World Seed: Game Start (40 page)

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.