World Seed: Game Start (18 page)

Nonetheless,
it was enough to startle the officer, who was now looking at me with
a slack-jawed expression. “I-I see.. So it’s true, then.
You’re the only tester living in our jurisdiction, so we
weren’t sure whether to believe it or not. And to be quite
frank, if you hadn’t shown that… that, just now, I doubt
I would have believed myself.”

Judging
by the movements of his shoulders, he seemed to be reaching for
something off screen. “Unfortunately, there is nothing we can
do about this. We received a fax about an hour ago saying that all
Manifest sites and employees have vanished from the face of the
world. All of their locations are now abandoned lots that show no
evidence of having been used in the last year. This seems to have
happened overnight. Had it not been for me seeing you grow wings, I’d
say it was impossible. Their site remains active, and continues to
accept pre-orders for the next line of Seeds. However, we have no
idea where they intend to ship from.”

I
was a bit confused why he was telling all of this to me, but I
figured it must be some kind of consolation speech about how they’re
trying their best to make me human again. “Officer, all things
considered, I think I got off lucky. I’d bet at least a quarter
of the testers chose races that were not humanoid. All I got is a
makeover and magic.”

He
paused at that, not seeming to know how to respond, before nodding
his head slightly. “Understood. Is there anything else you
think we should know pertaining to this event?”

I
thought about that for a few moments, but could only come to one
conclusion. “This is only the beginning. Thanks to my class, I
am able to sense things, primarily mana. There is mana in the air
here, though it is not as thick as it is in the game. If the Seeds
are truly making this world more like the game, then I’d expect
the mana to be of the same quality.”

He
raised an eyebrow again, but didn’t say anything for a while.
“I see… While officially I am required to ask you to
refrain from playing NeoLife if at all possible, in light of this I
think it would be best if you continue, at least until we know more.
If what you say is true, then we have no idea what will happen. Best
case scenario, nothing, everything stays as it is now. Worst case, I
think, monsters roaming the streets. Not players turned into aliens,
but real monsters.”

I
was a bit shocked by that. It seemed as though Officer Faraday had
played a few games as well to think of that. “Well, was
planning on it anyways. Even if shit hits the fans, still gotta pay
the bills.” I shrugged, and thanked him for the advice before
dismissing the call. I still had a steak to eat, though slightly
burnt now.

After
eating the steak, and connecting back to the game, a thought occurred
to me. Nature Magic’s Alchemic Heal is based on the interaction
of plants. But those plants don’t exist in the real world, so
how did that spell work on the outside?

Chapter 16: Into
the Mouth of Madness

Once
I was back in the game, I called my parents. I’m not a typical
whiner, but when you find out you’re no longer human, that’s
something you tell the folks, right?

“
What’s
up, dear?” I heard my mom’s voice a bit more clearly over
the link this time.

“
Well…
I’m not really sure how to explain this… But…
have you heard what’s been going on in the real world?”

“
What
do you mean?” My dad was the one that spoke up this time,
obviously confused. Guessing they’ve spent all their time in
here, and haven’t bothered to go to the net community to hear
the news.

“
Extra
long story incredibly short… the game turned me into a
half-elf.”

“…
Yes,
we’ve been over this, we know what race you chose.” He
still sounded a bit confused, and was clearly a bit dense if he
didn’t get what I meant, or maybe I just wasn’t clear
enough.

“
No,
I mean out there. In the real world, I’m still a half-elf.
Still a druid, still able to grow wings out of my back and use all of
my magic… Apparently everyone that has a Seed is being turned
into their game character. Even got a call from the police to make
sure I was okay.”

This
time it was my mom’s turn to chime in. “The police, dear?
Why would they bother calling you?”

“
Apparently
Manifest Industries has gone off the radar, and they are getting
reports of every tester changing. Since I was the only one in
Oakland, they gave me a call.”

I
could hear the concern in my mom’s voice as she logged out, but
since she was just going to the net community, the call didn’t
drop. Fun fact, when someone in the net community is on a call with a
game that has time dilation, the home of that person adjusts to match
the game. “Oh, dear, it’s true.”

“
What,
really?” My dad was obviously surprised by this. “How is
that even possible? I mean, it’s just a game, right?”

“
Not
anymore, it looks like.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m
just hoping it ends with players getting changed and people getting
magic. I mean, if it’s just that then we should be able to make
all the amazing things they have here in the game. But if monsters
start showing up, too…”

There
was a slight gasp, I’m not sure from who, but it was my mom
that spoke up next. “What are you going to do, then?”

“
Hope
for the best, plan for the worst. Until I know that monsters aren’t
going to start appearing in my home, I’m going to train here
and get stronger. Besides, it might be cool to be able to use magic
in the real world, you know? Should have seen the look on the
officer’s face when I suddenly grew wings.”
Unfortunately, thinking about that reminded me what Jarl had said the
next step in training for Xeno-Shifter would be… and since I
thought about it, Yin and Yang perked up and looked at me
expectantly.

I
could hear a chuckle coming from my dad. “Well, we’ll let
you get to that, then. There might be other testers that haven’t
logged out and learned about these changes, so we’ll go spread
the word and see if we can’t get their attention.”

Part
of me was concerned about this. Essentially, they were going to play
a massive scale whisper game. You know, where you can whisper to
someone that you like apples, and they pass it along in a circle, but
by the time it gets back to you it turns into something obscene. And
that’s when you start with something as mundane as ‘I
like apples’.

Anyways,
back to the game. I had a few hours left until it was time to sleep,
so I devoted them to increasing my Wind Affinity. Maybe after I had
the basic seven affinities all at 5% I would go with the next step
for Nature Magic. At least then I’d be able to save my chastity
against these damned birds.

By
the time I had gotten to sleep, my Wind Affinity had only increased
to 4%, though I felt like it was on the verge of a breakthrough. When
I woke up, I immediately resumed training, deciding to prolong
breakfast until I had gained the ability to manipulate wind. Speaking
of which, I had never tried to test out my Earth Manipulation either.
I’d have to at least get familiar with both of them before I
was able to use them to hunt.

About
two hours after I had woken up, I was finally greeted with the
message I had been waiting for.

Okay..
now for a bit of practice. There was something I had wanted to try
now that I had the ability to more freely manipulate wind. Even
though it was still only a half-star rank, that should be more
because of a limit to the power I can exert.

Sending
out a bit of mana, I attuned it to the wind like I normally would for
Wind Magic or cultivating Wind Affinity. This time, I was able to
pull in much more air with far less mana than when I only had the
former skill. I was also able to control it at a greater distance,
which is what I needed most. In a way, it felt in part as if my mind
had merged with the wind, letting my control it as I would any other
muscle, though with more difficulty.

Having
confirmed this, I pulled out my bow and quiver from my inventory, and
aimed at a distant tree. Using my Wind Manipulation, I set up a thin
gust going from my arrow to the tree, and fired. Like I had expected,
the arrow perfectly flew along the corridor of wind, piercing into
the tree. It even seemed to gain speed after being fired.

I
waited for a system message saying I had learned something new from
that, but I received nothing of the kind. I was a bit surprised to
find that such an act only took a total of 20 mana to achieve, which
was about 5 per second. But, this was only really useful for hitting
a stationary target, so I kept practicing.

My
next ‘wind corridor’ only lasted about 75% of the
distance between me and the tree, but still seemed to be good enough
to work with. I was a few inches off in my accuracy, but still would
be considered a good shot, and it was better for sniping since the
target wouldn’t feel the wind on them. Next was something I was
a bit curious about after my first two attempts. This time, I set up
a winding tunnel of wind, with the goal being the side of the tree I
had just targeted.

When
I fired the arrow, I watched it moving through the path I had set up,
gaining a bit more speed at every curve. Unfortunately, about three
turns before the target, it had picked up enough speed to shoot out
of the tunnel of wind without following the rest of the way, making
it miss its target.

Even
though this failed, it was still quite good. It went through several
turns before ending up shot out of the tunnel, which meant that I
would still be able to use it. Sadly, by now my mana was being
drained a fair bit by creating and shaping the paths of wind, so I’d
need to recover… after one last test. And this one was going
to be a doozy.

After
I collected the arrows that I previously fired, I went back to my
firing position, and nocked another arrow. Like before, I created a
wind tunnel roughly 75% of the distance to the tree. But this time, I
also tapped into my Wind Magic, and cast Lesser Spiral Arrow. Waiting
until I could feel the spiralling winds moving around the arrow, I
then fired it into the corridor. There was a slight tearing sound as
the two magics interacted, but the arrow nonetheless flew through the
corridor at a blinding speed.

For
a little while, it looked like I had managed to overcome the accuracy
issue behind this spell, at least until it exited the corridor I had
established. At that point, it immediately went off course, and
crashed into the side of the tree. And then kept going… having
left a small hole where it impacted. It seemed that the increased
acceleration from the wind corridor combined with the penetrating
power of the Lesser Spiral Arrow gave it a rather terrifying
destructive ability. If it could be properly aimed, it would be
devastating…

Unfortunately,
aside from extending the corridor all the way, I had no method to
further increase the accuracy of the arrow. And when I went to try to
retrieve it, I found the arrow I used had been shattered on impact
with a stone roughly fifty meters away. This made me even more
reluctant to use that tactic, though it did give me the idea to make
arrows with Plant Affinity if I managed to get that to 5%. Then I
could simply load the arrows with poison and launch them.

This
idea had me wanting to practice Plant Affinity right away, but first
I needed something to eat. Today would be my first time hunting
wolves, and the only reason I wasn’t going for rabbits was
because I would have to pass by the wolves’ territory anyways
to get back to them. “Celeste, which was is town?”

I
had long since forgotten which direction town was in, and could only
rely on my companion AI to guide me. And, as requested, she appeared
as a hologram above my wrist. Though, this time she seemed slightly
older than her previous appearances, and a bit more developed. She
was standing in a safari costume hunched over a holographic map.
“Hmm, let’s see… that way!” She pointed with
a wide grin, and a glowing arrow appeared above her.

Well..
that’s useful. I noted how her ‘Skill Software’
didn’t have levels or experience, just the tier. But this also
meant that, given enough time and practice, Celeste would be able to
develop utility skills of her own.