World Seed: Game Start (34 page)

Paying
for the room for two days, I was given a key card, and went up the
elevator. Once I got to my room, I found it to look just like a hotel
room. There was a single bed in the center of the room, a lamp on
either side, a desk against the wall, and a holographic TV stand
opposite the bed. “Sweet…”

I
smiled, moving over and laying down on the bed. Now that I was here,
I could get to work. In my mind, I reviewed all of the information
regarding the brain that I had recorded again, and isolated the
regions that worked for memory storage and retrieval. Then, I
searched my own aura with Mana Sense and located those same regions.
“Celeste, if this goes wrong, then in ten minutes tell me to
cancel all spells I have active.”

That
should function as an insurance, in case I damage my brain
accidentally without causing enough damage to force a logout. My only
worry was if I damaged my memories, and lost the memory of how my
brain’s aura originally looked. If that happened, then even if
she told me to cancel the spell I wouldn’t know how. At that
point, I could only hope that the Seed registers that as a form of
character death.

After
getting her approval, I began working. The process was faster than
any transformation I’ve done so far. This is likely because
current computer technology was designed to reflect how the brain
worked, so it was easy to adjust. I basically just had to
simultaneously compress and replicate the memory centers for my
brain, and rearrange them slightly to match the new pattern.

My
mind felt slightly sluggish after that, and I was lightheaded for a
few minutes. “Falenel? Are you okay?”

I
looked down to the holographic woman at my wrist who was staring at
me with a worried expression and nodded. “Fine, just a bit of a
backlash, I think.” I took a deep breath, and worked on the
next section, focusing on memory retrieval. When that was taken care
of, the lightheadedness completely faded, but was replaced by a
massive headache.

This
headache persisted for roughly ten minutes, during which time
Alchemic Heal had absolutely no effect on my head. After the ten
minutes expired, my brain had apparently adapted to the new spell,
because the pain began to subside.

I
let out a sigh as I saw that, but smiled slightly. Next, I had
Celeste open another programming window for me, and got to work. What
I wanted this time was a bit more complex, and would require a bit of
time to implement properly. Rather than the rushed ten minutes I
spent on the first program, this one took nearly two hours before I
was finished. I copied it over in much the same way as I had the
first software, but this patch wasn’t meant for my eye, rather
my upgraded brain.

I
smiled at the completion of the program. Although it had a more
profound effect than Photographic Learning, it was set up in a way so
as not to cost anything to use. The downside was that I could not
cancel the program myself once it was activated. I would basically be
asleep until it finished. Maybe in the future I’ll be able to
increase my processing ability to accurately handle two tasks at
once, and be able to rework the program to allow me to maintain
control of unused aspects of my body and magic.

But
for now, I recorded myself cultivating each of the seven elements I
currently possess, so that I could simply autopilot my way through it
in the future. With that taken care of, it was time to get some
seeds!

Chapter 31: What a
Rush!

After
recording the methods of cultivating my various types of mana, I went
ahead and focused on producing a Seed of Plants. Naturally, I was
recording this process as well. Putting my all into focus, I
cultivated the plant mana from various herbs that I pulled out of my
inventory to create the seed over the course of four and a half
hours. With this, I was able to start working on other stuff
tomorrow. By now, the sun had already set, and it was time to sleep.

When
I woke up in the morning, my first move was to go downstairs and have
a proper breakfast, purchased from the hotel for a small sum.
Thankfully, since this is apparently a tourist city, they had various
kinds of food. I was finally able to have bacon again!

Once
I had finished eating, I went out to the city and walked around.
“Celeste, do they have ship schedules and fees in the guide
program?”

The
AI appeared above my wrist wearing a casual t-shirt and jeans,
smiling as she spoke. “Yup! Every day, they send shuttles up to
the orbital station X-23, from which passengers can board ships bound
for various destinations. As for the cost, it’s ten silver per
passenger on the shuttle, and the fee for outbound travel from the
station is between twenty silver to ten gold, depending on the
destination. Since you’re still new, you’ll probably want
one of the cheaper fares. My recommendation would be to earn money
for a while, maybe get a temporary job until you have the funds
necessary for travel.”

I
nodded my head slightly at that. “Makes sense. I also want to
exchange my bow before I leave. Something more advanced would be
nice.”

“
But,
wouldn’t you have wasted the money you spent to get the arrow
vine seeds, in that case?” She asked innocently, making me
think about it for a moment.

“
They
grow pretty long, so even if I upgrade to a gun or a bow that doesn’t
fire regular arrows, they can still be used as spears.” It’ll
just take quite a bit more mana to do…

She
nodded her digital head. “Alright, then. I’ll run a
search for local job opportunities matching your skill set.”
She paused for a few moments before speaking again. “There are
a few entry level positions available. I believe the most suitable to
you at this time would be as a mechanic. Technomancy is listed as a
highly sought skill for that position, and it would give you an
opening to find work on a ship in order to reduce the fare.”

I
smiled at that, accepting her suggestion. “Okay. After I build
up a bit of coin, I’ll do that. I think we should spend about a
week here before moving on, that way I can make the money I need and
learn the needed skills.”

I
was walking towards the enchanter’s shop now, following
Celeste’s occasional guidance. I would still take snapshots of
any new race I spotted with my Aura Sight and Cybernetic eye, but
there was little I could do with a 2D representation of a complex 3D
shape. At most, I could store it as a reference image for the future.

When
I arrived at the store, I found an old man standing behind the
counter, and a few aisles of shelves running through the front of the
store. On the shelves were various objects, from glowing dust, wands,
ornate staves, even a few assorted spheres like what I planned to
sell. As I entered, the old man at the counter looked over to me.
“Yes, yes, can I help you lad?”

Unlike
most of the people that I had spoken with in the game, this man
appeared to be entirely human, with a long white beard and next to no
hair atop his head. He wore a black robe with multiple white dots on
it arranged like the stars in the sky. Even though he looked frail,
my Aura Sight showed me that his magic was far denser than anyone I
had met so far.

“
Yes,
I’m here for two things. First, I was hoping to learn how to
enchant objects.” He let out a sigh when I said that, but
allowed me to continue. “And second, I wanted to start selling
these.” When I held my hand out to display the Seed of Plants,
his eyes sparkled slightly.

“
Hmmm,
the quality is still quite low, but that should be from the Plant
Affinity, yes? And since you are bringing it, that likely makes you a
druid, or else acting on behalf of one. If it was from wind, I could
assume that you received it from one of the magical beasts of this
planet.”

I
nodded my head. “That’s right, I’m a druid.”
There was really no point in hiding it, since he might demand to see
my ID before teaching me anyways.

“
What
elements are you capable of refining seeds for?”

I
thought about it, but shrugged. “Any of the primary seven,
aside from lightning, and plants.”

He
nodded his head a bit at that. “I see, I see. Yes, that would
be quite helpful. Lately, all the druids of Hascion are off
maintaining their groves, and they have the most efficient means of
producing a seed. Though, the ones produced by the local druids would
be too high of quality for a beginner to use. You say you want to
learn how to enchant, lad?”

“
That’s
right. I think it would be a good idea in the long run.”

“
Yes,
yes it would. A young adventuring druid like yourself, eventually
able to make his own equipment and enchant it. If that look in your
eye is any indication, you dabble in Technomancy as well. Yes, a very
good combination.” The more the man spoke, the more I doubted
his sanity. However, he was here and ran the shop, so his skill
should be the real thing. “Alright, we have a deal. If you can
provide me with one seed of every affinity you possess, I’ll
teach you enchanting, and even give you a small bonus. Furthermore,
I’ll even compensate you half their value.” The man
grinned as he spoke, but this was a pretty good deal for me. I could
make the other six seeds today and tomorrow, then come back for his
training.

“
Alright.
I should be able to have the other six ready by tomorrow evening.”
After speaking, I placed the seed on the counter in front of it, and
he nodded, passing me seventy five copper as the ‘half payment’
for my work. That extra bonus better be worth it..

With
that taken care of, I went back to the hotel and began working again.
With a not-so-brief experiment, I found that I could actually form
two seeds at once, but the time needed would increase roughly by
half. Still, that allowed me to finish four more seeds in one day,
and the last two were done the day after, before lunch.

Since
I had said that I would be there around evening, I decided to wait a
bit and cultivate until the time we had planned to meet. After eating
a quick lunch provided by the hotel(I never thought I’d be so
happy for a burger), I went back to my room and activated my
Auto-Pilot program, choosing to cultivate Dark Affinity for four
hours. As I finalized my choice, I felt my mind slipping away from
me, and it truly did feel as if I had fallen asleep.

Just
a moment later, I awoke, thinking something might have failed.
However, the sky outside was definitely different than before, and
the clock on the counter next to the bed confirmed that four hours
had passed. I went to check my status, and was disappointed to find
that Dark Affinity did not increase to 8%, even though I felt it was
so close after I refined the Seed of Darkness.

Suspicious,
I checked my Mana Signatures and Mana Manipulation skills, and
neither of them had made the slightest progress either even though
they naturally advanced the more in tune I became with the elements.
Worried that my four hours had been wasted, I checked my grove, only
to find out that it had indeed expanded a bit more. It was with that
that I figured it out, since cultivating affinity required me to try
to match the element and slowly change my aura to match it,
Auto-Pilot would do nothing but pull the mana into my body to feed my
grove.

Still,
since I had recorded the methods for refining all of the various
seeds, I did show a bit of progress in my other affinities. Earth,
Water, and Light all increased to 8%, leaving only Dark, Plant, and
Fire at 7%. With this, I at least had a bit of improvement to be
proud of. Putting the six seeds into my inventory, I moved off back
to the old man’s enchanting store.