World Seed

Author’s Corner: The votes are in, and the poll has closed! Once again, I’d like to say how surprised I was to see the votes being so close! I had honestly expected Technomancy to win by a landslide like Druid did in the class poll! Then again, I had expected that poll to be a bit more evenly matched, but Druid won by a vast majority. As promised, I have already deleted the pre-poll thread to prevent readers from being cluttered with non-chapter threads while they are reading. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for Falenel to get the funds, and he’ll be able to learn this new field of magic!-----------------------------------------------------------With Sharon’s permission, I had Yang go over and play with her, while I used Yin to study her mana signature. Yang was predictably reluctant, but after some coaxing she agreed and flew over to nestle against the nearby elf. Meanwhile, Yin sat between my hands as she had the first time I studied her aura, waiting for that uncomfortable feeling she felt last time.I don’t think I’ve ever really properly described what mana signatures are like, have I? Well, that’s because it’s a bit hard to explain. Remember how I said that analyzing that herb felt like feeling deep inside of it? That’s actually only a small part of it. The entire mana signature itself is like a massive array of various strands of light. Each section of the array contains different patterns and colors, determining different things. For instance, the scales I got from the Great Boa are like a braided pattern of silver and green light. In order to copy that onto my skin, I had to identify my own skin’s signature, which turned out to be a series of straight, dark blue lights. Once I overlaid the two patterns across my skin’s entire mana signature, the Aspect of the Armored Beast would activate.On the other hand, the bird wings had to be grafted on, rather than overlaid. Thankfully, a creature’s mana signature seems to vaguely match up with their body shape, which makes it easier. Strangely, the lovebird’s camouflage ability was an overlay like the snake scales, but was a graft like the wings. In essence, I was adding a layer of paint to my mana signature.The texture, such as feeling the wet rose when I explored the herb, comes from a deeper exploration of the signature. Each part of the mana signature has a different feeling, usually related to what the signature corresponds to. So, the wings had the feeling of stroking feathers, while the snake scales were more rough. It was the mix of associated feelings that helped me remember the patterns more clearly.And for those of you wondering, yes, I did inspect Celeste’s mana signature, or at least the one from my bracelet. It was strange, rather than the natural, gentle formations that were in plants and animals, the mana signature of my companion bracelet was rough. Not rough like the snake scales… more like jagged, as if I were staring at a crushed car in a wireframe view. I guess that was the difference between something natural and artificial.Anyways, enough about my little procrastination rant. My point was that it’s difficult to truly understand an entire aura, but once you have, it’s not nearly as difficult to remember. And that rather helped me when analyzing Yin’s mana signature, because I already had pieces of the puzzle that I could fill in, her wings and skin. Using that as a starting point, I was able to much more quickly finish analyzing her aura, after only 45 minutes or so.Once I had finished analyzing the aura, I had Yin go over and play with Yang and Sharon. For some reason, though, I could feel a sense of anxiousness from them as they watched me. I really hoped that they didn’t realize what I was about to do, and were simply putting on an act to have me hurry up! They shouldn’t be that smart yet, right?!Shaking my head, I quickly dispelled that thought. I had other things to worry about right now. What I was about to do wasn’t grafting a mana signature onto myself, or even overlaying an aspect. I was completely changing my mana signature to match another. For that, I had to be very careful, because if I messed up the positioning of the mana, then I might end up with my foot in my mouth.. literally!Thankfully, I didn’t find it too hard to reshape my own mana signature, so I just had to take my time. At this point, it was like shaping clay. If I was careful, and took my time, then I would get the result I expected. If I rushed it, everything would collapse.The entire process took nearly five minutes, during which I felt almost nothing. My eyes were long since closed to concentrate, so I saw nothing different until it was over. Once it was done, I opened my eyes carefully, and saw two giant birds charging over towards me! Wait, they weren’t giant birds, that was Yin and Yang! I was suddenly tiny!There was a ding in my head as a notification appeared, but I did not pay attention to it. Turning around, I attempted to immediately fly away, but I was not used to this body yet. As such, I fell flat on my beak after jumping into the air. I could only weep silently as my doom flew closer and closer… and then stopped.After a few moments of not being molested as I had expected, I turned around and saw the two lovebirds collapsed on the ground, their heads down with their upper wings covering their faces. The two of them just looked so pitiful for some reason… and that’s when I noticed it.I… I was not a male bird! Mini-me was gone! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I finally had a chance, so I immediately began the process of changing back into my half-elf form. This time, the process was faster, only taking one minute to complete itself. However, changing back and forth once had used almost my entire mana pool! It was also at this time that I noticed the windows that had appeared earlier.