World Seed: Game Start (26 page)

“
That
is not to say that we are weak. A well trained druid can make the
world itself fight against the enemy. Who can withstand the air being
ripped from their lungs, or the water in their blood boiling? Druids
are a highly respected class among many cultures, because it is
through our efforts that uninhabited worlds will support life.”

Sharon
looked up at him, and nodded her head again, still unwilling to
speak. Seeing that, Jarl began talking again, this time to both of
us. “Now, I’m going to teach you how to transfer a plant
into your grove. This time, we’ll use just a single blade of
grass to start with.” Saying so, he extended his hand
downwards, and three blades of grass flew up from the ground to land
on it. Each of these blades of grass had their roots in tact, and he
stretched his hand out towards us. “Take one each. Remember,
when moving a plant to your grove, you must either take all of it,
right down to the roots, or plant its seed. Doing the latter will
naturally make it take longer to grow, but if you use Nature Magic or
are able to manipulate plants, then you can accelerate the growth
speed.”

Sharon
and I each took a single blade of grass from him, and held it in our
hands. “Okay, now the next step is a bit tricky, and I highly
suggest you practice a lot on plants before you try it with an
animal, because failure could very well kill them.” Sharon
froze up at his words, before hastily nodding her head. Obviously,
given her nature, she wouldn’t intentionally risk her animal
companions. “In order to move something into your grove, you
have to feel its aura, and use your own to completely wrap around it.
After that, you are able to will it inside yourself, so long as it
doesn’t resist. If a creature were to resist, or have an aura
too strong for you to fully envelope, then it would be impossible to
store it. Likewise, if you have gaps in your hold over its aura, and
it does not resist… only the places you were covering will be
sent.”

I
thought about that for a moment, and then looked at Jarl. “Doesn’t
that mean that sentient creatures and monsters could be stored inside
the grove as well?”

He
smirked at my question, but nonetheless nodded. “That’s
right. Though, to store such would require a far more powerful druid
than either of you. You would have to completely surround their aura
with your own, preventing even the tiniest bit from leaking out.”
He then frowned, and sighed while shaking his head. “Unfortunately,
this also means that druids are capable of smuggling people across
borders undetected. Because aside from the druid himself, it’s
impossible for others to detect the grove, let alone investigate it.
And just like with all things, there are druids swayed by greed, who
would rather use their talents for such things. Most smuggling
operations will tend to have a druid for slave trafficking.”

I
raised an eyebrow slightly at that, while Sharon seemed downright
appalled to hear that such a thing could happen. Nonetheless, he
continued. “Anyways, both of you should try to move this grass
over to your grove. It’s a fast growing species that we
typically use to cover wide areas. With the sizes of your groves, it
would only take it a week to fill. By that time, you will also have
been able to move other plants over as well. Once you have it
transported into your grove, you’ll need to once again meditate
to enter the grove yourself, so that you can place it. If you don’t
do so, it will just appear in a random area.”

I
nodded my head, and went to work on my assigment. Since I had been
studying mana signatures for quite a while now, this part was fairly
easy to me. Surprisingly, I even managed to finish before Sharon did,
though she still seemed disturbed by what had been discussed
previously. Once I had the aura of the grass tightly wrapped up, I
pictured it entering my body. After that, I watched it dissolve in
strands of green light, which then flew into my chest.

With
that part taken care of, I quickly entered the grove again, and found
that green light floating above the ground. Since I didn’t have
a physical body here, I simply willed it into the ground. Almost
immediately, the green light shot into the ground, where it formed
that single blade of grass, already planted. Exiting my grove, I
smiled triumphantly. Though, I was a bit saddened when I looked over
and saw that Sharon was still struggling to finish the first step.
That must have been a pretty heavy blow to her.

After
a few more minutes, she let out a relieved sigh as the grass
similarly turned into a series of green lights that flew towards her
chest. Seeing her enter the meditative state, I watched for a little
bit before she emerged, a slight smile on her face. Now that I
thought about it, I really didn’t know anything about Sharon.
Even if she was a member of the net communities or a Seeds tester. We
hadn’t spoken much at all since that first meeting.

With
that, I began thinking about other things. If the grove carries over
when I log off, that meant I could take the birds out of the game. It
also meant that I might be able to take other people out too, once I
got strong enough. I might even be able to bring out someone that’s
already been virtualized.

Though
the net communities would feel very real, there was always the
problem of it being a virtual environment. Like I had said previously
regarding other VR games, there would always be a feeling of
wrongness. While most people are able to move past that and accept
their new lives, some still longed for the real world again.

I
felt a bit wrong, thinking about using this ability to let others
experience the real world again as a chance to make some easy money,
but the poor man in me naturally thought of it. To distract myself, I
took a moment to go over the gains I had received from my two week
session of refinement and cultivating.

Looking
at that, I was quite satisfied. The process of refining the pellets
three times each had let all of my affinities increase by a further
two percent, and now my Wind Affinity was nearing the point where I
wouldn’t have to focus on it anymore in order to cultivate.
Though, I had my suspicions. Cultivation should naturally proceed
faster if you focus on it, so if I let it go on in the background,
the effects would be significantly less than if I actively purused
it.

Although
my stats hadn’t skyrocketed through intense training to make me
match a character ten times my level, like in a classic novel, I
considered myself fairly talented. With basic control over five of
the primary elements, I could fight pretty much anywhere except in
outer space. And by the time I got there, I should have a few
additional tricks as well, I would hope.

Thinking
a few things over in my head, I looked at Jarl and decided to ask
something that had me curious. “Since the grove is based on
elements we absorb, what about the elements that aren’t part of
the ‘big seven’? For instance, my Plant Affinity?”

Jarl
looked over towards me, and thought about that for a moment.
“Different affinities will have different effects. The ones
that influence the size of your grove are fire, wind, earth, and
water. However, having a weaker Light Affinity will mean that the
light will not cover your grove as strongly, so it is suggested for
that to be in balance as well. If you add in the Lightning Affinity,
then there will be the chance to have a weather cycle in your grove.
Dark Affinity grants day and night. As for Plant Affinity, that
should have an effect on the growth speed of plants in your grove, as
well as their quality.” He then looked over towards Sharon.
“Same with the Beast Affinity, the strength of animals raised
in the grove would surpass normal ones.”

Sharon
looked up at that, and nodded with a slight smile. “As for the
other minor affinities, I’m not too sure. They should generally
either have an impact on the organisms in your world, or your world
itself.”

I
nodded my head again, and then asked. “So how do we add another
affinity to our grove? Do we have to go through the entire process
again?”

Jarl
shook his head at that before answering. “Just make a seed for
whatever element you want to add, and then ingest it the same way you
did to start your grove. It’s only necessary to mix them
together for those five elements. Though, I would strongly suggest
that Sharon learn the Dark Affinity before moving animals into the
grove, as many rely on a day and night cycle.”

She
nodded, seemingly a bit more energetic than before, while I decided
that I had to refine a plant affinity seed next. Having my herbs grow
faster and have stronger effects would be a great benefit as an
alchemist.

Chapter 24:
Goldilocks Never Had To Put Up With This.

Placing
my hands down on the grass, I began the process of refining my Seed
of Plants. Seriously, that name sounds redundant. Well, I should
probably save up a few of these eventually and have Jacobs do some
enchanting with them. Either that, or I’d have to learn how to
enchant in order to do it myself. And really, that didn’t seem
like such a bad idea since I already had my heart set on Technomancy.
Since most devices are made with at least some level of enchanting in
this game, the two skills compliment each other as well as Alchemy
and Nature Magic.