World Seed: Game Start (30 page)

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.