is why most druids are seen with at least one animal companion. If you can keep a single animal by your side, you can practice your magic together with it. You can release the animal any time you want, but if they have grown fond of you they may still try to follow. At the same time, if you are cruel to your animal, they will turn on you like anything else.”

Not getting a bunny. “Okay.. so how do I make nice with an animal? Just give it some food?” I had never really owned a pet, so I wasn’t sure what I was doing here.

“Well, depends on the animal. If you were taming a rabbit, I’d say feed it some blood weed. For a wolf, giving it some meat would help. As long as they don’t see you as a threat, and are willing to get close enough, you can establish a link with them. Just send your mana into their body, and focus on connecting to their mind. That will allow for basic communication. No, you won’t be able to use words to speak to each other, but emotions and feelings can still get a meaning across.”

Still not getting a bunny. “I think I understand. Not really, but I’ll give it a shot. Now, what was it you said about… cultivating?”

“Right. It’s really easy, honestly. With enough practice, you can do it without even thinking, while you go about your normal day. Basically, just send your mana out to connect to an element. That’s the first step. Then, try to attune your mana to match that element. Finally, try to cycle the mana. What I mean by that is pulling just a little bit of the mana from your element and assimilating it with your own mana. This is also what gives us increased health and mana regeneration, since we can resupply our own mana with elements we have a good affinity with.”

I nodded my head again, thinking that this was definitely not as bad as I had first imagined. As long as I wasn’t channeling the mana through my veins or whatever, it was fine. I shuddered at the memory of that game. “Okay, I think I’ll work on that for a little bit. I can grab an animal companion afterwards.”

He shrugged his shoulders, not really caring either way. “Up to you. The more you experience with an animal companion, the stronger it will grow. Since you don’t plan to use the companion for more than practicing your magic, it’s not really necessary, but if you cultivate affinities with it, then it’s possible your animal will learn to cultivate as well. Just remember to treat your animal well when you have it, or it may turn on you.”

I nodded again, sitting down and closing my eyes. Out of my affinities with the ‘big seven’, one of the highest was earth. So, I placed my hand on the ground and began sending mana out into it in much the same way as I had been doing with the plants. Except, there was no circuit this time keeping my mana contained, so I was steadily losing energy as I was doing this. I soon learned that there was a thick layer of energy just below the surface of the ground, and assumed that was what I was looking for.

Since I had practiced so much with plants, it didn’t take me too long to match my mana to that of the earth. There were just a few properties that were new to me, but not unexpected. For instance, how stubborn the energy was, reflecting its real nature. Once I was done with that, I tried pulling the mana back into me, which didn’t go so well. Did I mention that earth mana was stubborn? I had to dump over fifty mana into the connection before even a steady trickle of it started coming back to me.

Now that I had the mana coming back to me, I just focused on maintaining that sensation. Thankfully it cost a lot less mana to hold the connection than to establish it, but I was still steadily losing energy. By the time my focus lapsed and I lost the mana, I was already down to 30% mana.

After resting to recover my mana, I started the process all over again. I was eagerly anticipating the part where he said I’d be able to do this effortlessly… But I figured once I got the skill to control earth, I would go hunting for an animal test subject– I mean companion.

Chapter 12: Mine?

The process of growing my Earth Affinity was extremely slow, given that I had to pause every now and then to recover my mana. That’s not even taking into account the occasions when I lost focus and the connection faltered. Though, once it increased from 2% to 3%, I noticed it was slightly easier to maintain the link. If I had to guess, I’d be able to maintain it without worry about my mana costs at 5%, and be able to maintain it with little to no effort at 10%.

Still, just that 1% increase took three hours. I ended up staying there the entire night, focusing on that connection with earth mana. Every now and then, I would talk to my parents or Jacobs while waiting for my mana to recover, but for the most part that time was spent entirely focused. From 3% to 4% took another six hours, after which I was too tired to focus anymore and could only pass out on the ground.

When I awoke, I was too hungry to focus on cultivating mana right away. Remembering what had happened before, I decided to log off to eat. With my Seed opening, I noticed that it was no longer dark outside, meaning that I had played until morning. Of course, with the time dilation, that was still over two full days in the game.

Getting up, I did a quick set of stretches, because I had basically laid in a bed for the last ten hours. Surprisingly, my body wasn’t tense at all. I pretty much felt exactly as I had before logging out. “Damn, that game is almost too realistic…”

I shook my head, heading down to the kitchen. Even in the most vivid of VR games, there was always this feeling that let you know the world around you wasn’t real, no matter how much your mind tried to tell you it was. You could get stuck in an illusion of your real life and still easily know you were in the game. But with NeoLife, it was the opposite. Despite the bloodthirsty horned rabbits, the magic, and everything else pointing towards it being a fantasy, it felt real.

Making myself an omelette, I took the chance to enjoy a full breakfast for once. Food synthesizers were commonplace, where all you had to have was the ingredients and the recipe, and the machine would cook for you almost instantly. However, to me, food just always tasted better when it was made manually. Probably my mom’s influence, as she had always insisted we never use such devices except for emergencies. Such emergencies included Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays when there were too many people coming over to properly cook for everyone.

Once I had eaten my fill, I cleaned my dishes and got onto the internet. I wasn’t in a hurry to get back into NeoLife right away, knowing that I’d spend hours just cultivating earth mana once I did so. Instead, I looked to see if there was any new information posted on the game. Since I managed to get to level 10 through luck, with my lack of skill, others should have easily surpassed me. The question was whether or not they had posted the information.

Looking through various forums, I ran a search for information related to Sub-Classes and deities. As expected, there wasn’t much information on either, at least not definitive. From the posts I found, there were at least dozens of different deities, and it was impossible to tell how they were assigned to people. Two people, both fighters wielding two-handed weapons, could have two completely different deities assigned to them.

As for Sub-Classes, from what I could piece together, a Sub-Class was a step below Advanced Classes. Basically, you choose your Sub-Class to gain the skills needed to unlock an Advanced Class. Like with regular classes, you could still gain the skills without taking the Sub-Class, but they were more difficult. The most common examples on the forums were different kinds of Mage Sub-Classes, such as Necromancers, Evokers, or Summoners. There wasn’t any information how to obtain a Sub-Class, just that when you met the requirements, you would get the option to get it, and you could only have one.

Shaking my head, I went back to my Seed to get back into the game. There was practically no information on Druids, since people preferred more tech-oriented classes in the game. So naturally, there was no information about what Sub-Class I needed to get the Xeno-Shifter Advanced Class, or how to obtain it. I could only obediently follow Jarl’s instructions. However, once I was back ingame, a window appeared in front of me that made my eye twitch reflexively.

New Skill Acquired!

Cooking – Basic Level 3

Exp: 52%

The art of cooking is an important survival skill for any in the wild. While modern technology can make the skill obsolete, it is still important to understand for when the technology is unavailable.

It’s even giving me skills for things I do outside of the game… I took a few moments to calm down after realizing that. There were a number of different ways such things were possible. A simple memory scan upon login would reveal the information, for example. Since the game was linked directly to my mind, it was entirely possible. It was just odd if that was the case, because games that use memory scans to identify skill usage in the real world typically grant the user any of their known skills when they make their character.

I had a few thoughts about logging out and doing some hacking to get that skill, but I quickly cast that thought aside. Even if computers worked the same here as in the real world, it wasn’t worth the risk of getting caught. I’d just do some quick hacking work when I got to a computer I could practice on in the game.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled episode of cultivating mana! Today we have… well, me, cultivating earth mana again. As expected, it took over six hours to get Earth Affinity to 5%, but after I did so, I was happy to see that I could pull mana from the earth just as fast as the mana was spent. It effectively created the same kind of circuit pattern that I would do between my hands when preparing magic.

New Ability Unlocked!

Earth Manipulation – Earth Affinity – ☆

Through focus and the appropriate use of mana, the user is able to manipulate the ground around them.

Only half a star rank? But more importantly, this is an ability, not a skill… I thought about it for a moment, and then pulled up my windows. As expected, there was an Ability Window separate from my Skill Window.

Base

Abilities

Nature Magic

Nature’s Grasp ★

Alchemic Heal ★

Alchemic Poison ★☆

Alchemic Antidote ★☆

Alchemic Sleep ★

Wind Magic

Gust ★

Wind Bullet ★

Nature Magic + Wind Magic

Poison Spores ★★

Earth Affinity

Earth Manipulation ☆

So abilities level up based on the relevant skills or affinities, rather than grinding them. Then is Earth Manipulation only half a star rank because Earth Affinity is at 5%? How many stars would it be if I managed to get it to 100%? I thought to myself as I maintained the cycling of earth mana. Like I had planned initially, it was time to go looking for an animal companion.

I had given a bit of thought to what kind of companion I wanted while doing my cultivation, and ultimately I decided that the best thing for me would be a bird. While a wolf could track an animal through smells, a bird was able to fly and get a good view of the situation. And, if I was eventually able to copy the qualities of my animal companion, I’d much rather have the ability to fly than to sniff things really well.

At this time, a sweet voice entered into my ear. “Ah, finally done?” Taking a quick look around, I found nobody in sight that would have caused the voice which seemed to belong to a little girl. The action did, however, earn a giggle from the voice. “Down here, down here!”

Following the voice, I looked down to my wrist. Suddenly, a holographic display of a girl in her late teens appeared. She seemed extremely energetic, and the appearance she had taken was a girl still growing. Though, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t already exceptionally cute. It took several seconds for me to piece together the hologram’s identity.

“…Celeste?”

“That’s right! You were so busy before, I didn’t want to disturb you and ruin your efforts. It got really boring waiting, you know?” The little hologram puffed up her cheeks in a pouting expression, causing me to laugh. I hadn’t realized that Celeste would finish developing her personality while I was still cultivating, but really I should have. The store owner did say it would take no more than a day, and that was almost a full day ago.

“Sorry, sorry. I see you ‘woke up’, though?” I was also a bit surprised by her personality. Since most of her time had been spent observing me cultivate earth mana, I had naturally assumed that she would have a more professional attitude like the main character of a Xianxia novel.

“Yup. I completed my initial awakening cycle roughly five hours ago.” Celeste nodded her virtual head with a wide smile. “So, what are you going to do now? Not practice another element, right?”

“No, I’m going to look for an animal companion. Hoping to get a bird of some kind.”

After I said that, Celeste paused for a few moments before nodding her head in a decisive manner. “During your walk on the way here, I noted five different species of birds. From their reactions in the presence of you and the other girl, two seemed to be predatory, two were confirmed herbivores, and one was indifferent.”

I thought about that for a moment, trying to decide what I wanted in my animal companion. An herbivore could just grab the fruits from nearby trees, rather than relying on itself or me to hunt for it. “Can you tell me about the two herbivores?”

She nodded her head a fraction again. “Alright! The first one was roughly two feet tall, with a green coloring. Its beak was three inches long, and curved at the tip. When you passed it was eating some type of nut, but immediately dropped it and flew away. The other was a bit smaller, just one foot tall, with an unusual defense mechanism. As soon as it noticed you, it dropped the fruit it was eating and altered its coloration to blend into the tree behind it. This species possessed four thin wings and three long feathers in its tail.”

Certainly not small birds… I had expected her to find some that were only a few inches tall, not two feet. “Alright, can you keep an eye out for the second one, and let me know if you see another one? Also, see if you can find any of the fruits it was eating, since we’ll need something to bribe it with.”

“Can do.” She gave me that sweet smile again before the display vanished. Well, at least my AI companion was an energetic young girl, instead of something more abusive. And since she called this her initial awakening, she might still mature more later on.

Bidding farewell to Jarl, I went off into the forest, being very careful about where I stepped. This deep in, it was far too likely that I would encounter an enemy. Not to mention, I was completely lost. I wasn’t too worried about not knowing where I was, though, since I could ask Celeste to help guide me back. Speaking of which, a couple minutes after I started walking, there was a buzz at my wrist.

Looking down, there was a small arrow pointing up. Following it, I found a few fruits hanging from the tree above. Great… now how do I get them down? Shoot them down? No, I’m more likely to miss and accidentally hit a wild animal…. Guess that leaves just one option…

I sighed in resignation, knowing I was going to regret this. Looking at the tree, there were no shortage of handholds to grab onto and climb the few meters I needed to reach the fruit. I wasn’t afraid of heights, more afraid of what might be hiding in them. Nonetheless, I soldiered on and climbed up, step by step until I was crawling along the branch. It was at this time that I looked down to my wrist again, and felt like crying.

The arrow that had appeared to have been pointing at the fruit just out of my reach was now pointing in every direction at once. Don’t tell me… I looked around, and one by one the ‘leaves’ of this great tree shifted, changing from green to red as wings unfurled.

“Uhm…Grab the fruit… and run… fast…” The little voice at my wrist sounded out meekly, no more eager to be in this situation than I was. They may be herbivores, but in this number they were still easily a threat to me.

Reaching forward, I quickly grabbed two of the fruit from the branch I was hugging to chuck them into my inventory, and jumped off. Whether through luck or my stats, I landed without a hitch, and was able to immediately begin running. It wasn’t the sound of thousands of wings flapping at once, or the feeling of the wind buffeting the ground from the sheer number of birds flying through at a low altitude that worried me. It was the other sound coming from them.

“Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine!” Hundreds of high pitched voices saying the same thing, like a swarm of tiny children. They can talk?! And they’re going to alert the whole forest at this rate!

I ran, as hard and fast as I could, I ran. Past startled wolves, and sleeping bears, I ran. But they flew faster. Thankfully, their numbers managed to scare off the normal predators that would have been more than happy to eat me for lunch. Even casting a Gust spell behind me only gave me a brief respite as dozens of birds were knocked back.

Less than a minute later, my vision had turned completely black, and I stood there awaiting death’s embrace, constantly hearing that one word repeated over and over again. And then I felt feathers all over my body, and was worried that they might be omnivores, not purely herbivores. Were they landing on me to go in for the kill?

Minutes passed, and nothing happened. Every now and then, I would still hear that single word echoing around me, but otherwise I was simply wrapped within the strangest feather blanket the world has ever knock.

Mine.. wait, don’t tell me they weren’t referring to those fruits… I slowly tried to move one arm, and was surprised to find that there was no resistance. The birds were clinging to my body, but there talons did not dig into my skin. The long feather tails that Celeste had noted seemed to help them in hugging my body to stop themselves from falling off without hurting. When I opened my eyes, I saw that all of the birds that weren’t able to find purchase on my body had instead landed in front of me.

“Mine.” “Mine.” “Mine!”

Since I was able to freely move, I sighed in relief. I seriously thought they were going to kill me there for a bit. Looking around, I pulled out those two fruits from my inventory. All at once, the eyes of the birds lit up, and I thought they might attack for real.

“Mine!” “Mine!” “Mine!”

Moving the fruits around, I saw that all of the birds had their eyes glued to them, but were not making any moves to attack. At random, I chose two of the birds to feed, ones which were greedily clinging to my shoulders. The two happily accepted the fruits, making a cooing sound as they did. The others, including the rest that had latched onto me, looked at the ground with a depressed atmosphere.

“Aww….” They seemed to say at once before flying off again, leaving a confused half-elf alone with two happy birds perched on his shoulders.

Chapter 13: The Lovebirds

After taking a moment to think about what happened, I looked to the two birds that were happily rubbing their heads against me as if I were an old friend. Then, something occurred to me… The flock of birds which had managed to scare away everything with sheer numbers had just left… it wouldn’t be long before everything came back!

“Celeste, I need directions back to the grove, now!” Since she’s been recording everything so far, she has to know which way to go for things, so long as I don’t keep my eyes closed when I run.

“Sir, yes, sir!!” She said, appearing in a military dress up, and doing a silly salute. Then, as I began running for dear life for the second time today, she began guiding me back to where I had been cultivating. On the way there, I naturally caught sight of several animals returning back to their homes now that it appeared safe. A few of them recognized me and cringed away, as if fearing the swarm was right behind me again.

Of course, there were several that chose to attack on sight out of frustration as well, including a pair of rather angry looking wolves. I was about three minutes away from the grove at a dead run, and with no way to kill the wolves. The two birds were still uselessly sitting on my shoulders, as if the wolves or the run were of no concern to them.

Hastily, I thought through my list of spells, and realized there was only a couple of things that I could do to get them off my trail, but I had to act fast. Those teeth were starting to look very vivid whenever I turned my head back to look. In the same manner as I had fused my Alchemic Poison with Wind Magic, I started fusing Wind Magic and Alchemic Sleep. There was a ding in my head from a notification, but I was a bit too busy to take notice.

Stretching my hands out to the side, I worked the makeshift spell to spread the sleep spores behind me. Even if it didn’t knock the wolves out, it should at least make them slow down for a bit! I kept casting the spell again and again, not daring to look back in case I was met with more teeth.

By the time I was nearing the grove, my mana had almost completely run out. However, I had finally mustered up the courage to look back, seeing that there were apparently no longer any wolves chasing after me. I let out a sigh of relief, and dragged myself over to the small pond while my legs felt like they were ready to give out. I’ve never run so desperately in my life… and now I did it twice in one day. This can’t be good for my heart..

Looking at the notification that had appeared during my run, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was just another spell notification, letting me know about the new spell Sleep Spores. However, I was a bit surprised when I heard a young voice speak up from nearby, in a rather amused tone. “What’s this? A couple of young lovebirds, huh?”

Looking over, I saw Jarl smirking in my direction, and quickly looked around as if to find the couple he was talking about. I surely would have noticed people here on a date, right? This is too far out of town for there to be just anyone enjoying a stroll. Seeing my reaction my Jarl laugh earnestly. “The birds, they’re called lovebirds. A pretty common species in the forest, though many people tend to dislike them due to their clingy nature.”

“Yeah… I noticed that too.” I turned to look at each of the birds on my shoulders, who seemed happy for even that little bit of attention. “What can you tell me about them…?” Asking him was a far safer option than trying to figure it out on my own, no matter how rewarding the latter experience is supposed to be.

“Well, male lovebirds are quite rare, roughly one percent of the species. Thus, they are able to take any mate they want. The males also have decent combat abilities, on par with a full grown wolf, as their talons and beaks are sharper than the females. On the other hand, the females have the ability to camouflage themselves by altering the pigmentation in their feathers. They use this ability to try to attract a male, and hide from predators.

“Females not chose as a male’s mate will often hide out in trees near their favorite fruit, earning it the name Heart’s Apple. Whenever someone comes by and picks the fruit, all of the surrounding females will swarm that person until they choose to feed one of them. After that, well… I think you get the picture.” He smirked slightly towards the two birds on my shoulders.

“So… aside from their stealth ability…” Before I could even finish asking, he nodded his head.

“Completely useless in a fight. Their talons are dull, and their beaks too curved to use as a weapon. Some tried to train them to use their tails as whips, but that never ended well.”

Great… so I got two useless birds… Well, from the looks of it, nothing short of killing them will make them go away, and I wasn’t exactly looking for a combat pet. Being able to fly and gaining their stealth power is already good enough of a reason to keep them.

I sat down, or sprawled out on the ground, depending on how delicate you want to be about it. Once I recovered my mana, I sent a bit into each bird, hoping to establish the animal companion link as Jarl had described it. The birds seemed more than willing to allow it, and even guided the mana to make it happen more quickly. Once it was established, they both squawked out a resounding “Mine!”

Hearing this reminded me of the swarm, and I cast a depressed look to Jarl. “Can they at least be trained to talk?”

He smirked again at my misfortune, the bastard! “If you practice your Nature Magic with them enough, they may glean enough information to project a voice. That all depends on how quickly they learn, though.”

I shook my head helplessly, and propped myself up to sit in a meditative stance. Okay…. gameplan, train Nature Magic for a little while until they show signs of being able to learn. Then, start cultivating Wind Affinity. Maybe these birds can pick that up and make themselves useful. In the meantime, I can try to copy their traits. Being able to fly and hide like that would certainly come in handy no matter where I was.

“So… how exactly do I practice the bestial aspects of Nature Magic? Rita taught me how to do the plant side, but this doesn’t really seem similar at all.”

Hearing my sudden question, Jarl looked up at me, and tilted his head before realization dawned on him. “Well, it’s actually quite similar. Just like with the plants, you need to analyze a beast with your mana, identify how they use their ability, and replicate the mana signature. For gaining body parts like wings, you have to carefully analyze the appropriate body part, in as much detail as you can, and then try to guide your mana within your body to match.”

To demonstrate, he lifted one of his hands up, which quickly turned into an oversized bear paw, lengthening and widening with brown fur sprouting out. The fingers became indistinct as the paw form settled in. A moment later, it started the shift back to a normal hand. “Mastering either the plant or animal sides of Nature Magic will each grant extraordinary gifts. For instance, a master of the beast path can grant themselves eternal youth by simply shifting into a younger form. Likewise, a master of the plant path can use medicinal effects to achieve the same result.”

I nodded my head, and extended one hand in front of me. Only now did I notice a blinking icon in the corner of my vision, and had to wonder how long it had been there. Once I focused on it, it enlarged into a notification.

You have formed an Animal Companion bond with two Lovebirds

Please name your two new companions.

I blinked a bit, but this wasn’t surprising. I couldn’t really expect the birds to come with names. Though, looking at them, I couldn’t really tell the two apart. I ended up choosing at random, naming the one on my left shoulder Yin, and the other Yang.

“Don’t worry, I can tell the differences.” Celeste spoke up from my wrist again, and I looked down to see that holographic face smirking slightly.

Congratulations! You qualify for a druid Sub-Class!

Beastmaster

Often seen with a horde of following companions, the beastmasters are a feared foe. Though only as powerful as their army of animals, such a force should not be taken likely.

Advanced Class path: Colony Druid, able to store the bodies and minds of beasts within themselves, and call upon them to fight in times of need.

Do you wish to accept? Y/N

That didn’t take much thought, so I immediately declined the option. I knew what I wanted, and it wasn’t to have a bunch of animals living inside of me. Extending my hand out, I urged Yin mentally to perch on it. She looked carefully at me, before squawking her acceptance and moving to my hand. Yang, seeming to think this meant that she was getting special attention, prodded the side of my head with her curved beak, which was particularly annoying. I could only try to assure her that she’d get the same treatment when I was done.

Once Yin was on my hand, I began circulating my mana through her body. The first things I wanted to analyze were her feathers, so that I could quickly learn the ability to disguise myself. Yin twitched a bit, and I could feel an uncomfortable sensation coming from her, but she endured. As if somewhat understanding what I wanted, her feathers began to change color, from deep red to black.

The pulse of mana throughout her feathers was almost too fast for me to notice. However, she quickly reverted back to her original coloring. The second time she changed, I was much more accurately able to feel the disturbances in one of her feathers I was focusing on. Seeing that I was pleased, she began flaunting her ability, changing her colors like a rainbow.

Given how eagerly she was demonstrating helped me to understand the changes in the mana signature of the feather. It was like there were two different signatures, the outer one and inner one. The outer signature changed every time she shifted colors, and seemed to correspond with the color she took, while the inner one was the true signature. Still, all I needed was the outer one, and information on how it was done. Following the mana pathways, I found that in the shaft of the feather was a mirror-like tube, carrying the color along through the feather and spreading it out.

Going further, I found that on Yin’s skin was where the actual pigmentation shifted. The feathers merely reflected the color of wherever they were embedded. Again, I spent some time analyzing this while Yin happily showed off, noting each time I showed a pleased reaction. Yang again began prodding me for equal attention, but I was almost done with this step.

Next, I had Yin get back on my shoulder, and had to stop Yang from suddenly jumping into my hands for her turn. These birds were already turning into a real handful. Next, I closed my eyes and did my best to focus, trying to ignore the birds cuddling against me. I had spent over an hour simply memorizing the subtle shifts in Yin’s mana whenever she changed colors, and was confident in being able to replicate it.

Unfortunately, it’s never really that easy. The slight shifts in Yin’s mana required a very fine control that I wasn’t sure I was capable of, even though I knew it inside and out. It was like watching someone draw the number 9 on a piece of paper for an hour, and then try to do the same only to realize, you don’t have fingers. At least my practice in mana signatures managed to pay off, but it took me over twice as long to change colors for the first time than it took to memorize the patterns.

New Spell Developed!

Camouflage – Nature Magic – ★★

By compying the mana signatures of an animal capable of disguising itself, you too can hold this gift for the low low price of a small headache!

Mana Cost: 30/Minute

I smiled slightly as the prompt appeared, and began working to shift colors again. Even if this was exhausting, I had managed to grind 3 points of Wisdom by trying to control my mana like this for my first shift. Sadly, my mana was being spent faster than it was coming back, so I had to take a break after 40 minutes, during which time I reluctantly pet the two birds.

Once my break was over, and my mana returned, I got back to work. This time, I managed to turn my arm green before the 40 minutes had passed, which I considered a great success. Another break, another attempt, this time it took 20 minutes to turn my other arm red. This continued for a while, and by the time I was able to change colors at a whim, the sun had long since set.

One thing I was happy to discover was that the 30 mana per minute cost only applied if I covered my whole body. Just doing a smaller part cost less, though I didn’t have enough control to do complex patterns or anything like that. Still, being able to copy the ability to change my color after a few hours of practice made me happy.

Tomorrow.. I can try to grow wings, I guess… I thought to myself as I leaned back and drifted off to sleep, a small weight pressing on either of my arms from my new companions.

Chapter 14: Let’s Go Fly an Elf

You know, even without the game being as realistic as they are, the Seeds would still be a popular investment. If for no other reason than you can sleep in them, and only require a fifth of the sleep. Other games with a time dilation, you either sleep for the equivalent of eight real hours, or you can’t sleep in game at all.

When I woke up in the morning, I was feeling particularly refreshed, feeling a slight weight pinning down either of my arms. I’d like to say that I looked over to my sides and found beautiful women lying naked again me, but really it was just two annoying birds that refuse to leave me alone. Part of me had held some sliver of hope that they got bored of me and left in the night, but nope, still there.

Either way, they woke up as soon as I started sitting up. I didn’t bother to log out for breakfast this time, choosing just to satisfy myself with some stale bread. I was saving my home cooked meal today for lunch, which should occur around dinner time? It’s all wibbly wobbly, timey wimey. Anyways, back to my magic training, woohoo…

I can’t help but feel like I got ripped off again. While I’ve been here spending days cultivating earth mana, or learning how to change my skin tone, both my father and Jacobs have already passed me in levels again. My father had apparently decided to take up life as a rogue, to best use his psychic talents, well Jacobs naturally went for a mage. My mom also managed to get a class somehow, as a Shadow Stalker. Not sure if that meant she found civilization or just that she managed to train the skills on her own.

Now, since I gave Yin so much ‘attention’ yesterday with training, today I had promised to do so with Yang…

“Celeste… which one is Yang?” At my question, both birds perked up and squawked their usual declaration, while Celeste simply giggled, making an arrow to point to the one on my right shoulder. The one on my left shoulder, apparently Yin, looked down dejectedly at that while Yang happily jumped into my hand. Using her tail feathers to wrap around my arm, she ensured, much to my dismay, that she was not going anywhere.

Now, today I wanted to learn how to make wings, so first thing I did was place my other hand on Yang’s back, which she seemed to like a little too well. Then, using the age-old mana circuit technique, I began searching through her mana signature, focusing on her wings. Unlike ‘normal’ birds, lovebirds possess four wings of equal size. Two wings in the front and two in the back. As I discovered when I ‘found’ these two earlier, the front wings can be folded forward to hide the face as well as aid in flight.

Now, this was not the same at all as simply memorizing the mana fluctuations when an ability was used. It was closer to analyzing the mana signature of an herb, just on a far more complicated level. I could feel every organ, bone, and blood vessel as I attempted to focus my senses on her wings. Unlike Yin, she seemed all too pleased by the feeling of mana coursing through her, and relaxed into my hands.

After a while, I managed to isolate the mana pattern for her wings. Now the trouble was memorizing it. I mean, this was like memorizing a nerve map. If I got it wrong, then at best the wings would not work. At worst, the nerves might attach wrong and bring immense pain. I don’t like immense pain, I find I am allergic to it.

It would help if there was a noticeable pattern to the mana channels, so that I could simply memorize that, but unfortunately it was not the case. So, I spent nearly three hours just going over every detail of Yang’s wings before I was satisfied enough to try it on my own. Naturally, the first thing I did was remove my shirt, so that the wings would not rip through it. The two birds let out whistles after that, which I promptly ignored.

Closing my eyes, I kept the feeling I learned from Yang’s wings in my mind, and focused on my own back. Trying to match the placement, I then began emitting my mana out behind me in an attempt to match what I felt from her. There was an extremely uncomfortable feeling as bones grew out of my back, but I could slowly feel that it was working. Finally, something going right on the first try!

…

Yeah, right. Once I was done, I turned my head to look, and found that I could not see my supposed wings. Then I looked further down, and discovered that I did indeed have wings… I just hadn’t scaled them up to be my size. Sighing, I dismissed the change in my mana, letting it return to its normal flow, before I tried again.

This time, my goal was to copy the feeling, but make it BIGGER. Of course, bigger meant a much greater sense of discomfort, and I was prepared for that! I hope… Either way, after a few minutes of nervous procrastination, I got to work. Yup.. there’s the pain..

Unlike the minor uncomfortable feeling from before, this was full on nerve-wracking pain. I’d like to say I muscled through it and achieved perfect results like some online protagonist, but let’s be honest? Pain hurts! It is one of the best things in the world to break focus, and break it did. I had not managed to make my wings grow out by more than two inches before the pain was too much and I lost control of it, making the new wings vanish.

My third try, I managed to hold on until I was out four inches. Then, nine inches. On my fifth try, I got all the way to the halfway mark before the pain kicked in. Each time, I was able to better integrate it with my own mana signature to cause as little backlash as possible, until finally on my tenth try, I reached the end of the wings. For some reason, once I did so, I didn’t feel like I had to maintain it, rather I just needed to remember to undo it when I was ready.

New Spell Unlocked!

Aspect of the Bird – Nature Magic – ★☆

By copying the mana patterns of a bird’s wings, you have learned to graft that body part onto yourself.

Mana Cost: 100

Nature Magic has increased to Basic!

Mana Manipulation has increased to Basic!

The mana cost for this new spell scared me a bit, but then I remembered what I had just discovered. This was basically a passive spell, and I didn’t have to pay a mana upkeep for it. I just had to pay the initial cost to shift, and then I’d be done. Looking back, I was somewhat surprised to see that my wings were pure white, rather than red like Yin and Yang’s standard colors. In a way, they gave me the appearance of a four-winged angel.

I was a bit surprised by the other two messages as well, since this was the first skill I had trained up past the beginner levels. Maybe doing something difficult like this was needed to push it through. So far, I knew that skill levels were arranged into Beginner, Basic, Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. Nobody had acquired a higher skill level than that yet. Even a top surgeon in the net community only had an Advanced in First Aid, according to what was online.

In a moment of unrestrained recklessness, I quickly stood up to try and fly with these new limbs. I could clearly feel and move each one independently, so it should be easy right? With a beat of my wings, I found myself launched about five feet into the air… and falling back down on my face before I could give a second flap.

Gravity beats idiot

-10 HP

Thankfully, the two birds noticed what was happening, and flew off of me before I kissed the ground. Slowly standing myself back up, I noticed how they were hovering effortlessly in the air. Their lower wings were fully extended to stabilize themselves, while their upper wings were doing the work of keeping them airborne. Naturally, that was my next attempt.

Well, on the bright side, my face did not hit the ground this time. I managed to float up into the air about three feet, and was flapping my wings like crazy to stay there, before they quickly wore out and I floated back to the ground. I was somewhat pleased to discover a pair of messages waiting for me when I landed.

New Skill Acquired!

Flight – Beginner Level 1: 0%

When you send it flying up there, all at once you’re lighter than air. You can dance on the breeze, over houses and trees, with your wings you have flight, so flap with your might.

Higher levels increase control and reduce stamina loss.

+1 Vitality, +1 Dexterity

I couldn’t help but think that someone watched too many children’s movies when they wrote the text for that skill, but quickly shrugged it off. I had a skill to practice, and practice I shall! After my wings felt less sore, I flapped them again and brought myself into the air, my two animal companions dancing around me with far less effort than I was using.

Again controlling my lower wings to stabilize myself, I angled them forward slightly and gave only a minor flap, carrying me forward a few feet before I glided to the ground again. Suddenly, I heard a series of clapping from behind me. Turning around, I was a bit surprised to see Jarl was back. I can never keep track of when he’s here and not… mostly because I don’t pay attention to it.

“Learning how to fly, are you?” He asked with a smirk, to which I nodded. “Alright, since it looks like you’ve copied most of their aspects already, I can tell you the next step to gain the powers of a Xeno-Shifter.”

That had certainly gotten my attention, but what he said next mortified me. “Since you have learned to copy basic aspects, the next step is to fully copy your animal companion.” If my companion were a wolf… or hell even a turtle, I wouldn’t be so scared. But two lovebirds… I looked over, and did not at all like the looks they were giving me, as if they had understood what he was saying.

“Okay! That settles it, next up is Wind Affinity training.” I said with a decisive nod as I dismissed the wings, and put my shirt on just as fast as elvishly possible. The two birds seemed to pout at that, before perching themselves on my shoulders again. Jarl, meanwhile, gave a loud laugh as he walked off again to who knows where doing who knows what. Wind Affinity, yeah!

I sent my mana out in front off me just a half inch, and began sensing the wind. It was pretty easy, since the air was everywhere, and yet difficult at the same time. Wind has a barely noticeable mana signature, and can be missed very easily. Like looking for dust in sunbeams. Sometimes you find it, sometimes you don’t. After about ten minutes, I had managed to find it, and began the process of setting up a link between myself and the mana. Naturally, I tried the same trick I did with earth mana, and pushed a bunch of mana in to start it.

Sadly, earth and wind are two very different elements, so that did not work at all. Instead, I managed to push away all of the wind mana from where I was attempting to set the link, and had to find it again. This time, I decided to be gentler with it. But still, no luck. Trying again and again, each time more gentle than the last. Finally, what I ended up doing was creating a sort of mana funnel, with the mana in it as closely matching the wind signature as I could make it. Thankfully, this had the effect of ‘inviting’ the wind mana into me, which the wind accepted gradually.

There was another ding from a notification panel popping up, but I didn’t pay much attention to it yet, because I was still in the stage where I had to be very delicate with the wind mana, or else I would lose it. I figured at least that part was the same as before, so I simply held onto it for as long as I could. Once I had run out of mana, and thus lost the connection, I opened my eyes to see a rather confusing message.

Synchronization rate at 100%. Manifest Industries apologizes for any inconvenience you may have experienced during gameplay thus far.

Synchronization 100%? You mean they didn’t consider it total realism before? I quickly contacted Jacobs and my parents, but none of them received the message. Maybe it was just the Seed adjusting, then? I dismissed it for now, and laid back to rest. I only had one piece of bread left, and then I would need to either start hunting for my meals or eat in the real world all the time. While the latter sounded more possible, it would make me quickly run out of groceries. I mean, eating five times the meals a day? That’d just cost way too much money.

So, I decided, after today I’d start hunting for my meals.

Chapter 15: The Plot Thickens

The rest of the day continued much like when I was learning Earth Affinity. Slowly… After a few hours, Wind Affinity increased to 3%, and I noticed an increased intake of wind mana just like I had done with earth. At one point, my concentration broke on the wind funnel, and noticed the familiar weights on my shoulders were gone.

In a moment of joy, I thought that Yin and Yang had willingly left, but the thought wasn’t even half formed before two blurs shot out of the forest and immediately perched themselves on my shoulders again. Well… it was nice while it lasted.

Noting the time with Celeste, I decided to log out to have dinner, or lunch, depending on how you look at time. Opening the Seed, I got out and stretched, unconsciously letting out a slight yawn. Moving downstairs to get cooking, I had no idea just how weird today was going to be.

Like before, I chose to cook my meal manually, this time I chose to make a steak. My mind and stomach were yelling to eat something other than stale bread, so a nice juicy slab of meat sounded perfect. Even the thought of a sandwich made me nauseous. Within moments I had the meat on the skillet and cooking, was getting ready to spice it and then made one of the stupidest mistakes a chef can make.

I grabbed the metal handle of the skillet with my bare hand. There was a sizzling sound coming from my hand as pain raced through me. A scream tore at my throat as I hastily let go, but the damage was already done. All along my palm and fingers were thick red burns, making me wince just looking at them. Naturally I ran some cold water over the burn, but even that hurt like hell, to the point where I did something I couldn’t explain.

I healed myself. I felt a sudden rush, and then looked at my palm since it was no longer hurting. Surprisingly, there wasn’t even a blister left, making me doubt my hand had been burnt in the first place. However, I could still smell the burnt flesh in the air, and there was still the sizzling coming from the handle of the skillet.

What just… no, that’s not… I tried to think back to what I had done, but the only thing I could think of was the Alchemic Heal spell I knew from NeoLife. I don’t care how realistic a game is, there is no way that I cast a spell in real life… right?

Even though logic told me it was impossible, the memory of the pain in my hand made me doubt it. As such, I made a conscious effort to connect with the mana in the same way I would in the game, and was stunned to find that there really was something there. For some reason, it didn’t feel quite as dense as it did in the game, but nonetheless I could feel the presence of mana in the real world. At the same time, when I retracted my senses, I saw a haze of blue lights floating in front of me, as if the mana was weaving itself into a familiar pattern. It looked like one of the notification screens from the game.

Congratulations on achieving Full Synchro.

As one of the thousand beta testers of NeoLife, we at Manifest Industries formally welcome you to the true world offered by our product. A world where anything is possible.

Customers are advised to remember that, barring the use of magic, there will be no respawning outside of NeoLife. Everyone is granted a chance to make a new world for themselves, a new life. What path will you take?

I blinked a bit as I looked at the screen. I even waved my hand through it, causing it to turn into a cloud of blue mist before reforming. This just isn’t…. it’s not possible, right?

Everything felt like it was turning upside down, and I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick. Rushing to the bathroom, I didn’t even make it all the way before I froze in place, looking at the mirror through the doorway. What I saw was my face, my body… but it wasn’t MY face, MY body… I looked like Falenel, the six foot half-elf with shoulder-length light brown hair, dark green eyes, and fairly pointed ears.

By now, I was 98% certain that I was going crazy. I rushed to my computer and instantly loaded up the internet, only to confirm it was the world that had gone mad. A thousand people, nine hundred and fifty of them having chosen a non-human race. There were posts on every forum from beta testers saying that they had turned into their character. One person who chose to play a Centrix, a centaur-like alien with two pairs of arms and a third eye, even said that his Seed reshaped itself to match his new body type.

Naturally, nobody believed them, but then came the videos. Some by the testers themselves, others by people saying that aliens had invaded. It had only been at most two hours, but it was already viral. I was secretly thanking myself for having chosen a humanoid character. I don’t know what would have happened if I woke up with the lower body of a horse.

At this time, I received a notification from the house AI telling me that I had an emergency call from law enforcement. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? I started to panic for a brief moment, before forcing myself to calm down and accept the call.

On the wall, a holographic display of a man in a standard blue police uniform appeared. I couldn’t make out his name due to the low quality of the house’s holo-caller, but that didn’t matter when he introduced himself. “Mr. Hulett, correct? I’m Officer Faraday, of Oakland PD.”

I took a deep breath, and prayed that this would work. “Yes, I’m Mr. Hulett.” A brief flash of surprise crossed my face as I realized I was not bound by the same laws that made me introduce myself by my character name in the real world, but I was happy at this fact. “I take it this is about the recent.. development?”

The officer on-screen nodded his head, and seemed to take a moment to look me over. My holo-caller was fairly low quality, as stated before, so colors weren’t very well transmitted. “Yes, so you’ve heard. We’ve acquired a list of testers for NeoLife, and are attempting to contact them, in order to discuss this… situation.”

“You caught me at just the right– Oh for fuck’s sake, I’ll be right back officer!” I panicked and ran back to the kitchen, turning the stove off and moving the skillet away. I was even in too much of a hurry to bother putting on an oven mitt, and once again burned myself. “God that smarts!” Since I knew it was possible now, I quickly cast my Alchemic Heal on myself before moving back to the living room to resume the call.

“Is everything okay, sir?” Officer Faraday asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry, officer. In light of recent events, I forgot I had a steak that was ready to burn the house down.” I tried to play off a bit of humor, which did not work against the law enforcement officer.

“I see. Then, I shall get right to it. Have you been affected by this event as many are claiming to be? And if so, in what way? You still appear to be human, from what I can see.”

“Ah, that. Yeah… I just noticed I was affected before you called. My ingame race is half-elf, so looking fairly human is not surprising.”

He looked a bit suspicious at that, as if not believing me. “Can you provide any proof of this change, then?”

I nodded, and closed my eyes. There was a slight tearing noise as I focused, but soon I had cast Aspect of the Bird, creating the four angelic wings. In hindsight, I should have taken off my now-ruined shirt… “This is a spell I learned ingame… it seems they can be cast out here too.” To further prove my point, I started hovering a few feet in the air, but that only lasted for a few moments.

Nonetheless, it was enough to startle the officer, who was now looking at me with a slack-jawed expression. “I-I see.. So it’s true, then. You’re the only tester living in our jurisdiction, so we weren’t sure whether to believe it or not. And to be quite frank, if you hadn’t shown that… that, just now, I doubt I would have believed myself.”

Judging by the movements of his shoulders, he seemed to be reaching for something off screen. “Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this. We received a fax about an hour ago saying that all Manifest sites and employees have vanished from the face of the world. All of their locations are now abandoned lots that show no evidence of having been used in the last year. This seems to have happened overnight. Had it not been for me seeing you grow wings, I’d say it was impossible. Their site remains active, and continues to accept pre-orders for the next line of Seeds. However, we have no idea where they intend to ship from.”

I was a bit confused why he was telling all of this to me, but I figured it must be some kind of consolation speech about how they’re trying their best to make me human again. “Officer, all things considered, I think I got off lucky. I’d bet at least a quarter of the testers chose races that were not humanoid. All I got is a makeover and magic.”

He paused at that, not seeming to know how to respond, before nodding his head slightly. “Understood. Is there anything else you think we should know pertaining to this event?”

I thought about that for a few moments, but could only come to one conclusion. “This is only the beginning. Thanks to my class, I am able to sense things, primarily mana. There is mana in the air here, though it is not as thick as it is in the game. If the Seeds are truly making this world more like the game, then I’d expect the mana to be of the same quality.”

He raised an eyebrow again, but didn’t say anything for a while. “I see… While officially I am required to ask you to refrain from playing NeoLife if at all possible, in light of this I think it would be best if you continue, at least until we know more. If what you say is true, then we have no idea what will happen. Best case scenario, nothing, everything stays as it is now. Worst case, I think, monsters roaming the streets. Not players turned into aliens, but real monsters.”

I was a bit shocked by that. It seemed as though Officer Faraday had played a few games as well to think of that. “Well, was planning on it anyways. Even if shit hits the fans, still gotta pay the bills.” I shrugged, and thanked him for the advice before dismissing the call. I still had a steak to eat, though slightly burnt now.

After eating the steak, and connecting back to the game, a thought occurred to me. Nature Magic’s Alchemic Heal is based on the interaction of plants. But those plants don’t exist in the real world, so how did that spell work on the outside?

Chapter 16: Into the Mouth of Madness

Once I was back in the game, I called my parents. I’m not a typical whiner, but when you find out you’re no longer human, that’s something you tell the folks, right?

“What’s up, dear?” I heard my mom’s voice a bit more clearly over the link this time.

“Well… I’m not really sure how to explain this… But… have you heard what’s been going on in the real world?”

“What do you mean?” My dad was the one that spoke up this time, obviously confused. Guessing they’ve spent all their time in here, and haven’t bothered to go to the net community to hear the news.

“Extra long story incredibly short… the game turned me into a half-elf.”

“…Yes, we’ve been over this, we know what race you chose.” He still sounded a bit confused, and was clearly a bit dense if he didn’t get what I meant, or maybe I just wasn’t clear enough.

“No, I mean out there. In the real world, I’m still a half-elf. Still a druid, still able to grow wings out of my back and use all of my magic… Apparently everyone that has a Seed is being turned into their game character. Even got a call from the police to make sure I was okay.”

This time it was my mom’s turn to chime in. “The police, dear? Why would they bother calling you?”

“Apparently Manifest Industries has gone off the radar, and they are getting reports of every tester changing. Since I was the only one in Oakland, they gave me a call.”

I could hear the concern in my mom’s voice as she logged out, but since she was just going to the net community, the call didn’t drop. Fun fact, when someone in the net community is on a call with a game that has time dilation, the home of that person adjusts to match the game. “Oh, dear, it’s true.”

“What, really?” My dad was obviously surprised by this. “How is that even possible? I mean, it’s just a game, right?”

“Not anymore, it looks like.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m just hoping it ends with players getting changed and people getting magic. I mean, if it’s just that then we should be able to make all the amazing things they have here in the game. But if monsters start showing up, too…”

There was a slight gasp, I’m not sure from who, but it was my mom that spoke up next. “What are you going to do, then?”

“Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Until I know that monsters aren’t going to start appearing in my home, I’m going to train here and get stronger. Besides, it might be cool to be able to use magic in the real world, you know? Should have seen the look on the officer’s face when I suddenly grew wings.” Unfortunately, thinking about that reminded me what Jarl had said the next step in training for Xeno-Shifter would be… and since I thought about it, Yin and Yang perked up and looked at me expectantly.

I could hear a chuckle coming from my dad. “Well, we’ll let you get to that, then. There might be other testers that haven’t logged out and learned about these changes, so we’ll go spread the word and see if we can’t get their attention.”

Part of me was concerned about this. Essentially, they were going to play a massive scale whisper game. You know, where you can whisper to someone that you like apples, and they pass it along in a circle, but by the time it gets back to you it turns into something obscene. And that’s when you start with something as mundane as ‘I like apples’.

Anyways, back to the game. I had a few hours left until it was time to sleep, so I devoted them to increasing my Wind Affinity. Maybe after I had the basic seven affinities all at 5% I would go with the next step for Nature Magic. At least then I’d be able to save my chastity against these damned birds.

By the time I had gotten to sleep, my Wind Affinity had only increased to 4%, though I felt like it was on the verge of a breakthrough. When I woke up, I immediately resumed training, deciding to prolong breakfast until I had gained the ability to manipulate wind. Speaking of which, I had never tried to test out my Earth Manipulation either. I’d have to at least get familiar with both of them before I was able to use them to hunt.

About two hours after I had woken up, I was finally greeted with the message I had been waiting for.

New Ability Unlocked!

Wind Manipulation – Wind Affinity – ☆

Through focus and the appropriate use of mana, the user is able to manipulate the air around them.

Okay.. now for a bit of practice. There was something I had wanted to try now that I had the ability to more freely manipulate wind. Even though it was still only a half-star rank, that should be more because of a limit to the power I can exert.

Sending out a bit of mana, I attuned it to the wind like I normally would for Wind Magic or cultivating Wind Affinity. This time, I was able to pull in much more air with far less mana than when I only had the former skill. I was also able to control it at a greater distance, which is what I needed most. In a way, it felt in part as if my mind had merged with the wind, letting my control it as I would any other muscle, though with more difficulty.

Having confirmed this, I pulled out my bow and quiver from my inventory, and aimed at a distant tree. Using my Wind Manipulation, I set up a thin gust going from my arrow to the tree, and fired. Like I had expected, the arrow perfectly flew along the corridor of wind, piercing into the tree. It even seemed to gain speed after being fired.

I waited for a system message saying I had learned something new from that, but I received nothing of the kind. I was a bit surprised to find that such an act only took a total of 20 mana to achieve, which was about 5 per second. But, this was only really useful for hitting a stationary target, so I kept practicing.

My next ‘wind corridor’ only lasted about 75% of the distance between me and the tree, but still seemed to be good enough to work with. I was a few inches off in my accuracy, but still would be considered a good shot, and it was better for sniping since the target wouldn’t feel the wind on them. Next was something I was a bit curious about after my first two attempts. This time, I set up a winding tunnel of wind, with the goal being the side of the tree I had just targeted.

When I fired the arrow, I watched it moving through the path I had set up, gaining a bit more speed at every curve. Unfortunately, about three turns before the target, it had picked up enough speed to shoot out of the tunnel of wind without following the rest of the way, making it miss its target.

Even though this failed, it was still quite good. It went through several turns before ending up shot out of the tunnel, which meant that I would still be able to use it. Sadly, by now my mana was being drained a fair bit by creating and shaping the paths of wind, so I’d need to recover… after one last test. And this one was going to be a doozy.

After I collected the arrows that I previously fired, I went back to my firing position, and nocked another arrow. Like before, I created a wind tunnel roughly 75% of the distance to the tree. But this time, I also tapped into my Wind Magic, and cast Lesser Spiral Arrow. Waiting until I could feel the spiralling winds moving around the arrow, I then fired it into the corridor. There was a slight tearing sound as the two magics interacted, but the arrow nonetheless flew through the corridor at a blinding speed.

For a little while, it looked like I had managed to overcome the accuracy issue behind this spell, at least until it exited the corridor I had established. At that point, it immediately went off course, and crashed into the side of the tree. And then kept going… having left a small hole where it impacted. It seemed that the increased acceleration from the wind corridor combined with the penetrating power of the Lesser Spiral Arrow gave it a rather terrifying destructive ability. If it could be properly aimed, it would be devastating…

Unfortunately, aside from extending the corridor all the way, I had no method to further increase the accuracy of the arrow. And when I went to try to retrieve it, I found the arrow I used had been shattered on impact with a stone roughly fifty meters away. This made me even more reluctant to use that tactic, though it did give me the idea to make arrows with Plant Affinity if I managed to get that to 5%. Then I could simply load the arrows with poison and launch them.

This idea had me wanting to practice Plant Affinity right away, but first I needed something to eat. Today would be my first time hunting wolves, and the only reason I wasn’t going for rabbits was because I would have to pass by the wolves’ territory anyways to get back to them. “Celeste, which was is town?”

I had long since forgotten which direction town was in, and could only rely on my companion AI to guide me. And, as requested, she appeared as a hologram above my wrist. Though, this time she seemed slightly older than her previous appearances, and a bit more developed. She was standing in a safari costume hunched over a holographic map. “Hmm, let’s see… that way!” She pointed with a wide grin, and a glowing arrow appeared above her.

Your Companion AI has developed a new Skill Software

Cartography – Basic

Through repeated use of calculating distances and directions, your companion AI has gained the ability to chart maps based on your travels.

Well.. that’s useful. I noted how her ‘Skill Software’ didn’t have levels or experience, just the tier. But this also meant that, given enough time and practice, Celeste would be able to develop utility skills of her own.

Taking off my shirt, I put it into my inventory and activated Aspect of the Bird. Though I wasn’t particularly adept at flying, I was able to go up to the branches of the trees. From there, I just needed to glide from one branch to another, while using Wind Manipulation under my wings to guide me.

Thanks to this method of travel, I was using a bit of mana with every jump, but also took a few seconds between jumps to recover it. By the time I was nearing the wolves, five minutes had already passed. Yin and Yang were both happily circling around me as I clutched my bow, looking down at the wolves below. Thanks to using Wind Manipulation in small amounts, I was able to prevent my scent from being carried down to them.

I didn’t need to be too worried here, since wolves can’t fly. As long as I didn’t do anything stupid like jumping off, I could pick them off one at a time until I either ran out of arrows, or that big snake above me came in for a– wait, what?

Looking up, I saw a rather large snake, its body as thick as my waist, wrapped around the branch above me. Its eyes were passively looking at me, its tongue slithering out every few seconds. Why the fuck did I not notice that before? Glancing around, even Yin and Yang had apparently fled from the immediate area.

Think fast, think fast. Could be poisonous, but I have an antidote spell. More likely to be killed by a lethal bite or it constricting me to death. Would rather neither of those happened, to be honest. Too close for me to pull my bow on it, too high up for Earth Manipulation to help. Can’t hide, snakes see heat, or was it movement? Damn, I should have paid more attention in class, this is going to hurt. My mind was going at a mile a minute, while the snake just continued to stare at me, as if it hadn’t noticed that I saw it. Perhaps it didn’t see me as a threat? Either way, it was looking at me like I was food. I was the one that was supposed to be hunting here, dammit!

I’d have tried poisoning it, but if I killed it then I was eating snake today! I didn’t want to poison my own meal. If I didn’t kill it, well.. then I’d be in trouble and wouldn’t have the right to complain anyways. If I lost a level now, would I lose my class? I didn’t really want to find out. So, I very carefully put my bow and quiver back in my inventory, showing the snake that I was just a harmless winged half-elf.

Then I pulled my dagger out instead. Me Tarzan, you meat! Coating my blade in mana, I lunged at the snake. I didn’t really expect the mana to do anything, but several games I had played before used this as a method of strengthening melee weapons, so I could only hope. Seeing my lunge, the snake hissed at me before its jaw opened almost impossibly wide. The thing looked like it wanted me to jump directly into its mouth!

Well, who am I to pass up such a tempting offer? I haven’t played it sane so far, so why start now. Using the wind on my wings to guide myself, I stopped right inside the massive mouth, planing my feet on its jaw. As it tried to snap its jaw shut with me inside it, I quickly raised my dagger up to carve at its upper jaw.

I heard something cracking, and was fairly certain it was me. Had I been thinking, I would have remembered that snakes exert a much more powerful force closing their jaws than opening it. While my dagger had managed to cut through its mouth, and even stab into its brain, I still considered myself on the losing end of that exchange.

You have walked into the jaws of death… and survived.

-90 HP, Broken bones(Arms x2, Legs x1)

Fatal Blow inflicted.

You have leveled up.

Pain… it hurts. I unhesitantly began casting Alchemic heal on myself over and over, crying out as my bones were forced back into their positions before they were able to mend, and once that was done, I triumphantly crawled my way out of the snake’s mouth. Which way is the exit?

Chapter 17: New gear? Finally!

It took me a little bit to crawl out of the snake’s mouth, since I had started going in the wrong direction. Thankfully, after a few feet I noticed that I shouldn’t have been that deep in its throat. When I emerged, I felt it was a miracle Celeste hadn’t been damaged in that exchange. Though, when I called for her to make sure she was alright, she appeared in a holographic nurse uniform.

“So Falenel, what seems to be the problem today? Yes, yes… I can see that you are suffering from a chronic lack of common sense.” She nodded to herself as she was going over a holographic clipboard, supposedly my patient’s chart.

I sighed, regretting having been worried about the AI. “Nice to see you’re okay too, Celeste.” I leaned down and picked up the dead snake with great difficult, and stuffed the body into my inventory. Next, I sat there and waited for my mana to recover, while ignoring the furious barks from the wolves below that now obviously knew of my presence.

I was a bit sad that my knife had broken in that fight, snapping under the pressure after having successfully killed the snake. Now I was just left with my bow and… twenty eight arrows. Those were not going to last me very long, were they? I guess the next thing I should cultivate would be Fire Affinity, followed by Plant Affinity so that I can fully take care of myself in the wild. But for that I’ll need Water Affinity as well… Gah, so troublesome

Once my mana was recovered, I began gliding back to the grove in the same manner I had taken to get here, gathering a few small branches along the way to start the fire. I’ve never really had snake before, but it shouldn’t be too bad, right? I wasn’t poisoned when it tried to eat me, so it shouldn’t be venomous I think?

After I arrived back in the grove, I got the snake body back out and started to chop it up… Wait, I lost my knife… how the heck am I supposed to chop this thing up!? Frustrated, I logged off and had a bowl of cereal for my morning(evening) meal. Strangely, the Seed was actually much larger when I logged off this time, and I noticed I still had the wings from Aspect of the Bird. It seemed the device really did resize itself to match the occupant. Once I was back in NeoLife, I decided on a new new plan. First, I needed to practice flying until I could go for at least ten minutes at a time.

Thankfully, that was a fairly easy task, since I had been practicing with my wings more often. After a couple hours, I could already reach my goal with little difficulty, as long as I helped my flight with Wind Manipulation. And with that taken care of, it was finally time to get a bird’s eye view of the place! Though, I was starting to get hungry again… cereal is never really filling.

Off to the side, I notice Yin and Yang flying off for a brief moment, then returning with an apple and a strange brown fruit that looked vaguely like an orange.

…

What did I go through that hunt for then!? I lowered my head in depression, but nonetheless thanked the two birds and took the fruits. I first ate the apple, as I at least knew what it was, while inspecting the brown orange with my mana. By this point, I’ve at least gotten good enough to identify if there is a poisonous substance inside of something. Strangely, I found that there was no such thing, even a bit of a warm medicinal feeling.

Since the apple was enough to tide me over for now, I put the weird fruit in my inventory. “Okay, Celeste, time to head back to town. Need that map again.”

“Going to meet any new snake friends while you’re out?” The holographic navigator snickered from my wrist.

“Very funny.” I shook my head, then fully raised all four of my wings, slamming them downwards to launch me into the air. I only needed a very slight adjustment from my Wind Manipulation to keep me going in the right direction, but soon I was flying up over the tops of the trees. What I saw surprised me a little, to be honest. The forest we were in was not as massive as I had imagined, and the starting village was actually near the edge of it. It’s just, the grove where I had been training was at the dead center of the forest.

Off in the distance, I could see other, similar forests all of roughly the same size. On the horizon, I saw metal structures rising towards the sky, signs of a more advanced settlement. Of course, I wasn’t so eager to immediately make my way in that direction, as I could make out black specks soaring through the skies closer to that city. From the distance, and the fact that I still managed to notice them, those specks had to at least be the size of fighter jets. Airborne monsters that big were far too much for me to handle.

“Celeste, add the area around here to the map.” I said as I gave a slow spin, capturing the scenery around me, before finally diving in the direction of the town. Since I was flying well above the treetops, I did not have to worry about any monsters such as snakes, and my path was a straight shot. I ended up ducking into the trees just before reaching the village, then gliding down to the ground to put my shirt back on after dismissing my wings.

You may be wondering, why am I going back to the village now? Shouldn’t I be training more to master the rest of my magic? Well, I don’t really like continuous training montages, but more importantly… I’ve still got that snake in my inventory! If I can’t eat it, I might as well get something out of the thing!

Once I had landed in the town, I walked over towards Harlan’s store. If anyone knew where to sell animal corpses, it’d be him. “Yo, Harlan, you in?”

“Just a second! Be right out!” I heard his voice coming from the back of the store, having apparently been on break due to a lack of customers. Once he came out, he gave me a curious look. “Hmm, you were in here the other day, right? For your first companion, if I recall. Did you manage to break it already?”

Rather than letting me answer, Celeste appeared as a hologram above my wrist and scolded him. “Hmpf! Like I could be broken so easily!”

Shaking my head, I looked at the salesman. “I’m interested in selling an animal body, and wanted to know where I could do so.”

Raising a curious brow, Harlan seemed at least interested. “Well, that would depend on the animal.”

“It was a snake, about… a foot thick, maybe eight meters long? Mostly green, with occasional spots of yellow.”

“Ah, that sounds like a Great Boa. Rather surprised that you would be able to kill one, their scales are hard as steel.”

I winced slightly, remembering how I had originally intended to cut into it with my dagger. “Well… Let’s just say I found a soft spot. So, can you help me sell it? The corpse is entirely intact, and no it’s not poisoned.”

He chuckled a bit as I added that last note in. “Well, there’s not a bounty on them at the moment, since they rarely come out from the upper tree branches. However, like I said, their scales are incredibly hard. That alone makes them a valuable crafting material for armors. Their meat is also rather popular. I’d say you could sell the whole thing for… fifteen silver?”

I swear, when he said that price, my foot slipped and I landed on the floor. Fifteen silver? I was going to consider myself lucky for five! “U-uhm… do you think I’d be able to make a trade? Get some of the armor made for myself?”

He thought about it, then nodded. “Even making a full set of armor wouldn’t use more than half of the scales. If you do that, and trade it to me, I can give you eight silver for the body, and have the armor commissioned for you.”

Finally, I can get some real armor. And it’s even snake scale armor, so it wouldn’t violate the ‘standard’ theme for druids. I wonder if they have any armor restrictions here like in some games? I decided that was something I’d have to ask Jarl later. “Deal. Uh… do you have somewhere that I could take the snake out?” I didn’t want to take it out here and wreck his shelves.

As if suddenly realizing the issue, he nodded quickly and led me to a large open room in the back, where I deposited the snake. “Thanks, and is it possible for the armor to be enchanted to change whenever I transform? I’m a druid, and my body shape isn’t always the same…”

Harlan looked to me at that and nodded. “Certainly, certainly. An adjustment enchantment is rather basic, and can be included in the armor easily.” He then looked back to the snake and smiled slightly. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Well… I could do with a new dagger. My last one broke when I killed this thing.”

The businessman nodded once again. “Very well, I can help you with that, right this way.” He grinned broadly, leading me back to the front of the store. Showing me one of the items on his shelf, he picked up a small dagger. Though, this one looked a bit more high tech than the last one. All along the blade were several tiny teeth-like protrusions, and along the length of the blade was a black display. “This is a basic Chain Dagger. Honestly, most everyone gets one of these shortly after they receive their class. Just put a little bit of mana into it, and…” As he speaks, the teeth of the dagger began moving back and forth wildly, giving it the appearance of a small chainsaw.

“I’m scared to ask… how much is it?”

He chuckled, seeing my rather obvious hesitation. “Oh, don’t worry. You can afford it. Three silver for the dagger, and it’s yours. That’d take your earnings from the snake down to five silvers.”

I was almost relieved that I was now earning as much as I had originally expected, even if I was also receiving a full suit of snake mail armor and a dagger as a gift. I immediately agreed to the exchange, and he handed me five silver coins, as well as the dagger he had shown me. I could probably see about getting a better bow… but I’m afraid it’d cost too much.

After leaving Harlan’s store with the promise to be back the following day to pick up the armor, I bumped into Jacobs. Unlike before, he was now equipped with a rather elegant looking mage’s robe, and his staff had a black gemstone at the tip. “Oh, hey there Falenel. Haven’t seen you around lately.” He then cast a glance somewhere up above me, where I assume a certain pair of birds were flying in circles.

“Sorry, was practicing my class skills. Just came back this time to sell stuff and order some new gear.” I looked at his robe, then down to my own tattered starter outfit. I need to visit a tailor…

“Oh? Well, I’ve gotten started on Enchanting, so let me know when you have the gear and I’ll see what I can do for it.”

Hearing that, I looked up quickly, and pulled out my two weapons for him to look at. “Can you do anything for these?” I asked with a bit of hope in my voice.

He chuckled, looking over the weapons. “I can’t work with the Chain Dagger, since it’s already fully enchanted by design. If it was made purely with tech, I’d be able to do something. As for the bow… the materials used are too basic for most enchantments. Best I could do would be to put a durability enchantment on it.”

I sighed dejectedly when I learned that my new dagger wouldn’t get an upgrade, but nodded slightly at the offer for the bow. “Thanks.” He put his finger above the bow, and began tracing runic patterns along the wood, which glowed as his finger passed over it. I felt a rather considerable amount of mana being poured into the wood before he stopped.

“There, that should be good to make it last a while, though I’d suggest upgrading soon. I’ll be in town a couple more days, but then I’m heading off to the capital.”

I was a bit confused at how quickly and easily the enchantment took place. Now magic dust, no special words, just drawing a few patterns with magic? I felt ripped off with my alchemy now. Glancing at his level in my contact list, I saw that he had just hit 16. Since he was being sent off to the city, I decided to set that as my own goal before leaving as well. “Thanks again. You pick up any other magic yet, or still focusing on Gravity?”

He smirked slightly, nodding his head. “I’m aiming to be a Stellar Mage. So far I have Gravity and Void Magic, but in the capital I heard that there was someone capable of teaching the other magic types I needed. Oh, and I found out how to teach someone a school of magic. It’s not as hard as we thought.”

I tilted my head curiously, waiting for him to continue. “Anyone can teach a school of magic after they train it to Novice rank. Only a few people have already gotten that far, but once you do, all you have to do is attune yourself to the school of magic, and let someone else copy it. It won’t automatically teach them the spell, but it’s an easier learning method than books.”

I nodded slightly, thinking it over. “Guess until you hit that rank, your magic isn’t well trained enough to provide a decent copy or something. Since you learned a second school of magic, don’t suppose you know how much they charge to learn?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Mine was a class related thing, so I didn’t pay for it. But I did try to. However, the Mage’s Guild requires a fee of ten silver to learn a new school of magic, and the tower here is an affiliate of the Mage’s Guild.”

I suddenly thought of my previous fifteen silver from killing the snake, and how it had dwindled to five. Six if you count the silver I already had. “Well, I’ll see about learning one when I can. I still haven’t finished mastering all of my class abilities yet.” I gave a somewhat regretful glance upwards to the two circling birds, who happily dove down to perch on my shoulders.

After that, the two of us parted ways, and I moved to the inn to buy a room for the day. I could at least train one affinity while in this town waiting for my armor. Curious, I took a glance at my character info and skills, since I hadn’t done so in a while except to assign points.

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 11

0%

Class

Druid

Sub-Class

None

Deity

Malthan

Health

120/120

Health Regen

0.2

Mana

380/380

Mana Regen

0.4

Strength

12

Wisdom

63

Agility

20

Intelligence

38

Dexterity

19

Charisma

9

Vitality

12

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

Earth 5%

Fire 1%

Wind 6%

Water 2%

Lightning 0%

Light 1%

Dark 1%

Plant 3%

Luck 2%

Madness 2%

Skills

Mana Manipulation – Basic Level 1: 12%

Nature Magic – Basic Level 1: 3%

Wind Magic – Beginner Level 6: 41.5%

Archery – Beginner Level 5: 9%

Dagger Mastery – Beginner Level 3: 1%

Wild Luck – Beginner Level 6: 12.2%

Sketching – Basic Level 6: 50%

Herbology – Beginner Level 3: 21%

Gathering – Beginner Level 6: 6%

Alchemy – Beginner Level 5: 23.2%

Mana Signatures – Beginner Level 7: 32%

Cooking – Basic Level 3: 53%

Flight – Beginner Level 6: 11%

Chapter 18: Chocolate Orange?

The rest of the day was spent cultivating my Plant Affinity in the room I had rented. Surprisingly, this affinity was increasing faster than either my Wind Affinity or Earth Affinity had, but that was likely thanks to the elven village being made entirely out of plants. Long story short, I managed to get 5% affinity before dinner, and received a lovely ability to go with it.

New Ability Unlocked!

Plant Manipulation – Plant Affinity – ★

Through the use of your mana, you are able to manipulate the shape of various plants, as well as their traits. With sufficient mana, it is possible to induce rapid growth in plants as well.

Congratulations! You qualify for a druid Sub-Class!

Plantshaper

Those who are able to become one with plants, and adopt their most dangerous aspects, can be just as deadly as any monster. Though able to recreate the effects of near any plant, they must first study it.

Advanced Class path: Plant Lord, able to shed the flesh and become a plant, or manipulate other plants with but a thought.

Do you wish to accept? Y/N

Again, I quickly selected no. I didn’t want to become a Plant Lord, but a Xeno-Shifter. They seemed pretty different to me, as one dealt with plants whilst the other dealt with sentient species. I shuddered again as I thought about what I’d need to do to get that Sub-Class.

For some reason, the game decided that Plant Affinity would start out as a full star rank, rather than half star. Maybe if had extra potency since it relied on there actually being a plant to control? Either way, it was getting to be time for dinner, so I pulled the brown orange(I really need to find out what this thing is called or I’ll go crazy from thinking about colors) and studied it. Deciding to immediately test out my new ability, I focused on the fruit in my hand, and gently pulled the seeds out of it.

Within moment, six tiny seeds fell out from the bottom of the fruit and into my hand. I smiled in satisfaction, before willing the skin to peel itself from the fruit. I was a bit surprised this worked to be honest, but again, moments later the thick skin of the whatchamafruit was peeled. If not for my previous inspection with my mana, I’d be worried that this might not be safe to eat. However, I knew, therefore I shrugged and took a bite of it.

…

This just should not be possible… I was frozen in place after that first bite. Not because of a status effect or anything, just yet another of this world’s surprises. How can it taste like chocolate!?

I was now determined to do everything in my power to bring this miraculous chocolate orange to the real world. I mean, come on! It’s chocolate that is actually good for you! My eyes looked down to the six seeds I had extracted from the fruit, causing me to grin broadly. Now I just had to figure out how to create these seeds from others in order to make it work.

Looking over to my birds, Yin and Yang, I noticed that Yang was moping a bit. Yin, however, seemed to be puffing her chest out and boasting. If I had to guess, Yin was the one that brought me the chocolate orange. Reaching over to pet her head to congratulate her, I then tried to communicate that I wanted more apples and chocolate oranges. They seemed to be learning fairly well, or just were able to understand from the bond we had, because they immediately flew off through a hole in the wall that served as a window.

About half an hour later, they returned. Yin was carrying three chocolate oranges in her tail feathers, while Yang was carrying three apples. Using the same trick I had tried on the previous chocolate orange, I first extracted all of the seeds from each fruit. Then, I carefully analyzed each with my mana.

My ability said that I could alter the traits of a plant, but how far does that go? My first test was with the seeds. Using a chocolate orange seed, since they produced six seeds rather than the five from apples, I tried to shift its mana to match the patterns of the apple seeds. This was the same type of magic that I used to grant myself bird wings, but used on the seeds rather than myself.

I was surprised to find that it took a full 50 mana to initiate the change, even with my Plant Manipulation skill. However, soon enough the seed looked perfectly identical to one of the apple seeds. Smiling, I then reversed the process, spending another 50 mana to turn it back into a chocolate orange seed.

My next test, of course, was changing an entire apple into a chocolate orange. For this, I spent a full hour studying the little intricacies of the brown fruit, before getting to work. Thankfully by that time my mana had already recovered, because it took 350 mana just to change one apple into a chocolate orange. I was getting increasingly worried as I kept pushing more and more mana into the fruit, waiting for it to show signs of change. However, once I passed that 350 threshold, it had begun.

The red skin of the apple turned brown, and began to thicken. Next came the shape as it became more spherical. I made sure to keep the transformations going until it almost perfectly matched the chocolate orange I studied previously. Now, came the final test…

Since I was already nearly out of mana, I grabbed my Chain Dagger and used it to cut the skin off the chocolate orange manually. With a bit of hesitation, I slowly took a bite of my experimental fruit. I can’t say that it was a complete success, because I still tasted a bit of the apple from before. However, that didn’t exactly make it bad. It was like an apple infused with chocolatey goodness.

At this point, I had decided that I would plant a chocolate orange tree in my yard in the real world. While it was possible to change them one fruit at a time, I wasn’t sure how effective it would be outside of the game. Since the mana concentration was thinner outside, it might mean that it takes more magic to do things, or even that I would recover mana more slowly.

Still, I was very happy with my find. If only there was some way I could create these from the seeds. But naturally, in order to get the fruit from the seed, I’d need to turn it into a tree first. And there was really no way I could carry a tree around with me, right..?

I tried thinking about it logically. If I was able to turn partially into a plant, I could then theoretically grow the fruits out of my own body. However, wouldn’t I need to use just as much, if not more energy to create the fruit then I would get back by eating it? Still, the idea of turning partially into a plant did make me think about something. I’d need to try it out once I got out of the forest.

After finishing my delicious dinner, I laid back and allowed myself to sleep for the night. I still had business to attend to tomorrow, and then I’d head back to the grove to finish my training. Too bad I didn’t study that snake after I killed it. That thing had some pretty powerful muscles, and the ability to contort my body like a snake would have been nice.

Despite those thoughts, I did not entertain the possibility of hunting down another one, if simply because it hurt enough to kill the first snake. I did, however, think back to my former dream of plant-based arrows after I woke up. But in order to make it work, I’d need to study different plants with particular characteristics.

First, I’d need a vine that grows rapidly, at least enough to be a meter long within a week. Then, I’d need something that was able to produce large quantities of seeds. Next, I’d need something like bamboo, that would be a long, sturdy plant. What else… I’d need something with thorns to use as the arrowhead. And ideally, throw in a poison as well. Combine all those plants together and I’d get the perfect plant arrow. Sadly, the only part of that I had so far was the poisons, but I at least had magic that would let me create the arrows once I found the components I needed.

After holding my morning internal monologue, I had an apple for breakfast, as well as a glass of water provided by the inn. With that taken care of, I left for Harlan’s store. I wanted that armor for a couple reasons. One, obviously because it’s freaking armor. And two, it’s armor made from an animal, meaning I should be able to copy it.

By the time I was there, he was already waiting for me. “Ah, there you are. Just had the finished product brought in a few minutes ago. Come, take a look!” He grinned as he led me to the back again. Rather than the giant snake I left there the night before, there was now an armor stand, with a complete set of green scaled armor on it.

The chest armor was large, easily a size bigger than me, but had a hood that came up to cover the head. Its sleeves only went down to just before the elbow, but after that was a pair of bracers that left barely any skin exposed and went all the way to the hands. There were five holes for me to slide my fingers through, making them easy and comfortable to wear. For the pants, they went all the way down to just above my ankles, where the boots filled in the rest. Like the chest, the entire thing was a size too large, which had me curious.

Nonetheless, I tried it on. It was surprisingly comfortable, as the inside of the armor was padded with what felt like cotton. As each part came on, it shifted slightly, resizing to match my body. By the time I had the full suit on, it felt like it was made exactly for me. And, to be fair, it was. “This works great, Harlan. Thanks.” I smiled to the shopkeeper, who nodded happily.

“Anything for a paying customer. Be sure to bring in any more unusual items you find and I’ll give you a good deal.”

I nodded to him, saying my thanks once again before leaving. Jacobs said he’d be in town today, but before I bother him to see if this can be enchanted anymore, I wanted to see about copying the armor scales. I figured the more changes were made to it, the harder it’d be to copy.

Since I already had the scales ‘isolated’ from the rest of the snake, it was a simple matter to memorize their mana patterns. From there I did the same thing I had done with the wings, and applied it across my skin, making sure to resize it so that I wasn’t crushed by suddenly smaller skin.

The sensation was a bit different this time, as I felt my skin forming the scales all along me. To be honest, it felt like my whole body had ‘sweated’ the scales out. It wasn’t painful… just strange. And when I looked at the result, I was very surprised to find that the armor I was wearing had actually merged with my body, rather than having me wear two layers of scales.

New Spell Unlocked!

Aspect of the Armored Beast – Nature Magic – ★★

By studying the various skins of armored beasts, you are able to apply those effects to your own body, increasing your skin’s durability. Be warned, this spell will drastically alter your appearance.

Mana Cost: 150

In a moment of panic, I hastily dismissed the spell, afraid that my armor may have been lost in the process. Thankfully, it appeared on me as normal when I was once again a half-elf. Curious, I decided to create my wings with Aspect of the Bird again. As I did so, narrow slits opened in the back of my armor to let the wings through. So… the enchantment to make the armor fit my form.. I guess that meant when I took a form based on the armor, it combined with me? And since it didn’t lose the shaping enchantment, it doesn’t lose them during the process… that’ll be fun to experiment with.

I grinned a bit more before contacting Jacobs. “Hey man, just got the armor, you available to give it a look?”

When he agreed, we decided to meet at the edge of town. Not because this was any big secret, but because we didn’t want to be in everyone’s way while enchanting things. While walking, I did a little experiment with my affinity cultivation. I was quite easily able to maintain one type of cultivation while walking, so long as I paid attention to it. When I tried to cultivate both Earth and Wind Affinities, it became somewhat difficult to focus on where I was going. Once I added Plant Affinity to the mix, I started tripping over every root and obstacle in my path. So, I decided to focus on cultivating Wind Affinity for now, and work on the other two once I was back in the grove.

Roughly ten minutes after I arrived, Jacobs got there and took a look at my armor. “Very nice, definitely going to protect you better than that outfit did.” He smirked, before giving it a more detailed look. “I should be able to enchant it, but it’s already got one set enchantment on it. So, it can only hold one more low quality enchantment. I can either enchant each piece individually, or enchant it as an entire set like what was done with the other one.” I knew he was talking about the ‘form fitting’ enchantment.

“Pros and cons?” I asked simply.

“Well, getting each piece done individually means you can have various different effects. However, if I enchant it all together as a set item, then you’ll need to wear the entire set to get an effect, but the effect will be significantly stronger than the sum of its parts.”

“Let’s go with a set, then. What kind of enchantments can you put on it?”

He nodded, and put his hand on the chest armor. “It seems to resonate with strength the most out of the types of enchantments I know. Also dexterity, but not to the same degree. Those would be the strongest enchantments I can put on this kind of material right now.”

I thought about it, but it wasn’t a very difficult decision. “Let’s go with dexterity then. I’m not a strength build by any definition, but dexterity will help me with any number of things.”

He nodded again, and had me take the armor off so he could work with it. Thankfully, I was still wearing my beginner outfit under it. Then, he laid the entire set on the ground, making sure to place them in the pattern as if they were being worn. After using his staff to draw a circle around the armor set, he again began tracing magical runes. Though, this time they were in the air above the armor, and he traced the same pattern roughly. Around the eight time he traced it, he furrowed his brows, and the black gem on his staff began glowing. Once done, he let out a sigh and let me put the armor back on.

After I had the full suit of armor on, I was surprised to find that my dexterity had increased by a full 30 points thanks to this armor buff. “Wow… thanks.” I smiled wide, and decided to use my new spell to once again become one with the armor. Still investigating my stats, I was happy to see that the buff remained. When I shifted back, I noticed that Jacobs was standing there looking rather surprised by my previous performance. Maybe my face changes when I shift?

Chapter 19: Grove, Sweet Grove

After parting with Jacobs, I had Celeste lead me back to the grove to resume my training. Rather than flying back there, I decided to test the armor out and walk. Of course, I still had my shiny new dagger ready to strike at anything that decided to eat me. For some reason, this didn’t happen as often as I had expected it to, and the first attack wasn’t until I was nearly halfway there.

Though, that means that something did attack me. And it was even a familiar wolf, too. The first time Rita had brought me through here, I had seen this wolf guarding its pups. But now, those pups had grown quite large, far faster than they normally should have. Together with their mother, they decided to block my path and invite me over for lunch. Sadly, I was to be the lunch. And of course, my ‘shy’ birds had long since abandoned me to fight on my own.

Altogether, there were three wolves, the mother and its two pups. The mother stood in the center, and the pup on the right was the first to charge at me, after emitting a series of threatening snarls. Perhaps a bit too overconfident in my new armor, I raised one arm to intercept its bite. It was then that I learned the primary flaw of flexible armor…. They don’t resist force very well. Sure, my arm wasn’t torn to shreds by the wolf, and I thought I even heard it chip its teeth on me, but the crushing power of its jaws were fully applied to my arm, making me curse under my breath.

Thanks to the first wolf blocking my view, I wasn’t able to see as the second ‘pup’ charged up. Instead, I was busy pushing mana into my new dagger to activate the chainsaw function, then driving it into the throat of the first wolf before it could remove itself from my arm. Surprisingly, I was able to control my body much more effectively now thanks to the large dexterity buff.

As the body of the wolf latched onto me became lifeless, I heard a growl off to my left. Unfortunately, that was the arm holding up the wolf, so I was not able to clearly see what was coming. I did, however, feel a strong impact against my side that launched me away and made me crash into a nearby tree.

That’s not how you fly, you know better!

-20 HP

While the first wolf hadn’t actually managed to do damage thanks to my armor, the impact from this one had managed to. When I looked, I saw the wolf swaying lightly before finding his balance. If I had to guess, it had taken a running start and headbutted me. Finally, the mother wolf was watching me warily, as if waiting to see what I would do. Since I had already killed one of its pups, it didn’t seem to eager to rush at me. And that suited me just fine.

I had already decided that I’d be keeping one of the wolf corpses to practice my Nature Magic with, so that of course meant that I couldn’t run away. And I knew that I was neither faster or stronger than these wolves, but I was better equipped. I could kill one with my dagger, or my magic. I really need to practice Earth Manipulation at some point.

As the second wolf once again began its charge, I leapt forward as well. Though, again, it was far faster than I was. By the time I had made it three steps, it was on me, its claws swiping for my unprotected face. I had roughly half a second to decide what to do, so naturally I procrastinated.

That could leave a mark.

-25 HP

I was thrown to the side with the force of the attack this time, but that meant little compared to the burning pain on the right side of my face. I could barely think to assemble an Alchemic Heal spell, which dulled the pain a bit. I’d need to do a more thorough treatment after this fight. And since they’ve seen I can bleed, the mother wolf seems more comfortable joining the fight.

Well, screw that! I thought to myself, quickly pouring my mana to merge my signature with that of the snake scale, activating Aspect of the Armored Beast. The two wolves paused their charge as they saw me changing forms. From the earlier exchange, they saw that they could hurt me if they hit my bare skin, but now they had lost such targets.

Deciding to take the initiative, I launched myself to the closest wolf, my blade in hand. Before I had gotten this armor, and this new spell, I would have been forced to retreat quickly against three wolves. But now, my equipment and magic were finally starting to match my level. There was still little hope of me mastering the use of the dagger, but if it’s just stabbing and cutting then I won’t have a problem.

As soon as I neared the wolf, it had finally come to its senses and jumped away before I could swing down with my weapon. At the same time, I felt something slam into my back, presumably the final wolf. Since this was no longer simply armor, but my actual skin, the force of the impact was lessened a bit. That didn’t stop me from being launched several feet forward and losing my balance, though. At least I didn’t slam into a tree this time.

I decided to try something new, mixing my Plant Affinity with a Nature Magic spell to get increased results. First, I slammed my fist into the ground, pouring mana into it while casting Nature’s Grasp. Here, I was able to see the result of my Nature Magic increasing from Beginner to Basic, as several thick roots sprang out from underground and caught the mother wolf. Then, I used Plant Manipulation to control the movement of those roots which already had been immersed in my mana.

The end result was… not something I’d ever want to have happen to me. The roots all began stabbing into the wolf’s skin, making miserable whines emit from its mouth before one finally struck a vital point. After that, the roots just froze, holding the wolf a couple feet in the air. I had absolutely no desire to do anything about these roots that would make me see the results of my handiwork.

Though, thanks to this scene, the other wolf decided I wasn’t worth the trouble, and ran off while its mother was being stabbed to death. And with the battle over, I was finally able to cast another Alchemic Heal on myself, taking care of the last of my injuries. When I looked over the result of the battle, I was a bit disappointed to find out that killing the two wolves had barely given me a ninth of what I needed to level up. I can either repeatedly fight wolves like this, or fight a single really strong monster. One of those snakes probably wouldn’t give me an instant level anymore.

Taking my loot, in other words the dead wolf, I continued my journey back to the grove. Perhaps since I didn’t cancel the Aspect of the Armored Beast, nothing else bothered attacking me. Though, I found another reason why the beasts were being so timid as I had nearly gotten back to the grove. A certain loli elf was staring at me with a mix of curiosity and caution, and it was my guess that she had just finished leading another student to Jarl. “Who.. or what, are you?”

“Well, Rita, is that any way to talk to a friend?” I tried to tease, but my voice sounded a bit different in this form. It was no surprise she wouldn’t recognize me, and the casual use of her name put her on guard even more.

“I’ll ask again, who are you and how do you know me?” I could see her clenching her fists, and knew that if I didn’t give a good enough answer this time, she might attack. And unlike the wolves, she would certainly have a way to kill me in one hit.

As such, I immediately canceled my Aspect spell, letting my appearance return to normal. “Better?” I asked with a cautious smile, ready to jump to the side if things were not, in fact, better.

Rita looked at me, blinking for a moment as she seemed to be thinking of something. “Falenel… right? Guess you found an interesting snake, huh?” She asked, looking at my armor. Thankfully, though, she seemed to have relaxed quite a bit. She even giggled when the two lovebirds flew down from the tree to finally perch on my shoulders again. Maybe they don’t like it when I go scaly? I’ll have to remember that trick for the future.

“Yeah, that’s me. Got another druid in training, I take it?”

She nodded her head, relaxing a bit more. “Yeah, another traveler. Just dropped her off, and was on my way back. I think she should be one of the last ones in this group to have gotten her class, since she’s focused more on her skills than anything else.”

Meaning I’m probably far weaker than her… Great. I sighed, shaking my head. “Well, I’ll head on over then and introduce myself.”

Nodding, she went on past me and let me go to meet the new girl. I was rather surprised when I found a stunningly beautiful wood elf sitting next to the pond, but it wasn’t the girl that had me most surprised. It was the fluffy white creature sitting in her lap, that familiar horn on top of its head…

We meet again, my nemesis… I glared at the rabbit, and it glared back at me. The girl seemed to have taken note of this, and looked over to me curiously. Did I mention stunningly beautiful? I think I did. While she may have been lacking in curves thanks to the more streamlined bodies of the elves, she was still very well proportioned, with long golden hair and deep sapphire eyes.

“Have you met Mr. Fluffims before?” She asked me rather cutely, and my brain froze. While I may hold a grudge against horned rabbits in general, that name was more than enough punishment. Combined with the fact that we were in the presence of a pretty girl, and I no longer felt the need to pummel it.

“No… just recalling a bad experience.” I said with a sigh, moving over and sitting on the ground. “So, I take it you’re here to meet Jarl?” I looked around, not seeing the druid trainer nearby.

She tilted her head slightly, but nodding soon after. “Yup. I sent the others to go look for him, so he should be back soon.”

She sent others… so she has more animal companions… and is able to control them far better than I do mine. I lowered my head in depression at that, thinking how much I fail as a druid. Sure, I don’t want a lot of animal companions, but if I could at least get these two birds to listen to me, I’d be happy. “So… did you already choose your Sub-Class?” I had a feeling I knew the answer, but asked anyways.

She nodded again, with a bit of a smile this time. “Yup! I got the option right after choosing the class, so I’m a Beastmaster now. How about you?” She asked, looking to the two birds on my shoulder, which had begun happily snuggling against the sides of my face.

“Not yet. I’m aiming for a specific skill set, but the next part of training is… well, it’s rather terrifying to be honest.”

She tilted her head cutely again. “How could it be that bad?”

I sighed helplessly, shaking my head. She’ll find out sooner or later. “I’ve got to turn into one of these birds… but they are very… eager to see that happen. And for none of the right reasons…”

She seemed to have trouble processing my meaning, but I could see her cheeks slowly turning red once she understood me. “Oh… oh, I see… yes, I could understand how that might be bad. Then… pardon my asking… but why did you pick female animals, if you didn’t want there to be a risk of that?”

“I didn’t pick them… they picked me.” I then explained how I had picked their favorite apples, and the swarm chasing me to be fed. And how by that point I had practically no choice but to take them as animal companions.

“Ah… I only take in female companions to avoid any risk of that when I learn how to transform. I’d rather not be ‘attacked’ by them.” She said, still blushing slightly. “But I will have to see about finding some for myself.. that is a rather interesting ability they have.”

It was at this point I noticed I had fallen into one of my bad habits. “I’m Falenel, by the way, what’s your name?”

“I’m Sharon.” She smiled warmly to me, which only made me feel even more depressed. Am I the only one that used a fantasy name when choosing the elves?

“Well, Sharon… mind helping me out a bit?” I asked, seeing no other way I could do this safely. When she looked at me curiously, I explained. “I need someone to distract these two while I transform, so that they don’t ‘attack’ me…” Blush incoming…

Blush sighted! She nodded, her cheeks turning red again. “Sure.. I can try to keep an eye on them.”

Alright! Now, with that taken care of, I can finally take my next step towards becoming a Xeno-Shifter! And thankfully I’ve got a cute girl here to help. Possible love interest?! No, not likely. Still, good to have friends!

Chapter 20: Third Wheel?

With Sharon’s permission, I had Yang go over and play with her, while I used Yin to study her mana signature. Yang was predictably reluctant, but after some coaxing she agreed and flew over to nestle against the nearby elf. Meanwhile, Yin sat between my hands as she had the first time I studied her aura, waiting for that uncomfortable feeling she felt last time.

I don’t think I’ve ever really properly described what mana signatures are like, have I? Well, that’s because it’s a bit hard to explain. Remember how I said that analyzing that herb felt like feeling deep inside of it? That’s actually only a small part of it. The entire mana signature itself is like a massive array of various strands of light.

Each section of the array contains different patterns and colors, determining different things. For instance, the scales I got from the Great Boa are like a braided pattern of silver and green light. In order to copy that onto my skin, I had to identify my own skin’s signature, which turned out to be a series of straight, dark blue lights. Once I overlaid the two patterns across my skin’s entire mana signature, the Aspect of the Armored Beast would activate.

On the other hand, the bird wings had to be grafted on, rather than overlaid. Thankfully, a creature’s mana signature seems to vaguely match up with their body shape, which makes it easier. Strangely, the lovebird’s camouflage ability was an overlay like the snake scales, but was a graft like the wings. In essence, I was adding a layer of paint to my mana signature.

The texture, such as feeling the wet rose when I explored the herb, comes from a deeper exploration of the signature. Each part of the mana signature has a different feeling, usually related to what the signature corresponds to. So, the wings had the feeling of stroking feathers, while the snake scales were more rough. It was the mix of associated feelings that helped me remember the patterns more clearly.

And for those of you wondering, yes, I did inspect Celeste’s mana signature, or at least the one from my bracelet. It was strange, rather than the natural, gentle formations that were in plants and animals, the mana signature of my companion bracelet was rough. Not rough like the snake scales… more like jagged, as if I were staring at a crushed car in a wireframe view. I guess that was the difference between something natural and artificial.

Anyways, enough about my little procrastination rant. My point was that it’s difficult to truly understand an entire aura, but once you have, it’s not nearly as difficult to remember. And that rather helped me when analyzing Yin’s mana signature, because I already had pieces of the puzzle that I could fill in, her wings and skin. Using that as a starting point, I was able to much more quickly finish analyzing her aura, after only 45 minutes or so.

Once I had finished analyzing the aura, I had Yin go over and play with Yang and Sharon. For some reason, though, I could feel a sense of anxiousness from them as they watched me. I really hoped that they didn’t realize what I was about to do, and were simply putting on an act to have me hurry up! They shouldn’t be that smart yet, right?!

Shaking my head, I quickly dispelled that thought. I had other things to worry about right now. What I was about to do wasn’t grafting a mana signature onto myself, or even overlaying an aspect. I was completely changing my mana signature to match another. For that, I had to be very careful, because if I messed up the positioning of the mana, then I might end up with my foot in my mouth.. literally!

Thankfully, I didn’t find it too hard to reshape my own mana signature, so I just had to take my time. At this point, it was like shaping clay. If I was careful, and took my time, then I would get the result I expected. If I rushed it, everything would collapse.

The entire process took nearly five minutes, during which I felt almost nothing. My eyes were long since closed to concentrate, so I saw nothing different until it was over. Once it was done, I opened my eyes carefully, and saw two giant birds charging over towards me! Wait, they weren’t giant birds, that was Yin and Yang! I was suddenly tiny!

There was a ding in my head as a notification appeared, but I did not pay attention to it. Turning around, I attempted to immediately fly away, but I was not used to this body yet. As such, I fell flat on my beak after jumping into the air. I could only weep silently as my doom flew closer and closer… and then stopped.

After a few moments of not being molested as I had expected, I turned around and saw the two lovebirds collapsed on the ground, their heads down with their upper wings covering their faces. The two of them just looked so pitiful for some reason… and that’s when I noticed it.

I… I was not a male bird! Mini-me was gone! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I finally had a chance, so I immediately began the process of changing back into my half-elf form. This time, the process was faster, only taking one minute to complete itself. However, changing back and forth once had used almost my entire mana pool! It was also at this time that I noticed the windows that had appeared earlier.

Congratulations! You qualify for a Druid Sub-Class!

Wild Shaper

Masters of their own bodies, these druids study the art of changing their forms to gain the abilities and traits of other creatures. Unlike other druids, these are not limited to beasts, but may also learn to harness the powers of magical beasts, and even monsters!

Advanced Class path: Xeno-Shifter, able to further extend their art to copy the properties of other sentient species, mixing and matching to create an ultimate form.

Do you wish to accept? Y/N

Mana Signatures has increased to Basic

New Spell Unlocked!

Form Shift – Nature Magic – ★★☆

Through arduous study of a mana signature, you are able to copy that signature and make it your own, assuming the identity of the studied beast.

Mana Cost: Form Dependant

While the second one had me a bit excited, it was the first one that I really enjoyed. Finally, I had started on the path to becoming a Xeno-Shifter! Naturally, I immediately selected yes and accepted the Sub-Class.

Sub-Class changed to Wild Shaper

Congratulations for choosing your Sub-Class! Your Growth rate for skills related to this Sub-Class increase by 20%, and you have been granted a Sub-Class special skill.

New Skill Unlocked!

Aura Sight – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%

The ability to perceive auras at a glance, by infusing magic into your eyes.

Seeing the two messages pop up after I chose my Sub-Class, I was even happier. Now, I would no longer need to hold an object or creature between my hands to study its mana signatures! Though, this likely didn’t let me detect the ‘feeling’ of the mana signatures, so it would be harder to memorize. Still, it shouldn’t be that hard right?

Before I had noticed it, there were two small birds nuzzling up against my head, seemingly glad I was back to being a man. And nearby, still sitting where she had been, was Sharon, who had a wry smile on her face. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she had managed to guess what had happened during that brief exchange. Though, any doubts immediately disappeared when she spoke.

“Turned into a girl bird, didn’t you?”

“Yup…” I let out a sigh, while propping myself up. I didn’t want to always turn into female creatures in the future. Especially if I ended up studying a female alien for my Xeno-Shifter abilities! I’d need to find some way to secure my manhood.

At this time, there was a light clapping coming from the edge of the grove. Surprised, both Sharon and I looked over to see Jarl there, accompanied by his usual wolf. However, there were also six horned rabbits, two young wolves, a small doe, and what looked like a white raven accompanying them. “Good, you’ve finally worked up the courage to take the next step.” He said, looking at me with an amused expression.

“You knew… didn’t you?”

To my question, he could only grin. “Of course I did. But it was too fun to watch your hesitation over it. If you want to know, the way to change a form’s gender is simple. Just study both a male and female of the same species, and find the components which determine gender. After that, just make sure you leave those bits unchanged, and you won’t have another gender accident.”

Well… at least he told me that part. I let out a tired sigh as I heard him talk. “So, I’ve got to ask… what’s the difference between animals, magical animals, and monsters?” I recalled that bit being mentioned in my notifications, so wanted to clarify. This entire time, I’ve been pretty much considering all animals as video game monsters.

He looked surprised at my question, however. Perhaps he hadn’t expected that we wouldn’t know? “Well, there’s really no harm in explaining. And the difference is pretty simple. Regular animals are those who have evolved naturally, and not had much of a reaction to the magic in their surroundings. Magical animals, on the other hand, have incorporated this magic into their evolution. Unicorns, for instance, are magical animals capable of manipulating water and light.

“It’s common for magical animals to have some special powers, by the way. And no, this forest shouldn’t have any in it. Now, monsters are a step further. They are races that, rather than evolving naturally, were spawned by magic itself. Slimes, for instance. In areas thick with certain types of mana, a slime might appear. But there are other examples as well, such as elementals, goblins, and even certain types of elves are all considered monsters by this standard.”

The last bit threw me for a loop. “Wouldn’t elves of any type be, at most, magical animals?”

He smiled, as if having expected that question. “If they had evolved, then yes. Though, sentient species are no longer classified as any of those three by these standards either. There are cases where the world will spawn a race which is very close to an existing race. Those are the ones considered as monsters. Though, out of beasts, magical beasts, and monsters, the latter are the most likely to gain sentience. I mentioned slimes and goblins as monsters, but there are also sentient goblin tribes, and even a race of slime people. Though their races started as monsters, they have transcended that level to become a sentient creature.”

I nodded, and began going over the information in my head. So it’s mostly dependant on the magic concentration, right? Low levels are found in normal animals, moderate levels in magical beasts, and high levels in monsters. And once a race gains sentience, they add a further layer of control to their own magic. That could explain why the races have different difficulties for my shapeshifting skills, I guess.

Now that he had finished explaining, he turned to look at Sharon. “And you must be the new apprentice Rita was sending. Your friends found me a little bit ago.” He waved his hands around to indicate the various animals around him. “Though, for the most part I would say you have advanced your training on your own far past the normal level.”

Seeing that he was about to start teaching her the basics of druid elemental magic, I decided to tune him out and begin cultivating my own three affinities. Later I can learn what I can from the wolf corpse, then see about learning new shapeshifting powers!

Chapter 21: The Claw

After a couple hours spent cultivating, I was somewhat annoyed that I hadn’t made much progress. Though, I also should have expected it. Although I managed to raise Earth Affinity to 6%, neither of my other affinities increased. Back when I was solely focusing on one at a time, it’d take several hours to gain a single percent, and now my attention was divided between three of them.

Maybe I should practice them one at a time until 10%, and then work on them in the background while I practice the next? I thought about it like that, and decided that I’d start working on it after I did some more training with Nature Magic. And in order to do that, I’d need to study the wolf corpse I had collected.

But… better safe than sorry. So, breaking out of my trance-like training, I looked over and saw that Jarl was sitting near Sharon, watching her practice her first session of cultivating mana. “Jarl, quick question.” When I saw I had his attention, I went ahead and asked. “There isn’t a penalty for studying the mana of a dead animal rather than a live one, right?”

He thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders. “Yes and no. If they have an activated ability like your birds, you won’t be able to study it. But… if they’re just normal animals, you can still see the aura left behind, as long as it’s not been dead for too long.”

I winced slightly at that. “How long is too long?”

“Twenty-four hours, typically. After that, the aura begins to degrade. That’s why resurrection also has a twenty-four hour window. Once the aura begins to degrade, it shows that the soul has left the body. So, unless a corpse is magically preserved so that the aura isn’t damaged, you only have that long.”

I nodded my head, a bit relieved at that. It had definitely not been a full day since I killed the wolf, and if I remembered right, I had not quite killed the snake twenty-four hours before I studied its scales. Taking another look at the armor’s mana signature, I discovered that the paths of light that I had previously memorized in the snake scales had started to shrivel up and lose their glow.

Having resolved my doubts, I pulled the body of the wolf out of my inventory, and decided to use my new skill, Aura Sight. What I saw caught me off guard for a moment. I could still see the wolf, the grass around it, and myself, but inside of each there were the strands of light I have come to associate with mana signatures. Even floating between the wolf and myself, thin, nearly invisible wisps of white light which seemed to be wind mana were mingling with straight, yellow rays descending from above. The latter, I decided was like light mana.

On the body of the wolf, I was pleased to find that the lights weren’t shriveled up or fading like the snake scales. Though it was missing the extra level of detail since I wasn’t actually touching the aura, I could still clearly see it. Only.. I wasn’t sure how long it’d take me to study even one small portion of it from this perspective.

As I dismissed the Aura Sight, I began to wonder something else. Just how had I managed to activate it in the first place? The system has never really assisted me in the activation of skills before in this game, so maybe Aura Sight is a common skill that anyone can do by passing mana into their eyes, and the game took pity on me to let me know? If so, that’d make me feel like a real idiot…

Well, that might have been the point. I mean, I never did try to sense things away from myself, even though it seems like an obvious thing to do now. Anyways, back to the wolf! There were a couple of things that I wanted to get from the wolf, primarily their claws and nose. I didn’t need to be able to turn fully into a wolf, but if I managed to learn the entire aura by then, I wouldn’t be one to complain.

Thinking about it like that made me a bit depressed, because I probably don’t have enough mana to shift into a wolf form, seeing as it took practically all of my mana just to turn into a bird. As such, I’d have to increase my intelligence stat a bit more to get more mana. And to do that, I need to level up!

Back to the wolf… again. I first focused my mana on sensing its paws, and looked at the structure of the lights within. While the composition of an aspect can be determined by what colors and patterns the lights are, the form of it is determined by the shape of those lights. So… the wolf’s furred skin is an interwoven gray and purple light, but I could just as easily replace that with the pattern of the snake’s scales. What I needed to focus on was the shape that those lights made.

I can’t wait to get back to leveling, and selling the bodies to earn money. Then maybe I can get another kind of magic. What would compliment my Nature Magic well? Summoning? Eh, I already have to deal with more animals than I’d like to, and anything my summons could do, I could do eventually. Gravity, then? It’d be nice, but not necessary. I almost dismissed Technomancy outright, since it would conflict with the druid image and Nature Magic, but then I realized something… If I was able to store information like a computer, or have mental access to such, then memorizing mana signatures would be far easier! Not only that, I might be able to mix and match configurations to make ‘preset’ forms.

Alright, that’s decided, once I get another five silver, I’ll learn Technomancy. Wait, I was trying to focus on something, wasn’t I? Dammit, this is why it takes me so long to do things, I keep getting bored and distracting myself! Wolf, wolf, study the wolf! Come on, Falenel, you can do it!

Roughly half an hour later, I had finally managed to memorize the pattern of the wolf paws. Taking a look at my own hand, I made sure I was doing this right before I started. I didn’t want to edit the wrong part of my mana signature, and have the paw coming out of my elbow!

But, with a fair amount of caution, I shifted the mana signatures in my hand to match that of the paw, complete with its claws. It felt weird, seeing my thumb melt into my hand, while my fingers thickened and reshaped themselves, my fingernails growing out into thick claws. But, since I didn’t copy the fur of the wolf over, my hand was still bare.

New Spell Unlocked!

Aspect of the Hunter – Nature Magic – ★

By studying the natural weapons of an animal, you are able to mimic them on your own body.

Mana Cost: 50

Alright, good. Now, for the nose. I looked up, and saw Sharon staring at me. And not in the happy way, I’d like that a bit. This was the ‘what did you do to that dog’ stare. “Uhm… something wrong?”

She just kept staring for a moment before speaking. “That puppy… did you kill it..?”

This is going to go bad no matter how I answer, so… I nodded my head, and could see her clenching her fists. “Not like I had much of a choice. It attacked me on my way here.” That seemed to placate her a bit, but she was still looking angry. Guess that she’s the kind that loves animals, and would rather befriend them than kill them, even in a game. “I only fought as much as I had to, until they started to run away. This one just didn’t make it that long.”

That seemed to help a bit more, and she pulled a wolf of her own close to her, hugging it like a giant stuffed animal. Surprisingly, it did not really resist her at all, and even nuzzled closer. “Okay… as long as you aren’t bullying them…”

Seriously, what is with her? I know this game is a bit too realistic, but still… Guess that means I won’t be taking her with me when I go to grind levels, but it does explain why she took so long to get her class, and had so many animal companions.

Even Jarl was shaking his head, seemingly disappointed with Sharon’s actions. The animals of this forest kill each other more in a day than I could if I stayed here for a month, maybe even a year. Refusing to accept that fact for her might hurt later on, when she comes across more powerful creatures that she can’t tame.

Shaking my head again, I looked over to Jarl as I remembered something, completely by random. Though, it might help me make money in the future if it works. “Jarl, I was told Alchemy and Nature Magic mixed really well. Is it possible to use Nature Magic to help make the potions themselves, rather than just copying the effects of them?”

Jarl seemed about as surprised by my question as I was by the thought of it. However, if this worked, then I would no longer need to constantly hunt for familiar herbs. After a moment, he nodded his head slightly. “I guess it would be possible, just not easy. Just like how you can change your aura to match that of a beast, you can do the same thing for plants. If you bleed a little into a bottle, but changed the signature of your blood to match the combination of herbs you use to make the potion, then your blood would become that potion.”

I nodded a bit, though winced as I imagined how much I would have to cut myself to make a profit like that. “What if I copied an animal that constantly produced a liquid, and changed that instead? Like the venom sac of a poisonous snake?”

Again, he nodded his head. “That would also work, though would take a bit more practice. You’d also need an easy way to extract it from yourself, which could be with a snake’s fangs. Most druids don’t go down that route, since it is rather difficult to get right. If you mess up, you could accidentally fill your body with a deadly poison, and die on the spot. If that happens, then even resurrection magic would not help you, unless someone managed to remove all of the poison from your body and replace it with normal blood.”

That made me wince even more as I pictured that kind of failure. “Well, I need some way to make money. Not that good at hunting, next to no skills when it comes to making items, and I don’t know enchanting. I can cook, and I can do alchemy.”

Jarl thought it over for a moment longer before speaking, an interested look on his young face. “Well, if you had a personal garden, you could grow your own herbs. There is an advanced druid technique that would help, and it’s actually something Sharon would need to learn eventually if she hopes to advance to become a Colony Druid.”

Seeing that I was interested, he spoke with a slight smile. “If you train your affinities and Nature Magic to a certain degree, you can make an ‘internal world’ within yourself. That’s how a Colony Druid stores their animal army inside their body. It’s also where many druids cultivate their grove. But, in order to achieve it, you need all of the necessary affinities at at least 5%. That means water, earth, fire, wind, and light all need to be at 5% to start it. Without one, you will be missing a key element to sustain life inside your grove. And, if you plan to have any nocturnal herbs, you’ll need Dark Affinity as well.”

I blinked, taken aback by this new option. “You mean… once I get all of that… I’d actually be able to have a garden… inside my own body?” The implications of this were huge. If it was a part of my magic, wouldn’t it carry over when I logged out?

“In a sense. You’ll need to care for it like normal, and can only bring in plants you assimilate on the outside. But once you have it, you’ll be able to take any plant from your grove, and bring it out into the real world. Normally, this isn’t talked about until you grow a bit more powerful, but I figure telling you now will give you some motivation in your training.” He winked jokingly to me, and laughed.

Suddenly, I remembered the various forests I had seen when I flew into the air before. “Then, this forest..?”

“Right, this is my grove. Most forests on this planet are maintained by a druid, who allows others to create cities within them. But, don’t think that your grove will be this big when you first make it. You’d be lucky to have it even one percent of the size. The size of the grove will grow gradually over time as you continue to absorb the mana of the various elements that compose it.”

Well, this opened up a whole new path for me to make money. I still had several herbs left in my inventory that I could plant once I managed to make what he was talking about. But first, I needed to get the nose from this wolf, and then cultivate the last few elements that I need!

Chapter 22: Training Montage

Analyzing the wolf’s nose was surprisingly difficult, as a sense organ is far more complicated than something like a paw or wings. Still, about an hour and a half later, I had managed to memorize the pattern. With a bit of hesitation, I gradually applied to spell to unlock the next Aspect for my magic.

New Spell Unlocked!

Aspect of the Tracker – Nature Magic – ☆

By studying the sensory organs of various creatures, you are capable of assuming those traits to enhance yourself.

Mana Cost: 30

I wasn’t really sure what I had been expecting, but a massive overflow of vivid smells still managed to catch me off guard, to the point where it was almost nauseating. In order to save my aching gut, I hurriedly dismissed the spell, letting my nose return to normal. After taking a moment to recover, I saw the window that had appeared, and was honestly disappointed. Maybe senses are considered a pure utility effect, and thus aren’t ranked very high, but still… only being worth half a star frustrated me.

Either way, I had my collection complete for the wolf. Next thing I did was to fully memorize the creature’s aura so that I could add it to my collection of shapeshifting forms. That part took a bit longer, nearly three full hours. However, once I had it, and memorized it, I didn’t bother trying to shift into a wolf. I figured it probably cost at least 500 mana, so it’d be best to wait until I hit that.

Looking over towards Sharon, a thought occurred to me. “Celeste… you can still measure my affinities, right?”

The holographic girl appeared above my wrist, nodding obediently. “That’s right, Falenel. Want me to take a look at them again?”

Her constant change in attitude confused me, but maybe that was just her personality settling in, or she was doing it on purpose to be playful. “Yeah, is there one listed as an Animal Affinity?” I asked curiously. Since there was a Plant Affinity, maybe there was also one for animals. And if that was the case, the manipulation skill would likely have a similar effect as the one I have for plants.

“Hmm… yup! There is one listed as a Beast Affinity. Currently, your rating with that is only a single percent. Why, you don’t feel like training it, do you?” She asked, seemingly surprised. She likely knew my thoughts regarding the birds, so cultivating this affinity would be weird for me.

“Not just yet. Was only curious.” It’ll probably be something that Sharon gets fairly early on. I’d wager it was likely one of her top three starting affinities.

Hearing my reply, Celeste let out a sigh of relief, before her hologram vanished back into the bracelet where she dwelled. Now, it was time to start cultivating the remaining elements I needed in order to establish my inner grove. Out of the three remaining affinities I needed, water was currently the highest at 2%, so I started with that.

Standing up, I walked over closer to the pond and sat down, setting my hand just at the edge of the pond to let my fingers be submerged. Even though I had Aura Sight now, and it allowed me to see the mana of the different elements, I wasn’t sure it would let me make a connection over a distance. So instead, I made the link the same way I had before, through a physical connection.

After that, time passed much in the same way as when I trained my other affinities… slowly. It took nearly three full days to get the Water Manipulation ability, and then another three days each for Light Manipulation and Fire Manipulation. On the bright side, I managed to figure out a recipe for alchemy to cure burns… Though, that was only because I foolishly stuck my hand inside a fire to establish the connection to that type of mana, before I realized that living creatures(like myself) naturally emit a small amount of fire mana.

In the end, I managed to raise all three to 5% after nearly ten full days of training. During that time, Sharon has been practicing even harder than I was. Not only did she get the Beast Manipulation, but she also got the abilities for water, earth, and wind in that same amount of time. If I didn’t already have a head start of two affinities, she would have easily beaten me to it.

Also, I should mention that I finally got around to testing the Earth Manipulation skill. It reminded me of an old anime, where a person had to use sharp movements to move the earth. While I didn’t really need to make any movements, it took quite a bit more mana than the other affinities. However, the effects made by manipulating the earth were permanent, so it could make up for it.

If you’re wondering how I managed to feed myself for these nine days, it’s really simple. Every day or two one of my meals would be taking care of in the real world, but other than that we(Jarl) roasted the wolf, and the rest of my meals came from Yin and Yang. No, I didn’t eat them, too. I was tempted, after I had gone several days without any meat, but they kept bringing me fruits instead.

But anyways, I had finally cultivated all five affinities needed for my inner grove, so after I received the last one I smiled towards Jarl. “Think you could teach me how to get started on my ‘inner world’ now?”

He looked me over, and smirked. “Alright, just don’t think I’ll be going easy on you. This is a big step for druids, so try to take your time. Once you have it established, it is much easier to expand it in the future.”

I nodded and sat down on the ground, crossing my legs to wait for his instruction. Seeing that, he chuckled lightly, before nodding his head. “Okay, first of all, you need to make magic seeds of each of the five base elements. Don’t worry about darkness for now, you can add it in later. In order to create the seeds, you need to cultivate each element and condense the energy into a small shape. Then, using your Nature Magic to give it form, you turn it into a seed. Be careful of how much mana you put in each one. The quality of your inner world will depend on the balance between the different mana types, and can only be slowly shifted over time if a mistake is made at the start.”

Again, I nodded, and decided to start with water mana. I chose this one, because out of all five mana types it was the easiest to shape, with light being the hardest. So I used my Water Manipulation to pull some of the water over from the pond to me, and used it to cultivate. I’m not really sure how long it took, but in order to not have to pause to refresh my mana, I only skimmed from the top of the water mana that I took in. It was just enough that it didn’t cause my mana to drop faster than it was restored.

I had started in the evening, and when I opened my eyes next, the sky was already dark. However, I could feel that I was coming closer and closer to completing this seed. I was packing the water mana into a single spot as much as I could, until I felt it couldn’t hold any more. Then, once I felt it was at the breaking point, I used my Nature Magic as instructed, to convert it into a physical object.

The object created was a pure blue orb, about a third the size of my fist. Jarl, having seen that I was finally done, smiled lightly. “That is the first one, a Seed of Water. It’s actually a fairly valuable object by itself, since they can be used in the process of creating an item to give them an elemental ability. They are condensed essences of magic, and produced almost exclusively by druids, or mages capable of creating an enchantment that causes the same effect. The only other way to obtain them is by killing a magical beast or monster with a high affinity towards an element.”

I smiled, looking down at the orb in my hand. If I could mass produce this thing, then wouldn’t I be able to make money even without alchemy? I decided that I’d check the prices of these seeds once I journeyed to the big city.

Next, I slept until morning. What, you didn’t think I’d been cultivating and training for nine days without bothering to sleep, did you? I am not some kind of training monster that could pull that off! When I woke up, I ate, and then started on the next element. This one would be earth, since like water was fairly easy to get a desired shape.

The process was very similar to what I had gone through with water, so there’s not much point in going in detail. Same with wind and fire. Only light had a bit of a difference, because I had to wait until the following morning or else I might get interrupted and lose all my work. Also, each pellet took nearly five hours to create, and by the time I was done, Sharon had gotten the Light Manipulation ability, leaving only one more before she was ready to do what I had just done. I really felt like she was training too fast. Or was I just going slower than normal?

After I was done with all five seeds, Jared told me to use my Nature Magic to fuse them together, by siphoning all of their mana into a single pellet. This was apparently the most complicated part of the process, and failure meant I would have to refine all five seeds again from scratch. So naturally, I wasn’t allowed to fail!

….Yeah, I wish. About halfway through the process, my focus slipped, and the pellet I was working on shattered. So… naturally, I had to go through the entire seed refinement again. By the time I was done with making the seeds this time, Sharon was starting on her first one. It really felt bad being outdone by someone that started later, so I tried to rush through the process of creating the pellet the second time… which made it fail again.

Of course, by the time I was ready to try again, Sharon had refined all five seeds and already succeeded in combining them her first try. I even asked her how she had done so as quickly as she did, and she just said it was easy. That annoyed me more than anything else, since it seemed she was really telling the truth, and not trying to brag.

So, for the third time, I put all of my focus on creating this pellet. Sharon, being the kindhearted soul that she is, even decided to wait for me to finish before moving to the next step. Thankfully, I managed to create the pellet on my third try, the energies all falling into place and fusing into a single sphere. Although the orb was about the same size as the seeds had been, it was no longer a single color. There were patches of brown, blue, swirling red and white, it even emitted a soft glow.

Seeing that I had finally finished, after a total of four days of trying to make this pellet, Jarl let out a relieved sigh. “Okay, now that you’re both ready to move on, the next step is the easiest. What you have in your hands right now is called an Essence of Nature. Simply place it in your mouth, and dissolve it with Nature Magic, and it will be taken care of.”

I smiled slightly, glad to know that this stage was so easy. Looking over to Sharon, we met each other’s gaze and nodded, before we both put the pellets in our mouths and began the final process. Thankfully, the pellet just barely fit in our mouths, or this would be a very awkward training attempt.

Once in our mouths, each of us began draining it with Nature Magic, much in the same way that we had created the pellet in the first place. Except, this time, instead of five different types of mana, there was just one strong combined type flowing into our bodies. After about ten minutes of this, the pellet had already completely dissolved.

Opening my eyes, I saw that Sharon was just finishing up as well, and we both looked at Jarl, confused. I certainly couldn’t detect anything different about myself right away, and my mana signature appeared the same as I remembered it. Noticing our gazes, Jarl only smiled at us for a moment before speaking. “Congratulations, it seems both of you have already successfully created your inner world. To explore it, simply meditate like you would when cultivating mana, but direct your senses inside yourself. You should be able to find it.”

I had already basically done that, hadn’t I? Well, without the meditation. Shrugging my shoulders, I closed my eyes and tried meditating like I would when cultivating mana. However, like he said I focused on myself rather than an element. Soon, I understood what he meant, and it was like I was floating above a small patch of soil, about ten meters wide and long. If this was my inner grove, I was really disappointed in myself.

Congratulations on establishing your Druid Grove!

This is a crucial step for nearly all druids, as it gives them more options for training and convenience than ever before.

Current size of grove: 6 meter radius.

Elemental Balance: Decent

I felt very disappointed in myself.

Chapter 23: A Single Blade

After a few moments of regret for my tiny plot of land, I allowed my consciousness to emerge again and looked around. Jarl was looking at the two of us expectantly, and when he saw that we had both ‘woken up’, he spoke. “Your grove will always present itself in the form of a sphere. Roughly a third of the innermost part of the sphere will be used for the ground, while the rest will be the atmosphere. So, how big are your inner worlds?”

I answered first, saying that it was six meters radius. Next, Sharon spoke up, and somewhat shyly said that hers was almost a ten meter radius. Somehow, I feel like she is just a better druid than me, even though she’ll have trouble leveling up the normal way. Jarl nodded his head, having somewhat expected these numbers. “They’re both a bit below average. But, like I said before, the hardest part is establishing your grove. From now on, whenever you cultivate, any excess elemental energy will be absorbed by your grove to help it grow larger. The only time it will stop growing is if the elements are too out of balance. At that point, you’ll need to absorb a large amount of the missing elements in order to make up the difference.”

He then looked over to Sharon. “For you, your grove needs to be at least an acre of ‘ground’ to support a budding colony. Right now, you’d only be able to house one or two animals at most.” Afterwards, he directed his attention to me. “As for you, the size of your grove isn’t really that important, since you are just planting herbs. A ten meter cubed space is sufficient for you to plant a few items. Once it grows more, you’ll need to change the layout to match the herbs you’re planting. For instance, if you get something that only grows underwater, or in a desert, you’ll need an environment that matches it.”

With that said, he clapped his hands together once and looked at both of us. “Either way, first you’ll need to learn how to move things into and out of your grove. Since food is not magically provided, Sharon will have to grow her own plants and establish an ecosystem.”

I winced a bit, as I understood what that meant sooner than she would. In other words, her wolves will eat her rabbits… Jarl, seeing my reaction, nodded slightly to it. “For that reason, Sharon, you’ll need to get both males and females of any species that you want to keep in your grove. Don’t worry, if they are born and raised inside your grove, they will have an automatic loyalty towards you.”

It took a few more moments for Sharon to process what had been implied, but then she immediately looked down to the rabbit in her arms and became saddened. “So… they’ll fight each other like normal, then..?”

Jarl nodded his head, but said nothing, so she eventually gave a bitter smile. “Well.. I suppose it is the natural order of things… right?” She looked up at him, but it was easy to see that she was still reluctant.

“Exactly, Sharon. We are not druids because we seek to preserve life in all its forms. Trying to do so will only lead to more pain. The spider eats the butterfly to live, and so nature will go on. If we tried to save the butterfly, the spider would instead starve. What we, as druids, must do is instead seek to preserve nature itself. That is why we cultivate our inner grove. A single druid can save a species from going extinct by sheltering it until they are strong enough to emerge again. Just one of us can create a vast forest for people to call their home. We do not provide the technologic advance of the mages, or the defensive strength of the fighters, or the cunning of the rogues.

“That is not to say that we are weak. A well trained druid can make the world itself fight against the enemy. Who can withstand the air being ripped from their lungs, or the water in their blood boiling? Druids are a highly respected class among many cultures, because it is through our efforts that uninhabited worlds will support life.”

Sharon looked up at him, and nodded her head again, still unwilling to speak. Seeing that, Jarl began talking again, this time to both of us. “Now, I’m going to teach you how to transfer a plant into your grove. This time, we’ll use just a single blade of grass to start with.” Saying so, he extended his hand downwards, and three blades of grass flew up from the ground to land on it. Each of these blades of grass had their roots in tact, and he stretched his hand out towards us. “Take one each. Remember, when moving a plant to your grove, you must either take all of it, right down to the roots, or plant its seed. Doing the latter will naturally make it take longer to grow, but if you use Nature Magic or are able to manipulate plants, then you can accelerate the growth speed.”

Sharon and I each took a single blade of grass from him, and held it in our hands. “Okay, now the next step is a bit tricky, and I highly suggest you practice a lot on plants before you try it with an animal, because failure could very well kill them.” Sharon froze up at his words, before hastily nodding her head. Obviously, given her nature, she wouldn’t intentionally risk her animal companions. “In order to move something into your grove, you have to feel its aura, and use your own to completely wrap around it. After that, you are able to will it inside yourself, so long as it doesn’t resist. If a creature were to resist, or have an aura too strong for you to fully envelope, then it would be impossible to store it. Likewise, if you have gaps in your hold over its aura, and it does not resist… only the places you were covering will be sent.”

I thought about that for a moment, and then looked at Jarl. “Doesn’t that mean that sentient creatures and monsters could be stored inside the grove as well?”

He smirked at my question, but nonetheless nodded. “That’s right. Though, to store such would require a far more powerful druid than either of you. You would have to completely surround their aura with your own, preventing even the tiniest bit from leaking out.” He then frowned, and sighed while shaking his head. “Unfortunately, this also means that druids are capable of smuggling people across borders undetected. Because aside from the druid himself, it’s impossible for others to detect the grove, let alone investigate it. And just like with all things, there are druids swayed by greed, who would rather use their talents for such things. Most smuggling operations will tend to have a druid for slave trafficking.”

I raised an eyebrow slightly at that, while Sharon seemed downright appalled to hear that such a thing could happen. Nonetheless, he continued. “Anyways, both of you should try to move this grass over to your grove. It’s a fast growing species that we typically use to cover wide areas. With the sizes of your groves, it would only take it a week to fill. By that time, you will also have been able to move other plants over as well. Once you have it transported into your grove, you’ll need to once again meditate to enter the grove yourself, so that you can place it. If you don’t do so, it will just appear in a random area.”

I nodded my head, and went to work on my assigment. Since I had been studying mana signatures for quite a while now, this part was fairly easy to me. Surprisingly, I even managed to finish before Sharon did, though she still seemed disturbed by what had been discussed previously. Once I had the aura of the grass tightly wrapped up, I pictured it entering my body. After that, I watched it dissolve in strands of green light, which then flew into my chest.

With that part taken care of, I quickly entered the grove again, and found that green light floating above the ground. Since I didn’t have a physical body here, I simply willed it into the ground. Almost immediately, the green light shot into the ground, where it formed that single blade of grass, already planted. Exiting my grove, I smiled triumphantly. Though, I was a bit saddened when I looked over and saw that Sharon was still struggling to finish the first step. That must have been a pretty heavy blow to her.

After a few more minutes, she let out a relieved sigh as the grass similarly turned into a series of green lights that flew towards her chest. Seeing her enter the meditative state, I watched for a little bit before she emerged, a slight smile on her face. Now that I thought about it, I really didn’t know anything about Sharon. Even if she was a member of the net communities or a Seeds tester. We hadn’t spoken much at all since that first meeting.

With that, I began thinking about other things. If the grove carries over when I log off, that meant I could take the birds out of the game. It also meant that I might be able to take other people out too, once I got strong enough. I might even be able to bring out someone that’s already been virtualized.

Though the net communities would feel very real, there was always the problem of it being a virtual environment. Like I had said previously regarding other VR games, there would always be a feeling of wrongness. While most people are able to move past that and accept their new lives, some still longed for the real world again.

I felt a bit wrong, thinking about using this ability to let others experience the real world again as a chance to make some easy money, but the poor man in me naturally thought of it. To distract myself, I took a moment to go over the gains I had received from my two week session of refinement and cultivating.

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 11

11%

Class

Druid

Sub-Class

Wild Shaper

Deity

Malthan

Health

120/120

Health Regen

0.2

Mana

400/400

Mana Regen

0.45

Strength

12

Wisdom

68

Agility

20

Intelligence

40

Dexterity

19

Charisma

9

Vitality

12

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

Earth 7%

Fire 7%

Wind 8%

Water 7%

Lightning 0%

Light 7%

Dark 1%

Plant 6%

Luck 2%

Madness 2%

Skills

Mana Manipulation – Basic Level 6: 35%

Nature Magic – Basic Level 4: 20%

Wind Magic – Beginner Level 6: 41.5%

Archery – Beginner Level 3: 25.9%

Dagger Mastery – Beginner Level 3: 14.1%

Wild Luck – Beginner Level 6: 0%

Sketching – Basic Level 6: 50%

Herbology – Beginner Level 2: 2%

Gathering – Beginner Level 6: 6%

Alchemy – Beginner Level 5: 2%

Mana Signatures – Basic Level 3: 12%

Cooking – Basic Level 3: 52%

Flight – Beginner Level 6: 12.3%

Aura Sight – Beginner Level 2: 33%

Looking at that, I was quite satisfied. The process of refining the pellets three times each had let all of my affinities increase by a further two percent, and now my Wind Affinity was nearing the point where I wouldn’t have to focus on it anymore in order to cultivate. Though, I had my suspicions. Cultivation should naturally proceed faster if you focus on it, so if I let it go on in the background, the effects would be significantly less than if I actively purused it.

Although my stats hadn’t skyrocketed through intense training to make me match a character ten times my level, like in a classic novel, I considered myself fairly talented. With basic control over five of the primary elements, I could fight pretty much anywhere except in outer space. And by the time I got there, I should have a few additional tricks as well, I would hope.

Thinking a few things over in my head, I looked at Jarl and decided to ask something that had me curious. “Since the grove is based on elements we absorb, what about the elements that aren’t part of the ‘big seven’? For instance, my Plant Affinity?”

Jarl looked over towards me, and thought about that for a moment. “Different affinities will have different effects. The ones that influence the size of your grove are fire, wind, earth, and water. However, having a weaker Light Affinity will mean that the light will not cover your grove as strongly, so it is suggested for that to be in balance as well. If you add in the Lightning Affinity, then there will be the chance to have a weather cycle in your grove. Dark Affinity grants day and night. As for Plant Affinity, that should have an effect on the growth speed of plants in your grove, as well as their quality.” He then looked over towards Sharon. “Same with the Beast Affinity, the strength of animals raised in the grove would surpass normal ones.”

Sharon looked up at that, and nodded with a slight smile. “As for the other minor affinities, I’m not too sure. They should generally either have an impact on the organisms in your world, or your world itself.”

I nodded my head again, and then asked. “So how do we add another affinity to our grove? Do we have to go through the entire process again?”

Jarl shook his head at that before answering. “Just make a seed for whatever element you want to add, and then ingest it the same way you did to start your grove. It’s only necessary to mix them together for those five elements. Though, I would strongly suggest that Sharon learn the Dark Affinity before moving animals into the grove, as many rely on a day and night cycle.”

She nodded, seemingly a bit more energetic than before, while I decided that I had to refine a plant affinity seed next. Having my herbs grow faster and have stronger effects would be a great benefit as an alchemist.

Chapter 24: Goldilocks Never Had To Put Up With This.

Placing my hands down on the grass, I began the process of refining my Seed of Plants. Seriously, that name sounds redundant. Well, I should probably save up a few of these eventually and have Jacobs do some enchanting with them. Either that, or I’d have to learn how to enchant in order to do it myself. And really, that didn’t seem like such a bad idea since I already had my heart set on Technomancy. Since most devices are made with at least some level of enchanting in this game, the two skills compliment each other as well as Alchemy and Nature Magic.

A few hours slowly passed before the small pellet gradually formed in my hand, with varying shades of green. If I had to describe it, it’d be like someone painted a classic camouflage pattern on it. Shrugging my shoulders, I popped it into my mouth like a pill and let it dissolve with my Nature Magic. I think by this point I had the process worked out pretty well. Even though I was essentially just doing the same thing I had spent a few hours on, but in reverse, the effect was still clear.

In order to introduce a new element into the world, rather than gradually letting it pour in over time, you had to shock it with a large amount all at once. Doing so would force the world to adapt in order to accept this new element. To my pleasant surprise, my grove actually expanded a full meter in radius after I put the plant mana into it. Then, I pulled out a few of the herbs I had gathered so far.

Starting with the most rare plant I had acquired to date, the mushroom, I planted a total of four herbs. First was that mushroom, second being blood Weed, then fireflower so that I could make health potions whenever I wanted. Finally, I decided to plant the mushroom that said it was a component in mana potions, spider cap. I still needed to learn what other herbs go with it to make the mana potion, though.

This process went fairly smooth, since I had previously pulled the entire plant out of the ground in case the roots might be an ingredient of their own. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to have withered away while in my inventory, so replanting them was not an issue. Now I simply had those four herbs planted at equal distances around my small globe, with only that single blade of grass breaking the pattern. And, when I concentrated, I was even able to sense that several other blades had appeared around it beneath the surface, just unable to break through yet. Must be because of the plant mana.

Now, I had a few options. I could either cultivate Dark Affinity to have a day/night cycle in my grove, or I could cultivate one of the elements already present to expand it. However… I chose neither option for now. I still needed to advance my other class skills, specifically my shapeshifting. In order to do that, it was time to begin a leveling frenzy!

Thanks to my flight a couple weeks ago, I now knew that this pond was at the center of the forest, meaning that the strongest animals should be directly around it. Looking to the two lovebirds that were just coming back from getting themselves a meal, I instructed them to stay behind mentally. Rather than it being because I cared about them, it was more because I didn’t want them getting in my way. However, they didn’t seem to get that part, and only happily agreed, thinking I was doing so for their sake.

God, I sound like one of those cheap characters from an old story. What were they called? Tsunders? Thundere? It doesn’t matter, either way I focused for a few moments to activate my Aspect of the Armored Beast, covering my entire body with snake scales as I stood. Sadly, it took a bit longer than normal to activate, and there was a bit of pain suggesting that I didn’t get it completely right. I really needed to hurry up and get Technomancy. Maybe with that I’d be able to solve the issue of memory.

Although I had taken the precaution to equip my scales, I did not intend on playing the role of the brute melee fighter again. My vitality was not nearly high enough to do that if I ran into a bear. Rather, I planned to try out some of my new magic abilities instead!

Guiding a bit of mana into my eyes, I activated Aura Sight, and my vision was bathed in various lights. I had a theory that this skill could be used for more than just failing to memorize auras, and as I set out into the forest my hunch was soon proven correct. I mean, why would there be an entire skill that just covered such a small purpose?

After I was about twenty meters from the clearing, I began seeing irregularities in the aura of the ground. At first, I was able to overlook them, but then they turned into a pattern and my eyes were naturally drawn to them. Specifically, the pattern was as if something had walked by, a sort of magical footprint. Kneeling down next to it, I decided to study the pattern for a few moments, to see if I could gain a new skill or ability. However, the only thing I was able to determine was that it did not match the aura of the wolf I had killed previously.

Knowing that, this should be a different animal. With the track being on the ground, it obviously wasn’t a bird. They were clearly not snake tracks, so it eliminates that as well. The most likely option, then, would be a bear. At least, I hadn’t seen any other animals this close to the clearing besides those.

Either way, I had a target. Comparing what I knew from other games, if a wolf was considered level 10(and I hoped they were, given the difficulty I had in killing them), then an average bear should be level 15 or 16. That would put it at the same tier of difficulty as the Great Boa. However, each had their natural weaknesses. The snake could only attack in one direction at a time, but had incredible strength if it got ahold of you, and its defense was likely among the best in the forest. As for bears, they were typically known for strength as well, and while their thick hides were weaker than a Great Boa, they were more versatile while attacking.

By the way, I’m sure there are some people wanting to know why I’m not simply using my Light Manipulation to bend the light around me and make myself invisible. To be honest, that was the first thing I did after I gained the ability. And yes, it even worked. However, there was an inherent flaw with that technique. If all light is bending around my body, that means that it is not being directed into my eyes to be processed by my brain. In other words… light bending invisibility blinded me.

Maybe if I got a higher affinity, I’d be able to selectively make it so that light can hit me, but passes through? But that is way beyond what I can do now. As such, I was left stalking through the forest, my dagger at the ready. I had a feeling that I was getting closer to the source of these aura footprints, but if Celeste didn’t keep interrupting me I would have already found them! Why does an AI need to clear her throat anyways?

“What is it?” I asked as quietly as I could manage, looking down at my wrist. When I did so, I saw a rather timid looking hologram slowly pointing in front of me before vanishing. Following where she had pointed, I was reminded of an ancient saying, passed down from generation to generation. Such a wise saying had saved many lives, and ensured the continuation of the species to this day. However, I seemed to have forgotten it until now. Always watch where you’re going.

Ahead of me, staring in a rather upset manner, was a bear. A rather big bear at that, easily as big as I was while still on all four legs. Oh, hey, look, it has a friend… make that friends. Three bears. Three, really big, really brown, really angry bears. I suddenly felt like a sudden blonde girl who had stumbled into a dangerous cabin. His teeth are too sharp, her teeth are too dull, but his teeth are just right to bite me in half.

Okay, I can do this. This is just like that time against the snake. No, wait, bad example, that time there was only one, and it ate me. I crouched down, planting one hand against the ground while the other held the dagger in front of me in what I assumed to be a defensive posture. If I was going down, I was at least going to look cool doing it!

Gathering the earth mana below me, I prepared to make the ground suddenly rise in order to launch me at the pack of bears. A dumb idea, which is exactly why it will catch them off guard! The three bears slowly walked towards me, which I took as my sign to begin. Suddenly lifting the ground with my Earth Manipulation, I launched myself towards them like a catapult, aiming my dagger towards their vitals!

Yeah, since when has that ever happened? “Waaaah!!” I screamed as I tore through the air, faster than expected, my arms flailing to either side. Thankfully, I managed to keep a grip on my dagger, because I felt it sink into something soft, which made my flight path change from a straight line into a sideways arc. Next thing I knew, I collided head first into something not as soft, and heard a dull cracking noise. However, it also made me black out for a moment.

When I woke up, I saw one of the bears staring rather dumbly at the scene before it, not even paying me much attention anymore. For some reason, one of the bears had a giant gash straight down one of their sides, with their entrails spilling out. Obviously, it was already dead. Then, some distance away on the other side of it, another bear was lying limp on the ground, blood coming from a wound on the side of its head, right behind its eye.

Did I just… no… that’s not possible, right? I took a quick look, and saw that Wild Luck had surprisingly gained two full levels, while my luck stat even increased by a point. Apparently, snake scales beat bear skull, and chain dagger beats bear hide… However, I had also lost half of my health, by what the message window labeled a ‘head on’ collision. I seriously wanted to smack the developers of this game.

Looking at the last remaining bear, I decided to go back to my original druid fighting plan. Drawing a bit of fire mana from my body, I amplified it with wind mana, while pulling out any water mana from nearby it. Although it took nearly all of my concentration to simultaneously command three elements, it was not nearly as difficult as it had been to form that cursed pellet. And the result was quite satisfying, an intense fireball forming in my hand. However, my hand was starting to blister just from being so close to the burning flame, so I quickly threw it at the distracted bear, setting its fur on fire.

Well, that didn’t kill the bear, but it certainly got its attention, as the beast was flailing its arms angrily to try to put out the fire. It even laid flat on the ground and rolled around, which would have proven successful if I wasn’t still feeding it fire and wind mana to keep it going. Eventually, it simply stood up, and charged at me. At this point, I was perhaps more terrified than when I was facing three bears at once. I mean, now I was facing a giant, angry, FLAMING bear.

So, doing the only thing I could, I charged at it as well. No longer feeding the flames on the bear, I instead switched to Light Manipulation, and performed the equivalent of shining a bright flashlight in the animal’s eyes. Although this didn’t stop it, or even slow it down, it made it close its eyes. Hoping to take advantage of that, I lunged at the charging bear, preparing to sink my blade into its flesh.

Have you ever seen what it looks like when a ragdoll is hit by a speeding car?

Ragdoll physics!

-30HP, Broken Arm(x2), Broken Leg(x2), Broken Rib(x5)

I have! Sadly, my dagger didn’t even find its way to the bear’s throat, and stabbed uselessly into its shoulder while I was launched several meters into the air behind it, collapsing into a broken heap. Thankfully, the bear died a few moments later from the flames, but I was left crying out in pain from what felt like every bone in my body being shattered. Thanks to the lesson I received from the snake, I instinctively cast Alchemic Heal as soon as the pain arrived, which only made more pain come as my misaligned arms and legs forced themselves in the proper position. Another spell took care of the bleeding and started the process of mending my arms. A third, final spell fixed my broken bones, but still left me missing some health. Sadly, between the three heals and all of the magic I had thrown around to fight the bears, I was now running on empty.

Moving over to the dead bears, I winced slightly with every step. It seemed that last bit of health missing made my bones still sore, so every movement caused a bit of pain. Once I got to the bodies of the bears, I put the burnt one, and the one that I headbutted into my inventory. As for the one who was painting the forest with its intestines… it made me sick just to look at, so I left it alone and went on my way towards somewhere I could rest. Once I had the mana, I would fly towards town to sell the bears… after thoroughly studying them.

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Chapter 25: Bending Genders No More!

I hadn’t walked more than ten steps when two tiny forms barreled into me from behind, knocking me over and making me groan in pain. At the same time, a series of agitated chirps came from those forms, and I recognized them as the lovebirds Yin and Yang. Somewhat to my surprise, I was able to understand a bit of their chirping, in one way or another.

Apparently, they felt the sense of danger over my mental link, rushed over as soon as the fight was over, sensing that I was in pain. I couldn’t help but soften a bit towards the birds when I found out how worried they were about me, though at the same time I confirmed that the Aspect of the Armored Beast hadn’t deactivated when I was briefly knocked unconscious. On the other hand, my Aura Sight skill had been disabled, since it was something I had to constantly focus on.

Since I didn’t particularly feel safe before I arrived in town, I kept the aspect spell up for a while longer. First thing I’d need to do would be study the bodies of the two bears. Correction, first thing to do was spend my points from leveling up. I felt like I had enough wisdom for now, but my mana pool was lacking, so I spent all ten points in intelligence, bringing my mana up to an even five hundred. With that, I should be able to shift into a wolf, according to my estimates. I could test that out when I make my way back to the pond. Would also be fun to test out a combination of wolf form, snake scales, and bird wings. Would be like a tiny feathered dragon… sort of.

Either way, about ten minutes after I left the scene of the previous fight, I decided to take a rest. With my current mana regeneration, ten minutes was enough to recover most of my mana. One final Alchemic Heal spell rid me of the last bit of soreness from the fight, and after that I made a small barrier around myself with Earth Manipulation. Nothing major, just a wall to keep random mobs from charging at me while I worked.

With that done, I went ahead and pulled out the two bears. Two my surprise, I had managed to grab both a male and a female bear, which made me rather happy. Going by what Jarl had told me before, this would be the key to letting me control my gender when I shifted forms. As for what other traits I wanted to copy from the bears, I was hoping to copy their muscular frames to make myself stronger, but in order to do that I’d probably need to do a full shift. I wasn’t experienced enough to just single out muscle mass and add it to myself.

The first bear I studied was the female one, which had been the one unfortunate enough to burn to death. Then again, the other was unfortunate enough to die from a headbutt… I wasn’t really sure which one to feel more sorry for. Either way, I fully studied the aura for this bear over the course of an hour, before moving on to the other one. From there, I compared notes on the two, measuring where they were similar and different. After noting the differences between them, I looked at the male side of the differences, and compared them to the wolf aura I had studied, and finally my own.

Although there were some minor differences, I managed to identify four parts of the aura that were nearly identical between the male bear, wolf, and myself. These same aura components were completely different when compared to the female bear and lovebirds. Assuming my assumptions were correct, and yes that is quite an assumption, those should be the parts that determine gender.

As such, to test this theory out, I tried it on myself. Seeing how excited the birds almost got, I did NOT turn into a male lovebird, but a female half-elf. That lasted for all of a minute of me oggling my own chest like a mad person before I changed back, glad to be back to my own gender. Though, I had to admit I looked far more attractive as a woman than I had imagined. Now that I knew the trick of it, I would never again need to turn into a woman! Well, not unless there was a really drastic situation.

New Ability Unlocked!

Gender Control – Nature Magic – ☆

For when you feel the need to stare at the opposite gender, without anyone else thinking that you’re a creep, you can just transform and be a creep to yourself!

Mana Cost: 20

I did my best to ignore the rather condescending flavor text of the ability, not at all surprised by its low rank. Taking a moment, I inspected my inner grove for a moment, I found that the single blade of grass had already grown into a small patch, while the herbs I had planted were starting to settle in and absorb the nutrients in the soil. I couldn’t wait to harvest some blood weed and fireflower to see what the extra strength from the herbs would do for health potions.

With my work here done, I lowered the small earth barricade I had erected around myself and stood up, returning the bears to my inventory before making my way back to town. Hopefully, I could get what I needed now to get Technomancy, so that I could get started on that. On the way, I made sure to cultivate Plant Affinity, as it was currently the lowest affinity I had that affected my grove.

Once I arrived closer to town, I dispelled the Aspect of the Armored Beast, though I felt like I hadn’t quite done it right. Part of my skin felt itchy, so I inspected my aura and did my best to correct any irregularities. Once I had done so, the itchy feeling faded away, and much happiness was had. I was about to head back into town when I looked down to Celeste. “Celeste…?”

“Yes, Falenel?” She instantly appeared above my wrist, in a more casual hologram outfit than before, wearing a simple robe.

“You record everything I see… right?” I asked her curiously, and she nodded her head quickly. “So… when I look at something with Aura Sight..?”

“That’s correct, I have the visual representations for the auras stored in my memory. However, my hologram quality is not sufficient to properly display them in full color. I also recorded the sensations felt through your mana while you were studying various auras, however I lack the hardware necessary to reproduce such sensations.” She answered with a slight smile, and I nodded my head. Figures, would have been way too easy if I could have just studied the auras she recorded. Was worth a shot.

“Thanks, anyways, Celeste. Maybe eventually I’ll be able to get you some nice upgrades. We shall not always be poor folk!” I let out my inner eight year old a bit as I said that dramatically, earning a small giggle from my holographic companion.

“That’s fine. However, may I ask a question?” This caught me a bit off guard, because until now she had always simply responded when called. Seeing me nodding my head, she continued. “I am quite interested in the place you go when you… as you say it, log out? I can’t actually follow your mana flow when this happens, as it appears to go to a very remote location.”

This caused me to blink a bit, surprised. She was actually able to sense that my mana went somewhere else when I logged out? Of course, it would be useless to ask her where, since she already said she couldn’t follow it. “I guess you could call it my home world?” I said, trying to say what I could to answer. I mean, in most settings there is something bad that happens if you tell an NPC that their world is a video game. And honestly, I am not quite sure if this is?

On the one hand, it’s a video game. On the other hand, I am now actually a half-elf capable of using magic, and that is totally not something possible with current technology. I mean sure, they could have used nanites or something to supply a gene therapy while I was playing the game to change my physical characteristics to match the game. One company did that in the past, but was sued so fast the game died in a week. Also, even if that was the case, it would not explain my ability to use magic.

So far, there were two leading theories in my head. One, extra-dimensional entities invaded the world and are using the game as a means to open up a portal to invade. Definitely not a fun theory, but the most plausible of the two. The other one, is aliens. I mean, this is beyond human technology, but who’s to say that there isn’t an alien race somewhere out there capable of manipulating energy in a way we perceive as magic, and planted the game on our world?

No idea what possible reason aliens would have for doing it, so my bet was on the first theory. Of course, given my track record with ideas lately, it’s more likely that neither of those are right. Anyways, once I was in town, I went ahead and stopped by Harlan’s shop to sell off the two bears. Apparently bears are not nearly as good for trading as a Great Boa, since you can’t make anything special from their bodies, so I only got three silver from each.

That was still enough to bring my total earnings up to twelve silver, and I made my way to the mage spire. Once inside, I looked around for a familiar face, before finding Rita. Smiling I went over and greeted her. Somewhat surprised, she looked over to me. “Falenel, been a while since you came to town. Was starting to think Jarl had already sent you to the capital. So, what are you coming by for today?” She asked with a slight smile, wearing the same robes as usual.

“I actually wanted to learn another field of magic. A friend of mine said that could be done here, but a fee of ten silvers was required?”

She thought for a moment before nodding. “That’s right. So, what kind of magic are you interested in? Summoning would fit you quite nicely as a druid, or you could even go with Gravity Magic, or Barriers to keep you safe.” I shook my head, having already decided what I wanted. When I told her, she made a bit of a strange face. “Technomancy? Well, sure, I can understand how it would be helpful to any caster in this day and age. Most get cybernetic implants to handle the issue of memory, though. Alright, then, I can take you to the Tech-Mage instructor. Though, you won’t have very many chances to practice until you get to the capital, since we don’t have that many devices in the forests.”

I thought about practicing on Celeste, but dismissed it rather quickly. If I failed on an experiment, which was very likely I might end up breaking her. And I definitely did not want that. “Thanks, I plan to head for the capital before too long. Just need to finish up a couple things, and make sure that I’m done with my training from Jarl first.”

I had already put off leaving far too long in my mind. From my friends list, I could see that both my dad and Jacobs were already over level twenty. My hope was that my druid abilities would allow me to close the gap more quickly since they required so much time to practice.

With a nod, Rita led me over to a man wearing grey robes with a circuit-like pattern of black lines. “Malan, this is Falenel. He came in order to learn to attune to Technomancy.”

The man looked over to Rita and raised an eyebrow, before turning to look at me. “Did he pay the fee?” With a nod, I pulled ten silver coins from my inventory and handed them over. “Very well. I’ll attune to Technomancy for one minute and let you get a feeling for the magic. How you take it from there is up to you.”

I nodded again in response, and used my Aura Sight to watch for what he was doing. Like when I studied Celeste’s aura, what he emitted in the air in front of himself was a criss crossing mass of sharp turns and abstract geometric shapes. I cast a bit of my own mana into it to get a better feel for the magic, when a skill popped up that momentarily distracted me.

New Ability Unlocked!

Mana Sense – Mana Manipulation – ★

This is the ability to throw your aura out to sense objects and other auras without the need to actually touch them or stare like an idiot.

Mana Cost: 20/Minute

Okay, will admit that it made me feel like an idiot for not having done this sooner. Would have been so much easier to study the fire element. Thankfully, I got back to my senses before the minute passed, and was able to get a feeling for Technomancy. Focusing on my own aura, I took a bit of time to attempt to manifest what I had observed. What I was used to doing with magic so far was wind and nature, soft shapes and patterns. This felt completely different,

After standing there for a few minutes, and earning a curious look from Rita, I managed to replicate the basic feeling of Technomancy. Though I still wasn’t sure if it was entirely right, the instructor seemed satisfied enough, as was the system when it awarded me the skill.

New Skill Unlocked!

Technomancy – Beginner Level 3

Exp: 12.5%

This field of magic is widely hailed as innovative, capable of creating, controlling, and even assimilating technology with magic.

I was somewhat satisfied now. I doubted I would ever encounter a situation where I was in an environment completely devoid of both technology and nature. I’d always have one of the other to use, and even if I didn’t for some reason, I had my shapeshifting. Though, I was slightly surprised that it started out at Beginner Level 3 instead of 1. That was likely because I had done a decent job copying the aura.

Thanking Rita and Malan, I made my way back to Lisara’s alchemy store. As I entered, I saw that she was just finishing up with a customer, who had purchased a green potion and was happily leaving. From what I saw of her merchandise, that should be an antidote. “Hey, again.” I said to the woman behind the counter, who smiled as she noticed me.

“Ah, hello. What can I do for you today?”

“Actually came by to ask about a couple prices, and if they were affordable, maybe spend some money.” I smirked to her, which made her laugh lightly.

“Well, I shall certainly do my best to relieve you of your coin, good sir.”

“Thanks. First, how much is the recipe for a basic mana potion?” I needed this one most urgently, as I had already come up with nearly every other type of beginner potion there was.

“Thirty copper for the recipe.” I was relieved when I heard the price, though I almost choked when she said thirty, thinking she’d be asking for silver. Nodding with a smile, I asked my next question.

“And how much for a more detailed guide to plants in the area? I’m looking to find some with certain characteristics to use with my magic.”

This time, she had to think a bit longer to say her answer. “Well, there isn’t really a more advanced guide than what you bought before. If you were in the capital, you could download a database of plants, but for out in these forests there’s not that much. If you’d like, you can tell me what traits you’re looking for, and I’ll tell you if I know of any plants that match in the area.”

I nodded, and went over the list of things I wanted. “Well, first, I need something fast growing, that can produce a lot of seeds. I also need something straight and firm, and something with sharp thorns.”

She took another moment to process the information before laughing. “Oh, you’re looking for an arrow vine?” I just sat there blinking dumbly, not having expected her to know right away what I wanted. “Harlan sells seed pouches for those. This is a nature-heavy area, so lots of people want weapons they can grow with their magic. Especially disposable items like arrows.”

Of course they do. Why would I ever think that it might have been an original idea?

Chapter 26: Advancement, and Fluff!

“So.. the recipe for mana potions?” I asked, still a bit deflated after learning that the arrow vine was already a thing. Had I known, it would have saved me so much trouble. After I put a silver coin on the counter, Lisara took it and gave me my change.

“Right. First, you need half of a spidercap mushroom, ground into a powder. Then, you need to mix in the juice from an enrichment fruit until it turn into a thick paste. After that, heat it up until it dries out, and grind it once again while mixing in a blood weed. Finally, pour the powder into boiling water and wait for the mix to turn a dark blue.” As she was mentioning the shade of blue, she led me back to a shelf in her store where she had her own mana potions to show me.

There was just one thing that bothered me… “Enrichment fruit? I don’t think that was mentioned in the herb guide.”

“Oh? Dear, we’ll need to fix that, then. It was likely an oversight, since the only medicinal use it has is for beginner mana potions. Otherwise, it is just a rather delicious fruit. Its appearance is spherical, with thick brown skin. If you bite into it, it tastes particularly sweet and gives an instinctive feeling of happiness due to a chemical reaction.”

Wait, that sounds a bit too familiar… Reaching into my inventory, I retrieved one of the chocolate oranges and showed it to her. “You mean this?”

“Hmm? Yes, that’s right. I see you already have one, then. Now, something you should know about mana potions. Unlike most, they have a unique reaction when you first make them, and will suck the mana out of the area nearby. If you mass produce them, that will mean that the mana might dry up enough to impact your natural recovery rate, until nature balances itself out.”

I nodded my head, accepting that. “Alright, and how much would you be willing to buy mana potions for?”

She gave a small smile, before nodding her head. “As long as they are of decent quality, I can buy them for twelve coppers each. In other words, I could buy a full batch for exactly two silver, if I supply you with the vials.”

Hearing that made me smile slightly as well. “Can you clear off an area for me to work, then? Also, I’d like to buy enough vials for two batches, and I’ll sell you half of the second.”

With a light laugh, she led me into a back room, which was mostly empty. There were various shelves, though they were currently void of any objects. “This is where I keep the surplus potions if I get bored and brew in my spare time. You won’t be disturbed here.”

I nodded, and called the two lovebirds off my shoulder to give them some instructions. Since they have been able to listen so far, I had high hopes that this could work. Pulling out one of the spider caps from my inventory, I attempted to communicate that I needed more of these. The two birds looked at the mushroom curiously before shrugging their shoulders and flying off.

I could have had them bring me more ‘enrichment fruit’, but I still had plenty of that in my inventory, same with the blood weed. But, I only had a few of the mushrooms. So as they left to go gather the plants, I sat down and got to work, pulling out the mortar and pestle, as well as the bunsen burner and beaker.

Now that I had Water Manipulation, I was able to pull in some of the moisture from the air to fill up the beaker, which thankfully we were in a forest so there was ample humidity. Then, with a touch of mana, I started up the burner while pulling out the ingredients I needed to make two batches of potions. She didn’t say how much juice I would need from the enrichment fruit, so I assumed two for each batch of potions. Aside from that, I also had two stalks of blood weed, and the one full spidercap.

First, as she said, I cut the spidercap vertically in half with my Chain Dagger, before putting it in the mortar. Since it was so much thicker than a simple weed, it took longer to work it into a powder. By the time that the powder was ready, the water in the beaker was already boiling. Next, I simply used my Plant Manipulation to remove the skins from the two fruits, and held one over the mortar.

With Plant Manipulation again, I had it gradually drip the juice from the orange into the powder. It would seem that I underestimated how much juice a single fruit contained. I held the fruit in one hand and gradually mixed the powder and juice in the mortar with the pestle in the other. By the time that the mixture had become a thick paste, there was still plenty of juice left in the fruit.

Reactivating the burner again, I snatched a bit of flame from it with Fire Manipulation, and tossed it into the mortar. This part took a considerable amount of control, as I had to sustain the flame until the paste became hard again. Once done, however, I dismissed the flame and tossed in one of the blood weeds, again crushing it all into a fine powder.

With that done, it was a simple matter of pouring it into the boiling water and watching as it switched between shades of blue. I kept my Mana Sense on the concoction the entire time, because there was something that I wanted to try for the second batch. Once it got to the shade that Lisara had shown me, I poured nearly a hundred mana into the mix all at once, causing the potion to instantly stop changing colors. Out of curiosity, I activated my Aura Sight to watch the next part, and could see as the beaker of liquid took on the appearance of a vortex, causing a lot of the ambient mana in the room to rush into it. I even felt a slight pull on my own mana, but was easily able to resist it.

Calling back out to Lisara, I let her know that I was done. While she came back and gathered the potion, pouring it into twenty small vials, she nodded happily. “Very good. Most people can’t get the right shade on their first try. But, I suppose you’ve had a bit of time to practice controlling your magic, so it shouldn’t have been that hard for you.”

I smiled slightly, saying nothing as I waited for her to be done extracting the potions. To my surprise, Yin and Yang had not yet returned, but they likely had to go out a ways to find the mushroom. Even then, they might not be able to pick one while keeping it intact. Though, I was able to sense that they were safe, so I wasn’t really that worried.

Once Lisara was done, she returned to the front of the store. Meanwhile, I simply sat there and let my mana finish recovering. My next experiment would require quite a bit of mana if it worked, but if it did it would save quite a lot of time in the future.

After allowing my mana to recover, I placed the remaining fruit, half of the mushroom, and the blood weed in front of me. At the same time, I filled the beaker with water again using my magic. However, this time I did not activate the burner. Rather, I relied on my Manipulation abilities to conduct Alchemy this time.

For the first step, I reached out with my Mana Sense to isolate the medicinal qualities of the three herbs. Then, rather than using Plant Affinity to control the plants themselves, I used my mana to gently pull those sections of the aura out of the plants, before pushing them together as one. In a corner of my mind, I used Fire Manipulation to pull in fire mana to the water, making it quickly start to boil.

The next part was going to be tricky, as I pushed the medicinal aura from the three plants into the boiling water. Using Plant Manipulation and Water Manipulation, I did my best to adjust the aura of the water with the aura of the plants, until it matched what I had sensed from the mana potion earlier. This ultimately caused a series of things to happen.

First, the plants I had pulled the auras from quickly shriveled up. Next, the potion did actually turn blue, just like the previous one. Finally, there was that same vortex of mana, however this time my own mana found it hard to resist. If anything, that was likely because I already had such a deep connection to the mana in the potions.

But, to my great surprise, the batch of mana potions stabilized, which got me thinking about a few things. If it worked like that, then why wouldn’t it work if I just copied the auras from the plants? I gave it a quick experiment, copying the auras of the three familiar plants in small quantities, and pushing them into water created by the Water Manipulation ability. However, the two refused to properly mix no matter what I tried.

Maybe it’s a matter of the plants being natural creations, and me copying it still isn’t a good enough substitute? Shaking my head, I called Lisara again, telling her I was done.

Alchemy has advanced to Basic!

She seemed quite surprised that I was done already, since it took less than half of the time of the previous batch. Meanwhile, I was surprised by the smooth transition to Basic level Alchemy. Was it because I conducted my own experiment, and figured out how to bypass the more archaic brewing process?

I shook my head, and collected the total of two silver and eight large copper coins from Lisara. With this, I at least had a bit of spending money again. At the same time, I looked towards the door of the shop, as two birds slowly flew in. I could feel that they were a bit depressed over the link, and soon saw why. In Yang’s tail feather was most of a poorly harvested spidercap, while Yin didn’t even have that much. It would seem that it was truly hard for them to accurately gather herbs with their body types.

With a shrug, I walked out of the alchemy store and went back over to Harlan’s. He was a bit surprised to see me twice in one day, though laughed slightly when he heard the reason. It seems that he had actually been wondering why I was still using normal arrows, when there were so many other options available. Most fields of magic apparently had some way to supplement ammunition, or enhance it in some way.

Since the packet of seeds was a one-time purchase, rather than something that customers had to come back for every time they ran out, the price was two silver. When I asked, apparently a full quiver of arrows only cost a tenth of that, so it was a bit understandable. I also asked him about the different properties of the vine, and it turned out almost exactly as I had been hoping for. The only thing missing was the poison, which I could add myself.

As for the seeds, each arrow vine could produce a dozen seeds after it got up to two meters long. And growing it to such lengths took just over a week, so it was still affordable in terms of mana. As long as I did not use every single seed in a single fight, I’d easily be able to regrow more.

With my business taken care of, I went back out to the edge of town, heading towards the grove. Like I had decided before, I still wanted to test out my wolf form on the way back, so I stopped just a bit after leaving the elven village. Carefully recalling the aura from the wolf I had studied, I shifted my own aura to match it. Like when I turned into a bird, I did not feel much in the way of sensations, however this time I kept my eyes open so as to see the effects.

My body slowly hunched forward onto all fours, my size decreasing slightly as fur sprouted all over my body. My limbs all narrowed, my legs shortening to match my new frame. Next, my back narrowed a bit as well, and my face elongated. The last things that changed were my senses, which became surprising sharp despite some colors blending together.

With my body now fully shifted into that of a wolf, I slowly took a few steps forward. It felt weird having to walk with my arms as well as my legs, but I managed to adapt fairly easily. This was still nothing compared to flying with four wings. Taking a glance at my mana pool, I was somewhat surprised to find that it had only drained 400 mana, rather than all 500 like I had expected.

Once I was finished coordinating myself with my new body, I ran off into the forest, doing my best to ignore the almost nauseating mix of smells that permeated the air. If I wasn’t afraid of looking entirely too silly, I’d have shifted my nose back to that of a human. Instead, I just increased my running speed, eager to get to the pond and shift back as quickly as possible.

It took less than a minute running at full speed before I finally arrived in front of that pond. Nearby, Sharon was staring at me in shock, and a bit of joy as she saw a strange wolf run up next to her. However, after I cancelled my transformation, she pouted slightly, mumbling something under her breath that I caught just before my senses returned to normal. “Looked so fluffy…”

Chapter 27: So long, farewell

Looking over to Sharon pouting because I was no longer a fluffy wolf made me smile wryly. I had the feeling that she really did try to befriend every animal she came across. I looked once around the pond, and noticed that Jarl wasn’t there again, so decided to sit down and chat with Sharon for a little while until he got back. The only thing I was still here for was to see if I needed any additional training before I was ‘released unto the world’, so to speak.

Honestly, I felt I was already far stronger than I had previously been, before I received my druid abilities. Even if accidentally, I managed to kill three fully grown bears, when before I would have run away while emitting a rather foul odor. Anyways, talking to Sharon! Must not get distracted.

“So, you really seem to like animals, huh?” I smirk over to her as I watched her pet the fluffy white menace of my early days.

She nodded her head happily, looking over to me. “That’s right. I’ve always wanted a pet, on the animals in this game are just so real… They’re so adorable.”

I chuckled, thinking about that. “I take it you’re not virtualized, then? It’s pretty rare for someone your age to go through the process.” I wasn’t really sure how old she was, but given her looks and personality I figured she couldn’t be much older than twenty, at most. And most people who became virtualized were in their thirties at least, people who had already experienced some of what the world had to offer.

She nodded her head. “Yeah, that’s right… I take it you know about what’s been happening with the Seeds, huh?” At that, she looked over at me, making my smile dryly.

“Yeah, happened to my own, too. Even got a special call from the police to verify the information.”

She seemed a bit surprised at that. “Ah, so you too, huh? Small galaxy.” She smirked slightly, making me chuckle in response.

“Well, thousand starter Seeds, I figure that with all the races out there we might be the only ones that chose the wood elf home world. And we can count ourselves lucky that neither of us chose something too far from human.”

She giggled slightly at that, then looked down to her chest. “Yeah, but elves have their disadvantages as well….” After saying so, she blushed slightly, focusing her attention on petting the bunny. My guess was she had a larger chest before, but being an elf shrank it. Elves with large busts must be truly rare.

I couldn’t help laughing at her reaction, which only made her face even more red. “Hey, look at the bright side. At least you still only have two arms, two legs, and one head. I imagine that once the rest of the Seeds are released, with the information known about the races being real, almost nobody will pick a non-humanoid species. Though, someone might play a drake just so they can fly around as a dragon.”

She thought about that, and nodded her head. “Yeah… though with magic entering the world, you never know… Some people dream of being something else.”

“Well, they’ll get their chance. I think the world is in for a big change.”

Again, she nodded her head, and brought up a point I hadn’t considered. “I looked around a bit, and the Seed seems to be the source of magic, at least in my house. It was always slightly denser around it than anywhere else. If more Seeds appear in the world all at once… wouldn’t it be like what happens when we add an element to our grove? The shock of adding it all at once spreads it out to make it a natural part?”

I blinked a few times as I thought about her words. “If that did happen, then the mana in the real world would be at least as dense as here. Jarl said that monsters were spawned out of pure magic in the world, so monsters might appear out of nowhere. Magical beasts would also be able to start evolving, though they’d have a slower time of it…”

“Right… I think, once the Seeds activate… one of two things will happen… either a single, tremendously powerful monster will be created to balance out the mana… or a bunch of small ones. Either way is bad for us…” She looked down to the rabbit sadly.

I nodded my head at that. If what she guessed turned out to be true, and the shock of a large amount of mana made our world naturally generate and adapt to it, then either of those would be the best case scenarios. Worst case, both happens, and it keeps happening.

It was at that point that Jarl decided to come back, noticing the depressed mood, and looking at me. “Did you ask if she was a vegetarian?”

I blinked again at his question, before laughing lightly. For some reason, that seemed to help. “Sorry, stopped by to ask you a couple things.”

Jarl nodded his head, seeming to have expected this. “You wanted to know if there was anything else I need to teach you before you go off on your own, right?” For the third time in just a few minutes, I was left briefly speechless, making him smirk. “It’s pretty obvious, given your growth. Actually, both of you are about ready to move on. I’d suggest that Sharon stay a little longer, until she is able to house some of her animals in her grove first. Once you’re in the city, you’ll need your animal companions to either remain in your grove, or wear special collars that show their status. It’s how people recognize them as not being wild.”

That sounded pretty realistic to me. I mean, a wolf won’t stop looking like a wolf just because you tame it. After seeing me nodding my head, he continued. “However, it’d probably do you good to stay here for a few more days as well. Right now, your grove should count as just a small garden, but if you cultivate for a couple of days, it will be big enough to start growing more herbs.”

I thought about that, and had to agree. Right now, I was barely able to hold a few herbs in my grove, so it was inconvenient if I were to go to another planet where the basic herbs were different. And there was no real penalty for me in waiting a couple more days. After all, I’d only been in the game three weeks, and there were still two more before the Seeds were released.

That, and it was getting pretty dark out by now, as today had been a fairly busy day. After eating another enrichment fruit, I cultivate my Plant Affinity for about an hour before falling asleep. By that time, my Plant Affinity had managed to rise another percent, and my grove had expanded by half a meter.

The next two days, I decided to actively cultivate my Dark Affinity, after seeing the increase that had happened in my grove when I added plant mana and considering that I’d need it eventually anyways. Likewise, Sharon was also cultivating the same element, since a day/night cycle was important for her animals. On the second day, after I had increased my Dark Affinity to 7%, I condensed the Seed of Darkness and ingested it.

Immediately, I meditated to allow my consciousness to enter my inner grove, and found it rapidly expanding, while a sliver of darkness fought back against the light, until each covered half of the tiny sphere. Unlike what I had been expecting, the grove expanded a total of four meters, bringing its radius up to 12 meters. Maybe it expanded more because what I used was a primary element, instead of a secondary one like plants?

I thought about it, but I had no way to really test it yet. The only remaining element from the ‘big seven’ was Lightning Affinity, which I currently had 0% with. Still, this let me plant a few more herbs in the grove, since my surface area tripled. Even with the ‘ground’ only being a third of the grove itself I still had a good sized garden. Not to mention that I felt like I could adjust how much of the space the ground took if I wanted… I didn’t do that, though, because it likely needed that space for other reasons, such as recycling the air.

I did, however, plant an enrichment fruit tree, stilleaf, maple blossom, and heart grass in my grove while I was there. I wasn’t too surprised to see that there was grass covering the entire grove, though it had been spread a bit thin from the sudden expansion. Now that I had all of the basic herbs from this forest planted in my grove, I was ready to get moving. Well, I would be after sleeping one more night. Until then, I would poor as much mana as I could into growing the enrichment fruit tree more quickly.

The next day, I made sure to add Sharon to my friends list so that we could keep in touch after I left. To my pleasant surprise, I had managed to constantly poor a steady stream of mana into the enrichment fruit tree until it had grown large enough to bear fruit. While I would never have been able to do this if I did so all at once, I had instead devoted just enough mana to growing it that my recovery rate would cover it. After a few hours, the tree had already been fully grown.

After that, I had Jarl instruct me on how to store Yin and Yang inside my grove. With that taken care of, I closed my eyes and activated the Aspect of the Bird to grow my angelic wings. I had a simple plan at this point, just get as far as I could for now, and then find somewhere to rest. If I managed to make it all the way to the city, that’d be great. If not, I had another plan. Either way, I wanted to start practicing my Technomancy as soon as possible. While I would much prefer to practice on technology of this world, I could just as easily do so with devices from the real world.

Sharon seemed rather excited when she saw my bird wings, and even tried to reach out to touch them. However, by that time I was already launching myself into the sky, bringing myself just over the tops of the trees to reacquaint myself with the surroundings. Nothing had visibly changed, so I took off towards the single shining city on the horizon. According to Jarl, it was known as Landfall, the capital of this world and the site of the initial colonization.

Since Jarl had already known that I planned to leave, he gave me some information to help my travel. The giant birds I had noted when I first flew up were known as harpy eagles, and were magical beasts capable of using wind and sound magic. Apparently, the reason that he would often randomly disappear would be to deal with these and other magical beasts attempting to invade the grove.

According to Jarl, the harpy eagles weren’t too much of a threat, so long as I didn’t allow them to surround me. There were two other races of magical beast that lived on this planet, which he called Hascion. The first were the wind wolves, which were simply wolves capable of increasing their speed with wind and shoot wind bullets from their mouths. The second was the one he urged me to be cautious of, and was the reason that I was flying even despite the harpy eagles.

The second race of magical beast was the land wyrm, a gigantic worm-type creature that rarely attacks large caravans. While Jarl is able to prevent it from attacking his grove by controlling the land around it, I don’t have the same kind of confidence. As you can imagine, the land wyrm is able to use earth magic for various purposes, and is attracted to any significant shifts in the ground. It registers such things as either food or a potential mate.

Either way, I was confident in my ability to survive with my current powers. To my surprise, when I got up to 5% in Dark Affinity, the ability I had received was actually very useful.

Darkness Manipulation – Dark Affinity – ★☆

This ability allows the user to meld with, manifest, and manipulate shadows.

While I had not been able to meld with a shadow, I was able to create a ball of darkness in my hand and shoot it out. In my experiment, the shadow ball had the consistency of tar, and exploded like a sludge when it hit a tree. Maybe when I became more skilled I would be able to make weapons out of shadows, but for now it was already a useful control skill.

Most of my journey was spent simply gliding, using minor expenditures of mana with Wind Manipulation in order to send me back up. It wasn’t until I had flown for over an hour, and my wings were starting to get sore did I hear the shrill cry of a harpy eagle from above me.

Chapter 28: A Loss and a Gain

I’d like to say that I fought with honor, or that I knew what I was doing, but… Well, you’ll see.

When I turned my head to look, I saw one of the harpy eagles baring down on me, its wingspan easily ten meters. Thanks to my inexperience with flight, turning to look had caused me to veer to the side, narrowly dodging the massive creature’s claws. However, in the next moment, a gust of wind blew me back away from the creature.

I was tumbling through the air, unable to see what was going on, and only got myself stabilized after about twenty meters. By that time, the bird had already changed direction, its black feathers flying towards me and almost completely blocking my view of the surroundings. This time, it opened its beak and let out a shrill cry, which rang in my ears and caused my vision to blur. In the next instant, I felt searing pain as one of my wings were ripped off.

With a hiss I quickly dismissed Aspect of the Bird, causing me to enter a freefall. However, at least the pain was gone, and since the damaged parts of my body were no longer there I did not have any health loss. Looking down, I was about fifty meters from the ground, so I hurriedly cast Aspect of the Bird again in a panic while the ground came closer and closer.

Thankfully I managed to cast it at the last second, and angled my new wings to pull up just in time to avoid becoming a pool of gore on the ground. However, thanks to that short exchange, I was able to somewhat measure its level. Sadly, as far as I was concerned, its level was simply ‘run away’. Closing my eyes, I focused on flying forward as I began controlling the elements around me.

I could hear the eagle approaching towards me, and feel how the wind parted for it with no resistance. Before it could catch me, I decided to act. From my feet, I gathered as much fire mana as I could, releasing a stream of flame directly behind me. The earth would help me little in a battle above the skies, but fire is still my friend. With the sudden unexpected flames sprouting up, the eagle let out another cry as it changed course, though this one was not meant to attack me.

A few moments later, I came to know what its new plan was, as I felt a shadow descend over me. As that was the case, I stopped playing with fire, and moved onto darkness. Above and below, my body was already covered by shadows, making this one of the best times to use that particular element. Looking up, I could almost see the eagle diving at me, talons extended for the kill. So what did I do?

…

I did a barrel roll! Pulling in my wings, I rolled slightly to the side while having the wind push me back. Once I re-extended my wings, the eagle was now the one below me, so I dropped a shadow ball on top of it. When the ball of darkness collided with the black feathers, it was hard to see what had happened. However, the movement of its left wing had become slightly more sluggish, indicating that perhaps the attack had succeeded. Though, restraining a wing meant little when the enemy could just change how the wind hit it to get the same result anyways.

So far, I had used up roughly half of my mana, and knew that there were just a few ways I could actually win this fight. Maybe if I forced it to swallow an arrow vine, I could use my Nature Magic to have the vine grow inside of it, spearing it from within. That seemed like the best plan, so I pulled a single seed from my inventory, clutching it in one hand.

Now it was my turn to dive, and dive I did! Angling my wings, I increased my speed to the maximum as I flew towards the slightly unstable eagle… and then I remembered that this thing controls wind.

The moment I was almost upon the harpy eagle, a gust of wind knocked me off course, again making me tumble back several meters. Sadly, I accidentally dropped the seed I was holding thanks to the surprise reaction. By the time I had myself stable again, the eagle was once more heading right for me. However, this time its aim was obviously off, instead moving to fly past me by a wide margin. Must be unable to properly steer with one wing bound.

However, my thoughts quickly proved themselves wrong as the eagle passed by me, the barest tip of the wing brushing against my side.

Cut in half

-999 HP

You have died

Exp -25%. Exp insufficient for current level. Level -1, points have been deducted from most recently increased stats

You will be unable to log back in for 24 NeoLife hours, exactly 4 hours, 48 minutes.

I could still feel the pain in my side when the Seed opened up to let me out into the real world again, and took in a sharp breath of air. Once again, I was still equipped with my bird wings, so I immediately dismissed them. Gripping the sides of the silver coffin, I slowly sat myself up. One hand went down to my side, making sure that there was no actual wound.

My thoughts drifted towards Yin and Yang, who had been in my inner grove when I died. Had something happened there because of my death? A quick inspection made me sigh in relief, as the grove was unharmed. The two birds were happily sitting on the branches of the enrichment fruit tree, nestled against each other.

However, this did confirm that the grove carried over between the game and the real world. For a simple test, I plucked a fruit from the tree and brought it out in the same manner I would within the game. Though I should not have been surprised, I was slightly startled when the green lights emerged from my body and formed the enrichment fruit in my hands.

Okay… next time I’ll just walk. No earth magic, and I likely won’t attract a land wyrm. I’d rather deal with the wind wolves than those eagles again. I sighed to myself, and got up out of the Seed. I had nearly five hours in the real world, so I had to do something with it.

For my first trick, I checked to see if there was any more news about the new sensation sweeping the nation. I found that the world was adapting surprisingly well. The players of NeoLife were being treated as victims under the Genetic Crimes Act, and able to resume life as normal. Those who were changed into nonhuman forms were even seen with pity. This is because this wasn’t the first time people have had their bodies forcefully changed.

A couple decades back, there was another game. It was the one that I mentioned used nanites to reshape the human body in order to match the character. At first, victims of that were treated as freaks. By the time it was exposed, there were already fifty thousand people changed. That was not a number the public could just ignore, but at the same time they couldn’t easily accept people that looked so different. Despite our cultural advances over the last millennium, humans still had a prejudiced nature.

However, the people in question were truly not at fault for what happened to them, and some were even the children of politicians. As such, the Genetic Crimes Act was established, stating that anybody who has their bodies altered due to genetic manipulation against their will shall be protected by the law. Discrimination against them was considered a felony.

Now, many people had already lived with someone that had been altered in such a way by that event, or even grown up with them. This made the world far more prepared for what the Seeds did, to the point where there was only the briefest acts of violence when they were first revealed. Even with the protection of the law, people who did not know what happened might think a monster was attacking them. Thankfully, there were no fatalities among the Seed players.

That said, there were currently two conflicting opinions on the subject of the Seeds and NeoLife. One party said that the game was bringing nothing but trouble, and that people should not play it for fear of inviting true monsters upon us. The other party believed that true monsters were already coming, whether we liked it or not, and the only defense we had against them was to play the game and grow stronger.

With that taken care of, I shut off my computer while shaking my head, and moved downstairs. There were still four and a half hours remaining, and I needed to do something constructive with my time. I did a brief experiment and tried to check my status window as I would in the game. To my surprise, the blue lights I had first seen very gradually wove themselves together to form the window, as well as the normal menu. Although, obviously the logout button was absent.

Name

John Hulett

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 12

78%

Class

Druid

Sub-Class

Wild Shaper

Deity

Malthan

Health

120/120

Health Regen

0.2

Mana

400/400

Mana Regen

0.14

Strength

12

Wisdom

70

Agility

20

Intelligence

45

Dexterity

19

Charisma

9

Vitality

12

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

Earth 7%

Fire 7%

Wind 8%

Water 7%

Lightning 0%

Light 7%

Dark 7%

Plant 7%

Luck 2%

Madness 2%

I nodded slightly, the losses having been within my expectations. My lower mana regeneration was probably because of the mana being so thin here. However, the rest of my time had to be spent trying to get stronger, advancing my magic in some way. The mana here was still far too thin to properly cultivate, so I did the next best thing. On the counter in my living room was a flash drive, it was a cheap one I had bought to store holo-vids on, and only held a petabyte of data, but that was enough for my purposes.

I moved back up to my room with the flash drive in hand, and sat down next to the Seed. Like Sharon said, the mana seemed slightly denser next to the large machine. Though the drive itself did not contain any mana, by placing it near the Seed I was able to see how mana interacted with it. At first, the mana just washed over it, like it wasn’t even there. However, after a few minutes it began to show a slight reaction.

I kept watching, waiting to see what would happen with my Aura Sight. My computer was much closer to the Seed than the flash drive had been downstairs, but I would rather experiment with something easily replaceable. If it worked on the flash drive, then I could try with my computer.

After nearly a full hour, something happened. The flash drive began emitting its own mana, in small amounts. However, this was plenty for me to see its aura forming. Since the aura is appearing from scratch, I thought it might even help me memorize and recreate the process.

I kept staring at the flash drive, constantly working my Aura Sight to memorize every detail as the lights formed into a hard pattern. Reaching out, I touched it with my Mana Sense to fill in the gaps, until an hour later I had fully memorized the aura of the flash drive. Looking over to my computer, I extended my Mana Sense towards it, searching for a similar aura.

I did manage to find it, which I assumed to be my computer’s fifty exabyte hard drive. However, the pattern was more complex, likely to be because it allowed for far more data storage. I took my time memorizing this aura as well, another hour and a half. By the time I was done, it was just under two hours left before I would be able to log into the game again.

I debated with myself, should my first experiment by attempting to mimic a data storage device, or to alter it? After some time, I decided to go for the former, but with an additional precaution. A flash drive by itself is useless. You also need an input device. For that, I would need a camera and microphone. Thankfully, my computer has both.

Again, I reached out my Mana Sense to my computer, attempting to isolate the aura of the camera. Once I had it, I traced it back to the motherboard, then the hard drive to study the connections, and then took in the full aura. For the most part, there were similarities between it and my own, though the ones in the computer were more complex, less natural. Likewise, the connections between the microphone and the motherboard were very similar.

For my first experiment, I focused on my right eye. Gritting my teeth, I prepared myself for an intense pain if this didn’t work. With my brain as the motherboard, I began altering the connections between it and my eye, and then my eye itself. While the shape of the eye remained the same, there was a clear uncomfortable feeling from it, like I had an eyelash stuck inside. This persisted for several minutes until I finished the process.

New Spell Unlocked!

Cybernetic Adaptation: Eye – Technomancy – ★

By copying the aura of a camera, and adapting your eye to mirror it, you are able to store visual information recorded in your altered eye, at the cost of mana. Information storage is limited by your brain’s capacity. Information retrieval dependent on brain’s ability.

Mana Cost: 50 to shift, 30/second to record.

Chapter 29: Civilization, at last!

After I had received the Cybernetic Adaptation spell, I conducted a few brief experiments. Thankfully, I discovered that the altered eye did not prevent the use of Aura Sight. My next experiment was the ‘record’ feature of the Cybernetic eye. From my understanding, the spell is split into a passive and active mode. The passive mode increases my ability to see things, to an extent where I was practically able to ‘zoom in’ on tiny objects across the room. Maybe once I figure out how to better control Technomancy, I’ll have telescopic vision.

The active portion of the spell was what would allow me to save an image into my mind. Looking out the window, I poured a constant stream of mana into the Cybernetic eye, and could faintly see a red glow in front of me. At the same time, I felt like I might never forget the simple scenery of the cityscape outside my window.

Even though it was just a brief look, I quickly closed my eyes and focused on the memory. I found that I could reexamine every detail of what I had captured, even things I had not initially focused on. For instance, I was able to point out all the different birds in the sky, or count how many people I was able to see. As long as I upgraded my memory storage and retrieval abilities, I should literally have a photographic memory for everything I record.

I still had a bit of time left before I could get back in game, and I wouldn’t suffer if I was a few minutes late anyways. As such, I got back onto my computer and looked up all I could about how the brain stores and retrieves memories. If I was going to be messing around with my own head, I needed to be very careful which parts I tampered with. If I accidentally changed the section of the brain dealing with emotion into an extra memory storage, then I’d be screwed.

After a little while, I had all the necessary information in front of me. For convenience, I simply ‘recorded’ it all down with my Cybernetic eye so that I could review it whenever I needed. Sadly, I did actually have to go back over it to review, as the information wasn’t automatically transferred when I did this. I’d probably need a software update for that to happen.

Once I had that taken care of, I again used my Aura Sight with the Cybernetic Eye to record my computer’s hard drive and motherboard, so that I could accurately remember them in the future. Afterwards, I used the same method to re-memorize all of the auras I had learned thus far, by putting them in front of me with my Mana Manipulation, then recording them. This way, I shouldn’t run the risk of forgetting key parts of an aura I already memorized.

The last thing I did before getting back into the Seed was to analyze it with my Mana Sense. I had my suspicions, but I wanted to verify. Once my mana scanned the Seed, I found that it was practically bursting with magic. Every aspect of the device seemed to have magic incorporated into it, and if I looked deeply enough I even saw tiny, unfamiliar symbols embedded in the aura.

Must be runes… I shook my head, and didn’t dare try to copy any part of the Seed. After all, I had no idea what any of the runes did. Some may have even been countermeasures against being copied for all I knew. In the end, I just got back in the device and let it send me off to Hascion.

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the elven village at the edge of the woods. Looking over myself, I confirmed that I hadn’t lost any of my equipment. In fact, when I logged in, I noticed that my Technomancy had even increased in level a bit, likely due to my experimenting.

“Huh? How did we get back here?” I heard the familiar voice coming from my wrist, and looked down to see my companion AI bracelet. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be damaged. “We were just flying… right?”

“What do you remember?” I decided to ask out of curiosity, while probing the bracelet with my Mana Sense. Like with the Seed, I could see a few runes embedded in the structure of the aura, though it was nowhere near as complex as the device that brought me here.

“We were flying, the harpy eagle came in, and there was a brief feeling of pain. After that, we just appeared here. What happened?” She looked up to me, obviously confused with the events that had gone on.

“We, or to be more accurate, I died. Apparently, the eagle had a wind blade or something extending from its wing, so it cut me in half as it passed by.” That was interesting. Maybe when a player died, their gear was stored until they logged back in. If that was the case, it would have been a strange sight for a naked human to suddenly fall from the sky, cut in half like that.

I could at least be thankful that the two deaths I experienced so far were quick and painless, instead of being eaten alive… Though I had experienced that as well, I just didn’t die from it. “I… I see. I would rather that not happen again, if you would be so kind.” She looked pleadingly to me, making me laugh.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on dying often. This next trip should be far safer, but first, I want to visit the mage’s tower again. By the way, how far did we make it before?” I asked as I started walking to my new destination.

“About two thirds of the distance. Had you managed to sustain flight for another forty minutes at your previous speed, you would have arrived at the edge of the city.” Now that she knew what was going on, her tone quickly returned to normal.

“Sweet… in hindsight, surprised I made it that far. Next time, we’ll be going on foot.” Once I went into the mage’s tower, it was an easy matter to find the Technomancy instructor. Although he was still not exactly friendly, he did his job properly and answered my questions regarding magic software.

Apparently, in order to create a software for Technomancy, or other devices that use magic to read information, it is necessary to upload it to a special device called a Soft Stick. When asked, the Technomancy teacher showed me what it looked like, and I nodded my head in satisfaction. This was the same type of metal strip that Jarl had used to upload the affinity program to Celeste.

They were basically CDs for magic. Each strip was capable of holding a single program, but that program could be erased or replaced as needed. Once a program was uploaded, the aura of the Soft Stick would shift to match it. I was rather thankful when I learned that the actual programming was not done in runes, but in a coding language. Apparently, the runic programming came in the form of simply enchanting an item.

I asked how I could upload a software onto a Soft Stick, and how I could get one for myself. Thankfully, I learned that my companion AI bracelet was a suitable terminal to upload software from, and that a single Soft Stick cost one silver. I happily bought it, and went off to work. My last question for him had been on how to adapt a living brain in order to house an AI.

This seemed to be a common question, because it didn’t take too long to say that it was possible. Although it would not be a direct adaptation, but rather an addition. If I were to simply try to augment my brain to house my AI, then I would have essentially been replacing myself with Celeste. Instead, it was possible to create a secondary system through which the AI would reside. She would have access to all my senses and be capable of communicating with me, but be unable to directly control me. Likewise, she would lose any abilities granted by the hardware she initially occupied.

When I asked how I could do this, he told me to head to the capital, because it was something too advanced for my current ability. He was actually surprised when he noticed the change in my eye, as not many people choose to directly alter themselves as soon as they receive Technomancy. I didn’t mention that I was planning to do the same for my other senses as well, and even my memory.

After I left the tower, I summoned Yin out of my grove, and asked her to go find her favorite fruit. Since I’m taking the birds with me, I might as well plant a heart’s apple tree in my grove for them to enjoy. While she was gone, I had Celeste open up a holographic window for me to work with. Since she herself was a program, she was naturally well versed in the programming language. Otherwise, things like a self diagnostic or virus scanning would be impossible.

With her help, I quickly got the flow of this game’s programming language, which wasn’t that different than my world. There were many new terms, to compensate for the presence of magic, and a few gimmicks in the language itself. Thankfully, Celeste doubled as a debugging software, able to quickly correct any errors I made. I had considered leaving the entire thing up to her, but decided against it. I wanted to be able to do this myself.

About ten minutes later, Yin was returning with a heart shaped apple just as I finished this software patch. I had the options of either applying it to Celeste, or saving it on a Soft Stick. Apparently, mass-produced programs could not copied onto a second Soft Stick, since they had some protections against illegally redistributing them. Though, it was likely possible to overcome this with hacking, just like in the real world.

After returning Yin to my grove, and planting the heart’s apple seeds, I placed the Soft Stick up in front of my Cybernetic eye, and activated Aura Sight. Using my Mana Manipulation while attuning to Technomancy, I gradually incorporated the software into my eye.

New Skill Unlocked!

Programming – Intermediate Level 2

Exp: 75%The ability to write code and create programs for technology.

Software Applied to Cybernetic Adaptation: Eye

Photographic Learning

This software enables the owner of a Cybernetic Eye to instantly know the contents of images they record, even if they are unable to understand the meaning behind it.

Mana Cost: +50% cost to record images.

I smiled, satisfied with that. Sadly, the software wasn’t retroactive, so I didn’t immediately know the information regarding the brain that I had looked up before. And it was also nice seeing that Programming was my currently highest level skill. If I worked a bit longer on the code, I might be able to reduce the cost to record images, but I’ll save that for later.

Moving out of town, I decided that this time I would change into my wolf form to run towards the city. Since the wind wolves don’t differ much visually from normal wolves, they shouldn’t bother me if I take that form. Surprisingly, my Cybernetic eye remained even after I changed. I guess, since I was using a different type of magic to create it, Nature Magic wouldn’t automatically change it to match a new form. I wasn’t going to complain, since that meant I had one eye that still had perfect vision. I actually went ahead and spent the extra mana to alter my other eye as well, temporarily.

Once I had rested for a few minutes and grown accustomed to the new forms, I ran off out of the forest, once again heading to the city. Though, this time the city wasn’t quite on the horizon due to the change in elevation, that was soon fixed. I should also note that I saw something I hadn’t noticed the first time I took my wolf form, and that was the metal bracelet on my front paw. It seemed to have adapted to my new size just like my armor would.

With this form, I was largely unobstructed during my travel. The only attack that came for me was from another elf, who seemed to have misunderstood me as an attacking wind wolf. After that encounter, which was solved by me running away for dear life, I ran parallel to the road without running on it. There was little difference for me, but for normal people on the road, it relieved them to see that I wasn’t attacking. They would be on guard as I approached, but relax the moment I left.

My running speed as a wolf was only about half of that of my flight form, but the additional measure of safety was worth it. As a result, the normally two hour flight turned into a four hour run. I heard a little beep from my wrist some time around the third hour, and knew that Celeste was letting me know I had officially gone further than the last time. That thought made me chuckle slightly, an odd sound in my wolf form.

While running, I began to make ideas for other programs I would make once I had ‘reformatted’ my brain for increased memory. My mind already counted as a simple operating system, so I at least didn’t have to make that from scratch. I would, however, need to make a program to let me experiment with my memorized auras to combine different aspects of creatures and create new forms. While I could simply do it manually one piece at a time, having a preset would save me a bit of time when I need it most.

After the fourth hour, I finally approached a large steel wall, and jumped over onto the road. A pair of guards looked at me warily, moving to grab what looked like pistols at their waists as I shifted into my elf form and dismissed the Cybernetic spell on my left eye. Immediately, the two relaxed, and even bowed respectfully to me. I guess that druids really are respected a lot in this society.

Chapter 30: The Plan!

As I approached the large metal gate in my half-elf form, one of the guards came forward to stop me, much to my surprise. “Excuse me, sir, do you have any identification?” The guards were dressed much like you would see a soldier, with streamlined black full-body suits. Each of them had a pistol, and what looked like the hilt to a sword at their waists.

I tilted my head curiously at his question, but shook my head. Nobody had provided me a means of identifying myself to others in this game yet, so naturally I couldn’t provide it. Noticing my reaction, the guard let out a soft sigh. “Traveler?” To his simple question, I nodded my head. “Okay, well, we’ll issue you an ID then. After that, you can simply show your companion to someone, and it will display your ID.”

Waving me forward, he led me to a small terminal near the gate. “Simply put your left hand on the panel, and it will read your aura and load the program.”

I nodded my head, thinking this must be a pretty specialized device to be able to do that. As he instructed, I put my hand on the panel, which beeped once before the companion AI wristband lit up with a holographic blue screen that seemed eerily familiar.

Name: Falenel

Class: Druid

Level: 12

Patron: Malthan

My eye twitched a bit as I read that window. They have a concept of levels here widely known, and they aren’t told to people in the newbie village?! Is everything just considered so weak that it’s not worth knowing about the levels?

The guard nodded his head, satisfied. “Thank you very much, Mr. Falenel.” He seemed a bit surprised when he saw my information, so likely someone getting through at level 12 was uncommon.

“Mind if I ask a couple question?” I looked to the guard, who nodded his head. “Could you tell me the levels of the wind wolves, harpy eagles, and land wyrms?”

He raised an eyebrow curiously at that, but shrugged. “A wind wolf is typically between levels twenty and thirty. A harpy eagle can be between thirty and fifty, depending on their size. As for a land wyrm, they are roughly level one hundred and fifty.”

Okay, I am NOT sticking around to study the birds. I can see if they have any examples of magical beasts or monsters in the city and go with that. “Ah… thank you. Guess disguising as a wolf really was the right call to get here quickly.”

I had run over a hundred miles as a wolf, so no doubt it would have taken me at least a day to cover the distance in a normal form. The guard seemed to agree as well. “Yes, though you may want to increase your strength a bit before you leave the city.”

I smiled slightly, nodding my head. “I planned on it. Do you know if there is anywhere I can sell elemental seeds in the city? And if so, would you know how much they tend to go for?”

The guard thought about that for a moment before he nodded. “Their selling price should depend on their quality, but you can sell some in the market district. Just look for a map kiosk once you get in town, and it will tell you where to go. If you want to pay a silver, you can also buy a guide program for your companion, that will tell you where to go for various things.”

I thought about it, and nodded my head again. If I could mass produce and sell element seeds, then I’d easily be able to make back that silver. Walking past the guard, I moved into the city itself, which was full of tall, metallic buildings. Surprisingly, there were no flying cars, though I did see a few flying people. A bit impressed, I decided to take a ‘screenshot’ of the scene by doing a very brief recording through my Cybernetic eye. To my surprise, my earlier program worked very effectively, and I immediately knew exactly how many people I had seen, their shapes, and looked a bit down and to the left of where I had been focusing on before. Thanks to the Photographic Information program, I noticed the small kiosk up in the corner.

Walking over to it, I tapped a button on its screen to activate it. “Welcome to Landfall, the first city of Hascion, one of the key tourist locations of the wood elf territories. Would you like to see a map, purchase a guide program, or ask a question?” A large blue holographic face with female features appeared above the kiosk and spoke to me.

“I’d like to buy the guide program.” I answered simply. The image pouted slightly, but nodded her head. A small coin slot opened up on the kiosk itself.

“Please insert one silver coin, and place the wrist containing the companion AI near the terminal.” I did as instructed, after which the hologram faded away, its work apparently done.

“Woah… now that’s a bit of info.” I saw Celeste appearing above my wrist instead, smiling slightly. “You want the market, right? Hmm, there’s info on it in here, as well as some basic prices. The low quality element seeds go for one silver each if they are of a primary element, or fifty percent higher if they belong to a secondary element.”

I nodded my head, though I was a bit disappointed in the prices. Makes sense, since any druid can produce them. Though, if I was in the territory of a culture that was lacking in druids, the price would likely skyrocket. “The kiosk said this was a tourist spot, can you tell me if there are any pet stores selling magical beasts or monsters? Also, I want to visit an enchanter for training, if at all possible.”

She thought for a moment and processed my questions. “Okay, there are two stores selling pets like what you mentioned. One sells combat monsters and magical beasts, while the other sells novelty pets. From what the information says, the novelty pets can have some peculiar skills, but are not trained for battle. As for the enchanter, there is one located in the market. It is the same location that is suggested for selling elemental seeds.”

“Alright, then, lead the way. I want to visit a Technomancy instructor at some point, too. But that is a secondary concern for today.”

Celeste smiled at me as I started walking forward. “Looking to get that spell you asked the other one about? The one that would have me in your head?”

I chuckled, following her directions as she gave them. There were surprisingly few people of different races than the standard wood elf, though I did take a pair of snapshots for each so that I could study their auras. Like I had expected, the auras of a sentient creature were far more complex than any animal. Much like myself, the auras were more detailed, and brighter. Two wood elves standing next to each other may look radically different, but have nearly identical auras from a first glance. “Would you like that?”

The hologram at my wrist nodded. “If my container is damaged I will, in essence, die. Although you will be able to get a new companion, and it may even develop nearly identical to myself, it wouldn’t be me. Naturally, I would like to continue to exist. Plus, I am very interested in your home world.”

“Well, we’ll see what we can do. My magic isn’t nearly skilled enough yet for everything I want.” Jarl had said that accurately copying the traits of another race would be similar to brewing a potion spell consisting of twenty parts. I wasn’t sure if that was an exaggeration or not, but I should have an advantage now. Once I get an inn room, I can practice my Technomancy some more. Worst case scenario, I die and get a forced logout. However, for some reason I’m confident I’ll be able to copy the recorded auras from my computer. The auras of technology are far more basic in the real world than the tech I’ve seen here. Even Celeste is several times more complex than my computer.

“By the way, Celeste, how much is an inn room? I’ll be needing a place to stay.”

“Already looked into it, and the most expensive inn room is ten silvers a night. However, I doubt that’s the one you’re wanting, so I made a note for a cheaper one, which goes for the price of thirty coppers.”

While the latter price made me wince, I nearly coughed up blood at the first one. Back in the village, I had gotten an inn room for just a fraction of that! Sighing, I resigned myself to accepting the increased rates. Either way, if I created some seeds, I’d be more than able to pay off that bill. Since I was able to create one seed every four or five hours at my current ability, I could make three or four a day. This would also let me increase my affinities, and naturally advance my skills.

“Let’s go to the inn first. I’ll need to create at least one seed to sell before I can visit the enchanter, and they might have precautions against druids reading the auras of beasts at the pet shops. So, I’ll spend the night at the inn and go to the enchanter tomorrow. Should also make a note to stop by an alchemist at some point to learn new recipes, once I’ve got some more money. Harlan said it was thirty silver to get the basic alchemy program for you.”

Celeste nodded her holographic head, and changed the directions she was giving to that of the inn. There was another program that I wanted to write before I got started, but it would likely only work after I had ‘upgraded’ my brain. Once I got to the inn, I found it to be a regular hotel, like what was often found in the real world. If it was like this, then thirty copper was not a bad price at all. Even ten silvers wouldn’t be more than what was spent on an average hotel room.

Paying for the room for two days, I was given a key card, and went up the elevator. Once I got to my room, I found it to look just like a hotel room. There was a single bed in the center of the room, a lamp on either side, a desk against the wall, and a holographic TV stand opposite the bed. “Sweet…”

I smiled, moving over and laying down on the bed. Now that I was here, I could get to work. In my mind, I reviewed all of the information regarding the brain that I had recorded again, and isolated the regions that worked for memory storage and retrieval. Then, I searched my own aura with Mana Sense and located those same regions. “Celeste, if this goes wrong, then in ten minutes tell me to cancel all spells I have active.”

That should function as an insurance, in case I damage my brain accidentally without causing enough damage to force a logout. My only worry was if I damaged my memories, and lost the memory of how my brain’s aura originally looked. If that happened, then even if she told me to cancel the spell I wouldn’t know how. At that point, I could only hope that the Seed registers that as a form of character death.

After getting her approval, I began working. The process was faster than any transformation I’ve done so far. This is likely because current computer technology was designed to reflect how the brain worked, so it was easy to adjust. I basically just had to simultaneously compress and replicate the memory centers for my brain, and rearrange them slightly to match the new pattern.

New Spell Unlocked

Cybernetic Adaptation: Memory Storage – Technomancy – ☆

By copying the memory banks of a computer into your own skull, you have increased your brain’s ability to store information. Retrieving it is another matter entirely.

Mana Cost: 30

My mind felt slightly sluggish after that, and I was lightheaded for a few minutes. “Falenel? Are you okay?”

I looked down to the holographic woman at my wrist who was staring at me with a worried expression and nodded. “Fine, just a bit of a backlash, I think.” I took a deep breath, and worked on the next section, focusing on memory retrieval. When that was taken care of, the lightheadedness completely faded, but was replaced by a massive headache.

This headache persisted for roughly ten minutes, during which time Alchemic Heal had absolutely no effect on my head. After the ten minutes expired, my brain had apparently adapted to the new spell, because the pain began to subside.

New Spell Unlocked

Cybernetic Adaptation: Memory Retrieval – Technomancy – ☆

By copying the aura of a computer into your own skull, you have increased your brain’s ability to retrieve information. This provides a passive recollection boost, but any data properly recorded will be instantly retrievable unless damaged.

Mana Cost: 50

I let out a sigh as I saw that, but smiled slightly. Next, I had Celeste open another programming window for me, and got to work. What I wanted this time was a bit more complex, and would require a bit of time to implement properly. Rather than the rushed ten minutes I spent on the first program, this one took nearly two hours before I was finished. I copied it over in much the same way as I had the first software, but this patch wasn’t meant for my eye, rather my upgraded brain.

Software Applied to Cybernetic Adaptation: Memory Storage and Memory Retrieval

Auto-Pilot

This program has two modes, Record and Automatic. After performing an activity in Record mode, it is possible to do it subconsciously in Automatic mode. However, while in Automatic mode, you will have no control over your own body unless disturbed by external stimulus. Automatic mode can be set to complete after a period of time repeating an action, or after the action has been completed once.

I smiled at the completion of the program. Although it had a more profound effect than Photographic Learning, it was set up in a way so as not to cost anything to use. The downside was that I could not cancel the program myself once it was activated. I would basically be asleep until it finished. Maybe in the future I’ll be able to increase my processing ability to accurately handle two tasks at once, and be able to rework the program to allow me to maintain control of unused aspects of my body and magic.

But for now, I recorded myself cultivating each of the seven elements I currently possess, so that I could simply autopilot my way through it in the future. With that taken care of, it was time to get some seeds!

Chapter 31: What a Rush!

After recording the methods of cultivating my various types of mana, I went ahead and focused on producing a Seed of Plants. Naturally, I was recording this process as well. Putting my all into focus, I cultivated the plant mana from various herbs that I pulled out of my inventory to create the seed over the course of four and a half hours. With this, I was able to start working on other stuff tomorrow. By now, the sun had already set, and it was time to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, my first move was to go downstairs and have a proper breakfast, purchased from the hotel for a small sum. Thankfully, since this is apparently a tourist city, they had various kinds of food. I was finally able to have bacon again!

Once I had finished eating, I went out to the city and walked around. “Celeste, do they have ship schedules and fees in the guide program?”

The AI appeared above my wrist wearing a casual t-shirt and jeans, smiling as she spoke. “Yup! Every day, they send shuttles up to the orbital station X-23, from which passengers can board ships bound for various destinations. As for the cost, it’s ten silver per passenger on the shuttle, and the fee for outbound travel from the station is between twenty silver to ten gold, depending on the destination. Since you’re still new, you’ll probably want one of the cheaper fares. My recommendation would be to earn money for a while, maybe get a temporary job until you have the funds necessary for travel.”

I nodded my head slightly at that. “Makes sense. I also want to exchange my bow before I leave. Something more advanced would be nice.”

“But, wouldn’t you have wasted the money you spent to get the arrow vine seeds, in that case?” She asked innocently, making me think about it for a moment.

“They grow pretty long, so even if I upgrade to a gun or a bow that doesn’t fire regular arrows, they can still be used as spears.” It’ll just take quite a bit more mana to do…

She nodded her digital head. “Alright, then. I’ll run a search for local job opportunities matching your skill set.” She paused for a few moments before speaking again. “There are a few entry level positions available. I believe the most suitable to you at this time would be as a mechanic. Technomancy is listed as a highly sought skill for that position, and it would give you an opening to find work on a ship in order to reduce the fare.”

I smiled at that, accepting her suggestion. “Okay. After I build up a bit of coin, I’ll do that. I think we should spend about a week here before moving on, that way I can make the money I need and learn the needed skills.”

I was walking towards the enchanter’s shop now, following Celeste’s occasional guidance. I would still take snapshots of any new race I spotted with my Aura Sight and Cybernetic eye, but there was little I could do with a 2D representation of a complex 3D shape. At most, I could store it as a reference image for the future.

When I arrived at the store, I found an old man standing behind the counter, and a few aisles of shelves running through the front of the store. On the shelves were various objects, from glowing dust, wands, ornate staves, even a few assorted spheres like what I planned to sell. As I entered, the old man at the counter looked over to me. “Yes, yes, can I help you lad?”

Unlike most of the people that I had spoken with in the game, this man appeared to be entirely human, with a long white beard and next to no hair atop his head. He wore a black robe with multiple white dots on it arranged like the stars in the sky. Even though he looked frail, my Aura Sight showed me that his magic was far denser than anyone I had met so far.

“Yes, I’m here for two things. First, I was hoping to learn how to enchant objects.” He let out a sigh when I said that, but allowed me to continue. “And second, I wanted to start selling these.” When I held my hand out to display the Seed of Plants, his eyes sparkled slightly.

“Hmmm, the quality is still quite low, but that should be from the Plant Affinity, yes? And since you are bringing it, that likely makes you a druid, or else acting on behalf of one. If it was from wind, I could assume that you received it from one of the magical beasts of this planet.”

I nodded my head. “That’s right, I’m a druid.” There was really no point in hiding it, since he might demand to see my ID before teaching me anyways.

“What elements are you capable of refining seeds for?”

I thought about it, but shrugged. “Any of the primary seven, aside from lightning, and plants.”

He nodded his head a bit at that. “I see, I see. Yes, that would be quite helpful. Lately, all the druids of Hascion are off maintaining their groves, and they have the most efficient means of producing a seed. Though, the ones produced by the local druids would be too high of quality for a beginner to use. You say you want to learn how to enchant, lad?”

“That’s right. I think it would be a good idea in the long run.”

“Yes, yes it would. A young adventuring druid like yourself, eventually able to make his own equipment and enchant it. If that look in your eye is any indication, you dabble in Technomancy as well. Yes, a very good combination.” The more the man spoke, the more I doubted his sanity. However, he was here and ran the shop, so his skill should be the real thing. “Alright, we have a deal. If you can provide me with one seed of every affinity you possess, I’ll teach you enchanting, and even give you a small bonus. Furthermore, I’ll even compensate you half their value.” The man grinned as he spoke, but this was a pretty good deal for me. I could make the other six seeds today and tomorrow, then come back for his training.

“Alright. I should be able to have the other six ready by tomorrow evening.” After speaking, I placed the seed on the counter in front of it, and he nodded, passing me seventy five copper as the ‘half payment’ for my work. That extra bonus better be worth it..

With that taken care of, I went back to the hotel and began working again. With a not-so-brief experiment, I found that I could actually form two seeds at once, but the time needed would increase roughly by half. Still, that allowed me to finish four more seeds in one day, and the last two were done the day after, before lunch.

Since I had said that I would be there around evening, I decided to wait a bit and cultivate until the time we had planned to meet. After eating a quick lunch provided by the hotel(I never thought I’d be so happy for a burger), I went back to my room and activated my Auto-Pilot program, choosing to cultivate Dark Affinity for four hours. As I finalized my choice, I felt my mind slipping away from me, and it truly did feel as if I had fallen asleep.

Just a moment later, I awoke, thinking something might have failed. However, the sky outside was definitely different than before, and the clock on the counter next to the bed confirmed that four hours had passed. I went to check my status, and was disappointed to find that Dark Affinity did not increase to 8%, even though I felt it was so close after I refined the Seed of Darkness.

Suspicious, I checked my Mana Signatures and Mana Manipulation skills, and neither of them had made the slightest progress either even though they naturally advanced the more in tune I became with the elements. Worried that my four hours had been wasted, I checked my grove, only to find out that it had indeed expanded a bit more. It was with that that I figured it out, since cultivating affinity required me to try to match the element and slowly change my aura to match it, Auto-Pilot would do nothing but pull the mana into my body to feed my grove.

Still, since I had recorded the methods for refining all of the various seeds, I did show a bit of progress in my other affinities. Earth, Water, and Light all increased to 8%, leaving only Dark, Plant, and Fire at 7%. With this, I at least had a bit of improvement to be proud of. Putting the six seeds into my inventory, I moved off back to the old man’s enchanting store.

When I came in, he was rather happy to see me. “Ah, there you are… well, I never really got your name. But names aren’t important anyways, so what does it matter? Did you bring the remaining seeds?” When I nodded, and placed the six pellets on the counter, his smile widened beneath his beard. “Excellent, excellent. As promised, I’ll teach you how to enchant. As for the extra bonus..”

He pulled out a Soft Stick and showed it to me. “This contains the Identify software, allowing your companion to scan the aura of creatures or objects to roughly determine their ability. If you have encountered something before and know its name, the name will be provided as well, naturally. You simply have to use Aura Sight when you wish to Identify something. I’ll assume you know how to do that.”

Thanks to the system treating me like an idiot… I nodded my head to him, indicating that I knew. This software would have a variety of possible uses for me, as it could even help me analyze auras. Holding out my left wrist, he placed the Soft Stick against it, and there was a slight beep of acknowledgement before he pulled it back.

“Alright then, let’s get started! Enchanting really isn’t that hard of a job, it simply requires more control over your magic than a normal starting mage would have, and a more abundant mana reserve than a starting druid. But, naturally, with every obstacle comes a solution.” He lead me to a very familiar looking staff with a black gemstone atop it, much like the one Jacobs had used when enchanting my armor. “This staff contains a low quality mana gem, able to supply an additional thousand mana to its user. However, like all mana gems, it requires nearly a full day to fully recharge.”

I saw where he was going with this, and couldn’t help but sigh. “How much is it…?”

Hearing me, the man’s smile grew a bit more. “It can be yours for just two silver, since it is after all low quality. Also, before we begin, you should go to the terminal in the back of the store and look up the rune language. I assume that your eye has some sort of recording feature, so you should be able to memorize the entire language pretty quick.”

I nodded my head. Since he had mentioned something about my eye the day before, I had looked into a mirror back at the hotel. My previously dark green eye now had lines of red streaking through the iris, with a tiny red dot at the center of my eye. Likely, that was a physical manifestation of my Cybernetic Adaptation spell. I was left wondering if integrating the other senses would give similar features.

Moving back to the room behind the counter, I saw a simple desk with a silver orb sitting at the back of it. Figuring that was his ‘terminal’ I sat down at the desk. Immediately, a holographic keyboard appeared on the desktop, and a blank blue screen of light flashed up above the orb. “Greetings, unregistered user. Please type or state the object of your search.”

I looked curiously at the device, and couldn’t help but extend my Mana Sense towards it. Although I had considered Celeste to be advanced, this device had an aura dozens of times more complicated than hers. It was like the universe was playing connect the dots with every star in the sky at once. “Uhm… rune language, please.”

“One moment.” Soon, a series of strange symbols flashed out on the screen, scrolling almost faster than I could keep track. “Would you like a second language to compare with?”

“Uh… yes. The local elf language, please.” I did not think for a moment that what I was speaking would be English. Likely, I had an instinctive knowledge about both the human and elf languages due to my character’s heritage.

After speaking, the jumbled mass of characters became a neat list, with a single rune labeled next to a word or description. I calculated my mana usage, and sighed slightly. “Scroll down for ten seconds on my mark. Show each page for half a second before moving on.” I then focused mana into my eye to begin the Record process. “Mark.”

The instant I said the word and saw the red glow in front of me, the screen began rapidly scrolling. As I requested, the screen flipped forward every half second, showing me a total of twenty pages before my mana ran out. Since there were roughly twenty words per column, and two columns per page, that meant I had learned eight hundred runes.

Runic Language Completion: 0.001%

I felt my mouth gaping at the absurd number of runes there must be in this language, and then shook my head. I had accurately learned eight hundred runes, and even now could understand the meaning of each of them. However, those were only so few. I decided to do another method after my mana recharged. “Okay, on my mark, continue for another ten seconds. This time, increase the speed to fifty pages per second.” This was only half of the speed that my computer was able to record images, so I hoped that my Cybernetic Adaptation spell was good enough to give me some measure of clarity in this.

Again, I focused the mana into my eye and began to Record again. “Mark.” Again, pages flashed in front of me, though this time dozens of times faster than before. I felt my head starting to hurt from the rapid rush of information, but forced myself to endure it for ten seconds. After it was done, I was left holding my head in a bit of pain as my mana began recovering slowly. This time, I had learned a whopping twenty thousand runes, but my completion of the language had only increased by another 0.025%.

I started to truly believe that there was a rune for every single word, and maybe a few words that didn’t exist normally. About twenty minutes later, I was ready for the next round. “Computer… this time, eliminate all words not necessary for enchanting up to the intermediate level. How many words does that leave?”

“That leaves roughly 15,300 runes, not counting the ones you have already learned. Do you wish to continue at the same speed as before?”

I sighed, knowing I’d regret this. However, it was either get it all over with at once, and deal with a headache while my brain rushed to process the information, or be here all night. “Yes. On my mark…” I began to Record again. “Mark.” The images came just as fast as before, but this time at least it didn’t last as long. By the time I was done, there was a new window waiting for me, this one presented by the game itself.

New Skill Acquired!

Runic Language – Intermediate Level 1

Exp: 0%This knowledge skill marks the progress of the owner in regards to learning the language of magic. After reaching Master level, this skill will be deleted, and the user will be considered fluent in the language.

Chapter 32: To Enchant or Not to Enchant?

I sat there for a little while longer to recover from the sudden rush of information. If possible, I’d need to look into increasing my processing abilities in the future. Maybe with that I could even write a program that increases my perception to a degree where time seems to slow down. Leaning back in the chair, I thought about the various symbols I had instantly learned thanks to Technomancy.

With this, not just enchanting, I should be able to make some Runic spells as well, right? The only prerequisite to use that is memorizing the runes and creating the scripts. I smiled slightly as I considered the bounty from this session. Likely, anyone who delves heavily into Runic spells will use a method similar to what I just did in order to memorize the language.

Though, I imagine that it’s not that simple. Cybernetic implants should be considered mid-level gear, going by common standards. The fact that I was able to copy it with Technomancy was likely only because I was basing it on a far more primitive tech than what is used in the game. If I tried to copy this computer currently in front of me, I might have truly fried my brain at my current skill level.

Once I was done recovering from the headache, I got to my feet and made my way out to the main room of the store. The old man was waiting for me, the ‘basic’ staff leaning against the counter. Part of me was glad that I hadn’t considered using it to help with learning the runic language, since I could barely put up with ten seconds of the constant image streaming.

Seeing me exit the room, the old man looked back at me. “Oh? You finally came back out. I take it you learned enough runs to satisfy yourself?”

I nodded my head slightly. “Everything relevant up to Intermediate enchanting. I’ll have to learn the rest later, maybe through a direct download once I figure that out.” I wanted to simply have Celeste download them all, but thought I remembered Harlan saying that doing so was a special software that cost money.

The old man nodded his head, satisfied with my answer. After I paid the two silver for the staff, he handed it over and began the lesson. “Okay, there are two methods of enchanting, but one basic trick needed for both. That is the ability to probe an item’s aura and discover what type of enchantments would fit it best. Since you’re a druid, you’re likely familiar with how intricate auras can get, which makes this easier.

“It’s hard to properly explain, so I will do my best, and then give you some examples to test on. Most of it is trial and error until you figure out the pattern. For the very basic levels of enchanting, you will learn how to enchant based on major properties such as durability, strength, and defense. The next level involves enchanting special effects, which is where your elemental seeds will be useful. That part will also be easier for you as a druid, since it requires measuring an item’s innate affinity with the elements.”

I nodded my head, indicating that I understood. After I practice a bit with this, then wouldn’t the Identify software Celeste received earlier automatically show what an item would be best equipped for? Maybe she’d have to write another program for that, but I think she could do it.

After that, the old man pulled out a large, heavy chest from behind the counter. “Now, I’m going to show you an example of each of the beginner enchantments. An item is typically most attuned to enchantments that match its strength. As such, you are building on what’s already there, rather than shoring up a weakness. You can do that instead, but it will not have as strong of an effect. Altering an item’s aura more than it can withstand will cause it to shatter, so you must be careful.”

He pulled out ten pieces of identical wood and placed them side by side. “Go ahead and study the aura of this piece of wood to form the template. After I enchant them, you’ll study each one, and I’ll explain which enchantments they have. Then, I will enchant another set, and have you identify it yourself. Finally, I’ll show you ten different materials, and ask you to determine the best enchantments for each.”

I nodded again, and he got to work. Though, rather than the process of drawing runes like I had seen Jacobs do, he simply placed his hand on each of the pieces of wood for a few seconds before moving on to the next one. Once he was done, he placed the first piece in front of me. “This has a strength enchantment. Study it and find the difference.”

I picked up the log, and examined it with my mana. Indeed, there was a difference. Certain patterns within the log had extended and thickened. Though, I could not see any of the runes I had noticed in other enchanted items like Celeste, my dagger, or the Seed. He was likely doing that on purpose so I wouldn’t cheat. Instead, I memorized the new appearance of the log, and how it had changed.

We continued this process for the other nine enchantments, which were durability, dexterity, agility, charisma, intelligence, wisdom, vitality, attack, and defense. I had expected there to be a luck enchantment too, but he did not show it. Next, he pulled out ten logs of a different type from within the chest, and repeated the process. When I examined them after he was done, I got almost all of them correct, only confusing durability and defense.

Finally, he pulled out ten different items. These were all spheres of the same size, but their materials were vastly different. One was a ball of glass, another wood, one metal, yet another was stone. This was the final test he had mentioned, and I took my time going through it. Since I had analyzed the enchantments before, I knew what to look for. Out of the ten different aspects of the item’s auras, which were the most prominent? Although their arrangements were different, each item had those aspects hidden somewhere inside of it.

I spent roughly five minutes with each item, so the entire test took nearly an hour before I was done. But, to my surprise I had gotten each of the items correct in my assessments. This made the old man smile and nod again. “Good, very good. Now, there are only two steps left. Enchanting, and disenchanting. The latter is a more advanced step, but easy enough to do if you have the right equipment.” He smirked as he looked at me. Most likely, he was referring to my eye.

“First, enchanting! It is much like casting a spell with runes, except you are embedding the spell in an object, rather than letting it go free. Integrate the runes with an object’s aura, and it will change accordingly.” After saying so, he held up the glass sphere, which I had identified as the medium most suiting a wisdom enchantment.

Nodding my head, I took hold of it and began drawing runes with my finger, much like I had seen Jacobs doing when he enchanted my bow. While drawing the runes, I made sure to send a bit of mana to my fingertip to manifest it, and then sent the rune into the sphere. In total, I only drew two runes, ‘increase wisdom’. Then, I inserted my Mana Sense into the item, and frowned as there failed to be any visible effect.

Shaking his head, the old man told me what I had done wrong. “No, no, you aren’t using nearly enough mana. For even the most basic enchantment, a hundred mana is required to make each rune permanent.”

I sighed when I heard that, and tried again. No wonder Jacobs had to tap into his mana gem in order to enchant my entire armor set. This time, I repeated the process, but poured a hundred mana into each of the runes. When I inspected the glass sphere again, I watched its aura gradually change, the runes attaching themselves to the segments I had identified as corresponding to wisdom and enhancing them.

New Skill Unlocked

Enchanting – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%This skill marks your ability to bestow magical properties upon ordinary items.

Intelligence +2

“Good, good. Now, you’ll learn how to disenchant. In order to disenchant, you must return an item to its original state. This is most easily done with runic enchantments, as you merely need to peel the runes off of the aura for it to return to normal.” After the old man spoke, I nodded and inserted my Mana Sense into the sphere again, this time grabbing the runes with my aura and gently peeling them off. To my surprise, they did not resist much at all before coming off of the item and fading away into nothingness, after which the glass sphere’s aura returned to normal.

“Good, very good. With this, you know the techniques for starting on enchanting. Now you’ll just need to expand on it yourself, and either experiment, or find someone to teach you once you are ready for the next step.”

I was a bit depressed that I couldn’t enchant special abilities right away, as I had considered disenchanting my dagger, and then enchanting it to emit a wind blade when used. Still, I nodded my thanks to him and left. Doing a quick bit of math in my head, I calculated roughly how many runes I would need to learn before I knew them all.

The result made me shudder, because if 25,800 runes was only 0.026%, that meant that there were nearly a hundred million runes in the entire language. Though, from my first attempts at learning the language with the computer, one of the runes I had learned meant ‘to water the grass once a week’. So, likely it wasn’t just a rune for every word in English, there might be a rune for every word in every language. If that was the case, then the runic language truly was a universal written language.

Once again I headed back to the hotel room, and used the money I had gotten from the old man to pay for a few more nights. There were a couple of things I needed to experiment with regarding Technomancy before I was ready to take up a job involving it. Specifically, how to interact with technology, as so far I had only adapted myself to it.

Inside the hotel room, I attuned my magic to Technomancy and sent it into the bedside lamp. On an almost instinctive level, I could feel the functions of the lamp. That is, on and off. There was a tiny part of the aura that seemed like the switch, and when I pushed it, the neighboring parts of the aura lit up as energy coursed through it. At the same time, the lamp turned on.

New Spell Unlocked!

Activate Device – Technomancy – ☆

By studying the aura of a device, you have learned how to activate it. Congratulations, you may now turn on a light without having to get up, you lazy bum.

Mana Cost: 10

Again, the flavor text of the window made me shake my head with a sigh. Next, I did the same thing with the holographic TV on the wall. This time, I found several sections that felt like switches, and chose to activate the one that separated the ‘on’ parts of the aura with the ‘off’ ones. As expected, that caused the rest of the aura to light up and the TV activated.

Then, I tried to activate some of the other functions of the TV. Unlike the lamp, I wasn’t sure what all the TV could do, aside from turning it on and off, and obviously switching channels. After some experimentation, I managed to finally find the part of the aura I had to focus on in order to change the channel. This is way too much work for this… I decided to go with a more direct approach, and channeled my magic again. This time, rather than going through and tampering with the aura, I simply imagined the TV turning off. When I pushed the spell into the TV, it indeed turned off.

New Spell Unlocked!

Deactivate Device – Technomancy – ☆

By studying the aura of a device, you have learned how to deactivate it with a thought. Congratulations, you may now turn off a light without having to get up, you lazy bum.

Mana Cost: 10

A bit surprised how simple it was, I shook my head, depressed with how I had tried so hard to get an effect I could have achieved with so little effort. Next, I did the same thing, but this time sent the command to turn on, and then instructed it to change channels. I found that as long as my mana was connected to it, I could act as a remote control, making it do anything that I knew it was capable of. Of course, this did not mean I knew what a device did, just that I could control it after I figured it out.

Activate Device and Deactivate Device have merged into a new spell!

Control Device – Technomancy – ★☆

By studying the aura of a device, you have learned how to control it from a distance, provided you know what it is capable of.

Mana Cost: Dependant on instructions.

Well… at least it’s not calling me a lazy bum.

Chapter 33: Lore? Lore!

After I was done with my simple test for controlling technology, I began writing software again. This time it was a software for both myself and Celeste. I recalled how Harlan and Rita talked about there being the possibility to get an extension for the companion AI that would allow it to display information in front of me eye, like a heads up display. Since I already have a Cybernetic eye, and Celeste can tap into my mana to ‘connect’ to me, why not make use of it?

My first test was unsuccessful, because I did not take into consideration that Celeste was unable to alter my mana flow, meaning that she could not output energy in the same way that she takes it in. However, there were other ways that she could output it, as proven by the fact that she creates holograms. I simply had to create a workaround that let her hologram function pass through my aura and connect to my Cybernetic Eye. Meanwhile, I had to also create a special access program for my eye that would allow the connection.

Rather than copying technology, or controlling it, this was the method of Technomancy where one interfaced with it. After I wrote the two programs, I simply had to use a bit of my Technomancy to bridge the connection, and a series of windows appeared before me.

Connection Program established between Falenel and Celeste

This program will enable the companion AI to interface with the Cybernetic eye, and alter perception within a set of effects.

Technomancy has advanced to Basic!

Mana Manipulation has advanced to Novice!

Aura Sight has advanced to Basic!

New Spell Unlocked!

Interface Technology – Technomancy – ★

This spell enables you to interface with technology, and use yourself as a medium for information to be displayed.

Mana Cost: 50

I smiled at the three advancement messages before testing out the connection. “It working alright for you, Celeste?”

After I asked, the room suddenly lit up in a brief yellow light, which was only visible from my Cybernetic eye. Though, if I looked carefully, it wasn’t the room that was lit up, but each individual object was highlighted in a thin border of yellow light before moving on to the next in rapid succession. Afterwards, a small white text displayed itself at the bottom of my vision. Testing, testing?

“A bit too fast on the targeting system, but otherwise alright. Now, next step, calculate trajectory.” I pointed my finger at a nearby wall, and from my Cybernetic eye I could see a thin red beam emitting from my finger, colliding against the wall. I moved my finger around, and the beam followed it. “Good, that should help a lot in the future. Now, bring up a 3D representation of the wolf aura.”

Although it was still only visible to my Cybernetic eye, a 3D model of an aura appeared in front of me. “Switch the skin pattern for the snake scales. After that, add on the lovebird wings.” As I spoke, changes were made to the aura. “Good… Now, if I can get a few more pieces, I should be able to make a small dragon. Well, the body of one, at least.” I recorded the finished aura with my eye, having it turn at various angles to get the full picture.

The connection program with Celeste offered her a number of minor abilities. The primary one was the ability to create holograms within my Cybernetic eye by changing the information I received. This is what let her do all of those previous acts. With her own processing ability, she would be able to easily calculate wind resistance based on the wind mana flow when I activate Aura Sight, so the targeting system should be spot on.

The second most important ability was how she was able to save the auras directly to my memory, so that I could have preset forms to shift into. Lastly, this let her display information obtained through her software directly into my eye, as an extension of her holograms. This would give me everything I needed to at least be competent with whatever I needed to do.

Sadly, this wasn’t enough to let her AI inhabit my head, but it was a step in the right direction. I would still need to be wearing the bracelet in order for the program to work. But with this, I should be able to do my work as a mechanic much more easily.

It was already late by the time I finished the programs, so I went ahead and went to bed for the night. When I woke up in the morning, I did a quick inspection of my grove, and was rather surprised with what I saw. One of the birds, I’m not sure which, was sitting on the ground next to the sapling of the heart’s apple tree, singing to it. Since I was in tune with all of the magic in the grove, I was able to feel a slight magical reaction from it. Likewise, the other bird was perched on the enrichment fruit tree, seemingly resting. However, I could feel the rush of wind mana entering and exiting her, as if cycling.

They’ve started learning magic? One in Nature Magic, and the other cultivating Wind Affinity? Well, guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I sighed slightly, before exiting the grove. The next two hours, I spent on starting to cultivate Lightning Affinity. Although I had only managed to raise it to 1% through connecting to the hotel’s power grid, that was still a good advancement, as long as I kept it up.

When I left the hotel today, I went towards the transit station, where Celeste indicated I should be able to get a job as a mechanic. When I arrived, I saw that it looked rather similar to a bus station, except the busses were large spear-shaped vehicles that shot into the sky. Celeste directed me towards the side, where a large muscular human was standing around barking orders at people. When the human turned around, I was shocked… Wait, that’s a woman?!

Although from the back she looked like a professional weightlifter, when she turned around there were clear traces to her gender. Almost not enough to make me believe it, but they were there. Most notably, though, was her distinct lack of a companion AI bracelet, even though both wrists were fully revealed. “Yes, what do you want?”

My mind had blanked for a moment after she spoke, before I managed to recover. “Ah, yes, sorry. I heard that you were hiring, so I wanted to apply for a position.”

She looked me over for a moment and sighed in resignation. “Show me your ID, then.” When she saw it, she scoffed lightly at my level. “Just 12? Well, not like it matters much for this anyways. Do you have any skills that would help out around here?”

“I am a decent programmer, and am practicing Technomancy, if that counts.” She seemed a bit surprised by this, as it quite clearly breaks the ‘druid equals nature’ mold, but nodded her head. “Yeah, it counts. You able to use fire or metal affinities?”

To her question, I nodded slightly. “I can use fire, but I haven’t cultivated metal yet.” To be honest, I hadn’t even considered that metal would be its own affinity, more a subset of earth. However, Celeste showed me in my eye that I did have a 1% Metal Affinity. Maybe I should cultivate that at some point?

“Well, that’ll at least save on welding torches. Your job will be diagnostics and repair. If you display some skill, I’ll move you to a tougher job. The pay will be based on the amount of work you accomplish, so no slacking off. You’re probably here to earn passage on a ship, right?”

When she asked that, I nodded my head again, making her sigh. “Few people actually stick around for a full time position, but it’s understandable. You want to get out and see the universe and all that. See that scrawny guy over there?” She pointed to someone sitting at a desk amidst a mountain of metal parts. “You’ll be working with him while you’re here. He’s the only other Technomancer we have, so he’ll be glad for the help. How long are you staying on for?”

“Thank you very much, ma’am. And until I can get the funds, or a job on a ship.” I spoke and went off to my designated partner. He was pretty helpful, though asked me to do most of the heavier lifting, as he was not very well built. I quickly found out that he was not a player, but a native to the world. Through him, I learned a few interesting facts about the game itself.

First of all, the current date in the game was Month Twelve, Day Twenty-Three of the year 3015 A.G. When I asked what A.G. stood for, he replied that he wasn’t really sure, and it was an ancient measurement that has existed since the races began their interstellar journeys. Since he liked to talk, I wasn’t going to stop him. I might be able to learn something interesting from the lore of the game.

Over the next few days, the process repeated like this. In the morning, I’d wake up and cultivate Lightning Affinity for two hours, then go to the starport and work with my partner, who turned out to be called Joseph. We’d talk as we work, sometimes about the history of the world, and other times about the work itself. When I got back to the hotel, I would cultivate Lightning Affinity for another two hours before going to sleep.

As for the things I had learned from the ‘history lessons’, there was actually a bit of controversy. Many races claimed to be the first that developed interstellar travel, though they all agreed on when it happened. The first interstellar journey was launched from a planet that has varying names depending on who you ask, so must simply call it the Cradle of Life, and it was launched in the first year of the current method of tracking time, so 0 A.G.

This first voyage went out and contacted many new races, sharing their technology in order to allow all races to share their journeys. Though, at first it was said that the ‘first race’ did not share their technology, but did so over time after being the sole power in control of it. Several people have gone looking for the Cradle of Life, calling it the center of the known universe, but nobody has ever succeeded. Or, to be more accurate, nobody has ever succeeded and been able to report back. The closest report was someone claiming to have found a Dungeon Planet.

Naturally, I asked what he meant by that, and he told me that many worlds had dungeons, places of extremely high density magic where monsters and items would randomly spawn. In the first days of A.G. this was where people learned the runic language. And very rarely, these dungeons would become larger than the norm. Sometimes, there would be planets with a Dungeon City, Dungeon Continent, or even a Dungeon Moon. However, there was only the one report of a Dungeon Planet, so many people debated over the validity.

Now, about the work itself. Even though I had almost no experience being a mechanic, I found the task surprisingly easy with Joseph’s help. When scanning an object with Technomancy, it was easy to find the broken pieces of the aura to identify the fault in the device. After that, I used a spell he showed me to dismantle the device, passed him the broken piece for repair, then reassembled it with another spell. The reassembly was actually quite easy, since I had Celeste’s help memorizing the original condition of the aura, and merely had to fit the pieces in place to replicate it.

Doing this work gave me a number of bonuses, with the most obvious being two new skills, called Engineering and Maintenance. The former was a skill which showed my understanding of machines, while the latter was a sub-skill to repair them. Surprisingly, my Sketching sub-skill also applied for Engineering, likely for drawing schematics. I also received other bonuses, such as my Technomancy advancing by a few levels, and my intelligence increasing. For some reason, I even gained a total of two levels, even though I had not killed a single monster. When I asked, I was simply given the explanation of it being ‘work experience’. Though, I didn’t get stat points when I leveled up, so it was likely a reflection of the bonus points I received.

On the last day of work, I managed to finish getting my Lightning Affinity to 5%, granting me the Lightning Manipulation skill. I had a feeling that if I continued developing Lightning, Wind, and Water Affinities, I would eventually get an ability to control the weather. Though, I wasn’t too worried about that for now, and went ahead to condense a Seed of Lightning. With that, I was able to add a weather system to my grove, and it expanded even further.

Rather than getting paid a large sum and being able to buy my way onto a ship, the boss(I found out her name was Sam), paid me a decent amount and put in a recommendation for me to get a mechanic job on a ship from X-23. So, although I only made twenty silver from my five days of work, I wasn’t dissatisfied. Especially since it meant I could ride the shuttle up for free.

With that taken care of, I went to the hotel for one last night, making my plans for tomorrow. Pet shop, and then the shuttle. Can pick up the Technomancy later, or try to figure it out myself. Either way, not really skilled enough to do it yet.

Name

Falenel

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 14

28%

Class

Druid

Sub-Class

Wild Shaper

Deity

Malthan

Health

150/150

Health Regen

0.25

Mana

570/570

Mana Regen

0.67

Strength

12

Wisdom

70

Agility

20

Intelligence

57

Dexterity

20

Charisma

9

Vitality

15

Luck

14

Points Remaining

0

Earth 8%

Fire 7%

Wind 8%

Water 8%

Lightning 5%

Light 8%

Dark 7%

Plant 7%

Luck 2%

Madness 2%

Skills

Mana Manipulation – Novice Level 2: 0%

Nature Magic – Basic Level 4: 20%

Wind Magic – Beginner Level 6: 41.5%

Archery – Beginner Level 3: 25.9%

Dagger Mastery – Beginner Level 3: 14.1%

Wild Luck – Beginner Level 8: 30%

Sketching – Basic Level 6: 50%

Herbology – Beginner Level 5: 2%

Gathering – Beginner Level 6: 6%

Alchemy – Basic Level 1: 0%

Mana Signatures – Basic Level 8: 11%

Cooking – Basic Level 3: 52%

Flight – Beginner Level 6: 12.3%

Aura Sight – Basic Level 2: 0%

Technomancy – Basic Level 5: 19%

Programming – Intermediate Level 3: 10%

Runic Language – Intermediate Level 1: 0%

Engineering – Basic Level 1: 18%

Maintenance – Basic Level 3: 2%

Chapter 34: Operation Dragonfly

The next day, I didn’t spend any time cultivating in the morning like I had been. I had a schedule to follow, and I planned to stick to it. “Celeste, pet store?” I smirked down to her. Now I had a bit of coin, so maybe I could at least get in to look at the pets. All I needed was something with batlike wings and a serpent’s tail. Then I could have my nerd moment and turn into a tiny dragon.

Celeste appeared at my wrist, giggling slightly. “Yes sir.” She smirked, and the directions appeared in my Cybernetic eye, like a path of blue light. After having my quick breakfast, I went down the path she laid out for me.

“Don’t suppose you know the prices of some of these pets we’ll be looking at?”

“Nope. Novelty pets aren’t considered a big business, so there wasn’t much information in the guide program aside from where to find them. If it was a combat pet, I could tell you the price for a wind wolf pup or a harpy eagle chick. They even sell Great Boa eggs.” The AI answered from my wrist. I really needed to hurry up and upgrade my hearing so that I could add that connection to her program. That way, at least I wouldn’t feel like I was talking to a midget all the time.

“If they only sell local animals, we might not be able to find what we need. Hopefully, they have a few exotic pets. I’d settle for just the wings at this point, we can get a snake tail pretty much anywhere.”

Soon enough, I arrived at the pet store that Celeste identified from the program. Inside, was an alien I had only seen a couple times before. I did not know the name of the race, but it appeared to be a four armed purple toothpick with a giant head. Well, the head looked more like a big balloon with two large black eyes and an oval mouth, but the body was definitely scrawny enough to qualify as a toothpick. Since there were no distinct gender characteristics, I had to use Aura Sight to look into the person’s mana and find out if they were male or female.

“Excuse me, sir?” Yes, it turns out it was a he. “I’m looking for something, and I was hoping you’d help me.”

Thankfully, the alien understood my language. It would have been weird if it didn’t, since it had a shop in the capital city. “Hmm? Yes, what do you seek?” Its voice sounded like it was talking through a fan, which made me chuckle inwardly.

“Can you show me a list of your pets? Specifically, any that are reptilian, can fly, or both.” He looked a bit confused at my remark, but shrugged his upper arms and tapped on the counter. A moment later, a holographic list appeared, and he began inputting commands. “We have a flying iguana, if that is what you are looking for. Not a very popular pet, as they don’t have many utility skills that are useful. If you’d rather, I can show you our silkweaver bat. It is capable of producing a supply of silk threads, so it is a bit more popular.”

While that did sound interesting, it also sounded expensive. “Can I take a look at the flying iguana? I never got the chance to see one in the forest, and this is my first time in the capital.”

The man gave another shrug, and led me through the store. On the way, I saw various creatures, from two headed puppies to cats with angel wings. I even saw a turtle that turned into a rock when we got too close to its cage. I’ll be honest… I really wanted to buy the two-headed puppy… It just looked too adorable.

Off in the back of the store, with the ‘less popular’ pets, the clerk showed me another cage, this one with a lone branch in it. On the branch sat an iguana, with large fleshy wings. I briefly activated my Aura Sight, and discovered that the cage was shielded with a series of runes that prevented me from seeing the aura of the creature inside. That made me a bit disappointed, until I saw the price for the creature. They’re willing to selling it for five silver? Even the puppy went for fifteen.

“This really must be an unwanted pet, huh?” I turned my head to ask the clerk, who nodded his balloon head. The balloon head was being very distracting every time I turned to look at him, so I did my best to focus on the lizard.

“That’s right. Most animals in this store have the ability to use some kind of utility ability or support magic. For instance, the stone turtle is able to detect mineral veins, and absorb ores to strengthen its shell. The angelcat is able to use very low level light magic to illuminate a room. However, the flying iguana can’t do anything like that. So, nobody wants to buy one. If we don’t sell it soon, we’ll just have to release it outside the city.”

I thought about that, and sighed. If it were the puppy, I’d have bought it to save it from that fate. But the only thing I wanted this lizard for were its tail and wings. “Don’t suppose you’d let me have a few minutes with it before you do? I’m a druid, and for various reasons, I need to study this animal to learn its aura.”

The man’s pitch black eyes widened a bit, but he nodded. “Alright, but you’ll have to pay the standard fee. Any druid can study an animal here if they pay two silver. Naturally, that’s two silver per animal.”

I nodded my head to him, and pulled out two silver. Then, after thinking about it, I asked. “By chance, what is the special ability of the two headed dog near the entrance?”

He tilted his head sideways a moment, before it naturally gravitated back upwards. I had the distinct feeling that if his body were any lighter, he would float up into the air. “That’s a lesser orthrus. Although they can be raised to become combat pets, their magic is generally not strong enough to support someone. They’re fire and water aligned, with one head having minor control of each element. Unfortunately, that means their strength with those elements is halved compared to their stronger counterpart races.”

I suddenly wanted to buy the puppy even more… However, I simply pulled out another two silver and handed it over. “I’d like to study it as well, after I’m done with the lizard.” Even if it was weak, fluffy, and adorable, it was still a magical animal. And that meant I needed to study it…. for science. Yes, for science. Not at all because I wanted to pet it. I’m not Sharon.

Speak of the devil, and she will send you a whisper. I received a message from Sharon as soon as the clerk had opened the cage to let me study the lizard. “Hey Falenel. I finally made it to the capital. Saw your level increased a bit, so wanted to see if you had already moved on yet?”

I shook my head, replying as I sent my Mana Sense into the lizard, reaching into the cage to grab it. Not only was it a useless pet, but it was too lazy to avoid me. “No, was planning to later today, but had some stuff to take care of first. Your training finish up well enough?” I glanced to my contact list, and saw that she had gained a couple of levels as well since we left, likely from the same method I had.

“Yeah… Finally managed to make the grove big enough to fit everyone inside me. Would you like to meet up?”

I thought about it for a bit, but I had just spent four silver to study a pair of animals. “I’m at the pet shop right now, studying a couple of their pets. I warn you, though, there is fluffiness here.”

After that, she didn’t say anything, so I was able to quickly study the flying iguana in peace. I had already memorized one set of wings, and my ability to memorize things had improved greatly, so it only took me ten minutes to finish up. In total, I copied its wings, tail, and the tiny spines on its back. I felt like it’d be a nice little addition.

“Celeste?” I spoke to my wrist after putting the iguana back.

“Yesss?” She asked in a drawn out voice, a grin plastered on her holographic face.

“You know what to do, I take it?”

She giggled lightly, nodding her head. “Operation dragonfly is a go!” With that, her hologram vanished, and she brought up the image in my Cybernetic eye of the compiled aura I had created before. The four feathery wings were replaced by two large fleshy ones, the wolf’s tail was replaced with that of the iguana, and the spines were added all along its back. “Saving preset as baby dragon. Estimated mana cost, five hundred and fifty.”

I chuckled a bit at her comments, before moving back to the front of the store. Once there, I saw that Sharon had already long since arrived, and had her face plastered against the cage for the angelcat. “I warned you that there was fluff.”

When she heard me speak, she turned her head a bit to look, smiled, and turned back to look at the cat. “It’s so cool… I wish I could afford it… I wonder where they are born.”

“No idea, but you could probably find a job somewhere around here to get the money to buy it. Though, wouldn’t you still need to get both a male and a female one for your grove?”

She thought about it for a second, and then shook her head. “Jarl showed me how to separate my grove into different sections, that way certain animals can live in it without fighting. I can’t do anything about my wolves needing meat, but I can at least keep my favorites safe.”

So she essentially has two groves. Wonder how that works. “Well, in that case, if you earn up some silver, you’ll be able to buy your very own angelcat.” I smirked, before taking the flying iguana back to the clerk, who walked off to put it back in its cage, and then got the lesser orthrus out for me to study next. Naturally, when she saw this, she looked at me confused. “You have to pay, but you’re able to study the animals here to get their auras. Most of them are magical animals, so I wanted to do this while I had the chance.”

She nodded her head slightly, but her eyes were more focused on the two headed ball of fluff in my arms. Smirking, I held the puppy up and studied it with my Mana Sense. It was absolutely necessary for me to pet it behind its ears while I was doing this.

The aura of the magical beast was surprisingly similar to that of a normal wolf, with a few key differences. Most notably, the streaming lights of mana were thicker. Also, I could sense a small part of the aura in each of the two heads that was attuned to one of the elements. I had spent enough time matching my own aura to both water and fire to spot it in something else.

Following the mana paths from the elemental sections of the aura throughout the rest of the head, I nodded my head in satisfaction. With this, I should be able to create breath weapons of any element for my tiny dragon form. Maybe if it were a full grown magical beast, or a more powerful species it would have been more difficult, but studying this little guy’s aura was surprisingly easy.

About fifteen minutes later, I was still petting the puppy and received a message in my eye. You’ve already memorized the aura. I knew that… Reluctantly, I went and gave the puppy back to the clerk. When I did this, both of the puppy’s heads whined pitifully at me, and I almost spent the last of my money to buy it right there on the spot. However, I steeled myself and handed it over. As I did so, I saw Sharon, no longer in front of the cages.

Instead, she was standing next to the clerk, begging him to let her work in the store. I chuckled a bit as I watched her wear him down until he finally agreed to give her a part time job. Though, she was given strict warnings not to use her druid magic to study the animals without paying, since he had overheard our conversation about her being a druid as well. Seeing her vigorously she nodded her head and agreed to that condition made me smirk. Naturally, I knew that she was only here for the animals, and would likely continue working until she managed to buy both the lesser orthrus and the angelcat. Leaning over, I tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. “If you refine some elemental seeds, the local enchanter will buy them off of you.”

After I said that, she smiled brightly and thanked me, since that meant she had another source of income to speed up her inevitable purchases in this pet shop. Part of me was glad I hadn’t taken her to the store selling combat pets. They would likely be far more expensive, and she would have to work much longer in order to buy one.

As I went towards the starport to head up to the station and bid farewell to this planet, a thought occurred to me. I finally have a dragon(ish) form, but when am I going to get the chance to use it!? I had no idea how long it would take before the ship that left from X-23 would arrive at its destination. Do interstellar journeys take hours, days, weeks maybe? I’d need to find that out once I got up there!

Chapter 35: I’mma Firin’ Mah LAZER!

As I was walking towards the starport, I heard a light coughing sound from my wrist. Looking down, I saw Celeste looking up to me expectantly. “What is it..?”

“Weapons.” She said with a tiny grin, making me facepalm. How did I forget to upgrade my weapons?

“Don’t suppose I can get away with saying that I didn’t think they would let me take it with me?” I looked down to her with one eye, the other still covered by my hand.

The holographic girl snickered, shaking her head. “Nope!” Afterwards, she pulled up another blue path for me to follow. “With your Technomancy and Engineering abilities, I’m taking you to a junkyard. It should be within your power to fix broken weapons, or assemble the parts needed to make your own. Doing it this way would be far cheaper than simply buying new weapons.”

I couldn’t argue with that logic, so I nodded my head slightly. “Alright. But, surely other people can do so just as easily. Why is there even a junkyard?”

The hologram smiled slightly at me. “I do not have all the information needed to provide an adequate answer. However, the guide indicates that any device sold at the weapon and power armor stores can also be assembled with parts from the junkyard. Likely, any weapons there have some defect or missing component, and its owner thought it would be simply cheaper to buy a new one than to get it repaired. However, if you combine the parts from two identical weapons, you should be able to make up for any deficiencies.”

“Fine, fine, I get it. As long as there are people throwing things away, there will need to be a place for it to end up. The island of lost toys.” I chuckled slightly as I walked down the path. I didn’t have much to worry about when it came to picking weapons. I mean, if the battery wasn’t charged, I could fix it with my lightning, or simply replace it with a Seed of Lightning. I might even be able to replace other key parts to devices with similar objects to increase their effects.

Celeste’s directions lead me to the edge of the city, a wide fenced off area with a single gate. Above the gate was a crooked sign, reading ‘Mike’s Garage. Fixer’s Keepers, Loser’s Weepers.’ The slogan made me shake my head with a light laugh before I walked in. A rather round human was manning the counter, and by the oversized nametag on his filthy brown jacket, I discovered that he was Mike. He stood just over six feet tall, and looked as if he hadn’t bathed in a year. However, I could clearly see that one of his eyes were robotic, giving off a distinct metallic shine while a red light emerged from where the iris should be.

“Here to shop around?” He looked at me and smirked, crossing his arms over his chest, which only amplified the awareness I had of his… roundness. “Three silver to get in, but you can bring out whatever you can carry. Ask the AI for help in finding and identifying parts, but it won’t help you put them together. That’ll rely on you.”

I nodded, and handed over the three silver coins. I could feel my funds constantly dwindling today, and it was not a good feeling. After receiving the payment, Mike nodded and pressed a button, opening a door off to the side of the counter. “Have fun.” He chuckled, his whole body shaking with the motion as I walked through the door.

Beyond the door, I came across the real junkyard. I could see rows of broken bows, guns, swords, armors, even a few items that looked like small vehicles, all assorted into various bins. “Celeste, mind giving me a hand here? You know what I want.” I smiled to the AI, and then focused on my Aura Sight.

“Roger roger!” She said in a robotic tone that reminded me of an old movie. Immediately, several of the bins lit up in my Cybernetic eye. “Pistol, rifle, or semi-auto for the gun?”

I couldn’t help but smile bitterly as a bow was not even part of the question, but as it stands a bow would likely do me more harm than good. “Both, pistol and rifle. Want some versatility.” After I said that, a few of the bins that had been highlighted were dimmed.

“Melee weapon, you wanting energy or physical?” She asked again, and I nodded a bit this time. At least she hadn’t taken that choice away entirely.

“Hmm… Energy, I think it would go best with my magic. Same for the gun, if the options are the same.” By the time I had finished speaking, only half a dozen bins were still lit.

“Okay, marked all the ones that seem to have the relevant parts. That Identify software is really something.” She grinned up to me as I approached the first bin. Inside of it was a collection of rusted blade hilts, some broken, while some looked relatively intact. Don’t have anything that can take care of rust, I think… Hmm… Maybe..

I had an idea, but wanted to wait before I tested it out until I at least had a working product. If I was able to do so, even if it was a bit rusted, I could possibly remove the rust afterwards. For now, I looked over the different handles. Many of them had different styles, so I knew they weren’t all the same model. I could only hope that they mostly used the same parts.

Grabbing five at random, I sat down in front of the bin, and began scanning them with my Technomancy to determine their faults and similarities. For the most part, the weapons were indeed identical in function, but had slight differences in design. As for the faults in them, three had bad wiring, one had a cracked power core, and the last looked as if someone tried to break it apart on a rock to get it to work.

Still, that meant all I had to do was replace the bad core with a good one, and that weapon would be operational. Sadly, the type of core that model used was unique among those five. And given its size, I wouldn’t be able to use a seed to replace it, unless I managed to get them much smaller. “Alright, Celeste, we have a winner.” I said as I tossed the other four devices back into the bin. “You able to do a scan for one with the same type of core?”

She hesitated a moment before responding. “Extend your Mana Sense into the bin, and I’ll mark any possibilities.” With her assurance, I did as she asked, and soon a half dozen handles were highlighted in my view. “Each of those have similar cores, but they are all empty. From the scan, I think they should be chargeable with a delicate balance of lightning and fire mana. I suggest practicing with one of the cores before you settle on it.”

I nodded, and channeled my Technomancy through my mana that was already in the bin. Doing so, I grabbed onto the six hilts, and pulled them out with my magic. This was one of the techniques I had learned from Joseph, allowing me to move technology telepathically. Though, the definition of technology was vague, as it allowed movement of almost any manufactured product. The only restriction was the more natural products were harder to control.

Once I had the six out, I used my disassembling spell to break them apart, took out the cores, then reversed the spell to put them back together before discarding them again. The cores themselves looked like small crystal cubes. Once again, Celeste helped me out when it came time to prepare the charge. In my Cybernetic eye, two graphs appeared side by side. Each had two columns, one with a lightning bolt symbol below it, and the other with a fire symbol. One of the graphs was left unfilled, while the other showed a balance of roughly 6.7:3.3 balance of fire to lightning.

“Thanks…” I muttered softly, and began to manipulate my mana to try to match. As I did so, the second graph started reacting, the lightning and fire bars fluctuating as I attempted to achieve the proper balance. Once I did so, and managed to hold it for a couple of seconds, the graphs lit up green to indicate they matched. After that, I did my best to maintain the feeling, the bars fluctuating slightly while I grabbed the first core. Thankfully, I had a method to cheat here. “Celeste, mark how quickly the energy increases.”

After I spoke, I activated Aura Sight to allow her to measure the climb of energy, while I also Recorded the process of charging the core for two seconds. Afterwards, I stopped recording and pulled my mana back. Seeming to understand my intention, Celeste spoke up. “Five percent charge every ten seconds at that rate, and you are able to maintain that expenditure for up to thirty seconds. The current power level is barely at one percent.”

I sighed, nodding my head. “How long if I also used my staff to support me?”

“You could triple the duration if you did that, but you would need to be out of Auto-Pilot to draw the mana.”

“Alright, so I can get fifteen percent in thirty seconds. That will at least be enough to see if the item works or not.” I smiled slightly, lifting the core again and triggering my auto-pilot program. The next thing I knew, the program had finished, and I heard Celeste speaking up from my wrist.

New Spell Unlocked!

Charge Device – Technomancy – ★

By measuring the type of energy accepted by a device, you are able to charge the device by matching the energy with your mana.

Mana Cost: Varies

“Looks like a success. Try it out and we’ll know for sure.” I nodded to her instruction, waiting a minute to recover a bit of my mana before using my magic to take apart the ideal handle, slip the core in, then put it back together. As an experiment, I turned the device on, and an orange beam of light shot out of the hilt, extending a full meter. Almost instantly, Celeste called out. “Turn it off, quick!”

Naturally, I was not one to question her decision when I was wielding something that could potentially kill me if something went wrong. “What happened?”

“I noticed energy fluctuations as soon as you activated the beam saber. Likely, the damaged core was caused by a software malfunction. You’ll need to find the flaw and correct it before trying again with a new core. Although the exposure was brief, this one is damaged slightly now as well, and will leak energy if it’s not replaced.”

I sighed, nodding as I took out my Soft Stick. Connecting the two devices with my Technomancy, I downloaded the program from the weapon and opened it up on Celeste’s holographic terminal. The code itself wasn’t that complicated, so finding the flaw didn’t take very long. I was able to correct it by the time my mana had finished recovering, and uploaded the new software back to the device.

After that, it was simply a matter of charging up another core, and slotting it in. This time again, I waited a bit to recover my energy so that I could keep an eye on it with my Aura Sight. After pressing the button, I watched the beam once again extending from the hilt, stopping just short of where the last one had. “Okay, looking good so far. Test its damage out against your bow.”

I winced when I heard her say that. “You really don’t like that bow, do you?”

“Sorry, Falenel, but you sucked with it. I don’t think I ever saw you hit anything with it if you didn’t guide your arrows with magic.” I had to admit, she had a point. And besides, it was my last starter weapon, so it wasn’t like there was a real problem destroying it.

Pulling out my wooden bow, I tossed it into the air, and held the beam sabre at my side. When it came down, I abruptly slashed across, and the wooden weapon was cleaved in two. I had actually expected a bit of resistance, due to the durability enchantment, but it appeared that it didn’t help the bow out at all. On the edges that were cut, I noted distinct burn marks, so I knew that the blade had an extremely high temperature.

“Alright, now we can move on to the next one!” Celeste smiled happily, and highlighted two of the bins that had been shown before. These seemed to contain sleek pistols of various designs, and we ended up going through the same process as before. The one we settled on was a design that was thicker in the middle, with various circular grooves on the barrel. When firing, the beam was a deep blue, and this one simply required the programming to be fixed up a bit and recharged.

Naturally, Celeste had me shoot my old bow with this one as well to test its firepower… as she did when I settled on a long range rifle for my last weapon. This weapon came out a bit rusty, and the scope was busted. However, Celeste showed me a working scope and offered to have me replace it. Instead, though, I did something different.

The scopes of these guns were based on high powered cameras with different vision modes. So, once I had a working scope, I scanned it with my Mana Sense, and very carefully upgraded my Cybernetic eye. I actually failed twice, which had led me to be temporarily blind in that eye until I reverted my aura to normal, and on the third try it felt as though nothing had changed. I clearly felt that the mana signature in my eye was far more complex than it had been before, so the spell should have worked. Maybe I just don’t have a way to visually tell the difference?

Celeste was still helping me out with the connection program, so I knew I hadn’t lost the software. However, the fact that I failed twice before managing to upgrade my eye to a ‘low leveled’ camera from the game world greatly dissuaded me from trying to do the same thing with other body parts in the near future. But, since I had the eye, I went ahead with my plan.

First, I copied over some of the software from the scope’s camera, and modified it to work with my Cybernetic Eye. This gave me the following message.

New Software Applied to Cybernetic Adaptation: Eye

Vision Modes

This program allows the user to alter how they perceive the world through several different ways. Current Vision Modes: Aura, Zoom, Infrared, Ultraviolet, Night, X-Ray

Mana Cost: 30

After I was done, Celeste nodded from my wrist in a satisfied manner. “So, you’ll use your eye’s zoom function to replace the scope, and have me calculate the trajectory to replace the sights?” I nodded with a smile, before testing it on the last remaining piece of my bow. This time, the damage was quite easily visible, as it even left a scorch mark on the metal floor.

“Alright, I can wash off the rust some other time. Now that I have the weapons, and a way to charge them myself, I can get going.” I had spent my full mana capacity on each of the device’s power cores to charge them, though none of them had even gotten a quarter of the way charged from that. In terms of energy efficiency, the blade was easily the best, as Celeste calculated that it burnt through one percent of its maximum energy per minute it was active. The pistol, on the other hand, took one percent per shot fired. Finally, the rifle took a full five percent for a single shot, and even had a higher energy capacity than either of the others.

Going by the various bins I had visited, I returned the parts I had previously left out and got ready to leave. As I passed by Mike at the counter, he nodded to me, noting the three new items in my hands. Since I had just ‘purchased’ them, I didn’t want to shove them in my inventory until I at least made it out the front door. After I did so, however, I no longer had any issues and stuffed the three weapons in with my staff. Since I had a large enough grove now, I had planted more of my herbs, freeing up a good bit of inventory room.

My next stop, naturally, was the starport. However, as I got there, I was just in time to see the needle-shaped shuttle blasting off into the air, leaving me behind on the ground, feeling like I had just missed my bus to work. “It’s alright, Falenel.” Celeste spoke up consolingly from my wrist. “There’ll be another one in a few hours…”

Chapter 36: Alien reference? This can’t be good.

Although I had to sit and wait for a few hours, it wasn’t a total waste. It gave me time to refine another elemental seed, this one being a Seed of Lightning. I had a theory that I wanted to test out regarding these seeds, so once I had time I wanted to refine one of each element again.

By the time that the shuttle arrived, I was more than ready to depart. Sam had already sent a report up to the station to let me get a job once I arrived, so all I would have to do is show my ID and I’d be fine. As such, getting on the shuttle was easy. Once inside, I saw that there were three rows of seats, each having about two dozen chairs along the inner wall.

I did not have to wait very long before most of the seats were filled and the shuttle door closed. A voice like a flight attendant spoke out as various engine noises started up. “Please remain in your seats for the duration of this journey. We will soon be arriving at station X-23, and you will be able to disembark at that time. When going through security, please keep in mind the safety of those around you.”

So the security checkpoint is at the station, rather than on the planet, then? After the voice faded, there was a slight pressure on our bodies as the shuttle launched into the air. However, the dampeners seemed to be working pretty well, because the sensation lasted barely a moment before it faded. Looking out one of the windows on the outer wall, I could see the ground rapidly vanishing from view. Soon, all I could see was the boundless sky, and a minute after that we were out of the planet’s atmosphere, and all I could see were stars dotting the endless void.

The date was now 12/27/3015, but there was no celebration of Christmas like there would have been in the real world. I had actually asked Joseph about this matter, and he explained that things worked a bit differently. Now, the year had twelve months, each month having exactly thirty days. This was the universal method of tracking the date. However, each planet also had their own seasons, and even differences in the duration of a day, so naturally one standard would not apply everywhere.

Instead, they had their ‘Christmas’ celebration on the last day of the year, Month Twelve, Day Thirty. There were also a lot of services that closed on that day, such as the shuttle I was currently riding. Although the holiday was not mandatory, many welcomed it with open arms.

Sadly, the shape of this shuttle did not allow a passenger to see where they were going, or the areas they had already been. By the time we arrived at the station, it was simply as if a giant metal mouth had surrounded the shuttle and consumed it. Shortly after, the shuttle came to a slow stop as it docked, and the voice sounded out again. “Thank you for flying with us today. Please proceed through the security checkpoint in an orderly fashion. X-23 offers a wide variety of service stations unavailable at Hascion, so enjoy your stay.”

When the voice finished speaking this time, the door slowly opened, and people began calmly walking out. It was at this point I learned another rather interesting fact about the natives of this world, during the security check. Each person ahead of me pulled a series of items seemingly out of thin air and placed them on a table. After that, the security officer, an elf by the looks of him, held up a device to scan him. At the same time, a blue light shined out from the table itself to scan the items.

Once that was done, the guard nodded and let him recollect his things, placing them back in that mysterious pocket space that resembled an inventory far too much. This was only further verified when it got to be my turn, and the guard spoke to me. “Sir, please empty your inventory onto the table.”

Ah… so everyone has an inventory… I nodded, and did as requested, hoping that the weapons would not raise a red flag. When he saw the weapons being brought out, he raised an eyebrow slightly and looked to me. “Is there a reason you do not wear these on your person?”

“Ah… I just got them from a scrapyard, so I don’t have straps or holsters for any of them…” He was a bit confused with my answer, but after scanning me with the same device, shrugged his shoulders slightly.

“There is an energy dampening field in the station, so they won’t function while you are here, except in special zones.”

I nodded my head, collecting my items again after he finished his scan, determining that I wasn’t carrying any illegal goods. Maybe some of the poisonous herbs in my grove would have raised red flags, if I didn’t already transfer them over? With this, I was relieved that Jarl was right about them having no method of detecting or investigating my grove, and moved on.

“So, Celeste, any suggestions on where to go next?” I looked down to the bracelet, where the holographic girl soon appeared.

“Well… I don’t have much information about the station, and I don’t think we should spend any more money to get a guide program like last time. Let’s just find a map, and see what there is.” I nodded to her suggestion, and went to a nearby wall where a map was positioned. Taking a snapshot of it with my Cybernetic eye, I immediately knew the layout of this station. I love that ability… Maybe I should convert it into a mini-map program?

“Let’s get something to eat first, then we can look into getting a job on a ship. As for the destination…” I pulled up my contacts list and sent a call to Jacobs.

“Hey, Falenel, long time no see. Everything alright?” His voice came back over the connection, and from how calm he was, it was clear he wasn’t in a fight.

“Yeah, I’m at X-23 now, and need a suggestion on where to go next. Since you’ve already been at this point, figured I’d ask you where you went next.”

“Hmm… I went to void elf territories in order to further my magic. Not sure how useful that would be for you, since you didn’t have any abilities that would help you out here last time I saw you.”

It didn’t take long for me to remember the information I had read about void elves, the race capable of breathing and flying in outer space. “True… There a nearby planet good for a low level explorer?”

“Let me ask.” There was a short pause on his end, presumably so that he could ask around for recommendations. “Not one nearby, unfortunately. However, I’ve got a friend of a friend who started on a different wood elf world about twenty parsecs from Hascion. According to him, there’s a jungle planet called Crailor, where the local civilization is still getting settled in. The mobs aren’t too high leveled, and there is plenty of room for people to hunt. He’s on his way there now, but it’ll take a couple days to arrive.”

I thought about it for a bit. I still needed to do a lot of work with my alchemy and druid skills in order to finish becoming a Xeno-Shifter. A natural jungle planet would be a great spot to practice. Though, at the same time, it didn’t seem like I’d be able to earn much money there. “What about low level dungeons? Any word on those?”

Another pause, and Jacobs spoke up again. “Apparently Crailor has one, but it hasn’t been fully explored yet. There are various planets with dungeons around, but once a planet is fully settled and colonized, all but the toughest dungeons are wiped out.”

I nodded my head, and decided I’d head to Crailor then. “Alright, thanks. Hope we get the chance to meet up again.”

“Same, later man.”

With that, the connection was cut, and Celeste appeared again. “So, Crailor then? Sounds interesting. Why were you so eager to find a dungeon?”

I thought about whether or not to tell her, but ultimately shrugged and decided to. “Dungeons are places where powerful magic items can spawn. In my ‘homeworld’, I don’t exactly have a stable income, so I need to find some things from here to supplement it. Just in case the world isn’t overrun with monsters.” And if it is, having the ability to fight said monsters would make me a rich man anyways.

“I see… If that is the case, I can understand. However, your current course of action doesn’t seem like it will bring you money very quickly, so you likely have a considerable amount of time before it is necessary. Likely, the most valuable items will be those that anyone can use, correct? In that case, I would recommend paying special attention to the flora of Crailor, and experimenting with potions. While it would be best to have the guide to help, we do not currently have the funds to procure it. If by chance, you earn enough money on the ship to pay for the program, it will greatly increase your earning speed.”

I nodded my head, moving to the food district of the station as we spoke. “Yeah, a guide would have been nice. But it’s not that bad, since I can do everything I need to while I wait to get there. Once we get to the planet, I can let the birds out, as well. It seems like they’ve started practicing magic on their own for a while now.” Even without me doing anything, the heart’s apple tree had now fully matured thanks to one of the birds using magic on it.

Unfortunately, I had to pull them out of my grove for a few minutes while I was on Hascion, because I noticed it had actually decreased slightly in size. I discovered that this was because of a sudden imbalance, due to a lack of wind mana. Naturally, this was caused by the bird that was cultivating Wind Affinity. Thanks to Celeste, I learned that the one cultivating wind was Yin, and the one practicing Nature Magic was Yang. That wasn’t too much of a surprise, given how the two had reacted when I first probed them with magic.

After I sent them back to the grove, Yin started being more careful with her cultivation, never taking more mana into herself than she was letting out. With that, the grove was able to return to normal after gathering a bit more wind mana. I wasn’t sure why, but they seemed more able to follow my instructions now, so they were likely becoming more intelligent. The mere fact that they were using magic showed that they had advanced from being normal animals into magical beasts.

Now, back to my situation at the station. After a little bit of walking, I found myself standing outside a row of fast food restaurants. Unlike the technology in the real world, they appeared to be making everything by hand, which left me confused as so many other things had advanced far beyond what man was currently capable of. Maybe it is just because the taste is better?

Most of the signs were written in the local elven language, but a few were written with strange characters I couldn’t read. However, all of those also had subtitles written in the local language. There were stores for every kind of food I could think of, and several that were likely alien delicacies. For me, though, I went to a store run by a human family. I knew what they were right away, because although the symbols on the sign looked strange at first, I was able to read them. Aside from the elven language, there should only be one other that I can read so easily.

Also… This was a family pizzeria. I could see aliens of every shape and color sitting at the tables, enjoying the greasy food. It had been so long since I had a real pizza, I couldn’t help myself but walk in and order one. The meat choices were strange, since most likely most of the same animals from the real world weren’t as common here. But it was still easy to decide, because my choice was always the same. “One meat lover’s, please.” I said to the man behind the register with a smile, moving to take a seat at an unoccupied table.

It’s good to know, that even at the edge of the universe, the finer things in life will always survive. About ten minutes later, I had a delicious pizza sitting in front of me, full of various meats I had never tasted before. Many of them tasted similar to normal meats from the real world, but a few stood out. Not in a bad way, as they only made the pizza even better.

After I finished up, I paid for the meal and went back out. When I got to a nearby terminal, I pulled up the information and found out which ships were leaving for Crailor. The journey information was listed as well, stating that it was a hundred and fifty parsecs from X-23, and would take three full days of travel to arrive. This seemed a bit strange to me, since there were some destinations listed farther away with travel time of only a few hours. When I asked the terminal’s AI about this, it responded that those destinations made use of interstellar gate technology to shorten the travel time. Since Crailor was not a major world, it did not have such a luxury.

Nodding my head slightly at the information, I went to the docking area for the Nostromo, the cruiser that was leaving for Crailor tomorrow. Since it was a pretty long journey, there tended to only be one or two ships heading in that direction a week, and even less that came back. I had my suspicions about that, but kept quiet for now.

Once I got in the docking bay, I found that the cruiser was infinitely larger than the shuttle I had flown up here on. If the shuttle was the size of a public bus, then this cruiser must be the size of an entire city! Only now did I fully realize how big the station I was in must have been to support all of this. Likely, it was the size of a small moon. Of course, most of that space would be taken by docking bays, to accommodate all of the large ships.

It didn’t take too long to find the ship’s maintenance crew, as they were the ones running around handling machinery. Seeing that, I approached the man in charge, who was yelling orders to everyone. He was a blue humanoid, with two rows of slanted yellow eyes on his head. “Excuse me, sir. I am here about joining the Nostromo as a mechanic for this journey.”

The man looked down to me, as he was a full head and shoulders taller, before speaking. “Show me your ID.” After I did so, he let out a sigh. “So you’re the one, huh? Oh well, not like it matters much, we need all the help we can get. Not many want to join this route.”

It was now that I decided to voice my suspicion from earlier. “Possibility of raiders?”

He nodded his head slightly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “That’s right. Journeys without gate support are more dangerous, because of the risk of raiding parties. Even more, we’re going off into the edge of locally colonized space, which is popular pirate country. If you’re going to be on the engineering team for this trip, you need to be on call in case we get attacked or a part fails at a moment’s notice. Understood?”

“Understood, sir.” Even with that condition, I would still have plenty of time to cultivate.

The chief engineer nodded his head again. “Good. You’ll get paid based on your performance, but as you are becoming a temporary member of the crew, you won’t be required to pay for lodging and meals. However, naturally if the trip goes smoothly and you aren’t needed, you won’t be getting paid either. Of course, some people think that means they can sabotage the ship in order to get a commission, but there is still constant security. If you are discovered to have done so, we will not hesitate to jettison you.”

I gulped slightly, nodding my head. “Understood.”

Chapter 37: Xeno-Time!

Since I had already been accepted as a crew member of the Nostromo, I was allowed onto the ship, and given my own room. As a possibly added bonus, the room I received was at the edge of the ship, meaning there was only a thick sheet of metal separating me from the vastness of space. On the one hand, this meant that if the ship was attacked and my section was damaged, I am pretty much a dead man. On the other hand, it is the perfect place to cultivate void mana!

The inside the ship was very different from X-23, as the corridors were all much smaller. On the station, there might have been enough room to drive a car down the hall, but in the ship, there was just enough room for two people to walk next to each other. I did a few estimations in my head, and figured that the ship needed at least a hundred people in order to fully function. And that was a bare minimum, not even taking into account everything else that could be needed, such as rotating shifts.

The facilities inside the ship were more like what you might find on a military vessel than a transport ship. There was a kitchen and dining area for the crew, but no tavern. There was a small recreation area which contained an interactive hard-light hologram. Aside from that and living quarters, most of the space on the ship was used for essential systems or weapons. The thing that scared me the most was that the chief engineer still seemed to think it might not be enough. I had played some space games before, and a cruiser of this caliber could generally take on a small fleet by itself.

As the chief engineer(whose name I can’t pronounce, so I’ll just call him Chief) told me, the ship was severely understaffed, especially when it came to noncombat personnel. There was no lack of soldiers aiming to join the forces at Crailor to help establish the new world, but engineers, doctors, even chefs were all in short supply. In total, there were only fifteen engineers. Three senior engineers, including Chief, were stationed at the main power core on rotating shifts. The rest of us all had the ship divided into twelve sectors, and we were each in charge of our sector. Aside from eating, we were to remain near our sector. That way, if an emergency were to occur, we could all make it back in time to tend our areas.

Sadly, my sector did not include the hologram chamber, so I was unable to play with that. Hard-light holograms were still considered a work of science fiction in the real world, so I always wanted to test them out whenever I was in a game that had them. Naturally, there was no trouble before we even left the station, so I went ahead and practiced my cultivation. Although we had not yet left the station, I could still sense the void mana slightly permeating the air around us. With Celeste’s help, I was able to quickly isolate it and began cultivating.

Before we left, Chief took each of the engineers on a tour of the ship, making sure everyone knew and was able to perform their duties. This included making us crawl through small air vents to reach enclosed equipment, and being able to force our way past stuck doors. The latter took quite a bit of my mana to work, as I had to use my Technomancy to achieve it. Hacking the door open wouldn’t have achieved anything for the situation, so I decided not to simply do that.

Thankfully, by the time we left, I had managed to cultivate 3% Void Affinity, moving it up to the top three secondary affinities that my status screen automatically tracks. I also experienced a large increase in cultivation speed as soon as we left the station, even greater than when I trained Plant Affinity in the forest.

“All crew, brace for warp speed in three, two…” After a loud voice appeared on the intercom of the ship and spoke briefly, there was a slight tug of gravity towards the back of the ship, which was quickly dampened. “Proceeding at warp, estimated time to arrival is three days and two hours.”

I shook my head at the voice, and resumed my cultivation. With the speed I was working at, I only needed a single day to get all the way up to 5% and gain the related ability.

New Ability Unlocked!

Void Manipulation – Void Affinity – ★★

By attuning yourself to the void of space, you are able to replicate its unique nullifying effects on magic over selected areas, or suppress such effects.

I could clearly see why this ability was rated as two stars, even at such a low affinity. The ability to set up magic nullifying areas would be death to any mage. Furthermore, being able to suppress the effect might mean that I’d be able to use my other magics to breathe in space. That wasn’t something I was too eager to test out, though.

With the new ability in hand, I decided to explore my section of the ship. After having a couple of meals here already, I was in no rush to head to the mess hall. Aside from the ranking officers, all meals were prepared by a cheap synthesizer. However, I came across a peculiar sight as I wandered the hall. Well, more accurately, a peculiar sound.

Although I had not gone to the mess hall, it still occupied a large portion of my sector, so I was able to faintly hear voices from within. And it sounded like they were singing. I had not been present for the full song, but decided to listen in to what was sung out of a mix between curiosity and boredom. From what I could tell, it was the spaceship equivalent of a sea shanty.

We watch the stars, they guide our way

We watch the planets dance and sway.

We see the sun, our work be done

Don’t cast your soul astray.

For cast your eyes, up to the skies

The moon has danced away.

We watch the stars, they guide our way

We watch the planets dance and sway.

Through journeys long we sing our song

Let starlight guide your way.

While it was interesting, I did not feel like it was important enough to inquire about. As far as I could tell, it was simply a song invented by bored navigators, about how they use the stars for directions because the moon is only a local body. And when they see the sun, they’ve reached their goal, so their work is done.

After listening in on that for a while, I made another round of the sector, before heading back to my room. Aside from a pair of drunken soldiers bumping into each other and getting into a brawl, there was nothing really important to see in my part of the ship. As such, I made my way to my room, preferring to eat an enrichment fruit over two blocks of blue protein with a side of yellow…

After eating, I began refining a pair of seeds with the Void Affinity. I had a theory that, if I kept one of the seeds on me at all times, I would be able to use it as a tool to cycle mana even if the element did not exist around me, as they radiate mana of that element. As such, I put one of the Seeds of the Void in my inventory, and used the other one to enhance my grove. The result was rather intriguing, to be honest.

My grove ‘planet’ did not increase in size at all, however at the same time the space around it expanded, a void forming around the grove. After taking in more void mana, I noticed that only the void expanded when I did this. However, when I took in a bit of water mana, I was able to form a ball of water outside of my grove’s ‘atmosphere’, making it a completely separate body. This must be what Sharon meant by being able to split her grove into multiple parts. If I took in enough void and earth mana, I might be able to make a scale model of the solar system. Maybe the bodies in the grove will begin to rotate around each other if I cultivate gravity?

Since my Void Affinity did not help me to increase the size of my grove at all, nor did it affect the balance of mana in my grove, I decided not to further pursue that element. Instead, I went ahead and slept, waking early the second day and began preparing the other seeds I needed. Naturally, I had no means of gathering earth mana, since there was not dirt, rock, or anything similar in this ship. They didn’t even have a hydroponics bay, and relied purely on ration packs and the synthesizer.

The second day went fairly smooth. The only real work I had was in the mess hall, when one of the soldiers accidentally broke the synthesizer trying to get it to work faster. He wasn’t a mean guy or anything, just hungry and tired of bland food. If I had to eat that stuff, I would be hitting the machine too. Nonetheless, I did the repair work with the aid of my Technomancy before heading back to my quarters. Just in time, it would seem, to hear another announcement from the captain. “All crew, be advised, we are officially leaving protected space.”

Well, that’s just lovely. I shook my head with a sigh as I watched everyone else in the corridor tense up at the words. By that time, I had only refined seeds for fire and water, so I finished heading back to my room in order to work on wind, light, and dark. Like with earth, plant mana will be much easier to gather when I am on a planet, rather than simply pulling things out of my grove to cultivate.

I’m guessing the quiet lasted for about another eight hours, as I had just finished refining both a Seed of Wind and a Seed of Light, when the lighting of the ship turned red and a blaring alarm sounded. “All hands, prepare for battle. Raiding fleet detected half a parsec ahead.”

Since I was part of the engineering team, naturally I was told the basic specs of the ship. At warp, moving two parsecs an hour, we’d reach the enemy in fifteen minutes. If they also charged at us, it could happen much faster. “Celeste?”

The holographic woman appeared at my wrist, having been bored this entire time I spent cultivating. “Looks like it’s showtime, boss!” She grinned widely to me at a change in pace.

“Please don’t raise any death flags…”

Seeing my suddenly depressed look, Celeste simply tilted her head in confusion, not knowing what I was talking about. Meanwhile, I stuffed the two seeds into my inventory, and quickly left my room. As I mentioned earlier, my quarters were a very dangerous location once a fight broke out. I had no idea the size of the enemy, or their numbers, and I likely never would since my job did not require me to head to the command deck. I had, however, memorized the layout of the ship, and had Celeste display my sector as a map in my vision, ready to highlight areas I needed to move to.

A couple of minutes later, there was another brief intercom announcement. “All hands, prepare to drop to sub-light to engage. Security personnel prepare to receive boarding parties.” I saw people all around pulling guns out of their inventory and standing guard, looking around as if the enemy could appear from anywhere. With a shrug, I also retrieved my pistol and beam saber from my inventory.

A moment after the announcement, there was the first bang echoing through the hull of the ship to mark the start of the battle. “Damage in sector eight. Power line rupture in ventilation duct B-2!” I heard Chief’s voice coming in loud and clear through the intercoms, likely having been sent directly to me, as that was my sector. After the report was finished, Celeste marked the ventilation duct on my holo-map, and I ran there as fast as I could. There were several more crashes that rang out through the ship, but no other damages appeared in my sector before I made it to the vent.

Looking inside, I could see the ruptured power line, one half of it flailing about wildly while sparks flew out. Reaching out with my magic, I forced it to reconnect with its other half before holding it in place and crawling in. Once I was close enough, I let out a thin stream of flame from one of my fingers and welded it together. Not the best fix, but it was a good rough patch. Afterwards, I removed myself from the vent before anything else in there had the chance to break.

Another loud crash rang out, this one much heavier than the previous ones. Again, Chief’s voice sounded out. “Shields are at critical. Damage to life support, power couplings, and weapons in sector eight. Prioritize weapons for now! Head to corridor A-25 and repair the panel near junction 16.” This time, three damages appeared simultaneously in my area, and likewise another red dot appeared on my map.

However, things weren’t as easy right now, as the captain’s following announcement made everyone take a step back to prepare themselves. “Shields are down, prepare for boarding parties.” Moments later, as I ran towards the location I was given, I could hear sounds of battle echoing out from the halls behind me. They couldn’t have already made it here, right? Did they teleport in? That was my best guess, especially when someone appeared directly in front of me.

The enemy was a large creature whose body seemed composed of natural armor. It had a long spined tail whipping behind it, an elongated dome-shaped skull with no eyes, and thin arms. If not for the pistols it was carrying, I’d think it was some monster out of a horror movie. The moment it appeared, it turned towards me and aimed its pistols, preparing to fire at the only target in immediate range.

“Celeste!” I called out to my companion as I raised my own pistol and beam saber. I wasn’t using my Aura Sight this time, because I wanted to fully focus on this fight. Celeste drew three trajectory lines out, two in red from the enemy’s pistols, and one in green from mine. Naturally, I did my best to contort my body to dodge the enemy’s fire. However, I only managed to dodge one, using my saber as a shield to attempt to deflect the second. Thankfully, that seemed to work, and the laser bounced off my beam saber, instead crashing into a wall.

Taking advantage of the brief pause while the enemy was surprised, I lined up my own shot at the creature’s thin leg, and fired twice in rapid succession. Though the first shot alarmed it greatly, and made it resume battle, the second crippled its leg and made it fall to the ground. Even if that was the case, I was not daring to approach any closer, for fear that it’s tail could be used to attack me. I simply did my best to dodge the trajectory lines as they approached over me again and again, blocking them with my saber when a complete dodge became impossible.

I should be thankful that he didn’t always fire when he thought he had a shot, because it saved me a bit of trouble. However, after a few moments of this exchange, he seemed to figure out I was tracking his pistols and stopped firing altogether. Instead, he simply watched me dance around to try to avoid the lines which could possibly spell my death if he decided to pull the trigger. I’m sure this scene would have been far more impressive if he had kept firing at me.

New Skill Unlocked!

Dodge – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 20%

Congratulations, you know how NOT to take a hit!

Since he no longer paused to give me an opening, I had only managed to get a single shot off, which seemed to have been harmlessly absorbed by his natural armor. I would really love to copy that when I get the chance…

My biggest despair came when he threw aside his pistols, and leapt towards me with his remaining limbs. His clawed hands were extended forward, ready to rip my throat out, so I did the only thing I could. Stop, drop, and roll under the crazy monster alien! When I passed under it, I wildly swung out with my beam saber, and managed to hit possibly the largest part of its body, severing roughly half of its tail.

The enemy let out a sharp hiss as its tail fell to the ground. Wait… no it didn’t. The metal floor let out a hiss as it was corroded away from the blood leaking out of the tail. The alien itself seemed to entirely ignore what should have been excruciating pain. It let out a series of clicks and clacks, likely its native language, before it leapt at me again. Unload into its face! That one thought resounded in my head, knowing that diving under it wouldn’t work twice.

I wasted no time in lining up the shot and firing as many times as I could, which was maybe three before it reached me and I began flailing my beam saber. Although it was annoyed by this, it merely shoved me aside as it dove past, grabbing its pistols and vanishing as quickly as it had arrived. I looked down to the melted away parts of the floor, and shuddered, being thankful that I had not been the one hit by its blood.

“Dammit, we’re being overrun. Everyone, get to the nearest escape pods!” This time, the panicked voice came from the captain of the ship, and my holo-map changed immediately to show me where to go next. There was an escape pod near the damaged section I was running towards, so I simply kept my current course.

I was surprised by the lack of people I saw on my way to the escape pod, though there were many signs of battles being fought. Scorch marks lined the walls, with intermittent sections of melted floors. I could even hear a chittering sound coming from all around me that scared me out of my wits. If it was possible for me to hide in my grove, that’s exactly where I’d be right now.

Upon reaching the escape pod, I found that I was the only one arriving to this one, likely meaning I was the only one alive close enough to come here. Using my Void Manipulation, I jumped into the pod and made it into a void zone in the hopes that they wouldn’t be able to teleport in as I hit the launch button. It was only at this point that I saw the scale of the enemy. What I had assumed to be a half dozen medium sized ships, possibly accompanied by a cruiser, was instead a massive force that looked more like it was preparing for war. Of the smaller ships, the fighters, there were too many to count(341, Celeste helped). There were also a dozen other ships the size of the Nostromo, and a single massive one that was at least three times as big. All of the ships had similar designs to the alien I had seen, with the same organic armor.

I watched as over a dozen escape pods were jettisoned from the Nostromo, all heading in random directions. Some had fighters pursuing them, likely indicating they were key targets, while others like myself were completely ignored. After a few moments of watching the ship sitting in eerie silence while the enemy raiding party… no, raiding army seemed to make no action, a computerized voice sounded out in the escape pod. “Plotting course to nearest planetoid. Initiating distress beacon. Estimated time of arrival, two hours. Estimated time of rescue, unknown.”

You have leveled up!

New Skill Unlocked!

Swordsmanship – Beginner Level 2

Exp: 13%

This skill measures one’s ability to hit people with the pointy end of the sword. Remember, the pointy end.

New Skill Unlocked!

Marksmanship – Beginner Level 6

Exp: 20%

This skill measures one’s accuracy with a firearm.

New Sub-Skill Unlocked!

Energy Weapons – Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%

This Sub-Skill shows your experience in dealing with energy-based weapons, rather than physical ones.

Current Applicable Skills:

Marksmanship

Swordsmanship

You are now eligible for a last name! Congratulations!

Chapter 38: Welcome to the Jungle

I had two hours until I landed on an unknown world just beyond the edge of wood elf space. So what did I do? Well, first of all I gave myself a last name! Now that I knew I wasn’t able to introduce myself in the game with my real name even if I wanted to, I at least wanted to have the same last name. That way, if need be, I can just call myself Mr. Hulett.

I also took a moment to spend my five points from leveling up on increasing my intelligence again, because I definitely needed more mana if I wanted to pursue the path of a Xeno-Shifter. By my basic estimates, an average animal like a wolf would take just over four hundred mana to transform into. Taking into account the shift in complexity and mana density, a magical beast should take around eight hundred. With the same standard applied again, a monster would need at least a thousand.

The idea that a simple slime would take a thousand mana to turn into annoyed me, but I was probably assuming a bit much. Naturally, some monsters would be less complex than others, such as slimes. That problem was sentient creatures. I had no idea the mana cost necessary to turn into a sentient, as they could technically be evolved forms of either an animal, magical animal, or monster. Either way, this is what my stats looked like now.

Name

Falenel Hulett

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 15

2%

Class

Druid

Sub-Class

Wild Shaper

Deity

Malthan

Health

150/150

Health Regen

0.25

Mana

620/620

Mana Regen

0.72

Strength

12

Wisdom

70

Agility

20

Intelligence

62

Dexterity

20

Charisma

10

Vitality

15

Luck

15

Points Remaining

0

Earth 8%

Fire 8%

Wind 8%

Water 8%

Lightning 6%

Light 8%

Dark 7%

Plant 7%

Void 5%

Luck 2%

Most of my elements were getting pretty close to the point where I would be able to cycle them constantly, without focusing on them. Once I was able to do so, my grove should begin expanding explosively, as it means I’d be able to take in mana on a far more regular basis. Likewise, it should mean that my passive mana regeneration might even improve for the same reason.

There were still two hours left before I’d land, and I needed to be prepared. I hadn’t expected to get into fights yet, so I had previously forgotten about charging up my weapons. Now, however, it was entirely necessary to do so. I didn’t have enough time to fully charge all of my weapons, and I knew it, so the first thing I did was finish charging my beam saber until it was full. After that, I did one round of charging up my pistol, and was recovering my mana from that when the escape pod’s mechanical voice spoke up again.

“Entering planet atmosphere. Please secure yourself to prevent damage during entry.” Never one to argue with the wise opinion of an AI, I hastily found a large seat and planted my behind in it, strapping myself in for what promised to be a wild ride. Looking out the window, I was relieved to see that this planet was green, indicating the likeliness of plant life, and thus breathable air. Unfortunately, what I could not see from this distance was signs of habitation, but that wasn’t unusual. Typically, unless you were looking at the dark side of the Earth, it was hard to notice anyone living there if you looked through the naked eye from space.

I felt the craft rocking slightly as we entered the atmosphere, like turbulence on a plane ride that just kept getting worse and worse. Unlike the shuttle or the cruiser, this escape pod didn’t seem to be equipped with the same level of inertial dampener. Thinking such, I rated my odds of entry without injury as rather poorly. “Sorry, Celeste…” I said as I looked down to the watch, an idea coming to mind.

“What do you mean–” She tried to answer, before I quickly used as much mana as I could muster to wrap around the small wristband. Jarl had said I would need to be able to completely suppress the aura of a magical item before I could transport it into the grove, but I had to at least try. Celeste was powered by my aura, so I gave myself decent odds of success. And sure enough, a moment later the bracelet vanished from my wrist. Briefly entering my grove, I made sure she landed safely on the ground, rather than getting planted somewhere. Though, her hologram appeared above the bracelet a moment later.

“Oh come on! This is so not fair!” She yelled out to the empty air, drawing the attention of the two birds. It’s a small world, after all. “Come on, Falenel!” She pouted, seeing that I wasn’t bringing her back out. But, if she were to become damaged or broken in the inevitable crash, that would suck royally. I was actually enjoying her company, and didn’t want to lose her like that.

Briefly, I realized that being able to put her into my grove meant that I could take her with me now when I logged out, which made me smile slightly before I went back into panic mode. Since I used most of my mana to put Celeste in my grove, I didn’t have enough to activate the Aspect of the Armored Beast. I could only ride out the turbulence and pray that nothing broke.

…

Fun fact, I’ve never actually been in a crashing escape pod, even in the science fiction games I had played before. I had expected the entire process to be over in a matter of seconds. However, the ride to the ground took far longer, as the view outside the craft became red for a short while and the turbulence grew to new heights. I was starting to worry that the escape pod might shatter before even hitting the ground, when it slowly began dying down. After about five minutes, there was barely any turbulence left.

Looking out the window, I could more clearly see the ground approaching, though it still looked some distance away. The red haze that had appeared had entirely vanished, and I could only shake my head as I called Celeste back to my wrist. Immediately, the holographic woman flared to life as I felt the metal return to its normal place. “Now, you listen here!” She began, raising her hand to point at me accusingly. “Don’t just go sending me off at the first sign of danger! We’re supposed to be partners, aren’t we?”

I sighed, shaking my head with an embarrassed smirk. “Yeah, sorry. Didn’t want you to get broken if we crashed. And I really was expecting a crash.” I looked back outside, and she seemed to understand we hadn’t landed yet.

Celeste let out a huff at that. “Well… as long as you understand, it’s fine. But you put me in your grove! That means I can visit your world, right?” She suddenly looked to me, her previous anger having completely vanished, instead replaced by a hopeful expression.

I chuckled, and if she had a physical body I would be patting her head by now. “Yes, yes, don’t worry. Next time I go back I’ll take you with me. Satisfied?” After I asked that, she nodded happily before fading back into my wrist. I looked out the window again, and saw that the ground was becoming very close. In just a few more seconds, we’d land and find out what our situation is.

Sure enough, a moment later there was a dull thud as we gently touched down. I didn’t know what kind of propulsion the pod had used to counteract the fall, or if it had been some kind of magic, but whatever it was, I was just glad that I was still in one piece. “Computer, do you have any information about this planet?”

A moment later, the mechanical voice rang out. “Negative. Planet not registered in data banks. Conclusion, either an unexplored planet, or one of dangerous origin.”

I did not like the sound of that. “Explain dangerous origin, and give an example.”

“A planet which is extremely inhospitable or possesses particularly threatening circumstances may be removed from data banks to prevent discovery. Example, sentient worlds capable of draining the life of any creature that lands on them.”

Now I really didn’t like the sounds of that. “Has such a planet been found before…?”

“…Unknown. If such a planet has been discovered, it has been removed from data banks due to dangerous origin.” Now I felt a bit silly for asking.

“Alright… next question. This thing should have sensors, since it was able to find the planet. Is the air outside breathable by my species? Also, what is the standard rescue protocol for situations such as this?” Both were very important questions. If I was expected to stay in the pod until help arrived, I needed to know this.

“Scans show that the atmosphere outside is capable of sustaining your species. Alliance policy for rescue attempts, in the event of a hostile faction capturing or destroying a ship, and escape pods successfully reaching an uninhabited world. Survivors are strongly recommended to remain near their escape pods until help arrives. In the event this proves impossible they are suggested to remove a portable beacon from the pod to ensure easy retrieval. Should it be impossible to send ships to rescue, a summoning ritual will take place on the nearest inhabited world to rescue survivors.”

So, as long as I take the beacon with me, I’m guaranteed to be safe one way or the other. Thinking of something, I decided to ask. “Does the beacon work when placed in the inventory?” I didn’t want to have to carry around a homing beacon while also worrying about fighting off monster attacks.

“Affirmative. After forty eight hours, if a rescue has not yet occurred, the summoning ritual will be initiated at the nearest inhabited world. At that time, all survivors will be relocated and capable of reporting to the rescue team.”

I sighed, nodding my head. If I needed to, I could theoretically stay in this pod for as long as I had to. Between the food in my grove, and my ability to logout when nature called, I could sustain myself for well more than two days. However… I looked at the door to the escape pod. There was adventure just outside that door! Worst case scenario, I die and respawn back on X-23, no big deal. “Computer, where is the beacon?’

A small compartment opened up next to my seat, containing a palm sized metal object. Taking the object, I placed it in my inventory before unstrapping myself from the seat and getting up. After taking out my pistol and beam saber, I moved over to the door and had the computer open it. “Celeste, keep an eye out for any signs of movement, and alert me to anything you consider a danger to my health.”

Suddenly, my entire body was highlighted in my Cybernetic eye with the same yellow light that Celeste always used. “…Very funny…” I heard a small giggle before the light faded, and the door to the pod opened. Outside, the area was a vast jungle, with there being only a small clearing around myself caused by the pod landing. Turning around, I was able to get a good look at my escape pod for the first time. It was big, roughly five meters in diameter, and six tall with a cone shape. On the side was the word Nostromo, likely referring to the ship that it came from.

Returning my attention to the jungle, I prepared myself to be assaulted by random fluffy, scaled, fuzzy, slimy, or scraggly menaces. However, much to my disappointment, nothing arrived. Celeste was even unable to see any animals nearby. Aside from the plants, there was absolutely no sign of life from anything. I don’t like this…

I began to inch my way back to the escape pod, when the ground suddenly began to shake, as if an earthquake had appeared. Looking back at the pod, I saw the ground splitting below it, and instinct said that the pod was currently the least safe place I could possibly be. I hurriedly activated my Aspect of the Bird to grow the angel wings and flew off into the sky, just in time to see a sight I really wish I could forget.

Beneath the pod, the ground opened up, roots and vines flailing. Beneath the surface, the plant life writhed as if with a mind of its own, grabbing onto the pod and pulling it down into a giant circular, green maw that appeared below it. I watched as the plants ripped apart the metal escape pod, destroying it in seconds before the ground slowly closed up.

“Celeste…”

“Yeah…?”

“I don’t like this world.”

I heard an audible gulp from the AI at my wrist. “If it makes you feel any better… I don’t think it likes us either.”

Chapter 39: A World of Green

After watching the ground literally consume my escape pod, I couldn’t help but gulping slightly. In my mind, I was very thankful for the fact that I had grabbed the beacon before leaving the pod, or else I would be well and truly stranded here. “Okay… let’s just hope that not every plant is hungry… I can’t keep flying for two days straight.”

Saying that, I flew down closer to the ground, but refused to land on it. Instead, I used my Aura Sight and Mana Sense to scan the nearby trees, making sure to watch for any that might attack me. In all the games I’ve played before, I can honestly say I’ve never had to be afraid of a forest because of its trees.

Flight has increased to Basic!

As my Mana Sense swept over them, a few plants reacted by throwing their branches at me, or vines sweeping out. However, none responded except for the ones I scanned. So, I simply dealt with the branches and vines that attacked by withdrawing my Mana Sense and dodging away. Near as I could tell, the plants had two methods of sensing ‘prey’. The first, and also the way it found the pod, would be through a form of tremorsense. Something big and metal landing on the ground likely alerted all the big baddies in the neighborhood to come to a dinner party.

Said big baddies were probably still lurking underground, so I most definitely was not going to land on the grass. Instead, I kept scanning trees until I began to notice a pattern. All of the trees that decided to attack me had a far more complex aura than the ‘docile’ trees. Though, not all of the docile trees had the same simple auras, making me think that some were waiting to trap me.

At least it gave me something to go off of, and it was something that I could easily scan with my Aura Sight without wasting mana. Moving over to one of the simpler trees, I did my best to gently land on it, my eyes darting around me to watch for a possible attack. After a full minute of waiting, there was no sign of an attack, so I sighed lightly and got to work. It would be great if I could just spend my time on this one tree for two days, as my sense of adventure was entirely used up by now.

After I landed, I began cultivating a Seed of Plants. Not surprisingly, I found a very dense plant mana permeating the atmosphere of this planet, so much that it was even carried on the wind. Part of me worried that this might be the planet’s form of Mana Sense, but if that were the case I’d be pretty much dead already. With the density of the plant mana, I managed to finish refining the seed in barely two hours, after which I began work on a Seed of Darkness, which took considerably longer.

I was tempted to go to a lower branch and refine a Seed of Earth to complete my set, but found that my legs refused to move in order to comply with the request. The scene of the escape pod being ripped to shreds repeated itself in my mind, except it was me instead of the pod. Sometimes, having an upgraded memory is more of a burden than a help. Instead, I sat on the branch and decided to try something new. “Celeste, pull up the energy combination needed to charge the energy weapons again.”

“What are you thinking, Falenel? You don’t have nearly enough mana to burn down the jungle, if that’s what you had in mind…”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “No, I just wanted to have you see if the combination matched a possible affinity.” A mixture of fire and lightning mana was far enough away from either to possibly be considered its own affinity, such as the difference between earth and magma, or steam and ice.

Celeste paused for a moment, before smiling slightly and nodding her head. “Yes, it is in fact. It is known as the Plasma Affinity, of which you currently have a single percent of proficiency.”

I smiled, nodding back to the AI. “Figured as much.” After spending so much time using my Technomancy on the weapons, I was able to tell that they directed some form of energy charge through a magnetic current. and the only energy I could think of that was controlled in such a manner and had the same effects was plasma.

“You’re going to try and learn the Plasma Affinity now, aren’t you?” Celeste asked with a tired expression, making me laugh lightly. Sadly, that laugh seemed to be loud enough to cause the vibrations necessary for the plants to detect me, as I had vines piercing towards me from the nearest tree. Rather than dodging them this time, I used my Fire Manipulation to burn the vines with a thin screen of flame between us, which caused them to recoil, apparently in fear.

With a sigh, I moved from this tree to another one that my Aura Sight registered as safe. “Yeah. I think it’d be a good idea to do so. If I get good enough with it, I should be able to use the control skill to deflect energy weapons.”

After a moment, Celeste gave a nod. “In that case, I’d suggest also studying the Magnetism Affinity. I am unsure if the manipulation ability you gain with plasma will be sufficient to control it, and if not it would be a good idea to have a backup.”

I thought about it, but had to agree she was right. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any magnets on me to practice that affinity. Then again, the only plasma sources I had were my weapons, and I’d rather not drain them to get the affinity. After all, I might need to shoot something in this planet where the entire jungle wants me for lunch. “I can work on those after we get rescued. Until then, I’ve got other things to worry about.”

Celeste went quiet for a few moments, before speaking up. “Do you think it’s possible to copy the traits of these plants? I think the hostile trees should either be the plant form of a magical beast, or a monster. Your Nature Magic should be able to replicate it, right?”

“Maybe…” Jarl had said that it was possible to turn blood into a potion, so copying the traits of plants was certainly possible. The question is, what would I get from doing so? Flexible bark armor? The snake’s scales should be far stronger. I could maybe learn their tremorsense and mana detection abilities. So far, none of the plants had displayed a particularly useful ability for me aside from that. “Keep an eye out for any plants that have useful abilities. For now, I’m going to focus on training.”

Pulling out my enchanting staff that I received at Hascion, I decided to experiment a bit. The staff itself had no magical properties, and merely served to hold the mana gem. But that also meant that it was still, for the most part, unaltered wood. With my Plant Manipulation, I made a series of hollow sockets in the wood, and in each one I placed an elemental seed.

Fire, water, wind, light, dark, lightning, void, and plant. Eight affinities, and eight seeds to go with them. If I had my Seed of Earth, I could have completed the set. Once each seed was socketed into the staff, I used Plant Manipulation again to close it up, hiding them inside the wood of the staff. Although they weren’t plainly visible, Aura Sight still showed the eight different sources of mana hidden in the staff.

With that taken care of, I began to cultivate my Plant Affinity, as I highly doubted I would ever find a more suitable environment to do so than a world full of plants, without a single animal in side. Doing it this way also had an added effect, I soon discovered. Since cultivation required me to match my aura to match plant mana, it made me all but invisible to the local species. And no, I did not discover this by walking up and poking a plant, or using my Mana Sense on it…

…

I fell out of the tree while cultivating. Thankfully, though, my aura seemed to match well enough, because the grass(yes even the grass had the complex aura of a plant waiting to attack) did not do anything to me. If I had to guess, this was likely a planet where only a druid would be able to survive peacefully, as anyone else would be attacked constantly by the plants.

Of course, now that I knew I could hide myself by simply cultivating Plant Affinity, I was free to move around as I liked. It seemed like the plants that detected me with tremorsense also read my aura as a plant, and did not attack. With the lack of any kind of animal on this planet, I began to wonder how the plants sustained themselves, but they likely fed on the abundant plant mana in the air.

Naturally, there was no way I was taking Yin and Yang out while I was here. Neither of them were able to cultivate Plant Affinity, so there was no chance of them being safe. Every now and then, I would scan one of the plants that I passed, assessing its aura and seeing if it had any uses in alchemy. Since I kept my aura attuned to plant mana, this didn’t cause any ‘misunderstandings’ with the locals.

I wouldn’t be dumb enough to take a carnivorous plant into my grove, but I did find a few plants that were docile and had some medicinal properties. One, a large tree that bore a fruit in the form of a five pointed star, had a sap that seemed to contain a powerful medicine aura. However, the fruit itself had the aura of an equally potent poison. Using my Plant Manipulation, I plucked one of the fruits and stored it in my inventory. Once I could make a second grove, I would plant this tree there. Wouldn’t want the birds to eat it by mistake.

The next herb I found was actually a weed, which looked very similar to blood weed. However, the medicinal aura it held felt different, so it likely held a different use. Using the same trick as before, I gathered a few of these weeds for my inventory as well. This went on for a few hours, until my inventory was too full to accept anything else. In that time, my Plant Affinity had also risen sharply, from 7% to 9% in one go, and I felt like it would soon break through to 10%.

Honestly, I was getting to the point where I really wanted to sleep, but I knew that if I did, my cultivation would lapse and the jungle would attack again. Looking over to the plants, I decided that there was in fact something I could get from them, and began studying the aura for the tallest tree I could find. Specifically, I wanted to study its leaves, and how they fed energy to the tree.

As I suspected, I noticed that the leaves on the tree absorbed the plant mana in the air, and transmitted it through the tree as sustenance. This was true for both the docile and hostile trees, so I copied from the former. If the hostile trees qualified as a monster, than it would be far harder to copy their version of the ability.

Closing my eyes, I focused on copying this ability onto myself. For some reasons that I’m sure nobody could possibly guess, I didn’t want leaves growing out of my head. So, instead, I turned the feathers on my wings into leaves, giving me a rather interesting plant wing appearance. At the same time, I also received a handy new spell.

New Spell Unlocked!

Aspect of the Mana Leech – Nature Magic – ★★

By copying the ability to absorb mana and putting it on your own body, you have gained the powerful skill to sustain yourself purely on mana.

Mana Cost: 200

The cost and rank of the spell surprised me, but then I considered just how strong this could be. If I changed the mana it absorbed, I could siphon off the energy of spells, and use it to fuel myself. When I opened up my status window, I also saw that my mana regeneration had multiplied by four simply by having these leaves absorbing the abundant plant mana in the air. Thankfully, it also served the purpose to relieve my exhaustion, which was the main point.

“See? Knew they’d be good for something.” Celeste said from my wrist, sounding slightly smug.

“Yes, yes. Don’t worry, I appreciate it.” I smirked down to her, and she smiled happily before vanishing. With this, I’d be able to train faster than ever before, at least until help arrived. And no, before you ask, there was no way I was abandoning the beacon to stay here longer. If I did that, then I’d never be able to leave.

That night, I easily managed to get to Plant Affinity 10%, which let me simply have it work as a background process while I refined a Seed of Earth. I could feel myself still absorbing the mana and cultivating like normal, but it was as if it had become a second nature, as easy as breathing. I could focus on it to increase its effects, but otherwise it was just a constant thing.

Once I had the Seed of Earth refined, I put it into the staff like the other seeds, before returning my staff to my inventory. With that taken care of, I spent the rest of the night cultivating Earth and Dark Affinities.

Chapter 40: A Day in the Life of a Tree.

The night passed without much in the way of special events happening. Since the plants here fed off of mana rather than sunlight, there was no sign of them hibernating during the night. Though perhaps, I should instead be thankful that the day and night cycles resemble what I am used to so much? Either way, I managed to get through the night while cultivating my Earth and Dark Affinities, bringing them both up to 9% by the time morning came around. I could feel that just a bit more work on Earth Affinity, and it would make a breakthrough.

However, I had other things to worry about. Shortly after the sun came up, I saw something that I hadn’t seen the entire day I was here already. I saw movement beyond the trees. Using my Cybernetic eye, I had Celeste play the scene again with some visual editing. I saw a… naked green woman walking casually through the jungle. And before you ask, no, I did not get a peep show. Celeste took the liberty of adding black censor bars over the important bits.

Still, now I knew that there was actually someone living in this place! Even if they might be a plant person… still a plus. Standing up, I cycled through vision modes on my eye, giving it X-Ray and Zoom so that I could find the person again. From that, I could vaguely see her figure walking a few hundred meters ahead of me. Thankfully she was still just walking casually, so I would be able to catch up if I flew between the trees.

Thinking that, I launched myself into the air, finding that the leaf feathers were surprisingly capable as I flew towards the slowly advancing woman. In hindsight, I really should have thought this through before charging in. But, as we’ve determined, that’s not really my style, is it?

In under two minutes, I was already swooping down towards the woman, who seemed to notice my presence and let out a scared shriek. She knelt down in a defensive position, using her hands to cover her head when I landed in front of her. “Hello, don’t be scared? I come in peace?” I held my hands up as I spoke, hoping to calm her down.

At some point, I should have realized that she wouldn’t speak my language. I mean, this is a non-listed world, why would whatever creatures inhabit it speak wood elf? After a moment, she looked up at me, her eyes wet with unshed tears. Or maybe it was water, or both. Seeing that I didn’t intend on attacking, she slowly lowered her arms.

Who are you? I heard the voice, like a thought in my head, and felt a slight increase in plant mana I took in. It was a gentle, high pitched voice, like a scared little girl. What do you want?

I blinked slightly, suddenly realizing the language barrier, and thinking about how she is communicating with me. Gathering a bit of plant mana, I sent it to her with the intention of relaying the message, I’m Falenel.

New Ability Unlocked!

Treespeaker – Plant Affinity – ☆

By carrying a message through plant mana, you are able to communicate with plants and plant-based beings.

Thankfully, Arcane magic like this works mostly based on intention, since she seemed to react to it positively. ’I am Arianne. You do not look familiar… what species are you?’

I looked myself over, thinking that was a very good question. ’I guess you could call me an elf? I fell from the sky yesterday, and you are the first person I’ve seen with… well… legs.

Suddenly, Celeste appeared at my wrist, looking between myself and Arianne as the latter giggled from my comment. “Something wrong? You two are just staring at each other…”

Looking down to her, I was a bit surprised. “You can’t hear her? Guess it’s not something shared in the link, sorry…” Though I said that, there was really nothing I could do about that if she couldn’t interpret the plant mana communication method.

“Aww…” She pouted cutely, making me smile. Meanwhile, Arianne just stared at the holographic woman with wide yellow eyes.

’You have a wrist ghost.’ She said simply, seeming to misinterpret what Celeste was.

’Kind of. She’s really nice, but she can’t speak like we are. Are there more people like you around here?’

She thought about it for a moment, and nodded. ’I am surrounded by my family, above and below, day and night.’ With a wave of her arms, she indicates the trees around her, making me sigh slightly.

’Anyone with legs?’ Legs were an important characteristic, in my mind. They seemed to be a key difference between Arianne and the rest of the jungle.

The plant woman looked down to her legs, thinking, before shaking her head. ’Not for several hours walk. It is not often that the dryads meet, as they tend their own family.’

Ooh, a dryad. ’Ahh, I see… well… can you ask your family to not try to attack me?’

She tilted her head curiously, though maintained the magical communication. Perhaps it was thanks to my wings absorbing the mana, but I was not running out of energy from this. ’Why would they attack you?’

I tried to think of a way to say this without either scaring her or making her want to eat me. I’m not sure if dryads would eat people like the trees do, but still… ’I am not of this world. I fell from the sky in a metal pod, and then the ground opened up and swallowed it. I have been attacked repeatedly since then, until I learned to match my aura to that of this world.’

’Ohh.. you are not plant-kin. Your ‘pod’ as you call it, likely landed on grandfather. As for the others..’ She turned her head away and seemed to be communicating with the trees. ’They thought you were an invader, come to destroy us as others have before.’

I shook my head at that. ’No, I am simply waiting to be rescued. Some time tomorrow, I will be pulled from this world and return to my own.’

She thought about it for a moment, and nodded. ’I understand. The family shall continue watching you, Flanel, to ensure that you keep your word.’

…Flanel? My name is not Flanel…. Oh well… not like we’d meet again anyways. ’Thank you. It’s never good to think that everything around you sees you as dinner..’

She smiled slightly, looking to one of the nearby fruit trees. ’No, it is not, is it?’

Okay, I deserved that one. Pretty much any animal ever deserved that one. ’Is it alright if I gather some of the plants here? I am a druid, you see…. or, you might not know that term… Some call us guardians of nature?’

She looked surprised at that, glancing to the trees again before looking back to me. ’You may take what you wish, but only from those without a will of their own.’ I nodded to her condition, having no intention of putting intelligent plants in my grove.

’If possible… could I get you to help me? I am looking for plants that can be used to produce medicines.’ Saying such, I plucked a stalk of blood weed from my grove and materialized it in my hand. ’This is one such plant, although its effects are only of the lowest grade.’ Well, even though I say that, I feel like it is significantly more powerful than the ones I gathered on Hascion.

Again she thought about it for a moment before nodding. ’I can help you. I know the qualities of everyone in my family. Although I may not be able to tell you their effects on your kind, I can show you which ones possess a form of healing factor.’

With that, she turned around and walked off. While following behind her, I planted a could of the less deadly plants in my grove, which had grown significantly since I started cultivating here. After I leave, I should focus on gathering enough void mana to make the second grove.

“Where are we going?” Celeste asks again, appearing from my wrist.

I smiled down to her. “The nice dryad lady is going to help us gather herbs.”

Celeste pouted again. “You only like her because she’s naked.”

“That is entirely not true.” I casually rejected her claim. “I like her because she’s naked and hasn’t tried to eat us.”

That earned me a tiny giggle from Celeste, who quickly returned to her fake pouting. After a moment though, she sighed and shook her head. “You could probably take her with us, you know? There should be room in the grove for her to hitch a ride.”

I smirked bitterly, having already thought of that. “Something tells me she wouldn’t enjoy the idea of leaving her ‘family’…”

“Yeah… probably right.” Celeste turned to watch as Arianne gently picked a fairly common flower from near a tree, bringing it to me.

’This is known as a heartbroken rose. Its quality is similar to the one you showed me before, though more powerful.’

I gently took the flower, and swept over it with my Mana Sense. Indeed, the medicinal parts of the aura felt much like the blood weed, though more complex. Without wasting any time, I absorbed it into my grove, planting it alongside the blood weed. It’s a good thing that I managed to get 10% Plant Affinity, because I’m not sure if the plants here would be able to survive suddenly being transplanted into an area without dense plant mana. Likely, they’d be absorbing it constantly, just like the bird had done when she cultivated wind mana.

Through all of this, I made sure to continue cycling earth and dark mana, and eventually made the breakthrough in Earth Affinity to 10%. Like with my Plant Affinity, it was now a constant thing in the background. Though, instead of taking advantage of this to increase the speed of cycling dark mana, I added wind to replace earth. Now I was cultivating both Wind Affinity and Dark Affinity. Inwardly, I had determined that before I started focusing on gathering new affinities, I would at least train the primary seven all up to that point.

Arianne led me around to find several more herbs, all of which I either placed in my inventory or in my grove. Surprisingly, she only gave me one poisonous plant, and that was because it also had a strong medicinal aura. From what I could tell, the pollen of this flower was good for medicine, but the petals of it contained a strong poison. According to Arianne, it would grab anything the touched its petals, and hold them there until the poison was done. After that, the petals extracted its life force and used it to produce more pollen.

Definitely a plant going in the ‘second grove’. I thought as I carefully placed it in my inventory. From there, Arianne led me to get a total of two more plants, before she said that I had now received all of the ‘healing plants’ in this family.

’Thank you very much, Arianne. I would try to compensate you in some way, but I really don’t know what you would like?’ I smiled to the naked green lady, and did my best to keep my little soldier from saluting. It was a difficult task, let me tell you.

She smiled gently to me, shaking her head. ’That is not needed. It is good to have someone new to talk to, if even for only a short time.’ She looked around discretely, and then sent a message in a particularly quiet tone. ’The family is not usually very good for conversation.’

I laughed when I heard that, having to hold my stomach. Again, Celeste appeared at my wrist. “Come on? What’s so funny?! Don’t leave me out like this, man!”

“Sorry, sorry. You know I don’t mean to. How about this, once we get rescued I’ll let you see my world for a little while?” I smiled down to Celeste, who was quickly placated by the bribe.

“Okay… fine. But you better keep your promise!” She huffed out before disappearing into the metal wristband again.

After that, I decided to say goodbye to Arriane, who seemed somewhat reluctant to part. Though, as she said before, it was merely because she liked having someone to talk to. When I offered to let her come with me, she firmly refused, saying that she would not leave her family behind. Only if I could take her entire family would she come with me. And naturally, my grove was not nearly big enough to accommodate all of the plants she considered her family. Especially that ‘grandfather’ that ate my pod… Though, now I couldn’t help but seeing that massive hungry plant as an old man shaking his cane at people and yelling for them to get off his yard.

Chapter 41: Slime Time

The next few hours passed uneventfully, and I even managed to get Dark Affinity to 10%! However, after that, I began seeing movement again through the trees. Part of me thought that Arriane had come back for some reason, and that part was rather happy for the chance to see the naked plant lady. Of course, that part was located entirely in my lower body.

Sadly though, what I saw was not the movement of a beautiful dryad, but the birth of a monster. Using my X-Ray Vision, combined with Zoom and Aura Sight, I was able to watch as a particularly dense mass of plant mana surged into a fallen seed on the ground. As it did so, the seed thickened, becoming a round sphere similar to the Seed of Plants that I could refine. Around the green pellet, the mana began to condense in the form of a viscous liquid. It was at this point that I realized the monster being birthed here was not a dryad, but a plant-based slime.

With interest, I watched the process until it was completed. I had never seen a slime before, let alone seeing as it was formed. More and more of the liquid mana poured in around the slime’s core, until it had a diameter of a meter. At that point, it seemed to stop, the slime sitting there with an occasional jiggle of its body.

Huh… If that’s all it takes to form a slime, then druids should be able to do so by liquefying a layer of mana around an element seed. I’ll have to experiment with that later. If I can produce slimes of my own, I could learn all of their special powers and add them to my repertoire. Plus, if I can make them loyal, they’d be an excellent bodyguard for my real body. I began thinking up plans for the slimes as I watched the new one idle in the spot it had appeared. From what I could see, it was not sentient by any means, and was simply a mindless monster.

Shrugging my shoulders, I got up and went over towards it. Navigating around the trees that were in between us, it started moving as soon as I was in sight. Though, its moving was to try and eat me, I think. It was difficult to tell, because all it did was bubble hungrily and slowly slither towards me. Okay… if I plan to make slime bodyguards, I am going to have to make them better than this.

Seeing that I could evade the slime simply by slowly walking, I watched it for a little while. To my surprise, it had an acidic quality to it. Any of the leaves or twigs it passed over dissolved almost immediately. Naturally, I didn’t want to subject myself to that. Thinking back to what I knew about slimes, their weaknesses in games were traditionally magic and energy attacks, and they were all but impervious to physical attacks.

Thankfully, I had next to know physical attacks, aside from punching. And no, I was not about to punch a slowly rolling ball of acid. I did, however, want to do a few tests. Pulling my magic staff out of my inventory, I focused on the seeds I had ‘planted’ in it. Using the Seed of Void as a focus, I formed a field of void magic around the slime. Instantly, its body dissolved, leaving the core lying in a puddle of gooey acid. When I lifted this field, the slime slowly began to reform itself, a process that took over a full minute to complete.

Interesting, so slimes are literally constructed of pure magic. Take that away and they break down. Next, I shot a ball of plant mana at the slime, seeing if it was possible to simply will its core away from it. That test… did not work out as planned. Rather than being controlled by the plant mana, it was strengthened. The slime immediately increased in radius by another foot, and its speed also increased somewhat. I did a bad.

Next up, fire! My experiment continued, this time sending a thin beam of fire at the slime, which visibly shook as the attack connected. I watched as the slime slowly reduced in size, apparently burned away by the magic attack. I then repeated the process with wind and light, and the same thing happened. By the time I finished, it barely had a layer of slime, and couldn’t move at all.

Just as I was about to destroy it, I had a thought that made me realize what an opportunity this was. I had an already defeated slime in front of me, with no power to resist. Time to study! There was a chance my later experiments would result in failure, so I should take advantage of this while I can. There was even the possibility that studying this slime would help me create my own later.

After I knelt down next to the slime, I began pushing my Mana Sense into it, and frowned as I saw the slime trying to absorb it. Right away, I created a barrier of light mana around the slime to prevent it from growing while I worked. And honestly, the slime was currently only six inches in diameter, making the study process extremely quick.

As I had suspected, the nucleus of the slime was a Seed of Plants, but it seemed to be a bit more pure than the ones I refined. Likely, that meant it was a medium grade seed. When I asked Celeste, she confirmed my theory. That also gave me a hint on how to refine seeds of higher quality.

Incoming call from Jacobs.

There was a slight ringing in my head as the window appeared, and I accepted the call. “Hey man, what’s up?”

“Wanted to check in. You make it to Crailor okay?”

“Not quite. Hit an alien blockade, and crash landed on a hungry jungle planet.” I said as I continued studying the slime in depth.

“A hungry… jungle planet? Anyways, that’s not important. You said an alien blockade? I just got a message from my other friend a bit ago that was heading there, and he said the same thing. Looks like some race is making their move to expand their territory… and they’re not doing it nicely.”

“I’d say not. Looked like a monster from a horror movie. All thin limbed with an elongated dome head, long blade-like tail, and its blood was acid.” I briefly described the alien that I had fought on the Nostromo to Jacobs, who seemed to be passing the information on to someone else.

“Looks like they are called the ‘Klax’. I asked them why, and you want to know what they said?” There was a hint of laughter in his voice, so I said sure. “They only speak in clicks and clacks, and Clix was already taken by a different species.”

I let out a chuckle at that. With my study of the slime complete, I compressed the light barrier to remove the last traces of it clinging to the core. Afterwards, I leaned down and picked the core up, placing it in my inventory. Never know when a medium grade seed could come in handy. “So, the Klax attacked your other friend too?”

“Yeah, from what I’ve heard, they are attacking any ship that comes within a hundred parsecs of their borders. Since Crailor was on the edge of space between wood elves and the Klax, that means they have essentially claimed the planet as their own.”

“Sounds more like they’re getting ready for war or something. It wasn’t exactly a small fleet I saw taking care of the Nostromo.”

There was a pause at that. “You seriously rode on a spaceship called the Nostromo..?”

“Uhm… yeah, why?”

“Dude… that’s like getting on a ship named the Titanic. You really haven’t watched the old horror movies, have you?”

“Did they get remade in holo-cards?” I shrugged my shoulders as I stood up and walked back to my previous spot. Old DVRs were expensive, and the quality wasn’t nearly as good as a hologram movie.

“I… don’t think so, but that’s not the point!” He sighed, and I could just tell he was shaking his head. “Anyways, they should be able to rescue you before too long. They’ve got a bunch of other people they’re having to pull out of escape pods or planets from attacks like that. So they’re just talking about doing it all at once.”

“Sweet. Though it’s not all that bad here. I’ve managed to convince the trees not to eat me.” I smirked slightly, knowing how that must have sounded.

“….Sure, whatever. I give up.” He said with a sigh, letting the connection end. I laughed lightly, setting my staff down and looking at it.

I did not enchant my weapons yet, partially because there is the chance I’ll need to take them with me to the real world if monsters start spawning. However, this staff already is far too magical for me to put it in my grove to transfer. So, there is no reason for me not to enchant it!

Probing the aura of the staff, I found that it would be suitable for either durability increase, wisdom increase, or attack increase. Out of those three, the only one that really mattered to me was the wisdom one. This staff was not meant for fighting, at least not a physical fight.

With a bit of focus, I recalled the runes I needed, and began tracing them in the air over the staff, empowering it with my enchantment. If my skill was higher, I would directly give it a special effect, but right now this was all I was able to do. Jacobs probably had a high enough skill to do, but he was definitely too far away to help me directly. Maybe if I called him, he could walk me through the process, but I’d rather not risk nine element seeds and a mana gem on a phoned in experiment.

Though, with this, I began thinking about what kind of enchantments I might be able to do with this staff. There was one that I thought would be really good, and that was the ability to fire elemental blasts from the staff, using different elements depending on which seed or seeds I focused on. If that was possible, it would be really good, because I could use any element that I put a seed into the staff for it.

Another thought I had would be to enchant it with a barrier spell, since defense is always a good thing to have. However, I couldn’t do either one yet, so instead I turned my attention elsewhere. Specifically, I wanted to try copying some slime traits. “Celeste, going to need to take you off again. If I turn my skin into acid, would rather I didn’t dissolve you.”

The holographic woman appeared on my wrist, ready to raise a fit about what I had said, until she heard the last part. Then, there was an audible gulp, and she slightly nodded her head. With that, I went ahead and put her into the grove, before closing my eyes to focus. What I wanted to do here was change my skin into the same substance the slime had coated itself with. If I did that, I might gain some resistance to physical attacks, as well as an acid touch.

Ssss….. “GAAAAHHHH!!!!” I let out a blood curdling scream, as my experiment unfortunately worked. However, I immediately cancelled it and began healing myself. Note… to self… acidic skin burns muscles and veins too!

The moment my skin had turned into that of the slime, there was a massive drop in my health due to my skin trying to dissolve the rest of my body. If I had waited even a couple more seconds, I might have accidentally killed myself with that experiment. Instead, I was collapsed on the ground, struggling to breathe as I repeatedly healed myself. It took a full ten minutes before the pain faded away enough that I was willing to move my body, and another ten minutes before it was completely gone.

After the pain was gone, I summoned Celeste back to my wrist. “Never… again…” I did not even want to try doing a full conversion into a slime now, because the mere thought of turning into that plant slime filled me with pain.

Celeste appeared at my wrist, looking up to me with a worried expression. “What happened…?”

“Acid skin is officially a terrible idea.”

She winced a bit as I said that. “Ouch…”

“That is the understatement of the millennium.”

No longer concerning myself with the outside world, I did my first attempt at a Runic spell. It was a pretty basic one, and should function as a perimeter alarm. All I did was a ‘lasting, field, intruder, sound’ set of runes and cast it around myself. The small mana requirement made my eye twitch as I realized just how little mana is needed for Runic spells. If I didn’t have the druid’s Worldcasting method, I might put in more work and learn the hundred million runes to master that language.

Anyways, after I set my alarm, I focused purely on cultivating. At my current levels of mastery, I could focus on all four of my 8% affinities, and also Lightning Affinity, which was only at 6%. Doing so took all of my attention, but with my wings absorbing the surrounding plant mana I had more than enough mana regeneration to sustain it at this level. I wouldn’t be able to get them to 10% before being rescued if I split my attention between five affinities, but it is the easiest way to grow my grove, since I am evening out the balance of mana.

Chapter 42: A Storm Cometh

The cultivation went fairly smoothly, especially since there weren’t any plants trying to eat me. My cultivation showed only a bit of progress, with my Lightning Affinity increasing to 7% after the first few hours. None of the other elements I was practicing showed a noticeable increase, though. On the other hand, the Plant Affinity that I was only passive training increased to 11%, which surprised me. This was likely only due to the dense plant mana this planet offered, and I wouldn’t see such increases after leaving for a while.

Anyways, after a few hours of cultivating, I got rather bored and wanted to do some experiments. Specifically, I wanted to see if I could alter my wings to be able to take in mana types other than plant. Like I had done with the lesser orthrus, I focused on a single leaf of my wings. Having studied this aspect, I naturally knew which part it was that absorbed the plant mana, so I tried changing that single part of the aura to wind.

To my surprise, this seemed to trigger a chain reaction throughout the entire aura, with every piece of plant mana in the aura changing into wind mana. Naturally, I suspected this meant my feather leaf would fade away, but when I looked there was simply a small gap between the feathers. According to my Aura Sight, it was still there, but had been rendered invisible due to becoming one with the wind. I did another quick change and switched it back to plant mana, and the leaf returned.

Over the course of the next hour, I experimented with changing the leaves into every element I was currently capable of wielding. Earth had the leaf turn to stone, which unbalanced me a little due to the extra weight. Water had the leaf turn into a large drop of water just hanging off my wing, which I quickly turned back in case it fell off. Fire had the leaf burst into flames, which hurt a bit as it burnt the surrounding leaves.

Lightning had the leaf crackling with electricity, which shot off of my wing into the ground. That one actually hurt more because I felt the feather forcefully plucking itself from my wing. Light and dark turned the leaf into a stationary mass of light and shadow respectively. Finally, void was interesting, as it turned into a black feather similar to how it reacted to dark mana. However, there were tiny specks of light on it, which looked like shining stars. Out of curiosity, I expanded this effect to an entire wing.

It actually looked like a scene of a starry sky, like one would find in space. Though, there was hardly any void mana to be found in this planet’s atmosphere, except for the Seed of Void I brought with me. After that experiment, I did one more. This time, I changed all of my leaves into light feathers, and actively absorbed the light mana around me. It was still a couple of hours before the sun will set, or else I would have done this with darkness instead.

I could see the light warping around me as it gathered in my wings. Rather than letting myself take it in like I had been with plant mana, I held the light mana in my wings for two or three minutes, until it felt like I couldn’t hold anymore. This caused my wings to continue growing brighter and brighter, until I finally let them release.

Not wanting to be the enemy of the forest again, I directed the release upwards to the sky. Immediately, a thick beam of light emerged from each of my wings, shooting off where I had directed until my wings had exhausted the stored energy.

New Ability Unlocked!

Element Burst – Elemental Affinities – ★★★

By absorbing pure mana of a given element and storing it up without allowing it to circulate through your body, you are able to release a blast of that element at its full potential of power.

Well… that would be an epic attack, if I had the time to gather the mana like that… I shook my head, knowing that expecting two or three seconds in a heated battle to charge an attack is hoping for a miracle, let alone two or three minutes. Maybe when my affinity increases I’ll be able to take the mana in faster and use the attack in combat.

Still… the power of that attack. I should have gathered somewhere around three hundred mana, but it was all pure light mana. That means it would have been a 100% affinity, rather than my 8%, so it should have been the equivalent of me firing a light blast with over 3500 mana. I’ll have to remember that trick in the future, because it could come in handy.

“What was that?” Celeste suddenly spoke up from my wrist, staring in the direction that the light had gone.

“Ah… guess you could call it an ultimate attack?” I smiled slightly.

“Huh… Well, it was certainly interesting. But, if there were any creatures that were still hostile towards you… you just sent them an invitation.” She smirked to me as my face paled. She was right, Arriane had assured the cooperation of this section of the jungle, but a blast like that might have been seen or sensed by others.

Immediately, I changed my feathers back to leaves, and flew into the sky. In the distance, from four different directions I could see the trees shaking, some moving aside while others advanced forward. When I focused my X-Ray and Zoom combo, I found massive plants burrowing closer from underground as well.

No time to sit around! I shook my head and flew off, cultivating Plant Affinity again to help me blend in with the forest. Between the big trees above, and the giant squid-like roots below, I had no hopes of winning an all out battle. And even less desire to try!

My body continued to fly farther and higher, because the further away I was from the ground, the better right now. I had yet to see a flying plant, and I doubted I would see one now–

RWAAAAAA!!!

Ohfuck, was that a roar? Looking in the direction it came from, thankfully behind me, I saw what looked like a massive tangle of vines flying through the sky. Its body was in the shape of a giant serpent, with two wings made of wood and leaves that spread out dozens of meters in each direction. Its teeth were like giant thorns, and it had two front claws, each made of twisted branches. I was no longer happy to have such an effective zoom feature on my eye.

But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part… was that this one had eyes. Eyes that could quite clearly see the only creature on this planet that was not in some way born of plants. Unlike all of the other plant monsters, this dragon(because there is really no better name for it, seriously) came flying straight towards me.

“Come on, come on, not going to be dragon fertilizer!” I flew as fast as I could, and when that wasn’t enough, I cast a series of runes on myself to increase my flight speed even more. Even with all of that, I was still just barely as fast as the hungry hungry plant. I could fight it. I would almost certainly lose, but I really don’t have a lot of options at this point. Wanting to probe its ability, I stored my magic staff in my inventory and instead retrieved my rifle. “Celeste, need some aiming help!”

“I’m on it!” Immediately, a red line was drawn in my vision, emitting out from the tip of my rifle. Doing a quick spin, I activated my Record function on my eye for a split second as I lined up the shot. Since this made me instinctively know everything caught in my vision, I was able to pull the trigger the instant the shot lined up. 360 no scope, bitch! I grinned to myself and resumed flying, cancelling the Record. After a moment there was a sharp roar, and I turned my head to see that the plant dragon was missing a chunk of its face. Maybe with a half dozen more shots like that, I could even bring it down!

Unfortunately, my rifle was the one weapon I hadn’t focused on charging. There was enough energy in it for two more shots at most, but after that it would be empty. And that dragon did not look like it would wait for me to charge it up. I might be able to finish it off if I empty my pistol into it, but every time I do a spin to take a shot I’d lose a bit of space between myself and the dragon. A hundred shots… I’d get eaten first.

I might be able to do an Element Burst, if I can live long enough to charge up the mana. The only question is what element? A blast of plant mana would likely heal the dragon like it had done for the slime before. The only other abundant mana types in the air were wind and light. I didn’t really trust a light blast to finish it off, and wind even less so. “Dammit, if only…”

I looked around quickly, until I saw somewhat dark clouds off to my left. I’ll lose a bit of distance, but it’s my only choice. Refreshing the speed buffs, I shot off towards the small storm clouds. I just had to be thankful that this was not a true dragon. If it was, it would probably have magic or a breath weapon to fire at me, instead of simply charging.

“Faster, Falenel, faster!” Celeste spoke up from my wrist, looking behind me with a worried expression. If she was actually able to see through her hologram, I’d just have her guide my shots without having to turn back. It was a bit of a waste of mana, but I urged wind mana to push my wings further and harder, letting me gain a bit of distance.

By the way, I should go ahead and state just how dumb I think this is, with my flying TOWARDS a storm cloud with the INTENTION to get struck by lightning multiple times. On the off chance I survive this, I then plan to FIRE said lightning at a fucking DRAGON. Taking a quick glance back, I did not like how close those teeth were getting. I almost didn’t have to use the zoom feature to see how angry it was.

Just a few more minutes till the cloud… I thought to myself as I kept flying as fast as I possibly could. “Celeste, mind if I put you away for a moment? Don’t want you to get fried if this falls through, or worse yet, if this works.”

“Uh huh, sure…” She said, nodding her head quickly. Being stuck between a dragon and a lightning storm, she didn’t seem to have too much hesitation towards hiding in my grove. If it were possible, I’d have been right there with her.

It took most of my mana to send her into the grove, but the dense plant mana was steadily increasing it back up. Not only that, but I was just now arriving at the edge of the storm cloud. With my Aura Sight, I was able to see where the densest mass of lightning mana was, and flew straight towards it. At the same time, I changed all of the leaves on my wings to match the lightning element, and did my best to control them so as to stop them from flying to the ground again. “Come on, you big ugly storm. Show me who’s boss!” I yelled at the cloud. Why not, everything else here wants a piece of me.

After a few moments, the first bolt of lightning struck. I could already feel it gathering at my wings, overloading them and running through my entire body.

Lost an argument with lightning.

-60 HP

As soon as the bolt hit, I hurriedly cast my Alchemic Heal spell in preparation for the next one. By the time I had cast the second time, a third bolt of lightning struck me, further charging my wings. By now, sparks were flying everywhere from my body, and it looked as if I was the center of the storm. However, I simply continued casting Alchemic Heal, again and again. The small bit of lightning that I allowed myself to absorb to fuel that spell was quickly replaced a hundred fold by more bolts.

Finally, I turned back to face the dragon, who was now mere seconds from eating my face(and the rest of me in the same bite, if I was lucky). Fully extending my four wings, I felt myself losing altitude with my new posture. If this works, I’d be able to recover in time to land, and if not then I just wouldn’t really need to worry about that rescue anymore.

The eighth grader inside of me couldn’t help but yell out as I released the lightning in a single massive bolt. “Lightning Burst!” I would like to point out at this point, that my 7% lightning affinity gave me next to no control over 100% pure lightning. As such, I could merely give it a direction to go, and pray to god it moved in a straight line.

For the most part, the lightning did indeed move straight. About a third of it branched off and spread in pretty much every direction. However, that also left two thirds pure lightning moving straight towards the dragon. And fun fact, lightning moves at a third of the speed of light, over one hundred million meters per second. By my estimation, the dragon was less than a thousand meters away from me, giving it… less than one percent of one percent of a second to avoid the blast.

Another fun fact, this dragon is not that fast. If it was, I’d have been dead long ago. After the blast was fired, I was left blinded for a while, correcting my wings and returning them to normal as I used the wind currents to right myself. Note to self, next time you fire a mega blast of lightning, DON’T LOOK AT IT! It took several long minutes before my eyes were able to make out anything. The mere fact that I survived that long would seem to indicate that the dragon had been defeated.

When I was finally able to see, I found that I was only a few dozen meters from the tops of the nearby trees, and quickly changed as much of my aura as I could to plant mana, by cultivating Plant Affinity and making the leaf wings. Ahead of me, I saw a large path of collapsed trees, and smoke rising from the front of the path. I had barely a sliver of health remaining after the repeated lightning strikes, but it was worth it since I killed the dragon!

…

Wait, why didn’t I level up? I did kill the dragon, right? Oh god, I really hope I didn’t just make it mad. Flying over, I saw the massive body of the flying plant serpent being wrapped up by vines, and with my Aura Sight I saw plant mana being injected into it. Oh, you have to be kidding me… they’re healing it?! I looked back to the shrinking storm cloud, wondering if I would be able to get one last blast in. I quickly decided that I probably couldn’t, and that I should instead use this time to make like a tree and leaf.

Almost defeated a Nature Wyrm. Almost, but have a reward anyways.

You have leveled up(x5)

Inventory space increased to 5×5

Luck increased by 5

Wild Luck has increased to Basic

Wow, five levels at once, from only a partial defeat…. and does this god have a fetish for the number five? I turned around and flew away as fast as I could, not wanting to be anywhere nearby when that ‘nature wyrm’ woke up. At the same time, I took a chance to look at my status and spend my points, because I may be needing them soon.

Name

Falenel Hulett

Race

Half-Elf(Woodland)

Titles

Vengeful Heart

Fame

0

Level 20

35%

Class

Druid

Sub-Class

Wild Shaper

Deity

Malthan

Health

150/150

Health Regen

0.25

Mana

770/770

Mana Regen

1.02

Strength

12

Wisdom

80

Agility

20

Intelligence

77

Dexterity

20

Charisma

10

Vitality

15

Luck

20

Points Remaining

0

Earth 10%

Fire 8%

Wind 8%

Water 8%

Lightning 8%

Light 8%

Dark 10%

Plant 11%

Void 5%

Luck 2%

Skills

Mana Manipulation – Novice Level 4: 3%

Nature Magic – Basic Level 4: 20%

Wind Magic – Beginner Level 6: 41.5%

Archery – Beginner Level 3: 12.9%

Dagger Mastery – Beginner Level 3: 14.1%

Wild Luck – Basic Level 1: 0%

Sketching – Basic Level 6: 50%

Herbology – Beginner Level 9: 2%

Gathering – Beginner Level 6: 6%

Alchemy – Basic Level 1: 0%

Mana Signatures – Basic Level 9: 11%

Cooking – Basic Level 3: 52%

Flight – Beginner Level 6: 12.3%

Aura Sight – Basic Level 6: 0%

Technomancy – Basic Level 5: 19%

Programming – Intermediate Level 3: 10%

Runic Language – Intermediate Level 1: 0%

Enchanting – Beginner Level 7: 8%

Engineering – Basic Level 1: 18%

Maintenance – Basic Level 3: 2%

Dodge – Beginner Level 1: 19%

Swordsmanship – Beginner Level 2: 13%

Marksmanship – Beginner Level 7: 0%

Energy Weapons – Beginner Level 2: 42%

Chapter 43: The Beginning

After my brave and heroic fight with the evil nature wyrm… okay, so I was running like a scared puppy the entire time and only managed to knock it out with a cheap shot that nearly fried my entire body, but still. After my BRAVE and HEROIC fight, I decided not to stick around and wait for the cheers of the audience, and left fashionably early. Once again, I made sure that I was disguising myself with as much plant mana as druid-ly possible to avoid the detection of the trees or other monsters.

Every now and then, I would hear a roar from the distance that reminded me that I had made a very angry enemy on this planet, and would likely be spending the rest of the time here running away from it. On the bright side, forcing myself to absorb so much lightning at once kicked my affinity up by an extra percentage, bringing it to 8%! But… I’m not going to be throwing myself into lightning storms just to raise my affinity like that.

After flying until the sun finally decided to set, I found a nearby tree to land on(one I made sure wouldn’t eat me if my mana control slipped). Before doing anything else, I decided that I would first fully charge my rifle. Given that the fight might have ended far sooner if I could have just shot it to death, I no longer put off charging my only long range weapon. Though, the charging process took ages, even with my increased mana regeneration.

Three hours later, and all my weapons were charged. Looking down to my wrist, I figured now would be a safe time to call Celeste back, and thus the metal bracelet appeared in my wrist again. Almost instantly, the holographic woman appeared above the device. “Is it over? Are you okay?” She quickly noticed that we were still in the forest. “Did you manage to escape? You didn’t kill it, did you?”

“Yes, yes, sort of, I wish…” I took my time, laughing as I answered her questions in order. “Unfortunately, a condensed lightning bolt in its face was not enough to kill it. I took off while the trees were healing it. Willing to bet that it’s not very happy with me right now.” As if on cue, there was a loud roar in the distance, but I guessed that it was moving away from me since it sounded a bit farther away than the last one.

Celeste shuddered slightly at the roar, but then let out a relieved sigh. Afterwards, she quickly looked up to me. “You gained a power boost, didn’t you? Your mana feels stronger than before.”

I nodded my head a bit. “Five levels, most I’ve ever gotten at once. If I had to guess, that should have been at least a level fifty monster, which would explain why a giant lightning bolt to the face didn’t kill it.”

Celeste nodded slightly, still looking slightly worried. “But, it’s safe now, right?”

I smiled to her. “Should be. But when we get out of this, I am going to pass out for a week, I swear.”

She giggled a bit at that. “Fine, fine, but not until you show me your world!”

“Deal. Now, let’s see about doing some maintenance on these weapons.” I pulled my three weapons out of my inventory, setting them on my lap. “It would be good if I could fix them up a bit and increase their performance. As I just learned, I am not at the level yet where I can just rely purely on my magic.” As I spoke, I began to work my Technomancy, searching out any flaws I could find in the hardware.

“Yeah… Okay, I’ll help however I can!” The holographic woman called out encouragingly, and we searched through the aura of the first weapon, the beam saber. Now that I understood what the principles behind the weapon were, it was much easier to look for the faults. Before, it was just a matter of finding which parts were unusable, now I could find which parts were not working as well as they could.

For instance, the magnetic field generator looked like it was only operating at around half of its best, which made the blade take more energy to maintain the same shape. It also gave it the possibility of failing if energy ran low, and having the plasma explode outwards, which might kill me as well as the enemy. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any spare parts to fix it with, so I was at a bit of a loss. If something were cracked, I could weld it together to fix it. But this was corroded, likely by the same malfunction that had originally damaged the energy core.

If I was able to use metal mana, I could probably fix this… will add it to my to-do list. I sighed, shaking my head slightly. After that, I went through the code of the device, having Celeste help me as I confirmed that none of it was corrupted. I figured that the code of the weapons would be fine, because they still worked without catastrophic failures, but always better to check first.

With that done, I moved on to the pistol, and actually found a crack in the casing of the energy core. Although it didn’t cause a constant leak, it likely caused a bit of energy to be wasted after every shot. Using my Technomancy, I caused the gun to fall to pieces, with each piece hovering in the air in front of me. Then, I used a high intensity flame from my fingers to seal the crack. After letting it cool off, I then had the pieces reassemble themselves into a gun. I was tempted to fire it to check how much the difference was, but there was the chance that would attract more monsters.

Finally, I went on to the rifle. Is there a rule saying that bigger weapons have to get beaten up the most? There were five different cracks I had to seal up in the rifle, including the magnetic accelerator, and the energy core chamber. Aside from that, I noticed that the magnetic accelerator had a damaged connection that I would need to fix later, making it unable to propel the blasts as fast as it should. Maybe if this thing had been working properly, I would have been able to knock down that dragon in three shots. I sighed, shaking my head. After fixing the cracks, I began an age old process of removing rust… with citrus fruits. Retrieving three enrichment fruits from my grove, I used my Plant Manipulation to remove their juice, and sprinkle it over the metal. After letting it set for a bit, I turned my hand into a roughly furred bear paw and brushed at the metal. While not an entirely effective solution, it did help a little bit.

Repeating this process with all of the weapons took more time than I care to explain, but after I was done the sun had began to rise. The rust was not entirely removed from any of the weapons, but I was starting to run out of enrichment fruits, and did not trust any of the vegetation here to be safe to eat. More likely, I’d try to pick a fruit, and the tree would eat me instead.

I decided that the best use of my time at this point would be to continue cultivating. I had five affinities all stuck at 8%, and wanted all of them to be at 10% before I started training the new elements I wanted. And so far, the new elements I was wanting were plasma, magnetism, and metal. I’m sure if I gave it long enough, I’d find more elements that I really wanted to add to the list.

I could most certainly advance my individual elements more quickly if I just focused on one or two at a time, but I wasn’t really in a rush at this point. Having raised my level to twenty, I was now more worried that my skills wouldn’t match up to my level. I didn’t really know what the standard was for power, but I figured that by level twenty I should probably have at least one combat oriented skill at novice rank. While technically, I could use my knowledge of runes to create spells of that level, I’m a druid not a mage. I want to do druid things!

With that in mind, I spent the next several hours practicing my cultivation, not raising a single percent in any of my elements even though I felt myself drawing closer. After a few hours, I felt a new energy around me, something I had never felt before. Looking at my inventory, I found the signal beacon and took it out. It seemed to be radiating this energy while vibrating. “Looks like it’s time to go.”

“Finally!” Celeste spoke up from my wrist. “We’ve been waiting ages.”

I smiled down to her, nodding my head slightly as the energy continued to surround me. After a few moments, it began condensing into a visible shroud of light, and the nearby plants apparently took notice of the new mana. Before the light completely blocked out my view, I saw branches and vines surging towards me. Thankfully, this seemed to be a summoning spell, and the plants didn’t have time to skewer me.

A moment after I was completely shrouded in light, the light just as quickly vanished. I now found myself sitting inside a large domed building, atop a giant runic circle surrounded by several dozen people. Some of them were nothing but corpses, with either slash wounds or missing limbs, while others like myself were fully intact. Most people had some form of injury, though.

Standing around the circle were several people in mage robes. Each one was holding a large gem similar to my staff’s mana gem(though likely containing far more mana). A few had passed out, and were being carried off by nearby personnel, while others simply walked off to find somewhere to sit. Finally, there were people dressed in official uniforms, mostly elves, that walked up to the group of rescued people. “I’d like to have your attention, everyone. We understand what has happened to the various ships you were all riding on, and we apologize. We had no way of knowing that the Klax would decide to take up such hostile actions.”

There were various murmurs from the summoned crowd, as only a few agreed with the representative. Obviously, nobody would be happy if they were suddenly attacked, and this guy got saddled with the PR. Now that we were here safely, though, I decided to dismiss my plant-like angel wings. Almost instantly, I felt the result of going two days without proper food. Although the mana had been enough to sustain me, it had not filled my stomach.

“Now, I would appreciate it if you would all take a moment to speak with the officers here to go over things. While we are aware of the general situation, any details you can provide would help.” As he said that, he waved towards a line of men in similar uniforms, who stepped forward in unison. Shrugging, I moved up to my feet, one hand on my stomach which was demanding food. “Now, I’m sure all of you are worried, but we will be reimbursing you the cost of your trips so that you may get food and rest until you are ready to move on.”

Incoming call from Dravin

Dad? Why’s he messaging me? I shrugged my shoulders and answered the call, speaking as quietly as possible. “Yes? What’s up, pops?”

“You online right now?” His voice sounded a bit worried, catching me by surprise.

“Yeah, why?”

“You should log off and check the news as soon as you can.” Again, I was surprised by his statement. Part of me considered just logging out right now, but falling over asleep in this situation would not be the best thing in the world.

“Will do so soon, thanks.” Since he told me this much, it was probably not something he could easily explain to me, so there wasn’t much point in asking.

I quickly made my way over to one of the officers, who nodded and led me out of the room, and into an adjoining room with a single table and two chairs. From there, he asked me various questions, such as who I was and which ship I was on, followed by what happened to the ship. I was in a hurry to get out of here so that I could A) get myself a bite to eat, and B) find out what’s wrong on the outside.

Of course, I had a fairly good idea what was going on once I left, because the officer said something that made me freeze in my tracks. “Take care of yourself, and happy new year.” Once he said that, I immediately remembered what day it was, the day that the Seeds would be released to the world.

Suddenly, my stomach seemed like a secondary matter as I found a bench to plant myself on before moving Celeste to my grove and logging out. I nearly threw the lid of my Seed off as I got up, heading to my computer while bringing the AI bracelet back. Just as I was sitting down, a blue window flashed into existence in front of me, with none of the slowness it had previously shown in the real world.

Mana integration is now at 100%, welcome to the Genesis of a new world.

Over the following days and weeks, monsters will begin spawning randomly. It is suggested that people take measures to prevent monsters from spawning within their homes or places of business. We at Manifest Industries apologize if this is an inconvenience.

A quick search showed me that this message has already appeared for everyone in the world, whether they have logged into the game or not. Looks like it’s really started now…