World Seed: Game Start (21 page)

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.

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.