World Seed: Game Start (14 page)

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.

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.

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.

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.”