World Seed: Game Start (44 page)

I
was tempted to go to a lower branch and refine a Seed of Earth to
complete my set, but found that my legs refused to move in order to
comply with the request. The scene of the escape pod being ripped to
shreds repeated itself in my mind, except it was me instead of the
pod. Sometimes, having an upgraded memory is more of a burden than a
help. Instead, I sat on the branch and decided to try something new.
“Celeste, pull up the energy combination needed to charge the
energy weapons again.”

“
What
are you thinking, Falenel? You don’t have nearly enough mana to
burn down the jungle, if that’s what you had in mind…”

I
chuckled, shaking my head. “No, I just wanted to have you see
if the combination matched a possible affinity.” A mixture of
fire and lightning mana was far enough away from either to possibly
be considered its own affinity, such as the difference between earth
and magma, or steam and ice.

Celeste
paused for a moment, before smiling slightly and nodding her head.
“Yes, it is in fact. It is known as the Plasma Affinity, of
which you currently have a single percent of proficiency.”

I
smiled, nodding back to the AI. “Figured as much.” After
spending so much time using my Technomancy on the weapons, I was able
to tell that they directed some form of energy charge through a
magnetic current. and the only energy I could think of that was
controlled in such a manner and had the same effects was plasma.

“
You’re
going to try and learn the Plasma Affinity now, aren’t you?”
Celeste asked with a tired expression, making me laugh lightly.
Sadly, that laugh seemed to be loud enough to cause the vibrations
necessary for the plants to detect me, as I had vines piercing
towards me from the nearest tree. Rather than dodging them this time,
I used my Fire Manipulation to burn the vines with a thin screen of
flame between us, which caused them to recoil, apparently in fear.

With
a sigh, I moved from this tree to another one that my Aura Sight
registered as safe. “Yeah. I think it’d be a good idea to
do so. If I get good enough with it, I should be able to use the
control skill to deflect energy weapons.”

After
a moment, Celeste gave a nod. “In that case, I’d suggest
also studying the Magnetism Affinity. I am unsure if the manipulation
ability you gain with plasma will be sufficient to control it, and if
not it would be a good idea to have a backup.”

I
thought about it, but had to agree she was right. Unfortunately, I
didn’t have any magnets on me to practice that affinity. Then
again, the only plasma sources I had were my weapons, and I’d
rather not drain them to get the affinity. After all, I might need to
shoot something in this planet where the entire jungle wants me for
lunch. “I can work on those after we get rescued. Until then,
I’ve got other things to worry about.”

Celeste
went quiet for a few moments, before speaking up. “Do you think
it’s possible to copy the traits of these plants? I think the
hostile trees should either be the plant form of a magical beast, or
a monster. Your Nature Magic should be able to replicate it, right?”

“
Maybe…”
Jarl had said that it was possible to turn blood into a potion, so
copying the traits of plants was certainly possible. The question is,
what would I get from doing so? Flexible bark armor? The snake’s
scales should be far stronger. I could maybe learn their tremorsense
and mana detection abilities. So far, none of the plants had
displayed a particularly useful ability for me aside from that. “Keep
an eye out for any plants that have useful abilities. For now, I’m
going to focus on training.”

Pulling
out my enchanting staff that I received at Hascion, I decided to
experiment a bit. The staff itself had no magical properties, and
merely served to hold the mana gem. But that also meant that it was
still, for the most part, unaltered wood. With my Plant Manipulation,
I made a series of hollow sockets in the wood, and in each one I
placed an elemental seed.

Fire,
water, wind, light, dark, lightning, void, and plant. Eight
affinities, and eight seeds to go with them. If I had my Seed of
Earth, I could have completed the set. Once each seed was socketed
into the staff, I used Plant Manipulation again to close it up,
hiding them inside the wood of the staff. Although they weren’t
plainly visible, Aura Sight still showed the eight different sources
of mana hidden in the staff.

With
that taken care of, I began to cultivate my Plant Affinity, as I
highly doubted I would ever find a more suitable environment to do so
than a world full of plants, without a single animal in side. Doing
it this way also had an added effect, I soon discovered. Since
cultivation required me to match my aura to match plant mana, it made
me all but invisible to the local species. And no, I did not discover
this by walking up and poking a plant, or using my Mana Sense on it…

…

I
fell out of the tree while cultivating. Thankfully, though, my aura
seemed to match well enough, because the grass(yes even the grass had
the complex aura of a plant waiting to attack) did not do anything to
me. If I had to guess, this was likely a planet where only a druid
would be able to survive peacefully, as anyone else would be attacked
constantly by the plants.

Of
course, now that I knew I could hide myself by simply cultivating
Plant Affinity, I was free to move around as I liked. It seemed like
the plants that detected me with tremorsense also read my aura as a
plant, and did not attack. With the lack of any kind of animal on
this planet, I began to wonder how the plants sustained themselves,
but they likely fed on the abundant plant mana in the air.

Naturally,
there was no way I was taking Yin and Yang out while I was here.
Neither of them were able to cultivate Plant Affinity, so there was
no chance of them being safe. Every now and then, I would scan one of
the plants that I passed, assessing its aura and seeing if it had any
uses in alchemy. Since I kept my aura attuned to plant mana, this
didn’t cause any ‘misunderstandings’ with the
locals.

I
wouldn’t be dumb enough to take a carnivorous plant into my
grove, but I did find a few plants that were docile and had some
medicinal properties. One, a large tree that bore a fruit in the form
of a five pointed star, had a sap that seemed to contain a powerful
medicine aura. However, the fruit itself had the aura of an equally
potent poison. Using my Plant Manipulation, I plucked one of the
fruits and stored it in my inventory. Once I could make a second
grove, I would plant this tree there. Wouldn’t want the birds
to eat it by mistake.

The
next herb I found was actually a weed, which looked very similar to
blood weed. However, the medicinal aura it held felt different, so it
likely held a different use. Using the same trick as before, I
gathered a few of these weeds for my inventory as well. This went on
for a few hours, until my inventory was too full to accept anything
else. In that time, my Plant Affinity had also risen sharply, from 7%
to 9% in one go, and I felt like it would soon break through to 10%.

Honestly,
I was getting to the point where I really wanted to sleep, but I knew
that if I did, my cultivation would lapse and the jungle would attack
again. Looking over to the plants, I decided that there was in fact
something I could get from them, and began studying the aura for the
tallest tree I could find. Specifically, I wanted to study its
leaves, and how they fed energy to the tree.

As
I suspected, I noticed that the leaves on the tree absorbed the plant
mana in the air, and transmitted it through the tree as sustenance.
This was true for both the docile and hostile trees, so I copied from
the former. If the hostile trees qualified as a monster, than it
would be far harder to copy their version of the ability.

Closing
my eyes, I focused on copying this ability onto myself. For some
reasons that I’m sure nobody could possibly guess, I didn’t
want leaves growing out of my head. So, instead, I turned the
feathers on my wings into leaves, giving me a rather interesting
plant wing appearance. At the same time, I also received a handy new
spell.

The
cost and rank of the spell surprised me, but then I considered just
how strong this could be. If I changed the mana it absorbed, I could
siphon off the energy of spells, and use it to fuel myself. When I
opened up my status window, I also saw that my mana regeneration had
multiplied by four simply by having these leaves absorbing the
abundant plant mana in the air. Thankfully, it also served the
purpose to relieve my exhaustion, which was the main point.

“
See?
Knew they’d be good for something.” Celeste said from my
wrist, sounding slightly smug.

“
Yes,
yes. Don’t worry, I appreciate it.” I smirked down to
her, and she smiled happily before vanishing. With this, I’d be
able to train faster than ever before, at least until help arrived.
And no, before you ask, there was no way I was abandoning the beacon
to stay here longer. If I did that, then I’d never be able to
leave.

That
night, I easily managed to get to Plant Affinity 10%, which let me
simply have it work as a background process while I refined a Seed of
Earth. I could feel myself still absorbing the mana and cultivating
like normal, but it was as if it had become a second nature, as easy
as breathing. I could focus on it to increase its effects, but
otherwise it was just a constant thing.

Once
I had the Seed of Earth refined, I put it into the staff like the
other seeds, before returning my staff to my inventory. With that
taken care of, I spent the rest of the night cultivating Earth and
Dark Affinities.

Chapter 40: A Day
in the Life of a Tree.

The
night passed without much in the way of special events happening.
Since the plants here fed off of mana rather than sunlight, there was
no sign of them hibernating during the night. Though perhaps, I
should instead be thankful that the day and night cycles resemble
what I am used to so much? Either way, I managed to get through the
night while cultivating my Earth and Dark Affinities, bringing them
both up to 9% by the time morning came around. I could feel that just
a bit more work on Earth Affinity, and it would make a breakthrough.

However,
I had other things to worry about. Shortly after the sun came up, I
saw something that I hadn’t seen the entire day I was here
already. I saw movement beyond the trees. Using my Cybernetic eye, I
had Celeste play the scene again with some visual editing. I saw a…
naked green woman walking casually through the jungle. And before you
ask, no, I did not get a peep show. Celeste took the liberty of
adding black censor bars over the important bits.

Still,
now I knew that there was actually someone living in this place! Even
if they might be a plant person… still a plus. Standing up, I
cycled through vision modes on my eye, giving it X-Ray and Zoom so
that I could find the person again. From that, I could vaguely see
her figure walking a few hundred meters ahead of me. Thankfully she
was still just walking casually, so I would be able to catch up if I
flew between the trees.

Thinking
that, I launched myself into the air, finding that the leaf feathers
were surprisingly capable as I flew towards the slowly advancing
woman. In hindsight, I really should have thought this through before
charging in. But, as we’ve determined, that’s not really
my style, is it?

In
under two minutes, I was already swooping down towards the woman, who
seemed to notice my presence and let out a scared shriek. She knelt
down in a defensive position, using her hands to cover her head when
I landed in front of her. “Hello, don’t be scared? I come
in peace?” I held my hands up as I spoke, hoping to calm her
down.

At
some point, I should have realized that she wouldn’t speak my
language. I mean, this is a non-listed world, why would whatever
creatures inhabit it speak wood elf? After a moment, she looked up at
me, her eyes wet with unshed tears. Or maybe it was water, or both.
Seeing that I didn’t intend on attacking, she slowly lowered
her arms.

Who
are you? I heard the voice, like a thought in my head, and felt a
slight increase in plant mana I took in. It was a gentle, high
pitched voice, like a scared little girl. What do you want?

I
blinked slightly, suddenly realizing the language barrier, and
thinking about how she is communicating with me. Gathering a bit of
plant mana, I sent it to her with the intention of relaying the
message, I’m Falenel.