World Seed

by Justin Miller

  Closing my eyes, I focused on trying out this new aspect. Going through my body, I carefully applied the new aura pattern to my own bone structure, and suddenly felt a bit heavier. Thankfully it was a smooth transition, and I didn’t receive mind numbing pain from my bones deciding to splinter off and shatter my skin or anything… Which totally could have happened! When I didn’t receive a new spell notification, I looked through and found that this was listed under the Aspect of the Armored Beast.

  With this, I now had both external and internal armor. If I could find something with particularly strong muscles, I could essentially craft the ultimate combat body. Skin as strong as steel, bones as hard as diamonds. As an experiment, I turned my hand into a wolf paw, and found that the claws looked identical to the diamond ones that the dead wolf had. “Well, this is useful.”

  Celeste giggled happily. “Thanks. And sorry, but there’s not anything with super powerful muscles here. From what I’ve learned, monsters like that only appear in high level areas. However, there are some other creatures here that I think would be good for you to study and train with.”

  That got my attention, and I slowly turned towards her. “Speak.”

  “Hmmm, oh, just a lesser wyvern race. They keep to the mountains in the south, and are too high level for you to fight right now, but they would make a good addition to your dragon collection. There are also the rock beast golems in the east, with bodies of living stone, and the scythe mantis in the forests ahead, which have natural blade weapons. Pretty much every creature that evolves from this planet has rocks, diamonds, or ores as part of their body. The diamondback wolves are simply the most common this close to the city.”

  I felt a grin forming on my face as she listed the different types of creatures on this planet. Many of the features she mentioned were almost perfect for me. Especially if I found a way to manufacture them, such as grafting the scythe mantis blade onto a plant aura. But that involved merging auras from plants and beasts, and I wasn’t too confident in my ability to do so. That did not mean I wouldn’t try!

  “Alright, then! Let’s keep going till we get Yang to evolve.” I stuffed the four bodies of the wolves into my inventory before getting up, hearing another giggle from behind me.

  “And then head back to town to get her clothes.” Okay, I’ll admit, I tripped and faceplanted the ground when I heard Celeste say that. Why would I expect her to evolve with a full set of clothes? When has the game ever been so kind?

  Chapter 12: Late Information, and All of My Nope

  With the skeleton of the diamondback wolf added to my collection, we went off to find more monsters to use for training. Unless there was an emergency, I wanted to let my ‘team’ take care of things themselves. That way they could get the greatest amount of experience and level up more quickly. Meanwhile, I was thinking over the things that would happen once Yang evolved. “You said that she’ll get an advanced class soon after evolving, but those aren’t really that easy to get unless there are some specially made for evolved creatures.”

  Celeste nodded her head. “I looked into it a bit, and there are a few. For instance, out of curiosity I looked into the class your mom got, Shadow Stalker I believe? That is a rogue advanced class with a focus on shadow-based magic. It’s a common class for Shades to receive, as they will almost always get something linked with shadows and darkness. For Yang, it should be an advanced class with a focus on Nature Magic. The thing is, nearly every main class has an advanced class like that.”

  When I glanced over to her curiously, having to look over one of the birds as I did so, she continued. “If she goes down a crafting route, she could become a Natural Craftsman. They specialize in creating powerful objects from natural resources like plants and bones. Like how you wanted to make a plant with the scythe of a mantis. Mix a Natural Craftsman with enchanting skills, and it can create weapons as powerful as most tech.

  “However, if she went for a fighter, she could end up as a Wild Paragon. They imbue their bodies with aspects of different plants or animals to make themselves stronger. Your current ‘battle form’ would be a good example, but you are a druid instead. If she chose to be a mage, her advanced class would likely be ‘Mage Alchemist’. Not a very common one, but they focus on Nature Magic and Alchemy to perfect their skills. They’re the types that will figure out how to make a potion that lets you breathe fire or fly. Like I said before, it’ll all depend on what path she picks when she trains.”

  I gave another nod, looking ahead at where we were going. Off in the distance there seemed to be another forest, which seemed to be our current destination. “What are we looking for over there? The scythe mantis?”

  “Right. Also planned for you to look for a few herbs that will let you make stronger products. You’ll need to have a few prepared to sell when we go back to town, because you’ll have to buy a new companion bracelet for Yang.”

  I blinked, glancing over to her at that. “Oh? I thought they were free for the first one?”

  Celeste smirked a bit. “For you, yes. However, Yang will be your evolved companion. With that in mind, they’ll consider it as a second bracelet for you. It’d also be best if you got the upgrades for the two bracelets so that I can connect to them remotely. That way, she won’t have to train a new AI, can benefit from what I’m learning, and I’ll have a second set of eyes to watch things.”

  I shook my head, and couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh. “How much will it cost?”

  “In the local market…. about one gold and twenty silver.” I felt my eyebrow twitching slightly as she said the sum. “Don’t worry, the stuff that you can make combining the plants here with what you already have will be able to cover it after about.. five batches I think?”

  “But… I don’t have any vials to put them in.”

  “I know, I already considered that. That’s why you should practice making alchemy pills! Since their production method is a bit difficult, and their effects last longer, alchemy pills are valued at a higher price than potions.”

  I could understand that, so I nodded my head slightly. “Do regular pills not have the same effects?”

  Celeste shook her head as she spoke, and I could tell that she researched quite a bit in case I asked these questions. Or maybe she was just curious too. “Medical pills and alchemy pills are two different things. Medical pills that doctors make are generally more specialized, but have a stronger effect over time. For instance, a doctor might make a pill to cure a certain disease, and it would be more powerful than if an alchemist were to simply make a pill designed to cure diseases in general. For this reason, doctors also rarely use magic when making their medicines, because some species will react to certain types of magic differently.”

  “So… alchemists are the jack-of-all-trades, while doctors specialize.” I thought about it a bit. “Different species will probably react to medicines differently, so a doctor would need to take that into account, too… I’m glad I didn’t decide to go with that path.” I shook my head, dismissing the idea. Although a doctor would likely make a lot more money than an alchemist, it also takes far more studying.

  “Right, so once we get to the forest, keep a look out for the mantis.” She sent me an image of the scythe mantis, a two meter tall, three meter long green insect that in most ways looked like a typical praying mantis, aside from the fact that their front arms were replaced by long scythes. “In the meantime, I’ll watch for the herbs you need. After Yang evolves, you can send them all back to the grove so that you can practice making pills.”

  We were about a hundred meters from the forest, and I could see that there were a few diamondback wolves blocking the way. “Don’t think we’ll be able to wait for Yang to evolve against the mantises.” Hearing that, Celeste grumbled under her breath.

  “But.. the plan…”

  I chuckled slightly, smiling towards her. “It’s alright, we can still use most of the plan. But really, did you think we’d make it all the way without fin
ding another group to fight?”

  “Well… I hoped… It would have made things so much easier.” The AI was sulking besides me as she realized that her plan wasn’t going to work out.

  “Fine, fine. I can take care of these by myself.” I couldn’t help but laugh, and pulled out my rifle from my grove. It was even able to put a wound on a giant dragon-like creature in the plant world, so there was no doubt that it would be able to take out a few wolves.

  Hearing my decision, Celeste perked up beside me, nodding her head quickly. “Okay! Let’s go with that.”

  Now, in most games, there would be an ‘aggro radius’. That means that an enemy wouldn’t notice you until you approached it. However, still a hundred meters away, and the wolves already turned towards me. Having a giant slime rolling along beside me probably didn’t help, but they noticed me pretty quick. “Six wolves, let’s aim for six shots.” I raised the rifle, and Celeste provided the laser sight. Since it was only visible to me, it was natural that the wolf wouldn’t see as it centered on its head.

  With a quick pull of the trigger, the first wolf was killed, and the other five all jumped into action. With their speed, they would be on me in under ten seconds. Two more quick shots, each one aimed at a head, but one of the wolves jumped to the side as the plasma shot out of my rifle to avoid it. “That is totally not fair.” I grumbled as I sent the rifle back to my grove, pulled out my beam saber and pistol, and ran forward. Yin and Yang flew up off my shoulders to watch, since I instructed them not to join this fight.

  “You know, they can still rip you to shreds if you fight them head on.” Celeste advised as I approached the wolves, and I quickly activated the Aspect of the Armored Beast to give me the scale armor skin. “A bit better, but not really going to help against their claws.” She sighed helplessly, but soon vanished to let me focus on the fight. There were still four wolves left, and this time I was fighting solo. Though, this time I was also essentially fully outfitted with good gear, so I didn’t worry too much.

  Celeste, you take the left arm. I thought to the AI as I swung my sword at the first wolf, who dodged to the side. I was in no way proficient fighting with two weapons at once, but I hoped that with Celeste controlling my left arm with the gun, that would be taken care of. Soon, my arm was lifting up and shot the wolf I had just targeted before it had the chance to recover from its dodge. Although it wasn’t a fatal blow, the wolf had been hit near its back legs, so its fighting power would drop significantly.

  At the same time, the last three wolves arrived as well, and I decided to start using magic to help as well with the fighting. I’m a druid, after all, I should be doing druid things! Out of the surrounding elements, earth would be less useful thanks to their skeletons, while fire would be the best choice. As such, I used my magic to grant myself a flaming breath weapon, hoping that I wouldn’t be burning my mouth by doing this. It would be ridiculous for the lesser orthrus to burn itself every time it used its fire breath.

  As the wolves began surrounding me, I turned to the nearest one and spat out a ball of fire, thankful that the flame formed outside of my mouth rather than inside of it. Without waiting to see if it dodged or took the hit, I spun to the next target and jumped forward, borrowing the momentum of my spin to do a twisting slash with my beam saber. The plasma blade cut right through the wolf’s head, but at the same time I failed to regain my balance and ended up sliding along the ground while Celeste fired off another shot at the first injured wolf, this time killing it.

  Two down, two to go. I looked at the last two wolves, and it turned out that the one I tried to spit at had dodged, while the one that had originally been behind me was lunging. Celeste took a quick shot at its exposed stomach, and I slashed with my saber, and then there was only one left. It felt really strange for one of my arms to be moving on its own like it was, and I was going to try not to make a habit of this, but I had to admit that it was useful.

  As the final wolf charged, I braced myself to slash at it again with my saber. However, just as it jumped for me, there were two quick blasts fired from the pistol, and my killing blow was stolen from me by… myself. Is it possible to kill steal against yourself? I don’t know, but I feel like I just did!

  “Oh come on, it’s not that bad.” Celeste spoke up next to me suddenly, and I felt myself regaining control of my arm. “If I hadn’t fired, there was a decent chance of it closing in and attacking. With its claws, it probably could have torn through your armored skin.”

  “Yeah, yeah… still though…” I regretted not being able to deal the finishing blow myself, kind of? I mean, I did deal it, but it wasn’t me… Ahh! This is just confusing. I walked over and studied the aura of the last slain wolf, as it was the most intact corpse. Casting my Mana Sense through it, I committed the aura to memory while Yo went around feeding on the rest of the bodies. As I had originally thought, there weren’t very many differences between these wolves and basic ones, aside from the composition of their bones.

  Still, another form added to my ‘database’ was always a good thing, so I learned it anyways before letting Yo take this one as well, and added the skeletons to my inventory again. At this rate, I’d need to put them in my grove eventually to save space before we returned to town. But that wasn’t such a bad idea in itself, it would just create a lot of clutter in the grove and somewhat limit the amount of space I had available to plant herbs.

  With this taken care of, I got back to walking towards the forest, with Yin and Yang once again taking their places on my shoulders. When I began wondering again which was which, Celeste provided me with some assistance by putting their names above their heads. Finally, I shall know which bird is which! Though this is somewhat pointless since Yang will be evolving shortly.

  The forest was a vast expanse of densely packed trees, the covering of which caused the entire area within to look dark as night. “Celeste… what is this forest called?”

  “Hmm..?” She spoke up, somewhat guiltily. “Uhm… the Dark Wood? Don’t worry, there’s no curse, local boss monster, or anything like that. It’s just that the trees grew dense and large enough to block out most of the light. I’d suggest going forward with night vision and Aura Sight active.”

  I shook my head and continued on in, activating my Aura Sight and changing the vision mode on my Cybernetic eye to see in the dark. “Alright, how deep are the mantises, do you know?”

  “Answer unclear, try again later.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at that, and we walked into the depths of the forest. “Are there any other monsters in this area that I should be worried about?”

  “Hmm? Well, it’s mostly just big insects. Uhm… er…” Celeste’s voice suddenly got a lot more nervous. “Wait, you have a fear of spiders? Why haven’t you thought of that before now?”

  “Who likes to think about things they’re scared of?” I grumbled under my breath, no longer feeling so enthusiastic about this venture. “Please tell me the spiders are only in the deepest region of this forest, and don’t openly attack people?”

  “Uh… no… they actually prefer the edges of the forest, because more animals can be caught going in and out. And they like meat… People sized meat. And there’s a web above you.”

  I immediately turned my vision up, and indeed there was a massive web spanning several trees above me, but thankfully no creepy crawly menaces inside of it. “Fuck this forest, fuck this forest, fuck this forest. Can I just burn the whole thing down!?”

  “Well… you could, but it wouldn’t help. Remember, almost every animal here has in some way absorbed stone into their body. For these spiders… their exoskeleton is made of stone, so they don’t burn or fear fire.”

  “Spiders that don’t fear fire, I’m going to have nightmares for years. And from the size of that web, giant fucking spiders that don’t fear fire. Please tell me that they have a glaring weakness I can take advantage of?”

  At this point, Celeste spoke up rather happily. “Ah, ye
s! They are extremely weak to bludgeoning attacks, and earth manipulation should be able to crush them since their skin is made of stone. Since they aren’t magical creatures, they should not have a resistance to the control.”

  That part made me calm down slightly, though I still clutched the plasma pistol and beam saber for dear life. “Oh, good. Giant spiders that I can kill with a thought. Now it’s only mildly terrifying.”

  “There’s one right in front of you.” Suddenly, there were several shapes highlighted on a large tree in front of me, which I had initially taken to be patterns on the wood, but now could clearly see were legs wrapped around this tree with a diameter of at least three meters.

  “Fuck this, fuck this, fuck this!” I sent a wave of mana, likely far more than needed, and used my Earth Manipulation. I could clearly sense the massive frame of the ‘creature’(if I pretend it’s not you-know-what, maybe it’ll help!) on the other side of the tree, at least five meters long. Using my magic, I caused its rocky exterior to crush it like the awe inspiring power of a giant’s boot. Unfortunately, when I spread out that wave of mana, it spread past that first tree, and I found out why there were no spiders in the trees.